Little Miss Attitude.

Do you remember back when Sophia was born and I said rude and crass things like "she was the most agreeable and sweetest child to ever walk this planet"? Remember that? Also, remember how you all said things like "just wait for it"? Well, I guess that all of you get the last laugh because my sweet and agreeable little girl has turned into a temper wielding monster of a child.

She can still be sweet when the fancy strikes her. Lately, however, she has been all about proving to us the amount of will power she possess.

To prove that the infantile bliss is dead and gone she now does the following on a regular basis:

1. Refuses to eat dinner and instead routinely dumps it on the floor. 
2. Will not, except on extreme duress (the kind only Daddy can provide) say I'm sorry to anyone about anything. That is unless she accidentally bumps into the wall in which case she will very promptly apologize to said wall. 
3. Screams "No thank you Mommy" when I try to subject her to such harsh and cruel punishment as eating a snack...in church. And by screams, I mean screams in a way that makes it sound like she is fearful of me beating her. Again...this happens very loudly in church.  
4. Pulls my hair if she is not getting the amount of attention she feels like she deserves. 
5. Has on more than one occasion thrown herself on the floor for a good old fashioned tantrum. 

Yes, you all did warn me that even if a child is calm and docile, I can't expect that to last forever. You warned me, but was it wrong of me to hope that after raising Connor, God would take it a little bit easier on us? It turns out that was mostly just our practice round. 

Ben and I hope that this is just that stage called the terrible twos, but also remember that it took us four years to get out of that stage with Connor. Honestly, who are we kidding? Depending on the day we are still very much in that stage with Connor. 

We are certain however that this too shall pass. In the meantime, I try to take cute adorable pictures of her that I can look at on those days...you know the ones. 

New to us furniture.

Here are some photos of the furniture that I snagged a month or so ago at the Clothing Coop on seminary.

Sophia felt the need to model the chair for you. We got two chairs like this, one in the family room and one in Ben's office.

 Full size couch. We can fit our whole family on it!

This means that if we invite you over for dinner now or if you come for a visit, you will actually be able to sit down. Pretty impressive, no?

Baby brains.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. It went well, and Elinore still appears to be doing just fine. My doctor spent the better part of the appointment looking at a sonogram of her brain, then he took her heart beat, measured her head, and pronounced us good to go for another month.

It hit me as I was driving back to work how completely crazy it is that we have a machine that enables us to see into a mother's womb to the extent that we can look at an unborn baby's brain.

That's crazy, right? And also amazing. It is amazing that we have this technology and people smart enough to use it. Doctor Wheeler said her brain looked "beautiful" and "perfect". I wouldn't know what a perfect brain looked like for anything.  I am also skeptical that a brain could ever look beautiful...but I'll go with his professional opinion.

As amazing as this technology is, I know that the information it provides can be, and often is, used for bad purposes. The doctor looks at the unborn child and the womb and tells the parent that there is a defect in this child and the parents choose to abort their baby, instead of dealing with the burden of raising a disabled child. This is the downside of the amazing ability of the human brain to invent new and wondrous machines.

But for those of us who have had trouble in the past delivering a baby to term, there is nothing more beautiful or reassuring than seeing a little tiny baby brain, the movement of an arm, a beating heart, and a little face on that sonogram machine.

Craving Red Lobster.

I have been craving Red Lobster for two months. I'm not kidding. Everyday around lunch time I think about what I am going to eat and all I want is Red Lobster. Not just any Red Lobster food, but the following delicious combination.

A Caesar Salad. 

Some Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

And Red Lobster's Cajun Chicken Linguine. 

There are two small problems about my unquenchable desire to have Red Lobster. First, Red Lobster is kind of expensive, so I don't really want to take the kids with me (Sophia is at that I would prefer to wander about the restaurant and not stay in this chair stage anyway). The second problem is that Ben has a very short lunch break every day. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he gets approximately twenty minutes for lunch and on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he gets an hour. An hour seems like it should be enough time to eat a yummy lunch, but by the time you drive there and back you really only have thirty minutes to get seated, get your food, and eat. 

Thus my craving continues. 

