Say What??! Wednesday

it had been a long couple of nights and a rough morning. alaythia had just laid down for her morning nap. i sat down on the couch and said, 'oh isaiah, mommy's tired.'


'i'm not tired!' he said.
'i know, i'm tired' i said, 'i'm exhausted.'


he said with exuberance, 'he is exalted!!'


yeah, something like that.

pirate peek-a-boo and a belly laugh

i have four words to start off this post: curse of the blogger.

on to other things.

alaythia grace is now 8 months old. some of her favorite things are.....

**she loves to play pirate peek-a-boo. she places one hand over one eye and waits for you to say it. it's a modified version, but a fun one.
**she thinks that her brother hangs the stars. it doesn't matter what she's doing, or who else is around, the second isaiah is near he has her full attention. that leads me to...
**her new laugh. a deep, long, go-'til-you're-out-of-air-and-your-face-turns-red laugh. isaiah, who has been especially hungry for attention of late, LOVES to make his sister laugh, and she's his captive audience. she laughs and claps, egging him on. it's a great combination for now. oh how i wish you could hear her belly laugh. it makes anything right.
**her favorite song seems to be 'joshua fought the battle of jericho.' she gets much more theological songs sung to her, but whenever this is sung, she especially perks up.
**moses. yes, it has passed to the next child. he comes in a close second to isaiah in terms of attention getters. when moses is present alaythia spends her time adoring him. letting him lick her face, lay on her lap...i'm not sure who enjoys it more, her or moses.

two thirds of a year has passed. hard to believe. needless to say she is a blessing and joy.

in this moment

motherhood is a strange thing. you would think it would be pretty straight forward, pretty standard since it is so common. yet, as i continue on in this endeavor, i'm constantly learning and changing. growing and stretching. realizing that it's a complicated thing.

i grew up hearing the praise of my mother. praise of her sacrifice, her care, her time. she stayed home with us all during our growing up years. i heard of the importance and i heard her choices honored time and time again. it never really occurred to me to be anything different than a stay at home mom. it's what i gave lip service to my entire life. to that goal, to that desire. at the time i would not have told you it was lip service. i would have said it was my greatest desire, it was the highest calling. but it wasn't until a few months ago that what i had given lip service to all my life, and what i was doing, penetrated my heart.


two kids rocked me. the transition, the time, the effort. it was consuming all my thoughts, all my time, energy and emotional reserves. the routine, the monotony, mind numbing at times. i began to resent the life i was leading. i wondered how i had gotten here, baffled at what my life was. how was i going to get out? how could i continue on in this?

i was talking with someone about my struggle. the simplest thing was said, something i had heard a million times before. but it came at a different angle, or i was in the right place to allow it to penetrate from what i knew in my head to what i believed in my heart.

'raising kids, giving your life to your kids, is the hardest thing you will ever have to do.'

giving my life to my kids. and that's what it is. it wasn't them taking it from me, i realized i wanted to give it to them. and it will take all my time, all my energy, all my emotions, my spiritual reserve - my whole life - to raise these kids. it's what my entire life should be about (apart from knowing God). i shouldn't have an abundance of time. that's what my life will be, what it is. being given to two other people. and at that moment i knew there was nothing more i wanted to do. to give my life for my kids. to sacrifice and expend all that i have to grow them to be worshippers of God. to help them achieve all that God intended. giving my life for others...what God has called us all to. and i was happy and ready to do it.

the idea is true. the truth resonates within me. but at the same time, how romantic.

the routine comes back. the daily grind. the discipline, the hurt, the exhaustion. and i forget that what i want is to give my life to my kids. i want some time to myself. i'm tired, i'm at my end. i want just a little quiet time. i forget that it's supposed to take all of what i have and then some. i get selfish, irritated, ticked quite frankly. it's a constant struggle to die to myself. and i don't do it well.

so yesterday i was described by someone as 'being the mother of two beautiful children'. instead of being overjoyed in that, i was offended. i thought to myself 'there's so much more to me. is that really all you think of me? there are so many other things that could define me. so many other accomplishments you could list about me. you really don't value all that i am. i don't want to be defined by that!'

