Book Reviews - Kiddie Style

We went through a phase where our nighttime and nap-time routines did not include book reading mostly because we didn't have the energy for it. Getting Ethan in bed was tough enough, but getting him to stay in bed was an even bigger ordeal. As I cross all my fingers and toes...I'm declaring that we are now on the other side of that and thankfully reading has re-emerged. 

When Ethan was a baby we read him story books. As he grew bigger and his attention span grew smaller, we switched to what I'd like to call the "What's that?" books. I have now hidden all of those from him because if I'm forced to answer "what's that?" or "find baby's (fill in the blank)" one more time, I might just lose it. There is definitely a great age range for those books, but now that we have surpassed it, I don't find them quite as cute. 

Thankfully now, we are back in story book land and while I do get the "What's that?" question still from time to time, I at least get to read charming stories. And let's face it, as the one reading these things a million times over, they better have cute stories, pretty pictures or fun activities.

Above, is the picture of one of our current favorite books, Steam Train, Dream Train . It is the follow up book to another favorite that I'm sure you have probably heard of by now,  Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site . (I could make a whole post about truck books in itself, but I'll refrain in favor of variety.) Steam Train, Dream Train is perfect for bedtime as it easily lends itself to winding down overly excited toddlers. It has beautiful pictures to look at and allows kids to point things out if they aren't exactly into storytime itself. I also use the pictures as an opportunity to work on counting. How many monkeys? How many dump trucks? (Yes, this book still has some trucks which is a major win for us.) What colors do you see?

Ethan has always been fascinated with pop-up books, but Sounds of the Wild: Forest  goes a step further with, you guessed it, animal sounds. This book has beautiful real life looking animal pop-up pages. You can use it as a seek and find and talk about all the different animals. It's a great book for kids to look at alone as well once they are old enough to do so. When I was looking for the link for this book, I discovered they had a whole series, so I will have to check some more out soon!

We don't personally own this next book, but Ethan comes home from my mom's talking about it all the time. My mom first bought If You Give a Pig a Pancake and of course, after its success she returned to buy If You Give a Mouse a Cookie . Both of these stories take you on a fun little "If/then" imaginative journey. It also has fun pictures with lots of objects to point out...I think you can tell by now we are big into the "Can you find..." game. Both of these books are great and will have your kid giggling in no time.


As I keep culling books that I deem too baby-ish for Ethan, I find myself constantly on the search for new reads. I'm not one to enjoy reading the same thing again and again so I like to keep fresh books on hand for both of our enjoyment. Hopefully this children's book review topic will become a regular-ish post around here...but if the past has any indication...the fact that I just made that statement probably just sent those aspirations into the land of no return so we will just have to wait and see what happens. 

Oh, hello there, trying threes.

Apparently my child is an overachiever and likes to reach life stages ahead of the norm. By this, I mean at age 2.5 we officially left the terrible twos and entered into the world of trying threes or as I'd like to call it "The year mommy's sanity goes to die.". 

Sigh.

I said it wouldn't happen. 2.5 was going to be my hallelujah moment. In some ways it totally was. The unreasonableness dissipated, we started speaking the same language, he understands discipline...we made progress! Then...then...the questions started and I WANTED TO GAUGE MY EYES OUT.

We are currently in the days of the never ending questioning, mostly regarding things you have already answered with the dreaded "No." or "We'll see" which is really just the more hopeful version of "No.". Answering the same question over and over again begins to wear on one, say around 9AM. In reality, I just want to answer "Yes! You can have it, take whatever you want from me. Just give me a moment of peace!". But, apparently I'd rather torture myself for my child's well-being (I'm a saint like that) and enter into the next phase called toddler bargaining. 


The toddler bargain goes something like this:

"Mama, I want 2 pop-pops!" (Mind you, he's holding up at least 5 fingers.)

I say no. Not until after nap. This is when I've decided organic sugar sticks are acceptable. I feel good about this for some reason. 

"Nooooooooo, I need pop-pop now!"

"Two pop-pops mama?" "Pwease." (Insert irresistibly cute toddler smile.)

I repeat myself.

He repeats himself.

I repeat myself.

At this point, he suddenly loses his ability to hear and starts the "Huh?"  shenanigan that gets my blood literally boiling!

We go on like this until I distract him with something shiny and then approximately 2 minutes later he starts again and I cave because I.cannot.take.it.anymore. 

"Fine. You get one! No more." 

See, the toddler bargain starts irrationally high and ends with him getting at least something out of it.


This is a game, it's called he wins. 

But, I'm on to him.


We've also entered the "No, I do it myself." phase which turns out to be a mixed bag. 

I love that he is learning how to do things that I will no longer have to do for him. I vividly remember the day he suddenly came out of the bathroom with his underwear and shorts back on! For the love, the nakedness might be over. 

But apparently, this only happens on happy accidents. The majority of the time I spend what feels like an eternity reminding him that the tag goes in the back (which gets tricky if there is one of those side seam tags...toddlers do not like exceptions to the rules.) and that you can only put one leg in each hole. I can audibly hear the minutes of my life ticking by as I plaster a smile on my face and give my best encouragement, while my insides are screaming "Just let me do it already!".


As crazy as it sounds I am enjoying "this year". Ground rules have been established. He understands more. He needs me just a touch less, which admittedly, also scares the -ish out of me. He's learning to dress himself and I'm learning patience. As excruciating as it is to watch him do things at snails pace, I'm also extremely proud of him for wanting to take the reins. 

Oh trying three's, you are only going to make me a better person. By the end of this, I completely expect to have mastered deep breathing, patience and standing my ground. Bah! I'm pretty sure those lessons will be never ending.

