Wyatt's Christmas

Once Wyatt found his presents, he didn't waste much time opening them. I think it may have taken an entire 3 minutes start to finish. HA! I barely had enough time to take these pictures. He loves all his new toys, he just can't decide which one to play with first. (I still need to stop at the store and spend another small fortune on batteries since I didn't buy enough--or the right kind to go in all his new toys)

He liked his cowboy hat and galloping horse. He rode it around the living room hollaring yee haw cowboy...then I followed him into the kitchen, it dawned on me that I can make a video clip. I started it and my bashful (NOT) son decided he didn't want to play anymore...

Christmas 2007

Wyatt woke up Christmas morning like it was just another day at our house. He came straight into my room, crawled up and snuggled with me for a few minutes, we got up, I got him breakfast, not once did he notice the presents under the tree while eating. I finally stood him up and asked him to go look to see if he had presents under the tree from Santa. He immediately asked if he could open all of them. I don't know if I am being selfish, but it was really nice just being me and him, watching him open each present filled my heart with so much joy. He is my little miracle I don't know what I would be without him. Later in the day we went to Paula Jean's to bring them their gifts. While there, Wyatt was asked if Santa came to his house, he said so casually, no he didn't. I'm not sure he really believes in Santa yet or if he was just focused on playing with his new toys. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them downloaded.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

BELIEVE

I write about the kids and family and realized I should also be writing about me every now and then. Isn't that one of the hardest things to do, write about yourself? I BELIEVE it is. Which brings me to thinking about the things I BELIEVE in. Have you ever thought about the things Y O U BELIEVE in? The things I BELIEVE in are constantly on my mind among the 3 gazzillion other things I think about during my day.....and I wonder sometimes if there is something seriously wrong with me. ha!

BELIEVE - the definition......To have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so. My immediate thought when I read this, seemed a lot like FAITH. Which lead to my next thought; to TRUST. Ok, you see how my mind works?

I believe everyone has a purpose in life, some of us find it at a very young age and some of us discover it much later in life. Either way, I believe, my life is guided by what I am passionate about. My family and doing the right thing to the best of my ability. I greatly admire those who have that knack to say and do all the right thing at all the right times. I know I am harder on myself than anyone could ever be.

I BELIEVE in the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and I wish more people would feel this way.

Courage is within all of us, we prove it daily by facing difficulty, danger, pain...all without fear, all at various levels. Without courage, I would not be who I am today. I have faced many challenges in my life. Everyone has to a degree. Those challenges are also what has made it difficult for me to fully trust anyone. I do have hope though and a lot of it.

I believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Forgiveness is essential in life. Without it, your heart will fill with resentment.

I believe in balance, a balance in your life is how you make it, don't let others dictate what works for you.
I believe in God.
I believe hard work will give you great rewards in life.
Patience is not always easy and I have a breaking point.
I believe you have the right to question everything and anything regardless of the topic.
Politics are not my cup of tea.
I believe you should laugh out loud every day!
I believe good and evil can mask one another.
To be honest should not be difficult.
Everyone is accountable for their own actions.
Freedom is not FREE.

I have only touched the surface of this list, it is never ending.

Weekend

This past weekend, I didn't take one picture. I had full intentions of taking pictures but my camera never made it to my destinations or if it did, I didn't take it out of my purse. Wyatt got his hair cut Saturday morning at the Barber Shop. Doesn't sound too eventful, however, this was only the 2nd time he has gotten his hair cut by a professional. His style from his mama clipping his hair has been simply a buzz cut. It had been over a year since his first experience (that, let's say was not a pleasurable experience for him) so I decided with all his progress in his behavior, he was ready.....and he really did pretty good until.............

#1-It was just taking way to long (20 minutes later for a 3 year old is just too long), he had sat still for as long as he could without getting antsy. He started to pull off the cape, his slobber had attracted his clippings so his chin and neck had teeny tiny hairs itching him.

