Well my kiddos are waiting to turn into chickens. We exposed the boys to chicken pox the other week and now we are just waiting around for them to become chickens! That is what happens, right?
In other news, we have been busy, busy hanging out with new friends and just trying to soak up the last little bits of warm weather we can. I have really been trying to make more personal friendships instead of just hanging out at playgroups that way I have friends and London also has buddies. We plan on un-schooling London and are super excited because we are already able to do some things with him now as far as his schooling goes! Today we went to our friend's house and went on a hike. We learned about moles, and spiders. Yesterday we went to Antioch Park and went on a nature hike. We learned what poison ivy looks like, we saw turtles and talked about the difference between tortoises and turtles. We are learning about what the plants look like when the seasons are changing and even what the earth smells like through the season change! I know that London is really young still but it is just proof that you can learn from everyday encounters! We are slowly beginning to stock up on school things for him so we can have the most amazing schooling experience that he will ever want!
I think here soon we are going to try our hand at some more homemade things like baking our own bread and cookies and muffins. We really strive to be as natural as possible in our house. We do not buy anything with high fructose corn syrup we have learned that it has mercury in it and I am not sure why you would knowingly choose to feed that to your children. Although we have been finding that it is in just about EVERYTHING, including whole wheat bread and things that you would not expect it to be in. So I think we will be safer if we just bake all of that stuff ourselves! I just learned today that you can use stevia in place of sugar so I am going to try that out.
I may be posting pictures of our baking adventures soon! That reminds me, I should get the zucchini out of the freezer for zucchini bread!
I love my life. I love my husband, I love our boys. I love our laughter, our love, our consideration towards everyone's feelings no matter how ridiculous we think they may be. Bryan and I are raising our kids with unconditional love, not conditional love. We will never hit our kids, never make them feel like they cannot come to us for help with a problem. We will respect any of their choices that they make as long as they are happy. We will guide them through this earth with love and compassion, and watch them grow to be loving compassionate adults. All of this does not mean we are a quiet family. We do not yell at our kids and Bryan and I never fight, but we are just a loud family. Apparently London has felt the recent need to "fit into" the noise of the household. Remember, he cannot say to many words but he can backtalk like a rockstar.
Example:
He now says no when we offer him something he does not want, great! Now he can talk to us and tell us a little more of what he is wanting! I just wish he would say YES!
When he REALLY does not want to do something that we REALLY have to do (leave the DMV parking lot because people are coming over and we have 45 min, 30 min of which is driving, or when we have to leave our friends house because they have to go too, or when we HAVE to get into the car and go home because we just cannot stay in the grocery store parking lot)he has started to SCREAM at us. The other night Byran was at his other job and I was getting London ready for bed. I went into the bathroom and told him we needed to brush our teeth. He was screaming and freaking out so I had to close the bathroom doors and just wait until he was ready for me to brush his teeth. He stood at the door and SCREAMED through tears, GO GO GO GO, over and over again. Now, London is a very mellow guy, so this shocked me, and it made me giggle.....I giggled while he was screaming. I did not let him know that I was giggling though, I just looked up and he continued screaming at me. Then I brushed his teeth when he was ready and all was well with the world!
We do not want to punish him for having emotions, because he cannot convey them to us like we can do. So we help him cope with his feelings, comfort him through his sadness and then when all is said and done, we will have a conversation about what we were feeling when he was upset. His tantrums are few and far between and I really think that is because he feels respected and validated, but when he does have one, BOY does he!!!
Here are some pictures I finally uploaded to the computer!
Testing out to see if we can feed this to facebook...bear with me...
I am pretty darn sure that we finished unpacking our house. After a few disagreements and arguments between Bryan and I and a few cranky kiddos, I think I may be able to sit down.
I realized today that I may be a bad mom....I completely forgot to post about Sidney's surgery that he had on the 9th of this month! I am horrible.
Sidney had an inguinal hernia, which is a hernia in the groin. They went in and made a tiny incision and fixed it all up! He was also a little tongue tied so they fixed that too. We got to the hospital at 6:00 am and left at 9:30 am so it was a really fast and quick surgery. Sidney was pretty tired all that day but by the end of the day he was back to his smiley self! He didn't get any pain medication at the hospital and I only had to give him tylenol once. He is such a brave little boy. I may have been bawling like a baby and worried sick, but he was a trooper and still is.
I think that is it for now, I need to wake the toddler who is sleeping on the floor behind me and tend to the crying baby.....I told you I was a bad mother ;o)
Whew-wee, it has been quite a whirlwind here at the Epley house. After having lived at our tiny apartment for a grand total of six months, we packed and moved........a mile up the road :o). We now live in a 4 bedroom 2 bath house with a yard, and windows all over the house instead of only one side of the place. So far we love it here. We had a few financial issues but things are smoothing out quite nicely now.
There have been so many things that I have been itching to post but our computer literally shot fireballs out the back of it when we plugged it in here at the house. So we have been without internet (well the computer actually blew up while the internet was being hooked up) and a working computer, and there is only so much I can do with my phone. So here are as many updates as I can remember. Oh, BTW my future plan for this blog is to update it at least once a week. I feel like I am only writing in here every few months and it feels like a Holiday newsletter, lol!
Bryan has started a part time job cleaning out the hood vents at restaurants. He usually leaves for work around 10pm or so and gets back anytime between 2-4 am. I told him that we are fine without him getting a part time job but he wants fun money so he is choosing to do this other job.
I have started cleaning houses on the side. Well, I should say Sidney and I are cleaning houses on the side, lol. I have mainly been cleaning friend's houses and so they always enjoy playing with baby Sidney while I clean.
OK so Bryan and I have gotten fairly boring considering that is all I have to update on us! I guess that comes with being a parent, lol.
So London is growing up so fast, it is beginning to frighten me! He still is not talking all that much but he can now back talk!! He screams, MINE, and NO a few times throughout the day. Welcome to having a near two year old, I guess. He has become mister independent and that is pretty nice. In fact, I just put him to bed in his own room tonight for the first time! We will see how the night goes.
He is so good with his baby brother it is sweet to watch him with Sidney. The other day he sacrificed his bobo (pacifier) for Sidney when he was crying, SO sweet! Although, earlier today London was playing with Sidney's toys on the swing while Sidney was in it, and when Sidney would touch the toy (he still doesn't have hand control just yet) London screamed MINE at him, it was funny and sad at the same time, lol!!
Sidney is growing like a weed. He has been holding his head up from day one and he has been putting weight on his feet for awhile too. He just started to lift his feet up alternately as if he is walking....signs of an early walker?? He has been smiling and cooing at us for awhile now too, and just tonight he giggled at me!! It was the cutest little thing I have heard in awhile and I cannot wait until he does it without me having to do so much work, lol. I am so sad to see all of the clothes that he has outgrown go to new homes. I am sad that I am having to get rid of some of the things that London wore but in winter, because Sidney is too big to fit in the itty bitty winter clothes that London wore because it has been way to warm :o(
I am cherishing my little baby as much as I can, and while I do not want him to get any bigger, I cannot wait to move onto the next step of our lives and watch my two boys play and have fun together.
I think that is it for now. I have pictures but I just bought this new computer today and am unsure if we will be keeping it or not so I am debating if I should get my pictures loaded onto here.....we will see...if you see a post with pics then you will know what I decided :o)