Coleman = Five.

Our sweet Buddy-boy turned 5 last Saturday.  FIVE.

This will be a big year.  This is the year that he will start kindergarten!  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, okay?  Geesh!  As if it won’t fly by fast enough!

Coleman is a silly, loving, caring little buddy.  He gives plenty of hugs and kisses to his mommy.  Two nights before his birthday, I hugged him up in the living room chair and told him, “Tomorrow will be your very last day as a four year old!”  He hugged my neck and held on tight for a long time.  The next night as I was kissing him goodnight, he giggled and said, "I'll be back for bigger kisses tomorrow when I'm five!"  He was highly anticipating this birthday. 

At five years old, Coleman loves doing puzzles.  He loves learning about things that he is interested in, like sharks and dinosaurs.  He will read / look at a non-fiction shark book for an hour.  He has gained a bit of an interest in drawing but still isn’t too interested in learning to write all his letters.  He can write his name, he can copy words that I write first, and he can identify some/most of the letters…but he just isn’t too interested.  Sometimes I’ll work with him and he learns a lot, other times he gets frustrated really quickly and gives up.  We are working on learning to deal with and express frustration instead of getting angry and throwing things.    I think this struggle comes because he is a perfectionist…if he can’t do it exactly perfect the first time, then he wants to give up.  It takes some convincing to make him believe that that drawing IS good and DOES look like a horse, or that I can tell what that letter is that he just made.   

Although it is winter, we are in Texas…so on days when it is not too chilly out, he and Shelby run outdoors the moment we get home from school and spend their evening hours playing out there until it gets dark.  On days when it IS too chilly out, they sometimes do it, too!  They like to play “Spy” and “Ninja.”  They “cook” things with blades of grass, berries, acorns, and mud.  They climb up in their fort and jump on the trampoline.  They have great imaginations and use them constantly. 

Just last week Coleman perfected the hardest parts of riding a bike with no training wheels…starting and stopping on his own.  He skidded and fell one time on Friday, even skinned his wrist a little, but jumped up and yelled, “I’m ok!” and hopped back on.

We had Coleman’s birthday party at the Ice Skating rink here in NRH.  We only invited friends from his class at school, and he had a great group show up.  Close to 20 little ones out on the ice…we sold them out of the walkers they have to help them skate.

Daddy recently recorded Tron on our DVR and it quickly became one of Cole’s favorite movies.  We let him watch it the night before his party, and we caught him watching it like this:

So the theme was TRON.  It was a fun little theme. 
Invitations:

Back

We had a little mishap with the cupcake company 2 days before the party so Friday night after my biology lab, we set out to make our own.  We had fun making them so it all worked out better anyway!

I made the cupcakes and iced them, Shelby did the sprinkle dipping, and Daddy did the black and blue disks. 
What’s gonna work?  Team work!  (And now I’m sad that my kids are too old to watch Wonder Pets.)

At the party we used our handy-dandy <--Blue’s Clue’s reference…I guess I’m feeling nostalgic cupcake tower, and circled the cupcakes with blue glow bracelets.  Good enough.

The ice skating rink is also where the Fort Worth Brahmas play pro hockey games!  Our party was in a suite, with the table in the space outside.  The suite was COLD (obviously) but it was pretty cool.  At the beginning of the party we got to watch some big dudes practicing, then the kids watched as the cleaned/prepared/whatever they do the ice.

Nonnie printed out some Tron coloring pages for us so the kids would have something to do as they waited for pizza and cake.

There was not a lot of space, and it was quite hectic with our overwhelmed party hostess, but luckily both my mother and mother-in-law pulled out their little stash and insisted that I take a xanax.  Talk about good women to have around!  haha…sorry but that is definitely one for the baby book!

Some crazy woman (me?!) let Coleman spray his hair blue for the occasion.

This dad wanted a picture with me because he thought I looked “just like Tina Fey.” Ha!

