Thanksgiving highlights: Swinging

Note: The highlight of my Saturday was Georgia's 30-24 victory over Georgia Tech, and the fact that I got to enjoy watching the Bulldogs upset the Yellow Jackets in a room full of rabid Tech fans. But this is a family blog, and in the interest of fairness, I've decided to highlight a more neutral event.

Our dear friends the Seabolts trekked out to see us with three-fourths of their children on Saturday, and the men were promptly put to work building a rope swing in Nana and Granddaddy's backyard. While Marissa and I watched from the porch, Justin and Milton (with some supervision from the kids) created a custom, built-to-last rope swing that proved to be fun for all (including Caleb and Granddaddy). And of course, our little daredevil had to try it out too. I see many fun years of grandkid abuse in this swing's future.

Thanksgiving highlights: Barbershop

It's a man thing. And thanks to Papa, Caleb got to experience it firsthand.

On a whim (and perhaps because Spike was looking a little shaggy around the ears), Papa took Caleb for his first barbershop haircut at a real old-timey hometown barbershop, complete with mounted deer head on the wall, Field & Stream magazines strewn about, Norman Rockwell prints and a 76-year-old career barber. Buddy made quick work of shearing my little blondie while Caleb sat up in the swivel chair like a big boy and chewed on some toy that I'm fairly certain had never been sanitized. (It added to the authenticity of the experience.) Our little guy did great with his first professional trim, and looks quite dapper with his short little boy cut.

Thanksgiving highlights: Feathers

"Every good and perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows."
James 1:17

Because we can't go a week without a craft, Abby got the whole family involved in helping her make a thankful turkey in between all the cooking and eating on Thanksgiving Day. We cut out feathers and left them lying out with instructions for everyone present at the Thanksgiving feast to take a moment and write down what they're thankful for this year. The result is an adorable record of who we dined with this year and a reminder of all the good and perfect gifts God has blessed us with.

For her part, Abby is thankful at the time for feathers (since that's what we were making), puppies and meows (which top her prayer list everytime), and the ground (which is where she had to sit if she wanted to play with the glue). The cat, apparently, is thankful to have Caleb chasing her around. And Uncle Ryan is thankful for the 1 in a million chance that Tech will beat Georgia on Saturday.

There simply was not enough room on my little scrap of construction paper to capture what I'm thankful for this year. God has blessed me with a healthy family, a great husband, two awesome kids, and so much more. To Him be the glory on Thanksgiving day and always!

Thanksgiving highlights: Mobility

It's official. We now have a fully mobile, crawling, climbing, cruising kid on our hands. It took Caleb almost nine months to learn how to scoot around on his belly, but only a few days of attentive grandparenting to turn him into a budding toddler.

Pulling himself up to a standing position is no problem. He makes walking from one side of the couch to the other using his hands for support look easy. To watch him go, you'd think he'd been climbing the stairs for months. And apparently, he caught his sister off guard and pinned her to the ground when I wasn't looking. I'm proud of the boy, honestly. But I'm sure it's going to put a dent in my ease of parenting when we return home.

(Is "ease of parenting" an oxymoron?)

Thanksgiving highlights: Coaching

Neely (3 yrs) and Abby (27 months)

November 2009

Last time we saw my friend Megan's daughter Neely, she was Abby's age, Abby was Caleb's age, and Caleb was just a little Peanut. Seeing Neely riding around at the beach back then convinced us that Abby should have one of these cool walking bikes when she was old enough. Almost a year and a half later, Abby's old enough to ride, and Neely's old enough to show her how. Crazy how time flies. (Even crazier is the fact that just a decade ago, Megan and I were dumpster diving to get the inside scoop on what was really in the lunchroom's chicken nuggets for the school paper, and today we're responsible for children.)

Megan and I had a great time catching up with each other and enjoying some Mexican food at one of our hometown's finest establishments, El Sombrero No. 1. The girls played well together, and poor Abby tried desperately to keep up with the older, more mature Neely, but she simply cannot yet (a) stay in the lines when she colors, (b) ride a bike that fast, or (c) dress a Polly Pocket doll by herself. But she sure is motivated after seeing a friend do all those things.

Both Caleb and Abby seem to be growing so much as a result of all the one-on-one attention they're getting from so many adults this week. Caleb's showing off by mimicking noises (mama, dada and muah, among others), high fiving and climbing to the third step all by himself. Abby's developed a fascination with the "big girl bed" next to her crib in my old room and asks every night and at naptime if she can sleep there instead. I guess we'll be setting up a twin bed when we get home.

