Baby Talk

Conversation with Caleb at 7 months:


Me:  Dada??
Caleb:  Dadadadadadada

Me:  Thhhhhwwwwwppppppttttt  (blowing raspberries)
Caleb:  Thhhhhwwwwwppppppptttttt  (pause)  ttttttthhhhhhhhwwwwwwwppppppttttttt

Me:  Nananana?
Caleb:  Nanananananananana

Me:  MAMA????
Caleb:  DADADADADADADA!!!!!

*sigh*  :)

Just Breathe...

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Galations 5:22

This was the crux of our moms Bible study this week.  We talked about how to cultivate these qualities into our homes - things that we can do to build our little people up to have these characteristics.  

The discussion should have empowered me.  I should have left on cloud nine, ready to take over my home and mold my children.  But in reality, I felt even more defeated.

Because I very rarely feel like this.  

Let me go into detail.

We have had issues with Elizabeth getting up around 5 a.m. and coming downstairs to spend an hour by herself doing whatever she wants until we get up.  She turns on every light in the house and loves to get into the pantry to snack on things she knows she's not allowed to have.  Yesterday, I found her with a pack of the real expensive organic baby yogurt bites and almost had a coronary.  

So we got her one of those alarm clocks that changes colors when she's allowed to get up and it has worked really well.  So at 6 o'clock on the nose, she walks in our room and announces, "The clock is green, Mom!!"  Now, I would be tempted to drift back to sleep except for the sound of a dining room chair being scooted across my kitchen floor in order to assist her to get crayons, Play-doh, or scissors (ha!). 

Caleb gets up five minutes later; Rachel 10 minutes. My day starts lecturing, correcting, disciplining.  

Don't lay on your brother.

Please go back to bed if you're going to cry.

I swear, I will start breakfast in a minute.

No, you cannot go outside.  It's cold and you have pj's on. 

Breakfast is a blur of demands and whines and a baby banging on his high chair for attention.  I make Elizabeth's lunch for preschool, Scott's snacks for work and chug my shake and a second cup of coffee.  In the background, I crank the praise and worship Pandora station because I tend to be more patient when I can at least hear positive music.  

Which proved a challenge this morning when the girls ran downstairs waving the LaLaLoopsy dolls they had found...in a box...in my closet...which had been intended for Christmas.  *breathe*

The dolls went on the dining room table and the process of begging/bribing/threatening to get ready for the day got underway.  Rachel has two outfits she is willing to wear without a fit.  Elizabeth has to run around naked at least 20 minutes before getting dressed and Caleb enjoys pulling out and chewing on the girls' nastiest shoes.  

Need the Reader's Digest of the rest of the morning?

Rachel picked up all the toys in the den (the first time I asked!) and got her doll unwrapped and was thrilled.

Elizabeth refused to make her bed and did not get her doll.

Rachel enjoyed teasing her big sister with her doll and Elizabeth threw a tantrum to try to get hers.

Caleb came crawling up to me chewing on something.  It was dog hair.

My friend called as I was pulling out of the driveway and I was so excited to talk to another adult that I drove right past the entrance to preschool.

Another Elizabeth tantrum.

Finally got her dropped off and made it to BodyPump class in time to get an awesome workout.

In the middle of shoulders, I realized I had left the dogs outside with no water...and had fed them leftover, salty pork for breakfast.

Picking up the kids, did I know that Caleb only had one sock on when I dropped them off?  Oh, and Rachel's hungry.  Check that:  starving.

Loading up the little two, I saw Elizabeth's drink still in my bag.  I had forgotten to leave it.

Back to preschool.  Unload two kids.  Drop off drink.  Reload two kids.

Rachel crying, "But I thought you said we were going to Taaaaarrrrgeeettttt."

Seriously.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Galations 5:22

You know the best part of this verse for me?  These are the fruit of the SPIRIT.  Not ANNIE.  It is through HIM, by HIM, that these things are revealed.  Although, during the times that my voice is raised and the house is a blur of chaos around me, I wonder...  

