Happy Mother's Day♥

I'm sitting in a quiet house, feeling so grateful for the two beauties with me in this picture and my shugary-sweet husband.  I've had a great day.  Woody took them to the park this morning so I could bake a cake and clean the kitchen and wash the floors.  Seems like a strange gift I'm sure but I was able to really scrub the kitchen with an attention to detail.  Usually I hastily wipe things down and assure myself it was cleaner than before.  But I prefer to indulge my anal-retentive ways and clean 'til it's pristine.  That never happens anymore b/c I'm always pressed for time. Anyway, I love to clean and I like things to be clean. I think my dad was really surprised one year when I got a (awesome) vacuum cleaner for my birthday (from Woody) and gleefully unwrapped it and immediately started vacuuming.  I do dislike ironing though, can't stand it...

Woody took OM to the store to buy some dinner. I was all set to make this incredible brunch I had seen on Food Network but now it's almost 4:00 p.m. PST and it's definitely way too late to be considered brunch. And I went on a run and I'm feeling like relaxing instead of cooking, and then cleaning again.  

Every year for mom's day my gift is a photo of, first just Owen and now OM together. This photo in the tub is this year's gift. Actually, this isn't the one but it's from the same photo shoot:) The wall of photos is growing and I love looking at the changes.

The biggest news of the week is the arrival of Brook Helena Alleckson!!  Elee delivered her on Thursday (May 7) and she's a beautiful, very mellow little soul.  She weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces and is 19+ inches tall.  She has a full head of really soft hair that AJ loves to pet:) She went home yesterday to check out her new digs, melt her parents hearts even more, and become AJ's new BFF:)

After we went to the hospital we went to sweet tomatoes with Ginger and AJ.  The photos are in the wrong order, forgive me:) OM always have a good time with AJ and got some good running time in again. I'll have to upload a bunch on picassa because there are many more...

Finding his voice

Today I had a parent-teacher conference with Owen's teacher (Justine) about his development. One of the (many) things I really love about the preschool OM attend is their understanding of early childhood development and varying personality types. Specifically, I like how when Owen stands off to the side and watches his friends play on the playground they don't try and make him get involved.  They realize that Owen is an observer and they are perfectly comfortable with that. At first it would make me sad that Owen never wanted to interact more with his peers while they were laughing and running around but then I started looking at it from his point of view.  He's perfectly content taking it all in and learning that way. He's happy. I use to be that way too (okay, I'm still that way) and it always bothered me when it was constantly pointed out how shy I was, as though it was a bad thing.  And, as the year moves on I find him playing more and more with his friends outside. He's slow to warm up and no one there rushes him, it's refreshing.

So, Owen is good at following directions, clears his space at meal times, prepares his napping area without reminders or assistance and is able to sit through group time without getting distracted or becoming a distraction.  In small groups he likes to ask questions and make predictions about stories.

His areas of improvement are with his verbal expression.  At lunch time (it's family style so you have to ask your friends to "please pass the bread") Owen remains pretty quiet and doesn't ask for anything.  Justine said he will look at his empty milk cup, look at her, and then look at his empty milk cup again.  She's encouraging him to pour it himself or ask for help.  

He never resorts to physical "communication" when another kid hits him or takes his toys but he doesn't verbally communicate either.  He'll either move if he's getting hit or let the kid take his toys and not say anything.  

So, I'm going to keep encouraging him to speak up at meal times and when conflicts arise. It's hard b/c at home he's different and will snatch toys away from baby sis.  Justine suggested I use those times and relate them to what happens at school.

The photos are from school today. After the meeting Maya and Owen had snack w/ his classmates and then we played outside for a bit.

Owen & Scott in front of the tadpole aquarium.  Maya was fascinated with it too.  There are like 100 tadpoles in there.  His class is focusing on transformations...lots of gardening projects, books about caterpillars and now a whole pool of cool tadpoles that Owen loves to feed (lettuce and spinach so far)...

Dance time

A little booty shakin'.  Owen is eating a corn muffin we made yesterday (in case you're wondering)...

Target Pharmacy

We've been spending a lot of time @ the Target pharmacy lately. 

Maya started a 10-day regimen today but thankfully Owen is finishing his. Maya has an ear infection and I had hoped to give her what I picked up the last time I was @ the pharmacy, which was Robitussin w/ codeine (to help Owen sleep) but she's too small:( Hopefully tonight she'll finally sleep solidly.

Anyway, mostly they've been helpful.  Today I would have been amused, if I wasn't so annoyed, with the young, male, 20-something pharmacist assistant. I walk up with two children under four and a prescription for Amoxicillin and instead of politely, even eagerly telling me it would be ready in a jiff, he asked when I wanted to come back and pick it up. Really? Umm, how 'bout right this second, thanks.

The photo below is of them doing their med shots together. Now that it's part of their daily routine (maya has been getting tylenol and ibuprofen fairly regularly) they suck it right down.  

This is it tho!!  Subsequent blog posts will have NOTHING (please, please, please) to do with illness, meds, pharmacies, doctors..nada!  Only cool stuff about how cool they are:)  

Today I asked Owen what he was getting me for mother's day and he told me lots of chocolates and added, "and I'm going to eat them with you."

Bath time

Out of this world

Team Myklebust is back!  Woo Hoo!!

To celebrate we went to a birthday party for one of Owen's friends from school (Scott, who we went to the zoo with last week). It was at Out of this world pizza and play in Hillsboro where we use to live. It was so nice to see Owen running around and having a good time. He needed some time to warm up to the place, but once he did he loved it.

The pictures didn't turn out great (I took a lot!) because it was pretty dark in there and I couldn't find a good setting on my camera. Anyway, here's a few from our day.

And this one is from last night. Woody and Maya were still feeling kinda bad last night so we actually had to miss a different bday pizza party:(  Here's hoping May is kinder to us in regards to our health...

My grandmother, OM's great-grandmother ♥

Times like these, when my kids are sicker than I can bear (I really can't bear much), it helps to have a sense of humor and an optimistic outlook.  I naturally lack both but have been urging all the cells, molecules and thoughts in my body to forgo their worrying ways and not think too much about the "what-ifs."

All this worrying has me thinking a lot about my grandmother.  She's a worrier and I'm sure I inherited it from her:) Grandmommy, as we lovingly refer to her, is a sweet and loving soul, and I cherish her company. She loves to talk and I love to listen to her stories.  My favorite thing about her is she is who she is and doesn't try to be anything else...it's really refreshing.  I wish OM could hang out with her more...hopefully one day:)

But I also think about how much harder it must have been for her when her kids were sick...she couldn't do frantic google searches about swine flu or run down to Target to stock-up on Tylenol/Ibuprofen, humidifiers, and lotion-coated Kleenex.  So, I'm grateful for the times I'm in (mostly).

Today is a tough day for her because five years ago today my grandfather passed away.  He was the best grandfather; so kind and loving and I always loved the way he smelled.  When he smiled at me I felt loved to the core.  

They married young and remained happily married and in love 'til grandaddy's last day. They were surely soul-mates and she misses him dearly.

I love you grandmommy and miss you both...