What Will I Do When You're Bigger

To Zane and Rowan
My sweet little boys. I wish I could freeze time and keep you here with me forever.

What will I do when you're bigger?

When there is no one to cuddle or love.

No cheeks to be kissed,

All the things I will miss,

What will I do when you're bigger?

What will I do when you're bigger?

When I find my house way to quiet.

No songs to be sung,

No games to be won,

What will I do when you're bigger?

What will I do when you're bigger?
When you can handle the world on your own.

No boo boos to kiss,

No problems to fix,

What will I do when you're bigger?

What will I do when you're bigger?

When I have no little boys to hold.

When you're taller than me,

I'll be kind of lonely.

What will I do when you're bigger?

What will I do when you're bigger?

When memories of my little boys fade.

When you've both moved away,

What will I do with my days?

What will I do when you're bigger?

What will I do when you're bigger?

When no small hand is there to hold mine.

Who will I read to?

Who will I hold?

What will I do when you're bigger?

What will I do when you're bigger?

When little voices no longer fill the air.

I'll miss your  sweet faces,

And remember the places,

We went when you were not bigger. 

I'll remember the fun, the laughs, and the hugs,

The cuddles and songs,

The fun all day long.

When you were still very little. 

-Love Mommy

Ten on Tuesday

1. The Richard kiddos went back to school this week, including Maggie who started Kindergarten this year. Friday evening we had a pizza party to celebrate. Able and Rowan put on some fairy wings and had a blast. So far I've gotten exciting reports from Maggie and Brendan about their new school, minus a minor bus accident on the way into school on the second day, which I say will make an amazing story later in life. Here's hoping they have a wonderful year at their new school.

 

2. Saturday was snake day at Sam Noble Museum. Turns out snake day was just like every other day at Sam Noble, but the Hognose snake was out of the cage to look at, but not touch. Zane impressed the herpetologist student when he told her that was the snake that rolls over and plays dead, per Grammie's snake video, that we have watched one hundred times. We know a lot about snakes, what can I say. Zach had never been to Sam Noble before so Zane had a blast showing him all the fun science stuff. Lots of snakes, lots of dinosaurs, lots of science!!!

 Rowan's favorite thing remains the statue of a wolf that he visited at least five times during our hour stay.

 The boys in a canoe made out of a tree, I maintain we could easily make one, right guys??

I love this picture of Zane, his eyes are so blue with that shirt on, not really sure what the Wholly Mammoth adds to it, but Zane loved it. 

3. After we went to the museum we headed over to Aunt Anna's house for her birthday celebration. The celebrations included playing on Aunt Anna's large playground equipment in her backyard, Rowan being terrified of her huge dog, catching up with old friends, and finally sack races. Happy Birthday Anna! Fun times!!

They also slid down a cellar door, which made the song make much more since to Zane. Good Oklahoma fun!

 4. At mass on Sunday the priest invited all the married couples to renew their wedding vows during mass. It was a lovely surprise, complete with a little wedding reception of cake and punch afterwards. Of course this go around at wedding vows included being climbed on and kissed by two little boys, which made it even more perfect. So glad we decided to go to the nine o'clock mass as it appeared that this wasn't happening at any other masses.

Here we are by the wedding cake they had set up at the reception for photo ops. Can you see little Rowan photobombing our shot!

5. Sunday was also Zane's first day of Sunday school. He had been really nervous/excited about it all week. He truly had no ideas what was going to happen, but I think he ended up having a great time. The take away message for the day was "We pray with our whole body," which I guess is good and true. He is concerned he doesn't have the prayer and song memorized so we will be working on that in the following weeks! I've heard rave reviews about his teacher, Miss Maggie, so it should be a fun year.

5 years old, pre-k Sunday school picture

6. In sad baseball news the Little Rascals did not reform for fall ball. Which means Zane has to join another team, The Lake Monsters. As I recall the Lake Monsters were pretty intense/might have actually practiced. So we are going to get fitted for a new uniform and try to figure out when our practice is and when we will be playing. I'm sad the Little Rascals are no more and even more sad that we now have to buy new shirts/hats for a different team. Today I was told it could be up to four weeks before his jersey is in, so he might not have one before the season is over. Here's hoping The Lake Monsters stick together so we don't have to buy new uniforms every season. Zane and I spent most of the afternoon discussing what a Lake Monster is, what do they eat, where do they live, is it an alligator, is it a dinosaur, is it an anaconda, can we get a learning book about it at the library, and on and on and on. Why couldn't our team be an actual animal??

