My Life Right Now: A Photo Story

Ashton has gotten really excited by the ABC television show "Wipeout." All day Tuesday he waits in eager anticipation for the 7:00pm show. (In case you haven't seen the show, it's an obstical course which requires the contestants to wear helmets and lifejackets.) Here is my family living it out...every Tuesday evening, and then some. He he.
Ashton greeting Sadie in the morning. If only this is how things were all day... Yeah, right.
Aaron and Ashton tubing this last weekend...

...and Sadie and I.

Here's Sadie after first waking up in the morning. (She's a book lover.)

Our Life Lately

It seems as though either Sadie, Ashton or I (or all of us) have been sick at some point for the last month! I guess it's a good thing I never got around to putting away Ashton's medicine because we're back to needing it again -- he has an ear infection. Right now all three of us are on antibiotics, which is RARE around this house! But we're all alive and otherwise well, so I'm not complaining. =)

Those Two...

Today was a like a warm summer breeze -- something I only long for. Notice I said like -- there certainly was no warm summer breeze, but something else I usually only long for happened! Today the kids played pleasantly for nearly 30 minutes straight. The toys that we've accumulated over the last three years finally entertained the kids (rather than me being their source of entertainment), nobody got hurt (thus allowing me to remain seated for such an "extened" period of time), and nobody picked on anybody else or whined or complained about anybody else. Halleluiah!!!

However, it did amuse me that what kept Ashton enertained were Sadie's toys.

And what kept Sadie happy were Ashton's toys.
Don't ask me what I did during those 30 minutes; it's disappointing how I savored the time as my own. (I applied shoe polish to my hubby's shoes.) But that's not the point -- the 30 minutes is what's noteworthy.

That Sadie girl -- I swear -- every day she does a little bit more than she did the day before. She's been climbing anything and everything in order to stand up. Then, she's refined a little more the getting/falling down process. Yesterday, I found her literally going through and emptying out her toy box! Now today, she's actually (slowly and wobbly) moving along the object that's holding her up (i.e. coffe table), and going back and forth between it and whatever is nearby it (i.e. walking toy), always holding on to one or the other. This evening she went up 5 or 6 stairs before tiring out! Now if only I could get her to advance in the eating department! We did the rice cereal for a while, moved on to oatmeal (which I personally would much rather have), but because it gave her terrible diaper rash, we are now back to the rice cereal (1-2 T once a day). Now that the diaper rash is gone, I am afraid to present anything new! Perhaps I should give her cereal more often so she 1. can grow and get the nutrients she needs and 2. get better at this eating from a spoon thing! Duh.

And Ashton. Let's just say that his memory verse from Sunday school sums up our latest challenge. 2 Timothy 2:24 "Be kind to everyone." Yesterday Ashton bit his sister's ear. I was so mad at him -- perhaps the maddest ever. Had he bitten her ear any harder, we would have been in the ER. Fortunately, it only left teeth marks and varying shades of purple, pink, and red. And I'm trying to get him to not be so bossy and demanding. I've let it go on for a while now, because at first I was just happy to be able to understand him and communicate with him. Now we're practicing asking for things by saying, "May I ... please?" Lord help us. The other day we were at the library when Ashton saw Kyler. You know -- the Kyler -- the one who reads books and plays his guitar for children all over town, i.e. the library, the Toy Store, my father-in-law's church, etc. (Come to think of it, hiring Kyler to headline a child's birthday party might not be a bad idea.) Anyway, either Ashton was starstruck or else he's more like his mom than I knew. He was shy and bashful. I could identify with Ashton. While other kids were running up to Kyler, Ashton followed my all-too-common mantra "only speak when spoken too." That was my observation...

I've found myself rejoicing today at a new sister in Christ. A 12 year-old girl who is a family friend of ours, has a softball size cancerous tumor in her inner ear. God is using the Christian girl's family to draw others to Himself. Check it out. So anyway, it's reminded me: measly little me is rejoicing; imagine how much more our Lord and the angels are rejoicing!!! Ahh...I love it!!!

Random news. My left wrist hurts again from shoveling. I'm reminded that this is the wrist I fell on last year and sprained. No wonder. Walgreens went to uniforms...cracks me up seeing Aaron wearing the same royal blue dress shirt with Walgreens embroidery and matching neck tie (with the W emblem) every day. Ha ha ha. Sorry honey. I just don't get it -- a uniform dress shirt and tie?!?

Ramblings

Sadie's second tooth came in Monday, February 4. She's a fast crawler now and she really likes those floor registers -- AGGHHH! She can almost climb up to a standing position, but sometimes only to her shins (if that make any sense). We definitely need to lower her bed again tomorrow. Anyway, she wants to be in these tedious positions so badly, but once she gets there, she can't quite hold her own, and often ends up falling. It doesn't make sense to me why she so badly wants to do that over and over again!

I ordered some new reusable grocery sacks online. I'm really digging them; they are fun. However, I was surprised by the material. It's like windbreaker material. Now I'll just wait and see how they actually work! I'm excited.

I've figured out how to remotely access my office computer from home, but I haven't worked out the kinks of getting the software programs I need. I'm tired of thinking about it.

Tonight Aaron and I went out for dinner while Aaron's family kept the kiddos. What a nice change! About 70% of the time Ashton likes to sit on Aaron's lap while we eat (as I type that I realize how ridiculous that is), so Aaron got to eat without Ashton on his lap, without Ashton climbing on him (he often stands while eating too), without wiping Ashton's fingers constantly in order to keep the two of them clean. I got to eat without having to constantly scoot stuff out of Sadie's grabby reach, without removing napkins from her mouth (yes, you read that correctly), and without shoveling my food in before Sadie's next impatient outburst. We got to eat at our own leisure and have adult conversation. Halleluia! Then we went and watched Fool's Gold -- a good movie. We picked Sadie up and now Ashton is having a sleepover at Oma & Opa's.

Yesterday Aaron asked me when we're going to have our next child. I had kind of assumed we'd space all our kids out like we did Ashton & Sadie -- aproximately 2 years apart. And I liked having a summer baby. But as I have been thinking about it more today, I've been thinking that it might be kind of nice to have the kids closer together so that we don't drag out the number of years before the last child leaves the house. If we got pregnant now, we'd have a November baby (not digging that), but Sadie would be nearly one and a half. PLUS, I've been persuaded that birth control pills aren't for me... All that to say, who knows when the next baby will be! My dear friend Angie, and her husband, are going to start trying to become pregnant here in the next few months...it would be fun to be pregnant with her. AHHH! I can't believe I'm talking about this. It does NOT feel like Sadie is 7 months old! It feels like she was born only 2 or 3 months ago.