Cousin

Conversations with 4 year olds are funny, entertaining, tender, and well, sometimes mentally exhausting. Av always keeps me on my toes with the comments she makes and questions she asks.

This weekend we had some issues with her arguing with me and talking back. We had a discussion about her behavior and attitude. After our discussion she had to sit in the dining by herself. When she was allowed back into the kitchen she informed me that I "hurt her feelings and broke her heart." Drama. She then let me know that the next time I argue with or talk back to her, she will put me in the dining room. This brought on a conversation that we have had over and over and over and over .....again. I am the mom, J is the dad, she is child and that God tells children to obey their parents.

I think she pondered all of this for a while and tried to come up with a way to get around it. The next morning we were having breakfast and she informed me that she wasn't my daughter, but actually my cousin! She proceeded to refer to herself as "cousin" for the remainder of the morning. She would also speak in the third person, as in, "Cousin is thirsty, can she please have some milk?" I guess she thought if she could convince me that we're cousins, that would make us equals...and therefore she could do whatever she pleased without consequences or discipline. I will admit that it did give me a good laugh and I was somewhat impressed with her creativity and thought processes on this one, but, oh my, if she is already this (I almost hate to use this word, but if the shoe fits..) calculating, what I am going to have to deal when she is a teenager? Never a dull moment around here right now :)

As is often the case when dealing with kids, it reminds me of my own relationship with God. How often do I try to justify my actions, deny my position, and somehow excuse myself from unwanted consequences?

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Here's another one from her that's not quite so mischievous. We have been discussing some basics of faith. We having been trying to explain that God is Holy, and without sin, and that we have sinned and therefore are not holy, which is why we need God. She is very interested in this one aspect and mentions it quite frequently. We were in the car running errands a few days ago and she asked "if the holiers love the sinners"

Timber

I was out and about recently when J called to inform that lightning had struck a tree in our neighbor's yard. My first thought was "great, where did it fall and what damage did it do?". It ends up it didn't fall, it's more like it exploded. As you can see below, it was as if all that was left was huge shards of the tree. It took out the treehouse and swing set next to it.

J said it sounded like a bomb had gone off outside and he actually felt it in the house. The tree is in the back corner of the neighbor's yard and the "explosion" was so powerful that 8 foot long pieces of tree cleared our yard and ended up in the next yard, easily over 100 ft. away. These pieces were like 4-6 foot long spears sticking out of the ground. They were so firmly in the ground that they stayed like that through the storms and for the next few days until we took them out.
I have to brag on my hubby now. Our neighbor is a single mom with 2 daughters who would not have been able to clean this up on their own. She tried to file with her insurance, but since it is classified as an act of God, they wouldn't cover it. J decided that we (read 90% by him) could handle it for her. I love his integrity, concern for others around him, and how hardworking he is. It was as simple to him as "it's the right thing to do," so we did it! Thankfully J wrangled our nephews into pitching in as well.

J is quite handy with his chainsaw, so he would cut and carried and loaded. The amazing part of the whole thing was that nobody was injured and no major damage was done. The treehouse is no more, but the 2 girls next door are teenagers that don't use it anymore. One piece of our fence was hit, but J fixed it. We were in awe of the power in the storm, God's creation. Oh-and we have firewood to last for quite a while!

Little Man

Recently I got to have a "girl's only" weekend at the beach. Well, it was actually a "mom's and nursing children" weekend, but since that's as close as I can get to freedom at this point, I'll take it. It was me with G and J with her daughter, MC. We had so much fun. I am so thankful for J's friendship. She is one of my very best friends and I miss her terribly since we moved last year. We can talk about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING and I think we did talk about anything and everything that weekend, literally. We.talked.the.entire.weekend. I think we were catching up for the last year since I moved! J-hope I didn't completely wear you out :)!

J is a many talented woman, one of those talents being that she is a fantastic photographer. I got 2 great presents from the weekend. J gave me a photography lesson and took some fantastic shots of G! Feast your eyes on these. I know I'm biased, but I can barely stand how cute he is!!!

Oldie, but a Goodie

Recently I got to spend an afternoon with one of my best friends who happens to live in our former city. One of the best parts is that our daughters are also best of friends.

As you can see....

they were quite excited...

to see each other.

I could barely get any decent pictures

because they were too concerned with hugging/tackling each other. I did enjoy the absolutely adorable, constant giggling of those 2 little 3 year olds.

Four

This little guy.....is now 4 months old.....

14 lbs, 9 oz and 26.5 inches long

We survived the Dr's visit and the shots much better than our last appointment. He has been cleared to progress past a completely liquid diet. I fed him oatmeal tonight, and, oh my, did he enjoy it. I would have given you a pic of the experience, but I'm afraid it would have just been him screaming while I paused from feeding him to snap a picture. I was supposed to give one Tbsp of oatmeal mixed with breastmilk to a very runny consistency. He. ate. an. entire. bowl. and was giggling with delight through the entire experience.

