So Luke just turned 5, and it was such a fun birthday- probably the best one yet! He is such a sweetheart and so appreciative of every little thing that he gets. The only problem is that the photos I downloaded to our (old) computer somehow became "corrupted" so that I could not open up the folder for fall 2010- and we had some GREAT photos on there. I'm gonna try and duplicate the photos from him opening up his presents at least and the excitement on his face.
First of all, he wanted to have a party with his friends AND go to the zoo for his birthday. I told him to pick which thing he wanted more, since it would be too crazy to do all of that in one day. He chose the zoo. (as it turned out, however, rain was expected on his birthday, so we went to the zoo the day BEFORE his birthday and then had the family over for dinner on the 4th).
The zoo was lots of fun, and Luke said that he had a great time, however Max and I realized that it probably isn't as exciting as watching animals on Marty Stauffer. Luke is used to seeing them attack other animals, run really fast, roar, etc. At the zoo, the animals are so tame that they are no longer the animals they were born to be. We still had a great time.
For his birthday, he chose to have cheeseburgers, Pad Thai, broccoli and macaroni and cheese. And of course chocolate cake (made by Nana because our oven is currently broken).
Here is the list of gifts he got, which again we had captured the excitement so clearly with photos, but have lost the originals. Basically for every gift, he would open his mouth so wide and breath in loudly with excitement and shout out whatever it was that he opened.
National Treasure 1 and 2 - from Daddy
Camo pjs, eagle and bear, stencil book, pirate legos, $ tree lightsaber - Mommy and Daddy
Black Stallion, Snow White, Pinnochio, Ninja Turtles, Leonardo -Chup-pop
Owl - Nana and Grandaddy
Snake (that grows in water) -Ange and Caleb
Star Wars lego set - Aunt Kimmy
Knight's shield, sword, and helmet - Aunt Danielle
He watched the Black Stallion just about every day for the next 2 weeks. He continues to sleep in his camo pjs, cuddled up with his owl every night with Leonardo next to his bed.
*although the post date is 11/4 for easy accessibility, I'm writing this in Jan, 2011
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
A life lesson
Luke has always been extremely competitive with Andrew. Whether it is beating him to the bathroom to brush his teeth, finishing his dinner first, running faster than him, etc, he usually calls the shots and Andrew follows like a good younger brother would. He has effectively convinced Andrew that "you like being second, right?" and Andrew replies "yeah". Or, "don't you want this bowl of blueberries?" (usually because it has fewer, but Andrew doesn't really notice). I try to tell them that everything is not a competition, and not to be bossy, etc. but competition between boys is really difficult to maintain (although now for certain things instead of fighting and competing with each other, they now say, "we beat Mommy and Daddy!! just because I think it is part of their (mainly Luke's) nature to compete with SOMEONE). The worst thing that he has had to endure so far is when people make comments about Andrew's curly hair and big eyes. He often wants Andrew to get his hair cut so that it is no longer curly. Yes, this is so sad, and I am always talking to him about how we are all different, and he should be happy for his brother when someone compliments him, and there are special things about him as well. He has recently gotten over this, and is sort of okay with having straight hair.
The other day was really rough on Luke when he realized that Andrew might actually be better than him at something. There was no way around it. No way to disguise it and make his way sound better. It was a good lesson, but VERY difficult.
While at the cabin a few weeks ago, Andrew began writing his name on everyone's shirts, and I never even taught him to write letters! He has a dry-erase book where he enjoys tracing all the letters, and he does like to do this, but it is usually a different story when they try to write their letters without the dotted lines. I think he mainly new how to write his name because of his letter obsession. He was a real quick learner too - I would show him where he was messing up, and how to do the E or W correctly, and he would fix it the next time.
Anyway, when we got home, both of the boys were sitting at the table, and I was trying to work with Luke on writing the letter K because he has a really tough time with all the angle-line letters (x, k, y, z, v). He always wants to curve it a little bit. He looked over and saw Andrew writing his name, and I exclaimed "great job, Andrew! And look at that W!" LUKE TOTALLY LOST IT! He began sobbing, saying "ANDREW knows how to write his letters better than me!, and I can't even write a W!" He went on and on, and just couldn't stop crying. I held him and comforted him, but at the same time, I explained that there are gonna be things in life that Andrew will be better than him. This was a very disturbing concept to Luke as he wants to be the best at everything. I told him Andrew loves letters and this is part of why he is good at writing them. I explained a lot of things to Luke that day.
When you love something, and practice it a lot you CAN get better, but don't ever expect to be the BEST, because there is always gonna be someone better. God has blessed all of us with different gifts and abilities for different reasons. If we were all good at the same things, then life would be pretty boring. We need doctors, teachers, mechanics, garbage men, etc for life to run smoothly. I explained the differences between John and Tom and the musical abilities that John was gifted with even though he was the younger brother (I think Luke assumes when you are older than someone, you are also BETTER than them at things). I explained how Ange and I were good at different things growing up. Daddy and I are good at different things NOW.
I think this was a really good conversation, and he seemed to feel much better in the end. This is not to say that we won't have many more of these kinds of issues pop up. Being our first child, we are always praising him for the things he does well, so this is probably a factor in him thinking he is great at everything. Does this mean we should stop praising him for other things? I don't think so. Encouraging our children and praising them is still very important. Max used to always have a "fear of failure" syndrome to the point that he wouldn't even try something because he was afraid to give it his all and then still fail. (He still sometimes struggles with this). I'm concerned that Luke may end up with this same syndrome. I believe this is just the beginning of many lessons to be learned.
The other day was really rough on Luke when he realized that Andrew might actually be better than him at something. There was no way around it. No way to disguise it and make his way sound better. It was a good lesson, but VERY difficult.
While at the cabin a few weeks ago, Andrew began writing his name on everyone's shirts, and I never even taught him to write letters! He has a dry-erase book where he enjoys tracing all the letters, and he does like to do this, but it is usually a different story when they try to write their letters without the dotted lines. I think he mainly new how to write his name because of his letter obsession. He was a real quick learner too - I would show him where he was messing up, and how to do the E or W correctly, and he would fix it the next time.
Anyway, when we got home, both of the boys were sitting at the table, and I was trying to work with Luke on writing the letter K because he has a really tough time with all the angle-line letters (x, k, y, z, v). He always wants to curve it a little bit. He looked over and saw Andrew writing his name, and I exclaimed "great job, Andrew! And look at that W!" LUKE TOTALLY LOST IT! He began sobbing, saying "ANDREW knows how to write his letters better than me!, and I can't even write a W!" He went on and on, and just couldn't stop crying. I held him and comforted him, but at the same time, I explained that there are gonna be things in life that Andrew will be better than him. This was a very disturbing concept to Luke as he wants to be the best at everything. I told him Andrew loves letters and this is part of why he is good at writing them. I explained a lot of things to Luke that day.
When you love something, and practice it a lot you CAN get better, but don't ever expect to be the BEST, because there is always gonna be someone better. God has blessed all of us with different gifts and abilities for different reasons. If we were all good at the same things, then life would be pretty boring. We need doctors, teachers, mechanics, garbage men, etc for life to run smoothly. I explained the differences between John and Tom and the musical abilities that John was gifted with even though he was the younger brother (I think Luke assumes when you are older than someone, you are also BETTER than them at things). I explained how Ange and I were good at different things growing up. Daddy and I are good at different things NOW.
I think this was a really good conversation, and he seemed to feel much better in the end. This is not to say that we won't have many more of these kinds of issues pop up. Being our first child, we are always praising him for the things he does well, so this is probably a factor in him thinking he is great at everything. Does this mean we should stop praising him for other things? I don't think so. Encouraging our children and praising them is still very important. Max used to always have a "fear of failure" syndrome to the point that he wouldn't even try something because he was afraid to give it his all and then still fail. (He still sometimes struggles with this). I'm concerned that Luke may end up with this same syndrome. I believe this is just the beginning of many lessons to be learned.
Friday, August 13, 2010
using a spoon
I usually look forward to the day when each of our kids can feed himself with a spoon. In some ways, it makes life so much easier because I can just set a bowl in front of them and they take care of themselves. Obviously this allows me more time to get other things done. However, when they INSIST to feed themselves before they are really ready, it most definitely comes at a cost.I guess they've gotta learn sometime!
tired of using the spoon, Isaac decides to "drink" the pasta, but instead it spills on the tray.
As Nate once said, "he looks like stained tupperware!"
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Our little Genius
(I know, everyone thinks their kid is a genius. )
I've always thought Luke was super smart, but wasn't quite sure about Andrew for a while. He was a slower talker and even still is hard to understand at times. His birthday is in July, so he will be 0ne of the youngest kids in the class when he starts school. Lately I've been thinking that I've been slacking with Andrew and I better start teaching him his letters and numbers and how to write, etc. because he is starting school in just 2 years, and I don't want him to be at a disadvantage due to his late birthday.
