why????

Just another typical day with Seth:

Me: "Seth, I want you to go potty."
Seth: "Ok!" (and he runs to the bathroom and stays for a curiously long time)
Me: "Seth, come back out here. It doesn't take that long to go potty."
Seth: "Ok mom!" (and he walks out of the bathroom, naked, carrying his stuffed dog)
"Look mom, my doggy got a shower."
(Upon closer inspection I see that the dog is indeed soaking wet)
Me: "Seth, how did you give the dog a shower?"
Seth: "Because he was dirty!"
Me: "Seth, where did the dog get a bath? In the bathtub, in the sink, or in the toilet???"
Seth: (laughs as if this is a ridiculous question) "the toilet!"


WHY???????????

Apple Eating

So it looks like EVERYBODY went apple picking this past weekend. And we are no exception. It was a beautiful weekend so we had to take advantage of the weather and enjoy the great outdoors. I took the kids to Lynds farm for apple picking and they had a lot of fun. I really can't say that Seth and Lilah went apple picking though. I picked the apples and they pretty much just ate them. I had to bring home a bag full of apples with bites out of them because the kids just kept picking up the apples I already picked and taking bites. At one point they stopped even pretending like they were picking apples and just sat down to enjoy their apple snacks. Needless to say, Seth and Lilah have eaten like 20 apples each over the past few days. Every time I turn around I find them sneaking an apple and hiding in a corner to eat it. So now I need to start making apple pies and apple sauce and other apple treats. Any great recipes with apples? Please send them my way. =)

We had a nice weekend with family and friends and the beautiful weather. It was pretty relaxing just kind of hanging out and eating apples all weekend. Seth and Lilah got into a pretty heated fight on the way to my parents' house. (I think Lilah kept putting her feet in Seth's car seat). Seth called to me in the front seat and said "Mom, when we get home I'm just gonna have to get my magic wand and zap Lilah into a mosquito!" I guess he thought she'd be easier to squash (or at least ignore) if she was a mosquito. Other than that the kids were fairly mild mannered and cooperative this weekend. Which is a huge blessing when it happens, let me tell you. Especially when Josh is working all weekend. There was only one other particularly infuriating incident when I sent Seth to go potty and found him five minutes later standing in the pee filled toilet. I don't even know what to do with that... I just kind of shrieked and washed his feet off in the sink with soap. Anyways, the kids are sleeping now after a busy, fun-filled day at Cosi Science Center and playing outside. I am enjoying the quiet. Good night!

potty training woes

Parenting can sometimes feel like something of an uphill battle when it comes to training your children to become adults and more specifically to be the men and women God created them to be... to reach their fullest potential with character, integrity, and grace. When they are really young (like mine), your accomplishments towards these end goals are what might feel like small victories in development. For example, we are working on feeding by themselves, picking up toys when asked, sharing, getting dressed without help, and potty training. And while you work on the developmental skills, you do your best to instill quality of character in your children such as kindness, gentleness, peace, love, and so on. (We focus on the Fruits of the Spirit found in Ephesians) Sometimes you start aiming for a developmental goal and discover that your child catches on immediately and you decide that he/she must hold a certain level of brilliance. Your pride swells and you might even go so far as to think that you must be doing something right as a parent. Other times, it takes them a little longer to grasp a certain concept and it can be frustrating... but you just kind of blow it off and delight in the quirkiness of your child. And then there are times when you are sure that they are deliberately resisting the attempt to accomplish a certain goal for the pure and distinct purpose of driving you to the brink of insanity. And this is where I find myself right now with Seth. We have been working on potty training for about 6 months now. I waited until he was really ready. I did not push him because I didn't want to engage in a battle of the wills over this issue. One day, he decided to do it and peed in the potty consistently with nearly zero accidents for 2 months. And then he just stopped. He won't tell me when he has to go potty and always prefers to go in his pants. I remind him to go to the potty regularly and he screams and melts down. We were totally and completely confused by this until this last weekend. I finally realized that the issue was that he is terrified to put down his toys in fear that Lilah will get them. He has been seriously struggling with sharing lately too. So, in short... he won't potty train and it's because he is going through an incredibly selfish phase. Basically, I am a failure at both potty training and instilling a sharing spirit in my son. Two key areas of parenting. And I think he really is trying to drive me crazy. I can see the gleam in his eye and the curl of his mouth when he tells me he peed in his pants. This may all sound very dramatic, but I am at the brink of madness with 2 kids in diapers and another diaper baby coming soon. Help!

First blog

Ok, so I'm not much of a blogger because I feel generally confident that I don't have anything interesting enough to write about for people to regularly check-in. And then I'm sure that my dearest friends and family will simply have to add one more thing to do during their day (read my boring blog) so that when I say something about something I have blogged, they will be able to act as though they are riveted by my writing and read it religiously. So, for the record, I don't expect everybody to read my blog all the time. Although, I will be secretly offended if nobody does. =) I'm kind of kidding.

I pretty much decided to start a blog because everybody else does it and it is kind of a convenient way to keep friends and family posted about the rare, important things that pop up in our lives. As of right now, there is not really anything much to write about. Josh is home this weekend, so we are trying to spend some time as a family. Although that has been easier said than done because I swear stuff always comes up that pulls him away. And then we get to the end of the weekend and realize that we hardly spent any quality time together at all. There's my gripe for the day. For those of you who don't know me quite as well as some, I am an enduring cynic. I know most people brag about being an optimist and always looking for the positive things in life and in people. I won't even pretend to be like that. I used to pretend. And then realized that even when I said positive things or tried to encourage people, I was usually sugar-coating the situation and was often times faking my optimism. I'm sorry to say that I am genuinely a kind of negative person who usually braces myself for the worst. I once read, though, that cynical people tend to handle crisis better because they have privately been preparing for it their whole lives. I cling to that when I start to feel bad about the way my mind works. I also appreciate the quote on my best friend's blog that says "It doesn't matter whether the glass is half empty or half full, it only matters what you're drinking." =) It doesn't help right now that I am 7 months pregnant and find myself unbelievably irritable. I've never understood women who talk about how emotional and sensitive they get when they are pregnant. I just get annoyed. I don't know why and it's not really with everyone. But my tolerance level drops considerably as my pregnancy progresses. So let me just apologize for that right now. Anyways, hopefully the rest of the weekend will go well and we'll get some good time together with Josh. Tonight is the Ohio State game and a couple friends are coming over to watch the game, so that should be fun! And I guess we'll just see how this blogging thing goes.