Not because this qualifies for anything close to a legitimate post -
- Mackenna and I just watched Cinderella together. She seemed to follow parts of it - told me her dress was gone after the spell ended and asked about her shoes. She seemed to think that Cinderella was also gone after the spell was over - and I told her it was still the same girl. She got her Cinderella book and pointed to the picture of Cinderella with the prince and asked me "where's cinderella?"
- Micah randomly, out of nowhere, after not being to church for two weeks, said this in the car last night "You should have no other Gods before me - Exodus twenty three" I was speechless.
- We hold hands typically during prayer. Micah insists on folding his own hands individually only when he wants to pray. His mealtime prayers always go like this "Dear God, Thank you for the ____ (insert very specific food item), Thank you for the _____, Thank you for the _____....(you get the idea). In Jesus' Name. Amen
- Mackenna has had a few successes on the potty. This leaves me wondering what to do - as Christmas isn't too far away and that means long travels. Also, Micah has no interest, which is fine with me, but I feel awful not giving him M&M's and giving them to her when he just really doesn't understand.
- Micah and dad were playing a running game at dad's office the other day. Curt got up off the floor after a few rounds and Micah said, "no, sit down, you are not all done dad"
- We have been a little hooked on singing the "on the ground" skit from SNL. The other day Micah started singing "I threw it on the ground." Oh my. Then last night at the store, Micah and Mackenna really were throwing things on the ground and we had to try, with a straight face, to tell them not to throw something on the ground.
- Micah used to kiss random facial parts of mine at bedtime - calling his move before he made it. He would back up and look at me and say "kiss your eyes" and then do it, "kiss your ears" "kiss your eyelashes" etc. Now, he runs away when I ask for a kiss. The other day I asked him to do something and said I would kiss him if he didn't do it....he did it instantly.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Happy Birthday Eve
I think in honor of my upcoming birthday, my children did some pretty monumental/very sweet things today -
1. They have been talking about "birthday. mommy" ever since going shopping with Curt for my gifts on Saturday. They also have talked a lot about their birthday (just a month ago). Mackenna told Micah "happy birthday" today and he said "not micah birthday. mommy birthday." It is amazing to see things clicking for them.
2. Mackenna crawled up in my lap and said "i love you mommy." What more could I ask for.
3. Micah was able to answer "what color is a fire truck?" at dinner tonight. After I got over my shock of him saying "red," I asked a lot more questions. Pumpkin, John Deere Tractor, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Cushan (our cat), Abby Caddaby, Mackenna's shirt, Grass. He got ALL of these right. He then started quizzing me. "Mommy, what color is Grover?" I had no idea he would know these colors without seeing a picture, only visualizing it in his head. It was like you could literally see his mind processing and sorting through the index card files in his brain.
4. Daddy asked Micah how old Mommy was going to be. He didn't know. He asked him if he could say "twenty-nine" and Micah did, quite well. He then started laughing hysterically. Yes, it is funny.
5. Mackenna said mommy was going to be "two."
6. The kids call dessert "sert."
7. Micah tells daddy to do the "down. set. hut hut hike." (wrestling/tackle game)
8. Micah asked Mackenna if she liked tractors and she smiled and leaned into his face and said "yes, I like tractors."
9. After being tucked in and prayed for, Micah told daddy "Good praying Daddy."
I am blessed.
1. They have been talking about "birthday. mommy" ever since going shopping with Curt for my gifts on Saturday. They also have talked a lot about their birthday (just a month ago). Mackenna told Micah "happy birthday" today and he said "not micah birthday. mommy birthday." It is amazing to see things clicking for them.
2. Mackenna crawled up in my lap and said "i love you mommy." What more could I ask for.
3. Micah was able to answer "what color is a fire truck?" at dinner tonight. After I got over my shock of him saying "red," I asked a lot more questions. Pumpkin, John Deere Tractor, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Cushan (our cat), Abby Caddaby, Mackenna's shirt, Grass. He got ALL of these right. He then started quizzing me. "Mommy, what color is Grover?" I had no idea he would know these colors without seeing a picture, only visualizing it in his head. It was like you could literally see his mind processing and sorting through the index card files in his brain.
4. Daddy asked Micah how old Mommy was going to be. He didn't know. He asked him if he could say "twenty-nine" and Micah did, quite well. He then started laughing hysterically. Yes, it is funny.
5. Mackenna said mommy was going to be "two."
6. The kids call dessert "sert."
7. Micah tells daddy to do the "down. set. hut hut hike." (wrestling/tackle game)
8. Micah asked Mackenna if she liked tractors and she smiled and leaned into his face and said "yes, I like tractors."
9. After being tucked in and prayed for, Micah told daddy "Good praying Daddy."
I am blessed.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Poopy Miracle
My first post in forever (more on that possibly later) and it is going to be about poop. It isn't going to be long. This actually could have been a facebook status - but seeing as people pick up a lot of flack when they talk about poop on facebook, I decided to document it on here.
Yesterday a miracle took place in our household. I came out of the bathroom and observed Micah and Mackenna playing peacefully. She looked at me at said "Mommy. Potty." I told her yes. She then said "Keeeena. Poopy. Potty." So I took her to the potty, and she sat up there, immediately began concentrating, and next thing I knew there was purposeful poopy successes in the toilet!! Wow!! I was so excited. My little girl is growing up.
A few things about this incident.
- I asked her what treat she wanted for going in the potty. She said a cookie. Fair enough to me. Micah is of course throwing an absolute fit about his lack of cookie. What do I do? I ended up giving her more cookies and seeing if she wanted to share some of her special cookies with Micah. She did. Interesting Dilemma.
- Curt wasn't home for the great poopy miracle of 2010. I saved the proof for him and let him flush the toilet with Mackenna when he got home. What have we become!!??
Yesterday a miracle took place in our household. I came out of the bathroom and observed Micah and Mackenna playing peacefully. She looked at me at said "Mommy. Potty." I told her yes. She then said "Keeeena. Poopy. Potty." So I took her to the potty, and she sat up there, immediately began concentrating, and next thing I knew there was purposeful poopy successes in the toilet!! Wow!! I was so excited. My little girl is growing up.
A few things about this incident.
- I asked her what treat she wanted for going in the potty. She said a cookie. Fair enough to me. Micah is of course throwing an absolute fit about his lack of cookie. What do I do? I ended up giving her more cookies and seeing if she wanted to share some of her special cookies with Micah. She did. Interesting Dilemma.
- Curt wasn't home for the great poopy miracle of 2010. I saved the proof for him and let him flush the toilet with Mackenna when he got home. What have we become!!??
Thursday, May 13, 2010
#11 out of 1000
11. My kids have been playing marveously by themselves for a few hours a day. This is a huge blessing. I refuse to take it for granted.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Potential Facebook Statuses for Today
These all could have been facebook statuses of mine today.
1.) I just told my children to "go pray in your room." I meant play. Oops. Prayer might be a good idea also.
2.) Sometimes a third hand would really be nice/necessary.
3.) My child just took a free joy ride through the parking lot in a free-rolling, runaway cart. Why are parking lots slanted away from cars?
4.) I just bought three boxes of organic granola bars and one thing of All laundry detergent for the price of 1 box of granola bars not on sale ($4).
5.) Why is it when you are trying not to wake up a child, a whisper will do it, but when you are trying to keep them awake, screaming and singing at the top of your lungs does nothing?
6.) My daughter just sat on the potty, got a really concentrated look on her face, and then successfully peed in the potty! She did it a couple of times and got really excited. She then told me "all done" and got done!
7.) Getting ready to go to Disney World for vacation. Seriously considering getting "leashes" for my kids. Hope that doesn't make me evil.
8.) My kids don't drink water very well. They just don't. Don't judge me. I would like to take some kind of drink mix with me to Disney World to mix in water throughout the day. Any suggestions of something that doesn't have artificial sweetners?
Those were some of my thoughts today - at least some of the ones that are worthy of sharing.
1.) I just told my children to "go pray in your room." I meant play. Oops. Prayer might be a good idea also.
2.) Sometimes a third hand would really be nice/necessary.
3.) My child just took a free joy ride through the parking lot in a free-rolling, runaway cart. Why are parking lots slanted away from cars?
4.) I just bought three boxes of organic granola bars and one thing of All laundry detergent for the price of 1 box of granola bars not on sale ($4).
5.) Why is it when you are trying not to wake up a child, a whisper will do it, but when you are trying to keep them awake, screaming and singing at the top of your lungs does nothing?
6.) My daughter just sat on the potty, got a really concentrated look on her face, and then successfully peed in the potty! She did it a couple of times and got really excited. She then told me "all done" and got done!
7.) Getting ready to go to Disney World for vacation. Seriously considering getting "leashes" for my kids. Hope that doesn't make me evil.
8.) My kids don't drink water very well. They just don't. Don't judge me. I would like to take some kind of drink mix with me to Disney World to mix in water throughout the day. Any suggestions of something that doesn't have artificial sweetners?
Those were some of my thoughts today - at least some of the ones that are worthy of sharing.