When Andrew was about 2 1/2, I began to realize that he was a pretty smart kiddo. He put together a little puzzle all by himself. It was VERY small (about 12 pieces) and probably wasn't THAT big of a deal for a 2 1/2 year old, but it at least clued me into the fact that he was CAPABLE of doing puzzles. I was used to Luke working on a puzzle he had done many times, so if Andrew even TRIED to help, Luke would show him where to put it. Anytime we brought out a NEW puzzle however, Luke at age 4 still usually needed some help from us.
The next thing we knew, Andrew would be sitting quietly in a corner doing puzzles any time he could. We realized that if we let him alone with a puzzle and didn't help at ALL, he had the patience to do it on his own, pretty quickly at that.
I brought out a stack of puzzles that Luke had always had trouble with and Andrew flew through
them. Suddenly every puzzle we had, he would put together, take it apart, back together, take it apart, over and over again. He just LOVED doing these puzzles all day long! We started calling him the "puzzle genius". I really don't know what is a normal age to do puzzles, but I was pretty impressed with this "Cars" puzzle he did a couple months ago because of all the trees at the top. And it only took him a few minutes to do it!
Anyway, then came his letter obsession. This started about a month ago. I knew Andrew knew the letter A and a few other letters, but we were at the swim center and he started naming all the letters on the wall! "K-I-D-S F-I-R- (what is that one called?) S- T S-W-I-M S-C-H-O-O-L" He needed help with the S and the W.
I thought, wow! I can't believe he knows all of those! Then I remembered he and Luke had
been playing on their little computers every morning for the last week or two, so I'm sure this is where he learned it.
Now, for the last month he is literally OBSESSED with letters! Anytime he sees letters anywhere, he wants to stop what we're doing and spell the word. This obviously slows us down a lot since there are letters EVERYWHERE in this world! I would say he spends about 50 % of his day sitting and reading letters in books, playing his leap frog letter game, computer game, singing his ABC'S, etc. It is amazing how many alphabet books are coming out of the woodwork. (lots from Dr. Seuss, Chicka Chicka ABC, Sesame Street, Arthur, etc). I had no idea we had so many!!
When we are outside, he shows me sticks that look like "k's" or "L's" or "V's" and even in the middle of the night when he woke up to go potty, he whispered in his little raspy voice, "mommy, I want my ABC cheezits when I wake up". When he got home from Sunday school a couple weeks ago, he said, shaking with intense excitement in his voice, "MOMMY, we did a ABC puzzle today!!!!!"
Now for the genius part of it. . .
Andrew began sounding out words too! On Max's shirt, he spelled the letters "G-O-D" and then slowly sounded it out "G O D". He also read some of the letters on a poster we have and then tried to sound it out "Be Called". (he read it "besalled" with short e's) He knew the SOUNDS that letters made! I really had no idea! He didn't know ALL of them so then I put in a "hooked on Phonics" CD that we had. He holds his flash cards as the lady reads the letter, the sound it makes, and a word that starts with that letter ("A, a, apple. . . B, b, bell", etc). He put this track on repeat and listened to it for about 45 minutes straight. He now knows all of his sounds inside and out! I think he is ready to learn to read!
Last, but not least, one night, Andrew spelled out all the letters on Max's shirt "L-I-G-O-N-I-E-R" and then said "but I wish it said A-N-D-R-E-W. . . (then he proceeded to point to each letter in 'Ligonier', starting with the R and named what each letter would be if the shirt said 'Andrew' ) the 'R' would be a W, the 'E' would be a E, the 'I' would be R, the 'N' would be D, the 'O' would be N, and the 'G' would be A!" He did this all in his head! pretty impressive to me!
By the way, all of these picture were not set up. They were easy candids to take because this is what he does ALL day!!
I've always thought Luke was super smart, but wasn't quite sure about Andrew for a while. He was a slower talker and even still is hard to understand at times. His birthday is in July, so he will be 0ne of the youngest kids in the class when he starts school. Lately I've been thinking that I've been slacking with Andrew and I better start teaching him his letters and numbers and how to write, etc. because he is starting school in just 2 years, and I don't want him to be at a disadvantage due to his late birthday.
When Andrew was about 2 1/2, I began to realize that he was a pretty smart kiddo. He put together a little puzzle all by himself. It was VERY small (about 12 pieces) and probably wasn't THAT big of a deal for a 2 1/2 year old, but it at least clued me into the fact that he was CAPABLE of doing puzzles. I was used to Luke working on a puzzle he had done many times, so if Andrew even TRIED to help, Luke would show him where to put it. Anytime we brought out a NEW puzzle however, Luke at age 4 still usually needed some help from us.
The next thing we knew, Andrew would be sitting quietly in a corner doing puzzles any time he could. We realized that if we let him alone with a puzzle and didn't help at ALL, he had the patience to do it on his own, pretty quickly at that.
I brought out a stack of puzzles that Luke had always had trouble with and Andrew flew through
them. Suddenly every puzzle we had, he would put together, take it apart, back together, take it apart, over and over again. He just LOVED doing these puzzles all day long! We started calling him the "puzzle genius". I really don't know what is a normal age to do puzzles, but I was pretty impressed with this "Cars" puzzle he did a couple months ago because of all the trees at the top. And it only took him a few minutes to do it!Anyway, then came his letter obsession. This started about a month ago. I knew Andrew knew the letter A and a few other letters, but we were at the swim center and he started naming all the letters on the wall! "K-I-D-S F-I-R- (what is that one called?) S- T S-W-I-M S-C-H-O-O-L" He needed help with the S and the W.
I thought, wow! I can't believe he knows all of those! Then I remembered he and Luke had
been playing on their little computers every morning for the last week or two, so I'm sure this is where he learned it.Now, for the last month he is literally OBSESSED with letters! Anytime he sees letters anywhere, he wants to stop what we're doing and spell the word. This obviously slows us down a lot since there are letters EVERYWHERE in this world! I would say he spends about 50 % of his day sitting and reading letters in books, playing his leap frog letter game, computer game, singing his ABC'S, etc. It is amazing how many alphabet books are coming out of the woodwork. (lots from Dr. Seuss, Chicka Chicka ABC, Sesame Street, Arthur, etc). I had no idea we had so many!!
When we are outside, he shows me sticks that look like "k's" or "L's" or "V's" and even in the middle of the night when he woke up to go potty, he whispered in his little raspy voice, "mommy, I want my ABC cheezits when I wake up". When he got home from Sunday school a couple weeks ago, he said, shaking with intense excitement in his voice, "MOMMY, we did a ABC puzzle today!!!!!"
Now for the genius part of it. . .
Andrew began sounding out words too! On Max's shirt, he spelled the letters "G-O-D" and then slowly sounded it out "G O D". He also read some of the letters on a poster we have and then tried to sound it out "Be Called". (he read it "besalled" with short e's) He knew the SOUNDS that letters made! I really had no idea! He didn't know ALL of them so then I put in a "hooked on Phonics" CD that we had. He holds his flash cards as the lady reads the letter, the sound it makes, and a word that starts with that letter ("A, a, apple. . . B, b, bell", etc). He put this track on repeat and listened to it for about 45 minutes straight. He now knows all of his sounds inside and out! I think he is ready to learn to read!
Last, but not least, one night, Andrew spelled out all the letters on Max's shirt "L-I-G-O-N-I-E-R" and then said "but I wish it said A-N-D-R-E-W. . . (then he proceeded to point to each letter in 'Ligonier', starting with the R and named what each letter would be if the shirt said 'Andrew' ) the 'R' would be a W, the 'E' would be a E, the 'I' would be R, the 'N' would be D, the 'O' would be N, and the 'G' would be A!" He did this all in his head! pretty impressive to me!
By the way, all of these picture were not set up. They were easy candids to take because this is what he does ALL day!!
Monday, July 26, 2010
The bathroom
I think Isaac's three favorite things right now are Mommy, Daddy, and the bathroom. One day the truth prevailed when he saw me at the end of the hallway and began frantically crawling towards me with much excitement in his voice, and the biggest smile on his face. . . until he came to the bathroom. I was sitting just beyond the bathroom, so he had to pass it in order to get to me. Even before he hesitated, I was already wondering what he would do when he got there. I had a feeling that he would choose the bathroom over me, and I was right!The real problem, however is NOT that he likes the bathroom more than me, but rather what he
DOES when he is IN the bathroom! He usually goes straight for the toilet, and LOVES to splash the water all over the seat. This is gross no matter how clean the toilet water is, but it is absolutely disgusting when someone forgot to flush the toilet! (fortunately, this has not happened with #2 though. . . yet).The other day, I was in the kitchen with Isaac, and things had gotten a little quiet. I realized Isaac had ventured off, so I went straight to the bathroom, and what is the grossest thing in the bathroom that he could possibly choose to play with? Take a good look at the picture. . . .
