Monthly Archives: September 2015

mommyhood, things toddlers say

Things Toddlers Say 

2 Comments

Happy Tuesday, everyone! The weather is cooling off (and raining all the time – yuck) so fall is finally here! I wore my boots for the first time on Sunday, and man it felt good! We are just gearing up to get busy around here, with school in full swing, fall activities everywhere, and the holidays just around the corner – I know, I know… already?! Anyway, here are some fun things I’ve heard this past week. Enjoy!

The Omelette Saga…
Hubby, to me: Would you like an omelette?
Me: That sounds great!
Ek: I wouldn’t like a omeleck, please. (Then repeat that sentence 30 times.)
Hubby: Okay. We get it. No omelette.
(Hubby fixes omelettes; they look amazing. EK starts crying.)
Hubby: What’s wrong?
EK, crying: I waaaant aaaaa ooooomeleeeeeck!
Hubby: Why would you tell me you didn’t want one about 30 times then?!
EK, still crying: Oooooomeleeeeeeck pleeeeeeease!!!!!
(The dearest Hubby in the world then fixes her an omelette. The next 20 minutes are consumed with conversations about the omelette, how it’s made, complete with hand motions, what’s in hers, and the fact that it is indeed omelette and not omeleck.)

On weather…
EK: It’s so windy outside!
Hubby: Isn’t it a beautiful day?
EK: No, it’s a fancy day, silly!

Me: What would you like for lunch?
EK: Chicken nucksecks. (Nuggets, of course.)

J spilled some water on the floor while washing his hands, and pointing to it, said, “Mess! I mess!” He gets it, you guys.

My in-laws recently had to put down their dog, and when EK asked Annie where Molle (the dog) was, Annie said that she is with Jesus now. EK has been repeating an elaborate story about how Molle went to Jesus and asked to go live with him, and Jesus said, “Yes!” and Molle said, “Yippee!” It’s been odd but endearing.

At lunch…
Hubby: J, are you all done or do you want some more?
J: I want some more! (About as articulately as I’ve ever heard him say anything.)
Hubby: Well, you couldn’t have put that any more clearly.

Nicknames…
J, calling up the stairs: Hey, babe! Babe!

As I was putting J to bed the other night, he said this: “Mama? I wan’ El Kate.” It totally melted my heart.

Snuggling on Saturday morning on our bed, with both the big kids…
J, climbing on top of everyone: Yay!
EK: Agh! I can’t make this happen!

Overheard from another room…
EK, doing a puzzle with Annie: I’m not a baby ANY. MORE.

And you might have seen a little bit about this on my Instagram… The highlight of EK’s week was a trip to the mall, because we rode the little train. If you recall her train obsession, you know it was a big moment, so obviously I took a bunch of pictures.

  

That face makes me want to go to the mall every day!

So what are your kids doing and saying lately? I love hearing what other kids say!

books, food, food, home, mommyhood, random thoughts, siblings, Uncategorized

Currently

1 Comment

Folks, I’m feeling pretty silly that I missed a week of Currently. So hopefully this one will be stellar enough to make up for it! Here’s a bit about what’s been going on since my last Currently. I’m linking up like always with Becky at Choose Happy!!

currently button

Reading || About That Fling by Tawna Fenske. It popped up on an ad on my Kindle, it was on sale, and it sounded like a good beach-type read. It was! There was nothing really incredible about it, but it’s a great romance with a love triangle and a little akwardness to round it all out, haha. It was fairly easy to read and I plowed right through it, which is my favorite thing about a book I’m really enjoying. I just (finally) downloaded The Girl on the Train so I’m excited to start it! 

 Excited || for fall TV to start back! I’m always really glad to start back up with the shows that stop for the summer – even though thank goodness for Netflix to get me through! I’ll be watching Modern Family, New Girl, Grimm, and Once Upon a Time. Anything else I should add to my queue?

Enjoying || spending time with my big kids. Now that they’re both in school a couple/few days a week (9-noon) and the fact that lunch and naps take up most of the afternoon, I’m trying to spend more intentional time with them. They’re also thriving now that they’ve got some time away from each other. There have been some sweet moments (organic moments, even!) of togetherness in the past couple of weeks, and I love it. I’ve also added a cute thing to EK’s bedtime routine. I ask her what her favorite part of the day was, and I share mine, and we talk about them. Sometimes she even extends the conversation to something she didn’t like, and we can talk about that, too. I don’t like to talk about the negative part too much, but sometimes it opens up good conversation. It’s been really nice to get to know each other better in this way. 

