Things I Must Remember

Be forewarned: this post is not remarkable in any way except in the way that I find my son's achievements, idiosyncrasies and view on life to be fascinating and remarkable. So this little list is for me and for my family...a feeble attempt to cut a swatch from the fabric of time and tuck it in my pocket.

* Bennett is talking up a storm the past few months. He's been using longer and more complex sentences. A month or so ago he scolded me for standing on a chair: "Get down mommy! That not a wadder!"

* Since having his hair washed in the bathtub elicits more drama than we are willing to endure on a nightly basis we often toss Bennett in the shower to achieve a tear-free cleaning. Sometimes he isn't keen on taking a shower until we ask if he'd like to "wash his cars". Bennett LOVES to wash his cars in the shower. And fill cups and containers with water, shoot his cars in them like mini basketballs and then dump the water out. Fun times.

* As is typical of two year old development Bennett is insistent on doing everything (every.thing.) by himself these days. From opening the car door to pouring milk to turning off the tv, he can do it! And he lets us know we need to back off and give him a chance by insisting "dat MY job!"

* Reading is a favorite activity lately. We try to go to the library weekly and he loves finding new books. He likes to us to read to him but also enjoys reading by himself. Sometimes he will bring two books over, hand one to me and say "You read dat book. Dis my book." For a the past couple of days I've taken advantage of the opportunity to do some of my own reading (I'm jumping on the Harry Potter band wagon about a decade late) and we've settled on the couch each morning for a little side by side reading time. I love it!

* Our dear son is a bit OCD. Especially when it comes to bedtime. Recently he needs his blanket, his Bible and his water bottle...with ice pwease. Fan on. Night light on. And sheet on, but not "too tight" (we're not sure what this means exactly). A new development is the requirement that Bible and waterbottle be tucked into his sheet as well. There will be shrill calls for mom or dad to come rectify the situation if one or the other is out.

* Speaking of the Bible, his children's story Bible is his FAVORITE book by far. He usually calls it "God". As in, "I wan read God" or "where my God?" or "I wan take God bye bye". And then there was the time I had to follow through on my threat to not read any bedtime stories if he didn't obey and I left him in bed crying and shrieking "Mommy! I WAN GOD! I WAN READ GOD!" But I stood firm and refused to read the Bible to my weeping child. You can send my Christian Mommy of the Year awards to Stacey "No Bible Tonight" Parker.

* B learned to ride his tricycle last week. He was frustrated for a day or two as he tried to figure out the peddling but stuck with it and I was proud of him for persevering. Now he speeds in all over the house begging for me to "watch dis, Mommy!" When I call him to come to the table for dinner or to the bedroom to get dressed he often insists on "driving" to his destination.

* This child can turn almost anything into a sports type game. He helps switch out laundry by wadding wet clothes into balls and tossing them in the dryer, cheering himself ("yes!") with each successful throw. He likes to see how far back he can stand from the toy bucket or block box and still get items in when it's time to clean up. Once he kicked a toy and yelled "score!" when it rolled under the entertainment armoire.

* We've recently started to hear "I wuff you" unprompted. It is the best.

Finally They Feed Me!

I swear that was what Dayton was thinking when we made the first attempt at "solid" food on her six month birthday. I wonder if we might have been more successful in getting cereal into her mouth had we begun when she was a bit younger. Little girl is in quite a grabby stage right now and was not interested in letting us feed her in the traditional manner.

I wanted to edit these a bit but I'm only proving my ineptitude at such pursuits. My vision of a cute little video that included short excerpts of the action and a sweet, peppy song is proving to be slightly more challenging than I anticipated. After an embarrassing amount of time I've managed to crop out some of the more redundant bits. The song...well, it ain't happening. Not tonight anyway.

But, in my humble and slightly biased opinion, Dayton Joy is pretty cute...peppy song or no.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Green Day!

After way too much playing inside due to brutally hot weather I decided we needed to spice up a boring weekday by bringing back color days. Without any planning or preparation I declared at breakfast on Tuesday that it was to be Green Day. Bennett was pumped.

So I put him in a green t-shirt and made it up as we went. Here are the little ways we celebrated Green Day at our house.

Green Hunt:
A walk/ride first thing in the morning (while it was still under 100 outside) to look for green things in our neighborhood.



Green Craft:


I secretly collected the grass and leaves for the project so as to avoid teaching the two year olds to destroy plants for fun. I was pretty sure they wouldn't understand why it was okay to pull a couple of leaves off my rose bush today but wouldn't be okay tomorrow.


Green Gift:
My mom got sent some appropriately themed gifts to Bennett for future color days. Thanks for the puzzle, Gran!



Green Kitchen Helper Preparing a Green Dinner:







Hey, I know there are many (many!) healthier green options than green pancakes and applesauce...but this is what I could come up with at the last minute without requiring a trip to the store.

And although I was fairly certain I did not allow Bennett to touch the food coloring, he managed to turn himself a little green as well.


So obviously it was necessary that we end the day with a...

...Green Bath:


Check out that tan line! (And please forgive the grainy phone photos.)