Neely (27 months) and Abby (10 months)

Folly Beach, July 2008

Thanksgiving highlights: Grandmama

Great Grandmama got to meet her great-grandson for the first time while we were in town for Thanksgiving. She rightly observed that he's strong, adorable, and has huge cheeks. (I observed that he likes to smile for the camera a heck of a lot more than his sister ever did, or does. It's nearly impossible to take a candid shot of Spike, since every time he hears the click of the camera about to snap a picture, he turns our way and flashes a big grin.) I'm pretty sure Justin's grandmother loved watching Abby and Caleb interact with each other, and she was full of great stories of Justin's mom and uncle when they were our kids' ages.

Abby also spent lots of time hanging out with Grandmama playing and singing along with the piano (or "plane-o" as she says). She pretty much loved having an audience of one who could pick out every song she named while she sang along. Grandmama even managed, a little while into their piano lesson, to teach Abby how to tickle the ivories with just her two index fingers, instead of using all her strength to plunk away with both hands.

Caleb's crawling and pulling up continues to improve, and under the tutelage of four way-too-attentive grandparents, he's learning to climb the stairs as well. I have a feeling this kid's going to be a lot harder to keep up with when we get home.

Thanksgiving highlights: Wigs

Abby loves to play dress up. Anything from the butterfly wings I attach to her back with a giant rubber band, to the three-sizes-too-big ruby slippers, to the big fluffy tutu can keep her entertained for longer than any other activity (except reading books...that still tops the list). So the boxes of multi-colored mannequin wigs her Mimi brought home from work were a source of great delight for my little girly girl. And much to no one's surprise, the pink hair was her favorite.

Our Thanksgiving holiday is proving pretty relaxing so far, and I'm ever grateful to my parents for forbidding me from doing any laundry, cooking, or extended parenting this week. I'm pretty sure my mom had no idea what she was getting herself into when she offered to do all of our laundry while we're here. These kids can mess up some clothes pretty quickly.

Caleb must have heard us talking about the big Thanksgiving feast coming up, and has decided to sprout his fourth front tooth while we're here. With two on the top and two on the bottom, I'm willing to wager he may be able to out-eat even his Uncle Matt. He's still working on proper crawling techniques, and has managed to lift his belly off the floor and go a couple of feet now and then. But his speedy commando crawling is still a much more efficient mode of travel, and he reverts back to it pretty quickly when the hands-and-knees crawling isn't getting him where he wants to go fast enough, particularly when where he wants to go involves chasing the cat at Nana and Granddaddy's house.

Thanksgiving highlights: Bruschetta

What better way to celebrate the end of a 12 hour drive than making bruschetta with Mimi? All my mom had to do was mention that there was cheese involved, and Abby was ready to dive right in to appetizer preparation.

Caleb was so excited to finally be out of the car that he decided to try his hands (and knees) at some real crawling. Looks like the days of scooting around on his belly are coming to an end.

Justin and I, meanwhile, were more than happy to let the grandparents take over the parenting while we recovered from being in the car since 4 a.m. with two kids. That DVD player in the van is great, but you can only listen to so many episodes of Clifford before it starts to mess with your head.

Hola, cuy

It's getting to be that time of the year when it's simply too cold to play outside in the evening. And even if it were warmer, the sun sets by 5 p.m. now, which leaves us a pretty short window to do anything fun after naptime.

So on many evenings, we'll pile the dishes in the sink and leave the remnants of dinner on the table and rush off as soon as the kids are finished eating to take them to the pet store. That's right, the pet store. It's sort of like the zoo, only indoors, and with fewer camels. The kids love peering into the bird cages, terrorizing the fish and seeing the dogs that people bring into the store to shop with them. If we're lucky, there will be a few puppies in the pet salon getting groomed, and the kids can press their faces to the glass and watch through the window while the animals get a shave and a haircut.

On this day, the kids were loving watching the guinea pigs chase each other around while we adults reminisced that trip to Peru when we had to eat the things. Calling them cuy doesn't make them any less disgusting. Hopefully the kids will get their fill of the filthy animals now, and we'll never have to have one in our home...as a pet or a meal.

