Hannah and the Dentist

Well, I mentioned that Hannah was ordered to stop nursing by the Dentist. Normally I would have told the Dentist where to stick his 2 cents with such a comment, but this time, he was right. She has cavities from nursing at night. A chipped tooth, that is part due to a fall and part due to brittle teeth.
I found a new dentist, because even though I knew the first one was right, I didn't like it there.
This new dentist is very nice. He was able to explain everything that was wrong with her teeth and everything that he would need to do to fix it.
Dentist #1 wanted to do the procedure at the hospital. Because of her age they wanted to put her under to make the whole thing run smoothly. I didn't like the sound of that but they gave me no other option.
Dentist #2 prefers to do it in his office. He personally doesn't like the side effects of putting such a little one under. He has two little girls of his own. They are the same age as my boys. Something about that is comforting. So we agreed to doing the whole thing there in his office - with Novocaine.

I am a nervous wreck. He said we are welcome to be back there the whole time, but he recommends that we wait in the waiting room. It's sometimes harder on all to have the parents back there. At first I agreed. I thought it would just be too hard on Hannah seeing me there not doing anything to help her. I've been thinking about it A LOT and think that she would be so much more panicked if I leave the room. I never leave her. She doesn't like it. I don't do it. Having the first time be with a Dentist, probably not the best idea.


The whole thing should only take 20ish minutes. Please, if you think about us pray for Hannah. Wednesday at 11:40 is her appointment.

When we eventually have more children they are going straight to the cup. Womb ---> cup. I sigh the slightest little sigh of relief just thinking about it.

Parenting With A Twist

I've decided to write a book. I think I'll call it "Raising Godly children: with duct tape and a sharpie"

or something like that.

Here's a preview of some topics that will be covered in the book.

Chapter One: The Sharpie, every mother should have one.
We were with some friends, having a good time. Joseph was attempting to give me a puppy kiss. (aka, lick my arm) I had no desire to be licked. I asked him not to. He wasn't listening. So, I threatened. "If you lick me I'm going to give you a mustache" He ran away. I was pleased.
A mother was sitting next to me whose children are younger than mine. Her jaw was kinda on the floor. "A mustache?" she said. "Yes" I replied. "It works. If he isn't listening I threaten to draw a mustache on his face with a sharpie (permanent marker) while he's sleeping" Her expression slowly softened as she realized my genius mothering skills. "I'll have to remember that" she said.

Oh, I have more where that came from my friend. I have more.

Chapter 2: God used nails, I use duct tape
Hannah has taken quite the liking to undressing lately. Down to the bare bottom. She can take everything off. By herself. Though I am strongly FOR her using the potty, I am strongly AGAINST poop on my living room carpet. After a few long weeks of tackling the girl every ten minutes to re-diaper we decided that duct tape, it's our friend. Really. It fixes everything. I am pleased to announce that she does not know how to take the duct tape off. My floor has not been peed on all day.

Chapter 3: A healthy fear of the public school system
Homeschooling. That will surely have a chapter in my book. When Joseph doesn't want to pay attention. When he wants to crawl under the table and play with the fallen cereal from breakfast instead of doing phonics drills I say "do you want to go to public school?" It's sure to get a quick response. I suddenly have an obedient eager to learn student on my hands.


Oh, but don't let all of that fool you. We are a God loving family. We pray together. We sing "Bible" songs. We even act out various Bible stories. David and Goliath is a favorite.
(I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that someone gets hit in the head and falls to his death.)

Ah yes, my book would be sure to stand out on the bookshelf. My parenting style is, well, unique. My children seem to be happy, healthy, and thriving. Joseph has asked Jesus to be in his life, and speaks to Him regularly. So even in my "unique-ness" there must be something that we are doing right.

And if you want the book, I'll let you know when I find a publisher. ;)

Too Much Information

Ok, blogging break. I know. I just took one. Another is needed.

I have a UTI and today, after 31(ish) months of not having my period.... I have my period. The combo is not fun.

I'm calling a time out.

Family Night ~ week 2

Week 2 of our themed family night was "tree's". Joseph decided on the theme. I didn't quite know what to do with it but we had a few themed things for our evening.