Prayer for those presenting His Word
This may seem like a strange post, but it was born the first time that my husband was able to preach in both morning services at our church. He has frequently been given the opportunity to teach in the evenings, but the crowd is much smaller and just different in the evenings. I had a great burden to spend the first service praying for him and his ministry, and then go listen to him during the second service. However, having a burden to pray, and knowing how to pray are two different things. I easily get distracted during prayer and find my mind going a thousand different directions, or I take the easy way out and say "Lord, help Curt" and then I don't know how to fill the 44 other minutes that I wanted to spend praying. I, thankfully, thought of calling my mother-in-law and asking if she had any resources. Curt's dad is a traveling evangelist, has been for most of Curt's life, and is an amazing example of a prayer warrior. He has taught me a lot as I have seen him praying for hours out in his parked car in the driveway. Curt's mom was able to email me a list of things that his dad prays for before he goes to a church and that she uses to pray for him also. I know that other people out there also have loved ones who minister the Word, and I thought this list might be beneficial to you as well. I made some changes to it as Curt's ministry is different from his dad's (he is in one church, not traveling to new churches each week), but the original list is still pretty much preserved.
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Prayer List for those Presenting the Word
1. Remember that the battle is the Lord’s
2. Grace not to be intimidated
3. Grace to meet intimidation by God’s power with the right heart attitude
4. Moral courage to preach against sin
5. Uprightness before the Lord so that preaching is not from hypocrisy
6. Take away from heart & head what Satan & old nature put there
7. Humility & meekness of Christ
8. He will say “Will & work in me for Your good pleasure”
9. Remember “Faithful is He that called you, who will also do it”
10. Spiritual power—lead him not into temptation
11. Restore confidence if needed
12. That God would take away anxious fears
13. Pure motives
14. Grace to use his mind, emotions, will, body and spirit
15. That the Holy Spirit would have complete control of his mind, emotions, will, body, and spirit
16. Give him a renewed zeal to serve you
17. Grace to give You the glory
18. Give him the compassion of Christ
19. Grace not to be derogatory in the flesh
20. Grace with colaborers
21. Opportunities to minister in other’s lives
22. Wisdom with finances/keep from greed
23. Put love in the hearts of the congregation for him and his family
24. Ability to get prep work done during the week
25. Trust the Holy Spirit’s leading in choosing a sermon text
26. Organize time wisely
27. Speak clearly and articulately
28. Sensitivity to know the right words to say
29. Clear and logical progression in sermon/that it would flow well
30. Words would accurately express intended thought
31. Good eye contact with congregation
32. Hedge about him as he preaches
33. Grace to trust the Holy Spirit’s leading when speaking
34. Boldness with the Word
35. Preach with wisdom, love, authority, power, inspiration, liberty, simplicity, fluidness
36. Words to express the thoughts
37. For him to be himself, be surrendered, be a channel
38. Grace not to be rushed
39. Grace to keep people’s attention
40. Anoint his voice as he preaches
41. Give him tact
42. Give him wisdom to make decisions while preaching
43. Give him clarity and the ability to not lose his train of thought
44. Break down all the hindrances that are blocking the work of the Holy Spirit
45. Be well received by those ministering to
46. Real moving of the Holy Spirit
47. Receptivity/Open Hearts of those hearing
48. Father to draw some to be saved
49. Good attendance/God would bring those that need to hear
50. Freedom from distraction for those listening
51. People to be encouraged in Christ
52. People to be challenged/admonished in Christ
53. People be honest about their spiritual condition
54. People respond to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit
55. Unbelievers be attentive to the Word
56. The Devil to be defeated
57. Work in people to pray, work, give, apply, respond, obey
58. That the church be better off spiritually because of message
59. The Holy Spirit convict audience of sin
60. Permanent results
Preach leaning on the promise that “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Phil 4:13)
Preach leaning on the promise that “He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world.” (I John 4:4)
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(I may be updating and changing the list. You can access a current version of the list here.)
See anything that the list overlooks?
See anything that the list overlooks?
Have any questions?
Either leave a comment or email me at laurasharbaugh-at-gmail-dot-com
Monday, April 26, 2010
I Heart Faces - Smile
Go check out all the other smiles at i heart faces.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Tot Activities this week
~ Micah and Mackenna are 21 months old ~
Here are some things we have tried with the limited resources that I have found around the house:
~ We attempted a real object matching game where I found pairs of objects around the house (clothespins, play hot dogs, legos, etc.) and put them in a container. The kids then dumped out the container and tried to put the objects back in, a pair at a time. I intended to see if the twins would take turns doing this back and forth. That didn't work. Mackenna kind of got into this and did it successfully maybe 1 and a half times. Micah really only wanted to take the container and put his own cars in it and carry it around the house (anything that can become a car holder - will become a car holder).
~ I saw an idea here to play a "too big/just right" game with varying objects and an empty 2-Liter bottle. This was a hit. They loved putting things into the bottle. I loved observing their different approaches to this. Micah quickly learned what objects were going to be too big, and wouldn't even attempt to put those in, they stayed in the bag the whole time for him. Mackenna seemed to know what was going to be too big, but she still liked to attempt it and say "no, big" to herself as she was doing it. Dumping it out was a big hit also.
(Here is proof that Mackenna was involved in some of these activities this week, even though she wasn't pictured above or in the next part. She is helping get the bottle ready.)
~ I purchased some pom-poms
and some magnet discs
with the intention of making pom pom magnets so that we can do activities like this. I definitely have not gotten around to it yet. I decided the other day to get out the pom poms and see if they could do some color sorting with them. They had other ideas. They loved playing with them, throwing them, touching them, squishing them, holding them up and hearing what color they were (they would then always say the color we had just said for the next pom pom they held up - but they were never right!). I got the 2-liter bottle back out and they loved putting the pom poms into the bottle; they actually took turns with this one pretty well. Shaking it out was fun as before.~ Today Micah was home with me from church. I used our alone time to see if we could do a little more structured play with the pom-poms. After modeling it for him a little bit, he got really good at sorting four colors of pom-poms into clear glasses. He would even say "no" as he would start to put one in the wrong glass. He also would go in and pick out any that had gotten put in the wrong glass. He also had fun pouring the pom-poms between glasses some too. (And stacking the cups and wearing them on his head as a hat.) It was encouraging that even though we are a long way from really knowing our colors, he can make some matches for now. He also got some colors right when Daddy played with him after church.
See what I mean about everything becoming a container for cars!
For more tot inspiration - visit the link up at 1+1+1=1
Goals
One of the blogs, Intentionally Katie, that I have recently begun reading in my {beloved} google reader account has been showing her progress working her way through 101 goals in 1001 days. I've really enjoyed seeing her progress, and seeing the types of things that she is committed to accomplishing. Here are some goals that have come to mind in the last few days as things that I would really like to accomplish. Maybe this list will grow, and maybe it will just remain these five. (5 goals in 50 days doesn't sound as impressive, huh!?)
- Run a 5K. I think I'm going to start the Couch 2 5K plan while on vacation next week; I plan on downloading this app soon. This is a majorly scary thing for me. I don't like failure. It's not that I never fail at things, but I like to believe that when I fail it is because I purposefully chose to quit or that it wasn't worth me trying my best. (I remember having a conversation with my sister before student teaching about failure. What if I actually failed at being a teacher? Not because I didn't try hard enough, but because I just actually couldn't do it. That was something very scary to me and felt very out of my control comfort zone. I do thank the Lord for his blessing of my teaching career. Now the same for running!? haha.) Running is something that I really don't have much confidence in myself with. I've never been successful, never been an athlete, never run 3 miles. I don't think I really think it is possible for me to do. I'm going to do my best to put that out of my head and believe that if these other oofs can do this, I can too. There are some beach 5K's this summer that I should be able to do at the end/middle of the nine-week program. (Traveling and the Heat are two potential obstacles here - although the one may help alleviate the other!)
- Finish the twins' baby books - I'd say they are at 60% completion and have sat at that level for the last 8 months.
- Paint our bedroom. Get new curtains/blinds. Revamp our furniture. This is a 8 month overdue birthday present to myself. I want the look of a peaceful beach cottage...not a depressing clutter fest! (I'll look for some link inspiration on this one.)
- Complete a quilt-along. From start to finish - including the binding and the quilting. Not sure when I'll be able to do this one as I really want to join in on one that is just starting and be able to follow along on schedule with everyone else. The collaboration and community is part of the appeal to me.
- And this one I stole from Katie - get up at 6 am for 30 days in a row
- Run a 5K. I think I'm going to start the Couch 2 5K plan while on vacation next week; I plan on downloading this app soon. This is a majorly scary thing for me. I don't like failure. It's not that I never fail at things, but I like to believe that when I fail it is because I purposefully chose to quit or that it wasn't worth me trying my best. (I remember having a conversation with my sister before student teaching about failure. What if I actually failed at being a teacher? Not because I didn't try hard enough, but because I just actually couldn't do it. That was something very scary to me and felt very out of my control comfort zone. I do thank the Lord for his blessing of my teaching career. Now the same for running!? haha.) Running is something that I really don't have much confidence in myself with. I've never been successful, never been an athlete, never run 3 miles. I don't think I really think it is possible for me to do. I'm going to do my best to put that out of my head and believe that if these other oofs can do this, I can too. There are some beach 5K's this summer that I should be able to do at the end/middle of the nine-week program. (Traveling and the Heat are two potential obstacles here - although the one may help alleviate the other!)