Child labor

Justin did a tremendous job moving the leaves from the backyard to the curb. Abby spent about 45 seconds "helping" before she lost her rake in a pile of leaves and decided to do flips in the yard instead. Caleb, for his part, picked up all the leaves within his reach and moved them into an impressive pile in his lap, but not before he tried to eat a few.

I think we're still a few years away from yard chores.

Get your hands dirty

For her next trick, Abby's decided to grow her very own holiday flowers. We started with a paperwhite kit from The Home Depot, and since it was too cold to do our messy project inside, I let her play with dirt in the kitchen. Not sure why I thought sitting her down with a box of dirt, a flower pot and a scooping spoon was going to be contained by the garbage bag I put under her, but it was fun nonetheless.

Abby had a great time deciding where her four bulbs would go in the pot. I showed her the picture of what the plant would look like once the flowers bloomed, and told her there were flowers inside of the bulbs that could only come out if we put them in dirt and watered them. Once she finished planting and patting down the dirt, she picked out a special spot in front of the kitchen window where her flowers will live and she can check on them daily.

I'm not quite sure she understands the whole concept of what we're doing, since every time she walks past the pot of dirt, she points and says, "Oh, look how pretty!" If she's that impressed with a plastic pot, I can't wait to see her face when she sees the flowers in a few weeks.

No mom is an island

A dear friend shared this post from Proverbs 31 Ministries on her blog recently, and it is well worth reposting once more. Be encouraged, moms...we're not doing this alone!

----------------------

Communing Over Chaos

by Whitney Capps

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." John 15:4 (NIV)

I am out-going and chatty. I like to make fun of myself. I love to laugh. I enjoy being with people - until I don't. You see, at heart I am an introvert. At some point I can sense my energy waning. I begin to crave quiet, silence and solitude.

This is why I cherish quiet time with the Lord. I love the stillness of sitting and reading the Word or a book that turns my heart toward Jesus. My husband knows that one way to fill my love tank is to give me an evening of going out to dinner alone: just me, Jesus and a good book. (All you extroverts just cringed at the thought of eating alone didn't you?) Don't get me wrong, I adore my family, but I need mental white space.

However, with three kids under age four, quiet time with the Lord is an endangered species. I don't often get to go the bathroom by myself. If the water closet isn't a quiet place, you can imagine the chaos that follows me to my prayer closet.

For a few months after our youngest was born I lived in a spiritual desert. My soul was parched. I was desperate for quiet time with Jesus and prayed earnestly for God to help me find time to be alone with Him. Faithfully, He always provided, but often my tired and flesh-wrapped spirit dozed off in prayer or got distracted by other things.

I couldn't consistently make it work. After several months of mostly failed attempts, I cried out to God, "I don't know how to be alone with You!"

"Daughter, you don't have to be alone with Me. Just be with Me. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you."

Rather than give up on being with Jesus because it's not like it used to be, my Savior is asking me to abide with Him all day. God has ordained this season of my life and He knows even better than I do how much my children demand of me. In the clamor of the sword fights and confusion in the playroom, He is my hiding place.

I am learning to seize each moment, and see it as an opportunity to fellowship with Jesus. While my kids recite "God is great; God is good," I have a chat with Jesus. When I feel alienated from girlfriends, I read a magazine article. P31 Woman and Today's Christian Woman magazines are spiritual lifeboats for me in this season. While my kids do art at the kitchen table, I read a psalm or two. Whenever possible I try to have praise music playing in our house. Sometimes singing those lyrics is the closest my heart may come to meaningful prayer time all day.

Please hear me. I am not suggesting that these brief moments should replace consistent, focused times of prayer and Bible study. Those habits are hallmarks of Christian discipleship and growth. I am learning, however, to rethink my ideas on fellowship with Jesus. In this season of my life it's not so much the quantity of quiet reflection as it is the steady communing over chaos. But hey, at least we are together!

Father, Your daughter longs to be with You. Remind me of Your constant presence. May I seize opportunities to enjoy You throughout my day. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Learning is fun: Letter M

M says "mmm," as in making messes with macaroni. Justin gets full credit for coming up with our letter M craft, which was a big hit with our young craft-lover. As she placed each individual macaroni noodle onto the plate with care, she told me it was "mmm...yummy. M says mmm!" (Toward the end, she realized that the pasta was only sticking to the M that I had painted with glue, so she decided it was much easier just to dump the bowl of pasta onto the plate and shake off the ones that didn't stick. She's a problem solver.)

I made her brainstorm for a while to think of a few other words that start with the letter M, and she came up with mommy and little mouse (as in "goodnight little mouse" from Goodnight Moon).

