Dennis, Oliver, and Buttercup arrived home safely yesterday afternoon! Theodore and I were so excited to see them and hear their stories of all the fun they had. They all had such a great time with Grandma and Grandpa, and Buttercup has told me 3 times so far today that she wants to go back next week, ha ha. :-)
Things pretty much got back to normal right away over here. By the end of the day, Oliver had painted himself with mud, Buttercup had a time out, and both kids had spun/danced themselves dizzy on the rug.
Another fun thing from yesterday is that Theodore sat in his high chair at the table for the first time! He really seems to like sitting at the table with us. It's so cute!
Dennis, Oliver, and Buttercup will be home in about 48 hours, which . . . feels about 48 hours too long for me to wait.
Don't get me wrong, I am having a great time with this little guy, who is determined to roll himself right off of that mat:
But I miss my Oliver and Buttercuppie!! I miss the noise, the chaos, the asking me 20 times in 1 hour to play Legos/Play Doh/push me on the swing/can we go swimming. Theodore agrees with me wholeheartedly! This morning he said, "gunhg, ga ga," which I'm pretty sure means, "Don't take this the wrong way Ma, but you're boring."
Have a safe trip, but hurry home! It's no fun dancing to Ghostbusters by myself!
Dennis took Oliver and Buttercup to visit his parents this week. They've been gone since last Saturday, and they'll return on Sunday. Needless to say, the house is eerily quiet during the day, and Theodore and I miss them so much!! I know they're having a great time though. Hopefully next year we'll get to go, too!
Here are some pictures of the kiddos before they left on Saturday..
Oliver was very excited:
And also a little sleepy:
In this picture I think Buttercup was telling me how long it was going to take them to get to Grandma and Grandpa's house:
This was right before they drove off. Aren't they cute, crammed in the back of Dennis' tiny wind-up car? Ha ha ha ha ha. :-D I can't wait to squeeze them again!!!
Theodore is 3 months old today!! I know I sound like a broken record, but I can't believe the time is flying by so quickly. Three months! Already!
He's getting really chunky (wearing 9 month shirts!) and is looking more and more like his big brother every day. It's so neat how much they resemble each other! He's also doing all sorts of cute things, like laughing, trying to grab toys (and sometimes succeeding!), trying to sit up, and rolling. :-)
His favorites still include the skylight, ceiling fans, and being outside, but his #1 favorites are his big brother and sister. Right now they're out of town visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and Theodore is really missing them! He keeps looking around, and he's definitely not as happy as he is when they're at home. I had to buy him a new toy just to keep him entertained. ;-)
One of Oliver's friends has a new baby sister. She's 10 days younger than Theodore, and it's so cute to watch them together. Here are some pictures of them playing the other day!
Oliver is getting really good at putting Lego sets together. A couple of weeks ago, we bought him this set and he put about 95% of it together by himself. It only took him about 2 hours, too! I say "only" because it had over 500 pieces and it would have taken me probably closer to 4 hours to put it together by myself (sadly, that's not a joke). ;-)
Yesterday he picked out this truck set:
It only took him a little over 30 minutes to put together! It's so neat the way his mind works. I just love my sweet boy! Yay for Oliver! :-)
Buttercup's personality has always been almost the opposite of Oliver's, and lately we've really been noticing their differences. Where he's introverted and shy, she's social and outgoing. Where he's eager to please and obedient, she's strong-willed and defiant. And because of the latter, the disciplinary tricks that worked with Oliver don't always (okay, rarely) work on Buttercup.
For instance, there was a particular day when Oliver was 2-going-on-3 and he would not listen to me. I put him in time out, and he refused to sit in his chair. So I made him stay in time out until he finally stayed seated in his time out chair for 2 minutes. It took him a total of 15 minutes to get to that point, but he finally ended up sitting in his chair like I told him to, and to this day we rarely have trouble with him not sitting in his chair when he is put in time out.
Yesterday morning, I tried the same thing with Buttercup. She ended up being in the time out spot for 20 minutes, but still refused to sit in her chair. And the thing was, she didn't even care that she was in time out. She picked her nose, rearranged the door mat, played with the picture frames on the side table, opened the front closet door, etc. I reminded her several times that all she needed to do was sit in her chair for 2 minutes (I know she doesn't know how long 2 minutes is, so I told her to sit until I said it was okay to get up), and she would barely rest her bottom on the chair, then smirk at me and get up again. I finally got her out after 21 minutes of getting nowhere.
