Decapitation

I love this blog entry. It has so many great pictures and funny stories (at least to me) and important memories. Why wouldn’t someone want a whole house full of kids. Actually, I can answer that since I didn't think I wanted kids at one point. They just don’t know what they are missing. They think they are sparing putting kids through life on this earth rather than understanding that God gifts the world with our children.

Life is MUCH easier for me these days. The kids are all gaining a bit more independence, and I seemed to have gotten my head around the chaos. I felt like I was loosing my mind for a while, but I have intentionally slowed life down a bit in order to take some time to enjoy my children while they are still little. I realized I was just living for them to get bigger and not be quite so much work, but they are so much fun now when I take the time to notice.

Something that can become an overwhelming fear for me even more than the thought of losing one of my children is the thought of leaving my own children here in this horrifying world to fend for themselves. Over the last couple of years I have spent hundreds of hours harnessing my fear by leaving a piece of myself here for them. One part of that is this blog. Another part is a journal I have been keeping for them as I read through the Bible. That way when they are reading through the Bible on their own some day they can say to themselves, “I wonder what mom was thinking as she read this passage”, and then just look it up. Another part is a detailed list of things I want to teach them and why, and the last part is what I have learned as a parent. In each thing I am writing I allude to the other writings. Then if they see one they will find out about the others. This is that moment for this Blog project.

This time I will start with Evan because he is the reason for the title of this particular blog entry. When I was a child my Aunt Sharon did a piñata for me and my cousins on Christmas day filled with candy and fun little toys. Now that Sharon has moved to Atlanta I asked her if she would do a piñata for our kids this Christmas. She was kind enough to oblige my desire for some traditions from my past. An annual piñata tradition was Sharon’s wonderful idea and a fond memory for me. Not such a great idea is buying a re-creation of a 3 year old's best friend and asking him to beat it with a stick. My mom and my aunt Sharon thought a piñata shaped like Blue, the dog from Evan's favorite show Blues Clues, would be a fun idea. However, when we gave him the golf club and told him to begin beating at Blue, he was mortified. Julia and Quin were happy to do it, but it took a great deal of convincing in order to get Evan involved. He was never fully convinced it was a very good idea, especially when Aunty Natalie and Daddy went after it with a golf club and a large Maglight to speed up the process and ended up completely decapitating Blue. All of us felt a bit sick by the end. However, all was forgotten when the goodies fell out and that sweet, sweet sugar hit their tongues. Next year we are going to do a beach ball or something. Here are some pictures of our morbid event.

You want me to do what?

Daddy, save him!

I'll do it!!
Me too!
What? Blue's head is full of candy?

Evan, since he was a very little guy, has required me to follow a very specific routine for everything. His latest addition is how he wakes up in the morning. He likes for me to be on the main floor and run up to him while he is coming down the stairs and say, "Good morning, Buddy". If I am upstairs when he wakes up he tells me to go down stairs or if I say "Good morning, Evan" instead of “Buddy” then I have done it wrong too. It must be exact. He has specific ideas for everything from how he climbs into his chair at the table to the order in which he should crawl into bed. He is an interesting little creature.

Now it’s time for this entries installment of “Evan says the funniest things”.

He is also the king of admitting things that are just as bad if not worse than the accusations. For example, this conversation . . .
Me: “Are you eating your boogers?"
Evan: “No.”
Me: "Ok good".
Evan: "I'm just eating my snot"

One night I walked into a room to hear Evan yell at two of his toys, "You! Bow to me! You! Get in the truck!" You gotta love those Veggie Tales.

A few weeks ago when we told him to eat his dinner so he can grow up big and strong he said, “I don’t want to grow up big and strong. I’m big enough”.

I am always trying to teach him not to say he loves anything other than people and God, though I am not the best at putting this into practice myself. I want my kids to understand the meaning of the word “love” so they are not telling their wife and children or God some day they love them followed by “I just LOVE my new toaster. Now I have created a monster. He is the king of, “No, mommy. You don’t love it, you just like it.” Which was really funny the first 100 times. I only have myself to blame.

On our playset the other day he randomly stops swinging to say, “Mommy, this is what a chicken dog says. . . Bow Bow Bagock!!”

Evan Bullet Points:

-He has figured out that there is a difference between the men’s bathroom and the women’s bathroom and will fight for all he is worth to not go into the women’s bathroom with me.
-Knows his address
-Is a computer wizard. He can open a browser, go to the gaming websites for pre-schoolers, select the games he wants to play, listen to the instructions and play the games.
-Favorite sandwich - Jelly & Mayo on multi-grain bread.
-Favorite songs - "Joshua Fought the battle of Jericho" and "Little Bunny Foo Foo".
-Hates to be kissed and hugged by his sister.

