Lily's Preschool Countdown!

Since we are less than one month away from the first day of Mother's Day Out (MDO) at our church, and since Lily is not showing a lot of progress in the potty-training department, I have gotten busy finding another MDO or preschool program that would accept her diapers and all. I've prayed so hard about this decision: Is MDO/preschool right for Lily? Is the timing right? Is she ready, or will she be ready? Lily's occupational therapist believes that preschool would be very beneficial to Lily's social development and help her further overcome her sensory and speech processing issues. I've prayed that God would reveal to me in His timing the right decisions for her.

I am pleased to announce that God has slowly unveiled the most perfect place for Lily that even I could not imagine. Everything just seems so perfect that I get a little nervous thinking something will crop up and really disappoint me. But, out of faith in answered prayer, I am very excited about every aspect of Lily's new preschool at a local Lutheran church.

1) Lily will be accepted without being potty trained.
2) The school day is shorter than regular MDO, which is perfect for Lily's schedule.
3) The facilities are clean and very beautiful.
4) The director is amazing and has an amazing approach to learning for preschoolers (similar to the Montessori method), which I believe is the perfect fit for Lily.
5) The director is familiar with Sensory Processing Disorder, and even though it's not a major hinderance in how Lily will function in preschool, the director is supportive and eager to learn as many ideas/tips as she can to help Lily succeed there.
6) There will only be two classrooms of eight children with two teachers in each room.
7) Lily seemed very excited to attend!

Watch Him Grow!

Just give him water...


And food...


And watch him grow!

Schaeffer started taking his first steps last week!! This is one of my favorite milestones. He looks so cute with those chubby-fat, bow legs and flat chubby feet shakily propelling his body forward. It's amazing to watch a baby develop from no mobility as a newborn to complete independence and freedom as a walker and explorer. He's still very unsure of himself and prefers crawling as his main means of transportation.

Schaeffer makes lots of sounds, and loud ones! We're still eagerly anticipating his first word. Sometimes I hear him make the sounds ma-ma-ma, na-na-na, ca-ca-ca, and so on. I know that he'll begin using these sounds in meaningful ways very soon. I hope his first word is Mama, but it won't surprise me if he starts off with "Ba" (ball) or "Ye-ye" (Lily).

Schaeffer loves to push buttons on anything, such as the TV, DVD player, telephone, remote, etc. He also loves to play with the cars and trucks that he received for his first birthday. Instinctively he knows what they are supposed to do.

BJ says, and I agree, that we'll probably have to be more firm with him since he seems a bit more determined than his big sister. He doesn't like to take "No" for an answer and likes to test us on this concept daily. Luckily we're bigger and stronger than him right now. We can't afford to lose this battle because he might turn out to be a big fella one day soon.

I've enjoyed having a son and watching all the difference between him and Lily. Everthing about my two children are wonderfully different and special. I love them both very much!

Blackberry Cobbler Season

Behind our house, along the walking trail, thick patches of blackberry bushes grow wild. Some of them are very easy to reach while standing on the walking trail. Every few nights, since the week of July 4th, BJ has been walking behind our house to pick some of these wild blackberries. So far this season we've enjoyed three blackberry cobblers made by my mom. She agreed that if we picked the blackberries and brought them to her she would make us some cobbler. Yummy!

My mom is notorious for cooking without recipes. A few weeks ago I asked her for her blackberry cobbler recipe. She gave me some very vague directions. Me, I need very detailed instructions. One afternoon when she was preparing one of the cobblers, with paper and pencil in hand I observed her closely and took note of every move she made. And tonight I duplicated one of my mom's own blackberry cobblers. I'm quite proud. It turned out quite yummy. Thanks, Mom!

BJ wishes that I would spend an entire summer as my mom's apprentice in the kitchen. He has a lengthy list of recipes that he desires for me to obtain from her so that I can duplicate them at home for him. I guess blackberry cobbler is a good start.

10th Wedding Anniversary Getaway

Schaeffer's 1st Birthday Party Slideshow

Mini Vacation

BJ, the kids, and I will be heading to Townsend tomorrow for a long weekend - and then again on Monday through Wednesday without the kids to celebrate our upcoming 10-year wedding anniversary (10 years of amazing lovin' as I've been teasing BJ). I'll be sharing lots of photos (only of the kids...hee hee hee) when I return, especially since I still need to post Schaeffer's first birthday party photos from this past weekend.

Happy Fourth of July!!

Life Outside the Basket

I happened upon an article in Parenting (Sizing things up, July 2008). The article explained the development of 1-2 year olds. This is an excerpt from that article:

...Once toddlers have mastered walking and can recognize themselves in mirrors, they'll try figuring out how they "fit in" with the world.

Shortly after reading this article, like a day later, I noticed Schaeffer climbing into a basket and then looking at the world around him. He had this look on his face that sort of said, "Hey! Look at me in this basket." Since then he has climbed into other baskets and boxes - laundry baskets, Pampers boxes, toy boxes, etc. He is definitely sizing up the world around him and seeing how he fits in. And that's when it hit me like a lightening bolt! From the very beginning of life each one of us sizes up the world around us from our own point of view. We come from a self-centered viewpoint and we see how things size up around us. Now, developmentally that's a very important step for toddlers and children. But sometimes I wonder how many times we get stuck in that developmental stage - like a toddler - and never move past a viewpoint beyond ourselves?

Certainly Jesus went through the "sizing-things-up" stage as a toddler to the delight of Mary his mommy. If she had had a camera, no doubt she would've snapped some photos of such cuteness. But as he grew he soon found that he fit into the world based on God's plan for him. This is what Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father on our behalf, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do...As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world...May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:3, 18, 21).

The Parenting article was a great reminder to me to get outside the basket and view the world from God's point of view. And it's equally important that I instill that same truth into my children. It's okay for now that they are sizing up the world around them to see how they fit in. They need that time for proper growth. But they also need my help to guide them into a viewpoint that looks beyond themselves and looks at the world through the eyes of Jesus. That's an important task, and a very big one. I'll need lots of patience, mercy, and love. I'm so glad Jesus has already prayed on my behalf and is living in my heart to guide me through every aspect of life and parenting. He knew I'd really need him in order to get outside the basket.