MVP

Daddy Definition

Daddy's MVP: His Most Valuable Pooper

Straight from the horse's mouth...or the Daddy's rather.

Tinkling in the Night

I may, or may not have been up at nearly 1:00 am cleaning tinkled sheets this morning.

I may, or may not have forgotten to change Curly's panties to a diaper last night when we put her clothes on fresh at the dryer because they were so warm.

She may, or may not have kept saying "Silly Momma!" continuously as I cleaned up her perhaps shaking with cold body, and might have also kept telling me that she was "FREEZING" with her violent shivers.

I may or may not be too prideful to come fully clean about it by actually admitting what I did or did not do...which is why, perhaps, I have to go about saying it in a silly way.

March for Babies!

See the new little purple addition to my sidebar? Well, Brie has started a team to walk in honor of her little girls. Please consider joining the team to walk with us, or just donating to this cause.

What does your donation do?

The money we raise for March for Babies will help:

- support all-important research offering preventions and solutions for babies born too soon or with birth defects
- educate women on things they can do to increase their chances of having a healthy baby
- provide comfort and information to families with a newborn in intensive care
- push for newborn screening and health insurance for all pregnant women and children

Now I ask, who doesn't want to support such a cause?

I have done this walk a couple of times in the past, but this year I am very excited to walk for a family that I know and love. It will also be Handsome's very first time doing the walk! (Well, in actuality I wish that I still didn't know a family affected in this way...but you know what I mean.)

Dangerous Kisses

I know I posted a Curly conversation yesterday, but I had to share this one from this morning anyway because it was too funny.


Mommy walks into the bedroom and grabs smiles. She starts kissing on him like anyone that sees this guy would.

Curly: "Don't kiss him Momma. 'Cause eeey as REALLY dangerous kisses!"

I guess I'm adventurous because I am willing to take that risk.

Mommy: "Curly, what song would you like to sing to God tonight?"

Curly: Thinks for a short second, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Mommy and Daddy glance to each other and shrug with a smile. "Twinkle, twinkle little star...how I wonder what you are....."

You know it was quite fitting, though I had been thinking something along the lines of Jesus Loves Me This I Know, or perhaps her favorite- Amazing Grace. The story we had just read was about the star that had led people to the Christ child long ago. I often think it's funny how much things that are totally not Christ centered can fit so well. It's also great how often our children can remind us about such thoughtful things.

Silly Handsome

This is our four cup coffee pot. I like it. It makes it possible for Handsome to have fresh, hot coffee when he is going to work and still allows me to have my two cup serving of fresh, hot coffee later. Who wants coffee that's been sitting out? Not me. I bought it because #1- the glass broke on the last one that was borrowed from his mother, and #2- I wanted one that would make a two cup serving so that I could make just enough for one person.

Disclaimer now: Handsome reads all my posts that poke a little fun at him and is okay with them. He cries a lot of the time (in laughter) because he knows how silly he is. I told him he needs a blog so that he can write about my silly things too. He hasn't done it yet.

Okay, now that I have made sure that you don't think I pick on him too much, guess what he tells me the other morning... He is in the kitchen making coffee in the morning for the two of us on his day off. He gives a grunty sigh in major frustration. I ask what is the matter.

"It only made four cups!"

"Uhhh...you know it's a four cup coffee pot, right?"

"But I put six cups of water in it to make more!" Totally confused and ticked at the STUPID coffee pot. Grrrrr! (face and tone in his voice)

"Ummm, honey, it only makes four cups." I smile with love trying not to laugh my bones out at him while I try to figure out where his mind is. "It doesn't fit six cups."

"Yes. I poured six cups of water in there. It should have made six cups!"

"HONEY- look at the back of the coffee maker. Do you see that hole back there? The water will come out if you fill it more full than that four cup line. Is that why there is water all over the counter when you make coffee for us lately?"


He just smiles in slight embarrassment and walks away. He is awesome at his job, but it's a good thing he doesn't do mine.

Practical Girl, Not to be Confused With Material Girl

What a practical girl I happen to be. At least in this phase of my life I have no room for clutter and am in love with functional and practicality. I haven't really wanted that much as far as gifts this year because there isn't anything that I really needed. It was great fun watching Curly enjoy all the aspects of Christmas this year, but Handsome and I didn't get any big gifts for each other. He gave me a small crockpot for putting hot cereal in at night so that it will be ready when we wake, and I got him a sweater. (He did have a birthday recently, so he got a couple of games to go with the x-box 360 his brother gave him.) I guess our families know us well. Some of my favorite gifts this year...

