Let's go to Hawaii

My son is 2 and a 1/2. He doesn't really talk well... he tries... but it seems that once again, I have to wear the translator hat when he is trying to tell us something.

Anyway, we took a family vacation this past weekend. We went to a "beautiful" Texas beach close to our home. Unfortunately for us, our ocean view/ocean access condominium had a fantastic view of all the red seaweed that washes up all day long. I don't know if this is a seasonal thing, a fluke thing or a regular thing. We got all the benefits of it though. I will list them here:

1)
2)
3)

Yep, that is about it. (Fortunately, other parts of the island were cleaner, so we did get to experience "beach behavior"... ie. running through the crashing waves, trying to stand through the waves and yes, even eroding the beach below your foot, tushie, or whatever when the water recedes into the ocean.

Anyway, as we are travelling to our destination, we were talking the beach up to our kids. "We get to jump through the waves, build sand castles, run around..."

For some reason, my daughter makes the following declaration "I am going to call the beach 'Hawaii'".

OK.

Sure.

It is REAL close.

So, back to the start of this post... we are back home and I am translating for my son. I hear this... "Wan go hawaii". HUH?

"Wan go hawaii".

OK, so I guess he wants to go back to the beach.

In the meantime, I will just take them to the "Movie Peter"

he he

Accountability

I just joined a sweet group of ladies in an accountability group. Their job is to hold me accountable to the tasks that I set forth to accomplish. Focused on Christian life, we will cover goals pertaining to Physical, Personal, Spiritual and Emotional well being.

So, we started by picking a verse that we wanted to memorize. I chose Philippians 4:8-9.
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

This book was written by Paul and Timothy to the church at Philippi. Paul was a teacher and often punished for preaching the word of God.

I, by no means equate myself to Paul, but in the following regards I am equating our "jobs". (At least mine at the moment)

I came across this passage several years ago in a group Bible study talking about "Conversation Peace". Basically talking about taming your tongue.

It was a memory verse then, but I chose not to memorize it... all those "whatevers"

I came across it again a month or so again at school, then again about a week later at church. I came to the conclusion that I needed to learn it and let it sink in.

I was tasked this year (by my own doing) to teach preschool. I had a sobering moment when I read this verse a month ago.... 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Wow... whatever you have learned, received or heard from me.. put into practice.

I am ashamed to admit it, but more times that I care to remember, I lost my cool in that classroom. I am not saying I went over the line, but I do know that not all my responses to the issues in class were true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable. Not even one of the six. So I started thinking... do I want these kids to put these things that I have shown them into practice?

HECK NO!

At least not the "cool lost" moments.

I am not superwoman. I have no intentions on being that either cause it is not achievable. I will lose my cool again. But I will also carry the burden on being an example to my kids from here until the end of the year.

I need help being these things. Being true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. I am just so glad that I know where to go to get it. And Hopefully my girls will help.

Natural Children

Dear God, make me love my child's natural response to life.

This was the "Prayer from a Mother's Heart" in my MOPS email today.

Here I sit...staring at my kids as one is watching a video and the other is testing his boundaries with markers....(sigh). "My child's natural response to life". I don't even have to think about what this means. I know what it means...it means that my daughter doesn't know that she shouldn't bite her toenails... she also doesn't know that she shouldn't eat what she finds in there...(we have since enlightened her on that subject). Those are just natural things...

Natural isn't the same as socially appropriate. This is what I need to remember. Of course your child is going to stick the smallest, shinyist object into the outlet on the wall.... that is what should be. Each hole has a cog to go in it. That is natural. Doors must be closed. Not with as much abandon as my son closes them, but needless to say.... Lights must be turned off. That is natural.

When my daughter cries uncontrollably when her 6 month old cousin is left alone in the living room (we were in the kitchen) because she thinks that we left her and forgot about her... that is natural. It broke my heart... but how pleasing it was to hear that your child's heart broke for another child.

When my son throws a wall-eyed fit when his shoes come untied....that is natural (maybe a hair neurotic, but that is for another time).

It will take specific prayer to love my kids natural responses to life.... I, in my war-torn life that I have led so far, don't understand these simplicities anymore... oh to have the innocence of a child again. But I guess it is my turn to be the parent. Lord, let me enjoy my kids natural responses to life.

