Thankful

I am thankful that Gavin wears out the name "Mommy."

I am thankful that Kailee is shrill.

I am thankful that Gavin asks the same question 50 times a day.

I am thankful that Kailee climbs on everything and about gives me a heart attack.

I am thankful that Gavin talks back to me sometimes.

I am thankful that Kailee can destroy a perfectly clean room in less than 5 minutes.

I am thankful that Gavin sometimes gets poop all over his hands when wiping.

I am thankful that Kailee got poop all over her face last weekend.

I am thankful that these are the things that I normally complain about. 

I am thankful that I only have trivial worries. 

I am thankful that both of my children are healthy.

It is so easy to get caught up in the minor annoyances of daily life and become very stressed about these things.  The reality is, I have it pretty easy in the long scheme of things.  Our priest has said on two occasions that when parents complain to him about messy rooms, he says, "Go to Children's Medical Center and tell those parents about your complaints.  I guarantee you they'd switch worries in a heartbeat."  I have it lucky.  I am truly blessed, and today I am counting my blessings instead of my sorrows.

Sunday School

I am in a really awesome Sunday school class and every week that I'm there, I get something out of the lesson. Here are some of the things that have impacted me:

January 16th:
"Sometimes we are so right, we are wrong."  We get so caught up in the rules that we forget the reasons behind them and then mess up.  I totally have done this myself.

January 30th:
Our teacher said that many people ignore little signs of God's presence and refuse to recognize them as miracles.  I am glad that I can recognize the little miracles in my life.  I am grateful for miracles of any size!

Today:
Among other things, the food for thought: "If the USA were a Christian nation, we would not have a military."  If you think about it, it's true.

OMG!

Would you guess this face did something so gross?!?!

A few minutes ago, Kailee came into the game room with what I immediately thought was peanut butter all over her face.  I FREAKED out thinking maybe Gavin had hid a sandwich and she had found it.  Kailee is allergic to peanut butter so naturally I'm thinking, "I have to get the epi-pen."  Then Gavin says, "Maybe it's poop."  My heart stops.  I sniff her hand and confirm that Gavin is correct.  That adorable, mischievous little girl opened her diaper pail (it's one of those that is almost impossible to get into unless it's full, in which case, the last diaper stays in the thing you flip into the pail) and helped herself to the diaper I had just changed.  She dispersed the wipes around her bedroom too.

This has been the grossest week of motherhood!

Discussing God with a 4-year-old

Gavin has so many questions about God right now and sometimes his questions stump me.  The reason I find his questions difficult is that my answers do not always satisfy him.  For example, today in the car he asked me if there was one God or a lot of gods.  I told him there was one. He then asked me if God was in my heart.  I said, "yes," and then I asked him the same.  He said, "No."  I asked him why he said that, and he had a logical answer for a four-year-old: "Because if God's in your heart, he can't be in mine because he can't be in two places at the same time."

I then tried to explain how God is everywhere and with us all, but his four-year-old brain could not understand my explanation.  In his mind, no one can be in two places at the same time, and I totally get where he's coming from.  He kept telling me that I was wrong, and that he was right.  He told me over and over again that there are lots of gods.  I even got my mom on the phone to tell him that God is huge and is everywhere with us.  I don't know that we ever completely resolved the issue at hand...

I told Brady about our conversation to prepare him in case Gavin came to him about it.  We do not agree on religion these days, but thankfully he has agreed to answer that there's one God who's great enough to be with all of us.  His initial response was, "Well that depends on your belief system."  Yeah, that's not exactly what I'd say to our four-year-old!

On the positive side, I love that Gavin is talking about God with us.  I want him to grow up knowing God's love and feeling comfortable talking about Him with us.

The not so fun part of being a mom

Gavin has been potty trained for over a year.  Recently he has begun wiping himself and has done a pretty great job considering he's 4.  Today was the grossest experience of my life.  Let me just say, this did not involve any sort of accident but I did have to change his entire outfit, wash his clothes, scrub his hands, and clean the toilet.   Then I had to scrub the experience off of me.  I'm still haunted!

It's a good thing he's adorable!

Oh Gavin 2/12/11

Gavin streaks by.

Me: Gavin!  Put on some pants right now!

Gavin: All right, if you insist!

Where does he get this big vocabulary?!?!

"Mommy, you're the best!" and some other things...

Gavin might be the sweetest little boy in the whole world.  My mom has been telling me for months how he talks about me with her and says things like, "My mommy's the best," or "I have the best mommy."  Well in the last week, he's started telling me these things and it's so sweet.  He hasn't even figured out the manipulation technique of saying that before asking for something.  He just says it to say it and to make his mommy feel good.  And let me tell ya, he makes his mommy feel AMAZING when he says that.  It's so crazy how your kids can just look at you and make your heart skip a beat as you are reminded how much you love them.  I sure cherish these sweet moments.

On a side note, I was awakened during the night by the adorable sound of Gavin giggling in his sleep.   It makes me smile just remembering it.  He's so precious!  Brady's out of town which of course means there's a party in Mommy's bed!  I may even try both kids in there tonight--just kidding!  Kailee is the worst child to share a bed with and I want to get some sleep! :)

Now for an update: Today was another big day for Kailee.  She took a nap again today without the paci!  What does that mean?  Mommy has to give it a try herself tomorrow.  I'll report back, hopefully sharing success!