At a party where we had a $5 gift exchange (the kind where you steal...and I did), I got two bottles of Bath and Bodyworks hand soap. I found out, after being so pleased each time I wash my hands, that this is actually a great gift for me. (This I told my husband of course.) It's something that I will use that doesn't clutter, but it's a small luxury that makes me smile every time I use it. It's just a little fancy and the smell is pleasant after each use. Perfect.

Both my Dad and Handsome's gave gift cards for eating out. Another luxury that we don't get often. That is always something we truly enjoy- getting a date! They come with free babysitting too, not that we are ever lacking in that area... =)

My Grandparents sent some lovely canned goods. I loved it! I am definitely keeping this in mind for future gifts. Apple butter reminds me of when I was a little girl. My Gramps and Grandma had it all the time (at least in my memory), and yes Gramps- I do remember you teaching me to lick the knife =). I am so excited to try the peach butter, and the peaches will go well with our Sunday dinner sometime. Choke Cherry syrup will be something new to the other members of my family and to be honest, my memories of it are not very clear either.

And let us also mention here- the gift of meat! My parents gave us a gift certificate to Butcher Boys for meat, a generous gift at that. I love their meat, which is also natural as can be. No hormones or junky stuff in our meat thanks.

We have great family that blesses us all year round. (My Mother in law treats me to my one area of unpractical obsession quite often. She is a supplier for my crafting addiction.) I appreciate each of them for so many reasons. Thanks for all the wonderful ways that you bless our lives- material and not...

Mostly the not.

Chew on THIS

In case you ever wondered if one can actually drool over an inanimate object...

Notice the progression of his aggression. He finally got it good and hard!

(Yes. I just wanted a reason to post more pictures of Smiles. I have to clarify, he is not always in his saucer. It's just the best place to get good pictures of his face, since he can't hold his body up on his own yet and all...)

Merry Christmas!

Cable? What Cable?

I am a feeble and weak woman. At least I come by it honestly, right? Why lie about it, you're bound to find out sometime.


The plague that hit our house last week and lasted...well, I guess it's still lasting...it may have made me go against my principles. I may be failingly inadequate in my attempts to have standards, but by golly I will not have you go around telling folks that I am self-righteous or hypocritical. You know that television thing, how we are not going to watch it anymore? Well, it hasn't been turned off (from the cable company) yet. We haven't turned it on...scratch that- hadn't turned it on, but it's still coming into our house for the moment.

Back to that plague. Yesterday that germ fest that has created a nesting ball of phlegm on my couch that roosted at a much higher temperature than my little Curly would be comfortable at, well it kinda got to me. I'm not sure if it was the 9 hours or so of sleep that I have had in the last week (okay, that's a little exaggerated), or if it has something to do with my new ability to recite most of Horton Hears a Who in my sleep, but I just had to allow some cable usage.


Curly has been sick enough that she was glued to the couch, and at some points didn't have even the slightest interest even in the box. This is survival time. It's fine with me if she is "babysat" by the screen when she is that sick. (Babysat meaning that it's keeping her from crying at me whilst she is sprawled across my now numb lap because she wants me to hold her and snuggle her. You didn't think I was actually getting a moment away from her did you?) She has been feeling quite a bit better, but now you have a Mommy who is really tired and can't hardly make a sandwich properly because now the baby is sick and every time I try to put him to bed he starts coughing so hard that he can't catch his breath. That makes us all have rough times. So, more movie watching happens...and then the cable comes on.

First, I want you to remember that I told you the reason that I was getting the cable turned off was that I know I have no self discipline and I knew that I would be weak knowing it was an option- remember? I told you that. Second, I also don't have a problem with the box when we are dealing with a sickness of this magnitude. I just didn't want anyone thinking that things are somehow different than reality.

Thanks. I needed to get that off my chest.

Learning to Give

I'm back for a moment tonight from the land of sickness that has been our home for the past week now. It seems it's very hard to blog when you have a child attached to you either running a fever, coughing up a lung and having trouble breathing, or throwing up a bit...I know, just poor excuses. I'm such a slacker. Anyway-

This year we decided that Curly is old enough to give gifts. I think it is important that she work for these gifts so that it isn't just cash handed to her. I want her to learn to give gifts that she is actually sacrificing for, not just hand her money and say, "Go pick out a gift."


