Club Members Only!

I've joined an elite club. Here's how you can join, too. First you have to be busily drawing pictures on a balloon for your daughter. Then, you have to have a 2 year old who will yell, "Pee Pee in the toilet." That's your cue to drop everything to run to the bathroom. When you are done (and disappointed with wet underwear), you have to decide now would be a good time to shower. After you are all done and dressed, you must then go search out your children. You will have to enter a room, suck in your breath and try hard not to yell at the 2 year old who doesn't know what the word permanent means. And then you will have to take the Sharpie marker away from him and go throw it in the garbage. That's when you become part of the "I was stupid and left a Sharpie where my small child could reach it" club. You can join in other ways, too. But this is how I did it. Anyone care to join me? -P-

The Bravery of a Mom

I don't think that anyone truly understands how brave a mother has to be. There are so many times that a Mom has to take a deep breath and just move forward. The first time you leave your baby with a babysitter that is not family. The first day of Kindergarten or Preschool when you let them go off for the day with strange kids who will teach them who-knows-what. Sleep-overs at someone else's house. What about when they become teenagers. The things they are exposed to. The three D's: driving, dating, drugs... There are so many times in a mother's life that she has to be braver than she really is. Sometimes letting your kids grow up just sucks. It is so scary that Heavenly Father has entrusted us to raise these children. But it is important to realize that He has only lent them to us for a small while. If we do a good job as parents, they will want to remain in our lives even after they no longer have to.

So today, when I took off Evan's pull-up and replaced it with plastic underwear, I was braver than I wanted to be. I was saying Yes to letting Evan be more independent, but also reluctantly saying Yes to cleaning up many messes over the next few... days.

Okay, I'm more of a realist than that, but anyways...

Potting training, here we come!

Gone hog wild!

We always kneel in a circle for prayer as a family at bedtime, after we have read our bedtimes stories and scriptures. It is quite an adventure when you have small children. Never so much as when you have a 2 1/2 year old. Tonight was not exception. It is always a battle of the wills with Evan. Trying to get him to join the circle and stay quiet during the prayer is so fun. But tonight he got us all laughing, actually snorting, hysterically. With all of our coxing, we got him to kneel with our family. His older brother and sister were sitting reverently, being good examples. We all started to fold our arms and bow our heads while Evan starts to grab his nose with two fingers and plug it. Then he snorts in real deeply, making a very loud sound, and announced to us "I'm a pig!" He does it again and says "Anna, be a pig. Riley, be a pig" I can't help but laugh out loud while Brandon is trying to remain reverent, waiting for the moment to pass. Then Evan, between loud snorts, looks up and says, "Daddy, be a pig!" Brandon reluctantly grabbed his nose to snort as Evan turned to me. Before he even said "Mommy" I plugged up my nose and snorted. Evan got the biggest smile on his face, probably because he realized that he has complete control of his family. We had to love the joy of this moment, though. We held off prayer for one more moment so we could get a short video. Have a great laugh and a good night. -P-