Encouragement... it's a good thing!

If you had told me, five years ago, I would be married with two beautiful children today I would of said "uh... yah right!"

But, here I am... happily married to my beautiful wife and we were lucky to have two amazing children. Mauldin just suprises me everyday! I sit on the couch and just watch him walk around, singing his version of ABC/1.2.3.... and it makes me wonder what we did to make him so perfect.

Then there is our pretty princess, Elle. She is just so happy! I have NEVER seen a little kid, a baby no-less, smile as much as she does. The amount of happiness she emits is intoxicating and you cannot help but grin from ear to ear when you see her.

Just the other day, as I was about to head up the stairs my wife let out a gasp!

"Are you okay?" I said quickly. I was standing, one foot on the beige carpet on our stairs as I had one hand tightly grasped the gray graco baby gate that was installed to keep Mauldin from falling up or should I say down that stairs.

"Yes," my wife, Laura replied. "Did you see? Good job, Mauldin!"

I look down and expect to see my son scribing his name on a pad of paper or from the sound of the gasp he may of cured cancer... I wasn't sure. I saw him sitting in the floor with a toy he got from his cousin Everett. The toy is a Red and Blue circular toy that has a yellow handle and different shaped blocks... I guess you could call it a "Shape sorter." He sat on our kitchen floor with four or five of the yellow shapes all around him.

"Watch what your son can do..." Laura said. "Go on Mauldin, put them back!"

Our son loves to put things in their place... if he has a sippy cup it must go in it's cup holder... and if it is on the floor, it must be right side up. He makes sure all the doors are closed because heaven forbid one be open. This is true about the fridge as well... you open it, he MUST close it!

Like she said, I stood there and looked at my little boy work out placing all the blocks into their place. I glaced from Mauldin to Laura to see her face beaming with immense pride.

"But, babe..." I started. "I've seen him do that before, he's been doin' that for a while!"

I headed over to my little boy and patted him on the back. "That's great, Mauldin." I interjected.

"What?" she said with a hint of shock in her voice. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think it was a big deal." I calmly replied. "He's been doing puzzles for a while too... I just figured you knew!"

"NO!" she said while she clapped in Mauldin's direction showing her approval. "That's so amazing, Eric! That's really advanced."

"Yay!!! Yay, Mauldin!" I joined in on the clapping.

Mauldin looked up at both of us and starting clapping too! Well, that is all I needed to hear. As soon as anyone says something positive about your offspring... you just beam with pride, excitment... you know, all those good emotions.

I immediatley looked over at our little girl as she swayed back and forth in her exersaucer screaming in what seemed to be excitment for her big brother, although it could of been need for attention! I kinda felt bad we had put all that clapping and excitment into her brother so I felt the need to give Elle some encouragement and attention too! She had a paci in one hand and was grabbing onto a crunchy-sounding flower with the other. I crouched down and gave her a big grin. She responded with a high-pitch sound that could probably call some dolphins if we lived close enough to the ocean. At times we call her our little grasshopper... because of this commerical. It's really sweet actually because she always screams with a huge smile. As I went to stand up I felt something brush my side... it was Mauldin! He ran over and gave his sister a big hug... I guess he didn't want her to be left out either.

Pride and applejuice

Kids are curious and funny , little creatures. Well, very little ones… ones that can’t really verbalize what they want and so when they are upset all you get is a whine, cry or all out temper tantrum. In our case we have two children that do this, but they just do it on different levels.

Our daughter is a little easier to read. Up until three or four months old babies usually need either of a handful of things… either it is their diaper needs to be changed, they are hungry, sleepy or perhaps they have a tint of gas or the hiccups. These are baby basics and easily subdued.

You would think it would be the other way around, but as they get older they have more issues! Maybe it is because I offer him juice and because I didn't magically have the juice ready, at the time I asked him if he wanted it... he FREAKS out! I'm working on my choice of words now... Also, we may have the wrong TV show or movie and he wants to watch Super Why rather than Mickey Mouse Club House? It is amazing, he will pick the same movie to watch - everytime if we give him a choice... 9 times out of 10 it will be the Incredibles! Although, there are times he picks up Avatar or X-men: United, but when we take it away.

"No Mauldin," we say... "this is not a Mauldin or Elle movie, this is a movie just for mommy and daddy." He doesn't like that answer and will begin to throw all the movies from the cabinet on the floor as his revenge for not getting to view the film of his choice.

Mauldin's temper is the same everytime... it usually begins with a short whine or whimper and is followed with throwing his juice cup or toy (in this case movie) on the floor.