In other baby news, G has learned to flip over. Very exciting, but he can only flip one way, so he's quite "turtle-ish" in that regard. It was quite an issue for a while because he would only do this during his sleep, so he would wake himself up.......and then be stuck.....screaming. Thankfully, he's figured it out and now sleeps on his back or his stomach.

Updates

This little guy is changing too fast! He'll be 12 weeks in 2 days. The pic is G and my dad this past weekend. We had a great lttile trip to visit my dad's family, but will have to post about that tomorrow--too sleepy tonight. I'll share one part of the weekend though. That little guy started rolling over while we were there! He had his first meal other than breastmilk tonight. He's seemed hungry in the afternoons, so I thought we should try some oatmeal and it was a huge success. He's also dropped his late night "dream feed" and is now sleeping 11 hours a night! Can I get a hallelujah on that one?! A lot of change for one week, but he's done well with all of it.

I had another typical motherhood moment tonight. We were having enchiladas for dinner and, of course, the moment I had finished cooking and we were going to sit down at the table, G woke up from his late afternoon nap. I ended up nursing him while sitting at the table eating dinner. As I was finishing my last couple of bites a huge glob of sauce dropped from my enchilada and somehow splattered G and me. It landed in an opportune spot and we joked that it appeared I was lactating enchilada sauce. J's response? Let him know when I start lactating whiskey. Glamorous.

Big Time

So I'm late in getting this up, but better late than never right? Right? If my only options in life were "on time" and "never," I'm afraid there would be a never. Are any of you like that as well? So what am I late in doing--posting G's 2 month appointment that was weeks ago, so here it is. I added in a few recent pics as well!

We're going on an outgoing? Yay!!

What do mean shots are involved?!?!
2 months. 13 lbs 4 oz. 24 inches Our pediatrician let me know that I've got a big guy on my hands. Nice to know the numbers, but I had already figured that one out on my own :)

He seriously did NOT like shots. I had heard his hungry and tired cry, but had never heard his pain cry before. It was completely pitiful and heartbreaking. He calmed down in the office a couple minutes after the shots, we went home, fed him, and put him down for a nap. 2 hours later he woke up SCREAMING in pain, so I fed him to calm him down. Normally he barely comes up for air when he's eating, but that day he stopped multiple times to start screaming again, especially if I happened to touch either of his sore legs. Pitiful! Thankfully, a warm bath after he ate was what he needed. Neither of us are looking forward to the 4 month check-up. He wasn't quite himself for a few days, but now we're back on track.

Finally got a shot of at least one of the dimples

And back to Mr. Serious

Seriously Mom, that's enough pictures

When There's Smoke......

there's usually fire. That, of course, is a good thing for roasting marshmallows, a candlelit dinner, the fire pit on a cool fall night, but not so much when it's in one of the walls of my house. That's right folks, we haven't even been in the house for 2 months and have already had our first major incident.

The picture above is what one of the walls in our garage currently looks like. The pipe and faucet above go to an outdoor faucet in the backyard that had been dripping. This past Sat they went to work to repair it, which included welding****.

That afternoon J and I noticed that the smoke smell continued to linger in the house. He went downstairs to find a garage full of smoke, but thankfully, no flames. We have 2 smoke detectors in the garage and both had been checked 2 days before by our alarm system company, but somehow neither of them went off. He cut a small section of sheet rock away and sprayed the fire extinguisher in it, but the smoke continued, so he cut the large whole in the pic. The hardyplank (SP???) that is between the outer brick and inner sheet rock had been smoldering all afternoon. We had been in the yard most of the day with the garage door open, so nobody noticed the smoke since it was burning so slowly and just going outside. The only reason the smoke finally built up enough to notice it was because J had shut the garage doors when we came inside.

To top it off, J and I were about to go on our first date since little man's arrival. Mom had helped us with yard work all afternoon and was staying for the evening to watch the kiddos for us. So we had both just showered and dressed to go out to dinner and a movie and ended up sweaty and dirty all over again to deal with the above. By the time everything was under control and we felt (mostly) comfortable with leaving, we quickly grabbed sandwiches at Firehouse Subs(ironic, isn't it) and ate them in the movie theater. I felt sooo rude doing that, but I excused it in my mind since I think it falls in the category of "extenuating circumstances"---house on fire and first date after having a baby.

The evening made me quite teary and I felt so shaken up by all of it. I tried as much as possible to not "what if" the night.....as in what if we hadn't smelled the smoke, what if it had started burning the sheet rock and wood...during the night, what if my mother and children had been injured while I was enjoying myself at the movies.....can you see my mind reeling? It was terrifying, but I am thankful that we are all safe and there is no major damage. J and his dad will easily be able to repair it.

Moral of the story-go hug and kiss your kids and spouse, make sure your smoke detectors are working properly, and if you smell smoke-check it out IMMEDIATELY!!

****I will give the disclaimer that J and his dad are fantastic with house projects-they know how to fix everything! Nothing like this has EVER happened to either of them in the past, and I trust both of them completely to work on any part of our home.