Stupid Mommy Tricks

I should have known that it would happen someday. But Mom always said I had low self-preservation instincts (have I mentioned that before?), and my maternal instincts are apparently afflicted with the same malady.

We were leaving a friends' house after Friday prayer (and yes, we're actually getting some prayer done in the midst of the chaos!), and packing our 3-ring circus into the car. I had just clicked Claire into her seat, and thrown in my purse and diaper bag. Isaac climbed in, but hadn't gotten buckled yet. Do you see where this is going? I realized that Isaac had left his shoes inside, closed the door, and ran in to grab his shoes. On the way in, I thought, "I hope Isaac doesn't lock the car on accident."

Jinx.

Then Bethany noticed there was a bee in the car.

So there we are, an hour past naptime, with Claire innocently looking around at the bee buzzing around her head, Isaac ecstatically "driving" in the front seat (and shamelessly showing off for Eva), while I stand helplessly at the driver door, tapping on the window, saying, "Isaac, honey? Push that button! That button right there!" He giggles and keeps driving. Bethany immediately starts praying that the bee won't sting the kids, and Becca starts laughing at me. Me? I'm picturing 3 hours of standing next to my car, begging a hysterically grumpy child to push the magic button, and I'm not thrilled. I start wondering why I still haven't put a spare key on the outside of my car... I keep tapping the window...

And then Isaac just opens the door. Effortlessly. Crisis over. It probably only lasted 2 minutes.

Whew.

In other news, when we went to the grocery store this week, I dressed Claire in bright fuschia capris and a top with big hot pink hibiscus flowers on it. We got in Marv's line, and I waited for the baby talk to begin with a thinly veiled smile. Would he get it?

"How's my baby girl?!"

Hooray for Marv! He got it! If he had missed that sign, I would have had to put a Minnie Mouse bow on Claire's head.

Here are more pictures from the last couple of weeks:

That's Isaac delighting in green eggs. We were reading "Green Eggs and Ham" before breakfast, and then when I asked him if he wanted some breakfast, he said, "Want green eggs and ham!" I didn't have any ham, but I could get some green eggs on without much hassle. He loved it.
Isaac helping Vance do push-ups, with Claire imitating as well (or looking on in adoration, either one. She loooves her daddy). I just got a great deal on a gym membership (with included childcare!), and Vance and I have a deal that he has to do 50 push-ups for every extra day that I work out and he doesn't. If he works out more than me, I have to run two miles for every day I'm under. So far he has 250 push-ups in his tally, and I haven't had to run extra yet. I plan to keep it that way. :)

We watched Hazel recently, and Isaac was a big help! Can't you see him helping Hazel eat her cereal?

She was an angel child, as always. She makes Claire look like a mischevious and fussy child in comparison.

Small group picnic! Perfect weather, burgers, bocce ball, and friends. What more could you ask for?

Isaac and Maddie had a great time at the picnic, too.

what a gentleman! hope it sticks...

Fun in the Sun!

Today we went to the wading pool with Caleb & Alicia. It's close to our house, but we'd never been. We had a great time, all except for the leaving part. Claire can still nap in the sling, and I've been doing that some lately when we want to be out and about all morning. It worked pretty well!

I didn't get any pictures of Claire at the pool, but took a few after we got home. Darling? Yes, I think so!


Isaac didn't want to be left out of the photo shoot. Here he is, eating at the table like the big boy he is! We've moved him up to eat with the adults, and we all like it a lot.



Other random notes from our days here:

- Isaac now asks for backrubs when he's going to bed. I think it's cute, but it scares me too...I can barely keep up with Vance's backrub addiction! What will I do when he's 16 and they go lift weights together at the gym or something, and they both want backrubs the next day? Yikes.

- We've had some angelic visits to the grocery store lately. I've gotten lots of admiring comments about how well-behaved my children are, and how easy I make having two kids look. I smile demurely and beam down on my angelic children, and then we float away to go get more peanut butter. The only downside to our visits to the grocery store is that Marv, one of the cashiers, thinks that Claire is a very cute little boy. It seems like every time we're in his checkout line, she's wearing yellow, green, or blue, and for some reason he doesn't notice the very floral/be-ribboned aspects of her attire. At least he likes my kids.

- I love love love one of my local consignment stores, and got lots of good stuff at my fave spot's 50% sale. Lots of Ann Taylor, JCrew, Banana Republic stuff there. Hooray for me!

