The Kruger Family: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

My Big Boy Day with Cash

Fridays are Cash and my hangout days. Sometimes we just come home and hang out and clean up, other days he has to go place to place with me so I can run errands, sometimes we have a breakfast date and others we go visit friends.

But every Friday on the drive to school, the whole ride, he says "not me, Owen, not me, not me, Owen." He has to reassure himself the whole way there that only Owen is going to school and not him. He says it the whole ride to school and while we are dropping him off. It is so funny. Also because he actually does like school and happily walks in on the days he does go to school but for whatever reason "not me, not me, Owen, not me" is his mantra.
We call Fridays "big boy days' because only the big boys go to school on Friday.

We had an exceptionally fun morning this last Friday. For not any other reason than he is just a fun little dude to hang out with and we got to go visit two of our favorite people. He is so goofy and fun and just so willing to do whatever as long as he is with me.

He kept asking for Pop this morning and I needed to go talk to him anyway, so we headed downtown to visit Pop at the store.
The boys love going down there but I am pretty sure my dad loves it even more. Cash was in a super silly mood and would not pose for a picture. My dad had asked that I send a picture of him so he could have a picture of his outfit and this is the best we got. Cash dresses himself on most days, it is a battle I have chosen not to fight on most days. He chose the swim trunks, soccer socks pulled up to his underwear and two pull-over fleeces.

I still cant not believe we are in underwear!!!!! My baby is wearing underwear. I cant imagine our house without diapers. I digress....

We hung out for a bit, had a snack and Cash helped my dad clean my rings. Cash loves my dad and just now started referring him to as Pop-Daddy.

Next we went down to Blaine's new station just down the road. This station is HUGE!!!!!! Thankfully I ran into the chief on our way in and she lead us into the station and to Blaine. We met all 12 or so Firefighters on B shift and got a quick tour of the huge station before Cash was ready to head back out into the truck room for a little training.

Our last stop was Whole Foods for big-as-your-face muffins where we ate and played hide and seek behind the paper bag the muffin came in at the table.

We quickly headed home so I could get Cash down for a nap only to have him jump up and down in his crib yelling "None mommy!!! None!!!!!!"
"None" is the way he says "done"......needless to say, no nap was taken.

Love hanging out with my Cash Man so much!!!!

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Austin Activities

Austin has so many cool places to visit and I think we sometimes take it for granted since we live here and forget how cool our city is. It is so easy to just stick to our little bubble around here and not venture out. Some days if feels too hard to even think about going on an "adventure" with all the boys.

But MLK Day was a beautiful day!!!! The boys were off of school and Blaine had things going on that day so I decided to pack up the boys and head out for the afternoon. Our first stop was at the Gus Fruh Greenbelt entrance. We hiked down a bit until we found a watering hole and parked it there for a bit. The boys played around in the rocks, threw them in the water to see them splash and attempted to skip them.

When they were ready to start moving again we went exploring and hiked around. They had a blast exploring and I promised them we could come back when it was a little warmer so they could get in the water and play.
We stopped next at the Skate Park off Lamar to watch the guys bike and skate around doing tricks. It was pretty packed and the boys decided they wanted to just stay in the car and watch from there. It was super fun to watch and we will definitely go back one day during the week when it wont be so crowded.
They were not quite ready to head home so our final stop that day was to the Graffiti park. It is just two blocks from Blaine's old station--that's a different story for a different time, but Blaine promoted and moved to Central, or Station 1 and we are so excited !!! He does not like the attention and probably would not be thrilled with me talking about but I am so, so, so proud of him and so excited for this move in his career. Last night was actually his first shift at his new position/station.

Another great event that Austin has to offer is the 3M Half Marathon. This year was my 10th year to run. It is my favorite race and have run every year I could that I was not pregnant or have a new born. I rode down there was a few running buddies and Liz and I started the run together until about mile 5 and we broke off on our own.

At mile 7 Lauren was down there to cheer me on. I mean seriously, only an amazing friend would wake up on a Sunday morning before the sun came up to weave through blocked roads to do that. How lucky am I?!?!? I had my phone out and a plan worked out in my head how I was going to take a super quick picture with her as I ran by but it just didn't work as well as I planned in my head. But it was even more special to me that she was out there because I was so disappointed that Blaine wasn't able to come out with the boys to cheer as planned. We found out that there was going to be a service in honor of Maw that morning and there just was not any way to get downtown with the boys dressed and ready to go and then get to the service with three happy boys. We were equally disappointed that it was not going to work as we had planned (we found out only 2 weeks before the race the service was the same morning) but we both know there will be others races to come. So I was really excited to see Lauren at mile 7.
I had a great race, although I never felt like I fell into a great rhythm but I did PR, so that was great. I finished at 1:42 and averaged a 7:46 pace.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Dear Eli