Dinner was broccoli casserole. (broccoli. trees. get it?) :) Um, no the kids did not eat it. They had chicken nuggets and corn. They thought the idea of our dinner looking like trees was neat though.
After dinner while I finished preparing dessert the kids colored a picture of a tree. I was surprised at how excited they all were to color. They did some of their best work.

For dessert we had trees! Well, ok it was brownies with ice cream but while using your imagination you can picture this being a tree, right?
Then we painted trees using our hands. This was messy. I'm so glad Roger was actually home for a painting project.

We had to use the side of our hand to make the tree trunk.
Then we used our finger tips to make the leaves and apples.

Ta-da!

After we were all cleaned up we went to Lowe's and checked out some wood. :) Ok, so it really wasn't for family night but we had some things we needed to do. Wood comes from tree's, right?

First day of SCHOOL!

Well we did it. We survived the first day of school! I'm sure if I was actually dropping Joseph off at an actual school building I would have cried my eyes out. Since we were only at the dining room table, I did ok. :)

Joseph was SO excited to start school he could barely stand it. Before breakfast he was asking if we could start school.

Let's eat and get dressed first please.
Mommy needs some caffeine.

We finally were all dressed. He didn't really see why Hannah and Nehemiah had to be ready for the day. It wasn't like they were doing school work.

We started our day with the Bible. He has a memory verse for every week. And this week he is learning the first 5 books of the Bible. His favorite is "Dude!eronomy" :) The rest he still stumbles over... but he likes that Deuteronomy one. :)
(updated to add. Day 2: He now knows his memory verse (Genesis1:1) and the first 5 books of the Bible. Deuteronomy is still his favorite part though)

Then we did some math. I say some.... I read the lesson plan wrong. We did 3 days worth of math.

oops.

A tiny bit of phonics and our school day was over. Next week we will add some more subjects to the mix, but week one we are taking it slow.

I wasn't sure if Joseph was enjoying school by the end of our "day". I dared to ask, totally expecting him to say that he doesn't want to do school tomorrow. He surprised me and nodded his head with a big ol' grin "Yes Mommy! I loved it!" (whew! that was a close one.)

Maybe tomorrow I will know what I'm doing and I won't make the poor kid do more than 1 day of work.

I wouldn't count on it.

To make up for torturing him with Math we had a special first day of school snack after lunch. It's all good.

Though you can't tell from this picture, Joseph does in fact have eyes.

Hannah likes to play with the dry erase markers for her school time.

Oh, It. Is. ALL. Good. :)


When do you start school?

Family Night

We have family night every Wednesday night.

And honestly it was dull.

We wanted to do something special but what do you do with a 1, 3, and 5 year old? Interests and abilities are different, Candy Land is out. One likes to play with the little gingerbread men and another likes to throw the cards all over the floor while shouting "weee!" So, family nights were usually only detectable by a sometimes special dessert. oooh.

THEN! 2 weeks ago (with a little help from Whittaker Woman) we began themed family nights. It was beyond fun!!! I had only thought up our theme a few hours before Roger was due to come home from work, so we had to work fast.

Our theme was "Under the Sea"
On the menu:
octopus hot dogs
blue mac n' cheese (to look like water)
goldfish crackers

You'll notice the mac n' cheese turned green. I didn't take into consideration that adding yellow cheese to blue noodles would turn everything green. oops. And the eyes? It's not a dying octopus, it was just having some eye issues. ;)

for dessert: sand cake

Doesn't it look like a pail of sand? A little bit? Well, the kids thought so anyway! :)

Then after dinner we learned a bit about sharks, and played a game similar to hide and seek. Each team got a noise maker (we used water bottles with a few dry noodles in the bottom). One team counted while the other found the perfect hiding spot. Then the counters shook their noise maker. The hiders shook theirs back. You had to listen carefully and follow the sound. It was a lot of fun. The kids were giggling like crazy. (no pictures, we were having too much fun)

We ended our evening with some water balloon fun.

Joseph asks every day if it's family night.
I think it was a hit. :)

Nehemiah's Native Tongue

I'm beginning to wonder if God is preparing Nehemiah to be a missionary in a far off land. He's preparing him early with the gift of speaking in tongues.

If only I could get a translator.

Only My Nehemiah

First off, let me clarify, we were not on vacation. I was taking a break from blogging and using the amazing amount of free time to pray. It was a good week of talking to and hearing from God. Just what we needed.


Now... for a little story....