It goes so fast

My daughter and I were invited to a "Mommy and Me Princess Tea" this past Saturday at our church. She was so excited. We went to the Disney Store and bought a new princess dress and found a matching Tiara and necklace. Every day last week she asked me what day it was and when Saturday would come. She was so excited.

Finally Saturday came. We dressed, fixed our hair, and like a teenager on her way to the prom, had the obligatory photo shoot before the big day!

The tea was really neat. She got to paint her nails and wear lipgloss. She made her very own tiara and scepter, complete with glitter. We took more pictures wearing boa's. We mingled with the very popular Cinderella, Belle and Sleeping Beauty. We listened to stories about the prince who came before us and who was preparing a place for us for when we see Him again. We drank from a real life tea cups and She was in charge of pouring all the tea. She was a very big girl.

When I got home I downloaded the pictures from the event and prepared to send them out to family. I spied a picture of her taken last October at Halloween when she dressed as Cinderella...she was just a baby then... now look... she is a little girl.

I always seem to tire just a bit when folks see us in the Grocery Store or just out and about and while the kids are acting cute and behaving....I am inevitably told "Cherish these times.. they go so fast".

And sometimes... mid tissy fit usually... I pray that they will.

Looking back at the change my girl has made in the past 9 months... that is frightening and sad for me. She will never be that little girl in the pictures any more. She is so much more now. She has opinions and can communicate with me. That is good. She has feelings and can share them with me. That is good. Teenage years are getting closer... that is bad.

She is precious to me. I do cherish these days (I still pray that the bad days go faster though) but even the bad days are good when I give her good night kisses.

They do go fast. The time will fly by.

I hate hearing this.

It is so true.

Toddler-ese and Preschooler Mumbo Jumbo

I thought that it would be funny to post a glossary of terms that are currently or were previously prevalent around our home. This is mainly for my record-keeping (as several folks told me that I needed to put these in my baby books) but I thought that they were funny also:

My Daughter :
Ca-ca - "Sticker" Can get some interesting looks when your daughter says this in public
Cali-Doctor - "Helicopter" No matter how much we try to correct, it will forever be this.
Genius - "Jesus" - can you really argue with that one?
Crab - "Crocodile" - She was never convinced that the large green reptile at Rainforest Cafe was a crocodile... she kept calling it a crab.
Crabodile - "Crocodile" - When we finally convinced her that a crab and a crocodile were two different things, she still insisted that the crocodile was indeed a crabodile.
Chocolate Apple Sauce - "Chocolate Sauce" - Used by her Papa when he gave her ice cream.
Hair cuts -"Hair clip" or ribbon, tie, barrett, etc. Anything used in your hair.
Present -"Swing set" See earlier post. She still refers to it as her present.
Exercises - "YMCA" Mommy goes to "exercises" to work out.
Gave - "Gabe" - Her Cousin. b b b b b
Lobbypop - "Lolly Pop" The kid can pronounce "Spaghetti", yet has issues with this one...



My Son :
Mauk - "milk" Pretty basic
No - "no"
No - "yes"
No - "Can I have a cookie?"
No - "I am tired and need a nap"
JJ - "Any canine...no matter the shape, size or even whether or not it is in fact a dog"
Tank Tu - "Thank you". Yes he actually does say this... it was one of his first words. (mom is blushing)
Peas - "Please" (mommy is blushing again)
Bah - "Ball" or anything remotely shaped like a ball.
Bee - "Binkey" or Pacifier. He says it with such enthusiasm. I am going to have a fight on my hands getting rid of that one...

Gobbles

Some of you have read this one before, but I wanted to post it for posterity.

So, my daughter started her swim lessons tonight. She cracked me up.. she was quite gung ho getting into the water and pretty much stayed that way the entire time. Now, she is in a group with 2 other boys and they both had goggles... so, of course, we needed a pair too....

(On a side note, she is so funny when she is kicking with the kick board... she is grinning ear to ear... I pray that she doesn't go under cause she would drink every ounce of that pool water...I am taking my camera tomorrow and will send a picture of that soon).

So, I told her that we would go to Target to see if we could get some "gobbles".... it took several slow enunciations before she got it right....

