Jo Cool Mama

My brother Paul lives over 400 miles away in Las Vegas so he’s not able to see his nephews every weekend, or visit regularly. We miss him a lot around here and hope that someday we live closer, but whatever the situation may be we will get together! He is not the most comfortable person around little kids, but he does an amazing job with them – if he knows it or not. It just seems like every time the Boyz see Unca Paul he is cooler than the last. He has pirate tattoos that Sammy really loves and believes his Unca is a cool pirate! We just took a short trip down to Vegas and Sam’s eyes almost burst out of his head when he got to play on Unca Paul’s motorcycle!

My brother is not a show off by any means, but he seems to have all the right things at all the right times for his nephew to enjoy. He let Sam climb all over his motorcycle and wear his helmet. Sam was in Unca heaven! When we had to separate, to go back to the hotel, Sam was so upset and didn’t want Unca Paul to leave. Paul told him about another helmet and goggles he had at home and that later when we visited him at home Sam could try those on… We didn’t stop hearing about the other helmet and goggles until we were at Paul’s house… two days later!

Paul was getting ready to leave for work and he had on nice pants. He put Sammy in all his equipment and let Sam climb all over his bike one more time. Then Sam requested to sit on the bike with Unca Paul – so of course my brother didn’t deny his request. Sammy inadvertently got dirty footprints all over Unca Paul’s thighs! Dang-it! I felt so bad – we had the wipies out and were trying to get the prints off… but we only smudged them around. Paul was cool about it and said he would get dirty at work anyhow. I still felt bad. He told Sammy he could keep his helmet and goggles the rest of the day and give them back to Aunt Angela later. Then he turned on his motorcycle and zoomed off down the street… An awesome exit!

*I Love You* (sign) Double for Unca Paul!

It is a bittersweet moment when your child has yet another birthday. The fact that they are growing so fast is heartbreaking – I feel we cannot spend enough time with them because it will all be gone in a breath. It seems like Sammy was born yesterday and now he’s five! I want to cry just thinking about how fast it all went -and all I want to say is, “Hold on a sec! Can we go back and try that again?” I feel we’ve done a lot of good things in parenting but we made some mistakes (as every parent does) and I would love the chance to fix them. We can’t perform the impossible so we will have to learn from our mistakes and move forward with open hearts.

Sammy had three different birthday parties! Why so complicated? Family needs to have one party all by themselves, and then we decided to have his party with friends at school (weekends are insane and we wanted all Sammy’s friends to have a fair chance to be there). Instead of asking families to come to us – we know how hard that is – we simply went to them. I wish this was totally my idea, but I stole it from other parents who have done the same thing. Then, we had a party for the kids who aren’t in Sammy’s school but are an important part of his little life.

First, we met up with some important folks at a local park for some pizza, cupcakes and hanging out fun!

Next, we met up with some family for a wild and crazy birthday dinner…

Finally, on Sammy’s real birthday we had the school party, took a stroll at Lake Tahoe and topped it off with another family dinner at Hard Rock Cafe!

School party – it was awesome because the teacher took total control of the children. All we had to do was hand out food, cupcakes and gift bags… I loved it! Clean up was a breeze as well! Yay!

Smiles at Lake Tahoe! We just went up for a little walk, because – believe it or not – the day was really pretty chilly and the beach would have been too cold! *burrr*

Jack got a little punchy after dinner at Hard Rock. We didn’t get a good picture of the birthday boy here, but his brother will do as the stand-in.

I want to give my Boyz the world. I have to fight myself to bring life back to reality and say, “No.” a lot more than I would like to. When they cry my heart breaks but when they smile I smile with the pride of a parent who’s brought joy to their child’s life. I hope that I can give them as much as I can to make their experiences as children happy and memorable. I love them with all of my being and I hope that someday they can look at their youth and smile…

A milestone Saturday as Sammy had his first soccer practice. All the boys were grouped together and then split up into teams of 6 or 8. Sammy was teamed with his good pal Connor and a new friend, Wyatt. Wyatt has older brothers who are all about soccer and so he knew just what to do with the ball, whereas Sammy and Connor were a little lost for the most part. Sammy just watched and sort of followed the crowd around the field, and Connor kept playing football by tackling the soccer ball.

It was an intimidating event for most of the newbies out there and there were complaints flying all over. Sammy was complaining that the other kids were running faster than he was and he didn’t want to do it anymore. My response was, “Suck it up, get out there and run!” You cannot teach them it’s okay to quit on the first try and he will learn to give things a try before taking the easy way out. Wyatt was complaining it was too hard, and his mother said (more or less) the same thing I did. Plus, I work with the high school soccer team and Wyatt’s brother is our star Keeper – Wyatt’s mother and I know it needs a little push to get them out there, but once they are there they love every moment of it! After practice we asked Sam what he thought, and he really enjoyed it – all that matters in the end.