7. I had a huge parenting milestone this week. My boys successfully shared an ice cream cone at a restaurant without killing each other! Things spiraled downhill once we got home, per usual, but this moment was a huge one! The standards are low in my parenting world currently.

 8. Yesterday we met up with my Aunt Ann and two of her Grandkids, who were in from PA. We showed them our favorite OKC kids place, the Oklahoma Science Museum. I think they had a good time and the boys had a great time playing with them.

 Abbey had a big phone call with her boss and Little E doesn't have daycare yet. This meant that I got to take another silly boy along to the science museum. Love his face!

 

Zane deemed himself E's big brother for the day and took much better care of him than he did his own little brother.

 

 9. Yesterday morning the boys got to ride scooters with E while I went to Urgent care. I randomly had a rash on my face and neck and itched everywhere. We determined it was an allergic reaction to something, still unsure what, but I am on steroids and am feeling slightly better today. The boys now desperately want scooters, get ready Santa!!

 10. The weather has been unseasonably cool for August. I'm talking sixty and seventy degrees. This is amazing and unheard of, but we are loving it. Daily walks to the park have been happening and I am getting so excited for fall!!

11. Bonus: Yesterday evening the wheels fell completely off at the Korenak household all revolving around electronics. Zane wanted to play Mario Cart, Rowan wanted to watch Mickey on the iPad and everything spiraled out of control with lots of crying and fit throwing until Zach and I banned all electronics for a week. I feel that electronics are at the rout of most fits and fights in our house so I was all for it. Zane's huge imagination shuts off when he comes inside because he wants to watch TV, or play ipad games, or something involving a screen. Today, day one without screens, I was amazed at the different. It wasn't an option or something that could be bargained for at all. The boys played well together, colored, drew pictures, built with blocks, made games up in his room, and there were 100% less fits. This evening Zane and Zach played a very exciting game of Hero Quest while Rowan and I built towers. I wasn't asked one million times when they could watch cartoons or if they could play on the iPad. Hooray!!! I might never let them turn on a screen again! I suggest everyone try it.

 Zane never holds still, so it looks like his arm has been cut in half in this picture.

 

This evening Zane said "Mamma you haven't taken our picture all day," (I was also trying to not use my screen as much)  so they both happily posed for this darling picture.

Rowan at 2.5

Little Rowan is two and a half years old and is a ball of fun. He loves all things Zane and does whatever Zane does. He loves to dance and sing, made up songs usually, but also knows most of the words to all his bedtime songs, including the Missouri fight song, aka Daddy's song. His current favorite not night time song is the hookie pookie which I'm guessing he learned at school. I never think to sing it, but we heard it or read it somewhere the other day and he lit up. Now we do the hookie pookie quite often. He recently discovered the song Everything is Awesome, through his cousins, and loves dancing to it. He does go into a complete meltdown during the parts of the song when Everything is Awesome isn't being sung, doesn't quite get it. But dance parties remain a constant at our house.

This summer Rowan has gone from having to be held anytime he is in water, preferably with his life jacket on at all times, to being a little fish. He now puts his little head under water and walks around, always with his eyes open no matter the body of water he finds himself in. He hates his life jacket because he wants to go under water with Bobo, popping up saying "I not drowning Mamma." He bounces around the lake and pools, "I swimming Mamma." He has gotten to the point of borderline terrifying comfort in the water, but I do think he will be ready for some swimming lessons soon. Again, I say that as though I could ever figure out how to actually enroll my children in swimming lessons. "I go swimming Mamma," is a continual request throughout all of our days, said in the cutest tiniest voice.

 

Speaking of tiny, Rowan is growing upward, getting pretty tall these days, but still hasn't hit the thirty pound mark. He use to eat everything in sight but as of late it has become a struggle to get him to eat much of anything. A big problem being Zane eats very quickly and wants to go play, at which point Rowan might not have taken one bite, but if Bobo is done so is he. This is definitely a battle we are fighting at 2.5 years old. Rowan is a snacker, but prefers to snack on not really great things like fruit snacks.  Most of his clothes are 2T with the exception of his swim suits which are all 12 months and falling off of him.

Rowan and Zane are very similar but are so different in a lot of ways. First off, Zane's speed, in all areas of his life, is a dead sprint. I am not sure if Zane could walk somewhere to save his life, he is constantly running. Now Rowan, on the other hand, has a baseline speed of a turtle. I seriously cannot walk as slow as Rowan. This puts me in a scenario where I have one kid running through a parking lot while the other one is slowly meandering along. It's a constant struggle.

