Lately, though, its the word that comes to my mind to describe the sound in our house 90% of the time that the kids are awake. Everyone makes noise at the same time, which definitely results in discord of sound...most of the time which results in a headache for mommy.
However, for the first time today I thought about that word differently...that it is my job to teach my kids how to be in accord with one another--rather in discord. Its difficult when my kids always seem to want to play with the same toy at the same time and are selfishly thinking of only themselves to remember this principle. Instead of swooping in to quickly fix the problem so I don't have to listen to their cacophonic wails, I should wait a little bit to teach them to resolve the problem on their own. I've taught the principles of "using your words," but so often I don't even give them that chance before I'm intervening by saying, "what's going on here? y'all need to play nicely...etc, etc." They need to learn to resolve some of these issues on their own. I'm not saying I won't go in there to keep them from rolling on top of each other, but I just had this revelation today to try to let them practice what I teach.
Having the experience of a sibling relationship full of discord, this is one thing most important to me: for my children to love and respect one another. I pray everyday that my children will love each other even when they do not behave in a loving manner. In fact, I know I need to practice that principle more too with those that are not so easy to love...especially the aforementioned sibling relationship. Please pray for me in those regards.
In other news in our house today, Lilly is making progress on potty training. I haven't been able to be as consistent as I would like with her because I can't exactly take her around everywhere we go without a diaper on. So, it tends to be every other day that we can dedicate to potty training at home where I set the timer for her to try when it beeps and for her to run around without a diaper. She's gone twice so far today, but has also had two accidents....progress is better than nothing at all, right? Here she is eating her M&Ms and very proud of herself.
Having the experience of a sibling relationship full of discord, this is one thing most important to me: for my children to love and respect one another. I pray everyday that my children will love each other even when they do not behave in a loving manner. In fact, I know I need to practice that principle more too with those that are not so easy to love...especially the aforementioned sibling relationship. Please pray for me in those regards.
In other news in our house today, Lilly is making progress on potty training. I haven't been able to be as consistent as I would like with her because I can't exactly take her around everywhere we go without a diaper on. So, it tends to be every other day that we can dedicate to potty training at home where I set the timer for her to try when it beeps and for her to run around without a diaper. She's gone twice so far today, but has also had two accidents....progress is better than nothing at all, right? Here she is eating her M&Ms and very proud of herself.
I picked Sean up from preschool today, and he hadn't received a stamp on his hand today because he had problems not listening and hitting his friends. So, he didn't get his M&Ms when he got home. Since Lilly has them as a reward, that is what we chose as his reward for behaving for his teachers..pr-eschool or Sunday school...since he's had difficulties at church. Last Sunday, he broke several of the crayons during class, so we made him take money out of his bank to buy a new pack of crayons for his class. He has learned that if he breaks something (or absolutely destroys it to pieces like a plastic tub we had) that he must replace it with his money he is saving up. (The current toy he is saving up for is a Thomas the Train drawbridge--but he's had to empty his bank twice, so progress is not good on that one...)
So, after behaving at church THIS sunday, he goes outside after service and rolls around in the dirt getting absolutely filthy when we were going to go meet old friends for lunch...my blood pressure probably skyrocketed because he was SO dirty. He still has those shoes on his chore list to thoroughly clean this week, but we haven't had time enough yet this week to tackle that project. That will be a good after nap activity for today...
Brilee has been a sweet angel today...guess the disobedient behavior won't start for a few months yet from her...I need to enjoy her while I can before she gets into things too! She'll be 3 months on Friday--my how time flies!
I keep thinking of things I want to write everytime I think this blog post is done. I went to the Matthews Methodist Consignment Sale this past weekend and spent $100 on clothes for my kids...that sounds like a lot, but when you consider what I got, I have no clue how I would ever afford these things brand new.
-1 pair of dress shoes for Sean (the ones he got filthy)
-1 pair of dress shoes for Lilly
- 2 dresses for Lilly
-2 dresses for Brilee
-6 shirts for Sean
-4 pairs of Jeans for Sean
-4 pairs of pants/jeans for Lilly
-4 shirts for Lilly
-2 sweaters for Lilly
-1 pair of snowpants for Sean
-1 pair of boots for Lilly (for the snow even though they are Hello Kitty rain boots)
-1 pair of fur-lined crocs for Lilly (because I'm too lazy to put regular shoes on her since she can slip these on herself!)
-a pushable tricycle for only $9.50 that is $49.99 brand new (yes, this is a toy, but we're considering it one of Lilly's birthday presents). I can't stand how frustrated Lilly gets when she can't pedal it on her own, and I can't lean down to push her all the way while carrying Brilee in the Moby. Lesson for all parents who are buying a tricycle: Get the one you can PUSH the the FIRST time!
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