"Where my Daddy?"

Yesterday Micah and a few guys from church left on a service trip.  They're on a Navajo Reservation in Arizona, doing some construction work and probably doing manly things like grunting and belching and passing gas and not saying excuse me. I'm excited for him, and so glad he could go.  But it's different around here.

Having Micah away is a fresh reminder that...
- he has mastered the art of excellent Saturday morning breakfasts and I have not.  I burnt the hash browns and put too much milk in the eggs...at least the toast turned out fine!

- our dog goes to the bathroom a lot...and somebody has to take her outside!

- he does the dishes much faster than I do.

- I'm accustomed to being able to talk with him in person or pick up the phone and call him whenever I feel like it.

- Single parents do double duty!  I'm amazed they get anywhere on time.  

- Silas LOVES his daddy! ("Daddy eat wit' us?"...and when reminded that he wasn't here, "Daddy sad?")

I miss my best friend, it feels like half of me is gone.  What affirmation that God very purposefully placed us together! Yes, I'm getting tired and sappy...

Can't wait to hear all the crazy stories when he returns.  With this group of guys, anything could happen!

I want to DO SOMETHING!

Sometimes I want to do more.  They are so many orphans, so many needy people, so many people who are homeless right here in our community.

I want to do something big for God.  I've been really stuck on Isaiah 58 the past few days - read it and you'll see why.  It is looking very "read" right now, with many parts underlined, and a couple notes in the margins. I believe I'll return to it tomorrow.

Sometimes I am bursting to do more.  But I don't think it's time, I don't have peace to jump forward.  Probably because I don't know what it is. But I want to do something.

So, I will support a couple who is doing something, something big. They have 6 kids - 4 adopted, 2 biological.  That warms my heart more than I can explain.  I first met them when she (Jami) spoke at a conference about being foster parents.  Now they're on the journey to adopt a child from Uganda, but they need $6000.00 more.  They need it soon, because their adoption paperwork is getting to the point where they need to pay.

Find out how you could support them by clicking here to watch their "home made" commercial...Speedy Sweep You Tube Video - Kaeb family style

or click here to read her blog and find more about the why and how they are doing this!

I Si-yus Me

Yesterday at church Silas ran up to a teacher, pulled off his name tag to show her, and said, "I Si-yus me."  Just in case you didn't know. :)

Today I got a funny report when I picked him up from school.  An old teacher of his, from when he was in the baby room, came up to him, knelt down at his level, and said, "Hi D____."  He literally turned his body 360 degrees as if he was looking around the room for someone of that name.  Then he pointed his thumb at his chest and said, "right he-yuh?  I Si-yus."  That totally cracked me up!  Not only does he know who he is, he's got some attitude and humor.  

So for anyone out there wondering if he transitioned ok to his new name...I'd say the answer is yes!


This Saturday Micah needed to work on a home project so I took Silas to the Children's Discovery Museum.  Now, anyone that knows Silas, or honestly anyone that meets him, knows within about two minutes that he is active.  I often hear the words "active" and "busy" from people as they describe him. Yep, I know.  I also know that he loves art.  This boy colors and draws and paints like nobody's business.  He actually prefers it to TV or iPad apps.  Oh yeah!  Anyway, he is typically moving from one thing to another, but on Saturday he literally spent 45 straight minutes painting at the CDM.  Painting includes spraying with water and wiping down the paint with a squeegee, and he quite enjoyed it!  See below.  Some day I'll post all kinds of pictures of his face, and funny videos (yesterday we got a great one of his making a huge mess eating chocolate pudding and saying, "Happy day, mommy!").  But for now, here's a strategic faceless picture that I managed to catch!

Life with this two year old is not always a bed of roses.  People often refer to the "terrible twos" and I don't like the phrase, but now I am hoping that it's true...because that means it will end.  Seems like there are all kinds of behaviors I could target, but in my job I've been taught to focus on three or less, to not overwhelm kids, to help them be successful.  Well, I picked a couple!  One is that he is often saying "no" when he really does want something, and "yes" when he doesn't.  It creates meltdowns when we follow through on the words he actually says.  I sat him down this weekend and told him that Jesus said to let your yes be yes, and your no be no.  I've explained it enough, and modeled it enough, that I think he gets it.  That doesn't mean he follows it all the time though.  He's testing us.  You say you don't want toothpaste and then you throw it...well, that means you'll have to brush with only water (sorry teachers, for his bad breath!)  When asked if you want milk or water, and you say you want milk, then you get milk, and can't keep changing your mind back and forth between the two.  "No milk.  Water.  No water."  Agh...but sometimes he makes great choices, and has the best laugh, and is a big helper, and says the sweetest goodnight prayers.  Seriously, when he requests to pray for a special person, or animal, or inanimate object, and then repeats our words to pray, I just melt.

It's worth it.

Kids make me laugh

Silas seems to add a new word to his vocabulary every day, and it is so very fun!  A couple days ago he saw the green light on the dishwasher, indicating that the dishes were clean.  Apparently he didn't want to see the light, so he covered it up with a sticker.  Soon after we couldn't find the sticker, and he tried to blame it on Bella.  He said what I believe is his longest sentence yet:

Did Bell-wuh eat dis ticker here?

He has also, on multiple occasions, said, "Bell-wuuuuuuh" after he passes gas.

Last night Micah was clearing the table after dinner, and picked up the cheese to put it away.
Silas:  Cheese, cheese, cheese!
Micah: We're going to have ice-cream.
Silas: Oh. Bye cheese!

