Catch the Moment: Wk.22

Posted on June 4, 2015June 4, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

hello again.

It’s been a week full of Fs. Fun, friends, family, and festivities! Linking up with Mindi, Stephanie, and Carrie for week 22 of Catch the Moment.

148/365: Thursday, May 28th. Sweet little toes.

149/365: Friday, May 29th. The boys were out of school the week of Memorial Day and camp didn’t start til the next week so we had to piece together childcare for the whole week. Ryan stayed home a day, Ryan’s parents kept them 2 days for us, and I stayed home Friday. It worked well because Dexter had a dermatologist appointment that morning. Afterwards, we met up with friends, waited out a thunderstorm, then had some fun in the sun.

150/365: Saturday, May 30th. We finally celebrated Dexter’s birthday with family and friends at the lake. Again, we waited through a thunderstorm before the clouds parted for a few glorious sunny hours on the water. It was such a relaxing and fun-filled weekend.

151/365: Sunday, May 31st. After we got home from my in-laws’ and I ran a few errands, the weekend was winding down. Snuggles on the couch before getting ready for bed and the first day of summer camp.

152/365: Monday, June 1st. What else could I expect when I asked them to smile nicely? Eh, that’s alright…this is the real Theo & Dexter. Silly faces, fart noises, tongues out, and muddy shoes – they are my little boys through and through. Good news – they seem to love their new summer camp so far. Shew.

153/365: Tuesday, June 2nd. Lazy photo night. Yummy dinner night. Chili & grilled cheese!

154/365: Wednesday, June 3rd. Well, well. Look who we have here. Some of our closest friends welcomed sweet Kennedy Noelle in the wee hours of the morning. We were over the moon in love and through the roof excited to make her acquaintance. Perfect ending to this post, but just the beginning of getting to know this little lady. My favorite picture for this week by a million miles. (That’s Dexter’s gigantic-looking hand next to hers). xo,

~C~

Dear Dexter (2015)

Posted on May 13, 2015May 6, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

3yrsold Dear Dexter,

There’s this smartphone app called TimeHop…who knows if it will be around when you’re older. Every day it shows me a glimpse back at that day of each previous year that I shared something with social media. In the days and weeks leading up to today, I’ve so enjoyed looking back at blog posts from when I was pregnant with you 4 years ago. Life was filled with SO much uncertainty. Would we be able to handle life with 2 babies, just 14 months apart? We didn’t know anything about you. We didn’t know if you were a boy or a girl. You could have been Edyth June instead of Dexter Jay. Actually, you could have just as easily been Crosby Jay and almost were. We debated between Crosby and Dexter from the moment you were born until you were a good 4 or 5 hours old. It’s so weird to think about you being anything but a boy and anyone but our little Dexter Jay.

We didn’t know you’d have blonde hair and sparkly blue eyes or a contagious, constant, happy energy. We didn’t know you would have the laid back personality of someone who’s happy to be along for the ride, regardless of where we’re going. We didn’t know your laughter would make bad days better. We didn’t know you would find such joy in making other people happy. We just knew we already loved you and that love has only continued to grow and grow and grow.

We love seeing you look up to your big brother (except for those times when he’s not being a very good example – ha!). We love that you two are close. Buddies. We love that you love being around him. We love your big huge squeezy hugs and your sweet little tender kisses. We love that you made our family feel completely … complete. We love being together, the four of us, wherever the road takes us.

Before I had kids, I used to say that if I had 2 boys, I’d have 3 kids. I couldn’t imagine life without a daughter. Now that I have 2 boys, I can’t imagine life any other way. I can’t imagine a life without a house full of Legos and Batman toys or closets without holy jeans and dirty tennis shoes. I don’t want to imagine life that way – I know these things will disappear gradually.

You like to color. Every day you are gaining more control. You have surprised us with learning to write most of your name seemingly overnight! School has been a transition for you, but a good one. Your teachers have watched you grow. It’s hard to believe that a year from now we will be signing you up for Kindergarten. Poof! Just like that, the baby years are over. You still like Batman (a lot) but it doesn’t seem to be the obsession that it was 6 months or a year ago. You like heroes and the bad guys. You love water. Bath. Swimming. You are scared of loud noises like the car wash, ShopVac, big trucks, hand dryers, and automatically flushing toilets. You will scream and cover your ears every time.

