Mama to Little Boys

Oh, my…

So typical, so them, so hilarious and sweet and frustrating and priceless all at the same time and
I STILL didn’t get one of them both smiling and looking at the camera how I intended.  Of course I didn’t.

Someday… SOMEDAY I WILL GET ONE OF THEM BOTH SMILING AND LOOKING AT THE CAMERA.  Until then, I love these photos just as much, (because, like I tell my clients all the time), they’re REAL.  They are the moments I will remember, the moments that show how life really was at that time.  I realize how fleeting these days are at the same time soaking up every ounce I can.  Nathan is gone so it’s just me and these two little ones for most of the day again and we are in our little world and it is just us three.

I admit, it is still lonely once in awhile, even with the sounds of Jasper’s hands slapping the wood floor as he crawls confidently across the room, Wesley’s fire engine siren noises while he plays with his trucks…our family just isn’t complete without Nathan here!  I would be counting the days, but we just don’t know when he’ll be finished and come back home until they work more.  And since his work makes our life possible, we will wait patiently (as we can) until he returns.

The days are filled with So Many Things and I continue to love this sweet simple summer… today I “took the day off” and kept both kids home from daycare (I think I’ll be doing that more often in the months to come) and we spent the morning in our PJs…. the kids playing in the family room, a mid-morning showing on the Big TV of Monsters Vs. Aliens (that Dreamworks movie from a few years ago), I managed to sneak in a shower while Jasper had a morning nap, and then I got the kids dressed and we headed off to a chiropractor appointment in town so I could get the kids adjusted due to some recent ear infections, teething, etc. 

But before we left, I had Wesley go out and get the mail for me. 🙂

Yes, this is the view out my front door… the nearest highway is wayyyy off in the distance
where that light yellow line is near the top of the photo.

 
After the chiropractor we stopped at the pharmacy across the street (not a Wallgreens–a tiny pharmacy with a gift shop on main street where the old man pharmacist sits in the way back up high like they did in the old days!) where I got Wesley a treat for behaving well during his adjustment, and then we headed over to the library for Story Hour and Wesley checked out a couple books.  After that we drove across the street to where my grandparent’s live and saw my dad and my grandpa were helping a neighbor with his yard and my grandma had lunch ready for us. 

After lunch Wesley wanted to ride with my dad in the tractor back out to my parent’s farm so I took Jasper in the car seat and met them over there.  I had to do a couple things in my office for an hour or two so I left both boys at my parents and then ran back home.  After that was done, I went back to get them.

When we got back home Wesley wanted to play in the front yard (it’s funny–sometimes he favors the front yard, sometimes he favors the back yard… both are great for different reasons, I just love both of them and have places to sit on each side on my beloved porches, so I don’t mind where I watch him from) and then he spotted Great Grandpa Maurice on the fourwheeler spraying weeds and then he said he wanted to go visit “Grandpa Maurice’s Mom” which cracked me up because he meant Great Grandma Dianne.  They live basically in our yard, just down the road a little bit, so we hopped on the golf cart and drove over there.  (We have an electric golf cart for puttering around our yard!)  Halfway there, Wesley wanted to jump off and run so I let him.  We visited over there for awhile until Grandpa Maurice came back with the fourwheeler and Wesley wanted a ride again.  Eventually we all headed back home in time for supper–leftover hamburger gravy on mashed potatoes with peas.  And then back outside for awhile to play in the yard on the swing and that’s when I got the picture of the boys… 🙂

Then it was back inside for baths and bedtime routines.

And I went to put Jasper down and came back upstairs and stopped before I got to the top of the landing to just take in this sweet funny little boy moment of him playing with his fire trucks, wearing a fire hat, in his underwear.

Love it.  LOVE this.. love having a little boy and those of you who have them will know what I mean.  It’s like he
doesn’t have a care in the world, and he’s 100% focused on playing with those toys, meaning full business with the hat and everything.

The reason I write all this when I usually don’t recount the days in such detail, is that I just want to remember this sweet and simple day where nothing in particular happened that was earth shattering or amazing or crazy… just these small moments that are much bigger than I really realize.  And even if they fade as the years go by, for now I just want to hold onto it until every last drop of the day is gone, because someday I will read back on this and remember and I’ll be right back in that moment again.

And the only bad thing about today is that Nathan wasn’t here to share in it.  We would have done all these things together, and he could have helped me with the bedtime stuff, and at the end of the day we could have sat on the back porch with a cold drink, and rocked on the back porch swing and talked about the day and dreamed about tomorrow. 

All in good time, he will be home… we’ve done it before and we can do it again.  Just makes me appreciate him more when he’s gone… that’s gotta be a good thing, right!?

Oh, and if you didn’t get enough EXTREME adorableness that is my baby Jasper, here is a couple more.

Dressed up and dapper.
 

Cool and casual.

And I pretty much give up on Wesley!!

🙂