May Photo dump...

Because life with two kids and too many part-time jobs to count keeps me quite busy, I fear photo dump posts will become more the rule than the exception as far as getting blog posts published.

Our May started off with a ditch day. The plan was to take Oliver and Lucius to a show at the Ordway but Oliver's class had a really cool field trip planned the same day. Since I bought the tickets last fall and had three we decided to invite a close friend to join us. It was a pretty great show and a really fun time with Lucius & E. After the show they planned a impromptu playground visit. These two are so fantastic to hang out with. We missed Oliver but he had an amazing time at the base camp experience with his classmates, climbing the rock wall, and shooting arrows.

We attended a Cinco de Mayo party at a friends house. Lucius' buddies were mostly all there. They even had two pinatas, sad it started to storm so O & L didn't get a chance to hit it- but they did help clean up all the candy.

On May 8th it was national walk to school day. The school buses dropped kids off at a park just north of their school and we walked from the park just under a mile to school. Oliver enjoyed a long chat session with his friends. Lucius ran ahead, probably trying to be the first kid in the school so he wouldn't be late. (the second picture is a bit blurry but I loved his big smile. All in all he has been a lot more happy this year at school and I'm so glad we are seeing the results of OT so powerfully in such a simple thing like him smiling more.)

Welcoming Elska has been a huge new adjustment for our family. She is completely all puppy. She's eaten who knows how many random things in the house, chewed the zipper off her new dog bed and swallowed it, chewed halfway through her dog leash, she tore up and ate a brand new bag of dog treats and she's had a few potty accidents indoors. But then she cuddles with everyone and we seem to forgive her anything. She's a handful but we see the sweetness in her too. Here's hoping she grows up before I pull all my hair out.

 

Oliver, Lucius and I drove over to Auntie Em's house a week after she had her third baby to meet their new cousin Thora. She was asleep still so we got to hold her a few times before she needed to eat. It wasn't a long visit cause it was a Friday after a long week but it was really fun to meet her.

Speaking of cousins, I dropped the boys off at school last week so I could go see my godson and nephew graduate from preschool. It was so fun to see him with his friends and to hear that he wants to be a policeman when he grows up. This kid totally has my heart, he's a blast to chat with.

Chess Tournament...

Ah, Chess. I know more than I ever thought I would want to know about the game of Chess and yet I still want to learn more. Why?! Because Lucius loves the game and is still trying to learn as much as he can. So I do it to spend quality time with him. I love it because he loves it.

So we landed ourselves at yet another chess tournament all day one Saturday at the end of April. It was a chess tournament that I actually spent a lot of time behinds the scenes checking checkmates and making sure everyone was reporting their scores. I have little knowledge of what Lucius did in between rounds with his friends and their parents. I hope he was having fun and behaving (which I'm sure he was).

I was happy to see him notating all of his games. I've been telling him that's one thing the really good chess players do is notate their games. And that's how he can get better is by going over his notations, seeing moves that might have changed the whole game in his favor. Plus the more practice he gets the faster and easier notating becomes.

I believe he came in 8th place out of 50 kids and from his school he took home the first place school trophy. He was pretty happy with that.

My shopping life with Oliver...

I love going shopping with Oliver when he's helping me pick out clothes for myself. He's so encouraging and helpful. I always leave the stores feel better about myself because of his words and positive energy. On the other hand, I occasionally dread shopping with him when we have to find clothes he will like: super soft, never scratchy, in the right style, with the right look (still not 100% sure what look) and most importantly PINK. I hate this job because his sensory issues change when he finds something he can't live without. Example: if he sees a sparkly dress he NEEDS to buy it, even though I know he'll never wear it after the first time because it'll be too scratchy. Or this long skirt he fell in love with- because he had other skirts in his drawer he hasn't worn since last year.

