Dealing with the truth

It has happened.

I'm not sure if it's a new developmental milestone or what, but Nathaniel told his first lie last week and has continued to lie almost every day since then.

The first time he did it he had dumped out the blocks that we were picking up. Sam came in and said, "Nathaniel, why did you dump the blocks out?" and Nathaniel said, "Mommy did it." So, into time out he went with an explanation that we do not tell lies. I was hoping that we would nip it in the bud and just move on. But...no.

I have heard that we need to not give him the opportunity to lie. Like, if we catch him doing something wrong (or we know he did something wrong) ask him why he did something, not if he did something. But, even doing that he has just been lying straight out.

I've thought about using soap in his mouth to teach him that it's wrong, but I don't want to put chemicals in his mouth. I've thought about pepper, but some kids really like the taste. I may try vinegar. If he were older, I would make him write sentences, but he can't even write his name yet so...*sigh* Does anyone have any ideas?

We keep telling him that he needs to tell the truth and that if he tells the truth he will still have to face the consequences, but if he lies it will be worse (and he's seen that first hand).

On another note: Aaron has been using the potty. It's crazy because he is only 14.5 months old, but sure enough, he's going. When I notice the "potty" look on his face we go into the bathroom and sit him on his little potty chair. He has pooped his last three poops in the toilet (not in his diaper). I'm hoping that by starting now he will train earlier. As long as it's fun for him (and it is so fun because Nathaniel does the crazy "hooray for you!" potty dance for him) we might as well work on it!

That's it here. Oh, and Nathaniel is reading like a pro. He usually only needs to see a word once or twice before he "has it" in his mind. He easily reads words like, "look, see, go, mother, father, Sally, Jane, Dick, up, car, work, play, down, pop, hop" The other day he was actually reading with slight inflection in his voice because he knew all of the words by sight and didn't have to struggle with them.

Crazy!

More Adventures in the Pacific Northwest

Last week our family packed up and headed out for another adventure.  This time it was a family trip up to Portland and Seattle to visit the various friends and family who have settled in that area.  Last year I took a trip up there with Nathaniel and a very tiny Aaron and decided that it was definitely a trip to take with the hubby as well. 

He was happy to take part in the trip this time around.

We flew in Monday evening and stayed in Portland until Friday morning, then drove up to Seattle to visit my brother and another friend.  On Sunday morning we headed out of Seattle area (Silverdale) back down to Portland to catch our flight.  It was a whirlwind visit, but it was awesome!

Tuesday we spent with our friends the Weavers just hanging out.  Jen is on bed rest for the final weeks of her pregnancy so we just hung out with her and let our kids play together. 

They live in family housing at Multnomah Bible College and the community has an open courtyard where all of the kids run around and play together.  That is what our kids did while we just sat and visited.  VERY relaxing and fun (although I didn’t take any pictures of that day).

On Wednesday we headed up to Multnomah Falls with my friend Marcie (whom we stayed with while we were in Portland).  She has a daughter who is two months older than Aaron so it was fun to hang out and let the kiddos play near each other.  The hike up the falls was nice (although it was slow going with a 3 year old who was distracted by every single stick and rock along the way). 

The falls are beautiful!  I enjoyed every minute of our hike and sight seeing there.  Here are a few pics.

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On Thursday we used our Santa Ana Zoo passes to get into the Portland Zoo for free (woo!).  We took Nathaniel’s friend, Zeke, with us and enjoyed the beautiful day walking around with our friends.  It’s always nice to watch Nathaniel play with good friends, and it seems like Zeke and Nathaniel are cut from the same fabric because they get each other.  They have similar senses of humor and both know when to leave the other one alone so they can have “me” time.  Needless to say, we were worn out by the end of that day.

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Friday we managed to take almost five hours to get up to Bellevue (which is right next to Seattle) to visit our friends Ben and Jen and their new baby, Alex.  Traffic was terrible when we hit the city.  Combine that with a couple of potty breaks and it makes for a long day.  It was great to see our friends though.  They showed us a beautiful garden/park right next to their apartment complex.  Then, we ate a quick dinner and headed over to the ferry to get to my brother’s house.  I wish we had more time to visit with Ben and Jen, but we needed to get our kids into bed.