- Isaac lost my keys. They're around here, somewhere...

- I've been experimenting with eating more raw food, and it's been good. I shredded up zucchini and made "pasta" with it, which everyone liked. In fact, Isaac pulled the leftovers out of the fridge and asked to eat the plain zucchini shreds for lunch. He did, and really enjoyed it. I count it as a minor victory in my life as a parent.

- We finally cracked and put in our A/C today. It's been a beautiful, perfect MN summer so far, but today it's supposed to hit 92--maybe the second time we've gotten to 90?--and we put it in. It's nice to feel the cool air, but I miss having the windows open.

- Vance and I are going on a date tonight! To a highly reccommended Thai restaurant! That's pretty cheap! Hooray!

$6 Well Spent

Shortie

Claire went for her 6 month checkup yesterday. She clocked in at 16 lbs even, which puts her in the 49th % for weight, and she was in the 30th % for height. Go figure! My doctor said that my roly-poly baby is probably going to end up being an average baby in the end. That's fine, but her height still has me stumped. Maybe she's got the Whitaker height genes, or maybe she'll just keep growing when everyone else slows down, like Isaac has. I don't mind if she's shorter than me, though...just think of the shoe options she'd have available to her! :)

She's a healthy, happy little girl, though. She's getting on her hands and knees more and more, and she's started rocking, so I think crawling is probably a month or two away. She loves loves loves to eat. She can sit up by herself as long as she supports with her hands, but can't quite do it without yet. She's going and growing...I can hardly believe how fast the time is flying by!

Six Months

Today I am celebrating the fact that I have been given 6 wonderful months with this sweet little girl...

thank you for the cute outfit, Grandma!

The Dust Settles

I know, it's been waaay too long since I've posted pictures. We've been busy lately, and I've found that facebook is a better platform for posting pictures. However, I know many of you who have only this blog to see the doings of our little family--so here are the pictures.

Vance and Claire with Dr. Saari, who just graduated from dental school in late May. Hooray for free dental care!

Isaac enjoying the hot tub at Nick's party

our Memorial Day picnic at the nation's first public wildflower garden

Nana and Papa came to visit in early June, and Isaac got his fill of attention and willing readers. I think he got Nana to read to him for an hour and a half straight one evening.

Claire's first food....bananas!

Dad and Vance went fishing with Aaron and Craig...looks like a smallmouth to me.

Northern!

We went home this past week for Dad's wedding and the myriad of other activities surrounding the big event. Isaac was trying to get buff like "Big Papa Strong!"

Still trying to grasp the idea of a roll-out

cousins :)

Our visit was too short, but at least we got to see everyone. Ellen was glad to see Claire, as you can see.

cuuuuute!

Isaac was enthralled with Seth's singing tractor

Julie held my tired one and got her to fall asleep on her shoulder! Mothering license conferred :)

my son, William Wallace, with his warpaint on

Unfortunately, the diaper bag swallowed my camera after this point, and I have no pictures of the wedding or our anniversary trip. But hopefully AJ will post pictures soon, and no one wanted to see my sun-poisoning anyway, so you'll just have to imagine how great that felt.

More weekend pictures to come!

Baby Dedication

Mother's Day is also baby dedication Sunday at our church. I love love love the way our church does baby dedications, so getting to dedicate Claire on Sunday was very special. The dedication ceremony is a little more formal than I was used to growing up, but I think I like it more because of that. Our pastor read us five questions, which we verbally affirmed with the other parents. Here are the questions:

- Do you today recognize these children as gifts of God and give heartfelt thanks for God’s blessing?

- Do you now dedicate your children to the Lord who gave them to you, surrendering all worldly claims upon their lives in the hope that they will belong wholly to God?

- Do you pledge as parents that, with God’s fatherly help, you will bring up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, making every reasonable effort, with patience and love, to build the Word of God, the character of Christ and the joy of the Lord into their lives?

- Do you promise to provide, through God’s blessing, for the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs of your children, looking to your own heavenly Father for the wisdom, love and strength to serve them and not use them?

- Do you promise, God helping you, to make it your regular prayer that, by God’s grace, your children will come to trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins and for the fulfillment of all his promises to them, even eternal life; and in this faith follow Jesus as Lord and obey his teachings?