i know......prideful. but if i'm honest, that's what i was thinking. i couldn't shake it. kept mulling it over and over today.

then it hit me. it was the highest compliment i could ever be paid. i give my life to those kids. they are what all my time and energy go into. what i give my life to. yes, there are other things i have done, other things i could do, but none more important than them.

suddenly 'being the mother of two beautiful children' was more than i could have asked for. and God has gently pulled me back to himself, back to reality. and for now my struggle seems easy, the road set before me once again clear. i'm thankful for the reality check, knowing i will fall into selfishness again. but in this moment motherhood doesn't seem so strange. it seems like the most natural, God given act that i can be in involved in. and i'm so grateful.

true amazement

so this morning rosemary is sitting on the couch with isaiah and i'm sitting at the table feeding alaythia. rosemary says, 'so, i heard that isaiah can say his abc's backward.' i just look at her and shrug. 'yeah, your mom told me that yesterday morning she was playing with isaiah and he said the abc's backward.'

i hear what she saying, but think that i must have heard her wrong. 'are you talking about isaiah?' i ask. she says yes and then says again that my mom heard it the day before. i still wasn't computing what she was saying. i've never heard isaiah ever say them backward, i've never talked about saying them backward...i couldn't see how that could be isaiah since we've never even talked about it before. i'm his mother, i know just about everything he's exposed to and what he's learning. so for someone else to tell me what he can do and for me to not know about it....well, it's never happened to me before.

in one last final effort i say, 'are you talking about my son?' rosemary says yes and about that time isaiah walks up. rose asks him to say the abc's backward, and just about that time alaythia starts to whine. i could not hear what he said. rose looks at me with her mouth dropped. i'm assuming he did it. i calmed alaythia down and asked isaiah if he would say it for me. no chance.

i asked periodically through out the day if he would say it for me. he never did. i talked to my mom and yes, he had said them right and then went backward. she was apparently just as shocked to hear it. matt had to work all day, so i thought, maybe matt was teaching him and i just didn't know. i'd have to wait until later in the day to find out if it was him. in the mean time, all the adults in the house today were trying to say the alphabet backward. none of us could do it.

we're at dinner, all of us...evan & lyndsey (cousins), jake & rose, matt, my mom and me. jake asks, 'hey isaiah, can you say the alphabet backward?' 'yes.'

and off he goes.

we all sit there stunned. not only is he saying them backward, but he's singing the tones of the song backward as well. i'm not kidding.

when he's done. we all sit there silent and shocked. finally mom breaks the silence, 'isaiah you are such a smart boy!' we all agree. the praise dies down and then jake says, 'what does this mean?!' he's some kind of child prodigy! what does this mean?!'

the thing is, i'm shocked and i'm not usually shocked with isaiah. don't get me wrong, he does a lot of incredible things, but i can see them coming, or i have a hint that they're there. but this was different. completely out of the blue. not expected and totally other than me. he did it on his own. i was truly amazed.

as i'm understanding for the first time what other's have experienced with isaiah he says, 'yeah and i can say the greek alphabet backward too!' we all freeze. literally. wondering if he'll bust that out too. then he says, 'no i can't, i'd have to see them first.'

changes

first off i'd like to give a shout out to sam and lisa for being my faithful commenters. there have been others of you that have ventured in every once in a while, but i always know they are reading my blog and for that i'm thankful.

it amazes me when i'm talking with someone and they say, 'i read your blog all the time.'

1 - i feel totally loved and appreciative that someone would choose to spend their time that way. time is precious, i know, and so it means a great deal to me.
2 - in reality, the only people i really know read my blog are sam and lisa, cause they leave a comment.

there is also some others of you that say you can't figure out how to login and or get an account. so in the spirit of me-wanting-to-know-you're-there, i've made some changes to allow commenting to be easier. please don't feel obligated, this is just a little way for me to make it maybe a little less intimidating....

when you click on the comment, you can then choose to login with an account, 'other' to put your name and website, or 'anonymous'. i would ask that for my sanity if you pick 'anonymous' that you not be so. please type your name in the comment area so i don't spend wakeless hours at night trying to figure out who you are. (and i realize, for some, that was an invitation).

remember, no obligation and thanks for reading -- comment or no comment.

