Here are a few things going on in the world of our sweet C:
1. Stitches: On Thanksgiving day, he took a headfirst dive into a wrought iron wood holder for firewood. We ended up at Children's Hospital getting stitches in his lip. He was such a trooper. I am absolutely amazed that this was our first ER trip. With how rough-and-tumble my kids are and how much they love to climb, explore, run, jump off of high places and wrestle, I'm amazed we haven't had to get stitches before. Let's hope it's our last trip for awhile.
2. Football cards: Neither of my boys really had a lovely as babies, but C has one now. Football cards. He carries them with him everywhere! He tends to leave a trail behind him. I've found them under couches, in books, and even under his covers in his bed. The most amazing part is that he knows the teams. He LOVES for me to flip through the deck like flash cards and ask him who each team is. I felt a little like the psycho mom in the ER when the doctors would walk in and I was quizzing my two-year-old on all the NFL teams. Next time you see him, you should ask him about some of the teams. Name a city and he can tell you which team plays there. He even knows that there used to be a team in Houston called the Oilers but now there's team called the Texans.
3. Fuzzy: The other day, C kept complaining that he had a fuzzy and pulling on his pants like he was uncomfortable. I had no idea what he was talking about, and it took an entire day of complaining for me to realize he meant "wedgie"! I asked him if that's what he meant, and he replied, "Yes... but I call it a fuzzy." Wish I had known that at the beginning of the day. Could have saved us a lot of whining.
4. Mixing up Words: I know this is part of this age, but I think it's absolutely adorable to hear C mix up words while he's telling a story. Most common are things like, "I yike Bwooke because HER is nice." Oh, he thinks he's such a big kid and loves to hang with the big boys, but his sweet 2-year-old voice gives him away. He's still a little boy. At least for a few more days until he turns 3!
5. Beautiful: C is super compassionate and has such a loving heart. Yesterday, I left for a girls' night out at our church. Before I left, C climbed on my lap, looked at me with a cute, shy smile and said, "Mommy, you are beautiful." As if that doesn't melt my heart enough, he continued, "Your hair is beautiful and your sweater is beautiful and your new purse is beautiful and EVERYTHING of you is beautiful." Oh, my. What a sweetheart!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The Art of Telling Mom
Some of you may be familiar with Brian Regan. He's a very funny situational-comedy kind of comedian, and he's very clean, which I love. He's got a great skit about having to tell his mom about a brother who broke his arm. Hysterical. And A has mastered the same art of breaking the bad news to mom. Two examples from our Small Group Christmas Party the other night:
#1
A- Hey mom, can you come up to the third floor? I want to show you something.
Me- Sure! I can't wait to see it. What do you want to show me (totally expecting a tower, lego building, etc.)?
A- Um... just something.
Me- Is it a good something or a bad something?
A- Um... maybe it's kind of good but I think maybe it's mostly bad.
Me- (now more serious) What is it?
A- Well, it's on the floor upstairs and maybe it might kind of look like poop.
I can't believe that's the tactic he chose to reveal to me that there was a pile of poop in the middle of the playroom floor! (It was tracked in from someone's shoe)
#2
A- Hey mom, you've gotta come see what AJ (our friend) is doing. (He says this in a joyful voice as though there was something really funny going on)
Me- Sure... what's he doing?
A-He's upstairs. You should come see.
Me-Sure buddy. But what's he doing?
A- Well, you know how sometimes snot comes out of your nose, like a lot at one time. Well, it's kind of like that only with blood.
Me- (now more serious) Where is he? Where's the blood?
A- Well maybe there is a little on your bed (which is white) and maybe a little more on your carpet (also white)... or maybe it's a lot.
Now compare that to AJ's brother's storytelling tactic.
"Mom, there's blood... Mom, there's blood... Mom, there's blood!"
Seems a little more direct than A's method! I think A will make a great PR person some day!
(Disclaimer: AJ was fine. He'd bonked heads with his brother and got a bloody nose. In case you haven't learned this trick, Hydrogen Peroxide got all of the blood out of both the white duvet cover and the white carpet.)
