Terrific Twos!

I have to retract anything that may have sounded negative in my last post about this little guy. He does have an independent personality, but I am going to count that as a good thing even though it is sometimes stressful to deal with.

This little guy has really amazed me in the past couple of weeks. Being the proud mom I am I just had to blog about it.

First of all we finally took Jacob's Binky away. This has always been a dreaded process with all of my boys and I just didn't want to deal with the withdrawal symptoms of a baby boy who was detached from his Binky. It was 2 weeks ago and he has not put up even the slightest fight about it. No whining, No crying, No tantrums. Nothing but cooperation on his part. In fact, he found a Binky on the floor under the stove the other day and put it in his mouth for a second, and then willingly threw it in the garbage. What 2 year old does that? (Maybe that was an easy decision on his part due to the dust bunnies and old crumbs attached to the Binky when it went in his mouth???) Whatever the case, he did it! So I am starting to think at this point that maybe I don't have it so bad with him.

And then the Second miracle. (I hesitate writing about this for fear that I may jinx myself, but I am going to have faith in my little guy and go ahead and boast.) We finally set up his "Big Boy Bed". Again, we put it off because we didn't want to deal with the fight of teaching him to stay in his bed. Well, guess who stays in his bed with no fight or fuss? It has only been 2 full days, but so far, so good. He loves his new bed. I think his favorite part is that he can get out all by himself when he wakes up. The past 2 mornings have been like Christmas for Brent and I as we wait for him to wake up. He will just run out of his room with the biggest smile on his face and say "I did it!" Oh we love it!

He really is an amazing boy and he adds so much to our family. We are all so in love with him and thankful that he is ours.

Jacob we are so proud of you. You are amazing!

And the Winner Is....

Before (Dec. 2008)

After (March 15, 2009)

Anyone who reads my blog probably already knows that the Nielson family has been doing a "Biggest Loser" competition since the beginning of the year in an effort to get our entire family living healthier lives. What most of you probably don't know, except for the Nielson family, is how successful the family has been not just losing weight, but making healthier life choices.

Yesterday, March 15th was the first official weigh-in. It is exciting to report that the family as a whole has lost 98.4 lbs. The thing that I am most excited about is that my husband was the official "Biggest Loser" at yesterday's weigh-in. He has lost 23.6 lbs. since January 1st. As you can see from his before and after photos, he looks amazing. He has been working so hard. I am so proud of him for being so determined and sticking with this. He looks like the guy I met 9 years ago. :)

Congratulations Brent! I love you.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

What do you do with a two year old? I have done this twice before so you think I should know. This little guy is just different than my other two.

I adore him, I have since the day he was born. I am thrilled every morning to hear him from his bed yell, "Mom" and as soon as I open his door he says, "Good morning, Mom". The past couple of days he has been giving "super hugs". He will just run up to any member of the family and give a great big hug. Last night Will went to bed a little early because he wasn't feeling well. About an hour after he had gone to sleep I lost sight of Jacob and went looking for him. He had gone in Will's room, climbed up to the top bunk to where Will was sleeping. When he saw me he yelled, "I'm giving Will hugs". Thankfully Will didn't wake up. One of his favorite things to do is rockabye. Before he goes down for a nap or to bed at night he always asks to rockabye. That just means that we sit and rock in the rocking chair for about 5 minutes and sing a few songs of his choice. In my mind that is a great time to sing lullabies, but for Jacob he wants to hear songs about all of his favorite characters. He will say "Ernie song" which is "Rubber Duckie" from Sesame Street, or "Cookie Song" = "C is for Cookie" also from Sesame Street. He also likes all of the Winnie the Pooh characters lately so he asks me to sing the "Pooh song" and the "Tigger Song" which is fine because they both have songs, but what do I do when he asks me to sing the "Rabbit song" or the "Piglet song"? Let's just say I am not so good at making up songs. If it were any other human being I was singing the "Rabbit song" to, I am sure I would completely humiliate myself. Jacob, on the other hand, absolutely loves it.

He is talking so well lately. The past couple of weeks I have found him saying the most unexpected things. I asked him where his binky was and his answer was, "Oh, probably down stairs". He asked me for something the other day and trying to delay getting whatever it was he wanted I asked Why? He just simply said, "Because, Mom". Yesterday he wanted my attention and said, "Hey, Annie". That was a first and quite a shocker, but very funny. We blew bubbles outside today for a while and he was running around trying to eat the bubbles. He ran up to me and while laughing at himself said, " I am eating all the bubbles Mom". It just surprises me to hear him talking in complete sentences. He is just a little man.

One big change in his 2 year old self is that he has become very independent. Everything is "Jacob do it" in a very frustrated tone as I try to buckle his seat belt or get him dressed or change his diaper. These are things that he really can't handle on his own so it is a constant battle not letting him do everything. He gets his very own snacks every 10 minutes of the day and gets them taken away every 10 minutes of the day by Mom. So lately we spend most of the day having a power struggle and explaining why it's not good to eat a whole box of Sponge bob fruit snacks in one day. I actually got mad at him for the first time yesterday over the snack issue. I yelled at him for not listening to mommy and told him if he does it again I would send him to his bed. He broke down in tears and was devastated that I had been so mean. I felt terrible but let him cry it out for a few minutes. After having a 10 second talk on why we obey mom we shared a "super hug" so now things are good.

As exhausted and frustrated as he makes me at the end of each day, I am so glad that this little boy offers so much love and joy to my life. He is living proof that there must be opposition in all things.

Thank you for blessing me with perspective today.

