So Fun While it Lasted!

Last week it was cold! Some of the days never got above freezing even in the afternoon sunshine, but it was pretty. And fun. Today I looked out the office window just in time to see PC's feet go whooshing out from underneath him as he attempted a spectacular slide across the driveway on what was left of the barnyard ice rink. So I grabbed my camera, pretended I didn't notice his sopping wet pantleg, and asked him to show me what he could do on the shrinking patch of ice between the house and the barn. He didn't need me to ask twice!

The running start...


Side Slide!


Back for more...


Front slide.


Homemade hockey stick.


Happy boy!

On Wednesday, while the big kids were at school, I took the little gang out to explore the wonders of ice. Hal, all bundled in blankets, observed from his stroller as Ricka and Butler had a blast slipping, sliding and crashing across on the ice. The pictures I took of PC on the ice today, show about a quarter of what was frozen before the temperatures returned to normal. Butler would have stayed out all day if I'd have let him. There was ice to whack, ice to stomp, ice to try eating, ice to throw, ice to slide and ice to slide on. I doubt he could have been much happier. After that, he tried every possible reason to need to go outside every single day. I would have taken pictures if I didn't have to be continually picking a child (or myself a few times) up off the ice. Actually, I don't think the camera would have survived that day, so I'm going to let myself off the hook this time.

Learning the Ropes

"You missed a spot here, Mom."

Hal has moved up in the Janitorial Ranks around here from Master Floor Sweeper (he does a better job than my kitchen broom) to Chief Dishwasher Inspector. He even tries to help out by making sure all dishes in his jurisdiction have been licked clean- I have such helpful sons!

Speaking of sons... PC got lost in the barnyard before school this morning (he was 'checking on the chickens'). He almost got left behind and all he had to say for himself was, "I forgot it was a school day!" This was slightly alarming as yesterday he almost missed breakfast before school. Instead, he barely made it back from the barn with enough time to wolf down his waffles before it was time to go. He's been banned from the barnyard before school for a while now...

And Butler learned today, that when gathering eggs, one must not 'clink' them together on one's way back to the house, regardless of how exciting it is to be the egg-finder of the day. Some chickens lay more fragile-shelled eggs than others and some eggs will not survive 'clinking'. I'm not sure if anyone will break his 13 broken eggs record anytime soon! :)

Telling me all about it!

September 2007...

"I think that move is not allowed."

Reminders...

I found this paper on my desk this morning and it was just what I needed to start my day today. PC gave it to me a few weeks ago when he was practicing it for Sunday school. Some things are best in their rawest form.

1 Peter 5:7

It's so easy to accumulate so many cares, that you just crumble underneath them. This is the remedy. Half of what I needed today was the realization that this little paper for today was prepared for me to read weeks ago and it surfaced to the top layer of my desk right when I needed it as a reminder.

"O Happy Day!"

A few weeks ago, on the drive home from school, PC said to me, "Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be a Christian so I can tell people about the Lord Jesus." "PC, if you are saved, you are already a Christian." I told him. "And you can tell people about the Lord Jesus even when you're a kid." "But I want to tell people about the Lord Jesus every day for my work." He explained and then after a minute he asked, "Do you think if I tell a policeman about the Lord Jesus, he would get me?" "You mean, would you be arrested?" I asked. "Yeah." PC answered. I almost laughed, but realized he was very worried about this."No," I told him, "it's not against the law to be a Christian here. Some people won't like to be told about Him, but you won't be arrested for telling people that God loves them."

So, since then one of PC's main projects has been to convince me to take him out to pass out gospel tracts. He's been diligently folding and trimming tracts every chance he gets. When we get 100 finished, I told him, we'd walk through the neighborhoods and hand them out. But his other concern was Emma. Almost every day, he would tell her she needed to get saved. He'd tell her exactly what she needed to do, but she would just agree with him and not make any profession. This has been going on for months and many times, PC would come to me in tears because he was afraid she wouldn't accept his Saviour as her own. Every time, I would tell him to just keep praying for her.

This morning, Emma came up to me and said, "Mommy! I said to the Lord Jesus, 'O, Lord Jesus, can you please wash my sins away? Because I is a sinner. Now I can sing, O Happy Day!" She could barely hold still. "Did you tell PC?" I asked her and she dashed off to tell him the very same thing she'd told me. Now they're all singing, "Oh happy day, oh Happy day! When Jesus washed my sins away!" over and over and over at the tops of their lungs. And it's wonderful!

"Pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
James 5:16

"And they brought unto Him also infants, that He would touch them: but when His disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."
Luke 18:15-17

I Have a Caterpillar Farm in my Kitchen.

We discovered them when we mowed the grass last week. One of my sons just had to keep them. So we did.

A close up - there's actually three residents, but you can only see two of them here.


The farmer boy himself.

I'm not sure how I can convince him that we probably should let them go. I'm pretty sure we're not putting in the right kinds of food into the vase they live in. At least one has been getting smaller and smaller and less active as time goes by.

