making changes

There are lots of changes going on in the Shirley household...most of which pertain to The Mayor. The first change is his diet. The Mayor is now gluten-free. We made this change for two reasons: 1. The Mayor has had issues with his digestive system since he was 1 year old. He had unexplained fevers for the good portion of a year and test after test after test showed nothing. I linked the issue to dairy, I know think the issue is gluten. Which leads to reason number 2: his behavior. There is no doubt about The Mayor being a sugary-sweet boy; he loves to love and with that comes a passion that is fiery. The strong will that I sometimes battle with today will be one of the things I love most about him as he becomes a young man. All 3 year olds go through temper tantrums but The Mayor's were becoming a point of serious worry with D and myself. The Mayor would get so upset he would have a tantrum that would sometimes last 30 minutes, we couldn't snap him out of it, he would literally be dripping sweat after he finally did calm down and then he would almost pass out from pure exhaustion. It was becoming more than we could take. After a lot of prayers and conversations, we made the switch. It has been 2 1/2 weeks and he has not had one temper tantrum. Now I am not in any way saying he is the perfect child. He is still a 3 year old boy after all, who gets upset if he doesn't get his way, but his frustration is dialed down immensely and if he even looks like he is about to enter a tantrum, we can easily snap him out of it and distract him. It is an amazing transformation. We are happier but more importantly, he is happier. Almost immediately we saw a change in his behavior and his digestive issues. Who knows if this will be his forever diet, but it is for now.

Another big change is no more naps for The Mayor. He would still nap if I let him, but I am not letting him nap anymore. I know...crazy. What mother would give up 2 hours of peace every afternoon?! But bedtime was becoming such a daunting task and after several nights of hearing The Mayor still talking to himself at 9:40 at night, I knew something had to change. I tried cutting his nap time, but even with the limited nap, he just wasn't getting enough stimulation from nap time to bed time to wear himself out. D was spending upwards of 45 minutes to an hour getting The Mayor bathed and ready for bed. We were frustrated because he wouldn't go to sleep and The Mayor was frustrated because he didn't want to sleep. We are on day 5 of no naps and The Mayor has been asleep before 7:30 (as early as 7:00 if we are really on top of things) every night. Bedtime has been cut down to less than 15 minutes and everyone is happier.

Big changes happening here...and all for the better.

happy boy

happy girl

playing "tunnel"...he loves to crawl through our legs so he was trying to get Love Bug to crawl through his legs. She just laid there so he straddled her and walked over her while she cracked up...this went on for quite some time

something old, something new

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Doesn't just pertain to a new bride, in fact, I think it is more fitting for a child. This music table is something old for The Mayor something new for Love Bug and by far the most favorite toy in the house right now. And given the collection of trains we have under this roof, that is saying a lot.

At least they are playing on it together, nicely.

It has been a great day. The Mayor had school, Love Bug hung out with Meega and Bennett and I volunteered at The Mayor's school today. I got to tell you, this morning I was cursing myself for signing up to help out but by the end of it, I was cursing myself that I wasn't the room mom for his class. I loved it. Loved being there, loved seeing him through his classroom window, loved hiding behind doors when his class was on the move so he wouldn't see me, loved hanging out with other moms...can't wait to volunteer more. This week is Candy Cane Lane and today we were setting up for it. Thursday I will be back volunteering helping the little kiddos shop and wrap gifts for their parents, siblings, grandparents, etc. The parents tell us who to shop for, how much to spend on each person and we help them pick out the gifts. The gifts range from 50 cents up to $10. Can't wait to see what The Mayor picks out for me, D and Love Bug.

check out those teeth!

love it when that happens

We had a great surprise today, D came home early. He had a Christmas lunch at work and then his boss let them all go home early. We couldn't have been more excited about this gift from his boss. The Mayor literally gasped with excitement when his daddy walked around the corner of his playroom. And from that second until he laid his head down on his pillow to sleep, The Mayor didn't leave his daddy's side.

