Soap, please

A while back, when Travis moved out of the nursery at church and in to an actual classroom, we began asking him what he learned in church that day. The first time we asked him turned into a conversation I'll never forget. Very short and simple, but I pray it was the beginning of a deep faith. It went something like this:

Me: Travis, what did you learn in church today?
T: Mmmm, Jesus.
Me: Oh, what about Jesus?
T: (very seriously) Follow Jesus.

This obviously made us smile, and yes, I got a little teary-eyed, I'll admit. We try to ask him questions like this regularly, and the answer is almost always "Jesus", with not much elaboration.

So yesterday, we're in the car and having our little conversation with him..here's an excerpt:

Steve: And who washes our sins away? (expecting the usual response...)
Travis: (again, very seriously) Uuuum...soap.

Makes sense in a 2-year-old mind!

Babies galore!

Here's a picture of all the babies in our Bible study group. All but Jayna are 4 months or younger (which explains why she is twice the size of the rest of them!). That's a lot of babies for a group with only 6 couples! Plus, there's another one on the way (no, I'm not pregnant, it's someone else!). And these babies are in addition to another 9 kids in the group. It's a miracle we actually are able to accomplish meaningful discussion! It is so much fun to have other kids to grow along with your own, and to grow to love them, as well.

And here are a couple of recent pictures of the kids, just for the fun of it.

Some favorite things

This is kind of random but I thought I'd share with you some products that I just love these days.
4) Yoplait key lime pie flavored yogurt. Mmmm. Love the other flavors, too, but I just discovered this one.
3) Our electric blanket. I'm telling you, the first few minutes after I get into bed are probably my favorite minutes of the day. We don't sleep with the electric blanket on, but we like to turn it on 10 minutes before we get into bed, and then it's nice and toasty when we get in. That, combined with our flannel sheets, make for some heavenly sleep!
2) My Chris Rice Peace Like A River CD. It is SO good! Very simple arrangements of hymns (and a couple of spirituals), contemporary with piano accompaniment, his James Taylor-ish voice...love it. If I'm the slightest bit frazzled, I turn it on and immediately can feel myself breathe again. So for all my fellow hymn-lovers, this CD is a must-have!
1) My newest favorite product that I will now be faithful to for life....my Clorox toilet wand system!!! Yahoo! I don't know how you all clean your toilets...some people actually reach in there and scrub (the thought gives me the creeps), some use a brush (as I did). Well, I didn't like using a brush because the idea of all those germs hiding on it is just disgusting. But with this wand, you just click on a new brush every time you clean, then click it off into the garbage. You don't get your hands dirty at all! Each sponge has a ton of cleaner in it, and it made my toilets so shiny and white! This may sound a little pathetic, but when I used it for the first time yesterday, and it just about made my day. Like I said...I'm sold!

The naughty crayon

It's always interesting as a parent to watch Travis and, through his words/play/pretending, etc., to see how he interprets my actions and words toward him. Today, I set up his Little Tikes slide in the living room. Jayna was sitting playing with some toys, I was picking stuff up, and Travis had five big crayons that he was first setting on top of the slide, then once they were all laying side by side, he would push them down the slide all together. Occasionally, however, one crayon would slide down by itself, before Travis was ready. And then, watch out! Travis would look sternly at the crayon and say "No, no! Don't do dat, otay?!" (Long and drawn out on the "otay"). Then he would proceed to take the crayon over to the stair (this is where he has his time-outs), and say "time-out". He'd give the crayon a few minutes, then go over, sit down next to it, and in a much sweeter voice say something like, "Be nice" or, "do dat again?" (while shaking his head). And then he would go along his merry way.

As you can imagine, I was cracking up. He was just so serious through it all. What was most interesting was seeing MY facial expressions on HIS face, and him using my tone of voice. Very funny.

I must say, it does feel like we're turning a corner with Travis. It seems like for a REALLY long time (as in many months), getting Travis to obey has taken a ton of patience, energy, distraction, and even some manipulation. But we're just noticing that he finally seems to be understanding that if he doesn't obey, there are consequences. Obviously, there will always be a need for discipline, and there will be many struggles to come, and we will never have a perfect or even near-perfect child, because we are all sinners. But what I'm saying is that I think he is finally realizing that he is not the one in charge. Teaching that lesson to your child has got to be one of the biggest (and first) parenting hurdles for all of us to jump.

So what to make of "The Naughty Crayon" episode? Well, I'm not really one to read into things too deeply. If anything, it did confirm my observation that Travis responds positively to time-outs. He responds well to spankings, too, but we try to really save those, especially since time-outs work for him. Anyway, Travis was still playing his little game when Steve got home, so Steve got his laugh for the day, as well.

Time to get my bum in shape

Who wants to join me?! At the end of March I'm running a 5K race with two of my sisters up in Bellingham. In June, I want to run the 10K race at Sound to Narrows...and I'm looking for someone else to do it with me! Okay, I might wimp out and only do the 5K at Sound to Narrows...we'll see. I'm excited to be running again, or at least excited at the prospect of losing weight, and running is the best way for me to do that.

Sound to Narrows is in Tacoma, if you're wondering, on June 14th. Check it out at www.soundtonarrows.org. So who's in? Don't worry...I won't be fast. If anything, you'll be leaving me in the dust!

If nothing else, do me a huge favor and ask me how I'm doing with my running when you see me! Maybe it will help me stay disciplined...it's really easy to slack off when I can think of dozens of reasons not to go running at any given time. :)

Praise the Lord for sunshine!

It was exactly what we needed today! There is something about the sun that just makes me happy, especially when we haven't seen it in awhile! Plus, Travis was being extra clingy this morning, and we just needed to get out of the house. So I dug out our beast of a double stroller and we went for a walk and played in the park by our house. It did wonders for my mood and patience level! Oh, and Travis discovered shadows--there was quite the look of wonder on his face when he realized that the tall person laying on the sidewalk mimicked his motions exactly! The weatherman says the sun will be here through the weekend...please let him be right!

As for my boy's clinginess...I was telling some friends last night that I can't wait until Jayna is a bit older and they can play together and keep each other entertained. Travis is just so social and always wants someone to be playing with him. While I do play with him quite a bit, I have a lot to get done each day, and it can be frustrating when he doesn't want to give me even a minute to myself. Videos do buy me some time, but I don't like him to watch more than one a day. So I definitely try to use naptimes to my fullest advantage!

Jayna at 7 months

Who she is, what she does, what she likes, and so on....Jayna is a laidback, observant, giggly girl. It's hard to get a full belly laugh out of her, but she does this little giggle that we just love. And she's VERY ticklish. As you can see below, she's not exactly a lightweight! She's almost 21 lbs. right now, though her weight gain has slowed way down in the last month or two. Let's see...she has been sitting on her own for a while now, but not really trying to crawl yet. We can set a basket of toys in front of her and she's happy for quite a while. Her first two teeth came through just in the last couple of weeks. Her eyes seem to be staying blue, which, combined with her tons of dark hair, reminds everyone of Snow White. She's a great sleeper...about 12 hours at night, plus 2-3 naps during the day. She babbles a lot, mostly saying "dadadadada". Steve likes to think that she's actually referring to him...who knows?! She likes all types of baby foods, though she will cringe a bit at the first bite of a vegetable. Finally, her happiest moments of the day are when we come to get her out of her crib. She giggles, kicks her legs, and holds her arms up in the air...priceless!

Here are some pictures we had taken a few weeks ago at JC Penney. Family--we will send some prints in the mail soon!