Future Reality TV Star??

Two things happened recently that have made me think that Drew has a future in Reality TV. First I stumbled upon the TV show Hoarders on A&E. Has anyone else seen this. They go into the home's of compulsive hoarders. The episode I watched spent a great deal of time showing you just how horrifying it was; how these people were literally climbing over piles of junk to get to the toilet etc. Then they bring in a psychologist and a professional organizer and they get to work simultaneously traumatizing the homeowner and throwing everything out. It was one of those shows that I just couldn't turn away from even though I knew I should.

Then a couple of days later Drew and I went into his room to work on cleaning it up together. I was pulling piles and piles of stuffed animals off his bed to change his sheets when I suggested we get rid of some of them. It was ridiculous. He was sleeping in about 1/5 of his bed space because the rest was taken up with animals. Even suggesting this brought on the tears and the explanations of why each and every animal was so important. That's when I started having visions of an older Drew standing in the middle of a house completely full to the brim with stuffed animals. Clutching desperately to a ratty stuffed dog saying "No I can't throw it away I won this at the county fair in 2010! It's special to me!" This is going to be my son, I know it. Do you think the people that are on Hoarders get paid well? Maybe he could make a career out of it. When he's in college he can go on The Real World as the freak who still sleeps with stuffed animals and then when he's 40 and single he can move up to Hoarders!

After the trauma we cut the number of animals on his bed down to 17.

I'm nothing if not a supportive parent so I guess if this is the path he must take then I'll get on board. Stuffed animals as presents for every holiday from here on out!

Dane's crib. Will this be a family thing? The Iverson brothers-in-hoarding.

Spreading The Love!

We had another great Valentine's Day this year in the Iverson Home. Valentine's Day has a few rules in our house. No presents, no flowers, no store bought boxes of chocolate. We do a family-wide Valentine exchange and all Valentine's must be hand-made. I'm not a V-day Grinch or anything. I just wanted everyone to put a little more thought and feeling into Love Day. Christmas was not all that long ago so I just don't like the idea of everyone accumulating more stuff so soon after. Instead we work our tushes off making each other great expressions of love. We also made Valentine's for Drew's class, all the grandparents and a few good friends that live far away. I'm proud to say that everyone, even Daddy gets into this tradition.

Homemade cards and marshmallow truffles for the boys.

A small scrapbook I made for Brian; the contents of which I'm keeping secret.


The boys made these for their Daddy. I got the ideas from Family Fun Magazine.
We love Family Fun around here!

Brian and Drew made this picture frame for me. I couldn't have asked for a better Valentine!

The Nap Debacle

I am entering a new phase with Dane. It's that totally frustrating transition time when what was once a perfectly timed out and dependable nap schedule is now a "Who the hell knows when he'll nap!" non-schedule.

Last week I could tell you exactly when he would nap and pretty much down to the minute what time he would wake up. It was perfect! There were these chunks during the day when I could really indulge myself be say showering and taking the time to shave my legs or hopping on the treadmill for awhile or even answering an email or two.

For 5 days in a row the morning nap disappeared. I would put him down and listen to him scream while I tried to shower as fast as I could before I gave up and went and got him out of bed. I finally decided to accept my fate that at 14 months Dane had outgrown the morning nap. Yesterday I set my alarm for 5 a.m. so that I could shower and dress before the boys got up. Yesterday he took a two hour morning nap. Today I set my alarm for 5 a.m., right now he is 45 minutes into his morning nap. Are you kidding me??

So now what do I do? Continue getting up early just in case? Or do I assume that those days were a fluke and we are back on track? I just don't know how I feel about this. On one hand I do enjoy that chunk of me time in the a.m. ; when Drew's at school and Dane is sleeping. But on the other hand I was getting a little excited about all the things Dane and I could do. Just today I was hoping to make it to the Toddler Story Time at our library.

The only thing I know for sure is that at all times one of my boys are keeping me on my toys. They are doing a great job of it too!

Wardrobe Malfunction

There's been a battle brewing in my house the last couple of months. A battle that I thought I would get to avoid by only having boys. I thought wrong. Drew has become extremely opinionated about what he's going to wear. I mean EXTREMELY opinionated. It used to be that I could lay out his clothes for the day and he would go put them on without any further discussion. Lately though it seems like he's determined not to wear anything that I have deemed appropriate for the day.

I try to be a "pick your battles" kind of mom; but when it's 40 degrees outside and he wants to wear shorts and a t-shirt to school I have to step in. I have finally given in on weekends when we are just spending the day at home. But if we are leaving the house then I have to be the worlds meanest mom by making him wear pants. God Forbid! You would think by the crying and the stomping and the slamming of doors that I was making him wear a dress to school. I mean seriously?

Then we have to deal with the tightness of the pants. I buy him pants that fit. He then puts on a belt and tightens the belt as tight as his gut will allow. He leaves the house with his stomach cinched in and a belt induced wedgie going on in the back. Some days I make him take the belt off but most days I'm way to beat down to fight it. I am a little concerned though, I mean he could be doing some internal damage here. If he has fertility issues as an adult I will so be throwing this tight belt thing in his face.

Of course it wouldn't be a complete morning here if we didn't have round two over the coat. Two years ago Drew's Grandma bought him a hoodie with skateboards on it. He is madly in love with this jacket. I have two problems with this hoodie: it's not heavy enough for really cold days and it's getting to be way too small. He tries to wear it to school every morning. Again I attempt to be reasonable and will let him wear it if it's going to be a fairly mild day but when there is snow on the ground or freezing rain coming from the sky I think he needs to wear a freaking coat. Ugghh, it's exhausting. Seriously exhausting.

