Sam's 1st birthday!

Happy birthday, Sam... you are 1 year old today! YAY!!!

Oh my... how time flies. I can't believe you are 1 already. It seems like yesterday I was holding your small, newborn body in my arms for the first time. You have blossomed before my very eyes and you continue to change every day! It's hard to keep up!

I wanted to take a minute just to write a little bit about your first year and what you are up to these days. First of all... you adore your mama! I'm not just saying that because I AM your mama... honestly, you really are quite attached. I can hardly leave the room. If I do sneak out, it doesn't take long for you to notice and start showing your discontent. It may sound like I'm complaining... but, I'm not. I love the way you love me, baby!

Let's not leave Daddy out... you rather adore him as well. As soon as he walks in the door you start squeeling and kicking your legs and cannot wait to get in his arms! Then, you just look at me like, "Ha, ha! I've got my daddy now!" He has started taking you out on the front porch swing in the evenings because you LOVE to swing. So, now, as soon as he gets home and picks you up, your sweet, little finger points to the door.

You have 4 teeth - 2 on bottom and 2 on top. You eat regular food with us, but you also still eat some baby food. Your favorite is yogurt. You still nurse quite a bit, so I guess it's time to start cutting back. You want to nurse when you first wake up, when you're tired, when you're hungry, when you're thirsty, when you're hurt, etc., etc., etc.! Soooo... definitely need to find a way to distract you with something else some of those times. It's not going to be easy, but I know we can do it. ;)

You smile a lot... but hardly ever for the camera! I act like a crazy person when I take your picture trying to get you to laugh, but mostly I just get what we call, "the elvis lip." Your top lip just comes up enough to show your teeth, but it's not really a smile. It's still cute, though.

You LOVE to play with your brothers. They are very good playmates and they love to play with you, too. They love to make you smile and laugh so they are constantly tickling you. They always want to kiss you and hug you, especially before you go to bed. They try to teach you about legos and transformers and race cars... and they've been pretty successful. You already push around your tonka truck and make a car vroom sound.

Oh, and you are into everything! You love to explore. You are not walking yet, but it won't be long! You crawl very fast and you walk along the furniture. You can stand on your own and you take 1 or 2 steps before sitting. I have to keep a constant eye on you, which is not an easy task, and one I must say I have failed a time or two... like the time I caught you eating dog bones. (Sorry, Sam, had to post it!)

You can say a few words. Your first one was "Dada" and it's still one of your favorites. You say "Baba" for Mama. You also say Uh-oh, hey there, and thank you - which sounds more like, um, dane doo.  You squeel VERY loudly when you want something... mostly another bite. You love to make funny noises brushing your finger across your lips. It's very funny to watch, you crack yourself up!



We are so thankful for you, sweet boy. We love you so very much and you are such an amazing blessing. You are so much fun to be around and I am looking forward to seeing you flourish even more in your 2nd year! HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!!

Sam's first haircut

I broke down... after many requests from the man of the house... to get Sam's hair cut. I believe the words he used were, "It's outrageous." Ha! He cracks me up!! Although I didn't necessarily agree with Sam's hair being outrageous... I could tell it was bothering him, so I was happy to oblige. :)

So here are some pics...

Before:

During:

After:

Sam - I can't believe you've already had your first haircut! You're growing up too fast!! Love you, sweet boy!!

Thank you, Mrs. Joni!! You were very patient with our little wiggle worm! :)

THIS is what's for dinner tonight!

Just pulled the spare ribs out of the oven!  My first time making them, but I need to remember this because it smells (and more importantly - tastes) amazing! I first put on a rub and let sit until they were close to room temp... I didn't use a recipe for it... just put what "looked" right. Here's what I used:

Dark brown sugar (this was the majority)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Paprika

Placed ribs up on a cooling rack set in a foil lined cookie sheet.

Cooked them on 250 for 3 hours (internal temperature needs to be a minimum of 145). Basted them with Hickory and Brown Sugar barbecue sauce about 20 minutes before pulling them out.

Serving with corn, baked beans and new potatoes.

So... move over Rachael Ray, because THIS is what's for dinner tonight! ;)

Picture fun!

