September 9, 2013

Overall it was a pretty awesome weekend. :)  Luke sleeps in pretty well when no one is trying to sneak by his bed early in the morning!!  He may be moving back in with Levi pretty soon for that reason.  I was on call on Saturday afternoon, and did end up working four hours, but when I came home the boys were in bed, Nana was ensconced in a quilt reading a book, and Matt and I headed out for our new Saturday night tradish: awesome Mexican at Margarita's, fro yo at Peachwave, and a turn about the town.

'B' week!!  We have books about bulldozers, big rigs, bears, best friends, and Brazil.  I want to pick up  the CD "Brazilian Playground" of Brazilian children's music at the library, as well as Bach and Beethoven. Last week we listened to 'African Playground' and the boys LOVED it.  The inside cover of the CD showed pictures of people in Africa, including a group of girls carrying baskets on their heads. Levi wanted to know why they were doing that, so I explained a little bit about it to him...and now he tries to carry everything on his head.

We listened to the song "Who Made God" from Questions with Answers during breakfast and also introduced the first catechism question, Who made me? God made me.  Levi then asked about nearly everything: Who made you? God did.  Who made...Molly? God.  Who made....George ? (his giraffe).  Um....God. (Had to keep it consistent.)  Who made...watermelons?  I was hanging laundry in the basement and just kept yelling, "God did.....God!...God again...God did..."

After throwing a laundry basket at Molly, Levi lost his video time. After much drama about that, he was eager to help me clean, so that was a little bit fun, and he was very proud of himself for helping me refill soap dispensers and running the duster along the...couch...but at least he was happy to help!!

 He kept asking when we got to do projects, when do we get to do projects, can we please do projects...so we read our verse (Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God) - and let me tell you, these verses are quite useful.  It's more than a little convicting to try to teach a little boy about using soft and gentle and kind words, when my own tongue can be so sharp.  After reading a few books he was asking to look at stuff on Starfall -

...made his "B"...

..."cut" and tape his verse...

...then Luke woke up, and Levi wanted to paint, so I set Luke up to paint too.  He loves being messy.

(And yes, he ate the paint too.  Yes, it's non-toxic.)

I bought watercolors for Levi and he reeeeaaaallllyyy wanted to try them. I had no idea how frustrating it would be to teach him how to use watercolors.  Water first, Levi...then the paint...no, water first...no, you already used water - no, not on the paper ye-...never mind, however you want to do it...water FIRST, Levi.  Son, listen to me.  FIRST water, THEN the pai-...forget it.

Kind words.  Kind words. Kind words.

He had fun anyway.

Well, he was having such a good time, he kept wanting to do more painting, gluing, you name it.  And I was totally ready to go along with it. Until Luke started fussing for his lunch, Levi was asking for HIS lunch, AND wanting to continue projects, AND the googly eyes and sparkly leaves and sequins and pipe cleaners and wooden dowels threw up all over our table.  It quickly went from fun to very irritating and Mama ran out of kind words.  Especially when I had just picked up the last googly eye (do you know how hard those are to clean up????)...and then dropped the container and they flew all. over. the place.

I couldn't be too mad when Levi said, "I'm sorry, mama.  I'm sorry for making a mess.  I won't make a mess next time."  Sweet boy.

Lunch was eaten, the mess was cleaned up, and we went outside.  Luke played in mud, ate sand, and got wet.  Nothing new there. ;)

September 6, 2013

I worked nearly 14 hours yesterday, and parts of it were emotionally wrenching, but I can honestly say that I wasn't nearly as exhausted as I can be some days with these two dear boys!!!  They had a riot at Aunt Mary's though ((huge blog-hug to you, Mares)).  There is no greater comfort than knowing your kiddos are in good hands - AND receiving multiple text pictures throughout the day of them reading books, making crafts, and picking tomatoes in the garden.  

My hand is back at the helm of the ship today.  The boys were so worn out from the fun yesterday that they slept in till nearly 8:30.  Matt and I actually had a sustained, lengthy, uninterrupted, intelligent conversation while he got ready for work. It was....quite refreshing!!  I texted Mary and told her that we will be sending the boys to her every other day, thank you.