That's right, the TOILET BOWL CLEANER. EWWW! So GROSS! He had dumped the little holder over, so all the old gross residual toilet water had spilled all over the floor, and of course was on him. He was on his way to putting the brush in his mouth (and I don't even wanna know what he had ALREADY put in his mouth before I rescued him!)
I grabbed him as quickly as I could and threw him in the bathtub, scrubbing him down as thoroughly as possible.
A couple weeks later, we were in the bathroom and I saw a dead fly on the floor. I got a tissue and picked it up to throw it in the trash. Then I saw, out of the corner of my eye, Isaac pick up something small and put it in his mouth. it was then that I knew. I opened his mouth, and sure
enough he had picked up the dead fly that had unknowingly fallen out of my tissue and put it in his mouth!! EWW! You ate THAT?? SOOO DISCUSTING!!! I really don't know which is grosser!It's a good thing he is so cute!! And it's truly amazing that these little guys turn out okay!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Andrew's 3rd birthday
I love 3 year old's birthdays. Well, I don't know if ALL 3 year olds are this way, but both Luke and Andrew were SOOO excited about EVERYTHING they got for their birthday when they turned 3. It is the first year that they totally "get it". They look forward to the food and cake and presents for several weeks leading up to their birthday. We usually just get them a few little things from Dollar Tree, and sometimes something a little more special from somewhere else. The rest of the family usually gets them one thing each, so they really don't get too many gifts for their birthdays, but I kinda think this helps them REALLY appreciate the things they DO get.
Since Luke had a GI Joe cake for his birthday (which all started because Jen makes amazing cakes for her kids so my kids think I should be able to do it as well), Andrew had been saying for the last several months that he wanted a "ninja Urtles cake" I kept thinking that I would just put a couple of the Ninja Turltles figures on his cake and he would be happy, and maybe he would have been. However a couple days before his birthday, he said to Max, "I don't even WANT any presents for my birthday, all I want is a Leonardo cake!" I couldn't resist those sweet eyes, so I decided to DRAW Leonardo on his cake and it turned out pretty good!
He LOVED this cake!!!
He also loved EVERY present he opened, saying things like "AW, WATA GUNs!" (even the 2nd time he opened it he was super excited - mom and Danielle both got him the exact same water guns) . Although these pictures don't really capture his excitement, he was SOO bright-eyed and smiley, showing an unbelievable amount of emotion with EVERY gift. It was just such a joy to watch! What a cutie!!
Bug catcher from Nana and Grandaddy
Charlotte's Web book
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Breakfast
Luke and Andrew have been eating oatmeal almost every morning since they were babies. It is supposed to be great for cholesterol and high in soluble fiber, so I figured I should get them used to eating it while they're young, and that way they will always eat it. This concept has really worked and they LOVE their oatmeal. Every morning, they have "lots of brown cheerios (multigrain), lots of milk, and lots of plain cheerios"
then they excitedly await their oatmeal with different fruits each day.
Bananas and raisins.
applesauce.
strawberries and bananas
peaches and bananas (current favorite)
blueberries
So although they eat the same thing every day, the fruit makes it exciting.
The other exciting part of their oatmeal is their SPOONS.
About a year ago, the boys (especially Luke at the time) started wanting a "baby spoon" with which to eat his oatmeal.
This was a true BABY spoon. The kind you use when a baby is FIRST learning to eat solids. So it is VERY tiny, and takes about three times as long to eat breakfast.
Then he started wanting two baby spoons, which was fine.
Andrew followed suit and pretty soon wanted 3, 4, 5, 6 spoons to eat his oatmeal. It was beginning to get out of control, so I finally set a rule. ONLY 2 SPOONS each day!
They both were fine with this idea, and always made sure they alternated bites, giving each spoon a fair share.
Luke now uses a wider baby spoon with holes in it, and an "orangish-red (really orange, but since red is his favorite color, and we don't have one in red, orange is the closest to red so it has become "orangish red") tiny baby spoon. He is VERY attached to these spoons and will usually have a meltdown if they are not washed and ready to go in the morning.
Andrew on the other hand isn't attached to any particular spoon, but rather enjoys a variety of spoons. He seems to choose the most awkward ones - teaspoons, tablespoons, medicine spoons, medicine syringes, spatulas. last week he even tried to use the needle attachment to an air pump for our basketball. I had to draw the line there!
The last couple of days may be my favorite spoon of choice for Andrew -- a ladel. It is not a huge ladel, but the kind you might use for salad dressing. He finally found an awkward spoon that is big enough to actually get some decent bites of oatmeal!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
His Plan (part 3)
We moved back to MD in December of 2005, but still weren't quite sure what Max would do for work. He was still leaning towards teaching. About 2 weeks after we moved back, he got a job selling Hondas. After a couple weeks of working there, the manager said "you have more potential at selling cars than anyone I've ever seen!" So we began to think that maybe that was really his calling!
He did apply and was interviewed at AACS for a teaching position, but when he went there for a day to see how it felt, although the principal really liked him, Max realized that teaching high school was not for him. He wanted to teach people who were actually interested in the subject matter. So he figured that maybe he would go on and teach at a college.
Before long, Barry asked Max what he planned to do with his seminary degree and mentioned that they might have a need for an intern.
NEVER did we think that a job would become available at our HOME CHURCH! One of the pastors was leaving to work for another church, so they really needed the extra help. Although I didn't like the idea of him being a pastor, I was open to an internship, just to see where his strengths were. Besides that, obviously this was GOD opening a door for us! After 6 months at Browns, he said goodbye, and began at the church.
Since Max didn't think he would ever be a pastor, he took NO preaching courses at seminary. Now, with the internship, he HAD to preach! It was truly a blessing that he had spent a few months with Adam in Philly to see how HE went about preparing sermons. He spoke to the other pastors about it, and read a book about preaching, and then went to preach his first sermon. THIS IS WHEN I KNEW HIS CALLING! -- when he preached his first sermon. It was really cool to be there and suddenly have it click that God was calling him to be a pastor.
Suddenly I didn't care about any of the other stuff that used to bother me about the idea of being a "pastor's wife" and I wanted to do what GOD wanted us to do.
There were definitely some tough things about coming back to our home church - dealing with people and elders that have known you since you were a kid sometimes makes it hard to feel respected.
And it was hard for me too with a new baby, but not yet connected with anyone. When you've been gone for 3 years, you can't really just jump back in where you left off. Things had changed and in a lot of ways, it was a very lonely time for me. The longer I've been a pastor's wife, the more I've realized that its OKAY for me to have friends. For a long time I felt like I didn't want to be exclusive, and felt the need to always be reaching out to others, and in doing so was not focusing on building strong lasting friendships. It is okay to have BOTH.
Now, 4 years later (after being ordained last year - Feb, 2009), there is so much going on in the church today (and some messy stuff in our church as well) and so many questions we continue to have. What is our REAL purpose in life, as Christians? what is the purpose of a church? So many demands and expectations are put on pastors and we sometimes wonder why things can't just be simple. Are we being called to plant a church? Are we being called to take over another church? Are we being called to move to Japan where only .4 percent of the population is "Christian"? (yes, we have actually thought about this). What is life gonna be like in 20 years from now? Are we going to still have freedom of religion or will Christians again be persecuted and have to worship in private? History repeats itself, and since I am a realist, I know that things can change drastically in a country in a few years. If that is the case, I'm sure the petty issues that have invaded our churches will no longer matter, and only the gospel of Jesus will be important to get us through our days.
These are the things that I think about and wonder how life will be different in our future (although I certainly don't dwell on these things at all). I just wonder what God has in store for us and continue to pray that we will seek HIS will for our lives. My life is already so different than what I would have said it would be15 years ago, so we will see what another 15 years will bring. (I am turning 30 in a few days. . . maybe this is why I've become so reflective on my life! :)
He did apply and was interviewed at AACS for a teaching position, but when he went there for a day to see how it felt, although the principal really liked him, Max realized that teaching high school was not for him. He wanted to teach people who were actually interested in the subject matter. So he figured that maybe he would go on and teach at a college.
Before long, Barry asked Max what he planned to do with his seminary degree and mentioned that they might have a need for an intern.