And just when I feel like I am going to lose it completely, He gives me glimpses of hope.

Today, when I dropped off Elizabeth, I clued her teacher in on our morning a bit and warned her of the mood.  "Oh, I would never believe that of your little girl," she said.  "She is just the most respectful and precious thing with the sweetest heart.  She always does everything I ask and is kind to others."

Funny how just a slight word of encouragement can reset you and make you feel like maybe you're doing something right after all and revealing the fruit of the Spirit, even if you don't think you are.  One day, I will laugh at all this...heck, I'll laugh about it tonight when they're in bed.  But today, I just work to make it through.

And finally today, after thinking all week on this verse, I accepted the grace that I don't have to be perfect...because HE is.  I was putting some sort of (definitely) unrealistic expectation on myself to achieve these things when I actually have to achieve nothing...I just have to live through Him.

Thank God.

And now, Rachel is calling from the potty and Caleb is yelling for me to get him from his crib.  Thanks for letting me vent, my friends. 

Hair-Raising Tuesday...

You all can really help a girl out of a funk, let me tell you.  After posting Elizabeth's adventure with a pair of scissors yesterday, I got so many ideas and words of support on the blog, Facebook and by text that I immediately felt better about the whole situation.  THANK YOU.

So this morning, we decided to ditch the gym and take care of early voting, pick up a couple items that I could only get at Whole Foods and then finish up at the beauty shop.  I don't know why I expected early voting to be a "get in, get out" sort of thing and, while I'm not especially political, I AM all American, so we stood in line and talked to people, did ballerina pirouettes and played peek-a-boo with Caleb until it was our turn.  

Thirty minutes later, we had cast our vote and put quite a hurting on their supply of "I voted today" stickers that Elizabeth tattooed all over herself. 

Now, to fill you in, Elizabeth was not at all remorseful over cutting her hair herself.  When she looked in the mirror, she only saw the front, which looked long and pretty, so it was really no big deal.  No matter how much I tried to drive the point home.

Me:  "Come here and let me put your hair in a pony tail since you CUT YOUR HAIR and it is TOO SHORT IN THE BACK and LOOKS SILLY."

ERS:  *Shrugs*  "I like it."

Me:  "We're going to have to get it all cut to match the back and we won't be able to braid it for a while."

ERS:  *Shrugs again*  "That's fine...I like headbands."

Me:  *Exasperated sigh*

In fact, this is what I found on the camera yesterday...

So Mom keeps harping on this whole hair cutting thing.

Me?  I kinda like it!

Maybe they'll make a Barbie with a reverse mullet!!

Then Mom will be all like, "Oh snap Elizabeth, you are so smart for cutting your hair."

(Come on...you know you look for ways to insert "oh snap" into conversations too...)

ANYWAY, back to today, after stopping at the store, we went to the local Snip-it's (think beauty shop with a Chuckie-Cheese-on-crack spin) and the lady looked at Elizabeth's hair and then looked at me like I was crazy.

Insane Kiddie Beautician:  "Well, you know, you could just keep it in a pony tail.  If I cut it up to match that, it'll be way short." 

Me:  "Can you just trim it up shorter with some layers so you don't see where she cut it?"

I.K.B.:  "You'll still see it.  I mean, I can try."

Me:  "Super...SINCE SHE'S FOUR, I don't really think it matters if you can still see a little bit."

Now, my daughter LOVED the attention and has done nothing but strut ever since and it IS pretty cute.  What do you think?  (Note, please disregard my house in the background.  It is child-decorated at the moment.)

On to the next adventure!!

A Hair-Raising Emergency

My friends, I need just a moment of your time here.

I'm in crisis.

Ok, maybe CRISIS is slightly a strong word, but I'm having a really hard personal time here.  No, no one's hurt.  No, I feel fine.  Yes, all my children are fine...

IF FINE ENTAILS CUTTING A HUGE CHUNK OF HAIR OUT OF THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD...

...then they are all fine.  

Please let me elaborate.

