Nevermore

So it’s been a few days since the “pacie in a toy-lit” incident, and you may be wondering how the de-pacification is progressing. Well. He’s been doing quite well without his pacifier. I’m surprised actually. About 10 minutes after he gets into bed for the night, he’ll start to whimper, and I hear “A pacie in a toy-lit.” a couple times, and then he’s ok. Nap times have been easy as pie, and even during the day he’s been pretty good. He’s taken to digging through my pockets trying to find one, but then I remind him that it’s gone, and he’s ok. He hasn’t bitten anyone, nor have I had to hear much whining about it at all. It’s been great.

Except…now, he firmly refuses to pee on the potty because no, his pacie in nere. No amount of coaxing or bribing could convince him to pee on his beloved pacie. Not even Micah’s grandiose story about how now his pacie is at the bottom of the ocean, and we’d have to get a submarine to go down and find it will convince him. So, potty training has ground to a halt, as I am unsure how to overcome this obstacle. A friend suggested that we get another pacie like it, but snip a hole in it so it doesn’t work properly, then tell him that we got it out of the toy-lit and he can have it again- in hopes that he’ll be so happy about the pacie that he’ll be willing to potty train again, but that the hole in it will cause him to be uninterested in actually sucking on it. This sounds good, but then I start to wonder if perhaps this would encourage him to put other things in the toy-lit, fish them out, and then put them in his mouth. I am not sure. Any other advice?

Creamy Chicken and Mushrooms

I love my crock pot, and I’ve had a couple people lately ask for recipes. I’ve got an awesome crock pot cook book that AJ’s mom got me for Christmas last year, so I thought I’d share a recipe…Enjoy!

1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Paprika
3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, cut up
1 1/2 cup fresh sliced Mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 3/4 tsp Chicken Bouillon Granules
1 cup Dry White Wine (You can probably sub Apple Juice for this if you don’t have wine)
1/2 cup Water
1 can (5 oz) Evaporated Milk
5 tsp Cornstarch

1. Combine salt, pepper, and paprika in a small bowl; sprinkle over chicken.
2. Layer chicken, mushrooms, green onions and bouillon in crock pot. Pour wine and water over top. Cover, cook on high for 3 hours or on low 5-6 hours. Transfer chicken and vegetables to platter; cover with foil to keep warm
3. Combine evaporated milk and cornstarch in a small saucepan, stirring until smooth. Add 2 cups cooking liquid from crock pot, and bring to a boil. Boil 1 minute or until thickened, stirring consistently. Serve chicken and sauce over rice.

My crock pot’s bigger than the size that these recipes are designed for (they’re for a crock pot up to 4 quarts), so it always takes less time, and once and a while I have to add more liquid so the meat doesn’t get too dry.

Recipe from: Simple 1-2-3 Slow Cooker Recipes, copyright 2006, Publications International, Ltd.

Adventures in Potty Training

Potty training Isaac has taken sort of a backseat the last little while, what with having three extra little girls running around the house most every day. Every once and a while, though, I give it a shot- just on the off chance that something might happen. Last night, he actually peed on the potty! Gasp! We had a little dance party, sang a little song, and it was wonderful. This gave me hope, and I decided to try again today.

So, after we got home from church today, I plopped him down on the potty. It took him a couple of minutes last time- I don’t know, mabye he gets stage fright or something, so I let him have his pacifier (“pacie”) and a comb (he likes to come his hair). He sat their for a few minutes, and I left the room to give him a little privacy. Then I heard a sound that no mother likes to hear…”uh-oh” and the toilet flushed. If you have a toddler, know a toddler, or have ever come into contact with a toddler, you know that the word “uh-oh” almost never means anything good…especially when followed immediately by the sound of the toilet flushing. I probably should have seen it coming, given the fact that he’s already flushed one or two things down the toilet, with disastrous and smelly results that need not be relived here. I went into the bathroom to find a very sad little boy with lip stuck out a mile who said “Mommy, I drop it my pacie in a toy-lit…” Yup…his one and only pacifier gone for good. Now, he’s two years old- and probably shouldn’t really need a pacifier any more. I did, in fact, even have him almost finished with it at one point, until he bit one of the little girls I babysit. I started giving it back to him then, because with that in there, he wouldn’t be as likely to bite. Anyway- I saw this as a good opportunity to teach him a lesson (“Take better care of your things, son”) and to get him off the infernal pacie.

After an hour or two of “I want it my pacie, I need it my pacie, my pacie in a toy-lit,” he seemed to give up, and forget about it. I put him to bed (which worked suprisingly well sans-pacification device) and went downstairs to hang out with Micah. About an hour later, after putting Micah to bed as well, I heard him crying in his room. When I went in to see to him, he said “Mommy, I want go potty,” Yay! Joy, elation! Potty training success is, after all, measured when he can actually get up in the middle of the night to pee. I gleefully took him into the bathroom, and plopped him on the toilet. He looked down at the water, stuck his lip out and with the most heartbroken sadness in his voice and tears in his eyes cried “Oh Mommy, I drop it pacie in a toy-lit.” Yeah- I’m probably going to cave and get him another one.

Hooray for the Underdog!!

Be sure to watch through until the end. It’s a happy ending, I promise.