Nehemiah was eating a snack. I think they are called yo-go's. I don't know, it's not something I normally buy. They are little fruit snack balls covered in yogurt. I think.

Anyway, he was eating them in the living room. I was in the kitchen. He came walking in saying "my finger. my finger!" I looked at his finger, knowing full well that he calls any and every body part his finger, I did a quick check of his body to make sure he didn't get hurt.

nothing.

So I sent him back into the living room. Minutes later he comes back.

I figured out what the "my finger" thing was all about. Looking at his face there was pink and purple yogurt
dripping
from his nose!

The kid shoved yo-go's up his nose! I SOOO don't get the obsession he has with his nostrils.
Luckily they melted and all is well in the nostril area. Much better than the candy wrapper incident.


Oh, so much more to blog about... but that is all for now. Didn't you miss me? :)

Another Day Another Petting Zoo

Around here summertime means petting zoo's.  There is a traveling zoo that makes stops at various stores in the area.  The kids love it and it's mostly free.  I did shell out some big bucks for Joseph to ride a camel.  But really, how many opportunities does one get to ride a camel?!  Other than the 10 stops the zoo will make this summer that is.   :)

This was what Joseph liked best, riding the animals. He started with the pony. His had a mind of it's own. It was walking sideways. Joseph thankfully thought it was funny. We went back the 2nd day (when we were leaving on day 1 someone handed us some free tickets!) and his pony, um, did his business during the ride. So everyone had to stop while someone cleaned it up. Thankfully he thought this was funny too. I'm pretty sure my sister still has some issues to walk through from a pony ride at a neighbors birthday party when she was a little girl. 

I was able to convince him to ride the camel.  He was glad I did!  He LOVED it.  The man that was leading the camel stopped half way around the circle and was talking to Joseph.  I could see Joseph smiling and nodding his head.  When the ride was over I asked him what the man was telling him.  He said "He was telling me the camel's name and how old he is and what kind of things he likes to eat"  oh cool!  What is his name?  "I don't know"  How much does he weigh? "I don't know 50 pounds I think"  ooooook.  HE was paying attention! :)

Hannah didn't enjoy the zoo.  She didn't want to feed the animals and she surely did NOT want to ride a pony.  So she stayed put in the stroller and watched the boys.  Worked for me.

This was Nehemiah's favorite part. He would have fed those animals all day long. He fed goats and llamas and some other creatures that I'm not sure the name of. He even tried to climb in the pen with the goats. I love how happy it makes him to be with animals.

and that concludes this week's petting zoo experience. Stay tuned, there will be more. Next month it comes back to a store even closer to our house.



By the way.....
I'm taking a break from blogging. I'll be gone for a week. So enjoy these camel riding, animal feeding pictures. It will have to hold you over till next week. :)
Ok, ok... I'll leave you with one last picture. It has nothing to do with the zoo, it's just a cute one.

Strawberry Picking

We decided to go strawberry picking last weekend. I had never done it before and thought it sounded like fun. It didn't hurt that there was free ice cream involved at the strawberry farm.

It was an ok time. If we go again it will be at a different farm. This place was full of weeds and was really hard to walk through. The berries were overpicked. They were itty bitty and not so flavorful.







But the ice cream with the fresh strawberry syrup on top was delicious! :)


Oh! They also had a "playground" It was a ship. My kids wanted nothing to do with picking strawberries. They wanted to tun across the road and play on this thing. It is pretty cool.


I was hoping to have enough to make some jam... no such luck. Looking forward to blueberry season though.

Have you ever been strawberry picking?

Girlie Girl

Hannah has learned how to undress herself.

Oh, the joy.

I was making dinner this evening when a naked little Hannah came running into the kitchen.
"Hey dude!" she shouted.
Then she took on the stance that Joseph does when he's modeling a new outfit. (feet far apart, mere inches away from doing a split, hands on hips)
"I'm bad to the bone"

Ahh, thats my sweet girl.

Let's Talk Quilts

I've been looking online trying to find the perfect quilt for Hannah's new bed. I fell in love with one from Pottery Barn Kids. It's sold out. It's never coming back. Ebayers that own said quilt are loving it. I am not. I admit, the thought did cross my mind to pay twice what the thing is worth just to get the perfect quilt, but then I realized... THATS JUST DUMB. So I'm back to hunting.