I have been in a bit of a grouchy mood the past couple of days. When I think of the possible reasons, I can't come up with anything that justifies my behavior. Adding to my bad mood is the fact that I am in a bad mood for no reason in particular. So this morning as I had an hour alone, (thank you mom for taking my kids so I could go grocery shopping) I said a prayer and told Heavenly Father that I was sorry for being such a baby. I expressed gratitued for all of my wonderful blessings and asked that I would be blessed with some perspective so that I could understand how blessed my life really is.

After being in the grocery store for 10 minutes I ran into a friend from my ward who I had not seen in church yesterday. I stopped to ask how she was doing and make sure things were ok. Come to find out, her father in law had a massive heart attack a few days earlier and almost died. She talked to me about how she was dealing with it all and what a difficult experience this has been.

That was such an obvious answer to my prayer. It is an amazing truth that we have a Father in Heaven who loves each one of us. He cares about each of us. He hears and answers our prayers no matter how big or small they may be. I most definately gained some perspective today. Surly the Lord has bigger issues to deal with like healing the sick, comforting those who have lost a loved one, revealing truth to those who may be seeking it, etc. Any issue is more significant than my bad mood, yet he answered me today. So I thank my Heavenly Father and my friend for blessing me with perspective today. To my friend, my prayers are now with you and your family durring this difficult time.

Baby Nightmares

Does this image frighten you? It does my 2 year old.

Jacob has been waking up early (like 5am) the past few days just sobbing. I bring him in to bed and try to get him back to sleep. It happened again this morning. I went in to get him and he was still laying down in his bed and seemed to be crying in his sleep. I picked him up to console him and asked him why he was crying. His answer shocked me. "A scary duck is eating my leg." He could not go back to sleep. I layed with him until about 6:30 when Brent got home from the gym. When Brent walked in the door Jacob jumped up and had to tell dad all about it. Brent misunderstood and asked "a dog ate your leg?" to which Jacob answered, "NO, a SCARY DUCK ate my leg!" Oh, that's even worse!

The funny part is that he keeps talking about it today. He has taken me to his bed 3 times to show me where the scary duck was eating his leg. I wonder if he will freak out next time he sees a real duck. I was unaware that kids that small can have nightmares. Poor Jacob. Ducks are pretty scary, especailly when they eat your legs.

Happy Birthday Jacob

Happy Birthday to our valentine baby. We love you Jacob. Thanks for bringing us so much joy the past 2 years. You are amazing.

Wonderful Life of Motherhood

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today, which happens to be my sister in law,
http://tyandk8.blogspot.com/ and she just had a good post about parenting her 2 year old daughter. If you have an extra minute read her post, I am sure you can relate as a mother. As I read it I was reminded of an experience I had the other day that I wanted to share.

One thing in my life that I used to hate is grocery shopping with all of my boys. In our town you can save lots of money by shopping at WinCo, as opposed to one of the higher priced chain stores like Albertsons or Smiths. The trade off is that you end up having the most miserable experience if you have children with you. WinCo is cheap for two reasons, they don't accept credit cards and only recently started accepting debit cards, so you had to pay with cash, check, or like most people in that store food stamps. The other reason for being cheap is that you have to bag your own groceries. One more down side that I should mention is that they don't have carts that hold more than one child. I am sure that the most miserable day of my life was the day I decided that we were absolutely too poor to shop anywhere but WinCo. (I had previously shopped at other stores to use the Sky Miles credit card.) So I decided it was time to start shopping smart.

Jacob was just a few months old so I had him in his car seat clipped on to the top of the shopping cart. There was no place to put Will and Andrew so they were just roaming free as I desperately tried to collect my groceries while being a responsible parent and keeping my eyes on them. The shopping trip lasted almost two hours and you can imagine how I was feeling by the end. First I was furious because my 3 and 4 year old boys were not perfectly obedient and helpful like I wanted them to be for the past 2 hours, and Jacob was tired and hungry and screaming in his car seat. I got up to check out and still had the "bagging my own groceries" part of the shopping trip ahead of me. While I was attempting to do that, with 2 boys running amuck, and one screaming infant the checker tells me my total. I go to pay and that is when I learn that this store does not accept credit OR debit cards. My only solution was to leave all of my groceries there, gather up my children and go home crying. It is days like these that I hate being a mother.

Well the other day I was in WinCo again, making our weekly grocery trip. This time I again have my 3 boys. As we were headed to check out I saw a young mom pushing a shopping cart full of food. She had her little baby in her carseat clipped to the front of the shopping cart. Behind her she was pulling another cart with her 3(ish)year old son in it. As I passed her I saw that her face was flushed. Immediately I remembered the worst day of my life. I decided to go ask if she was ok. She assured me that she was and that she was finished shopping and only had to check out. Tears filled my eyes and I just told her that I too had been there. I was actually sort of embarassed and surprised at how emotional I became, but realized that I had just spent one hour shopping with my 3 boys in WinCo and was actually having a good experiece with my boys. What I realized was that as mothers we have plenty of days that we want to throw in the towl. We have experiences with our children that just make us crazy day after day after day. Then there comes a day or a moment that we realize how blessed we are and how amazingly wonderful these children are that we are raising and we are not sure how we got there. When was it that I started enjoying my shopping trips at WinCo? I remeber very clearly making a vow to myself that I would never set foot in that store again. But here I was happy to be there, happy to be with my children, not being bothered by the small things they were doing. I even bagged my own groceries without being bothered. And so I thank that young mom for reminding me of the bad days and promise her that wonderful days lie ahead. Life just continues to get better with these little ones and I am so thankful for mine.