{"YOURba" Linda?? "MYba" Linda?? WHOSEba Linda??"}

4 years old is my favorite age! I realize I say this a lot because there really are so many ages that are so fun! But to date....4 is the best! I love that I can have a full on meaningful conversation with Ayden. And I love that he is so inquisitive and is always asking questions to find out more about something! But most of all, 4 year olds say the FUNNIEST things!! Especially when they talk a lot.....and Ayden talks a mile a minute every waking hour.....so we are bound to hear a number of funny things each day!

Today Ayden asked me "Mom, do we REALLY have to wait until we are married to have babies?" I said yes. He asked why. I told him because then he will have a family when he has his babies and a wife. And then I asked him WHY on earth he was asking this. He said because he wants Grammy Con to be able to see his babies and she is gonna be VERY old if he has to wait to have babies until he is married. LOL!! I couldn't help but to laugh....my poor mom!!

The other day, Zoe was having a REALLY REALLY whiney day. It was tantrum after tantrum....whine about this, whine about that.....Ayden and I had both had about as much as we could take of it. Ayden told Zoe she better stop whiney and she should just be happy. Zoe yelled right back at him that she didn't want to! He responded with "Fine Zoe, have a whiney day of yourself"!! I thought to myself.....well put Ayden, I couldn't have said that any better myself!!

On another day when Zoe was whinier than usual (lately these days are happening more often than not.....the terrible 2's are in full force at our house), I said, "Zoe, why are you so whiney today??" And Ayden was quick to respond with "I guess that's just the way God made her"!!

The funniest of all...and this is a CONSTANT conversation that we have. I grew up in a city called "Yorba Linda". We only live a couple minutes from there. We have friends that live there. We do a lot of shopping there. And we pretty much have to pass by there when we go anywhere on the freeway. Lately, Ayden is always asking where we are....are we in Corona, Fullerton, Big Bear, etc. Whenever he asks that when we are in Yorba Linda, here is our conversation.....

Ayden: Mom, where are we?
Me: We're in Yorba Linda.
You mean MYba Linda?
No, we are in Yorba Linda.....that is the name of the city.
But why is it MYba Linda?
It's not MYba Linda Ayden, it is YORba Linda!!
MYba Linda??
Nope!
Is it Zoe's ba Linda?
Nope!
If it's not MYba Linda, then whose ba Linda is it??
It's just CALLED Yorba Linda....that is the name of the city!!

You get the point....this conversation goes ON and ON and ON like this. I understand his viewpoint, but I don't know how else to explain it. He is funny.....and this is our conversation EVERY SINGLE time the city of Yorba Linda comes up! :)

Silly 4 year olds.....I love it!!

{mOmmY in TrAiNiNg}

I am not used to this....and this is why I LOVE having a girl! For the past 4 years, I didn't get to see anything like this from Ayden! Zoe is definitely a Mommy in Training.....I can already see the nurturing side of her and can tell that she is gonna grow up looking forward to her chance to be a Mommy! She is constantly "mothering" all her baby dolls and she often pretends to be Ayden's mom! In fact, just today, I can't even count the number of times that Ayden came to me saying he didn't want Zoe to be his mom (I guess she was being very persistent in telling him that he was her son)! Tonight when I went to check on her to see if she was finally asleep, this is what I say! Awww....how sweet is that!! She moved her doll's bed over next to her bed, put her baby in there and then remembered to cover her with 2 or 3 blankets to make sure she was comfy! How cute! Now if only I could remind her at 2 am what a big girl and what a good Mommy she is when she is in MY bedroom looking for HER mommy to take her back to bed! That will be the day!!!

