The Adventures of The Paytons

Yesterday we went to Lowes to purchase the appliances for the new house with both boys...

Everything was going pretty well - according to the Standards of Parents With Young Children, of course. If you were non-parents you would probably have avoided our aisle at all costs. Will was running around and opening all of the refrigerators and hiding in all of the empty stove and dishwasher nooks. But he wasn't yelling and wasn't endangering the appliances, so it was acceptable. (Dane's car seat takes up most of the cart now, so unfortunately there's no room left to corral Will in there any more.) I had to use the bathroom so I told Luke I would take Dane with me. Well, Will wasn't having that and insisted on coming with us. As we were leaving the bathroom Will said he wanted a drink of water from the water fountain. Ugh - I hate those things. I always resist the urge to tell him absolutely not, and instead stand RIGHT next to him to make sure he doesn't touch his mouth to it. For some reason he's never able to drink out of them without getting water on his shirt. He happened to be wearing his bright yellow John Deere t-shirt - the same one that he would live in if I let him. As he stepped back from the water fountain I saw that as usual, the top 1/2 of the front of his shirt was sopping wet. He notices it and grabs at it, trying to squeeze the water out and at the same time stretches out the neck so it's wet and hanging loose. As we are walking back to the appliances department he notices an "opening" in one of the aisles and couldn't resist crawling back behind some tile. I tell him to come out and as he does I notice that he must have chosen to crawl behind the tiles that haven't been moved in decades because the amount of brown dirt/dust/debris that was on his hands and knees was phenomenal. I say "Will! You're filthy!" as I bend down to get some wipes out of the diaper bag. While I'm doing that he must have tried to wipe his hands off on his shirt. The result was a bright yellow (sopping wet) shirt streaked with a dark gray/brown color with a neck that was hanging down well below his neck. Somehow in there he had brushed his hands through his hair and spiked the front. Throw in brown knees and hands and it was quite a sight.

About that time I noticed Dane had pooped so I head back to the bathroom to change him when I realized we only had 1 wipe left - and this was definitely not a 1 wipe diaper. I go back to Luke and explain the situation. He takes Dane and Will out to the car (more wipes there) to change the diaper and I go to the front to pay (Luke forgot his wallet). As the guy from Lowes is walking me to the front (I guess when you spend lots of money you get an escort) he was saying "Oh, I'm glad we're done with those days. My kids are 13 and 15." I was thinking - not me! I absolutely love it. I can definitely appreciate the humor in (MOST) situations like this and I love our boys to pieces just the way they are... dirt, poop, back-talking terrible 3's and all.

Will is 2 years and 2 months old. At his 2 year Wellness checkup his pediatrician said that potty training is probably not too far down the road. He has had a potty chair for probably 6 months now, and has yet to sit on it without a diaper. We've been talking about all the people who go on the potty and Will seems interested. But whenever we ask him if he wants to sit on it he says "NO!" and usually runs away. I figured I would give him a little incentive, so last weekend I bought him some M&M's and displayed them in a clear container in the bathroom. (yes, I support bribery with food in this case) I also got him some big boy underwear. I thought that maybe if he put them on and could see how good they feel compared to a big ol diaper, he might want to get the ball rolling. So after his bath on Sunday night I put his big boy underwear on him and he immediately started racing around the house. "Going well!" I thought. This was the best picture I could even get of him because he wouldn't stop running. Shortly after I snapped this picture (note: only about 1-2 minutes after I put them on him) he ran over to the refrigerator and came to a standstill. Then... he looked down and peed. True to his personality, I guess this potty training business will happen in his own time, with or without my bribery tactics.

Happy Father's Day Luke!

On Father's Day I want to thank Luke for being such an incredible father. It must be so difficult to be away all week. Especially when Will was first born - trying to adjust to being a parent, which is hard enough, but only being able to do so on weekends. But he has done an amazing job, and Will absolutely adores him. I love seeing the two of them together, playing and reading and rough-housing and laughing and being silly. I see Luke in Will every day and it makes me smile. I love you Luke!

ps: the Chopper is going well. D-Day is still set for next spring!

