It's hard to be two

Life this month has been challenging. A lot of factors make it hard to tell if it is the terrible twos come to stay or just a momentary phase due to lack of sleep or other outside cause.

The beginning of this month was a bit of a blur, but then comes the second week. I had just been "bragging" to both a friend and my mom that Abigail was not climbing out of her crib. She was not around for either of these conversations.  A had climbed out once about a year ago but then despite obviously knowing how, chose not to do it again.  At two and a half and still in the crib, she was significantly older than the other two, and I was not pushing for her to move into a real bed by any means!  Hah!  That very afternoon, after my conversations, she climbed out of her crib.  And from there, it was over and over!  It was time to move her.  Arghhh.  We had a busy weekend and so the move was put off until Monday. This was not just any move but a complete transformation.  She was going to begin sharing a room with Elizabeth and her own twin bed.  I did feel hesitant.  (And probably rightfully so. :))  

We have had a few incidents brought on by her being out of her bed and into trouble in the room but the challenge has not yet been as bad as it could get.  What has been far more difficult though is trying to enforce bedtime and getting her to sleep/nap as well as before.  We discovered if we put her down for sleep about 30 mins earlier than Bizbeth, she will typically go to sleep and stay asleep when E comes in.  But not always!  And after falling out of bed at least once a night the first week, she was also quite tired from interrupted sleep. (That has improved drastically to only once in two weeks). All these factors lead to a less than well rested daughter. Her phrase "No way!" comical and always said with a smile before, has been yelled in rage far more frequently this month.  Along the way, we are redirecting her temper tantrums with discipline, but it has been exhausting for both of us!

On a bright note, I am hoping that this might just be lack of sleep that is getting better as she is adjusting because the past week has been better.

In other areas, she is also definitely developing her own personality,  unlike her sister, she definitely is not adverse to asking for help.  "Help me, Mommy!" is a common phrase. 

She is also the only one of my children who naturally cleans up after herself. When she walks in the door, she always takes her shoes off without prompting, but unlike older brother, she is careful to put them back in the allotted shoe bin.  I even caught her yesterday taking her coat to the coat closet to put it back on a hanger! (even if she does put her coat on upside down sometimes)

Unfortunately, she has also been changing clothes about ten times each day and the clothes don't always make it back into the dresser.  Most of the time it is to put on dress up clothes. Her "elsas" dress is a favorite, but E's clothes are also desirable.  Unfortunately, poor E runs out of clean pjs too often with A wearing a different mismatched set of E's every hour.  They are almost interchangeable size-wise...just a few inches in height.

Abigail is quite a good eater and not that picky.  She loves "pizzas" (always plural) for dinner.  She loves "jelly."  The only complaints tend to come with hotdogs.  Sometimes she eats them and likes them, but sometimes we hear yelled, " No ha-ha!"  It has become a joke (at least among the two adults and d).

We have also had more than one challenge this month on the diaper front.  Abigail has readily been willing to sit on the toilet for months but never does anything there so I had not begun the arduous task of potty training.  This month though, she has begun taking her diaper off regularly on her own...dirty or just wet. Sometimes I know because she walks around bare-bottomed but more often, I have had the dubious pleasure of finding out only after I see a wet bottom and then strip her to discover nothing on but panties and the pants.  We have tried potty training a bit haphazardly this month and she does not seem quite ready, but we may have to do something!

She still does better playing on her own than with the siblings, but she adores them and they her (E can often be heard to say, "Isn't she adorable, Mama?")! 

This has been a long, exhausting month but growing up has its pains. And this little girl is definitely growing up!  Love you, Abigail!

motherhood

Even my 2 minutes in the bathroom are with serious trepidation about what is being done in the rest of the house while I am not supervising.  This stage of life is exhausting with the constant supervision.  Just in the past two weeks we have had broken lamps, more than one completely torn up book, toys dumped everywhere, mini puzzle pieces strewn throughout all rooms, an entire shampoo bottle spilled all over the rug, dirty diapers taken off and bottoms bared, poop and pee on the rug more than once (and we are not even potty training), broken picture frames three times, as well as the usual messes made at mealtimes and every other time.

And yet, the promise that keeps ringing in my ears,
Exodus 33:14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  

Thank you, Lord, for your unfailing new mercies every morning!  And Your Presence!!!  May this new year be one of rest in Him...

sacrificial love

He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)

We had gone to the church to play as a family.  While there, E disobeyed.  I told her she would receive a spanking once we got back home.  We got back in the car and I reminded her of this.  Then D played a game that we have played in the past.  It is the "me too" game.  If you remember past posts, A used to reply "Me!" enthusiastically and raise her hand in response to any question as long as the majority did the same...this including getting a spanking.  So today D said, "Who wants a spanking?  Me!"  A, meanwhile, has gotten smarter and said, "Not me!"  Michael asked if D wanted a spanking in place of E.  Of course not!  This got us to talking about how that is exactly what Jesus did for us, only far greater.  He took our discipline upon himself.