But, all this quilt stuff got me to thinking...
Roger's Grandma made him a quilt when he was born. It's not finished yet (she's off the hook since she passed away years and years ago. Roger's Dad was supposed to finish it. Not sure what his excuse is.) :)
So the last time we were at the in-laws they brought it out to show. I think it's the prettier of the 3 (Roger's brother and sister also got one. But I don't have pictures of those)




This is just the top. It needs to actually be quilted. Roger's other Grandma has offered to quilt it when she has the time. So hopefully that will be before another 28 years pass by. :)

The colors could kinda maybe work for Hannah's room. The look isn't quite what I was going for though. And well, it's not done. Someday we'll enjoy it.

For now... if you have any great links to send my way for the perfect girls quilt, I'm all ears (or eyes)

A Boo Update :)

Well, it's official. Hannah no longer nurses. It's been over 1 week now and she is doing great! Roger is still staying in her room with her. Part of the reason for that is because we moved her into a regular bed when she stopped nursing. So he's making sure she's adjusting to that and sleeping well through the night before we just let her in there all alone. I think a few more days and she'll be good. (or is it me that needs a few more days? either way, it will be a few more days!) :) She asks for "boo" sometimes but when I say no she just asks for a hug instead. And she is sleeping so much better at night. I had actually been wanting to assign Roger to her at night for awhile but never did. Now we had a reason to, and WOW, so glad we did.

It's been a long day

Here's a little story, it's sad but true.
Ok, probably only sad to me. You? You will laugh.

After a semi-short trip to the outlet mall the kids and I were done and were ready to head home.

I got to the car. Loaded up the kids.

Looked for keys to toss onto front seat.

Panic

Dig

dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig

They were gone (the keys, not the kids) :)

Loaded kids back into stroller and ran back to all the stores I just shopped at. Only this time. They were all closed.

I had to knock on all of the doors. "Hi I'm a pathetic mother. I have my children out past their bedtime. By the way have you seen my keys?"

Store 1: no I vacuumed and I didn't see any keys
Store 2: your CAR keys? (um, duh!) No, didn't find any
Store 3: nope. (shouts back to other workers) no but if you don't find them come back and you can look around
Store 4: no
Store 5: (wow! I didn't realize I went into so many stinking stores!)
We're closed (um, yes I gathered that by the dimmed lights and the locked door thank you very much!) did you look in your bag? (can I beat you with it please?)
Someone was actually helpful here though. They looked around but didn't find them. Then she took my name and number in case they turn up later.

Hanging my head in shame I called Roger.
Um, honey? You might need to come and get me. I um, kinda can't find my keys.

I decided to dig through the car one last time before making Roger drive the whole way out there to pick us up. I loaded up the kids. Put away the stroller.

THE STROLLER. It goes in THE TRUNK.

People. My keys were in THE TRUNK.

I RAN to 5 stores, eating humble pie at every one... and my keys were in the trunk the entire time.

I called Roger. He laughed.

I reminded him of the time he ran out of gas.


The End

The Good And The Bad

The Good

We have certain things we pray for each day before dinner. Today was church. We generally pray for the kids Sunday School teachers and the Pastors... tonight we asked the kids "who wants to pray?" Nehemiah spoke up.
Me: Ok great Nehemiah! Do you want to pray for your Sunday School teacher?
Nehemiah: No
Me: Do you want to pray for VBS? (it starts next week, though he is still too young to go)
Nehemiah: No
I was starting to think he didn't really know what he had excitedly said yes to
Me: Do you want to pray for Pastor Lester?
Nehemiah: Yes!
Me: Ok! Great idea! You go ahead and pray.
Nehemiah: (hand up to mouth with a hearty little Ahem) *string of non-understandable words* "Amen!" :)
He was so proud of himself. And honestly, even though all I understood was the "ahem" and "amen" I was a little moved by his prayer.