NEVER did we think that a job would become available at our HOME CHURCH! One of the pastors was leaving to work for another church, so they really needed the extra help. Although I didn't like the idea of him being a pastor, I was open to an internship, just to see where his strengths were. Besides that, obviously this was GOD opening a door for us! After 6 months at Browns, he said goodbye, and began at the church.
Since Max didn't think he would ever be a pastor, he took NO preaching courses at seminary. Now, with the internship, he HAD to preach! It was truly a blessing that he had spent a few months with Adam in Philly to see how HE went about preparing sermons. He spoke to the other pastors about it, and read a book about preaching, and then went to preach his first sermon. THIS IS WHEN I KNEW HIS CALLING! -- when he preached his first sermon. It was really cool to be there and suddenly have it click that God was calling him to be a pastor.
Suddenly I didn't care about any of the other stuff that used to bother me about the idea of being a "pastor's wife" and I wanted to do what GOD wanted us to do.
There were definitely some tough things about coming back to our home church - dealing with people and elders that have known you since you were a kid sometimes makes it hard to feel respected.
And it was hard for me too with a new baby, but not yet connected with anyone. When you've been gone for 3 years, you can't really just jump back in where you left off. Things had changed and in a lot of ways, it was a very lonely time for me. The longer I've been a pastor's wife, the more I've realized that its OKAY for me to have friends. For a long time I felt like I didn't want to be exclusive, and felt the need to always be reaching out to others, and in doing so was not focusing on building strong lasting friendships. It is okay to have BOTH.
Now, 4 years later (after being ordained last year - Feb, 2009), there is so much going on in the church today (and some messy stuff in our church as well) and so many questions we continue to have. What is our REAL purpose in life, as Christians? what is the purpose of a church? So many demands and expectations are put on pastors and we sometimes wonder why things can't just be simple. Are we being called to plant a church? Are we being called to take over another church? Are we being called to move to Japan where only .4 percent of the population is "Christian"? (yes, we have actually thought about this). What is life gonna be like in 20 years from now? Are we going to still have freedom of religion or will Christians again be persecuted and have to worship in private? History repeats itself, and since I am a realist, I know that things can change drastically in a country in a few years. If that is the case, I'm sure the petty issues that have invaded our churches will no longer matter, and only the gospel of Jesus will be important to get us through our days.
These are the things that I think about and wonder how life will be different in our future (although I certainly don't dwell on these things at all). I just wonder what God has in store for us and continue to pray that we will seek HIS will for our lives. My life is already so different than what I would have said it would be15 years ago, so we will see what another 15 years will bring. (I am turning 30 in a few days. . . maybe this is why I've become so reflective on my life! :)
playing in the sandbox
The sandbox is up and running!!
When Max came home the first time they played in it, they were soaking wet, and had the hose IN the sandbox, turned ON as if they were filling up a pool!!
Max said, "what!? you didn't tell them NOT to fill the sandbox with water?"
So apparently I should have known they would do this and should have told them ahead of time to NOT fill it with water! Oh well. They had fun!
When Max came home the first time they played in it, they were soaking wet, and had the hose IN the sandbox, turned ON as if they were filling up a pool!!
Max said, "what!? you didn't tell them NOT to fill the sandbox with water?"
So apparently I should have known they would do this and should have told them ahead of time to NOT fill it with water! Oh well. They had fun!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
His Plan (part 2)
When I worked at Garrys, I got into MANY conversations with people about my husband who was planning to go to seminary. When we moved to Philly, I had even MORE conversations about my husband BEING in seminary. Here are some of the examples of the questions I was asked.
So your husband goes to Seminary?. . . you're gonna be married to a priest?!
or
so you're gonna be a pastor's wife?
or
How do you feel about being a pastor's wife?
or
(when I was pregnant and told various regular customers who knew Max was in seminary that his name would be Luke)
" Ah, yes. . . a Bible name. . . are you gonna have Matthew, Mark and John next?"
Anyway, in response to all of these questions, I always made it VERY clear that Max did NOT plan to be a pastor! I said that he wasn't quite sure EXACTLY what he wanted to do- maybe teach or become a professor, but we were CERTAIN that he DIDN'T want to be a pastor. Even our good friends in Philly said a couple of times, "are you SURE you don't wanna be a pastor? We think you would be a great preacher".
At least I was certain. I could not stand the thought of Max being a pastor. I don't know if it was really the thought of ME being a "pastor's wife" and the stigma that is often attached to that title or if it was simply that I couldn't imagine him preaching week after week (when I know what he is REALLY like at home :). Regardless, I KNEW that I didn't want him to be a pastor!
Max was pretty certain as well. He opted to finish school in 2 1/2 years and NOT take the extra preaching courses that are required for the MDiv degree (the "preacher's degree").
Towards the end of our stay in Philly God put it on our hearts to switch churches. We left our close network of friends at the church we attended for 1 1/2 years because we felt like we weren't getting spiritually fed. The pastor at the new church was phenomenal, and we quickly found out that he led a "pastor's round-table discussion" every Thursday for any students from the church who went to Westminster. There Adam would explain to these guys, in great detail, HOW he prepares his sermon. Max LOVED this hour he spent with Adam on Thursdays, and was amazed at how he dissected every word of his text. Even though I often questioned WHY Max would participate in this group even though he didn't plan to be a pastor, I figured there was no harm in it either. (As it turns out, Adam only led this "round-table" for a short time - and it just happened to be the short time we were at this church. Also, another participant of this group once said that Adam's hands-on instruction was better than all the preaching classes together.)
We would soon realize that this was just another piece of our lives that God had so perfectly put in place. . . .
So your husband goes to Seminary?. . . you're gonna be married to a priest?!
or
so you're gonna be a pastor's wife?
or
How do you feel about being a pastor's wife?
or
(when I was pregnant and told various regular customers who knew Max was in seminary that his name would be Luke)
" Ah, yes. . . a Bible name. . . are you gonna have Matthew, Mark and John next?"
Anyway, in response to all of these questions, I always made it VERY clear that Max did NOT plan to be a pastor! I said that he wasn't quite sure EXACTLY what he wanted to do- maybe teach or become a professor, but we were CERTAIN that he DIDN'T want to be a pastor. Even our good friends in Philly said a couple of times, "are you SURE you don't wanna be a pastor? We think you would be a great preacher".
At least I was certain. I could not stand the thought of Max being a pastor. I don't know if it was really the thought of ME being a "pastor's wife" and the stigma that is often attached to that title or if it was simply that I couldn't imagine him preaching week after week (when I know what he is REALLY like at home :). Regardless, I KNEW that I didn't want him to be a pastor!
Max was pretty certain as well. He opted to finish school in 2 1/2 years and NOT take the extra preaching courses that are required for the MDiv degree (the "preacher's degree").
Towards the end of our stay in Philly God put it on our hearts to switch churches. We left our close network of friends at the church we attended for 1 1/2 years because we felt like we weren't getting spiritually fed. The pastor at the new church was phenomenal, and we quickly found out that he led a "pastor's round-table discussion" every Thursday for any students from the church who went to Westminster. There Adam would explain to these guys, in great detail, HOW he prepares his sermon. Max LOVED this hour he spent with Adam on Thursdays, and was amazed at how he dissected every word of his text. Even though I often questioned WHY Max would participate in this group even though he didn't plan to be a pastor, I figured there was no harm in it either. (As it turns out, Adam only led this "round-table" for a short time - and it just happened to be the short time we were at this church. Also, another participant of this group once said that Adam's hands-on instruction was better than all the preaching classes together.)
We would soon realize that this was just another piece of our lives that God had so perfectly put in place. . . .
Friday, May 28, 2010
The Sandbox
SO, I'm not much of a handy woman by any stretch of the imagination, however I AM usually the one who puts together simple pieces of furniture that come in a box with instructions- end tables, small cabinets, shelves, etc. I even figured out how to attach our under-the-cabinet-radio to our cabinet. THAT definitely took some extra skills. I am the one who does these things because I DO enjoy it, but also because I am a little impatient. I do not like to nag, BUT I know that if I wait for Max to do it on his own time, it will sit in the box indefinitely. I save my nagging for the things I CAN'T do :)
SO, I have been wanting to make the boys a sandbox for quite some time. Ever since Deanna made one for her kids, I've wanted to do it too. However, Max keeps saying he will build one with his dad, who made an amazing one with a nice lid when he was a kid. If I pester them, they are really good at following through. However I do not like to pester, SO last thursday (on the 91 degree day) when he was in Philly, I decided I could not wait any longer and I was going to do it myself. I printed off directions and it seemed simple enough. I dragged the 3 boys to Home Depot, put Isaac in a cart and went to the back of the store for my wood.