It was a moment I’ll never forget and Sammy was so cute in his over-sized shirt and socks. I cannot wait until our next practice in a couple of weeks! Sam needs a lot of practice at home before then – we need to work on physical skill and mental abilities. Believing you can go out there and kick it, no matter your level, is the difference between winners and losers.

I am offically a soccer mom now…

Silly itty bitty hops onto his toy train and wants to go for a ride!

Super uber duber cute!

It was a nice day out and a friend of mine called to see if we wanted to hang at the park for a bit so our kids could play. Sounded like a super idea! We all met up at the park and we chatted in the cool shade while the children played on the playground. We watched people come and go with their children – we even helped one lady leave because she felt like she was going to pass out and needed help getting back to her car. Don’t worry – we made sure she was fine to drive! She lived close and just needed to go and rest, but her two-year-old was being a typical kid who did not want to leave – and that’s when she asked for our help. Poor lady – I hope she’s feeling better! Then there was a mother who was standing next to the swings sucking on her cancer stick – thanks lady! It wasn’t until Sam had asked her to push him on the swing that I saw the cancer burning in her left hand. I’ll give her credit for asking me if it was OK to push Sam on the swing and I had said it was, but I hadn’t yet seen the smoke of doom. Then she got into a swing with her daughter and swung with the stupid white trash cigarette hanging out of her mouth! Not to mention Sam was on the swing next to her!

Anyhow – my friend and I chatted and enjoyed the weather when these two characters walked up to the playground in full metal detecting gear looking like two mega nerds who need a life! Coming to a playground in the middle of the day while children were playing to do what? To find what? At one point the male metal detector had heard something in his extra large headphones and the lady metal detector ran over to see – oh, very exciting! The lady reached into her satchel and pulled out a rod of some kind to examine the ground even further. We watched on and waited to see what the heck they were going to pull out of the densely-packed wood chip floor of the playground. They were so into this one spot at one point that they had put down their big fancy looking metal detectors to focus more attention to the dirt. I wondered aloud how one of the mega nerds would have acted if one of the children would have come up and touched their equipment. I mean, the facts are they’re at a playground where small children play, and small children love to touch large flashy things. It was so beyond inappropriate for them to be there while children were playing! At one point I was sitting on the edge of the playground with Jack when the lady waving her metal detector passed by. I was in her path to the fortune she was about to find there on the playground, and I wondered if she was going to walk right over me or go around. She went around and flashed a friendly smile. They didn’t seem mean or anything of that nature, but people become freaky when they have expensive things around children that want to touch… Sam is that kid! I was totally surprised that he didn’t attack them with his thousand “Why?” questions and investigate their equipment with his idle hands.

My friend had said that once before a different man had come to explore the playground with metal detecting gear and it was during the time small children were running around and having fun… Creepy. Strange people need to know their boundaries and going to a park during playtime is not a place to be! I didn’t bring my camera to the park, *bad parenting – wink* so I used my cameraphone to snap a shot of the lady metal detector in action. The picture isn’t great, but like I said it was a camera phone. And, yes – that’s the lady.

To put the cherry on top – while we were walking to our cars, the children running ahead of us almost ran into a couple of teens macking all over one another! We yelled at the children to stop just before they walked in on mommy and daddy there having a good time. We noticed Jack’s shoe had fallen off when we got back to our cars and my friend had gone back to retrieve it. When she got back to the cars she reported that it was worse! She said they were pretty much having s-e-x. In the park, in the middle of the day?! Give me a break – what is wrong with people? So, we can’t take our children to the playground because we have smoking mothers swinging with their children – the cancer stick just hanging out of her mouth! *class* We have strange folks with high tech equipment scanning the playground for the one thing that’s going to make them rich! We have teens having s-e-x for the whole world to see… Then the lazy asses cannot even bother to clean up after themselves! Smoking mom threw her butt on the ground for a toddler to pick up, high tech nerds digging holes and leaving them and teens just think it’s fine to leave the used condoms in the playground! Nice…

On a lighter note – “cute” is what happens when these two kids get together…

Time flies when you’re having fun – this statement has never been truer than with my children. My itty bitty baby just turned one and I cannot believe how fast these past two years have gone! One second I’m pregnant and the next he’s turning one! Whiplash! Jack has brought us so much more joy than I could ever try to explain. He is awesome and the combination of both boys makes life so much more exciting!

August 6, 2008 -  we hit the beach in Tahoe for some fun in the sun! It was an awesomely sunny day and the water was refreshing from the summer heat. It was Jack’s first trip to a Tahoe beach (I don’t know why we put it off so long) and he loved it!

We were able to meet up with Sam’s little friend and her mother – they had been up there camping and it was their last day there. So, while dad and uncle packed up, mom and daughter came and hung out with us for a few hours! Everything is so much more fun with friends.