#1
A- Hey mom, can you come up to the third floor? I want to show you something.
Me- Sure! I can't wait to see it. What do you want to show me (totally expecting a tower, lego building, etc.)?
A- Um... just something.
Me- Is it a good something or a bad something?
A- Um... maybe it's kind of good but I think maybe it's mostly bad.
Me- (now more serious) What is it?
A- Well, it's on the floor upstairs and maybe it might kind of look like poop.
I can't believe that's the tactic he chose to reveal to me that there was a pile of poop in the middle of the playroom floor! (It was tracked in from someone's shoe)
#2
A- Hey mom, you've gotta come see what AJ (our friend) is doing. (He says this in a joyful voice as though there was something really funny going on)
Me- Sure... what's he doing?
A-He's upstairs. You should come see.
Me-Sure buddy. But what's he doing?
A- Well, you know how sometimes snot comes out of your nose, like a lot at one time. Well, it's kind of like that only with blood.
Me- (now more serious) Where is he? Where's the blood?
A- Well maybe there is a little on your bed (which is white) and maybe a little more on your carpet (also white)... or maybe it's a lot.
Now compare that to AJ's brother's storytelling tactic.
"Mom, there's blood... Mom, there's blood... Mom, there's blood!"
Seems a little more direct than A's method! I think A will make a great PR person some day!
(Disclaimer: AJ was fine. He'd bonked heads with his brother and got a bloody nose. In case you haven't learned this trick, Hydrogen Peroxide got all of the blood out of both the white duvet cover and the white carpet.)
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Thanksgiving
Sometimes it is easy to fall into line with the rest of our society and join in the complaining. So easy. I mean, sometimes complaining just feels good, and sometimes I start complaining and don't even realize it's complaining until the conversation is over. But when I really stop and evaluate my life, the things that drive me crazy are so small. "First world problems"... you know the kind of thing that no one in a third world country would ever complain about.
I started this Christmas season feeling so overwhelmed with having so much to do. We have a child's birthday and a milestone anniversary to celebrate both within four days of Christmas. We have a lot of family, which means a LOOOONG list of presents to buy. We have a new house, which means lots of space to decorate and lots of parties to host. I caught myself actually COMPLAINING that we have too many parties this year. Seriously?! It must be hard to be us!
So then I realized that we have two sweet kids on the other side of the world waiting patiently for our family to come for them. They won't get any presents this year because they have no family to buy presents for them. They certainly aren't complaining of having too many parties to go to with too many sweets to eat. I realized how snobby I sound complaining of such great things. I am so anxiously awaiting the arrival of our kids into our family, and yet I still get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season that I completely lose focus of what's important.
I am so blessed. I am loved by the Creator of the world. He created me exactly as I am and loves me unconditionally. And even better is that I am aware of that love and can experience His love every day. He is good. Period. He is not good because he chooses to bless me, yet he does choose to pour his blessings on my life. We have two healthy, sweet boys who love their mommy and daddy. We have a new house which is literally EVERYTHING I wanted in a house. Down to every detail. We are surrounded by a cloud of friends and family that love us and support us. The kind of friends and family that call at the exact right time to offer the exact words of encouragement I need.
And we have each other. We are very close to celebrating 10 years of marriage. It's a little overwhelming to think of how different life was 10 years ago. We've been through a lot together, and our relationship has changed and matured in that time. We are both so different, but good different.
Alright... I know this is a random post. I'm ending it now because I've maxed out my computer time. One of my children is pretending the other is meat and trying to eat him. Guess which one is which? I probably need to step in.
I started this Christmas season feeling so overwhelmed with having so much to do. We have a child's birthday and a milestone anniversary to celebrate both within four days of Christmas. We have a lot of family, which means a LOOOONG list of presents to buy. We have a new house, which means lots of space to decorate and lots of parties to host. I caught myself actually COMPLAINING that we have too many parties this year. Seriously?! It must be hard to be us!