Her heart was set on Ariel goggles...(where does this come from?)

We get to Target, search the pool aisle... but only find pink ones.... they weren't ariel, but according to my girl, they will do.

In a last ditch effort, mommy decided to head down another aisle where my daughter, with her insane detecting eyes... spots none other than ARIEL GOBBLES!

So, being the hero that I am (ha) I bought them for her and listened to an incessant "Can you open these? Can you open these? Can you open these?" in the car on the ride home.

When I was putting her to bed, she said that she was going to wear them... I thought...Sure, but goggles aren't fun to wear in bed, so surely she just meant on her head or arm or something.....

WRONG AGAIN MOMMY!

Why you shouldn't feed raisins to a toddler

A wise man once proved the following law of physics: what goes up, must come down. All of my years in the college of Engineering also taught me that what goes in, must come out... simple mass balance.

These are proven facts and non-negotiable.

What I didn't know was that what goes in ... sometimes comes out exactly as it went in. Case in point... give a toddler a raisin.... ha!

So one morning, my husband had a doctors appointment first thing, so he was here when the kids got up. So, I sent him to get my son up... he is really cute in the morning....He is cute all day actually... but especially so fresh off a good nights sleep.

Next thing I hear is "Oh-My-Gaw! Hon, you have GOT to see this".

This can't be good news. He is already walking...so that couldn't be it. He isn't running out of the room, so he hasn't learned to climb out of the bed...Can't think of any other amazing trick that he can accomplish in his 2x3 foot prison, so I brace myself and head upstairs.

Take a moment to picture (for lack of a better analogy) the aisle of a wedding that has been gently adorned with rose petals to guide the bride to the altar in the most gentle and caring way....Now turn the rose petals to raisins and the aisle to a nursery.

That is what greeted us that fine morning.

My son was a very busy boy.

Then I was a very busy mommy.

No more raisins for him.

Ballerina Girl

Little girls are so funny. My daughter and her daddy go on daddy daughter dates once a month. No mommy, no brother. I think that it is good for several reasons: it gives my husband a chance to hang out with her and bond and it gives my daughter a chance to see how she should be treated by men. (This will come into play later when she starts dating... in about 30 years or so...)

Anyway, my husband took my daughter to Build a bear to make a stuffed animal. That was interesting apparently. After initially wanting to name her new beagle "chowder" she decided on "Ballerina". Then dressed the beagle up in none other than a hello kitty shirt, pink skirt and of course the dog had to have hello kitty panties. (sigh).

When they got home I asked her what the dog's name was and she told me "Ballerina". OK. Random, (or so I thought). Cute.

A few weeks later, my daughter was given a box of dress-up shoes. In it were a pair of ballet slippers that lace up the calf. So, we wore those non stop around the house until Mommy "misplaced" them. (She wanted them laced up her calf... since mommy isn't a professional or even amateur dancer, I winged it and laced the ribbons up.... but according to Newton, what goes up must come down, so about every 15 minutes or so, I was relacing these things.... hard to get stuff done that way.)

When we went to Target, my daughter would always want to look at the "big girl" clothes... which meant the ballet section.... Her favorite line would be "I can wear that!"

The last straw was when she came down in her swimsuit and a dressup frilly skirt and those ballet shoes and started to dance for me.

(BIG GONG). Why don't we sign up for Ballet lessons??? Duh mommy!

So she starts next month. It is a trial version over the summer, so we will see how it goes. But last night at her swimming lesson, she saw lots of little girls who were getting ready for their recitals and were dressed in their cute outfits.... up from below my daughter speaks up..."Mommy... I can wear that!"

That was just vomit

You now how sometimes you feel like you are so overwhelmed that your standards seem to fall?
I was walking through my house today looking at the catastrophe that is my living room and I was noticing the stains on the carpet that my wonderful animal had placed on it just yesterday. I was thinking to myself..."Wow.. that spot is hardly visible...but that was just vomit"

"Just Vomit". This makes me chuckle to think about it. That is kindof like saying "it is just $39" or " It just takes 15 minutes" (which we all know in preschooler time is a LIFETIME). "Just fill in the blank" implies that there is something else... much worse. In this case it was diarrhea. Yes... that is much worse.... not necessarily the act (Whoa nelly, where am I going here) but the cleaning up.

