Faithful

   "What is God's standard of evaluation for you and me in our given roles?  Success?  Perfection??  His word tells us, 'Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful' 1Corinthians 4:2

 FAITHFULNESS IS GOD'S STANDARD!

   As His servants we are not required to be perfect or successful- simply faithful!  Our assigned role is a trust.  In His sovereignty He has said it is in this role we can best glorify Him.

  Holy Father, You know the joys and heartaches of my role.  I confess that I have strived for my will and worldly success and perfection instead of Yours.  Grant me the courage to be a servant.  Oh, God, I long to be faithful to You.  I accept my assigned role as a gift.  Teach me to 'cease striving and know that You are God'."
                                                                                                         From Calm My Anxious Heart
                                                                                                                 by Linda Dillow

Ever Changing

   I consider myself to be a pretty determined focused person but at times I feel very indecisive.  I'm learning it's not me... it's life!  Darn those kids, they are ever changing.  What worked for awhile suddenly doesn't.  What wasn't working before suddenly fits.  What brought this on??

   Well, we are about a month into school and I remembering quickly why I chose Sonlight last year.  I like having a plan to follow.  However, we did tire of it by year end and it was too pricey for us this year. Regardless of price (or boredom for mom) I do function better with a plan and preferably a plan that doesn't rely completely on me to come up with topics and activities everyday!

 After some frustration and thinking I remembered my girlfriend has a copy of Konos curriculum and I knew she wasn't using it because she is involved in a co-op.  I called her to see if I could look at it and she told me I could HAVE it!  Woo hooo!  We did Konos years ago with this family and loved it but it was a little too much with all littles.  We did it when the boys were like 8, 6 and 3.  Not really an age you can set free to build things without help.  Now I know it will be right on for where we are.  The great thing is I don't really have to change what we're doing for our main 3 R's.  That will all stay the same.  I really didn't have a program for the younger kids for science, art etc we were just heading to the library.  Now I will head to the library with a purpose and some help.  We'll see how it works when we put it into place but I'm excited to do some discovery learning again.  Sonlight had great books but we didn't do a lot of dramatizing or trying out ideas we read.  My kids use to do that naturally but as they're getting older they need some shoving help.

  What I find the most... confusing, is how in parenting, teaching and just plain ol' life with kids you can take something that completely DIDN'T work a few years ago and now suddenly it's a perfect fit!  I find that in discipline, schedules, curriculum, everything really!  I remember buying a copy of Lisa Welchel's Creative Correction when I had two or three young boys.  I was so excited for ideas and then so disappointed that they were too little for a lot of them.  Then a few years later while struggling with some issue I pulled it back out and it was as if angels were singing as I opened the book!  It was just what I needed at that time.  I love how God places things in our hands right when we need them, but I'm also seeing as I grow that sometimes he lets us see or touch things that are for later.  The hard part is having the discernment and courage to say, "This is REALLY good BUT this is not for us or at least not for us right now."  That's hard!  But there is such wisdom in not trying to make something fit that doesn't! Remember Cinderella's sisters and that shoe?!  Ouch!

Inspiration for Today

"Walking with God without the moment-by-moment awareness of our companionship with a divine being becomes just a hard, taxing obligation.

 When we learn to look and listen and ponder, our everyday moments can be transformed by the knowledge of a God whose companionship brings joy, "wind to our wings," and the possibility of a miraculous touch at any moment. 

And when we convey this vision of God's powerful presence to our children, we give them the gift of joy in each moment and the knowledge that even in the tedium of commonplace chores the Lord is looking out for us, ready to give his help and strength and presence.

As we inspire our children to look for God's glory and purposes in their lives, we help them learn to expect the supernatural grace that is always available to us."

Sally Clarkson's The Ministry of Motherhood          

Sorry Ladies

   It seems my comments section has a mind of it's own and sometimes it will let you comment and sometimes it won't!  Ergh!!  Frustrating!! I'll still keep working at it but I'm stumped for now.  Hope you still enjoy the blog and I guess just try to leave comments and one day it may surprise you and let you!!

Comments

  OK, so I'm trying to fix this comments problem and they gave me a suggestion.  I just tried to implement it.  If  you've had trouble posting a comment before could you try again?  Just even say, "hello".  Thanks!  Here's hoping...

