An honest answer

I was re-reading my own blog posts . . . . is that weird or vain? Just reflecting, I suppose, and thought I may be painting a picture of just the positives about our family life. Minus, of course, the Canadian geese situation.

I won't be long, but did want to add that my young son, while delightful much of the time, is certainly not perfect. He does not think obedience is very cool, he can throw an impressive temper tantrum, he is foolishly addicted to pulling on neck skin - mine, mostly. (This is a huge problem as I am already lacking in the jaw-line department . . . . do not need any help stretching the skin there). He is louder than most children his age. I am certain I will not lose him in the grocery store (check back in a year when I eat these words) because he is so verbal. A few days back he was several rows over with my husband and I had absolutely no difficulty locating them. Plus, it was rush hour traffic at Dillon's. As mentioned before, up until 2 weeks ago, he was a pathetic night sleeper. He doesn't like bananas - aren't they the default kids-always-eat-this fruit?

So, of course, now you know he's not an angel. You knew that before but were wondering if I knew it and so YES, I do know it. But I do still think he's delightful and funny and I enjoy him tremendously.

My husband . . . . . yes, I like him lots too. I will write about him another night.

I meant to write about grapefruit tonight actually.... another night for that too.

King Sleep

If I were to discuss this with you in person, you might be startled to see that it makes me cry. I have hesitated to write about this, because I had not yet uncrossed my fingers. I am beginning to believe, however, that what Brett and I experienced ALL last week is the beginning of the norm, and not a seven-days-of-exceptions.

Warrick is sleeping at night.

He is 16 months old.

He has slept through the night, PRIOR to this week, a total of 14 times. That, my friend, is a very low percentage. If I were to give you the number of nights we spent experimenting with all sorts of approaches, it would be somewhere in the 400 range. TOO much time spent awake at night.

I have 4 months, give or take a few nights, hopefully, to sleep at night until this next baby comes. I am seriously considering throwing a pajama party to thank Jesus for this gift.

He even likes his bed, by the way. And his blanket, and a small pillow. I have no idea what prompted this change of heart, but we will say it's Jesus since nothing we did seemed to have much affect on him.

Yay.

Canadian Invasion

hopefully this will stay as short as I intend it to.

After blogging yesterday, I went downstairs for some much needed Jesus time - only to be distracted by the mob in my tiny front yard. We live just a few houses from the Arkansas River and a park that hosts a portion of the 80,000 Canadian geese that live here in Wichita. Recently, signs have been posted by the river that say, "please do not feed the wildlife" - meaning Canadian geese as there are only a few other examples of "wildlife" that frequent the river's edge to get food from people. Last week I saw someone standing between two signs feeding the geese and wished I'd had my camera with me.

Here is the problem: When I saw them in MY yard yesterday I was mortified. While wondering why on earth they might be motivated to come up our street this far, I started counting them. One, Two, Eleven, Eighteen . . . . Our duplex mate's door slammed and I watched her from my window as she happily fed them from her (our) front porch. And I thought, I bet she isn't anticipating the amount of crap they will leave on our sidewalks. I bet she doesn't think my son will enjoy stepping in it. More counting - this time indexing the poops on just the sidewalk, not the grass. 10 poops.

I, on the other hand, might keep a collection of small rocks on the porch to keep them away. While I do not believe in cruelty to animals unless they are attacking you, I must admit a tiny flicker of celebration when I also saw for the first time, the other day, a late Canadian goose who had apparently had an unfortunate encounter with a vehicle on the highway.

Not a fan. AND, in defense of my rock collection - the geese are the size of my son and he reaches out to them but doesn't have food in his hand. Preventative measures.

Learning

Warrick is learning so much so fast, it's amazing. I feel that as I watch him, I am relearning to wonder and explore and find beauty and intrigue in tiny commonplace things. I thought I would note a few beautiful things I've noticed in the last couple of days.

W took a break from his intense walk to pick up two sweetgum pods . . . they really are pretty cool. They are only uncool if you step on them unsuspectingly while barefoot. He carried them, one in each hand, by the stem and girated with them as he wiggled them around.

