Our kids, good and bad, big and small, I love them all :)

Owen

I was just thinking about how different is each child of ours as I took Owen upstairs after he nearly spilled chia seeds all over the kitchen.  I was actually putting the Chia seeds back and found that he had hidden carrots in each of our kitchen cabinets.  He really must be the "baddest" toddler I've ever had, maybe because he has more room to roam, I have less time to keep an eye on him, and he has two older siblings to teach him bad things.  He also bit Josiah today, which is not unusual, but this time he really broke through the skin and peeled off a part of Josiah's skin....on Josiah's back, the poor thing.

Now that you think I'm crazy for pinpointing one of my children as the "worst," I will just go on to say he's also the "cutest."  He bats his eyelashes at me and gives me a bashful little glance when he is trying to manipulate me.  He also understands a lot that is going on.  He isn't talking a whole bunch.  He does jabber a lot and repeats a lot of words, but his big strength is he understands.  For example, I really struggle with getting to Josiah to just follow my directions.  It's really an obedience issue for Josiah (and he's pretty tired in the evenings).  I told Josiah to pleeeeeeease find his other shoe.  Josiah wandered around aimlessly not quite knowing what to do, and Owen went and found Josiah's other shoe straight away, without any trouble.

Another unique thing about Owen is his love for books.  He loves to read books with people!  My other kids have not been crazy about books like him.  He also can't fall asleep with us at all; he's always wanted to be in his own bed and is pretty particular about his bedtime routine already.  He loves TV, too!  He's my first kid who will really sit as a toddler and watch it.  It's kinda nice.  :)

Josiah

Josiah does require a lot of patience as well, in a different way than Owen.  So many times a day I think, are you HEARING me!!!????  And I know he is as his hearing has been tested recently by our ENT....it's like he wasn't hearing well for so long, we required little of him, and now he is hearing and functioning at a higher level and he sometimes thinks he can play dumb.  He's also just not doing things very independently.  He's happy to just let Mommy dress him while his body lies completely limp.  I always thought I would train my kids to do things for themselves, but with Josiah I feel we just got off to a rough start with him.

We are also still struggling with sleep with Josiah.  Ugh, it's no fun!

Considering he just started talking and hearing normally in February, he is doing splendidly.  He is really a typical three year old boy with exceptional athletic ability (I think!).  We've been learning about the human body (so far cells, blood, bones and skin).  Maryn is totally grossed out by it all and can't remember a single thing I teach her about it.  Josiah is completely into it!  I caught him looking at all the anatomy books today.  John and I keep saying he is probably going to grow up to do something that helps people/rescues people.  Even though he does kind of like to beat up people now, he seems the type to be able to stay calm in stressful situations and remain focused.  Again, just like his daddy.  Always so much like his daddy.

Maryn

We've been doing school this week pretty hardcore.  Yeah!  We're learning about the pilgrims and the human body, Claude Monet and George Frideric Handel, Lewis Carroll, memorizing addition facts and reading lots of books.  Yeah, we're kind of all over the place right now.  Maryn loves history, math and science.  She can't get enough info in her head about pilgrims, wants to do more and more math flash cards all the time, is still addicted to puzzles, and loves anything to do with engineering, nature, etc.  But she does not enjoy learning about anything "gross," meaning blood, bones, and the insides of bodies.  lol.  It's probably safe to say she will not be a doctor ;-)    We see her doing something in the area of art, architecture, design, using math to make things beautiful or make things make sense.  Which is weird to me, but whatever.  She is reading well but doesn't enjoy learning "how to read," she just wants to memorize the words and read.  She's not interested in the phonograms, but if a reading game is in the form of a puzzle or something like that, she is into it.  And she loves word finds and crossword puzzles.  :)

I haven't been taking many pictures with our nice camera because our SD card is full, but you can check out facebook for pics on our school days lately.

Happy 5th Birthday, Maryn!!!

Maryn turned five early this morning and we had a wonderful party today at noon with some of her best friends.

We couldn't invite all of our church AND seminary friends over for a gigantic birthday party, so we just invited a few friends who we knew would be home during the day.  Because of that I'm posting some pictures here on the blog instead of facebook and ask that if you repost these pics, please don't tag me.  :)

 Mommy really made sure this party-loving, decoration crazy girl got the party of her dreams.  I did it up right this time!

 She was so, so, so very excited for her big day.

 We had a cake and ice cream sundae making station, so the kids got to choose from strawberry or funfetti cake, fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, maraschino cherries), whipped cream and sprinkles.