So come on dear friends, come to Fort Wayne, and take me to get some ding dang Red Lobster food. Seriously. Now. 

Little Saint Nick.

We don't do the whole Santa Claus thing with our kids. And no...we don't think that you are an evil person if you do this with your kids. (Well, not any more evil of a person than we already thought you were.)

Ben and I have chosen not to do the Santa Claus thing for various reasons. 

1. There is a pretty good reason to celebrate Christmas without having to bring Santa Claus into it. 

2. Instead of focusing on the good gifts we receive from Santa, we can focus on the gift we were given in the birth of a Savior on that Christmas morning and the salvation we received on the cross come Good Friday. 

3. Not buying into the Santa Claus things helps make Christmas in our house less commercially driven. 

4. We figure it is healthy for our kids to have something they do, that not everyone else does. 

Even though we tell our kids that Santa Claus is not real and that the presents they receive on Christmas morning come from us, we do participate in Saint Nicholas Day, which is tomorrow, December 6th. We do not tell our kids that Saint Nicholas is going to come and bring them gifts, but instead talk about the real person behind the Santa Claus myth and what we know about him. 

We tell our kids that Nicholas was a pastor who lived a few hundred years after Jesus. We tell them that Nicholas loved the people in his village, taught them about Jesus, and cared for them. We also read to them the most popular story that circulates about Nicholas - the story of the the poor man and his three penniless daughters who had no dowry. We tell them that Nicholas took three bags of gold to the poor man's house in the middle of the night and left them by his daughter's shoes. We tell them that this gift made it possible for the three girls to get married. 

Then we talk about the wonderful gifts we receive from God that we do not deserve, how blessed we are, and how much we are loved by our family and Lord. Then we put the kids to bed and tell them that if they leave their shoes outside their door that we will put a surprise in them to remind them of how much they are loved. Ben and I put a piece of fruit and some candy in their shoes and in the morning they are so excited to see their goodies. 

It is one of our family traditions.  

Connorisms

I post many of these stories on Facebook, but my mom doesn't use Facebook, so I am re-posting some of my favorite Connor moments...or Connorisms, as I affectionately call them.

Here are some recent conversations.

Connor: Mom, why does my toothpaste say call poison control immediately if you swallow it?
Me: Because if you swallow too much toothpaste it can make you sick.
Connor: What happens then?
Me: You have to go to the hospital and they give you something to make you throw up.
Connor: Is it peas?
Me: No...it's not peas.

Connor: Mom, do you want to hear a really awkward joke?
Me: Sure.
Connor: What did the ghost say.
Me: Boo?
Connor: No.
Me: Well, what did the ghost say then?
Connor: He said no, that was the awkward part.

Connor: (being increasingly wild and knocking over Ben's drink)
Ben: Connor, you need to calm down and mind your p's and q's!
Me: (In my head....10, 9, 8, 7, 6....)
Connor: What does mind your p's and q's mean?
Me (not in my head) laughing.
Ben: Arghhh... I should have known better.

Connor: Mom, I love you more than all the other moms in the world.
Me: Thanks Connor. That means a lot to me.
Connor: Yeah, it is probably because you are my only mom.
Me: I sure am. I'm glad you love me so much anyway.
Connor: I think I probably love you too much. I'm gonna work on that.

Connor: Mom, does Elinore like ice cream?
Me: No, not really. I usually get sick when I eat it.
Connor: We should probably go and get some just to see if she likes it tonight.
Me: Nice try buddy.

Connor: Hey Mom! I'm in Dad's office with Dad.
Me: Yeah...I know.
Connor: So, would you mind bringing me a fresh drink?
Ben: Ha, ha, ha.
Me: Would you mind getting your own fresh drink?

Sleeping.

I have been super exhausted these past few days. As proof, I submit the following evidence.

1. Almost fell asleep at work during the afternoon....twice.
2. Nearly dozed off during Ben's advent sermon when I was one of the four people attending the noon service.
3. I have fallen asleep every single evening on the couch for at least twenty minutes.
4. I choose sleeping over reading in bed.
5. My kids have done a number of hilarious things, and I haven't blogged about any of them.

I'd write more...but I'm getting kind of groggy over here.