Is Jesus Really Real?

So, Ava is at the age where she poses the question, "Mommy is Santa Claus real?"  I wasn't sure what to say, so I asked her if she thought he was.  She said, "I don't know, but maybe.  What do you think?"  I couldn't lie to her and so I said, "well, I don't think he is real in the way the movies and stories say," then I went on to explain to her that the "spirit of giving" is real and there really was a St. Nicholas.  She seemed a bit sad but seemed to understand it. I explained that some people really do believe in Santa, like Christian, and that was fine.  It wasn't her job to tell other kids he wasn't real.  (I don't want her being the one responsible for bursting other kids bubbles.)  Anyway it took her a day to wrap her little wondering mind around this but she didn't seem upset, just thoughtful. 

Then came the question that floored me. . ."Mommy, . . .Is Jesus Really Real?"  Wow, it made me think.  I took a breath and then started to attempt to explain to her that he was very real and that he was the real reason for Christmas. I had explained all of this to her before, but I guess her innocence and naivety took me off guard.  What we tell them and what they see everyday is what they internalize. I took for granted that she just knew the things I knew. But, of course, she would have put Santa and Jesus on the same level because that is what we she sees.  I am not by any means saying it is wrong to allow your children to know about Santa, and I am not exactly sure what I am trying to say besides the simple fact that my eyes were opened and opened wide today.  I need to stop and really explain the important things to my children.  I need to stop assuming they just understand.  I try this, but sometimes I forget.  One of my new years resolutions is to spend more time explaining LIFE to my sweet children, while they are new sponges.  I hope this continues to remind me how open their minds are.  I end this blog entry with a prayer asking God to help me to instill the things he wants me to in my children.

The Perceptive Ear

Two nights before Christmas, I was sitting with my children and we were watching home videos, including the one of our trip to the hospital with when Ava was being born.  Then the visitors that came to see us after and hold her when she was a baby.  She was glued to the T.V. and it was about 2:30 when she started complaining of her ear hurting her. I immediately thought of an ear infection, but what are the chances of it hitting so fast. I called my friend who informed us they are very painful and they do come on pretty rapidly, so I drove her to the newly opened Greencastle Walk-In Clinic.
 I gave her a little Tylenol before we left and when it kicked in, she told me she was feeling better.  She then proceeded to tell me how she thinks she didn't have an ear sickness after all. . ."I think my ear is trying to tell me that I miss my Nana, since she lives in Missouri, and I saw her holding me when I was a baby and it was telling me I missed her."  :)  It made me smile and brought tears to my eyes all at once.  Then I told her how I missed her Nana too and couldn't wait until we could see her again. . and I told her I was pretty sure she had the most perceptive ear I had ever come in contact with. :) 
She did have an ear infection and had to be put on an antibiotic and she was in an extreme amount of pain for the majority of the evening, but was feeling much better by the following morning.  Thanks to medicine and sleep.  However, not sure the missing Nana part went away.  Today, she hugged a corner of the wall and said, "look mommy, I am hugging my Nana."  She is sweet.  She loves you and misses you Nana, almost as much as her Mommy does.

Belching in Lehman's Terms

Micah informed me last night, that while at the dinner table with the kids yesterday, Christian looked at Ava and said with pure excitement. . ."AVA, I just farted out my mouth!!"  Micah promptly informed him that what he had actually done was Belched, but this didn't seem to register in Christian's mind.  He thought he had done something that was of pure genius and talent.  Little minds!!  All I can say is. . .He gets it from his DADDY.

Aunt Anna's Famous Cookies

Tonight, my in laws came over to hang out and they brought with them cookie dough.  It was not just any cookie dough, but it was Aunt Anna's Famous Sugar Cookie Dough.  As the kids were watching Grandma roll out the dough, Grandma told them the story of how Aunt Anna, who happened to be one of Harry's aunts, always made these cookies and they would get them every year at Christmas.  She didn't have kids of her own, so she loved to spoil the nieces and nephews and she did a great job with it.  She always would get them a little something and ALWAYS had these special famous sugar cookies.  The kids loved the story and of course loved the cookies, rather it be the raw dough or the baked goods. :)

I lost count of how many times Christian said, "I eat this piece?" and Grandma would say, something about it not being good for his belly but he could have a little piece and then later this was repeated. :)  Fun memories.

It's going to be a Blue Christmas?

Earlier, I did a post on how my daughter wanted a "pink Christmas Tree" for Christmas this year.  That is what she told her Grandmother every time she asked what she wanted and so she got one.  It is still a magical tree since Ava has only had one night that she has slipped and come to our room in the middle of the night. . . which is a huge miracle.  :)
However, ever since the moment  Christian saw that PINK tree, he immediately decided he NEEDED a BLUE one.  This was a tad bit harder to find and who would think a Blue tree to be pretty.  I warned him they didn't have blue ones and we might have to buy a green one and put blue lights on but he was not deterred.  His faith in having a Blue Christmas Tree in his room was set in stone. . . .solid.