I have to tell you that I've always been afraid of my kids cutting their own hair, because I realize I have been cursed.  Growing up, we had a friend who's little sister cut her own bangs up to the scalp.  It was the summer time and we all went to the same pool and it was quite the joke until they grew back out.  Once I had my own children, I realized that, by laughing at that poor child when I was only just a child, I was cursing myself to experience a similar fate with one of my own children.

So I decided to take the Sleeping Beauty approach and banish all scissors.  Or keep them really high.  That was the plan.  

Stop laughing...I KNOW you know how the story ends here, but let me tell it.  This is my therapy.  Along with wine...lots of wine...

I keep a pair of scissors in our bathroom because SOMETIMES I need a pair upstairs to cut tags of clothes or something like that and I keep them up on the top shelf in the cabinet above our toilet.  I'm just telling you this so you know that I'm not negligent and leave them out...my child is a ninja.  

So today, I was reading nap time stories to Rachel and I could hear Elizabeth upstairs and just knew from the foot tread that she was up to no good.  I called for her and down she came and ran in the other room to color.  Carrying Rachel up to her bed, I noticed a ton of dog hair all over the floor.

"Holy cow, the dogs are shedding a ton," I thought and vowed to haul the Kirby upstairs after the kids woke up.  Coming out of Rachel's room, I noticed a perfect little curl on the floor.  

Oh no...

I realize my investigative pictures look like something out of My Cousin Vinny, but if you could see past all those designs on the dirty, 80's linoleum, you would see little brown ringlets.

Upon seeing her hair in the trash can, I sprinted downstairs to find my oldest.

"Elizabeth, did you cut your hair?"  I asked.

"Yes," she answered, not even looking up from her coloring book.

"Why??"

"I had a bump in my hair that I needed to get."

Turns out my child had given herself a reverse mullet to combat that bump.  Good thinking, kid.

I'm not doing ok with this, if you must know, and I haven't the foggiest idea what to do next.  My kids don't really grow hair.  It has taken forever to get it this long and we've loved doing braids and pony tails and buns.  So do I take her to a beautician to cut it up to the shortest part in a little bob or do I make her live in a pony tail until it grows back out...which could LITERALLY be a couple years?

She doesn't want to get it cut, but she also can't see the back or really understand what she's done.  And I can see myself in a little puddle in the beauty shop as my baby's perfect little soft hair gets cut up short.

Sigh.

So help me, my friends.  Please let me know that I'm not the only one in this boat and then give me wisdom as to next steps.   I'm hoping a couple miles on the treadmill might give me some insight.

Things that make me smile

 In case you were wondering...

We had to work in a doctor's visit last week because Caleb had a cough that was worrying me.  Everything checked out OK and, while he didn't like being poked or prodded, he LOVED making faces at himself in the mirror.  "Oh no, YOU are the cutest widdle baby..."

You all know how I love a good deal and CHECK THESE OUT!!  Seriously, $1 for organic hearts of romaine??!!  Yes please!!  I do believe Scott will shoot me if I sneak another bag of snow peas into his lunch, but you can't pass up $1 produce!  Thank YOU, Mr. Manager for your clearance decisions!

And back to my son, who is going through a crazy developmental stage right now.  I don't remember the girls doing something new every day, but he seems to figure things out a little more every time I turn around.  His latest trick is grabbing the puffs off the high chair tray, although he can't seem to get them in his mouth yet.  If you look closely, you can see the blurry little varmint escaping from his mitts.

And not to be overlooked, the dynamic duo makes me smile too...most of the time.  They've recently become obsessed with the play cell phone and walk around "talking" to their friends with the thing propped between their shoulder and their ear.  The other night, Elizabeth told me she couldn't come to the dinner table because her friend Piper had a crisis on the phone.  Yes, my four-year-old knows the word 'crisis.'  *sigh*

Who knew they made coconut milk coffee creamer??  It is saving my life on this Paleo kick, since I can't have dairy and think that black coffee is almost as pointless as decaf.  The Bailey's is there in case any of my sane friends drop by for a cup.  