I took advantage of having D home during the afternoon. I addressed all of our Christmas cards and then went to the store to run errands, get stamps and drop the Christmas cards at the blue box...all without kids. I love it when that happens! It is a rarity, as any stay-at-home mama can attest to, to be able to run errands solo. And although I love the day-to-day errand running with my little helpers, you can get so much more done (and do it faster) when you are flying solo. When I got home the kids had already been fed dinner and Love Bug was dressed in her sleeper waiting to be nursed. What a great evening!

While I was out running errands, The Mayor and Love Bug had some great brother/sister bonding time that D captured on film. I love these kids.

socks

This morning at church our pastor told us there were Christmas trees setup in the lobby with star shaped ornaments on the tree. Each star ornament contained the age and gender of a needy child and a Christmas present that they wished for. After the service, I wandered over to the tree to pick a child for our family to adopt. I loved the idea of using this as another teachable moment for The Mayor - to teach him how we help the less fortunate. We did this earlier last month with his "Operation Christmas Child" for his school and I got so excited to think we could do it again this season. Even though our children are really too young to get it, I love telling The Mayor about how we need to help those less fortunate and teaching him the value of giving instead of just receiving.

Anyway, as I was looking at the star shaped ornaments, one of the first ones to stick out was an 11 year old boy. And his request for a Christmas present was socks. I immediately felt a twinge in my stomach as I thought about how sad for a child to wish for socks. As I continued looking at the tree and the requests for MP3 players, video games, DVDs, specific toys and even clothes, I could not get this one child out of my mind. I went back to the side of the tree and took the ornament with the 11 year old boy and his request for socks.

I wonder who this child is and what his life is like. Did his parents teach him to be practical or is this something that is just naturally built into him. I wonder if he is an older sibling and goes without so his younger siblings can have more. Of course, I will never know anything about this child except he is an 11 year old boy and his number is 148 for the organization we are partnering with for this Christmas season. But I will be praying for child #148, his family and for his future. And of course, we will buy him socks...and toys. I wish I could see his face when he opens his gift on Christmas, expecting socks but getting more and I hope he knows someone in the world is praying for him.

This is what this season is about. Emulating the love Christ has for us in others. After all, over 2000 years ago, God gave the ultimate gift. His son. And because of His son and the love He has for us, we have eternal life. There is no better gift than that.

bennett is 1

Well, not for another 4 days, but the celebration was today. And it was awesome! Can't believe our sweet Bennett is one. I'm not sure how that happened; I'm pretty sure I was just at the hospital watching my sister breath through contractions. Regardless, our boy is almost one and we couldn't have been happier to spend our day with him celebrating.

Love Bug was so happy to be hanging out with her best friend and The Mayor just loved socializing, eating cake and playing with all of Bennett's new toys. Everything I knew the day would be. Now we are home, Love Bug is taking a much needed nap and The Mayor is playing with his trains. Once Love Bug wakes up we are going to do a little Christmas shopping.

Happy Birthday to our sweet Bennett. We love you so much!

would you believe the birthday boy didn't like cake?! We are going to have to work on that...

loves of my life

These two make me so happy, and I am so thankful to God for blessing me and D with these two precious babies. It isn't always easy, but it is always worth it.

l-a-z-y

I am pretty sure if you were to look up 'lazy' in the dictionary, a picture of me would be found. Good grief was I lazy today. We had a play date scheduled for today, and I bailed on it. I had errands that needed to be run, and I bailed on those. I was in my PJs until 4:15 this afternoon. It was just one of those days. The kids didn't seem to mind either. They played well together and then took nice naps. And for about 2 1/2 seconds I felt guilty about my laziness but then I realized how busy our month is and the guilt went immediately away. We all deserve a day like this and today I cashed in.

Tomorrow is a school day for The Mayor and then Love Bug and I are going to Meega's to help her get ready for Bennett's big 1st birthday celebration this weekend. My laziness is now o-v-e-r.