Aversions

aversion n. - a strong feeling of dislike, repugnance, or antipathy toward something and a desire to avoid it.

My observations of child aversions:
1. Anything clean - this is a very broad category, so I'll break it down:
a. toilets - nothin' says "pee all over the back of me" like a freshly cleaned toilet. Once soiled, it never seems to get worse, but it never fails that after a good scrubbing, someone manages to whiz all over it.
b. windows - what is it with having windows clean enough to look through that drives them crazy enough to rub food, spit, boogers, etc., all over them?
c. mirrors - are those tongue marks??
d. toys - aversions to the toys, unless they are all picked up by you, and then they're fun just long enough to scatter them everywhere, then it's on to something else.
e. the car - (See also 1b) How does so much food end up on the floor and under their seat? And where did all this garbage come from? Let's not mention the cupholders...looks like a science experiment! Ewww!

2. What you picked out for lunch & dinner

3. What you picked out for clothes that day

4. Directions for safety & well-being (all other bad instructions, especially by "friends", filter right on through to the long-term memory portion of the brain)

5. Napkins - why use a napkin when the underside of the table works just fine? Or their sleeve...or pants, or your clean shirt. But when given the opportunity to use a cloth napkin, they decide they don't want to get it dirty.

6. Baby has an aversion to being laid down most of the time.

7. Bedtime - Unless completely & utterly exhausted, someone will come down in less than 5 minutes & say "I can't sleep". Baby's aversion is to his own bed. Wakes up immediately in his bed, sleeps in ours, even when we're not in it. Maybe I should read "The Three Bears" again...

8. (This one may be considered a non-aversion, or could go under the "anything clean" category) A clean desk calendar - unless decorated by lines and scribbles, the month wouldn't be complete. Must also be done right when the new month starts so as not to have a "clean" schedule for an entire month.

9. Toilet paper - this discovery is uncovered when I do laundry. When toilet paper is utilized, it usually requires the use of plumbing tools to regain a proper functioning biffy.

10. Parent-to-parent interaction - It could be quiet for 30 minutes and as soon as you begin a conversation with your spouse, everyone decides that it's their turn to talk to Mom & Dad. This also includes any affectionate gestures, which result in little bodies squeezing in at the knees to get in on the lovin', or just keep us apart.

Of course, this is all in fun...I just had a list of sarcastic funnies piling up in my head & thought I'd share it. Now it's time to start cleaning all of those #1 aversions...again!

"I have something to say..."

For the most part, Ian is a pretty quiet baby and doesn't babble much...until last night. He somehow "speaks" with conviction & a sense of authority. He must be listening to his godfather's homilies...

"Four?!? Wow, you must be BUSY!"

When people ask me how many kids we have, the look on their face and the surprise in their voice when I say "four" just makes me smile. I never imagined that one day Jason & I would have 4 babies & I thought that I never wanted to have that much to do. For the most part, those selfish days are over and I find myself strangely serene about it all. Don't get me wrong, I have my days of overwhelming, hair-pulling, jaw-clenching moments, but overall, I am surprised by how much better it gets with each baby. Chalk it up maybe to experience, or even a growing maturity, but my alone time with Ian is spent much differently than when it was just AJ.

Yesterday while the older 3 helped Daddy in the garage, Ian & I worked in the garden & then laid on a blanket in the neighbor's fluffy grass, under the shade of a beautiful maple tree, gazing up at the clouds in the bright blue sky. Not something I took time to do early in my parenting journey. It was a blessed moment and the peace I found with that was priceless & I find myself looking forward to it more everyday. Yes, we are "busy", but it's a good way to be busy, and actually, they have helped me to slow down more mentally & enjoy the simple pleasures.

Adios, summer rec activities!

Well, summer recreation has ended for the kids & I find myself searching for ways to keep a very active 7 year-old boy busy enough so he doesn't drive us all mad. Now that we're in town, AJ's need to be constantly entertained has jumped into high gear. That was something I didn't see coming. I knew he would have more things to do & more kids to play with. What I didn't expect was that when he had a minute of down time, it would drive him bonkers, which in turn gets us all crazy because he can't stop asking about the next activity.

Yes, giving him work helps, but that only works for so long. Happily, Jason's route is done for the month, so being the wonderful Daddy that he is, he finds things to do with them to allow Ian his much needed quiet naptimes and smother-free Mommy time. This, in turn, makes everyone happier for the most part. I just have to figure out how to keep them that busy now that there is no summer rec to burn up their energy for a couple of hours and when Jason's route starts again! It might be time to start drinking coffee every morning...

Milestones: by Ian

As you know, from Mommy's last post, I have started eating cereal so I can try to sleep longer at night. I just wake up so hungry and don't realize that it's just been a few hours since I was last up! I make up for my sleep loss during the day though so Mommy can try to get some things done. You've seen me in my swing...

Guess what I learned to do the other day? I started rolling over! It seemed so hard to do for the longest time, but I realized that when I turn my head to the side and then bring my knees into my chest, I roll over like a little Weeble! My brother & sisters get so excited when I do it & they squeal with excitement. They also like it when I laugh at them, so I try to make a point of doing it a few times a day.

Life is good! My meals are always the perfect temperature, I get outside a lot in the stroller & the bike trailer (I usually fall asleep!) and I am hardly ever short of attention. I sure love my family and thank God that He brought me into this world to love them. I'm pretty sure they love me just as much, too! I better go...Mommy needs some attention. Hugs & smiles! Ian

Baby food time!

Ian got his first taste of "big boy food" yesterday and he absolutely loved it! The other kids winced and made funny faces when the spoon reached their lips, but not him! He opened his little mouth like a baby bird right on the first try and never stopped until it was all down the hatch.

