Tynes Clan: Wild, Wild East

It has been 4 LONG months since I last wrote. Truth be told, I am a busy person lately. I guess I always am. I look for it. I find I am now addicted to having babies. In January I realized it was close to being the longest I have not been pregnant in over 4 years. I started to want to have another baby, which Stephen and the rest of creation thought was slap crazy. So, I decided to get another hobby for a while, and I and my BFF Caryn Abbott have gone into business together(www.abodaproductions.com). We have been working our tail off trying to get started in making DVD slide shows for people's special events and it has consumed nearly every moment of my free time. Combine that with my obligations to family, church, friends, house, and so on and I am . . . busy, but in my element. I want to do all of that while still keeping my priorities straight with my husband and children so blogging has taken a back seat for a while. I decided today that the longer I wait the more time consuming playing catch up would get. I better get blogging.

I mentioned in my last blog entry that life as gotten MUCH easier for me lately. I am more organized and have gotten into the grove of things, but I am also much more relaxed about the times that are chaotic. One night I had all three kids in the bath (as I do each night before bed). Evan sat down hard on Julia's leg. More annoyed than anything, Julia started screaming and crying as I pulled Evan off her leg. Then Evan started crying hard because I told him sit cross legged with his arms crossed for the rest of the time the babies were in the bath, and when Harrison saw the other two were crying, he joined in at the absolute top of his lungs because their crying scared him. So, if you can imagine, they are all sitting there in the nude, covered in soap looking at each other and the harder they cry the harder it makes them cry. Six months ago I would have joined in the crying and become very overwhelmed for the rest of the evening. However, I have learned to appreciate the humor in 160 decibels of crying (the point of instant perforation of the eardrum) coming from my adorable children so long as no one is actually hurting. I laughed so hard my sides ached as I quickly cleaned up the babies so I could wrap them in their towels and console them, and I was in a good mood for the rest of the evening. Ahhhh. . . Life is good.

This is a story of one of my semi-embarrassing talents which some people actually think is a shame that it went into hiding. The kids were pretending to burp one evening after dinner. Then they would say excuse me and laugh their little heads off, so I though I would let out a little burp and join the fun. They thought that was sooo funny so i decided to belch a little, and they laughed themselves silly. It was just a belch most anyone could do. Then I decided to really let one loose so I belched one so loud the windows shook. . . . something I haven't done since high school. They both looked completely stunned, and then burst into inconsolable tears. I ended up pulling them from their booster chairs and holding them both for several minutes while they cried. . . . and i laughed my head off.

I know I blog about this a LOT, but our life in our new home has been such a wonderful adventure for us. Our back yard, since it backs up to a national park, has been nothing short of a nature preserve. We have Red Shouldered Hawks that nest in our yard, red headed woodpeckers, ducks that live in our creek, a giant possum walked right past Evan in the yard the other day, lizards of all colors, a whole host of interesting bugs which Evan finds forever fascinating, deer, skunk, and some furry creatures I can not even identify, though I think it might have been a beaver. It has been a TON of fun for us and the kids. I have pictures of our hawks and one of the red headed woodpeckers. The hawks look small, but they are probably 2 feet tall.

EVAN NEWS BULLETIN:

Evan has started asking the hard questions. He is not a kid who takes anything for granted, sort of like his parents. He asked us questions all the time like, "Where is God & Jesus? Are they in the kitchen? Are they in my heart? Did God make Quin?" After answering, "Yes" to the last question he asked, "Did he make him in the oven?" He is full force into the "Why?" stage and must understand they whys of everything. Unfortunately I don't know the answers to many of his questions. By the end of the day my brain is tired.

Evan has recently discovered bungee cords with hooks on the ends of them that loves to use to hook everything in the house together. He also happens to call them his "hookers", and he talks about the all of the time. "Mommy, where are my hookers?" "Can I use my hookers to hold these together?" I bought 6 for a dollar at the dollar store today which are pictured below. Once he saw me put them in the cart he spent the rest of the shopping trip asking about them. "Mommy, are you buying me some hookers?" "Are my hookers in the cart?" At one point I looked up while he babbling about them and saw his Wednesday night church teacher standing in front of me with a bit of a perplexed look on her face followed by a howling laugh. I took them out of the cart to show her what the deal was so she wouldn't think we were perverts. In order to redeem myself in front of the lady at the cash register after Evan asked the lady if he was going to "Beep his hookers" (which is the sound it makes as she scans it in) I muttered under my breath, "Evan they are hooks, not hookers".

For a couple of months Evan was terrified of monsters. How he even knows about monsters or why they might be scary is beyond me. He has never even liked the lovable monsters on Sesame Street. However, every night he had me pray that Jesus will beat up all of the monsters and sporadically brings up the scary monsters throughout the day. One night before bed I had prayed with him and then he said, "Mommy, will you stay with me and beat up all of the monsters and alligators?" I then launched into a big speech about how monsters don't exist and even if they did we just prayed that Jesus would get rid of them and He definitely will. Plus, alligators can't climb stairs and they like the water so they won't be getting into his upstairs, water-free bedroom. I assured him he was perfectly safe. He was quiet for a minute and then as if I didn't say a thing he said, "Mommy, will you stay with me and beat up all of the monsters and alligators?" I sighed and said, "Yes, Buddy. I will". He relaxed and within moments he was completely asleep. It is because of things like that that I do not believe we start off in life with a blank slate. We must be born with innate ideas and understandings like the fact that there is good and evil. That understanding must have come from someone. . . must have been God.