Say What??! Wednesday

as i'm sure every child does, isaiah is currently learning it's not okay to pick your nose. i tell him, and tell him and tell him. it's not worthy of getting disciplined, but i try to stress how gross it is. anyway, one afternoon i looked up at him and saw him in the midst of the act. i gave him 'the look' to which he quickly responded with....... 'mommy, my nose is TELLING me to pick it!'

nice try dude.

an ancient calling to the new 25th

it's amazing, it seems to get earlier and earlier each year. christmas in the stores has arrived. about a month ago my mom and i were walking through costco, and they had christmas stuff out....playing music. everyone we were running into was talking about it, complaining under their breath. we were ticked at first. irritated to be hearing that in september. but i'll admit, as time went on, we kinda got in the mood. hear the music, see the stuff, they know what they're doing....'i must buy.' 'wouldn't it be nice to be done early with shopping this year' we think to ourselves. we barely get out without buying something.

later that day we were recounting the event to the guys (my dad and matt). my dad mentions that at church we are going to do advent conspiracy again.....i cringe. see, last year rick, our pastor, presented to us the notion that christmas is about more than consumerism. and he challenged us...spend less, give relationally, make a difference in the world. it was simple enough. choose to make your own gifts to give to others. or give them the gift of relationship (ie: invite them over for dinner, or give them a coupon to go do something together) and the money that we didn't spend would be gathered in an offering and then distributed locally and globally. after all, christmas is about Emmanuel, God with us, the ultimate relational gift.

so why the cringe? it was fine for me last year. matt and i didn't exchange gifts and we gave what we would have spent on each other in the offering. but when my dad brought it up this year i immediately thought of isaiah. the memories of christmas morning are some of the best. the anticipation, the gifts. and this will be his first christmas where he really gets it. so i said what i was thinking out loud. 'i'm not doing it this year.' they all stared at me. 'i just want isaiah to have the experience of christmas morning. it's not fair to him. i know it sounds bad to say, but i'm sorry, i just don't want to do it.' and that was the end of the conversation.

so a couple weeks later in church rick brings up advent conspiracy. last year there was 4 other churches that partnered with imago. together we brought in a half a million dollars. some of the things the money went toward was providing meals and supplies for kids in the portland school system. globally it was about building wells. giving people clean water to drink. this year there is over 1000 churches partnering together in advent conspiracy to make a difference in the world this christmas.

they then showed a video of just one of the wells that was built. people who live around a dump. they scavenge the dump everyday for things to eat and things to sell. it is their life. and the water they drink...well, you get the point. they took 9 families from the dump, took them out rurally and are teaching them how to farm, how to make and sell things. and we dug a well for them. the contrast of garbage and clean water. the look of hopelessness and the look of people thriving. the entire time my own words are echoing in my ears...'i just want isaiah to have the experience of christmas morning. it's not fair to him.'

it's not fair for my son not to get an enormous amount of toys? when these kids, isaiah's age, don't even have water? sick. really, really, sick.

needless to say, i'm all in this year. and i'm stoked. relational gifts...i've already started. cause let's face it, if you start 'making' your gift two days before christmas they're gonna suck. (in the words of my pastor). and isaiah will get presents this year, just not a disgusting amount....and he'll get to be a part of something great. he'll learn that christmas is more than presents and what he'll get. it's about putting Christ at the center. showing Christ tangibly to the world.

i used to get so irritated that all the stores now say 'happy holidays' instead of 'merry christmas'. it's about Christ. how dare they. until it was brought to my attention that it's not their story to tell. it's mine. and i want to do things differently.

p.s. if you want to join advent conspiracy or just find out more about it (put more eloquently than i ever will) you can check it out at www.adventconspiracy.com.

an army crawl to bed

isaiah slept in our room until he was 10 months old. well, we were living in a 1 bedroom condo and we converted our walk in closet into a room for him. but he slept about 6 feet from me, so he was in our room. alaythia is currently in our room. but i think that time is coming to an end.

take last night for instance. we've been running a floor fan for white noise to help her sleep. this has worked fabulously during the summer nights but as the nights have gotten colder we have stopped because it just makes the room much too cold.