#2-The barber sliced his neck, not once, but twice. Ok, maybe it wasn't a slice, but it did bleed and made him cry, the barber gave him a sucker and I gave him a hug and that helped (a little) and

#3-The barber had his booth in the front right at the window. It started to snow outside and all Wyatt could see is that he wanted to go play!



This entire situation is such an improvement from a year ago (I know I said that twice) but it is true. It is a constant struggle for me to stay on top of every situation that comes up with him and take the correct course of action. I am not the smartest person and I don't feel I am a complete idiot, but as a single parent I second guess myself a lot and reflect on if I should have done something different (not to mention the guilt I carry-another long story I'll write about later). I have been lucky enough that I have a pediatrician and daycare provider that are helping me work with him through his diet and consistent disciplinary measures. There are days that it takes every ounce of my energy to be patient with him and I totally hate myself when I lose control and act out in a way that is completely out of character. My hope and thoughts are on the future and that my little boy will grow out of having temper tantrums-laying of the floor, kicking and crying, spitting-mostly to himself when he gets mad.....among other lashing out techniques that I find difficult to understand.

Family Tree, hugh, what??

A Family Tree, doesn't that sound like a good no....GREAT idea? I've been thinking about it for a very long time. And as each year passes, I continued to put it on the back-burner so Yeah, good idea, this should be a P I E C E O F C A K E, right? Simply jot down all my known family members; mom, dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, great aunts, great uncles....jeepers the list just goes on and on AND ONNNNNN. So I sought out assistance a while back from a web site (a paying web site) since I quickly realized this would be no easy task. While dipping into this venture, I also sent e-mails to my relatives asking for their assitance, the email went like this:

"I was wondering if you could help me with gathering some information for our Family Tree I have decided to attempt. I am starting with Grandma & Grandpa David as the 'Trunk' (but I can branch out more if I am given enough feedback). I am wanting as much information as possible for as many family members as possible. Like their full name (including maiden names) birthdate, birth town, city & county, husbands, wives, kids, grandkids, brothers, sisters.....it just goes on and on. The tree I have started is capable of downloading pictures so if you have a specific picture you'd like me to post, please send it to me. I have quickly realized our family is much bigger than I recalled and I don't know and haven't really known many of them.

Anything you can send me would be so wonderful ! .......AND if you could pass on any e-mail address's that would be great or forward this message.

Thanks!
Paula T."

I sent this a few weeks ago, as of today, I have no reply messages other than from Paula Jean, she told me she thought I knew more than her. WELL....of course I do! LOL I worry our family is drifting apart as all the kids are getting older and moving on with their lives and starting their own families. I greatly miss how often our family used to get together.

Edit Pictures

Ok, I had to edit the picture(s)

FREE Wal-Mart Picture!

Here are the FREE Wal-Mart pictures of Wyatt with Santa. They were only giving one free picture per family, but seeing that I am more special than everyone else, I got two! (HA, the first one Santa wasn't looking at the camera and so I got it too, otherwise they were just gonna throw it away).

I know I messed up on scanning it in and it looks funny, but hey, I am allowed to not be perfect today. :O)

As obvious as it looks, Wyatt was extremly excited to see Santa for the 3rd time this year to let him know what he wanted for Christmas, PRESENTS! LOL

As promised.......

Here it is, Me, Wyatt and Santa. If I had known I was going to get my picture taken, I would have dressed a little nicer. The thing that aggravates me the most about this picture is that after the guy took it on his digital camera, I didn't get to see it and he said it looked really good......WHY I trusted a guy to tell me this, I am not sure. I mean, he did have a digital camera, and not just any digital camera, this one was big and bulky so in my mind he could have easily snapped another picture because I am pretty sure I could have convinced Wyatt to sit still for the spit second it took to take the picture. And I am sure my frustrations of the entire event have nothing to do with my feelings now.....OK, ok I am done whining about this (for today). I will be going to Wal-Mart this coming weekend and see how a freebie picture compares to this one.