So then I realized that we have two sweet kids on the other side of the world waiting patiently for our family to come for them. They won't get any presents this year because they have no family to buy presents for them. They certainly aren't complaining of having too many parties to go to with too many sweets to eat. I realized how snobby I sound complaining of such great things. I am so anxiously awaiting the arrival of our kids into our family, and yet I still get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season that I completely lose focus of what's important.
I am so blessed. I am loved by the Creator of the world. He created me exactly as I am and loves me unconditionally. And even better is that I am aware of that love and can experience His love every day. He is good. Period. He is not good because he chooses to bless me, yet he does choose to pour his blessings on my life. We have two healthy, sweet boys who love their mommy and daddy. We have a new house which is literally EVERYTHING I wanted in a house. Down to every detail. We are surrounded by a cloud of friends and family that love us and support us. The kind of friends and family that call at the exact right time to offer the exact words of encouragement I need.
And we have each other. We are very close to celebrating 10 years of marriage. It's a little overwhelming to think of how different life was 10 years ago. We've been through a lot together, and our relationship has changed and matured in that time. We are both so different, but good different.
Alright... I know this is a random post. I'm ending it now because I've maxed out my computer time. One of my children is pretending the other is meat and trying to eat him. Guess which one is which? I probably need to step in.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
How time flies!
So my last post was on October 19th. That was nearly a month ago! I was sitting down to throw together a quick blog update and realized I don't know where to begin! Here's my best shot in five minutes or less because we are about to do showers before running out the door...
1- We moved! We closed on our new house and moved everything in over Halloween weekend. And how is it going? FABULOUS! We love our new house. We love having room to run and play without feeling like we are on top of each other. The boxes are all unpacked....except for a large box of books that has no bookshelf to sit on yet.
2- We bought bedroom furniture! Our dresser went flying off the back of the truck during the move and shattered.... which was a great reason to buy bedroom furniture. :) We've never owned any real furniture... the last one was about $50 from Target and it was falling apart anyway. We found some we love at an antique store, and now our clothes all have a home instead of being piled on the floor.
3- A is registered for school for next year. We got him into a public montessori school that we've talked for years about wanting to send him to. It's an excellent school, a good substitute for our failing neighborhood school and now that A is in, the rest of our kids will get in.
4- We've been doing a lot of digging. Our house sits on three lots, so we have lots of room to run. The boys love to dig holes, so they've claimed some of the garden areas as their play spot. They call it "The Island of Jungle". They spend a lot of time "exploring" and climbing trees, but the favorite activity is to dig. Some days we are construction workers, some days we dig for worms, and other days we are paleontologists. I love watching the boys identify the things they find in the ground (leaves, sticks, etc) as "bones from a brachiosaurus" or the "sharp teeth of a meat-eating dinosaur so it must be a T-Rex" or "the fin of a cryoxirhina" (which I don't know how to spell, but it's a shark-like fish that lived during the dinosaur times). Man, these boys are sponges, and they love to share all that they have learned. Both of them, at the ages of 2 and 4, have a knowledge of dinosaurs that is far beyond most adults!
That's all I have time for today.... gotta get these boys in the shower and out the door! When does life slow down? Hopefully I post again before another month goes by!
1- We moved! We closed on our new house and moved everything in over Halloween weekend. And how is it going? FABULOUS! We love our new house. We love having room to run and play without feeling like we are on top of each other. The boxes are all unpacked....except for a large box of books that has no bookshelf to sit on yet.
2- We bought bedroom furniture! Our dresser went flying off the back of the truck during the move and shattered.... which was a great reason to buy bedroom furniture. :) We've never owned any real furniture... the last one was about $50 from Target and it was falling apart anyway. We found some we love at an antique store, and now our clothes all have a home instead of being piled on the floor.
3- A is registered for school for next year. We got him into a public montessori school that we've talked for years about wanting to send him to. It's an excellent school, a good substitute for our failing neighborhood school and now that A is in, the rest of our kids will get in.