She did three chores for $1 each. First chore was sweeping the kitchen floor. (She got help because the broom was too big for her to hold very well.) The second was washing the kitchen floor with a wet washcloth. She was very tired after that one and didn't want to finish. I had to coach her and cheer her on and she did a great job of finishing. The third chore was sorting the monster pile of laundry that we had in our bedroom into piles of each person they belonged to. She was a little more okay with that one. She adores sorting things right now!


Then Grandma and Papa took her to the dollar store to get gifts for Mommy, Daddy, and Smiles. She helped her to focus on the fact that she was looking for something that the receiver would want, not just something that she would like. (I guess that she wanted to get Smiles a boomerang at one point...) They took her home and helped her wrap them so that she could bring them to our house where she proudly displayed them under the tree.

I can't wait to open them in front of her and teach her about how fun it is to see the happy face of the person you gifted too!

Playing Along

Here's what to do...
Take a picture of your view from a window in your house (even if you don't have snow!), and post it on your blog along with the picture above (you can copy and paste it). Then link your blog back to here and post a comment so I can take a look at your winter wonderland...
Here's what it looks like in the pacific northwest!


In a very particular order: This is yesterday afternoon before we really got the brunt of things coming down...well, I guess an hour or so after it had started.

This is around dusk when things got a bit harrier for sure. I was worried about Handsome making it home...took him 4 hours. Yucky stuff.

This was right after he got home...and I showed him up scooping the snow out of the driveway. He laughed at me because I got out the dust pan. He went the shovel route, which is nice in theory, but when you remember the fact that we don't get much snow around here and his shovel was pointed...not so effective. I was laughing at the end of that! (So was he. I wasn't going to blog about it, but he kept asking if I had done so yet- so for him, I share.)

Now is Curly today in the snow. It was pretty deep for these parts. She has been so sad not being able to go out in it. She has been sick with a temp of 103 and some other sickly issues. The first day she wasn't thinking about getting out there at all (it all began very early Tuesday morning), but by the third day, she was ready to get going. She had a small fever, but I still let her play for a short time. We warmed her right up with a bath after and I made sure she took a nice nap.

Related?...Updated.

I need to add to this post that I did NOT pose Smiles to have photos like Curly's. These were actually photos that I had of the two of them that just happened to look very similar in composition. Seriously! I swear.

So, Handsome and I were just having a bit of fun and thought we would do a couple of side by side comparisons of Curly and Smiles at this age. I think our kids look a bit similar when four months of age...don't you? I had forgotten what Curly looked like at this age. She was a bit chubbier than him for sure though =). You can click on the pictures if you want to see them a bit bigger to really compare.

Snowy Sunday

Today's first snow of the season brought great joy to our house. Curly was out with handsome for quite some time this afternoon playing in it. She did get cold and come in to warm up with some hot cocoa as you can see in the last picture.

Smiles however was not the biggest fan. We bundled him up in his car seat and a bunch of blankets to allow him to see his first snow. Two minutes was about enough. He rather preferred the indoors with the warm heater doing it's job. This first picture is one of my new favorites for sure!

Genetics

I didn't know that sleep habits were passed down through genetic material, but apparently they are.

Curly: Currently asleep in what can only be called a NEST in her bed. Blankets are nowhere near their original position and are piled up in a ball. Head- nowhere near the pillow.

Smiles: Tonight I have him trapped due to congestion and illness (his bed is quite inclined and the sleep positioner is tight). On a normal night...well, he actually likes to do laps in his bed. You think I am joking! He spins in circles going from the head of the bed to the foot. I never know where I am going to find his head when I go in to feed him. It could be facing this wall, or perhaps that wall...or he could stop spinning when he is sideways. Yep laps, just like I said.

Don't look at me! I, when left alone in bed, can wake with my covers as perfect as the moment I climbed in them. I like to be tucked tightly when given the chance. You will have to turn those eyes to Handsome and ask him what's up with that!

Jack Sure is Busy!

I am with Smiles feeding him and putting him down to bed. Handsome is with Curly reading to her.

"Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candle stick..."

"Jack climb the beanstalk Daddy?"

"Yes. Jack climbed the beanstalk."

"Jack fall down the hill?"

"Yup. Jack did that too."

I'm thinking that I will never name a child Jack lest his peers associate him with this crazy Jack from the nursery rhymes. Couldn't they think up a name other than Jack? There are always Bob and John.

