Big DIfferences

This is a pix of me and my two boys at the zoo in the spring of 2007. Nate was almost 2yrs old and Joe was only a few weeks old. They are both so little and cute! It is hard to believe that the memories are fading of that stage. Time marches on and I remember less and less.

And this... is a pix of me and my boys at the zoo last week. Nate is 4yrs and Joe is 2 and a half. Wow... can you believe the changes? My precious boys have gotten so big! Still cute but neither of them look like babies anymore! They are both turning into little men!

30 Year Milestone

Today our church celebrated a very special anniversary. Our pastor Warren and his wife Tillie have been serving our church body for 30 years. Three of their four children still attend our church. Wow. Thirty years. How many churches can say that? This special couple has stuck with us (the church) through lots of ups and downs over these many years. I myself have attended this church for something like sixteen years (I think).
Warren and Tillie did not want a fuss made for them today. They genuinely wanted all the glory to go to God as we celebrated this monumental anniversary. I thought the special service today was balanced well. There was much praise given to God for blessing our body with such wonderful servants as Warren and Tillie. But we also honored them for their tireless years of faithful service to us.
There was a video montage of pictures throughout the years. Showing church members that have come and gone. Church buildings and meeting places that came and went. Our church was homeless at times during these thirty years. We met in apartment club houses, school auditoriums, strip malls and finally were blessed to have our own building to call "home". That building burned down a few short years later and we were thankful to be permitted to share another church's facility while we went through the long and tedious process of rebuilding. What a blessing to go through all these things and grow even stronger as a church body.
I will say that this morning's service was bittersweet for me. While I was glad to be there with my fellow believers to share in this celebration of praise and thanks together, I was painfully reminded of the absence of some people that are near and dear to my heart. Not everyone sees the church as a body of believers who are the family of God. I think some people see church as a building a place that you come on Sunday mornings to dutifully make an appearance and go through the motions without being seen or heard. God wants our church to be our family. And we all know that families are messy. There are differences in opinion, feelings get hurt, some people work harder than others... its all part of it. But you go on loving and serving along side one another anyway. That is what Jesus would do and that is what Warren and Tillie have done faithfully for thirty years now. Thank you and God Bless.

My Take on: Registries

Ok, these are just little tidbits that I have learned and I wish someone would have told me (not that I would have listened back then! ;-)

Wedding Registries
* Don't register for anything you would not actually buy yourself. If its too expensive for you to buy its probably too expensive for most of your friends and family too.
* Limit yourself to registering at one or two places. Seriously, what does Target have that Walmart does not? And vice versa, etc. It gets too confusing and overwhelming trying to keep track of multiple registries.
* Don't be afraid to ask a married friend or family member to help you register because they already have a home and will know what things you need and which ones you do not. I recommend taking said married friend instead of your future husband. Face it girls, he probably has very little interest in registering for anything that you need for your home. If he goes it'll just be to sneak in a few video games onto the registry.

Baby Registries
* Keep it Simple! You do not have to register for the child's entire life's worth of stuff. Trust me, as much fun as it is to open cute outfits and stuff at the shower, you will wish you'd just been given diapers! ;-)
* Don't register for stuff you would not actually buy yourself. If its too expensive for you to buy its probably too expensive for most of your friends and family too. And baby stuff is used for such a short time it usually doesn't make sense to spend alot of money on it.
* Again I will say have a friend or family member who has had babies before come with you. There is so much stuff out there that looks cute or handy but its so hard to know what you need before you have your own. Get advice on what essentials are worth registering for.

Grandma Says

Articles that appear from Grandma Says are focused on general parenting practices and philosophy and are not as age-specific as articles that appear in Growing Child.

"Grandma Says" is a feature of Growing Child and we encourage you to send your comments to: GrandmaSays@GrowingChild.com

THE MAGIC LIST

You always knew there must be some secret list that all those perfect parents had access to, the list that would remove any difficulties you have with your children forever--right?

Actually, there is such a list, published in a wonderful little book, titled Parents, Please Don't Sit on Your Kids, by Clare Cherry. (Unfortunately, the book is out of print now, but see if your public library has a copy.)

In it, Cherry offers the magic list as reminders of alternatives to typical punitive discipline responses that many parents resort to out of frustration.

Here, with a couple of explanatory words, is the magic list. You can copy just the main ideas to make your own list to post inside a kitchen cabinet for those challenging moments.