By the time Zane was two and a half he was firmly dedicated to Mooly as his favorite animal, sleeping with him every night. Rowan, on the other hand thoroughly enjoys picking a different animal to sleep with every night. He is still one hundred percent attached to his blanket, just like brother, though. Rowan preference in other toys a different as well, in that Rowan will sit and play with things for more than thirty seconds at a time. Currently Rowan's favorite thing to play with his an old phone of mine. He carries it around with him and it comes with us every where we go. He also is obsessed with a green, rubber, snake from Target's One Spot and both are frequently amongst the things he asks to cuddle when he goes to sleep.

 Rowan is an absolute joy most of the time but as he turn the corner into three we are starting to catch of glimpse of what lies ahead. The word No is starting to be thrown about a lot, lots of random screaming/crying when he doesn't get what he wants the moment he wants it, lots of classic two year old stubborn offs revolving around cleaning up messes, and lots of Rowan very serious dirty looks. Unlike his brother Rowan is not effected in the least by the threat of a time out. Zane use to run screaming to time out and quickly did whatever he was asked when a time out was threatened. Not Rowan he could care less if I tell him to go to time out, causing more battles, and more struggles. We've tried quite a few things but currently the threat of taking away whatever he is playing with seems to work the best. Two is tough, but I know three is worse and am not looking forward to those battles ahead.

At two and a half I'm starting to see his little face change into a slightly bigger boy face and less of a baby face. But his face and body remain so tiny I can still easily cuddle my sweet boy. He still loves cuddles, giving kisses, and on the rarest of occasions even lets me hold his hand. He says the cutest things, "Let's talk about it Mamma," "I want to talk about it a little bit again." "Cuddle me, Hugga me, lova me, singa me." There is also a lot of whining and crying these days, needing to be held or cuddled at all times. Such is two and a half.

 

And that is a look at my sweet little Rowan at two and a half. I wish I could freeze time and keep him in this stage forever.

Ten On Tuesday

1. Back at the lake this weekend for Ames Day celebrations. There were lots of cheesy dibbles, all over Rowan's face.

 More fishing fun and the boys tried to learn how to play checkers. It was gorgeous weather and very relaxing.

 2. I had never been to Ames Day celebrations before and it did not disappoint. We hadn't found a turtle by the time we got there but some nice old man, in a C-collar, and a cowboy hat, gave us this gem of a turtle, who we named Captain. Captain seemed pretty aggressive while we watched all the other turtle heats but he kind of choked come show time. There were ten heats of racing turtles, so much fun to watch. Good clean fun!!

3. In the evening there were fireworks and lots of glow stick fun!! It was a surprisingly great show for tiny Ames, OK!

4. Mom's new ramp is complete and turns out it is perfect for riding tricycles down. No one got hurt, surprisingly, and they had a great time.

I can't wait to see her new landscaping that is going in this week. The farm remains gorgeous as always.

5. On our many turtle hunts we found plenty of little frogs/toads. Zane chased this guy around the yard for about ten minutes before finally capturing him. I was concerned that he might get squeezed to death, but he did manage to survive!

6. In miraculous news, Zane slept until seven thirty yesterday morning. Yes this is completely news worthy since Zane's usual wake up time is between six and six thirty. I of course was up at six thirty and became worried that Zane might have been kidnapped or died in his sleep. Turns out he was just exhausted from our weekend celebrations. He was rewarded for sleeping in by getting to go with the Richards on their end of summer celebrations, including the bouncy house, donuts, and playing with Maggie all day. I don't have any pictures of this fun, but I hear it was a great time. Zane might have thrown up after donuts, but that's pretty much par for Zane's course. I'm hoping this becomes the new norm, which will really help with Zane dropping his nap.

7. This Sunday Zane starts Sunday school for the first time. I didn't start him last year since I knew he wouldn't be going to kindergarten this year. I wanted to keep him in the same grade there as in school. Maggie was in this class last year and I hear all great things so hopefully he has a good time.

8. The pool woes continue at our house, mainly because Zach isn't here a lot these days to be able to keep chemicals where they need to be. I was ready to give up on the pool for the summer, but the boys so love it so we started over with some new water today. I have strong doubts that it will work, but at least the boys had fun playing in the hose today.

9. After I got done cooking dinner this is what I found Rowan wearing. I am unsure where Rowan found Zach's first communion tie, but he rocked it all night on his green t-shirt. Hysterical! He was so excited I could barely get a picture of him sitting still. Funny boy!!

10. What else, I changed my job a little bit to where now I work one more weekend day a month and get a five dollar an hour raise. I have been going to a different floor everyday which I guess is fun, but do miss having a home floor with friends and the like. But it's only two days a week.