So out to town we went, Grandma, Ava, Christian and Mommy.  We knew what we were in search of and after a long day of shopping and hungry bellies, we decided to settle on a tree that was green and we would have to convince him that the lights could be blue.  Then, low and behold, across the way, on the bottom shelf, there it stood.  A BLUE Christmas Tree.  Were our eyes playing tricks on us?  There was no such thing, right?  But, yes, Ava had indeed found her brother his desired dreamt up tree.  I am not actually sure who was most excited, the Grandma and Mommy that were basically dancing in the aisle with excitement and slight disbelief or the little boy who's dreams were coming true right before his eyes.  What child like faith can do for a person.  There was only one blue one left and it was so cute.  Then we found a tree topper and blue tree skirt that matched.  We could hardly wait to get home and set up the tree.  Christmas for Little Man had finally arrived. :)

The fun was truly had decorating the tree.  We found some little orange basket ball ornaments that matched his room great and of course a few Toy Story ornaments.  The part that simply melted my heart was when I walked back to check on him and he was staring at his tree.  Here he had taken some of his trains and placed them around the tree.  So sweet.  It was perfect to scale.  :)

Christmas Cookies

It seems that the days I decide to do fun crafty ideas with the kids, they act up a little more.  I am not sure why.  Almost like if I take the time out to spend extra time with them, they then feel the need to have my undivided attention the rest of the day.  It is frustrating, but I still enjoy doing fun things with them, so today I tried a new craft.  It was a Crayola Christmas Tree Kit I got from B.B.s 

First we had to make up the batter, which I did by myself.  Then it was to be refrigerated for 5 minutes so it would sort of set together.  I took this time to have them both go wash their hands really good.  Then I started rolling the dough out and they got to cut Christmas Tree Shaped cookies out of the dough.

Then we had to bake the cookies and let them cool.  The kids were pretty patient through this process.  The next step was to ice the cookies and then we had to let them sit for 30 minutes to dry before we could paint them with the edible water paints.  This was their favorite part and mine too.  I loved watching them decorate and mixing the colors. 

 

Post # 100

Yayy, I can't believe it.  I am posting my # 100 post for this blog.  I knew I was having fun, but 100 sounds and looks like a lot of posts.  :)  I am having so much fun recording the life of my family, so I can look back and remember all of the good times we share. I started this to help keep my records straight, so when my kids are older and I have more time (ahhaha) I will be able to scrapbook some of the highlights. :)  This is very therapeutic for me and I enjoy documenting my favorite moments in time.  I feel so blessed when I look back over this year and see all that God has done for me in 2010.  I can't wait to write my yearly review. :)

Changes Can Be Fun . . . .and Sad at the Same Time

A small update for this past few months has to do with my family situation.  My mom, my best friend, went to spend time with her parents in Missouri.  We are all missing her more than we ever imagined and Christmas this year will be quite a bit different without her here.  It helps that she is loving it and enjoying her time catching up and hanging out with her mom and dad, but she is greatly missed by ALL back here at home. 

Micah has helped me tremendously with dealing with the changes since I don't deal well at all when things change, especially big changes.  He allows me to cry or laugh or just obsessively talk about these things over and over again.  He supports my mom's and my relationship and that is something I prayed for before I ever met my husband.  That my husband would love and respect my parents and respect the relationship between my mom and I.  He does, he loves my mom and he cries with me sometime, because he hates to see me missing her so much. 

One of the things that helps me to cope with change is by making new traditions.  Family time with my children and husband are very important to me and Micah has been great at helping me to prioritize and we are making awesome FAMILY memories together.  My favorite times are when we are all sitting in our warm and comfy living room and enjoying the company of our two silly kids.  They of course, love the attention and bask in it.  They act sillier and giggle and laugh a ton and this is so warming to my heart.  They love "famy time" as they call it. Bring on the Christmas festivities and traditions!!

 I feel so overly blessed and in love with my life and though I miss my mom, I know I will see her again soon and I am glad she is getting this opportunity.  I can't think of anyone more deserving than her, to get a dream come true.  She is so self sacrificing.

"Keep Me!!"

