Big Boy Bed

Well, my luck finally ran out. Carter has been so good to go to bed, wide wake, read for a few minutes and then go to sleep. We just put him in there and leave -no crying or anything. He just wants a book in there with him, and he's happy. With training in a big boy bed, it involves at least a week of training to reach the point where a kid will just go in there, wide awake, and stay there. I loved being spoiled with this great little guy, who, other than sleeping in a crib, went to bed just like the older boys did -wide awake, no fuss, and EASY. However, in the back of our minds, we knew the day would come when our little climber boy would probably climb out of his crib.

Well, the little guy didn't just climb out, he fell out and hit his head REALLY hard on his toy box. This left him with an egg sized bump on the top of his head and a bruise on his cheek. So sad!  Joe took the crib down immediately. That was it! No more falling/climbing out for this guy! (The big boy bed was moved out of the boys' room into Carter's room.) So, Saturday night was our first "Big Boy Bed" training night. It went better than I thought.

Nap time Sunday didn't go as easily. It started out pretty normal. I went in and laid him in his bed with a book. He seemed to say, "Okay, I'll go to bed." So, I left the room and shut the door. It was quiet, but I couldn't think of anything he could get into that wasn't "okay". After awhile Ben told me he looked under the door and could see Carter's feet, running around. I went to see. I could see Carter's feet too, as well as a big billowing cloud of baby powder falling to the floor. I burst in the door to stop him, which only made Carter squeeze out one more huge puff of powder.

When facing these situations, you can get upset or grab a camera. I grabbed the camera and counted to ten. After doing a quick, hardly thorough job, I started over with the training. This time staying in the room for awhile. It was better than I thought.

So, hopefully the training will go quickly! Wish me luck.

Carter is no doubt fine with the mess he's made. I love this picture, because he seems to be thinking, "What's all the fuss about? There's just powder all over." At least his room smells good. Oh, and his room was still unorganized from the quick changing out of beds, so excuse the other out of place craziness.

"Come to Jesus"

There is a song I regularly play in the car among the mix of church music as well as the two local christian radio stations. It is titled "Come to Jesus." It has quickly become one of the boys' and my very favorites. They request it often! Every time this song comes on, the car gets instantly quiet. It's the coolest thing; it just requires reverence. We all sing along. The older boys know every word, and Carter, so far, just listens. (You can listen too HERE!)

 It's not rare -at all- for me to cry when I hear beautiful songs, or sing along with them, and I always get choked up hearing my boys sing the words that I know they understand. I make sure to thoroughly explained each phrase to them -they take things so literally, and so I teach them what is really be meant. This song has invoked many questions, and I have gotten to teach the boys a lot of important truths about our Savior.

While driving around town with Joe and my mom, the boys and I sang this particular song, so she could hear them sing so sweetly. At the end of the song, Ben simply and knowingly said, "The Holy Ghost is right here." as he pointed to the center of the car. I told him he was absolutely right. The car was filled!  I was grateful Ben recognized the Spirit and thought to mention it's presence. Later at home, I asked he what the Holy Ghost felt like to him, he said, "It's like something is pressing on me." I am more than thankful for personal revelation that led me years ago to change my music from good to best. I am grateful my boys are hearing what they are hearing and more importantly feeling what they are feeling. I am so grateful for all the beautiful music I have to enjoy and share with my boys.

Drawing Help

     Ben often comes to me to teach him how to draw something. He is great little drawer, and once he practices a few times he can master drawing whichever superhero he's wanting too. Yesterday, he wanted to draw Wolverine. So, as always, the first thing I taught him was to "see the shapes in the picture; break it down to draw the whole." I drew first to break it down. Ben tried a couple times, but just couldn't quite get it to where he was happy. He was frustrated almost to tears. I reminded him how hard it was for him to draw other things too, till he practiced. But, nothing I said made him feel any better. He was just frustrated and disheartened. I told him to not worry about the picture till he calmed down and could focus. He did.

This morning I noticed a Wolverine picture being colored. Coloring only happens once Ben feels his picture is right. So, I said, "Hey, you drew Wolverine!" Then, as happens so many times, Ben's reply blew me away.

He said, "Yeah, I prayed."

I asked, "You prayed for help to draw it and not be frustrated?"

He said, "Yeah."

He said it in an "I knew it would help. I should have done that yesterday." sort of way. I LOVE IT!

Joe and I have always asked the boys if they think they should pray over this thing or that thing. But Ben prays all the time -on his own- when he's facing challenges. Then he mentions that he does this in the most casual way. He isn't proud or trying to impress me when he tells me -because he sees it as  just something you should do. I'm proud of him and grateful. He's really applied prayer into his life and, most importantly, SEES the help and KNOWS they're answered.