One thing that was the bane of my existence for a few weeks was this stupid bird that died in our flower bed. Evan was so fascinated by this dead bird and wanted to talk about death all of the time. Eventually we threw the bird into the garbage which was even more perplexing to him. It is a concept he is too young to grasp but it still fascinates him. Recently he was looking through my old pictures and he came across some of my old cat Fester who died about 4 years ago. Fester was in all of the pictures with our cat Frank, so Evan wanted to know where Fester was. I told him that he was old, fat and sick and he had died like the bird in the flower bed. He asked if Frank had killed him too. I told him no, that Fester was very sick and we had taken him to the doctor and he died at the doctor. Then he asked if the doctor had thrown him in the garbage too. I said I didn't know because I didn't know how to explain cremation to a 3 year old and it probably would have horrified him anyway. For a while after that I heard about 10 times a day at completely random intervals, "Fester was sick so my mommy took him to the doctor and he died. Then the doctor just threw him the garbage!! That is just NOT nice, mommy! Where is he now? Did he get out of the garbage?"

One night in the midst of the Fester crisis we were in the car when Evan asked Julia to repeat after him, "Fester"
Julia says, "Fesa".
Evan says, "Dead!".
Julia, "Pooped".
I quickly shushed Evan and was grateful that Julia's mind was in a different place. I didn't think I would be dealing with issues like this quite yet. I thought he would get to an age where he could understand the explanation before he asked about things so entirely over his head.

Evan is VERY much into computer and X-Box games now. He wants to play them night and day, and I have to carefully regulate his playing time or he would do nothing else. He thinks he should be able to play whatever games his daddy can play and Stephen has several games for the x-box that are definitely inappropriate and quite scary for anyone under the age of 16, women, elderly and so-on. Stephen will play more child-friendly games with and in front of Evan that he finds terribly exciting. Sometimes when I am getting Evan ready for bed Stephen will be downstairs playing a "scary game" and Evan will want so badly to go down and watch. If I turn my back for a second he will run down the stairs to try to get in on the action. It is in his blood.

Evan had a whole day recently where he was just not minding me. Usually he is a pretty well behaved 3 year old, but that day he seemed to be out to get on my last nerve. By the end of the night he had done the very last thing that I could tolerate for the day. I got down on my knees and took his head in my hands and said, "Now, Evan, you need to listen to me and do what I say because I love you and if you don't listen to me you will not grow up up to a good man. I want you to grow up to be a good man like your daddy. Do you understand me?" Tears had formed in his eyes and he was quiet for a second. Then he sniffled and said as only Evan could, "Then I will be able to play the scary game?"

He is really taking an interest in learning how to read. Knows all of the letters in upper case and most all of them in lower case and really grasping the sound each letter makes and how that putting those sounds together makes words. He has his days where he is definitely not in the mood to work on it, but other days he wants to spend all day talking about what things say and working with me to figure out what it says based on what we know the letters say.

Some of Evan's latest drawings:

Evan and his "Hookers".

Daddy and Evan on a hike in North Georgia

Daddy's dirty softball clothes . . . yum!

Julia's News Bulletin:

OH. . . . Julia is a handful. She dove head first into the terrible and mischievous 2's and there has been no looking back. Stephen and I repeat over and over again to each other and to her that it is a good thing she is so cute. It saves her life some days, especially tonight when I came out from putting Harrison to bed to find Julia completely naked and covered with nail polish from head to toe. I have no remover so I had to put her to bed tonight painted up like a Native American warrior. . . ..

I was cleaning my bathroom on March 22nd and Julia was getting under my feet. I sent her off to her very childproof bedroom to play so that I could get my work done. She wasn't gone 2 minutes when I heard the worst banging and the most horrible screaming coming from one of my children I have heard yet. I was screaming and crying before I got to hallway. I had visions of her throwing herself over the banister to the hardwood foyer below. There was Julia on the landing, half way down the stairs with the rocking chair from her room pinning her to the ground. My fearless child had decided to ride her rocking chair down the steps and God had protected her from any kind of injury. She was scared to death and the rocking chair had made holes in the wall on the landing, but other than the heart attack I had as I ran for the stairs and examined her little body, there was really no harm done. I told Uncle James later that she is fine, it is actually I who has brain damage after that.

She now will push a chair around the house to do whatever she wants like getting into stuff or unlocking the deadbolts to the front and back doors and hanging out on our deck or getting a cup of water out of the fridge. One morning I overslept to find that she had been up for a while. I walked down stairs to find a shattered glass, and a ton of water all over the kitchen floor. She had come down stairs, pushed a chair over to the kitchen counter, climbed up on top of it, opened the cabinets and got out a glass cup, climbed down and pushed the chair over to the refrigerator and poured herself a cup of water, climbed down and promptly shattered that glass all over the kitchen. In the middle of the glass was a broom and dust pan that she had used to try to clean it up on her own. I nearly had a heart attack at the sight. She was scratch-free, though and after saying, "Uh-Oh, my cup fall", she seemed proud of the fact that she had tried to clean it up. I ran out that morning and bought a door knob cover for her bedroom door so that she is stuck in there until I get her out. . . at least until she figures out how that thing works.

