Truly, this has become a once a month event for me, but thats ok. Once a month is fun too. We went on vacation for 2 weeks and have been home for almost 2 weeks now and I am still trying to get my ducks in a row, or my kids in order. It seems like lately I have had a spiritual/child rearing amnesia. I seem to forget God's goodness, His control over my days, His presence and strength with me. And on the child side, I feel like I've forgotten how to do anything! I have so many good resources for help yet I feel like I've done nothing but get frustrated lately!! Part of it may be God stripping me of a feeling of reliance on those resources (because when things are going well and the resources are working, I can find in myself a self righteous pride) and part of it is just being on vacation for 2 weeks and...I think that explains everything! Resources are good, a right view of God is good. God is merciful and gracious, because even our best efforts are filthy rags.
So what are some of these frustrations?? Well there is a little potty training happening which means lots of time spent in the bathroom, a lot of bribery, a lot of talk about pee pee. We even have an app for that. Ha! Patty the potty calls and says "it's time to go potty!" I love it :) Too bad Claire has totally figured out how to check the box for "I went pee pee in the potty" and press continue which leads her to a celebration - whether she actually went or not. So as I mentioned we spend a lot of time in the bathroom and this really has me rethinking the color on the walls, I think it might be time for a fresh look! In the meantime I hope I can grow in my patience during this potty process and not worry if we can't go swimming this summer because of my diaper - laden child. And then there's an almost 4 year old who is scared to wash her hands by herself because the water is too loud, or "can you get me something else to eat because this peanut butter and jelly is gross (even though she ate 2/3 of it all ready). She didn't verbalize that last part though. Or a random tantrum for whatever reason,...ahhhh. But even as I write this I think, man, they are so worth it and all of small trials (light and momentary they REALLY are, even if it doesn't feel like it) are truly part of God's grace in our lives!!
There have been some joys too, which would be wrong not too mention because after all this is like my digital scrapbook. This is where I write down funny, cute and random things so don't mind me when you read it and think "guess you had to be there" because that is probably the case. But if I don't write it here I won't write it anywhere sadly! Claire has made quite an attachment to her yellow zebra blankie. She calls it her blank-blank. She has a lot of words she can't say correctly, so she takes the beginning and repeats it. Like flower is flow-flow, napkins are nap-nap, and yogurt is yope-yope. And yope-yope doubles for sour cream because the taste is quite similar...? Anyway the blank blank goes with her everywhere, including when she sits at the table for meals. She needs it behind her or wrapped around her. So needless to say last night she went to bed with a blank-blank that may have doubled as a nap-nap, some taco sauce, yope-yope, the nail polish she spilled...I'll wash it today! She also loves to say "she's so cute" about other kids. Regardless of age, gender, real cuteness or anything.
Sophie has been super interested in the human body. I think this stemmed from a visit with a friend who had a book about the human body, and now Sophie is hooked. She knows all about the lungs, the small intestines, taste buds on your tongue, etc. Today we are going to read about the heart. She went from wanting to be an animal trainer a year ago to a doctor now. I just love how she has such a desire to learn, and how she soaks up so much information, and how her interests change. I can't wait to tell her one day what she wanted to be at certain ages/what she loved to do. I will obviously need the help of the blog, lets pray I have it saved and printed somewhere because otherwise I will not remember.
And that is it for now. I leave you with a video of Claire playing the xylophone with a steak at a children's museum in NYC.
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