BAD Habits and other WONDERFUL Adventures!

Well, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks. All of my children have brought their own individual adventures to us. I’ve been thinking about my past a lot lately and if someone would have came up to me 10 years ago and told me these are the issues my kids would be dealing with at this season of life I probably would have laughed in their face. I will expound by starting with my oldest son Isaac.

Oh my dear son Isaac. *sigh* Isaac for some reason has been chewing on all his clothes. Yes, CHEWING! He has been wrecking the collars and some sleeves of some of his shirts. He totally ruined the zipper of his nice winter coat as well of countless other t-shirts. We have been nagging him constantly to quit doing it. So one day I came up with the idea to put something that would taste gross on his shirt to help cure this addiction he faces. We decided we’d try vinegar. Well, my husband was getting Isaac ready for school in the morning and decided to DOUSE his shirt in vinegar. I was not there to witness this on this particular morning. Isaac didn’t realize vinegar was so stinky and said, “Oh what’s that smell…Oh Daddy, I smell something.” Chris’ response was, “It’s your upper lip.” LOL! Then he explained to him that he put vinegar on his shirt to help him quit chewing on it. Isaac did wonderfully that day and didn’t chew on his clothes. Imagine that. Well, the next day I was actually there when I saw him apply the vinegar. I thought he just dabbed his finger in the vinegar and kind of rubbed it on his collar. Nope. Not my husband. Chris said he didn’t want to “touch” the stuff. (Hold on I’m rolling my eyes) He POURED IT ON!  So poor Isaac had this shirt that was drenched, several inches past his collar, with stinky smelly vinegar. I didn’t like that he put so much on and so we got a different shirt that morning and I used a dropper to apply the vinegar to just the collar.

After Isaac left for school I emailed his teacher to apologize for the raunchy smell that was lingering with my son and probably smelling up her whole classroom and explained the situation. It wasn’t until about 2:00 that afternoon that I got a response and this is what it said,

“That is SO funny!  I have been sniffing around the room (next to him) wondering what is smelling like vinegar in our classroom!!!!   Oh I am going to be laughing over this for a LONG time!”

We laughed for quite awhile about that one. We decided after 2 days of vinegar that that probably wasn’t the best solution and ended it. Isaac hasn’t chewed on his shirt but maybe one time since. HOPEFULLY, he’ll continue to remember. But again, 10 years ago this would be the last thing on my mind I thought I would have to deal with as a parent. Oh but that’s not all. We have another child with bad habits.

Grace. Yes, our sweet little princess. She LOVES to constantly bite her nails (and pick her nose but we’ll deal with that later). Her nails are so chewed off that she can sometimes cause bleeding!! So we found this stuff you can put on your nails that tastes really nasty. And I mean REALLY NASTY. I applied this very liberally to Grace’s fingernails the other night. I told her I do it with her and put it on my nails too. That was a wrong decision. I barely got a taste of that stuff from eating something and licked my finger and I about puked. It was HORRIBLE. Well, apparently the next morning Grace was picking the stuff off or something. Luke was by her and she claims he put one of her picked off fingernails in his mouth. EWWWWW!!!! All I remember is being out of it on the couch from being up all night with Jonathan and couldn’t hardly function. I opened my eyes to see Luke coming towards me PUKING!! AHHH!!! Really? Again, not something I thought I’d be dealing with before I was married and had kids.

And then there’s Luke. Well, Luke gets his own blogging entries quite often so I really don’t need to say much. The things that I used to write about him getting into seem to be a daily occurrence now. It’s nothing new and special for him to dump an entire box of cereal out, or get into just about anything he wants now. It almost seems futile now for me to even stop him. To say he keeps me busy would be quite the understatement I think.

