A Good Day From Beginning to End... Well, Almost

Today was a fun day. It started with getting up, having breakfast with Daddy, getting the kids and I dressed, and heading out the door to Philip's swimming lesson. All the kids seemed to fall right back into routine. I wasn't sure how some of them would do as it had been three days since being there. Philip has lost a little of initial excitement and seems to come out of the pool shivering to death each day, but he hung in there and I could see that he really is making improvements. About 10 minutes until 10:00am (the lesson is over at 10:00am), his teacher leads the class to the deep end of the pool. A few other moms and I were wondering how deep that part was so I walked down there to see and watch the group close up. It is 11 1/2 feet deep!! When Philip's turn came, he calmly climbed up onto the platform (like a swim meet starting block), and lept into the water where his teacher was waiting, floating herself on some sort of "life-saving device". He bobbed to the surface and she got him headed in the direction of the ladder. Philip swam about two feet all by himself!! The funny part is that I'm amazed how brave he was, but honestly the 3 1/2 feet shallow end is over his head too so where he jumps in really doesn't matter.

Next we drove over to the hospital to visit our very good friend Mary Ann who had suffered a mini-stroke on Friday but sustained no side effects at all. Thank you, Lord!! It was great seeing her and I believe Philip and Braewyn provided (as they usually do) much needed comic relief for her and her husband, Hank (our pastor). Philip and "Pastor Hank" (whom Philip called "Papa" by accident once, but made Hank's day) played "I Spy" out the room window. The parking garage was in view from the room so Hank suggested to Philip that if Mommy would drive him to the top, he would wave to Philip from the window. I had parked on the 5th level so it wasn't a problem as there were only 6 levels. We got to the top and could actually see Hank waving from the window. Cool! The other really cool part was that there were hardly any cars up there and no obstructions. I had a strong inclination to do doughnuts in my car, but remembered that my pastor might be watching for one and simply thinking of him as a family friend, I didn't want to portray myself as a DSS-reportable mom slinging my kids around in the back of the car!

Matthew met us at home for lunch and we cleaned out the fridge of leftovers. My favorite kind of meal. Braewyn actually slept through lunch and so I was hoping to get Philip down for a nap while she was still asleep. I took him to my bedroom (where he naps usually) and started reading "Green Eggs and Ham". He was bouncing around and I was falling asleep midsentence ("I will not eat them in..." "Mommy, read!"). I figured at least one of us should get some rest, so I let him play Tinkertoys while I slept for 15 minutes. My funny boy says as I kissed him on the top of his head before he left my room to go play in the living room, "Mommy, don't kiss me on my head. Kiss me on my... my... sweet face."

Once up and at 'em again, I cooked Chicken Divan (great recipe of Paula Dean's!) for Matthew's aunt Elise and family. (I should have posted this earlier, but Elise broke her ankle while in Honduras a few weeks ago on a mission trip. Can you imagine flying home with a broken ankle?! She had surgery on it two weeks ago and is now into 8 weeks of not being able to put any pressure on it; i.e. out of work from her job at the hospital operating room, and spending her days propped up on the couch playing Wii and reading blog! Hope you're having a good day, Elise! We're praying for you.) After it was finally finished, the kids and I drove the casserole to Elise's house and visited for a few minutes with her, Mollie (her daughter and one of my best buddies!), and Michael (Mollie's hubby).

At 6:35pm while driving home, I called Matthew who was just leaving work (big project at the end of this week) and we decided to meet at a recently renovated McDonald's (they actually have a coffee bar and free WiFi!). Philip was excited as I told him it had a really nice new playground too. We headed over to eat in the playground room, sitting down beside two Hispanic families. Philip says OUT LOUD, "Mommy, I can speak Spanish. (insert three-year-old's attempt at Spanish here)." I may as well enroll him in Spanish class since he already thinks he can speak it.

