miley on my mind

It's fair to say this post is a leap from the type I normally publish. Nothing about what my kiddos are saying or doing today. Instead I just have to share a few of the thoughts that have been swirling around in my head lately. It's quite possible that this post will be more for me, personally, than anything else. So, here goes...

I didn't watch the VMA's. Didn't even know they were happening. But it was hard to miss all the buzz when I logged onto facebook yesterday morning. So I clicked on the article, read it, and watched the clip. And of course I saw the same thing and had the same reaction as most other people on the planet. It was bad. Super bad. Totally inappropriate. No doubt about that. And then I read the comments, which seemed to have a common theme. Words like pathetic, disgusting, disturbing ... those were the most mild descriptors and of course there were some much more strongly-worded sentiments. But I've been thinking a lot about the words "seeking" and "sinner" the past few weeks. Nothing super specific or profound. Just random thoughts. And I've had some good discussions with people, too. It got me to thinking, What if my life - my quiet thoughts, my silent criticisms, my past regrets, my secret sins - were set to music and displayed on screen for the world to see? I can imagine the comments that would come flooding in from the viewers. I imagine they would have a similar theme to Miley's. Pathetic? Yep. Disgusting? For sure. Disturbing? You bet. Oh, and another common one "Her parents should be so ashamed." Guess what? MINE TOO! Now I'm not saying that those comments aren't accurate. I'm just saying that my sins are the same. So, all I can feel is compassion for her. And that's got nothing to do with me. It's all because of Christ.

They will know we are Christians by our love. Right? It's only by God's unending love and mercy that I have His truth in my heart. And that's because God placed and used people in my life to guide me and speak truth to me. Praise Him for that! So, I wonder who Miley has in her life to speak truth to her. I highly doubt I will ever meet her, but I think that as Christians we need to unite with a message of love! Afterall, Christ didn't call me to be His child after I got my act together. I'll never have my act together. I'll always be a sinner. No better than Miley. He met me right where I was at and revealed his grace.

So, what do we do about Miley? I guess I'm not really sure. I just hope and pray that through all the negative press that is sure to head her way in the weeks to come, a message of Christ's love could somehow be conveyed. And that message has to come from his people.

five months and end of summer

I'm just going to lump this whole post together because if I try to come back and post more tomorrow or the next day...it probably won't happen until the six month update :) Baby Warren is growing so fast and constantly coming up with new tricks. Here are a few stats on him:

• Rolls over often (back to tummy) but only likes to hang out on his tummy for about a minute before he starts yelling for help
• Sits in his Bumbo sit with pretty good control
• Has very busy hands. They are always either in his mouth or holding onto each other. His latest trick is to use his left hand to hold onto his right thumb. I need to get a picture of that one!
• Wears size 9 and 12 month clothes
• Has lots of wispy hair on the top of his head that sticks straight up. (thanks, daddy!)
• Takes all his baths in the bath tub now. He LOVES to kick like crazy and make big splashes!
• Wears size 3 diapers
• Sleeps pretty well! 
• Loves to watch Henry and is completely entertained by him. Storing up all sorts of good ideas, I'm sure.
• Smiles and laughs so easily. Henry was a happy and content baby, too, but with Warren you don't even have to work to get a smile out of him :)
• Has tried rice cereal twice but spit it out both times
• Doesn't like his swing quite as much as he used to
• Seems to like to snuggle and be held a little more lately. He is strong enough to be carried on my hip now.
• Might not be blue-eyed. We still can't tell for sure.

And now for the end of summer fun. Just a selection of photos with captions, really. On this particular day, I asked Dameon to deal with the branch that was in the way of Henry's swing. I believe my exact words were, "Could you trim back that branch that's in the way of Henry's swing? It's thorny and kinda dangerous." A good chunk of time went by while I was in the house with the boys. It occurred to me that Dameon had been outside for quite awhile. I looked out the window and saw this:

 He must not have heard me right.

We made a bit of an impromptu trip to the Indianola Balloon Festival. The weather was beautiful and it was a really enjoyable time. We ate our Subway picnic in the parking lot and watched the balloons fly over before going through the gate and enjoying some bounce house chaos. Wouldn't be a complete experience if Dameon didn't have a small heart attack and use his teacher voice as some too-big-for-the-bounce-house kid is threatening to steam roll our son. The highlight was when Dameon bought Henry his own hot air balloon. Total thrill.

Another Warren trick: Tries to get toys to mouth and toys end up on his shoulder. Cute!

This is how Henry plays hide-and-seek. After awhile it's hard to know how to keep acting like we can't find him. But we roll with it.

And, finally, potty-training. He is starting to show just a little bit of interest and has went potty once, so we'll see.