There was pizza and cupcakes

Then it was time to skate!  Matthew was ready to go:

Shelby was able to skate some on her own, and also used her uncle for help.

Buddy had a good time…

The four and five year olds had varying degrees of success on the ice, but all but one tried it and lasted at least 30 minutes!  I was very proud of all of them.  It was cold, new, and difficult, and everyone did a great job.

After the party, we headed over to Nonnie & Poppy’s house to open presents.  To be continued…

Real Dinosaur Bones

Remember when Coleman asked for a REAL T-Rex for Christmas?  After that post, an awesome blogger friend, Amanda, took the time just to email me about this:

It’s a diggin’ up dinosaurs T-Rex kit!!  It comes in a hard block (of sand) and the child has to chip away at it to unveil the bones, then put them together.  WHY didn’t I think of that?!!?

It was an awesome Christmas gift!  Coleman loved it!  Just look how cute and serious he was, as he unearthed his very own T-Rex dinosaur on the day after Christmas.

And that’s why blog friends are awesome. 

PS: The newspaper was fruitless.  That sand went everywhere.

A Busy Rhythm

I feel really, really busy and frantic lately.  It’s just a season… a Rhythm of life that the Peck fam is in. 

Jeff is super busy at work in a new position.  He’s learning as he goes and there’s a lot of work coming in.  But we know that he’s working toward a career goal.  He has moved beyond the property damage of auto insurance into the Personal Injury part.  He talks to people and doctors about their injuries.  He is so good at talking to people and making them comfortable…building rapport…always has been.  Now he gets to use this very important skill with people who need that understanding voice.  They are people who have been hurt or have even lost a loved one.  Jeff is so good at putting people at ease.  He’s even received unsolicited complimentary emails from coworkers who hear him on the phone with people.  He’s also learning things you wouldn’t expect.  He knows a lot of the stuff I’m learning in my A&P class just from on-the-job dealings with the medical field.  So cool.  Now he just has to learn how to pay bills on time!  I laughed when I found out that paying bills was a huge part of his job because I’ve always said that if he was in charge of paying the Peck fam’s bills, we’d have no electricity, water, or anything!   So it’s great to have a job that allows you to learn, utilizes your strengths, yet demands that you improve on some of your weaknesses as well.  Once he gets the bills down, things will catch up… Rhythm. 
(Let’s just hope part of his job description is never “Keep up with your keys.”)

Me?  I’m training for a  half marathon, working full time, and am back in school taking only one, but very demanding and notoriously difficult, class.  (Anatomy & Physiology I)  This also requires a lab on Friday nights.  The half will be over in one month, so that training can taper off a bit.  (Rhythm.)  If this school thing goes as I am thinking, I will take 3 more classes before next Spring, and will be able to apply for the Nursing program in Feb 2013.  Taking those prereqs while working full time will continue to be tough.  Busy…but towards a goal.  Rhythm!
We are in the throws of our bathroom renovation now, so it’s impossible to get a hold on the housework until the “construction zone” feel is gone.  Same for getting a hold on finances, another huge stressor.  Realizing that these things will be completed or eased soon is important.  We’re on top of that wave of Rhythm.

All in all, overwhelmed is what would describe our lives lately.  Overwhelmed, yet blessed.  One cannot ever forget their constant blessings, no matter what current Rhythm of life you’re riding. 



A little perspective always helps:  We have jobs to go to, a house to renovate and make messes in, and functioning bodies that allow us to run and exercise.  And notice none of that is even about our greatest blessings, Shelby and Coleman!  These 2 children are just happy and thriving these days.  We are working on a structured schedule for our evenings at home, mainly for Daddy and I to get more time with them, and more control over all the family duties.  But sister and brother are lovely, mostly go-with-the-flow kids these days.

