| It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us... | ” | |
—The opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities You get the idea. I often look back on a single day and wonder how it can be filled with so much joy and blessing but also some very difficult moments. I'd say discipline for both kiddos, nap-time for a certain 4 year old, and potty training cause the most thorny moments for me right now. We're going on a YEAR of potty training and we'll have 2-3 perfect months and then we regress for a couple weeks. I haven't posted about this much because I don't want to embarrass C later down the road but it really wears me down. Just because I want to be open and maybe it will encourage someone else, I'll tell you about today. We had a normal morning. Even maybe a good parenting moment or two. Read a Bible story and talked about how a gentle answer turns away wrath. We even tasted honey and talked about saying "honey words" with each other... Then we made a plan for the day (Post Office, Mommy's school, Picnic, home). Then, within 15 minutes of reading our Bible story about gentle words, I freak out (yelling, crying out to God, just way too emotional) when C has an accident. Oh, the irony! I took a Mommy time-out, apologized for getting upset and then we carried on with our plan. But oh, it was such a bad moment and things seemed so overwhelming. Moving forward to the afternoon, C won't nap (or even stay in his room for quiet time) and is just generally cranky (yelling/crying/whining) and none of the CD players work in the whole house! I have another Mommy melt-down and time-out and am too tired to fight with him so I let him watch 3 straight Doras in a row. Then by 4, we're all back to smiling, happy people and head out to the neighborhood pool for such a fun time that I think I surely must be going crazy for being so up and down! Is this normal? Now that hours have passed, I know that it is normal but today's low lows and high highs made me want to be better about keeping perspective and counting my blessings. As I've looked through our pictures, I do feel so blessed and thankful and content. I suppose there will always be days like these. Thanks for listening. Now enjoy the pictures of a week in our life! Thursday, August 11       Friday, August 12    Saturday, August 13  Also noteworthy on this day, it rained a lot!!! Broke the string of 100+ days and was really nice outside! Caden and I took a little trip on our own to "Chunk Your Junk". It's an event will shred your documents for you. We also had some batteries and lightbulbs to recycle. Caden enjoyed watching the bullzoders move the big items out of the way while we waited in line. Later, Mom and Colton took a trip to Tom Thumb and CVS while Daddy worked and Caden napped. That evening, we all went to Cici's and ate pizza. The boys decided the restaurant would be a good place to scream their most high-pitched screams about 3/4 of the way through the meal so we hurried out of there! Then it was on to Wal-mart to let Caden pick out a special toy in exchange for mailing all his pacifiers to Baby Emma. He was talking it up and so excited to put them all in the special bag. He picked out a tow truck with Colton's constant help. We played outside a bit more to enjoy the cool weather and then began Caden's first night to sleep without a pacifier. It was pretty rough. Took about 2 1/2 hours for him to finally get to sleep after lots of crying, asking for "geen ishy" (green ishy) and lots of pats and lullabies from both mom and dad. Phew. Sunday, August 14 Church. Colton is doing great at making it through the whole church service quietly (they have canceled children's church for the summer). Caden made it until right before the sermon. He's having a lot of separation anxiety and had to be peeled from my arms, but after a few wailing moments, he was fine. I'm teaching the 2 year olds which has been interesting - especially having Caden in my class. It's a little chaotic because our church meets in a school and thus this class meets in a hallway. We have lots of chasing time in between songs and Bible stories :) This week we had seven 2 year olds and talked about how God cares for us when we're eating. We made an apple mosaic. (picture to come later, maybe). Monday, August 15   Tuesday, August 16      Thursday, August 18      Colton's silly face. And that's our week! | ||
I can pretty much do everything by myself. I don't know why Mom gets frustrated when I want to fasten my buckle before I get in the carseat. I talk a lot. I've got a lot to say. "Did you see that?", "Look at dis!" and "No, no, no, no, no!" are just a few of my catch phrases. "I lub you" seems to make Mom extra smiley. I'll be honest, I've served a few time outs in my short life. Mom says if I'm smart enough to say "because I hit Coco on the head" after she asks me why I'm in trouble, then I'm smart enough to go to time out. I ask her, "Why, Mommy?" a lot. I picked that up from my big bro. I like to sing "ABCD", "Twinkle, Twinkle", "B-I-B-L-E", "Eeee-iii-eee-iii-yo", and "Wheels on the Bus" really loud.
I'm two and life is pretty good!
