First Feeding Failure

Quote of the day:

Nicholas: "Mommy, let's pretend you're a teacher. Give me a word to write."
Jen: "Nicholas, I AM a teacher."
Nicholas: "No, you're just a girl and a Mommy now!"

Trip to Columbia

I survived a trip alone with the boys!!! Yeah me! I don't know why I was worried - Matthew is a pretty easy going guy & nothing much bothers him! The three of us went to Columbia just to visit my parents while Jason was on a recruiting trip to Kirksville. My parents were quite brave to invite us to stay after completing their moving adventure. They basically spend two days loading or unloading incredibly large & heavy furniture into a moving truck or into a storage facility. Yuck! I offered my services (I am ridiculously strong) but they had all the lifting done before we arrived. My mom, the boys, & I enjoyed dinner out at Fuddrucker's last night before heading home to hang out. Today was super-fun, especially for Nicholas. Grandpa taught him the "first steps" to tying his shoes! He was quite excited and proud of himself! Then Grandpa stayed with Matthew while Grandma & I took Nicholas to the neighborhood park. As you can see from the pictures, it is an awesome park! They have TWO SETS of swings, TWO DIFFERENT play areas, a sand pit, TONS of huge tires, and big rocks everywhere! Nicholas had a BLAST! Back at the house, Nicholas & Grandma made "Batman Brownies". It was great fun seeing them, even though it was exceptionally noisy! Their duplex neighbors opening the garage door is annoying and loud, car alarms go off randomly, emergency vehicles speed by regularly, and other people living nearby enjoy talking loudly on their front porch late at night! We CAN'T WAIT for their house on the farm to be finished!!!

Family Tree

Yesterday at preschool Nicholas created a Family Tree. On the tree you see an apple with Matthew's name printed, one with Daddy, and one that says Jennifer. Guess I'm no longer "Mommy" but Jennifer? Wonder if the teachers scratched their heads at that, wondering who exactly I am!

Apparently another boy at preschool has been bugging Nicholas (I'm sure Nicholas is purely innocent - he never misbehaves!). Yesterday Nicholas told me that "Tyler" (I changed the name to protect the innocent) spit on his at school and he told his teacher. I was so proud - no retaliation, just telling an adult!!! He HAS been listening to me, right? Then he told me that he told his teacher RIGHT AFTER he spit back at "Tyler". When I asked him why he didn't just tell the teacher and NOT spit back he said, "but Mommy - he spit on my HEAD!". Apparently the head is one body part you just don't mess with!

Family Update

The Savage boys are doing quite well these days! Nicholas is still loving preschool - they had a visit from the fire department last week & he loved listening to the firemen talk! He can now name 8 people from his class out of 14 - not too bad for less than a month into the year! Nicholas is still begging us to teach him to read & tie his shoes. He is doing quite well with the sounds each letter makes and can build simple words by sounding them out. Yesterday I pulled 6 site word cards (go, no, can, cat, up, dog) and he learned those quite quickly. Not sure what my next step will be... he loves to learn though. Apparently my dad taught me to tie my shoes (I can't remember that!) so his job this weekend will be to teach Nicholas to tie his shoes! We'll see if that works or not! I still think he's pretty young to successfully tie his shoes! Tonight is his special "make a pizza with Daddy" night - so he is excited. They look forward to this night every month!
Matthew is growing like a weed! He's starting to get chunky thighs although his arms are still pretty skinny! He loves to eat, loves to sleep, and loves to smile at his family! Such a happy, easy going baby!
Life is good and it keeps getting better!

Go Cubs Go!

Yeah Cubbies!

Deanna Rose

We had a GREAT time at Deanna Rose on Friday!! It's always a fun place to take Nicholas & friends! He had a blast playing with Jack & Bryce (especially playing with the cow bells, tractor ride, and the playground). Matthew was an absolute angel baby - sleeping soundly, eating perfectly, and spitting up all over Casey!

3 months old!

Matthew is already 3 months old! I can hardly believe it! He is doing wonderfully - growing, eating & sleeping just like he should!