{qUiCk tRip tO NC}

Last weekend, I got to go to North Carolina for my cousin, Tyler's wedding. I'm really glad I got to go to see my cousins, but it's also hard to leave the family behind. Jeremiah stayed at home with the kids for a few days....they survived and I couldn't really relax enough to enjoy the break! I know....I am weird, but it actually stresses me out to be on the other side of the country when my family is not with me. At least I was able to travel with my brother (I hate flying by myself) and at least the rest of my family was there! I did enjoy sleeping through the night there....and sleeping in until 9:30 am each morning (even tho it was really 6:30 am Cali time)! And it was kinda fun to stay up until 2 am each night because hanging out with family was just that fun! :) My suitcase there consisted of only dresses and skirts....our schedules were booked with fancy events (rehearsal dinner, bridal luncheon, wedding)....so it was kinda fun to dress up and enjoy fancy dinners and lunches....without having to share my food with kids! And just for old times sake, there is something fun about going back to the original "Foss Family of Four".....I think I talked to my brother more in one weekend than I have in one year!! Ok, I guess after writing ALL of that, I realize that I really did have a great time!! Now that I am home safe and I know the kids survived without me and I survived without them....it is much easier to realize that! :)

I didn't really take many pictures while there.....not sure why! But here are a few that I did get...these are all at the Rehearsal Dinner our first night there!! Here is my brother Joe, and cousins Chris and Tyler!



I love those boys....wish we lived closer than on opposite sides of the US and wish we could see them more often! But it's always nice that we can pick up right where we left off when we do get together!



This picture makes me laugh. This is always the case when we try to get a picture with all of us....it was one, two, three....and right before "cheese", Tyler squeezed the heck out my side and ribcage!! I'm surprised Joe wasn't doing this to Chris on the other side cuz it really happens in almost every picture we take together!!

I just randomly found these 2 pictures from 4th of July a couple years ago....you can see exactly what I am talking about in these 2 pictures below..... :)





Back to the wedding weekend......here are the bride and groom (Tyler and Rebecca) on the left and my other cousin, Chris and his wife Dana, on the right!



Not sure who took this candid picture of my 83 year old Grandma, but I just wanted to put a picture of her and say what a cute Grandma I have!! Every time I write a new blog post, my mom prints it out and mails it to my Grandma (come on Grandma....get a computer already) and she reads them all! I am sure there is a spot in her house where she has piles and piles of my blog posts! She is my biggest fan and I love that she always knows all about what is going on with my little family even though she is so far away!



A picture of me, my Aunt Mary, my Grandma and my mom....just us girls.....but we were missing Dana & Rebecca (the cousin's wives)!



I'm glad I went.....had a fun time with family! But it's always nice to come home and sleep in your own bed! Too bad that I came home to a very sicky hubby!! The day I came home, Jeremiah started getting flu symptoms and has been down and out for 5 days now with a high fever!! I now know what it feels like to have 3 kids!! :) And I am doing everything in my power to keep myself and the kids from getting sick! And now I would gladly invite a little 3 day weekend getaway!! :)

{bYe bYe biNky.....hEllo biG giRL}

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that a week ago, Zoe still had a binky! She seems so old to me.....in fact, too old to have a binky! BUT....she did ONLY have it for naps and bedtime, so that is how I rationalized that it was ok! She is a couple weeks shy of being 2 1/2 and we took Ayden's binky away when he was 2 years and 2 months. It was super easy, but he wasn't as good of a sleeper when we did take it away. So that is why we kept Zoe's for much longer....she has been the BEST sleeper for us until about a month ago. Now I have a newborn baby again that is up a handful of times a night!! I haven't gotten a night of uninterrupted sleep in over a month! And I finally decided to put one of her blankets on our floor at night so if she does come in in the middle of the night she can just sleep there. Well, that has now officially backfired on me. At first she wasn't coming in until 5 am or so....2 nights ago, it was 2:30 am....and last night she came in shortly after midnight! UGH!! I know it is all just a habit now, so I need to figure out how to break it! I think it's time to get out my favorite sleeping books! And tonight we are trying out Ayden's moon/sun nightlight on her, so we will see how that goes, but I am not holding out much hope that it will make her stay in her bed! I did tell her though that if she stays in bed until the sunshine comes up tomorrow morning that I would take her to get a manicure and pedicure and she was SO EXCITED about it, so we will see if it works! Anyway, we figured what better time to take the binky away....she is already a miserable sleeper...it can't get any worse!!