the floor in our bedroom creaks. every step we take produces these deep pops. so last night, with no fan running we attempted to walk in. i was in before matt, and like usual, every step i took made the noise. i finally reached my side of the bed (closest to the crib) and looked to see where matt was. he was close behind but had grabbed another blanket to throw on her. just as we were about to make the pass off she popped her head up and started looking around. matt and i hit the deck as fast we could. we had to be sure to lay lower than the crib, so our faces and bodies were smashed to the ground. how did i know matt had done the same thing? i could see him through the rocker. we're rolling our eyes and giving darting glances through the slats. we lay still for a few seconds, but i didn't want to look up to see if she went back down because if by some chance she didn't, i'd be face to face with her.

after a few seconds of silence i dare...matt has moved back and can see her and me from his vantage point. i look to him and he mouths, 'get down! get down!' i quickly duck back down.

as i'm laying there with my face planted on the ground i'm writing this blog in my head (i know, i know)....and thinking, this is it, she's gotta start sharing a room with isaiah.

picture update

if you would like to see pictures of our recent trip to the pumpkin patch you can click here.

if you want to see SOME of the pictures from the boy's dream weekend you can click here.

have fun!

a boy's dream....(day 2)

at one point polly said, 'if we didn't have pictures of all this, people wouldn't believe us' and i think she is absolutely right. it's to much to type out line by line, but maybe bulleted, what we did.

• while playing playdoh we lost power. uncle jake came home and started a fire in the wood stove. if you've never been warmed by a wood stove....you get warmed to the bone.
• went down to main camp. uncle jake met us there where isaiah and justin got to raid the camp store. sharks, lollipops and some paraphernalia.
• played hard all morning in the afternoon with tents, t.p.'s and tunnels.
• decided to go on another exploration. walked up the logging road and watched numerous dump trucks dump loads of rocks to build a road. then watched the bulldozer flatten each load. on one side we saw the road being built on the other side of us were all the logging machines moving logs and debris.
• walked down to the lake where we threw rocks, sticks and waded as far as we could without the water covering the boots.
• matt brought a fishing pole and the boys got to try to fish. on justin's second cast he caught his first fish. matt cast but justin reeled it in himself. i think i took 27 pictures. it was pretty fun!
• then we walked up to the shop where isaiah and justin drove the backhoe with uncle jake. picking up trees and moving debris. matt then got in a drove the backhoe...a daddy's dream come true.
• as if that wasn't enough after dinner we headed to the next door neighbors where he had converted his attic into a train station. the most elaborate train set i have ever seen. steam, electric, big, small.... there was even a whistle that they boys got to pull to make a train whistle each time an engine started up.

i'm not sure who was more wiped out, the adults or the boys. it's safe to say that uncle jake and the other's at tadmor went above and beyond to give us a great week. we kept asking justin and isaiah what their favorite thing was and they kept listing each thing. how could you pick just one thing?

a boys dream...(day 1)

...is being at tadmor. we're here with our good friends, polly and justin. they came up from southern california to visit. justin is 4...and we figured, what better place to let two boys visit than at tadmor. we're finding out that God and the men that live at tadmor love to make little boys dreams come true.

our only expectations were to get to fish at the lake and to possibly drive the backhoe with uncle jake. the forecast is rain, rain and more rain. but yesterday turned out to be no rain, and our experiences more than we expected. today is shaping up to be the same.

we started the day yesterday with an exploration. the boys were layered and you really couldn't see much of their skin. as we set off the only rule for the exploration was --if you see a mud puddle you MUST stomp in it. you should have seen their faces. looking at polly and i to see if we were serious. we were.

it took us 20 minutes to go 100 feet. it had rained all night and there were puddles galore. the rain boots worked for awhile, but soon they were splashing higher and in deeper than their little boots. soaking wet they continued to run and re-run through the puddles.

our exploration took us through the forest on a hike, to volleyball basketball courts, to the lake with sticks and rocks, to a huge T.P. set up for outdoor school that's here this week. by the end of the exploration both boys were asking to be carried, exhausted from adventure.