Bowling

  OK, so I should have posted this at the BEGINNING of summer!  An online friend told me about this great summer program called Kids Bowl Free and it allows... well, your kids to bowl free over the summer!  You still have to pay for shoe rental (at least at our alley) but two games of bowling for four kids for $8 we can handle now and then.  I never told the kids we signed up because I didn't want to be hounded everyday and I kind of just put it off until last week when a friend asked if we'd like to join them!  We had a ball!  My older boys have bowled but they couldn't remember the last time.  Elijah bowled as a toddler but doesn't remember at all and Hannah looked at us a little confused when we said, "Lets go bowling!".  Paul stayed back with Miss Addison and off we went.  The two older boys thought they were awesome because they both opened with strikes...but that was very short lived beginners luck!

Hannah was funny, she'd just roll it and walk back!  Never really watched the ball, just did her job and then sat down.  Still not really sure what she thought of it all!

Elijah LOVED it and he and his buddy Sam had some pretty high scores!  Even beat their big brothers!  Course they had bumpers and big brothers didn't but...

Look at that form!  

It was a fun day.  Lots of cheering.  Lots of, "Oh man!!!" and  "So close!"  Several splits picked up by the 7 & 8 year olds which was hilarious! And I even filled them in that back in the "olden days" we actually had to keep our own score!  Gasp!!

Backyard Blues

   So while I do love our big yard and wonderful neighbors.... I wonder sometimes what they REALLY think of our backyard!  I have a love/hate relationship with it.  You see, we have a big yard for a small suburban house.  I think it's a bit more than a 1/4 acre... or is it a 1/2???  I don't know.  Anyways, we pay for a service for the front lawn to keep the weeds at bay and make it pretty but not for the backyard.  It's too big, too expensive and I really have no desire for my kids to play barefoot in all sorts of chemicals.  Our yard looks fun, often messy, but never pretty :0(  And although I will say with a smile, "We are in the business of growing up healthy godly children, not weed free lawns... please excuse the mess."  It still bugs me.  My parents are yard people with pretty grass and flowers and of course had only three children all of whom went to school during the day!  They had more time.  And they love it. Me? Not so much!

So, here's the fun part...

Fun right?  How can you NOT find SOMETHING to do back here!!?? The camo tarp is covering a sandbox.  There's more behind the garage with a garden... well err... a weed garden this year!  So I'll spare you the pictures of that area!

What's that you ask??  Is that a bunker in my yard?  Why yes there IS indeed a bunker in my yard! Don't you know every yard needs a WWII style bunker for Nerf wars in their yard??

Here's the yucky part.

The bonus is it doesn't look too bad when it's mowed... from a distance! LOL!  

     Yes, not being able to fix up a lawn does allow you some freedom for bunkers and toys galore, but that's only a selling point to young children!  Someday when the kids are grown maybe.  But it makes me a little sad because I'd love it to be pretty for them too.  Maybe someday we'll win some big backyard makeover!!  Wouldn't that be cool??  With a big deck, a fence and a beautiful in-ground pool?  Hey!  If you're gonna dream...dream big right!

There's no point to this post... just singing my backyard blues!

Great Idea!!

   I had to share with you all this great idea Carter had today.  We were trying to find a compromise on something quiet in your hands to do during read aloud time.  Today each child went down to our legos with a bowl from the kitchen (just a deep soup bowl) and filled in up with a mix of Legos.  When they came up for reading I got to decide what they had to make and they had to create it from only the Legos in their bowl.  It was great!  Not too loud because only a few Legos, something for them to do but they still were really listening.  In the end I had to judge the best and they were so creative and good we had to save them for Dad to decide!!


  I told them to build anything God created in the first 7 days of creation.  So no cars, ships, buildings etc.  I got a lobster, dinosaur, birds, a beautiful field, a guy resting under a tree by the lake (7th day of rest you know!) and an awesome fish complete with a moving jaw!  The lobster had moving claws too!  Oh and 5yo Hannah made a bird house, a washing machine and a horse trophy!  LOL!!  She kind of missed the challenge but it kept her quiet and entertained!!


 Here's the final three for judging...

Which would you choose??

Hair!!

   This is a quick thrown in post!  I was contemplating getting my hair chopped with my girlfriends and since some are far away and I'm not on Facebook I'm using my blog to post quick pics!  I got it cut last night and so far I'm really happy I did it!


So here's how my hair looked before (kind of bad light for the pic but you get the idea)

In reality this is what it looked like on a daily basis!!

This is what we were going for....

