Friday, July 23, 2010

Thinking and Trying

Caden and I sitting here on the couch. He's staring off into space, eating a Rice Krispy Treat and drinking water. I'm checking my email and catching up on blogs.

Me: Whatcha thinking about?
caden: (long pause) WordWorld
Me: Really... what about Wordworld
Caden: (again, a along pause) Just about Wordworld, that's what I'm thinking about. Nothing else mom.

I love my kids.

It was getting a bit crazy and I was feeling a bit burnt out, then Daniel took off 2 1/2 weeks between jobs. Now I feel refreshed and ready to pour into my kids lives. It's still challenging, but my "I'm done" attitude is put on the shelf for a while. I've been really working hard on changing my attitude and remaining positive despite what the circumstances are around me. It's hard work, but such a better place to live.

This week has been interesting. Not only was I flying solo again after 2 1/2 weeks of bliss, but both kids contracted Hand Foot and Mouth disease. What a way to come back from vacation! At the beginning of the week as I was cleaning the house and feeling a really bad attitude growing and growing, I started to pray, saying "God, I'm really trying to have a good attitude here, could you help me please!"

And the response I got, "No, you're not. Try harder." WHAT!!!! Are. You. Kidding. me! Try harder????

But then I really thought about it. He was right (go figure) i wasn't trying all that hard. In fact I wasn't trying at all. I think I just thought that if I thought I was trying, then I would be.

But I was only thinking about trying hard, I was actively trying. It was all in my head. So I started actively trying to stay positive and guess what... it worked! My bad attitude went away and the kids and I had a great morning cleaning the house.

I love my kids!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Growing Up

Conversation in the van with Caden.

Caden: Mom, when i grow up I going to be a mommy.

Me: No silly, only girls are mommies. You can be a daddy.

Caden: No mom! I want to be a mommy

Me: Caden, you can't be a mommy. Only girls are mommies, you're a boy so you have to be a daddy.

Caden (with tears welling up in his eyes): Mom, I want to be a mommy not a daddy.

Me: why?

Caden: I want to grow big big big and be a mommy so I can drink coffee every day.


Kids say the darndest things! :-)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Red Faced and Laughing

Tonight we had the pleasure of attending a JBU choir concert. They are doing their spring tour and it started in Kansas City. We all went out to a local church to hear them sing and to hear my younger sister Johanna sing a solo. She was amazing!! The choir was good too, but she was amazing. I'm so proud of her!

We got there before the concert started and we were chatting with the Musgrave family. They have a 12 year old son, Dave, that is friends with my youngest sister Laura. Caden has been around Dave a few times and has had so much fun with him and has since dubbed Dave as "my best friend." Needless to say Caden was so excited when he saw Dave. He asked to sit with him and would not stop talking about everything and anything. Even when we asked him to be quiet he wouldn't quit waving and saying "Hi David." And he was still sitting right next to him. Dave's a good sport to put up with the friendship of a two year old.

So onto my red faced moment... The concert was about to start and Caden was now sitting with us. We started cramming food into his mouth hoping to keep him quiet for at least some of the concert. Caden is a talker and likes to talk to everyone and doesn't understand why there are times talking isn't allowed. That is a forgein concept to him despite our best efforts. Even his whisper is loud. So the food was working... until I saw the "i have to go to the bathroom" squrim begin. Daniel quickly took him out to use the restroom as the choir was lining up at the back of the auditorium to make their entrance. They came back down the main aisle as one of the pastors was introducing the choir.

Caden comes running down the aisle, gets to where his "best friend" David is sitting and yells out for all to hear "David, I did it!!! I went potty!!!"

Oh Lord the mortification! I just had to laugh and say "Yes,that's my son." He wanted to share his excitment with Dave and apparantly the whole church.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Spring??

I am sitting here in my family room staring at the clock just waiting for the kids to wake up from their naps. No this is not what I typically do during nap time. Usually I'm praying that the kids will sleep extra long, as nap time just seems to go by very fast. But today is different... you see here in Kansas City we have had over 90 days of temperatures under 40 degress. Translation... we've had snow on the ground or coming down from the sky for about 3 months. WAAAAYYYY TOOO LONG!!! Today it's sunny and warm. The sky is blue and I can actually hear the birds. So here I sit waiting and waiting for my kids to wake up so we can go play at the park. So instead of spending my time just staring at the clock, I thought I'd update.

Caden: He is such an amazing two year old. He is in a very independent "I can do it" stage. But not in a bad way. I ask him to help in any way and he typical response is "Sure mom I can do that." It just makes me smile every time. He is just so excited about life and finds such joy in everything he does. He is a talker, and it's amazing the things he comes up with and it's amazing the things he repeats. Yeah, we're learning to be careful with what we say as we never know when he will repeat it. He loves his sister so much and the first thing he wants to do every morning is go get her up. Funny how that can't wait to be with each other, but then they drive each other crazy being together. It's fun to watch him become more of a little boy and not just a toddler any more.

A Caden story: During nap time one afternoon Caden was taking an especially long time to settle down and go to sleep. I had already been in his room twice to remind him not to play and to go to sleep. I went in again with a stern look on my face ready to give the final warning before a more serious punishment was administered. I stood over his bed my face close to his and said, "Caden, this is your last chance. No more playing, no more talking, no more singing. You need to close your eyes and go to sleep. Do you understand?" He looked at me and said, "Ooooo Mom I like your earrings. They new ones?." I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing and said, "No Caden these are not new earrings. Did you hear what I said?" Caden replied, "yes, I go to sleep... but Mom I like you earrings, they very nice." I walked out of the room laughing and laughing. Kids do say the darndest things.

Aliyah: Wow, talk about being independent. She wants to do everything by herself and she wants to do it when she wants todo it. We have a stubborn one on our hands . Yet, she is such a joyful little thing, of course when she wants to be. :-) She laughs and smiles all the time and loves being a "big girl". She's been walking since about 10 months and now at 14 months she pretty much runs every where. She is so fast I can't take my eyes off her for a min or I lose track of her. She is a little daredevil and isn't really afraid of anything. From throwing her body off the slide, or trying to walk down the stairs like a big kid... she will try anything. Especially with an older brother to copy.... we have our hands full with her. She loves to dance and run around the house which is just a joy to watch. She has become our entertainment and it's so much fun.

The new news with us...
Daniel is currently looking for a new job. He has really succeeded in his current job but began feeling like this wasn't what he wanted to do for years and years, and the upward mobility was very limited. So we've entered the job search world again. Thankfully we're not jobless, which makes searching a little easier. But it's still a daunting task, so prayers would be apprecaited.

Me?? Well, I finally feel like I have a handle on being a mom. Having two kids 15months apart... wow! it was a tough first year. But now, it's great! I've started focusing a bit more on myself... it's amazing how quickly you lose sight of taking care of your self when you have two small children. I'm currently working on getting back into shape. Which I feel like is the mantra of many moms but so far I've lost 14lbs in 8 weeks. And I have to say... I'm pretty proud of myself. Now I'm focusing on starting to run again and hopefully will sign up for a 5K soon to give myself some motivation.

So that's the update on the Miller family, I'll post some pictures of the kids soon as they are growing and changing very fast.