We even managed to incorporate some ever-popular glitter into this craft, sparkling up a cardboard fork to go along with her crafty pasta dinner. I have a love-hate relationship with glitter. Today, in moderation, I loved it. And more importantly, so did Abby.

Don't push

Caleb (9 months) and Sam (10 months)

Spike and his buddy Sambo have come a long way since their laying-around-doing-nothing days. Now they do all sorts of stuff, like standing, crawling, terrorizing big sisters and playing together. As soon as Sam learns how to push, we're in big trouble.

When Caleb learns to drive, we're in even bigger trouble.

Caleb (almost 2 months) and Sam (2.5 months)

Brisket 101

We take our commitment to barbeque education very seriously. Thankfully, so does our family. So it came as no surprise that Granddaddy took a recent layover as an opportunity to help us demonstrate the importance of eating brisket and baked beans to our children.

We count ourselves truly blessed that our kids have grandparents that so wholeheartedly support our parenting philosophies.

Toothy Grin

I told you there was a tooth in there. I just had to wait for my little biter to finally open up and let me see it. Turns out there's another one coming up right beside it. And two more on the way up top. As if he needs any more efficiency in the eating department...

Side sleeper

As if I needed one more thing to worry about...

I've discovered that Caleb has a very specific, very consistent preferred sleep position. Unless he's already awake and sitting up in his crib waiting for me to come get him, I find him on most mornings and after all naptimes in the same spot in his crib, in the exact same position: curled up on his right side, feet in the air resting on his crib bumper, with his blanket wrapped all the way around his head.

Do kids attend some sort of How to Make Your Parents Fret class when we're not looking?

Learning is fun: Letter L

I do not find the idea of displaying decomposing plant matter on the wall all that appealing, but a number of factors led to this week's craft, namely:

1. God has littered our yard with an awesome amount of craft materials that are perfect for this week's letter.
   
2. Justin pointed out it was silly to stamp leaves on paper when we have plenty of actual leaves outside.
3. After three unsuccessful attempts, I was finally ready to admit that I simply cannot draw a leaf pattern to make the sponge stamps I wanted to use this week.

We've been working on the concept of what letter comes next (as opposed to just reciting the alphabet from memory), so I started this craft by making Abby figure out what letter we were going to work on today. I showed her all the crafts we've made so far hanging up in the playroom, and asked her what came after the K.

"Make a letter L craft!" she replied, clearly proud of herself for figuring that out. I affirmed her answer, high fived her little hand, and told her to go find her shoes. We trekked outside, picked out a few too many lovely leaves, which she proceeded to ruin by crunching them down into the little yellow cup she had brought along to hold her stash. I followed close behind, picking up similar leaves and not crushing them while she continued to fill her cup with leaf pieces until she was satisfied that she had enough to work with.Back inside, I looked up how to press leaves properly while Abby arranged her collection on the table, placing each leaf down gently and repeating "Look how pretty!" with each one. I used a little mommy sleight of hand to replace her crumpled leaves with my more usable ones, and showed her how to lay them out flat on a paper towel. Next, we picked out two heavy books and she grunted for me as I placed them on top of our leaves to flatten them out. While the leaves were busy being flattened, I set her to work coloring our letter L in some pretty fall colors. I was prepared for a mess when I pulled out the paintbrush, but she surprised me by keeping all of the paint on the brush or the paper. Sometimes she's weirdly obsessive about staying clean. (Other times, not so much.)
While she painted, I tried my best to press our leaves with some wax paper and an iron, and failed miserably. Four times. In the process, I also ruined most of our remaining leaves, so I finally resolved to quit while I was ahead. Our quiet morning craft time was running out, and with Caleb about to wake up from his nap, I packed up the paint and the leaves and decided to take the kids to the park.

Back home, we ate lunch and regrouped to finish The Craft that Took All Day. And I realized that Abby was just as happy gluing down the leaves themselves as she would have been to glue down neatly pressed wax paper leaves. Later, we'll head to Kinko's for the last part of our day-long craft activity: Laminate a Leafy Letter L.

Milkman

My apologies to the American Society of Pediatrics, but Caleb enjoys cow's milk way too much for me to wait until he's a year old to start letting him drink it. For a nine-month-old, he's got pretty good taste.

This kid can down some whole milk. If he keeps this up, a gallon a week isn't going to cut it for long.