1. Anticipate trouble. Consider the ages and personalities of your children to guess their likely responses to situations and people. You can control the physical environment to minimize stress.

2. Give gentle reminders. Demeaning children or nagging them into oblivion doesn't work. Instead, reminders may be just one word, such as "helping" or "waiting", or even a nonverbal nod of the head ("yes, that's okay"), or shake of the head ("no, not now).

3. Distract the child's attention from what she's doing to a positive model. Compliment one child on a positive behavior, and see how quickly a sibling will want that positive attention as well. (Use this one sparingly and carefully, to avoid creating sibling issues.)

4. Inject humor. A note of humor (not sarcasm) can interrupt a deteriorating situation. Remember, this is laughing with children, not at them.

5. Offer choices. When possible, offer children choices that are acceptable to you. Freedom to make choices makes it more likely that children will cooperate, as well as learn to make good decisions.

6. Give praise or compliments. Sincere praise, not over-used, reinforces those behaviors that you enjoy in your child.

7. Offer encouragement. Related to praise, this is another way of giving your children respect for what they are attempting to accomplish at their own level, not in comparison with others, and helping them learn to overcome obstacles.

8. Clarify messages. Leave no room for misunderstanding, and make sure you have children's attention before using language that they can understand.

9. Overlook small annoyances. Otherwise known as, don't sweat the small stuff. If you find yourself getting annoyed frequently, ask yourself whether this situation is indeed worthy of a battle.

10. Deliberately ignore provocations. This method can gradually eliminate an undesirable pattern of behavior. By giving no kind of reinforcement to annoying behavior, eventually those behaviors will disappear, particularly when you are careful to give children specific attention during times of acceptable behavior.

11. Reconsider the situation. Nothing is set in concrete. Reconsidering decisions can foster sensible handling of potentially difficult situations or conflicts.

12. Point out natural or logical consequences. Help young children see the connections between their actions and the results of their behavior. When these behaviors and results are presented as a means of explanation, not as a moral judgment or punishment, consequences help children see the sense in acting in a certain way.

13. Provide renewal time. Notice that this is not the punitive isolation of "time out," but an opportunity to calm down, renew themselves, and regain composure.

14. Give hugs and caring. Frequent demonstrations of caring provide an atmosphere in which children just want to behave well.

15. Arrange discussion among the children. This is a big topic we'll need to go back to soon, but for now understand the idea that children need help in communicating with other children to solve their problems.

16. Provide discussion with an adult. In avoiding power struggles, clear communication is important.

That is the magic list. It's mostly good, common sense with nothing really magic about it. There is an emphasis on finding ways to keep feelings from flaring out of control, and ways to live together humanely.

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© Growing Child 2009 Please feel free to forward this article to a friend.

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Scrap Challenge

Ok, so my scrappin' sisters and I have been giving each other these scrappin' challenges to livin' up our scrapbooking and to help each other try to techniques and branch out of our crafting rut - er, I mean, style. ;-)

So I thought I would share my current challenge with the other Sunday Scrappers!! Here goes:

- Two page layout - the sketch and sample are from the August PageMaps and pictured below
- must include four or more pictures - and get this... YOU must be in one or more of the photos
- must include at least three different patterned paper, and at least two solids
- must include at least one paper piecing (here is a link to some piecing ideas at Scrapbooks Etc
* bonus points for using something(s) that are not actually intended for scrapbooking

Feel free to include anyone you want in the challenge, I've cc'd a couple friends to entice them into joining in the scrapping fun. If you are going to participate you may email me a pix of your pages or post them on your blog or facebook and send me links. The challenge will be open until the end of the month. I'll announce the winner and send out the prize sometime in the first week of September.

That is all for now. Let me know if you have any questions. Now get to scrappin'!! ;-)

Go Cubs Go

A couple of weeks ago my hubby and I went to Cincy for a Cubs-Reds ballgame. Isaac's family has always been big Cubs fans. I come from a non-sports family so I've had to adjust to having a team/sport to watch at any given time. I'm still a work in progress. ;-)
So this was my first "real" baseball game (I've been to minor league games before), and our first Cubs game together. What fun! Seriously, being at the game in person is so much more fun that watching it on tv. And let me just say it was a sea of blue!! We both decided that there were definitely more Cubs fans than there were Reds fans.
It was a great game. There were some great plays and the Cubs WON!! Isaac rubbed it in to our friends who are Reds fans.

