A Taste of Summer

We met our PA family at an indoor waterpark this weekend. We had a great visit with them and a lot of fun playing in the water (and it was really nice to finally be warm!). Mr. Mister couldn't get enough of being in the water, even with pruned hands and feet to show for the hours he spent swimming and going down the slides. He loved every part of it and by the end, he was pretty independent, going down the kiddie slides all by himself. Needless to say, the weekend wore him out, which made for a peaceful ride home and an early bed time tonight.

It's hard to believe, but we didn't take any pictures. We did get some videos. Here's a cute one that shows his excitement!

Outdoorsmen

I wish I had some pictures to go with this post. Daddy and Mr. Mister have been having many outdoor adventures together recently and the little man is definitely picking up his daddy's love for all of these activities. Here are some of the fun things they have done:

• One night while I was making dinner, they went on a hike in the woods behind our house in the dark with Daddy's headlamp. Mr. Mister loved wearing it and wasn't scared at all to be in the woods at night.
• Another night when I wasn't home, they packed Mr. Mister's Thomas the Train backpack and went "camping" in the tent in his room. They curled up in sleeping bags and told stories in the dark with just the headlamp on.
• During our last big snow storm, Daddy took Mr. Mister down the hill behind our house on his snowboard. He loved it and now pretends to snowboard even inside.
  
• Today, Daddy took a break from working (the beauty of working at home!) to take Mr. Mister sledding on the tiny bit of snow that was left. But, Mr. Mister didn't want to sled, he wanted to snowboard. So he stood up on the sled and went down the hill like he was snowboarding. No fear. (I keep reminding myself that somehow Daddy never broke a bone with all the crazy things he did, so there's hope!).
  

I love that they are so similar and that they share all these fun times together. The best part is that Daddy has just as much fun doing everything as Mr. Mister does. He doesn't do any of it out of obligation but out of pure delight in being with his son. I love it. I am so blessed by both of them.

Here is one more way I can tell that Mr. Mister already has the outdoorsman blood in him: Tonight in the bath he was playing with one of his rubber duckies that has goggles on its head and he said, "Look. He's wearing a headlamp!"

Booger!

A few minutes after I put Mr. Mister down for his nap today, I could hear him yelling something really loud but I couldn't understand what he was saying. I let him go for a minute, but he kept yelling it over and over. So finally I went up to his room and asked him, "What are you saying?"

He held up his finger and said, "Booger."

Sure enough, he had one on his finger that he couldn't get off. This whole time he had been yelling "Booger!" really loud because he didn't know what else to do!

Giving

Check this blog out about a family teaching their kids to give. (For some reason I can't directly link to the post I want to, so just click on the link and then scroll down to the "Saturday, January 23" post).

These kids are all 6 or under. You will be blown away by their hearts and by their willingness to sacrifice for other people that they don't even know. And they know it's not just a good thing to do, but a demonstration of the fact that what we have is not ours...that when we hold our money and things with open hands, God is glorified and we experience great joy.

Not Today!

Tonight, Mr. Mister and Daddy were playing and wrestling around when Mr. Mister tried to bite him. This is one behavior that is so frustrating because he doesn't always do it maliciously. A lot of times it just comes out of no where when we're playing. I'm sure he just gets worked up and doesn't remember the boundaries (despite a million reminders that we don't bite).

Anyway, Daddy was talking seriously to him and at the end said, "Are you going to bite me again?"

Mr. Mister thought about it, smiled, and said, "Not today!"

We couldn't help it - we both just started laughing at this response that was not at all what we were expecting. (I know, not a great response when trying to discipline!)

Loving Our Kids on Purpose

If anyone is interested, a lot of our thoughts on parenting have come from this book: Loving Our Kids on Purpose by Danny Silk. His main ministry is family life and relationships and he is big on creating environments of love and honor instead of control, fear, and anxiety. In the book, he focuses on the parent-child connection as the most important foundation of parenting, which helps us teach our kids how to manage their freedom. He says that because God is more concerned with teaching us to live free lives in a world of unlimited options rather than trying to keep us from sin, we should teach our kids the same thing.

It's a pretty untraditional approach to parenting, but a refreshing new paradigm that we like for a lot of reasons, mainly the fact that it emphasizes our relationship with Mr. Mister and helps us prepare him for a world filled with choices, which is reality.

We are FAR from having it all down and don't do everything exactly as he says in the book. But we're learning as we go.

Here's a funny clip of Danny Silk demonstrating how to teach a 2 year old to manage himself. It's a little hard to hear at first, but the premise is that he's acting out a mom giving a 2 year old the choice between being fun or staying in his room until he can be fun.

