my boys...

..

Its so funny to me to have a baby boy again after 10 years.

There is just something about a baby boy. I mean baby girls are a sweet combo of awesomeness but there is a very strong bond between boy and momma.

PJ is so very attached to me. I've been used to the independent nature of my little girls and the calmness too.

Thanks to the internet you can be wrong fovever -like me and sippy cups, after three relatively calm girls I decided straw cups were the best thing since sliced bread - but the girls were not really into throwing cups either. PJ is a cup chucker -  If he's done drinking he's throwing that bad boy directly at the floor or wall. And new puppies love pulling straws out and chewing them to shreds. 

In the time since I used sippy's regularly they have gone valve free so I'm back to sippy cups...

PJ is still breastfeeding - a feat that I am proud of. We have avoided all the severe constipation problems that my others went through when I weaned too early.

There are special considerations for extended breastfeeding. Like that you are one of very few still nursing your baby past the first birthday.

That at the doctors they will look at you funny - even though they should be promoting that exact thing.

"Is he on whole or 2% milk?" 

neither.

formula?

no.

blank stare - 

I am still breastfeeding him.

"ooooohhhhhhh."

After his shots can I stay in this room and nurse him?

long pause...

"That should be ok, I'll have to check ..."

 - ok you do that.

PJ really only nurses in the morning regularly anymore - anything else is just a bonus.

He lays and nurses on one side and then stands to nurse on the other side - its quite funny to see. Kyle giggles at him often.

I just bought a real bra, flap free after three years. But I'll be sad to see this stage officially go when it does. 

Then there is my big boy.

Its a surreal moment to walk downstairs in the morning to a son nearing my height - who has already made his lunch and wanted juice too so he made of pitcher of that. And he has a wallet and his own ID to keep track of and he rarely loses either.

He is in two Pre-AP classes now and is doing rather well at them. The math class has completely surpassed my intellectual capabilities so Dad is the lone helper for homework.

He has his own business. He's put up flyers around the neighborhood for dog poop scooping. $2.50/ yard per week.

He has left me a checklist to make more posters and he has his own email account for the business. With 600 homes in the neighborhood - he could do pretty well with this.

He is very much like his father, but also me too. He's kind and sensitive. He can lose his temper and say things he doesn't mean, especially if he thinks he is purposefully being slighted. But he's a good friend. And I try to teach him everyday that there is someone, somewhere who needs a friend, its always good to be that person.

The stages to this motherhood thing are so fluid, just when you feel like you will be stuck in one forever its gone just like that. When a mother of one or two little ones ask me how I do it, its hard to impart that its not that bad - its wonderful actually.

Two under 3 was hard. Five under 11 is not any harder. Its not like you can multiply in your mind your two little ones and think its the same for a mother of many. I don't have 5 little ones, I have some in every stage from 11 to still crawling.
You buy a little more food and do a little more laundry. But you have a lot more fun.
One child takes 100% of a mom's time, more kids can't take more than that.

I remember my three year old Benjamin like I remember my newborn PJ - it feels like yesterday and forever ago all at the same time.

 He's 6 months away from getting the Priesthood. He's five years away from driving. And he is 10 years away from the age Kyle and I were when we married.

wow. if that doesn't make life feel like a speeding fast train.