Stop Worrying and Enjoy Life

The other day I was in Barnes and Noble killing some time when I happened to overhear two elderly ladies discussing how old age made for some very scary driving. I immediately rolled my eyes thinking "Great, these two irresponsible, old fogies are going to cause a wreck any day now!". As I was walking away the lady with the cane said something that resonated with me, she said "I just can't be scared to live my life.". 

Bam! It was exactly what I had been needing to hear. It's funny how things happen like that sometimes. Something said in passing can speak volumes and the speaker doesn't even know the impact they had. I'm fairly certain it is God speaking.

You see, I've been worried more than I should be lately. Our hometown has had several young lives lost this year that has really shaken my sense of mortality. Young people with bright futures, wives, children and lots of life ahead of them had their life suddenly cut short. Young death is so very hard for me to understand. I can't say I know how those left behind feel, but I can imagine and it brings tears to my eyes. Unfortunate events like these always make me think about what things would look like for our family if x,y,z tragedy happened to us as if, in some odd way, I could prepare for them. The past few months I have spent too much time worrying about the what if's and the uncertainty of life and I've realized that it is silly to do so. I'm wasting precious days spending time thinking about things that will probably (and hopefully) never happen.

That one sentence changed my view on life. Instead of cautiously going about life, I'd rather live it. I want to remember that each day is a gift and I shouldn't squander it. The world is not going to stop if I leave the laundry unfolded on the floor one more day so I can play with my children. My children aren't going to be scarred for life if I take some time to myself to do the things I want to do. My life is beautiful and wonderful and so very blessed. I should be ashamed for ever thinking otherwise. There are so many out there suffering that it makes my little problems seem so insignificant. 

Sometimes unexpected death is a time for us to check ourselves. Are we worrying about things we shouldn't? Are we using our days as we should? Have we taken the necessary measures to take care of our loved ones should the worst happen? Are we being smart and safe about the things we choose to do? Are we taking the life God has blessed us with for granted?

Philippians 4:6-9 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the peace of God will be with you." 

A little shout-out to the one who makes all my dreams come true...

This upcoming weekend is a big weekend for our family. Tomorrow is our 5th anniversary as husband and wife and of course, Sunday is Father's day. All of that had led me to think a lot about my husband and the impact he has on my life, our kids lives, how lucky we are to have him and how we couldn't survive without him.

(for more wedding pictures (if you are into that sort of thing) click here, here or here.)

If our sons were to turn out to be a carbon copy of my husband, I would be over the moon. He is the most genuine person I know. He is a God-loving, God-fearing man. He stands up for what he believes in. He's an extremely hard worker who is great at what he does and is always ready for new challenges. He's a do-it-his-selfer. He's my handy-man, my bug squasher and trash taker-outer. More importantly he is a hands-on Dad from diaper changes to middle of the night wake-ups...he's involved, he's there and for the most part he does it as happily as one can. 

I've spent 9 years of my life with this man and I can honestly say he has made me a better person in every way. I love that he treats me as an equal, that he doesn't make us have defined roles and that we are able to call each other out when need be. There is no one else that I would want to share life with or parent with. I look forward to growing old with him and I'm confident that with him, we will get through all of life's up's and down's together.

Cheers to the best husband and father around!

Go Forth with Confidence

I remember the very first time I took Ethan to the grocery store by myself. I was terrified. It wasn't so much that I was afraid that he would cry in public (and believe me, I was afraid of that), but I was even more afraid that I would look inexperienced. That people would know I secretly had no clue what I was doing. All the other mommies were going to stare at me. They were going to judge me. They would know that I was a newbie.

I wanted to waltz into that grocery store looking like I had gotten 8 hours of solid sleep while gracefully balancing the baby carrier on my arm. I would zip through the store like a pro only momentarily stopping to accept the "ohh's" and "ahh's" of passerby's. My baby would be giggling and happy as we chatted to each other throughout the store. 

I'll pause here for your laughter.

After I had lugged what felt like a 50 pound carrier into the store with my yet untrained upper arm muscles I came face to face with my second challenge...the cart. I suddenly realized I had somehow forgotten to take note of how a baby carrier actually fit into the cart during my 9 month observation period. With all my might I hoisted the carrier towards the front part of the cart. At first, the carrier looked too precarious. I adjusted, too far forward? I tried again...too far back? I could feel the eyes of store employees boring into me. I broke into a sweat...from nerves?...from lifting that beast of a carrier multiple times?...I'm not sure.

Defeated, I placed the carrier into the basket of the cart. It rocked back and forth with every step I took as my baby seemed to scream out "SAVE ME! She doesn't know what she's doing!" to everyone we passed.

It wasn't until Jackson's arrival that I began to feel more confident in my role as a mother. Maybe it's because having two gives you less time to worry about silly things like people looking at you. Maybe it's because my first son has given me enough embarrassing experiences already to numb my care factor. Or maybe, it's because I now realize that every mother has these moments. 

So yesterday, when my second born decided to pee all over the church bathroom mid diaper change while I was chatting to a church friend, I was able to confidently laugh it off. I didn't berate myself for being dumb enough to give him the opportunity or not pack a spare outfit (okay...maybe I shook my head at myself a tad bit for not having a spare). Instead, I realized that being a mom means you are going to have these moments. Children are wild, untrained and unpredictable creatures. Our job is to teach them the ways of the world. They are going to do things that aren't socially acceptable. It's unavoidable. And, the only people judging are those who haven't had children yet or those too old and senile to remember what having them was actually like. So, go forth with confidence my friends because every other mom and dad out there has been in your shoes at one point and is surely laughing with you...not at you.