Lowe Profile: It Ain't for the Faint of Heart

Goodness gracious! Snails, shells, and puppy dog tails, they said. What about snot, superheroes, and "more whiney than not"? We have been deep in the parenting trenches up in here! In some ways I jest, but seriously it has been a battle of wills more often than not at the Lowe house. Life is BUSY right now, and I know those of you with older children are shaking your heads. Trust me, I know it only gets busier from here on out. We talked about letting Jake play soccer. He really hasn't expressed interest in soccer, so I am fine with not rushing around on another afternoon right now. There will be a time - just not right now. The poor little man has been worn out every day from preschool. We are officially in real preschool now, and he loves it!

So far, so good. He can tell you how to write Aa, Bb, and this week we are working on Cc. Of course, Connor can also now tell you how to draw an A because he heard Jake say it once. It's 2 for the price of 1 preschool. Which is good - 'cause preschool ain't cheap, my friend.

We had Labor Day to hang out as a family, and we went to Oatland Island where it was "surface of the sun" hot that day. Needless to say, we weren't there long.

I could eat this child up!

All the boys

Seriously? How cute is he???

Oatland Island has miles of trails with animal exhibits along the way. There are gators, a cougar, bobcats, deer, bison, etc. They also have a barnyard. We were feeding the cow hay when Connor stepped to the side and said, "Look, it's a baby crocodile." Said crocodile was a pile of cow poo. See exhibit A:

Exhibit A

Now, to his credit, I can see where he got that idea. Jason assured him it was cow poop. Jake kept asking where the baby crocodile was, Jason said no crocodile, Connor argued it was "right dere" pointing to exhibit A, and repeat - over and over.

We had to get some shots of this on Labor Day, too:

Where does time go? He was just born, and now he is over 20 lbs of sweetness. Jason just said tonight that Tucker was milking this "I'm the baby" thing for its full potential. If he's smart, he will.

And then Connor started school two days a week. We had to get a picture for their cubby at school, so I thought I'd get a recent picture. This is what you get when you ask Connor to smile. Hot mess...

I just printed out the last one and called it good. That boy is something. And here he is on the first morning. I have included a few "outtakes."

Wild hair and bruises in all their glory. We are in the throws of the terrible two's and they are quite terrible. Jake was MUCH worse at 3, and I think if Connor is worse at three he might need a new home for a while. I wish I had taken a picture of each boy's room before this post. Jake's room is cutely decorated with pictures, blinds down, access to the closet and bathroom, etc. Connor has a mattress on the floor because it was too high with rails. Period. That is it. He managed to tear down a picture I had above the bed, so it has been gone a long time, the blinds are up, the dresser that was once in there is gone because he wouldn't stop climbing on it, and there are locks on the closet and gates on the bathroom door. I had to raise the blinds even higher because he climbs in his window sill to stand. Last night, I found him asleep on his bed, naked with all the stuff on the bed strewn around the room. He was probably in the window giving passersby a show after he got all his clothes off. I dressed him while giggling and tucked him in to bed.

He knows no fear, and it terrifies me. On the other hand, he is the sweetest thing ever. He tells me he loves me 100 times a day. He is inquisitive and asks intelligent questions about everything. Yesterday, at the PACK event at church, he stood patiently and helped me put peanut butter and crackers in bags over and over while his brother ran around playing. He was content to help. But, man oh, man, does he test our patience these days.

The hubs and I celebrated his birthday and had a great time. Love this man, and I am thankful that he is such a great Daddy to these boys of ours.

Speaking of those boys of ours again, their "boyness" really is an innate quality. The love of superheroes that they have never actually seen in action, the play fighting, etc. It just comes from within. Jake came in yesterday singing, "Go, go Power Rangers." He has never even caught a glimpse of Power Rangers. Spiderman is the coolest thing ever, although they have no idea who he is except that he is a "good guy" and shoots webs out of his hands. Swords are their weapons of choice these days, although only the good Lord knows why I thought it was okay for them to have them. I will leave you with pictures of them playing Spiderman the other day. I'll be sure to caption appropriately. I must sign off for now. Being a Mama to three little boys is hard work, and we'll have to do all this again tomorrow.