In some ways, these questions hit home even more this time, because having a two-year old to parent makes me realize how easy it is to do some things that I used to consider unthinkable, like using my children rather than serving them. Even caring for a child's emotional and spiritual well-being is an impossible task without help from God, as I am now more aware than ever.

Just as we promised on Sunday, we are praying that Claire will trust in Jesus alone for the forgiveness of her sins and for the fulfillment of all God's promises to her--even eternal life!

After we affirmed the questions Mark asked us, he went to each child and prayed over them. This was his prayer:

Claire, together with your parents, who love you dearly, and this people who care about the outcome of your faith, I dedicate you to God, surrendering together with them all worldly claims upon your life, in the hope that you will belong wholly to God for ever .

And because we were surrounded by people who love us dearly, the auditorium filled with a heartfelt "Amen" from the congregation.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Vance made me breakfast, did the dishes, submitted an article to the very prestigious "Journal of Mothering" in my honor, and made a very delicious dinner. It was a beautiful day, I got to take a nap, play with my kids, and watch my husband win his basketball game while Isaac sat happily beside me for a whole hour. :) It was a great day.

I am a very happy, very blessed woman!

Boots (obsession)

Who said that women were the only ones with shoe love? Isaac is currently in a near obsessive-compulsive relationship with his camo rain boots. The first thing he demanded when getting up from his nap this afternoon was "Put boots on!"

His fashion sense, though, has a little way to go. He spent this afternoon stomping around in the aforementioned boots, with an old pearl necklace draped over his ear (yes, it must be OVER his ear, prefereably both ears), and his "digger" shirt on. He found the phone before I put it away, and started saying, "Hudoh? Hudoh?" over and over. Then he took the phone over to Claire so she could have a turn listening. Hey, at least he's sharing!

Things have been better in Isaac's world today, and I dare to hope that we may be climbing out of the funk that he spent the last week wallowing in. I realized that I was exacerbating the problem by pulling away from Isaac in my anger and frustration. I turned into Lady Justice: demanding obedience without fail and without assistance. Justice is not a bad thing, but mercy is far better. Today I realized that I needed to come alongside Isaac and clear the pathway toward obedience as much as I could. It's been one little way for me to imitate Christ in my mothering, and a way for me to realize how much I need God to mercifully come alongside me when I am nearly incapacitated by my sin. Praise God that he is gracious--and may I be so, too.

Isaac and the Terrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad Morning

But first, the news....

Claire rolled over today! This time, she rolled from back to front, which is the harder roll. She was pretty pleased with herself, and did it several times in a row. Claire has been trying for awhile, but couldn't get past her shoulder.

And Isaac learned how to climb out of his crib yesterday.

Should I be scared? I don't know yet. Frankly, I'm surprised that he didn't do it earlier. Seems like most boys are climbing out of their cribs before they're two, so I should be grateful he lasted this long. Hopefully he won't make a thing out of it.

my son the Jedi

Jedi puzzles

And now, our story... I thought yesterday was going to be a nice, relaxed day. Everything seemed fine, until Caleb came over to play around 9:45. Usually they play very well together--Isaac shares with Caleb better than with many kids. But yesterday, Isaac decided to be the Control Freak. It went something like this:

"No, Caleb!" (jerks trains away. Caleb shuffles away to do something else)

"No, Caleb!" (rips the chainsaw out of Caleb's hands. Caleb goes to play with the farmhouse music. This is a tried and true winner...they love to dance together.)

"No, Caleb, it's my music!" (usually I applaud original sentences, not ones like this!)

I decided a change of pace was in order, and we went with Caleb and Alicia to get some gardening stuff...I'm planting my herbs in pots closer to the house this year, and needed pots, soil, etc. Do you know those big carts that lumber stores have to carry plywood sheets and big items around on? Isaac and Caleb wanted to ride around on that. I was suspicious, but hopeful that Isaac would handle his freedom well.

Not so much. After the first five idyllic minutes, chaos descended on our local Menard's. Isaac got off the cart, ran away, got lost in the Garden Center, refused to be buckled in the cart (which had no buckle, much to my dismay), screamed when the pallet loaders left his sight, refused to stand still while I picked out broccoli plants, and generally sent my blood pressure through the roof.

And Claire? She napped. Bless her little heart.

I was pretty angry by the time we got to the car. I dumped him into his carseat, and spent a good long time in the chilly rain loading everything into the trunk, and reluctantly got into the car. I apologized to Isaac for my anger toward him, and we took a successful trip to the co-op.