Music doesn't need explanation. I was playing a new CD, Band of Horses, a hand-me-down from my brother-in-law. One of the songs breaks into a fairly percussive section after the mellow intro. Without a demonstration on my part, W began to violently shake his head back and forth in time to the beat. I laughed my face off and tried to join him and then thought better of it, as I have to frequent the chiropractor anyway . . . . jeez, he's flexible.

Sharing. I realize that kids often don't want to share, but W is just so darn in love with people, that he tries to share with all sorts of strangers. While waiting in line to get our fabric cut, he sweetly and emphatically gave a stranger 6 glue sticks. While playing at the train table at our Toys R Us, he aggressively pressed a Thomas the Tank Engine piece into another little boys face because, I imagine, he was just excited to have someone to play with. And . . . . he has recently enjoyed feeding us. I, for one (right now at least), am not real keen on sharing food, and so made note of his behavior.

I am trying (mostly in my head) to be more assertive about offering words of encouragement to people if I have an encouraging thought. Who doesn't need encouragement? My friend, Katie, although she was not trying to be encouraging, mentioned the other day that the general predisposition of your young child usually stays with them into adulthood. So, if your kid is shy and spends time observing before he jumps in . . . . he'll probably be that way later too. Because I am pretty enthralled (most of the time) by W's personality, I was really excited about this. And then, I realized something else . . . . He will probably be the kid who gets in trouble at school for being silly. And his teacher, like me, will have trouble disciplining him because she can't stop laughing.

I don't think that's a bad thing.

theolson4

That is, I suppose, what I should change the name to, since we are to be a family of four in May. However, I am spending less and less time on the computer and today I realized why.

Our laptop cannot keep up with me or my new camera.

I'm not sure why I expect my 16 month old son to demonstrate patience while waiting for snacks . . . . "mo, mo, mo, mo, mo, mo, mo" (He literally sounds like a little bird) when I cannot demonstrate any semblance of patience while I wait for our laptop to delete ONE photo. Don't need to crop, adjust the color or format - just throw it out . . . . I would think that would require the least amount of computer energy, but it's not true.

So, this post will likely NOT have photos. Maybe one.

I haven't organized my thoughts enough to write something that I might qualify as meaningful, but am needing an outlet because my grumpy is getting the best of me . . . . hmmmmpf. Fog and gray. Don't I feel so vulnerable and childlike when I lack the self-control to choose a better attitude just cause the sun isn't shining?

So - an attempt to fight it - here are some things I am thankful for today:

1. My son is silly and cheerful even when the weather is not

2. My mother-in-law GAVE us a car. amazing

3. The gastro bug we've been experiencing at our house seems to have passed. gross

4. My husband misses me on his first day back to school. I miss him too.

5. I was missed by new friends while we were gone

6. I have a camera that is smarter than our laptop

7. We made a little money over Christmas break and Brett was able to get an iTouch

8. I like our church

9. My sister and fam gave us some toys, books, clothes to lighten their load. What a blessing.

10. My new baby girl is getting stronger and letting me know it.

11. I don't live in haiti

12. A stranger that owns a boutique thinks some of my creative endeavors are cute and would like to sell them. Cool.

13. Jesus likes me without any good reason at all.

14. We got a family membership to the YMCA for $4.99 a month. Yes.

And now, even though I feel much better, a few questions I'm seeking answers to:

Why do I constantly feel overwhelmed by the following things:

1. laundry

2. dishes

3. organizing W's dresser so the clothes inside are the clothes that he wears and that fit

4. cleaning off the kitchen table

5. thinking of clever and healthy meals for dinner

6. making clever and healthy meals for dinner

7. washing the dishes from the clever dinner I probably didn't just make

8. finding a place for the clothes that are piled on my yellow chair

If we had too much money, I might actually consider hiring an organizing assistant. I am paralyzed by this . . . .

boo. However, I will add that I felt fabulous and effective and motivated yesterday afternoon. My reasoning - Starbucks and Jesus. Great combination.