My baby's 4!

Why is it that as parents we always want our child to advance on to the next milestone so quickly. As a new mom I couldn't wait until Olivia slept through the night. Then you can't wait for them to sit up, walk, eat by themselves, speak, get potty trained, etc. Then one day you stop to take a breath and they are 4. Now you want it all back...the sleepless nights, the bottle feeding, the diapers (OK, maybe not the sleepless nights and diapers), the crawling, the toothless grins. But those days are gone and they are replaced with days filled with amazing words, thoughts and ideas that this little person is sharing with you.

My child's sense of humor is that unlike any other child I have met. She gets the corny humor and can make up her own. She loves to be silly and knows what is real and what is a joke. She loves to crack herself up. One of our favorite pastimes is creating made up stories. She chooses the main character and the scene and I weave the story around the ideas she has provided. The story usually involves a positive or negative behavior she has been portraying. The main character usually makes a poor choice and we can then discuss what should have happened. She loves it when she can explain to me why the choice was bad and what the character should have done....."Just like when I made a bad choice, right Mommy" she will say.







One area we have been preparing her for is trying new foods.

She is incredibly picky when it comes to eating.

We decided to start reminding her that when she turns 4 she will have to try new foods each and every day. Six months of reminding and she was all too glad to be sick with a stomach virus on her birthday and she got a few days reprieve on her new diet. She was quick to remind me that she didn't feel well and that she needed to eat lots of crackers and water to help her get better. She could try some new food later on.....not now. I am not sure how young they start training hostage negotiators, but I am waiting for the phone call that the feds have heard tale of her skills and want to fast track her in into their program.





I am still on the fence about homeschooling. I just don't know what they are going to be able to teach her in Kindergarten that she doesn't already know. She still has a year and a half before school and she is already writing her name, sounding out small words, adding and subtracting small numbers, and has the alphabet, colors and numbers down pat...in English and Spanish. I guess there is still plenty of time to make that decision. Until then, we will continue to keep throwing new concepts at her and see what sticks. I can't wait for the day that she pulls out the Venturi effect on someone!

Getting Perspective

The past two months have proven to be very mentally, physically and emotionally challenging. My disease reached a critical level and I felt as if I literally would not survive each passing minute each and every day of late September/early October. Add to this the fact that Johnathan hurt his back at work and was reduced to little more than bed rest most days after being at work. Toss in a very active almost 4 year old and you have what could have been a recipe for disaster, chaos, and lots and lots of family discourse. To this day, I know it was truly a miracle that things didn't just fall apart. During one of our House to House discussions we talked about how sometimes you have to be 90% in the relationship and sometimes you can only give 10%. This really spoke to me and kept me going these past two months. No matter what I wanted to give, I knew I had to keep giving all I could each and every day. I refused to allow myself to do less.

We were under the solid foundation of prayer from family and friends and we are now all the stronger for it. The Lord has blessed us with better and better health each and every day. You can easily take so much for granted, but we are now exiting those "forests for the trees" and can see just how far we have come. When you have been through the bad times, you really appreciate the good times and we are so glad to be able to recognize an end to some bad times.