The guy looked at me with a smirk, and I could tell he thought I was crazy to do this project with 3 little ones. I showed him my blueprint and he told me that I needed the REALLY BIG cart (which doesn't have a spot for a baby). Off we went back to the front of the store. Back again to where he was collecting my wood, and now waiting for the guy in front of me to get his 16 pieces of wood CUT.
We were standing there for a few minutes, when Andrew, as always, had to go to the bathroom. Off we went, to the complete OPPOSITE side of the store, holding Isaac who was getting awfully heavy, and running with the other guys so Andrew would not pee himself (which he often does). We got to where we THOUGHT it was, but the lady pointed and said "its down there -->". We ran a little ways more and finally arrived and by then, I had to go too (which is always tricky while holding an infant, but I've gotten better at it over the years). We got back and the wood was finally cut.
Then I had to get the sand - at least 10 bags. Isaac was now getting REALLY heavy, while I tried to maneuver that awkward cart (or whatever you call that big thing), WITH Luke and Andrew continuously trying to jump on for a ride. Fortunately, 2 guys loaded up the sand for me, and then as I was about to start pushing the cart again and head out, a kind lady in the aisle said, "you guys are gonna take that out for her, right?" Since I often don't ask people for help, this was EXTREMELY helpful! (although, I guess they might have been planning on helping me anyway).
For some reason I thought this trip would only take about 20 minutes! Boy was I wrong! It was much closer to 1 hour. (Come to find out later that week, when I called about our fence we are installing, I COULD HAVE called ahead, told them EXACTLY what I needed, and they could have had it ready for me when I got there! - Oh well)
Because I had all the kids with me, I was not even THINKING about the cost of this thing (usually I'm really good at totaling things up in my head so that I'm not surprised at checkout). I was DEFINITELY surprised this day when they said "$83.00. . . WHAT?? for a SANDBOX?? (actually, I then realized I had gotten about $10.00 worth of garden stuff too) I guess the wood was about $30 and the sand about $40.
So I was REALLY determined to get this thing done before Max got home - as sort of a surprise. But I soon found out that I'm not too good with a hammer, AND I'm not too good at taking out nails that are halfway in. If you look really closely, there are 5 bent nails and about 4 or 5 OTHER holes in which I couldn't get the nails either! That is about 9 failed attempts on this side.
However, I did manage to figure out a better angle to hold the hammer, so that I could successfully finish the other three sides. Not too shabby! There are still triangle "seats" that have to be cut, and of course the sand, but we are still trying to figure out exactly where to put it. For now, I am still very proud of it!
SO, I have been wanting to make the boys a sandbox for quite some time. Ever since Deanna made one for her kids, I've wanted to do it too. However, Max keeps saying he will build one with his dad, who made an amazing one with a nice lid when he was a kid. If I pester them, they are really good at following through. However I do not like to pester, SO last thursday (on the 91 degree day) when he was in Philly, I decided I could not wait any longer and I was going to do it myself. I printed off directions and it seemed simple enough. I dragged the 3 boys to Home Depot, put Isaac in a cart and went to the back of the store for my wood.
The guy looked at me with a smirk, and I could tell he thought I was crazy to do this project with 3 little ones. I showed him my blueprint and he told me that I needed the REALLY BIG cart (which doesn't have a spot for a baby). Off we went back to the front of the store. Back again to where he was collecting my wood, and now waiting for the guy in front of me to get his 16 pieces of wood CUT.
We were standing there for a few minutes, when Andrew, as always, had to go to the bathroom. Off we went, to the complete OPPOSITE side of the store, holding Isaac who was getting awfully heavy, and running with the other guys so Andrew would not pee himself (which he often does). We got to where we THOUGHT it was, but the lady pointed and said "its down there -->". We ran a little ways more and finally arrived and by then, I had to go too (which is always tricky while holding an infant, but I've gotten better at it over the years). We got back and the wood was finally cut.
Then I had to get the sand - at least 10 bags. Isaac was now getting REALLY heavy, while I tried to maneuver that awkward cart (or whatever you call that big thing), WITH Luke and Andrew continuously trying to jump on for a ride. Fortunately, 2 guys loaded up the sand for me, and then as I was about to start pushing the cart again and head out, a kind lady in the aisle said, "you guys are gonna take that out for her, right?" Since I often don't ask people for help, this was EXTREMELY helpful! (although, I guess they might have been planning on helping me anyway).
For some reason I thought this trip would only take about 20 minutes! Boy was I wrong! It was much closer to 1 hour. (Come to find out later that week, when I called about our fence we are installing, I COULD HAVE called ahead, told them EXACTLY what I needed, and they could have had it ready for me when I got there! - Oh well)
Because I had all the kids with me, I was not even THINKING about the cost of this thing (usually I'm really good at totaling things up in my head so that I'm not surprised at checkout). I was DEFINITELY surprised this day when they said "$83.00. . . WHAT?? for a SANDBOX?? (actually, I then realized I had gotten about $10.00 worth of garden stuff too) I guess the wood was about $30 and the sand about $40.
So I was REALLY determined to get this thing done before Max got home - as sort of a surprise. But I soon found out that I'm not too good with a hammer, AND I'm not too good at taking out nails that are halfway in. If you look really closely, there are 5 bent nails and about 4 or 5 OTHER holes in which I couldn't get the nails either! That is about 9 failed attempts on this side.
However, I did manage to figure out a better angle to hold the hammer, so that I could successfully finish the other three sides. Not too shabby! There are still triangle "seats" that have to be cut, and of course the sand, but we are still trying to figure out exactly where to put it. For now, I am still very proud of it!
His Plan (part 1)
I've been thinking about a lot of stuff lately, related to church and our lives as a "pastor's family". I wanted to write my thoughts out, but decided to start from the beginning.
When Max first mentioned going to seminary, I was VERY opposed to it, because he said he wanted to go full time and NOT WORK! I did not like the idea of being the SOLE supporter of our family. I remember mentioning that I went to school, worked almost full time while planning a wedding! Why can't you do the same? I asked.
He tried to explain to me that Westminster is NOT like UMBC, and you really have to use ALL of your extra free time to study. I really could not comprehend this concept. Then I decided I did NOT want him to go to Westminster if that's how it was! I was pushing for Covenant seminary because it was the "easier" school and more family minded. Westminster had a reputation of being TOO academic and more geared towards single men who wanted to maybe be a professor or something. We drove out to Covenant seminary to check into it, although we both had a sick feeling in our stomachs while we were there, just thinking about being so far away from home.
It was October of 2002, and we were planning on going to Covenant in January (I had even reserved a moving truck), but I woke up one morning and said, "why don't you call Jerry McFarland and just ASK about Westminster, maybe we could at least visit ". (The Lord was obviously changing my heart about the whole thing!) Wouldn't you know that their PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS DAY WAS THE NEXT DAY!!! AND I, the workaholic, was miraculously OFF work!
We went up and LOVED it! They treated us all like kings with their fancy lunch and dinner! It was not at all what we had expected. People were really nice and there were plenty of "family men" that we met. Jerry McFarland was the dean of students and his job was to keep guys focused on Christ and WHY they were there, and not let them get carried away with "book knowledge". We really liked that their focus was on the right things. THAT'S what its all about, right?
Max never really knew what he wanted to do after seminary, but he always thought he would go the teaching route. We began to realize that Westminster may be the better choice because it was academically probably the best seminary around. We finally decided we would move there the following fall. I was finally okay with going AND being the sole provider, just as long as he didn't want to be a pastor! . . . .
When Max first mentioned going to seminary, I was VERY opposed to it, because he said he wanted to go full time and NOT WORK! I did not like the idea of being the SOLE supporter of our family. I remember mentioning that I went to school, worked almost full time while planning a wedding! Why can't you do the same? I asked.
He tried to explain to me that Westminster is NOT like UMBC, and you really have to use ALL of your extra free time to study. I really could not comprehend this concept. Then I decided I did NOT want him to go to Westminster if that's how it was! I was pushing for Covenant seminary because it was the "easier" school and more family minded. Westminster had a reputation of being TOO academic and more geared towards single men who wanted to maybe be a professor or something. We drove out to Covenant seminary to check into it, although we both had a sick feeling in our stomachs while we were there, just thinking about being so far away from home.
It was October of 2002, and we were planning on going to Covenant in January (I had even reserved a moving truck), but I woke up one morning and said, "why don't you call Jerry McFarland and just ASK about Westminster, maybe we could at least visit ". (The Lord was obviously changing my heart about the whole thing!) Wouldn't you know that their PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS DAY WAS THE NEXT DAY!!! AND I, the workaholic, was miraculously OFF work!