For now, I'm just enjoying a happy young man who couldn't be prouder of his collection.

Once there was a 4 year old boy...

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."
Ecclesiastes 9:10

He's almost 4½ now. But back when he was newly 4, I took him in to get his pictures done. This year, we brought our own props - some of his cars. I'm glad we did because I think we really captured PC as himself because of them. Below are the additional poses - one was the usual free extra and the other the result of a good salesperson who, sensing my indecisiveness when it came to choosing the free extra, managed to talk me into buying a single sheet of a third pose.

I love this picture - he looks like such a little boy. Bare feet, hands in pockets and a summer tan. PC is really starting to look like he's growing up - I guess if I'm honest with myself, he is growing up. It's just a hard thing to get used to sometimes.

This is the picture they managed to talk me into buying for twice the cost of the rest of the package. I keep flipping back and forth from loving it because it's such a great picture of PC's smile and character, to kicking myself for being so manipulated when the overall pose isn't one I really like. I don't like the over-the-shoulder attempt - it doesn't look very natural or relaxed, but his smile is real in spite of the obvious positional posing.

PC is a 'reactor'. He doesn't talk your ear off normally, but is content to give three word (or less) answers. He is happy to let his sisters make most of the suggestions when they're playing and cheerfully helps them accomplish said suggestions. He doesn't like change at all, and it takes him quite a while to get used to something new. Then it takes him a while to admit that he's not so bothered by it after all. He's compassionate, thoughtful and when he allows himself to show emotion, very passionate about the things he likes and dislikes. If I had to describe him in one word - it would be, 'eager'. He does things whole-heartedly, and it's wonderful to see.

He loves his tools, toy cars and his bike (which is recently training wheel-free and now has a flat tire).

Well, I decided to post PC's pictures tonight because it wasn't going to take me very long and it was bedtime when I got started. Now I've rambled my way through even more time and it won't be long before this won't be making any sense at all. So, before anything confusing appears... I think I'll wrap it up. Good night!

Smiles and Smugglers

I tried getting a picture of Butler smiling the other day, but I kept getting the tail end of the smiles in my pictures. By the time I thought that maybe taking a video would work, he was getting bored, although I did get a whole smile that way. There's two smiles in the video below and Butler even added a few words of his own. He was trying to convince me to pick him up since it was time for his breakfast and he'd been waiting very patiently for his turn regarding my attention. I apologize for any dizziness caused by my video skills.

Good Morning Baby

Last night I was getting the kids ready for bed. It was Dolly's turn in the bathroom, and when I checked on her I found PC in there at the sink with his pajamas unsnapped. "PC! what are you doing in the bathroom- WHY are your pajamas unsnapped? Do you need to go potty?" I grilled him. He shook his head and I started snapping his pajamas back up. Two snaps started he said, "I can do it Mommy! Please can I snap it?" Dolly was out of the bathroom by then so I nodded and stood up watching him. "Don't watch me, Mommy - I can do it." he insisted, so I glanced down the hall to see who else needed attention. Then PC closed the bathroom door. I opened it and he insisted as he tried closing it again, "Don't watch me, Mommy. I want to do it myself." I let him mostly close the door and then I headed to the kids' bedroom to supervise the 'getting the toys out before bedtime' process.

A few minutes later PC stepped out of the bathroom smoothing his snaps and asked me, "Are they all done right, Mommy?" I nearly exploded in hysteric laughter, but managed to gulp back my guffaws, pull on a mostly expressionless face and answer, "Yes, they're all snapped right. Now, come with me." I reached for his hand and led him (bulging pajamas and all) to my room where Sir was waiting to say goodnight to each of the children. I said to Sir, "We have a S-M-U-G-G-L-E-R here, and he needs to say goodnight." Then I got to watch Sir control his urge to explode in laughter before he addressed PC.

Sir: PC, are you ready to say 'goodnight'?
PC: Yep.
Sir: What do you have in your pajamas?
PC smoothing his snaps with his free hand: I don't know.
Sir: PC, I can see you're hiding something in your pajamas.
PC checking his snaps again: How?
Sir: What do you have in your pajamas?
PC: I don't know.
Sir: That's not the truth. Give me the sippy cup and get into bed.

Sir and I were cracking up so badly through all of this, we couldn't properly address the situation, so we settled on keeping the cup and sending PC to bed without the 'drink all the water you can before bed' step of the bedtime process. While I was trying to stay out of sight because I couldn't keep a straight face during Sir's conversation with our son, I managed to snap a shot of the guilty party. It's not the greatest picture because I turned the flash off to avoid disturbing them and I couldn't stop shaking with laughter when I took it.

Is it really 'Better Late than Never'?

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 2:1

Once again I'm late in getting the portraits posted. I was late getting this picture taken by oh... five weeks. The day I took PC in for his pictures, the studio's computer crashed - halfway through our session. So we went back two days later and they finished the shoot. Then when the pictures were ready three weeks later, I still hadn't had a minute to think of what verse I wanted to put with them.

