Monday, March 30, 2009

saylor words and tangent

bah-blank - blanket
plop-plop- lollipop
wah-woh- water
oh-gurk- yogurt
bah-bleehy- blueberry
ah-sauce- applesauce
bah-bucks- starbucks
woh-rop- robot
ah-callo- avacado
pyeeah-yo- piano
tah-taw- guitar
mah-monce- monsters
say-yoh-saylor
leh-yo- yellow
leh-lo- little
assy-boo- pacifier. although i just asked him to say pacifier and he said it perfectly. assy-booh is his 'nickname' for it.
anything that ends with an M or an N he adds a T to it. he always says 'come on!' but it sounds like 'come ont!' colin and i started saying it that way too, naturally.
he doesn't use the letter S if it is the first letter. so 'skip' is gip. [he always wants us to skip 'scary' parts in movies like monsters, inc.]. snow is no,scoop is goop, and smoke is moke. [from all those cigars he sees all the men in his life smoking]
he's taking longer to learn how to talk than some of our friends kids but he's quickly catching up. and he certainly is smart- knows all his letters [many of them in sign language as well]. he understands everything said to him, of course. and he is using 3-4 word sentences now. i LOVE IT! i've always loved talking to little kids because they say the most random things. i can't wait to do that with saylor. right now if you ask him a question he just answers with 'huh' or thinks about it and gives a one word answer, like 'what did you and daddy do today?' he will think then say 'play' and smiles coyly.
he's loving our new house for the most part. when we leave to go somewhere he keeps saying he wants to go back to the house. and he's been sleeping/napping perfectly. in the morning he's been a little unsure... ok he's been throwing huge fits. i think he doesn't want to be in a room by himself! he's used to being in very close quarters with us. so if i need to go in the kitchen real quick he's whining and following me. and he just doesn't know what he wants to do so he starts crying and saying a bunch of different things 'aaah, outside!... aah, play. pretzels! socks on!' but as i write he's running in circles and he told me he's happy. just takes him a little bit in the morning. hopefully this doesn't last long. he never really throws fits and i don't know how to respond! we usually completely ignore him and he stops fairly quickly knowing he won't get a reaction. but with the big fits they just don't stop. i don't want to threaten without following through.... tantrums are really fun if you are at, say, target. this happened last night. fortunately colin was with me but we got several lovely 'looks'. i know colin and i don't look like the typical 'mom and dad' too so that makes people's looks more condescending. although when saylor's hamming it up and charming it makes people smile even bigger-maybe they are surprised we are parenting...
we are settled in our new house and enjoying it. so grateful so all the people that helped us.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

love your husband

colin and i are both sick. now as far as energy exerted today i think he's spent more- had had to go to a radio station then practice, then whole foods.. and i only had ella for a half day and she mostly napped and then i took a quick trip to meijer. [we are always playing games on who is more tired or who works harder...ha]
i'm laying here on the couch and can't move and colin says he will 'make dinner' [fishsticks] for saylor. so im watching him cut up the fishsticks 'the wrong way' and not immediately dip them in ketchup to cool them off as i do and i'm about to tell him to do that and thank goodness i catch myself. i would have been nice, and colin would have put the sticks in the ketchup--but it's totally unnecessary to say anything!
so many parents are stressed raising their little children. and not that colin and i don't have our moments but for some reason we are in a good rhythm [so far....] and i think a big thing that is important to remember is that both of you are raising them. so there will be two different ways of doing things. and women in general will always have a better idea of how many diapers are left, when their last bath was, what they've eaten today. we just will. and we need to cut the guys some slack. men need to be built up and feel like they are the MAN of the house. so i don't need to get on colin for the way he parks, or for leaving a light on.-- so colin doesn't change his diaper or forgets to feed him.... me nagging him will not make colin remember better, nor will it make him feel confident in his parenting. saylor wears a dirty diaper an hour longer than i would have let him- gasp. not the end of the world.
i just read kate gosselin's book- kate of 'jon and kate plus 8'. they are christians and i read the book in a couple days, fun book, easy read. then i got online and watched a couple episodes as i don't watch it much since we don't have cable. and i just hate hate the way kate treats jon. and i know- i've only seen a few episodes and i know we are only seeing a small piece of their life, and i knooow she has 8 small kids. but. i still cringe when i see the way she talks down to him. it makes me want to cry! thank goodness she is organized and precise, that comes in handy with all those kids-but it's a strength and a weakness i think.. anyway i really hate assumptions about people in the public eye and i hate negative gossip- i believe they are christians and i believe they love each other. ok sorry that was a tangent.
and to go a step further- when colin tells me to be sure to put my dishes away or roll his eyes that i forgot to put the clothes in the dryer, whatever- even if he isn't pleasant about it- how much easier things are when my response is a sincere apology. instead of defense. i've been making a point to do that lately.
all this to way- our husbands will treat us better when we encourage and love on them more! ok colin made him those fishsticks and i asked him to get saylor a drink as well- he did not. and you know what- he even left the oven on. he leaves the oven on a lot!! and i'm going to choose to laugh about that rather than belittle him. i remember that colin offered to get dinner for saylor and let me stay on the couch. and that's what i'm going to go thank him for.