 We wanted to make sure all the Strawberry Land girls were included in the party preparations.  So Lemon Meringue made the lemonade and Blueberry Muffin, Raspberry Torte, and Cherry Cuddler all helped provide the fruit.

 Josiah and Maryn loved seeing Gracyn and her new baby brother.  They used to be our neighbors and we miss them very much.

 Maryn had six little girls here to play with and she spent a majority of her time playing with her buddy, Eli.  :)  I love the friendship these two have, especially since Maryn used to pretty much hate him.  :)

 The Erdmans and the Powells.  Minus Aidan.  Oh, here he is....

 I missed getting pictures of the McFarlands and the Wiggers, and Gracyn would not look at the camera!  But we had ten little kids here, plus three toddlers/babies.  And two pregnant mamas.  It was a lot of fun!

 This is our "pin the strawberry on the vine" game.  Who did the best?  The two and three year olds!  Josiah was the winner!!!

We ate three large Papa John's pizzas, one with Maryn's favorite toppings (mushrooms, olives, pepperoni, extra cheese, sausage) and my kids were the only kids who would eat that one, lol.  Ella Grace devoured three pieces of pizza plus her ice cream and cake! We listened to Strawberry Shortcake music and played in the kids' rooms, and played outside.   All the girls got cute reusable Strawberry Shortcake cups with fun favors inside (mostly jewelry, accessories and candy).  The boys got reusable Batman cups with fun favors, too (candy, disc shooters, sunglasses, Batman stuff).

I think all the kids had a lot of fun.  I even enjoyed it, too!  I like simple parties, and although the decorations and the food did take a lot of time and money, Maryn was so happy....She just LOVES this kind of stuff.  She is such a girly girly girl!

I totally did not plan well and we aren't going to be able to have Maryn's favorite for dinner tonight.  Pasta instead.  This mama is too tired to make chicken and mushrooms anyway!

Maryn, I love you sweet girl.  And I love having parties in your honor!  I just hope somehow we can make your brothers think that they don't need big parties too, or we are going to go broke.  Haha!  Maybe we'll say the 5th Birthday is special?

Artsy Maryn

Do you have a child who shows gratitude often?  Josiah has been so precious, saying thank you when we wash his hair, and thank you when we give him medicine, and just at any point in the day he gives us hugs, kisses, and shares his love with us.  We pray before dinner, but if we have a second course or dessert, he feels we have to pray and say thank you to God again.  

I feel as though I have tried and tried to get Maryn to say Please and Thank You since the day she was born and yet she still struggles with these words.  But as I was looking through these pictures, I see that she is grateful, and she does notice the beauty in small things.  She also works hard to make things even more beautiful.  She just has that eye for all things lovely.

Maryn notices the beauty in weeds and thistles (notice our weed garden behind her, which she loves).

Here she is making a memory box like Josefina had in her book, Meet Josefina.

Ooh, who is this little fairy person?

Maryn and I decorated this t-shirt today.  She loves it :)
And she kept saying, "I love having girly time with you, Mommy."

You're welcome sweet Maryn.

:)

Second Kid Potty Training Day Two

Josiah and Potty Training:  Day one was such a huge success potty training Josiah.  He's much better at holding it than Maryn and has a bigger bladder, so it was just a lot less messy.  He was excited, cooperative and maybe a little overzealous.  John was home, which helped motivate him immensely I believe.  Today has not been as much of a success. Actually it hasn't involved a single "success" and has been rather exhausting.  I'm taking a break by 1.) blogging and 2.) bleaching our kitchen.  If our bathroom can't be clean, at least our kitchen will be.  The top of our fridge was dis.gust.ing.  I know for a fact I cleaned it a month ago but yuck, yuck.  How the heck does it get like that in a matter of four weeks?

Maryn has been such a great help and encourager!

Maryn and Charlotte Mason:  I am reading a book called "When Children Love to Learn."  There is so much truth in this book.  I am learning a ton about myself, education, God and my relationship with him.  I'm learning a little bit about why I have such a works-righteousness mentality, and I'm learning why FlyLady has been so successful for me (it's about learning good habits, not completing a to-do list or getting a reward).  I've learned that I really have to work on 1.)  Being sweet to my kids and 2.)  Not trying to manipulate them with my looks, my sarcasm or whatever.  I'll be officially homeschooling in just about a year and a half (that's when we will have to register with the state), so I gotta get mySELF into these routines and habits if I expect the same from my kids.

