21 New Year’s Resolutions By Toddlers

A little bit of bad language but a really fun post reminding all parents that we are all living the same life!

Hot Mess Hannah

Here is a recent video of Hannah demonstrating her talking and signing.

Here is another fun video of her and in her high chair making me smile.

It is just like God to make sure you stay humble. 

You think you got this parenting thing down? 
You think you have figured out how to take many kids to one place and get them to behave? 
You believe you can leave a sharpie out on the desk without proper supervision?
You think you understand how to effectively pile in and out of the van without losing a child? 
You think you don't need to childproof your home?
You think you can attend an event and keep all your children close without one of them running away and forcing you to choose between abandoning three for the sake of finding one?

Think ... again.

Hannah has changed ALL the rules in our house. She is by far and without a moment's wondering, the most difficult of my four children at this age. Sometimes I start to think it is just me. Sometimes I think I am aging and that I am tired and that I am no good at this thing called motherhood anymore.

I wonder if I am losing my touch.

I wonder if I forgot how to do this.

I wonder if I am doing something wrong.

I wonder if I just can't remember how to make them obey.

And then I take Hannah somewhere. Church for instance. She is one of seven little brunettes in the nursery. They are all about her age. They all look very much like her. They are wearing their cute outfits and bows and tights and wandering around the room playing.

And the teacher hands me my Hannah and she says, "Now this girl must keep you on your toes."

"Yes," I say! "She does!"

"She is so ... BUSY!" the teacher replies.

And I am not angry. And I do not feel offended in the slightest. In fact, I smile really big and nod and say, "Okay! So it isn't just me you mean, right? I mean, you think so too? You think that she's a little bit harder than all these other little identical looking girls?"

The teacher nods.

And I feel so ... relieved.

She is ... hard.

She is absolutely wonderful of course. She is snuggly and silly and fun and chubby and scrumptious.

But she leaves me simply scratching my head in disbelief. Here are some facts:

I have lost her, inside of our own home MORE THAN ALL MY OTHER CHILDREN COMBINED.
She has damaged our home (like with pens or markers or ripped books) MORE THAN ALL MY OTHER CHILDREN COMBINED.
She has tried to plug something in or out of an electrical socket MORE THAN ALL MY OTHER CHILDREN COMBINED.
She has run from me when in public MORE THAN ALL MY OTHER CHILDREN COMBINED.
I have lost her in public MORE THAN ALL MY OTHER CHILDREN COMBINED.


I truly believe she is God's way of making sure that I continue to relate to all moms in all ways at all times. Just when you think you have it altogether, something reminds you that we are all as strong as the savior who is holding us up.




I love you Hannah!

If you are wondering ...

... whether you should vaccinate, I encourage you to hop over to my friend Tara's blog post from a few days ago.

Tara is a doctor and one of the smartest women I know.

Her husband is a doctor as well.

They just had their first baby. She lives in California. She is about as close to a hippy as I know. (No offense intended Tara.)

And they vaccinate.

I have many, many, many friends who are physicians. And I have yet to run across a single one of them who does not vaccinate their own children. I think this is a vital piece of information and something I should share.

I continue to be confused why people who are against vaccinations still go to physicians and trust them with so many other vital decisions but do not trust them with this vital piece of information.

So if you are in debate, take a moment to view Tara's blog post.

Also, you can click here to read a past post I wrote about vaccines or click here to read Tara's past very detailed post regarding her feelings about vaccines.

Friday Funnies

She's never even had Tomato Soup, but apparently she loves it and needs to put a bird in it:



*****
I gave the kids a lecture on how bad it would be if they ate more of their vitamins then they were supposed to. "It could be very bad. Those vitamins have medicine in it to help make you big and strong. So if you were to eat all of them ..."
Sidge: "You could get super muscles?"
Abigail: "Your belly could get very big?"

Something like that.

*****

I began reading one of Aesop's Fables: The Fox and the Leopard. Here is an exact dialogue of how the story went down as I read it to my two boys during school time:

Me: "A fox and a Leopard, resting lazily after a generous dinner,"
Sidge: "What is generous?"
Me: "Big."
Sidge: "Okay."
Me: "A fox and a Leopard, resting lazily after a generous dinner, amused themselves,"
Sidge: "What is amused?"
Me: "Goofed around."
Sidge: "Okay."
Me: "So they amused themselves by disputing about their good looks."
Sidge: "What is disputed?"
Me: "Argued."
Sidge: "For real?"
Me: "Well they were kind of jokingly disputing."
Sidge: "Okay. Were they friends?"
Me: "Yes, basically."
Sidge: "What does basically mean?"
Me: "Yes, they were friends."
Sidge: "Okay."
Me: "The Leopard was very proud of his glossy, spotted coat,"
Sidge: "What is glossy?"
Me: "Shiny."
Sidge: "Was is really shiny?
Me: "That's what it says."
Sidge: "So then it is true?"
Me: "Well, the author said it."
Sidge: "Okay."
Me: "So the Leopard was proud of his coat and made disdainful remarks about the Fox,"
Sidge: "What does disdainful mean?"
Me: "Mean."
Sidge: "Mean means mean?"
Me: "Disdainful means mean."
Sidge: "Okay."
Me: "So the Leopard was proud and made mean comments to the fox whose appearance he declared was quite ordinary."
Sidge: "What is declared?"
Me: "Said."
Sidge: "And what is ordinary?"
Me: "Normal."

Thoroughly exhausted, I decided to edit the rest of the story as I read.

*****

I asked the kids if they wanted cereal or pancakes for breakfast.
Sidge: "Wow Mom. That is a really hard question because I really want both."

To save your kids from mediocrity, don't pay for college: 8 tips from 'Guerrilla Dad'

A father of eight provides eight tips for helping raise empowered, resilient, self-reliant individuals. To read the article in its entirety, click here. 

1. Teach self-reliance. Help them develop a work ethic and help teach them to take care of themselves. Help them recognize what they want and what they truly need and show them how to get it for themselves whenever possible.
2. Customize their education. Find ways that your particular child has their needs met intellectually. Mark Twain said, "Never let schooling get in the way of your education." I totally agree with this. Boy Scouts, days at the farm -- find the things they are passionate about and teach them -- homeschool or not.
3. Focus on getting results. Help children discover what information and skills they need to do specific jobs because employers want results.
4. College is NOT for everyone. This can be controversial, but I totally agree with the author on this one. Give the kids options. College is not the answer for everyone. It depends on what they want to do and what they want to be. But tons of money doesn't equal a happier life.
5. Let your kids fail. Parent by the natural consequences. This is so hard to do. But it is true. "Most kids, and people in general for that matter, don't learn what they are capable of until they have to learn what they are capable of."
6. Don't rescue your kids. Let kids handle their own mistreatments and disappointments. Again, I totally agree but man is this hard to do.
7. Challenge your kids. Find things they love. Set challenging goals. They can learn in many ways that they are in control of their own destiny. 
8. Love them no matter what. Amen.

Paradigm shift: Curriculum is not something you buy

Click here to read a fantastic homeschooling article reminding we parents/teachers/educators that it isn't so much what we are teaching as it is the lifestyle we have chosen to teach our kids in.

"If we started thinking about our children’s learning in terms of what we hope they will come to encounter in any given year rather than thinking of getting through a particular book or “covering” material, we free ourselves to learn far more than we could by binding ourselves to a set published resource. Of course we will use such resources to reach our goals — but the resource will be our servant, not our master."