We had a great time celebrating Green Day. Stay tuned for the next time I need a way to make a boring day at home seem more novel...Blue Day coming soon!

That's My Baby

I absolutely cannot get over how much I love this little girl. Our precious Dayton just personifies happiness and brings so much light to our little family.

And she is already (gasp!) SIX months old! How could that be??


At times I worry that I don't pay enough undivided attention to this sweet thing because she isn't demanding at all. In general, Dayton just wants to be in on the action. If we make sure she is near all of us as we go about our day cleaning, playing, eating, then she's a pretty happy camper.


In fact, she has the remarkable ability to wake up from her evening catnap just as we sit down to dinner every.single.night. It doesn't matter if she's been sleeping for an hour or 10 minutes, she senses we're about to converge around the table and alerts us to the fact that she will not stand to be left out. So she joins us each night...our pretty little centerpiece.


Other people constantly comment about what a happy baby she is. And it is so true! She is full of big gummy, drooly smiles for everyone she meets. We couldn't have picked a better middle name for our sweet Dayton Joy.


Baby girl loves and I mean LOVES her big brother. (Too bad it is proving impossible to capture a halfway decent picture of the two of them together.) He covers her with kisses as soon as they are reunited in the morning and after naps or being separated in their classes at church and she just eats it up. She watches him like a hawk and gets a pretty big kick out of all his toddler antics. For his part Bennett is (usually) a generous brother and often offers to share his cars and balls. At times he gets frustrated when she touches "his" things and recently I've heard such complaints as "No! Baby touching MY cup/toy/book!" That will pass though, right? (kidding!)




Dayton is still sleeping like a champ. I'm afraid I wouldn't know what her schedule is if she has one because poor thing is subject to being hauled around with us whenever we are itching to go. She gave up sleeping in her carrier at about one month old (unless we are in the car moving at freeway speeds) but she's a pretty good sport and grabs naps when and where she can.



She sucks her thumb when sleepy and it is SO STINKING CUTE. Take my word for it. Cuteness supreme. All she needs to sleep is her thumb and something soft, preferably her lovey, to hold against her face. If Lovey is not available she'll reach around until she can find something, anything, to snuggle with...the hem of her dress, a blanket or even a pair of Bennett's shorts I have left laying nearby.



A few weeks ago we finally moved Dayton out of our room and into the nursery upstairs. She been sleeping through the night for ages so I didn't really NEED her right next to me all night. On the same token she wasn't disturbing us either so we were in no rush to change our sleeping arrangements. And upstairs just seems so very far away. But at almost six months she was really way to big for her darling little infant cradle so away to the nursery she went.

At her six month doctor visit Dayton rang in at 17 lbs 10 oz which I believe is 80%. I'm ashamed to say that I've already lost the paper with the rest of her stats so I can't recall the specifics except her length and head circumference (which I know you have all been dying to know about) were also between the 80th and 90th percentiles. She's a good sized girl and we adore her three chins and squeezable rolls.



I've not been good about writing down every smile, toot and kick but she's doing just fine meeting developmental milestones. She is rolling from both her back and her belly, giggling, babbling, reaching and grabbing for EVERYTHING (her wingspan is greater than one would expect, I'm amazed at what she can knock over from that Bumbo of hers), and is so very close to sitting up independently. No teeth yet but she sure does drool like a champ. Bennett calls it "dripping" as in, "uh-oh, baby dripping again!" And she's making her first attempts towards crawling...raising herself up high on her arms and pushing against the floor with her feet. I think (hope!) I still have a few months left to trust her to stay where I leave her.

I believe I'm beginning to ramble and it has required multiple stops at the computer over four days to piece together this overdue half-birthday post so please forgive me for not being terribly cohesive or entertaining. There is just so much I want to remember! I'll wrap it up with a few more recent pictures. Because I just can't get enough of this girl.

Losing Patience with Impatience

Am I the only one who has trouble maintaining a cool demeanor while attempting to teach her child about patience?

I really can't complain because the two year old in our house is generally pretty even tempered and we've not seen much of the "terrible" from the "terrible twos". But lately Bennett's patience with himself can be quite short as his drive for independence pushes him to attempt to do things that are a bit beyond his skill set. It is especially challenging for me when he won't allow me to show him how or assist him in doing something a better way. No, he'd rather get mad that he can't carry all his cars at once, throw them to the ground and shriek his frustration loud enough to wake up the baby.

Bennett has also developed the charming habit of asking for the same thing over and over and over, even after I've said yes and often when I am in the process of granting his request. "I wan milk. Moe milk. Peas? Milk, Mommy. Moe milk. Milk. Mommy! Milk! MIIIIIIILK!"

More often than I'd like to admit I have to stop short of snapping, "Can't you just BE PATIENT!?!" Usually I realize how ridiculous that sounds before it jumps out of my mouth. Usually.

Hmmm...me thinks someone is trying to teach me something.

But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
1 Timothy 1:16

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
Psalm 103:8

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
2 Timothy 4:2

Thank you, Lord for being so very patient with my impatience as I struggle against my limitations and try to accomplish what I should leave up to you. Thank you for being patient to correct, rebuke and encourage me as I learn the same lessons again and again.