My favorite

I've read a couple of articles in parenting magazines talking about the hidden truth of parenting: that you'll probably have a favorite kid. But the good part is, your favorite child will be in constant rotation. I've found this to be so completely accurate in my short year of parenting two.
When Dawson was born, he was such an easy newborn. I LOVED his first 8 weeks (probably more so because of the hell I went through during Bennett's first 8 weeks). He pretty much never cried and nursed better and slept longer than Bennett did. At that time, it seemed so overwhelming to parent Bennett. I didn't want to be his mom at the moment. He was at the peak of terrible twos and would start bawling his eyes out if I looked at him wrong. Dawson was by far my favorite.
Then Bennett mellowed out...and Dawson UN-mellowed. He started teething at 5 months and turned into a very difficult baby. He cried constantly and wanted to be held constantly. And he would scream relentlessly if he had to wait in his chair for food. He was so not my favorite for at least 3 or 4 months.
Now the tables are turning again. After Dawson cut his first 6 teeth, he was back to his happy baby self. He loves to wrestle with Bennett and climb on furniture and feed himself and dance to music. And he gloriously naps for a combined 4 hours every day. Bennett however is in a funk. I don't know what his deal is these days but I find myself losing patience with him so quickly. He's driving me crazy. He's a terrible listener right now, and he's not a people-pleaser (aka: pushover) with his friends anymore. He hits and bites when somebody takes something from him. He desperately needs a nap during the day but if he sleeps for even 20 minutes, he'll take an extra hour or more to fall asleep at night and the cycle worsens. Needless to say, he's not my favorite at the moment.
I have no real point to all this ranting, but its nice to remind myself that childhood phases are SO short-lived. Before you know it, they've moved beyond whatever miserable phase they're in and morph back into the child you know and love (and secretly call your favorite).


But...despite not being my favorite at the moment, Bennett's finally entered the phase of hilarious one-liners. I've always loved hearing the goofy stuff other 3 and 4 year olds come up with but its so much funnier from the mouth of your own :)
A couple of his best ones lately:

• When my mom was watching him one day, they were both going to eat a popsicle together. Bennett tells her, "You have to take your shirt off first, Nonny."
• One day he had to do his business in the potty. I was in there with him and as he's sitting there he says, "Oh boy. This is gonna be a quick one!"
• Then yesterday my mom calls me laughing because she took him potty the other day and he's sitting there and tells her, "This is gonna be a long one, Nonny." It cracked me up that he can tell that already. Maybe he'll learn to be prepared for the "long ones" and bring a book with him.

Ramblings

A couple things I'm excited about lately:

• Preschool!! Bennett starts preschool next week and I'm giddy as a school girl (pun intended). I just loved school (up until about 8th grade when I got my first F on a history test and realized I would actually have to study for stuff...blech) and I cannot wait for Bennett to experience it. I know he's going to love it. Every time I've gotten some school papers in the mail for him, I get all excited. I have this weird love for filling out forms (pretty sure that classifies me as a nerd) and the fact that they're forms for Bennett's preschool is like birthday cake on Christmas. Its strange that his school years are starting. He's only going 2 days a week for 2 hours, so it'll be a perfect introduction. Before your kids are in school, there's no official start and end to summer. I always stretched it out in my mind for as long as I could wear flip-flops. But no more. It will be dictated by the school year. I seriously think it'll make this winter more bearable though, with preschool to keep it rolling along and fun. (Here's hoping, anyway).
• Vacations on the horizon. We haven't been anywhere since January of 2009 and for us that feels like a long stretch. I live to travel and I hate when we don't have something planned in the next 6 months. We're taking a family trip to Florida in October (possibly without Dawson, possibly with friends. We'll see how it pans out). We'll use our timeshare and drive. Then we'll use our remaining airline miles sometime this winter to go somewhere in the Caribbean, just the two of us. This makes me very happy.

And in normal life news...excited to check out the new Wal-Mart this afternoon thats only about 6 minutes from our house. Apparently its practically the Neiman Marcus of Wal Marts. That's what I hear anyway. I wonder if they have Valet service...