I've been thinking about a closet overhaul for Drew. Maybe if we seperated his clothes by school clothes and not-for-school-clothes. Then I could let him pick out what he wanted to wear as long as they come from the appropriate drawers. This might be a good weekend project for Drew and I. A way to work together to solve this problem. I'm actually getting a little excited about this idea. If I involve him then he might be more open to the idea and feel like he has a little control.

I'll have to be sure to post an update on this in a week or so. Let project Drew's Closet begin!

The Finish Line

Well Christmas Break was a huge whirlwind of activities around here. There was so much going on that I didn't even try to stop and blog in the midst of it. We have come out the other side and I have to say that this was one of the best Christmases we've had. It was great! Here is a photo recap of all of our fun.

We had our annual gingerbread house day at Grammy's. Are you amazed at Dane's gingerbread house talent? Who knew we had such an artistic genius on our hands??

Drew turned six. We stuck to our rule of giving Drew a Christmas free, full-on birthday bash; no matter how busy or tired we are. This year's theme was Star Wars.

We prepared for a very special visitor. The reindeer apparently loved our carrots. I know this because we found carrot crumbs all over our driveway on Christmas morning. Gotta love that Christmas magic!

We opened the presents. Oh my the presents! My boys are truly blessed with so many people that love them and want to give them the world. Of course those people don't live here and aren't tripping over toys every five minutes but we are still very grateful. :)

We played in the snow. Dane has proven to be a born snow lover. He ran, he frolicked, he rode on his sled. The only time he complained was when it was time to go inside and get warm.

And then finally we rested. Apparently we all needed the rest. Dane and Sunny spent most of an afternoon snuggling like this. Now we are on to the not so fun task of putting all the Christmas decorations away. This is proving especially tough for Drew. He keeps telling me that he misses Christmas and putting stuff away is making him sad. This could be true or it could be an ingenious way of getting out of helping his mother. Hhhhmmmmm......................

Happy Birthday Drew!

December 21st was the big day. Drew is finally 6! He's been talking about turning six since the day after he turned five; so it's been a long wait. In honor of the big day I decided to recap the day of his birth. Every kid should know about the day of their birth right?

At 3 a.m. on December 21st 2003 I woke up wet. I thought I had wet the bed. I jumped up and went to the bathroom to clean myself up and then I had to wake Brian and tell him that I had either peed myself or gone into labor. I wasn't really sure which. I wasn't having any pain so we decided to try to go back to sleep and see what happens. I managed to sleep off and on for the next two hours between contractions. I really didn't want to be one of those over-anxious first timers who ran to the hospital every time she had gas. So I kept insisting on waiting just to see if it was real. Finally at 7 a.m. we called my doctor who told me to get my butt in to the hospital ASAP. It turns out that once your water breaks the baby is at an increased risk of infection so they want you at hospital right away; not four hours later.

We had made plans to have breakfast with my mom that morning so we called her to give her the news and headed to the hospital. Our first rookie mistake was calling every family member and telling them we were at the hospital. By noon that day I had barely dilated but had 10 people in my room watching me and waiting for something to happen. My mom showed up with a huge platter of fudge that everybody nibbled on while I crunched my ice and glared at them all. By early evening I had gotten an epidural and needed a nap so Brian came to my rescue and kicked the whole family out. The only one allowed to stay for the long haul was my mom.

I started pushing at 8 pm and pushed for two very long hours. I was in complete shock at what a marathon this whole labor thing was. Finally at 10:03 p.m. Andrew Michael Iverson was born! I'll be completely honest here when he came out the only thing I was thinking was "Thank God that is over!". It took me a few seconds to snap out of it and realize it was time to meet my baby.

There he was staring at me with a head full of dark hair. I know it isn't this way for all parents but for me I was head over heels in love the second Drew and I made eye contact. It was just a feeling that overwhelmed me. Thank God I had that feeling because it was the only thing that got me through the next few days. The struggle with breastfeeding, the sleep deprivation all of it. Brian and I were thrown in the trenches of parenthood and getting our butts kicked quite honestly. It was definitely my overwhelming instinct with Drew that made me muddle through and figure out this whole parenting thing. Now six years later I'm feeling much more confident in our abilities. And we have a handsome, happy smart little boy to show for it.

Happy Birthday Drew! You are and always will be the one that made me a mother and for that I am grateful. I love you Bear!

The Christmas Tree Hunt That Wasn't

One of our most treasured Christmas traditions is going out into the woods and cutting down our own Christmas tree. We did it when I was 9 months preggers with Drew and we did it last year with a 4 week old Dane in tow. Nothing stops us! Except for a wacky work schedule and 10 degree weather. There was only a small window of days when we had a whole day to dedicate to the hunt. It just so happened those were the days when the temps never rose over 10 degrees. We decided it was smarter and safer for the boys to buy our tree this year.

Posing at the tree lot.

It was disappointing at first especially for Drew. But by the time we started decorating the Christmas Spirit won us over and we had a great afternoon making our bought tree beautiful. No worries though, we will get back to the woods next year. I'll make sure of that!

Daddy's little helper.

Finding the perfect spot for his ornament.