Uncle James fell asleep on the couch one night only to wake up to her bouncing a ball and watching TV at 3:00 in the morning. She can climb the rock wall and the rope ladder on our play set. She will brave the spirally poll at the park up to the 15 foot top of it without flinching. Anyone who knows Julia for more than 10 minutes discovers that her life is very closely guarded by the Lord. I always pray for my children that God would protect them from me and from themselves. . . surely He does.

She is now talking up a storm in full sentences and even 2 and three sentence thoughts. She and Evan talk to and tell on each other constantly. Evan gets Julia to chant what he wants with him. The other night we were driving to church and Evan said he wanted Chicken and Fries to eat. Before I knew it he had them both chanting, "Chicken and Fries! Chicken and Fries" all the way to church.

I won't ever forget the first time Julia told on Evan. I had sat them down for a bedtime snack at the table and had run Harrison up to bed after church one night. While I laid Harrison in the bed I heard Julia burst into tears. I ran back down to the kitchen as fast as I could in time to meet Evan on his way back up the stairs already proclaiming his innocence. When I finally reached Julia she had her head her hands and she looked up at me with giant tears running down her cheeks and said, "Mommy. . . Buddy. . . hit. . . me!!!" It was so clear and took me so completely off guard I had to stop myself from laughing while I dealt with the situation. I knew their relationship had gone to a whole new level whether I was ready or not.

Julia's Bullet Points:

Started opening doors right at 21 months.
Calls Evan either "Buddy" or "Eman".
Is now completely potty trained expect while she sleeps at night and has been for a few months.
Starting to learn her colors and shapes and is learning the sounds letters make right along with Evan.
Her favorite song is "Happy Birthday", followed by "This little light of mine".
Still will not watch TV.
Is the family "instigator".
Turned 2 on Wednesday, April 25th.
Needs a spanking just to know she is alive.

Julia's 2nd Birthday Party in our backyard

Great-Grandma Love

Julia Carolynn and Grandma Carolyn (Joyce) Hillman

Why not sleep on the floor with shoes on my hands?

Harrison News Bulletin:

My sweet, sweet baby. He is just the most adorable and sweet natured baby since my last two. I take not one second for granted. This is my first baby to reach this age without the anticipation of another baby so he gets the honor for a while longer. I am not ready for him to grow up, but allas, he is growing before my eyes.

He spends his whole days scooting around the house on his bottom (not crawling on his hands and knees yet) and playing with toys. He is an incredibly low maintenance child. He even refuses to be fed by me. Every bite that goes into his mouth must be fed to him by himself. He was never a fan of baby food so he ended up being nursed almost exclusively for 8 months until he had the motor skills to pick up and eat table foods.

I had a terrible stomach bug when Harrison was right at 9 months old. I was terribly dehidrated and ended up having to feed him some formula to get him through. He LOVED it and for the next month I fought him every feeding to keep nursing. It was not enough to keep my milk supply up and I had to suppliment more and more fomula. At 10 months old he was completely done with nursing. I forced myself to not grieve that loss and just go with the flow. I am the type of mother who would nurse until the child was 2 if I could. It just never works out for me no matter how hard I try. Oh well, there are worse things. My children know nothing of hardships.

He has definately slowed down on his growth. His a still a very large boy for his age, but he weighed about 24 pounds at 6 months old and at nearly 11 months he now weighs nearly 25 pounds. I have a picture of him below wearing Evan's pajamas, something I didn't realize I had done until I was headed down the hall to put him in bed. He is long and built very big with big hands and a head so large his brain has it's own gravitational pull. It actually measures off the charts at the doctor's office. I tell him he just needs a big head to hold his big brains. He appreciates that.

His personality is really starting to develop. He will take a sibling out for a toy. He definately has a temper when he chooses to pick a fight about something, but that is extremely rare at this point. He LOVES the water whether that be in the bath or in the kiddy pool on our deck. He splashes up a storm and dunks his head under water. While he is splashing away in the bath the other two are at the other end of the tub crying and begging me to make him stop. He is just so cute I can't make him do it. I have pictures of him below jealously watching his siblings play in the pool on the deck and splashing away once he finally gets in. It is such a contrast to the other two who HATE to be in water over their shins.

Harrison Bullet Points:

Started clapping and waving at 9 months old.
Started calling me Mamma at 9 months old.
Started calling Stephen dadda at 10 months old.
Other words are, "Yeah" and "ba ba", which means bye bye.
Is still completely adored and catered to by his brother and sister.
Cut his 7th tooth in the last couple of weeks.
Decided not to sleep through the night since January until a couple of weeks ago when I started making him.
Can out eat his brother and sister at any meal and during snack time plus he takes four 6 ounce bottles a day.

Dont forget me!!!