And lastly, is Jonathan. Yes, even my dear little one who will be 5 weeks old tomorrow has caused some interesting adventures. Adventures full of him screaming and sleepless nights. I won’t bore you with a ton of detail but I thought he had severe tummy aches. Ones to the point of screaming so badly that you would have thought I was cutting off his finger. But then I realized it had to be something more because he wasn’t able to eat for more than 10 seconds without pulling away screaming (nursing or bottle). The light finally went on in my head that he probably had acid reflux. Sure enough, within a day of being on Zantac he was a completely different kid! Finally he was sleeping through the night again like a baby his age should be. My mom came and spent the night a couple of nights throughout this because I just couldn’t go another night of having NO SLEEP! I have to say one thing I’ve learned in all this is that SLEEP MAKES A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE! I’m amazed at how much sleep can make my whole outlook on life so different. Without sleep, I didn’t know how I was going to face the day and tears lingered. (You could have told me your cat died and I probably would have started bawling) With it, I thought I could conquer anything. I’m so thankful for those nights when she came. It was truly amazing. I never realized how valuable sleep was to my perspective and am definitely going to make more of an effort in the future to make sure I get my rest when I actually have that luxury.

So, these are the adventures I’ve had this past week with my children. I’m so glad things seem to be going uphill now. Especially with Jonathan…things seemed to be getting worse there for awhile with him and his screaming bouts. As I mentioned, 10 years ago I woulnd't have pictured adventures like this. But, I am thankful for adventures because without them I wouldn't have something to laugh at later on. :-) So what’s the moral of my adventures? I don’t know…maybe if you’re  going to have kids someday just be ready for ANYTHING because you never know what life will bring you…but when it does…be ready to LAUGH! J

Adjusting

I’ve been wanting to blog for awhile to answer most of your questions and give you an idea of how our life has been over the past two weeks. Problem is, I’m having trouble deciding what to share and not share, as well as finding the time to do this. For example, in these past two sentences that I’ve typed I’ve had to deal with Luke 3 times!!! So, my writing is pretty touch and go. (Sorry for the randomness.)

Basically in a nutshell, our life is pretty chaotic right now to be quite real and honest. The kids are doing wonderfully with Jonathan. I am so so thankful for that. I’ll start with Luke. My biggest fear was that Luke would be mean to Jonathan and that I wouldn’t be able to set Jonathan down for fear of Luke messing with him. But really, Luke has been so great! In fact, sometimes when I’m nursing Jonathan, Luke will come sit by us, start to suck his thumb, and then take his other hand and pet Jonathan’s head real sweet and gentle the whole time. This is definitely a different change for me considering when I brought Grace home from the hospital, Isaac took one look at her and spit his crackers all over her. There wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t mean to her. So for now, it is very refreshing to see a 22 month old be so sweet and gentle to the “bay-biEEE.” Luke’s downfall is how he gets into EVERYTHING! I thought he perhaps kicked it up a notch once this baby was born…but I’m realizing he’s just the same. I just can’t stop him like I used to because of my hands being full with the baby and his needs. However, he did learn to climb the gates and has learned to dump anything out that will help him “reach” his goal. Literally. He will dump a trash can over, empty a laundry basket, find a stool, or any other toy that can act as a stool for him just to get to what he wants that’s “high up.”

I almost stopped this happening today by mere seconds!

A brand new box of Kix cereal dumped out!

It was extremely challenging my fist week home because Luke wasn’t feeling well. He was so overtired and wanted to cuddle the whole time. Which I totally wanted to do but just wasn’t able to as much as we both wanted. One day I had Luke in one arm, Jonathan in the other, and Grace decided to take cereal in the living room and pour it in a bowl ON THE COUCH!  (What’s up with my kids and cereal??) I started freaking out on her because she never had permission to have cereal, AND she was trying to pour it in the living room ON THE COUCH! At that moment I looked up to see my friend who had just showed up to our house for her lunch break. I said exhausted, “Hi…I’m maxed out.” She laughed and said, “I can tell.”

Grace has loved having the new baby home. She has started playing with her dolls a lot more now. All her doll and girl stuff is in Jonathan’s room (since someday it will be her room) so many times when I come to lay Jonathan down I see stuff like this by his crib:

Don't ask me why the crutches are there?!?!

All her dolls are lined up along the wall.

She has also been feeding her babies differently now too.