we came back to a warm house, warmed our bodies, rested our bodies and played with trains. uncle jake came to pick us up mid afternoon for the second half of our day. he had the flatbed dump truck. the boys had to help load the wood onto the truck. then, they got to ride between the cab of the truck and the flatbed. apparently it's made for people to ride there. when you're only experience of being in a moving vehicle is being in a five point harness car seat....well, you can imagine.

our destination was the burn pile. on our way there we saw a man who lives and works at tadmor. he asked what we were doing and i thought we might get in trouble for "playing" with tadmor's equipment. instead he stopped us to ask us if we wanted the chainsaw.....i'm serious. 'the boys would love to watch the chainsaw.' i sat amazed that he was so eager to give the boys a great experience. he then went on to say that he was going to have the backhoe fixed for us in the morning. he wanted to make sure that the boys got to drive it. a stranger, wanting isaiah and justin's little boy dreams to come true.

we drove to the burn pile and the boys got to operate the dump truck and dump our load of wood. we then headed up to the wood pile where uncle jake and matt cut wood for the boys. they learned how to tell how old trees are and each got a round sliver of wood to take home.

at the edge of tadmor's property they are clear cutting the forest. regardless of how you feel about that, it was an AMAZING thing to behold. the mud was 3 inches deep as we all trekked up the road. as we got there a huge semi came in behind us. they were unloading a dangle head. what's a dangle head? good question. we had to ask the logger what it was and what it did. but i tell you it was the gnarliest thing i've ever seen. it shaves, measures length, diameter and then cuts the logs. it can then record it into the computer. only a $500K machine. we watched it get unloaded from the semi, watched a bulldozer pull the semi out of the mud and in the distance could see an excavator stacking logs. i'm not sure who was more impressed, the boys or the adults.

a fantastic day. today has hopes of driving the backhoe, a huge train collection with remote control trains and fishing... i'll let you know. (and when i get home i can upload some of the pictures of our time)

Say What?! Wednesday

isaiah got some new pj's last week from costco. they're green stripe, and they have, what looks like to me, a dinosaur on the front. so one morning last week isaiah and our good friend bev were talking and playing playdoh. isaiah said, 'look bev! look at my pj's!' she said, 'yes, those are nice isaiah, and they have a rhinoceros on them!' isaiah said very seriously and matter-of-factly, 'ACTUALLY bev.....it's a dinosaur.'

sometimes....

my brother adam left for africa on saturday. he and emily, and their two foster kids (doug & haylee) stayed at the house before he flew out. em and the kids decided to stay the weekend. we had a great time. i'm not sure all i can say about doug and haylee, but for now just know, adam and em are giving them a life they never dreamed they would have.

haylee, bless her little heart, is the sweetest, toughest little 5 year old you'll ever meet. everything about her seems to endear her to you. but perhaps one of the sweetest things about her is her grammar. for example, emily tells a story of when they went to a football game and haylee, referring to the cheerleaders, kept saying, 'her has glitter on her face, her has glitter on her face.' i experienced it myself this weekend.

haylee came down stairs after her shower on saturday night and she was in her pj's hair wet. i asked her if she wanted me to braid her hair while it was wet and then when she woke up in the morning it would be crimpy for church. she wasn't sure what to think of it, but with a little coaxing we convinced her. it takes a while to give a 5 year old two french braids...it's hard to sit still. so as i'm braiding i'm trying to distract her.

'haylee, do you like to have your hair done?' i ask. and in her sweet little voice she says, 'sometimes me does.....sometimes me doesn't.'

the many faces of alaythia

rays of sunshine

the weather is crappy. we had no in-between weather. we went from sunny to straight rain. we're all sick with colds. we're not sleeping at night. things really are not looking up. i'm on the brink of going down and i might soon topple over. but i'm clawing, trying to stay upright. so in an effort to support that notion, i'm going to focus on the good things that have brightened my life the last few days.

*the sun is rising later and setting earlier. two mornings ago, during snuggle time, we got to watch the sunrise. it was a harvest sun, the sky was painted red. isaiah sat up in bed and said, 'the sky! it's red mommy!'

*going to costco and having both kids ride in the front of the cart. they thought it was very fun to be next to each other and i liked looking at both their faces right in front of me. (it was the first time they had been that way).

