Discipline

As a result of Mr. Mister's choices tonight, he had to go to bed right after dinner (which was 8:00 anyway) without rocking or reading books. This was devestating. To him and to us. We love that connection time before bed just as much as he does.

He screamed in his crib for what seemed like forever but was probably only 20 minutes. I thought back to when we were trying to get him to sleep through the night and let him cry one night for 2 hours. For some reason, tonight seemed so much worse. I even started crying.

Finally, after a long time of screaming, I went into get him. We felt like he had already experienced enough pain of a bad choice and it sounded like he was too worked up to calm down at all.

As he collapsed into my arms out of exhaustion, I started crying. I just love this little guy so much and hate when he hurts. It was a sweet time of rocking together and singing him to sleep.

The David Book

One of Mr. Mister's favorite new books is Oops by David Shannon. It's pretty simple with two words on each page and we've read it so many times that he has it memorized. Here he is telling us the words of the book (with only a little reminder from Mommy). Not only is he smart, he's super cute as he says it! (You can hear that he has a stuffy nose, too.)



The author of this book writes the "No, David!" series, based on his childhood of being a mischievous toddler and later a troublemaking student. We already relate to the toddler books!

Here are the words of this book (with the scene it's describing in parenthesis), to help you understand what Mr. Mister is saying:

David's first words were...
Ball, uh-oh! (ball breaking a window)
Dog, oops! (dropping food on the dog's back)
Ride, whee! (riding fast on a tricycle)
Eat, yum! (eating while getting food everywhere)
Bath, ahh! (sitting in the bath with his toys)
Mama. (sleeping on his mama's shoulder after his long day of mischief!)

The R Word

I was really excited to read in the paper today that our governor signed a bill into law to remove the "R" word from state and local boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MRDD). They will be now called the "Board of Developmental Disabilities."

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people use the word "retarded" to describe people or situations or anything else. It's offensive to people with developmental disabilities and to me, who taught and loves students with cognitive delays/developmental disabilities. It has become so common in the English vocabulary, but there are actually groups who are working hard to stop people from using it in every day conversation (www.r-word.org).

So, while its existence in MRDD was not in itself offensive (it's still used in some special education settings), to me this is a big step in raising awareness that it's an inappropriate word to use in all other contexts, especially to casually call someone retarded.

Thanks for letting me stand on my soapbox for a minute!

Looking Good

Don't you think Mr. Mister could be this swimsuit company's spokesperson?

Redneck Moments

Both of these moments occurred our drive home from vacation.

First, we pulled into a gas station and saw three horses tied up to the pumps! I wish I could say we were deep in the heart of the south, but we were actually only about 30 miles outside of our city! Mr. Mister loved seeing them up close and one even put on a show, neighing a few times while we stood there watching them.

The next hillbilly moment came when we were a mile from our house and saw this Mr. Mister- size-Jeep in someone's garbage pile at the end of their driveway. I couldn't believe someone was throwing it away! We knocked on the door but no one answered, so we just strapped it to the back of our little Civic and brought it home.


I was slightly embarrassed, but it was worth it - Mr. Mister loves it and we don't even have the batteries in yet. He's content just to sit in it and pretend to drive. He must have inherited his Daddy's Jeep love.

Beautiful

The sunset over the marsh behind the house.

The sunrise the morning we left

I'm not sure how anyone could witness such beauty and not ascribe it to a brilliant Creator.

Some Vacation Pics

Mr. Mister getting ready for the beach in his flotation bathing suit. He loves this bathing suit and always picked it over the normal one.

The people on the beach next to us rented this kayak. They let Mr. Mister sit in it, which he did for at least 20 minutes!

So happy in the boat!

Our 5 year anniversary date.