One morning, while we were in Missouri last month, we awoke to some rather loud clambering on our roof top.  Micah & I were in one bed in the pink room and Nana & Ava in the other and Little Man Christian opted to sleep on the floor that night.  So, when we were so rudely interrupted from our slumber, ;)  we were all a little nervous about what was going on.  It only took us adults a few seconds to remember that their were people scheduled to work on Grandma's roof that day, and so we knew then what was going on.  However, the kids didn't know and Micah crawled down to lay with Christian who was obviously half asleep and a little nervous about what was waking him up.  As Micah was laying beside him, Christian whispered so softly to his daddy, "Keep Me!!"  It was sweet and we started to laugh because he was really saying, "stay with me, I am scared," but it came out, "keep Me!!"  I don't think I will ever forget that little moment when we assured him that we would keep him and love him for the rest of our lives.  :)  What a sweet moment in our day.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!!!

I think it is pretty well known that Ava, our daughter, has spent the past five years sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed. We tried from the beginning to put her in her crib, and maybe we were weak, but her crying got to us.  There was one incident, when she was only six weeks old, that we let her "cry it out" and at the end of TWO hours, she was still screaming and I was a mess.  I brought her to our bed and never forced the issue again.  We decided as a couple that some battles were worth fighting, but this one was one we were going to let take it's course.  We talked about how we knew that when she was grown, we were not going to be sad we let her sleep with us, so we allowed this habit to continue.
We only have a queen size bed so as she got older, things got less comfortable for her, being squished between mommy and daddy.  We started a new rule about a year ago and that was that she had to start out in her bed in her room and if she woke up, which she did EVERY night, she could come over to our room.  This worked better for us and her, but we still wondered if she would EVER decide to sleep through the night in her own room. 
She told us when she turned five, she would be grown up and sleep all night, but that didn't work either.  However, Christmas is a magical time and a time for miracles and this week a miracle happened in our home.  Ava wanted a pink Christmas tree for her room because her cousin Ceci has one and she loved it.  She told her Grandma Bumbaugh that she wanted one for Christmas. Grandma took her to the store and bought it for her and then Grandma and Pappy came to her house and helped her to put it up in her room to surprise mommy and daddy.  Her surprise was that she promised Grandma that she would sleep in her room all night long if she had this pink Christmas tree.  We didn't really believe this because she has made many promises of the same sort to us and not followed through.  However, we were willing to try it.
She had so much fun decorating her tree and getting her room ready for Christmas.  That night, she put herself to bed, came out and said good night to us and told us she loved us and then went back to go to bed.  After about ten minutes, I went back to peek on her only to find her sleeping in her bed and her tree on.  I was amazed and excited.  That night, she never did come to our room.  She slept all night in her own bed!!!  This is now five days after the fact and she has yet to come to our bed.  Wow, I am so so proud of her and I tell her each day how excited I am that she grew up and is now sleeping in her own bed.  It is a bit sad, and we miss her but we are so grateful we let it up to her and she did it when she was ready.  The transition was amazing and I think that Christmas will be all year long in Ava's room if that is what it takes. :)

The Laughter in My Life

There are many things that make me laugh, my husband being at the top of my list.  He makes me laugh more than anyone, but as my children are getting older, they are running a close second.  Christian truly is a very humorous boy.  He LOVES to laugh and does a lot of it.  He can be sitting beside you playing and all of a sudden he bursts out into a contagious boisterous laugh and with no apparent reason.  This often, after a few seconds, has me in stitches because he is so sincere with his laughter.  It might be just the fact that a toy train rolled off the track he was playing with and he starts laughing, or maybe a little boy in the store made a face at him.  He just LOVES laughing and it is one of my very favorite qualities about him.  He is really good at making others laugh too, but I am pretty sure I am the easiest target.  I laugh at him quite a bit through any given day when spending time with him.  He just brightens my life and I love him and the gift of laughter and joy he has brought into my life. 

An Example of his contagious laughter happened the other day while I was trying some things on in a dressing room.  I was watching him out of the corner of my eye and he was standing in front of the mirror.  He threw his little hands up beside his face and started making this really high pitched, squeaky sort of noise and shook his head like he was ditsy.  I couldn't figure out what he was doing, so I asked him and he said, "I laughing like a girl mom."  I then asked him to laugh like a boy, and he lowered his voice and laughed in a really low voice.  Then he turned around and smiled at me and gave me the famous thumbs up sign.  As I started laughing, cause it struck me so funny and he started laughing and I said, "that is how Christian laughs"  :)  He is so funny though. 

He also finds movies very funny and he will laugh OUT LOUD at all times of the movie.  He laughs so loud that yesterday when he went to a Christmas program with his Grandparents, he started laughing out loud and many of the people were turning around to see and laugh at him.  I may have to figure a way to tone that down someday, but it was funny and very sincere.  He truly thought that what was happening on stage was so funny. :)  That's my boy.  He kind of takes after his Nana.  One time when I took her to the movies, she was laughing so hard at one part that she stood up in the theater and started laughing.  :)  Guess he gets it honest. 

Life would be boring without laughter and so I am very grateful for the many reasons to laugh in my life, and the people I have to enjoy that laughter with.