“Mauldin,” I look at him, “that wasn’t nice, now was it?” He looks at me with his big, 16-month, blue eyes, sometimes with tears running down his face, and just lets out a large exhale. This symbolizes a non-verbal “done.” Like, I’m done with this conversation. Now, granted 90% of the time our little man is a perfect gentleman. He follows the rules we set for him… he puts away his toys and relatively never gets into “trouble.”

“What’s wrong?” I ask him, not expecting an answer because his total vocabulary consists of probably six words: juice, up, down, zap, daddy and done.

“Da!” he says with much zeal, as if he had forgotten he was crying! He then puts two fingers to his mouth and begins flipping them on his lips which give me the clue that he now has something else on his mind and is ready to play again. Whatever was bothering him is now over and he has now moved on. Taking that toy away was so two minutes ago dad… I’m sure that is what he is thinking.

My son has many levels… the more in-depth and harder to control tantrums usually begin with laying in the floor and banging his head against whatever hard surface he is near… the floor, a cabinet, chair, his bed railings, etc… which creates more crying… It’s a vicious cycle.

We usually just have to pick him up and take him out of the situation or he will lay on the floor and just… well lay there. This past Monday morning he had woke up in a foul mood and so after getting his diaper changed (on the floor of our bedroom) and his clothes half on, ready to take him to daycare, he cried through the whole process… I gave up with his lack of cooperation and so I decided okay, I’ll just leave him be and he will discover I’m not paying attention to his fit… and calm down… Well, calm down yes, but our son is a prideful little man. Fast forward, five minutes later, and well, I come back to peek in on him from the bathroom and there he was, still… same place, hasn’t moved from the hardwood floor… one green sock on with the other laying on the floor next to him, I could see the hint of the alligator stitching from where I stood, he did have a shirt on, but his shorts were lying next to the alligator sock. The child just laid there, one finger in his mouth and eyes fixed on Special Agent OSO.

No one can break my child’s pride.

Now, where does he get this from? This is still an unanswered question.

Two perfect little people

In the midst of a week full work week it is amazing how I found time to sit down and rest, rest and not worry about bills, kids, or even work. I just took the time to listen to the waves crashing around me… the warm waves in the distance, I can smell the salty, Caribbean sea air and feel the warming sensation of the sun on my over-worked and tired body. I rub my toes together to knock the sand off. I feel a breeze on my face and peek one eye open to feel the cool shade from the palm tree above. The beads of sweat running down my sun-kissed, tan chest as I lounge in a white, beach chair just close enough to the sand that I can run my fingers gingerly through the rough, granule mixture of soft, white sand. I lay comfortable, calm, serene in this Corona-like state.

“Eric.”

I hear my name being called. Is a waiter walking by, dipping his head down to whisper to me, not to stir me from my zen?

“Eric?”

What service, what a life I have… it’s like a dream. I groggily turn my head over to the right and open my mouth to make my order for a fruity, Caribbean drink. I open my eyes and before I can order my drink the shadowed figure above looks stunningly familiar.

“Eric, hand her over,” my wife, Laura, says. “I need to swaddle your daughter.”

I look down and realize it was all a grand dream. I was, in-fact, home on my comfy couch lying with my daughter, Elle, secure in our Baby Bjorn, on my chest. It had been such a taxing and hard week and it was only Thursday! I forgot I had laid down after chasing my little boy around and before I knew it I was out like the light in our bathroom. Side note: Our bathroom light has been out for about two weeks and I keep putting it off from changing it, I swear to my wife that “this weekend, after I mow, I will change it. I look down at my little girl, snoring lazily with one of her little hands up by her face and the other dropped, idly by my side. I look to my right and see my son sitting down on the floor and trying to place two plastic blocks together. It seemed as if he was getting really frustrated because the yellow and green block wouldn’t connect so the anger in him rose and he threw it on the floor behind him. He then had his attention taken away when he struck up a conversation with his six dwarves. A mixture of “daa’s” and “doo’s” go back and forth from he and the dwarves. We are unsure of the whereabouts of “Happy” the dwarf.

It is amazing to see how much our son, Mauldin, has progressed in just sixteen months. I lay there with a six-week old baby on me and see my other child running around, playing and trying to put toys together. It boggles my mind that my child learns! I mean it is amazing to me!

“Bring me your football Mauldin!” I say enthusiastically! He looks as me with his glittering blue eyes and turns to find his ball. I know how elementary some things can be, but to me, “the dad,” I just feel as if my child is a genius!

I cannot believe my wife and I are parents of two children! I would say “how did this happen?” But, that would be kind of stupid, but in all fairness it staggers me to wake up and know I am responsible for two little people! Two perfect little people…

Welcome Home, Elle!

Our little princess decided to make her debut on June 22, 2010 at 4:51am.

Stats: 6lbs 7 oz / 19 1/2 inches long

Her big brother was so excited to meet her!

We were really excited to bring her home.

Welcome home!