And He is Off {MW rides a Bike}

Kids.
They are so interesting to watch. No wonder researchers study and study them. Each is their very own anomaly. I currently have two research subjects of my own and they each have produced such varying results. Maybe it is a girl/boy thing or maybe it is just a human thing--who knows.

Take MW he is 4.5 yo.
He just learned to pedal this bike, well any bike for that matter 3 weeks ago.

Then there is Sass, at the exact same age she was off for the races sans training wheels. She had spent the previous summer on training wheels with zero desire to change.

Back to MW. He is kind of a fearful kid. He just doesn't like to be out of control...hmmm. I am not sure why that sounds so familiar...anyway, daddy pushed him one day to do it and said we weren't going in until he tried.

Well, that only took 3 minutes and he was off! He couldn't believe how much fun this was.

Now he begs daily for walks and bike rides and if the morning time allows we go. We have both really enjoyed our walks and I am so impressed how far he can ride. The first few days though you weren't allowed to talk to him because he was "concentrating." HA!

Now he is golden and can talk and ride!! Watch out for Mr. big shot.

We take some pretty long walks and I got curious one day and figured there has to be an app for that! And of course there was MAP MY WALK. I downloaded it mid walk and found out we walked a little over 2 miles!! Not too shabby little buddy.

However, you have to have a little rest break at every bench, that is just silly not too.

And that is how we roll here.  {Pun intended}
We do things nice and slow and then the rest is history.

Rewind {August}

Hey Michele welcome back to blogging.
I really {believe} I mean it this time. I am about 78% confident I am going to start blogging on the regular again.
Honestly, I have contemplated doing vlogs {video blogs--in case you don't know} just so I can talk to a camera and get it done quickly. Because I am a way faster talker than typer. However, not having it written out freaks me out a bit AND let's face it I can run photoshop like a wizard, but I don't have a clue when it comes to video editing. That is Chad's department. So we shall see.

So here is a peek into what has been going on this past August.

Up first praise team.
You guys you have no idea the joy being on praise team brings me. none. I would do it every weekend if they would let me. It blesses me beyond measure and I pray that through our worship we bless those and prepare their hearts for God's word. And that is a privilege to be apart of.

 Then there is this.
Please note this is no ordinary swimming photo. This is MW in the SHALLOW end. Not on the steps, but the shallow end. Say it with me the SHALLOW END! Praise hands. He has spent the ENTIRE summer on the steps--having a blast mind you but nonetheless on the steps. I begged, I bribed, I tossed him in even, nope nada. Not getting off those steps. Then one day we finally coerced him off the steps {on one of the last days of summer} and the rest is history. That boy goes running for the water whenever we get a chance to go, which is getting fewer and farther between due to school and crazy weather patterns. Anyway, summer goal completed!

A trip to the zoo. I think this was right before school started. It was a nice family day. We struggle with family time due to polar opposite work schedules, so when we can all be together we so enjoy it!

 I have to include this.
Lo has a heart like her daddy. She loves to write notes and give gifts. Mommy bought diet oreos {aka the regular stuff kind and not the double stuff} there was only one double stuffed left and Lo saved it for Chad and wrote this note and placed it lovingly on his pillow. She is so sweet it hurts. She does stuff for me like this all the time. Such a giver.

Here we are not impressed with dinner. Oh, and you should always wear swim goggles to the table.

 This was another family day right before school kicked off. Bowling! They love going and we had a ball. {get it...?! :) }

 Last swim of the summer {before school started}.
This is the Fat Sheep gang. I am not entirely sure why they call themselves this, but they did and it stuck. Next year MW and Jayne will start school too. Tear.

This is how mommy and MW spent day 1 of school! At the park...and being silly.

 Chad now works at our church and is gone all weekend. So we chillax on Sundays, in our undies, on the table, watching Tarzan and playing transformers. Yeah, it is awesome.

 One evening we took a walk and the horses up near where we live were  out and walking towards us. The kids beg to pet them, so we did. Thatcher not a fan. This horse was so nice.

And that concludes this installment of Rewind. We did a few more things, but I thought separate posts would work better for those things.

Chele

First Day of MDO for MW

Last Tuesday it was Micah's turn to go to "school."
To say he was a little excited is an understatement. Just watch the video clip below to see.


IMG 3813 from Michele Keethler on Vimeo.

This kid is so full of life, it is contagious. He has been begging and begging to go to school for a year now. I was never one for Mom's Day Out and Lo certainly never went, but he wants to go. I tried to talk him out of it, but there was no changing his mind. Every morning he asks if it is MDO day.

I will say it is kind of nice to have 4 hours to get things done or just let the voices in my head talk to one another without being constantly interrupted by a need to be fed, wiped, helped, dressed and so on.

He was so excited to pick out his lunch box and he loves that they go swimming every time. I am glad he loves it and I am glad it is flexible. If it stops being fun or life gets in the way then we stop for a month or two and start back up later.

I am a strong believer in just letting kids be kids. I don't do pre-K, simply because they have their whole lives to be in school, so why start at 3. MDO seems like a happy medium. Only one day/week full of mostly fun and play with just a bit of learning tossed in = perfection.

Here is his chalkboard print. I love that he wants to be a Helicopter Driver. :)

FREEDOM!!

I am going to miss my little buddy though. I am trying to soak up this last year with just him at home all day. I miss Lo, but she had my full attention for two years pre MW and now it's his turn to get all my focus.

The things he says to me. For the record I wasn't sad and didn't cry because it was only one day.

He is incapable of taking a normal picture.

His first craft an Apple for the letter A.

This was from my time hop this past week. I was sort of feeling like a mom failure because MW has zero interest in writing and learning letters. Last year I tried and tried but gave up making him trace letters, one year later he comes running out of his room exclaiming MOM! Look I wrote my name all by myself. {albeit out of order, but hey that is a start!!} I was reminded that not all is lost he will and can learn.

So what did mommy do while MW was gone?

Painted the fireplace. AH!

BEFORE

AFTER

I thought about doing a vlog about this, but maybe when it's all done.

I have been slowly redecorating the living room over the last 6 months. And I have been dying to paint that fireplace for.ev.er. Chad was not on board. And well, something that permenate I needed him to be on board. So I did lots and lots and lots of pintrest-ing and researching on this. I finally wore Chad down with my incessant talk about it. He caved. He really just wanted me to shut up about it. Whatever I will take it. 

Except. Then I couldn't pull the trigger. 

So of course I continued to go on and on about it and lost countless hours of sleep over it.

Finally on the day of MDO I just went for it. I was so freakin nervous. I was having heart palpitations the entire time. 

I kept stepping back thinking dear Lord what am I doing?!!? But there was no turning back. I finished and texted a photo to Chad he said it looked good. I of course then shared the photo to Facebook because where else do you get validation from? HA!

I didn't love it at first. I didn't hate it. But I most certainly wasn't sure I did the right thing.

It took about 24 hours for me to fall in love with it. I think simply because it was such a stark contrast to the original, but now I am so happy I did it. I love it. The room no longer seems like a tomb. 

So there you go what I did on MDO.