Seriously, the title of this blog is just sitting there taunting me every time I return to record something new or interesting in our lives. Today, it seems especially silly to call our lives simple. It looks like our baby-waiting game may be over. All signs point to the fact that we are going to be welcoming twins into our family in the VERY near future...as in...they are due the 15th of this month and today is the 6th! That gives me approximately 9 more days to prepare. For twins! Who needs 9 months, right? I'm not going to lie to you, I am just going to keep ostriching until they actually arrive. You know...big ol' head buried deep in the sand. Well, apparently ostriches do not actually bury their heads in the sand, but that's another story.
I just can't imagine how I could possibly feel prepared for this kind of life change in 9 days, so why try? Don't hear me wrong, I am totally excited about this possibility, but I am also terrified of being excited. It's just never a sure thing, adoption. I know that things are never entirely certain when people have their own babies either, it's just that with adoption, nothing is certain until it is. When we tell people that we are adopting twins...like in two weeks...they are so excited for us (which is really nice because they have been waiting for this on our behalf) but they want us to be excited with them. And we are excited, but we have to protect ourselves a bit too. It's a weird tug of war trying to be just the right amount of excited. I'm getting this visual image of trying to hold a large beach ball under water in a pool. Have you ever done that? If you get your body centered just right, you can hold it under, but as soon as you get off center that thing is going to launch out of the water like it's got someplace to be. I feel like I have to keep myself centered just right, so as not to let the beach ball launch.
For now, I will just keep trying like a crazy woman to get my 'already' life in order while we wait. When (and if) those babies come home with us, we will be ready to welcome them into our family even if we aren't the least bit prepared. Poor little j won't even know what hit him!
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Waiting
My initial goal when I started this blog was to post what is happening in our lives once a week. How am I doing? I'm not...doing. Well, I am doing lots of things, posting in this blog is just not one of them! I have decided that I will not berate myself for this ,as this blog is intended solely for my own benefit and enjoyment, and I don't need to worry about setting high standards for myself and not living up to them! Henceforth, you will not read an apologetic caveat at the top of each post!
Today, I will record for myself some of my own thoughts and feelings about life as a waiting adoptive mother.
I have always thought that I am a patient person, and relatively speaking I might be, but that patience is waning. This year I will turn 35. Turning 30 stung a little, but 30-34 really all seems about the same to me. But 35 feels heavy. 35 is over the hump to 40. 35 is new grey hairs every day. 35 is going to physical therapy for that unexplained knee pain. But heaviest of all....35 is "advanced maternal age". While I am mostly okay with only adopting children and not having biological children, there is still part of me that feels panicky about this milestone. When you are an adoptive family it feels like you have even less control over your own destiny than most. Waiting is hard. I have been feeling this more acutely recently than normal.
We have had meetings with two different birth-moms in the past few months and know that several other moms have specifically been considering our profile. While I believe wholeheartedly in birth mothers having more control over how and where their children are placed for adoption, I also feel the lack of control that gives us as a family. I am a reasonably confident person, but it is not easy to sit back and wait to be chosen based on one small photo book and an hour-long meeting (if it even comes to that). Most of the time I am able to convince myself that we will have more children, someday, but other days I wonder if that's really the case. Living in limbo is a tiring state for me.
Recently, I have also been struggling with the need/desire to prepare for more children. When we received a call a month or two ago that there was a birth-mom who wanted to meet us that had already given birth, I vacillated back and forth between nesting (ie. cleaning the 1/2inch layer of dust off of every surface in the house, getting food ready to freeze, getting out our bassinet to set up and clean, etc.) and doing nothing in order to keep myself detached from the situation. Waiting for her to decide between us and another family was agonizing. She did not choose us. And while it is okay...really...it's still a little hard to choke down. Now, we find ourselves waiting for a decision from a mother of twins. Yes, you read that right, twins. Now of course, there are parts of me that find the prospect of caring for our 3yr old son and twins terrifying, but there is also NO way to stop from imagining what it might be like to adopt these twins. There are important details to consider. How will we even transport a family of three children in car seats? Our cars won't work. What plans will need to be altered over the next few months if we do, in fact, adopt these twins. Where would we get the appropriate nursery furniture, car seats, clothing, etc. to care for two infants at once? How do we actually go about getting two babies fed, clothed, bathed, and sleeping at once? But we are paralyzed. There is really nothing to do but wait. You can't prepare well for something that might happen.
