The Great Puzzler

Isaiah has proved himself and the most distinguished puzzler of the household lately. His patience and determination far surpass that of his brothers at his age (and even now) and today, as he was putting this puzzle together beside me, he was also a great teacher.

"Mommy, see how dis piece has a fwat side right heew? Dat means it goes on da siiiiide."

-Oh really?

"Yeah. And see dis one has Spiderman's foot on it... see mommy... right heeew?"

-Yup, I see it.

"Dat means we haf to wook for da west of Spiderman....hmmmm....oh! Heew i-dizzzz. I did it! I did it! Wook Mommy! I did it!"

We celebrate together; he dumps the puzzle and starts over.

Meanwhile, I have to take the marbles away from Elijah because he keeps putting whole handfuls in his mouth (they give him 'fire power' apparently), and Micah has pulled every book out of the living room bookshelf to use on his tent. Ahhh, it's a good day.

Isaiah away

This summer the boys are all participating in a summer child care program for a few hours 4 days a week. It is really the first time Isaiah has ever been away from his parents for longer than an hour at a time, several days in a row. I was curious as to how he would react. He is very independent in nature, and generally gets along well with everyone, but he can be kind of clingy. He still wants me to carry him around quite often.

At the end of week 1, I would say they're all thoroughly enjoying it. No tears when I drop them off, and when we're getting ready in the morning, they're all excited to go. When I pick them up at noon Elijah usually asks to stay longer, and everyone is happy and ready to spend time together for the rest of the day. Isaiah's reaction, however, at pick up time will absolutely be burned into my memory forever- I hope.

He sees me from across the room, our eyes connect, he crouches down in a half-squat kind of position, bends his arms at the elbow like a boxer, hands in little fists, then springs toward me, running, arms pumping, yelling "Mooommmmyyy" all the way. He jumps into my arms and squeezes with all of his strength. It is the best feeling in the world.

Bodily Functions

If poop and puke nauseate you, consider skipping this post, but it is a pretty good story.

Wednesday night all three boys were taking a bath in the fabulous, jetted tub in our new bathroom. I was in the kitchen on the phone and Eric had run downstairs for a minute to get a book from the office and was on his way back up the stairs. We both heard a weird scream from Elijah, and then way too quiet. Eric got to the bathroom seconds later and I figured he would be able to handle it until I hear him yell, "A little help in here please!" I hurry to the bathroom, thinking the worst, of course, and I see Elijah first, dripping wet and naked puking into the toilet. Then I notice the HUGE puddle of puke dripping over the side of the fabulous, jetted tub in our new bathroom and onto the white bath rug. The stench is overwhelming, so I take a step back and ask Eric, "What happened? Is he sick?" Eric says, "No, Isaiah pooped in the tub." I look over to see Isaiah, looking completely bewildered, poop floating in the water next to him, staring at the stream of puke still spewing from Elijah. I grab towels, wrap Elijah in one when I'm pretty sure he's done and Eric carries him to the other bathroom while I get Isaiah out of the nasty tub, wrap him up and take him to the other bathroom as well.

The funniest moment was seeing Micah all alone, sitting in the poop and puke infested water with a grin on his face. Elijah pukes at the sight of poop, and here Micah is almost smiling at the flurry of activity he has just witnessed. All the time I'm helping him out and wrapping him up, he is pointing to the puke, describing the chunks and guessing at what the various particles might have once been. He doesn't seem to be the least bit disgusted by it all. Strange.

Anyway, I re-bathed all 3 boys in the other bathroom and put them to bed while Eric cleaned up the poopy/pukey tub. Elijah seemed fine, but I gave him a snack to replace the dinner he'd just lost and even as I was turning out the light in their room, Micah was still asking Elijah what the white chunks where. He was not in the mood to talk about it, which actually helped our going-to-sleep issues quite a bit.

So, that was our Monday night adventure. Don't you wish you'd been here?

Time

We, as parents, are fond of saying (or at least thinking) occasionally- "it's a phase I hope he grows out of soon enough," or "I can't wait until she starts feeding herself," or "if we could just get him out of diapers..." There is certainly the desire to see our children become more responsible, more mature, more self-sufficient and more independent. Imagine the mess we'd be in if we didn't have those desires.

But, if I could have my cake and eat it too, there would be a list of things that I'd want to keep the same forever.

1. Elijah would always think it's cool to write "I 'heart' you mom" with sidewalk chalk in the middle of our driveway.
2. Micah would always want to cuddle for a few minutes when he wakes up in the morning.
3. Isaiah would continue to believe that a hug from mommy can cure every evil.
4. All three would continue to tell me every thought they're thinking without fear of judgment or criticism.
5. They would continue to be best friends who share everything and protect each other fiercely.