Mentors

God had a great plan (wow, I'm sure that's news!) in the way he designed the church family. It's a great blessing when we actually work the way we are supposed to and share the benefit of our experience with those younger than us, as well as learn great things from those with wisdom and experience we have not gained yet. I believe that so much more deep learning and growth comes through those relationships than listening to a person speak to you as a group could ever accomplish. Growth that takes place in relationship strikes deeper because it is personal and relational.

I have found in the last year or two that it makes such a difference to have mentoring women in my life. Often things are said just in spending time that give wisdom and learning, things that aren't even intentional. I wish that more young women had the opportunity to have mentors, that we knew how to start those relationships. I feel like our lives aren't set up to naturally create an environment where that naturally takes place. It seems like we segregate so much by age and likeness of interests that we don't benefit from the growth that takes place when we are challenged by those that are different than our natural peers.

I also think that we have to be careful though. It's easy to look to our mentors before looking to God. I don't know about you, but sometimes I wish for that audible voice. I want WORDS to be spoken from heaven so that I know that I am not putting my own words into the mouth of God. If I want to know what to do in a given situation and I get impatient and tired of waiting for word through prayer, I may be (and have been) tempted to seek the wisdom of a woman that I trust and admire. There is nothing wrong with seeking wisdom from the mentor. The problem comes when I turn to someone other than God for my answers.

So, I am thankful for those that God has brought into my life to teach me and share their wisdom. I just have to remember to take care in remembering that they are human as well, and they do not know the answer God has for me in each situation I face. The wisdom and experience is a guide, but the Lord is the answer.

I am...

Today I am a pretty darn sure honey that needs to cooperate.

I have heard:

-"You are a honey Mommy."

-"You pretty darn sure Mommy!" (That was a very firm statement)

-"Cooperate Mommy."

All of which I heard multiple times today. Also joining them was, "Not gonna happen." I guess that she is hearing all of what I say...and taking it to heart...or to memory anyway.

Seeking the Sabbath: Making the Lord's Day Special

I have fond memories of Sundays when I was growing up. We usually had a family dinner with the extended family and it was always the same meal. Pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and rolls or homemade bread with jam. There were other things from time to time (like fruit salad for Uncle T before my grandpa died), but the main portion of the meal was always the same. We had a laid back day that consisted of church, some reading or study time, time with family, and our large dinner. I remember at my dad's house we were only allowed to watch movies about Christ, nothing secular. The day was set apart, made to be something special.

While I think that perhaps a couple of these things were done in my family for the wrong reasons and done in a legalistic way, I believe that they were still a good idea. It is a good thing to attempt to protect the sabbath, and I want my children to observe this day when they are gone from my home and have grown a family of their own. If I don't go about presenting the reasons to them in the right way, that won't happen. I never want any part of our faith to become a legalistic thing for them. I intend to attempt to teach them the reason we make the choices we do in our actions and give them traditions that they can follow later in life as a choice to honor God, not "because they are suppose to".

I just wanted to share a couple things that we have been adding to our Sundays to make them special.

First, we are doing the dinner that I had as a child in our home. We make the meal together and serve it at the table family style instead of our usual plated meals. I want it to look nicer in presentation than our normal meals. It was so cute to watch Curly and Handsome peeling potatoes together and then drying dishes as I washed them after the meal. It could very well become a special memory for her one day.

Second, we have dessert. We don't usually have dessert at our house. Sometimes the adults will have ice cream after the kids are in bed or something like that, but we don't do it as a family after dinner. Just a little something extra.

Third, we are doing our family Bible story time in the living room. Usually we do this in Curly's room as we are putting her to bed. I think that doing it in the living room gives it more importance and sets it apart from just being part of her bedtime routine.

These are just a few things that we are doing to create a lasting memory and special feeling on the Lord's day. I enthusiastically welcome any memories of Sunday that you have from your past, or that you have tried to create with your children in the comments section. It's nice to have new ideas from other families.

Side note: Handsome was supposed to work today again. It somehow worked out that he didn't have to be there today. Just thought I would throw that in there after last week's post...

Laundry Chronicles: Case of the Missing Socks

There is a place that no mother has seen. A place where there are mountains of missing things that disappear from us forever. A place that makes no sense. This place has many different names, my mother always called it Binky Land.

Binky Land is now home to countless socks (only one in the pair), pacifiers, pocket change, small favorite toys, and so on. Many mothers have attempted to find this place only to be mocked by the oh so small mayor of Binky Land. I can't remember even half the things that I have lost to this land of apparent scavengers, but I know that it exists. I know that this Thumbelina sized man laughs in the face of us all while he watches us searching from room to room, under couch and bookshelf, until exhausted we fall and forget our search. What being could find joy in such frustration? It is beyond my comprehension to understand the mind of such a creature. It is a mystery best left undisturbed.