We met with Shelby’s teacher yesterday.  We didn’t have any concerns but just wanted to find out more about the hard-to-read report card, and just check in with how she’s doing.  We know she’s doing all of her work, and making great “grades,” and meeting/exceeding all expectations for curriculum.  But we got to find out more about how her day goes.  I heard from her teacher that everything is great socially and inter-personally for her.  She is nice and loving.  She had a tendency to be a slow worker at the beginning of the year (because she likes attention to detail!) but she quickly corrected that and her teacher has no problems with her not completing work on time any more.  The only comment the teacher had that wasn’t completely positive was that she likes to help her friends…and friends don’t always want or need help.  I am sure that we can work on that, but if the only negative thing a person can say about my kid is that she helps people too much, well…I’m okay with that!

Cole-daddy turned FIVE last Saturday and that really deserves its own blog post.  He is changing, growing, learning.

I started out this blog post to play “catch-up” and ended up writing about why I’m not caught up instead.  I’m okay with that.

It’s all you need, y’all:

Doggie

Good ol’ Russel.  He is about 13 or 14 years old this year.  We got him from a shelter in ‘03 when he was either 4 or 5 years old.  Jeff makes him a special bed by the fire for his old bones. 

Razorbacks: Cotton Bowl Champions

We had a little watching party at our house for the Cotton Bowl.

Layla, Coleman, and Tyler were decked out for the occasion.

 

We grilled out steak and veggies, and Nonnie made her wonderful “stuffed” mashed potatoes.

Coleman got to eat in the living room with TyTy, and he enjoyed it very much!

Woooooo Pig Sooie!!!

Fitness Friday

I did the Snowman Shuffle 10k on Saturday at White Rock lake, which was a last minute decision.  Millie, Luke and Anna were running it and the 9:00 start time, even in Dallas, was much more appealing than the 7:00 start time of the 5k I had planned to do.  And the t-shirts were super cute!!  (You can see Anna’s here)

Special thanks to my sweet husband who was more than happy to have a morning alone with the kids on one of our rare family days, and then even driving out to meet us in the afternoon for linner.
I was so proud of how we did in this race.  Granted, it was a small race, but several hundred people at least.
Luke came in 2nd in his age/gender.  Millie was 4th in hers.  I was 5th in mine, and Anna was 6th in hers (though she is still much faster than me…I was in the older lady division 30-34!)

For posterity:

I added in an extra rest day this week because my body just felt TIRED.
My week looked like this:

My total miles run for January so far is 39.9

Almost Five ‘Isms

 

Our little buddy is just days away from turning 5.  The birthday party prep is happening right now---though thankfully it’s minimal since we’re having it NOT at our house.

The teachers at his school have always said that young kids go through some behavior challenges and just kind of a turbulent time in the weeks before and after a birthday.  It’s on their minds…a lot.  Coleman talks about being almost 5 all.the.time.  I have a couple little Colemanisms to share from our “almost 5 year old.”

He climbed up on my lap as I was sitting in a recliner in the living room, so I put my arms around him.
C: (big grin) “You can hug on me.”
M: “Can I kiss on you too?”  (Kissing his ear.)
C: “Yeah you can hug and kiss on me all you want cause you're my mama!”  (The boy knows what a girl likes to hear.)

At the yogurt shop, we were talking about what kind of birthday cake or pie he wanted as we celebrated with Nana and Papa G this weekend.  He had already told his daddy that he wanted “minty chocolate” cake.  Cole is a little obsessed with “minty chocolate” gum and asks for it all the time.  However, I had all the stuff for lemon pie and really just wanted to make that for the family.
M: “You like lemon pie don't you buddy?”
C: “I do but I don't want that.  I just want minty chocolate cake.”
M: “Mommy doesn't know how to make that though.”
C: (grinning) “Well, you can just look online and figure it out!!”
And what did I do, I looked online and figured it out!  And made a lemon pie, too!

And one day last week I took a few hours off of work in the morning to let him sleep in and then take him to breakfast at McDonald’s.  A sweet elderly man sitting in a booth near us told me “You sure have a pretty boy there.  He has an angel face!”  I agreed   As we were driving to his school, Coleman declared to me: “Mommy, you’re gonna get a tardy slip, I know it!”

