Highlights of my week from our littlest man

I just love the stuff kids say! Our littlest man has quite a few things this week that I want to remember!

He was going to the bathroom so I was sitting on the floor by him holding the baby. He looked at me and said, "God made the baby." I repeated it to make sure I heard him right and I had! He then told me that God had made me and papa and his cousin Paige. Then he said, "God put my arm into my shoulder!" Wow!

We had to take his sister to the Dr. this week and as Mr. was at a show I took all the children with me! We were sitting in the exam room while she was being examined when he looked at me incredulously and said, "Mom, Emily is not even crying!" We hope this is a turning point for him! He cries and screams when we park at the Dr.'s office.

Today at lunch a huge FIRST! He looked at me and said, "I love papa. I love you to."

Guess what we have at our house

Its a baby girl!

The contest is not over

Apparently the contest regarding which of my children is going to give me my first grey hair is not over! This is DOD reading instructions and installing snow chains onto a government 12 passenger vehicle for her current Americorp project. Hopefully there are no cliffs nearby or sharp curves!

A full head of grey hair

I always wondered which one of my children would result in the first grey hair on my other wise dishwater brown head. DOD was the first to do everything including driving, dating, college, traveling over seas, repeated air flights and driving across the country - any of which are enough to scare any parent. She has also had repeated broken ankles and severe sprains. She is also the family record holder for catching bizarre illnesses that no one ever catches. And, then their is the famouse appendicitis story. She was in the lead for a long time!

DMD was a gymnast. A sport know for serious injury including broken backs, necks, and concussions. There is nothing like watching your baby flip into the air and land side ways on the balance beam to make you catch your breath. Thankfully that only happened once! Her most severe injury was to a knee and that just took awhile to heal. No major illnesses like an appendix. She has been the healthy one.

DYS was our first boy and really probably the record holder in first until recently. Broken foot, finger, stitches, and burns. This year he had a lovely allergic reaction to corn plants and had hives over 80 percent of his body. He kept me on the way to the ER for a couple years.

Our fourth child always known as baby 1 has been the least dramatic with on going ear infections. He has been ER free.

All of these things were spread out over the course of their lives, age appropriate, known and prayed over risks, and for the most part taken with a grain of salt. Normal kid stuff. Our fifth child however, is the current winner. At 21 months she takes the prize. Twice I have taken her to the pediatrician and been sent to the hospital. Once resulting in a one week stay and today resulting in several hours in the ER. She puts everything in her mouth resulting in the permanent posting of the poison control phone number on the refrigerator which has been used three times in the last 3 months. And to top it off she loves to put things in her ears and her nose, resulting in the famous trip to the ER to have a pea extracted from her nostril. Did I mention that she is months away from being 2. I am thinking she is going to be the one to not just give me one grey hair but rather a full head of grey hair!

Mamma said there would be days like this

My day began after only a couple hours of sleep. There was a threat of severe weather and I was finishing the laundry that was needed for the men in my life to pack which kept me up later than normal. At 4 A.M. I drove Mr. and DYS to the airport. I could have grabbed a couple hours of sleep after I got home before the babies actually got up, but in anticipation of them waking up at any minute I was unable to achieve anything but a very light cat nap. Baby 1 was not happy that Mr. and DYS were on a "trip" and proceeded to show me how unhappy he was about this all morning. Baby 2 is teething and getting no less than 6 teeth on the top sides at once. Needless to say she is a little bit irritable herself. By 10 a.m. I was ready to call a do over! For most of the morning I felt like I was just trading babies in and out of time out. I thought we might have a little reprieve when we put Baby 2 down for a nap but then Baby 1 fell against the footstool hitting the corner of his eye and getting a lovely shiner. By lunch time I was thanking God that the longest part of this day was over and counting out the hours until bed time! What else could happen at this point! Famous last words!

Just as I was taking baby 2 out of her highchair to clean her up I noticed that there was something green in her nose. On closer inspection it was decided that what was in her nose was a pea from her lunch. For the last couple of weeks, we have intercepted several items from being inserted in her nose. Her favorite item is pieces of toilet paper. My mind was busy trying to determine how I was going to get the pea out of her nose without injuring her when she inhaled and I could no longer see the pea. I decided to err on the side of caution and called the after hours pediatric center. They informed me that I was to give her nothing to eat or drink and that I needed to go the ER. Off we went. Thankfully the ER was completely empty and we were immediately taken to a room. Within minutes a nurse practitioner was with us. She had baby lay on the table and as she was screaming out of sheer anger I had to cup my mouth around hers like I was giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation and blow while the nurse plugged the nostril without the pea. It took four blows for the pea to pop out and in less than 15 minutes we were on our way back home. Who knew?

What a day!

Ezzo's parenting books; a review

I was fortunate enough to borrow the Ezzo's child series; Baby wise 2, Toddler wise, and Preschool wise, from a lady in our local home school support group. I then read Child wise, which my sister had picked up at the home school conference. It was a wonderful refresher course for me as we begin parenting small children, a phase we have been out of for many years! The books also presented a new perspective for me on several issues. It has been my opinion that as a culture we think to little of our children. We have no expectations of them and for the most part ignore any attempts at training, instead just accepting their behaviors as the next phase to be lived through. Children are given endless choices well before they are able to handle the choices. They become addicted to choices and when the adults are in a situation where they can not give a choice the children respond with temper tantrums. Choices should be limited and parents should be in control of what clothes and what food the children eat as two examples. A quick quiz to see if your children are addicted to choice is to simply tell them what they are going to have for breakfast.

