Snotty Valentines Day

Hardin's had a stuffy nose and cough since last Friday.  No fever and it hasn't slowed him down, just annoyed him. 

For Valentines Day, he gave it to mommy and daddy. 

Fortunately, Hardin woke up feeling great with no drainage or cough, so he was able to return to school and go to his Valentines Day party.  He may not know his days of the week, but he sure knows when we keep him out of school and the pattern is off. 

His cards were a Pinterest idea, and the grandmothers both got the flower picture all crafted up and matted on one of our unused wedding invitations.  Almost 6 years later and I'm still bound and determined to use them all.  I should also give a huge thank you to M&M minis, or em-ems as Hardin calls them.  I am always amazed at what I can get that kid to do with the promise of one of his tiny sweet favorites.  Read: sit on a bench holding a flower with a big smile. 

We started feeling crummy last night so I pulled a frozen container of soup out of the freezer to defrost for dinner tonight.  Jason was defrosting it, and asked me to come see if it looked okay.  I warned him that if I looked at it and it wasn't fully defrosted and looked weird I wouldn't be able to eat it.

I'm 110% sure he called me over there on purpose knowing it would turn my stomach and we'd be forced to get takeout for only the second time this YEAR (as she pats herself on the back for all the gluten/wheat free clean cooking she's done...).  Well, I turned that idea down, and made him take me and Hardin to Mexican instead. 

By 8:10, both of my boys were in bed and I was cuddled up with a yummy glass of Malbec reading blogs, blowing my nose and looking at Valentines pictures.  Aside from the all the tissues, it was a lovely little day. 

Fat Lip

It actually looks better than it was.  I saw it happen in slow motion.  He was half way up the boardwalk, his shoe slipped, and he fell right off face first.

In true Hardin fashion he was much more upset with the mouth full of dirt, dirty hands, and dirty clothes.  I played along and called the blood dirt.  It was not pretty. 

I drove the golf cart home with a toddler saran wrapped around me.  Arms locked, cheek to cheek.  He wasn't crying, so I knew he was fine, but he was not a happy camper. 

After bath he asked to watch Team Umizumi in mommy's bed.  Needless to say I said yes.

His lip continued to swell and was bigger when I put him down than in this picture, but I'm hopeful he'll be back to normal in the morning. 

He keeps us on our toes, this one!  No more Crocs at the play ground.  Sneakers all the way.

PS.  I always send him to school in nice cute clothes.  I always come home to him looking like a ragamuffin.  Not sure who hates crotch snaps more, daddy or Gigi.  And we're trying to grow out his hair a bit.  That's not helping the look, but he's still the cutest thing I've ever laid my eyes on.

Missing Bedtime

Ugh.  I hate that even have a reason to write a post about this subject.  I. HATE. IT.  I spent all this time writing up our bedtime routine last night, and it's ready to post as soon as I take pictures, but tonight is about missing it.  One of my very least favorite occurrences. 

It doesn't bother me as much when we spend all day together and I have to run somewhere at night.  But, when I've been at work all day and miss bedtime, I just can't stand it. 

Tonight I was that mama on two wheels coming through the subdivision and barging through his door at 7:45 after Jason had put him down.  I left an event at the Cobb Galleria at 7pm on a mission!  I could hear him talking coming up the stairs and was so relieved.  I got my songs and snuggles, my huggins and lovins.  That said my little creature of habit wasn't having too much of it.  He turned his little head at me in that dark room and said mommy, I'm ready to go night night now. 

I sure have been spoiled living 10 minutes from the office.  I've been home so much earlier at night and haven't missed bedtime in quite a while.  The balancing act at it's finest, is slanted much more to this guys side. 

Tender Heart Boy

I have no pictures, but so much about Hardin on my mind that I want to document a few things for myself.  I've decided I'm just not crazy about the indoor pictures I take, and therefor I take less.  I realize that is crazy.  Irresponsible.  You name it.  I should document Hardin's life whether I like the skin tones or not.  But you know, the truth's the truth, and I just have no desire to reach for my camera.  I have on the other hand been taking a ton of videos.  I think the trade off will be one that brings Hardin much laughter, because let me just tell you, our boy's a total trip right now. 

We have absolutely nothing to compare him to, and wouldn't even if we did, but to us he's just the smartest, sweetest, funniest, coolest and most tenderhearted kid on the block.  He's so much fun right now and nothing like the terrible twos we've been warned about.  We've been schooled on the fact that 2s with boys are a breeze, and the 3s are tough, and we've completely braced ourselves for that. 

For now, he's very tender and sweet for the most part.  I had one spanking my entire life.  It was in second grade and I cheated on a spelling test.  It was no walk in the park spanking, but there is no doubt that my little heart took it a lot harder than my rump.  That kind of parental disappointment was not for me.  For the time being Hardin is following in my softhearted ways.  The boy can not handle us being upset with him. 