- Finish the twins' baby books - I'd say they are at 60% completion and have sat at that level for the last 8 months.
- Paint our bedroom. Get new curtains/blinds. Revamp our furniture. This is a 8 month overdue birthday present to myself. I want the look of a peaceful beach cottage...not a depressing clutter fest! (I'll look for some link inspiration on this one.)
- Complete a quilt-along. From start to finish - including the binding and the quilting. Not sure when I'll be able to do this one as I really want to join in on one that is just starting and be able to follow along on schedule with everyone else. The collaboration and community is part of the appeal to me.
- And this one I stole from Katie - get up at 6 am for 30 days in a row
Thursday, April 22, 2010
"Reading"
A few months ago I made a list of words they could say. Now I don't think that is possible. I did want to mention a few of the more shocking things from the past few weeks. First of all, there are four books or so that the kids can "read" with us now. What's Wrong, Little Pookie?
is a board book that goes through a series of questions between a mother and child about what is wrong. (It also happens to be the book that Audra read to Mackenna a year ago)
Each time the mother makes a guess, the child says "no." Both of the kids can now say "no" at all the right parts of the book. They can also do this with Do Zebras Have Spots? . They can say "oops" in all the right places in another Boynton book, Blue Hat, Green Hat
. My favorite is reading Thomas & Friends: Go, Train, Go! with them. They are getting really good at different parts. If I stop reading and wait for them to fill in words, they can fill in many of them - such as hat, fast, slow, go, cow, moo, peep peep, dog. It is really fun.
They have also gotten a LOT better at puzzles. I'm shocked at the rapid improvement in this area. While doing a number puzzle with Mackenna yesterday, I decided to count with her. I said "1" and she filled in "2, 3." I then said "4, 5, 6, 7" without her really saying anything, but when I got to "7" she finished "8, 9." Craziness.
I've also seen big improvement (especially with Micah) in doing look and find activities, such as Elmo & Friends
. A few months ago they didn't get the concept of matching objects at all - now he loves to look for certain items and find all of them in a picture. I especially like going through this book, because I remember a certain neice of mine also enjoying this book!
is a board book that goes through a series of questions between a mother and child about what is wrong. (It also happens to be the book that Audra read to Mackenna a year ago)Each time the mother makes a guess, the child says "no." Both of the kids can now say "no" at all the right parts of the book. They can also do this with Do Zebras Have Spots? . They can say "oops" in all the right places in another Boynton book, Blue Hat, Green Hat
. My favorite is reading Thomas & Friends: Go, Train, Go! with them. They are getting really good at different parts. If I stop reading and wait for them to fill in words, they can fill in many of them - such as hat, fast, slow, go, cow, moo, peep peep, dog. It is really fun.They have also gotten a LOT better at puzzles. I'm shocked at the rapid improvement in this area. While doing a number puzzle with Mackenna yesterday, I decided to count with her. I said "1" and she filled in "2, 3." I then said "4, 5, 6, 7" without her really saying anything, but when I got to "7" she finished "8, 9." Craziness.
I've also seen big improvement (especially with Micah) in doing look and find activities, such as Elmo & Friends
. A few months ago they didn't get the concept of matching objects at all - now he loves to look for certain items and find all of them in a picture. I especially like going through this book, because I remember a certain neice of mine also enjoying this book!
Hmmm....edit from yesterday?
I will report that I got up at 7 today. Better than 8. Not as good as 6.
I will also report that one majorly discouraging factor in my quest to get up earlier and be more prepared (physically and mentally) for the day before me, is the fact that when I get up earlier - so do my precious cherubs. Can I out-early them?
I will also report that one majorly discouraging factor in my quest to get up earlier and be more prepared (physically and mentally) for the day before me, is the fact that when I get up earlier - so do my precious cherubs. Can I out-early them?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
It's official
There is no longer any debate or choice in the matter. I HAVE to start being fully prepared for my day before the kids get up. I just HAVE to. No more wimping out and not getting up. What follows in those situations is keyboard keys getting ripped out and food getting thrown on the floor - and more importantly and more directly connected - my frustration rising to an unbelievable level when those kinds of things happen. I think this is a two-fold issue...both of which require getting up more consistently.
1.) My kids are at an age where I really can't leave them alone. And I really need to have a prepared home for the day. (i.e. clean dishes so I can quickly make meals and find cups)
2.) I have to be more mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepared for the draining task of training my children. If I don't commit to this task each morning, and daily ask for God's help, I am going to continually fail - like I did today.
So yes, tomorrow I will get up before the sun comes up. I will not decide to shoot the birds outside or ignore my alarm clock. I HAVE to get better at this battle.
1.) My kids are at an age where I really can't leave them alone. And I really need to have a prepared home for the day. (i.e. clean dishes so I can quickly make meals and find cups)
2.) I have to be more mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepared for the draining task of training my children. If I don't commit to this task each morning, and daily ask for God's help, I am going to continually fail - like I did today.
So yes, tomorrow I will get up before the sun comes up. I will not decide to shoot the birds outside or ignore my alarm clock. I HAVE to get better at this battle.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Picking back up with 1000 blessings
5. Not needing a phone last night when I was home alone and phoneless
6. Having a phone when I needed help today
7. Kind, generous, and caring neighbors who rushed to help when they heard a little girl's leg was stuck in her crib.
8. Being invited to lunch by a compassionate, gracious, and Godly woman who has so much to teach me about being a wife and mother
9. M and M getting to feed the chickens and get their eggs (and breaking a few in the process)
10. The feeling inside when a toddler brings you a book and wordlessly climbs into your lap for a snuggle and a story
6. Having a phone when I needed help today
7. Kind, generous, and caring neighbors who rushed to help when they heard a little girl's leg was stuck in her crib.
8. Being invited to lunch by a compassionate, gracious, and Godly woman who has so much to teach me about being a wife and mother
9. M and M getting to feed the chickens and get their eggs (and breaking a few in the process)
10. The feeling inside when a toddler brings you a book and wordlessly climbs into your lap for a snuggle and a story
A study in contrasts
This week was the polar opposite from last week. Last week found us struggling to get over the flu, and then coming down with croup. That meant no being with other people, no playdates, no reprieves, no long stretches of sleep...and really just no fun. I found myself thinking - wow, being an actual "stay-at-home" mom is really really hard. It is one thing to be a "full-time-with-your-kids-mom", but staying at home - Oh my. Not for me. I thrive on being with other moms, sharing in their journey, laughing at their kids, them laughing at mine. I get really down when I'm alone with just my kids, and their tempers.
Even in the midst of last week, there were a couple of high spots. Mackenna climbed a ladder thing at the park, all by herself. I can't believe the independence and crazy climbing abilities that she is finding recently. Both kids jumped like crazy, with such HUGE smiles on their faces, on the bridge thingy on the playground. We also cleaned up the backyard a bit, to make it more readily available for cookouts and playing. While we were having our first grill-out meal of the season, Mackenna casually walked by and pointed at the "t" on the little tikes basketball goal and said "t" - Curt and I looked at each other incredulously. Micah then walked up and pointed at the "e" and said "e". Not sure exactly what was going on there - but we laughed pretty hard about their abilities. Micah also had a big individual accomplishment that night - he ate his first big boy bite of real corn on the cob. Makes his Indiana mama very proud. (That, and his ability to differentiate between a tractor and a combine, will hopefully endear him to his papa this summer.)
I must say, that in a week as long and as daunting as last week, those high spots only somewhat brightened my mood!
This week started with a trip to Busch Gardens. In the five years we have lived here, we have never purchased Fun Cards (stripped down season passes which provide you unlimited access until Dec 31st, for basically the cost of a one-day admission). Sesame Street just came to Busch Gardens, so we decided it was a good time to join. We are going to try and take the kids at least once a month, and we plan on going a few times just the two of us. The kids were really good. The enjoyed giving high fives, kisses, and nose honks to Elmo. They bounced and climbed like crazy in the rope tree house. They enjoyed riding the train. They kind of enjoyed a few rides, and of course only wanted to really ride the ones that they are not yet tall enough for :) Here are a few pictures.
Curt stayed home with the sniffly kids on Tuesday, and I was able to go to work. I was then able to go out with some girlfriends on Tuesday evening for a wonderful night of sitting out in the gorgeous weather and eating some yummy dessert. Good for the soul. The last three days of the week were broken up by music class, playdates, and a wonderful lunch with a wonderful family, and enjoying my kids WHILE being with other people. In a week like that, there were so many more times that I found myself holding one of the kids and kissing their sweet heads, and almost being overwhelmed to the point of tears at my gratitude for getting to be their mama. There were still meltdowns, still many corrections, but having a family weekend and conversations with other adults gave me the fuel I needed to totally change my perspective.
