Happy 5th Birthday, Leah!

Leah turned 5 March 10. There were days when 5 seemed so far off, yet she's now 5 and then some. (My friends with older kids warned me about time sneaking up like that!)

Since this was a milestone birthday, we threw Leah a party with a couple of her friends. (Actually, her birthday was more like the party that wouldn't end, since we celebrated three different times.) Where did she want to celebrate? Where does any kid? Chuck E. Cheese, of course! We bit the bullet and had CEC host/organize/etc. the whole thing rather than us trying to piecemeal order food, buy tokens, etc. This turned out to be a wise decision on our part. The funny thing is, Leah wasn't really interested in all the fun birthday extras. She refused to hi-five or even look at CEC when he appeared, instead scowling at the camera at the mere suggestion of looking at him. She also passed on the ticket blaster, even though Scott offered to go in with her. (Thankfully, Hunter was more than willing to try it out; when it was over, he said, "I want to do that again!") Still, Leah and her friends enjoyed themselves.

Party #2 was a family party with the grandparents. One of the highlights of the party happened to be a cat card. This was no ordinary card, oh no. This card was a cat's face, and when you pulled down on the "chin" (tab), the cat sings (meows) "Happy Birthday". Kid you not, Leah played that card over and over and over. (And in fact, she still has it in her room, and is known to eagerly show it to friends who might come over.) She'd ask, "Do you want to hear the cat card?" (Guess it was rhetorical, since no one ever had a chance to answer.)

Party #3 wasn't exactly a party, but it did occur on her actual birthday. Although we had celebrated the weekend before, I couldn't let her special day pass by without doing anything to commemorate it. So, based on her choice, she, Hunter, and I celebrated with some Sweet Frog (a wise choice, I must add).

What a joy celebrating this not-so-little girl who is such a blessing in my life!

Per her request: pink & purple cat cupcakes

Trying out the CEC birthday goodies (an inflatable token tiara & guitar balloon) while waiting for her friends to arrive.

Carter, Moira, Hunter, Leah, & Kate: Just give us our tokens and let us go play!

 

Hilarious! Who knew CEC could make a child scowl?

Scott rockin' out on the air guitar in an attempt to get Leah to do take over. Obviously she was more concerned with other things...

like eating her pizza and watching the CEC show on TV.

Karate chop!

Scott grabbed tickets while Hunter stood there laughing.

The annual birthday flowers for my beautiful girl.

There's the cat card!

Leah was kind enough to ask Hunter if he would like to help her open her gifts.

Like the wrapping job?

Trying out her new wheels.

Look who else had to try 'em out?

Happy Birthday, Leah!

Rip-roaring ready to go! She took off down the street on her bike, and couldn't get enough of it. (Fast forward to a month later, and she wants to do anything BUT ride her bike.)

Final hugs and kisses with Papa, Grandma Mel, and Grandma Teddy before they had to head home.

Hunter wanted to be a part of Leah's official birthday photo, too. 

Slick

Ahhh, I have learned my lesson when it comes to allowing the kids to play together during their rest. Not a good idea (at least at this age). Apparently, even the most obedient, compliant children can find a way to get into trouble, as evidenced by Leah and Hunter on Saturday afternoon in March.

Now keep in mind that I did have both monitors on, and could hear the kids, but, as most any mom will tell you, you don't focus on every single word. Instead, I listen for if the kids need help with something or seem to be in distress/upset. Since I never heard anything but giggles and happy sounding kids, well, I thought nothing of what was taking place upstairs.

Which is why I was floored and speechless when I walked upstairs to get the kids up. My first clue should have been hearing Hunter say, "Mommy, look at my hair!" But again, I paid no mind... until I SAW his hair plastered to his head with Vaseline. And not just a little bit-- almost an entire large tub of Vaseline.

"We were playing hairdresser, Mommy," Leah informed me with a grin, proud of her work, (at least scissors weren't involved) while I surveyed the mess before me: Vaseline smeared on the walls, the dog kennel, the carpet, the footstool. I just wanted to sit and cry (for Scott was working that night) or shout but instead I just opted for: "Get into the bath. Right now," which the kids happily obliged.

The Vaseline was so thick, that I couldn't even comb it; Hunter's hair did not MOVE. I sudsed him up and rinsed about five times but to no avail. At that point, I figured the only way to get it out of his hair was to reduce the amount of hair to begin with, so I grabbed the hair shears and started snipping here and there, my goal simply to shorten the hair so that I could work out the grease helmet. (Thankfully, the random snipping didn't result in the butchering I had anticipated; his haircut wasn't perfect, but it certainly wasn't as obviously bad as I had expected.)

Suds and rinse again. And again. Then I remembered: Google it. Course, I didn't want to step away from the tub long enough to run downstairs, conduct a search, and run upstairs all the while leaving the kids unsupervised. So, thanks to a phone call and my dad, I soon had a solution: olive oil, Dawn dish soap, and conditioner.