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Finally, we hung out with my brother and his family all day Saturday.  Friday night was a rough night for the boys.  For some reason, Aaron was crying most of the night.  He was so tired but would cry, fall asleep mid-cry, and then jerk himself awake and continue crying.  Somewhere around 4am I heard Nathaniel start crying saying, “I puked!  I puked!”  So, I ran to where he was sleeping and, sure enough, he had puked.  I hustled him into the bathroom and started the clean up process when he started crying again, “I pooped!”  Yup.  Total poop as well (thank goodness I had put him in a Pull Up before bed since he still occasionally has accidents at night and I didn’t want to have him pee someone else’s bed).  So, between the hours of 4 and 7 Sam and I were up with a puking kid and a crying baby.  Luckily, everyone settled down around 7 and we were able to sleep until 10am. 

Needless to say, we didn’t go anywhere on Saturday.  We hung out in our jammies and did laundry while Nathaniel’s digestive track settled down (he was sick all morning).  Sam and James took Aaron on a quick trip to the store and he managed to completely fill his pants (and socks, and shoes and shirt and car seat…) with poop as well.  Ugh.  But, it was all cleaned up and we had two very tired and “empty” boys by the end of the day.

What was great was watching Nathaniel play with his cousin Bryan all day long.  Bryan is 5 and they are finally at the age where they will play with each other (and not fight).  All day long I heard laughs and giggles as they played games together. 

That night they all had a “camp out” in my niece, Brianna’s room where my sister in law told stories with shadow puppets.  All night I kept hearing Bryan say, “I don’t want them to go home!”  I agree, we didn’t want to leave either.  I totally miss having family near by and wish my kids could know their cousins well as they grow up.

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Overall, it was a great trip.  We got home yesterday evening and this week we have to hit the ground running, but it was worth it.

Not much to report...

It's been kind of quiet here lately. Sam finished up midterms, I started out a new gig as a secret shopper (woo hoo! Free trips to local amusement venues plus a little bit of extra money for filling out a couple hours of paperwork afterwards) and the kiddos have been keeping us entertained.

Sam and I were reminiscing about when Nathaniel was Aaron's age and he would walk around saying, "gilly-gilly-gilly". It was so cute and we were sad that Aaron's choice phrase was, "dubba-dubba-dubba". Well, a couple of days ago Aaron realized that his tongue makes noise too and so he's been running around saying, "gilly-gilly-gilly". We are happy.

Sam also noticed yesterday that the boys are getting big. It took him by surprise that they are such "kids" now. It was a little sad for him (and nice for me to feel like someone else is seeing what I'm seeing).

I think for me it's this weird feeling because while they love me, they absolutely adore each other. They look at each other across the table and start laughing hysterically. I don't know what is so funny, but they do. It makes bedtime a little long because they keep laughing at each other instead of sleeping. *sigh*

Finally, I leave you with a video. I posted this on facebook yesterday, but I have to put the story behind it.

We went to Disneyland late one night as a family to enjoy our passes before spring break blackout set in. We went on the merry-go-round and Nathaniel wanted to sit on a bench so Sam and Aaron sat on a fish. I told Sam to take a picture of Aaron and so he got the camera ready to take a picture. But, it was set on video, and as he was trying to take the picture Aaron fell off of the fish. He didn't hit the ground, but my heart stopped because he slipped sideways (the seat belt caught him and Sam wasn't far behind). Yesterday when I was loading the pictures on the computer I found the video and didn't know what it was. I feel like a bad mom because I laughed so hard when I saw it (probably because I knew that he was okay). So, here it is!

It's hard to correct your child when all you can do is laugh until you cry.

Nathaniel's most recent favorite movie is 'The Sandlot'. For those of you who don't know, it's a PG movie about young boys playing baseball all summer. It's definitely a great "coming of age" movie. In fact, Nathaniel has totally gotten interested in baseball because of this movie and last week we spent every afternoon outside playing catch and hitting the ball around.

But, if you have ever seen the movie you would know that there is the occasional curse word, and there's the whole "let's ogle the lifeguard" scene (which I used as a teaching moment of how we do not treat girls that way and definitely right now we don't kiss girls). Sam and I had a talk earlier this week about the movie and realized that although Nathaniel hadn't repeated some of the words yet, there was always the possibility that he would, and the last thing we needed was the pastor's kid calling another kid a butt sniffer at preschool.

Tonight we had dinner with our friends and we were all hanging out in the living room. I had one of Aaron's old baby toys out for our friends' baby to play with and Nathaniel walked past me, around the toy and said quietly, "Oh sh*t".

I looked up quickly and said, "What did you say, Nathaniel?" He calmly looked at me and said, "Oh sh*t". I darted into the kitchen and about died! This was exactly what we were afraid was going to happen!

Once I actually composed myself and could speak without laughing, I got Nathaniel and said, "Hey, I know you heard that on the movie, but it actually isn't a very nice thing to say so don't say it again, okay?"

We'll see. I hope my kid isn't blacklisted at preschool!