Then, when he was trying to scrape every last ounce of ice-cream out of the bowl, and he was not pleased at the performance of his spoon, he said, "no work, no work!"

Today a clerk asked him if he wanted a sucker, and produced a little basket for him to choose from.  He had been holding a toy, but quickly handed it to me and said, "hold dis mommy" so that his hands were free to choose!

He has also really been into double pronouns lately:
I cheese me.
I toot me.
I some me.
I fall me.

Tonight on the drive home I started to sing a goofy song and in less than a second he called out, "no song!"

This kid knows what he wants!

He is also constantly asking, "what dat?"  The cutest one is this...
Silas: What dat?
Micah: It's my wedding ring.  It means I'm married to mommy.
Silas: Oh.


I have to share a few recent student quotes as well.

Student: It's floggy outside.
Me: Floggy?
Student: Yes, floggy!

3rd grade student: ISAT is coming.
Me: Oh, really?  (I know...boy, do I know!)

A student was picking her nose and eating it...

Me: What does it taste like?

Student: Ketchup and mustard.

Me: I don't think so.

Student: Pickles!

Some great news

For over five years my husband has worked as a plumbing apprentice during the day, and spent two nights a week at class.  Last week he took the state plumbing license test.  It's a pretty difficult test - many don't pass it the first time.  But my smarty did.  Woohoo!  I'm SO proud.  Just got this in the mail today...

On another note, people are wondering if Silas is sleeping better.  Here's the rundown:

Saturday night - up from 1-2 a.m., up for good at 6:15 a.m.

Sunday - no nap

Sunday night - up at 3 a.m. for a few "go back to bed" routines, up at 5:30 a.m., went back until the bunny woke up at 5:45 a.m.

Monday - finally took a nap after an hour of me sending him back to bed.  I had put the iPod on "lullaby radio" to help him sleep, and unfortunately a commercial WOKE HIM UP.

Monday night - Micah figured out that he would stay in bed if his door was cracked open, so he went to bed easily.  Yea!  He was up once at 1 a.m. and once at 3 a.m., up for good at 5:45 a.m.

Poor little guy was pretty tired after all that.  He was happy to be back at daycare today, where adults stay in the room while he naps.  Check out his form from today - a 2 hour 20 minute nap!  

You can also see that he had seconds on lunch today.  He is eating everything in sight.  Must be growing!  Love my boy!

Here's hoping he doesn't get up until the bunny wakes up in the morning!

Rounds 2 and 3

The saga of the transition to the toddler bed...

I am completely exhausted.  Not quite as chipper as after last night's experience.  He woke up at 5:00 a.m. and there was a good amount of "go back to bed, the bunny is still sleeping" before the bunny decided to wake up and let Silas out of his misery.

Nap time was...well, not nap time.  Absolutely no napping took place.  Lots of sitting outside his door and sending him back to bed for a full hour.  He filled his time with these activities:
- tearing several pages from one of his favorite books.  I had imagined him looking at books instead of sleeping, but not tearing them!
- taking out the filter from his dehumidifier and ripping it to shreds - literally
- telling me he had to poop (I thought about that one for a second but correctly called his bluff!)
- opening the door to give me hugs
- opening the door to give me kisses
- huge tears accompanied by, "nooooo mommy!" as if he were being tortured
- opening the door and walking out backwards as if I wouldn't see him
- bringing his blankets to me and trying to lay down next to me in the hallway
- pulling down a basket of lotions and creams and rubbing them on his face
- going straight to his enemy, the sleeping bunny, and trying to dismantle it

Good news is, since he didn't have a nap, tonight's bedtime "battle" only lasted 15 minutes.  Thank the LORD, because I don't know if I could have taken another hour of it!

Parenting is totally worth it, but some days are just plain harder than others!

Who can last the longest?

Fifty-five minutes.

We decided it's time to transfer to the toddler bed.  I bought an alarm clock that has two pictures - one of a bunny sleeping, and one of him awake.  The idea is to tell toddlers that when the picture of the sleeping bunny is lit up, they need to stay in bed.  Then, at the time you set for them to wake up in the morning, it switches over to the awake bunny.  Cute idea, huh?  Well.  It's not magic!

Tonight I spent fifty-five minutes putting my son back in his big boy toddler bed over...and over...and over.  Multiple times per minute I walked him back to his bed and covered him up with his blankets.  Sometimes I just pointed.  And he went right back.  It was like he was on a one-route track...bed to door, door to bed.

I was standing or sitting outside his door, because, let's face it, I couldn't get any farther before he opened it again.  He had lots of cool tricks.  Hugs.  And kisses.  And bringing his blanket out to try to sit with me in the hallway.  He thought he was pretty clever when he kept throwing his pillow and blankets on the floor, as if those same hands weren't able to pick them up.  He cried for me, and daddy, and even plead for his dear Bella dog to come save him.

But I won.  He's sleeping.  And honestly, I kind of enjoyed it.  It was comical.  Me repeating "Go back to bed.  The bunny is sleeping," and him in his cute dinosaur jammies, walking back to that bed over and over again.  And also, in case you missed it, I WON!

I better go to sleep.  Who knows how soon the next round is coming?

Here's hoping that tomorrow's nap time and bed time routines are shorter than fifty-five minutes!  And that I have energy to keep persevering!

Not from today, but still a cute pic of  my little sleeper.