Levi and I used the apples we 'harvested' at Crane's to make apple crisp this morning.

We went to the library (not gonna lie, it's nice to go now that school is back in session).

And without elaborating, I can understand why some animals eat their young.

September 4, 2013

Can I just start out by saying that I am STUNNED that Luke turns one year old a week from tomorrow?????

Super busy but fun day today.  Our friend Eli came this morning for a couple hours.  I told his mom ahead of time to have him bring his wheelbarrow and shovel, I had a little project for him and Levi to do. He brought TWO wheelbarrows and a shovel - and I took advantage of two strong, dirt-loving little boys to help me spread compost in the garden beds!!! Is that bad?  They totally nailed the job and I was pretty surprised that they stuck with it until it was finished. I thought for sure that it would lose its luster after a few shovels full.  They moved it, helped me rake and spread it, and then I pulled out some containers and they picked tomatoes for me.  Levi LOVES working "on the farm" as he calls it, and Eli was a very eager worker too.  It was a great way to kill an hour and get a project done!

Luke supervised.

After Eli left, Levi wanted to do projects. Which really surprised me...when I started this two months ago he was NOT interested in project time or anything related to it. I had to be creative in getting him involved with new things.  When he found out that Josiah had been painting this morning, he wanted to paint. I wasn't planning on painting, but quickly reformulated the plan, busted out some worksheets and paints, and he went to TOWN.  Not too long ago, 'painting' meant one swipe of the brush across the sheet, and then he was ready to move on.  This morning he was super involved, and kept asking for more.  He painted several sheets...

....then wanted to dot paint, so I gave him this apple sheet and told him to ka-blam the big A's with one color, and the little a's with another color. He nailed it without my help. I about fell over.

He wanted to do more, so I went out on a limb and gave him a basic line tracing sheet, which he has never done before.  I challenged him to take his marker and draw on the dotted line from the big A's to the little A's. This basically gives him the concept of writing from left to right.

Boom.

He also wanted to do a sheet with shapes on it, so without my direction, he colored each one and called out what shape each one was.  I heard him say, "Crescent....star...." and I was like, "......what did you say?"

And then we were done!!!  Holy cow, I was not ready to do all that but it sure was fun!!!  (I painted the red A there on the right.)

I'm not telling you all this to be all, "Look!!  My kid's a genius!"  I'm just more amazed that they DO soak up what we tell them as we read and play, and then whammo!  When they're ready to display it, they're ready.

And honestly, we have Leapfrog's videos  Letter Factory and Numbers Ahoy, and between those and Starfall.com, he has some excellent tools that he loves to learn from.  I'm just facilitating.

Then he wanted to watch some songs on Starfall, so I set him up while I cleaned up.  Luke got up from his nap around then and was excited to watch as well. In his dress. (That's what we call his sleep sack, LOL).

Work tomorrow, and the boys get to go to Aunt Mary's. :) 

September 3, 2013

We didn't go anywhere this weekend; I worked Saturday, Matt worked a little on Sunday, so we just enjoyed some time at home.  

On Friday, I finally had a chance to cut up this jewel from the garden!!  

I wasn't sure if it was going to be funky or yellow or whatever, seeing as I've never grown a watermelon before, but it's juicy and sweet and delicious!!!  Oddly, I had to explain what those little black things are to Levi.  Son, those are called SEEDS.  Everyone enjoyed it for breakfast.

On Sunday we made it to the park...no one was there...it was odd.

For Labor Day we skipped the actual truck parade and waited till after Luke's nap to go down to where they park all the trucks down at the Civic Center.  Unfortunately, we made it there right as they were about to wrap the event up and pull the trucks out of the parking lot.  Levi did get to stand on an excavator, and he talked about it all day after that.  He saw a fire truck, but the fireman didn't get to see him in his fire chief jacket - oddly, they received an actual emergency call and the fire trucks had to boogie out of there.

Yes, I forgot to put Levi's shoes on before we left the house. Oh well.

Learning the letter A this week!!!!  He dove into his foam alligator craft AND his coloring page!  The coloring was a first, he rarely gets into that.  His verse is Proverbs 15:1 - A soft answer turns away wrath.  Pretty much everyone in this house could use that one. ;) Just. Sayin'.