And this is what I got! (It's still a bit damp here but again, you get the idea.)

I'll wash it later today and see how it looks straight and then tomorrow I'm going to do nothing and see what I get.  Like I said so far I like it!  I'm not sure you can tell in the pic with it wavy but it's REALLY layered!  I CAN (just barely) get a little nub of a pony tail to workout so I'm good!  I just wanted a change.  I thought of going even shorter but I'm glad I didn't.  Girls!  We're such silly things about our hair sometimes!  Guys just don't understand the work that goes into it though!  I swear at least for my husband it could be all snaggly and snarrly and disgusting with split ends but as long as it's long he'd be happy!  His opinion on this one... "well, I don't hate it".  Ahhh, I feel so loved!  LOL!!

Funny Girl

   Addison has been hitting lately.  NOT a good thing and I couldn't figure it out where she was getting it from.  Then the other day after she hit me and I told her, "NO!  Hitting hurts!" she looked at me and in some babbly language made it clear she wanted me to hit her???  So... being me... I did!  I gave her a little bump on the arm and she started cracking up laughing.  She was saying something and jumping around  but I couldn't figure it out. All of a sudden I caught on... she was saying "Slug Bug"!  She wanted to play the "slug bug" game!

What can I say... this girl has waaay too many brothers!

Potty Training Final Update

  Thought I'd give our final check-in  here!  As I'm writing (this is posted a bit later) we are ending week 3 I believe... I've lost track!  She is doing great!  Still having maybe one accident a day but in general making it to the potty.  She's mastered the poopy thing the last week and is staying dry even when at church or softball for the boys.

  The one day to train didn't work out that way for us but it did make me very focused on her for awhile which I'm sure shortened the process for us.  I think in the past it probably was a little longer process but honest... not a lot.  I guess at least in this family it's a main focus for about a month.  And when I say main focus I mean MAIN focus.  Even the kids were aware that all the attention was on Addie and the potty for a few weeks.  Elijah would even say, "Can we go ___ or do we still need to stay close for Addie?"  I'm assuming come September this will be a distant memory for us.  She was definitely ready and her first words every morning now are, "I unders??". She wants out of that wet diaper.

  It's a little bittersweet... not that I like potty training, but to potty train my last...  It will be a different world for us.  We've been doing diapers now for 13 years!  We only had a total of maybe 6 months in the past 13 years of nobody in diapers or pull-ups at least for bedtime!  A new season of life... bittersweet.

Funny Lines of the Day

   Maybe you won't find this funny... maybe I am just really tired!  Today while doing US History I decided to pull out our Brain Quest America cards.  They just have random questions about the US... I mean totally random from presidents to Magic School Bus!  Anyways, one of the questions was what D.C stands for in Washington D.C.  My darling 13yo son gets the biggest smirk on his face and says, "Da Capitol?".  LOL!  It was so funny.  I don't know, maybe you had to be there!

  Then awhile later 5yo Hannah and I were in the car driving when she heard a commercial.  The commercial was actually for people going through a divorce and it encouraged them to call to talk with someone and reconnect with God.  It ended with them saying something along the lines of, "If you need the Lord and would like someone to talk with call 1-888-xxx-xHIM."  I don't know exactly what it was but all of a sudden I hear from the backseat this little voice gasp and say, "MOM!!!  We can call God!!!  Just call 888-HIM!!!"  I almost drove off the road laughing.  I explained it was to talk to a person and we can talk to God whenever we want simply by praying... NOT as cool as a phone number for God apparently because she says, "Yeah, but they have his number!!"  Too cute.

Short Days

   Because we are working year round this year with Daddy's schedule we have short and long days of school.  I shared with you yesterday our "long day".  Our "short day" is the same wake cycle for the boys but the only work they need to do is Math and Bible.  We bump our Table Chores back to 9:45 so Mom and Dad and the girls can sleep in a bit if they want.  Paul and I have been getting up and working out while the girls sleep in a bit to make good use of the time.  We meet as a family at 10:00 and do Bible, news and Memory Work same as usual.  Then we do history together with Dad because Mom and Dad are huge history buffs and we want to learn as a family. We LOVE to learn about history!!  After growing up in public school we are having a lot of fun relearning history from a Christian perspective.  To see how God's hand has been moving throughout time is fascinating.  After that we are free until the usual 2:30 quiet hour for everyone to read.