(Ben said his picture "Isn't finished yet" But you all get the idea.)

Conversations with Carter

I'd be a wealthy woman if I had a dollar for ever time Carter and I had this conversation:
"Mom?"
"What?"
"Um......"
This will happen a million times a day. The "Um" is then followed by words I can't understand, but he sure does try to communicate. :)

Carter will regularly say something that sounds like, "I want this." or "What's this?" Most of his sentences ends with something that sounds like "this". His little voice is the cutest sound ever.

And, every single morning, my Carter alarm wakes me up with a quick succession of, "Mom! Mom? Mooooooom. Mom? Ma-om. Mom? Mom! Mom." followed a brief pause only to repeat again and again. :) It's cute, but I wonder where I can switch it over to "Dad! Dad? Daaaaaaad." He's done it before, so I know there's a Dad button on him somewhere. :)

The Lost Post

I was zooming back through my blog and noticed that these pics of Carter were never added anywhere. They are from forever ago.And, they are just too cute not to have in a blog book someday. They were taken after Carter noticed leftover cupcakes on the counter. This very well could have been the start of his climbing obsession. Hmmmmm.

Yeah, he was pretty proud of himself and ate the whole cupcake before Joe found him and called me to see. Where were the other four of us? Who knows? :) I guess he deserved it.  

Kade's Teeth Sadness

Monday, mid-morning, Kade mentioned his tooth hurt. But throughout the day, he didn't bring it up again and acted pretty normal. However, by dinner time, he wouldn't eat much and kept complaining about his tooth hurting. We flossed it and looked in his mouth and nothing was stuck, and we couldn't see anything. It was far too late to see a dentist by this point. Once we went to bed, Kade was in and out of our bed saying his tooth hurt, and he never wanted to have loose teeth, because they hurt.

The next morning we woke up to this face.The picture doesn't make the swelling look that bad, but it was pretty alarming, and at 7am I called our dentist praying the whole time that they could get us in SOON! They had an appointment open at 9:45. RELIEF! The poor kiddo. He was more than miserable, and crying. I went directly to the store for some Anbesol "maximum strength" to rush home to our poor suffering son.

 The dentist informed us a tooth had abscessed. The infection was what was causing the swelling -and it was spreading! It wasn't from "not brushing or flossing or anything we did or didn't do." (That was nice to hear.) Sometimes "these things just happen". SAD! The tooth would have to go. Double SAD! I secured a babysitter for the other two boys and ran Kade back for  the horrible appointment. I always prep the boys for what is coming. I told him the dentist would have to stick a needle in his mouth, and that it would hurt. But, I told him I knew he could do this hard thing. I told him I knew how strong he was, "not just his muscles, but his strong will and mind". He was so brave, and although he was very nervous, he was the toughest kid I've ever seen. They used laughing gas to help relax him, and when the needle was finally stabbing his mouth he didn't cry AT ALL- not a single tear! I told him he was stronger than Captain America -which he really appreciated. They also fitted him with a metal spacer. After it all, I asked him, "Do you still like the dentist." to which he very quickly and without hesitation nodded yes. That's my boy!

The rest of the day he didn't eat a thing; he was totally drained, and just plain miserable. He went to bed early and slept all night. This picture was of Kade the morning after the extraction. The infection was now leaving (thanks to antibiotics) but since his tooth had just been ripped out he was obviously all the more swollen. POOR KADE! It was really hard to see him this way all day. He literally couldn't smile, the swelling was to big. Ben said he looked like Two-Face (a Batman bad guy), because only one side of his face would show any emotion. Needless to say he was miserable. Thank heaven for pain medicine and Anbesol, as well as Otter pops, yogurt, pancakes and ice cream. I said he could eat anything he wanted and have as many cold treats as he wanted. He totally took advantage of this -which I totally understand.

This was two days after the extraction -still quite a bit of swelling, but better. You can even see a slight little upturn to the left side of his face. :)  (I didn't get any more pictures after this.) But, each day got a little better, and he eats a lot of regular foods and turns me down if I offer Tylenol or Anbesol. I have talked about Kade's mental toughness a lot as I journal. I could have had them put him under. He would have slept the whole time, but he might have had to wait till the next morning, he would have been drugged up all day, he would have been miserable anyway. On top of that, we'd have spent so much more. There was no doubt, of all my boys, that Kade could stay awake through this -at FOUR- and be totally okay with it all, and not leave scared to ever come back. He proved me right. I am grateful that this was resolved quickly and that Kade is on the up and up. I'll be adding "please never let another tooth abscess" to my prayers every night. ;) I'm glad it's already behind us.