Birthday Party at Monkey Joes

Ramsey's best buddy Ty had his birthday party last night at Monkey Joes. Ramsey had the time of his life and was WIDE OPEN the whole time. He climbed and slid down every single thing there all by himself. It is so funny to me how kids can do so much more on there own when they have their buddies around. My Dad went with us since Cope was flying back from his all week work trip. Ramsey loved having his "Pops" there with us. Monkey Joes was CRAZY on a Friday night but Ramsey enjoyed every minute of the 2 hours we were there. He slept like crap last night though due to the sugar and adrenaline high he survived the night on. Oh well at least he had fun!

Ramsey and BFF Ty:

Ramsey, Ty,a nd Connor. These 3 are in preschool together. There teachers should get paid more:

Ramsey just showing off:

He found this race game and was in L-O-V-E:

Ty too: Riding the elephants:

He's Back!

Whoo Hoo! My little boy is back from the depths of naughty-ness!!!! I have been using the "If I have to ask you again I will take your race car away" method and it has worked pretty well. I have put a basket on top of the table and when he isn't listen or doing something he knows he shouldn't I give him a warning and if it happens again the toy he is playing with gets a time out. This seems to be quite effective for the moment. I promise I won't try to bore you all with every time my child acts like a demon but this week was really bad so thanks for listening and for your ideas. I just love my blogging buddies and fellow mommies out there. It is wild ride with this little man but I wouldn't trade this life for ANYTHING.

Favorite Breakfast Spot

Thank you all for your responses to yesterday's post. I was reading in a magazine yesterday that when kids go through these extreme testy times it is when they are in a period of BIG development. Not sure about that but whatever it is Ramsey's is out of sorts. I am going to try today to make chest or box and when he is naughty/not listening I will make him put a toy in the box for a certain amount of time. I'll let you know if this works. I swear though it is if we have these peaks where I want to pull my hair out and I go into "boot camp" discipline mode and then in no time he is sweet as pie again? Ramsey for sure does not like for me to ever think this parenting thing is "easy". It is NOT!

Need Some Parenting Advice

Ok, So I am not sure what exactly the "terrible twos" are but one thing is for sure I am at loss when it comes to disciplining Ramsey lately. He simply not listening when I tell him not to do something. I have tried talking to him and explaining gently why I am saying "no" to what he is doing. I have most certainly raised my voice. I have tried the counting to 3 thing but he just thinks it is fun to count right along with me. Time outs are not that effective for him. He will stay put but doesn't considerate it harsh discipline. I have popped his bottom, I have pulled down his panst and smacked his leg but at this point he doesn't even flinch and I hate spankings and at this rate he'll be getting one several times a day making them even less effective. He is not a bad kid and he knows when he is doing something wrong. It is as if he just checking to make sure his will is stronger then mine.

Anyway, I am struggling to find a way to get his attention to let him know I am "the boss" and when I say "no" I mean no. I never want him to be afraid of me but I do want him to believe me. I try to stay consistent as much as possible. I mean sometimes he is so sweet but when he his naughty, he is naughty. I know this is all part of the development of a STRONG WILLED CHILD but any advice to help this mommy survive would be much appreciated.

Morning Reading with Daddy

Ramsey loves when Fridays come around and he knows his Daddy is home. We take is a little slower and enjoy being at home and not having to rush to activities or errands. Ramsey also loves it because he has another playmate around and will immediately ask Cope to play or read. Cope is a great Dad and Ramsey and I are both incredibly thankful for him.

The Heat is On!!!

I've been quite the bust little bee lately. My little home business has really turned into a real job and so now I am a 30 + hours a week worker/full time stay at home mommy. I love waking up each day and thinking about what new things I get to create that day. I love when customers send me picture from their kids birthday party wearing a shirt I've made or on vacation sporting some of my items too. It makes me truly enjoy what I do and I am thankful every single day I get to do what I love so it really doesn't even feel much like "work" at all. I've posted some of my latest Summer designs as you Mommy's out their begin to think about your kiddos summer wardrobe and beach wear. These will make excellent birthday gifts as well.

For more applique designs and other products visit my business blog at www.collectionsbytaranicole.blogspot.com

Picture Post

Ramsey and Ty eating popcorn and watching Cars:

Totally both into the race track scene:

Ramsey on his morning perch:Posing:

About to smack Bentley for getting in his way. They have a love/hate relationship:

Entertaining himself:

Not sure why but my computer won't let me turn this one. But the outfit cracks me up here so I had to include it:

Ramsey with his "friend" George. He has started referring to his stuffed animals as his friends:

Snow!

