Sitting

Max has figured out that his rear end has another purpose other that pooping. He LOVES his new perspective on the world!

The B-I-B-L-E

Each year the Children's Ministry Department at our church presents each child in the 2 year old Sunday school class with a bible. It is a story bible, perfect for kiddos their age. Judd and I teach that Sunday School class along with another couple. We switch on and off teaching. This past Sunday was our week to teach - and was Bible presentation Sunday. I knew that there may be a lot of kids in the class, I was right.

Judd and I had over 25 kids in Sunday School this past Sunday! And they were between 2 and 3 years old. I say "over 25" kids because I couldn't actually count them all - they were moving too fast.



Luckily, the other couple that we teach with felt bad for us and stayed to help.

We marched them all to the presentation about half way through the Sunday School hour. When Charlotte's name was called she jumped up and screamed with delight to go get her new bible. She immediately started flipping through it.



She said, "Mommy - it's filled with BUGS!" (she was reading a story about locusts!)

We have been reading a story a night out of her new bible. Last night she told me Daddy read her the story of "Adam and Steve". I quickly corrected her - even though I do love to hear her versions of the stories!

Bathroom/Laundry Room

As of 9 AM this morning, this is what our 3rd full bathroom off of our kitchen looked like:



The picture on the left is where the big garden tub was. That is where the washer and dryer are going to go! Yippee.

We use every inch of our house. Our house is not huge, but it is big enough for us if we are careful about how we use the space. One thing I can not stand is wasted space - and that big garden tub was wasted space. I think one shower has been taken in that bathroom in the 9 years we have lived here. (9 years? wow!) So, I hatched a plan a few years ago to move the washer and dryer from a closet in the garage up to this bathroom.

Judd finally got sick of me talking about it and said we could pull the trigger on the project. After a couple of weeks of getting estimates, we settled on a contractor. He started work at 7:45 this morning!

So, say a little prayer that everything goes well. This is the first big project we have done with this house and we are both nervous as to what it will uncover. One reason we have waited so long is that we are afraid of this house and what lies beneath the floor and in the walls. When we first moved in we had roof leaks that revealed termites. When the roofers investigated the roof, they found all kinds of stuff in the attic over the addition - the scariest - empty beer boxes. So, knowing that we had intoxicated construction workers putting on the addition to our house, makes us a tad nervous.

So, I'm cautiously optimistic that I will be doing laundry in a nice, clean beautiful laundry room by next week!

Minute with Max: Volume 19

My helper was with me again. I took this on Saturday, but just getting around to posting today.

5 months

Little man was 5 months old yesterday!



He really wants to go places these days, but his little legs just can't push him along like he wants them to. I don't think it will be long until he can army crawl around though. He can sit for a few seconds, but then falls over. He smiles A LOT, laughs a lot, and is just the cutest little thing.

We are making a little progress on solids. He has a tiny bit of lunch and some dinner. He's still not so sure about it all.

For the most part his sleeping is good. He usually wakes up once/night. He is always down by 7PM, and wakes up anywhere between 6:30-7:30 AM for the day.

He's turning out to be a very happy baby!

Serving

My mother-in-law saved the day today.

Judd was out of town last week, sick over the weekend, and now out of town this week. So, I have spent a lot of quality time with my children recently. Judd's mom took pity on me and came to spend the day with us today.

Can I tell you how awesome that was? It was awesome. I really needed it. I didn't really know why I needed it until I sat down to write this post. I needed her help today, because I was really ready for someone to take care of me, to serve me. I just needed a mom. I'm worn out. I'm tired. I'm feeling a little beat down these days.

She didn't take care of me in the sense that she dressed me, cooked for me, etc - but she took care of my children today. My arms aren't sore tonight because they have been lugging a 16 lb baby around all day. My nerves aren't shot because I've been trying to hold off 3 year old tantrums all day. She took care of my kids and she let me take care of other things. But most of all, she understood what I needed and came and took care of it - just what a mom is supposed to do. I didn't even have to ask!

I'm reading a wonderful book, The Mission of Motherhood. Every time I pick it up, I'm inspired. The last section was about serving your children. Because, by serving your children, you are serving God. Wow. I hadn't thought about it that way before - but it puts a whole different spin on things.