 Turns out this whole thing requires more patience than I seem to have, so sometimes we move the potty chair into other areas of the house and get on with our day. Ice cream, anyone?

a late-night realization

Tonight after successfully navigating and tag-teaming bedtime with the two munchkins, Dameon and I were talking about how I had seen a home video of Henry from last summer in which he was using two and three word phrases compared to how much he was talking by his second birthday. I was curious, so I logged into my blog to read some old posts and see if I could find out more about what he was doing back then. And then I saw them. And they were many. The posts about the dog. Now I mean no offense to those out there who love their dogs like children. I totally get it. I just don't feel that way any more and it seems like another lifetime ago that my life revolved around him. I remember telling Dameon the night before Rufus' first birthday that maybe we should skip our meeting the next night because he would already be in his kennel all day while we were at work and it was his birthday afterall. Whaaaat????? And when we used to travel with him we would bring along two plastic tubs filled with his gear. And that was probably for a day trip. Now I'm lucky if I remember his leash. And food? Forget it! I have to keep a stash permanently in the van just so he doesn't starve. Yep, it's a different season of life right now. No doubt about it. But Ruf is a good sport about it. As I type, he's sprawled out underneath a sleeping Warren in the baby swing. He's go-with-the-flow like that :)

who needs a t.v. when you live with henry?

It's true. He is 24-7 entertainment...even though that includes the daily tantrums and other such two-year-old behavior. It's funny because in many ways he seems older than two. His language, his ideas, his ability to make-believe, his memory, and some of his school-readiness skills are comparable to my former preschool students. But the ways he seems the most "two" are in his sense of humor (he still thinks peek-a-boo is funny and he thinks that if he can't see us then we can't see him) and in his tantrums. Anyway, I've had a mental list going of the funny things he's been saying lately, so I've gotta get it written down before they are gone from my memory!

• "Mommy, can we go to Grandma Joyce's house so she can make us more meat tongue to eat?" (I have no idea what he is referring to but it sure was funny.)
• Henry: Mommy, say 'vomit'.  Me: Why would I say 'vomit'?  Henry: No, VOLMIT!  Me: What's volmit?  Henry: It's Grandma's store!  Me: (thinking...thinking) Oh! Wal-Mart?  Henry: Yeah! Volmit! Oh! I can't say it! (pauses and thinks with finger on chin) Mal-Wart. Oh! I said it!
• "Mommy, George (as in Curious George) rode in an am-blee-ance but he couldn't enjoy it."
• After fireworks, we had to cross a busy street and move quickly to get across. Afterward Henry told my mom that it scared him to see her run.
• Me: Henry, who's your best friend?  Henry: Daddy.
• He has a habit of adding extra syllables to certain words. A few examples...Ben Franklin = Ben Frankalankin; Ankeny = Ankanankey; Weed Eater = Weed-E-Deeter
• "Can I play with the swatter fly?"
• The other day he was pretty upset when it was time to leave the library. We were coming home in the stroller and he had been whining for about 2 blocks. I finally told him it was time to quit fussing. He got really quiet for the next block and then this... H: Mommy?  Me: What Henry?  H: This is the day that the Lord has made. So...I should rejoice and be glad in it.

(I took this photo to memorialize two things. 1.) The way he is working on his "Smile for the camera!" right now. I see school picture re-takes in our future :)  2.) The HORRIBLE haircut that I paid $16 for. Man, it's bad. Looks like a weed-e-deeter did it. Twice yesterday he was told, "Henry, I like your haircut. Did your Mommy do it?" Oh well, it's fixable. And, anyways, he's cute no matter what.

D.I.Y didn't I do this years ago??

Does anyone else feel like the digital age of photography that we are now in poses a bit of a problem? I have taken soooo many pictures over the past few years but all they ever do is sit on my computer and get not-viewed by anyone. What to do? My ideal plan is to make family "yearbooks" (an idea I got from Pinterest. You know...Pinterest. The place where all my ideas sit. Much like shutterfly.) that can serve as coffee table books in the future. But I also wanted a way to display pictures on our walls. Enter repurposed/shabby chic barn window. I bought this barn window from Katie and Richard. Major score! It was painted black and in great shape. Dameon did the old Elmer's glue trick and used some leftover paint we had from the summer our house got painted (cue horrible memories!) and it turned out GREAT! I deliberated for awhile over which Uppercase expression I wanted and I'm so happy with how this compliments the whole thing. Then Dameon attached a wire to the back of each row and I ordered some basic 8x10 prints from shutterfly and hung them on the wires with tiny clothes pins. They will be super easy and super cheap to switch out whenever we want. Ahhhhh...finally some favorite photos displayed in our home!