We're starting our day now by listening to 'Questions With Answers' by Songs for Saplings. It's a series of songs that follow a basic catechism. This week we're listening to "Who Is God?"  We listen to it during breakfast, and both boys love learning a new song. :)  I subscribed to a site called Starfall.com as well, that has fun letter/number/shape/color games, PowerPoint-style presentations, songs, etc. I introduced Levi to it on Monday and he loved it. So we'll incorporate it into some of our project time.

Of course, I can't get by with focusing on the letter A without going apple picking!!!!  Levi and I went to Crane's today to pick a few Gala apples for making apple crisp.  He declared, "We're harvesting!!!" and thought it was quite the riot.  Even more exciting was their little collection of carts, wagons, and golf carts.  Soft Doggy came, too.

We headed to their pantry restaurant and were hugely delighted to find that they sell GF blueberry crisp.  Couldn't turn that down. Levi LOVED the vintage equipment in the waiting area, like this oooollllld stove.

But whoa baby, Crane's scored royally with this little miniature tractor in the outdoor dining area!! 

Before we left, Levi wanted to run in this open field.  I would have brought our blueberry crisp down here and let Levi run with the wind had I thought of it!!

As if the day couldn't get any better, then the City showed up to trim trees on our street.

And our all-too-quickly-growing little sweetie. :)  Standing on his own, which makes him giggle. He takes one or two steps and slowly lowers himself back down, but he'll be walking very soon!!

August 28, 2013

Well, thankfully today was a new day.  Crummy naps prevailed yesterday, and I am still forever grateful for the blessed Ergo.  Strapped that baby on and kept making dinner.  You can tell we are both tired.  Luke just tilted his head back and watched me, this little expressionless bullfrog face inches from my chin staring up at me as I cut veggies.  It was partly cute and partly disconcerting.

I WISH this picture had turned out better, but blast it, my camera makes any source of light look like a white explosion.  Josiah was here yesterday morning...and...well...the following picture says it all:

Right before Mary came back the boys were helping me pick up the toys (and they were actually doing a very good job of it), when the appeal of having too much fun was more than they could bear.  They hopped into Levi's bed to "take a nap" and they were laughing SO HARD with each other I just let them be and finished cleaning up the living room.  I was just happy that they were, of their own volition, semi confined and occupied. :)

The other day Levi wanted me to swaddle him "like a bee-bee" as he would say.  I'm NOT into his acting-like-a-baby getup, but sometimes I do tease him exaggeratedly, like cradle him and sing Rock-a-Bye-Baby, and when the cradle "drops" I throw him on the bed, and he erupts in hysterical laughter.  So I swaddled him and then we cracked up about it.  As I'm taking the picture he's saying, "Look at me! I'm in my sleep sack!"

We DID end up calling his bluff the other night and served him baby food for dinner. At first he thought it was funny and cute and was all for it...and then three bites in (which Matt fed him, yes, like a baby) he started to cry and didn't want to be a baby anymore.  Heh.

This morning was much better.  Scrambled Egg Super for breakfast...

Read books to George to apologize to him for throwing him in the corner...

...and work on fun block cars again.

Blessed Nana came and watched the boys while I went to the health food store, the library, the farmer's market, and downtown.  Nap time returned today, thankfully, and both boys took nice long ones for the first time this week.  Luke is cutting a couple teeth and is on the verge of walking and is babbling more (babbling has taken a back seat to movement most of his life), so I think he's flirting with a 12-month sleep regression.  And still getting over a cold.  Several drops of lavender oil in a vaporizer seemed to do the trick for him and made the house smell wonderful. :)  Peace reigned again for an afternoon.

August 27, 2013

I am writing this post to erase any notion that I keep this blog so that I can show off my incredible, organized life with happy babies who sleep great, never misbehave, and cause unseen violins to strike a melodious soundtrack to my divine life.  This is my memory book, and along with happy memories of sticky hands come desperate memories of days that are so trying, so frustrating that words can barely be used to describe them.

I don't want to describe specific instances or behaviors because I really don't want to use this as a forum to complain about or disgrace my children with anecdotes that might eventually seem amusing, but are really ungracious.  But I can speak about myself unabashedly.