We were outside and Maryn said, "Mom look!  I wonder why the ground is all cracked?"  I looked and it was clear that after the rain we had the other night, the dirt was then drying in the sunshine and cracking.  Yay!  I was so excited she was making these observations in nature (Shutup!  I know I'm a dork:))!  But instead of a big lecture I just asked her why she thought it might be cracking, and was it wet or dry?  She said it was wet but it was drying in the sun.  I stopped myself from going into a big "lecture."  I'm so glad I did, because instead of listening to me ramble, she continued to venture around the yard looking for cracks.  She ended up seeing a place where a groundhog had made tunnels and she and a friend had a little adventure looking at things on the ground.  The Charlotte Mason method is a lot about not spoon-feeding and lecturing our kids, but in exploring the world for themselves and making more of their own connections, doing their own research, asking questions, etc.

Owen and Milestones:  Owen has been hitting a lot of milestones lately.  It's even more exciting with the third baby when they get new toofers, learn to sit up, wave, clap, etc.  It seems not long ago Maryn learned to do these things and this bittersweet reminder of how quickly they grow has been making John and I hold on to her a little tighter.

On Christmas Eve, Owen learned how to clap.  He did it for a few days but seems to have forgotten about it.  But he has been waving consistently and I swear it's the cutest thing I have ever seen.  lol okay, I say that about everything, I know.

He is getting interested in crawling and pulling up on things but HAS NOT done either yet (thank God...just kidding...sort of...).  He's not totally back to himself since our illness.  He had a terrible ear infection and is on antibiotics now.  He's feeling so much better but I think the antibiotics make him feel yucky.

Sleeping:  The kids have been sleeping better.  We had a great night last night.  And by "great" I mean, I woke up with Owen to nurse at 12:30, 3:30 (and changed his poopy diaper!), and 6:30.  Josiah was up at 6 and I made him go back to bed.  But after I got Owen back down, everyone slept past 7:30!  Meaning...wait for it....I TOOK A SHOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I also read my Bible!!!!!  And I made the bed, got dressed, and had a cup of coffee with my handsome manly man!

Family Picture :)

Maryn learning to twirl her spaghetti

Shootin hoops!  He's such an all-star.

Spaghetti Face

We have been playing pirates all day.  Here's Maryn with her scary pirate flag.  Arrgghh!

I love age four!

We had neighbors over for some crafting with contact paper!

Such a great craft.

Okay I know most of you think this is lame, but Maryn's phonetic spelling is getting pretty good.  I have Evelyn and Riley to thank for Maryn's recent brain spurt.  She hasn't stopped writing and reading since they left.  I

I have so many things I want to write about.  Really, I do.  But I have not slept well in days (months?).  My kids are finally all asleep at the same time, and I am going to bed.

But I think I'll post the draft of my homework assignment I'm still working on for my Biblical Parenting class. Just because it's already written. Here it is:

"In the following paragraphs, I will discuss one behavior of two of our three children which we would like to improve upon and a plan for training each child away from a path of sin and foolishness, onto a path of wisdom.

                Maryn is four years old and has already displayed behaviors and attitudes that suggest she has some “pride and performance” issues.  She wants to be the very best at everything.  She is performance driven, thrives on praise and shrinks from fear of man. 

                I must be careful in my approach with Maryn as we plan to home school and I am very much performance driven myself.  I hope to not “use her” as proof of my success or giftedness as a teacher and as a mother.  I also need to be sure I am not using scare tactics to get her to obey or submit to my authority.  We need to be praying with her, always sharing the gospel with her, and reminding her that true joy is found in Christ alone. We must “look for opportunities to direct [her] to eternal pleasures.” 

                Josiah is two years old and seems to idolize pleasure and sensuality.  He must always be active, and while this is probably typical for boys this age, and maybe most boys of any age, we want to make sure we don’t let him become addicted to constant entertainment, media, or constant thrill seeking.  We want him to be able to be still, to be comfortable while traveling, visiting an elderly neighbor, or when going to bed.  We have had terrible trouble with getting him to stay in his bed. 

                To help Josiah down a healthier road, we plan to use less media and to think about what media we do use in our home.  We are currently staying away from video and computer games but as far as television and movies go, we are going to limit how much and how often we use them and what types of shows are watched.  Slower paced, more realistic shows and movies, with valuable plots for example, are more acceptable than the shows with short snippets of various unrelated things.