So, back to the binky....we decided that September 15th would be the last day to have binkies and we were meeting my friend Kimmi and her twins on September 16th for lunch and to pass off the binkies! We had to think of a good way to get Zoe to part with them. Here is Ayden's story where he gave his binkies to the garbage man cuz he was obsessed with garbage trucks at the time. Well, Zoe is obsessed with babies, so we decided to give our binkies to baby Chloe and baby Clayton! Zoe couldn't wait and we were talking about it for weeks leading up to the day! She was really excited, but I was afraid that when the moment came to pass them over, she would freak out and not let go!! Not the case at all!!

Here is Zoe sitting with Grammy Con and baby Chloe....they were talking all about binkies and Zoe was getting mentally prepared!!



Zoe brought her binkies over in a cute pink box, but she wouldn't let me take her picture with them before she passed them on. Here she is giving one to Chloe....it looks like she is putting it in her mouth (ewww), but she was nowhere close and was just showing her! :)



We only had 2 binkies left as all the others have been lost. Here is Zoe putting both binkies (a pink one and a green one) in Kimmi's diaper bag (thanks Kimmi for playing along with us)!! :)



And the promise to Zoe was that when she gave her binkies away, she could go to Target and pick out a BIG GIRL toy....whatever she wanted!! So we went that same day and I tried to talk her into so many different toys, but she was dead set on this set that had her own little makeup and hair stuff! She loves it!



And the binky update......today is day 4 without it and she has LITERALLY not made a single peep, hasn't whined, hasn't asked for it, hasn't cried, NOTHING!!! It's like she was happy we did it cuz she was ready to officially be a full on big girl! It was SO EASY to get rid of it and I remember that we said the exact same thing about getting rid of Ayden's binkies! I think it's one of those things you have so much fear about and it all turns out better than you could've ever imagined! I am so proud of my BIG girl!! :) Now if we could just get the whole sleeping thing figured out, we will be all set and I will be one happy Momma!!

{eNd of SuMmeR....sTarT oF sChooL}

We ended our summer on Labor Day doing this in Big Bear. Well, some of us did......

This is a brand new cable park in Big Bear where you can go back and forth on a cable ski system. Here is Ayden and Jeremiah trying it out on a boogie board since Ayden wouldn't try the knee board!!



Jeremiah had a blast on the wakeboard. He was getting very frustrated at first until he got the hang of the cable line taking him back and forth and having to turn 180 degrees, which you wouldn't normally do in a boat! But by the end of his 1 hour, he had it all figured out and he was doing jumps on the turns.....



And this would explain why his arms feel like they are going to fall off!!! He has been so sore all week!! Yeah, this does NOT look like it feels good on the arms!!



The very next day after we got back from Big Bear was Ayden's first day of his second year of preschool! I cannot believe how fast last year went and that he is already starting school again! It couldn't have come soon enough tho....we were all kind of bored of long summer days and I am happy to be back into a routine with things! Before we went up to Big Bear on Thursday, we went to Ayden's school for the "Meet the Teacher" day!



Ayden is always so proud to show off his sissy when he has school things! Zoe sat right next to him on the rug for Circle Time and he made sure that everywhere there knew that they were together!! So cute....





I had planned on having Ayden go to the morning class and when I saw all these boys that were going to be in his class I was so excited!! Last year his class was mostly girls! These boys all hit it off right away!!