Harrison Bullet Points:
-Is 7 months old. Will be 8 months on Feb 2nd.
-Loves jumping in his jumper.
-Started answering to his name around 6 months old.
-Cut first two teeth New Years Day
-Nicknames: H-Dog or H-Doggy-Dog, Harry Love Bug, Baby Harry, Harry's son, Harri-san (sounds like the Japanese way of saying Mr. Harry).
-HATES “Little Bunny Foo Foo” to the point of crying inconsolably.
-Is still only awake for 2 hours at a time. Nap times vary from one to two hours. Sleeps 12-14 hours at night.
-Has his mommy wrapped around his pudgy little finger.
-Is my first child to roll as a method of getting around. The other two didn’t move much until they crawled.
-Started jabbering mama, dada, baba at about 6 months old
-Is very attached to his baby blanket and loves to rub it all over his face as he falls asleep.
-Has extremely ticklish thighs just like the other two.
-Weighs about 24 ½ pounds

Harrison is still about 99% nursed. He is just not into food. I am not worried. I don’t think there is any need to rush these sorts of things. When I try to feed him he gags on nearly every bite, gets the shivers and squeezed his eyes shut. He won’t cry, but it is obvious he would rather I just leave him alone. I try nearly every day. I would like to gain a bit of freedom to feed him finger foods at dinner time so he isn’t just watching us and bored or off somewhere else playing with toys. He’ll get it soon enough.

I think the greatest thing about babies is their complete trust in their mommies. You could have a desperate case of adult ADD and be running in circles working hard and getting nothing done and they are just happy to be there on your hip. They don't think, "what are you doing, why are you doing it that way, or where are you taking me?" They just go with it, find contentment in just being close to mommy, and really just love being along for the ride. You could be at home or in china town and it is all the same to them as long as they are perched on your hip and kissed on the cheek every once in a while. I think I could go for that some days too. I’ll have to ask my mom about that.

Julia Bullet Points:
-Has a man sized temper
-Loves to make faces at everyone at the table
-Is too cute for her own good
-Gets stopped everywhere to be told how cute she is
-Loves to scratch her brother when she doesn’t get her way
-Loves to kiss and hug her brother when she is making up with him.
-Has her daddy wrapped around her petite little finger

On Christmas day, the day she turned 20 months, Julia stood up in the bath and said, “I potty”. I put her on the potty and she went and we never looked back. She is almost completely potty trained when she is at home. I have come to learn that there are many phases to potty training. There is potty trained at home, potty trained while sleeping, potty trained while not at home and potty trained while not at home and not with mommy. We still have to get the potty trained while not at home and not will mommy part down and while she is asleep, but she is doing pretty well. It is funny because I just potty trained Evan last summer and he was 33 pounds and all boy. She is this tiny little 23 pound thing who perches up on that seat and has a dainty little tinkle tinkle in the potty that makes the whole experience so adorable to me. Her fingers aren’t even strong enough to flush yet.

Evan sometimes pees on a tree in the back part of our yard so I don't have to drag everyone back inside when he has to go. One afternoon Julia told me she had to go potty when we were out playing. After I said, "OK, let's go potty", she said "tree, tree, tree" and then ran up to a tree right next to the play set and tried to get her pull up off. She thought if Evan could pee on a tree, so could she. She was heartbroken to find out otherwise.

Her maternal instinct is really kicking in. She loves her dolly’s and carries them all over the house with her. She will rock them in her rocking chair and say, “Shhh, baby, shhh”, and stroke their cheeks and feed them bottles. I think she is trying to be just like mommy with my baby.

Somewhere in her DNA she is missing a fear gene. She has no consideration for her own body or safety what-so-ever. She is still an avid climber and gets herself in all sorts of situations. The other day we went hiking next to a river out to some water falls and she was constantly making a b-line for the water. I finally just held her hand and let her lead me to see what she would do and she just walked right off the edge and would have gone right into the water had I not been holding on. We would get to overlooks on the side of hills with a build-out deck over the river and she would head right off the edge. I pray that gene is just napping for a while and will wake up before she really gets hurt. It’s really amazing.

Multi-tasking

A girly tea party in a manly tent

Decorating the tree
Cool fort






Horsey Love