There is a part of me that wants to be hopeful at each of these possibilities, but there is also a part of me that wants to shut hope down in an attempt at emotional self-preservation.
Some days are easier than others. And the truth is that our experience with adoption so far has been beautiful. So, I will continue to wait and to pray, cautiously hopeful that there will be more children in our family someday. And that when that day comes we will have room in our hearts to love them as well as they deserve (and room in our garage for that devil mini-van we will probably have to have)!
Today, I will record for myself some of my own thoughts and feelings about life as a waiting adoptive mother.
I have always thought that I am a patient person, and relatively speaking I might be, but that patience is waning. This year I will turn 35. Turning 30 stung a little, but 30-34 really all seems about the same to me. But 35 feels heavy. 35 is over the hump to 40. 35 is new grey hairs every day. 35 is going to physical therapy for that unexplained knee pain. But heaviest of all....35 is "advanced maternal age". While I am mostly okay with only adopting children and not having biological children, there is still part of me that feels panicky about this milestone. When you are an adoptive family it feels like you have even less control over your own destiny than most. Waiting is hard. I have been feeling this more acutely recently than normal.
We have had meetings with two different birth-moms in the past few months and know that several other moms have specifically been considering our profile. While I believe wholeheartedly in birth mothers having more control over how and where their children are placed for adoption, I also feel the lack of control that gives us as a family. I am a reasonably confident person, but it is not easy to sit back and wait to be chosen based on one small photo book and an hour-long meeting (if it even comes to that). Most of the time I am able to convince myself that we will have more children, someday, but other days I wonder if that's really the case. Living in limbo is a tiring state for me.
Recently, I have also been struggling with the need/desire to prepare for more children. When we received a call a month or two ago that there was a birth-mom who wanted to meet us that had already given birth, I vacillated back and forth between nesting (ie. cleaning the 1/2inch layer of dust off of every surface in the house, getting food ready to freeze, getting out our bassinet to set up and clean, etc.) and doing nothing in order to keep myself detached from the situation. Waiting for her to decide between us and another family was agonizing. She did not choose us. And while it is okay...really...it's still a little hard to choke down. Now, we find ourselves waiting for a decision from a mother of twins. Yes, you read that right, twins. Now of course, there are parts of me that find the prospect of caring for our 3yr old son and twins terrifying, but there is also NO way to stop from imagining what it might be like to adopt these twins. There are important details to consider. How will we even transport a family of three children in car seats? Our cars won't work. What plans will need to be altered over the next few months if we do, in fact, adopt these twins. Where would we get the appropriate nursery furniture, car seats, clothing, etc. to care for two infants at once? How do we actually go about getting two babies fed, clothed, bathed, and sleeping at once? But we are paralyzed. There is really nothing to do but wait. You can't prepare well for something that might happen.
There is a part of me that wants to be hopeful at each of these possibilities, but there is also a part of me that wants to shut hope down in an attempt at emotional self-preservation.
Some days are easier than others. And the truth is that our experience with adoption so far has been beautiful. So, I will continue to wait and to pray, cautiously hopeful that there will be more children in our family someday. And that when that day comes we will have room in our hearts to love them as well as they deserve (and room in our garage for that devil mini-van we will probably have to have)!
Thursday, July 24, 2014
"...and in the mornin...I'm makin waffles!!!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8jzvh5Wb00&feature=kp
Every time I think of making waffles....I think of three things. First, I hear Donkey from Shrek in my head saying, "We can stay up late, swappin manly stories, and in the mornin...I'm makin waffles!" Then, I am inevitably reminded of a good college friend who gave us our waffle maker as a wedding gift (because of her firm belief that all families should have a waffle maker) and I wonder how she is doing, and then I think about how we have been married for about 12 years now and have made waffles approximately two times....including this one.