The other morning I was camera happy and just took some fun pictures of the boys throughout the day as they played. They love making silly faces and running to see themselves on the camera. Such fun!

Sam is 11 months now! 

This boy LOVES granola bars... and making messes!

Play time with the giant bean bags.

Silly faces.

This was supposed to be a "mad face", but Connor said, "Well, I'm not mad so I'll just smile."

Happy face!

 Cletus

Bubba

Brotherly love!

Okay, that's enough love - get off.

Thankful for a fussy baby

Yep, that's right... Tonight I am thankful for a fussy baby. Sounds strange right? Let me explain...

Tonight I was planning on posting pictures from our vacation... or maybe the pictures from our 4th of July celebration... or Chris' birthday (OK, so I'm a little behind on posting!).  But, baby Sam was not a happy camper this evening. He's getting over a double ear infection and a cold, but the antibiotic he's taking makes his little tummy hurt. So, he has had some very unhappy moments in the past week. :(  Tonight was one of those moments. We've also had a very busy weekend so he is super exhausted. I tried laying him down around 7:30 like usual, but he just cried, and cried, and cried some more, which is not usual for him. I always lay him down when he's awake because he won't fall asleep on me; he wants to be in his bed. A lot of people say that's a good thing... but it makes me kind of sad I can't rock him to sleep.

I brought him back downstairs and tried feeding him... didn't work. I tried rocking him in the living room... didn't work.  I tried walking around with him... didn't work. So, after Connor and Dylan were all tucked in, I took him outside and he finally calmed down (going outside usually does - he loves it - come to think of it, all of my babies did). We spent the next hour and a half swinging. At first he was wide awake. We talked, tickled, giggled, sang, and loved on each other. As he started winding down, I sang to him, prayed over him, and just kept swinging. Finally, he found rest and surrendered his tired body to sleep.

I really don't know how to describe it. For me, it was magical. It was beautiful. It was the most precious 90 minutes of my day... of my week. I don't get much time to spend with just him. It stays pretty busy around our house and time to just sit and rock/swing our baby just doesn't come around all that often. Even when I'm nursing him, I'm usally doing something else too... you know... always multitasking! But, tonight... tonight the Lord blessed me with that sweet, precious time. Time I wouldn't have had with him if he had just fallen asleep when I layed him down. So, tonight, I am very thankful for a fussy baby... who is now sleeping tight.

Sweet dreams precious baby of mine.

Raising a Strong-Willed Child

Well... if you know our family, you know who this blog is going to be about!  I'm not writing this blog because I have all the answers to raising a strong-willed child. In fact, I find myself in the opposite position. We are in a constant search for the best way to raise him, to discipline him, to change negative behavior, and so on.  Even today has presented many challenges. So the purpose for this blog is just for us to have a record of what things we are dealing with right now and what has or hasn't worked for us. Every child is different and responds to different things at different times, and so there isn't one right or wrong answer. We want to be the best parents we can be to him. We want to teach him to use all of the wonderful gifts that God has given to him. We want to give him every opportunity to grow and learn. And so... we continue to try new things and learn ourselves.

First - a little about our precious Dylan: In addition to being strong-willed, Dylan is also very full of energy. He is very loving. He loves to play, laugh, have fun, and even to be held and cuddled - especially if he's sleepy or not feeling well. He has a very fun personality and his laughter is contageous. He LOVES to help and wants to be a part of whatever we are doing and he thrives on praise. He also likes for everything to be on his terms. If you tell him to do something, he'll want to finish what he's doing first and get to it when he wants. If you tell him to stop doing something, he always has to do it one more time! These are the main reasons he gets in trouble. When we give instructions, we expect them to be followed immediately. We feel we should only have to say it once. We have set these expectations for Connor and Dylan (and it will be the same for Sam). If we have to repeat ourselves, then there are consequences.

Another big challenge is how he deals with anger. He has hit, kicked, bitten, thrown things, screamed, cried, and other things of the like. That is one place where we need to help him more... teaching him how to better deal with his anger. It is a work in progress, even in my own life. I try to think about how I deal with anger, but I have struggled, too. I have not been a good example. I know that the best ways to deal with anger and a bad attitude are prayer, taking deep breaths, counting, reading, being alone... maybe he and I can work on those together!