I admit, I get frustrated with not only trying to figure out the right way to discipline her without crushing her spirit, but also just trying to enjoy her for who she is. God made her the way she is for a reason, and I don't want to waste my time being frustrated with her! I want to want to be with her, have playdates at our house, and take her places, instead of thinking, "Oh, how long until she starts hitting, or biting, or beating up her friends." Not that I want to not discipline her when it's necessary, but I want to spend more time encouraging her and loving her than feeling irritated with her.
Well, God works in mysterious ways. ;-) This morning we had a visit from our good friends, and my friend gave me a new book of devotions and short readings since she knows that I don't have time every day to get into a deep Bible study. After I got the big kids in their room for nap/rest time, I sat on the couch with Theodore and read the first devotion aloud to him. It really spoke to my heart and I was just so thankful that God brought that friend into my life, and that she passed the book along to me on this particular day. God is so awesome and so good to me!!
Here's an excerpt:
Joy Rejoice in Me Always. This is a moment-by-moment choice. It is possible to find Joy in Me even during the most difficult times. Because I am always near, I am constantly available to help you. I can even carry you through times of extreme adversity.
. . . when you remember that I am your perfect Betrothed and that you are promised to Me forever, you can rejoice in Me even though you face many problems.
It is in the present moment that you find Me ever near you.
. . . The soul-satisfaction you find in Me helps you relate well to other people. As you enjoy My abiding Presence, you can bless others with your gentleness.
(from Jesus Lives: Seeing His Love in Your Life by Sarah Young)
Theodore is such an active little guy, it's like he's already trying to keep up with his big brother and sister. :-) Here's a video of him playing on his activity mat this afternoon. Enjoy!
The summer has really flown by for us! It's already the second week of August, and soon Oliver and Buttercup will be going on a long road trip with their daddy to visit Grandma and Grandpa. In some ways I'm looking forward to it (a week of baby time! and a quiet house!), but I know I will miss them so much. I have no doubt that the week will drag by!
We've been pretty busy since the last update, here's what we're up to these days:
Oliver: He seems to be getting over his Star Wars obsession, much to the chagrin of his buddy Nathan, ha ha. Oliver doesn't seem to have too many favorites right now -- he kind of likes a little bit of everything, but mainly sharks and sea creatures, army guys, policemen, and pirates. He's also really getting interested in reading, but he prefers to memorize the words (sight reading, I guess?) instead of actually sounding out the letters and figuring them out for himself, ha ha.
He's in a different swim class now, which seems to be a better fit for him. In the new class, there are only two other kids (at the most) in his class with him, so he gets to spend more time working on the strokes instead of hanging onto the side of the pool most of the time. At the pool over the weekend, he had the chance to do the swim test so he could slide down the big water slide, but he opted out since he didn't have a friend with him. He said he would wait until Buttercup could do it with him, so sweet!
Oliver is also looking forward to "preschool" (Mother's Day Out) starting next month. He talks about it almost every day and I know he's looking forward to seeing his school friends again. Not to mention getting to create things without having a little sister go behind him and destroy them. :-P
Buttercup: She is continuing to be quite a stinker most days, but she is just so sweet and funny. She also has the most beautiful smile, and her laugh is so infectious and I love hearing it!! I love the way she dives headfirst and gives her all to everything she does -- whether it's playing "sunday school," swinging herself outside, coloring, getting her big brother in trouble, or being defiant, ha ha. She is so much fun, and I know God has awesome plans for her.
She desperately wants to do everything Oliver can do, especially take swim lessons. I think she feels like she's been waiting forever to be 3 years old! She's also very interested in letters and words, and she's working on learning how to spell her name. So far, she has the first 3 letters down. :-)
Like Oliver, she is very much excited about starting preschool next month. She wants to start NOW, so I've had to fill up our calendar with playdates, outings, and fun activities just to get us through the rest of this month! :-)
Theodore: He is such a fun little baby! He loves to smile and coo at us, and it just warms our hearts when he looks at us and gives us a big, gummy grin. LOVE it! And, he's always been a good sleeper, but last week he surprised us by sleeping from 7:30pm to 4:30am three nights in a row! Since then, he's pretty much kept the same schedule, except he's been waking up closer to 3:30 instead of 4:30.
Both Buttercup and Oliver are my big helpers with him. I can always count on one of them to help out and bring me something for him if I ask. They also like to lie next to him on the floor and hold out their fingers for him to grab, or talk to him. Theodore likes to wave his arms and move his legs like he's running -- we call it "riding his bicycle" -- and the other day Oliver laid next to him on the bed and moved his legs the way Theodore was. It was very cute. :-D