Multi-Purpose Potty

With Will about to turn the big "2" we figure that potty-training is right around the corner. Luke and I decided to go ahead and get a little Potty for Will so that he gets used to seeing it around and also I am hoping that one day he might decide he wants to use it and he'll just train himself. We have had it for a few weeks now and he likes to talk about it, talk "to" it (Hi Potty!), point to it, and use it as a stepping stool. Whenever I ask him if he wants to sit on it the answer is always NO, with a firm shake of the head.

The other day I was in the kitchen and he was in the living room playing. I looked in to check on him and I saw he had finally decided to sit on his new potty! He pulled it in front of the tv, grabbed a blanket and settled in to watch some toons. Fully clothed. :)

Mother's Day

On my second Mother's Day I am realizing what a special day this truly is. It is not only a day to thank our mothers for all they do, but it's also a day for mothers to reflect on how special being a mother really is. I am so fortunate to be Will's mom. I cannot imagine a more important, special, rewarding and precious role anyone could have. Seeing our little boy grow up so fast and learn new things each and every day is the most incredible gift I could ever imagine.

Today I thank my Mom for being such a wonderful Mother to me and showing me by example the kind of mother that I want to be to Will. And I thank God for bringing Will into our lives and blessing me with the honor of being his Mom.

Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean

I never used to be a neat freak. Thinking back to my days at IU, I often chuckle at the filth we lived in and it never bothered me one bit.

I always heard of the "nesting stage" of pregnancy. That period of time when you are cleaning and organizing and washing and scrubbing your days away. I waited and waited for that to kick in when I was pregnant because I couldn't believe I would ever behave that way. The moment that I realized my nesting stage was in full force was when I was about 8 1/2 months pregnant and everything was ready for our little boy. Everything was washed and cleaned and organized and put away. Yet one Saturday I had Luke, my mom, and myself all down on our hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor grout with toothbrushes and bleach. No kidding. I looked at the scene and said "Well if this isn't nesting I don't know what is." Now days I'm far from obsessive, but I do try to keep our home as clean as possible.

Tonight I was in the kitchen doing who knows what when I heard Will say "mmmm!" I thought that was a strange thing to say when I hadn't given him anything to eat or drink. I turned around to see him licking day-old, dried up peanut butter off the armrest of his high chair. My first instinct was to stop him, but then I just started laughing instead. It was a nice reminder that you just do your best and then go with the flow. Ahhh, it's these unexpected moments that make being a parent so priceless!!

Ouchee!

Will got a pretty bad cut on his face a couple of weeks ago. This picture was taken almost a week after. I had gone into the office and my dad and Sharon were watching him for the day. (sorry Dad!) They were marching around banging on drums and Will either banged on the dog instead of the drum or stepped on her, because she yelped and scrambled to get away and in the chaos of the moment, scratched him. It was completely innocent and neither Will or Cleo (the dog) seemed to be affected by the incident. It was odd because it wasn't bleeding that badly but it was pretty deep and a "separated" cut. We were all fairly indecisive about whether it needed to be looked at. I figured that I would never regret taking him, but that I might end up regretting not taking him. So I took him. And it was a good thing, because his pediatrician took one look at it and said "Yep! That needs to be closed up." Two nurses came and cleaned it after which one of the nurses came back with Dr. Moore to close the wound. After some confusion about whether this was his first injury from a dog (which it was), we got down to business. The nurse held poor Will's head down, I held his hand and one side of his body and my mom held the other side of him. Will proceeded to scream so hard that he did the "silent scream". He was bright red, sweating, and trying to buck his way off the table. It was awful and soon I was crying along with him. Just then, the nurse decides to ask me about the scar above his eye. I was so upset I couldn't even remember how he had gotten it. I realized I needed to pull it together and remember how my son got that scar, so I remembered it was from a coffee table incident. Then my mom chimes in that he has a chipped tooth, too. (thanks Mom... :) So the nurse says: Oh, is the chipped tooth from the coffee table fall as well? No, I said. That was a DIFFERENT fall. After what seemed like an endless amount of time, it was finally over. It was awful - for everyone. By the end we were all sweating and exhausted.

