Wordless Wednesday

Glad Fish, Sad Fish

A few weeks ago, our church opened up a scholastic order available to anyone who wanted any books. If you're familiar with Scholastic books, you know that 95% of them are a steal, some more than 90% off regular retail price. We bought Z some sight reader books since she's already learned how to spell and recognize words like Zoe, Ethan, Mommy, and Daddy. We've only had them a few days, but she has already picked up on several words. She "read" me two books yesterday. I'm not sure whether or not she just has great memorization skills or is picking up on a lot of the words. But she read me this book almost flawlessly...and was SO proud of herself for doing it.

Please excuse the poor "videographer" work...I was trying to position the book for the camera and where she could see it too, all while making sure I could turn the pages for her.

The Sign

No, I'm not talking about the song from Ace of Base. (Those of you from my generation of kids from the 80's know exactly who I'm talking about. You're welcome!) :)

I'm talking about this.



That sign right there sits in the front yard of our house. That's right, folks. We're moving! But before you start wondering where we're going, let me tell you. We're not moving away from Arkadelphia. We're staying right here in town, just relocating.

So, the house was put up on the market yesterday. We went 'house hunting' on Tuesday with my in-laws and found a home...even put an offer on it. But, since we're not relocating to a different city, and definitely don't want to be stuck with two mortgages, we put an offer with a contingency. If you're like me and had no idea what that meant until I dealt with it, it's like this: We put in an offer, but won't buy officially until our home sells. That means that they will continue to show the home. In the event that someone else puts in an offer, they will come to us and give us 48 hours to make good on our contract...basically either pull out or committ to buying.

So please pray for us. This house would be perfect for our family...at least the way we see it. But it sits in sort of a coveted part of Arkadelphia, and will go fast one way or the other. I imagine we'll lose it if our house doesn't sell within a few weeks to a month. But I have faith that something will work out, even if it isn't this home. I just REALLY want this house. :)

These footies are made for walkin'!

No, we're not walking independently yet. Just with the aid of a handy push cart. He's SO proud of himself...thinks he's big stuff now!

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks

I ventured out a few days ago to take both kids to the playground. Zoe loves this particular playground. It's at a church, but this is the ONLY playground out of the ten or so in Arkadelphia that have baby swings. So we started taking her when she was really little. This was Ethan's first experience with it.

He was mesmorized...with rocks. All boy! Towards the end of the summer, Zoe finally started to attempt to climb the stairs to the slide and slide down alone. Boy has she grown up, and gotten a lot of guts. She was climbing on everything there was to climb on...and I must add that she wanted to do everything, "all by myself!". Let me tell you, that girl has an evil stare.

He did love the swings...but most of the time....

While she did this...

He did this.

And while she did this...

He did this.

Cheese!!!!!!

And while she did this....


He did this.

And while he did this (notice more rocks)

She did this. He actually did try to climb on them when he saw her shimmy up the rocks like speedy gonzalez.

It was a never ending cycle. He played with rocks, and raked rocks into his lap, and eventually tried to eat rocks. I'm still waiting on one to pass. :(

Cheetorific!

Flower power

Temps are up, daffodils are in full bloom, and kids are going stir crazy being indoors...that can only mean one thing! Spring in finally here. Not officially of course since the "official" start of spring is still a couple of weeks away. But everything else says that it's arrived.

I took the kids out for a good hour yesterday. It was SO nice. Mid 70's, and even warm enough for shorts! For the last two years, since Zoe was a baby, I've taken pictures with daffodils as my backdrop. They make wonderful pictures that give a "proffesional look". Granted, my camera isn't one of the pricy cameras, so it's as good as the lighting is. And since I have very busy body children, I have to use the quick snap that takes 6 pictures in a three second period, so they're not always as clear as I'd like them. But they work. And I like them!

So in the 30 minutes I spent taking pictures, my daughter managed to dump the remainder of our bubbles, (my distractor toy, mind you) and dump them on top of her head. My son, God bless him, ate two flowers. Not in full...just stuck them in his mouth. My camera thankfully is fast, so I captured the yucky moment and grabbed them out of his mouth. He did, however, managed to actually eat dirt before I could get it out of his mouth. GROSS! He's all boy, let me tell you!