   
Cleaning || up after my son all day every day. Y’all, J is like a tasmanian devil, a whirling dervish… he wrecks SO MUCH without really even trying. In one day, he’d locked himself into two rooms (and our door locks don’t unlock easily) so we took the doorknobs off the two rooms, and behind one of the doors, he was pouring my (favorite) dark grey nail polish on the floor! I’d like to say I didn’t get mad, but I did. I totally checked out; I handed Hubby the nail polish remover and told him to leave as much of the floor finish as he could. It doesn’t look too bad, but I was just surprised J could be so destructive in a matter of two minutes – what a huge parenting fail. I don’t know how to do a better job teaching him what not to touch, where not to go, what things to be careful with. I know it’s just “a boy thing” but I need him to calm it down. Phew!

Baking || pumpkin muffins! I’m going to do two recipes… this one from Wellness Mama and this one from the Barefoot Cook. Hopefully they turn out well! Hooray for triple naps and baking!

What are you up to currently? Have any pumpkin recipes you love? Anything else fall-related you’re doing?

faith, mommyhood, My Big Jesus

I Said Yes

2 Comments

This post also appeared on My Big Jesus!

As the mom to young kids, I say no a lot. I say no to everything from throwing food on the floor and drawing on the wall to hitting siblings and screaming in restaurants. I feel like I only have negatory words in my vocabulary; let’s not do that, don’t touch those, and no, thank you.

So this morning, when I went out with my daughter, I decided I would say yes as much as I could. Could we have smoothies for breakfast? Yes! While we are shopping in Old Navy, could she choose a new dress. Yes! Could she wear it to church tomorrow? Yes! Could she ride the choo-choo? Yes!

Just a few simple yeses went a long way. Most of them were ones I would’ve said yes to anyway. We needed to have breakfast, so why not smoothies? I knew we were going to look for a couple of fall dresses for her at Old Navy, so when she chose her favorite, of course I said yes. And her favorite yes of the day was easily the train ride.  

 What looked to me like a silly little “train” driven by a bored-looking fellow was a wonderful surprise to my three year old, train-obsessed daughter. We rarely go to the mall (who has time to drag kids through the mall on a regular basis?!) so I didn’t even know train riding was a possibility. We were both surprised, and while $3 a piece to ride a thing made to look like a train for a 4 minute trip around a quarter of the mall seemed like a waste, it made my daughter’s day. She was so ecstatic about being on a train that she wanted our picture taken, her picture taken, and she still has the tickets the conductor gave us in her room. 

 It felt incredible to be able to say yes. I often get weary of not letting my kids have the answer they want. It’s not much fun to say no all the time, because I really do want them to do and have everything. It’s even worse saying no when they’re too young to understand that I have their best interest in mind. So today, saying yes felt especially good, both to me and to EK.

When we are asking the Father for something, really, really hoping for it, but it isn’t what He has for us, we don’t like getting no as the answer. But He wants to give us a thousand yeses, wonderful blessings better than whatever we could think to ask for. Our Heavenly Father knows what we need better than we can understand, and so he tells us no sometimes. He gives us a no to make way for the yes.

mommyhood, music

Favorite Lullabies

12 Comments

As the mom of three kids that I still actively put to bed, I have to have a lot bedtime songs in my arsenal. I get requests from Taylor Swift to Disney to worship songs. I even occasionally have to make up a song about a random object. (It’s an “I love lamp.” situation in my daughter’s room some nights.) Thus, my list of bedtime songs is endless, but I’ve compiled a list of some of our current favorites, if you’re getting tired of your old standards.

1. Edelweiss. This is the song from The Sound of Music that is portrayed as the Austrian favorite, sung by both Liesel and the Captain (and the audience at the festival). Both my older kids love it, and it’s not very long, so I learned it quickly, and it’s not some 9-verse song I never feel like singing.

2. Somewhere Over the Rainbow. EK loves this one, mostly because she loves rainbows. But like The Sound of Music, we’ve also watched The Wizard of Oz enough times that all the songs from it are very familiar. This one has a couple verses, but it’s not terribly long either. (Nerd moment: It’s a good way to teach octaves!)

