Transitions To Winter

All the trees in my backyard no longer have leaves, we wear coats wherever we go, and it has been raining for like a week straight.  I had my first cup of hot coco and my car warned me there was a chance of ice on the road. I would say its almost winter time here in Western Washington!

  For Family Home Evening Logan lit the gas fireplace again (we kept it off over the summer).  He turned the lights down low and read us all "You Are Special" by Max Lucado.  It was really cozy and we could all feel the Spirit.

This week when I checked the weather I noticed that the next 8 days had a rain cloud on them.  I looked out the window and it was slightly sunny outside so I decided we needed to take advantage of the sun before it left.  We went to Anderson Park to swing and ride the seesaw.  We were all pretty pink nosed by the end but it was worth it because it really was the end of the sunshine for a while.

We spent the rest of our week in boots.  These are thigh high boots Elsy decided to try out.

I always say Elsy is the biggest sass.  And she really is.  On Sunday I asked one of the nursery leaders to answer me honestly if Elsy hit the other kids.  There was a little pause and then she said that Elsy had pulled a chunk out of another girls hair... and may have also kicked the leader. Aye yi yi!  Where does she learn this stuff?  But besides her possessive and selfish nature (which really is the definition of any child her age) she can also manage to be sweet beyond reason.  My favorite thing she does is if I let her do something she wants or if I am playing with her and she is feeling happy she will stop everything she is doing and give me a great big, little Elsy hug.  She has the biggest smile and the softest heart.  Tonight I gave Logan a zurburt and he derided to give me one.  As he was trying to wrestle me down and as I was screaming in protest Elsy just began sobbing and saying "Mommy!  Mommy!"  It took a long time to convince her I was fine.

I recently read Elsy the story of the Three Little Pigs.  I noticed on Netflix they had the old Disney version so I had her watch it yesterday.  Ever since she has been singing "Whose afraid of the big bad wolf?  the big bad wolf?  the big bad wolf?" only she adds a LOT of big bad wolf repeats.  At the dinner table Logan couldn't get her to stop and it was pretty hilarious.  She just loves to sing and recently has been singing "As z-I ha looooove youuu" (As I Have Loved You) over and over again... no not the whole song, jus that first line over and over again.  We also walked through the Christmas section in Target, at Elsy's request, and she began singing "Siiiiiiiiilent Niiiiiiiiight" as she looked at all the lights.  I recently started pulling her bangs back in pony tails to keep them out of her face.  I love seeing her eyebrows and her forehead now as she makes her cute little expressions.

When we drive places I often read to Elsy if Logan is driving (we keep a stack of library board books in the car).  I get car sick pretty easily though so often I will say, "Sorry Elsy I can't read because I'm car sick."  She has taken this to be the excuse to use whenever she doesn't want to do something.  If the prayer is to long she interrupts and says, "Mom I getting car sick!"  She has used it in several other instances as well.  She is a hoot and I am loving this time of her life.

I just love how these two interact (okay half the time Elsy is taking everything away from Tommy and he's sad because he has no toys).  They are always making each other laugh at the dinner table.  Elsy does peekaboo to Tommy.  However, a lot of the time she sits with her hands over her eyes so long that he loses interest.  Sometimes they put their heads into each other's tummies and just giggle.  A while back I held both Elsy and Tommy as I was waking somewhere. It was a hefty load but I hugged them both and said "I have my two babies!!"  Often now when I'm carrying Tommy Elsy will say "mommy you carry your two babies?" Holding her arms up for me to carry her too.  I am just not the strongest person in the world so I don't do it very often but I still love that she asks.

I can't believe how big Thomas is getting.  He is so so long!  And he is oh so fast!  He will be across the room, I'll open the fridge, and by the time I'm closing it there he will be trying to climb in.  He is so attached to Logan it's unvelievable.  He follows Logan all around the house and when Logan stops he climbs his leg.  When Logan gets home from work Tommy races over waiting for a hug.  It's the sweetest.  He loves climbing all our legs and has even tried Elsy, although it makes her wobble to much.  He stands outside my shower and pounds on the glass until I get out and won't leave me alone in the bathroom. If I leave him for a split second in the grocery cart I will turn to see him practically laying down with his arms reaching as far as they can to grab whatever is in the isle.  He has discovered toilet paper and threw a toy in the toilet this week.  I don't think Elsy ever did that.  My biggest frustration with him these days is getting him dressed.  It is like trying to wrestle an ostrich into a sweater.  And changing his diaper is a nightmare if he went #2.  The boy just wants to move!