                I also hope to help Josiah understand the ebb and flow of our day.  To have large chunks of just play time, where I am also a little more focused rather than running around like a chicken with my head cut off, using my phone and the internet less, just sitting and enjoying one thing at a time.  Hopefully having a certain flow to our day will assist me when the urge to just turn on the TV comes suddenly out of frustration, fatigue or stress. 

                Our third child is Owen, 6 months, and we are just trying to keep him from putting his fingers in his mouth as we feed him his baby cereal!  J """"

Happy Birthday, Maryn!

I just had to include this adorable pic of my sweet baby.

 On the day of Maryn's actual birthday, I woke up early and Josiah and I made her some yummy cinnamon rolls, which we stuck a 4 candle into and sang her "Happy Birthday" when she awoke.  She ate two whole cinnamon rolls!

Then after Daddy woke up, we got ready for our day and headed to the seminary clinic for SHOTS.  Ah!  I hate shots!  But they all did just fine (Josiah didn't cry one bit!), and haven't had any side effects so far.  Then we had lunch at the seminary, including ice cream sundaes for dessert.  I love college cafeterias.  :)

That night, we made Maryn's recent favorite dinner, Chili Mac, and ate leftover birthday cake and rainbow sherbet.  Then she opened presents from Mommy and Daddy.

Maryn loves to build!  We got her her first set of real Legos.

And a princess Barbie with matching unicorn!

On Sunday afternoon, we had our community's quad cookout but made it Maryn's birthday party as well :). Meaning, the carry-in item we brought was a huge birthday cake!

I just had to add this cute picture of my boys. :)

I love her so much!

Showing off her ballet moves, her new ballet skirt, new shirt and new headband.  Spoiled!

I'm so proud of our sweet girl and the young lady she is becoming.  She has a strong will and a strong mind to match.  John and I are making more of an effort to answer her questions.  We know this is not a behavior she will always possess--someday she will find her answers other places.  We are trying to see these questions as windows into her heart and opportunities to strengthen her mind and thought processes.  We love how she makes us think, and appreciate all she teaches us every day.  Being her parents is anything but easy, but it sure is a gift.

Almost Four

Me:  Sometimes being a mommy is just really hard.  Do you have any advice for me?
Maryn:  Hmm...nuh-uh.  Not yet.

I was falling asleep forehead to forehead next to my sweet child last night.  She nodded off before I did, but I kept talking to her.  "I love you, sweet girl.  I hope you know that.  I hope you know, even though I don't act like it all the time.  Or even most of the time."

Yesterday, Josiah was being so bad.  I had told them both we could have ice cream after dinner but it was very obvious that wasn't going to happen.  So Josiah went to bed and Maryn was in her bed.  She was being very obedient.  I know she remembers everything, so I know she knew she got jipped out of ice cream because of her brother's behavior.  So I brought her a bowl of cake and ice cream with sprinkles to eat in her bed as we read two books of her choice.  I reminded her this is not something we could do every night.  "Just tonight."  She said.  "Because tonight is special."

Maryn has been playing games and figuring out other things that shows us she is reading.  She really can read.  I tell her this.  She says, "No I can't!"  Haha!  I don't know if there's much I can do about that right now, but I've decided I'm not going to push her in this matter.  For school this year, I've decided to do a few things.

1.)  Watch less television.  Our screen free week showed me that a ton of learning takes place naturally if the television is OFF and the kids know it is OFF, that it's not even an option.

2.)  Play more.  Playing outside with our bigger kid friends and littler kid friends is such a fantastic opportunity.  They learn how to play with and take care of younger children and they learn new, interesting things from the bigger kids.  Living here around so many homeschooled children has opened my eyes to the great privileges of homeschooling.  One of the things I love the most is the multi-age factor and learning how to be a leader but also be a team member, an assistant, etc.  We have two more years to PLAY and not worry about school.  So one of my goals is to chill out and play, play, play.

3.)  Read more.  I found that when the television was off, we sure did read a lot.  Story times at the library help encourage us to get into books more often and give us some themes to spring forward from.  Last week, story time was about "getting ready for bed time," so I got out all our books about that type of thing (we own about 10 of them, ha!), put them with our "coffee table books," and spent the week reading them again and again.

Right now, our favorite books are Bedtime for Frances, these alphabet books that are fantastic and Maryn LOVES them, and of course Corduroy, Clifford, and Tickle Monster, which are always favorites.