Dear Eli, my SIX year old,
As I stood in the cafeteria during the assembly on Friday and watched you walk up to the stage in front of the entire school with the other kids with a birthday this week, I was literally holding back tears. Part of me felt like it was so lame that I was getting teary-eyed because you got to go up on stage while everyone sung Happy Birthday and then you got to go get your "birthday pencil" before returning back to your class. You stood up there looking almost proud/excited/like you were about to start crying....not quite sure what you were feeling. I know you don't like all the attention on you and you are not the out-spoken type. But I know how excited you are about this birthday and I have a feeling you felt pretty cool up there.

I stood there watching you, holding back tears, just so proud of you. You looked to tiny up there with all the bigger kids, but to me, you are turning 6, and that sounds so big! I did my best to hide my emotions because who cries just because they saw their little boy get sung Happy Birthday with the 10 other kids with birthdays this week at the school assembly?!?!? Well, me, I do.

Dad, Cash and I came up to Kiker to have lunch with you and brought cupcakes for your whole class that day. You are totally into Pokemon these days, and I spent more of my life than I care to admit running around town looking for Pokemon cupcake toppers at your request. No luck. I finally found some tattoos and attached to them to some plastic toothpicks to surprise you. You were so happy when you saw them! The whole class got to come outside to the picnic tables, sing and eat cupcakes together.

Six years old. Wow. I am pretty sure I say this at every birthday, don't I? I think I will always feel this way about you guys. The time sure does fly by.

This morning as I was getting dressed you were in the bathroom with me and we were talking about how old everyone in our family is. This is very interesting to you for whatever reason. You like to talk about Ethan a lot. "So, Ethan is 38, and after that, he will be 39 and after that he will be 40" you said. I made you stop right there because man, time is flying by. How are we getting so old so fast?
There are still days that I cant believe that I am an actual "grown-up" with an adult house, and bills to pay, and a mortgage, and that I have THREE kids, that last one is really the one that gets me every time, and now a SIX year old!?!?

I have been watching your excitement for this birthday and seen the pride that comes with getting older. You have been counting down the days for at least two weeks now.

Six is cool, don't get me wrong, but it means when next Summer is over you will be going into first grade, you are needing me less, you are more independent, and inquisitive, you have started to want more privacy, and time to yourself. This had been a big year for you, with starting Kindergarten and really coming into yourself. Its been amazing to see your transformation this year and watching you turn into this real person, with intelligent thoughts and opinions, to see you problem-solve and become more mature. Your mannerisms and sense of humor are transforming as well.

You still snuggle up during story time and want to be tucked in. You still wont go upstairs alone at night because you are scared and make me keep lights on downstairs on the nights dad is at work. You still sleep with Little Lar (Formally known as just Larry). You still want reassurance that I am there to help. Oh and you still whine, a lot. I think this comes with the age, but its always a reassurance that you are still little and don't always know how to express your feelings in a productive manner. You still enjoy baths,

You love your birthday, and you should and I want you to. You are so anxious to embrace the independence that comes with being another year older.

On your actual birthday you were at my bedside at 6 o'clock on the dot ready for the day, asking me when we got to eat cake. You chose cupcakes for your "birthday cake for breakfast." So cupcakes you got!

We spent the morning at home hanging out before we headed over to Lolli and Pops house to play before our family birthday dinner. They gave you an awesome gift that you were so darn excited about.

You and your brothers played outside most of the day, it was beautiful out! And then the rest of our family came over for dinner, including your great-great Aunt Barbara. You requested a cookie cake for that birthday celebration that you decorated with little Pokemon figures that we got in the mail the day before that Ethan had delivered for you.

I think you had a great day on your 6th birthday!

Don't every stop being yourself. Don't let anyone change what makes you, YOU (maybe only change the fact that you get up in the 5 o'clock hour every single day, that's all.)! Happy 6th birthday my sweet boy. I love you.

Cant wait to see what the year has in store for you!

Love, Mom

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Favorite Morning Moment

Every single morning when I drop Eli off at school, we walk into the assembly, he gives me a big hug (one strong enough to last the whole day) and he goes and sits with his class.
And every morning before I leave, he looks for me through the crowd, and shoots me a thumbs up, blows me a kiss and mouths, "I love you," and I do the same right back at him.

It is one of my all time-favorite moments of every single morning.