August 7, 2008 – Jack’s pool party! A gathering of friends made an evening at the pool a ton of fun! Poor Jack was so tired and did not want to partake in the photo shoot. I tried to get a picture with Jack and each one of his gusts, but the turnout wasn’t too great as Jack was screaming in almost every picture. The party was a lot of fun and I believe everyone had a great time. Even though I forgot the gift bags at home… oops!

August 8, 2008 – Jack’s birth date. I woke up that morning and thought, “Wow, here we are – one year later.” My tiny little infant is a big guy now! His first year was great but I know that every year to follow will be more awesome then the last. I am so proud of my little fella – he is sure a special guy! We had a family BBQ to celebrate his birthday… Lots of fun!

Jack’s first year collage was the party gift for all the grandparents at the BBQ we had… I didn’t forget these gift bags – yay!

*Thanks Grandma!*

Here we have Joe Cool all American boy sitting in the all American mini-van
flashing his American sign language for “I Love You!”
He knows he’s adorable! Check out the natural pose!

Here is mister freedom – almost! Learning to walk with the help of Grammy’s walker.
He’s is totally styling it and this little trend setter will have all the babies sporting Granny’s walker!

The latest in dance moves! Sammy’s DVD “Sammy rips it up” will be in stores soon!
Your toddler too can dance like Sammy!

It’s what all the babies are doing now, and the shelf life is amazing!

Brother’s 101 – every little brother wants to be just like his big brother.
I sure hope Jack learns to wear his sunglasses properly though…

My brother, a father, has never seemed to figure out the key to little kids. He does a great job with them, but I doubt he even knows it. He has a power of intrigue about him that the kids love! He’s a cool guy and the children love him! They always have – when we were younger, and I needed help with a baby-sitting job Paul stepped in and went to work for me. He baby-sat two boys, who were about 8 and 4 years old. They had a blast with Paul! They played and goofed around and even break danced to Michael Jackson! (This is where Paul blew out his knee… All MJ’s fault!) Anyhow, the point is when I returned to my baby-sitting job the boys asked for Paul to come back! But, even way back then Paul was uncomfortable around small children and did not want to return – plus, it was my job and my money! (a little selfish) Now, as a father and an Uncle he has the children in the palm of his hand and has no idea! His daughter is older now and he relates better to her now that she’s 9. My boys were all over him! Though he let them, and I know he enjoyed them, I could see the awkwardness he suffered through. He loves his nephews and it was clear when he played with them – even when Sam (4 years old) was naked!

My brother also has no problems avoiding the subject or flat out lying to the children to get them to do what they need to do. Father’s Day, Scott and Sam, Paul and his daughter (Keirra) went to ride the train in town. Sam loves the trains! He never wants to leave them – NEVER! So, when it was time to go home and Sam said he wasn’t ready, Unca Paul stepped in and said, “We’re just going to the bathroom; you can come back after.” Scott just looked at him and laughed. Then, when Sam was talking about babies and how Jack came out of mommy’s tummy – my brother quickly said, “You know babies come from Sears!” Then, at dinner one night, we were talking about some show on tv and the word “sperm” came up. Paul’s daughter looked over at him and asked, “What’s sperm?” and my brother answered, “Something you buy at Sears.” I wonder if Sears knows how much they have to do with spawning?

Sammy really loves his Unca Paul! Unca Paul is cool with pirate style tattoos and a motorcycle! Although, if you ever met my brother on the street you would never guess him to be a tattoo wearing, motorcycle riding bad-ass. (look at the picture) Sammy was role playing while we were visiting with Unca Paul and he assigned us all titles… I was the “Mommy” Paul was the “Daddy” Jack was the “Baby” and Sammy was the “Uncle.” He had his “cell-a” phone in his pocket, just like his Uncle, and he walked around and acted just like his Uncle. It was really cute! Later, when Unca Paul came over to our house, as soon as Paul walked through the door Sammy was yelling, “Uncle! Uncle! Uncle!”

I love the fact that my children love my brother – who wouldn’t? It’s equally important to me that my brother love my children. Paul goes out of his way to play with them and talk to them and spend time with them. He may not to know what to do with them, but he puts effort into being their Uncle. I just wish he lived closer so he could be around his little fan club more – that includes me!

Sammy says, “Happy Father’s Day!”

…with his “Squinty Face Syndrome.”

We had gone to the airport to pick up Unca Paul this morning and Sammy wanted to take his daddy and Unca Paul on the local train ride!
“Squinty Face Syndrome”still had a hold of Sammy’s expressions.

Unca Paul begs his little fearless nephew not to jump off the moving train!

This guy doesn’t look like he’s enjoying Father’s Day too much…
He too seems to be inflicted with “Suqishy Face Syndrome.”

Cannot forget about the itty bitty! Jack wants to wish his daddy a Happy Father’s Day too!
Although, a little hard to speak with cracker mouth…