Shelby’s 2012 Resolutions

Christmas Eve & Christmas day 2012

We went to the Christmas Eve service at church on Saturday evening.  There was not any child care so the kids attended the service with us and they were so good.  They stood and enjoyed the songs, then sat quietly still and listened to the message.  They both participated in the candle lighting at the end and were very proud to join in, I think.  Afterwards the church provided small private tables in another room with supplies for the Lord’s supper so that families could go observe the Lord’s supper together on their own.  I thought that was a really nice touch and was very happy to remember Jesus in the manner that He told us to with our family (Nonnie, Poppy, Millie, Luke, Anna, and Tyler were all with us.) 

We went back to Nonnie and Poppy’s house, where there were amazing soups waiting for us.  We enjoyed potato soup and shrimp chicken and sausage gumbo in bread bowls from Panera…YUM!!

After dinner is when we let the kids open their “terrible presents.”  Of course, after those, they got to each open one REAL present…they opened their presents from Tyler.

Shelby got her Easy Bake oven, so she said that Santa didn’t have to bring her that any more   She made chocolate chip cookies in it that night, and has used it several times since then…but begs to use it every night!  I finally told her that we could do it once a week, so she wrote “EAZY” once a week on her calendar from Gram that is hanging in her room. 

Coleman got Beyblades.  He played with them for the rest of the night!

 

We didn’t want to keep the kids out too late on Christmas Eve, but when we headed home it was still, “Hurry up!  I think Santa’s coming soon!”  Easiest bed time ever!!  Both kids were running around in a rush so that Santa wouldn’t see that they were still awake and pass our house.  Shelby frantically found her little bag of reindeer food (oats and glitter) she had made at school and practically threw it into our hands saying, “Can you put this on the front yard for me?!  I have to get in bed!!!”  They went to bed and we didn’t hear a peep from them again …

 

 

… until NINE O’CLOCK the next morning!  Jeff and I were up and about, making coffee, and then just sitting around waiting on our kids to wake up.  The Jones clan even showed up before Shelby and Coleman were out of bed!  I am positive that I never slept at all on Christmas Eve as a kid- and when I did, I was up way before the sunlight.  Little weirdos!!!

During all that good sleep, Santa did fill up those stockings! 

  

This was Shelby’s gift to us that she made at school and wrapped.  The 2 girls on her drawing are saying, “I love my family!” and “I love Christmas it’s Jesuses Birthday” Awww.  Inside this wrapping was a 2012 calendar full of writing and handprint drawings.  So special for us to use the whole year long!

When they finally woke up, they knew they were going to look in the backyard since they asked Santa for a trampoline.  Shelby saw it and sprinted out to it, touched it and sprinted back…it was COLD out there, but I guess she had to touch it to make sure it was real.  Her doggy followed her, of course.    Coleman watched and smiled- he trusted her touch I suppose!

 

“Ahhhh!  It’s cold!”

Back inside…

As always, they went through stockings before opening presents.

Aunt Anna got Coleman a soccer ball, cleats, and shin guards…he loves them and is READY to play soccer this spring!

Aunt Millie and Unkle Luke got Shelby some shimmery Toms.  She read to us from the box about how Toms donates a pair to a person in need when a pair is bought (“One for One”)

The kids took turns opening presents and were very thankful for all their gifts…

Shelby liked showing hers off…

After that, we adults each opened our presents from the kids.  Shelby went shopping at her school store and Coleman went shopping at the Dollar Store, and they each picked out thoughtful gifts for everyone.  They definitely enjoyed buying and wrapping their gifts, and I hope it taught them about how giving is just as satisfying and joyful as receiving.

The rest of the day was spent being lazy, being outdoors, jumping, and smoking ribs!  Family time at its finest!!

It was certainly a very Merry Christmas.