Even in the midst of last week, there were a couple of high spots. Mackenna climbed a ladder thing at the park, all by herself. I can't believe the independence and crazy climbing abilities that she is finding recently. Both kids jumped like crazy, with such HUGE smiles on their faces, on the bridge thingy on the playground. We also cleaned up the backyard a bit, to make it more readily available for cookouts and playing. While we were having our first grill-out meal of the season, Mackenna casually walked by and pointed at the "t" on the little tikes basketball goal and said "t" - Curt and I looked at each other incredulously. Micah then walked up and pointed at the "e" and said "e". Not sure exactly what was going on there - but we laughed pretty hard about their abilities. Micah also had a big individual accomplishment that night - he ate his first big boy bite of real corn on the cob. Makes his Indiana mama very proud. (That, and his ability to differentiate between a tractor and a combine, will hopefully endear him to his papa this summer.)
I must say, that in a week as long and as daunting as last week, those high spots only somewhat brightened my mood!
This week started with a trip to Busch Gardens. In the five years we have lived here, we have never purchased Fun Cards (stripped down season passes which provide you unlimited access until Dec 31st, for basically the cost of a one-day admission). Sesame Street just came to Busch Gardens, so we decided it was a good time to join. We are going to try and take the kids at least once a month, and we plan on going a few times just the two of us. The kids were really good. The enjoyed giving high fives, kisses, and nose honks to Elmo. They bounced and climbed like crazy in the rope tree house. They enjoyed riding the train. They kind of enjoyed a few rides, and of course only wanted to really ride the ones that they are not yet tall enough for :) Here are a few pictures.
Curt stayed home with the sniffly kids on Tuesday, and I was able to go to work. I was then able to go out with some girlfriends on Tuesday evening for a wonderful night of sitting out in the gorgeous weather and eating some yummy dessert. Good for the soul. The last three days of the week were broken up by music class, playdates, and a wonderful lunch with a wonderful family, and enjoying my kids WHILE being with other people. In a week like that, there were so many more times that I found myself holding one of the kids and kissing their sweet heads, and almost being overwhelmed to the point of tears at my gratitude for getting to be their mama. There were still meltdowns, still many corrections, but having a family weekend and conversations with other adults gave me the fuel I needed to totally change my perspective.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Fresh Resolve
I've been making some changes to my routines recently - choosing to renew my commitment to good habits.
- Going to bed early
- Getting up at 6 - showering/getting ready, spending time with the Lord, having some coffee, preparing the house for the day
- Staying on top of the housework (decided to try the FlyLady emails for awhile...we'll see)
- Doing more active, purposeful play with my kids
In some ways, I know that my resolve will wane in the coming days...but I also have fresh hope that I may be able to see real progress this time. Why? Because I'm not doing this alone. For this fresh start, I have the support of my husband. He has been a enthusiastic co-laborer in many of these things. I'm so thankful. He also wants to get up early. He is more committed than usual to keeping a chaos free house (seeing it as a benefit to the family, not just a concession for me). What a gift.
- Going to bed early
- Getting up at 6 - showering/getting ready, spending time with the Lord, having some coffee, preparing the house for the day
- Staying on top of the housework (decided to try the FlyLady emails for awhile...we'll see)
- Doing more active, purposeful play with my kids
In some ways, I know that my resolve will wane in the coming days...but I also have fresh hope that I may be able to see real progress this time. Why? Because I'm not doing this alone. For this fresh start, I have the support of my husband. He has been a enthusiastic co-laborer in many of these things. I'm so thankful. He also wants to get up early. He is more committed than usual to keeping a chaos free house (seeing it as a benefit to the family, not just a concession for me). What a gift.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
A few of my new tricks
I am in NO WAY any way close to be any sort of domestic wonder woman (less blasphemous than saying domestic goddess I suppose :) - especially in the area of cleaning and keeping the house straight. However, I have been inspired recently to grow in this area - partly by some of my friends who are much more disciplined than I am (you know who you are). I thought I would share a few of my household tricks, and hopefully some of you may share some of your own.
Two things that I will no longer live without -
1.) Laundry baskets. A stack of cheapy white laundry baskets has really transformed the battle of the daily kid clutter that quickly piles up in the living space of my house. I was starting to dread the minutes after naptime started and after bedtime came because of how much I hated picking up all the stuff that had gotten pulled out of place already that day. However, I've found that if I do this cleaning with two or three laundry baskets with me, it goes much faster. If I'm in the living room, then I use one laundry basket for everything that should go in the kids room and one laundry basket for everything that should go in the back family room. As I'm straightening the living room, I don't make extra trips out of the room, I just put things in the baskets. Then I move to the next room, dump out its basket, and put that stuff away, adding to the baskets as necessary. I've found that this goes MUCH faster for me
2.) My swiffer sweeper vac. I seriously love it for "daily" use on the floors and the battle (war) against crumbs, sand, pet hair, dust, yuckiness. It really helps me keep things looking nice, and if I maintain a level of cleanly sanity in the household, it is much easier to keep it from getting out of hand. For me, once one thing goes, everything is quick to follow. (It is easier to keep a clean house clean than to keep a somewhat messy house from becoming a wreck.) Also, swiffer only advertises using the sweeper vac with dry cloths. I have used it with their wet cloths, and I've found it works quite well - as long as you make sure that you are always leading with the vac part, and then retracing your path, and going to a new section leading with the vac part (so that you aren't getting an piece of floor wet before you suck up the crumbs). This maybe doesn't work as well true sweeping and true mopping - but much better than being so overwhelmed by the two steps that you do neither
A couple of small ideas that help me
3.) I've always been frustrated by how wet my dishes are when they come out of the dishwasher, even after the heated dry setting. Marcia gave me this suggestion, and I've found that it really works. (May be old news to you, but it was new to me.) If you open your dishwasher right after the actual washing stops and quickly run a towel over the top of the dishes, sopping up the big puddles of water, and then close the dishwasher and let it go through its drying time - it will get your dishes MUCH dryer than before. When I do this, I rarely have to towel dry anything before putting it away...my least favorite part of the process.
4.) It's all about saving steps for me. My washer/dryer is on the far side of the garage, so a million trips out there a day can be really frustrating. However, I don't really want to put dirty dishtowels in with my regular dirty clothes. I went ahead and hung a reusable shopping bag on the back of my garage door handle and use it for putting kitchen towels in throughout the week. When the bag starts to get too full (or smells to bad), I know it is time to wash it.
These have been good goals/housekeeping principles for me to strive for
5.) If I start the day with no dishes in the dishwasher or in the sink, I have a much higher chance of keeping the kitchen clean throughout the day. This allows me to load dishes into the dishwasher directly after using them. And have an actual sink to use for meal prep. This is extremely important to me in my small kitchen. What this means for me is that I have begun loading the dishwasher throughout the day and then immediately after dinner (before the food gets crusty on the plates). I should say that I have a husband who is often willing to help with this. The new part is this - even if the dishwasher is not completely full after dinner, I go ahead and run it anyway. This allows me to do the drying trick usually and to get the dishes put away before I go to bed that night, so that I can start the day fresh the next day.
6.) I'm trying to work on picking up the toys BEFORE naptime and bedtime WITH my children instead of for my children. This is hard. They are young. However, even if they don't help somedays, they do "get it" and help on otherdays. Also, on the days where they aren't helping, they are at least seeing me setting a good pattern of picking up throughout the day, a habit they will hopefully one day develop. This also gets this chore accomplished before naptime starts, so that I don't have to waste precious naptime minutes picking up their toys!
What are your home management tips?
Two things that I will no longer live without -
1.) Laundry baskets. A stack of cheapy white laundry baskets has really transformed the battle of the daily kid clutter that quickly piles up in the living space of my house. I was starting to dread the minutes after naptime started and after bedtime came because of how much I hated picking up all the stuff that had gotten pulled out of place already that day. However, I've found that if I do this cleaning with two or three laundry baskets with me, it goes much faster. If I'm in the living room, then I use one laundry basket for everything that should go in the kids room and one laundry basket for everything that should go in the back family room. As I'm straightening the living room, I don't make extra trips out of the room, I just put things in the baskets. Then I move to the next room, dump out its basket, and put that stuff away, adding to the baskets as necessary. I've found that this goes MUCH faster for me
2.) My swiffer sweeper vac. I seriously love it for "daily" use on the floors and the battle (war) against crumbs, sand, pet hair, dust, yuckiness. It really helps me keep things looking nice, and if I maintain a level of cleanly sanity in the household, it is much easier to keep it from getting out of hand. For me, once one thing goes, everything is quick to follow. (It is easier to keep a clean house clean than to keep a somewhat messy house from becoming a wreck.) Also, swiffer only advertises using the sweeper vac with dry cloths. I have used it with their wet cloths, and I've found it works quite well - as long as you make sure that you are always leading with the vac part, and then retracing your path, and going to a new section leading with the vac part (so that you aren't getting an piece of floor wet before you suck up the crumbs). This maybe doesn't work as well true sweeping and true mopping - but much better than being so overwhelmed by the two steps that you do neither
A couple of small ideas that help me
3.) I've always been frustrated by how wet my dishes are when they come out of the dishwasher, even after the heated dry setting. Marcia gave me this suggestion, and I've found that it really works. (May be old news to you, but it was new to me.) If you open your dishwasher right after the actual washing stops and quickly run a towel over the top of the dishes, sopping up the big puddles of water, and then close the dishwasher and let it go through its drying time - it will get your dishes MUCH dryer than before. When I do this, I rarely have to towel dry anything before putting it away...my least favorite part of the process.