Birthday for Zay Zay!

April 29th, your 3rd birthday, and you are as full of life as ever. Isaiah, the baby of the family and you are no longer a baby. At just 3 years old certain aspects of your personality are already abundantly clear. You are your own man. You are not swayed in your decision making by what your big brothers do or say. You want what you want regardless of others. This confidence makes you endearing and a joy to most people you meet. You look everyone straight in the eye, hold their gaze, wave a friendly hello and smile a confident grin. You just can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to stop and talk to you. You can talk well at this point, expressing your every thought and need, except when your mad about something. Your confidence, while endearing, can lead you to believe that you should have whatever you want whenever you want, which can be a challenge for both mommy and you. You are most disappointed when you can't keep up with your older brothers, and even though you make valiant efforts, there are still times when they race ahead and you are crushed- but never for long as they always come back for you. You have a great sense of humor- you'll tell me something crazy like "monkeys are purple" and then say "just kidddingggg" with a big grin and a giggle. You make our home a happier place and we love you dearly Isaiah Jonathan. Happy 3rd Birthday!

I messed up the pictures so I can't do captions, but the saucer is Zay at 5 months and the ice cream is 18 months. We celebrated this year by going to the doctor to get his head injury taken care of (more on that in another post) and then going to Walmart to let him pick out his own cake and candles. He went with a balloon theme. His chosen gift was a Planet Hero action figure- Ace.

Isaiah the soldier

Isaiah has become really attached to my denim purse. No, not in the girly sense. For some reason, when he wears it over his shoulder like he is in the picture, he thinks he's a soldier of some sort. He puts it on and then marches around the house saying, "hut, two, three, four." He salutes at me when I ask him to do something, and he says, "Right away sir!" His amazingly vivid imagination was evidenced to me yet again today.

I had walked with Isaiah about 20 paces toward the church tonight when he just HAD to turn around and go back to the van because he'd forgotten to take off his PRETEND helmet and leave it in the van. Not a real helmet, the non-existent kind. I could tell from the urgency of his request that were I to deny this whim, it would be a battle ending in my carrying him the rest of the way into the church. Instead of fighting this battle (as I've probably done before with some annoyed comment like "we don't have time for your pretend helmet"), I walked him back to the van and smiled as he carefully unclasped the PRETEND helmet from under his chin, picked it up off his head with both hands, stretched out his apparently empty hands to me and said, "Mommy, you put my helmet in da van for me ok?" I think on previous occasions I probably have totally missed this moment, rushing to get inside, balking at the ridiculousness of opening the van again to put away a non-existent object, but today, I gladly opened the door, set the pretend helmet carefully inside, closed and locked the door again, and we were on our way. If there is anything I'm learning about being a parent, it is to slow down.

The Preschool Mind....

Riding in the van today-

Elijah: Mommy, I just figured out a new blend- "ine" has the letters i-n-e. When you put any letter in front of "ine" it can make new words. Like "vine"
Micah: Or "mine"
Elijah: And Micah the silent "e" at the end makes the vowel say it's name.
Micah: What's a vowel?
Elijah: Vowels are bad.
Me: Why are vowels bad?
Elijah: Like in basketball, Daddy says that grabbing someone's shirt is a vowel and that's bad.

The Myth of the Perfect Parent

In a recent article from Sojourners, the author discusses how sheltering our children from all potential evils detracts from the interactions we are called to have with those who look, smell, sound and act differently. She makes some interesting points- worth the read if you have the time, the full article is linked below this excerpt.

Article excerpt:

Our desire for our children’s happiness and growth is good. (Who can argue that a calm, loving, and devoted family is not precisely what every child needs and deserves?) We do have a tremendous impact in shaping their lives, and corporate interests are already lining up to vie for their attention. But the promise of a child who does not whine, get sick, throw tantrums, or feel angry or insecure is patently false. And living as though I am my daughter’s ticket to success allows little room for grace or resiliency when something bad or simply human happens. It frames her existence with the perpetual threat of being forever stunted, or at least diminished, by every missed opportunity or crappy moment in her parents’ lives.

More insidiously, the myth of perfect parenting fosters the heresy that we get what we deserve. This is a particular variation on the health-and-prosperity gospel, itself a close cousin to the Oprah-recommended The Secret in that both insist that your life situation is the result of your own doing, even if all you have done is thought a certain way.

