Summer Fun!

I simply cannot believe we're past the halfway point in July. For those of us here in the upper Midwest, that means we're on the downside of summer. :(


Have I mentioned that we love Madison even more when the weather is warm--there's just so much to do outside and much of it is very family friendly. In the past few weeks we've enjoyed the farmer's market regularly, gardened often (and actually had our first "crop", snow peas, although the rabbits certainly got more than we did), and enjoyed several events around town.



On Wednesday night we went with our life group to Concerts on the Square, a mid-summer tradition here in Madison, involving the Madison Chamber Orchestra playing live music on the steps of the Capitol building. People either pack a picnic, or purchase food from local vendors set up on-site, spread out blankets on the capitol lawn and enjoy dinner and the music (and in the case of a group with eight kids 3 and under, a lot of child-chasing). This was our first time attending a full concert--the other couple of times we've planned on going it has rained or had too great of a threat of inclement weather, although we did happen on one by accident last summer. We had a blast and so did the kids, and they did surprisingly well for how late they were up past their bedtimes. Joshua enjoyed tearing around chasing a few of his friends and befriended a dog named Moxie, and Lydia played with her toys and her friend, Addie. :) Too cute!

Yesterday we headed out with friends in the morning for Madison's new splash park. It's hard to decide whether the best part is how much Joshua enjoyed it, or the fact that it is free so we can go often! The weather has been hot and muggy here all week, so he had a blast running through the sprinklers and splashing in puddles.

Speaking of Joshua, he's officially been in underwear for the past two weeks and this Sunday, assuming we experience no major relapses, we're declaring him officially potty-trained!!!! We've certainly had a couple of accidents along the way (most notably a nasty one at the park the other day, which I'll spare you the details of, but I'm sure you can imagine if you know anything about the lack of amenities in park bathrooms combined with the stickiness of a certain bodily discharge...ick!) but we've been dry most days and even most nights recently. I'm starting to not be constantly worried when we're out and about, but have definitely re-learned the value of keeping a full set of spare clothes on hand at all times. It's somewhat ironic, potty training has been one of the hardest things I've undertaken as a parent so far, and I've spent a lot of energy working on it over the past 18 months. For all that energy I don't really feel like it got me too far, but when he was ready to do it, it's really gone quite smoothly. As usual the first few times are the hardest, and that first accident in public is daunting, but after that you realize again that it's all just a stage... (I think that should be the mantra of parenting!)

Lydia's sitting on her own now and rolling and scootching wherever she wants to go. Her funniest move is a scootch which she does on her back that looks like the upside-down wiggle-worm crawl. She's decided to put real crawling on hold and focus on pulling-up and cruising instead--so watch out world! She's also eating all sorts of solids now, and it's super fun to watch Joshua get excited with each new thing she tries. :)



I'll try to keep this updated more often, but it seems that life happens way too fast to blog about these days! Have a great weekend.

Glory

Our hearts are mourning today. Late last night James' grandmother, Mimi, passed away after a long battle with ovarian cancer. We're grieving for the hole that is left in our lives and those of the rest of the family, but rejoicing in the life that she lived and the freedom and healing she now finds with Jesus. We'll certainly miss her, but know that we'll see her again someday.

Mimi loved music deeply and I know there were many times through her journey that it brought her comfort and peace. Today the song "Glory" by Selah has been bringing me comfort and it seems fitting to post the lyrics below in her memory as she is now experiencing HIS glory for the first time. Wherever you're at today may the words bring you solace as well that we do "know the end of the story" and grief is only a season.

We love you Mimi!

Glory
One day eyes that are blind will see you clearly
And one day all who deny will finally believe
One day hearts made of stone will break in pieces
And one day chains once unbroken will fall down at your feet
So we wait for that one day come quickly

We want to see your Glory
Every knee falls down before thee
Every tongue offers you praise
With every hand raised
Singing Glory
To you and unto you only
We'll sing Glory to Your name

One day voices that lie will all be silent
One day all that's divided will be whole again
One day death will retreat and wave it's white flag
One day love will defeat the strongest enemy
So we wait for that one day come quickly

We want to see your Glory
Every knee falls down before thee
Every tongue offers you praise
With every hand raised
Singing Glory
To you and unto you only
We'll sing Glory to Your name

We know not the day or the hour
Or the moments in between
But we know the end of the story
When we'll see...

Your Glory
Every knee falls down before thee
Every tongue offers you praise
With every hand raised
Singing Glory
To you and unto you only
We'll sing Glory to Your name

Milestones

These past few weeks have brought several achievements for the kids. Nothing earth shattering, but still it's always fun to watch them grow and become more accomplished!




Lydia is five months old tomorrow and the days, weeks, and months continue to fly. She's reached the big event of starting "solid" foods this past week. What a messy happening given the relatively small amounts of milk and seemingly harmless rice cereal flakes! She made some confused faces at the beginning, but now just a couple of days later she opens her mouth like a champ and is quickly frustrated if she doesn't think you're re-filling the spoon fast enough. Joshua was so excited that Lydia could finally eat "real food" and loved helping me make the baby cereal. (Here are some pictures from her first cereal feeding.)