Santa !

Saturday (Dec 1st) We first started our day walking around the Craft Fair at the Nixa Jr. High. WE as in my cousin Paula, her daughter Emily, Wyatt and myself. We then started our journey into Springfield since Santa was spotted at the Bass Pro Shop from 11-8. We waited in line for 20 minutes and had virtually no advancement in the line. The people ahead of us decided to bail so I asked them how long they have been waiting. They had been there 45 minutes, urge.... so we left too. Paula called and found out Santa was at the Battlefield Mall. We finally got there and parked, got inside (froze our tails off, it was suppose to be in the 50's, but the Arctic north wind was blowing). Anyway, we found Santa's house and he was not going to be there for another 45 minutes. Just our luck.

By this time, Wyatt was getting very fussy so we went to get something to eat. After we ate, we had almost 2 hours invested in finding Santa when it dawned on Paula that she recalled seeing on the board at the Center Santa would be there today. The Center is in Nixa, 5 minutes from my house. We traveled back to Nixa and Santa was there all alone. We were in and out of there in less than 20 minutes and $10.00 later. HOWEVER, the picture I got of Wyatt has me in it. Wyatt was very excited about seeing Santa, but the picture says it all. I forgot it today, so I will get it posted tomorrow so ya'll can see what I am talking about. THEN..........Sunday, I got a call from Paula and Santa was at the Nixa Wal-Mart giving away FREE pictures with Santa from 11-2 and will be back next Sunday. Wyatt does nothing but talk about Santa so next week we will go to Wal-Mart and get another picture and Christmas Wish with Santa.

November

Christmas is going to be so special for Wyatt this year. Every night I pick him up he talks about Christmas. I take the long way home so he can see all the Christmas lights and decorations on the houses. We pass one and he'll say in his little sweet voice,
"mama, let's see maur, pweassssse"
"darn, I missed dat one"
"I see Chwistmas! I see Chwistmas!"
"Don't durn dat way mama, I wanna see maur",
I'm telling ya, it's so cute! We turn into our subdivision and we go down almost every street, each time we get close to our street, he says "don't durn dat way mama, don't! don't!" So I'll circle around one more time, THEN he tells me "let's go to mama's house now". Of course I always think I let him think he's the one in charge, but I'm pretty sure he's got me wrapped around his little finger. So when we get to our house, he asked me where mama's lights are (I choose not to put lights on the house this year) and I tell him all our lights are on our Christmas tree. He is ok with that, but I doubt I can get away with it next year. I actually had planned on wrapping some lights on our front yard tree, but it rained the entire weekend I wanted to do it and this weekend looks like rain too :-( so we'll see.

Halloween 2007

Ok, yes, it's way, way, WAY past Halloween, but I have just now got my thoughts together and picked out the pictures I wanted to post. Here is my little Buzz Lightyear, until January of this year, he really thought he could fly. Poor little guy's dreams where shattered again when I bought his costume and he then thought these wings would be what would lift him off the ground. He tried and tried and then put his head down, draggin his heals, rather cutely said "I can't fly either".

This picture is so cute because of what happened just before I took it. Wyatt was being a little difficult and doing some whining and had himself with his back turned to us standing in the corner at the front door. Naty took charge of this situation and tapped Wyatt on the shoulder and said in a very stern voice "Wyatt, stop it, we have to go get candy!" Wyatt immediately turned around and had a smile on his face. I think I need to borrow little Naty to help with Wyatt, she is a little girl that knows how to talk his language.

Here is Emily with Naty and Wyatt, she spent her night trying to keep up with these two (I ended up carrying her 4" heeled shoes) Wyatt went up to almost every house saying "To infinity and beyond". Little boys just don't want to have to wait for the girls to get the 'candy'. He was opposite of Naty though, when he got his loot, he was off to the next house, when Naty was at the door, she asked for more. She had the right idea though, the more you get at one house, the less houses you need to go to fill up your bag!

