Favorite Books GIVEAWAY: WINNER!

The winner of the Halloween books left this comment:

Agreed, Megan.

If you didn't win, you can go ahead buy them here:

The Ugly Pumpkin

AND

The Hallo-wiener

The next book I'm giving away won't be released until this TUESDAY, but I am already sure it's going to be one of our favorites, because it's from one of my the boys' favorite series of books! After it arrives next week, and we've read it a few thousand times, I'll post about it and give away another copy.

Thanks to everyone who has been buying the books from the links on my page, and making it possible for me to give away these books!

Favorite Books GIVEAWAY: The Hallo-wiener and The Ugly Pumpkin

We're not ones to really get into Halloween. In fact, during this time of year, I get sick of all of the Halloween ideas in the magazines that I read. I don't really want to make food that looks like real fingers or eyeballs floating in my drink, you know? We do a little bit of decorating for fall, and the boys go trick-or-treating, and that's about the extent of it.

However, there are a couple of Halloween books that we love, and I wanted to share two of them with you.

The Hallo-wiener
I'm not going to lie . . . the hot dog puns in this book are what drew me to it. It's about a dog named Oscar who is described as half a dog tall and one and a half dogs long. He gets made fun of by the other dogs who call him "Wiener dog! Wiener dog!" I don't want to give the whole plaot away, but let's just say that by the end of the book, the other dogs are referring to him as a "Hero Sandwich" instead.

The Ugly Pumpkin
This book rhymes . . . and you know how much I love rhyming! It's about a different looking pumpkin who is just looking for a place to fit in. Throughout the Halloween season, he gets made fun of and harassed, until one day he realizes, "OH MY GOSH, I'M A SQUASH" and finds his place at Thanksgiving.


I'm giving away both of these books to one lucky winner. Leave a comment on this post and be sure to include an e-mail address or blog address, or some other way to contact you (only one entry per person). I'll draw a winner on Friday and if you send your address that day, I'll have them to you by Monday or Tuesday. If you can't wait until then, go ahead and buy them now . . . I can't believe how cheap they are on amazon!

Dear Jack and Ben, Months 40 and 13 respectively

Dear Jack and Ben,

Many people enter adulthood and suddenly feel like they aren't intelligent or experienced enough to share their opinions or provide insight. They sit around and wait for other people to solve problems, take action, and do their part to make our world a better place. I've become keenly aware of that this month.

Somewhere along the way, we start to feel insecure . . . and sometimes even ashamed of ourselves and how little we feel we have to offer. We sit there knowing that we'll never do great things with all of our deficiencies holding us back. It's so wrong for us to feel that way, because God has gifted each of us with our own unique perspective and our own original ways to impact our world. We spend so much time focused on our areas of weakness, and our strengths just go to waste.

Once you fall into that trap - the trap of feeling not-good-enough - it's so hard to break free. I've been thinking a lot lately and wondering how to make sure you two never lose it . . . the courage to speak your mind and do what is right.

Right now, there is very little that you are afraid to share . . . for better or for worse. Jack, you speak your mind openly, and if you have something to share or offer, you do it boldly. Ben, you're not speaking yet, but I can already tell that you won't be shy about it. I want to preserve that spirit of boldness in each of you, while teaching you that it must be accompanied by love, gentleness and kindness.

The challenge to "make the world a better place" might seem daunting because, well, it's THE WORLD. But you don't go alone. We serve a God who both calls and equips us. Oh, and he goes with us, too. Some Christians look at our world and can only see the evil that runs rampant, but I'm hopeful because I know that God is at work. I see glimpses of His grace in the eyes of everyone I meet and I am confident that he is at work drawing everyone to Him.

So my question to you both (whenever you're old enough to read this letter) is this: What will you do to bring Him glory with the short time on earth He's given you? How will you be a part of His work? How will you respond to God's calling on your lives? How will the world be different because you're here?

Love,
Mama

Purging

This week, I was trying to cram things into our hall coat closet and Jack said, "We need a bigger closet." I thought about it a little bit and responded, "No, we need fewer coats." Our house isn't huge, but we have way more than enough room . . . it just sometimes feels cramped and cluttered because of all our massive amounts of unnecessary "stuff."