3. Oceans. This is a Hillsong United tune that I’ve sung at church during our service over the last couple of years, and EK loves it. She frequently requests it, and knows all the words. I trim it WAY down – the album version is about 9 minutes long – at bedtime (and at church) and it’s still long. But hey, when your daughter requests that you sing a worship song, you deliver.

4. Getting to Know You. This favorite from The King and I is one of the songs the kids know best. They’ve watched this movie countless times, and still want to watch it sometimes. I think they like seeing all the children!

5. Oh, Mister Sun. This is a kids’ song from way back, and I’m not sure if I even sing the actual words, but I definitely sing it a lot. I often follow it with “Oh, Mister Moon” – a second verse I’m almost certain I make up most of the words to.

6. Disney songs. I know that’s vague, but there are so many that they ask for. Here’s a sampling: Let It Go (Frozen), Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid), I See the Light (Tangled), A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes (Cinderella), Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast), and several. My absolute favorite is Stay Awake (Mary Poppins’s lullaby) and I’ve written an extra verse for each of my children, using their names.

7. You Are My Sunshine. Everyone knows this one, right? Short, easy, to the point, and done.

8. Jesus Loves Me. The kids sing this one at church, so they request it at home. I love it that they want it.

9. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star/ABC. Since these songs have the same tune, when J starts singing it (often without any intelligible words), I go back and forth between which words I sing. Or sometimes I’ll sing them back to back.

10. Colour My World. If you know Hubby and me, you know that we are rock and roll people. So naturally, this Chicago tune had made our favorite song list.

11. Golden Slumbers. This song by the Beatles is a lovely one – from the Abbey Road album.

12. Down to the River to Pray. This bluegrass-y, gospel-y song was featured in Oh Brother Where Art Thou and I’ve been hooked on it ever since. Several verses and multiple harmonies make it all the more appealing.

What are some songs you sing to your kids? Are the slow lullabies, rock ballads, or edited rap songs? I’ve heard of all three!

books, random thoughts

Holding On To Childhood

7 Comments

(If for some reason you have missed out on the glory that is the Harry Potter series, there are spoilers below, so beware!)

Nerd alert: I am the world’s biggest Harry Potter fan.  

 Alright, maybe not the biggest. But I’m definitely one of them. I’ve read every single book at least ten times, and watched the movies countless more. I take all the Buzzfeed quizzes, I follow J. K. Rowling on Twitter, and y’all, I have a (very active) Pottermore account. I was sorted into Hufflepuff, in case you wondered, and I’ve totally gained respect for the badgers. When the final movie came out, my friend Lauren, Hubby and I planned a party before the midnight premiere. We invited all our (nerdy) friends, decorated my house in Gryffindor colors, and made a feast worthy of Christmas in the Great Hall, complete with fondant golden snitches and butterbeer.  

These snitches took HOURS.
 So imagine my delight when I hear that our local children’s museum’s annual fundraiser this year has a theme of my favorite childhood (life?) book series. I immediately went about recruiting friends, planning for a babysitter, and debating whether I would go with the suggested “spellbinding cocktail” attire or go straight for the dress robes. The chance to attend a real-life event based on the fantasy world in which I felt I could belong (I mean, did my Hogwarts letter get lost?!) was more exciting than I probably should admit. 

Naturally the evening was fabulous, with lots of friends, magic wands, House banners, firewhisky, and floating candles from the Great Hall. It was as if my childhood dream had come true. You see, I’ve grown up with Harry. I attended midnight book releases and movie premieres. I waited months (almost every time) for the next installment of the story, felt the exhilaration of nail-biting Quidditch matches, thrill of new love, and sadness of losing friends. I trembled in the graveyard when Cedric was killed and Voldemort came back. I wept uncontrollably  when Dumbledore died. I high-fived the nearest person when I read that Ron and Hermione finally got together. These characters feel like my friends. 

It may be a little ridiculous, but I think part of the reason I still love it all so much (aside from how obviously entertaining and endearing it is) may be that I’m hanging on to my childhood. I’m almost 30, I have three kids, I’ve been married for 6 years, and all of those things are so… adultish. But this piece of literature, this familiar world and enveloping story are all a huge part of my childhood, big enough to make me feel like I’m Harry’s age again whenever I lose myself in it. My excitement hasn’t faded with my knowledge of the ending. 