So, I have become a connoisseur of fine carpet cleaners. I know what hype to believe and know what not to. I guess I can put that on my resume one day when I go back to work.

I can just see the interview: "Yes, I was a programmer for 5 years and have an engineering degree... oh and by the way, don't bother with Resolve... it just doesn't work... I would stick to Incredible or the Kroger brand... they really work."

It is funny the stuff that you learn when you become a mom. I know stuff now that I never knew that I didn't know. I know that children lick carpet (thus the journey to discover the best carpet cleaner). I know that circumcisions can heal over (YIKES). I know that the preferred method of nail trimming is by teeth... even toe nails. ICK. I know that if you tell your daughter that there are scissors in her nose that she will still continue to pick it, but she will also start to tell you that there are scissors in her nose.

I have learned so so many things... and my oldest is just 4!

Death and Taxes

I am a fairly laid back person, but I have this innate desire to file my taxes as soon as humanly possible.. which to me means as soon as the banks and the employer send me W2's and 1099's. On about Jan 3rd this year, I went ahead and started my return based on my husbands last paycheck and a few peices of random paperwork I had laying around. I set the framework. Based upon my calculations, we were slated to get quite a nice return.
Then reality steps in.
The stock we sold wasn't taxed. Down went the return.
The salary I thought we made was actually a hair larger. Down went the return.
The items I donated weren't quite the dollar value that I thought they would be...(who wouldn't pay $25 for a 15 year old T-shirt???) Down Down Down.

I probably shouldn't do this to myself (and my husband... I IM him the play by play too...one minute we are planning a cruise vacation, then I IM back and we are down to a camping trip...in the backyard.)

I talked to my accountant neighbor and she said that due to changes to some tax laws I won't recieve all my 1099 forms until mid March. UGH. (It is actually the 20th today and I am still waiting). Wouldn't it be nice if the IRS gave us the same grace period....you didn't get all your paperwork until 45 days late, so you have untul June 1 to turn in your stuff....)

never works that way, does it.

I think maybe in my 4th life, I may be a tax person. I love this stuff. I know, I am certifiable.

The First BodySlam

You all know that when you have your second child, it is inevitable that the first child will push, pull, steal, and do who-knows-what-else when Mommy isn't looking in order to make sure that baby sibling knows who's been around the boat more.

And all Moms secretly wait anxiously for the day when the baby sibling figures out that he just isn't going to take it anymore.

Well... that time has come!

This weekend, my mom took my daughter for the weekend. So Noel and I spent the weekend smoking a brisket and just having some good old-fashioned bonding time with my son.

When my daughter came home, she was suffering from post-Mimi-hyperactivity-disorder. (All parents with grandparents who spoil know what I am talking about). She was everywhere... bouncing, singing, playing, yelling.

In the midst of this celebration, she laid on the floor.... and that is when he took his shot.

From nowhere, my son slyly walks up to my daughter and ... whammo! Lands right on top of her... BODYSLAM!

I couldn't help but just laugh and laugh and laugh. The proper response from a good mom would probably have been "Now son, please get off your sister... it is not nice to pile drive her like that"

My actual response was more like "Woooo Hooo! You go Son! What a big boy!" Which translated to toddler-ese meant "Oooohh... I did something great... look at my mommy react... I need to do this more often!"

Fortunately, my son suffers from short attention span (anyone remember ten-second-Tom from 50 First Dates???) And he is easily swayed by the offer of food.

So a few seconds post body slam, my son was up and wandering around again...Moments of hilarity.. then... over.

I can't wait until Round 2.

I will explain the consequences of these actions at a later time....maybe.

The Present

So, Noel and I decided that we would like to have a swingset in our backyard for the kiddos to play on so the older one isn't confined to the house during the younger one's nap time and vice versa. We really approached this in a very scientific matter... we listed our needs:

1) we need 2 swings - to avoid the drama
2) we need a fully enclosed loft area... if provided - minimizes the trips to the ER, hopefully
3) we need a slide

Fairly simple, right? So we were off on a mission.

We started at Sams... Great set there. Priced as expected. Roof looks a bit cheesy, but could be replaced and the set as whole looked really cool to play on. OK Check. Remember that.

