Happy Holidays 2008

Wow, we are having a wonderful Christmas and Holiday season for 2008! I hope you are also.

The best thing about the season is being able to see and spend some really nice time with your family and loved ones. I and my family have been fortunate to have been able to drive/visit/host several family members over the Thanksgiving/Christmas time.

Next we are on to some New Year festivities in the Dallas area with my brother-in-law and their family, plus squeezing in some more visiting time in with our oldest daughter and her husband and our two older children in the Dallas area.

Talk about a whirlwind.

Our teenage son has been squeezing in some quality time with saxophone practice here and there, plus enjoying so much quality time with his older siblings, who we get to see too little of during the year.

Our littlest is getting into the swing of things with the gifts. He had no interest in actually opening the presents, just set them out for him to play with and explore. I don't think that there was one gift that he didn't actually love. He really got into playing with his new Learning Bus, firetruck and his learning pad.

One of our traditions at our house is to decorate Christmas cookies, my teenage son has loved this activity over the years and we were really looking forward to starting the tradition with my littlest. He participated by standing on the stepstool and eating cookies, couldn't get him to sprinkle cookies or even decorate cookies, but he did stand there quietly eating away. My two younger sons are so....different in their interests.

My littlest did have a meltdown during the experience, he got some frosting on his finger and got very upset until we could get it cleaned off.

Now, I am talking about the kid who on Christmas Day jumped into the dog's water dish with his best clothes on then proceeded to play and roll around in the dirt and eat mud and dirt pies!!! He only had a meltdown when he got cookie frosting on his finger!!! Gotta love it...

Here are a few photos, click on this link to be able to view some more Christmas 2008.

Christmas Can Be Frustrating If You Are A Little Guy!!!

I think this picture sums up some of his feelings. Maybe it is because my littlest son is a stay at home guy, but it has been awful frustrating around the house the last few days for him!!!

As we have been super organized and have gotten most of the Christmas presents and decorations completed and out, it has only added to the frustration being experienced by our littlest.

There are so many no, no's around, that I will have to take the time to make sure he has some yes, yes's in there. He is not interested in playing with the items that are out that he is allowed to play with, the only interesting things around are the fragile/delicate things.

I caught him trying to open a present yesterday and every ornament on the tree is just calling out his name...

Pray for my littlest...because there are even more things out and about in our home for him to be frustrated with...

Fall Afternoon Of Fun

While dad was remodeling in the kitchen, littlest and I spent alot of time outside enjoying the beautiful Fall weather. He mastered tossing of the mulch, stuffing of the knothole, sliding down the slide face first and eating of bark. He favorite word this afternoon, was 'whee' as he threw around leaves, dirt, etc. He had a ball and we were outside for 1 1/2 hours!!! It truly was perfect, wish you could have been there, check out some more really cute photos from our adventure.

Fall Afternoon of Fun 2008

Trick or Treat 2008

Well the season for Trick or Treating sure came up really fast this year. This was our first year to go out and about with our littlest. We were able to go to the local 'Trunk or Treat' event at a local church. My DH and I have never participated, so we were a little shocked to see a line of over 200 kids at least to go through the trunk or treat, they probably had over 400 kids when it was all said and done. The church backs up about 15 cars in their parking lot and they hand out candy to the little kids, good idea and alot safer if you don't know which houses to go to, plus it was a really good opportunity to visit with parents and see alot of really neat costumes.

Needless to say our littlest was a little overwhelmed by it all!!! But he got the hang of it pretty fast. Also, he has never eaten candy before, so this was a night for alot of firsts.... Amazingly, he zeroed in on the lollipops in his goodie bag and by the time we left he had eaten over 3 lollipops!!! Sugar on a stick!!! I think we might have created a new candy monster...

He went as a race car driver, I think he was really cute and he didn't fuss over wearing any part of it and kept the hat on, once he saw all of the kids dressed up. Plus he loved to swing and run around with his pumpkin candy holder. Then we went back home and he helped dad hand out candy. Sorry I don't have any photos, but momma had to go the HS football game and work the concession stand as a band booster. From what I hear, he had a ball running to give out candy, he was running to meet the kids when they got to our driveway regardless of how scarey some of their costumes were and was handing out hugs as well as candy and had a ball waving to everyone as they left. He is 'Mr. Social'.

His usual bedtime is about 9:00pm and that night my DH was lucky to get him in bed by 10:30 and apparently he didn't put up a fight at all, he must have been exhausted. So I think he got into the swing of things and probably can't wait until next year!!!

Check out the rest of the photos!!!

Trick or Treat 2008

My Littlest, Another Day, Another Word!!!

I have not written about this until now, but I have been a little bit intense about my littlest DS not really embracing speaking. He is now 27 months old and still is very much into his own language.

I guess I am feeling a little like it might be a reflection of something that I have done wrong or not done enough of, I am taking it personally.

My DH says not to worry, but I have still been worried...

Our littlest suffers from allergies, and I have learned not to take him to the doctor for routine antibiotics and have learned to work through the occasional three day period of ear inflammation, sore throat, drippy nose, etc.

You see when my teenage DS was little he suffered with allergies also. There were numerous nights when he was having earaches and his sister would place him on her chest and sleep with him in the recliner, she couldn't bear to hear him cry because the pressure on his eardrums was hurting him. I routinely had him on antibiotics, talked with doctors on whether or not he needed tubes in his ears, etc. An ENT surgeon that I worked with, even though he routinely was putting tubes in kids ears everyday, so he would never put his own child through the procedure, too much risk with anesthesia. Plus all of the teachings about our children developing into antibiotic resistant individuals because of our inappropriate and misuse of routine antibiotics when they are of no benefit to the healing process, especially with allergies and ear infections.

