A Late Christmas Present

So my son gave me a late Christmas present last night. Let me set the stage for the occasion...

Because of all of the late nights at Dad's basketball games and Christmas events, my son has been a pain at night to put to bed. He gets into bed fine, without a fuss, but he is in a toddler bed now and knows how to open his bedroom door so after we say goodnight, he has been coming out of his room, three or four times before going to sleep. Every time it is a different excuse (sometimes I feel like I am dealing with a teenager) "I need more water," "I need to find x stuffed animal," "I need my blankets fixed" and our all-time favorite nightly excuse "I don't know, mommy. Too hard to sleep, mommy. Too hard!" So Dylan was doing this nightly routine of coming out of his room with an excuse.

About the third excuse into the evening, Dylan comes racing out of his bedroom, a huge grin on his face with his hand held out. "Here mommy! Here mommy!" I reach out to him and he starts pushing something into my hand, rubbing it into my hand. I asked him "what is it Dylan? Did you find something in your bed?" and then my husband asked him, "where did you find it Dylan?"

Dylan's answer: "My nose!!"

I got my first booger, I am officially a mom of a toddler. My son gave me a late Christmas present, I got my first official booger. Thank you Dylan. I love you sooo much!

A Ranting Blog

Rant Number One:

Does television really have to play the scariest commercials during football games?? I mean seriously the last few NOON games, college and one o'clock games, NFL have had previews for movies like "The Witch" and scary commercials about intruders for ATD... they scare the crap out of me and you wonder why my two year old can't sleep at night?! My husband and I have gotten really good at charging into the room and grabbing the remote like a ninja, changing the channel when we get a glimpse of a scary one, but sometimes I'm getting the game time snack and he's wiping the dog's muddy paws and my two year old is left at the mercy of these scary commercials... it's NOON folks, doesn't someone in the sports TV business have a kid!? Don't they watch sports with their kid?! Seriously, save the scary commercials for the scary times at night!

Rant Number Two:

There is one time and only one time during the day that I am clean and that is the minute I step out of the shower. My dear husband let's me take nice showers if he is home every night and I get twenty minutes of complete alone bliss (that is the time I write these blogs. Seriously I'm hiding out in my bathroom typing this up right now:) I step out of that shower without a single whiff of poop, spit up, peanut butter, wet dog, or playdough. For one moment, I smell like the old me, the before kids me. I smell CLEAN! But daily, every single time I step out of that shower, my one small moment of cleanliness has disappeared with three nightmarish words "mommy I pooped." God please change my son's bowel movement schedule, thanks!

Rant Number Three: Moms that look good 24/7

I am sooo sick of seeing mom's that look sooo put together. Their outfit matches their purse, their purse matches their make-up and their make-up matches their diaper bag. They are toting around two beautiful children who match just enough that it's not too much... I can barely put make up on before running out the door with my one kid who refuses to wear anything but cheesie Cars shirts!! It is very, very disheartening. Please perfect looking mothers have one off day so I don't feel so terrible!!

Rant Number Four:

What's with non-jolly Santa's. For Christmas this year, we didn't do the mall Santa or the breakfast with Santa. But we did do the Polar Express and ran into a few Santa's here and there when we were out and about this Christmas. Everyone else that we met, the elves, the gingerbread men, everyone but Santa was jolly and friendly and had a smile on their face. But when I got my pictures back with my son standing with any Santa this season, they looked crabby and glum. I don't think I noticed it at the time because I was watching to make sure Dylan wasn't scared and that he was enjoying his time, but looking at these pictures, they all looked awful! luckily my Father-in-law dresses up every year for all of the kids, so my son got to enjoy one very jolly, happy Santa... But shouldn't Santa be the most jolly man you've ever seen? Maybe they are working too many overtime hours... maybe they need to hire happier Santas!

