Catching up

Well, we've done a lot over the past week or so and just haven't kept up with blogging. I went to Idaho for a work trip last week (Sun-Wed AM) and actually had a relaxing time and got some work done. Except for waking up at 3:30AM to catch a 5:30AM flight on Wednesday, I got some decent sleep and had lots of opportunities to read, hike and enjoy myself between work-related activities. Jason managed the kids very well and I think I will have to take more trips in the future. He did mention that meals with the kids are a nightmare and you can't get anything done when Abby is awake, and the boys are crazy and uncontrollable together at times. Aside from that, though, he did a grand job as a full-time father (with some help from Ken and Cheri, I believe). The kids were bathed, happy, fed and the house was in relative order (about the same as when I'm home) when I returned. Jason and the kids picked me up at the airport and I sat in the back of the van next to Sam. Abby was a little fussy, but not as fussy as I would have thought, so I leaned forward and rubbed her leg and she calmed down. As I was leaning foward, my head was close to Sam so he spent the car ride home running his fingers through my hair.

 Then it was back to mothering. The rest of the week was uneventful, which I like, and on Saturday we went to Arden Hills' Day (our community's one-day festival) which was held at the lake/playground/park area just over a mile from our house. So we walked there and had a lot of fun climbing on the city trucks, petting animals at the petting zoo, playing carnival games and of course, stopping by the beach playground for some exercise.

 The boys got to climb in a snowplow, a four wheeler, and a fire truck. Sam was very excited about the trucks,while Matthew was a bit apprehensive and serious.

 Although Sam didn't want the opportunity to hold and spray water out of the fire hose, he did step up to the firefighter cutout for a picture.

Abby did pretty well at the festival, although she was rather distraught being held by Daddy when the mommy-option was available. She's kind of like that. She seems to be pretty fine (most of the time) when I'm not around, but when I am, she lets the whole world know that she'd rather exercise the mommy-option. Although I must say that she's getting much better these days. It's a little sad.

Anyway, the kiddo also has two definite words these days "Hi" and "Da da" and she's started taking some steps. She is very eager to walk, but also reserved somewhat. I believe she's taken maybe 2 or 3 steps thus far, so she's not up and running yet, but she's well on her way. This is about the time that Sam took his first steps too, so they appear to be on a similar path in that regard. Matthew began walking a little later (just after he turned 1), but he was a rather large kid, so that probably slowed him down a bit. Nevertheless, we have no worries about our kids' mobility these day. Well, I guess no worries that they're behind developmentally. Our worries about their mobility are of a different nature...where are they going? What are they getting into? What are they climbing on/jumping on...and on and on and on.

After dinner antics

We've been eating dinner outside as often as possible during these waning summer days. Abby (and Matthew) can make a mess and its just nicer to have it outside and either 1) leave it or 2) sweep it off the deck into the grass. Plus we just pick up Abby and shake off her clothing and she's good to go. Then afterward the boys push their chairs to the side of the deck and lay down on them as shown below. They used to try to get into this position at the table and they would laugh and hit their heads and cry and then we said no more. 

 And Abby enjoys her meal despite the antics going on around her. Well, I guess she's not really enjoying it, maybe she's just tired.

 Bad food!

 Sam standing on the chair. We also put a stop to that. Goodness, the way that kid climbs all over chairs in all sorts of ways that are hard to imagine, it's really amazing he hasn't broken anything yet. Yet.

Lessons in humility...uh...Misbehaving Matthew

Church. A place of peace, encouragement, worship. A place to hear God's word, confess our sins, receive forgiveness. Well, for parents with small children, we experience church very different from the rest. We march in on a Sunday morning with our adorable little children dressed in the Sunday best. For the boys, it's khaki pants and collared shirts, for Abby it's a beautiful little dress. Sunday is the only time Abby wears dresses, so it's really something special.  We drop Abby off at the nursery (she's too talkative in church these days) and walk in with the boys. We smile and nod to people around us. The boys carry in their books and "busy bags", then when we find a seat, they open their bags and dig into the goodies. Jason and I sit down next to each other, give each other a quick, knowing smile and hope for the best.

