In addition

I have to add a moment of grace to that last post. A verse I read a while ago really struck me in the area of parenting. It is in Genesis 16 where Hagar is running away from Sarah. When Sarah finds out that Hagar is pregnant she is really mean to Hagar so Hagar runs away. An angel finds Hagar and tells her some things. Here is one of them:
11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,[a]
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward[b] all his brothers.”

It says he WILL be a wild donkey of a man. This struck me because it meant that no matter what Hagar did, no matter how she trained him or prayed for him, this man was going to be angry and wild. It's easy to read books and think, 'OK Megan, put your big girl pants on and get these kids trained! They will fall in line!' And I do think we should teach our kids...but the fact is some things are unchangeable. Mary is emotional and cautious. Noah is narcoleptic and a spaz. I'm not sure if those things will change, but I love them and I don't care if those things change. I will love them anyway.

That's it. Just wanted to pepper in a helping of grace.

To Train Up A Child

I just finished this book and it is officially a staple in our home. I wrote about it a while ago, but just finished the last bit of it yesterday. If you are a Christian parent, here are some reason you need to buy this book right now: 1. there is scripture EVERYWHERE. They use scripture well and a lot. 2. It covers all ages and tons of practical situations. 3. It is concise (100 pages). He says what he means and is not repetitive in the least. That's how he can write a 100 page book and cover so much. 4. He is not an emotional, flaky parent. That's annoying. I mean we're all emotional sometimes right? But I don't think it's good to base your parenting theology on emotions. 5. He is in tune with the heart side of parenting. A lot of the book is about training and behavior. But he has two of the best chapters I've ever read on the heart side of parenting. One is about tying the heart strings of your family together and the other is about our inner joy which flows into the joy of our family and our kids. 6. He explains things very well. He gives the reasoning behind things that can be hard to swallow at first. I like that because I'm logical. If things don't make sense in my head I can't see their value. It's not always good...just saying that's how my brain works.

A few warnings though. Sometimes when reading books like this it's easy to think of myself as a failure. My kids are not perfect. And sometimes the authors make it seem so easy to train a child. But I have to keep in mind that they parented 5 children and all of their kids are grown. To me, that means that they learned all these things over time and got better as they went. They do address this sentiment at the end of the book and I was glad. They encourage readers to be consistent and persistent and they can see the fruit of their labor. This is the thing I like about the book most. Sometimes it's easy to look around and think that crazy children and disorder in the home is OK, even normal. Maybe it is normal for our culture, but it doesn't HAVE to be that way. That's refreshing and good to know. I mean, if a home is 90% psycho and 10% peace...that is not a blessing to anyone. But again, it doesn't have to be that way. God created order and I'm pretty sure He likes it. If you aren't convinced take some time to observe the natural patterns in any given day. A home can be a peaceful place for everyone to enjoy. With really young kids that can be a challenge, there's no way around it, but it's possible.

Another warning is that sometimes they can go to extreme measures to train. He always explains his reasoning and heart behind it though. Just got to give him the chance! So there's my plug. If you are wondering why I'm posting this so early, it's because I had a large cup of ice cream last night and I woke up with a stomach ache around 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Worth it.

Monticello

Our first stop on vacation was to Thomas Jefferson's house:) That's what Ian kept telling Mary. It was a pretty cool historical tour. And if you know me, and my lack of interest in history, then you know that says a lot. We stayed in a hotel the night before and of course the highlight for Mary was the "elegator" and riding on the luggage cart.

The highlight for Noah was crawling around on the bed and having daddy pull him back.


Here we are outside of Thomas Jefferson's house!

Mary thoroughly enjoyed the bus ride we got to take.

And Noah was pretty tired after missing his normal morning nap. He fell asleep in his stroller a few minutes after this picture.

Overall, Monticello is a win. I think it would be cool to go back a visit when the kids are older and can remember some of the history. It was interesting to see the system he had for the slaves and how his house was run. It was pricey, but I'm going to say it was worth it!

11 months

Noah is 11 months old now! Well, he's been 11 months for a couple weeks, but we were on vacation during that time. I think he gets more handsome every day. He said ball today. Which I think we are going to count as his first word, since he said it while pointing to a ball. He really enjoys hiding things. For example, while we were driving home from vacation Ian was feeding him some cereal. He was just handing Noah pieces every couple minutes or so. After he was done he saw Noah look at a fruit loop then put it under his leg. So Ian went to reach under Noah's leg and found like 15 fruit loops under there. He was met with the same when he checked the other leg...so we're not really sure he ate anything.

He's still obsessed with mommy, but I think he's working through the separation anxiety thing because he doesn't flip out when I leave the room anymore. A lot of times he just follows me:) He still loves to sleep which is nice. He's finally started eating pieces of fruits and veggies that aren't mashed. He'll eat anything from a spoon, but it's been a serious process to get him to pick up anything besides carbs. I like carbs too so I can't blame him. He likes to shake his head yes and no, which we think is so cute. And he's been going boom boom on the toilet for like 2 months now. He still goes in his diaper some times, but man it's so awesome when he goes on the toilet and I don't have to clean it out of a diaper. The other day I saw him turning red in the face and I said "Noah, do you have to poopy?" And he crawled toward the bathroom. He didn't go on the toilet...but I think he's starting to make the connection. We'll see!

Loving Daddy

Here is a picture of the kiddos loving on daddy at the beach:) More to come!

Been a while

This post is simply because it's been a while! I have a ton of pictures to put up as soon as I get them filtered and fixed:) We went on vacation last week, which was amazing. Noah is 11 months now! And I'm reading a book that I love. So those posts are all forthcoming. I know you will all be sitting by the computer waiting for them;)

For now, here are two videos of Noah from about a month ago. We are trying to decide if "yeah" counts as his first word. I mean, it IS a word, and he said it...but he was only repeating us. So I don't think it really counts. Ian thinks it might. Jury's out. But you can see him say it in the first video at the end.


This second video was one of Noah's favorite things a few weeks ago. He hasn't done it much since. But he likes to hang on to the back of my legs and poke his cute little head through. Sometimes he just stands like that while I'm cooking, but if I have to walk somewhere he likes to come too.