Even at Two, Saying Sorry is Really Hard to Do

My son has always been pretty well behaved at storytime at the library. I take him and the other boy that I watch every week. Most weeks they are the two that do as they are told, listen really well to instructions and don't cause a scene. However, this week was different. Storytime was just coming to last few songs. My son and his buddy had done everything right, listened to all the stories, sang the songs, clapped their hands, done a jig, but the last song is when all the kids get crazy. I could see my son was getting very excited so I was keeping an eye on him because this is usually when he loses control. Well sure enough, he lost control. He was singing and walking to the beat when all of a sudden, he all out pushed the boy in front of him. Out of the blue he just pushed this little kid to the ground. The kid wasn't even looking at him, but my son all out pushed him down! I was furious, embarrassed and felt all judging motherly (and one fatherly) set of eyes on me. My mom status at storytime just crashed to the floor and fell through to the rock bottom! I was so sad, angry and embarrassed all at the same time....

What do you do next? Your kid just pushed another kid, you're in the middle of storytime. Do you get up and leave? Do you publicly punish your child? Do you yell and scream at him? Do you apologize to everyone in the room and try to justify your son's actions?

Well I grabbed my son and pulled him down to sit next to me pretty harshly. I told him he can't push and that was so mean to do to that little boy. And, I told him he couldn't get back up and join storytime until he had told this little boy that he was sorry.

In my mom brain, I figured this process would take a matter of seconds, my son would get up, tell the little boy sorry and restore his dignity by acting like a saint for the rest of storytime. Well my mom brain was working way too fast paced for my two-year-old's timeline for action. It almost took until the embarrassing last second of storytime for my son to say he was sorry. All the while I am staring at him, trying to convince him with my jeta mind tricks "just say you're sorry so we can move on and prove we are still ok people and I'm not a bad mom." Well jeta mind tricks don't work on two-year-olds. For an embarressing long twelve minutes or so (probably less but it seemed like hours...) my son and I stood in front of this little boy and his mom, me willing my son to say sorry, my stubborn son just staring straight ahead and the other little boy looking terrified!

Finally, before stamps were handed out and children got up to leave with their "perfect" mothers and father, Dylan said very matter-of-fact, "I'm sorry for pushing you." It was a victorious moment, but it was a long, long wait. I guess it's hard for two-year-olds to say sorry as it is mommy's and daddy's and cousins and aunts and uncles and husbands and wives to say sorry.

Later that day, I had the chance to relive the moment that my son had. I opened my big mouth and not nice things came out and I had to say sorry. It would have been easy to let it go and hope everyone who had heard it to forget about it. But remembering my own embarressment and my son's matter-of-fact sorry, I wasted no time and apologized right away. It wasn't easy but once I confronted the fact that I was wrong and that I had acted poorly and had sinned, a sorry was very easy. I think my son had to confront his wrongful act and come to aggreement in his mind that he needed forgiveness. I really don't know what my son was thinking at that moment, but I think it took him a while to say sorry because he meant it. Don't we all need to say sorry more? Even when it is hard, even when it is embarressing, even if it lowers our status, even if it hurts our image. When we face when we are wrong, we can be forgiven and it feels good to be forgiven. We all mess up, a lot! Sometimes for no reason, sometimes out of the blue we "push" people down with our commentary or our body language. Don't we all push or get pushed at work, at school, at home, at the store? We all need to say sorry, and sometimes it is very hard to say sorry, even for twenty-somethings, fifty-somethings, ninety-somethings.

I just hope my son continues to say sorry. I hope he learns what it feels like to be forgiven. He is going to mess up a lot in his life, we all are, but if he just asks, he can be forever forgiven from all of the wrong things he has done in his life from the only truely perfect Savior.

