The Night Watches

Often, during our craft time, Tyler and I have found out the hard way, that things are just messy. Unnecessarily messy sometimes. So, I am very wary of paint activities, because in my experiences with Tyler and painting, it is usually more mess than I bargained for! But my boy LOVES to paint. He asks me almost everyday to paint. I have tried a lot of different painting things, from those little sun catchers, to water colors, to regular little paint in those little plastic holders to finger paint. All have been fun, but all have been messy and the paints all get mixed together despite my efforts to keep them apart. Introducing Parents Easy Squeezy Paints . They were a gift, and we LOVE them. They are completely washable, and are clean! I cannot believe I said paint is clean!!!! Tyler was able to paint, mostly on his own for an extended time, and there was little to no mess after wards. And after (what I thought) he was squeezing the life out of them, he had barely made a dent into the a...

It is often referred to as "the wrong side of the bed" ... and the opposite would be "starting out on the right foot." I would have liked this day to start in the latter, and yet I find myself being tempted to be quick to anger at every turn. We are training our boy to stay in his bed until a certain time each morning, to ensure he gets enough sleep and we also get enough sleep.  He doesn't like to do it though. In the course of 45 mintues, I was up out of bed 5 times this morning. The first was because he didn't want daddy to help him, but mommy. This was an hour and a half before the determined wake up time arrived. The second and third times, he just wanted to get out of bed because he just wanted to. The fourth and fifth times, he was just shouting my name so loudly, I grew angry so quickly, my heart was beating fast before my feet hit the ground. I hurried into his room to silence his calls to keep him from waking his brother, and certainly not with a h...

I have two very messy boys. They are like magnets to anything dirty. They love it. And in a way, so do I. But this post wasn't meant to be about the messes they create, play in and are drawn to... it was to tell you about one of the little boys who steals my heart multiple times a day! Jack (or Jackers as Tyler calls him) has finally begun to take his first steps on his own!!! He will be 15 months in one week, and I am have hope that he will start walking by then (just like Tyler did)! He is so cute and gets so excited when we cheer for him after he has taken a few steps! He also loves to be with me, no matter where I am. And he has gotten very good at creating fun for himself.... I think he was going after his sock he had thrown in there... I just love him so much! I cannot believe he is getting so old. Time is going past too fast!

It was a sunny windy lovely day! We ventured to the park with our friends, the Russells, and enjoyed some play time together! It was so nice just getting outside! Tyler had so much fun, and Jack was filthy by the time we left- which means it was a successful time! When we were leaving, Tyler had to pee- so I took him behind a tree and he did his business. As he was going, he was very intentional about going on the tree trunk. Afterwards, he told me that the tree was gonna grow now, cause it got water. Love this age! Here are some picts of my sweet boys at the park! Can't wait till Spring!

Things around here have looked a lot less exciting than usual. We have been spending lots of time at home with two main objectives- train the little grumpy boy and keep the house clean to show it to potential renters (this has been tricky- for example- someone called today at 3 asking to come and see the house at 6!). Between the two, albeit things have not been exciting, they have been busy. And mostly due to the training of one very feelings-driven 3 year old. So, when Ty was 2, the big things we were working on were obedience- right away, all the way, in a joyful way. Setting up boundaries and teaching him how to obey us! We are still working on those things, but it was pretty clear cut, and I felt like I had an idea of goals I was shooting for. Once we had trained him on what to do, it became a matter of training to get him to do it all of the time, and me being consistent and slow to anger. He is a very responsive little boy, and we saw much fruit in his little life during year 2....