I have been verbally berated by patients and their families. I have been treated equally astonishingly by some physicians and other providers (and sadly, fellow nurses).  I have sat with families, completely uncertain where to fix my gaze or what to do with my hands, as they receive devastating news about their child that will alter their lives and possibly their view of God forever.

But nothing has blown my spirit apart like my children, and even more specifically, how their behavior devastates my pride and exposes my heart for exactly what it is.  Anger that I didn't know I was capable of having, a tone of voice that I didn't realize I was capable of speaking, fruit growing out of my heart that is uglier than the weird mutant cucumbers I managed to grow this summer.  I curled in a ball on my couch this morning, begging the Lord to uproot it and help me demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  How on earth can I expect to instill these in my sons when I am barely capable of reflecting them myself?

I know this is only a season.  But another season will come, and harsh winds blow in warm weather and in cold, and clearly, if I faint in the day of adversity, my strength is small.  My strength has to come from the Lord, and quite honestly, I don't even know what that is supposed to look like half the time.

So.......there you have it. I have no ammo to add to the mommy war because the war for my soul is enough for me to endure.  Pictures of sweet boys on tricycles and babies in mud and coloring pictures and playing with blocks are only part of the story, and I never want to hold up a picture of my life that is anything less than honest. Thankfully, His mercies are new every morning - or after every nap!! - and like I keep telling Levi, tomorrow is a new day.

August 23, 2013

Nothing terribly exciting to report!!!  Luke took his first keester-over-elbows tumble down the (very steep and most certainly not up to code) steps yesterday morning.  I heard the thumping, Matt bellowing, "BABY DOWN!" followed by Luke sprawled face-down at the bottom of the steps. :(  He sobbed, and then wriggled down and crawled on top of the time-out chair, which is almost equally perilous.

I took Levi for a haircut yesterday and he nearly had the lady in stitches with his little quips.  I was talking with our neighbor today, who has a little almost 2-year-old girl, and Levi's all, "So does she cry a lot? Do you guys get good sleep?"  Clearly he can tell what kinds of questions we ask each other when we talk with other parents!!! LOL  Then he interjected, "Did you know that Meijer has GREAT toys?"

I came out of the bathroom yesterday to hear Luke grunting like he was reaching for something. I found him perched, stuck, on the edge of the laundry basket.  I made him wait there while I snapped a few pictures, and I don't think this pleased him very much.

A rare moment of the boys actually playing together without drama (from the big brother end, that is).  Levi's fire chief jacket is dazzling, isn't it?

We wrapped up our "I" week by eating Italian (lasagna), pulling out my flute to learn about instruments, and reading a ton of books.  This morning we pulled out Levi's 'special cars' (part of his collection of toys that he can only play with during school time or whatever you want to call it)..they're called Automoblox and are these great wooden cars that pull apart into several pieces and are interchangable.  So we deconstructed the cars and I had him pretend he was a mechanic putting them back together, and then we test-raced them. :)  

 

We are very weary of the regression behavior that Levi exhibits when Luke is around.  It's very maddening and frustrating. I know he's doing it for attention (oddly, he gets way more attention than Luke does simply because Luke sleeps more), but it's still irritating.  When he crawls, I make him get up and return to where he started and walk the whole way.  I refuse to acknowledge his whining.  All that.  This morning I started calling his bluff and asked if he really wants me to treat him like a baby.  Because hey man, I can pull out all the stops and treat you like a baby.  And I would.  I can feed him puree and carry him wherever we go outside instead of letting him ride his trike, and put him down for a nap in the morning, and give him a bottle for a snack after nap time. I didn't tell him all that, but he still thought about it for a few beats when I asked if he really wants to be treated like a baby, and said, "Ummm...no."  I kind of would like the opportunity to do all that; he's a sharp kid - he'd get the point pretty quickly!!! Muahahaha.  But, I'm a nice mom too.  I tell him that I love Levi for Levi and I want him to act like Levi. I want Luke to act like Luke and Levi to act like Levi.*sigh* It's all a phase.

Work this weekend.  Boy time!! Pray for Matt. ;) He rocks it, but it's definitely not easy being Mr. Mom for 13 hours in a row.