Then it begins. The worship service starts and the boys start fighting over the toys in the busy bags. Matthew has a race car and Sam doesn't. Sam has a train and Matthew doesn't. There is some screaming. We get some "looks" from some people around us. Jason or I "hush" as loud as we can, in that forced quietness that parents use so often. I tell them to take turns, Jason tries to distract one with a different toy or a book. They are quiet for awhile. Then Sam wants to "sit" on my lap. So he does that for a few moments, then he starts laying down on my lap while I try to force him upright. Then he accidentally kicks Matthew as he's trying to lie down/get up while he feet and legs flail around. Matthew throws his head back and cries in typical fashion and tears start immediately rolling down his cheeks. Jason grabs Matthew and consoles him. We are at the scripture readings now. I have no idea what went on before.

Matthew is again happy and ready to explore his bag. He starts laughing wildly at something, we don't know what. Sam starts laughing too. Then one of them throws a toy at the other. Again, there is some more hushing, crying, consoling.

Then it's the children's message. This is Matthew's time to shine. Jason or I go with the boys up  front as they won't (and shouldn't) go up alone. They are both happy and excited. Jason or I are not happy or excited, rather we are anxious and worried about what will come next. Last week I wore pants so it was my turn to go up with the kids. We sat in the front of the church, the boys were next to each other and I was to their right. As soon as we sat down Matthew started to make loud sputtering noises. What on earth? I hush again and he laughs. Then Matthew bear hugs Sam, almost like a seated tackle and starts to take him down. Both are laughing. I try to separate them and tell them to sit still and listen. The pastor interrupts his message to tell the kids (my kids) to listen to their mommy. Ugh.  That's embarrassing. I grab Sam as he is the closest to me and put him on my lap and bear hug him while he flails about. I am unable to grab Matthew as he's too far away so I hope for the best. He inches away, then lunges forward and pulls at Sam's arms. They both laugh. I hush and struggle to restrain Sam and hope Matthew just doesn't start running around up front. Finally it's the prayer, then time to go back to the seats. I don't look at anyone as we return, rather I keep my eyes down.

The rest of the service is more of the same except that Sam announces he has to potty and go poopy. Jason rushes him out and I flip through a book with Matthew. Then it's over. I don't know what the sermon was about. I don't know what songs we sang. All I know is that I'm exhausted, embarrassed, sweaty, disheveled and well, pretty humiliated. Any sense of pride that I felt going into church is completely gone and I've been put into my place. All sorts of thought go through my mind. "Someone is going to die."  "Why can't they be more like so and so's kids?" "They are not getting to watch any TV today. No, no TV ever! No more cars! Banned to their rooms! No snacks!" "What am I doing wrong?" We walk out of church, but the antics are not done yet. On occasion, Matthew, the little offensive lineman, tries to push his way out. Once we get to the pastor at the door, he shuns the handshake and throws him a glare. Well, that ends it. While I may not have gotten much out of the sermon, I am certainly more aware of my own sinfulness (and my children's) than I was before. Just look at my thoughts. Yep. I need a Savior. I need grace, mercy, patience. All of the above. Because I certainly am not good enough to make it to heaven based on my own merit (or parenting skills). 

"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:24-25

Misbehaving Sam

Sam has been in the habit of getting out of bed after bedtime again. After a few months of goodness, he has decided enough with that, and is back in top form. A few weeks ago I tried the tape on the floor trick in which I put three pieces of tape on the floor by Sam's door, representing different degrees of openness (or closedness). For the first infraction, Sam's door is closed slightly to the first piece of tape, and so on, until the door is closed. Well, we've made it to closed almost every night and when we were talking about it, he said he didn't mind having it closed to "1" or "2" (that's what he said), so we decided to remove a piece of tape.

He is still getting up and making up various "needs". For example, two nights ago he decided that Jason and I needed to sleep with some of his "friends" (stuffed animals), so he came into our room and placed a few stuffed animals with their heads on our pillows and bodies under the covers. I warned him his door was going to "1", but he was insistent that we sleep with his friends. So he told me he was going to finish up and then I could move his door to "1". Arrrrrgh. Anyway, in the morning he was quite disappointed to see that Jason had moved his friends to his bedside stand, rather than sleeping "with" the friends all night. Jason tried to explain to Sam that the friends were kicking and much too squirmy but he was still unhappy. I had left my friends in the upper corner of the bed, which was also unacceptable. Sam got into bed next to me and  laid down and showed me exactly how I should hold the friends (right on my chest, with the feet toward the face).