I'm here to serve Charlotte and Maxwell. I'm here to meet their needs - physically and emotionally.

But, that doesn't mean that my needs don't need to be met too.

It's just the little things - like when Judd made all of us lunch on Sunday afternoon - he cooked, brought our plates to the table, then cleaned up. That was serving his family, and serving me - just a small gesture, but it gave me a few minutes to just sit and enjoy my children without having to worry about if the sandwiches were burning on the griddle while Max was screaming in my ear.

It's also in a mother-in-law that knows what you need, knows your mom is too far away to be there (even though I know she would love to be here), and just comes in and helps you.

Because even moms just need "a mom" every now and then.

Minute with Max : Volume 18

Top 'o the mornin' to ya

Charlotte got really into St. Patrick's day this year. I think her teachers really built it up at school. She came home talking about "sevious" (mischievous) leprechauns, shamrocks, and rainbows. Her St. Patrick's Day party was yesterday and she had so much fun talking about the leprechaun that messed up their room while they were at music. She told me that he danced the Irish jig because there were tiny footprints everywhere.

This morning she woke up and told me, "Top of the morning to you". Just out of the blue. It was hilarious.

We had a friend come over and play this morning while his parents went to a doctor's appointment. I thought I'd make the kiddos green pancakes and green smoothies. They were a hit! Charlotte drank the entire green smoothie (chock full of spinach) in about 5 seconds flat! Now I know how to sneak veggies in.





I didn't see any little leprechauns today...well, maybe one.

Bath Time

I'm trying to find my way back to what this blog used to be - the every day moments. I used to post that a lot more than I have been lately. It is much harder to pull the camera out when I'm caring for two kiddos, but I need to.

I am falling head over heels with photography again and I have some ideas swimming around in my brain that I can't wait to find the time to see come to life. It may have something to do with the fact that C. Davis Photography (website is a work in progress right now) is busy and I'm more energized than ever to see it succeed and grow.

Anyway, somehow much more soap was poured into the bath tonight than usual and a HUGE bubble bath formed before our eyes. Max tried to eat the bubbles, found out they were yucky. Charlotte made many bubble beards and sang silly bubble songs. They had a blast.

Minute with Max: Volume 17

You thought I forgot this week, didn't you? I did. It's been a very busy week with Oak Grove's consignment sale. Last night I took this just before Max had his "dinner".

Watch it. It's well worth the wait.

Just a glimpse

into our morning.

Charlotte declared herself "Drumhead Charlotte". She is blasting off to space here.



Max, just before getting tired of being in the jumperoo.



'cause it's these little moments that make me realize how lucky I really am - and I always want to remember these mornings.

Taking myself too seriously

As usual, my child taught me a lesson while I was trying to teach one to her. It just took me a few days to figure that out.

We went to a park on Monday afternoon with other moms and their kids. It is a park that has a play-scape and sand on one side, and about 50 yards away, some bars and balance beams for strength training (for adults). Of course, the kids never want to play in the kid part, they want to go over to the other side and walk on the balance beams, climb the bars, etc.

I was talking with the other moms, holding Max, over on the playground side, there were a couple of their boys playing on the strength training side. Charlotte wanted to go over there with them, so I said she could, but to please not climb the bars too high. She promised she wouldn't.

A few minutes later, I see one of the boys climb up a little hill, drop his pants and start to pee on a tree. I thought to myself, "awesome, Charlotte's watching him do that and she is going to want to pee by a tree too." But, I was too far away to really do anything about it before it started to happen. Sure enough, she marched up the same little hill, dropped her pants, and just stood there peeing. I guess she thought hers would squirt out in front of her too, but as we all know, that's not the case. It just dribbled down her legs.

I handed Max to a friend and ran across the park to see if she had really gone and how bad it was. She was just standing there, kinda surprised at her little experiment, soaked from the waist down. I told her it was time to go, I didn't have a change of clothes for her. She screamed, "But I want to CLIMB." I said, "fine, you can go climb, but you have to do it in wet pants." She did not want wet pants on and tried to take them off. I told her that she could not run around the park naked from the waist down. Not only was it not very polite, but it was a little chilly. She didn't like this and started a tantrum. I tried to get her to pull her pants up and go climb, but she refused. After a few minutes of this, I picked her up kicking and screaming, and put her in the car.