We drive home and the kids go in the tub. Bathtime goes fairly well, but I could tell they were both getting cranky and tired. After getting into pajamas, we should have gone straight to bed but went to the living room instead. Philip starts saying he's hungry (too excited at McD's to eat much) so I gave him one option: bread with peanut butter on it. I thought he said yes so I went to fix it. Braewyn meanwhile was enjoying typing on Daddy's laptop. He had been working on the couch and she was looking on inquisitively. Matthew clicked over to Notepad so she could type away. Somehow she would click it back to his program (a few seconds before he noticed) and scared the life out of him. After doing it again, Matthew said "No more, Braewyn, all done." Side note, Braewyn does not adjust well to being told no to something she's enjoying. The temper tantrum starts and my flashbacks of walking the floor with a five-month-old banshee return. Meanwhile, back to Philip, I return from the kitchen with a piece of peanut butter bread and he says he wants regular bread. I say "Sorry, this was what was offered. Let's just go to bed."

Matthew and I walk two screaming children down the hall, place them in beds, tell them we love them, and close the door. Ten minutes later there is silence in our house. I am totally and completely blessed to live with these three amazing people whom God has brought into my life.

New Post Below

I started a post about Philip's swimming lessons but had trouble uploading the videos. Hence, the post "Two Peas in a Pod" showed up yesterday, but now the swimming lesson post is below it. Wanted to make sure you saw it as the "Pod" post is very long and you might not scroll down past it again.

Two Peas in a Pod

Philip and Braewyn have shared a room since she was 5 months old. They slept in the room at nights while she napped in the office and he in their room. Finally around 8 months, I moved her back in their room for naps and told Philip if he woke her up he'd be disciplined (obviously if it wasn't an accident, i.e. jumping on his bed saying "Braewyn, wake up!"). They did ok for a while if I could get one of the two in first and asleep before the other came in. About three months ago (she 12 months, he little over 3 years old), they began virtually throwing parties in the room at nap time. It would be 30-40 minutes sometimes and I'd say several times, "You need to lay down. Philip, if you don't talk to Braewyn, she'll fall asleep." That's when I decided to let Philip nap on mine and Matthew's bed and leave Braewyn in her crib alone in their room. This worked!! There were (and still are) many days when Philip says, "Mommy, can this be a day when I don't rest?" He's trying to worm his way out of a nap and I'm trying my hardest to find a way to squeeze one in (for ME!). Somedays, I risk it and put them in their room together. Some days it works, some days not so good. Some days Philip and I can fall asleep on my bed together, some days I'll dose off only to be poked awake five minutes later. I suppose Philip is outgrowing napping but I'm hanging on to it for dear life as long as possible.

Now there's also the nighttime issue these days. Sharing a room has pluses, but also minuses as in one early riser means two early risers. When we only had Philip and he was 14 months old, he slept a good 12 hours at night (bed around 8pm and awaking around 8am) plus two naps during the day. Boys and girls are as different as night and day, but before I tag Braewyn as whiny and high-maintenance, I really need to give her a chance to get more sleep. The poor girl is only getting the same amount of sleep as Philip gets these days and he's 2 1/2 years older, whole different sleep pattern. Now with the two, we're doing good to get them in bed by 9pm. And then they sleep like rocks until... 6:45am!! (Also I've been hearing Braewyn cry for a few seconds around 5:30am most mornings.) That's when Philip gets out of bed, loudly opens and closes their bedroom door and uses the bathroom. Poor Braewyn is probably soundly sleeping until CLICK! She then cries and some mornings will fall back asleep for 45 minutes to an hour. But some mornings doesn't. It makes for a long day especially this week and next with us going to swim lessons during the time she would love to be napping. She has fallen asleep in the car on the way home each day, but she usually awakens when we get home or to whatever destination is next. I think next week, I'll just come straight home and let her sleep for an hour.

Well, just wanted to "jot this down on paper" so I can read it back in ten years when I'm telling them for the fourth time, "Get up. You need to get ready for school!" And yes, Lord-willing, we'll be in another house by then and they'll each have their own rooms!

We love swimming lessons!

