Are you a boy or are you a girl?

I used to scoff when people would tell me how different baby boys are from girls,.. until having Aram. He seems to be ALL boy, not liking to be cuddled, jumping out of your arms, loves to be thrown and rough-housed and he bites, HARD! So, you can understand my fear of what the future will bring with this little boy.

Angie (my sister-in-law) and I are always comparing Aram to what Teryk (my 3 year old nephew) was like at that age, seeing many similarities. Well just today, Teryk took a spill onto a coffee table and knocked out 3 of his teeth. (poor little guy!!)

Shortly thereafter I was reading the blog of a friend (whose 2 year old boy I spent some time with this past week) the post was complete with an x-ray picture of the rock in her little guy's intestines that he had accidentally swallowed.

YIKES! Raising a boy sounds scary.

As I was relating these events to my husband and at least feeling secure in my ability to raise my sweet and cuddly and usually mellow little GIRL, he told me about something she had just done...

He was headed out the door for work when she walked up to him and with a loud "HI-YA" kicked him in the shin. After which she calmly sat down on the couch and answering his irate "What was that for?" responded serenely "That was one of my best moves!"

So, I have now come to the conclusion that boy,.. girl,.. it doesn't matter... They are all their own little wild things, and either way we have our work cut out for us.

Hard to be a Hero...

So, one of the blogs I follow had a cute post on it about kindergarten crushes today. It reminded me of an event that happened with Jasper that I want to remember, so I'm going to document it.. (hopefully, you will find it just as funny)

Aric and I went to have lunch with Jasper at school yesterday, on our way to the cafeteria Aric noticed that a little boy had his arm around Jasper. I didn't see it, but Aric being protective of his little girl grumbled something about "might have to have a talk.."
When a parent comes for lunch, the kids get to sit at a special table and invite two of their friends to join them. Jasper's best friend is an adorable little girl named Mikalynn, who we call Mickey. When we went to sit down Mickey was on one side of Jasper and on the other side... Joe. (the little boy whose arm Aric had scowled at)
So, as we ate, Jasper asked her dad to open her milk carton (she has a hard time with this). Joe quickly said "I will do it for you!" but was too late, as Aric was already opening it. In order to redeem himself or maybe show off, Joe grabbed his own milk and proceeded to show Jasper how he opens it himself...
Well, he was a little too exuberant and ended up dousing Jasper in milk. She looked a little shocked and just said "It's kind of cold" while Joe looked very much embarrassed. I was laughing my head off. Poor Joe.
At six years old, it is hard to be a hero... :)

Allow me to share if you will,.. my latest creations

(although, reading has started to take a precident over photoshop,... could it be I'm getting bored?, or are there just too many books out there waiting to share their adventures...)

Anyway, some of my favorites over the past week...

A mother's love
bathtime smiles

Do you want to wrestle, cousin?

It has been one of those awful weeks at our house... Aram had croup, then a cold, and then an ear infection. We spent 4 sleepless nights, had 2 trips to the pediatrician, and finally my little grumpy bug felt a little better today... only to have passed it on to his sister, who cant stop coughing and needing to wipe her nose. She is miserable, but still manages to be her usual happy, sweet self. This morning she wanted to play with my hand held mirror, and brought it to her brother.. They were so cute, it was definitely a Kodak moment...Aram liked the handheld mirror so much, we decided to let him check out the full size...
And Jasper doesn't always get enough attention with her brother around, so she makes her own Kodak moments...

I love these kids... even during an awful week.

Proud to be..

So, after dropping my little girl off at school today, waving goodbye, signing 'I love you' back to her... I watched her make her way to the giant sized (to her at least) heavy metal door, and strain to open it. After looking behind her, she noticed that another student was making his way to the door. I don't know if he is handicapped or injured but he was slowly shuffling along. Jasper opened the door as wide as it would go and put all of her weight into holding it open (which I could tell was not an easy task for her) and waiting for him to make his way through the door first. Tears welled in my eyes, and pride shot through me at this wonderful gesture from my sweet little girl.
I began to think, how often do we as adults hurry along to be the first to get through a door, and slide through triumphantly before someone else. How often do we walk past someone and look at our feet, rather than making eye contact and smiling.
There are so many people out there that would benefit from someone else's radiant spirit shining through a smile, or a kind gesture. Do you know who they are? I don't, so I have decided to try and follow my 5 year olds' example... Slow down, Smile, Wave, Do a Kind Deed, Share some of the Love or Knowledge that I have been blessed with.
It sure made me proud to be this little girls mom.