As I am reading through these books, I began to implement many of the ideas and have been pleased with how quickly the children have responded. For instance, when I ask them to do something I now expect them to say, "yes mommy." If they are having trouble listening or controlling themselves we ask them to fold their hands in their lap. I am still working on scheduling our days but for the most part I have worked out a rough schedule that is working well right now. We have room time, playpen time, table time, playtime with siblings, playtime with mom, playtime with dad and free play. We noticed and immediate improvement with baby 1's ability to focus and sit still for longer and longer periods of time. He is also learning to entertain himself and to be self directed! I now feel as though I am not just walking through my days responding to things that are happening to me but am instead being purposeful and in control. It is a much nicer place to be! There are several new catch phrases around our home. Where are you, what are you supposed to be doing, and do you have the freedom to do that are the main ones. All of these phrases redirect the children and put the responsibility back on them. I actually implemented this with my older children. They know what they are supposed to be doing and where they are supposed to be doing it. When they want to do something else, they know what they should have done to have the freedom to move on. Instead of me listing off the chores and responsibilities for them I just have to ask if they have that freedom.

Mr. read through much of the books with me. He taught the children to fold their hands. However, his focus was slightly different than mine! One of the concepts presented in this book is that children need to know that their parents love each other and are a priority above them. To do this, they recommend having couch time everyday with your spouse. So, while I was planning out schedules and making lists of goals, Mr. just wanted to know when we would be starting couch time!

Learning to drive

My DMD took and passed the test to recieve her learners permit. Which of course means that she is legally able to drive a vehicle as long as one of her parents is in the car with her. So, off we went to the same gravel road where I taught her older sister to drive and where I taught my baby sister how to use a stick shift. She got in the drivers seat and I walked her through the initail steps of preparring to drive. Seatbelt on, Check. Adjust all the mirrors, Check. Adjust the seat, Check. Adjust the steering wheel, Check. Turn the engine on, Check. As soon as the engine caught she took a deep breath, looked me straight in the eyes and said, "now what?" I actually have it on video.



When we took DOD to drive for the first time DYS was still in a car seat and around the age of 4. As soon as she got behind the wheel, he began to scream, "Were all going to die!"

DYS will get his permit next year. Then we will have three drivers in our family. Truly a new phase of life!

A true story

I set out Sunday morning to prepare roast and potato's in the crock pot for lunch before we left for church. I believe it may have taken longer to prepare the potato's than it did for them to actually cook. This is a true story of my potato preparation and accurately depicts what happens whenever I attempt to accomplish any task these days.

I got out the potatoes and a knife.
I washed the potato while baby 1 fussed at my leg. Picked baby 1 up for a brief cuddle and redirected him towards a box of special toys I keep for just this type of situation. Put baby 1 down and pick up potato and knife. Meanwhile baby 2 has spotted baby 1's toys and is attempting a cue. Put down knife and potato and separate babies giving baby 2 her own special box. pick up knife and potato and begin to peal. Baby 1 now wants the toys that baby 2 has and has tackled baby 2. put down knife and potato and put baby 2 in time out. set timer and settle baby 2 back down. Deal with end of time out, restructure toys, pick up potato and knife. Finish 1 potato.

Pick up second potato and notice that Baby 1 has disappeared and is suspiciously quiet. Put down potato and find Baby 1 playing with some papers he should not have. Redirect baby 1 with an approved paper and crayons. Return to potato. Baby 2 has dirty diaper. Put down potato and change baby 2 diaper. In meantime Baby 1 has tired of paper and crayons and has thrown crayons on the floor where baby 1 is making a mad dash to get as many as she can before they are picked up. Help Baby 1 to pick up and put away crayons. Pick up second potato again and began pealing. Baby 2 is still mad about being thwarted in crayon attempt and is fussing at my feet. When I don't respond as she wants she begins to pull things off the kitchen shelves. Put down Potato and direct baby 2 to the approved cupboards for play.

I could go on but its late and you get the point. Only 10 more potatoes to go!

I've been waiting for this!

I have been waiting for a perfect day likt today to wash all the bedding in the house!

It's breezy and 82!

Now I am waiting to crawl into those wonderful smelling sheets tonight!

I've been waiting to fill my clothesline with little clothes belonging to little people!

God is good always!

Lessons In Manhood

Our family sat down to the table last night after being apart to various activities all day. Everyone was excited to share the events of their day. I had fixed a wonderful meal. Caesar side salads, Teriyaki potatoes, a whole oven BBQ chicken and a strawberry mousse for desert. Everything looked nice and smelled good. As we are eating my DYS says, "You know who makes good chicken. Mrs. Pastors wife makes the best chicken." Everyone else at the table new the phopa that had just been created except for the phobaee who continued on to exclaim the virtues of this chicken cooked by another woman. I decided that God had just handed me an opportunity to teach DYS a lesson that would, if he learned it now, bless his wife later. So, I calmly looked at DYS and said, "Dear son, I would give you a piece of advice. Do not ever sit at my table in front of the chicken that I have slaved over all day and compliment another woman's chicken. Further more some day when you are married the only woman's whose cooking you should ever compliment is your wife's. " Mr. chimed in seconding my counseling as wise based on his own experiences in this area. We all got a good laugh out of that!