 We are having these "short days" for two reasons.  One is we don't want to have them only do school 2 days a week when Paul has his long weeks home.  We think it's important to stay focused and on task and that is hard if you're only working two days!  Second is the boys really want to get ahead in math.  If they continue a simple laid back schedule of 1-2 pages a day but do it everyday but Sunday they have the potential of pulling ahead a grade each year they do that.  I also have them continuing to read and that will have them pulling ahead too.  Not that being ahead is a huge deal but they are all a little behind in math for all different reasons (we were just late ordering books for one, one struggled and we held them back and the other we just let him take it at his pace... which was slow by choice!).  With reading one is flying and needs a challenge, one is a book worm... and needs a challenge and one has just had the reading "light bulb" click.  They really got it finally and want to encourage that with great books!

  This year, like last year, is an experiment.  We'll see what we think at the end of the year and then decide where we go from there.  We actually liked our schedule last year a lot but it was hard to spend time with Daddy on his days home.  I guess this is just another reason homeschooling is a good option for us, we can roll with schedules and learning styles and make it work!

How are you making it work?  Are you following other people's ideas of the "right" way?  What is YOUR way?? 

A Few Details

  So yesterday I just posted our routine basically.  Here I'll share some details.  I love hearing about other peoples routines/schedules, they always inspire me to try something different.  Hope ours inspires you!

  The boys "wake cycle" is working really well for us.  Like I said they have a strange fascination with early morning so they think they are getting away with something getting up so early instead of feeling like it stinks!  Weird kids!  This is how it works...
6:00 Carter up and shower.  Start working on independent work (Science, Bible, Math, Greek, Typing).  Wake Caleb at 7.
7:00 Caleb up and shower.  Start working on independent work (Math, Bible, Typing). Wake Elijah at 7:30
7:30 E up and dressed (he showers in the evening) and ready for the day.  Start on independent work (Bible and Math)
8:30 Make beds and straighten room.  Free until 9.

  If I'm up early with Paul I will make a breakfast they can grab whenever they want (I'll usually make oatmeal or eggs or something and then pop them in the crock-pot to keep warm).  If I'm not up they fend for themselves.  The only big "rule" is they have to eat by 8:30.  The girls get up between 8 and 8:30.  I get them fed and ready for the day so they are set to roll by 9:15.

9:00 Table Chores- this is just the counters, table, floors etc.  We figured out that eating at different times can work as long as it does have an end point where everyone helps clean up together.
9:15 We read Bible together using this schedule.  Then we watch CNN Student News and do our Memory Work.  Memory Work for us is Bible, personal info (insurance, Dr., medicinal allergies, address, phone number etc.) along with the timeline and info from Classical Conversations Foundations book.  The girls join us for this and  play quietly if they get antsy.  Addison is hilarious because she'll do the timeline with us with all the motions!
10:00 Our Writing Hour is when they journal, do handwriting and any writing assignments.  Caleb is using Sonlights Language Arts D this year. Carter is using several resources: Sonlight analogies, Down Write Funny,  Word Play Cafe and assignments from Classical Conversations Words Aptly Spoken Literature and Short Stories.  Elijah is doing a simple workbook along with journal and handwriting which is plenty for him. For the girls we start with a short "circle time" where we sing songs and read stories (maybe 10-15 minutes).  They are loving it and so am I!  Hannah then works on printing her letters and Addie is given the greatest pleasure for a 2yo... a big white board with free reign to markers AND an eraser!  Keeps her happy for a good 30 minutes at least!!
10:30 We break up writing hour here and the girls watch Leap Frog DVDs and I work with the boys on Spelling which is one place we have really failed at and they need desperate help!!  I like this program and it seems to be sinking in for them.  They started it the end of our last school year so we are just picking up where we left off.
11:00 We do Family Learning and have a different focus each day of the week
M- Poetry and Hero/Character study
T- Science/Nature
W- Geography Co-op
T- US History/Government
F- Art/Music

and then a fun group activity that goes along with that like science experiments, nature walks, art, Brain Quest cards for that subject etc.

When we're done with all of that they have a break until 1:30.  During break they do need to have lunch and do their Afternoon Chores but other than that they are free birds!  I do make them go outside if it's nice.

  At 1:30 they have what we are calling "Finishing Hour".  They need to finish anything they didn't get done earlier in the day including piano practice and typing for Elijah.  Sometimes they don't even need this time but it's planned just in case. At 2:00 Addison goes down for her nap and I work with Hannah on her reading and then read her a story.