Now...to be fair, part of the reason that I have not made waffles before is that my husband, Jeremy, has been eating gluten free for about five years now (I have no idea if that is an accurate amount of time, just roll with it) and trying new gluten free breads and pastries of any sort can be very intimidating. There is also the fact that when I think to myself "I want waffles for breakfast. I should make waffles in the morning," I usually follow that thought with, "hmmmm...pancakes would sure be a faster way to get that peanut butter and syrup into my mouth." Hence, the 12 year waffle drought.
Until now! You see these lovelies? Believe it or not, they are gluten free and they were (in the words of my grandma) a delight!!! The only bad thing about them was that I made them on a day when we were out of peanut butter and my husband was like a sad little boy for about 2 seconds until he covered them in an obscene amount of syrup and got over it. We also tried them with some homemade raspberry simple syrup (1 part strained raspberry juice to 1 part sugar) that I had from making jelly last week and that was also delicious!
So now is the time to write down how I made these babies, quick, before I forget what I put in them! Because I will forget. And when a gluten free recipe works out well, you should always write it down and use it again later. Trust me, I know from experience. If I don't write it down, a few Saturdays from now I will say, "Hey, maybe we should make waffles again," but I won't remember how we did it so I will just make pancakes instead so that I don't waste our precious GF flour that costs half of our son's college education.
So here it is....the moment we've all been waiting for....the culmination of all of my GF baking skills....drum roll please.........I used the Betty Crocker recipe for waffles and replaced the flour with GF flour. I know. Really genius. Actually, I did have to add some flour at the end because the batter was way to thin, so I added about 1/2c of oat flour that I had on hand. The first few turned out too crispy, so I decided to just watch the waffles and take them out when I thought they were done rather than wait for the light to shut off. I'm a rebel like that. Here is the full recipe...adapted from Betty Crocker's Waffles fast
GF Waffles
Prep: 5min.
Bake: 5min./waffle
Makes: six 7in. round waffles
2 cups GF all purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 cup GF oat flour (ground from Bob's GF Old Fashioned Oats)
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp sugar
1. Lightly oil waffle iron and preheat.
2. Mix first five dry ingredients together.
3. In a large bowl, beat together milk, vegetable oil, and sugar, then add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix. (Add more oat flour as needed to make sure that your batter is not too runny. It should be similar to pancake better or a bit more thin.)
4. Pour 1/2c to 2/3c batter into the center of the waffle iron until it nearly reaches the edges and close the lid. Bake about 5 min. or follow the instructions for your waffle iron.
5. Enjoy your waffles that nobody will even know are GF unless you tell them!
Every time I think of making waffles....I think of three things. First, I hear Donkey from Shrek in my head saying, "We can stay up late, swappin manly stories, and in the mornin...I'm makin waffles!" Then, I am inevitably reminded of a good college friend who gave us our waffle maker as a wedding gift (because of her firm belief that all families should have a waffle maker) and I wonder how she is doing, and then I think about how we have been married for about 12 years now and have made waffles approximately two times....including this one.
Now...to be fair, part of the reason that I have not made waffles before is that my husband, Jeremy, has been eating gluten free for about five years now (I have no idea if that is an accurate amount of time, just roll with it) and trying new gluten free breads and pastries of any sort can be very intimidating. There is also the fact that when I think to myself "I want waffles for breakfast. I should make waffles in the morning," I usually follow that thought with, "hmmmm...pancakes would sure be a faster way to get that peanut butter and syrup into my mouth." Hence, the 12 year waffle drought.
Until now! You see these lovelies? Believe it or not, they are gluten free and they were (in the words of my grandma) a delight!!! The only bad thing about them was that I made them on a day when we were out of peanut butter and my husband was like a sad little boy for about 2 seconds until he covered them in an obscene amount of syrup and got over it. We also tried them with some homemade raspberry simple syrup (1 part strained raspberry juice to 1 part sugar) that I had from making jelly last week and that was also delicious!