We have an extraordinarily quite home.  If we ever raise our voice it's when he's doing something dangerous like running towards the fireplace hearth, standing on a table, reaching toward the stove, etc.  A loud voice is normally enough to stop him in his tracks. 

Stop him in his tracks and elicit the biggest little pouty bottom lip you've ever seen.  Complete with alligator tears and a "you better pick me up and hug me right now before I LOSE it" face.  Little buddy just can't deal with it.  The other day I grabbed his arm when he was reaching for the sharp end of a knife and it took me no less than 5 solid minutes of full body hugs to calm him down.  Not because he wanted the knife, but because he was in trouble. 

We have to be careful when talking about him also.  When Mimi was in town, I was telling her the full detail story about him coming home with the "no push yer friends" directions.  We laughed about it, joked, until I looked around and realized Hardin was laying face down on the floor covering his head upset because he thought we were talking about him doing something wrong. 

Same goes for when he's cooking with me.  He gets so excited about helping me every night.  I've realized I have to pour the exact amount of something we need into a cup/bowl first, and then ask him if he can measure out "X" cups for me.  He counts the measuring cup numbers (albeit incorrectly most times), and takes his job very seriously.  If I don't do the pre-measure and he accidentally pours too much, he gets all bent out of shape and says "I broke it, I broke it!"

Another way we see his tender side is when other people, especially kids, are upset.  When we are in public he stops in his tracks if a kid starts crying.  He quickly finds my eyes and looks for me to tell him it's okay.  Once I do that, I try and get him to move along but he normally stares until the upset child stops crying.  We're working on this, because no one likes to be looked at when upset. 

As much as he's tenderhearted, he can also be manipulative and whinny.  Some hours more whinny that others, like before bed.  Another post coming soon about that soon.  And sometimes just whinny because he wants to be whinny.  We've yet to figure out how to stop him from starting to whine, but we've finally learned that total distraction is best medicine.  Not doing what he wants to do, so as to not encourage more whining, but figure out something totally different. 

There's something about this boy of ours that just fills my heart, he's so sweet.  Jason feels it too.  I've said it before and I feel it every day.  Jason is nothing short of amazing with him.  He's soft and kind and everything you would want from your children's father.

Sweet 70s Weekend

The weather was unseasonably warm this weekend, and we all took advantage of it.  Jason played our new golf club both days, and we spent a lot of time outside.

Hardin had his first "school friend" birthday party Saturday.  It was at a gymnastics center and he had a ball.  He was a little confused seeing school buddies outside of school, but quickly got passed it.

The Peppers made the treck out to see us for dinner Saturday night.  Their 11 year old son was super patient with H and playing all the little kid games.  The recently joined a wine club and treated us to some incredibly good wine with the shrimp & grits I made.  Their company was even better than the wine. 

I was a little sluggish this morning and could have lazyed the day away, but quickly reminded my self of the weather and hopped out of bed.  Hardin and I headed to meet Cawley and Lillian and go to the zoo.  It was perfect out for the walk there and all around.  H loves the animals, and talked about them for the rest of the day.  Took me about an hour to figure out what he kept saying was his favorite.  The osh-tag.  Ostrich.  The train and carousel were of course a big hit as well, Mr. Overly Cautious even cracked a smile that stayed while he was riding that giraffe. 

All of our weekend fun reminded me of a conversation I had with mom recently.  I genuinely like my career, but it's hard not to get down about missing the day time hours with my boy.  Mom's so sweet and told me it just builds his anticipation and enjoyment of our time together.  She swears he talks about me and our adventures all the time, and I LOVE how excited he gets when I get home in the afternoons.  I feel good knowing we make the most of our time, with fun adventures and also sweet little day to day routines. 

Freeze Time

This happened today.  I honestly have nothing to say that this picture doesn't already make me feel. 

If I could freeze time I would.  Not forever.  But long enough to soak in every single ounce of two-year-old goodness this sweet boy has to offer.  And that my friends, would take quite a while.

Yee Haw

Hardin has taken a liking to the ride on type things that he used to only appreciate from a far.  Or when they weren't turned on.  Neither Jason or I are big dare devils, so we both appreciated his caution and never pushed the issue.  The boys met me at Chuck E Cheese for lunch Wednesday, and after running straight to the basket ball game, Hardin turned around and pointed at the little carousel and said I wanna ride THAT one!

I fully expected him to grab on to me as soon as it started moving but he just held on tight and said Yee Haw!  I'd say the boots gave him courage but he wasn't even wearing them.  He was quite cautious the first time around, giving his ride a full once over, but the next rotation he was ALL smiles. 

He followed that up with a lot more basketball, banging on some pop up things, some overhanded pitching at the ski ball machine, plenty of pizza and snuggles with Chuck E himself. 

I know the day will come that it takes much more to make my boy's day, so we are thoroughly enjoying this phase where all it takes is a trip to the mall to ride the train or a 45 minute lunch break at Chuck E Cheese to have him giggling with excitement.   He's just plain fun right now.