Don't even get me started on shoes! Oliver dislikes any shoe that is not a flip flop. I could never be upset with that because I love walking around in sandals and barefeet. My problem is he does need closed toed shoes for some things and he will NOT try shoes on unless they are the right color. And that color has to be pink! We were in the shoe aisle looking to get Lucius a pair of slip on shoes. In the two seconds it took me to find out they didn't have any in Lucius' size, Oliver slipped these beauties on. He begged me to buy them for him. I was the meanest Marmee ever and did not get the hot pink high heals. I just didn't think they would work for most school day activities and outdoor play. For a boy who dislikes closed toed shoes because "they hurt his feet"- high healed shoes is not the right investment.

This isn't really a shopping experience, but it is Oliver in his new outfit. His teacher sent me these photos one day. Apparently he found this tub to sit inside of to read. She texted me that he'd been in the tub for a good half hour reading. That's Oliver!

Meet our new PUPPY...

It all started with an email from Jerimy saying "I'm so tempted to stop by the Humane Society on the way home and check out this dog" and he sent me a link. 

I clicked the link and saw an interesting colored puppy that Jerimy had found online. He's been searching the humane society and rescue dog websites for a new dog for about 6 months. Both Jerimy and I grew up with lots of pets. Ever since losing our dog Copper two summers ago we've been pet free. It's a different feeling being without a pet to take care of since we've always both had at least one pet (most of the time multiple pets). Anyways- we decided that we would go look. We debated weather it would be as a family or just Jerimy and I. Then we made a quick decision that since we were looking for a family pet we should all go. Of course the whole way to the humane society we told the boys that we were just going to LOOK.

Once there we headed back to see the puppy. We found a volunteer to let us visit the puppy in a room. She was so sweet and didn't really jump on the boys. Plus she was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I think we all have been missing the love of a pet and as we heard more about her we were falling in love. Another couple had come to try to adopt her too and we heard them point at her when we first arrived. As we found a volunteer, they ran to the front to start the paperwork to adopt her. When the humane society people came to tell us someone else was adopting her we started to get really sad... till we asked if it was the couple who had come in just behind us? Their policy is that you have to meet/ visit with an animal before adopting. When they asked the other couple they were truthful and said they hadn't met our puppy yet. Thankfully that meant we got first choice. Then the pressure was on to make a fast decision if we would take her or give her up to the other couple.

Meet our new puppy: Elska. Her name means LOVE in Icelandic. She was a unique dog and needed a unique name. They told us she was a black mouth Cur/ terrier mix- but based on her leopard colored coat & mixed eyes, I believe she's a Catahoula Cur/ Terrier mix.

She is learning new things and how not to puppy nip anyone. She's almost figured out the sit command this past week and has gotten a lot better at putting on her harness to take walks. She absolutely LOVES to cuddle. I can tell you that our whole family has been happier this week- you can just feel the stress melt away when you've got a puppy snuggling with you. It really has been a fantastic decision that we made!

I posted this a few days after getting Elska cause it was fun & true:
That time when you’re supposed to go to the store to get toilet paper but you go to the humane society to get a puppy instead. Two days later your head is mush, your heart is melting, your camera is full of puppy pics and your last roll of toilet paper has finally run out. Its even funnier cause we’ve been to the pet store like three times for puppy stuff but not one target run for TP or human food. But Everyone is so happy. I can literally feel the happiness Elska has brought to every member of our family.

She’s completely stolen our hearts!!

New Family Photos...

Back in the end of February I started working very part time for a friend of mine who is a photographer. I love her photos- they are amazing. So when she offered us a free family session at her spring mini sessions- I said YES! I love that it was only 15 minutes and we were all very comfortably relax. She makes it easy and doesn't require us to say cheese. Instead we were ourselves and you can see our personalities in all the photos. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Erica @ Slow Road Photo

Simple Pleasures: an evening walk...

Went for a walk tonight with just my oldest. He even held my hand for a little while. Some moments in parenting are far beyond my abilities. Then, in these brief, magical moments I actually think to myself “thank you for the struggles you’ve put me through, kid... cause neither of us would be who we are without walking through them together.” And I can honestly say he makes me a better person.