So tonight, after night after night of Sam getting out of bed, Jason and I were watching Top Gear and at about 8:30, a half hour after Sam went to bed, I commented that Sam didn't get out of bed tonight. Well, there was a particularly funny part in which one of the guys was dressed as an astronaut and Jason and I were laughing about it. Then we heard another, very quiet laugh. And there was Sam, sitting on the landing watching Top Gear too. Jason got him back upstairs and moved his door to "1". Clearly we need to find another system. Now, if you're wondering if Matthew is going to get equal discussion regarding misbehaving, come back tomorrow (or the next day) for a post about our latest attempt at having Matthew in church with us (rather than the nursery).

Playing at the sandbox

Abby likes sweet corn

On Friday evening Grandpa Don and Grandma Sue stopped by for a visit on their way back to Iowa from the cabin. Grandpa and I were husking corn for supper and Abby was playing on the deck until she got fussy. At that point, Grandpa Don held her and she helped husk the corn. She would grab part of the husk, pull and grunt and try to get it off the corn. After helping with an ear or two Abby decided she wanted to eat the corn rather than just husking it and setting it aside, so she did. Ummm. She really liked it and appears to prefer it raw rather than cooked. I did eventually cook the corn on the grill and I cut off a small piece of an ear so she could eat her corn on the cob like the rest of us which she thoroughly enjoyed and kept her occupied for a good deal of time during our supper.

More "UpNorth" 2012

Sam's first fish caught with a Cars fishing pole

Sam showing off his fishing mojo

Speaking of vacation, on the way up north I asked Matthew if he was excited for vacation. He said "No," and I asked him why and he responded that "Vacation is scary". Hmmm. So I asked him if he was excited to go to the cabin. To that, he yelled, "Yeah!!!". Oh, Matthew. He still insists that vacation is scary, but he liked going to the cabin.

Matthew's first fish (covered in seaweed)

So the boys did some fishing off the dock and Sam is quite the caster. He casts like he's been doing it forever and got it quite far into the lake. His first catch was a pretty large bluegill. W he told the family members who weren't at the dock about how big his fish was, he spread his hands about a foot apart. It wasn't quite a foot long bluegill, but it was pretty big. He's a good fisherman already. Sam then explained that Grandpa Don tried to catch some fish too, but he didn't get any. Although Sam wasn't too impressed with Grandpa Don's catches (sorry, Grandpa!), Sam apparently thinks highly of Uncle Jim's fishing as he was quite excited to tell Uncle Jim about his catches (which he didn't get to because we had to leave when Jim was out fishing). Matthew also got into the fishing action and caught a large bluegill. When the boys saw the fish on the hook they weren't really scared, they were kind of interested, maybe bewildered, or intrigued. It's hard to describe how they reacted, but it sure is neat as a parent to get to see your kids' reactions to a new experience. 

Sam's second fish. It wiggled around some and got Sam a little wet, thus the face.

Abby did not go fishing, but she did get to go on her first boat ride. She handled it as well as can be expected for having to wear an over-sized infant life vest. She fussed just a bit and rode around for maybe 10 minutes or so. Matthew also went on his first boat ride too and he seemed to enjoy it as long as he was sitting with Grandpa Don. I went on a few boat rides with Grandpa and Grandma and Sam and Matthew and most of the time my lap was empty as the boys preferred to sit with their Grandparents.  It was actually a nice break, because when I was around Abby occupied my arms and lap extensively and if she wasn't with me she was generally quite unhappy although she tolerated Jason pretty well. The boys also enjoyed playing on the boats when they were at the dock. They found Grandpa Duane's boat tools and proceeded to "work on" the boat. 

Abby crawling around and getting dirty  after breakfast

Jason and I had quite a nice time, despite the stress of going on "vacation" with three small children. Abby took good naps, so that gave us some free time and the boys played a lot with Grandma Sue who loves to run around with her active grandkids. I told Grandma Sue that her vacation apparently starts when we leave as she definitely didn't have any down time with the kids around. Jason and I got some swimming and reading in and played a lot of bean bag toss. I'm surprised (and not surprised at the same time) with how much bean bag toss we played. We played and played and played and honestly, Jason just couldn't win. So we played some more. And more. And I played left handed. And we played some more. I think Jason wants to play some badminton now that we're home as he has a much better record in that game.

Throwing rocks off the dock after playing in the water