Luckily, my friend holding Max saw all of this go down, as did everyone else at the park, and put Max in his carseat and started walking him to the car. I got him in the car then attempted to wrangle Charlotte into her seat - no easy task. Finally we were all in. Once again, a tantrum in public in front of lots of other moms - one of which was there to witness the "after school tantrum".

For some reason, this episode has stuck in my mind for the last couple of days. What could I have done differently? I heard the Indigo Girls song this morning, "Closer to Fine". You know that part:

"The best thing you've ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously, it's only life after all"

It dawned on me. Why do I take it so seriously? It's just a 3 year old girl wanting to pee like boys. Why didn't I just stay over on my side of the park and let her figure out what to do herself? Why didn't I just laugh it off with her - that she was such a silly girl to try to pee pee like the boys? Why am I so quick to discipline and take charge rather than try to find the fun in the silly things she does.

I want to have more fun with my kids. I want to find more joy in the day to day, rather than it feeling like a burden. Judd said to me as he left for work one day this week, "Just enjoy your kids today." I want one of the best things they do for me is to take my life less seriously. I'm sure there is a balance, I can't let them run around like hooligans peeing on trees all of the time, but there are situations I can handle better. All I can do is try to find more silliness in the day to day.

Movie Night

3 bathed little girls all snuggled in waiting for Strawberry Shortcake to start. In the background, parents with high hopes of a game night.

Those 3 girls only laid there about 3 minutes. No game night for the parents.

That's OK, at least we got 3 minutes of adult time. :)

Minute with Max : Volume 16

Goings On

Charlotte has been much more into Max these days. She wants to hold him, play with him, kiss him, smother hug him. He loves the attention. She cracks him up.

Our week has been pretty good. Max is having some sleep regression, which I'm reading is common in 4 month olds. I remember Charlotte regressing too about this time. Last night he was up twice, then up again at 6 AM. It's just temporary, right? in 6 months I'll be able to finally sleep again, right? From what I've read, there are just so many things going on in their little brains and bodies right now that sleep gets disturbed. I guess it's tough getting big!

We started him on some rice cereal in the evenings this week. He seems to enjoy it. The first night I thought he may eat the spoon!

Charlotte woke up two nights ago complaining that her ear hurt. I took her to the doctor yesterday and she took one look and said, "Yikes, that's really bad." Poor Char. She hasn't had an ear infection in well over a year. Judd told me that when he gave her a bath the other night she kept pouring water in her ear - I'm wondering if that's the cause. She also has been pretty congested. We are gonna take it easy today - I've declared a pajama day. We had one back in December. We are going to stay in pajamas all day and just lay around playing, resting, watching TV. Sounds great, huh?

I attempted my first trip to the zoo with the kiddos on Tuesday. Charlotte really wanted to go and asked me the night before if we could. She was a really good girl and Max was a pretty good baby. The weather was great and the zoo wasn't very crowded.






Love ya sis!

February Birthdays

Last weekend we spent enjoying beautiful weather down at the lake. We got there Friday just in time to spend a little while "fishing" before the sun went down. They don't call that last hour of the day "The Golden Hour" for nothing. I didn't have my camera with me when we went down to the dock, but when we got there I just couldn't stand it, I HAD to go get my camera. The light was so beautiful.



I made poor Granddaddy pose for a picture :)





Enough posing, time to fish.



Saturday, the family got together for lunch to celebrate birthdays. It was Granddaddy Davis's, Emily's, and Charlotte's birthday in February. We had a yummy lunch complete with cake and ice cream. It was just warm enough to try the jet ski. The water was pretty cold when it hit your legs and Charlotte wanted to turn around after about 2 minutes down the creek.



The rest of the weekend was spent visiting. Charlotte hung out with her cousins most of the time. They are becoming fast friends. Katie does Charlotte's hair and Lilly keeps Charlotte entertained with pretending. An hour can go by that I don't see Charlotte - she's just there playing and playing.



Enjoying a pancake dinner Saturday night.



I'm really looking forward to this summer spending some weekends down there!