Friday, March 13, 2009

dentistry and origami

our good parents and lovely dental hygienist friend are always telling us to go to the dentist. and we always shrugged it off. no one else goes! i brush my teeth aaalll the time! i'm always drinking water. i don't think soda....or eat like.. carmel. but since i've been to 70 different doctors as of late i'd figure i'd tack on ye olde dentist as well. perhaps they'd have insight on my dizziness? well she couldn't say much about that but she did tell me i had about 75 cavities. how embarrassing! i don't even want to admit the real number! i made colin swear not to tell anybody but then i of course told everyone cuz as horrible as it is, it's pretty funny too. although here on my blog i'm just going to say 75. let it be known that the number is not far off from that. cringe!
fortunately we really enjoy our new dentist [colin had 3 cavities] so the hours i spent there were well spent. as in me laughing as she's giving me a filling and wanting so bad to contribute to their conversation but unable....as my mouth was open. my mouth has been so numb and disfigured this week. i don't numb very easily [perhaps that's why the epidural didn't work!??!] so after they figured that out they gave me some double dose extra strength stuff that left me crazy numb and sore all day. so that's been a trip. dentist, CHECK! all done. go to the dentist people!! so glad they filled my cavities while most of them were still very small.
monday night i went to a craft night some of my girlfriends have every week. i may be the least artistic of all my friends.... but i try. a few people were knitting, a couple were figuring out how to make a skirt, and a few of us were making origami. one of our friend's husband works at honda so he travels to japan occasionally- we had the real deal origami paper. that did not help me. they had figured it out and were popping out all these cute hearts and dresses and cranes... one girl had even made a nativity set of origami... here is one of mine.
what the camel was supposed to look like.

my camel

oh we were laughing so hard we were crying. i also made a retarded swan and a tulip that looks half way decent until you realize what it's really supposed to look like. all in all... it was awesome and i want to try again!!
saylor pointed to my camel and said 'goat!...uh doggy!...horse!...uh...shirt' good guess bud...i'd say yes for all of the above.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

lotsa pictures

on saturday we spent the afternoon with colin's cousin and their 3 little kids. they have two boys that are less than a year apart and they have been giving us boxes of clothes after their boys outgrow them [the boys will be 4 and 5 this year]. we are so grateful for the clothes! between that, clothes bought and given to us from friends and family and all the awesome clothes we've been borrowing from auggie we've rarely had to buy anything! i mean really i think i've bought less than 10 clothing items for saylor. that's amazing!
the boys played so well together! saylor had a blast. their kids are so well behaved too. colin's cousin bobby was in iraq for a couple years and his wife raised two toddler boys by herself for awhile. and then got pregnant with their 3rd, and they were living on a 3rd floor apartment! that's always amazing to me. two toddlers and pregnant... alone. 3rd floor. can you imagine grocery shopping? KUDOS katelynn. the boys were similar to colin and jared when they were younger - the older one [colin] being a ham and vying for attention while the younger one is quieter is ok not being in the spotlight like jared was. so cute.


we walked to a candy store, ryan enjoyed making saylor laugh hysterically


seriously there were 4 little kids running around and it was so peaceful. they all played so well!... saylor was of course worn on out the ride home. if i don't have a blankie for him i let him snuggle with my scarf or cardigan.

random-colin and i saw a license plate on the drive that said mncoon. i'm easily amused and license plates easily distract me... this one made us laugh, all we could come up with was MANCOON. we looked at the driver and concluded, yah, that's a mancoon if you ever saw one. I GUESS...?!
and a couple more pics of saylor-
hanging out at our hangout spot. starbucks

saylor can't be in the sanctuary at church without being on the stage for a bit, usually at the drums [like father...]. i grew up in a smaller church where everyone knew each other and i value that. so i really am grateful that though our church has something like 8000 members, our circle of friends contains like half of the staff at vineyard- so it makes it feel smaller or more intimate for us. so saylor runs up to the stage today and loves on jeff then played on the keys for a bit..

Thursday, March 5, 2009

the cats on my lap

purring machine...too bad we are probably going to give her away. would anyone like a cat named munki? she is awesome. but the house we are moving into prefers no pets... and i'm allergic... plus she is hardly getting the attention she deserves anymore [you swear your devotion to your pet won't change with children...but it does :(... ] we will be having jared and his awesome cat leonidas living with us for a few months which will be cool because leonidas is fat and funny, good combo. the house is a go! we move in end of march. i kept trying not to buy groceries so we could eat what we have in our cupboards but it's getting bad so we are making one more trip to t-joe's today...
i am reading a pretty interesting book called '23 minutes in hell' by bill wiese. colin's mom owns it and lent it to me... i was skeptical when i started it- the guy said he woke up in the middle of the night and the lord put him in hell- for 23 minutes. it sounds crazy but i believe it now. the guy is completely sincere and the lord has used his story in a great way. it's not a all a scare tactic and glorifying hell- it's definitely more about jesus loving us and wanting to rescue us from hell. i struggle with accepting the lord's love and fully trusting him so the idea of eternal damnation feeds into that- but it's finally clicking with me that the lord loves us and desperately wants us to be saved and NOT to go to hell. not like i pictured him happy about people going to hell... but ya know. my question is can't God destroy satan and his dominion? i think when jesus returns he will destroy satan but isn't he thrown into a...lake of fire or something? so will all people remain in hell then? i think, if God is all powerful and can defeat satan, why does he let this evil remain- for eternity? i'll see what the rest of the book says and obviously i'm sure i could read the bible and more books for answers...just thinking.
we have some close friends/family going through some rough patches right now. not to mention the crazy anxiety period i went through as well.... it's been hard, there aren't even answers to the problems that are being faced. but i've been grateful to have jesus and i've been learning how to trust him and lean into him. and that's been good. but if anyone feels like praying for our friends... even with names and situations unknown i believe the lord will hear your prayer. thank you! and now... cat pictures. sorry if you hate cats.
munki in all her glory

and a few of king leonidas..he has more pictures taken of him now because he is loved more than munki right now.

just playin'a little x-box

and my personal favorite... the sink one