I don't want my children to be happy!

Yep - figured that title would get you here. I discoverd the post that I'm writing (or rather copying and pasting) from this blog and wanted to share it with you. It's all posted below, but I felt the need to credit them since it's not my own words. Though I must say, it's not my own words, but it's everything I desire for my two little precious gifts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recently we were told by people whom we love and respect why they oppose our plans to adopt. One of the reasons given was that we would not be able to pay for your college education.

It's true.

You all have college funds - college funds which recently took a terrible hit - but "they" say that by the time you're 18, college will cost anywhere between $200,000 to half a million dollars each. You might as well know now, we won't be covering that. I'm telling you now, babies.

The people said that the day would come when you would look at us with resentment because you had to apply for school loans while many of your friends got a free ride from their parents.

Maybe you will. Maybe you'll resent us. I really hope not. But maybe I should tell y'all now why your dad and I have decided to do what we are doing.

I know you're going to think I am going off topic (I do that a lot) but several years I saw a story on a TV show about how the latest trend was for parents to give their daughters boob jobs for high school graduation (I don't know what they gave their sons.) When interviewing one of the moms, she said, "I just want my daughter to be happy." And as I tossed a throw pillow at the television, this really huge thought occurred to me: I don't want my children to be happy.

My goal as your mom is not your happiness, sugars. In fact, I spend at least half my day making you unhappy. If I had a nickle for every tear that falls in this home on a daily basis, we wouldn't need to worry about college tuition at all.

Happiness is fleeting, sweet babies. That means it doesn't last. It's a quick feeling that comes from a funny movie or a heart shaped lollipop or a really good birthday present. It's great. I love to be happy. But happiness is a reaction that is based on our surroundings. And our surroundings are so very rarely under our control. Even when - especially when - we think they are. So no, I absolutely don't want you to spend your life chasing something that has so little to do with your own abilities. You'll just be constantly frustrated.

There are two things I desire for you, precious loves. There are two things that I spend most of my time as a mother trying cultivate in you. Happiness ain't one of them. (This means, sorry, no boob jobs for you.)

The first is, I want you to be content. Being content is so much different from being happy. Being content is not based on your surroundings. Being content comes from within. Contentment is a spirit of gratitude. It's the choice you make to either be thankful for the things you do have, or to whine about the things you don't have.

Being content and grateful leads to consistent joy.

As you know, because I've told you lots of times, Paul talked about being content. Paul said that he had "learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." And Paul was in some rotten situations, kiddos, really rotten.

How could Paul be content whether he was in prison or if his life was literally a shipwreck? Because Paul was constantly seeking to be in the will of God instead of his own, was constantly sacrificing his own comfort for the sake of the gospel, and was constantly being confirmed, strengthened, and blessed by God because of his obedience. He was given a supernatural power - that means something kind of like magic, God magic - to do things that most other humans could not do. And guess what? The bible tells us (in Ephesians 1) that God will give you the exact same power! If you want it!

Which leads me to my second desire for y'all.

I don't want you to be happy. I want you to be holy. That means, I want you to seek that God-power to make you content. I want you to want the Kingdom of God more than your own kingdom. And that's hard, babies, that is so hard. And that usually means passing up a lot of what the world considers happiness. But it means that you will achieve blessings directly from God that most of the world never dreams of because they are too occupied with the achieving the perfect birthday present!

This means you may be poor, 'in want' as Paul said, and that's okay. It will never, ever be okay with the world for you to be poor. So you'll be up against the world. But not your dad and me, loves, because it was never our goal for you to be wealthy - at least not in the way that the world considers wealthy.

Darlings, we love you so much. You will never even grasp how much we love you until you have children of your own, and then you'll get it, and then you'll apologize for the ways you treated us ;) But our goal is not to please you. Our goal is to please our Heavenly Father. And nowhere in the bible does the Lord command that we save our money to send our kids to college.