Scrappin' Retreat

This weekend my scrappin' sisters and I did a DIY scrapbooking retreat. We were blessed to be able to use my inlaws' lakehouse for free. We drove up on Friday afternoon and stayed through Sunday afternoon. We were all in the "zone" and got some awesome pages done, including some challenge pages. Each of us created a kit of our own design with paper, embellishments, etc. It was interesting to see how different our pages were even though they were done with the same supplies. Here is a slideshow of the pages from the weekend. Let me know what you think.

For more awesome papercrafts check out Sunday Scrappin'.

Knock on Wood

So... after what feels like the longest potty training ever I think Nate has finally got it. We finally got serious and broke down and had him wear underwear even though he wasn't showing much of an effort. We had a week or two of having to clean up accidents on a daily basis. Which was exhausting and annoying and gross. Seriously, cleaning poop out of underwear is way worse than just changing a diaper.
Then about two weeks ago something must have finally clicked. Nate was playing and all of a sudden he said "my poop is ready to come out" and he went to the bathroom and that was it! He's been doing it ever since! We have not had any accidents during the day. We're still putting him in pullups for bed and I'm cool with that.
We took him to Chuck-E-Cheese as a reward for staying clean and dry and going in the potty. Throughout the evening we kept reminding Nate why we got to go there. Later we asked him why we went to Chuck-E-Cheese and he replied "POOP!". It was pretty funny!
I'm so thankful to only be changing (and buying) diapers for one kid now. And Nate feels like he is a real big boy now. Its a win-win! Hallelujah!!

Angleman Syndrome Criteria

I've been doing a little looking into Angelman's and wanted to share a little of my findings. We won't get the results of the genetic testing back for a couple of months but we're trying to prepare ourselves in case they come back positive. The bold sections are characteristics/symptoms that we find apply to Joe. There may be more since some of the medical jargon is still foreign to me.

Consensus Criteria or Clinical Symptoms of Angelman Syndrome

The following is an official list of the clinical characteristics of Angelman syndrome. These were derived by Dr. Charles Williams, er al, through the study of a group of individuals with AS and are known as "consensuscriteria".

A. Consistent Characteristics (100%)
- Developmental delay, functionally severe
- Speech impairment, none or minimal use of words; receptive and non-verbal communication skills higher than verbal ones
- Movement or balance disorder, usually ataxia of gait and/or tremulous movement of limbs
- Behavioral uniqueness: any combination of frequent laughter/smiling; apparent happy demeanor; easily excitable personality, often with hand flapping movements; hypermotoric behavior; short attention span

B. Frequent Characteristics (more than 80%)
- Delayed, disproportionate growth in head circumference, usually resulting in microcephaly (absolute or relative) by age 2
- Seizures, onset usually < 3 years of age o Abnormal EEG, characteristic pattern with large amplitude slow-spike waves (usually 2-3/s), facilitated by eye closure

C. Associated Characteristics (20 - 80%)
- Flat occiput (back of head)
- Occipital groove
- Protruding tongue - maybe
- Tongue thrusting; suck/swallowing disorders
- Feeding problems during infancy
- Prognathia (projecting jaw) - maybe
- Hypopigmented skin and eyes
- Wide mouth, wide-spaced teeth
- Frequent Drooling
- Excessive chewing/mouthing behaviors
- Strabismus
- Hypopigmented skin, light hair and eye color (compared to family), seen only in deletion cases *he's pretty pale but so are Isaac and I
- Hyperactive lower limb deep tendon reflexes
- Uplifted, flexed arms during walking
- Increased sensitivity to heat
- Sleep disturbance *sometimes, but I have always attributed it to having an older brother!
- Attraction to/fascination with water

If you are interested check out what Wikipedia has on it. The sections on prognosis and "living w/ Angelman's" were particularly interesting.