Next was Costco... they had a set made by Rainbow, who everyone knows makes a really great playset. But they also love their playsets... ($$$) . Costco had one for the same price as sams... really cool. But the problem with this one was that we would have to order it and that would cost an additional $500 for shipping... (800 pounds of lumber... of course it costs that much)

Next we thought... Hey, we will build our own from scratch.... went to Lowes and Home Depot. Cute plans for the sets... but it dawned on us there... we would have to cut all of the lumber then stain it....ummm..... maybe not.

So, after about 2 weeks of research, we decided on the Sam's set. Unfortunately, the weekend we decided that we would build it (we had made arrangements for our 3 year old to be at her Mimi's house) was about a week too late for the set at Sams. they were sold out and wouldn't have more until after Christmas. Bummer. back to the drawing board.

Anyway - long story short... (like it is really going to get shorter...) Noel found out that Rainbow sells a kit that sells for about the same as the Sams package. So we went out there and bought it. We were chatting with the salesman about the construction... Noel and I figured it would take about 8 hours or so to construct... the salesman says... "Three hours.." GREAT! that is fabulous...we will have it done by the time our daughter gets home that night.

Three hours... HA! The bag for the screws was larger than my pillowcase...

Three hours....

That night (about 12:30am.... after the time change) we had the fort built. That is all... No monkey bars, no rockwall,....

then things got interesting... we wanted to keep this as a suprise for our daughter, so we had to hide all the construction items (lumber, screws, the BIG YELLOW SLIDE) and had to hide Daddy all day Sunday so he could finish.

Sunday came and went.

After the kids went to bed Sunday night, I went back out to help with setting the monkey bars and all...

We decided that after all was said and done, it took us about 16 hours to do a "Three hour" project.

We are still recovering. Fortunately, we are still happily married, didn't pull any muscles and shed only a little bit of blood.

Monday morning, the set was complete and we suprised our daughter with it. She LOVED IT and still refers to it as her "present".

I really hope Christmas assembly is much faster.

Jesus Flag

Lauren goes through these stages where she will just suddenly come up to you and want hugs and kisses. Fine with me. Soon will come a day when she won't want them as much anymore... that will be sad. But in the meantime, I relish in these days.
Anyway, she came up to me and wanted hugs and kisses. So, I obliged.
Then, strangely, but not really cause she is a silly little girl, she wanted to kiss my shirt. No, this isn't like the pope and his ring, I am just wearing the ever so elusive and stylish 2005 Old Navy flag shirt.
I asked her if she knew what was on my shirt. (fortunately, I had no spit up on me this morning). She said "Flag". ( I will spare you the actual annunciation she gave, since she still works with the letter "L".)
I asked her if she knew who's flag it was. She looked me square in the eye and said "Jesus's".

And there you have it.
It is amazing what you can learn from your child. Things that you thought that you knew. But you forget the basics.

The Real Monet

I was always decent at art. My macrame and clay handprints were always the envy of the other 5th graders. But never in my wildest imagination would I think that I would be held to the highest standard of artistry.
Since I had Lauren, I have become the QUEEN of drawing. I do snowmen, cats, bears ... I even learned how to draw Minnie Mouse. But, the absolute best thing I do is Veggie Tales. Apparently, my husband isn't any good at Veggies... Mommy is the one to draw Bob, Larry, Junior, Mommy and Daddy Asparagus and the Gourds too.
Whenever there is a crayon and a blank peice of paper, Bob must be drawn first.
It is nice to know that I am absolutely the best at something.... at least in my daughters eyes. It is a big boost to my spirit.
Maybe someday I will post some of my "art".
In the meantime, it will just be for my girl.

Projectile Vomiting

Projectile Vomiting. I had never heard this terminology until I had my first child and was flipping through my Dr. Spock book during her naptime one afternoon. "Ha ha. That's funny. Seriously, that only happens in the movies"

Little did I know.

I was reminded of this early this week when after feeding my son his bottle, I received what we can call "the fountain of Enfamil".