Finger Licking Good!

Joshua is continuing to work on potty training and had a couple very successful days this week. We had a nearly dry day on Wednesday (one accident and one completely missed event in the diaper) but he went all by himself and there were no hassles. I've been surprised by his potty-training preferences. I'd been prepared for a toddler who refused to go in any potty but his own and who I constantly had to remind and coax to try. However, now that he's realized that nearly every place we go (stores, friends houses, church) has a bathroom he prefers to try a new one. Also, he refuses to go when prompted, but more often that not he tells me he needs to go and he's almost always right. I also thought "big kid" underwear were supposed to be a motivating factor, but instead he is staunchly opposed to the idea of undies (he only wants to wear an "undie diaper" pull-up.) I have no idea however when we might be officially done with the process, my emotions regarding the subject swing like a pendulum depending on the day, and some days it is just too much to attempt!



Nothing much is new with James and I, we're just trying to get ready for a week-long trip that begins on Friday and takes us back to see both sides of the family the following week, ending with the wedding of James' brother Justin (Joshua is the ringbearer).

Tag, You're it.

For some time I've seen "tag" games going around my friend's blogs. They all have slightly different rules and questions, but are pretty the same. I've figured at some point, I'd get tagged.
Well, I was right. Rebecca at Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness tagged me yesterday so here goes.
The rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What were you doing ten years ago?
Wow, the end of my freshman year of high school--it's been a long time! I was probably pondering what it would be like to be grown up, and how college was right around the corner (even college seems a long time ago now). Thinking about college sent me into wondering where I should go, etc. I also was asked out for the first time that year.

What are five non-work related items on my to-do list today?
Watching game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals with my hubby. Go Wings!
Playing with Joshua and Lydia.
Reading the book our small-group is discussing.
Cooking something fun for dinner.
Trying to find order to my house (that's pretty much on the list every day with two kids).

Five snacks I enjoy:
Definitely ice cream and/or frozen custard
Rolos
Pizza
Doritos
Cookie Dough (baked or not, I don't discriminate)

Five things I'd do if I were a billionaire:
Give alot of it away (put it into a foundation or trust probably) since I couldn't possibly wisely spend most of that amount of money.
"Retire" (i.e. James and I could stop working for a paycheck, maybe take a few years off to focus on kids and volunteer, then probably start a business doing something we love or have a job we've always wanted to try)
Travel and/or live internationally (there's a lot of world out there, I'd love to see and interact with more of it--although this might have to be delayed until the kids are a bit older.)
Help my parents retire comfortably.
Pay off debts (although in the scheme of a billion dollars these seem relatively minor!)

Places I've lived:
Nothing too interesting here. Durand, MI; North Branch, MI; Hastings, MI; Spring Arbor, MI; Ann Arbor, MI; Verona, WI

Jobs I've had (in order of appearance):
Baby-sitter
Farmer's Market stand worker
Instructor of Private Lessons (Piano)
Tutor
Camp Counselor
Administrative assistant
Resident Assistant
Nanny
Wife & Mom

Tagged Friends:
Julie
Angie
Jen
Kristin
Amy

Down on The Farm (Sort of)

Summer is right around the corner here in Wisconsin and we're enjoying it. The kids both love to be outside where there's plenty to see, and usually Mommy is glad to indulge them. We've been trying to do our local errands (groceries, library, bank, etc.) as walking trips recently too. This is one of the things I love about living in the heart of a small town. Roads aren't too busy for walking nearby and places aren't too far away to prohibit the effort.

We're trying to do a lot more local eating this summer and we've become members of a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm where our once-a-week delivieries start in June. (Yum, Yum!) We're also still regularly frequenting the farmer's market that assembles twice weekly on the Capitol square in downtown Madison. Completing the trifecta of local eating efforts is our personal vegetable garden.

Epic (James' employer) has a really neat project that they've run the past couple of years. The land the current campus is built on is former Wisconsin farm land, so they chose to keep several of the barns and outbuilding as the "Epic Farm." It's complete with a pasture for several horses and cows and they've provided pre-tilled garden plots to employees willing to take charge of them for the summer. We decided to make the effort this year and were fortunate enough to get one of the available spaces. We're growing the usual garden vegetables as well as a few celery plants (a tribute to James' family's roots as professional celery growers) with the basic goal of building awareness in our kids of where food really comes from and the effort involved in growing it. (Added bonus: nothing tastes so good as a fresh-picked, home-grown vegetable!)


Joshua also loves to watch the horses and cows and it's the most up-close and personal he's ever been with an animal that large! Lydia's not quite sure what to think, but she's certainly alert these days and trying to discover as much as she can about the world around her. (The downside to this is that naps are a big inconvenience to her goal of world exploration--hopefully we can get all that ironed out soon.)