*alaythia..oh there's so much to love! she likes to fake cough (maybe cause she hears all the rest of us doing it). it's this light, feminine cough like, 'oh, poor me, i'm sick too'. it's so stinkin' cute. or when i blow on her food she cups her lips the same way and blows too. i love that she can't get enough kisses. she'll let you kiss her for hours...and i do. her clapping. now when there is excitement surrounding her or if she hears music swell, she'll start clapping. half the time it's hand to wrist, but that makes it all the more adorable.

*family movie night. we all hunkered in on the couch last night and watched part of charlotte's web.

*lighting autumn candles.

*isaiah has become quite proficient at making coffee. he now can scoop the beans, place the lid on the grinder and grind just the right amount of time. he makes a great cup of coffee, and he made some for me this morning.

Say What??! Wednesday

the sun came out for a brief second today so isaiah and i headed outside for him to ride his trike. he was doing such a good job riding around the court and back. i decided to run in the house and get the video camera. i came back and he started riding. i said, 'wait for me to start the camera!' he said, 'okay mom, fire it up!'

curse of the blogger

i don't know if this already exists, if so, i'm giving it validity. if not, i'm creating it.

the curse of the blogger.

whatever thing i seem to blog about, something goes wrong shortly after.

like my kids 'love' for each other. seems we've entered the jealous world. hitting, hurting and fighting.....no more long gazes of love. that is a blogging thing of the past.

or my mature love for matt. not too shortly after that we got into a huge work-it-through obstacle. (i'm afraid to type 'fight', but that's what it was). it took us days to work through it.

or the most recent....snuggling. the last two days have been WAY TO EARLY. this morning's snuggle beginning with a slap in the face (literally).

maybe it's all in my mind...but lest you think my life is full of love and snuggles remember -- the curse of the blogger.

new blogger

just wanted to let you know about a new blog that i'm super excited about..... the Aalseth's (matt's sister and her family). it's on my blog roll, but if you want to check it out click here.

i'm super proud of my nephew. my favorite nephew i might add. and there's lots to see of him there.

an unexpected blessing

there is nothing really great about matt's job at wells fargo. sure, it's flexible and works around teaching, but calling people who are late on their credit card payments.....not to fun. but some good has come out of it. a new routine for our family.

i'm assuming that the 'norm' is that most dad's are home when their kids wake up. especially because most kids get up so early. but matt is up and out the door by 5:20 -- four out of seven mornings. and thank the Lord my kids don't get up that early. they've adjusted to waking up without dad, we all have. and it's been a big adjustment.

i'm not a morning person. never have been. ask my family -- growing up they called me grouch. i just HATE mornings. so this has a big adjustment for me, having the kids on my own -- in the morning. so in order to cope with my morning alone, i started snuggling (ie: trying to get a few more minutes of sleep.) i was being selfish in this new endeavor, but something really special has come out of it.

snuggle time has become the routine. the kids climb in bed every morning now, like it's been going on forever. it's been especially fun of recent because it's cold outside and they are wearing their yummy fuzzy pj's. alaythia still has that sleepy smell on her, the sweet and sour all at once. she's rested, happy, and a wiggleworm. where i move, she moves, snuggled in. when isaiah wakes up he bursts in the door. he has 4 animals and his blanket in hand, and climbs up and under the covers. his hair is long and crazy, his droopy eyes are soft and tender. we're all blurry eyed and trying to wake up. some of us wake up faster than others... :)

i remember when i was young waiting to hear the shower go on in the morning. that meant dad was up and there was room in mom and dad's bed. i don't know if it ever was, but i felt like it was a race every morning to see who could get in bed first. i love those memories.

when we got a king size bed when we got married, my mom said it was a great family bed. lots of room for kids. i'm just beginning to understand what she meant.

i know that matt misses the snuggle time in the morning, and the other 3 mornings of the week you can bet he looks forward, to not only sleeping in, but getting to snuggle with the kids.

what is it about having all that you hold so dear in a small space? something comforting and fulfilling. on those mornings when there are 4 godshall's in the bed, all seems right with the world.

this can't wait

this morning grandpa walked in from a trip. he had left yesterday morning and was stopping in today to change his clothes and continue on his way to work. he walked in the door, said hello and isaiah quickly said, 'did you get any salt?'