Well, that worked, but again, it required several cycles to make a difference. When I thought I had washed it all out, I pulled two very wrinkled kids out of the tub, got them dressed, then took them to my parents' house so that I could clean up the mess in Hunter's room. Not until we arrived at their house did I notice that their hair (for apparently Leah had a bit of Vaseline in it, too) still looked wet. And when I picked them up about an hour later, I noticed the same thing. After all that scrubbing and sudsing and repeating, their hair STILL HAD VASELINE IN IT!

But at that point, I knew it could wait for the morrow, for I was done.

And so, what have I learned from all this?
1. Even good kids have their moments.
2. Rest time is to be an independent "activity".
3. Don't leave a tub of Vaseline (lotion, shampoo, toothpaste, etc) unsupervised in reach of curious children.

Not the clearest photo, but you get the idea. This is how I found him after Leah had "styled" his hair.

At least HE was all smiles, despite several shampoos and an impromptu haircut.

Notice the empty tub. That's how much was on my boy's head. 

And this is what his hair looked like THE NEXT MORNING!

But how could I stay angry at a face like this?

"Group" Photo

On my birthday last month, I pulled out the camera to show my parents a few photos of the kids. Well, any time I pull out the camera, the kids both begin clamoring for an opportunity to take pictures themselves. (And, I must admit, sometimes they take some decent shots.) Anyway, this was no exception.

Leah immediately wanted to play photographer and family historian; in her most authoritative voice, she commanded, "Okay, everybody get together so I can take your picture." Well, who wouldn't obey an order such as that coming from an almost-five-year-old? We all complied (my parents, Scott, myself, and Hunter), standing close together for the group shot.

"Okay, now I'm going to take your pictures. Nama first," Leah replied. Yes, her "group" photo was more like several individual photos that could be grouped together. (See for yourself below.)

Mom's laughing because of Leah's concept of a "group" photo.

Of course, because Daddy covered his face, Hunter had to do the same.

Snow Days... Enough Already!

Though the kids have enjoyed the snow, I do believe they are tired of it. Perhaps that's due to the extreme cold that has accompanied the white stuff this year. Despite bundling up, the kids are lucky to last 5 minutes! (Seriously, the last snow we had Hunter didn't even last that long!) Know when they did play in the snow? When it was 40 something degrees out. Go figure. Below shows the extent to which we played in the snow (these were from the Valentine's Day snow). Come on Spring!

The Hulk gets ready to venture into the snow.

Like the snow fort that "we" built? More like, I built it while the kids ate snow. They do deserve some credit, though; they painted the fort using colored water.

Okay, maybe I shouldn't have said "kids"; more like, while Leah ate snow. Forget playing in it. She just wanted to eat it.

See what I mean? I had at least 2 other photos of her doing the same thing.

At least Hunter played (or tried not to fall down).

Guess what she's doing here?

Hunter tries a bit of snow, too. Must be good if Leah's eating so much of it, right?

Christmas in January

Considering how far behind I am in posting lately, is it any wonder that I'm just NOW posting photos from our Christmas trip to NY? And when I say Christmas trip, I really mean our trip in January to celebrate a belated Christmas.

We drove up the first Sunday in January (the week of the polar vortex on the East coast) through snow and freezing rain. The rain coated our car in ice, making for slow going. At one point, the ice was a couple inches thick on the windshield wipers and edges of the windshield! Most of the bad weather was in MD and PA; once we crossed over into NY, the precipitation was primarily just rain. (There was snow on the ground, though, an important detail to note for later.)

After dinner Sunday night, we celebrated Christmas with Scott's parents and Grandma. Hunter definitely understood what that meant this year! He and Leah both were eager to open gifts, but were patient (enough) to wait their turns, too.

Monday morning when we woke up, bitterly cold temperatures greeted us... but no snow! The rain had melted it all during the night. So much for taking the kids sledding while we were there. No matter. The kids enjoyed playing with their grandmothers during the day. That evening, Scott's brother and his wife and their kids came over so that the cousins could exchange Christmas gifts. (So, keeping track? Two nights of gifts.) Leah, Kate, and Mila had a blast together, while Hunter and Cam tried working out how to share (not exactly the easiest thing for 2-year-olds to do).

Tuesday afternoon, the cousins came over again so that they could have a chance to play again (since they don't see each other too much, they cherish those moments together). Hunter immediately assumed (as any 2.5-year-old might) that meant MORE gifts. He sat down on my lap and said, "I'm ready to open presents now."

