speaking of energy

Speaking of energy... yesterday, Isaac dumped chips and cheerios on the floor.  Cheerios for breakfast and chips at snack time.  Asher knocked over the tv while I was doing the dishes... everyone survived though! and he set free a bag of chocolate chips (while we were decorating the tree) all over my floor which really, really made Isaac's day... I followed a trail of butter to Josh's computer chair where I found it all squished and melting.  I had been in the bathroom and had forgotten to keep all the butter out of reach, it is the first thing I usually think about protecting from my toddlers reaching hands... duh, never leave the butter in reach... Isaac also got it in his hair so after bath time it was nice and soft... and I could go on but then I would look like a mom who isn't paying attention to what her children are doing... which may very well be possible :0) I hear some crashing going on in the other room...

this was written before Christmas

After Christmas and the New Year

 Everything feels like it has moved so quickly.  Frequently, when time seems to be slipping so freely from my grasp, really sand is an apt metaphor for time, I remember a book my father would read to my family when we were all at home, A Lantern in Her Hand.  It is a beautiful story about a girl who becomes a woman and a mother and sacrifices everything for her children.  She gives up her voice, her beauty, her artistic talent all is put aside so she can build a farm, indirectly a country, for her children.  Throughout the book the main character, Abbie, frequently laments the passage of time, in the beginning of the book she says,

"It was queer how it all hurt you, -how the odor of the night, the silver sheen of the moon, the moist feeling of the dew, the whispering of the night breeze, how, somewhere down in your throat it hurt you.  It was sad, too, that this evening would never come again.  The night winds were blowing it away.  You could not stop the winds and you could not stop time.  It went on, - and on."

he would NOT keep his gloves on! and then he would cry because his hands are cold... I am not sure how often I put his gloves back on...we didn't stay out very long though

There have been times when I have felt this need to stop time.  Not all of the moments have been happy ones, some of them have been bitter.  Once, when a friend of mine passed away I wanted time, the world, nature, to stop and mourn with me, it didn't make sense to have everything move forward without her.  Couldn't it stop for a moment?  Just one moment while I gathered everything that seemed so senseless back together to try and make some sense of it all, she died so young.  I knew I would see her again, which eased the pain but did not... take it away.

While some moments may have been bitter there are also some that are infinitely precious.  Now, I have my children and they are growing, how delightful it would be to be able to stop time and drink in the deliciousness of my children, to laugh and play, blow raspberries on their fat little bellies, one more kiss on their chubby, chubby cheek, one more hug around my neck, one more lullaby while they sleep so innocently in my arms... to prolong that moment so that it will be recorded forever, a never forgotten and tangible moment I can carry with me for the rest of my life.  They aren't even grown up yet and I am thinking of when it will be gone, probably because I know that one day it will be and this is the moment I need and want to cherish.  What a good reminder for me, especially when it gets hard as it always does when you are a parent.  Remember what is really valuable and important what you will cherish most in the end and focus on it.

Today, not written a few days ago

Yes this is a potty training toilet/step stool... it has never been used as a toilet though just a step stool.  Isaac got stuck in it.

Today, Asher walked into our bedroom and said, "Dad listen to my belly music!" while slapping his belly.  Josh told me later that it was a very 'me' thing to do.  It is too, I frequently point out the noise Asher is making and say, "look, your making music" as he slams the stick against the playground metal bars.  All the other mothers there are secretly thanking me for encouraging him to make such beautiful 'music'.

Because we laughed, Asher wanted his fair share of the attention and got himself  'stuck' in the toilet too.

Earlier, Isaac went over to the coach and swiped Josh's book off the back of it.  In surprise Josh asked, "Did you just knock the book off, Isaac?"  Responding quickly, Isaac said, "Noooooo."  He is only one and already he is learning to cover his tracks.  It is more fascinating to me, as a mother, because he actually doesn't talk very much.  He will say words, but not consistently and he won't repeat himself for your pleasure, or even just to guarantee he said what he said.  So sometimes, you are left wondering if he really did just say, "Bye, Uncle Willie."

He says hi more like hau.

What Isaac does

Isaac is so cuddly.  I love it.  He will come up to me when I am laying on the floor and lay down on top of me.  Of course, I start to tickle him and blow raspberries on his little belly which makes him laugh and then I laugh.  So sweet.

There isn't a thing he won't try to do, especially if he sees Asher do it first.

He is most proud of himself if he can climb up onto something.  He will stand on the object he has just conquered and stick out his belly in satisfaction and then pat it with his little hands.  Once he has done this little ritual he will move onto whatever motivated him to climb up in the first place.  Like spilling the class of milk left on the table, or dumping out half a jar of Costco pepper ( Costco is relevant because of the size).  One morning, Josh and I were in our room when Asher came running in, "Isaac is on the table!"... I thought he said something about the cable... Josh went rushing into the room and yes, indeed, Isaac had crawled up onto the black kitchen table under the window.  It is with frequency that I pry him off kitchen table too, he of course heads to the fragile decorations I have sitting on top of it.