Next it was Emma's birthday, and after that the priority was getting everything finished up before Butler arrived. And now it's 6 months after his birthday and I'm finally posting PC's 3yr old pictures! Talk about being behind schedule - and it's almost the same story with Emma's pictures (I just got those back yesterday though, so hopefully they'll be up here sooner than later).

These pictures were taken less than a week after Grandma C. let me help her give PC a haircut. Note to self: do not try cutting boy's hair within days of photograph appointment. I nearly scalped him, and even after Grandma C. fixed the worst of the damage, it still looked pretty choppy. But it was either a 'Sir Shaggy' shot, or 'Champ Choppy' one and I think the latter looks better.

I settled with the picture above for our package pose because you can see more of PC's face, but I think the picture below is a nicer picture myself. Both pictures have sparkly-eyed smiles though, and sometimes that's what counts the most.

And now it's time to feed Butler again. I started this post yesterday - at least the pictures are up now. I must go as my younger son demands my presence!

Too Good to be True? or Just Long Overdue?

My Second Potty Training Saga
Week 1... so far.

On Monday PC begged me to let him wear underwear instead of a diaper. I figured I could handle some extra laundry and put him in training underwear. There were no accidents and when nap time rolled around I put him in a diaper much to PC's disappointment. Then I forgot about it until after supper when he insisted he 'needed to go potty'. Of course his diaper was a bit wet from an earlier time, but he went anyway and since we were on our way out the door for a Bible reading with Chasm and HisLady, I just put PC back in a diaper and put him in pajamas.

Then Tuesday morning, PC begged me to let him wear underwear again. The day before had gone well enough, so I thought, "why not? after all, he is almost 3. I can't put it off forever." So he wore underwear. When it came time for naps, PC earnestly begged me not to put him in a diaper, and I figured he probably could go a couple hours asleep without any accidents at the rate he'd been at. And he did, but I forgot to remind him to go to the bathroom while I was busy getting supper on, he had an accident later that evening. He was very upset about it and I let him wear underwear again until bedtime.

Wednesday I had to do laundry which means I'm usually distracted being upstairs or downstairs and the kids get away with a lot more mischief when I'm not close enough to hear them or see what they're getting into. But I gave in to my little man and let him wear underwear a third day. After all, I was doing laundry, so a little extra would hardly be noticed. Sure enough, he had an accident before nap time came and realizing I couldn't keep up on the potty training at the same time as the laundry, I put PC back in a diaper. He was terribly disappointed and begged me again and again to let him wear underwear, but I was a mean mom and denied his pleas. Until after supper. Then I let him wear underwear again. We were going to the prayer/reading meeting that night and I figured it wouldn't hurt to get him used to wearing underwear at meeting and I wouldn't be distracted trying to juggle laundry and life. PC was delighted and there were no accidents the rest of that day.

Thursday there were no accidents and he didn't have a diaper during his nap. The milestone was establishing the going potty routine order. He eagerly waits my next prompt, "Ok, now what do you do?" "B-ush the Potty!!!" he exclaims as he does so complete with slamming the lid closed. "Great, now what comes next?" "I wash my hands!!!" as he pulls out the step stool and positions the ducky hand soap for easy access. Then he started dreaming up what kind of 'big boy' underwear he wants when he's trained enough to get something other than the training hand-me-downs. "Car underwear? No! Train underwear!, no, maybe a tow truck?! No, maybe just car underwear!?" either way it's very clear that he would like some kind of wheeled object on his very own 'big boy' underwear. I think I'll take him shopping with me when the time comes.

Today (Friday) there were no accidents. He even started going all by himself - insisting I not come in to help him. Then proudly coming out to tell me how he wiped himself and b-ushed the potty, and washed his hands with ducky soap and how he even pulled his underwear and pants up all by himself. I just love his shy/proud little grin/smile when I exclaim over his latest achievement. And tonight... well, I'm taking a chance and I let him wear his underwear to bed. We'll see how that went when I get up in the morning.

I'm so excited about how easy he's been. I'd been putting off for so many reasons. Occasionally I'd let him wear underwear for a day, but he'd always have an accident, or just never think he should actually tell me when he needed to go since I was sending him to the bathroom on the hour to avoid accidents. I think this latest change may have come from a conversation we had about his cousin DR (I think I'd read that as 'doctor' - after all, he's Doc and Bashful's third munchkin). DR is two months younger than PC, and started being potty trained back in March. I stressed how much DR. was a 'big boy' because he didn't need diapers anymore and I think PC finally caught on and didn't want to be left in the dust.

Maybe this is all too good to be true and tomorrow will be the beginning of the accidents that last for weeks. Or perhaps PC was just finally ready and I was finally up to the challenge at the same time. I guess time will tell.

I love those laughing eyes.