Puzzles

My Grama C (aka Grma Shorty, Grama Graham Cracker, Grammy) passed away in September 2006. It was a tough time for my family, and the fact that she didn't want a service made it harder for us to get closure. It was something we all had to figure out how to do on our own.

I decided that I would celebrate my Gram's life by buying a special puzzle and putting it together in her honor. It was something we loved to do together. In fact, there were several things that were special in our family. I'm sure they're all pretty generic in peoples' lives, but for the sake of my story, I'm making it feel like it's special for us.

First, besides jigsaw puzzles, there's Penny Press. My mom and I both LOVE to do these books. She orders boxes of these puzzle books and splits them up for us and we sit and do crosswords and all sorts of other word puzzles. My sister and brother both like to do these books too and enjoy soduko puzzles. Is it soduko? Sudoku? I don't remember, but you know what I mean.

Then there's Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. Every night you could find my Grama watching these shows. Even now my husband and I record Jeopardy every night and watch every episode. I think I'm getting smarter from watching it. I'm also finding that there are some really dorky people in the world and they chose to tell their stories on this show. Seriously, no one gives a crap if you have twelve cats and one's name is - get this - FLUFFY!

The main thing that is special between my Gram and me was a simple little card game that I invented when I was four. It was called, "If you get a two you win." It was really easy. Basically, the first person to have a two dealt to them won. My grammy would play this with me for hours on end, ever patient with the hyper four year old that I was.

She was something special and on quiet afternoons I find myself thinking about her. I think it's about time I pick out a puzzle and put it together. Now if only I can keep my kids from eating the pieces.

Growing Up

Timmy has now had his hair cut a total of five times. That poor boy, each time he has it done he is even more and more mortified. For a kid that was born bald and stayed bald for over a year, he sure has a ton of hair now! He looks so sweet and so much older now that it's cut again though. So bittersweet. When he talks he even sounds older to me now, even though Word Book is still Urd Gook and New Bed is still Doo Ded. I still find it hard to believe that I am the mother of a two year old. Some days with him are so trying that I can't believe I went on to have another baby, but most days are entertaining and full of wet kisses and giggles. I love my little boy!

Yep...

I let another month go by without blogging. Can you believe I'm busy with two kids? Teehee. Natalie is almost eight months old now and is working so hard on crawling. She goes from sitting to the crawling position, but only goes backwards. As I type this I am watching her on the floor try so hard to go from sitting to the crawling position but getting stuck on her leg. She's wanting to reach a book...McDuff, one of Timmy's favorite books. The McDuff series is by the same author that created Max and Ruby, one of Tim's favored shows. I just wish that out of the two choices, McDuff would have been put into a TV series. I mean, come on, Max and Ruby don't even have parents!

Our bathroom is in the process of being remodeled and it feels like it's taking forever. Right now the hold up is us - we're supposed to paint. I don't think we took into consideration just how tough it would be to find the time to actually paint with these kiddos around. I think we need to find an all day sitter sometime this week so we can get this bathroom painted, then it will just come down to the finishing touches. I am so excited!

Timmy turned two last month. He had a great joint birthday party with his cousin, Karson, who turned six. I felt bad because I couldn't deliver the great birthday presents that most people give to their kids. I got most of his birthday presents from Once Upon a Child, Ebay, and Etsy. He doesn't care that they're used and honestly, I don't either - but I feel like people think I'm just plain white trash and poor if I just give my kids used stuff. I know this isn't the case, but when there are people I know that are able to provide for their children an extravagent party with all the fixings including swingsets and professional photographers, I tend to feel like less of a parent.

Silly, aren't I? =]

Natalie made it onto her tummy and now she's mad that she's on her tummy and not going anywhere. She's as silly as her mommy.

I'm participating in a Care Dare on JM. I realize that I have two kids, but Timmy is the one who seems to be most in need of one-on-one care. Today's challenge was to read twenty minutes with him. By 9:30 I think we had thirty minutes already pounded out. This boy loves to read! I just wish he could sometimes just look at a book on his own, yet I love that he wants to read with us - his parents - because I know that he isn't going to always want to be with us.

Tomorrow's challenge is to do something artsy with our children. Tim really isn't an artsy kid. He doesn't really enjoy coloring or anything like that, but maybe I'll pull out the finger paints and let him go to town outside if the weather is nice. Last time he just ate the finger paints. He's as silly as his sister and his mommy.