Friday, January 28, 2011

Oh, The Things You Say

Half an hour ago I was near tears.

The boys were eating their lunch and Cubby told me he had to use the potty.

We didn't make it in time.

Cubs pooped on the floor just as The Babe began crying for a feeding. The Bear watched the pandemonium in silence. Cubs wailed, thinking he had failed. He is usually flawless when it comes to his potty time. I tried to reassure him while sanitizing his hands and the floor and also comforting The Babe as best I could from across the room.

"I am going to cry!" I wailed in misery.

The Bear's head came up and he said, "Oh no, Mom! Don't cry!"

I walked to him and gave him a hug.

He reached up and began stroking my hair.

He then said, "Please don't cry, Mom. Because you are a girl. If you cried it would be just awful."

I looked up in surprise and then tears really did flood my eyes.

When did he learn the difference between boys and girl? Where did he learn the word awful? How do you go from being a needy baby one moment to a caring, compassionate and thoughtful little human being the next?

Early this morning I sat at the dining room table working quietly on my Bible study. Rather, I tried to work on my Bible study while the kids danced around me, alternately fighting and asking questions. I was studying Isaiah 40. Learning about the sheer massiveness of my God, I tried to wrap my mind around all he could do. I pondered the amazing fact that He was not created, that he is infinite coupled with the incredible fact that He has always been and always will be.

But as you can imagine, it was quite difficult to really meditate on these enormous thoughts when all around me little people are running, shouting, leaping and making more noise than a three ring circus.

I gave up after a while and went over to our piano and spontaneously decided to grab a hymnal. Then began singing worship songs for my Lord.

The boys have never really heard me sing. They have heard me sing little children's songs but they have never quite heard my full voice. I have sung on very few occasions in the last five years. The joy of music was lost to me after a traumatic event in college. But this morning, I found joy in it once more. After I finished the first song, I noticed a strange sound in my home.

The sound of silence. Complete and total silence.

The Bear stood looking at me with wide eyes.

"Mom" he finally managed, "You are a great singer."

I smiled from ear to ear and thanked him.

"No really," he insisted, "You are awesome."

He spent the rest of the morning telling me so. I smiled every single time.

After he comforted me at lunch time, I thought back to his words earlier this morning and realized that his compliments were mimicked affirmations that I constantly give my boys. They try something new and I am always quick to say, "You are amazing," "You are doing a fantastic job," and "I am so proud of you." He has learned how to affirm people and be kind. He has learned compassion and caring. He is a kind person.

This means so very much to me. Beyond all the alphabet letters, numbers, potty training and memorized animal species, this holds so much more weight for me.

My son is kind. Its evident in the things he says.


Thursday, January 20, 2011

Ticker Tape Parade Worthy

Ok, so I haven't blogged enough this month. Believe me, when I am running after my kids I always think, Man, I need to write about such and such later on tonight! But then later on tonight arrives and I am half asleep by 8PM. Really, these boys are working me hard throughout the day!

So I will set up a personal goal to blog about two helpful things for my Mommy friends, before the month is out. 1) Cold Medicines for Toddlers and 2) Discipline. I know, you can hardly contain your excitement. But these two topics have come up quite often in the bungalow this past year.

Enough on that for now.

Ahem. Drum roll please.......

Cubs and The Bear are potty trained.

Ta-DA!!!!

Cubs could have been potty trained months ago but I was just way too gosh darn tired to be consistent with it. And The Bear has this unbelievable fear of toilets so it took a while to convince him that potty training was a good idea.

This morning the boys went a good 4 1/2 hours without any accidents. They are wearing big boy underpants, informing me each time they have to go and I have deemed them, "TRAINED."

I was able to make carrot soup and fresh cornbread while they played and used their respective potties. This month is all about F R E E D O M. My boys are growing up and gaining more independence every day. I am so proud of them and relieved for J and I. We now only have one very tiny cute baby booty to worry about diapering. :)

Side note: I did notice that I composed a sentence mentioning food preparation and potty training all in one breath. Ick, I know. I can't believe some of the things I have caught myself saying since I became a Mom. Maybe I should compose a list? #1 would definitely be this gem from 2009: "Well, at least you ate your own poop and not someone else's."

I'll be busy the rest of this week getting things geared up for the boy's birthday party. I am also loading up pictures for a big ebay sale. I have never sold anything on ebay before, but there are things in my closet that can translate to easy cash and I am going to go for it!

Try to contain yourselves until next week for the informative, stomach-churning post about toddlers & cold medicine.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Search and Rescue

Its that time of year again...time to clean up all the Christmas faradiddle lying about the house. But wait! Something is different this year...

Oh yes, Hurricane Cubs was loose in the house throughout this entire yuletide season. This means that I have to collect ornaments off of the tree, floors, and chairs. A few behind the couch, some in the tub, a few under his bed and two in his treasure box. Manger pieces mixed in the toy bins, Baby Jesus hanging out with T Rex and a plastic goat. Jackpot!!! Six ornaments behind the drum set. With the last discovered cache came the realization that pine needles had also trailed into random corners of the house. Ay yi yi. Looks to me like we'll be remembering this Christmas all year long with pine needle findings each month.