But the Lord does command us to care for the orphan around fifty times. He does tell us to care for the poor around 300 times. He does tell us that when we care for the neediest, we are caring for Jesus Himself. And in chapter six of the book of Matthew, He tells us to seek His kingdom first, and let Him worry about the rest, like college tuition. Because it's all His anyway.

They said that one day y'all would resent us for using 'your' college money to go and get your sister out of an orphanage in Ethiopia and bring her home to you.

But I know my babies. Even at your tender ages, I know your hearts, and I have already seen you weep for the least of these. I know the prayers I offer up to God that He and not the world would shape the desires of your hearts. I am trusting Him to answer those prayers.

So, sugarbears - I just don't believe those people.

Love,
Mommy

Stir Crazy

Need I say that I really hate this time of year? It's torture on a woman who loves to be outdoors and is teased for weeks on end with a touch of warm temperatures only to have old man winter return for another week. Hopefully this time they're here to stay. I even dressed the kids in short sleeves this afternoon because it was just that warm outside. SO NICE!


Unfortunately for my kiddos, they're both sick. They have been for several weeks now. Zoe, on and off for about 4 weeks, Ethan on the other hand has been sick for about 3-4 weeks straight. Neither has been themselves. Both have been cranky. Both have been snotty. Both have been graciously sharing their germs with each other and with us. Both have developed this nasty cough...Ethan's bad enough that I felt necessary to take it to the doctor, for the eleventieth time this year. (Side Note: Aaron, if you're reading this, you're a wonderful guy, but I hope I don't see you again in that capacity until Ethan's 12 month appointment! ;-) He's also been head butting...a lot...and on the hardest surfaces he can find. And he isn't eating well. I wondered if this "cold" had been lingering so long that the little green monster from the mucinex commercials made a permanent home in my son's sinus cavities and had created a sinus infection, thus making some sense of his head butting (making some weird attempt to relieve some head pressure/headache), the fussiness, lack of eating, and coughing. Right after I made the appointment, my teary-eyed daughter came to me and I just so happened to feel her head...her very warm head. She had over 100 degree temp. Wonderful! So guess who else was seen this morning? I hate seeing my babies sick. Breaks my heart.

Diagnosis? Two sets of double ear infections. What? That was a surprise. I knew Ethan had a double because he had his post-op one month checkup and the doc found them. But Zoe? Hmm...that would explain why she's been throwing tantrums left and right and crying at the drop of a hat...and the random fever this morning...and why she's not sleeping well. And both have possible sinus infections. Ethan - most likely a sinus infection. Zoe - possible because of the lingering "junk". Treatment? Two sets of antibiotics. *CROSSING FINGERS* I'm really hoping that this gets my babies back to normal, for them, but for my sake as well. Some of my sanity went down with the water each time one of our toilets flushed. Patience was T.H.I.N. It's been a rough month to say the least. They have had such a tough time staying well, and although they've been out of sorts and just plain grumpy a lot of the time, they're troopers for dealing constantly with this crud. I will be the first to admit I'm probably not too desireable to be around when I have an ongoing ailment like that.

The good news is that now I know how to treat both of them. I hesitated giving them every over the counter thing I have that is safe for them to use because I knew only one would be necessary. So I saved the decongestant stuff for the night time but didn't really use anything during the daytime unless necessary. I gave Ethan some Motrin when I got home, and you know what? No head butts for almost 4 hours. That's a record! I gave Zoe numbing drops in her ears and you know what? She actually slept well at her nap...close to 3 hours as opposed to barely 1.

So back to the original point of the post - spring's timely arrival. Warm weather couldn't have come at a more perfect time...since I was desperately needing to just enjoy the sunshine from a place other than my front window and my kids needed to just get out and have a little space. It got to around 65 today...my idea of a perfect temperature.

Loves going to see the water. In today's case, loved looking at murky water filled with dirt and dead bugs.

Have some! I got it just for you!

Wow...she's goooood lookin'.