July continues to be a month of firsts for Philip. This week, he started swimming lessons. I really didn't know how he would do, but I say as humbly as possible, he's maybe the best in his class! I knew he was very comfortable being in the water before starting the lessons but sometimes he gets kind of bashful in different circumstances and his lessons are in a big aquatic center pool with classes of all different types going on all at the same times. Well, my questions were answered the first morning when I could see across the room his teacher asking all the kids to put their faces into the water. A few had to be asked again to do it and some complied but barely let their noses touch the water's surface. And then there's Philip... his teacher says put your face in the water, he's COMPLETELY UNDERWATER! I couldn't even see him from where I was sitting. As there are 6 kids in the class and the teacher can only take them into the water one at a time, there's a lot of down time waiting on the submersed platform (the pool is between 3 to 4 feet deep so the kids stand on an underwater platform so they are not underwater themselves). Well, during that down time, Philip is underwater, up for air, underwater, up for air, and so on. When it is his turn, he's so cute kicking his little legs or jumping from the side into the water toward his waiting teacher. My heart goes out to the parents of the screaming, anxious children, but I am thankful that by means of water cups over the head during bathtime and his daddy's comfort level in the water, we've helped Philip develop such a love for the water. This fact was a main reason we thought he better takes lessons now to bring guidance to his fearless abandon. Well, enough said. Here are some cute videos from today's lesson. Mom joined us this morning which was helpful as Braewyn was glad to walk around. Braewyn's fearless abandon will be the subject of my next post.

VBS was great!

Last week our church held Vacation Bible School and we averaged around 350 kids every night! It was an amazing week as the kids learned the foundational truths of Christianity: God is real, Jesus is God's Son, Jesus is the only way, the Bible is God's Word, and our actions show what we believe. And it was all set to a Hawaiian Luau theme, "Outrigger Island: Living God's Unshakeable Truth".
I had a rollercoaster week teaching the rising 6th grade girls. Sylvia (my co-teacher and great new friend) and I were thrown a curve ball on Sunday afternoon (the day prior to VBS) when we found out our class roll only had two names on it! How would we teach only two girls? We thought about combining with the rising 7th grade girls, but it took the wind out of our sails for the moment. However, I knew God would provide and He did: we had six precious girls show up on Monday night!! The first night I was actually very nervous and to me the night seemed to bomb. I was so grateful that VBS would only be a week long. That night I felt such admiration for professional teachers as I was wondering how I would get through just doing this for a week.

Each night of the week got progressively better and a lot of great things came from the experience: making a great new friend in Sylvia; enjoying spending each night with Kelcey and Ashley, our assistants I recruited from my 10th grade Sunday School class; getting to know the six sweetest little girls who made up our class; and finding out that one of them gave her life to Jesus on our decision night! I also enjoyed the drive to and from each night with Philip and our 6-year-old neighbor Anna Grace. Our family night program on Friday evening was a big hit as the sanctuary was packed. Philip sang two songs with the younger group (3-year-olds to rising 1st-graders) and was just precious. This video was from our Sunday morning service to let our church members experience a little taste of VBS. Philip joined in the hand motions but didn't sing like he had on Friday night. Still, my little munchkin!!

Cardboard Testimonies

A friend sent me an email containing a link to this YouTube video. It is truly powerful. If you have asked Jesus to be your savior, you KNOW how He changed your life. If you have not asked Jesus to be your savior, you might see Christians and think they are uptight, stuffy people or the extreme opposite: people living just like you just with a fake front trying to look all high and mighty. For me, being a Christian really has nothing to do with the church I attend, which Bible studies I've taken or how many Bible verses I've memorized. Giving my life over to Christ means I have been RESCUED from the complete mess my life would have been without Him. It also means I have been promised a home in heaven after I die and leave this world. This video shows real people who have been through some real things. Please watch it.

Recent Philip-ism's

Yes, having my two little ones is pretty tiring as that previous post stated, but every day is worth it to have little people grow up before your eyes. I need to document some of Philip's more recent phrases.

• I passed Braewyn a cheese stick at lunch one day and said, "Here's some cheese-arooni." (Motherhood makes you silly; you know!) Well, Philip said, "Easy-rooni!" and looked at Matthew. "That's Spanish for butter." (Since watching Dora and Diego, he thinks he knows Spanish. He cracks us up!!)
  
• While reading his story Bible, we read about Joshua and the wall of Jericho falling. The next page reads, "When Joshua was an old man, he reminded the people to obey God's Word. 'Choose this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.'" I looked at Philip and said, "Will our house serve the Lord?" He said frankly, "No, people do that."
  
• After brushing his teeth last night, he points to the back of his throat and says, "That's where my scream comes from!"

I love him!!!