We went up and LOVED it! They treated us all like kings with their fancy lunch and dinner! It was not at all what we had expected. People were really nice and there were plenty of "family men" that we met. Jerry McFarland was the dean of students and his job was to keep guys focused on Christ and WHY they were there, and not let them get carried away with "book knowledge". We really liked that their focus was on the right things. THAT'S what its all about, right?
Max never really knew what he wanted to do after seminary, but he always thought he would go the teaching route. We began to realize that Westminster may be the better choice because it was academically probably the best seminary around. We finally decided we would move there the following fall. I was finally okay with going AND being the sole provider, just as long as he didn't want to be a pastor! . . . .
you ate THAT?
It never ceases to amaze me the things a baby will eat. I understand that they explore things by putting them in their mouths, but SERIOUSLY? I was in the kitchen this morning and heard Isaac messing with a bag. I turned around to find him eating a potato. Can you guess which one he chose to chomp down on??
That's right. The one in the middle. The discusting old rotten potato.
I could understand if it were Andrew. He ate ANYTHING and EVERYTHING under the sun, and still does! But Isaac is super picky! Just about anything that has any texture to it, he spits out- noodles, cheese, peas, berries, you name it! (although now He IS getting better at eating stuff that I put through the baby food grinder). But he seems to LOVE dirt, sticks, grass, paper/tissues, or ANYTHING else that is dirty! Hopefully he's just building a super strong immune system!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Weto, Weto
When Andrew was about 18 months old, it was sometimes difficult to know what words he was trying to say. Usually over time we would figure it out, but there was one particular word that he said quite often and I always wondered what it meant.
"Wee-toe" is how it sounded. Sometimes he would say it several times over. After a while, I noticed that Luke would say it too. I just assumed he was imitating Andrew, and maybe he was. . . at FIRST.
For a couple months I remember asking them, "what is weto, weto?"( usually kind of playfully, thinking it was just a silly word.) They always said that they couldn't tell me.
Finally one day they let me in on their little secret. They told me that Weto, Weto was a store JUST for kids. No mommies or Daddies were allowed! I asked what they sold at the store.
Ice Cream!, they replied.
Every morning after that for probably the next 9 months, they would say, "we're going to weto weto, see you later" Andrew would get banana ice cream, and Luke would get chocolate. They would run back and forth from our bedroom to our bathroom to get "ice cream" and sometimes share it with us. We would pretend to eat it and then they would get more.
This is such a fond memory I have of our sweet boys. I love seeing their imagination at work, and the bond between them that continues to grow.
"Wee-toe" is how it sounded. Sometimes he would say it several times over. After a while, I noticed that Luke would say it too. I just assumed he was imitating Andrew, and maybe he was. . . at FIRST.
For a couple months I remember asking them, "what is weto, weto?"( usually kind of playfully, thinking it was just a silly word.) They always said that they couldn't tell me.
Finally one day they let me in on their little secret. They told me that Weto, Weto was a store JUST for kids. No mommies or Daddies were allowed! I asked what they sold at the store.
Ice Cream!, they replied.
Every morning after that for probably the next 9 months, they would say, "we're going to weto weto, see you later" Andrew would get banana ice cream, and Luke would get chocolate. They would run back and forth from our bedroom to our bathroom to get "ice cream" and sometimes share it with us. We would pretend to eat it and then they would get more.
This is such a fond memory I have of our sweet boys. I love seeing their imagination at work, and the bond between them that continues to grow.
Friday, May 21, 2010
9 months
I have decided that I absolutely love when babies turn 8-9 months! I remember saying that with Andrew, but I never knew for sure the reason (he had just gotten tubes, and I suspected this had something to do with why I liked 8 months). However, with Isaac I am reminded of WHY I love that age!
Isaac has to be one of the sweetest, easiest babies EVER, but there is just something about 9 months especially that is super sweet. He is crawling very quickly, and beginning to wrestle with Daddy just like the other boys. He laughs and smiles SOO easily. We love how he holds onto us when we carry him around. He holds on with one arm, while excitedly slapping us with the other hand when we first pick him up. He loves to touch our teeth, or any part of our faces. He also just started clapping!! (I LOVE when babies learn to clap because they concentrate so hard and are so proud of themselves when they finally do it). He waves and says bye ("ba ba"). He is just beginning to dance when he hears music. That NEVER gets old-- seeing a baby move to the music! He usually obeys "NO". There are no tantrums (although he occasionally has one upon going to bed). He is beginning to get better at eating textured foods and finger foods. He loves his family so much, and greatly admires his big brothers. It is so fun to watch a 9 month old explore and discover new things.
The other day I was giving Isaac his 2nd dose of Augmentin. He is a VERY picky eater and I knew he wouldn't like the taste of it, so I mixed it with strawberry yogurt. The first day, he did NOT see me mix the yogurt with the medicine and he ate it up real fast. The second day, however he WATCHED me mix it. SO he hesitantly tasted it, then looked suspiciously at the medicine, and back at the yogurt. His eyes went back and forth between the two a couple of times. He then REFUSED to eat anymore. He shut his mouth so tight that I couldn't even force it in. This little baby KNEW I was trying to TRICK him!! Part of me felt guilty and a bit frustrated that he figured out my trick, and the other part of me was a proud mama of such a smart little guy! I then had to force down some medicine with the traditional syringe.
Several times a day, Max and I find ourselves saying, "man, he is SOO SWEET" or "isn't he SOO CUTE?" Sometimes its hard to find the words for the love that continues to grow in us every day for this little boy. What a joy and what a blessing God has given us once again!
As I was writing this, I couldn't help but think again of Catherine Bangs. I always think of her and her family when my kids are this age, or when I see a baby that age. She was 10 months old when she died, and at such a joyful and innocent stage of life. I don't think I can ever truly comprehend
the devastation and grief they must have gone through, and still face to this day. We can NEVER take a SINGLE day for granted! God has surely been good to us.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Obsessions
I have known for a while now that Luke has a bit of an obsessive personality. When he loves something, he REALLY loves it, and wants to read, learn, play, and wear ANYTHING and EVERYTHING pertaining to that particular thing. When I was thinking about this the other day, I realized that this began when he was about 10 months old.
I remember being at my parents house when Luke began to play with a ball. We didn't have any yet, but he was totally hooked. He learned that day how to throw it with both hands. We quickly bought a few, and so it began. I don't think anyone can really understand the extent of this obsession.
"Ball" of course was his first word.
When I would go get him in the morning, the first thing he would say is "ball. . . ball. . . ball".
Everything, from balloons, to the very round belly of a teddy bear was a ball. He spotted them EVERYWHERE!
ALL he wanted to do was play with balls all day long! A family that we visited in Philly when he was 11 months old babysat for us and were amazed at how well he could throw a ball. He would take turns, without them prompting him, throwing it to the husband, then the wife, then their daughter.
We had to have a ball with us everywhere we went. We knew this would always keep him happy.
He actually took a long time to learn to walk, until finally we put a soccer ball in front of him, and stood him up in front of it. He wanted to kick it, so this was how he took his first step.
By 16 months, he could identify and name every type of ball. Around this same age, he also had to wear a baseball hat at all times (this lasted for at LEAST one year).
Then Thomas the train came along. We had one of the free hardback books you get when you have your first child. We didn't really know anything about Thomas, but after reading this book to him he was hooked.
He soon even had the book memorized. He had just turned 2 and was reading the book to Caleb, turning the pages at the right times, and LITERALLY reading each page word for word. We were amazed!
We slowly accumulated a train here or there, but when he got James for his 3rd birthday, it was definitely his favorite. He was sure to tell everyone that DADDY gave him James for his birthday ( I think because it was from Daddy it was EXTRA special). It seemed for quite some time that this was all he wanted to play with or watch. (I must confess that sometimes I would hide his Thomas shirt at the bottom of his drawer, afraid that he would insist on wearing it AGAIN.)
When Andrew got big enough to play with his trains, Luke was always sure to give Emily and Salty to him. . . which definitely means they were his LEAST favorite-- he has never been one to share his favorite things with others.
Luke's love of Darth Vader first began as a tremendous FEAR. When I started to teach the Behrendt's piano, Luke was almost 2. They had TONS of Darth Vader masks, capes, figures, etc. Luke was absolutely PETRIFIED when he saw one of them wearing a mask. Of course, this was probably one of Max's WORST nightmares- that his kids might not like Star Wars!
Time after time we would go to their house, and every time, someone would inevitably put on that dreadful mask! He would start screaming his head off until they took it off. We would try to explain that it is just a mask, yada, yada.
Well, who would've thought that just a year later, Luke would INSIST on being Darth Vader for Halloween! I guess the gradual exposure to his fear eventually paid off. (also Max showed him some of Star Wars at age 2 1/2 and this somehow helped turn his fears into an intense love).
