Luke's first prayer

Luke has not been too eager to say prayers. Let me rephrase, he is quite willing to fold his arms, close his eyes, etc. But he has not been so eager to repeat our words so he can "say" a prayer. Sometimes he'd do it, but most of the time, nope.




For the closing prayer for Family Home Evening last night, he shook things up!

I started the usual prompts and he, like usual, sat in silence. So I just kept on going myself. But after a few more words, he joined in and I let him go on and finish by himself.

He picked it up here...

"Bwess Mamas,

Bwess Papas,

Bwess Daddy,

Bwess Mommy,

Bwess Eeya (Ava).

Be nice.

Name Jesoos Chwist, Amen!


He did forget Max, but I'd say for the first time all by himself, it was a roaring success!

Spring Break!

After being semi-concerned about how I would handle Spring Break, I am happy to report that the week was a good one.

Having all three home all day sometimes stresses me out but for the majority there was not more fighting or whining than I could handle. Luke and Ava have been fighting like cats and dogs for the past little while, but I am beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. He tends to hit her whenever she upsets him. Which is like, all the time. And I have had very little luck with "time outs" or punishments. I think it helps that he is growing up in general and especially since he is now talking so much more.

It's hard to tell your child to "use your words" and not his hands when he doesn't really have many words. So this week, he actually said, "Don't touch that!" which I find a much better alternative to whacking his sister.

This week...

...The weather was beautiful (minus one rainy day in the middle) and our grass went from brown to green.



... We enjoyed a visit from Tiffany and her boys, of which I have no photographic proof. But we had a great time.

...We purchased some bikes for the kids. Luke's bike still needs the help of a drill to become fully assembled, but Ava's bike has had the tour of a couple of parking lots and we're looking forward to many more.


Ava had never really learned to ride a bike or a trike, but she picked it up fairly quickly and has gotten a lot of satisfaction from learning.


...We also had a "Horsey playdate". Ava loved to ride around on the horse and especially pet a miniature horse. I literally had my hands full so it was difficult for me to take pictures. Luke was excited by the idea of seeing and riding the horses, but when we actually got there, it was another story.



When we leave the house now a days, you can usually count on him yelling, "My purse! My purse!" and he scrambles to find the blue purse with the colored flowers full of his trinkets and toys and phone. I have tried to convince him to carry something a little more "man-bag"ish but without success.

Anyway, as we headed to the garage to go see the horses and he yelled, "oh no!" I assumed he was going to find his purse. But instead he ran to the fridge and yelled, "Carrots! Carrots!"

So although he did not want to ride or even pet a horse, he did find satisfaction in sharing his carrots and collecting rocks.

...Ava lost another tooth! her other bottom tooth had been hanging on by a thread for days.


We'd periodically ask her, "Ava, is your tooth still there?" and always she would answer in the affirmative.




Then, when we were playing on the floor together I caught a glimpse in her mouth and thought something might be missing,

"Ava, is your tooth still there?"

"Yes."

"Really? Let me look." And her tooth was totally gone. My mind raced because i knew she would be devastated if it was lost. We had just made cupcakes and images of us breaking open two dozen cupcakes in search of a little tooth flashed through my mind. Luckily, she hopped up, started looking all around, and found it within a minute on the kitchen floor. Awesome!





But that night, the darn Tooth Fairy forgot to come. Not Awesome! She (He) made up for it the next night by being very generous.


...This week was also eventful in Maxs' little life. I ended up weaning him completely. It was a painful process for both of us, but I think it was for the best. I know I was not making enough milk and I had hoped to supplement him with a bottle but he was not going to have it. It just came down to the fact that if he was going to get enough to eat it was going to have to come from the bottle.




It was a very hard adjustment with it overlapping his ear infection, but I have seen him much more satisfied after eating and looking stronger each day. Although I still feel there are some kinks to be worked out as I figure out how much formula he actually needs and his little tummy adjusts to digesting it all. And I am not convinced that his ear infection is actually gone. I guess we'll see what this week holds.

And in case you were wondering, weaning a baby cold turkey hurts. It really, really hurts.

Housekeeping and Clean Up Loud Too, Okay?

Tonight I am just sweeping up all the little dust bunnies skeetling around in my head into one nice, neat little pile.

Ava has been saying "forpetely got" the past few days in the place of completely forgot. I can't bring myself to correct her.


I heard Luke rustling around in the pantry today with what sounded like the box of Chiclets gum. When I opened the door, he turned around looking a little surprised and a lot guilty and said, "What doing?"


My milk is going the way of the desert and Max is not a happy guy. In fact, he has been sick this week with his first, and probably not last, ear infection. He can't stand the amoxicillin and screams the whole time we are forcing it down. And then to add insult to injury, I am trying to shove a bottle in his mouth, filled with formula, which he also can't stand. Just the taste of it brings on the gags. He's had a little fever for a few days now and he's just not feeling good.

After tonight's bedtime routine I decided that "all the things" must be documented. After we read a story and say prayers, Ava has to tell me "all the things" she needs to tell me. This saves me from being called back to her room 50, 000 times because she forgot something. "All the things" is a list of things she must say before she goes to bed. The list started small and has had some additions over the last few months. I will just write the classics.

Goodnight.
I love you.
Sweet dreams.
Is my rest not a long time?
Are the shadows nice?
Is nothing scary in my room?
Are there sharks under my bed?
Make sure I have dreams about unicorns.
Do I not have school or church tomorrow?
Make sure there aren't any monsters in my room.
Clean up loud, too, okay?
Coltons Forever

That's right, Baby, Coltons Forever!

