Happy Birthday to my fave 16 year old!

16 years is a long time. I think back 16 years and remember patiently waiting for the arrival of my brother. I was no longer going to be the baby of the family; now I was going to have a real life baby that I could play with whenever I wanted! My mom allowed me to even pick out his name...what an honor. Jarrett...you can thank me for your awesome name =) Having a brother so much younger was awesome. A few reasons why:

1. He was amazing birth control for the future.
2. I could play dress up with him any time I wanted.
3. He was a great distraction...whenever I was getting in trouble, I'd just throw the attention on him. Worked a lot :)
4. Whenever I was bored, he'd play...any time, any where.

Seriously, he was amazing. Actually, he still is amazing. I was 13 when he was born...I felt like such a grown up once he came into this world. I'd change diapers, feed him, the whole works. Fast forward 16 years and he's an uncle to my little one and doesn't do one of those things lol! Where's the love Jarrieta?! :))

Today on his special sweet (guess I should say manly) 16th birthday, I just wanted to take a minute out of my busy day to tell this incredible young man HAPPY BIRTHDAY! From the moment I laid eyes on you, you were my best friend (whether you knew it or not). And now, you're still my best friend. I'm so, so, blessed to have you in my life. Believe it or not, you've taught me a lot. Your greatest attribute is your big heart. I love that you love everyone. You don't like when people are stuck up or make fun of others. You don't like when others think they're better than you. You are always willing to be that friend to someone that no one else notices. You are an exceptionally loved person. You're quiet demeanor is awesome (until you get cray cray). Your wise jokes go along well with that quietness...meaning you're one funny guy. You love the Lord. You care...something a lot of teenagers don't do. You can be respectful most of the time. (And lazy a lot of times too hehe). You were cute as a button when you were born (Tanner looks a lot like you) and you're handsome as can be now. I'm proud. I'm so darn proud of you that I could burst. I'm thankful. Thankful for our relationship and thankful you're MY itty bitty brother. And so thankful that Tanner has one heck of an awesome uncle!

So here we are 16 years later. You have your drivers license, a car and you're in the 10th grade. Whew...where did those 16 years go?! If there's one piece of advice I could give you (I know, I know...that's all I ever do is give you advice) it would be to cling to the Lord and ask Him for guidance each and every day. Know that I pray for you daily. For you to continue your walk with Him and to make the best choices possible. These next few years will be the toughest of your life, but you'll make it through just fine. We are always here for you every step of the way. I can't wait to see what the future holds for you. I know you're going to make me even more proud (if that's even possible).

Soooo...
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Jarreita!!!!
Happy birthday to you!

Trevor, Tanner and I love you to the moon and back! Can't wait to make even more memories with you my crazy little bubba! Happy 16th :)

Love,
Sissy

Tantrum Time =)

My best friend doesn’t have children (yet). She keeps her sweet (3 month old) niece a few days a week. We were talking the other day about how no one really tells you how hard parenting is and the books lie too. They tell you all of the gushy, fun, lovie stuff. Never the stuff that makes you want to pull your hair out or go to the doctor for crazy meds. So of course I try to fill her in as best as possible. Keeping a newborn is hard work. Keeping a toddler is 10x harder. Okay, maybe not all toddlers (such as my niece or Tanner's 2nd cousin), but some do act a fool. I’ll be glad to be real honest with you here in a hot second. 

When Tanner was a baby he was sooo good! He slept well, ate well, took a bath well and even behaved in public. It was pretty easy. When he started walking it got a little crazy. He got into things and didn’t always want to obey. When he hit 2, well lets just say things went south on the behavior scale. I have a few theories for this:

1. He is spoiled rotten (R-O-T-T-E-N)
2. He takes after his mother (I’ve been told by all of my family recently that I acted the same way, pitched the same kind of fits and (an added bonus) I even pulled hair.
3. Final conclusion to this is he has hit the terrible 2’s (ding, ding, ding). That’s the answer I’m going with J

This isn't a tantrum pic, but it is kinda funny. I found him laying in our bed watching tv one night with one of my fuzzy socks on. Cracks me up!

Soooo…next thought. Have you ever been so embarrassed as a mom that you just wanna hide in your house and never leave again?! No seriously, it’s not to that extent but I do get embarrassed (my husband says this is so wrong of me…he’s never taken him to Wal-Mart by himself). I have a top three list of the funnest, most embarrassing (for mom) tantrums so far. We’re 2 ½ ya’ll…got a ways to go.