I must share. I think I have found one of the portals to Binky Land. If you read this post and I have suddenly disappeared shortly after, there is no hope. The tiny menacing guy has seen me. Do not send out a search party. You will exhaust yourself in vain. No one can actually get to Binky Land, but my hope is that you might have a portal like mine. If you find yours, you can possibly save an item or two from being snatched.

Mine is in my washing machine. I found it a while back. I have front loaders and was doing some laundry. I went to switch the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer and there was a sock partially hanging out of the rubbery barrier above the place where the water drains in the door. I reached to grab it and found that this rubbery thing could be moved. I peeled it back, curious of what it might look like. I hit the mother load! Millions of socks (okay, so really less than ten individual socks) were hidden in this little portal. They must have been stored so that they could be gathered later. I pulled them all out and switched them to the dryer. I foiled your plans you creepy Binky Land man, you will have to wait for another day to laugh in this mother's face! Sadly, there must be more than one portal because he is still able to accomplish these small deeds of theivery. Someday my little man. Someday.

Hunt and Peck

I find that there is a strange phenomenon lately. My typing has become slow and has taken on the style of "hunt and peck" with one finger, sometimes two. I have actually been able to type properly since the seventh grade, so what's up with that!?

I'll tell you what's up with that. Two year old + four month old = less time for sitting at the computer. Thus, my new formula is: butt on computer chair + eyes on screen + ears on two year old + one hand typing = four month old NURSING. Yep. That's right. This blog was brought to you by the one free hand of a currently nursing mother. It's all I got to give. It's all you're gonna get =). I'd say I was pretty talented...if I didn't know better(...which I do).

Little Mermaid, Bad Influence?

Watch out mothers! The object of my seven, eight, and nine year old affection might be harmful to your daughters...or at least their hair. You may think it harmless, but when further examined, The Little Mermaid might not be worthy of the precious eyes of my Curly. "That unfortunate Sea Witch!" you say. Not so much. Perhaps you have issue with her, that is not my concern today.

This is what my childhood obsession caused this morning. I am sure that in the 80's it was not uncommon for a mother to find her daughter like this:

Wheeled Friendship

I am not a gadget person in the kitchen. I like to use knives for cutting and chopping, spoons to stir things, and a good old fashioned pan to cook things. I don't think they save much time and they are usually a pain to clean. I have a few gadgets that I love however. I use a Kitchen Aid (no extra attachments, just the whip, mix, and knead attachments), a garlic press, and a rice cooker (mom got it for me one year and I use it). Other than those, I don't really use gadgets.

I have one other gadget up my sleeve though. It is one that, as a mother of little children, can be quite useful. Some of you may not think of it as a gadget at all...but a regular knife could do it's work just fine. It just actually does cut down on time with no extra clean up. When you have little children it can quickly cut any food into bite size pieces with perfect precision.

"What is that gadget?!?" I know you are all dying to know...and since it isn't a secret or anything, you may already use it. Just in case it slipped your mind though....here is your best friend when feeding children under two:

Seeking the Sabbath: Choices that Honor God

Today my thoughts have been drawn to the fact that God blesses my choices that are driven by a genuine desire to honor Him. When I make choices based on this desire alone, I have nothing holding me back. He will provide all I need to accomplish whatever task is set before me. I will give recent examples that have made me reflect on this.

First of all, you will be well aware of the fact that my desire to set Sundays aside for the Lord has been a recent focus for me by the recent posts titled Seeking the Sabbath. I shared this desire and my purpose in the first one of these posts. Well, my Target working husband is a retail employee. While I love his company and the wonderful employers that they are, we still have the odd hours to deal with. He has to work weekends. BUT...guess what? Since making the change in the layout and focus of our Sundays he has only had to work one so far! Little things have happened that have somehow given him this day with us. It could and would be considered a coincidence to many people, but I know that the credit goes to God here. He has blessed us in this choice to seek Him first. I know that he will have to work Sundays often, but I am also going to enjoy the gift from God and give Him credit and thanks when we get to have the man of our house home on this special day.