We did get some great snow on Friday. The only problem was that it was Ramsey's best buddy, Ty's birthday party night at Monkey Joes. We had been looking forward to it for weeks. Ty's poor Mommy, Kelly had already picked up the amazing cake and finalized most all the details. I was crushed for them. We ended up just going over to their house that evening for pizza and cake and Kelly decided to reschedule and just order another cake at that time. We'll be there!!!

Cope and Ramsey did get to go play for a short while outside but Ramsey's mittens kept coming off and his little hands got cold. It was the perfect snow for Georgia, beautiful and plentiful but gone the next day! I don't miss shoveling snow AT ALL.

Valentines Party

Ramsey's little playschool class has their Valentines Party this past Wednesday and Kelly (Ty's Mom) and I were in charge of bringing the goodies. It was a very low key party and so Kelly and I just stayed and observed the craziness that is a classroom of 7-2 year old boys for a bit. It was surprisingly very under control. Now why do I have trouble keeping only 1 under control on my own??? Mystery. Anyway, it was a cute little party and Ramsey was excited to have my there.

Ty loving his cookie. He ate 2 plus half or Ramsey's: Boys under control. Notice the nice spacing between them all: Moments like this are nothing short of a miracle:

I really enjoy Ramsey's little class and we're already signed up for next year. Whoo Hoo!

Mud???

Yesterday I put Ramsey down for his nap at his usual 1:00pm nap time and I quickly got to work on some sewing orders. I had the video monitor in the room with me and I noticed he wasn't going to sleep. Now sometimes he plays around and talks for a bit but yesterday he was treating his crib like a fun house. He was jumping, throwing his stuffed Curious George at the monitor camera, singing jingle bells, etc. He seemed to be having a blast and I decided if he needed me he'd call for me. Well, this all went on for over an hour and this kid was only getting more energized. So by 2:15 I finally was getting a little peeved and I went in to tell him to "Lay down" or else. Well, he was hanging over the side with his hands stretched out covered in something??? I said "what in the world is that" and he said "Mud". I said where did it come from and he said "from my diaper". AWESOME. At least he hadn't started poo painting yet. So I got him up, gave him a bath and a good talking to about how that is yucky and he should NEVER do that again. He sort of laughed but I so hope he understands? I got him back down for his nap and he did eventually fall asleep, thank goodness. I suppose yesterday afternoon was just one of those "joys of parenting" that people forget to tell you about???

Weekend of Parties

Cope had to be out of town this past weekend for Drill so Ramsey and I were on our own to have some fun. I hate when Cope is away but it is really easier to stay busy. So Saturday at lunch we attended a party for my Friend Heather's adorable daughter, Addison. She was turning two and the party was lots of fun. Ramsey was on his best behavior (thank you Lord!) He enjoyed the cupcakes, cheetos, and bugles:

Sunday we had breakfast at my Moms, came home for Ramsey to have a early nap and then at 2:00 we had another Birthday party for Ramsey's classmate and friend Connor. It was at a local Bounce place called "Bounce N Beans" or according to Ramsey "Baked Beans". He had an absolute blast and was everywhere. He is such a big boy now and I was able to sit with the Mommies and talk and he ran around with his friends and did everything there with no need for help. It was construction truck theme so Ramsey was in heaven.

Later that afternoon we went back over to my Mom's for a Super Bowl party. The party turned out to be just Mom, Morgan, Ramsey and Myself. It was low key but really fun as usual. Ramsey picked his drink of choice for the big game:

Eating some football snacks with Papa:

Drummer Boy

Ramsey and Cope love to play a little Rock Band on the weekends. Sometimes he likes to be the guitar hero and other times he just wants to be the drummer boy. As you can tell he just cracks us up these days.

Funny Story

This morning I was getting Ramsey out of the car so we could go in Walmart and we heard a siren sound. Ramsey said "what that noise Momma" and I said I think it's a police car and he said "no its ambulance" so I turned around and just as I did an ambulance came over the hill blaring its siren. I just laughed as I realized he knows the different sounds of emergency vehicles. He is already getting smarter then me and he is only two. Yikes!

Monkey Joes

My Friend Crystal and I took our kiddos to Monkey Joes yesterday morning for a little playtime. Ramsey has been looking forward to the outing for over a week now. Needless to say he was sooooo excited. It was incredibly hard to get both Ramsey and Harper Cole to stay still for a picture together so each momma had to fend for themselves when it came to getting their kid in photos. Ramsey was everywhere. I would have thought he would have had a great nap yesterday afternoon but he only slept for 45 minutes. I guess he was just over excited form the days events. We head back to Monkey Joes next Friday for Ty's birthday party and I guess there is at least one little boy over the moon with excitement for that day. Here are some pics form yesterday. I think Ramsey's face says it all:

Harper Cole:

Doing the big slides all by himslef. He did this one about 10 times in a row: