Yesterday I woke up at 8 am, alone in my room, because the sun was shining in my face. It’s been a long time since I had an “oh no why didn’t the baby wake me?” moment of panic, since one of the kids usually comes upstairs to wake me around 6:30. But we took the baby gate down this week; I don’t have any babies anymore. I hopped out of bed shouting “Evan? Caroline?” and immediately heard two sets of feet running up the stairs. The kids ran into the room holding graham crackers and grinning. “Hi Mom!” said Evan, “I took Caroline downstairs. We’re having graham crackers and playing iPad and I fed Brutus!”

I don’t want to jinx anything but I’m fairly sure four is my favorite. He’s understood directions for while but now he understand emotions. He can read me like a book (better than a book, since he can’t actually read) and will call me out when I’m not at my best. Nothing cuts quite like having a four year old ask “Are you having a bad day, Mom? Do you need a hug?” Gut-punch, every time. It’s even more amazing when he does it with Caroline – I scolded her for running away at the grocery store and he took her hand and said “It’s OK, baby baby, you’re my best friend.” If you ever wanted to see a grown woman cry in a grocery store, that would have been a good moment. Standing between the bread and the lightbulbs I realized my oldest baby was a whole kid.

There’s no going back with this growing up thing. I few weeks ago the thought of sending him to real school on a bus was ridiculous. Today it seems inevitable. Of course he’s going to get on a bus. He’s going to get on a bus this September for pre-K and next September for Kindergarten and a few more Septembers for high school and then he’ll be taking a bus to some tropical location for a week-long Spring Break trip where the only thing keeping him alive is my voice in his head saying “WISE CHOICES!” That’s what I think about when my sweet-faced ginger boy says “Mommy, I want to sit on you” when I’m “too busy” for sitting. My kid still wants to hang out with me. I’ve got to enjoy that while I still can.

Evan gets himself out of bed, he picks out clothes from socks to shirt, gets himself dressed, chooses his breakfast, helps decide the days activities, puts on his own shoes, feeds the dog, is a great helper when we grocery shop, tells me the numbers and letters on the signs, goes to the bathroom alone (and ditched the nighttime pull-ups a few weeks ago!), helps cook and clean, can walk alone on a sidewalk, holds his sister’s hand, shares his stuff, plays well with others, eats (pretty) well, talks about his feelings, sits in time out willingly when he’s naughty, wants to see the pictures I take in the camera, can go on long walks, tells me when he’s tired and wants to go to bed, sleeps in any bed with just a kiss goodnight and an “I love you”, and sleeps 10-11 hours straight. He’s a whole kid. I feel super lucky, since hopefully I’ll get at least 4 good years of this independent-but-loving-person before the worst of the tweenage stuff hits. I’d take 40 years of this, as long as “this” was just like this week.

“Go stand under that tree and I’ll take your picture!” I said on the way home from our evening walk. “No Mom, take a picture of me doing this! It’s a good picture!” said my big kid. And he was right.

Prayers and thoughts for one of my very favorite cities.

From out visit in 2010

I got a pitch from the American Licorice Company and E said “FINALLY YOUR BLOGGING IS PAYING OFF TELL THEM TO SEND ALL THE LICORICE.” Clearly I couldn’t let the guy down.

So they sent regular Red Vines and black Red Vines and Natural Vines…and they were all gone before I could take any pictures. I’m not entirely sure E  even took the wrappers off before he ate them he was so busy shoving them into his face. Luckily I saved some of the black licorice for Evan’s birthday (I called them “rails”) and let the kids try it.

They aren’t 100% sold on black licorice yet. E is a HUGE fan. My mom loves it. I would rather eat my own toenails (although I love all the other kinds of licorice).

An industry leader in manufacturing and marketing candy products, the American Licorice Company is one of the original licorice manufacturers in the US candy industry. Since its establishment in 1914, American Licorice has brought happiness to consumers with their Red Vines®, Snaps®, Sour Punch®, Super Ropes® and Natural Vines® candy. Additional information is available online at www.americanlicorice.com.

My husband thanks you, American Licorice!

How about you? Are you a weirdo who likes black licorice too?

I love when a company reaches out with a brand and an idea I’m happy to support – and it doesn’t hurt when my kids love their product too.

KinderStuff is the kind of company you can stand up a cheer for. They make organic, eco-friendly and socially conscious kids’ clothes, made from marine recovered ocean plastic material yarn, in America and Germany. Then they cut out the middleman and sell them straight to you to keep the costs down – so you don’t have to take out a second mortgage to dress your kids in a way you can feel good about.

On top of selling super-cute, fashionable clothes, they’re working to solve one of the most frustrating kids’ clothes problems – they grow out of them so fast! From KinderStuff:

Kids grow, clothes don’t. Some say that children outgrow almost 1,500 articles of clothing in their first 18 years. That’s a problem!

With KinderStuff, every item you purchase gets you a discount in the future. When the clothes no longer fit, send them back and get a discount coupon for your next purchase. We even pay for the shipping back to us! Returned clothing is then donated to charity, recycled, or resold as hand-me-down on our website. All this doesn’t only benefit you, but society as a whole.

KinderStuff just launched at the beginning of the month and right now they’ve got designs for babies and toddlers up to size 24 months but they’ll be rolling out new designs and products up to size six years over the next few months. I can’t wait to see what they come up with for 4 year olds (and if you have a good idea, they’d love to hear from you!)

Caroline has worn her Stella shirt four times since we got it (which means it’s been washed 3 times) and it still looks great. The cotton is thick and obviously very high quality. There wasn’t any significant shrinking or fading. The colors are still bright and the “oonie-corn” is still the cutest. I’m very impressed.

Now I’m going to post a bunch of pictures of Caroline in her shirt, but you can scroll to the bottom to enter my giveaway to win the item of your choice from KinderStuff!

KinderStuff is a new company in the US and they would really love your support on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. I was sent the Stella shirt to review but no compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I read a post on BlogHer last week about a mom who has no interest in throwing her kid a Pinterest-style birthday party. I’m not going to link to it directly since I’m not trying to criticize or start a fight with the author. You can easily find it if you want to read the original but the gist was this: “We do low-key parties. I sent some email invites and invited 2 friends and my kid had a super good time…” The part that came after those ellipses was unspoken by the author but was obvious in the comment section. It ranged from “…so planning a big, extravagant party is stupid” to “…so your way is a waste of time” to “…which makes me a better mom because I spent more time with my kid than you did because you were on Pinterest looking for ways to make cupcakes in a mason jar.”

WHOA WHOA WHOA. While I can agree with the premise of the original post (You don’t NEED matching place settings to have a nice birthday! Kids don’t really care!) I would like to register my extreme disagreement with the idea that throwing a Pinterest-inspired kid’s birthday party makes me anything except for someone who likes throwing parties.

I am not a better mom. I am not a worse mom. I am not a busier mom. I am not a slacker mom. I am not a more involved mom. I am not a mom who never plays on the floor with her kids. I am not interested in comparing my kid’s birthday party to your kid’s birthday party. YOU DO YOU. I am just doing something that makes me and my kid happy.

What’s that you say? This sounds just like everything else about parenting? Why yes, I believe you’re correct! Breastfeeding, bottle feeding, make your own baby food, baby-led weaning, cloth diapers, disposable diapers, organic sawdust filled diapers, daycare, preschool, homeschool, unschool, upside-down school, WHATEVER. The effort/non-effort you are willing to put into any of those things doesn’t have anything to do with me. Stop making it a comparison. If you hate it, don’t do it!

I swear to you – double-dog, pinkie-swear, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die-stick-a-thumbtack-in-my-eye swear – that when I bring my kid to your kid’s birthday party at Chuck E Cheese the ONLY thing I am thinking is “Hmmm…Will anyone notice if I eat 4 pieces of pizza?” I am grateful we were invited because it means my kid isn’t a total jerk. I am glad to be out of the house. I am EXTRA glad if there is store-bought cake, since we all know that’s really the best kind. I’ve been to birthdays ranging from 3 kids just hanging out to 30 kids and a bounce house and my kid had fun at all of them.

When I started this big, fancy birthday party thing for Evan’s 1st there WAS no Pinterest. It was the Stone Ages of party planning, where I had to rely on Google Image Search and my own brain. I didn’t even know about paper straws. But I started the planning ball rolling and it just…kept going. I liked it. It was fun, it kept me busy, it was a creative outlet I had been missing during that first hectic new-baby year. Evan REALLY enjoyed his birthday and I enjoyed the compliments. Now it’s become my Thing – birthdays, baby showers, Halloween, whatever – and I’m going to keep doing it as long as the kids are still excited about it. Although one day I’m sure we’ll do Chuck E Cheese – and this year we’re doing a store-bought cake too.

Whew. That was 400 words more than I was planning on writing and probably 600 words more than I actually needed.

TL:DR version – Parties are cool, do whatever you want.

If what you want is a vintage train themed party with an orange and blue color scheme, here’s what I’m planning for Evan’s 4th. I’ve bought about 75% of this already and I’m making/hunting down/crowd-sourcing the rest.