Bummer for Ayden he doesn't get to be in the same class with those boys after all! At the very last minute right before Day 1, I decided to switch him to the afternoon class because I found out the morning class had 21 kids and the afternoon class only had 8 kids. The teacher said with numbers like that, the afternoon class would definitely get more one-on-one time.....so afternoon it is! He is going 5 days a week this year, so it feels like he is in kindergarten cuz he is gone all afternoon! I am REALLY enjoy that part of school!! :) I can now start working on my to-do list that hasn't been touched all summer long! Zoe helps out sometimes (like today) by cooperating and taking a 3 hour nap during school time so I can REALLY get stuff done! And although the time does go by very fast, I just realize at the end of the day....whatever I didn't get done today, I can do tomorrow because tomorrow is ANOTHER school day! :)

He was SO excited on his first day of school! He was asking me all summer long when summer vacation was going to be over so he could go back to school! (I am not sure what is up with the peace sign he is constantly doing in pics?!?!!?)



September 7, 2010



Walking up to school....as soon as we pulled up, he jumped out of the car and started walking up! He knew how to do this....he did it last year!! I yelled at him, "Ayden wait for me" while I got Zoe out of his carseat and he said in an annoyed voice, "Mom, I can go all by myself"! And so it begins....the "I'm embarrassed to have my mom walk me to school" stage!!





Looking for his name tag.....



Here is Ayden with his teacher, Ms. Linda! I REALLY REALLY like his teacher so far this year!!



This is a class with mostly new kids in it (different from his class last year)! He does have 2 kids from his class last year....twins, Ryan and Chloe, that he was SUPER excited having in his class again this year. Here he is eating lunch with Ryan on the first day (and another peace sign?!?!?).......

Today was Day 3 and I am already so impressed with the work that Ayden is bringing home every day and the things that he is learning! This year is already proving to be MUCH MORE academic than last year was, so I am happy about that! I love picking Ayden up from school and hearing all the way home all about his day! He loves to share things with me and I am soaking that all in cuz I know it won't last long! When I picked him up from school today, Ms. Linda said to me, "He sure is a happy kid, isn't he???"!! And that was the happiest thing that his teacher could say to me. Isn't that our goal in life....to raise happy kids?!?! She is not the first person to say this to me. In fact, many people make that comment to me about Ayden. I love it! I love his smiling face and I love that he shares it with everyone around him!

{FirSt cRuSh}

Last week, Ayden went to the doc for his 4 year check-up (only 2 months late). For journaling purposes, I wanted to write down his stats. He is still tall and lean....he was almost 40 lbs and almost 42 inches.....50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. The doctor said he was a healthy boy, which is always good to hear! The best part of the appointment was when Ayden found out that he would, in fact, have to get 1 shot. He is never usually afraid of shots and he doesn't cry for them.....he actually takes after his Daddy and I think likes to watch people get shots!! OUCH!!! This time though, he was a little afraid and said he didn't want to get a shot this time. I told him that it would be ok.....he just needed to be brave and I told him that I would hold his hand to make it feel better! As soon as I said that, Zoe almost jumped out of her skin and jumped so fast up on the table to sit next to Ayden.....she said, "I will hold your hand and make you feel better"! That was cute in itself and what was even cuter was that he accepted her offer and he held on tight to her hand for the shot! It was one of the cutest brother/sister moment they have had so far!!



And now that Ayden is a big time 4 year old, he decided it was time for his first crush on a girl. He is in love with a 13 year old girl from church. Every Sunday, we have to make sure to sit behind her family so he can make googly eyes at her the entire time! She has a little brother and a little sister, but Ayden is mostly interested in her...he likes older women, I guess!! :) This afternoon when I was talking to this girl on the phone about our activity tonight, since she is one of my Young Women, Ayden BEGGED me to let him talk to her.....she was so cute to humor him and let him talk her ear off about totally random things!! I had to grab my camera when he did....he was walking around the house the whole time acting like he was SO COOL to be talking on the phone to a girl!! The funniest part was when he lifted his arm over his head so he could hold the phone up to his ear with his shoulder!! LOL!! So adult-like!! I guess he has seen me do this a time or two and was trying to be so grown up!!