And finally, here is Cody, he joined us a little late, but had a great time (his mom assured us the blood is not real..really....hahahah!)

We all had a great time and Paula J. made some yummy things for us to eat, I'm not sure the official names, but we had little meatball eyeballs, spiders made of pretzels and chocolate, bat sandwiches and the best ever dip n chips she's ever made! Of course we had our traditional chili, loaded with SOUR CREAM, cheese, onions and Frito's!

We greatly missed our family members not able to make it this year, especially Joe and Wanda, we think of you two everyday and how much you touched our lives. I love you.

The Final Score!

Way to go team! Here is the picture of Emily's Volleyball team, their final game was last night, finishing 5-3. Their coach gave them all awards, a special gift bag, a trophy and a yummy celebration cookie pie party. Her coach was obviously very proud of her team and talked to all the parents how well the girls did this year and hopes they sign up again next year. Emily is in the back row, second from the left. :O)

The more you know.....

Yesterday I attended a seminar "Managing Emotions Under Pressure", I absolutely loved this seminar. IT not only will help me at work, but in my personal life too! Life is all about learning, learning and more learning, right? The instructor for this keep everyone excited about what he was going to say next.

What I want to share is that I learned that people are summed up in 4 personality traits
1) Directors - 'Get it done', the instructor advised us to write 'Get R Dun', but since I am not in this category, I wrote it out correctly (you'll understand in a moment under #2). Directors are goal driven and extremely competent-they know how to DELEGATE.
2) Thinkers - Get it right! Very organized, starts a job and does not stop till it's done, makes list after list and list of the list to check off and double check (you get the idea here) very dependable and will analyze everything. They are TENACIOUS.
3) Sociallizers - Get Appreciated! Can inspire people to work together, be creative & flexable BUT can also be the ones that know how to push everyones buttons, have piles verses files, no follow through, these people are TEAM BUILDERS. and
4) Real-tors - Get Along! Very mothering/fathering, have the know-how to zone in on people's feelings and want to keep it casual, don't like any conflicting situations and have a hard time saying no. They are LOYAL and PATIENT.

As the instructor, Wade Moss was explaining all of these, the person (man, Dave) I sat next to couldn't have been a nicer guy, he was still married to his high school sweetheart, has great kids and grandkids and started to laugh during this time. Back up...As soon as we got back from lunch, the hotel staff had cleaned off our tables, but left the crumbs. When I sat down I brushed off my mess, making my space all nice and neat again. Ok, Wade was explaining the 'Thinkers', Dave was laughing saying he knew I was in this category, Wade said these 'Thinkers' would have wrote Get it done on #1-Directors verses what he told us to write "Get R done". IT was so true. I had to write it right. ok, it may have been more funny as it was happening.

Wade also had us write down this "The way we see the problem is the problem" WOW, how true is that? We are so programed to react in a way we have trained our minds to be, it just comes natural no matter if it is the right way, wrong way or whatever way, it's the way be respond (based on our past experiences).

Ok, so I am now labeling myself as this 'Thinker' and just now updating my blog. I've wanted to update before now, but I hadn't spent the time to compeltely think through what I wanted to say, I have made notes and have thoughts, but keep saying I'll get to that list later....ha! I have no excuse since I know I could have made time. So you can see my updated pictures on the right and I'll post another blog later (next week) about some of the specifics going on in my life.

Ready, Set, Go - EMILY

Tuesday nights are Emily's (my 1st counsin's daughter) volleyball games. This was the first game I was able to see and I remembered my camera (unlike her mama, ha!) Wyatt's sissy, Gayle came up so they stayed home and let mama focus on watching Emily play. Here are the highlites of the game, they won both games.....Go Emily!!

Here she is all ready!

Too fast for the eye to see...

