7:45 PM -Post Valentines Dinner

No one caught on fire and no one spilled their drinks or broke my wine glasses their juice was in. Still, the heels need to go.

And some coke in my glass with a twix. Sorry, I don't do the chocolate fondue, everyone else enjoyed it though.

Blowing out the candles was a highlight of the evening, Judah kept talking about how it was his birthday. I think it was eating by candle light, usually that only happens when someone is about to sing happy birthday.

Daddy brought flowers for Eden.

Judah got some candy.

For all of you out there feeling bad for Levi, he had some puff and yogurt melts and was quite happy. And don't worry Carlos had flowers delivered to me yesterday for Valentines Day Eve, and I had a nice note this morning in my valentines mailbox.

Favorite Toys

I have mentioned before that I have a schedule that we loosely follow, one of the things that is part of this schedule is rotating toys.  I have a closet of bins that have a specific activity in them, I think all or most of them have pieces that are either small or easily lost hence they are not out all the time.  Also, the kids will enjoy them more if they are not out all the time.   Once a day or so, I give each of the kids their blanket and one of the bins, since they know whatever is in their bin can not leave the blanket I can keep a closer eye on what is happening and it keeps us from having toys with no pieces left.  Usually they play 15 min and then switch. 15-20 min. is pretty much max time for their ages.  But it is amazing what i can get done in 15-20 min, when the kids are totally occupied by what they are doing.

If anyone is ever looking for something new in the toy department, these are two of my favorite toys that you can't get in the regular toy store. I bought both from amazon, but most education stores probably have them as well, I know the one here does.

Straws and connectors. I especially love these because they can use them for a long time. The kids where I used to work would build crazy big houses to sit in all the time. If I can get use out of them from 2 years to 4th grade, I think the $15 is a great investment. They not only like building with them, but also using them in their pots and pans as pasta.

Peg board & pegs. I bought this originally because Judah was very into trying to fit things together since he was about 18 months old. I was tired of telling him to stop disconnecting my dvd player from the tv (he loved trying to put the plugs back in).  It was a great move, he loves it and it is good for his fine motor skills which he can always use a little help in.  Eden also loves and will build towers and sort them by colors. When I get this out we have to take turns with this and another fun bin of toys, because they will fight over who gets to play with this.

All is grace

There is something happened in parenthood that makes me realize in a whole new way my own need for grace. Thankfully the majority of the time kids are more than willing to give it. I have been listening to a song by Shawn Groves (Love him!) recently that makes me pause on reflect on this concept every time I hear it. The song is called All is Grace, I need that to be spoken to me regularly. It is through his grace that I fail and grow, aside from grace I have nothing. Tuesday was not a good day in our house, everyone (especially me) woke up and was just off. We were grumpy and still tired. After music class we went to the grocery store where there were no carts left with the car on the front. This means not only can no one ride in the car, but I only have one seat on the top of the cart, instead of two. I also realized at that point I didn't have my baby carrier in the car which I would normal use in these situations. So Levi gets the seat, Judah is put in the big part of the cart and Eden is stuck walking. As a result of the already off day, this cause Eden to melt down. For the first 5 min were were in the store she walked next to me crying hysterically and saying "I want to ride" over and over again. This is not her typical reaction and I am fully aware it is because she was really tired, but if we wanted to eat lunch and have milk we need to be there for the time being. Between the produce and deli, we stopped, talked and pulled ourselves together. After we paid for our food, Eden stood on the front of the cart to ride out to the car. On the way out, some lady stopped talking with the woman she was walking in with, came over a gave me a huge lecture on how unsafe it is to allow my children to be in the cart the way they were and to ride on the front and how I need to stop it now. I smiled, said they are quite safe at the moment and kept walking to my car. She then yelled that it is against store policy, I kept walking before I said something I would regret. I called a friend on the way home to talk me down because I was so mad. First of all I know my kids quite well, they were perfectly safe. Second, unless she is grocery shopping with 3 children 3 and under, I don't want to hear her opinion. On that particular day it was a miracle that no one was crying (including me!) On the way home Eden and Judah started fighting about an imaginary baby doll. Judah took the doll from Eden and was pretending to eat it. Eden was screaming and crying. Judah smiled and continued eating. There was some debate in my head about how to handle it, especially since there was no actually doll involved, just the one in their imaginations. Thankfully, Judah agreed to give the "doll" back to Eden when I asked him too. I watched in the rear view mirror as he handed her nothing, otherwise known as a doll. These type of arguments happen pretty frequently in our house, Judah was screaming recently because Eden had told him his name was no longer Judah, but he was now grandpa. It didn't matter how many times I told him that he was still Judah, all he cared about was that Eden told him it wasn't his name anymore. After the grocery store we ate lunch and napped. Levi only slept and hour and woke up with a poopy diaper. Since he had already missed his morning nap because of music class, he really needed another nap. So around 5pm after 20 minutes of trying to get him to sleep, he was sleeping. Eden & Judah were playing happily and I decided to take out the trash and take it out front for the garbage truck so Carlos didn't have to do it later. I came in from doing trash and heard Eden & Judah yelling "Levi, Levi" over the monitor. I snapped, I was so mad. I ran upstairs to see them looking through the crib bars at Levi, screaming his name. I was so mad. I yelled, sent them downstairs to clean up their special toys they had been playing with and while I was picking up Levi I noticed 2 new baby toys in the corner of his crib. I had found them earlier and had set them downstairs for him to play with at some point. I realized at that moment that Eden & Judah had found them and were just really excited to share them with their brother. No they shouldn't have woken him up, but they are 2 & 3 and the excitement overrode any logic that might have been there. Went down talked, hugged, apologized. Yea, they still knew they should not have woken him up, but I also shouldn't have responded the way I did. Thank God, all is grace. For the record, the day did not get better from that point on, Levi was an overtired mess, but my outlook had changed and we survived. I use the word survived on purpose, some days it seems like survival is all we can manage. And in those days there is grace.

Potty Training

Judah wanted to sit on the potty, who am I to say no. 2 hours later I said no. We are done, for a long time.

I had no desire to potty train him, nor do I think he is any way ready to be potty trained, but he asked so what is one afternoon. After holding it for quite a while he pee on the floor, a lot. I cleaned it up and while I was finishing up Eden came in to tell me Judah peed all over the kitchen floor. I sort of thought his bladder was empty due to the previous massive puddle a few minutes prior. He didn't even care that he peed on the floor, didn't tell me, just moved on to keep playing. Thank goodness Eden was there to tell me or I probably would have stepped in it later. I think I will need a lot of prayer when I actually do need to potty train him (a very long time from now).

Fridays

Nap Time, Previous nights Grey's Anatomy on Hulu, lunch, blissful.

Judah was here

Practicing Letters

We spent some time this morning practicing letters in our salt box and with some shaving cream. Fun for Eden and Judah who could still play in it, plus it made my table really clean.