I decided to try some rice cereal for dinner to hopefully get a longer span of sleeping in at night since he went back to getting me up every 3 hours to eat. Didn't really work last night, but hopefully tonight will be better. It also helped that he nursed for an hour before going to bed...now I just need to get to bed & fall asleep before he decides to wake up again!

No whining

Apparently, I seemed to be whining on my last post about how crazy the other day was, but let me assure you that I was trying to be somewhat funny, maybe a tad sarcastic. I just thought it was funny that during that day, we had seen Teresa 2-3 times and each time she had invited us over for strawberry shortcake...and we never seemed to make it over there. They live, what, 6 blocks away?

Anyhoo, we took the muchkins for a bike ride on the trail around town last night & managed to reach that "side" of town. Teresa just happened to have a little bit left which she happily prepared for us. It was delicious & we were happy to relieve her of the burden of trying to consume it all herself.

(*Note the sarcasm...that's me being, or trying to be, funny.) ;)

Time vs. strawberry shortcake

Seems like an easy choice doesn't it? As long as the day is, and as intent as we were to get over to Seth & Teresa's for strawberry shortcake the other day, it just didn't happen. Oh, how I longed for a little dessert that day, but for some reason the time just seemed to disappear that day as quickly as the entire week went.

Between Summer Recreation, running in the rain, meetings, fishing, church stuff, going to Sioux Falls to go to Chuck-E-Cheese, and a picnic at Camden Park, oh and let's not forget the biggest time gulper of all, THE POOL, we found ourselves this week in a blur of quick-fix meals, crabby-yet-ambitious children followed by eventual passing out on the couch a few times. Don't get me wrong, we had plenty of fun, relaxing activities to do and we enjoy it even more now that we live in town, but I think the kids (well, maybe just AJ) is in constant "busy" mode & keeping up with him gets exhausting.

But on the bright side, all is good! We are healthy, thankful & truly blessed for what God has given (and not given) us & we continue to look forward to what doors He will open for us, not ones that we try to kick in for ourselves.



"Comfort & tranquility" ~ how I envision us in our Heavenly Father's arms someday...

Joyride

I had to share this story about our nephews because it involved our tractor, (and Steph doesn't have a blog.) Since we've moved into town, we are no longer in need of use of our little 9N Ford Tractor, so we brought it out to the family home farm, which just happens to be where Jason's brother, Ricky, and his wife, Steph and their kids live. Kaden is 6 years old, Wyatt just turned 4 and little Kelly girl is 1.

So, at our party the other night, Steph shared a little story with us about the boys' first tractor ride. Actually, I should say drive because they took it for a little joyride before finally coming to a halt after running into a hay bale. Little did any of us know that the tractor could be started without the key or pushing in the clutch, as most driving implements require. Kaden had started the tractor, by the wise instructive words of his little brother, and drove with the hayrack in tow, across the yard about 40 feet before hitting an obstacle.

Even better, is that he wanted to show his Nana Carol that he actually could drive a tractor and proceeded to lead the family to the yard to show them. As he started it again & as the tractor leapt forward (along with all of the adults hearts), a lesson in "pretend" driving and real driving became a reality. Needless to say, they are no longer allowed near the 9N, but knowing the history of the farm & how boys are, there will be many more stories down the road for them to share and for us to be amazed how boys ever make it to adulthood in one piece.

Happy birthday, AJ!

Seven years ago today we were blessed with our first baby and son. How much things have changed in our lives since then, and now with another baby in the family, it seems like such a long time ago that AJ was that little, and that he was our only one!



We had our "annual" 4th of July/Birthday (and part housewarming) party yesterday and had Jason's family over. My mom was on her way down, with her friend Lee, and was expected to arrive around 2 or 3. Let's just say she didn't make it due to navigational difficulties and out of frustration because of driving almost to Iowa & then again missing the turn to head to Minneota, just decided to count it a lost day & set for home. By the time she actually got home, (she got lost again...don't ask me how), she had been on the road for about 11 hours. (For those of you who don't know, it takes about 3 1/2 hours to get from Fargo to here...Straight south on I-29 and then east on County Road 22/68 right to Minneota.) Yeah, she drove 3 hours out of the way before I had a chance to call her & find out where she was. Just makes my tummy hurt to think how long she drove & never got to see us. Now she'll probably never try to visit again!



It turned out to be a beautiful day which worked out well for having cake and ice cream outside (always a plus) as well as a pinata for the kids. Have you ever seen the movie "Parenthood" with Steve Martin? Here's about how it went, Hollywood style.

Here's how it went Myhre-style. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically inside my head paralleling the two.

Is seeing really believing?

In a society today that tends to focus on "prove that" or "I need to see it to believe it" on many things, I am curiously drawn to St. Thomas, the Apostle, who's feast day we celebrate today. I find it strange that from all the things we learn as humans, we continue to circle around to the weaknesses, mistakes, and doubts that those before us did. Even though we learn so much about the world around us, the lessons that God taught us seem to dissolve so that we feel we need to learn it again, but in our own ways.

Back in the Old Testament, it was the pagans saying, "Where is their God?" (Psalm 115), and today we hear many non-believers saying they don't even think He exists. Their "gods" are the things of this world...the things they idolize and can't do without that take their time away from putting God first. The existence of good things and why we should be good are "just because."

And then in the New Testament, Thomas states that he won't believe unless he sees Jesus for himself, and then Jesus calls him out on it. How many times today do we deny His existence until He smacks us upside the head in someway to prove that He's still with us? Why is it that we need to feel Him in our lives to have faith? "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." (John 20:29) I for one know that I was guilty of that very action. Do I now feel Him in my life because I have faith, or do I have faith because He became a part of my life?