She loves to hold baby Jonathan and asks to hold him all the time. She has been quite the helper and has learned how to pull Luke down from things to help Mommy out. Only once has curiosity gotten the best of her. She cut Luke's HAIR!! Here's a chunk she managed to free from his head with the scissors I asked her to put away:

Isaac loves holding the new baby too. He has really been a big helper too. The other day when Chris and I were feeling pretty stressed out, he went upstairs to make all the beds for us. It was so sweet.  He also put all the library books by the bed for Daddy. Daddy always gets upset because he has to hunt down the library books at bed time every night. Isaac says to Chris, “Yeah Daddy, I even put the library books by the bed so you wouldn’t have to HUNT THEM DOWN.” Now when he said, “HUNT THEM DOWN,” he did AIR QUOTES AROUND THOSE WORDS AND EMPHASIZED THEM!!! Chris died laughing. What Kindergartner knows how to use air quotes correctly? (It’s just not as funny trying to type it here though as telling it)

And now for my husband. Well, he’s pretty behind in school. The week of the baby being born really put him back. To say he’s maxed out would probably be an understatement. He feels bad because he wants to help me out but he really can’t because of school. And I feel bad because I wish I could help him out more but I can’t either.  We both pretty much feel like we are pretty maxed out. But he will be done for the summer here in May and that will be so refreshing. He amazes me with his commitment to getting up at 4:30 in the morning to do homework and spend time in the word before he goes to work. He also stays up pretty late too. So between his lack of sleep and mine we are both pretty tired. But God’s grace is here for us for such a time as this. Someday we’ll look back on this intense season and laugh more about it than we are now…I’m sure of it.

This spring weather has been such a blessing as well. Isaac and Grace have been playing outside from the moment Isaac gets home from school until supper time. It’s been so wonderful! How can spring not be any mom’s favorite season??? Seeing Luke jump on the trampoline cracks us up so much too. He’s so little and he has no fear. He just flops around on it like it’s nothing. The trampoline has been a Godsend for sure!

Oh and I almost forgot…JONATHAN! Ha! He’s adjusting perfectly to our family. His head has only been stepped on one time by Luke!! Woohoo! LOL! Seriously though… he’s doing great. He had an appointment last Friday and was already at 7 lbs 11 oz. He’s gained pretty much an entire pound before he was three weeks old! He doesn’t feel quite so little any more L  He’s absolutely perfect and we are so thankful for our little blessing. (He’s definitely spoiled too!) Luke is the only one in the family allowed to call him anything other than Jonathan since he can’t pronounce his name yet. It’s so cute when he says it…. “Shawn-knee” He also pronounces the word “pappy” incorrectly. (We call the pacifier a “pappy” thanks to Victoria Robertson when she lived with us when Isaac was born) Anyways, he calls it a “Happy.” So anytime Jonathan is crying he says, “Haa-peee” and tries to shove it in his poor little mouth.

Well, that’s pretty much it in a nutshell. We are all loving our little addition and I especially am so thankful to not be pregnant anymore!!!! I forgot how nice and easy life’s tasks are when you don’t have the huge belly in front of you...like giving massages! God is so faithful and we are so thankful for his grace and provision. Thank you as well to those of you who brought us meals!! What a blessing! We are so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people. MY CUP OVERFLOWS!!!

My little manipulative preacher

The other day Grandma Deb took the two older kids out to her house for the morning to play and hang out with them and make a snowman. Now because of grandma's job she works with many international people and has many knic-knack's from all over the world that she has received from them as gifts. The kids LOVE looking at all Grandma's cool stuff and always ask her if they can have one of her neat things. And of course the answer is always 'no.' Well, here is the rest of their conversation Isaac had with Grandma that morning:

ISAAC: Grandma...are you ever going to let us have any of this?
GRANDMA: Yeah...someday
ISAAC: Well when?
GRANDMA: When you're 17.

Apparently that must have sufficed him because he was quiet for awhile. Grandma thought, 'boy he has no clue how old 17 is.' Then Isaac comes back a few minutes later and says to Grandma:
ISAAC: Grandma....you know what the bible says?
GRANDMA: What?
ISAAC: It's better to give than to receive.

If this was my son's first sermon I guess he's got a ways to go!