Dr. Moore ended up "gluing" Will's cut. He applied pressure to get rid of the swelling and then pulled the skin together and glued it. The glue stayed on for about a week and then fell off. Now the cut looks so much better. Unfortunately there will be a scar though.

Will never seemed to be bothered by it or in any pain. Obviously he was upset when it happened, but after that the only time it seemed like it hurt was when it was cleaned and closed up. I know the whole thing was definitely hardest on my poor Dad!!

Being questioned about Will's injuries was a horrible feeling. The next morning at breakfast I was pretty sure that at any moment child protective services was going to knock on our door and come to examine our home and observe my parenting.

Where in the world is Martinsville Indiana

If you would have asked me 10 years ago where I thought I would be at 30, I guarantee I wouldn't have said "living in the country outside of Martinsville." I have gone through many ups and downs coming to terms with "where" I am now. Sometimes I have found myself thinking "what the hell am I doing living here?" but those thoughts seem to be fading away with the years and now I usually find myself being thankful to live on this beautiful land. I have come to accept that the city you write down with your mailing address certainly doesn't define who you are and is less important than the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that I am with my wonderful husband and our healthy, precious son and we live on hundreds of acres of beautiful land. Land that my son will be able to run around on until his little heart is content. He has woods that he can play in, pastures that he can run through, endless trees that he can climb and farm land where he will be able to see crops grow each year. There are many wonderful things about living here and one of them is the unique and exciting opportunities that my son will have.

The Cragen Family farms part of the land here on the Payton property. Last weekend Luke offered to help them get some of the fields ready for planting this spring. Therefore, Luke spent the day in a tractor and guess who wanted to help. Will absolutely loved riding in the tractor with Luke. He ended up falling asleep after about an hour and a half, so I went to pick him up. Once we got home all he said was "dada tractor" over and over. Finally I asked him if he wanted to go back and ride with Daddy again and of course the answer was yes. He ended up spending about 3 hours in the tractor with Luke. He likes talking about the "tractor bump bump". Apparently it's a bumpy ride. :)

Tooth Mishap

Last weekend we were down at the shop and Will was running circles. He, of course, had his beloved "joo" aka milk, tucked safely in the crook of his arm like a football. He tried to step over a metal piece of equipment that was on the floor, but tripped. Not wanting to drop his joo he kept his arms tucked where they were and fell face (mouth) first onto it. As Luke and I rushed to him we immediately saw blood on his lip and to our horror, a chipped tooth! He calmed down after a minute and got an ice cube to suck on. It took a moment for me to process that teeth don't heal! Meaning...he'll have this chip on his tooth until he loses his baby teeth. A chip out of his beautiful, perfect teeth! There's also a small chip out of his other front tooth, but not nearly as noticeable. I was quickly informed that this won't be his last accident. I know that. And it doesn't make it any easier! This fall was clearly harder on mom and dad than it was on Will. A few minutes later he was back up and begging Papaw to take him on a tractor ride.

Being a Parent

In June of 07 Luke and I had a son, Will. He is 18 months old and the most adorable, funny, intelligent, sweet, and charming little man ever. And I'm not biased because I'm his mom either. I am convinced that even if I were a stranger I would feel the exact same. When Will was first born we had a tough time adjusting to taking care of another person 24-7. Will was, I'm guessing, by all standards a fairly easy baby. But months of sleep deprivation and the process of completely changing life as we knew it definitely took it's toll on both of us. Slowly we began to get the hang of it and now are completely in love with Will and every second of joy he brings into our lives. I find the two of us staring at him and waiting for him to do his next cute thing - just like the "obnoxious parents" did before I had my own child. Becoming a parent definitely changes your life. You get up earlier, prioritize differently, are suddenly scared of things you weren't scared of before, and are full of a love you never knew you were capable of feeling. Just thinking of our sweet little boy makes my heart swell with love and can easily bring tears to my eyes. If I would have read this post 5 years ago (maybe even 2 years ago) I would probably have rolled my eyes and hit NEXT but now this is my life and it's the real deal. I am incredibly blessed with a wonderful and loving husband, a healthy son, and a fantastic family. I guess because it's the Holidays and it's customary to talk about what we're thankful for, I'm a little more sentimental than usual, but I'm ok with that.