It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Nathan's Big Boy Bed!

Nathaniel's big boy bed came in today! It was quite exciting to enter a new stage of parenting. It is a very nice bed from Living Spaces, it comes with underneath drawers and should last him until he is 18 and we kick him out. Best of all, we found the coolest bed set at Ross.

The return of Blankie!

The new Blankie arrived today, just in time for nap. Nathaniel was pretty happy about it, and it's interesting to see how his vocabulary has improved in only a month. He now calls it "Blank" instead of 'bee bee'. Awww...

Sam told Nathaniel that we got Blankie cleaned really well which was why it was gone for so long. I honestly don't think Nathaniel cares either way why he was "Blankie" less for so long.

We went out and got Nathaniel's big boy bed today. It will be delivered on Saturday morning, which means that tomorrow we have to completely rearrange the bedroom. We have to do some creative storing for awhile because we will keep the crib up until Nathaniel is through with the transition. I hope he transitions well, we got him a captain's bed and it is kind of high...At least he isn't a violent sleeper.

Not too much else to report. I'm super excited about my summer class starting next week. I got my syllabus today and we get to talk about some super interesting topics. The class is called 'Church and Society' which is actually an ethics class. We are going to talk about things like abortion, genetics studies, euthanasia, poverty, etc. I'm really excited. Unfortunately, I have homework to do next week in prep for the class. *sigh*.

OH!! and we had a real thunder storm tonight! I can count on one hand the number of thunderstorms we have had out here since we moved. It was wonderful. It felt like a real spring evening. Yay!

Why I do what I do.

If you click on the title of this post you will see one of the many reasons I am involved in youth ministry.

I love these guys! For all of the times I come home frustrated with ministry, I have 10 times when I come home energized and excited. I love teaching these kids (young adults, really) about Jesus and I love watching them actually "get" it.

I also love playing Kijabe Can Can and having the bragging rights of winning, but then having to admit that yes, I beat an 8th grader...woot!

And for those of you who do not know what Kijabe Can Can is...well...just go to you tube and type in Kijabe Can Can. You can get the jist of the idea. It's great fun.

I have been very blessed by the girls in my small group. It's a nice ego boost when we ask them to give concrete examples of when they have felt loved and they mention church and small group leaders (and me!) as times they have felt loved. It also made me feel good when I asked my students who loved them unconditionally and one of them threw her arms around me and said, "Carrie!". I'm glad they notice how much I care.

On the home front, things are good. Sam took Nathaniel to Disneyland yesterday for Daddy time while I went to school and work. I was sad that I couldn't go, but it's good for Sam and the boy to have some male time together.

Not too much else going on. Just working on church stuff, gearing up for Dodgeapalooza (the annual dodge ball tourney), studying for teaching and dreading class starting up in a week. Sigh. Short lived summer break for me.

More about smell.

This time, I'm actually posting about smell, as in odor. Lately, when Nathaniel wakes up from his nap he reeks. I kid you not! My sweet little boy smells like a foot after his nap. I know that it's because he sweats like crazy when he sleeps (even in his air conditioned room, he sweats like he just ran a mile). Tonight as I was getting ready to lay him down in his bed I could almost see the stink cloud rising up from his sheets (mind you, I wash his crib sheet at least once a week). I realized what it smelled like: Sour Milk. We don't let Nathaniel eat or drink anything in his crib, so I was a little perplexed. Why does my kid's bed stink so badly?! Why is my kid the smelly kid?

Well, it all boils down to diet. Attending a school with a high concentration of Korean students I have found myself having this conversation many times with many different ethnicities. We basically all smell like the major food group we eat. Koreans eat a food called Kim Chi (think spicy sauerkraut) and therefore, when placed in a warm room with a lot of Koreans there is the definite odor of garlic-y kim chi. My Korean classmates are also quick to point out that Americans smell like sour milk. Of course, I'm American, I've grown up around Americans and therefore, I never noticed. Until tonight. My kid (who I swear gets bathed daily, sometimes even twice!) smells like sour milk.