Moments like these…

I have two boys. They are just about the boy-est boys that have ever boyed. You know how “They” say that people gender stereotype kids by giving boys trucks and girls dolls when they’re kids? Yeah. That’s a load of hooey. (Oh yes I did say hooey) Micah came across a doll in the rec room today, picked it up, looked it in the face, and promptly proceeded to bang its head repeatedly on my desk. His favorite way to play with Barbies when he goes to a girl-friends (not to be confused with “girlfriend, lovey-lovey kiss kiss”) house? Launching them rocket style off the roof of their little pink mansion. Isaac is a little more cuddly than Micah, but even his snuggles usually end in giggles, tickles, or shouting a gleeful “a-GAIN!” after being thrown onto the bed kamikaze-style. It seems like I’m forever asking them to be gentle, calm down, and for pete’s sake, stop breaking/throwing/punching/kicking/pushing that down the stairs! (Although I have noticed a big difference since I cut out the apple juice. Who knew unsweetened, watered-down apple juice would have such an effect? Apparently “They” did.) They like machines, dump trucks, dinosaurs, loud noises, and crashing. Beyond the deep theological thoughts, Micah’s favorite question? “Hey Mommy! Can I BREAK THIS?”

I think all moms at some point think, “Do you really get it? Do I say all this in vain? MY SNEAKERS LISTEN BETTER THAN YOU!” And then you have a moment, your kids do something, say something, actually listen, and your heart melts, and it makes all the discipline and talkings-to worth it. Like this morning. I was giving a bottle to one of the little girls that I babysit. Micah sat down next to me on the couch, and Isaac stood in front of me. Isaac reached out and held the bottle to feed the baby, and they both started singing Give Me Jesus to her in the sweetest, quietest little off-key voices. (And yes, I did cry a little bit.)

Upeedownside

That’s how Isaac says Upside-down. There are some things that my kids say that are just so cute, I can’t possibly correct them. I more often than not come into a room to hear cries of “Wookit me! I UPEEDOWNSIDE!!” and see Isaac hanging over the side of the couch, his feet sticking straight up in the air, face red, with his gorgeous blonde hair (people pay a lot of money for hair like that…seriously.) flopping around as he laughs. See? How can I correct that? Really.

The kids are growing so fast- although sometimes it’s hard to believe that they’re only 4 and 2. Micah is big for his age anyway, but the stuff he comes out with boggles me. He always wants to know how things work, what they do, what’s the purpose, what does this accomplish, and how much is 422+522-622? It’s like someone flipped the intelligence switch last Thursday, and all of a sudden he gets it. He went from scribbling random lines and spending most of his coloring energy slamming a red marker onto the construction paper yelling “LOOK MOMMY! BLOOD!” to drawing stick people, cars, roads and laying out quite an accurate representation of David fighting Goliath for the wall in Daddy’s office. He went from counting “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,11,13,14,16,19” to being able to add, subtract, and do simple word problems. (He must have gotten all the math genes that skipped most of the rest of our family…I still can’t do word problems.) And for the record- no genius testing yet. Our supper conversation still sounds like this:

M- “Hey Mommy- knock-knock!”
K- “Who’s there?”
M- “Door”
K- “Door who?”
M- “Door because if they eat my supper! AHH HA HA HA! Get it Mommy??”
K- “Sure, Buddy.”

Sometimes they make less sense. I have actually been nominated for an Emmy for “Best Fake Laugh/Feigned Enthusiasm in a Supporting role.” I’ve always wanted to be an actress. I think this may be my big break.

Isaac is, well…Isaac. He’s loving, funny, and squeezably cute. He loves to laugh and to make you laugh. His knock-knock jokes are a little easier to laugh at, because he thinks he’s so absolutely hilarious, but they don’t even usually involve actual words. He’s got the personality of a McNally– entertaining, lovable and passionate. He’s a jolly old soul- but when he gets mad, he’s got no problem letting you know. Yikes, that kid can yell. I think (read: hope) that he’s hit the terrible two’s now instead of at three like Micah did. If they’re still yet to come…oh, help. We’ve also been potty training. Well, sort of. As much as you can potty train with four other kids around. So far the score is Number 1- 0, Number 2- 2. Micah likes to take him and claims he did once, but not having seen it, I’m not prepared to count it as a success. There are a million and one different ideas on potty training (or 1,867,000 if you hit Google), but ultimately- you have to be ready, too. Potty training is a big commitment- not to be entered into lightly. If you have the will-power and the stamina to stick with it, memorize your kids pee schedule, or ask him every 27 seconds if he has to pee? More power to ya. I? Do not. If he wants to go, he goes, but I guess I’m just not that committed. 🙂

For those of you who have been praying for Deep Water, thanks. Our Launch Sunday (in spite of “Post Tropical Storm Noel” and power out to quite a few people around the city) went really well. New faces, and a bunch of the same people back last week (in spite of the first snow storm of the season) It feels good to have the launch phase over, kind of a sigh of relief.

Well…I should probably get to it. It’s quiet time, so 4 out of the 5 children currently in my house are faaaast asleep (no, I don’t know how I do it- it’s a God-thing.) And I’ve got lunch and supper to prepare. Oops. I jinxed it. One just woke up.

Sometimes you feel like a nut…

I’m sorry I haven’t gotten around to posting much the last little while….we’re launching a church/kids’ ministry on Sunday, I’m taking care of 4 (as of tomorrow afternoon 5) kids, and I just found out that AJ’s parents are coming tomorrow. (Which is awesome- but all the church launching/child-caring shenanigans we have been engaging in as of late have left little time for housework.) Pray for Deep Water this weekend!!