Getting Ready to make another point for the team !! !!

Time for the team to huddle...

She is ready, waiting for the serve.......

The girls really had a great time playing, there are only a few games left to watch her so be sure to come by and cheer her on!

Pirate Wyatt

As I was reorganizing Wyatt's closet

from summer to winter clothes, I'm

doing his closet first since his only took

a few minutes and mine might take 1/2

the evening or even part of the weekend

to re-arrange. Anyway, I found his

pirate costume and he immediately decided

he wanted to put it on.

My little ham of a man was

walking around the house

saying "Erg matties"

"scrub, scrub", asking me to

take his picture.

Then he started just being silly

and remembered he had......

Patrick, for those of you who don't know,

Patrick is a charactor on Spongebob Squarepants,

this is one of Wyatt's very favorite shows.

(well along with Fairly Odd Parents,

Jimmy Newtron, his movies Cars, Toy Story

and too many to list.)

His cousin Cody got Patrick from one of

those machines at Wal-Mart and knew as

soon as he got it he would give it to Wyatt.

Then after his bath, he was back to pretending

he was Buzz Lightyear, here in the kitchen

he was showing me how to go "To infinity

and beeeeeeeeeeyond". He is going to have

so much fun next week.

Spiders

While at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, we make a pit stop at the deli to get their yummy popcorn chicken to snack on while we shop and of course Wyatt always asks for one of the free cookies. This trip, they had the counter decorated with pumpkins, ghosts, spiders and other Halloween stuff. While the gal behind the counter handed me Wyatt's cookie, she bumped the spider on the pumpkin and it feel down on the cakes displayed below. Wyatt's eyes bugged out and said very loud, "Oh no mama, the spider fell down, we have to help him". It was all I could do to not burst out laughing. I carefully picked up the spider and showed it to Wyatt and said, "Oh look, it's not real, it's a play spider". He then immediately wanted it and the nice lady behind the counter said he could have it (oh yeah for us). We carted this spider all over the store, as we went by unexpecting fellow shoppers, Wyatt was so sweet to 'surprise' them with his little friend. Most people jumped and laughed, the older people stopped and talked to him for a couple seconds and other kids told their mommies they wanted a spider too! We got close to the end of our shopping experience and Wyatt decided he no longer wanted the spider and tossed it. Well, it landed in the next aisle. I rushed as fast as I could to see where it landed since we heard what sounded like an older person having a serious heart attack. Thank goodness that wasn't the case, it was an employee (older) just startled by the spider that landed in his box of canned corn he was stocking. He asked Wyatt if this was his spider, Wyatt gave that cheesy smile of his and said no. He gave Wyatt the spider, but he didn't want it so I took it and asked Wyatt if he wanted to go put him back on the pumpkin since that was where he lived and was probably missing his family. That did it, Wyatt got all excited about taking the spider back to his family and gave him kisses goodbye (I had to wipe off the spider since ya know, a 3 year old kissing a 2 inch plastic spider was covered in slobber).

For several days Wyatt has been talking about that spider and can't wait for Halloween. A few nights ago, I decided to tickle him pretending my hand was a spider. I would say "Here comes spider to tickle Wyatt" and he would laugh and ask again and again for the 'spider' to tickle him. Of course him being my rambuncious little boy, the 'spider' had to also chase him, tackle him and toss him around. This has become a nightly ritual and the cute part of this is that when Wyatt decides to take a break, he says very sturn "Spider! It's time to take a break", he takes my hand in his lap and says, "Good spider, sit nicely for 5 minutes". All the while 'petting' my hand. Well 5 minutes in Wyatt time is more like 20 seconds when it's time to sit down, however, when he only has 5 minutes to play outside before it's time to come in the for the night, Wyatt time is 15-20 minutes.