I didn't even proofread this

No time for contemplation about word choice or even punctuation. If I want to post a blog, which I desperately do, I am going to have to make it snappy. Problem is, there's alot I'd like to say. I have been unable to be on the computer while any child is awake therefore, I am never on the computer because somebody is always awake! Thank goodness for the ipod touch which allows me to "stay connected" but it is not so user friendly for endeavors such as emails of length or publishing a blog. But enough blah blahing, I'd better get on with it.

1. Our home life has improved so much it's ridiculous. I am pouring my heart out in thanks to Heavenly Father for answered prayers. Things are still very hard and challenging for me with these three hudlums, but we are now back in the realm of what I would consider "normal".
Ava was having such a rough time and the severity of her tantrums was beyond description, truly. It had me on the edge of my sanity just dealing with them, anticipating them, and I was consumed with worry over her because she was obviously very stressed out.

I believe that it was a combination of things that unfortunately overlapped all at the same time. Namely, stress over school, Max being born, and a developmental growth period. As something I had dreamed up and then found scientific reference to, way back in the terrible two's, many professionals agree that during times of developmental growth in a child, they enter a stage of chaos internally, and then as they reach that next developmental stage, they re-organize themselves only this time with newly acquired skills. They happen about every six months. These re-organizations are evident in some children more than others. I have witnessed this in Ava time and time again. In any case, Ava is back. And the improvement is immense. She is a wonderful child. And I mean wonderful and full of wonder. I could write about her, analyze her til the cows come home.

2. We went to a "tea party" put on by a local performing arts center. There were young girls dressed up as The Princesses. And all were invited to dress up in their finery and have punch and cookies while they performed. Ava was in heaven. I was a little surprised to see how young the princesses were (maybe jr. high or high school) and I thought it was so funny how none of the little girls in attendance batted an eye at the fact that more than half of them had smiles full of braces.


Later though, as we got home and looked through our pictures, Ava let me know that she wasn't fooled. She asked me, "What's her name when she's not being Sleeping Beauty?" I guess it wasn't that she didn't notice, more that she just didn't care.







And oh yes,
3. I cut my hair. My sister Chandra came to visit my parents last month and due to SNOW



in Dallas, her plane landed in Houston. So I got to keep her for a night and then we all drove up to my parents. I was so ready for a hair change so Chandra cut it for me. I really love it. At first I wanted to be able to pull it back so that on days I couldn't "do it" (maybe everyday?) it wouldn't be huge and ridiculous. But what I have found instead is that I don't have to do it! I just get out of the shower, put a little sticky stuff in it and that's it!
But that was not the best part of her visit. Just being with her was the best and also, seeing her with my kids. They've never gotten to have her to themselves before and for the first time, Ava was very sweet with her, Luke loved and kissed on her, and Max was thrilled to have a second Mommy. I just love Chandra so much.

4. Luke has been a slow talker. I kept waiting and waiting for him to really get going, kind of like Ava did, but it just didn't seem like it was happening. So I called ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) and they came to do an evaluation. It was eye opening to say the least, though I am not sure it was completely accurate (that would be my fault). What they found was that he was delayed in speech as suspected but also delayed in a few other areas. I was a bit shocked.

The evaluation consisted mostly of them asking me questions about his abilities. Unfortunately I having been barely keeping my head above water lately, let alone not paying much attention to the way Luke holds his crayon or his ability to line up objects by size. Anyways, I could not answer all of their questions with surety and that somewhat skewed the results. However, he will be receiving speech and developmental services weekly. I don't know why this has been a little bit of a struggle for me. Have you seen the Office episode where Holly thinks that Kevin is retarded? If you haven't you should cause it's really funny. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, nevermind. But it almost seemed like they looked at Luke with retarded-colored glasses. But I am over it. This past week, even before they have come, Luke's speech has picked up tremendously. I know that what they provide will only help so I am saying, "Bring it on!"

5. We moved Max to his own room (the former office) in his own crib. I am now the proud owner of three cribs. What is wrong with me? I think I have a problem. But Luke is still in his and Ava's old crib is conveniently located at my parents. So what's one more? He has been doing so much better now that he has his own space and since I paid a visit to my old friend, The Baby Whisperer. He is still not very regular as far as times go, but the order of his patterns is so much more clear and predictable. I do not love waking up multiple times in the night to walk down to his room to put the paci back in his mouth or pat him back to sleep but I think (I hope!) it will get better soon.


Max is such a smiley little guy. I love him so much. Really, he's the best surprise of my life.

6. Because of this move, we had to relocate the computer and my sewing stuff. It all landed in the master bedroom. Then we got the wild idea that if we got rid of Sophie, we could in turn get rid of the litter box in the laundry room, where there would be plenty of space to put a desk and the computer. We think that Max's location is temporary but we're not sure how temporary.

So Dan listed Sophie on the classified through his work. A nice lady emailed the next day saying she wanted Sophie. It was like a dream come true! She only had a teenage daughter (Yea for no little kids!) but she did have another cat. Another cat in fact, that made Sophie look like a most uncharismatic specimen. I am sure the moment they met Sophie was insanely jealous and felt she would always be the ugly step sister. So they came on Wednesday night, and just like that we shoved Sophie's fat butt right into the cage and they took her away! Forever!

Psych! As they left, the woman said, "we'll let you know if we have any problems", and I knew in my heart right at that moment that this was not "goodbye", merely a "see you later".

Sunday, without warning or decorum, they dropped her off saying, "Things didn't work out...she didn't get along with our cat....she's forgotten she's litter box trained!" And they dumped her fat butt right back into our foyer.

Where she left pee soaked footprinnts in a trail all the way down the hall and under our bed.

And that's all I've got time for today.