4.) It's all about saving steps for me. My washer/dryer is on the far side of the garage, so a million trips out there a day can be really frustrating. However, I don't really want to put dirty dishtowels in with my regular dirty clothes. I went ahead and hung a reusable shopping bag on the back of my garage door handle and use it for putting kitchen towels in throughout the week. When the bag starts to get too full (or smells to bad), I know it is time to wash it.
These have been good goals/housekeeping principles for me to strive for
5.) If I start the day with no dishes in the dishwasher or in the sink, I have a much higher chance of keeping the kitchen clean throughout the day. This allows me to load dishes into the dishwasher directly after using them. And have an actual sink to use for meal prep. This is extremely important to me in my small kitchen. What this means for me is that I have begun loading the dishwasher throughout the day and then immediately after dinner (before the food gets crusty on the plates). I should say that I have a husband who is often willing to help with this. The new part is this - even if the dishwasher is not completely full after dinner, I go ahead and run it anyway. This allows me to do the drying trick usually and to get the dishes put away before I go to bed that night, so that I can start the day fresh the next day.
6.) I'm trying to work on picking up the toys BEFORE naptime and bedtime WITH my children instead of for my children. This is hard. They are young. However, even if they don't help somedays, they do "get it" and help on otherdays. Also, on the days where they aren't helping, they are at least seeing me setting a good pattern of picking up throughout the day, a habit they will hopefully one day develop. This also gets this chore accomplished before naptime starts, so that I don't have to waste precious naptime minutes picking up their toys!
What are your home management tips?
Parenting Overdrive
So maybe it is just because we are on the march to 2 years old, or maybe it is because I was getting too comfortable in this current toddler phase, but in the last week, my dose of parenting has had to step it up a notch or few (thousand). Here are some of the things that I've been faced with the last few weeks...
Micah learned to climb out of his crib. Yup. Wow. It all started on a day where the morning (for Mackenna) held a squished hand in the door (accidentally, but forcefully, done by me), an eaten orange crayon (that really does come out the other end looking orange), and a cracked head on a concrete slab. The doctor was having me wake her up every few hours, so I decided to put her down to bed in our room so that waking her up wouldn't also mean waking Micah up. (Keep in mind that Curt was not home that evening - of course.) This absolutely, positively, infuriated the little guy. And I don't just think that he was concerned that she was still up and playing and he was missing it; it did actually seem like he just really wanted to be with her. His screaming in the next room prompted her screaming also - so I closed both doors, came out to the couch, and listened to their screaming for awhile. I started doing something else, and her screaming calmed down. I decided it was time to go check on Micah (my plan was to go show him that she was sleeping in our room). I opened the door to the room and was greeted by my sweet boy, thumb in mouth, frog in hand, just walking confidently, calmly toward me. My eyes did a double take. I second guessed whether or not I had remembered to actually put him in bed. I was totally shocked...and a little gitty about the whole situation. Part of me wanted to laugh, part of me wanted to congratulate him, part of me wanted to cry because my life was over, and part of me wanted to yell at him for messing up the perfect April Fool's day joke/picture about Micah climbing into Mackenna's crib that I had been plotting for weeks (this was the 31st). Anyway, he proceeded to do this two more times in the next 15 minutes - each time without hurting himself and each time as happily as could be. I gave up and decided to sit with the kids and read books until Curt got home. Marcia then called to check on plans for the week, and I told her about my evening. She came down and we re-did the bedtime routine, putting both kids to bed in the same room, and they both happily stayed in their crib. The reaction on Curt's face when I told him later was priceless. I really should have taped it -- it involved him hitting his head and opening his mouth WIDE in surprise! So that is the story - the parenting part of it involves a decision to possibly turn his crib around so that the high side faces out and the lower side faces the wall. I will also respond much better and actually correct him for this in the future (I already have had to twice), when I'm not completely overwhelmed by shock. We will go for a mixture of avoidance and correction on this one.
Also, Mackenna has decided that it is fun to ask to go potty and to sit on the potty about 5 to 10 times a day. I feel bad turning down this request, but neither am I really ready to go down this road - at all.
Micah went on a binge last week where he was throwing all of his food on the floor - unless it was fruit or cookies.
Micah is also getting really demanding. His vocabulary is growing (more on that in a few days - 21 month post) and he is really quite clear with his words. He consistently points to where he wants to go and says "that way" or points to what he wants and says "that one." Yup, that is special. He also has transitioned into violence when he doesn't get his way. This may mean hitting (or even biting) his sister if she is nearby, or it may mean throwing a toy or slapping mom or dad. Last night, Curt told him he couldn't move the slide onto the driveway from the "grass" and Micah proceeded to stiff arm push the little tikes basketball goal over that Curt was shooting baskets into, and then giving Curt a look that says "what now!?" Wow.
Mackenna is getting less violent - she hadn't bitten for months...until today. (This does keep in consistency with the pattern so far that they pendulum swing on behavior patterns - one is good, one is difficult, and then they flip flop on lots of things, lots of the time. Not sure if it is twin related, or just toddler related.)
So yes. Not for the weak at heart. And sometimes I feel VERY weak at heart.
Micah learned to climb out of his crib. Yup. Wow. It all started on a day where the morning (for Mackenna) held a squished hand in the door (accidentally, but forcefully, done by me), an eaten orange crayon (that really does come out the other end looking orange), and a cracked head on a concrete slab. The doctor was having me wake her up every few hours, so I decided to put her down to bed in our room so that waking her up wouldn't also mean waking Micah up. (Keep in mind that Curt was not home that evening - of course.) This absolutely, positively, infuriated the little guy. And I don't just think that he was concerned that she was still up and playing and he was missing it; it did actually seem like he just really wanted to be with her. His screaming in the next room prompted her screaming also - so I closed both doors, came out to the couch, and listened to their screaming for awhile. I started doing something else, and her screaming calmed down. I decided it was time to go check on Micah (my plan was to go show him that she was sleeping in our room). I opened the door to the room and was greeted by my sweet boy, thumb in mouth, frog in hand, just walking confidently, calmly toward me. My eyes did a double take. I second guessed whether or not I had remembered to actually put him in bed. I was totally shocked...and a little gitty about the whole situation. Part of me wanted to laugh, part of me wanted to congratulate him, part of me wanted to cry because my life was over, and part of me wanted to yell at him for messing up the perfect April Fool's day joke/picture about Micah climbing into Mackenna's crib that I had been plotting for weeks (this was the 31st). Anyway, he proceeded to do this two more times in the next 15 minutes - each time without hurting himself and each time as happily as could be. I gave up and decided to sit with the kids and read books until Curt got home. Marcia then called to check on plans for the week, and I told her about my evening. She came down and we re-did the bedtime routine, putting both kids to bed in the same room, and they both happily stayed in their crib. The reaction on Curt's face when I told him later was priceless. I really should have taped it -- it involved him hitting his head and opening his mouth WIDE in surprise! So that is the story - the parenting part of it involves a decision to possibly turn his crib around so that the high side faces out and the lower side faces the wall. I will also respond much better and actually correct him for this in the future (I already have had to twice), when I'm not completely overwhelmed by shock. We will go for a mixture of avoidance and correction on this one.
Also, Mackenna has decided that it is fun to ask to go potty and to sit on the potty about 5 to 10 times a day. I feel bad turning down this request, but neither am I really ready to go down this road - at all.
Micah went on a binge last week where he was throwing all of his food on the floor - unless it was fruit or cookies.
Micah is also getting really demanding. His vocabulary is growing (more on that in a few days - 21 month post) and he is really quite clear with his words. He consistently points to where he wants to go and says "that way" or points to what he wants and says "that one." Yup, that is special. He also has transitioned into violence when he doesn't get his way. This may mean hitting (or even biting) his sister if she is nearby, or it may mean throwing a toy or slapping mom or dad. Last night, Curt told him he couldn't move the slide onto the driveway from the "grass" and Micah proceeded to stiff arm push the little tikes basketball goal over that Curt was shooting baskets into, and then giving Curt a look that says "what now!?" Wow.
Mackenna is getting less violent - she hadn't bitten for months...until today. (This does keep in consistency with the pattern so far that they pendulum swing on behavior patterns - one is good, one is difficult, and then they flip flop on lots of things, lots of the time. Not sure if it is twin related, or just toddler related.)