4- We've been doing a lot of digging. Our house sits on three lots, so we have lots of room to run. The boys love to dig holes, so they've claimed some of the garden areas as their play spot. They call it "The Island of Jungle". They spend a lot of time "exploring" and climbing trees, but the favorite activity is to dig. Some days we are construction workers, some days we dig for worms, and other days we are paleontologists. I love watching the boys identify the things they find in the ground (leaves, sticks, etc) as "bones from a brachiosaurus" or the "sharp teeth of a meat-eating dinosaur so it must be a T-Rex" or "the fin of a cryoxirhina" (which I don't know how to spell, but it's a shark-like fish that lived during the dinosaur times). Man, these boys are sponges, and they love to share all that they have learned. Both of them, at the ages of 2 and 4, have a knowledge of dinosaurs that is far beyond most adults!
That's all I have time for today.... gotta get these boys in the shower and out the door! When does life slow down? Hopefully I post again before another month goes by!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Birmingham
In an unrelated conversation a week or two ago, a friend of mine through out the idea that she was heading to Alabama to see Katie Davis speak if I would want to join her. My gut reaction was to say no since P can't take any time off work and I was certainly not carting the kiddos with me on that 8 hour trek. But when I realized she was speaking at a church service over a weekend when we had nothing planned, I quickly agreed before I could talk myself out of it. I'm not usually spontaneous, but I couldn't pass this up.
Over the past two years, I feel like God has been taking my view of Him and of what it means to follow him and flipping it completely upside down. Two of the sources He's used to transform my worldview are: 1 - The book, Radical, by David Platt and 2 - learning about Katie Davis and her ministry in Uganda. So when I found out Katie was speaking at the Church at Brook Hills in AL (David Platt's church), I felt like two of my favorite things were colliding and I wanted to be there to experience it.
The weekend was great. I loved the chance to get away for a day and half, even if most of it was spent in the car. The ride felt short with the great conversation of my friend, Linda, and a fabulous book on tape (Little Princes...A story about reuniting trafficked kids in Nepal with their families...so, so, so good. I highly recommend it). We met up with Linda's daughter, Lauren (a friend of mine from my years of leading YL in Mariemont) and her college roomate. We did typical girly things... met up at a mall for some shopping, enjoyed dinner out and went to see a movie. It was nice to just relax and enjoy girl time.
The church service was great. I loved hearing Katie's story. She reminds me so much of Mother Teresa. She's only 22, and yet she is loving with such an unselfish love and impacting the lives of the poorest of the poor. I loved hearing about her 14 daughters (yes... 14... she's adopted 14 sweet girls, and is raising them with such loving hearts for the poor around them). It was good to hear the hard times she's endured and how it's not always easy. The thing she said that hit me the most was how when we look at need in the world around us, it is overwhelming and we can feel hopeless. But instead of being overwhelmed by the multitude, we need to just love the one that God has placed before us. Love each person that crosses our path, since that is the person God wanted for us to interact with.
And I loved hearing David Platt speak. His heart for sharing Jesus is so evident in the few words I heard him speak. He challenged his church family to give radically of their time, lives, money... everything. He challenged the church that Katie's life shouldn't look so radical. We are all called to care for the widow, poor, orphaned, sick. Maybe we are not all called to Uganda, but it shouldn't look so radical for someone to give up everything to follow Jesus. It's what we are called to do. To be willing to give up everything for His sake. To love even when it hurts, to love even the unloveable, to love when it isn't comfortable.
It was a tiring weekend, but I am so glad that I went. Thanks to my sweet hubby for not even batting an eye when I asked what he thought about me going. He had a blast with the kids and I had a blast without them :) It was a win-win situation!
Over the past two years, I feel like God has been taking my view of Him and of what it means to follow him and flipping it completely upside down. Two of the sources He's used to transform my worldview are: 1 - The book, Radical, by David Platt and 2 - learning about Katie Davis and her ministry in Uganda. So when I found out Katie was speaking at the Church at Brook Hills in AL (David Platt's church), I felt like two of my favorite things were colliding and I wanted to be there to experience it.