2:30-3:30 Is Quiet Hour.  You have to read your assigned reading for the day and then you can read your choice of book or rest.  Mommy has been napping for 30 minutes!!

That's it... the end!  After Quiet Hour we just go about our day as normal with dinner, outside with friends and bedtime.

  Just to clarify this is our "long day".  We have a "short day" when Daddy is home.  The "long days" are 2-4 days a week depending on Paul's schedule.

Our School Day 2011

   Here's a quick glance at our day.  Tomorrow I'll share a bit on how it looks in "real life"!

6-8:30 Boys "wake cycle"
9:00 Table Chores
9:15 Family Bible and Memory Work
10-11:00 Writing Hour
11-12 ish Family Learning
Lunch Break and chores
1:30 "Finishing" Hour
2:30-3:30 Quiet Hour for reading and rest

Back to School!

   So we started school last week.  Yup, last week.  We've decided to run with the idea of Paul's schedule but start in August which was the plan if we continued the schedule we followed last year.  I'm amazed to sit here and tell you the first week went very well.  Apparently after 8 years of doing this I've learned a few things including scheduling MORE time than we need for things!  If I would have seen the routine we are using a year or more ago I would have thought NO WAY!!!  But it's working really well for us.

  So, life our first week was good!  I must say my kids having a strange fascination with waking really early is working well for us!  Probably has to do with the fact they never see early morning living with night owl parents. Whatever the reason, they don't seem to realize if it's early to rise it means early to bed so we are totally cool with it!!

  Also, I will say there is something wonderfully freeing having an older student who can run on his own!!  I'm happy to see that the last few years of slowly letting him go off on his own has resulted in a great guy who has learned to LEARN!!  He knows how to find information and if he doesn't understand he knows where to go and how to figure it out.  Very rarely does he need our help anymore.  Pretty cool to see.  Because he does do a lot on his own I made sure we did have some family time for learning as well. I like to learn with him and I don't want homeschooling to be something where he sits all alone for hours!  That's no fun!

  Last but not least I really planned for my two little girls this year.  Having them busy and filled has helped us accomplish all we need to do in a day.

  I'll share a little bit about our days throughout this week.  Hope you are all enjoying the rest of your summer and getting some good planning done!  

Smoothies

   We love smoothies in the morning for breakfast.  My friends son spent the night and had them with us and went home to tell his mom how great they were.  She called to get my "recipe" and I had to laugh.  I have NO idea how to make "real" smoothies, I just throw stuff in and it usually turns out yummy!  I can't imagine this is new to many of you but if you've struggled to find a good smoothie... here ya go!

In a blender pour it about half full with plain yogurt.
Add 1-2 frozen bananas and enough frozen fruit to fill it 3/4 full.
Fill it up to the top with a juice of your choice and blend.  I add more juice or even water to the consistency we like.

We use plain yogurt I make or buy from Costco.  I choose plain so it doesn't have extra sugar in it.  We put in frozen berries also from Costco.  The one we buy has blueberries, raspberries and marionberries.  For juice I usually use 100% juice cranberry juice or a cran/raspberry.  I do this for several reasons, one being it's good for you and two being no one likes it plain so it ensures no one drinks it and leaves us unable to make smoothies!  Any juice would be good though.  The best part of all is older kids love messing with blenders!  Caleb is our family smoothie maker lately!  He makes awesome smoothies all on his own.  In fact, if Addison decides she wants a smoothie she'll bring her special cup to "Buddy" (Caleb).  Too cute!

  I want to make note here that although I would LOVE a fancy blender someday, I have a cheapy from Meijer or something like that.  It's probably as old as Carter and it still does the trick!  So don't think you need a fancy smoothie maker or new blender to give it a try ;0)

Happy smoothie making!

Homemade Yogurt

   When I was sick last year I had a great GI doctor who grew up in the Himalayas!  He had an awesome accent and great old fashioned ideas as well as using modern medicine when needed.  Because of some of the food issues I had he suggested I eat lots of plain yogurt.  He asked me if I knew how to make it and I said yes, I had bought a little yogurt maker but it never turned out great.  He rolled his eyes and muttered something about Americans buying anything and proceeded to give me the best "recipe" ever for homemade yogurt.  I'm not sure it's a real recipe even!  Just a "how to"!

