Mulch & Babies

Last Friday I got all of my online work done before the kids came home at 4pm and I had a surprise waiting for them when they got there...a little yard upkeep. We have been in this house for a year and other than mowing/raking leaves this was the first time I had an opportunity to work in the yard. I got 4 bags of brown mulch (at 1/2 price!) that the boys helped me distribute while Scott was in treatment. Some of the spots were bare and really needed some work so putting mulch down was the least I could do. Noah was a big help in emptying the bags, placing the mulch and trimming our berry bushes. I took before photos with my phone and Noah groaned...he told me that he didn't understand why adults take photos of mulch. -ha ha- I told him I wouldn't put pics of the mulch on the blog but he didn't believe me. :) I mostly wanted to compare to see if the work we were going to do really made a difference. In my defense, I didn't even take 'after' photos because the transformation was obvious...and I couldn't put them on the blog anyway... The walk way looks so much nicer with the brown mulch and the berry bushes have been tamed once again.

The funniest part of the afternoon was when Lucas and Eli were raking leaves. Lucas yells- "Hey Mom?" Yes? "I don't think I want to play the saxophone this year." "Really? Why? (I'm thinking at this point that someone told him the sax is a girl instrument too but I haven't had a chance to look up yet...) He pauses... "Well, I want to play the RAKE instead!" At this point I look over and see that he has the rake upside down and is playing air-rake-guitar...and he is giggling...and as usual he makes me laugh...

Our little man is just a few days away from 7...it's official...no more baby. With 6 we can still get away with baby-ness but 7 is all grown up. Last year at this time Lucas regressed a little and started talking in baby talk. He wouldn't do it all the time but enough that we sat down with him to talk about it. He said that he wanted to stay our baby forever and maybe for his 6th birthday we could get him presents but if we didn't get him a cake then he wouldn't have to turn 6...and he could still be our baby. The thought was super sweet and probably came from our lamenting his upcoming birthday, and how we no longer had a baby in the family...but was too much of a burden for him to carry. He even told me that he always wanted me to hold him and if he turned 6, I might not be able to... Awwww...So, we all talked about how special 6 was and how we were so proud of him being a 'big' boy and that we loved the independence he was showing. The more we rewarded his 'big boy' behavior/speech and reassured him that we loved who he was, the less he talked like a baby...now fast forward one year. Lucas is definitely a big boy (and was at 6 too) but in the last few weeks he has been talking like a baby again. It starts while they are playing with their stuffed animals but then carries over into other conversations. We talked about it again last weekend and reassured him that we are ok with not having a baby, baby anymore and that even when he is 30 he will always be our baby...nothing like confusing your 6 yr. old, right? Besides....who says that there isn't another child in God's plan for us? You never know...

Here are some cute pics of Lucas...from 04, 05 and 06.

I can't believe he is turning 7 next week!