Milestones

It's a busy month for us. Sam graduates next week and his family is coming in starting on Sunday. Add that to the school year winding down for Nathaniel and my junior high students and you have one busy family. But, I still thought I needed to jot down some thoughts about what's going on with the family because this is kind of my "my children are growing up and hitting new milestones" journal as well as a way to keep people updated with our lives.

Aaron is growing like a weed. He had his 15 month check up last week and has hit 28 pounds and 31 inches. Luckily his car seat is large enough for him to still face backwards until he hits 34 inches (apparently the new guidelines want kids sitting backwards until they are 2). He got a vaccination at the doctor's office and it was pretty cute. He cried for about 2 seconds and then, as the nurse exited the room he smiled and waved and said, "byeeeee!" in his sweet little voice.

He doesn't say much. He can say "Hi" and "bye" but he doesn't say much else. He signs A LOT but his verbal skills consist mostly of pointing and giving a tribal yell. We're working on getting him to be more verbal. He does shake his head yes and no a lot, so I know he is completely understanding everything we say. He is also really good at following simple instructions, I just think that Nathaniel speaks for him most of the time.

Nathaniel is winding down in school. His one day a week preschool co-op ended a few weeks ago and Cubbies ends next week. I'm not sure when his school year ends since his preschool is more daycare and goes year round. We also haven't decided whether or not to keep him in the program through the summer. It all depends on Sam's job situation.

The other day Sam and I were talking about my job and some of the difficulties I've been facing. Nathaniel was sitting at the table with us and he turned to me and said, "Mom, why is it hard for you?" I was taken aback because this was his first question where he actually showed empathy and interest in someone else. I almost cried, but then I answered his question. He really is an empathetic child, which I love. I love his heart for others and the sensitivity he has towards others. Whenever something sad happens in a movie that he's watching he cries, even if it's the 15th time he's seen it. I hope that he can continue to have empathy towards others. Although, yesterday he was talking about different friends at preschool and he said that he played with "J" this past week. Then he looked at me and whispered, "Mom, I thought that 'J' was a girl because of his curly hair, but he's actually a boy!" I think it was his first encounter where he wasn't sure of someones gender. I thought it was cute.

That's it here. We went camping last weekend with the junior high students and had a blast. Sam graduates next weekend and after everything I will be able to blog a bit more and post pictures.

Quick updates, list style

Well, Sam is finishing up his final semester here in Talbot land. That means a lot of us sitting in the living room on our laptops in the evening rather than watching movies or hanging out. I can't wait for him to be finished!

Here is a recap of some of the stuff I've mentioned in the past few weeks on this blog.

• Nathaniel was continuing to not tell the truth, so last night Sam gave him a teaspoon of vinegar. He cried (Nathaniel, not Sam) and said it tasted yucky. So, we explained that lying was yucky and that he needed to tell the truth and that if he told the truth he would get into less trouble than if he lied. Today was good. He started to lie about a few things (mainly, hitting his brother or flushing the toilet or washing his hands, little stuff like that) but I gave him a look and asked him if he was sure that he wanted to lie and he thought for a second and told the truth. *whew* Hoping that it worked.

• Aaron used the toilet for about three days, and now he'll go to the bathroom to use the toilet, but usually he's just peed. He's more interested in playing than going. But, at least he's connecting it!

• Work is cranking up for me. I've got a camping trip in two weeks (woot!!) and eighth grade promotion is coming up as well. I'm co-teaching a sex respect class at the Academy for 7th graders which is amazingly awesome. It's funny how it's not awkward when you're in the teacher's shoes! It's fun to make the kids squirm. I'm terrible. But, it's going well overall.

• We made it to Disneyland two nights ago. It was great and we managed to ride on 5 rides in two hours. We basically walked on every single ride and, for the first time, Nathaniel did not cry when he got wet. He laughed and said, "Oh man, my pants are wet!!" Silly boy.

• That's about it here. Just finishing up May (even though it just started). We went over budget so I'm trying to be creative with the food we have in the house (we have a lot of frozen meat, but not a lot of other food so I'm figuring out what we do have so I can use it up before going grocery shopping). I figure we can always eat pancakes. We have two kinds of pancake mix so we're good.

Hope people are well. I'm going to bed!

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!

Teaching a three year old.

It's Holy Week and I'm absolutely loving experiencing the different worship services and times of remembrances that have been going on around me. From the various youth groups who got together last night to worship, to tonight's worship service at my own youth group, and looking forward to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I can say that my worship cup is overflowing.

Part of this week has been sitting down with Nathaniel and talking with him about the death and resurrection of Jesus. It's something that is an ongoing conversation in our house as we try to teach Nathaniel the Bible, but this week his memory verse was Luke 24:6 "He is not here, he has risen". So, we sat down this afternoon and talked about Jesus' death and resurrection.

Except, Nathaniel was in a squirmy, goofy mood and I was in a "I only have an hour before I have to head back to work, please for the love of God just sit down and let me do this with you since you have Cubbies tonight and I really want to do other things like play with you" mood.

At one point I found myself feeling the same way I do when my junior high students act up and don't listen to what I'm trying to share with them. Coincidence? I think not :).

Anyways, we were talking about Jesus being the boss of our lives and I asked Nathaniel what happened when we put Jesus in charge of our lives.

He looked at me and said, "I don't know" (since that is his standard answer for most things -sigh-). I said, "Well, when we trust in Jesus, where do we someday get to go?"

He looked at me with a big smile and said, "Disneyland!!"

Yup, we definitely need to keep talking about this.