Any other HP fans? Or maybe you have another book or movie that you connect with your childhood? Tell me about it – I want to hear!

mommyhood, things toddlers say

Things Toddlers Say

3 Comments

Happy Tuesday, y’all! We have a nice, slow week we’re settling into, and I couldn’t be happier. Here are a few funnies from the past week to brighten your Tuesday!

 
EK, looking at Hubby holding D: Aw! Wook at his small toes! Aw! Wook at that! He’s putting his foot on your weg! AWW! WOOK! He is SO CUTE!

I have several friends that work at the college I went to, one of them being my college roommate Anne, who I sometimes pick up and take to lunch. One day, EK was with me and we drove to campus to see another friend. As we pulled onto campus, she said, “Mom! Is this where Anne lives?!” When I told Anne about it later, she said she certainly was there more than anywhere else!

EK: What time is it?
Hubby: 7:53
EK: Woah! Cool!

Annie: EK, your shoes are on the wrong feet.
EK: It’s okay. It doesn’t manners.

J drops his fork: Uh oh! Fook!
Me: Careful, there…

We have a book called “Build a Burrito” and it’s a counting book in English and Spanish. EK always insists on trying to say the Spanish before I do, and also says “turrito” instead of burrito.

EK, showing her folded slice of pizza to Hubby: Daddy! When you was a little boy you made your pizza a taco like this!

(I’m realizing in this moment that we’re obsessed with tacos.)
EK: I want a soft taco! A soft one!
Lauren: What do you want inside your taco?
EK: M&Ms!
Lauren: Girl after my own heart!

Hubby goes to wake EK up for church, and she pulls the covers over her head.
EK: Dad! Leave me alone!
Hubby: Are you 16?!

Halloween.
EK: Daddy, what are you gonna be for Halloleen?
Hubby: A toothbrush!
EK: No. I’m gonna be Mulan and you be Mushu.
(EK has vacillated on costume ideas from Doc McStuffins to Mulan and back.)

Before EK goes to bed, I ask her what her favorite part of the day was. This week, this was one of her answers: “Wearing a princess dress and dancing with my brother Joe.” Melting a mama’s heart. 

Picking up EK from school, with D in the car: Aww! I really missed you, little Davis!

I thought we’d end with a sweet one! How is your week? What are your kids saying?

faith, mommyhood, My Big Jesus, women

Clumsy Girls Need Grace

2 Comments

This post also appeared on My Big Jesus!

Hubby and I always talk about things we hope get passed down to our kids, and things we hope skip right over them. For instance, I had years of braces, but Hubby has naturally straight teeth. Guess which one of those I hope my kids get? Most of those things we talk about won’t manifest until a little later (a couple more years, at least!), but there’s one thing I’ve already seen in my daughter that she got from me…

Her clumsiness.

That actually would be a good royal name for her. More applesauce, Your Clumsiness?

At least once a day, I hear her cry out from across the house. I know nothing major has gone down, because it’s been so frequent that I can pretty much tell you what’s happened. She has stubbed her toe. Almost every single time. Or maybe she dropped something on it, or stumbled off of her plastic, high-heeled princess shoes, or hit her elbow on a doorframe. You know – the usual.

Part of me totally understands. It’s truly frustrating to trip over nothing and have bruises up and down your legs you don’t really remember getting. It’s a pain (ha ha, right?) to bump knees and elbows and toes on everything that sticks out one millimeter. It stinks to be a little less coordinated than the average (already uncoordinated) three-year-old. But the rest of me knows I have one job: teaching her that every little bump or bruise (or thing that doesn’t go her way) can’t be a big deal.

That’s where I’m a fault. Sometimes, I’m the one who makes a giant deal out of a spill, or a crash of something breakable. I’m the one who shouts in pain when I stub my toe – or like this morning, when I hit my knee getting in the car, and exclaimed, “Ouch! I think I broke my leg!” I hit it pretty hard, okay?!

It just isn’t practical to make a huge deal out of a stubbed toe. Or spilled milk. Or a bruised elbow. These things are going to happen, and she and I both need a lesson in patience and shrugging things off. We sometimes bring out the worst in each other, making big deals of things we shouldn’t. But it’s a learning process. I’m hoping to teach her to let it go earlier than I learned – because I’m obviously still working on it even now.