'salt?' grandpa asked bewildered.
'salt' isaiah said matter-of-factly.

grandpa looked to me for help - i was just as clueless. after a moment he figured it out.

as grandpa was walking out the door yesterday, the last thing he said to isaiah was, 'well, i'm off to the salt mines.'

is it a sign?

it seemed to matt and i that isaiah was done with naps. he was having a hard time falling asleep in the afternoon, and crying a lot at night. he's a great sleeper -- he'll go 2 and half, 3 hours for a nap during the day. if i can time it right, and get both kids down at the same time, i'm made in the shade. i wasn't complaining. but after about 3 nights of having a hard time going to bed, and with much saddness, we thought we'd give up the naps.

monday was hard. he was cranky and whiney and i was seriously doubting our decision. then i remembered back to when he was about 15 months old and the transition from 2 naps to 1. i remember friends telling me that he would be cranky for about a week and then he'd figure it out and be fine. i remembered giving it a try and sure enough he had figured it out in about a week. so on tuesday, with renewed resolve, we skipped the nap again.

now, i'm used to having some quiet time in the middle of the day...that is precious time for a mother of two. so today, day three of no naptime, i started to get a bit cranky and whiney. 'i want my naptime. i miss my naptime' i whined to matt (who is home studying today). as soon as alaythia went to sleep i decided to institute quiet time for isaiah.

'you play quietly in the playroom while mommy does other things. i'm not going to play with you, this is your time to be quiet, do whatever you want to do, but you have to do it alone.' i knew it was going to take some explaining and figuring out. the first several calls for me i was understanding, patient. but time 4 and 5 i was starting to get a tad frustrated.

'is it time to get up mommy?' no answer because i'm upstairs and shouting a response will wake alaythia. 'is it time to get up mommy? is it time to get up mommy?' no joke, it's a broken record. matt decides to step in and tells him that we'll tell him when he can be done playing. and if he can be quiet he'll get to watch a movie, the ultimate reward.

two minutes go by, 'is it time to get up daddy? is it time to get up daddy? is it time to get up daddy.' i walk down stairs and explain one more time.

2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes.... no isaiah calling. i walk downstairs and this is what i find:

Say What??! Wednesday

last week, as we were driving to home community, matt and i were in a heated discussion. (it will have to be a different post on whether we should be 'heatedly discussing' in front of the kids. we grew up differently in this area, so we're still workin' it through.) anyway, as soon as there was a break in the discussion isaiah interjected with, 'that's okay, i forgive you both!'

even as heated as we were, we couldn't help but smile...and inwardly thank isaiah for his wisdom in the matter.

ride, sally ride

isaiah doesn't give many kisses freely. you have to ask for them and even then it's hit and miss. depends on his mood. but tonight, i unexpectedly got one.

i had bath duty tonight. isaiah was wet and i 'wrapped him up like a burrito' (as we like to say with a mexican accent). i had a sudden burst of energy and started whipping him around my body. up and over, side to side. i was singing that song that dan zanes sings on playhouse disney:

'down in the valley two by two -- two by two -- two by two.
down in the valley two by two, and then you ride, sally ride'.

as i sang 'ride sally, ride' i would do the flipping. he thought it was hilarious. if i even thought about putting him down he would say, 'let's ride again mommy.' so i would start it up again.

as i was holding him in front of me in between rounds, wrapped up like a burrito, he unexpectedly froze, looked in my eyes and gave me a kiss. 'let's ride again mommy.'

i tried not to act surprised. i tried to act like it was no big deal. but my heart lept.

i guess i should throw him around more often.

two-fer tuesday

i could just feel it last night as i got ready for bed. i knew i wasn't going to sleep.

and i was right.

after coaxing and comforting for most of the night last night and day today -- alaythia's second tooth finally broke through this evening! mommy is thrilled!

that means sleep for us both tonight.

the Jesus way, the Jesus truth, the Jesus Life

this is why i love imago dei community.

if you have time i believe listening to what rick said yesterday would be well worth your time.

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