Lately, Asher and he have been running around playing dogs together, panting and chasing each other and hiding behind makeshift forts (the kitchen chairs turned over)... sometimes, I will catch Isaac randomly starting to pant and smiling really big at his fun game.

It is nice that they are such good friends, not perfect friends but good friends.  Asher does have the bad habit of grabbing things from Isaac and playing mom, even when I say it is okay for Isaac to do something.  Isaac on the other hand wants whatever it is Asher is doing which causes some conflict.  There are times though when both boys are amenable to sharing and do it well and happily.

What Asher says

 Asher:
"I am thinking about gum mom."

Me:
"What are you thinking about the gum?"

Asher:
"I want to take it." While staring intently at a pack of gum.

Me:
"Asher, that really makes me sad."  (This was after he had just told me how sad something made him, we had been playing together)
Asher:
"Mom, you need to be happy" (In essence, you need to get over it...)

On the way to pick Josh up from work, Isaac fell right to sleep and Asher was one his way when I hear him starting to yell
"They keep falling down"

Me:
"What is falling down"

Asher:
"My eyes!, They keep falling down and I poked them with my finger!" (Both Asher and Isaac will poke themselves in the eyes to keep from falling asleep)

Later on the ride home.

Josh:
"Asher close your eyes and think about sheep.  Can you see them?  Start counting"

later, still trying to get him to fall asleep

Me:
"Can you see the sheep?  What are their names?"

Asher:
"Bob, the sheep, and he likes to build stuff..." (he then starts talking about all the stuff Bob the Sheep builds and then ends with...)..."and he does a special cow yoga!"

To his dad:
"I am not a banana" (Josh likes to tease his kids)
"I have hands so I can't be a banana!"

Things You Wish You Didn't Have to Say to Your Children

Hands out, yucky, yucky, we don't eat the garbage.

Not around the neck, not around the neck! (This was at church, Josh wasn't sitting with us yet (he had an early meeting) and Asher was exuberantly hugging Isaac around the neck while Isaac described in loud crying just how unfair this situation really was...and this was after I had just dragged them both out from under the pews... I wonder what the people in front of us were thinking...thankfully, church hadn't started yet, almost but not yet.

Please don't put that in the electric outlet! (they take the covers off... clever little boys :(

Yuck! We don't drink water from the toilet... SO! Gross!

We don't eat the Desitin love... that one involved a call to Poison Control, but there isn't anything really bad in it... just stuff that causes evacuation from both extremities if taken in large doses

As you can see both of my little boys know how to find trouble... in fact they invite him in daily along with Trouble's friends, Chaos and Massive Amounts of Energy (long name right! :0)...  It seems though, that right now, Isaac is better friends with trouble and Asher's best friend is MAE (always running, running, running).  The good thing is that although they have the crazies sometimes, in general, they are sweet tempered and easy to forgive.

I watched "Bones" the other day

It isn't a show I watch frequently but,

The other day I was watching the television show, Bones.  In it the main character questions a bible story, the story about Abraham and Isaac.  I found the questions to be interesting and wished to be able to respond to them.  They will never read this I am sure but... I would like to throw it out there into Cyber Space anyway... to be lost or read, doesn't matter... I will feel like I was honest with myself :) 

On the surface the story of Abraham and Isaac may seem like God is whimsical and demanding asking for the utmost of a father and his child, an unreasonable sacrifice.  It was the very sacrifice He gave to us.  This story was not just for Abraham and Isaac to learn to be obedient, to give their all, or to have faith and trust in God that a way will be provided out of the worst in life, but it is also for you and me, to show us what it was that God gave us.  God spared Abraham and Isaac.  Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were not spared, there was no other offering to take their places.  God, the Father allowed for His Son to die for us, and it was His love of all of His children that allowed Him to do it.  A Latter Day prophet suggested that God hid in the corners of His universe because the pain was so excruciating, witnessing the suffering and pain of His Son, something the Savior had to do alone.  Jesus Christ, the Son, followed the will of the Father, and suffered for us, not only tasting the bitterness of sin as a whole, but I believe, tasting the tragedy and scope of sin, sorrow, illness, pain, death, suffering, all things for all of us, individually, so that individually he would know how to heal us.  It was the only way for us to Return Home.  It was the only way for us to find healing and be purified of our sins.  They both did it because They loved us.  What God asked Abraham and Isaac to do was a type of what Heavenly Father and Jesus would do for us.

John 3: 16

16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.