The Bad

The other day I told Joseph to go brush his teeth because he had bad breath. He did. When he came back down he was showing me his pearly whites. I was telling him that he did a good job brushing. He looked at me and says "Whew! Your breath smells like a**"
oh yes he did. (let me clarify 2 things here (1) I in fact had minty fresh breath (2) we do not talk like that around here!)
I picked my jaw up off of the floor and aked him to repeat what he just said. Surely I misunderstood my precious little child. Um, no that was exactly what he said.
Not sure what to do I told him "That's not a nice thing to say. I don't want you to say that anymore"
I couldn't let it go though I HAD TO KNOW "Where did you hear that?" He laughed "From Ice Age" So my mind is racing through the movie trying to figure out exactly where someone is given an a** breath compliment. Roger came down the stairs laughing. He heard our conversation and figured it out. He explained (to both of us) that Ice Age did not use those words. What the movie said was "your breath smells like ANTS" An animal was talking to an anteater! I was so glad that Roger was able to clear that up. I was not looking forward to breaking out the mouth washing soap.

24+ hours

Hannah has made it a full day and then some without nursing!! We went cold turkey. I figured the "you can nurse now but not later" thing might be more confusing and harder for her (us) to follow through with. So on Friday morning we ended our nursing sessions. We bought her a big girl bed. Played up the whole big girl thing. And I assigned Roger to be her best friend through the night. You know what? She slept until 6:00am. You know what? I slept until 6:00am! It was a lovely night. I'm praying that tonight will go just as well. We had a busy day so she is good and tired. I'm really proud of her. She has asked to have "boo" a few times but doesn't throw a fit like she has in the past when I tried to cut her loose. Instead she just asks for a hug. Ok, once she bit me, but I'm letting that one slide. She knows this Mama isn't afraid to bite back. My girl is growing up. :)

Unimportant Things x 6

Mary has tagged me for a meme of "Unimportant things".
I must admit I am a little excited. I think this is my first official "tag". Thanks Mary. I feel like an official part of Blogworld now. :)

So here are the rules:

1. Link back to the person that tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your entry.

• I love Diet Pepsi. Diet coke will do if I'm eating, but if I'm just thirsty Coke will make me gag. mmmmm Diet Pepsi.
• I have a jewelry box full of pretty items that I never wear. When Roger proposed he did so with a gold ring. My jewelry had all been silver. I'm not a fan of wearing gold and silver at the same time. I'm a bit in love with my engagement ring (and more so with the man who gave it to me) so I think I just need to buy some new jewelry. :)
• I have short teeth. There I said it.
  
• Until I was pregnant with Hannah I wasn't a fan of the color pink. Something about having a girl brought out the girl in me. :)
  
• Since I got my hair cut I have used hairspray, a blow dryer, and/or a curling iron every single day. (Sylvia are you proud? Seriously when I hear my curling iron clank I think of you, standing at the dresser in YWAM curling your bangs) :)
• I bite my nails. I try so hard not to. At times my nails have been very long and I'll give myself a nice manicure. Then stress hits and BAM nails are gone. (bonus info: Nehemiah bites his fingernails AND his toenails)

Ok, well I don't really know who to tag. I don't like rejection so how about this... if you are reading this and want to play along, go ahead! Just leave me a comment and let me know. I'd love to hear some unimportant things about you all. :)

No more boo

Ok, so Hannah HAS TO stop nursing. Dr's orders. I'll go into that in another post. This one I just need help. I think I may have mentioned before that the boys both weaned themselves at 8 & 9 months. So I'm new to this weaning thing. Especially with a 20 month old. I can't replace nursing time with a bottle. So wise mothers HELP. We are especially desperate for night time advice. Yes, my 20 month old still wakes up at night wanting to nurse. If you heard her lungs... wow. She can scream loud enough to wake the dead. Which may come in handy when she is on a mission trip but here, I'm not loving it.

WOW!

Ok, just yesterday I was thinking "When was the last time I bought a new cd?" The answer? Pretty sure it was the eve of my wedding (to get that last minute song for the walk down the aisle). Yeah. I've been married nearly 7 years now.
So when I heard about this giveaway I was ALL for it. I could actually be singing along with something other than Jesus Freak. (which is a great cd, but it's a little old)

Go check out what you could win.
I am SO ready for some new tunes.

Some Nehemiah cuteness

Nehemiah calls eggs chickens. You need to know that in order to think this next part is funny. You also need to know that he calls every part of his body his ear. He does know that there is more to his body than just an ear but that seems to be his favorite part.

So..

He fell and hit his head on the heater the other night. He was crying and rubbing his head. Roger felt the back of his head and said to me "He has an egg" (meaning a lump - get the ice) Nehemiah then started to say "My ear! I have a chicken!" :) Oh child. You are too funny.