So, that's what we've been up to these past few weeks, hopefully Joshua doesn't run out of patience for the project weeks ahead of when any real produce starts to appear. We'll hope the animals can get him through the watering and waiting phase.

Memorial Day weekend brings both Bratfest and James' family to town, so we're looking forward to it, as well as an extra day off!

Letting Go

To start, a couple of pictures:How I dress my child

How my child dresses himself

Recently (like the past 2-3 weeks) Joshua has requested to pick out his own clothes. I've held my breath each time he opens the drawer, wondering what will come out. So far it's been pretty OK, maybe not what I would have put together, but nothing scandalous either. I've been wondering when we'd come up with something that just absolutely did not work. Well, today's the day. This is currently his favorite shirt, because it has a fuzzy "pori-pine" on it. I have to admit it is a very cute shirt. He and I both like the pants as well, they're comfy and still don't look sloppy. The fact that one item is orange and the other is red, however, is completely lost on him. Rather, he realizes that they are red and orange, he just doesn't think that's prohibitive in wearing them at the same time.
Our conversation this morning went something like this:
Me: It's time to get dressed honey. Do you want mommy to pick out your clothes?
Joshua: I do it!
Me: OK, go ahead and pick something out, but hurry, we need to leave very soon.
Quickly opens pants drawer and immediately pulls out bright red pants. (This is the part where I start to get nervous, if jeans/khakis come out, I figure it can't be too bad.)
Me: Ok, what shirt are you going to wear?
(He first chose an all-in-one shirt/shorts outfit that was white with red/blue stripes and I had to explain that he'd wouldn't be able to wear the red pants since it already was pants and shirt together. He quickly vetoed this and moved on. That's when the porcupine shirt was chosen.)
Joshua: Pori-pine shirt!!!
I tried my best to suggest that maybe it would be nice to wear jeans, and even managed to get them happily on him until he realized that would mean no red pants. I tried to suggest a different shirt, but no, he really, really wanted to wear the porcupine.
It was at this point that I realized I had only two choices. Unfortunately, it was not one of those days we could spend at home where no one would see us. So, I could swallow my pride and hope everyone thinks I'm really color-blind all day long (hey, it's better than having absolutely no idea what colors clash) or I could have a matching child, but crush his independence and pride in himself.
You can see from the picture what I chose--but I really do have a bigger point. I'm finding already that confidence is fragile, especially in a two-year-old who badly wants mommy and daddy's approval. I'm also realizing that many times I'm going to have to swallow my own pride in order to let him learn on his own. In the grand scheme of things, it's not really important whether my child matches everyday--it is important that he knows I am proud of him and believe that he does a good job.
I've never been in a situation where everything was such a delicate balance of holding on and letting go. My mom tells me this will never end, even as my kids become adults and make decisions completely independent of mine. I understand what she means just a little bit more after today. So, if you see us out and about, you'll know why my 2 year old is sporting a very non-matching combo, and you can smile. At least I can still control what goes in Joshua's dresser so at least I like all the pieces individually! And, I'm definitely going to enjoy the remaining time I have to dress Lydia anyway I want to. ;-)

Big-Boy Bed and Cute Pics

Sorry I haven't posted in forever--it seems the past few weeks have been truly full of nothing but naps, cooking, diaper changes, and sometimes a trips to the grocery store. The things that take up nearly all your time, but not exactly the subject of exciting blog posts.

Well, there's still not much of note, but I figured I should post again anyway, and I did get some cute pictures over the weekend, so that makes it more noteworthy, I guess. Enjoy! :-)

Perhaps our biggest adventure has been a "big-boy" bed for Joshua. He's still happily sleeping in his crib and since we were given a 2nd one before Lydia was born there's really no rush. He hasn't tried climbing out and he still likes it. However, we'd rather let him do this transition on his own schedule and not have it forced on us when our monkey-like little man does realize he can climb (or fall) out.

So, this past weekend we got a toddler bed set up in his room, complete with an adorable quilt filled with trains and trucks (made for him by his great-grandma) which has been awaiting the arrival of a bed to use it on. He loves the bed--he just doesn't want to sleep in it. (We had anticipated this, so the crib is still in the room.) He told me at 10am this morning that it was sleepy time and proceeded to climb in, wrap himself up, properly position all his loveys and made me turn his light off. As I figured, this lasted all of 2 minutes, then he was on to something else.

To be completely honest, I'm not in a rush for this transition. I've been putting even starting it off because really, the crib is just a lot easier. I can put him in there and know that he's safe until I get him back out again. If it takes him awhile to fall asleep he has a more limited amount of things to distract him from eventually napping. And did I mention that he has to stay in there until I get him out?! (I have a friend whose 2-year-old is in a big girl bed, but doesn't realize she's free to roam and thinks she can't get out on her own--how I wish this were the case for Joshua, but no, it took him all of 2 minutes to realize it was FREEDOM!)

So, I'll keep you posted on how it's going. For all you veteran moms out there, any tips for how to make the transition smoother? I'm fine with 2 beds in the room for now, but don't want them both in there indefinitely.