So some of the reasoning behind our decisions against antibiotics and surgical intervention, but sometimes you wonder if you might have a child with a hearing loss.

Our teenage DS lived through the experiences, had no speech impediment and only shows minor hearing damage from the first three years of his allergy struggles.

So I have some history with being fearful re: possible hearing loss.

With our littlest, he said the obligatory mama, dada at the right stages and then stopped after about one week, really haven't heard it since. He developed his own language at about 11 months old and hasn't demonstrated too much interest in acquiring any of our language. So when you might be expecting him to say cup, cow, ear, no, yes, etc. He doesn't... But, it is weird, he has said multi-word statments out of the blue, here and there...i.e. what are you doing?, etc. He just is not into single word statments.

So my intensity has gotten a little worse over the past few weeks. I have been reading and researching the subject quite abit. Do I need to get him into an Early Childhood Intervention Program, do we need to get his hearing tested, etc?

My DH has remained calm throughout my ramblings and said that there is nothing wrong with our littlest, he doesn't have a hearing loss, chooses not to speak when prompted and not to worry!

Well, it seems that within the last week, when my intesity for worry has increased, now all of a sudden his latest statement is 'what's that?' and making 'duhduhduh' and 'buhbuhbuh' phrases all of the time.

He still laughs extremely hard at me when I am reading to him, he wants to look at books himself and doesn't want mom around, laughs when I say his numbers, colors, letters, etc. and runs away.

So I guess I need to take a 'chill pill' as my DH says and just trust my littlest and the Lord for helping him to learn and develop his skills at the pace and rate that he chooses and not according to what I think he should be doing!!!

So excuse me when I might post about my being thrilled when my littlest says a new word or phrase!!!

I guess we all still have a lot to learn?!?

Psycholbabble Parenting

I really enjoyed the posting on Jess's site. Please read it for yourself....Making Yourself At Home

Psychobabble Parenting

It is a wonderful blog statment, full of tremendous wisdom.

Okay, Okay, Better Late Than Never Right!!!

Just to prove that I really do take pictures at special times of the year. Easter 2008. I have some more somewhere, will have to search and find...

Just Singing and Dancing and Playing In The Rain

My littlest DS just loves, loves, loves to play outside and when it is drizzling is no exception. It was a little chilly, but he had waited all day very patiently....I couldn't deny him any longer...adorable little guy I think!!!

More if you would like...Dancing In The Rain

Two Little Helpers and Good Playmates

Today was a beautiful Fall day. We just couldn't resist to get outside very early and play with the sidewalk chalk, trike, etc.

Then later before nap time, we made over 90 pumpkin shaped sugar cookies, our special treat for the High School band kids as they are traveling to a game tonight over 1 1/2 hr one way from home.

Did I mention, I love Fall!!! More photos to review...http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/PLNEWHOU/Two%20Little%20Playmates/

Timeouts Can Be Very Effective With A Toddler!!!

Today I had the opportunity to place my littlest DS in timeout on two separate occasions. It seems that the more I am using this technique the more devastated he is in when he is placed in timeout.

• First, occasion, I was starting laundry and he and his new playmate were found with their hands in the bird cage trying to grab ahold of the parakeet (they have never been this bold previously, so the timeout was for 5 minutes, an eternity for a toddler) then they both had to listen to a short lecture from me


• Second, throwing his dinner plate on the floor (if it is not meatloaf or meatballs, lately, then he is not happy with any other food selection and this is one way of expressing his frustration)

I and my littlest DS can use all of your prayers and support as we trudge through all of these issues....we really are in the full throws of the 'terrible two's'.

I am also trying to use the 'Five Languages of Love' and figure what is his 'love language' to try to discern which type of discipline/correction will be the most effective with my little 'mule'. Our Sunday School class bible study lately has been re: Saul and it is interesting to study how he was a 'donkey wrangler' as a young man and how that characterized the children of Israel and their desire to have him as their first king.

Just call me "Mama Saul".

Toddler Struggles

I guess the title should read 'Mommy's Struggles' for my littlest really isn't struggling at all.

I am finding it good that I my littlest DS has a playmate that comes over on Mondays and Fridays. He is doing pretty well with the visits. They typically hug when they meet and each loves to wave bye/bye when she leaves for the day.

I have found that our littlest one is very strong natured and it is a bit more of a challenge to get him to follow-through with obeying 'no no's. I have been using diversion and also timeouts, but we do also believe in corporal punishment so there are also pops occasionally.

I am trying to not get too hung up on feeling like I need to have him learning his 'ABC's, numbers, etc.' I am reviewing them but he just laughs and wants to do his own thing. I can't even get him to point to his mouth, nose, ears, eyes, etc. He doesn't want to do that. I guess I am also frustrated with his lack of wanting to talk, he is very at ease with using his own language and we can occasionally hear him say some words, but for the most part, it sounds like Chinese/Hungarian and he loves to talk....so there is no lack of our acquiring his language.

From what I understand, I shouldn't be hung up on his language and other skills and just allow him to play and explore all the more.

It can be difficult to adjust when you have such different personalities and interests between your children. So I am all the more having to learn to let go and trust God with my child.

More B-Day Photos

Couldn't get him to put on a party cap....no, no way...!!!

Hmmm, do you think we bought this for the right person?

Yes, more than 2 candles on the cake, he loves to blow out candles, so we indulged his desires...excessively....isn't that what good parenting is all about?!?
Ready for lots of playing in the backyard, now on to Fort Apricot....(will have to write more about that at a later time....)
Yes, he became very focused on his new Dr. Seuss book from his bigger bro, couln't get him to put it down, so we proceeded anyway...

Ta da....drum roll please!!!

And the moment, that so many have been waiting for....

Don't take it too hard, he tolerated it pretty well for a little guy.

Guess, I cut David's a little too short this time also...twinkies....