The Veldmans: Happy Mother's Day

Let me start by saying Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! Being a mom has to be the hardest, most frustrating, and exhausting job in the world (or at least a good mom), but it is also most most amazing job. You never know what your day will hold, or even the hour. One minute is tantrums and diaper blowouts, while the next minute is filled with giggles, smiles, kisses, and hugs. I feel so blessed to have the amazing family that I do, and am blessed that I am able to work part time so that I can stay home and spend more time with these two precious gifts that are growing so quickly.  My mother's day was pretty low key. We got up, went to church, met Nate's family for brunch, and then came home where we went for a walk, played games, did laundry, and just finished having a 20 minute conversation with Ava as to why she needs to sleep in her bed and not on the floor. I'm sure that we'll be repeating the conversation in the next few minutes as she sits in her bed crying.

Ah Ava (sigh)! She has been a force to be reckoned with this past week. I'm not sure what happened to her this week, but she has been a little monster.  I got a text from Nate on Wednesday morning saying, "it was a rough morning, Ava went to daycare in her pajamas. hope your day is going better".  I guess Ava decided she didn't want to get dressed and refused to put her clothes on. After 20 minutes Nate gave up and took her in her pjs. Then there was the fit that she threw in the shower, throwing herself on the floor and yelling for 20 minutes. Yes, that was a fun night. :)  I thought that kids were supposed to be naughty when they were two. I used to think to myself, "wow, we must be pretty good at this parenting thing because Ava was an awesome 2 yr old". Now everybody tells me that the 3s are the worst. Maybe they are telling me this to make me feel better about my parenting, I don't know. I hope that it doesn't get worse than this though (at least until she is 16). Right now it's a battle of the wills. I'm pretty stubborn, and I think that she may get a little of that from me. :) I've been trying to step back and ask myself if some of these things are worth fighting over. Most of the time they are not, I just don't want bad habits to be formed.  Hopefully this "stage" will not last long.

As for Grant, he continues to be a happy little man. Last Friday evening I put him down to bed and he fussed for quite some time. I knew right away that he had to have an ear infection and told Nate that he would have to take him to the pediatrician Saturday morning since I had to work. So Nate made his first solo trip to the peds office Saturday morning with both kids, and then walked over to the hospital (it's next door to our peds clinic) to see me. Sure enough, Grant had an infection in his right ear. That makes four infections in 5 months so he will be going to see the ENT on the 21st.

That's all the excitement here. We're been enjoying the nice weather and have made it to the park a few times.  Ava has become quite the dare devil and loves to climb all over the playground. Grant tried out the swings this past week and squealed with delight. He just loved it! Ava has her last "preschool" class this upcoming Thursday. I'm looking forward to the little program that they will be putting on Thursday afternoon.

Thanks for checking in. Sorry for the lack of pictures. Sadly enough, all of these came off of my phone.

Grant tried a "mum mum" for the first time last week. He loved it until he started to choke after biting off a huge piece. I haven't let him try them again since.