So yes. Not for the weak at heart. And sometimes I feel VERY weak at heart.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
2 Things
1. It is clear that God designed parenting to be a two person task. For many good reasons.
2. There is nothing cuter than happy kids after naptime.
2. There is nothing cuter than happy kids after naptime.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
New Train
We are so thankful for the "new" train set that Micah and Mackenna got this week. They LOVE it. He loves pushing the "choo choo" and she is fascinated by building the track. Yay! April, Thanks so much!
Monday, February 1, 2010
More Words they can say...
Just so I don't forget
Both kids now say "night-night." (nigh-nigh) Micah looked at me after I put his jammies on last night and had started to sing to him and he reached for his bed and said "night night" (I think he really meant - buzz off mom.)
I think both kids can say "mine" - although Micah says it more. Mackenna prefers to just take a chomp out of him to communicate mine.
Micah clearly knows the difference between the following things and can say words for them fairly consistently - car, bus, truck, tractor, airplane (two good syllables), helicopter (no word for this one - but sometimes it sounds diff than airplane), train (choo choo), boat (sometimes). I think she knows quite a bit about vehicles too, but she could kind of care less. Micah is obsessed with those things. He can find a car in any picture (it makes me think of Campbell finding a picture of a ball on the preview of the sports page on the front page of the newspaper). He finds little pictures of cars in books that have nothing to do with cars. His favorite is when a truck is full of cars...this really makes him happy.
One day after nap - Micah pointed to the TV that was off and said "uh-oh...choo choo" He's been a little into the new show Chuggington lately.
"Sentences" I have heard them say - "no, mine" "i want juice" "i want this" (what cute little sinners they are)
I love my dear daughter dearly, but she has been a little too fixated on crying and clinging to have fun exploring new things right now. I know the pendulum will swing soon and their personalities will switch again - they always do.
Both kids now say "night-night." (nigh-nigh) Micah looked at me after I put his jammies on last night and had started to sing to him and he reached for his bed and said "night night" (I think he really meant - buzz off mom.)
I think both kids can say "mine" - although Micah says it more. Mackenna prefers to just take a chomp out of him to communicate mine.
Micah clearly knows the difference between the following things and can say words for them fairly consistently - car, bus, truck, tractor, airplane (two good syllables), helicopter (no word for this one - but sometimes it sounds diff than airplane), train (choo choo), boat (sometimes). I think she knows quite a bit about vehicles too, but she could kind of care less. Micah is obsessed with those things. He can find a car in any picture (it makes me think of Campbell finding a picture of a ball on the preview of the sports page on the front page of the newspaper). He finds little pictures of cars in books that have nothing to do with cars. His favorite is when a truck is full of cars...this really makes him happy.
One day after nap - Micah pointed to the TV that was off and said "uh-oh...choo choo" He's been a little into the new show Chuggington lately.
"Sentences" I have heard them say - "no, mine" "i want juice" "i want this" (what cute little sinners they are)
I love my dear daughter dearly, but she has been a little too fixated on crying and clinging to have fun exploring new things right now. I know the pendulum will swing soon and their personalities will switch again - they always do.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
I'm the mom
Let me start by saying that Curt is a fabulous father. Amazing. There are certain things that he just takes care of around this household - such as wiping the kids up after a meal and giving them baths. He does those things so often and naturally that I'm still pretty inept at them myself. He also got less slept during the newborn time than I did. He always (with the exception of a few few nights) got up with me at night while I nursed them. In fact, he got up first and came to bed after I did. Our routine went something like....(if I'm remembering right, parts of it don't make sense...)Curt would get up and get the crier and bring them to me in bed (or I would get up and go to my amazing lazyboy chair), I would nurse the one and then I would nudge Curt when I could tell we were almost done. He would get the second one up, change their diaper, and then we'd switch. He would burp the first while I fed the second, then change the first's diaper, and then lay down for a bit if there was time before it was time to burp the second. As soon as I was done feeding, I would go back to sleep while he burped :) I have an amazing husband.
Why the "amazing husband" lead in? Because of what happened a few weeks ago. See, he is such a good father that I found myself thinking that we were the same. That we played the same role in this family. This little bubble of mine was shattered two weeks ago when I went away for 2 and a half days to Orlando for a conference. First of all, before I left, I of course had to make sure that there was plenty of food for while I was gone (with lists of the options so that he would know what there was) and all the childcare scheduling was all lined up. Then, on the second morning I was gone, I got a text that Marcia, our loving Florida grandmother, was sick and couldn't cover the three time slots that she was going to cover in the next few days. I assumed that this would panic Curt (as it was his schedule that was going to be affected by it) and that he would start looking for replacement childcare. Nope. He had no clue what to do. No clue where to start or who to call. I ended up filling all three of the time slots via facebook shout outs and text messages while I was sitting in meetings at my conference before he even made his first attempt. I say that I filled three time slots...I actually filled four, because one fell through before it could actually happen. This replacement fill in that I found was for Curt during basketball practice. The plan was for him to drop the kids off at my friend's house and then go to practice. I then get a text message (which I'm totally dreading at this point)..."Do you have any idea where my keys are?" Oh my. He can't find his keys so he ends up canceling on my friend (actually he forgets to call and cancel and she has to call him) and just puts the kids in the stroller and walks to practice. Once at practice (25+ 5th through 8th grade boys), he puts the kids on a bleacher and gives them snacks and asks them to stay put. This, as you can guess, did not go so well. So he then makes a pen out of chairs and puts them in the middle of it. They go ballistic at this idea, so he gets in the pen with them and shouts out directions to his basketball players while holding two screaming children. Oh my Oh my.
He then walks the mile home (losing Micah's sippy cup along the way) and feeds the kids before the next babysitter shows up. This was the interesting one. She was a stranger. I had to rely on a friend for a recommendation of a girl she uses and I only got to talk to her on the phone that afternoon. I still have absolutely no idea what she looks like :) Curt gave her some instructions and got a ride to his elders' meeting at church. He left the meeting at 10 PM to come home and relieve the babysitter (since random strangers cost much more than loving Florida-grandmothers). When I talked to him at 11:15 that night, I immediately asked him how it went. He responded, "Oh the meeting went..." No No, that was not what I was asking. How did the stranger do with our children (or rather, how did our children do with the stranger). "Oh, she said it went great. They shared well. Went to bed fine." Sheww. We went on with our conversation until I realized that he hadn't actually said that the kids were currently fine. So I paused and asked him if he had checked on the kids since he had been home. Nope. He had been home for an hour and fifteen minutes and hadn't checked on the kids yet!!! Totally cracked me up. A stranger had been in our home and he just took her word that they were sleeping peacefully in their beds. I'm an obsessive checker on them even when we've been home the whole time. Let alone when someone could have sold our kids while we were gone :) Of course, the kids were fine and sleeping peacefully in their beds just like he had assumed (until he checked on them and she woke up screaming to be held!).
What did I learn from this? Well - Curt is an excellent father, but he is not a mother. I'm a necessary part of this family. Case in point - Curt is now in the middle of a five day "gone" stretch. Did he line up childcare for the kids before he left? Did he do the laundry before he left? He left and it was me who took both kids to the grocery store to get us food to eat. Marcia happens to be sick again, and he didn't pull any shananigans to arrange any babysitters to cover her "shifts." He simply packed his suitcase and left. And while he is gone - he will actually be gone. Life will go on here at home without frantic text messages asking where the sippy cups are. Now if toilets get clogged or trash needs to be taken out - that is a different story - but the mom stuff, I've got that handled, even though it is harder when I'm alone. It was a funny experience, and in some ways an encouraging one. It is good to feel needed. And loved - I think.
Why the "amazing husband" lead in? Because of what happened a few weeks ago. See, he is such a good father that I found myself thinking that we were the same. That we played the same role in this family. This little bubble of mine was shattered two weeks ago when I went away for 2 and a half days to Orlando for a conference. First of all, before I left, I of course had to make sure that there was plenty of food for while I was gone (with lists of the options so that he would know what there was) and all the childcare scheduling was all lined up. Then, on the second morning I was gone, I got a text that Marcia, our loving Florida grandmother, was sick and couldn't cover the three time slots that she was going to cover in the next few days. I assumed that this would panic Curt (as it was his schedule that was going to be affected by it) and that he would start looking for replacement childcare. Nope. He had no clue what to do. No clue where to start or who to call. I ended up filling all three of the time slots via facebook shout outs and text messages while I was sitting in meetings at my conference before he even made his first attempt. I say that I filled three time slots...I actually filled four, because one fell through before it could actually happen. This replacement fill in that I found was for Curt during basketball practice. The plan was for him to drop the kids off at my friend's house and then go to practice. I then get a text message (which I'm totally dreading at this point)..."Do you have any idea where my keys are?" Oh my. He can't find his keys so he ends up canceling on my friend (actually he forgets to call and cancel and she has to call him) and just puts the kids in the stroller and walks to practice. Once at practice (25+ 5th through 8th grade boys), he puts the kids on a bleacher and gives them snacks and asks them to stay put. This, as you can guess, did not go so well. So he then makes a pen out of chairs and puts them in the middle of it. They go ballistic at this idea, so he gets in the pen with them and shouts out directions to his basketball players while holding two screaming children. Oh my Oh my.