For the rest of this thought-provoking article, click here.

Dreams

3:30pm today- post-nap

Micah: Mommy, I just had a dream.

Me: Oh yeah? What about.

Micah: There was a monster, and he had a cup of coffee.

Me: Yeah? (Micah jumps up on the couch beside me.)

Micah: Yeah, and I was in his cup of coffee and he drank me.

Me: He what?

Micah: The monster drank me in his coffee.
He looks at me and smiles. I wonder if he'll have an aversion to coffee someday?

Christmas

This was the best Christmas yet with the boys. Not only did they seem to understand more about why we celebrate this time of year, but they played so well with their cousins, aunts and uncles, that Eric and I thoroughly enjoyed some time to play games and chill with his relatives. Elijah, Maggie and Gracie (Rex and Lynn's twin 4 1/2 year old girls) played all afternoon and until midnight Christmas Day! 0 arguments or tantrums... it was a new day. He felt very grown up being allowed to stay up until midnight. Micah and Isaiah did well all day too- Micah playing with the twins and Isaiah playing mostly by himself as he always does these days, but they went to sleep in Aunt Becky's bed at their normal time.

The only unfortunate part of our holiday was that on Christmas Eve, while the van was parked in Nana and Papa's driveway unlocked for 2 hours between trips, someone stole our portable DVD player and digital camera. They also took my purse, but upon finding no money they dumped it in the neighbor's yard. I'm really thankful that they returned my purse as replacing all those cards and things can be such a pain. Yes, we learned to keep our van doors locked even in broad daylight, and sadly, we won't have any Christmas pictures to post. So, if anyone has an old digital camera that you'd like to sell or donate,... :)

Merry Christmas everyone! If you didn't get a copy of our Christmas letter and you'd like to have one, leave me a comment and I'll send it on to you. Happy New Year!

O Happy Day!

I think I've attempted cookie baking and decorating every year since Elijah 18 months old. I've tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to get the boys involved in the process in the hopes of creating a longstanding family tradition.
Finally, this year will go down in infamy as the first truly successful Christmas cookie baking and decorating event. Things I've learned along the way:
1. Only involve willing participants. If all 3 kiddos don't want to use the cookie cutters, don't cajole, bribe or beg, just invite them to join in if they show interest... and everyone will show interest in icing.
2. Bake a small batch. Attempting to supervise 3 toddlers with icing while continuing to bake additional pans of cookies is a recipe for icing in hair and under chairs while 2 dozen sugar cookies get eaten by 3 children.
3. Short bursts of activity. Fun with cookie cutters, then go play while cookies bake and cool and Mommy makes icing and cleans up. Kids return when all decorating supplies are ready. Yes, this means washing hands and faces twice, but the result of overworked cookie bakers is disastrous.
4. Have individual supplies ready. Each child gets their own 3 cookies to decorate, 2 dixie cups with small amounts of colored icing and a plastic knife that stays in each cup. The icing is different colors so trading is encouraged and welcomed.
5. Get all family members involved. Being prepared enough so that Mommy and Daddy could both sit down too went a long way I think.
6. Age matters. An 18 month will probably not see the beauty in a decoratively iced cookie- but a 2 1/2 year old just might. :)

Stargazing

We arrived home after church last Wednesday night. The speaker taught about prayer and specifically about seeing God in the small moments of our lives. We did an exercise where we meditated on a grape- an actual grape. We felt it, smelled it, tasted it and then meditated on what God might want to impress upon us through that moment of appreciating something He created. It was about slooowwwwing down and looking at the good things of life- really looking. Good stuff.

So we're getting the boys out of the van, thinking about hurrying them into bed since it's past their bedtimes, and they're taking their sweet time of course. Eric and I finally wrestle Isaiah out of the driver's seat and join Micah and Elijah at the front door, and what are they doing? They both have their little heads thrown back, their mouths wide open and they're gazing up at the clear, night sky. Isaiah, of course, joins his brothers, and Eric and I stop and look at each other smiling. Our rushing ceases. We join our boys in stargazing, slowwwing down enough to enjoy the really good stuff. :) What good things of life have you noticed this week?

On Being Boy

What is it about boys that makes them want to take risks? When we have little girls over to our house, they rarely play on the playset in the same ways the boys do. To the boys, the treehouse is a mountain to be explored, climbed and conquered in every way. To girls, it is a house, a fort, a home, a cave, a shelter, a car, a space to be tamed and domesticated with chalk drawings, but rarely the source of risk. I thought about trying to keep the boys from climbing up onto the rails for a while, but I knew it would be a long, painful battle for both of us that would probably result in them not wanting to play in the thing at all, so here they are, doing what they do best, taking risks to conquer the world.