So, we are in the middle of a purge. If we don't love it and/or it never gets used, it's gone. The camp garage sale is in 2 weeks, and we're well on our way to donating more than anyone else (not that its' a contest . . . but if it were . . . well, you know). We've spent much of the day clearing out our home and storage area of useless junk.

Part of this involved me going through some old trunks full of memorabilia that I've been collecting for 32 years now. I sorted through medals and report cards . . . old papers on the solar system and yearbooks with some insightful messages from former classmates. Did you know that I pretty much had every birthday card I received from the time I was born until I turned . . . oh, about 21? Because I did. The parent info folder on the trip to Europe I took as a high school junior was still there, with every last bit of no-longer-relevant information about the trip. I also found what might be some of my very first "graphic design" work, which I hope to scan and post later this week.

As I've been going through all of this stuff, I've forced myself to throw things away that I really wanted to hold on to. I know that I will never need all of the sheet music I ever played in high school (given that I no longer own a flute and have no intention to buy another one), but I wanted to keep it. And I realize that ribbons that I won on the 7th grade swim team and figure skating medals from 1987 are not things I ever plan on displaying, but throwing them away seemed so wrong. And why on earth do I need to keep every RSVP card from our wedding, sorted in order of where they were seated? What is it that makes me cling to those things so much?

I guess some of it has to do with wanting to remember who I am and who I was. I wrote a while ago about how we all become our own doppelgangers and that's good . . . I just don't want to forget how I got here. And I guess a part of me wants my boys to know this too.

The crawl space at my parents' house was where they stored all of this kind of stuff. They were actually pretty good about throwing stuff away (or so it seemed), but there was one box that belonged to my mom that held her childhood report cards and a few other things that were hers. There wasn't much, but for some reason, I loved looking in that box (and often did it when she wasn't around, because I got in trouble every time I messed with it). It didn't tell me much about her, but was fascinating to me to think about my mom at my age. I always wondered what it would be like to meet her then.

I guess this blog will serve as a better keepsake than medals or trophies ever will. And I'm leaving so many ways for my boys to know who their mom was, that they'll probably wish I had left a little less. But as I hear Kyle taking the trash bags out to the garage, I still feel like I'm saying goodbye to a little piece of my history.

It's official. He's one.

We had Ben's first birthday party on Sunday and it was a lot of work fun!

When Ben was just a few weeks old, I found cookie cutters at IKEA that were shaped like forest animals . . . one of which was a hedgehog. You might remember that I really wanted to do a nursery for Ben with a hedgehog theme, but hedgehog baby stuff was tough to find (imagine that). So instead, it blossomed into an idea for a birthday party. I scoured the Internet and found some great ideas for the party!

But my last minute trip to see Oprah set me behind and I never really caught up. While most people looked at the party and probably thought everything looked great, all I could see was everything that I didn't have time to finish, and the sloppiness of everything I had to rush through. That's how it always goes, right?

I had a cute "Happy Birthday Bennett" banner that was supposed to hang across the room, but it wouldn't stay up. I literally threw everything on the dessert table as guests were arriving. The table cloths weren't ironed, the trees were lopsided and the buffet signs were cut in such a rush that edges were jagged.

I had this plan to put halved mini marshmallows on the red cupcakes to make them look like toadstools . . . but this didn't happen because cutting marshmallows in half is harder than it looks and I ran out of time. The good news there is that Maria made them so they still tasted amazing and looked great even without the marshmallows. If you haven't had a cupcake by Maria, you do NOT know what you're missing. We ate the last one last night, and I'm grieving their absence this afternoon.

On the other hand, the cookies and cake pops that I made . . . well, let's just say that people would have believed that Jack made them with how awful they looked.. I tried to use a new frosting recipe (which was supposed to be a cross between royal icing and buttercream . . . big mistake) for the cookies. And with all the humidity during the week before his birthday, the cake pops cracked and crumbled.

And because it was all being thrown together at the VERY. LAST. MINUTE. I was able to take very few pictures. It wasn't bad. It was just a little sloppy.

But you know what? Bennett didn't care one bit. And I suppose that's what matters.

Here are some of the photos . . . you can see them all here. You'll have to excuse the duck wallpaper border. There are some things you just can't change. You can see all of the photos here.

The birthday boy . . . dressed by his father NOT in the outfit I had picked out for him. I did my best to let it go.

The cupcake stands and the trees in the center of each table were built by Kyle.

Jack "helped" Ben blow out his candle . . .

