Sunday, May 31, 2009

My Most Polite Child

Peas, Peas, Peas, no she's not asking for a vegetable that's just her cute little way of saying "please". The "peas" are quickly turning into a full on Please though and I find myself missing her mispronunciation!
My other children are all pretty polite and know to say please and thank you but my 20mo, Lainey, was by far the youngest to learn these words. She started out by signing "more" when she was a baby, then she started saying the word "more". Eventually her daddy wanted me to teach her to sign the word "please" but from past experience with other children and the mess they make when this is signed I asked if I could wait on that one~ you see for "please" you place your flat palm on your chest and rub it around in a circular motion~ let me tell you this can get really messy when you are eating and when do kids use the word "please" the most?...you got it! So instead of signing it I started saying it to her every time she wanted something, then as soon as she learned to say it I started requiring her to say it for everything. Now the word "Peas" is an automatic response for her and she sounds so incredibly cute every time she says it! The hard part is when she really wants something and says it incessantly!!!! Seriously you can hardly get her to stop, but hey better that than screaming or throwing a fit right? :) Oh and the funny part is that sometime she will sign "more" while saying "peas" or if we try to get her to say "more please" she will say "mease". Oh and we have added "tank do" to the mix.

As an added note she is usually very smiley but these were the only recent pics I had of her so they had to do! Next post will be updated pics of the kids...those who know me IRL will not believe how big my little man is!


Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Now I'm THAT Mom

I recently had a new friend over. We had never met but had both gone to the same church in the town that we moved from. We had heard about one another through mutual friends and were finally able to get together. I really enjoyed our visit and look forward to getting together more! We have yet to meet many people in this new town so this was certainly a ray of sunshine!

After she left I got to thinking and realized that now I'm THAT mom. The mom with four kids that I used to look up to when I only had one or maybe two. The mom that homeschooled and still had a semblance of normalcy in her home. I remembered how I used to think "how does she do it" "I can barely do it with one" "wow her house looks pretty clean" "her kids are so well behaved." Then I started thinking that if I'm now THAT mom, well the fallacies should be revealed! You see now that I'm THAT mom I realize that the house is clean because you and two of your older children have run around like crazy people trying to clean up and get things in order! Now that I'm THAT mom I realize that it is only by God's grace that my children behave and that you missed the disrespectful attitude that the middle child displayed earlier that day. Now that I'm THAT mom I realize that having older kids to entertain and help with the younger children really makes having four almost easier than one. Now that I'm THAT mom I truly see that it is only through HIM that I am able to do all of this. Now that I'm THAT mom I also see the importance of being real with others and sharing my struggles so they realize that I'm not really THAT mom!

Now that I'm THAT mom I have found myself looking up to THOSE moms, you know, the ones with 7,8,9-18 kids! Their lives seem so orderly and together while I feel like mine has much chaos and messyness!!! The ones who make all their own food, have their own garden, milk their own cow, homeschool, and lead a Bible study. But you know what, now that I have realized that I have become THAT mom, THOSE moms don't intimidate me quite so much anymore because I bet that when I get there I'll realize that they are just like me!

Now for a family update. Josiah is now 4mo. We are having so much fun with him. Everyone enjoys him and he brings so many smiles to our family. We are continuing to adjust to our new home and contnue our search for a new church family. (why oh why does this have to be so hard!) We are doing some fun experiments in our homeschool with red cabage and acidic foods as well as reading some fun book like In Grandma's Attic and Hudson Taylor. I'm contnuing to learn more about healthy eating and natural living and I love it!
Till next time,
Charlsie