Conversations...

Me: (calmly) Elijah, do not ride down the sidewalk again. We're going inside.
Elijah ignoring me.
Me: (Still calmly) Elijah, I know you can hear me. We're going inside. DO NOT go down that hill.
Elijah still ignoring me, turns his bike around to face downhill.
Me: (Raising my voice a little) Elijah! You heard me!
Elijah finally gets off his bike and walks over to the step where I'm standing.
Me: Why aren't you listening to me?
Elijah: You were talking so calmly, I didn't think you really meant it.
Me: What? Every time I ask you to do something I mean it. I shouldn't have to get angry before you obey.

I was really annoyed by his comment and I'm still thinking about what this means to us as parents in teaching our children to listen, but it also got me thinking about how often we as adults don't really listen until it is urgent. How often does God have to "raise his voice" to get my attention? Do I practice listening to Him all of the time instead of just when circumstances get difficult? Ahh the lessons of parenting.

Sunday Afternoon Fun

Just thought I'd share our little Sunday afternoon creativity this week. It continues to amaze me how their personalities shine through so vividly when we sit down to create something.

Elijah can't wait to start painting. He requests specific colors, paper, and paintbrushes, but once he gets all of the materials in front of him, he freezes. "Mommy, what should I make?" "Whatever you want buddy. It's your chance to just create something you like."

He decides on a thin red line of paint, looks at it with disappointment, and asks, "Mommy, can I have your paintbrush instead?" Apparently after looking at my painting he thinks that he can be more effective if he uses my brush.

"Sure, we can trade, " I say. He tries again. This time he makes some dots then sits back, again discouraged by the fact that his picture just won't mirror the complexities of his vivid imagination.

After painting contentedly for 5 more minutes or so, he makes up a story about his series of dots and lines and proudly announces that it is finished. I of course enthusiastically affirm his efforts and proudly hang his art on the fridge.

Isaiah comes in next. He prefers to sit on my lap while he paints and chooses a brush and color indiscriminately. Being 2, I think he really just prefers the textures and motions of painting. He loves to squish his chubby fingers into the splotches of paint on his paper, swirling them around. He too ends up with a series of swirls and lines and stays engaged about as long as Elijah did.

Micah joins the painting party last, but when it comes to art, the boy has stamina. Elijah and Isaiah had gone outside to play, so Micah sat alone at the table. I was unable to participate as fully WITH Micah as I did with Elijah and Isaiah since I was starting to make dinner, but he almost seemed to prefer it that way. I'd stop by the table between potato peeling and mixing to affirm his efforts and he barely acknowledged me prefering instead to focus on filling every square millimeter of the top of his page. He painted contentedly for as long as the other two boys combined.

Here is a picture of all three pieces of artwork on our fridge. See if you can guess who made what?

Our Little Creative Team

The boys were quiet- eerily quiet this afternoon in the backyard while I was cooking dinner. I kept peaking out at them to make sure they hadn't tied each other up, and they were all contentedly playing in the "clubhouse." I couldn't imagine what was keeping all three of them so occupied, but I wasn't about to interrupt.

Curiosity finally got the best of me though and I'm glad I went out to check it out. Here's the story.


"Mommy, we were eating our snacks in the clubhouse and we saw a ladybug climbing next to the slide." See below.















"So me and Micah decided to build a trap for the bug. We're using our snacks to make the bug climb into the trap. Mommy, what's that called?"

"What's what called?"

"You know, the stuff you use to get something to come into your trap."

"The bait?"

"Yeah the bait."

"See it works like this." At which point Elijah proceeded to show me how the toy wooden ironing board leg he had propped up on the wall would swing back and forth to apparently catapult any offending bugs out of the clubhouse.

They were using Rice Krispies and bread crumbs for bait. Elijah had originally come inside to get a heal of bread to feed the birds and Rice Krispies to feed himself, but apparently both made better bug food except that....

What was Isaiah doing through all of this?...

Eating the bait of course!

Sawing Logs

I know it may be mean but we just couldn't help ourselves. Elijah snores like a freight train and the doctor says they are probably going to take out his tonsils and adenoids. So turn up your sound and enjoy the sweet sounds of sleeping. (I would just like to say that Erin took the video and just had me put it up because I do the "video stuff" so don't blame me as the "mean" parent)

You can also take a look at a news story about kids and snoring.
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