And speaking of the Paleo challenge, CHECK IT!!  BUH-BYE 140'S!!!  This was day 3, after I had been stuck in a rut at 141 for two weeks!

When my grandparents moved, I received boxes of boxes of their slides and photo albums from their travels and I've truly enjoyed the process of transferring them to digital.  Every week when I talk to my grandma, I get to tell her what trips I took with them that week.  This shot is of my grandpa overlooking the Bad Lands, S.D.  Right now, I'm in the middle of their trip to the Hoover Dam and last week, it was Mt. Rushmore.

Don't you just love big mugs?  We now all have the sniffles and for some reason, tea just tastes better in these Christmas mugs I keep out all year round.  

And finally,

these guys.  Life just wouldn't be crazy (or worth it) without them! So blessed!

Happy Wednesday, my friends!

30 Days of Cah-razy

So Scott and I decided to do a 30-day, strict Paleo eating plan, beginning today.  Originally, I thought it was just going to be him and me and I was just going to cut all the sugar I could control out of the girls' diet.

And then last night, we had a treat of Mexican and chips and I proceeded to watch my four-year-old and two-year-old eat straight chips.  No chicken, no lettuce, just chips.  Oh, and cheese.  

When I caught Rachel doing a shot of shredded cheese, it was very literally the last straw.  Their diet was spiraling out of control and their little taste buds craved nothing but salty and sweet crapola.  They were coming along on the journey as well.  

And this morning, it started.

Now, as fun as you might imagine detoxing preschoolers can be, after two meals in the results have not been pretty. 

This morning, we had "rainbow eggs," which was a beautiful mix of peppers and tomatoes and spinach in scrambled eggs.  

Elizabeth cried and Rachel poked at them.

For lunch, we had roasted tomato and pepper soup with chicken salad lettuce wraps and some tropical fruit salad.  

Rachel refused to eat the lettuce and Elizabeth told me there were little black bugs in her soup (also known as spices...shudder).

So here's to 30 days of cah-raziness!  More details to come regarding the how and why's... but right now, I have to go be a cooking fool...

A Day in the Life of Elizabeth

If you've been following me for a while, you might remember back to last April when Elizabeth got a hold of my camera the first time and left an incriminating video and her paw prints behind.

Well, today when I decided to download snap shots to the computer, I realized there were 91 PICTURES TAKEN IN THE PAST COUPLE DAYS!  Therefore, I thought I would share Elizabeth's "day in the life" and obvious trigger finger. :)

Ah, finally!  Everyone else is getting up!  I've been up since 5:30 a.m. with all the lights on.  Rachel has finally gotten her milk and Butch wants out.  Just another day!

Hello Rachel!  Don't stop on account of me having Mom's camera.  She told me I could.  Really.  No, you cannot have it.  Only big girls.

Ah, there's Mom now with Caleb, in Daddy's t-shirt.  Daddy loves it when she wears that old shirt.  He even says, "Oh yay...another old ratty t-shirt that's three sizes too big" when she comes down the stairs.  That means he loves it.

Here is Caleb, watching me play Barbies.  Dad yells at me when I give him one to play with.  That's sharing, Dad.

Here is Caleb in the jumper swing.  He likes to fling himself against the door jam and refrigerator.  I get in trouble when I try to launch him with my feet.  Geez...he always laughs.

Here's Mom, smiling.  I don't know if it's because I'm so cute with the camera or because she just got new coffee from Amazon. 

I think Rachel is tearing up my puzzle.  See?  Now, I have proof, Mom.

But Daaaaaaaad.  Mom said I could!

I just got in so much trouble.

This is my scared face.

Rachel, getting in trouble for running around the house and spilling these puzzle pieces in her tracks.  See?  I told you she did it.

I told Dad that I would gather sticks so we could roast marshmallows.  I'll keep them on the fireplace, just in case.

I call this one, My Find-it books...

I call this one, Mom needs to dust the ceiling fan...

And finally, this is my favorite, Playpen sans baby...

Happy Tuesday!!