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| Add caption |
So here it is....the moment we've all been waiting for....the culmination of all of my GF baking skills....drum roll please.........I used the Betty Crocker recipe for waffles and replaced the flour with GF flour. I know. Really genius. Actually, I did have to add some flour at the end because the batter was way to thin, so I added about 1/2c of oat flour that I had on hand. The first few turned out too crispy, so I decided to just watch the waffles and take them out when I thought they were done rather than wait for the light to shut off. I'm a rebel like that. Here is the full recipe...adapted from Betty Crocker's Waffles fast
GF Waffles
Prep: 5min.
Bake: 5min./waffle
Makes: six 7in. round waffles
2 cups GF all purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 cup GF oat flour (ground from Bob's GF Old Fashioned Oats)
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp sugar
1. Lightly oil waffle iron and preheat.
2. Mix first five dry ingredients together.
3. In a large bowl, beat together milk, vegetable oil, and sugar, then add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix. (Add more oat flour as needed to make sure that your batter is not too runny. It should be similar to pancake better or a bit more thin.)
4. Pour 1/2c to 2/3c batter into the center of the waffle iron until it nearly reaches the edges and close the lid. Bake about 5 min. or follow the instructions for your waffle iron.
5. Enjoy your waffles that nobody will even know are GF unless you tell them!
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Gratefulness
Last week was a bit strange for us. On Monday night, there was a nasty storm that passed through Goshen in the middle of the night. I had no idea that it was even supposed to storm, mostly because I don't pay very careful attention to the weather aside from looking out the window. So an hour or two after I finally climbed in bed and fell asleep, both Jeremy and I recieved alerts on our phones from the national weather service saying there is a serious storm coming and that we should seek shelter immidiately. Now that I have a child, storms have suddenly become much more frightening to me. I guess I worry that if something were to happen, I might not be able to get to Josiah in time or that I might not be able to adequetly protect him. I was thankful that Jeremy didn't think we should wait around upstairs and look outside to see what might be coming at us before heading downstairs. He's from Kansas and tends to look at storms as a form of entertainment rather than something to be afraid of. Of course, I don't want to be overly cautious, but when the weather alert went off right next to my head in the middle of the night telling me to take action I just wanted to take Josiah and run for cover. So that is exactly what we did (although Jeremy did feel the need to look outside and watch out the windows to see the storm coming). I on the other hand scooped up our sleeping toddler and tried to take him downstairs without waking him. Interestingly, he actually did stay asleep until the storm was over and we went back upstairs. Once the storm was over, however, he was wide awake and we were without power, leaving our house earily quiet and creeky. After rocking and snuggling in Josiah's bed, I didn't end up back in my own bed until about 4:30 in the morning. Needless to say...not my best night for sleep. A few hours later when Jeremy got up to leave for work we discovered this in our front yard...
It seems a little silly now, but when I saw this, I was SO frustrated! Just two weeks before, Jeremy and I spent several hours trimming branches around the bottom of the tree on the left and removing a TON of some kind of crossbread between a weed and a tree which meant I removed most of them by digging them out with a shovel rather than just pulling them up. I also knew that we were going to have to spend the time and money to remove the tree that was damaged and replace the bare area with either more landscaping or grass. While my attitude was pretty crappy for the first few hours of the day, it quickly became apparent that things could be much worse. Later that morning, we went to meet some friends at a local park for a walk and play date and as I drove through town, I realized that the damage to our tree was minimal compared to the damage that so many others had suffered. While I didn't see a lot of damage to homes (thank God), there were trees and large branches down everywhere! It really looked like a tornado had gone through town. In fact, the first road that I tried to take to the park was blocked entirely by a tangle of trees and power lines laying across it. As I drove to the park, I was moved to tears by the damage sustained by so many and by my initial petty reaction to one tree down on our property. Just the night before, as I held Josiah during the storm, I prayed over and over that God would just keep us safe. And yet, when I woke up (safe and sound mind you) all I could think about was the fact that the storm had caused some inconvenience for us. I realized that I needed to be grateful for the little damage that was done and for our safety! I was also inspired to help organize efforts to bring some people together from our church to try to help with some neighborhood clean-up.