And boy did he love his cupcake . . .

I wanted to do a birthday video for Ben like I did with Jack, and I think most people assumed that I didn't because we don't have as much video of Ben as we do of Jack . . . which is false. We actually have about twice as much video footage of Ben. It was just all taken on our phones and doesn't translate to a television screen as easily. My plan is still to put one together and post it online. At some point . . .

These are the days

Jack received Melissa & Doug magnetic calendar for Christmas last year, and we finally got around to hanging it in his room. We just changed it over to October tonight, so I thought I'd better get these pictures up. He loves keeping track of the days and likes being able to see where we are in the month.

Favorite Books GIVEAWAY: WINNER!

The winner of How I Became a Pirate left the following comment:

Unfortunately, you didn't leave any contact information! Contact me at sarawiety [at] hotmail.com or leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll get your copy to you.

If you didn't win, purchase a copy here.

In the next week or two, I'll share two of our new fall favorites . . . books that I've read to my boys at bedtime every night this week and still love! Check back . . .

The first days of preschool

Jack's been in preschool for more than two weeks now. I did have to wear sunglasses on the first day we dropped him off . . . to hide the tear-filled eyes.

I have lots of thoughts about preschool, but I won't share them all here. I will say that his first few days were rough . . . he didn't mind being dropped off and seemed excited in the mornings to get there. But when I picked him up, he started crying the minute the car door closed and told me he didn't want to go back. I was totally bewildered. I would ask what he did at school and he'd say, "Nothing." I know that sounds typical of a three-year-old boy, but it's WAY out of character for him. In the summer, if I'd ask what he did that day, I'd get a play by play of every minute.

I guess he was just adjusting, because he's much happier about going now and will talk to me about his day on the way home (or drive is about 25 minutes each way). His teacher is very nice and he seems to really like her, so I'm happy about that.

Favorite Books GIVEAWAY: How I Became a Pirate

How I Became a Pirate is another one of our favorite books. A little boy tells about the day that he was chosen to join a group of pirates. He has lots of fun as a pirate until evening, when he realizes that there are no bedtime stories or goodnight kisses and begins to miss home.

Again, we want one of our favorite books to become one of yours! Leave a comment and I'll choose a winner on Friday, October 1. Only one entry per person.

Dear Bennett, Month 12

Dear Ben,

I'm not sure I've ever mentioned this before, but when you were born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around your neck. It sounds scary, and it probably was, but I had no idea. I remember a brief moment when the doctor said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop pushing." But it only seemed to last for a few seconds, before we started up again and you were in my arms.

Your dad told me later what had happened, and because I was completely unaware, it was very low-drama. For that, I am grateful.

But on Thursday, as I thought about that day, minute by minute in my head, it all came back to me. And suddenly I was choking back tears as I thought about how fortunate I am to have such a healthy happy little boy. I thank God every single day for you, Ben.

You make me so happy. I spent much of this year battling depression, but seeing you and holding you was like therapy. Your smile melted stress away and your deep chuckle made me smile every time. I can't imagine life without you.

Now that you're a year old, I can officially call you a toddler. You love to play outside and hate to see your Dad and brother outside without you. You let us know when you're ready to play outside by bringing us a pair of shoes, anyone's shoes, and sitting down to wait for us to put them on. If we don't oblige, you'll work to put them on yourself. You aren't all that successful at that yet.

You love to climb and really don't seem that affected when you fall off things. That fearlessness means we need to pay careful attention to protect you from being too brave. You're getting better at crawling down stairs and off of chairs on your own, which is making life a little bit easier. You try so hard to jump . . . you want to be just like Jack. You bend your knees and squat down and pop up with such intensity that for a second I almost think that you'll actually do it. But you haven't been able to leave the ground quite yet. You'll get it soon enough . . . you're almost there!

You are such a capable little boy. You follow our instructions. You can say so many words. You're finding new skills every day. I'm incredibly proud of you, Ben. You're my youngest, but you're still my first and my only Bennett. Even with everything I learned about myself and about parenting from your brother, you still teach me something new every day.

Love,
Mama

5 minutes of kite flying

Jack got a kite for his birthday back in June, and spent all summer begging us to fly it. Finally, over Labor Day weekend, we took him to do just that.

They got it put together and up in the air and about 2 minutes into it, Jack got bored and asked to go to the playground. It was fun while it lasted . . .