This obsession was EXTREME! He would literally march around the house dressed up like Darth Vader for close to 2 hours EVERY DAY!! seriously! He would want the "imperial march" on repeat, and then he would march and march!! Before we got a real cape, he used his bath towel, black glove on one hand, and his red lightsaber to dress up.
The most SURPRISING obsession was a Larry Boy STICKER!. Luke once saw a Veggie Tales video that had "Larry Boy" in it. Shortly after that, he discovered that we had a veggie tales
book with stickers in the back of it. Sure enough, Larry Boy was one of the stickers.
He took that sticker and first wore it, but eventually it fell off, so he CARRIED it around with him for WEEKS!! He would SLEEP with it at night, keep it in his pocket or carry it around ALL day!! I specifically remember him waking up one morning when I was downstairs exercising, and he talked to me about his STICKER for one hour!!!! (we didn't have much space in our townhouse for toys, so I'm convinced that this led to an immense appreciation of ANY toy/thing that he DID have).
The GI JOE OBSESSION began when Luke and Joey spent LOTS of time together at the '09 cabin trip "hunting for Cobras". This is kind of an ongoing phase, however when it first began it was an OBSESSION.
We ALL were characters from GI JOE. (Luke - Duke, Andrew - Roadblock (or sometimes flash), Mommy - Scarlet, Daddy - Gung Ho, Nana - Cover Girl, Ange - Lady Jay). For several weeks, if we dared to call them by their real names, they would say, "NO NO, I'm Duke", or "No, I'm Woadbock"
This also began his love for Camouflage, which can get a little annoying when this is ALL he EVER wants to wear!! (Its especially the worst when he wants to wear the hunting camo shirt with the army camo pants, with an even different shade of camo coat).
this is the only all camo photo I could find
Out of the many animals Luke has loved (farm animals, eagles, elephants, crocodiles, cheetahs, leopards, and turtles) turtles have been his favorite for a while, although followed closely by leopards. (Nana gave him an Easter egg last year with a turtle in it that grows when you put it in water. It is a tiny little thing, but this was also carried around and protected for many MONTHS. We had to glue gun the turtle's head back on many times!)
So when he was given a Ninja Turtles movie and cup by Chup pop, it makes sense that he would
easily be obsessed since it combined ninjas and turtles, two of his favorite things! This is his most current phase and I will be sure to add a picture of the boys with their homemade masks. Luke was Rafael, but is now Donatello. Andrew was Michaelangelo, but is now Leonardo (I love how he says this with his lazy "R")some other obsessions that I don't want to forget are Super Why, wearing a suit EVERY Sunday (beginning at about age 3 1/2), "baby loves Jazz" (he would put the dreadful "monkey song" on repeat until we couldn't stand it anymore!), his snoopy spoon, the "orangish-red" spoon, "freezing bread", army PJs, Dinosaur PJs, transformers, "baby dop", anything red, Lego Star Wars.
Mondays are when they can play "lego star wars"
It is always a bit sad to see one phase end, but he typically will revisit it again down the road (at least while he is still young). I sometimes wonder how this personality will manifest itself as he gets older. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, we will be praying for the shaping of his personality, and that God will use these traits for good.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
"I know more"
We were at Kinder Farm Park the other day, when Jen pointed me towards Luke who was surrounded by a bunch of little girls. At first I thought it was cute. . . until I realized he was arguing with them about something.
About what? About who knew more about animals of course! I wasn't sure exactly how the conversation got started, but this is the part that I heard:
Luke - well, I know more about animals than YOU.
Girl - No, I know more about animals than YOU.
Luke - Well, I watch Marty Stauffer's wild America, so I know more about animals than YOU.
Me - Luke, you don't even know this girl, so you don't know how much she knows about animals.
Luke - yeah, but I watch Marty Stauffer, and she doesn't
me - well, maybe she has seen something else about animals or reads books about them.
This was sort of the end of the conversation, but on our ride home we continued to talk about it. Luke kept arguing with me that he was sure that he knew more than her. (probably because I'm always telling him how impressed I am with his knowledge of animals). He said that she kept saying she knew more than him, and he KNEW that HE knew more. I asked how the conversation started and he said that she started it by saying "I know a lot about animals", and he said "well, I know more about animals than you".
Anyway, I told him that he probably DID know more than her (because he truly has an amazing memory for details), however when you don't know a person you can't tell THEM what they do or don't know. I asked him how HE would feel if he were in HER shoes - if she just assumed he didn't know much about animals, and she told HIM that. I told him a much better way to respond to her comment would have been to say, "I know a lot about animals too -- what's your favorite animal?" or something like that, starting a conversation about it rather than an argument.
It was then that he realized his error. He suddenly began to feel really bad about it, and I could tell just by the look on his face. He then said, "well, I hope we can go back there soon, and I hope I see her again so I can tell her I'm sorry."
what a sweetie.
About what? About who knew more about animals of course! I wasn't sure exactly how the conversation got started, but this is the part that I heard:
Luke - well, I know more about animals than YOU.
Girl - No, I know more about animals than YOU.
Luke - Well, I watch Marty Stauffer's wild America, so I know more about animals than YOU.
Me - Luke, you don't even know this girl, so you don't know how much she knows about animals.
Luke - yeah, but I watch Marty Stauffer, and she doesn't
me - well, maybe she has seen something else about animals or reads books about them.
This was sort of the end of the conversation, but on our ride home we continued to talk about it. Luke kept arguing with me that he was sure that he knew more than her. (probably because I'm always telling him how impressed I am with his knowledge of animals). He said that she kept saying she knew more than him, and he KNEW that HE knew more. I asked how the conversation started and he said that she started it by saying "I know a lot about animals", and he said "well, I know more about animals than you".
Anyway, I told him that he probably DID know more than her (because he truly has an amazing memory for details), however when you don't know a person you can't tell THEM what they do or don't know. I asked him how HE would feel if he were in HER shoes - if she just assumed he didn't know much about animals, and she told HIM that. I told him a much better way to respond to her comment would have been to say, "I know a lot about animals too -- what's your favorite animal?" or something like that, starting a conversation about it rather than an argument.
It was then that he realized his error. He suddenly began to feel really bad about it, and I could tell just by the look on his face. He then said, "well, I hope we can go back there soon, and I hope I see her again so I can tell her I'm sorry."
what a sweetie.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Just one of those days
This particular day happened a little over a year ago, and it was "just one of those days" so I had to journal about it. I decided to transfer it to this blog, since it is the only "journal" I ended up writing.
Luke woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Just plain cranky all morning. We went to Michael's birthday party which was fun. (On a side note: Joy and I were reminiscing about the time that Luke and Kya went to the bathroom together at church when they were 2 1/2. I went to check on them and Luke had no pants on and Kya was holding his wet underwear! I said, "did you wet yourself?" He said, "umm. . . Kya" Apparently Kya was in the midst of potty training and was used to her mom rinsing her DIRTY underwear in the toilet. So when Luke was going, she took it upon herself to rinse HIS (not) dirty underwear in the toilet!! What a good laugh!!)
Anyway, we got home from the Behrendts' where Luke had received a "lightsaber" made out of a balloon and the shape had straightened out so that it was no longer a lightsaber, but merely a very long balloon. This was the worst thing that could have happened before naptime on an already cranky day, but nonetheless, the boys had a little lunch and went in for their naps, Luke screaming because of his lightsaber, and Andrew screaming because he hates taking naps. (he has also just figured out how to climb out of the pack n play (about 19 months old), but after getting spanked 2 times in a row for climbing out, he hasn't tested us in about 2 days). Of course, today Andrew climbs out again and (knowing his punishment) he got spanked and acted like he would be good and go back to sleep.
I then thought it was safe to make a phone call. After about 30 minutes on the phone, I heard a voice and the door opening upstairs. Andrew had a stinky diaper this time, so I simply changed him without spanking but told him next time he got out he would be spanked.
Well, of course he DID get out again. I went upstairs and the door was LOCKED!! He had locked himself in!! I tried to tell him how to unlock it on his own (our door is very tricky to unlock with a bobby pin, or whatever, and usually we ended up taking the whole doorknob off, so I was trying to avoid this). Anyway, with the door still locked, I told him he'd better get back into his bed and go to sleep or he would get another spanking. (I mistakenly thought a 19 month old would actually climb BACK into his pack n play on his own and go to sleep).
I call the person back on the phone, meanwhile hearing Andrew in the monitor. After about 45 minutes -1 hour, I thought my plan had worked because he had become very quiet.
Just then Luke came walking down the stairs, but this time REALLY woke up on the wrong side of the bed!! He was just as cranky about his lightsaber now as when he first went to sleep. I tried to fix it, but am not a pro at manipulating balloons. NOTHING was settling him down (and I thought he was so sweet lately and totally done with the "terrible twos").