I wish that I could say that I am just totally over the whole broken tree thing, but I am still frustrated by the fact that we have half of a pine tree standing in our front yard. I was reminded though, to try to focus on the things that I have to be grateful for, like our next door neighbor who came over with his chainsaw and helped us remove the part of the tree that was laying in the yard. I was also reminded to be grateful for the modern conveniences that I enjoy every day when we were without power until Wednesday night. Since we have well water, we were without water or power for a full 48hrs and it was getting pretty tricky to flush toilets, wash dishes, save food from the freezer, keep our bathroom from smelling like an outhouse, bathe, etc., etc., etc. While there are some nice things about not having power, like feeling no pressure to be overly connected to the world via internet, I was certainly excited when the power finally came back on!
It seems a little silly now, but when I saw this, I was SO frustrated! Just two weeks before, Jeremy and I spent several hours trimming branches around the bottom of the tree on the left and removing a TON of some kind of crossbread between a weed and a tree which meant I removed most of them by digging them out with a shovel rather than just pulling them up. I also knew that we were going to have to spend the time and money to remove the tree that was damaged and replace the bare area with either more landscaping or grass. While my attitude was pretty crappy for the first few hours of the day, it quickly became apparent that things could be much worse. Later that morning, we went to meet some friends at a local park for a walk and play date and as I drove through town, I realized that the damage to our tree was minimal compared to the damage that so many others had suffered. While I didn't see a lot of damage to homes (thank God), there were trees and large branches down everywhere! It really looked like a tornado had gone through town. In fact, the first road that I tried to take to the park was blocked entirely by a tangle of trees and power lines laying across it. As I drove to the park, I was moved to tears by the damage sustained by so many and by my initial petty reaction to one tree down on our property. Just the night before, as I held Josiah during the storm, I prayed over and over that God would just keep us safe. And yet, when I woke up (safe and sound mind you) all I could think about was the fact that the storm had caused some inconvenience for us. I realized that I needed to be grateful for the little damage that was done and for our safety! I was also inspired to help organize efforts to bring some people together from our church to try to help with some neighborhood clean-up.
I wish that I could say that I am just totally over the whole broken tree thing, but I am still frustrated by the fact that we have half of a pine tree standing in our front yard. I was reminded though, to try to focus on the things that I have to be grateful for, like our next door neighbor who came over with his chainsaw and helped us remove the part of the tree that was laying in the yard. I was also reminded to be grateful for the modern conveniences that I enjoy every day when we were without power until Wednesday night. Since we have well water, we were without water or power for a full 48hrs and it was getting pretty tricky to flush toilets, wash dishes, save food from the freezer, keep our bathroom from smelling like an outhouse, bathe, etc., etc., etc. While there are some nice things about not having power, like feeling no pressure to be overly connected to the world via internet, I was certainly excited when the power finally came back on!
Friday, June 6, 2014
This not-so-Simple Life
When I began this blog, I thought that I would try to post here once a week with the purpose of recording my life during the years that I stay at home with my child(ren). The truth is, I have such a terrible memory that this is just one more way that I can look back and remember what has happened in my life. Really...seriously...you wouldn't believe how many times my husband recalls details from our lives together and I look at him funny and say..."Really? Wow. I don't remember that at all." So of course, I thought that blogging would be a great way to remember interesting things that happen in our lives. The problem is that so many interesting things have been happening in our lives that I haven't had time to keep a very normal schedule! I feel like we have been away from home as much as we have been at home over the last nine months. And when we are home, I feel like I am just playing catch up all the time! Let me put this in perspective. Here are the major highlights (and I am probably forgetting things:
Needless to say, I am totally excited about the fact that we have a relatively free summer staring us in the face! It's true, we will have lots of weekend activities, church events, family visits, a garage sale, and all of our normal outdoor chores to keep up with, but all of these things happen near home!!! I love visiting family or taking special trips, but our routine at home is so important for me and for Josiah. We need some consistent routine for our lives to run smoothly, as evidenced by the EXTREMELY difficult time we have been having with our bedtime routine (a different blog for a different day).