The fast lane

Life is moving faster than I can handle right now. Between work and other work and the boys and new things going on, I feel like I'm on a runaway train and I'm not sure how to stop it.

I'm going with my sister to the Oprah show on Friday (set your tivos . . . it's gonna be a good one). I think her interview is actually going to be aired on the show. This means I have to leave on Thursday . . . which is Ben's birthday. I can't begin to describe how I'm feeling about that. Kyle keeps reminding me that Ben won't know the difference, but I just feel like I'm letting him down somehow.

It's insane, I know, because I've put so much time and effort into his party on Sunday. But his actual date of birth . . . the day that means so much to me and will always mean so much to me every year . . . I'm going to miss that time with him. Even as I type this, I'm contemplating bringing Kyle and the boys so we can all be together. But Jack has school on Friday morning, so probably not.

We're going to continue our annual tradition of picking out pumpkins on the night before his birthday . . . a tradition that we started last year without knowing it. I'm looking forward to that.

I gave Ben his last bottle tonight.* Kyle made it and held it out to him and Ben burst into tears and walked away. When Kyle handed the bottle to me, however, Ben ran right over and climbed into my arms. It's so good to know that he's enjoyed these times as much as I do. And we'll continue to have our evening cuddle times, even without the bottle.

I know I'm making too big a deal over this, but I feel like it symbolizes the end of his "baby-hood" more than anything else. There's a distinct possibility that it's the last time I'll ever give one of my babies a bottle. Ugh. My heart aches a little.

On a completely different note, I wanted to share some pictures from back in August that I never got to post. I've spent so much time taking/processing other people's pictures over the last two months, that I haven't had much time for ours. C'est la vie. Here are all of our August pictures.

*Just a note: I don't have any hard and fast feelings about babies needing to be done with the bottle at a year old. We can just tell that he really doesn't need it any more and I know it'll be a harder transition for me than it will be for him. If he showed any resistance at all, I'd have no problem continuing it. And certainly if breastfeeding had lasted longer than 9 months for us, I'd probably continue nursing him . I just wanted to clarify, lest I've ever made it seem like I was judging anyone who continued the bottle past age one or that I had some sort of issue with that.

Dear Jack, Month 39

Dear Jack,

You started school this week. It's been rough. You're fine when you're dropped off, but on Monday and Wednesday you cried as soon as the car door closed in the pick up line. You don't tell us much, which is weird, because you've never been short on words. I don't know if this is just your way of trying to adjust or if there's something wrong. Maybe you're just tired. Your teacher says everything seems fine, and Friday was much better.

I ask you each day who you've played with and both Monday and Wednesday you responded, "Just by myself." I don't know if that's true or if you just don't want to talk, or if you don't remember, but it makes me a little bit sad every time. Your teacher assured me that you play with the other kids and get along well with them, but I can't help but wonder. I didn't think this would be true, but I really want you to fit in with your classmates. I mean, I didn't want you to be an outcast or anything, but I just didn't think I'd be as worried about you making friends as I do about how you're treating people and what you're learning.

While I do want you to fit in and make friends, you've got a long 14 or so years of schooling ahead of you. And when I look at high school students who "fit in" the most and what they have to do to get there, I think that maybe I'd rather you not. I know, I know . . . it's only preschool. I'm being neurotic. Right now all you have to do to fit in is to play nicely. And I want that for you.

We've entered this new stage. Even though you sometimes still call me Mama or Mommy, I've become mostly, "Mom." You sit on my lap less than you used to. You cuddle for shorter periods of time than you did before. I've known this was coming, but it doesn't make it any easier. When I call you my baby, you're quick to correct me.

You're my big boy. You're my favorite 3-year-old ever. I love you!

Mom

As heard during "nap" time Friday afternoon

Me: Jack, why did you do that?

Jack: I was disobeying you.

Me: Why?

Jack: I was just pretending.

Me: Pretending to disobey me?

Jack: Pretending to be the Israelites.

Giveaway: SEPTEMBER 17 WINNER

Wow . . . I have not written a single post since I posted the giveaway. I need to get on that.

Anyway . . . here's the winning entry:

I have your address Joy . . . it's on its way!

If you didn't win, you can purchase The Remarkable Farkle McBride for yourself! You won't be disappointed!

I'll post another soon, so check back!