The other recent example of God's blessing our efforts to honor Him happened this weekend. I have been reading a book called Family Driven Faith. I have really appreciated many of the points that the author makes, as they are things that I have felt and desired, but haven't know exactly how to express them or specifically what was missing. It touched on many things that I want to be a part of our family. One of these is family worship. This includes worship in the musical sense and also prayer and study of scripture. I think that we have been doing pretty well with this for the ages of our children, but it hasn't been as intentional. We read from the children's bible nightly and also pray and sing songs about the Lord with our daughter before she goes to sleep at night. I decided that I want to make it more a part of our lives recently though, and with more intention. I have been playing more music quietly during the day for soft background noise that is with us through the day.

This weekend is a big sale weekend of course. I never pay attention to the ad's or anything. I don't like to focus on the material side of things during this season too much and have some major issues with the commercialization of a time that is meant to celebrate the birth of my Lord. (I am not against gifts, but I don't like them to be expensive and become the focus of the season. I am more into small and practical gifts.) Well, it just so happened that on Friday Tom was telling me that he didn't think it would be that busy at the new Target and if I wanted to go and get our shopping done I could. He would watch the kids (they were asleep). I thought I would go ahead and check the 2-day ad and see what the deals were. Strangely I came across an ad for a keyboard that was on sale. I would never have thought to get a keyboard, but have been wanting a piano (which we would not have room for anyway, so we wouldn't even pursue it if it was in our budget). It just clicked as something that I wanted to get for us. We paid a third of the normal price and it is something that is in my ability level...I think. It's one that teaches you the songs and you can download songs into it easily from the computer. None of us will be performing in front of anyone anytime soon, but it will be something that we can use for our family worship time. I also see this as a gift from the Lord. It was something that I would never have even considered looking for, and hopefully it will serve it's purpose well.

So, it seems that when I make choices to honor God with what I have, even if what I can offer isn't perfect, He will bless it and give me more means to honor Him. I just have to take the steps.

Pulling the Plug

This summer I started considering pulling the plug on our television. There are so many reasons that it's something to think about. I decided about a month ago that I was really wanting to make that switch and talked to my husband about it. He agreed to give it a try. What are my reasons for this change?

#1 - It takes time away from things that are more important. This was my first reason for leaning toward getting rid of TV actually. I thought about it, and if we have the TV, we are more likely to use it instead of spending time as a family along with other things. I have been working on not watching any television in my own time and it has been working well for me. In the evening I spend my time reading, being with my husband, or on the computer. I intend on having some time for crafting, but haven't reached that yet. I realize that the computer can have just as negative an impact with the reasons that I will mention, but I am trying to be intentional about my use of this technology.

#2 - I do not like the images it invites into my home. I cannot fully screen what my children, and family for that matter, watch and they often get glimpses of things I would rather they didn't. I am a firm believer that the things that you allow into your mind are there forever. Once an image is there it stays there, even if it is hidden deeply.

22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matthew 26:22-23

This has always been a verse that sticks in my mind. I want to keep myself and my family full of light (good things).

#3 - I do not like who it invites into my home. There are many scantily dressed, perverse, sailor mouthed people that live on cable TV. I do not want my children to hear those things, see those people, or get those ideas earlier than they have to. I am amazed at what is allowed to come through on the basic channels now! If it isn't something I want my two year old to say or do, I should not have her watch it. She isn't old enough to determine which things are okay and which are not. She copies everything she sees. I also believe that the things we are bombarded with desensitize us and make us more tolerant of inappropriate things.

#4 - I don't want the television to babysit my kids. Now, sometimes it is helpful to pop in Leap Frog's Letter Factory while I take a shower. I know that I need to be clean and the distraction that the screen gives keeps mayhem from bursting out while I make myself squeaky. I also know that I do not have the will power to keep myself from using the option if it is there. If it is available, I will use it in my moments of weakness. You want to get up early after keeping Mom awake all night? All I want to do is sleep- sure kid, watch a little television for an hour.

While I am not ready to give up my good friend DVD and VHS (yes, I do have a couple of those around that she watches), those can be pre-screened. In the future we may have a more remotely located television, but we have no other location in our current house. I think that out of site may be a little helpful too.

I am sure that I sound like an extremist fruit loop to most of you, and that's okay. I haven't been missing the box since I stopped watching it, and I don't think I will. Once I get used to not having the option with the kids I think that will get easier too. And for those of you that are worried for my husband- he isn't one to watch sports at all and he doesn't watch all that much television anyway. He is more of a computer guy, I have always loved that about him.

Stacking and Sorting

This is what I walked in on during her bath. It was completely unprompted behavior.




I only have one thing to say: She is definitely my daughter.