So...hear goes...we're jumping into Summer with both feet and loving (almost) every bit of it!!!
- A week-long trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe area with my mom and good friend Lauren
- FOUR trips to Kansas for two different weddings, a convention, and Christmas with Jeremy's family
- A trip to Colorado to meet our new niece, Skye
- Helping my sister clean and move into her lovely new house
- An open house (that I helped organize) for that lovely new house
- Most of a week spent in that same new house for Thanksgiving with my family
- A weekend getaway with some of the Shue ladies for craft weekend
- A trip to Virginia with family for my brother's ordination service
- Several days stay with my dad so my mom could visit a friend in Colorado
- A trip to Costa Rica to visit a good friend in the Peace Corp
- And most recently, another conference for church in Orlando, Fl
Needless to say, I am totally excited about the fact that we have a relatively free summer staring us in the face! It's true, we will have lots of weekend activities, church events, family visits, a garage sale, and all of our normal outdoor chores to keep up with, but all of these things happen near home!!! I love visiting family or taking special trips, but our routine at home is so important for me and for Josiah. We need some consistent routine for our lives to run smoothly, as evidenced by the EXTREMELY difficult time we have been having with our bedtime routine (a different blog for a different day).
So...hear goes...we're jumping into Summer with both feet and loving (almost) every bit of it!!!
My two-year-old son has a nicer pedicure than I do!
Finally getting the garden started!
I'm so excited to have strawberries for the first time this year!
Sharing the first ripe strawberries:)
Hmmmm...what should I do now? How about eat some more strawberries...
...in our first smoothies of the summer!
Friday, February 28, 2014
From the Mouths of Babes...(Advent stories posted at the end of February...I'm totally on top of it!)
There are two particular stories from our experience with our first Advent calendar that I want to put into writing simply so that I remember them....the kind of stories that perfectly express the adorableness (if that is a word) that is toddler-hood.
Several days ago, our "special Advent activity" was to share a bowl of holiday ice cream. This seemed like a good idea for two reasons; 1. Josiah suddenly needs some serious practice with sharing, and 2. ice cream is always a good idea, especially holiday flavors that just don't seem appropriate throughout the rest of the year. So anyway, we successfully shared our bowl of ice cream and everyone was happy. Then, a few days later, when Josiah helped to take down another Advent envelope, we took the Bible verse card out and gave it to Daddy and Josiah held onto the special activity card. While Daddy was trying to get started reading the Bible verse, Josiah held up the activity card, pointed with his finger as though reading, and announced with authority: "share ife-cream!" We were all so taken by surprise that all we could do was sit there and laugh. And even though our activity was really just to sing Christmas songs, we decided that it would be okay to have a little bit of ice cream when we were finished!
The second story just re-iterates my belief that there is too much confusion for children (and probably adults for that matter) surrounding the purpose of Christmas. Maybe I will write another post another time about my beliefs about Christmas, but that is not really the point. The point is that Josiah clearly illustrated how things might get a little confusing when you manage to include Santa in your Advent activities. When our little friend Kiante came over for a few hours, Josiah was totally excited to show him the gingerbread house we made from a kit for one of our Advent activities (which happened to include a little candy Santa). So, in his very broken English, Josiah starts trying to help me understand that he wants to show the gingerbread house to Kiante....and one of the phrases he is using to try to talk about the gingerbread house is "Santa....God made that" Santa....God made that". He was trying to tell Kiante that God made the little Santa that is cemented by the front door of the house with frosting. While this was...lets face it....totally cute, I realized that we are going to have some work to do if we want to differentiate between the consumer-driven celebration of Christmas and what we believe to be the most important "reason for the season".