Here are a few more clips if you're interested:
Loving Our Kids on Purpose - a short background
Red Truck, Yellow Truck Relationship - it's not about control
The Priority of Connection

A Small Victory!

We are big on giving Mr. Mister choices. Having a choice really empowers kids to take ownership of their decisions, rather than just being controlled by the big authority figure of mom or dad. Not that we at all question our authority as parents, but we also know that God gives us the freedom to make good and bad choices and doesn't force us to be obedient. Chosen obedience is sweeter and more authentic and life giving than forced obedience.

The secret to giving choices is to always being okay with both options!. The most common one we give him is "Easy way or hard way?" That mostly applies to changing his diaper, getting in the car seat, etc. He can do it himself the easy way or we do it the hard way, which is never fun for anyone. He's really starting to make progress in seeing that choosing the easy way is much better!

Another choice we have given him recently has to do with his whining. Instead of just saying, "Stop whining," we say something along the lines of "If you need to keep whining, please go in the other room. When you're ready to be happy, come on back in."

So today, when he was getting upset after we told him he couldn't have more of something to eat, he told us, "I want to go whine in the family room." And he walked himself in there and came back less than a minute later saying, "I'm happy now!"

It was such a small but significant victory! He was really taking responsibility for his own decisions and he made a good choice. We showered him with hugs and kisses and let him know how proud of him we were.

Getting some practice...

Here is Mr. Mister getting some big brother practice. He's holding our friend's baby, Henry (or Henwy, as he says). This made his day. It was a couple weeks ago and he still talks about it.



Visiting Henry did set off some "reverting back to baby" behaviors. He laid on Henry's play mat and asked for a bottle and for a pacifier (which he didn't know the name of since he only sucked his thumb). In the weeks since then, he has at times started crawling and babbling, telling us he's a baby. I've heard this is normal when a sibling comes along so it doesn't really bother me. I just tell him that babies have to take extra naps and can't eat all the foods he likes. That usually does the trick!

The Doctor

Here was our conversation this morning as I was getting ready to go to my 26 week check up:

Me: I have to go to the doctor this morning.
Mr.: Are you going without me?
Me: Yes.
Mr.: I'm sad.
Me: I'm sad to leave you, too. But you'll have more fun playing with Pey Pey.
Mr.: Are you going to get a lollipop at the doctor?

Haha....so that's why he wanted to come! How quickly they learn the routine. Sadly, this doctor doesn't have lollipops...but I think they should!

Here's a video that also shows his enjoyment of going to the doctor's office. If you can't tell, the medal around his neck is his stethascope and he's saying, "breathe. breathe..." At the end he says, "All healthy!"

Learning so much...

...from me. Even the things I don't intend to teach him!

Here are two things Mr. Mister has said lately that are just repeats of what I've said to him a million times. It just shows that they really are listening even when they don't act like it!!

• Usually I let him crack eggs into the bowl when we are cooking and he does a really good job for a 2 year old. But there is always some kind of egg yolk mess afterwards. So the other day, after I finished cracking some eggs, he said, "Don't touch anything! Just wash your hands!" He is already picking up on my slight obsession with avoiding raw egg and meat germs...not sure if that is good or bad.
  

• Today he said to me, "I say no and you say okay, I trust you.'" Haha....who is in charge here? He definitely thinks he is, but at least he's learning what we're trying to teach him (even if he has yet to say this well conditioned response when I actually tell him no).
  

Chaos and Peace

Today I enjoyed a fun morning at the museum with Mr. Mister and my sister and nephews, while the sun was shining and the skies were blue (finally!). A short nap in the afternoon capped off a fairly peaceful day. The chaos of my day consisted mostly of tantrums and power struggles that are typical of a mom and two year old relationship.

Not that far away, however, real chaos reigned today. Bodies of earthquake victims in Haiti piled up, families wailed in grief, people searched tirelessly and anxiously for unaccounted for loved ones. Food was rationed because grocery stores are flattened, people slept outside of their homes either because the houses were unsafe or because they feared more damage due to the dozens of aftershocks that have occurred. Needless to say, this country that already lives in extreme poverty is overcome with suffering right now.

I vividly remember feeling this same tension between peace and chaos on September 12,2001 as I went for a run on a beautiful, sunny day in the midwest as New York City was in utter despair. It is crazy to me that two worlds can coexist at the same moment in time in such drastically different states.

Anyway, I've been following two blogs of missionaries in Haiti. In case you're interested in reading their accounts of what's going on, here they are:

• The director of Jesus in Haiti ministries
• The Livesay family

One encouraging note is that my email inbox has been flooded with emails from so many organizations who are already mobilizing help or addressing the need through partnering organizations. Matthew 25: Ministries, One, Jesus in Haiti, the Salvation Army, and Charity:Water are just some of those who are already taking action. I encourage you to take action as well by praying for Haiti and/or giving to one of these organizations for their relief efforts.