The weekend was great. I loved the chance to get away for a day and half, even if most of it was spent in the car. The ride felt short with the great conversation of my friend, Linda, and a fabulous book on tape (Little Princes...A story about reuniting trafficked kids in Nepal with their families...so, so, so good. I highly recommend it). We met up with Linda's daughter, Lauren (a friend of mine from my years of leading YL in Mariemont) and her college roomate. We did typical girly things... met up at a mall for some shopping, enjoyed dinner out and went to see a movie. It was nice to just relax and enjoy girl time.
The church service was great. I loved hearing Katie's story. She reminds me so much of Mother Teresa. She's only 22, and yet she is loving with such an unselfish love and impacting the lives of the poorest of the poor. I loved hearing about her 14 daughters (yes... 14... she's adopted 14 sweet girls, and is raising them with such loving hearts for the poor around them). It was good to hear the hard times she's endured and how it's not always easy. The thing she said that hit me the most was how when we look at need in the world around us, it is overwhelming and we can feel hopeless. But instead of being overwhelmed by the multitude, we need to just love the one that God has placed before us. Love each person that crosses our path, since that is the person God wanted for us to interact with.
And I loved hearing David Platt speak. His heart for sharing Jesus is so evident in the few words I heard him speak. He challenged his church family to give radically of their time, lives, money... everything. He challenged the church that Katie's life shouldn't look so radical. We are all called to care for the widow, poor, orphaned, sick. Maybe we are not all called to Uganda, but it shouldn't look so radical for someone to give up everything to follow Jesus. It's what we are called to do. To be willing to give up everything for His sake. To love even when it hurts, to love even the unloveable, to love when it isn't comfortable.
It was a tiring weekend, but I am so glad that I went. Thanks to my sweet hubby for not even batting an eye when I asked what he thought about me going. He had a blast with the kids and I had a blast without them :) It was a win-win situation!
And just like that...
When we were at the park the other day, an older friend of A's told us how he had learned to ride a bike with no training wheels. He wanted A to watch as he demonstrated his new skill. Since he is completely visual, A studied his friend with a very intense gaze, then stated, "I think I can do that." He sat down on his friend's bike pushed off and just like that... we have a biker in our family! I had prepped myself for weeks of chasing behind his bike with an aching back, bandaging up scrapes from his many falls. But seems like we have breezed right by this milestone.
Now I know I'm his mom, so I'm a little biased, but I am pretty impressed that he picked it up so quickly... seriously, he just jumped on and took off! And he's only 4 1/2... I wasn't expecting this for a few more years. Way to go, A. We are so proud of you!!
Now I know I'm his mom, so I'm a little biased, but I am pretty impressed that he picked it up so quickly... seriously, he just jumped on and took off! And he's only 4 1/2... I wasn't expecting this for a few more years. Way to go, A. We are so proud of you!!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Fall Firsts
With fall brings the start of school. A is loving his class this year... as he did last year. He comes home with all kinds of stories. Mostly about the girls. BUT he has made a new friend that is a boy! This year, he is the "puzzle expert" in his room. As we enter each day, there are usually a few boys working on puzzles. Without fail, they say from across the room, "Oh good, A's here. He can help us with this puzzle. Come on, A!" Makes my momma-bear heart burst with pride :)
This fall also brought the start of A's first soccer season. Oh, my, how that boy loves sports! He asks daily if it's time for soccer, even though he knows it's only on Fridays. Friday can not come fast enough for him! He's on the indigo team, and will tell you with out being asked that "I am awesome on defense." It's a super NOT competitive league, and it's so cute to see him out there playing. The first game, everytime he got the ball, he would look to me on the sideline and wave with a HUGE grin on his face! I LOVE the pure joy on his face when he plays. You can't tell from the pics below, but the smile doesn't leave his face the whole time!
He also had a chance to be leader already, so the class mascot, "Rascal," graced our house for a few days. A had to draw a picture about what Rascal did while he was at our house. I have a feeling "going to the dentist" isn't going to be the most exciting thing Rascal does this year, but it was super helpful having him there while A got his teeth pulled (a cavity gone BAD led to the front two teeth being removed... he was super brave, though, and loves to show off his big hole. You can see his new smile in the picture below).
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