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| Our Advent envelopes each contained one bible verse and one fun activity. |
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| Countdown to Christmas! |
The second story just re-iterates my belief that there is too much confusion for children (and probably adults for that matter) surrounding the purpose of Christmas. Maybe I will write another post another time about my beliefs about Christmas, but that is not really the point. The point is that Josiah clearly illustrated how things might get a little confusing when you manage to include Santa in your Advent activities. When our little friend Kiante came over for a few hours, Josiah was totally excited to show him the gingerbread house we made from a kit for one of our Advent activities (which happened to include a little candy Santa). So, in his very broken English, Josiah starts trying to help me understand that he wants to show the gingerbread house to Kiante....and one of the phrases he is using to try to talk about the gingerbread house is "Santa....God made that" Santa....God made that". He was trying to tell Kiante that God made the little Santa that is cemented by the front door of the house with frosting. While this was...lets face it....totally cute, I realized that we are going to have some work to do if we want to differentiate between the consumer-driven celebration of Christmas and what we believe to be the most important "reason for the season".
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Not-So-Terrible Twos
Josiah, my first and only child, is nearly two and a half years old. Which means that we are in the thick of the "terrible twos". Now, don't get me wrong, Josiah has his moments,but for the most part he continues to be more and more fun as time goes on. He is also more difficult, more entertaining, more frustrating, more affectionate, more adorable, more stress inducing, and the list goes on!
Here are some of the most adorable new things that Josiah has been saying recently:
"aw day yon" (translation - all day long) which he applies to most things that he is talking about, no matter how long he actually did or did not do them...for example "driving daddy car...aw day yon" or "watch Mickey...aw day yon".
"no, name not goofus, name siah" - When Josiah's auntie LaLa recently teased him and called him goofus, he very seriously told her "no, name not goofus, name siah".
"sop, shup door!" - This is Josiah's request for privacy while using the potty. When he needs a bit of time to himself, he holds his hand up (stop-in-the-name-of-love style) and tells us. "sop (stop), shup door (shut door)" So bossy.
"Jeebee Bells" - These are the two most recognizable words in his spirited rendition of Jingle Bells:)
"read bible!" - During Advent we began reading Bible verses together at dinner time and this year we are attempting to read all the way through the Bible and this usually happens at dinner time as well. This particular proclamation is usually said like a cross between a command and an announcement. It is intended to mean that Josiah (not Daddy) is going to read the Bible.
"yook" - Five hundred times a day....this is the command that we hear when Josiah wants us to look at something of interest.
"all heart" - Another great thing that he learned from LaLa! When he tells us goodnight, sometimes he will repeat us when we say "I love you with all of my heart" by saying "love you...all...heart" and sometimes he will even say this on his own...which of course is the kind of thing that makes the hard work of mom-hood totally worthwhile!
While it seems that two-years-old is not really so terrible...I certainly have a two-year-old that is growing in independence, personality, and volume each and every day!
Here are some of the most adorable new things that Josiah has been saying recently:
"aw day yon" (translation - all day long) which he applies to most things that he is talking about, no matter how long he actually did or did not do them...for example "driving daddy car...aw day yon" or "watch Mickey...aw day yon".
"no, name not goofus, name siah" - When Josiah's auntie LaLa recently teased him and called him goofus, he very seriously told her "no, name not goofus, name siah".
"sop, shup door!" - This is Josiah's request for privacy while using the potty. When he needs a bit of time to himself, he holds his hand up (stop-in-the-name-of-love style) and tells us. "sop (stop), shup door (shut door)" So bossy.
"Jeebee Bells" - These are the two most recognizable words in his spirited rendition of Jingle Bells:)
"read bible!" - During Advent we began reading Bible verses together at dinner time and this year we are attempting to read all the way through the Bible and this usually happens at dinner time as well. This particular proclamation is usually said like a cross between a command and an announcement. It is intended to mean that Josiah (not Daddy) is going to read the Bible.
"yook" - Five hundred times a day....this is the command that we hear when Josiah wants us to look at something of interest.
"all heart" - Another great thing that he learned from LaLa! When he tells us goodnight, sometimes he will repeat us when we say "I love you with all of my heart" by saying "love you...all...heart" and sometimes he will even say this on his own...which of course is the kind of thing that makes the hard work of mom-hood totally worthwhile!
While it seems that two-years-old is not really so terrible...I certainly have a two-year-old that is growing in independence, personality, and volume each and every day!
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