Social Hour with a two-year-old

Is it sad that I love having a social schedule for my two-year-old son? Is it sad that I look forward to Thursdays because it's storytime days, Fridays because we sometimes have playdates and the occasional Mondays when we get all the boy cousins together? I love having a toddler whose schedule runs around playing with friends and song time at church rather then breast milk feedings and two naps! Trust me, I still keep a scheduled single nap, but I love this new social age! Toddlers are exhausting to say the least. He loves his friendss but the next thing you know he's "tackling" them and not understanding why they are bawling. But I totally look foward to the "playdate email" that let's me know when and where playgoup is that week... my two year old can name all of his friends (which he does almost every night in his nighttime prayers) and he loves to talk about what they do together... lately his buddy and he have started an annoying mealtime tradition of seeing who can spill the most or drop their cup the loudest; extremely annoying to me but those two get laughing so hard sometimes I have to surpress my own giggle. God made us to build relationships with one another. My two year old needs friends and relationships... I just can't believe how much I enjoy his social calendar... sadly, I count down the minutes until storytime starts... but I m also learning to enjoy every last minute in this stage because I know it won't last but a few more months... I'm just hoping the next stage doesn't involve introvert behaviors or else I might have to fill up our calendar with adult social events and I'm not so good at those:)

Run Fast!

I wish I knew what was happening in a two-year-old's mind...

Why did he just dump his drink on his waffle? Why did he just push his friend down? Why does he love chicken nuggets one day and refuse to eat them for entire month? Why does he wake up in the middle of the night asking for pancakes? Why does he chase the dog around the yard? Why does he make you fix something just so he can knock it down again? All of these questions constantly flip through my mind throughout the day.

Sometimes, however he makes it easy for me and the rest of the world.

My favorite behavior of my two-year-old is when he announces what he is doing to the rest of the world. He will walk into the room after playing quietly by himself and yell to anyone "Big Poop!" It is especially fun when we are in a resteraunt and everyone stares at thier plates wondering if they want to continue to eat after that announcement.

Yesterday we were at the beach with one of my friends and Dylan comes up to us and says "Run Fast!" He had to tell us that he was about to run really fast and his announcement was by proceeded just that; him running fast in the sand. I'm not sure why running fast warrents an announcement, but somewhere in his brain, he has decided, maybe if I announce this, people will watch and listen and I will get the needed attention.

The other announcement that is very embarrassing for a mother is when my two-year-old decides every baby should be my baby and I need to be hold every baby. We will be in Target (and of course he has to be independent and walk around on his own) and he will go up to any baby and say "Mommy Up!" He thinks that I need to hold every baby that exists on this earth. I am not sure why this is or if in his little mind he thinks "if my mommy holds a baby, maybe she will give me a little brother or sister to play with." Or is he thinking "if my mommy holds this baby in the store, maybe she won't bring a baby sister or brother home." I am not sure which one it is, but somewhere in his brain, he thinks that every baby needs to be held by his mommy. It is very sweet until he goes up to the baby's true mother and tells her that I need to be holding the baby instead of her... a few awkward moments have followed these encounters.

How you explain a two-year-old's announcement to the rest of the world? I have no idea. You do lots of shushing and smiling innocently with a sholder shrug... hopefully the rest of the world understands that you don't really understand mind and his announcements are just a small statement of the entire story going on in his brain!

Not a Very Good Blogger

I have not done a very good job of keeping up with my blog this summer... I got a new part-time job and it has taken up all of my free time. I am hoping to get back into the blogging world and keep my blog a little more updated. My last blog: water, somehow the content was lost. I was trying to tell the story of how water played an important role in our summer. We did not have air conditioning all summer in our house and so water was a intregal part of our everyday life. The sprinkler, the community pool, the backyard blow-up pool, playing in the sink to cool off, spraying each other (even my husband and I) with the hose, drinking lots of it, playing with it constantly. A two year old can do so many things with water it is amazing... he would dump it, squirt it, dip in it, stomp in it, run in it (he was and is obsessed with puddles), and find every type of experiement to try with water. My water post was better written then that, but that is a quick overview of what my water post was about.

I will do my best to come up with a new post for today, but because the day is new, my child has yet to inspire me into writing mode... I'm sure it will happen shortly. Once fall is over and I am done coaching, I will be back in the blogger world much more consistently. For now, I will post when I can and hopefully they won't take my blog off again like they did during the summer.

Water