Home was chaos again, though, and when I called Vance to see if he could calm Isaac down, he thought I was watching a few extra kids, the screaming was so loud. Everything was "NO!", and everything made him cry. Never was naptime such a sweet event in the Whitaker household. But it came. And things calmed down.

Today has been 100 million times better...we all slept in til 8am, played outside in the sunny weather, planted seeds in the greenhouse (oh joy!), and had a lovely family Saturday. Things are looking up in this little house. But I'm realizing, too, that those terrible, awful, no good, very bad moments are productive. Isaac is slowly learning self-control and obedience, and I am slowly learning patience, perservering love, and the value of consistent discipline. Yesterday made me wish I could call Mom and thank her for sticking with me during the times that I was like Isaac (and worse, from her stories). And days like yesterday make me grateful that God is more perservering in his love toward me than any parent possibly could be.

An Eventful Non-Event, and A Non-Eventful Event

The Non-Eventful Event

Since Claire's birth, I have been putting off the dreaded day when I would put her and Isaac to bed in the same room. Nightmarish visions of my future assaulted my mind: clutching two screaming children in my half-comatose state around 3am, a permanently early wake-up time for Isaac, more awakenings from Claire. But last night, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just try it. After all, she's starting to roll. That makes the basket-on-the-half-bookcase idea increasingly less brilliant. So I made the jump.

And what happened? Nothing.

I put Claire in Zack's room for bed. He said, "Mama?" when I came in. I just told him that Claire was sleeping in his room now. He fell back asleep, and Claire did too. She woke up at 4am to eat, but Isaac didn't budge. She woke up again at 6:30, and again, he didn't budge. She slept on my bed until 9am. Hallelujah! Let's just hope it keeps up. I think this little family is going to make it in this little house! :)

The Eventful Non-Event

Grocery shopping shouldn't be much of an event in my world, but I guess it kind of is. There is the anticipation of planning, the tension of bargaining, wheeling and dealing, and the sticker shock at the end. (okay, maybe that's a little dramatic). Zack has been kind of a grump today, but we were making it through all right, until we got to the dairy aisle.

Zack normally loves to help me inspect the eggs. Today, he was obsessed. We opened and closed the egg carton about 3 times before I finally told him we were all done, and placed the carton on top of my mound of groceries. Note: a toddler with an above-average reach and a full grocery cart are a bad combination. Isaac turned around, grabbed the egg carton by the lid, and gracefully vaulted a dozen eggs into the grocery cart.

Miraculously (I mean that), I did not lose my cool at this point. I remembered that eggs are only $1.88/doz this week, and that one day I would think this was really funny. I retrieved the eggs, cleaned up the goo, and got a new dozen. We went to check out (Isaac had been anticipating this --"goes, 'Beep!'"--all morning), and my son decided he was bored, done, finished, kaput, with grocery shopping.

"Have it! Have it! HAVE IT!" he demanded of every item I put on the belt. Then he threw the angel hair pasta (Irony? I think so) he had been clutching on the floor.

Well, I had had it. I was about to tell him that he would never, ever hold anything in his life again when an angel of mercy stepped in. He was the big, slightly-scary looking man who pushes the carts in from the parking lot. His name is Joe. He was checking out groceries for a handicapped woman, and he decided to help me out, too. He started talking to Zack, showing him pictures from the coupon book, and otherwise enthralling him until I got everything paid for.

"Thanks for entertaining my son," I said on the outside. (on the inside, I said thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!)

The rest of the morning was much better after that. And now I can laugh.

4 months

Claire had her 4 month appointment today. Everything looks good! She's shrinking slightly, weighing in at 15 lbs (a mere 84th percentile :), and in the 52% for length. The doctor says she looks wonderful in every way. She can allllmost roll over from back to front as well, but her shoulder just seems to get in the way. She'll master it soon (which will mean the big jump into her crib in Zack's room. Yikes.). It's hard to believe how fast she's growing...and that I will be feeding her solid food soon. I'm trying to hold on to every moment.

Interview

Just an annoucement: Yesupadam is being interviewed on Janet Parshall's "America" today. Sorry for the late notice, but the date unexpectedly got bumped up. This is a nationally syndicated radio show, so you may have to find out where and when it airs in your area. It will also be on KKMS here in the Twin Cities at 9pm Central Time. If you want to listen in wherever you are, you can tune in here. Just click "Listen Live" on the sidebar.