Little Boys and Mommies

It is true what is said about little boys, they love their mommies very much. Every morning before I give Wyatt his breakfast, even before his prayer, he tells me he wants kissess and hugs. It is so cute.
Over this past month, his daycare moved him into a different class that took him away from the 'gang' of aggressive kids (him being one of them). I am amazed on how well he has done, his aggressions have almost disappeared! I ran into 2 of the mothers over the past couple weeks at Wal-Mart and McDonalds and both of them said they have seen the same improvements in their sons. It was a huge relief for me to hear that and we are all very grateful the daycare recognized something needed to be done with our sons to improve their social skills, which of course leads into so many other aspects of their lives.
I have noticed, which seems like overnight how much Wyatt is really talking. On the way home last night, he kept saying things that started with "Maybe we can" or "Maybe they are" and "Maybe it will" He says, "We can do it tonight or we already did it tonight" which can mean anything from what he did yesterday or earlier in the day. He tries so hard to talk like a grown up!
He's always saying how strong he is and wanted to be Woody from Toy Story 2 for Halloween, but after we got to the store, he decided to be Buzz LightYear. I'm sure mom's and dad's understand exactly what's going on when I am carrying my son around and he has his arms spread in front of him, laying across my arms, flying to INFINITY AND BEYOND!

He's got a way to melt my heart with his simple words. I love being a mommy in my 40's!

Burger King Adventures

Wyatt and I hung out around the house for most of the weekend. It was raining out for the most part so I took him to Burger King, he loves going to 'Burrrgar King' or the 'Tree House' (which is McDonald's playland). Anyway, it's always an adventure since this one hour maximum trip will result in him getting hurt (from being a daredevil jumping from the table to the columns) then the whining starts, the spitting, having a tantrum, hitting other children, telling me NO NO NO,
giving me a cheesy smile like this

being chased thru the joint and out to the parking lot and the screaming fit to get his shoes back on when it's time to leave. I have to ignore the looks people give me that are obviously thinking my son is possessed. I thought I was being a good mommy by taking him to play??? I'm not sure why I continue to take him? Once we got home, he was put in a timeout. After 5 minutes it was like he was my precious little boy again, hugging and asking me for more kisses....the remaining weekend went without injury or drama. I wonder why he is more well behaved at home than he is in public?

Labor Day Weekend 2007

What a spectacular Labor Day weekendy my kids had! Especially Wyatt, he not only got to see his sissy, go to the park and visit family......He also rode a Mule for the first time! He got up there like it was just another day with nothing out of the ordinary. He grinned from ear to ear!

We had brought some bread to feed the ducks, but after the mule ride, the ducks didn't seem near as exciting.

He just loves his blanket. I hate to even think about the day I will have to take it away from him.

July 20th for Wyatt

July 20th started out very early in the morning for Wyatt. We arrived at the Hospital at 6:30 am without any breakfast. The entire 20 minutes to the hospital he asked me for his breakfast. Once we got there and he seen the variety of toys, he forgot all about not getting breakfast. We had talked all week about his dental surgery and what the dentist would be doing to his teeth while he was 'sleeping'. Like I said, he 'was' excited about being there.....until he woke up.






















Eight caps, seven nerve treatments and three fillings later (yes to baby teeth) he wakes up calling out for his mama. The nurse fetches me and I took him in my arms and held my little man until we were sent to his room for recovery.
















With Buzzlightyear and Jessie clinched in his hands, like they would rescue him from this horrible event his mother put him through, he laid in recovery.


Poor little guy didn't know what hit him. It was all I could do to not laugh. I sat with him and if ya haven't noticed, his blue blanket (deedee) doesn't leave his side.


The good news is that he is fine now, he no longer complains of his mouth hurting and he eats like there is no tomorrow. I am truly proud he really took this better than I had expected.

My little man

This is my little man, Wyatt Cooper, he just turned 3 years old in July. Although this picture is over a year old, he's still the cutteste little boy ever! This is my first posting so I will get an updated picture in the near future.