Piper's here for the afternoon after my sister split her head open and required 3 staples!! Sheesh. 3 year olds aren't so great on pounding headaches. So Bennett and Piper are going to have a sleepover. Here are the many moods of those two:

And this is how I just found them:

Nothing like a post-swim naked romp in a sandbox. That's what i always say.

Since I haven't updated my book list in a while, I thought I better do a blog post about it so you'll know to look at it. I add books to that list very hesitantly. I save that for the ones that impact me in a big way. I've read a few mediocre books lately and was waiting for the next great one. I finished one recently that up until about 2/3 into the book, I absolutely did not think it was going on the list. Then the story shifted and it left me haunted thinking about what kind of pain people can endure in one life. I finished it a couple weeks ago and still keep thinking about it. So anyway...stick with it. Its so worth it.

Splashing in the City

Today my sister and I headed downtown with the 4 kiddos to one of the fountains in Des Moines. More of a cement stream than a fountain. It was one of those excursions that was utterly perfect. Its on the same block as a Starbucks, so obviously that's a huge bonus. Iced chai latte's for us, petite vanilla bean scones for the kidlets. The weather was spectacular. Nice and hot but lots of clouds and breezy. Bennett and Piper got to explore the stream that runs the length of a block. And Dawson and Quinn even got in on the action. The water was only 5 or 6 inches deep everywhere so they crawled and climbed and splashed. It was just so fun to be in the middle of the city too. I think we both said at least 3 times, "man, this is just perfect!". Not a single whine, fit, tantrum or fight. (That's what defines the good and the bad these days). Until it was time to go and realized I forgot dry clothes for Bennett, Bethany forgot a dry diaper for Quinn and we both forgot to pay the meter. So we wrapped up our naked babies and accepted the $15 fine. A small price to pay for a few hours of playdate perfection.

Woodland Wedding

Yesterday I had the awesome privilege of being hired as the stylist for a wedding party. Katie D. is an old friend of my sister's and I did her hair for their 8th grade graduation (and somehow that left enough of an impression to hire me again 10 years later?! Hey, I'll take it.) It was the cutest and most creative wedding I've ever been to. I really wish I'd been able to get more pics of the wedding party but I at least got some of the bride. We were going for a very ethereal look but she still wanted "big hair". (I also somehow managed to delete additional photos I had off of my camera before I double checked that I copied them to my computer correctly. Oh well. You live, you learn.

The bride:

I went to the bride's house to do everyone's hair (6 girls total). It was just cool to be such an integral part of someone's wedding and then to get to go to the wedding and see the finished product. I loved it and would love to do this a lot more. Any ideas on how to get my name out there, all you entrepreneurs?? Bethany and I went to the wedding together and I decided that's the way to do it. I mean really, how many husbands enjoy going to weddings unless they're really close friends or family (and even then...probably not so much)? Bethany and I loved gushing over all the details together and eating all the amazing food. Check her blog  for the post on the wedding. She photographed all the details. Here's a sneak peak:

Don't Blink...

...or you would have missed it. Adam and Kayla's wedding was stunningly beautiful. They got married outdoors at the Rose Gardens in Des Moines and their reception was at the Temple for Performing Arts. It was a hot and humid day, so thankfully they broke the record for the fastest wedding of all time. It was literally less than 5 minutes long. They said "I do" and that was that! No complaints from anyone sitting in the sun! And my son was more than happy to shed his tux as soon as they were pronounced man and wife.

Obviously you can tell my son was thrilled to be here!!

All lined up, waiting to walk down (hurray!! Bennett cooperated! Ok...he'll do just about anything for M&M's)

Everyone's a sucker for the hat!!

One of my favorite Bennett pics ever:

The highlight of my night (and yes, Bethany and I tried every flavor!):

My sis and her handsome soldier the night before his deployment:

So glad to have a new sister-in-law. She'll definitely liven up the Colyer fam (as if we needed any more livening up!!)