So, here are some things we have tried that I feel have not worked well with Dylan:

Spankings - I never really thought I would say this because I do believe spankings work and can serve a purpose in certain circumstances. But, with Dylan, spankings do not change his behavior. Although there are probably times this would be an appropriate punishment, for the most part, they don't work with Dylan.

The corner/time-out - We have put him in time-out before when trying to get him to apologize to someone or trying to get him to complete a task and he refused. We would put him there and say, "you can come out when you're ready to do what we've asked." He has stood there for hours! And, most of the time, he doesn't really seem to mind it.

Yelling at him - OK, I know this is not a punishment anyone actually recommends. But, the truth is, I have gotten so frustrated or angry, I have done it. It makes him cry, his behavior doesn't change, and I feel awful! I always end up apologizing to him and asking him to forgive me and explaining to him that yelling is not ok and mommy messes up sometimes, too. It's very humbling when you have to go to your children for forgiveness.

Now, here are some things that we have found do work well (or we are still trying them):

Redirection - Many times, Dylan just gets bored! He becomes destructive when he's bored. So many times, if I can just find something constructive for him to do, that resolves the destructive behavior. He loves to draw, color, paint, and work with play-dough... anything artistic. He also loves to play in the dirt. He loves to play in the water - sometimes just putting him in the bathtub with bubbles to play does the trick. He also loves to do things to help me. Today I needed to work in the garage, so I turned on the water hose and asked him to water the blueberries and flowers. I gave him the hose and a watering can, he had a blast and was happily occupied for 30 minutes! When he was bored with that I pulled out his water gun, then his basketball goal and ball, then scissors and paper in the basement, then play-dough. I was able to get so much done and as long as he had something to do, he was happy!

Praise for positive behavior - Dylan loves attention. Sometimes I think he misbehaves because he wants attention... any kind of attention. So, when he misbehaves, he definitely gets my attention. We are working on giving him a lot of praise when he is behaving, or we see him share, or we hear him say something nice, or he sits at the table and eats an entire meal without getting up!

Isolation - This is spin on the prior (praise for positive behavior)... instead of giving him attention when he does something he shouldn't (like if he isn't being nice to someone), we make him go to his room by himself. He doesn't get to be a part of family activities when he is misbehaving. He gets a lack of attention, rather than attention. Now, for Connor, this wouldn't work. He loves to be alone in his room! But, Dylan loves to be around others. Our rule is, "be nice to everyone, or be alone in your room." He cannot resume family activities (whether it be a movie, a game, a meal, etc.) until he has had time to think about what he did, changed his attitude and apologized to the person he offended.

The last thing is the one we are still trying to figure out... what to do when he refuses to do something we've asked him to do... like, "pick up those blocks and put them in the bin." And he just stands there and stares at us. We have had a lot of suggestions and we've tried everything including all of the 6 things listed above, plus other things. Nothing seems to work. Has anyone dealt with this one and figured out a solution??

He is such a precious boy with a very tenacious spirit. I love his willingness to try anything and I pray he always keeps that. He is an amazing blessing with many amazing gifts. I pray we can teach him to use all of his gifts to the honor and glory of God, even the gift of a strong will!

Candle Letter Art

I recently redecorated the boys' bathroom and I'm still working on a few things in there. One thing I wanted to do is have each of their initials on a shelf that holds their wash cloths. I came across some cute candles that went perfectly and I thought I would just put letter stickers on each one. Well, apparently stickers don't stick to wax... so I needed another solution. I looked for letter decorations for candles, but couldn't find any. But while searching for a solution online, I came across this idea:

First, you find a font you like and print out the letters you want on the candles, then cut around them:

Next, place them on the candle and secure them with a few pins:

Go around the edges of each letter with a pin and when you've finished, remove the pins and the paper. You will see the outline of the letter etched into the candle:

Select the color of your pins and cut them so they're not so long (I probably cut about 2/3 of each pin off)

Push the pins in along the pattern of the letter etched in the candle.

Finished product! Not super happy with the C so I may try to fix that one later (that's one thing I really like about this idea... it's forgiving - if you mess up you can just reposition the pins... and there's always the other side of the candle!)