Door County Trip Recap

A few weeks ago Isaac and I had a long weekend to ourselves. It was our first "real" vacation in several years. We're spoiled by my inlaws' lakehouse - which is great - but its almost become just another place that we live sometimes. So it was nice to break from the usual and get away just the two of us.
We leisurely drove up to Door County, Wisconsin, stopping a few places along the way. As I mentioned in a previous post, I found a few diners along our designated route for us to try out. It was so nice to not be on a schedule. No naps to worry about or diapers to change. We were able to focus on enjoying one another's company. We could talk and tease and play in a grown up way that we cannot do daily. It was a breath of fresh air to me.
While in Door County we drove around and visited a couple lighthouses, stopped at a few beaches, did some wine tasting... we could have easily spent a week there but alas we only had a couple of days. It was such a blessing to be able to remind ourselves of what its like to just be a couple. Not "mom & dad"... but husband and wife. I am so thankful for this special time we were able to spend together.
Thanks to our friends and family who took great care of the boys for us while we were gone. And to my mom and sisters for cleaning my house and painting my bathroom! What a great surprise!

Scrap

Its been hard to find the time (or energy) to scrap lately. But Friday night a couple of us girls got together to get our scrap on. We are planning a DIY scrapbooking retreat that'll take place in a few weeks. So while we scrapped we were organizing and planning out the details of our weekend away! Since I have boys I have to look for reasons to use pink and flowers in my layouts. I was so happy to work in these fun fuzzy flowers into this Easter page.
And this page is of my family. Its pretty rare that we get a picture of us all together anymore. Its kind of weird that we're almost all grown up now! I'm the oldest at 29yrs and my "baby" brother is 14yrs. Wow!

Anyway... that is all I got for now. Hopefully I'll have a whole slideshow of pages for you when we get back from our scrappin' retreat!! Check out some other great paper crafts at Sunday Scrappin'!!

Studio Go!

Last week was our church's Vacation Bible School. This year was a game show theme. We were thankful to have had enough volunteers that I was able to be the designated photographer and got to wander around and take photos of all the VBS goings on.
What a fun time of learning about God and His plan for us. The kids heard a different bible story and were given a mission: Go Lead, Go Risk, Go Obey, Go Tell, and Go Serve. Its great to simplify and teach kids about God in such a tangible way. What a blessing to be a part of such an important ministry.
Both my boys enjoyed the week. Nate dragged his feet a little while we were getting ready to leave each day but had a blast while we were there. He still sings a few of the songs they learned and keeps repeating the "I say "Studio" you say "Go"" thing that they did all week. And Joe... he LOVED the worship time! He would get bouncing and clapping. It was the highlight of his day. It was pretty cute!
Thanks to all those who made it possible!

You scream, I scream....

5MinutesForMom is hosting a photo contest centered around the all American dessert: Ice Cream!! As you may know, I am a sucker for a good online contest, especially a photo one!
So here is a shot of my little man Nate digging into a love-it dish of chunky, chocolaty ice cream! As you can see, he's already wearing a little chocolate on his face!
I could use your help. If you make comments on the contest page about my pix it might help our chances of being a finalist. And if I am a finalist I will need your votes to win! The prizes are all Blue Bunny Ice Cream certificates! Who doesn't like to win ice cream? :-)

Our Diners Drive

So, my friend Lehi has gotten me into the show Diners Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network. When we decided to take a trip (just my DH and I - no kids!). I immediately was looking up online to see if we were going to be going by any of the restaurants featured on Diners.
Our first stop was Triple XXX Family Restaurant in West Lafayette, IN. I don't think the place had changed much over the past fifty years. It reminded me of a soda shop. The food was pretty good. I tried the grilled tenderloin (as featured on the show) and liked it. Isaac got a Bernie Burger. We give it a thumbs up!
Then we stopped at Frank's Diner in Kenosha, WI. Its built around an old train car. They have their "Diner Etiquette" or rules posted for all to see. Their motto is "Order what you want. Eat what you get." I think that needs to be a magnet on every mom's fridge! Their menu varies from day to day, sometimes even a change in the cooks mood! When we were there it was tex-mex night. I got a burrito and Isaac got some carne asada dish. Both were exellent. Two solid thumbs up from me. Not so much from Isaac who didn't get a kick out of their motto/rules like I did. ;-)
Our last stop was at Smoque BBQ in Chicago, IL. It was not an old joint like the other two. While we were there on a Saturday afternoon it was packed. Isaac got brisket and I got a pulled pork sandwich. Both were very good. Their BBQ sauce is gooood! Isaac said it was reminicent of A1 sauce, but they put their own twist on it. I also enjoyed their baked mac and cheese and their french fries were particularly good as well. This was Isaac's favorite stop of the trip. So there you have it. Our little taste of the diners. They sure know what they're talking about! Just so you know... we did do more than eat on our trip! I'll post more about that later!