Joy. I am going to strip his bedding tomorrow and cut back on the dairy products!

On another note. Due to my role in ministry and my gender I have had some interesting interactions and comments made in my direction as of late. So, at the prompting of Danny and Pastor Mike, I have begun reading a book called, Men and Women in the Church. It is very well written and has hit me right in the intellectual stomach. I will eventually write a post about my thoughts and share some things the book has to say. I am hoping that since the author is a prof at Azusa Pacific (about 30 miles up the road) I will be able to nail her down and pick her brain. That would be awesome.

Spell vs. Smell

Being the parent of a toddler has taught me how difficult the English language is to master. Not only does one have to catch all of the nuances of the language, but it's easy to see (hear) how miscommunication can happen.

Nathaniel has the book 'Pat the Bunny' (which I thought for the longest time was the name of the bunny. It isn't, it is a command. Gosh, that is another example of how difficult learning English is!) and in part of it is the whole, "Paul can smell the flowers, now you smell the flowers" with the page of scented flowers. Nathaniel leans over and proceeds to blow his nose on the page (because he doesn't understand the difference yet, he just sees how mommy smells things and mimics the sound).

Well, Nathaniel also has this little old travel boggle game which is really just flashcards in a scrolling thing with pictures and words. He loves to scroll through the pictures and point out what things are, "Feet!", "Baby", etc. This morning he was looking at it and started pointing to the letters and saying them or sounding them out (YAY!!!). So, I sat down with him and we were looking at the pictures and I would ask him to point out the letters. One time I asked him, "Can you spell that?" and he leaned over and smelled the picture.

I need to enunciate I guess.

I also notice that he confuses H and N; I and T; and sometimes B and E.

It's interesting how we see the world through our kids' eyes and begin to understand how frustrating and confusing life can be.

But, I am excited that Nathaniel sat down in front of the word FEET and said, "Fffff...Eee...Eee...Tee!" Sure, it was a combination of sounding out and spelling, but reading starts somewhere, right?

Mother's Day slide show.

Our Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. I got to sleep in (wahoo!!!) until 8am where I was gently awoken by Sam coming into the bedroom with a hot mug of coffee for me. He was going to serve me breakfast in bed, but I thought it would be a little too cliche and I wanted to eat in the kitchen with Sam and Nathaniel (and avoid little one jumping onto the bed and spilling syrup on my sheets). Sam not only made me pancakes, but he made me banana pancakes! My favorite!
After church and nap we went to Disneyland. When we got there I said, "Hey, let's see if Nathaniel is tall enough to ride the Matterhorn yet!" I didn't think he would be, but he was tall enough, so I won the 'Mother of the Year' award by taking my 22 month old on a roller coaster ride.

Here is the after picture. He doesn't look too scared or scarred. In fact, we went on the Go Gadget roller coaster right after this and he loved it!

I will post another post with a slide show, because I'm trying to insert pictures, but it's being dumb (or, I'm dumb...hmmm...).

Life is good here. Sam is nearly done with the semester, I'm basically done (except for going to class and prepping Hebrew before class) and it's been nice to go to the park more often. My major project (aside from reading for pleasure) has been to really clean the apartment. I have been picking something to clean every day. I am pleased to announce my living room is clean completely. I even cleaned out the desk! Woot! I also dusted the tip tops of the book shelves! As soon as Sam is finished with his final paper, he's going to be handed a dust rag and a mop and he will get to join the fun.

Nathaniel is awesome. He is starting to put words together. His favorite one is pointing to a picture of the family and saying, "daddy and mommy and daddy and mommy and daddy..." It's pretty cute.

The bodily functions have calmed down as well. We are finishing up the antibiotics and the poops are solid once more. Life is good. Tomorrow we will go to Disneyland and enjoy our free time because summer school starts in two weeks. Ugh.