We were watching home videos the other day and one came on of Elsy quietly sitting in the Bumbo quietly chewing on a sippy cup.  You hear my voice say "Elsy is trying to figure out the sippy cup!" all sweetly.  I was watching this video from the kitchen and I turned to look at Tommy who was at that time sitting in the high chair.  He too was trying to learn how to use a sippy cup at that same moment... only water was EVERYWHERE and he had the cup and was banging it as hard as he could on the table until he dropped it.  It was a hilarious contrast for me to see them that way.

We got to go to an exciting event this week!  When we moved to Redmond I was given two wonderful visiting teachers.  One of them was Jen Boyer.  Here is her story in a quick nutshell.  Jen has two biological daughters and two adopted sons from DRC Congo.  When I met her it had been a year since she had adopted her two sons and yet the boys were still stuck in Congo where they were being refused exit letters by the Congolese government.  This was true for over 1,000 children in DRC Congo.  Nine months ago the youngest of the two boys became very sick with malaria and Jen made the heartwrenching decision to go live in DRC with the two boys until they would be issued exit letters.  Jen's husband stayed stateside with the girls.  What a terrible terrible situation.  Well, finally after THREE YEARS the boys were issued exit letters and Jen and the two boys were finally able to come home.  Since our friends were staying with the family to help watch the kids while the father was at work and we spent lots of time in their basement we decided to go with the group that welcomed them home at the airport.  What a wonderful reunion it was!  The whole family had only been together once before this occasion and it was so fun to see.  There are still about 1,000 children still stuck in DRC where they are legally adopted by parents outside the country but are not being permitted to leave the country.  While we are so grateful for the Boyer family we are so sad for the many who are still waiting on the Congolese government.

I think my calling is to fight the battle of children sleeping.  There are times when my children rock at sleeping.  But other times, quite frankly they suck at it.  (Right now I currently hear Elsy's bedroom door creaking open... I expect to see her in a moment with some excuse as to why she is not asleep.)  I usually rock Tommy to sleep for his naps but this week I decided it was the end of that.  He has done really well... really well as in not crying a ton.  But he does just play and play for quite a long time.  He bangs on the blinds, pulls down the baby monitor, and talks and yells for fun. 

 Elsy on the other hand is giving us a run for our money.  She has always been an absolutely amazing sleeper.  She would NEVER leave her bed until I came in to get her and she slept all night long.  Then one day she woke up, came into our room in the morning and climbed into bed.  So sweet!  we said.  She is darling! we thought.  We snuggled her and kissed her, giggled and laughed.  And that was the end of her staying in bed. :(  After that she started coming in to wake me up earlier and earlier.  I do not want to wake up at 5:30!  So I bought an OK To Wake clock... it turns green when its okay for kiddos to come out of bed in the mornings.  At first she was terrified of it but then later it seemed to work wonderfully.... until she began waking up at 3am and started waiting for the clock to turn green in the middle of the night.  In frustration she would come wake me up... over and over and over.  After several nights of being up with her for 2+ hours I realized what the problem was.  I took the clock out and that very night she slept like a champ.  But now our problem is her coming out of bed after we put her in at night.  She is really pushing her limits but we are trying to stay firm!  Learn from our mistake... just never let them crawl into your bed the first time.  Just never. 

Because of all the rain we decided to go to McDonald's on Friday for lunch.  They have an indoor playland.  It was really great to get our wiggles out.  Elsy kind of has a phobia of tube slides since once she got stuck and I had to go get her and the next time she went in feet first and somehow came out head first.  But luckily I got her to go down with Tommy and I.  There was a group of girls shrieking the whole time we were there.  After a while of sitting silently and listening Tom decided to join in and loved screaming at the top of his lungs.

Logan and I were able to go on a date on Friday night and do a little pre-season Christmas shopping together.  We went to Panera and just had the most marvelous time having deep, good conversation with zero interruption.   Logan has been really busy lately with his start up.  It is amazing to see how hard of a worker he is.  He balances his day job, helping me with the kids and chores, his calling as scout leader, his start up, and he makes e-learning courses on the side.  He has some super dad powers.  Panera is our comfort food place and all the rainy weather had us in a cozy mood.  I had the best time with my best friend.