Take 1 gallon of Vitamin D milk (he said you could add some half n half to make it creamier if you want) and bring it JUST to a boil.  Turn off the heat and let cool until you can put your pinkie in the milk comfortably (yes really).  Add 3-8oz of plain yogurt (that's how you get the live bacteria) and stir.  He suggested just using one of the single cups of Dannon plain yogurt.  Pour it all in a pot or glass bowl.  Preheat your oven to the lowest setting then turn it off and put your yogurt in before you go to bed.  At 9am you have perfect yogurt.

That was his exact "recipe".  I have no idea what time I'm suppose to "go to bed"!  I just throw it in and it's usually good in the morning.  After the first batch you can just save 3-8oz of your own yogurt.  After a few batches you may want to add new.  I've never tried it with skim milk, I have to try that. We've been using a lot of yogurt for smoothies so I need to get back into the habit of making it.  Obviously you can make a 1/2 gallon instead and just add less yogurt.  He told me they would drink yogurt with salt and water to stay hydrated when he was growing up... tried that... ewwww!  It was pretty gross to this "American" but I'm sure it's great for your body especially in the heat.  For now I think I'll just stick to the yogurt!

Give it a try.  It really couldn't be simpler!

OUCH!!

   It amazes me what 5 year old girls notice and think about.  The other day was a painful day for me!!  We were watching TV as a family and there was a commercial on for wrinkle cream.  Hannah says,

"You want to look younger not older."

I decided to go there... "Really?  YOU want to look younger?"

"No!" she says.  "YOU want to look younger!"

 "I do?" "Why?"  She moves a little closer and points under my eyes.

"Well, your eyes are a little puffy here, and when you smile you have lines right here" pointing to where crows feet are....WHICH I don't have YET except when I smile thank you very much!!!

Wow!  That hurt.  I thought little girls were suppose to think their mama was beautiful??  Mine apparently is just aware of my beginning wrinkles!

Thanks Hannie!

Twins!

  I will say all of my kids resemble each other.  There's no doubt they are siblings.  But my Hannah and Elijah look so much alike sometimes it's crazy sometimes.  They are just over two years apart and before Elijah lost his baby teeth you would guess them to be twins.  They have a love hate relationship.  They are either together constantly and playing so sweetly or they cannot get along for anything!!  This was a day they loved each other :0)

  

   Elijah loves to take care of Hannah, teach her things and provide for her.  If he's going to the corner store for a candy he will either pick her up something or give her his change to save to ride the "mall horsies".  They make some great restaurants and tea parties together!  They also know the others likes and dislikes as well as their own.  The other day Hannah rented a Barbie movie and her and E were going to watch it at bedtime while the older boys were up late with Dad.  When I told her she could watch her Barbie movie she furrowed her brow and said, "But Elijah doesn't like lovely movies." LOL!  She's right!  He doesn't but he chose to watch anyway to make her happy.  What a guy!  I love that these two are close because poor Elijah spends a lot of his time trying to be older like his big brothers.  It's refreshing to see him act like a 7 year old!  It'll be interesting as they grow to see if they grow apart or closer together.  I hope they stay close friends forever but I guess that's every mom's wish isn't it??

Smores

   Have you seen these giant marshmallows???  Of course Grandma had to have them to spoil her grandkids!

Seriously???  Look how huge it is in her hand!

I still can't decide if I want to say yum or gross!!

Toddlers...

   So here's a few thoughts I have on toddlers... more like questions with no answers!  After five children I still adore toddlers!!  I just love the things that come out of their mouth, their expressions, watching them learn and relate to siblings and the world.  However, I still have some serious questions about these little people!

How can someone be so cranky one moment and then delight us all with peels of giggles and laughter the next??

How can someone so cute make you so angry/frustrated??

How come they only pick up on your bad qualities to repeat??

Who knew that a two year old going potty could make you so happy and proud!!!

Who knew a two year old and potty could make you so frustrated??

How do they go from sound asleep to bounding around like Tigger in less than 5 seconds flat??

How do they always find the littlest Lego or rock to put in their mouth?

WHY do they put the Lego or rock in their mouth when in the other hand they have a cracker??

How on earth do they make such a big mess so quickly?

How do those little feet go so fast?

How do those band-aids make owies feel better so fast??

How do they survive when they eat only a tablespoon of food at each meal??

The question we all have... where on earth do they get all that energy??

And how can one person be so darn cute???