The rest of our trip was filled with plenty of play time with the grandparents, a trip to Great Grandma Teddy's house, and just time relaxing together as a family before we had to venture home on Friday. Though we couldn't play outside at all because it was too cold (below 0 on a couple days) and the snow had melted, we enjoyed ourselves. (Oh, we did see more snow before we left: There was probalby a good 2-3 inches on the ground Friday morning as we packed up to leave. No matter. We've certainly had our fill of snow back home in VA now!)

Hunter playing with Great Grandma Teddy. Hunter adores his Grandma Teddy (I still think it's because he was born on his Great Grandpa's birthday). Scott walked out to see what they were playing, and Hunter said, "Go away, Daddy."

Leah, Grandma Teddy, and Hunter

Grandma Mel was exercising, so Leah wanted to also.

Scott helps Hunter exercise, too.

Mila, Leah, Kate, & Cam. (Hunter ran out of the room and refused to come back for the photo.)

The "silly" picture

Swim Lessons

The other day when I went upstairs to get the kids up from their rest, I discovered Hunter and Leah playing "Care Bear swim lessons" in Hunter's room. That means nothing to you, I understand, so let me give a few more details:

Hunter was wearing his "bathing suit" (dinosaur undies, sans diaper) and standing in the "pool" (the middle drawer of his dresser) while (I'm assuming) his "coach" (Leah) told him what to do.

Upon removing him from the "pool", I went to my room to do some cleaning, leaving the swimmers to continue their "lessons" elsewhere. And that's exactly what they did. I peeked out of my room and saw that Leah now had a swimsuit on, and was "swimming" on in her mattress "pool". Hunter, also had a swimsuit on: Leah's. He had pulled on up to his waist, and then managed to place his legs through the arm holes, effectively rendering it completely ineffective in terms of covering anything.

The scene that greeted me when I peeked out of our bedroom.

This was the "baby pool". When I tried taking a picture of Hunter, he ran into the baby pool and closed the doors. 

Leah demonstrating her swimming technique.

Endurance

Some of you who actually follow my blog may not know that since having Hunter, I've had thyroid issues. Finally, this past fall, I received a diagnosis: Hashimoto's and mild hyperthyroiditis (how they co-exist, I still don't understand, but that's for another post). Since then, I have been trying to combat the symptoms (and ultimately the cause, if that's really even possible) through natural means (oils) in an effort to avoid taking medication (hormones). As part of my research, I've found several persons/sites that recommend changing my diet to combat my condition. Since Hashimoto's is an auto-immune disease, the thinking is that if I remove inflammatory foods from my diet, then my body will ultimately heal itself.

And so I decided to embark on a detox starting February 1 and continuing until the end of the is week (Feb. 21). My purpose was to find out if God wants me to change my diet, and if so, how. The two that I've read about suggest two different approaches: one suggests going gluten-free, and the other is a more restrictive Paleo diet. (In either instance, I'd have to cut out the baked goods that I so love.) Anyway, the detox I'm following (the Daniel Fast) is a vegan diet with more restrictions, but accompanied by Bible study/prayer three times a day. And prayer is making all the difference.

See, I've been praying for healing, for guidance about my diet, and for self-control, but God is working on answering another prayer that I hadn't even proffered as a goal: endurance. Today is Day 16 of my detox/fast, and let me tell you, I really want some bread (I can't have leavened bread on this fast). I want some so badly that I was thinking of ending the fast early just so that I could eat some. (When I put this in writing, it seems so silly.) Granted, I am allowing myself to add certain foods back into my diet now, but that's due to health reasons. Still, that's not a reason to automatically include EVERYTHING (sugar, caffeine, carbs) all at once.

So... endurance. I had a moment of epiphany today while I was simultaneously pining away for a fresh loaf of bread and calling on God to help me resist the temptation: He wants me to endure, just a few more days. That's it. One day at a time. Though it feels like I'll never have another baked good again, I will, just not today. But the beauty is that I don't have to resist it on my own strength; He is my strength. When I call on Him in my moments of weakness, He will fill me with resolve, reminding me that there's something better than giving in to the temptation.

And isn't life about endurance? Scott's long weeks at work require me to endure; I don't get to shut down right after dinner, for I still need to get the kids cleaned up and put them to bed. I have to endure and persevere. On the weekends (when he's working, and I'm definitely ready to have his help again), I have to endure, getting the kids ready for and to church on time; getting them up from their rests and out the door to Awana; getting them fed and then ready for bed. When I think about venturing into full-time homeschooling this fall and all the sacrifices that will entail, I must endure. Yes, there will be times when I'll want to give in to the temptations (lamenting the lack of down time; wishing for a day free of making school plans; ignoring the needs of the house or complaining about what isn't getting done), but God is teaching me now to prepare to endure.

And so, as I finish this fast/detox, I'm choosing to endure, to persevere. To take each day separately, and each trial as it comes, knowing that God is with me, rooting me on to victory. And whether or not I receive an answer to my health, I know that whatever He calls me to, He will equip me for success.