Mommy Guilt

Every Mom has it. They must, right? I am battling a bad case of Mommy Guilt this week for no apparent reason. Maybe it's because Nicholas is constantly begging for my attention. We even played "Boggle" together with him building words on my bathroom floor as I was getting ready. I think the preschooler mindset is that whatever time Mommy has to give me could not possibly be enough! Yesterday I desperately needed to pick up the house... so I told Nicholas he could watch a show on TV. He said, "Mommy, can I help you clean?" and we cleaned the house together. He actually enjoys it, and I like spending time with him. Matthew is another story. What do you do with a 2-month-old? We cuddle, talk, I carry him around... but at the end of each day I find myself wondering if we spent enough time together. Did we do enough tummy time? Did I miss an opportunity to make him laugh? To teach him something? Then I look around my house. Is it clean enough? Yes. Is it just the way I'd like it? Absolutely not. However, it is more important for me to spend my days playing with my kids than to have a clean house. Let that be a warning to you if you ever drop by, especially unannounced! I try to keep a relatively clean house, to have dinner on the table most nights, keep up on laundry (the never-ending task!). My true job as a stay-at-home mom is to be a MOM and I love it! I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. Even on days when I'm struggling to not pull my hair out, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be, or anyone else I'd like to drive me crazy. In short, yes I have Mommy Guilt - a little every day. However, at the end of the day I know that I did the best I could with my day and I'll start again fresh tomorrow, always striving to be a little better.

A House Divided

It's FOOTBALL SEASON! As you can see, we have both Chiefs & Bears fans at our house! We are ready for fall and football!

Ready for Tonight?

I just wanted to post about the Stand Up 2 Cancer Event - on TV tonight at 7pm. I know everyone is somehow involved in the fight against cancer. Please donate if you are able, or even watch the event (we DVR'd it!) tonight. https://www.standup2cancer.org/donate_splash.asp

As for the Savage Family, we are doing quite well! Our two days in preschool this week were awesome - he just loves "school". Nicholas also started church choir this week. I grew up going to choir. In fact, my mom STARTED a children's choir at our church because I was 5 years old and there just HAD to be a choir for me. I don't consider myself exceptionally musical, but I LOVE music. From age 5, I sang solos in church, played the piano at church, and sang in the choir. I've been looking forward to Nicholas starting choir for a while now (do you really want to know how long? It's been several years!). On Wednesday night our church had a spaghetti supper for all kids joining choir & their families. We never turn down a meal, so off we went! After dinner, we went to choir. It was chaotic! There were 43 kids age 3 - Kindergarten in this particular group. I couldn't believe it! They herded all the children into the little room & sang for 30 minutes. I was slightly disappointed that I couldn't watch, but I peeked in the window enough to see Nicholas blankly staring at the leaders! On the way home, however, he sang several songs including "B-I-B-L-E (yes, that's the book for me)". So proud! It reminds me of a cute Nicholas story... one day last spring we were walking with Nicholas and he stopped, turned to Jason & me and said "God lives in our hearts" and kept walking. Again, so proud!

Matthew is doing wonderfully, waking up briefly in the 5am hour, we pacify him & he sleeps for another hour or so! He's wonderful! We love his smiles... Happy Friday!

Jon & Shannon's Wedding

Make a Smilebox slideshow

2nd day of Preschool

Today started out a bit rough. Matthew woke up around 4:30am - not exactly hungry, but not willing to sleep any more. Jason tried to pacify him, I tried as well. I eventually decided to feed him and, like predicted, he was not hungry. He soon fell back asleep while I could not. At 5:15am, I decided to exercise. This crazy girl logged 45 minutes on the elliptical BEFORE 6am! (people who exercise early on a regular basis are INSANE)
Matthew & I took Nicholas to preschool today. He was just as excited, if not more, than the 1st day of school. I was too! After leaving him in his teacher's capable hands, Matthew & I set off for home. I felt slightly lost with only one child in the house. We ate, played, did three loads of laundry, & talked to Grandma multiple times. We picked up Nicholas & got to hear about his day. Here's what he said. "We played & I ate, but I choose NOT to eat my fruits and vegetables. It was MY choice, Mommy. We made our apple again & went to music - but NOT the music where you drive in the car." He also made mention about getting in trouble for knocking an animal off the shelf. Not sure what that's about... I'll try to get the full story later!