And that's what's going on with Maryn.  Maryn, who is almost four.

Future Photographer

 I love life with these four people.

 Haha, most of the time :)

Sunday Sweetness

Without Maryn!

We have been without Maryn since Tuesday!

The first day or two was pretty nice.  I got some great one-on-one time with Josiah and running around to appointments was a lot easier.  Maryn just doesn't do well in places like that.  We also went to Kroger, and it actually went very well.  I've been getting Owen on more of a "routine," and it has really helped his belly, which means he's taking some nice long naps.

But now we kind of miss her.  Although if she was here, I'm pretty sure I would not be blogging right now.  I've had some awesome quiet times the last few days, and have read half of a novel!  I've been working hard on our new cooking blog (cookingwithmaryn@blogspot.com) and have been trying to clean up a good bit after our sickness.  Today was packing day.  We are going to leave in just a couple hours to go get our baby girl!

I can't wait to see her!  I hope she will let us cuddle with her and give her lots of hugs and kisses.

But all in all, I think this little trip to grandma and grandpa's house was really good for all of us.  I'm so proud of her (mostly I'm proud of myself, haha!), and I know the relationship between her, my parents, my Aunt Cathy and all the Ohio family has really gotten stronger.  She will remember these trips her entire life.

Happy Summer!

PS:  It's 102 degrees here.  No joke.  John's a/c in the Santa Fe doesn't work.  So let's pray he makes it home safe.  Maybe he'll buy a tank top to drive home in.  :-o

THREE kids getting BIG!

Here's Maryn and Josiah being sweet.  But they aren't always this sweet to Owen.  We've had quite a few little "incidents" lately that have been uh, a little scary.  :)   I remind myself that babies are fragile but God is sovereign.  I pray for his life daily...:)  I say that in gest, but really, I do wonder how so many infants make it through infancy with big siblings around.

 Owen really gets cuter every day, and his face is changing.  So far I think he looks more like my dad's side of the family.  Perfect, since his middle name is Michael!  Maryn is a cross between John and me, Josiah is all John....MAYBE Owen will take after my family more.  We shall see!

He continues to roll over belly to back and today he almost rolled over back to belly.  I think he could do it if he had a reason to.  After our long car ride yesterday, I got him out (he had been crying) and he just smiled and smiled at me!  And he just wanted to stare at me the rest of the day.

I love being loved by a sweet little baby.  There's nothing like it.

 Maryn.  Acting like Daddy, with her headphones, his watch, his phone, and his Kindle Fire.

 Josiah's legs got stuck in his crib's slats this morning.  I was a little worried because his one foot was so swollen, white and cold.  Scary.  It was a good day to try napping in Maryn's room, in the toddler bed.  They will be sharing a room soon!  I honestly have no idea how it will work.  I am pretty sure it won't work at all.  Prayers please!  And any advice is welcome.

Life with Josiah has been pretty tough lately.  We are treading new territory here with a "normal" toddler.  I realize now that Maryn was never a normal toddler.  Ha!  If you know her, you know what I mean.  Oh Josiah, I love you.  You and your sticky hands, your crayon messes, your dirty face, and always smelling like ketchup and peanut butter even when you haven't had ketchup OR peanut butter in days or weeks.

Life with three!  Fun as can be!

Growing Up Quickly

The other night while we were Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa, Maryn started making all kinds of letters on the white board, much to my surprise.  I know she can write letters, but these were especially good.  The capital A, for one, has been a struggle for her but she finally just figured it out on her own.  And she's been doing it every day since!

 We had rotini with alfredo sauce and a ton of fresh veggies for lunch on a tray we shared.  Maryn shouted, "Cucumbers!  Can I have some cucumbers!?"  And reprimanded me for eating too many carrots and cucumber slices.  She's been such a good sport about this diet I'm on, and wants to eat healthy too.

And by the way, she never did eat that pasta on her plate.  She filled up on veggies.

 She likes edamame a little bit...

 Okay, more than a little bit.

 She likes edamame a LOT!

John taught Maryn how to play Go Fish and UNO this week.  She's a pro!  Next I think we want to get our hands on a Yahtzee game, and Trouble and Sorry!  All some of my childhood favorites.  She's gotten so good with games and math concepts.  It's really unbelievable how quickly children grow.

Except when I asked her if she could count backwards yesterday, she quickly stood up, turned her back towards me and shouted, "1, 2, 3..."

Do you have any game recommendations or favorites from your childhood?