Look at my baby stand! Less than a second after, he plopped. Not proficient with the whole standing thing yet. But we're getting there.

Look at my belly!

Spotting Daddy for the first time that day. Priceless!

Little bro, I know you like it down here, but I obviously don't see what you find fascinating about dirt.

Little Priss strutting her stuff.

We went back home a little after 5 and my little guy prepared us dinner. So yummy! :)

How cute is THAT?

And we're up....aaaand we're down.

This was the same night that he, sort of unintentionally, took a step. He stood for about 10 seconds a minute or so before we took this video...but of course we couldn't get him to do it for that long on camera.

And there ya have it. A week and a half's worth of posts. I am now caught up!

Double Digits

Ethan, you my friend have reached double digits. You are now 10 months old. This has been a busy month for you.


*Wear 12 month clothes and size 4 shoes. You are getting skinny and tall, so we're about to move to 12-18 month, I think.


*Still nurse, though I think that you're about ready to call it quits. You just don't want to sit down long enough.


*You have started screaming like a pterodactyl when we try to feed you baby food. You just don't want it. You are very independent and want to feed yourself everything.


*The above statement is a problem for us because you still have NO TEETH. What things do you give to a baby who wants only finger foods but has no teeth? You eat most gummable fruits and veggies, and like hot dogs chopped up into very tiny pieces. You will eat some meats that are very tender, but protein is where our problem is b/c you just can't gum much.

*You pull up on everything and crawl anywhere. You tend to crawl somewhere under something and get stuck because you could barely fit in to begin with.

*You follow your sister everywhere and want to do exactly what she's doing.

*You love to build with your hands. Your favorite toys are Little People and blocks.

*You learned how to wave and clap.

*You have begun to stand on your own. We either will let you go for a brief few seconds or you will let go of something you have pulled up on.

*You took a step without holding onto anything, I think mistakenly, a few days ago. Then you tumbled to the ground.

*You LOVE to hold onto our fingers and walk, or rather about run, around.

*You had your first surgery, and hopefully last. You had tubes put into your ears...and you already have a double ear infection, though they seem to be working well.

*You have been sick with a cold for about a month, so the fact that we have not had any infections up until now is amazing!

*You had your first case of pink eye a few days ago. Your little eye was almost swollen shut. Then you got it in the other eye. Poor guy!

*You have already developed a love for books. Your absolute favorite is "Lullabye, Little One". I could read that 5 times in a row and you'd still want more.

*You have begun head butting when you get mad. You either arch your back if you're mad when I try to pick you up, butt your head on something hard that's in front of you, or my favorite (total sarcasm intended), get on your belly and smash your face over and over into the floor. That one's a doosey. You do that and then start to cry because you're hurt. You CONSTANTLY have bruises on your forehead. People probably think we beat you.

*Have only two months until you are 1 year old! You need to slow down a little bit!

Spring is here. And gone. And here again.

I wish mother nature would decide what temperature to leave our region at. Going from 60's to 30's reeks havoc on my sinuses.


We sneaked out for a little while last week and caught the tail end of one of the 'great days to be outside' before the sun went down. Ethan wanted to just sit in the grass and eat the leaves play in the grass and leaves. He screamed at the top of his lungs if we stopped walking and he wasn't out of his stroller and on the ground in a matter of .267 seconds. Zoe loves just running around. She's of age now where I'm more comfortable giving her a boundary line and letting her go wherever she wants within that. It's not very far, and always within ear and vision range. Let's just say we're testing her obedience skills while outside. She failed. Miserably. But we'll try again soon. hopefully this week when it's back to spring-like temps.


Miss Priss wanted her sunglasses. So I put them on her. And she strutted like she was walking down the red carpet at some awards show. And she discovered that she would get attention from the college students on campus if she would put them up on her head. Then she saw some guys playing football and decided to mock their "hike" position...there is a picture below. You'll know which one it is. *sigh*.

We're already trying to stand.

I get stir crazy about this time of year when the weather seems to be battling against itself about whether to stay cold or warm. Hoping that we've seen the last of our cold days. *crossing fingers*