1. Tanner had his first field trip last week to a fun pumpkin farm. We took a hayride, fed the goats, played games and had a snack. It was super fun…until…he saw the hayride taking its last group out. He sooo wanted to go again but didn’t understand that he’d already had his turn. And then I tried to take his picture (totally dumb on my part…he hates pictures). It just all went downhill in a split second. Before I knew it he was flailing in my arms like a wet cat. Seriously. I felt like 40 parents and their well behaved children were all staring at me. He was crying so bad he couldn’t catch his breath. You know what cry I’m talking about. It was a sad situation that he was so disappointed but geez louise. I was sweating from being so embarrassed. It finally got better after I grabbed his little pumpkin they were handing out and ran him to the car. I will NEVER. EVER forget his first field trip. EVER =)

   

   This was before the melt down, obviously. Fun times, nonetheless =)

2. We had a mom/son date night a few weeks ago. I took him to the chicken slide (Chick-Fil-A) and let him play. That’s his absolute fave. Then we went to the nice ole Wally World. I promised him a toy if he would sit in the buggy. That’s right…bribery. I use it often. He finally decided on a fun Jake and the Neverland Pirate bath toy. Hoorah! That was easy…until…we got up to the cashier. It was an older lady, a little younger than my grandma. She asked if she should put his toy in a bag, at this point he’s out of the buggy, and I said sure. Oh lawwwie, you would’ve thought he’d been shot. He took off running and screaming in the other direction. Guess he thought that lady was stealing his toy. I had to go chase him down and bring him back to pay. That lady just stared at us like she was scared for her life. I politely said, “Tanner quit screaming and crying, you’re scaring the cashier”. I apologized to the lady behind us who quickly said she has a 1 year old and totally gets it. Whew…so glad someone gets it because the cashier totally didn’t.

   

   See that cool pirate ship...I should've left it at Wally World after he scared the cashier!

3. And the tantrum of all tantrums (thus far) happened on Monday. I had to run into Babies R Us which is now combined with Toys R Us (not cool by the way…totally messes up my game with my toy loving toddler). Again, I promised him if he’d stay with me (he insisted on walking this go round) we would go look at toys. He did super good so we headed to the toys…of course he spotted the train aisle. Not just the trains, but a nice big train table displayed in the middle of the aisle. Thanks again Toys R Us. I let him play for 15 minutes or so. I begged and pleaded and said everything possible to mankind (in toddler terms) to get him to step away from the train table. Nothing worked. Nothing. So I had to pick him up wailing and screaming with a blood red face and carry him to the check out line. Thankfully a sweet lady said her lane was open with no wait and then asked if my child was okay. I told her he didn't want to leave the train table and her reply was, “it gets them every time.” How nice. While I was rummaging through my purse with my 35 lb toddler attached to me kicking and screaming, I couldn’t deal so I put him down. He proceeded to fall on the floor on his stomach and kick like what you see those crazy kids do in the movies. At this point I was really sweating. I had no idea how much money I gave her, much less how much my purchase was. I picked up my child and hustled it out to the car. We had a nice talk and headed home. My grandma said if that was her she would have wore my hiney out. Come on, Mama…it’s 25 years later. I so can’t do that. So what do you do?? I’m still figuring that out.

   

   Oh how I loathe that train table set up right in the middle of the aisle. No really, it was actually a really fun train table :) Santa might just bring him one...he'll be counting the tantrums the next few months though!

So there you have it. My child is cray cray. Lol! No not really. He’s a toddler who pitches fits. I’ve heard the Trying Three’s are really fun! I’m looking forward to those. Maybe by then, time-out will actually work. But until then, I take it day by day, tantrum by tantrum and remember he's ONLY TWO YEARS OLD! Someone told me the other day to remember that kids have bad days too. You know when you have a bad day and wanna kick everyone in the face that annoys you?? Well, kids have the same feelings. They just express it in other ways...like meltdowns or tantrums. Okay, who am I fooling?! I'm almost 30 and have meltdowns and tantrums at times (not really ya'll) =)

Don’t get me wrong, he’s not like this all of the time. 97% of the time he’s a loving, caring, helping, smart, considerate, sharing little guy. But that 3% will really getcha. Many moms, including mine, tell me that one day I’ll look back and laugh. I guess that’s why I keep up with this kind of stuff. One day I will look back and appreciate the grown man he’s become and wish that for one second he’d pitch a fit. He’s growing up before my own eyes (*tear) and to be honest, I’d rather him act a scene in public or be a little crazy because that means he’s still little. My little boy J

 

A pic to prove he really is precious =) I found him in his room like this a few days ago...reading a Christmas book.

I’ve so missed writing in my blog. I always have so many things to say about my wild child, but sadly I’ve been so busy….obviously super busy with my fit throwing son (lol), but also with life in general. Can I just say that I'm way blessed?! I am. I'm so in love with my little family that it's incredibly crazy! But anywho, maybe one of these days I can write more often! Until then…

Magan