Fortunately, my husband was still home so he could answer my scream of "AGHHHHHHHHHH" with a hand towel. (You know you are a real mom when your kid is vomiting... into your cupped hands. :) )

But you know, little kids are so "hearty" I guess you can say. Tyler spit up his entire 6 oz then smiled. "All better", I am sure he was thinking.

This makes me think of Jeff Foxworthy... You may be a redneck if...
In my MOPS group, we take time to share mom stories... "Real Moms..."

I once shared the following: "Real moms... use their t-shirt to wipe their kids nose when a Kleenex isn't available."

You can get real sentimental about this... "Real moms give up buying themselves things, so they can provide for their families", but most moms do that and that isn't really funny.

These should be things that you are afraid to admit, but are pleasantly surprised when you aren't the only one who does this. "Real moms lick off their baby's pacifier then give it back after it falls on the ground in Walmart".

I love those real mom moments. They do still freak my husband out sometimes... but he just doesn't get it... he isn't a mom.

Sleep

I went on a women's retreat this past weekend. I initially was very excited about this for a very strange reason. According to Lynda-Logic, "Retreat" was synonymous with "Get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep". (Just to clarify, my son is sleeping through the night, but he hasn't yet learned to stick the paci back into his mouth AND we still haven't trained the dog to let herself out to go potty. There is nothing better than being woken up at 3am to "pant-pant-pant")

Isn't that sad? Looking forward to sleep...not the content or the girls I was going with, but the sleep. (BTW, the retreat was EXCELLENT!) I will share some of my thoughts on that at another time.

Anyway, in all my foolishness, I neglected to remember that I was going on a ladies retreat with LADIES!!! Ladies = Talking. So my 8 hours turned into 5 hours. But it was uninterrupted. And I wouldn't trade the time I spent chatting with my roommates or the other ladies for 3 more hours of sleep.

To top it off, when I got home Saturday, I had to deal with the depressing fact that Daylight Savings Time was starting. YIKES! I really hate it when my sleep is taken from me. Sleeping, Showering, Naptime. Gotta love those.

Little Girls

Little girls crack me up. A year or so ago, a girlfriend of mine asked me if my daughter liked to change her clothes several times a day. I looked at her confused and replied "No. Why, does yours?" Sure enough, she told me that her daughter liked to change her clothes at least 3-4 times a day. Hmm, just think of the laundry.

So lately, my daughter has adopted this behavior. Most of the time it is driven by this deep need to wear her minnie mouse shirt whenever she sees it. If it is in her laundry, she will pull it out, then put it on. Day after day after day. If it is in a stack of folded laundry...instant "Want Minnie Mouse".

But it doesn't stop there. Just today, she was playing in her room. She went in wearing one outfit, came out dressed for bed (although she had her pull up on over her pajama bottoms), went back in and came out in a different outfit. She seemed satisfied with the third outfit, at least for the time being. It isn't even naptime yet.

But what a little personality she has. I can't figure out if she is going to be a tomboy or a girly girl. It is one one day and the other the next. Doesn't matter to me though... she is MY girl!

Favorite Time of Day

You gotta love naptime. 1 1/2 - 2 hours of peace and quiet. Sometimes I feel guilty for enjoying it so much, but then my 2 year old wakes up and it is non-stop once again. Toss the 5 month on in and it is a sprint for the rest of the day. Today my oldest is at MDO. Gotta love MDO. Good for her, good for me. My youngest is sleeping now and so I get to catch up on my email and take surveys...someday I will win that promised "$500". Sure.

Got an email from a friend this morning about my neighbor. She has lymphoma. She also has 2 kids and a husband. Her youngest and my oldest are 2 months apart. She is WAY TO YOUNG to have to endure what she is going through right now. Anyway, she is currently in ICU. She had to be resuscitated last night. Lord, if it be your will, save her! If not, comfort and prepare her family. Fortunately, she is blessed with extended family that is nearby and willing to help as well as numerous family friends who would give their right arms for them.

Thinking of her makes me give thanks for what I have. 15 extra pounds. But I am healthy. A messy house, but I am home to play with my children. Lots of laundry, but I am here to fold it and bury my kids in it...

Opening Day

So I thought that I would just share some of my stay at home mom stories with anyone who cares to read them.... Mainly grandparents I am sure, but those others that come across these pages, I hope that you enjoy these silly stories.