He then walks the mile home (losing Micah's sippy cup along the way) and feeds the kids before the next babysitter shows up. This was the interesting one. She was a stranger. I had to rely on a friend for a recommendation of a girl she uses and I only got to talk to her on the phone that afternoon. I still have absolutely no idea what she looks like :) Curt gave her some instructions and got a ride to his elders' meeting at church. He left the meeting at 10 PM to come home and relieve the babysitter (since random strangers cost much more than loving Florida-grandmothers). When I talked to him at 11:15 that night, I immediately asked him how it went. He responded, "Oh the meeting went..." No No, that was not what I was asking. How did the stranger do with our children (or rather, how did our children do with the stranger). "Oh, she said it went great. They shared well. Went to bed fine." Sheww. We went on with our conversation until I realized that he hadn't actually said that the kids were currently fine. So I paused and asked him if he had checked on the kids since he had been home. Nope. He had been home for an hour and fifteen minutes and hadn't checked on the kids yet!!! Totally cracked me up. A stranger had been in our home and he just took her word that they were sleeping peacefully in their beds. I'm an obsessive checker on them even when we've been home the whole time. Let alone when someone could have sold our kids while we were gone :) Of course, the kids were fine and sleeping peacefully in their beds just like he had assumed (until he checked on them and she woke up screaming to be held!).
What did I learn from this? Well - Curt is an excellent father, but he is not a mother. I'm a necessary part of this family. Case in point - Curt is now in the middle of a five day "gone" stretch. Did he line up childcare for the kids before he left? Did he do the laundry before he left? He left and it was me who took both kids to the grocery store to get us food to eat. Marcia happens to be sick again, and he didn't pull any shananigans to arrange any babysitters to cover her "shifts." He simply packed his suitcase and left. And while he is gone - he will actually be gone. Life will go on here at home without frantic text messages asking where the sippy cups are. Now if toilets get clogged or trash needs to be taken out - that is a different story - but the mom stuff, I've got that handled, even though it is harder when I'm alone. It was a funny experience, and in some ways an encouraging one. It is good to feel needed. And loved - I think.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Some Videos
I thought a few people might need a little cheering up today. Here are my best shots at that...
Sunday, January 10, 2010
18 Months
Micah took his first steps in Indiana (mid to late July) at Grandma and Grandpa Sharbaugh's house before the family reunion. Both mom and dad got to see it. He didn't really start walking until later. In Indiana, Mackenna figured out how to stand up from a sitting position; she didn't take any steps there though. When we got back to Florida (early August), she took some steps for the video camera when Micah was playing with his ball popper toy. It was kind of a shock. Since she also knew how to stand up once she fell, she really picked up speed from there. Her Meshugana personality shone through as she would fall down and get back up many many times as she would walk somewhere, completely unfazed and crazily happy about it. Micah showed some signs of being a cautious perfectionist engineer type as he had to figure out the walking thing perfectly before he would try it. Once he figured it out, he would walk quite a ways without falling. He even figured out how to turn corners pretty close to his first steps. However, he couldn't figure out how to stand back up after he fell, maybe this was part of the reason he didn't fall often. It took him awhile to figure this out instead of having to crawl over to something to pull up on. Now, quite a few months later, it is crazy to see them crawling from time to time. They definitely have the walking, and running, thing mastered.
Micah's hair really had started to turn into a surfer boy/mullet. It would have some good days, but it also would look pretty shaggy and scraggly at times. He got his first haircut right before he turned 14 months old. He sat in the big chair like a big boy. He did really well the whole time, staying pretty calm and looking around. He did get a little distracted towards the end, so mommy gave him her phone and he talked on it for awhile (trading stocks on e-trade). Mom did have a pretty hard time being okay with her baby getting a haircut, but she had to admit that he looked pretty handsome at the time. Dad took him for his second haircut a few months after that.
Mackenna's hair has really changed since her first birthday. The sides have really grown long and she is able to almost put it all up in two pigtails. She has graduated from the pebbles ponytail in the middle of her head and will either wear it on the side in one ponytail or partially up in two pigtails.
The twins stopped nursing in middle to late September. I recorded a bit about how that really happened here.
Right now Micah is really into cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes, boats, etc. He likes reading about them (pointing them out in picture books) and playing with them. He will actually sit really still on your lap while you look at a book as long as it involves one of the above things. He also has certain truck books that he really likes and will go find if you ask him to. He likes throwing them, kicking them (he can do this on command sometimes), and getting them knocked out of his hand by daddy. He really likes that he gets to face forward in his carseat now, especially when he is riding in a car that he is high enough that he can point out all the trucks that are passing by. He is also a little obsessed with shoes. Usually the first thing he will ask for when he gets out of his crib in the morning is his shoes. He even wants them on over his footed pajamas. He also wants everyone else to be wearing shoes and will bring you your shoes if he finds them in the house (we have a special place that we hide our shoes so that he can't do this). He will also put on other people's shoes and walk around the house. The other day he may have interacted with the Little Einsteins TV show, patting his lap when he was supposed to and maybe taking some steps along with the directions. He also likes to play tackle/wrestle/tickle with daddy. Daddy plays a game where he says "hut hut hike" and Micah runs away and then he gets tackled and tickled by daddy - this involves lots of laughing. He gives "knuckles" and expects to be tickled after he gives it. When Mackenna hears the "hut hut hike" game, she comes running toward daddy for a tickle.
Mackenna is really into snuggling right now. She wants to be held in someone's arms or lap most of the time. Also, she would prefer if we let her have her little flannel blankie all of the time. She puts it into her mouth and then rubs her nose with the wet corner. If her blankie is not available, she loves to have a wet wipe to accomplish this with. She will also use many other things if neither of these are options - napkin, washcloth, toilet paper, towel, clothing, stuffed animals, etc. She also says "hi" in a singsong, two-syllable, high-pitched way when she sees someone or they come into the room. She really is a mimicer and is picking up on things really quickly right now. She learned to do the "itsybitsy" part of the song after only observing it once. She also can do most all of the motions for "where are the bees" now (he can do almost as many as she can). She learned "head and shoulders" after probably 10 times hearing it. She will also tip over to one side when she hears "i'm a little teapot." She says most of the things that Micah says, because she will mimic him, however, because she will also mimic many other things, she does say more words than he says. She is really picking up on using silverware right now - stabbing food with her fork and getting it in her mouth really well. She is really emotional right now - still kind of an all or nothing girl. She can get really upset about things when they don't go her way - like when she can't have the pigs that are in the TV show. She is into coloring or scribbling with pencils or pens right now. She is also a little more into the Magna Doodle than he is. She is a biter - this has been an off and on problem for her - mostly motivated by her brother taking toys from her. We are working on both sides of this. When Micah wants to keep her from getting something or take something from her, he will fall on her or the object with his whole body and just lay there, protecting the item. Sharing is not going well right now, and it involves lots of screaming (and some biting).
They are both pretty into opening and closing doors right now. They like to be on opposite side of doors and open and close them at each other, playing a version of hide/peekaboo with each other. They both like putting hats and other dress up like clothing on.
List of words
Mommy
Daddy
Car
Tractor (Micah)
Boat (Micah)
Up
Nana
Papa
GG (Mackenna)
Emma
Diaper (Mackenna)
Poopy (Mackenna)
Cheese
Juice
Water (Mackenna...Micah would only ever ask for juice - no need to learn this one)
Sign for More, Please, All Done
Micah says please by saying oheeoheeohee accompanied with the sign for all done
Baby (Mackenna)
Siren Noise
Eieio (Micah)
Shoes
Cicah (Mackenna's version of Micah)
Cacah (Mackenna's version of Mackenna)
Cookie
Cracker
Nana (Banana)
No
"I want this" - a concoction of syllables that sounds a lot like this (Micah) and fits based on context and how he uses it consistently and repeatedly back to back - we are guessing on this one
Animal Sounds
Roar
Meow
Woof
Moo
Oink
Gobble Gobble
Words that have alternate meanings -
Daddy - means "here I have something for you" or "take this" - they will both say this with their hand outstretched, consistently having something in their hand that they want us to take
Mommy - pick me up
Favorite foods right now -
Green Beans
Chicken Nuggets with SAUCE
yogurt smoothies
yogurt - if they get to feed themselves
Peas (Micah)
Carrots (Mackenna)
Strawberries
Meat with Sauce
Peaches
Bananas
Cookies :)
Crackers :)
Whatever mom and dad are eating
They eat pretty much whatever....