I finally sent him back to bed, to which he REALLY threw a fight, screaming and crying all the way up stairs. Just then, I heard a voice saying "mommy."
It was Andrew, still stuck in his room. I finally did what I should have done in the first place, unscrewed the entire doorknob, spanked Andrew for getting out, and put him back to bed. IMMEDIATELY, he climbed out again, even though i had warned him. This happened about 5 more times, till his butt was bright red. At this point (about 3:00) he was so overtired, that nothing was working, so I rocked him and he was asleep within minutes.
Back to dealing with Luke who was finally calming down in his room. We went downstairs, read, snuggled and watched veggie Tales. (Good thing I had a crockpot meal planned!!)
The drama was over. . . for a little while.
Max came home briefly, but had to leave around 7pm to help his men's group with a project. He couldn't find his keys. I then remembered hearing keys clattering (about 1/2 hour prior to the search) when Andrew was standing on the couch, but we had NO IDEA where they ultimately landed. BAD IDEA to let a 19 month old play with keys! We turned the house UPSIDE DOWN during the next 1 1/2 hours!! When we asked Andrew where Daddy's keys were, he said, "umm. . . up" FINALLY we found them behind the blinds, and cleanup took until 10 :30!
The trivial, yet trying matters we stay-at-home-moms deal with! :)
Luke woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Just plain cranky all morning. We went to Michael's birthday party which was fun. (On a side note: Joy and I were reminiscing about the time that Luke and Kya went to the bathroom together at church when they were 2 1/2. I went to check on them and Luke had no pants on and Kya was holding his wet underwear! I said, "did you wet yourself?" He said, "umm. . . Kya" Apparently Kya was in the midst of potty training and was used to her mom rinsing her DIRTY underwear in the toilet. So when Luke was going, she took it upon herself to rinse HIS (not) dirty underwear in the toilet!! What a good laugh!!)
Anyway, we got home from the Behrendts' where Luke had received a "lightsaber" made out of a balloon and the shape had straightened out so that it was no longer a lightsaber, but merely a very long balloon. This was the worst thing that could have happened before naptime on an already cranky day, but nonetheless, the boys had a little lunch and went in for their naps, Luke screaming because of his lightsaber, and Andrew screaming because he hates taking naps. (he has also just figured out how to climb out of the pack n play (about 19 months old), but after getting spanked 2 times in a row for climbing out, he hasn't tested us in about 2 days). Of course, today Andrew climbs out again and (knowing his punishment) he got spanked and acted like he would be good and go back to sleep.
I then thought it was safe to make a phone call. After about 30 minutes on the phone, I heard a voice and the door opening upstairs. Andrew had a stinky diaper this time, so I simply changed him without spanking but told him next time he got out he would be spanked.
Well, of course he DID get out again. I went upstairs and the door was LOCKED!! He had locked himself in!! I tried to tell him how to unlock it on his own (our door is very tricky to unlock with a bobby pin, or whatever, and usually we ended up taking the whole doorknob off, so I was trying to avoid this). Anyway, with the door still locked, I told him he'd better get back into his bed and go to sleep or he would get another spanking. (I mistakenly thought a 19 month old would actually climb BACK into his pack n play on his own and go to sleep).
I call the person back on the phone, meanwhile hearing Andrew in the monitor. After about 45 minutes -1 hour, I thought my plan had worked because he had become very quiet.
Just then Luke came walking down the stairs, but this time REALLY woke up on the wrong side of the bed!! He was just as cranky about his lightsaber now as when he first went to sleep. I tried to fix it, but am not a pro at manipulating balloons. NOTHING was settling him down (and I thought he was so sweet lately and totally done with the "terrible twos").
I finally sent him back to bed, to which he REALLY threw a fight, screaming and crying all the way up stairs. Just then, I heard a voice saying "mommy."
It was Andrew, still stuck in his room. I finally did what I should have done in the first place, unscrewed the entire doorknob, spanked Andrew for getting out, and put him back to bed. IMMEDIATELY, he climbed out again, even though i had warned him. This happened about 5 more times, till his butt was bright red. At this point (about 3:00) he was so overtired, that nothing was working, so I rocked him and he was asleep within minutes.
Back to dealing with Luke who was finally calming down in his room. We went downstairs, read, snuggled and watched veggie Tales. (Good thing I had a crockpot meal planned!!)
The drama was over. . . for a little while.
Max came home briefly, but had to leave around 7pm to help his men's group with a project. He couldn't find his keys. I then remembered hearing keys clattering (about 1/2 hour prior to the search) when Andrew was standing on the couch, but we had NO IDEA where they ultimately landed. BAD IDEA to let a 19 month old play with keys! We turned the house UPSIDE DOWN during the next 1 1/2 hours!! When we asked Andrew where Daddy's keys were, he said, "umm. . . up" FINALLY we found them behind the blinds, and cleanup took until 10 :30!
The trivial, yet trying matters we stay-at-home-moms deal with! :)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Yankee Doodle
For a little while, anytime Luke and Andrew would get mad at each other, they would start to angrily sing Yankee Doodle, inserting the other person's name into the song. "YANKEE DOODLE WENT TO TOWN RIDING ON A ANOO!!" Then , Andrew would start singing it right back at him, trying to sing louder, and more angry, "YANKEE DOODLE WENT TO TOWN RIDING ON A LUKEY!!!" They would start screaming "NOOO" and then scream the song even louder. Usually this would turn into a chase around the house and then a wrestling match.
This was such a strange event that occurred for a couple of weeks in our house, and I just couldn't help but laugh about it. I'm even chuckling right now as I think about it. It was just SO ridiculous!! I have no idea how this even started, and how being inserted into Yankee Doodle was the worst insult that could ever happen.
A few weeks later, Andrew began to kind of innocently sing it to himself, without any bad intentions. Luke said, No Andrew, don't sing that!!
we said, yes he can. . . he can sing whatever he wants.
Luke replied, well if he sings it, its gonna be stuck in my head all day, and I hate that song!!!
We thought it was so funny that a four year old understands the feeling of a song being stuck in his head all day. . . and especially when it is an annoying song to begin with.
This finally answered some questions as to how his vehemence for the song began!
This was such a strange event that occurred for a couple of weeks in our house, and I just couldn't help but laugh about it. I'm even chuckling right now as I think about it. It was just SO ridiculous!! I have no idea how this even started, and how being inserted into Yankee Doodle was the worst insult that could ever happen.
A few weeks later, Andrew began to kind of innocently sing it to himself, without any bad intentions. Luke said, No Andrew, don't sing that!!
we said, yes he can. . . he can sing whatever he wants.
Luke replied, well if he sings it, its gonna be stuck in my head all day, and I hate that song!!!
We thought it was so funny that a four year old understands the feeling of a song being stuck in his head all day. . . and especially when it is an annoying song to begin with.
This finally answered some questions as to how his vehemence for the song began!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Pillows
I don't know what Luke and Andrew's obsession with pillows is, but it drives us CRAZY!! It seems like the first thing they do when they wake up is run into the living room and throw all the pillows on the floor. When we get home from anywhere, and ESPECIALLY just after I have finished tidying up, Luke (he is usually the main culprit with Andrew following right behind) becomes overwhelmed with an intense urge to throw all the pillows on the floor.
After they are thrown on the floor, they usually just run away to do something else. . . WHY??? we always ask. But other times, they begin to go back and forth from their room to the living room, dragging EVERY blanket, pillow and stuffed animal from their bedroom.
When Isaac is in the living room, crawling around, they get kind of giddy, because this is their ultimate pleasure -- to trap Isaac with their many blankets and pillows so that he can hardly even move. They don't do it to be mean, but just think it is HILARIOUS.
Although i don't condone this behavior, I do think it is kind of funny. Isaac hardly ever complains. He loves his brothers so much and just thinks it is the coolest thing that they are giving him so much attention. At a certain point, he will usually begin to complain, and I make them stop this bizarre behavior.
After they are thrown on the floor, they usually just run away to do something else. . . WHY??? we always ask. But other times, they begin to go back and forth from their room to the living room, dragging EVERY blanket, pillow and stuffed animal from their bedroom.
When Isaac is in the living room, crawling around, they get kind of giddy, because this is their ultimate pleasure -- to trap Isaac with their many blankets and pillows so that he can hardly even move. They don't do it to be mean, but just think it is HILARIOUS.
Although i don't condone this behavior, I do think it is kind of funny. Isaac hardly ever complains. He loves his brothers so much and just thinks it is the coolest thing that they are giving him so much attention. At a certain point, he will usually begin to complain, and I make them stop this bizarre behavior.
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