I'm challenging myself to not be so content with the peace of my own sunny world that I forget the need of our neighbors.

Hitting the High Notes

Mr. Mister loves to sing and picks up on songs pretty quickly. One of the songs we've been singing to him before bed is O Holy Night (the Christmas song). Here he is singing the "night divine" part, which is really high and really funny. He makes us laugh so much! Oh, and there's a little intro of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, which is his favorite.

Snow Day!

It was fun to get several inches of snow today. We finally made it out to play in it after Mr. Mister's nap in the afternoon. For some reason, he did not want to go out...maybe it was the whole getting ready process. But after we finally got him out there, he had a lot of fun, especially making snow angels. My favorite part was riding with Mr. Mister in the sled while Daddy ran and pulled us along the straight stretch of sidewalk in front of our house. He sure got a workout!

We were hoping to use the "snowman kit" Aunt J and Cousin Beybeth made for Mr. Mister for Christmas (complete with a hat, gloves, sticks, buttons, and rocks for decorating a snowman). But, it wasn't great packing snow so it will have to wait. Hopefully there will be more snow to come!

No Mommy!

Last night as we were going to bed, we heard Mr. Mister yell out in his sleep, "No, Mommy!" It made me laugh - he must have been dreaming about our days together! He shouts that lovely phrase more than once a day, along with multiple variations of "Don't do that!" (Don't close the door, don't say no, etc.) and other commands that make me wonder who the parent is.

I have to remind myself that this is part of being two and that like everything else, it is just a season. To keep myself laughing when I get really tired of being yelled at by my two year old, I think of telling all of these stories to his wife some day. I'm sure we'll all laugh about it then, so I try to laugh about it now. (I'm not always successful).

I hope this doesn't sound like I just roll over and let him run the house. We are really working on his use of nice words and what are and are not appropriate ways to talk to people. But I just know that 2 year olds don't always know nice ways to say things or what is and isn't appropriate. That's our job as parents to teach him. Which is just one of the things that makes parenting arguably the hardest job in the world.

Mr. Mister in Action

Here are two really funny videos of Mr. Mister. The first was at the walk-through light display we went to the other night. In the big barn afterwards, they had hot chocolate, cookies, and a girl scout troop singing Christmas carols on stage. You would think the cookies would be his favorite part, but he quickly bolted from our table to go watch the girls sing. Then, without a second thought, he climbed up on stage to sing with them! It was hilarious - he was standing off to the side, singing and swaying like he belonged there. He loves being on stage (personality trait number 500 that he did not get from his mom!).

This second video was from breakfast one morning. He loves hot chocolate (or hot cholick, as he says). We totally set him up for this little commercial shoot, but it's so funny anyway. He's a natural in front of the camera (personality trait number 501 he didn't get from his mom).

Days with Daddy

To start off the posting of pictures from the past couple weeks, here are some from the days in between having family in town when just Mr. Mister, Daddy, and I hung out together. We did a lot of fun things those few days.


Here is Mr. Mister riding the train at the holiday display at the museum. You can't tell by the look on his face, but he really liked riding it. He would get off and get right back in line to ride it over and over.

One afternoon, we went to an indoor playground, which also happens to have a gymnastics school there as well. Even though he got to to jump on trampolines and go down slides, his favorite part was watching the girls tumble. We're in for it!

Daddy and Mr. Mister had some guy time at the library, where they played with the puppets. This one was Maisy, like the mouse in the books Mr. Mister likes to read. He is lucky to have such a fun Daddy!

One really cold night, we went to a walk through Christmas light display at a farm nearby. It was a lot of fun and I discovered that Mr. Mister has his daddy's genes in that he can stay in the cold forever. I was ready to get hot chocolate in the barn right away, but they stayed outside and played for a while.

Back to Life

Tomorrow begins real life again. While I get sad thinking about all of our family visits being over and Daddy going back to work, I am ready to have routine and structure and a little down time again.

We have had so much fun over the last two weeks with family in town. Grandma and Papa and Uncle C, Aunt J, and cousin Beybeth were all in town this week for New Year's through the weekend. It was great for them all to be here and Mr. Mister definitely enjoyed having so many fun people to play with!

He especially loved Papa's story telling, and kept saying, "Tell me the funny part." Then Papa had to tell another funny story as Mr. Mister listened intently with his eyes locked on his grandpa.

I'll post some pictures from this past week and our time with the PA family later. For now I need to get to bed so I can be ready for reality tomorrow - just Mr. Mister and me.