Showing some love

Today during lunch, Buttercup was very upset and I ended up snuggling her on my lap while I ate my food. I offered different things to her to figure out what she wanted (other than snuggles!), and Oliver helpfully offered suggestions like, "Maybe she's teething! Maybe she needs to see a doctor. Does her ear hurt? Does she need a tongue depressor? Maybe her gums hurt. Maybe she just wants some avocado and peanut butter for lunch . . . can I eat her sausage?"

Buttercup wiggled down from my lap and stood next to my leg, crying. And my sweet Oliver did something unexpected -- instead of running off to his room to play, he took it upon himself to figure out how he could help Buttercup. He stood there, on my other side, and asked her question after question ("Do you want to work in my workshop? Do you want to play race cars? Do you want to play construction site?"). She stopped crying and started answering his questions. Then he gently took her by the hand and they sat under the dining room table and talked for about 5 minutes! After their chat, Oliver got up and led Buttercup back to his room to play in his workshop.

While Oliver is about 1000x better with Buttercup than he used to be, this sort of thing almost never happens in our house. So of course I had to take a video of it. Enjoy! :-)

P.S. Have I mentioned how much I love these two??

Pineapple Project, part 3

I'm happy to report that our pineapple project seems to be working nicely!

The leaves aren't looking so hot,














but check this out -- the roots are actually growing!


















Hopefully they'll continue to grow and we'll be able to plant it in about 2 weeks. I think I'm the only one really excited about this, ha ha.

The best reward prize EVER

We've been using a sticker chart with Oliver to reward him for good behavior. He has the opportunity to earn 1 sticker each day, and when he gets 4 stickers, he earns a small reward -- he calls it a "prize" -- usually a $2 or $3 toy from Mardel or Target that either gets broken or lost in a couple of days. He earned his 4th sticker yesterday, so we went to the store to look for a new toy.

Then I thought of something that we could make for him instead of buying a toy . . . something that he would use every day, something that would last for a long time, something that would require a trip to Home Depot (Oliver's favorite store!) . . . We would build Oliver his very own workshop, in his closet!!!

So we went to Home Depot last night and purchased a sheet of peg board, hooks, a piece of scrap lumber that was cut to suit our needs, and 4 table legs + screws. Oliver and Dennis started working on it right after breakfast this morning.



























This is Oliver's closet before:
































And this is Oliver's new workshop!! Can't you just feel the excitement??!



























I'm so happy that we could do this special thing for him!

The gift that keeps on giving

This is Wendy, our very sweet, friendly, and loving cat.














And this is our floor, after petting Wendy for approximately 10 minutes.














Maybe we should get one of those fancy Dyson vacuums?

You Capture: Sky

I decided to try out a blog carnival for the first time, and I chose You Capture from I Should Be Folding Laundry. I'm not the best photographer, nor do I have the best camera, but I enjoy taking pictures! And I hope that I'll get better at it as time goes on.

This week's assignment: sky.

We had some beautiful clouds this week. I hoped that they would bring rain, but all they brought was (a welcome!) relief from the sun. The first two pictures are from Friday.




























And this picture is one that Oliver took about 2 months ago when he was playing with my camera in the back yard. I kind of like his the best! :-)

All we need is just a little patience

Ahh, patience. It is definitely one of my weakest areas. And it is tested daily.

Today was one of those days. I guess it all started last night. Ephesians 4:26b says, "Don't let the sun go down on your anger," and for good reason -- I went to bed grumpy, and I woke up even grumpier. Oliver fed off of my grouchiness this morning, and as soon as breakfast was over, he started picking fights with his sister. That led to Oliver getting three time outs before 8:30 this morning (almost unheard of these days), despite my efforts to get us out of the house as soon as possible. His attitude was better at the playground, but as soon as we got back home, he started picking on Buttercup again.

Oliver is capable of making good choices, but I guess you can blame me for setting a bad example by being grumpy and short-tempered this morning. If I had woken up in a better mood, maybe things would have been a little bit better.

But you know what? God can overcome all of this. Exodus 4:13-14 says, "Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today . . . the Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Of course, that scripture is talking about Moses delivering the Israelites from the Egyptians. But for my life it's translated into me being delivered from my worst adversary -- my temper. To me, it says, "Hey Maria, just chill out and let God take care of it! Be still and know that He is God; sit back and watch Him take charge of the situation."

What an awesome God we have!

And, because I hate to not include pictures of my cuties in my posts, here are a couple from this morning. :-)

E is for Elephant

This is Oliver's first best friend (of the stuffed animal variety, anyway).


















Grandma and Grandpa gave Elephant to Oliver almost 2 years ago, and the two have been almost inseparable ever since.

So, in honor of Elephant and one of Oliver's favorite books, I decided that this week's alphabet lesson would be E is for Elephant!














I wanted to make the craft as cute as possible, so I used this picture from Curious George Learns the Alphabet for the template.


















We usually start with practicing writing on the dry erase board first, but Oliver was SO excited about the craft, and we decided to do that first.
































Then we went to the dry erase board so Oliver could practice writing an E. But by that point, he had lost all of his patience, and he was ready to move on to something else. He did try an E though, and he did a pretty good job!



















Then he said something that I think is pretty smart . . . he said, "Mama, could I just try to make an E with my Lincoln Logs?" So that's what he did. :-)