Lately we’ve been dealing with a dumb little medical issue. You are so scratchy! You have a common childhood rash on the back of your legs called Molluscum and you scratch, scratch, scratch it. And it gets infected, infected, infected. 2 weeks ago it got so bad that you ended up admitted to the hospital with IV antibiotics. Dexter! Honey! Stop scratching. Easier said than done, I know, and it wasn’t your fault. We are still working with the doctors to figure out how to keep this from happening over and over. But really, stop scratching.

We are all spending your 4^th birthday together. Not only do we get to be together, we get to be together at our favorite place ever! Walt Disney World! There’s nowhere we’d rather be and no one we would rather spend the day with. I hope we can find the Star Wars cupcake you’ve been begging for while we are there.

Dexy, I have a feeling this is going to be a great year for you. For our family. You and your brother have grown and changed so much. I like to just sit and watch and listen to you two plan. You have big conversations and big imaginations. There’s no 2 boys I’d rather mother. When I think about you, I think about how blessed I am. Even when it seems like everything is going wrong, I’ve got you to hug at the end of the day. Please don’t stop hugging back!

So much love – Happy 4^th Birthday, Dex!

xo,

Mommy

a family fun weekend with my sis

Gallery posted on March 25, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

My sister Cher and her family were not able to make the trip from Tennessee for Theo’s 5th birthday party. Instead, they came up the following weekend. I was initially disappointed that they couldn’t make it, but this turned out to be quite the blessing in disguise. They are so involved in their church and school and sports that when we visit them, they are often running between spending time with us and upholding their other obligations and schedules. Since they came the weekend after the party, we had nothing planned and were able to really soak up the time together. I loved it and have thought about them and missed them that much more since they went back home. We had such a wonderful visit of uninterrupted quality time together.

They arrived late Friday night. The first order of business on Saturday morning was to head an hour east to Richmond, IN to visit our grandma and the kids’ great-grandma. They’re so lucky to have a great grandparent still living. I hope they all cherish the time they have with her. The big kids, Malachi and Isabella, wanted to ride with us in our car.

Part of our day was spent at Veach’s Toy Station, a toy store that Cher and I visited as kids before we moved to Tennessee in 1987. It was so much fun and a really cool and unique toy shop.

Hanging out at Grandma’s.

I know this is so, so grainy and not a great picture but I couldn’t resist – big sis cuddles to heal Penelope’s boo boo.

And a little daddy-daughter down time.

Snuggles with “mamaw.”

Finally, it was time to head back to Indianapolis and we had some beautiful scenery in the sky to help make the drive more interesting.

Sunday we grilled lunch at home before visiting the Indianapolis Museum of Art to take advantage of free general admission (until April 7, local peeps!). By looking online, you’d think that the IMA is pretty kid-friendly. We only found one area where we really felt that way (Star Studio), but we made the most of it and tried to ignore the staff that followed us around and warned us not to let the children touch this or touch that or get too close to this or breathe on that. It was a little frustrating but we did find plenty to laugh and smile about during our adventure.

We breathed a sigh of relief when we saw this outdoor space with GIGANTIC numbers 1-10 in lovely primary colors. Perfect, an opportunity for the kids to run and climb!

Well, that lasted about 2 minutes before an employee darted right out and started barking at us to get off the art. Whoopsy. (What did you expect though, seriously?) We did find the Star Studio eventually and loved it. We spent the majority of our museum time in these 2 rooms, creating, touching, and having fun. Who knew, Dexter LOVES watercolors! We’ll have to get him some for home.

One huge, awesome lite brite!

It was a gorgeous day and one of the reasons we decided to go to the IMA was that we wanted to explore the 100 Acres park adjacent to the museum. Well…that was a bust. It looked amazing, from what we could see, but there was nowhere to park. At all. So we went to a park closer to home. Afterwards, it was too late to cook dinner so we went to the pizza place across the street. The boys were in bed early after having their sleep schedules out of whack for a couple days. I had to work Monday so my sister and her family met me for lunch before heading back to Tennessee. It was sad to see them go, and I’m already looking forward the next time we get to spend together.

xo,

~C~