I know that what we need is grace. We need a reminder that we aren’t perfect, we will never be perfect, and it’s okay that way. If we were perfect, we wouldn’t need the love and blood of a Savior to redeem our imperfections. Because we screw up, we react poorly, and then we feel guilt about it, we are human. And humans need Jesus to cover their sins and screw ups with amazing grace. A lesson in grace for my clumsy girl is also a lesson in grace for me.

books, random thoughts

I fell.

4 Comments

The other day, I fell. I fell deep into an internet rabbit hole… of Harry Potter memes. It was so gloriously nerdy and incredibly entertaining that I decided I’d share the nerdgasms with y’all. I’ve scoured the internet and found some of my all-time favorite comical HP memes. Enjoy!

Because Malfoy is actually a scaredy-cat.

source: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/x5cjy/i_miss_the_old_dumbledore/

(source)

And because no one doesn’t like a moustache joke…

source: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzrjx5xtgW1qaw6sso1_500.jpg

(source)

And for that matter, a ginger joke…

source: http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/25-hilarious-harry-potter-comics

(source)

A classic.

source: http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/25-hilarious-harry-potter-comics

(source)

Remember Antoine?

source: http://jjb.yuku.com/topic/635973#.Vf1z0xFViko

(source)

Foreshadowing.

source: http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/hilarious-harry-potter-comics

(source)

Come on and get his name right…

source: http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/hilarious-harry-potter-comics

(source)

Manners.

source: http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/hilarious-harry-potter-comics

(source)

And the trusty fav…

source: http://www.tor.com/2014/07/31/best-harry-potter-memes-gifs-videos-july-31/

(source)

I hope you enjoyed those as much as I did! There will be another Harry Potter post coming this week… I’ve been reliving my childhood!

mommyhood, parenting fails

Parenting Fail #2351

4 Comments

Tonight, we had some friends over for dinner. Hubby had been working on a bolognese all afternoon, and we were all really excited. As usual with tomato-based sauces for dinner, we took the kids clothes off before they got their food. (Anyone else try to save laundry this way?)

When everyone was finishing up, we started taking dishes to the sink, cleaning up a bit, and sipping the last sips of our wine. I look over at J, still in his high chair. His hands are hidden behind him, and he says, “Poop!”

My friend Andrea and I look at each other. Did he just say “poop”? I get up, and realize his hands are behind him, in his diaper. I look at his hands. There’s a questionable substance. In my head, I’m going back and forth: Meat from the sauce? Poop? I can’t tell. Should I smell it? Oh gosh, I don’t want to deal with it if it’s poop. Do I just dump him in the tub? Out loud, I say, “Oh no. Please don’t be poop. Oh God… I think it’s poop! RYAN!”

You guys, praise the Lord for husbands who save the day. Hubby saves mine almost daily, but this takes the cake (at least this week). He scooped J up and took care of the poop problem. What a guy.

Moral of the story: If I hadn’t taken his clothes off, he probably wouldn’t have been able to touch it. Blerg.

Anyone else have a recent poop story to share? I know we all have them sometimes. PLEASE tell me I’m not the only one!

mommyhood, random thoughts

Currently

3 Comments

This may be my latest Currently yet! Sorry for the delay, but Monday (and apparently Tuesday of this week) just are busy these days. So, here it is… What I’m up to currently, linking up as usual with Becky at Choose Happy!

Drinking || lots of coffee. Partially because I’ve been needing the boost, and partially because fall and coffee go perfectly together! Because I make my coffee one cup at a time in the keurig (I have the little cup you fail with your own grounds) I can adjust the caffeine. Sometimes it’s full caffeine, sometimes it’s half-caff or decaf, so that I don’t give myself the jitters!


Sleeping || not as much as I’d like. D is still only sleeping about three hours at a time at night. Maybe four in the first stretch – which is inevitably the one of the night, that starts around 9:00 usually. So I don’t get those four hours, because sometimes EK hasn’t even gone all the way to sleep yet. So I’m feeling the effects of not having any more than four hours at a time in a whiiiiiiile. Hence the coffee.

Watching || James and the Giant Peach with the kids. I haven’t seen it in forever (read: since it came out) and honestly had forgotten about it. But I found it this morning, messing around on Netflix, trying to find something we hadn’t seen eight times. They are loving it!

Planning || a trip to Georgia in October to see my family! My parents come visit fairly often, but everyone else usually comes twice or three times a year. We are excited to go down there and spend several days!

Well, that’s a little update for y’all! What are you up to currently? I’d love to hear!