They know so much and can follow so many commands that it is hard to think about what they can say and what they can't, because I get confused as to what they can say and what they just can do. Here are some things they can do when asked -
Get up around 8ish
Breakfast
Nap around 9:30 - 11:00
Change into clothes
Lunch
Nap around 2 - 4
Snack
Dinner
Bed around 8ish - Mom and Dad sing "Jesus Loves You" "Oh how he loves you and me" and "Oh how I love Micah/Mackenna" and then play "Come to the Cradle" CD by Michael Card
Daily routine (18 months)
Get up around 8ish
Breakfast
"Rest time" from 10 - 10:30 (lights on, play with toys and books in cribs and cuddle with their lovies)
Lunch
Nap around 1 - 3
Snack
Dinner
Bed around 8ish - same songs
Micah's hair really had started to turn into a surfer boy/mullet. It would have some good days, but it also would look pretty shaggy and scraggly at times. He got his first haircut right before he turned 14 months old. He sat in the big chair like a big boy. He did really well the whole time, staying pretty calm and looking around. He did get a little distracted towards the end, so mommy gave him her phone and he talked on it for awhile (trading stocks on e-trade). Mom did have a pretty hard time being okay with her baby getting a haircut, but she had to admit that he looked pretty handsome at the time. Dad took him for his second haircut a few months after that.
Mackenna's hair has really changed since her first birthday. The sides have really grown long and she is able to almost put it all up in two pigtails. She has graduated from the pebbles ponytail in the middle of her head and will either wear it on the side in one ponytail or partially up in two pigtails.
The twins stopped nursing in middle to late September. I recorded a bit about how that really happened here.
Right now Micah is really into cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes, boats, etc. He likes reading about them (pointing them out in picture books) and playing with them. He will actually sit really still on your lap while you look at a book as long as it involves one of the above things. He also has certain truck books that he really likes and will go find if you ask him to. He likes throwing them, kicking them (he can do this on command sometimes), and getting them knocked out of his hand by daddy. He really likes that he gets to face forward in his carseat now, especially when he is riding in a car that he is high enough that he can point out all the trucks that are passing by. He is also a little obsessed with shoes. Usually the first thing he will ask for when he gets out of his crib in the morning is his shoes. He even wants them on over his footed pajamas. He also wants everyone else to be wearing shoes and will bring you your shoes if he finds them in the house (we have a special place that we hide our shoes so that he can't do this). He will also put on other people's shoes and walk around the house. The other day he may have interacted with the Little Einsteins TV show, patting his lap when he was supposed to and maybe taking some steps along with the directions. He also likes to play tackle/wrestle/tickle with daddy. Daddy plays a game where he says "hut hut hike" and Micah runs away and then he gets tackled and tickled by daddy - this involves lots of laughing. He gives "knuckles" and expects to be tickled after he gives it. When Mackenna hears the "hut hut hike" game, she comes running toward daddy for a tickle.
Mackenna is really into snuggling right now. She wants to be held in someone's arms or lap most of the time. Also, she would prefer if we let her have her little flannel blankie all of the time. She puts it into her mouth and then rubs her nose with the wet corner. If her blankie is not available, she loves to have a wet wipe to accomplish this with. She will also use many other things if neither of these are options - napkin, washcloth, toilet paper, towel, clothing, stuffed animals, etc. She also says "hi" in a singsong, two-syllable, high-pitched way when she sees someone or they come into the room. She really is a mimicer and is picking up on things really quickly right now. She learned to do the "itsybitsy" part of the song after only observing it once. She also can do most all of the motions for "where are the bees" now (he can do almost as many as she can). She learned "head and shoulders" after probably 10 times hearing it. She will also tip over to one side when she hears "i'm a little teapot." She says most of the things that Micah says, because she will mimic him, however, because she will also mimic many other things, she does say more words than he says. She is really picking up on using silverware right now - stabbing food with her fork and getting it in her mouth really well. She is really emotional right now - still kind of an all or nothing girl. She can get really upset about things when they don't go her way - like when she can't have the pigs that are in the TV show. She is into coloring or scribbling with pencils or pens right now. She is also a little more into the Magna Doodle than he is. She is a biter - this has been an off and on problem for her - mostly motivated by her brother taking toys from her. We are working on both sides of this. When Micah wants to keep her from getting something or take something from her, he will fall on her or the object with his whole body and just lay there, protecting the item. Sharing is not going well right now, and it involves lots of screaming (and some biting).
They are both pretty into opening and closing doors right now. They like to be on opposite side of doors and open and close them at each other, playing a version of hide/peekaboo with each other. They both like putting hats and other dress up like clothing on.
List of words
Mommy
Daddy
Car
Tractor (Micah)
Boat (Micah)
Up
Nana
Papa
GG (Mackenna)
Emma
Diaper (Mackenna)
Poopy (Mackenna)
Cheese
Juice
Water (Mackenna...Micah would only ever ask for juice - no need to learn this one)
Sign for More, Please, All Done
Micah says please by saying oheeoheeohee accompanied with the sign for all done
Baby (Mackenna)
Siren Noise
Eieio (Micah)
Shoes
Cicah (Mackenna's version of Micah)
Cacah (Mackenna's version of Mackenna)
Cookie
Cracker
Nana (Banana)
No
"I want this" - a concoction of syllables that sounds a lot like this (Micah) and fits based on context and how he uses it consistently and repeatedly back to back - we are guessing on this one
Animal Sounds
Roar
Meow
Woof
Moo
Oink
Gobble Gobble
Words that have alternate meanings -
Daddy - means "here I have something for you" or "take this" - they will both say this with their hand outstretched, consistently having something in their hand that they want us to take
Mommy - pick me up
Favorite foods right now -
Green Beans
Chicken Nuggets with SAUCE
yogurt smoothies
yogurt - if they get to feed themselves
Peas (Micah)
Carrots (Mackenna)
Strawberries
Meat with Sauce
Peaches
Bananas
Cookies :)
Crackers :)
Whatever mom and dad are eating
They eat pretty much whatever....
They know so much and can follow so many commands that it is hard to think about what they can say and what they can't, because I get confused as to what they can say and what they just can do. Here are some things they can do when asked -
- go to the door - either the garage door or front door depending on what they are asked
- throw away their diaper out in the garage - take the diaper from their room to the garage, open the garage door, put it in the diaper champ, and pull the diaper champ handle to push the diaper down
- find their shoes (micah is really good at this one)
- bring mommy a book
- go take a bath
- put froggie back in bed
- pick up the cars and put them back in the bag (especially if they see mommy start doing this with them)
- go get in their highchair (they will stand by them)
- get in their little chairs for snacktime
- give it to mommy or daddy
Get up around 8ish
Breakfast
Nap around 9:30 - 11:00
Change into clothes
Lunch
Nap around 2 - 4
Snack
Dinner
Bed around 8ish - Mom and Dad sing "Jesus Loves You" "Oh how he loves you and me" and "Oh how I love Micah/Mackenna" and then play "Come to the Cradle" CD by Michael Card
Daily routine (18 months)
Get up around 8ish
Breakfast
"Rest time" from 10 - 10:30 (lights on, play with toys and books in cribs and cuddle with their lovies)
Lunch
Nap around 1 - 3
Snack
Dinner
Bed around 8ish - same songs
Friday, January 8, 2010
Why does bringing another baby into my house petrify me?
So if having two kids isn't so bad, why does having a third one kind of weird me out? I've been thinking a lot about this one. A big part of my brain can't fathom loving anyone other kids like Micah and Mackenna. You would think the fact that I've made the transition before from not loving a baby, to meeting two babies, getting to know them, and falling crazy in love with them would make this idea of loving another one not seem so alien-like. But it doesn't. In fact, I think I decided (while I was scrubbing the milk out of the sippy cups), that it actually makes this idea seem even weirder. You see, before, when I was childless and longing to be a mother, I didn't really understand what a mother's obsession would really be like. Oh, I thought I did, and I really did to some extent, but not fully. I actually thought that I wouldn't love my kids as much I loved some of the other darlings in my life. Oh my - was I wrong. So, then, I would see a baby or a toddler and think how cute they were and I could imagine myself bringing them into my home and loving them. Because I thought I already loved them. But now, I see a different baby or toddler and I can't imagine bringing something like them into my home to love. They seem strange and alienlike to me. I enjoy them, I like them, and some of them I love - but they are not Micah and Mackenna - and they don't fill my heart with obsession. I think this is why the thought of bringing a third stranger into my home - Curt, Laura, Micah, and Mackenna's home - feels really weird. In my head I know I will fall obsessively in love with any child God brings into our home, however he does it. But in my heart, the idea just seems off. Like ET coming to live with us - an ET that comes with a lot of mess and crusty milk in sippy cups.
Crazy idea
So I have a crazy idea. Next week, I'm going to do this. Get up an hour before the kids get up, make myself something yummy to drink, shower, dry my hair, and read something. That's all. Then during naptimes, I'm going to do actual housework, nothing related to the computer. (well, maybe not nothing...) Then in the evenings, I will only do fun things (sew, watch TV, catch up on blogs). We'll see how this goes. It's not a New Year's Resolution - it's a new week resolution. I can try it for a week, and see if it's worth it, right!?
...oh wait...one small problem...next week I will only be home two of five days. Hmm...
...oh wait...one small problem...next week I will only be home two of five days. Hmm...
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