I'm happy Cubs loves Christmas time. The search and rescue operative commencing in early January? Not so much.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

ABC, What Do I See?

The Bear is right on the threshold of learning how to turn letters into words. Really, one of the most exciting moments of kid life. This book worm Mom is beside herself to share the joy of reading with my son. Just the sheer anticipation of all the imaginative worlds he will discover gets me a little teary eyed. I love make believe. I love stories. I love the wonder of books. My little guy is almost there.

This month I have decided to work on a series of special notecards to place around our home. To get Cubs involved, I'll make simpler ones for him to enjoy. Special Alphabet cards he can use for a letter hunt. The Bear will have Word cards taped to various objects and pieces of furniture. We'll hunt them down and use the words to make sentences and stories. (I know, I am a nerdy teacher to the core). The Bear loves hide and seek type games, he loves to search and discover. Playing this game will help him learn new sounds, words and how to connect things.

We will start out small. For example, I'll hide the letters B, E and D somewhere in his room. We'll hunt for them using verbal clues. Once we find them, we'll put them together to make a new card which will read, "Bed." Then we can tape it to his bed for a new hunt the following day. He'll have a hand in building all the words we use and will therefore have an easier time identifying them later.

Is it just me or is homeschool great?

This game will be lots of fun once we incorporate the boy's new mailboxes. Nothing fancy mind you, just two empty tin containers of Cafe Bustelo that we decorated. We are tying them to the tree out front and using it to correspond with everyone from Diego to the Swiss Family Robinson crew.

Mommy is pleased with this little game. It will entice the 3 year into further heights of learning and provide ample exercise for the rowdy 2 year old while also giving him a few basic challenges.

Lastly, I am contemplating saving all our letters in a scrap book of sorts for the boys to enjoy. Wouldn't it be great to have a book filled with letters addressed to you from Aslan, Robin Hood, Mike Mulligan, and Paul Bunyan?

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Christmas Unwrapped

Our vacation days are slowly dwindling down, soon it will be time to return to our little bungalow. I am looking forward to cozying back in for another year of motherhood with my ever growing brood of boys.

We had a lovely Christmas this year, albeit a scattered and strange one. We celebrated with my family on the 12th of December and with J's family on the 26th & 27th. The calender was slightly off with all the traveling and birthdays thrown into the mix. Making a concentrated effort to teach your preschoolers the Christmas Story is difficult when there are so many events crowding each day. And then of course the added dimension of having multiple preschool age children to instruct is quite challenging.

A deep desire of my heart is for my children to enjoy worshipping Jesus from an early age. Falling in love with God will be the greatest joy of their lives and I am excited to share in that with them. But how to impart such meaning into tiny hearts? I am always encouraged at BSF to pray for my boys and for their understanding of worship and the word. I believe its the most valuable thing I can do for them.

I am also finding other ways to teach my boys. History and tradition play a great part in this hunt and I am eager to establish both in my own little family. I am always on the lookout for special ideas for events or whimsical items that can be absorbed into our family traditions. I found a few this year that I would love to share with you!
I found this beautiful advent calender designed by Kurt Adler. I fell in love with the small wooden drawers that open each day to reveal a hand painted figurine from the Nativity. Each piece has a magnetic back and adheres to the painted backdrop. I love that I can share the Christmas Story with my boys a little bit at a time. Its so much more tangible for them at this age.
I also found this fantastic advent book. Designed by Jack & Kathy Stockman of Chicago, IL. This will definitely by considered a family heirloom for us. There are 25 beautifully designed pages, each with its own special door which opens up to reveal another piece of the Christmas Story. Our favorite door is fashioned after one of Frank Lloyd Wright's designs. You can find both the book and information about its design and history here.

Lastly, I don't have a photo of it, but I finally found an Advent wreath to call my own! I've been looking around for several years and never quite found one that "fit." This year I managed to find a simple pewter one with the lyrics of my favorite Christmas hymn inscribed around the band. O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

I am excited about these little additions to our traditions. More importantly, I am over the moon knowing that my boys are growing spiritually. I wonder what other spiritual treasures we will glean throughout the church calender this year.

We will be home within the week. The boys have made great memories with J's parents. Despite having the flu for the first few days of our visit, we really made the most of our time with them. I am still floating on the white fluffy cloud called, "I haven't fixed dinner in a week"... I'll be firmly ensconced there until Saturday. Did I mention that I managed to read six or seven books on my new kindle? Ahhh, joy. I feel rested and ready to return.

I'll be updating as much as I can this year with stories and projects and memories for my boys to look back on one day. Of course, several odes to both bungalow and garden will be included.

Happy New Year to you and yours. God Bless!