When we got home, M got the spanking spoon out.  Once again, M asked D if he wanted to get a spanking on behalf of E.  M said, "You don't have to, but if you want to get a spanking, I will not give one to E."   D thought about it a few minutes.  Then, he responded very seriously and soberly.  "Yes."  I made sure he understood what he was saying.  M told him to explain it to E.  So D walked up to E and said, "Elizabeth, I love you.  I am going to get a spanking so you don't have to for your sin.  Just like Jesus did."

At this point I was sobbing!  (and have a couple times since when I have related this story to others).  D has had plenty of spankings, and I knew it would not hurt him, but somehow it just seemed so unfair and I was so touched by his love for his sister.  Wow!  For someone who has grown up knowing of Jesus' sacrifice all my life, I know I take this for granted.  This was a new visual that really brought home his sacrifice and the depths of his love for us!  Thank you to my very precious son!

Out of the mouth of babes...

26 +15 years of maturity

Christmas might be over but the celebrations continued.  My wonderful husband has a birthday three days after Christmas.  This year we got to celebrate it thrice.  The first time was a casual lunch with some friends right after church on his actual birthday.  They so sweetly invited us and some other dear friends over.  It was not meant for a birthday celebration, but I brought along a cake and candle, and we sang to M.  

The second celebration was later that evening.  M and I went on our first outing together (not as a couple yet) to the Houston Nutcracker 15 years ago.  M had put together a group of singles for this event and invited me a month earlier on the evening we met.  He may not have known it, but I jumped at the chance to get to know him better so I decided to go.  Fifteen years ago we went to Birraporetti's before dinner and then the performance.  This time M wanted to reenact dinner too so he made a reservation at the restaurant.  He warned me when we got there that it had received some poorer reviews recently.  And despite the quick service--too quick to demonstrate anything but probably frozen/rewarmed food, the food was indeed rather poor.  We joked that everything seemed to have some variation of a bland alfredo sauce on it.  Stuffed mushroom caps (stuffed with about 2 pieces of wilted spinach and doused in a tiny bit of cheese and the key ingredient-alfredo-y sauce).  Shrimp Scampi (no sign of garlic or butter sauce, but you guessed it!  Alfredo sauce on the pasta).  Almond crusted tilapia which was not supposed to have any sauce. (again, topped with a piccata sauce that seemed to have alfredo sauce as the base).  And for dessert, we ended up with a very uninspired creme brulee (hardly caramelized at all!).  Overall, a memory we will leave just that in the future.  

After dinner, we walked the short distance (yeah!  since wet and bitterly cold!) to the Wortham Center for the Nutcracker.   This was far more pleasant.  Only it was an unfortunate combination with the lack of sleep in previous nights, the late hour that the performance started, and the beautiful/soothing music emanating through the theater.  

We came home and M opened a few more presents.

Our last hurrah for Michael's birthday was a double date with my bro and sis-in-law to go see Unbroken two days later.  I was pleasantly surprised at how they kept a bit of the faith-elements.  But, also a bit disappointed that they ended the movie as early as they did since they missed about 1/3 of his life covered in the book.  This is the time period when Louie Zamperini did a 180 degree change and gave his life unwaveringly to the Lord. Two sentences on screen at the end of the movie were all that was devoted to this.  Still a good movie but nowhere near as powerful as the book.  Book highly recommended!!!

"Surprise. Cookies!" and surprise cookies

Psalm 34 "8Taste and see that the Lord is good;


The last Christmas activity this year was a cookie exchange hosted by a friend.  What yummies there were there!  New recipes to try when I have the time  to spend 1+ hours to make some treats.  I almost felt bad bringing my cookies that took all of 15 minutes to make.  Almost... :)

(PS,  I made surprise cookies.  really~ that is their name)

new robes and artillery

Isaiah 9 "2The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
3 6 6For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 7Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this."

2 Corinthians 10 "4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds."

Isaiah 61 "10 
I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."



Christmas Day this year was just us.  We ate a leisurely breakfast, read the rest of the Christmas story begun the day before, started brisket for early dinner, and finally sat down to open presents around 10:30 am.  Unfortunately, the morning had already gotten off to a rough start with A (who continued to be cranky all day).

Present opening took a while as we went in turns again and had to stop and unpackage all the kids toys.  In total, M probably spent 30+ minutes just trying to open the theft-prevention packaging.  The girls got several dolls and one Princess set took him 10 minutes alone to untie/untwist and all the rest.  There were two umbrellas, two books, headbands, a nightlight, legos, the aforementioned dolls, and a very special first necklace that reads "Beloved."  But this year was the year of the dress-up attire and weapons (2 swords, 1 nerf gun, and a nerf bow and arrow set).  Yeah!  ...Both dress-up and weaponry are things that are used every single day at our house.   And yes, that is two identical Elsa dresses...no fighting over who gets to wear it!  This dress promoted dancing/singing by E.  There were the usual yearly ornaments (D- soccer ball to commemorate 1st and 2nd seasons playing, E- a older ballerina, and A- a baby sister ballerina, the family one- a cute hedgehog)  And M got several tools and I got exactly what I picked out and purchased!  :)

more than once was Abigail's bottom lip stuck out...