Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Parenting

We all go into parenting with ideas of how we will handle situations. I know that I certainly did. And I still do. Sometimes I have to change my plan or idea of how things will go. One thing is for certain, we do not tolerate disobedience in our house. Accidents and mistakes are one thing but willful disobedience is completely different. What I am finding out is that sometimes the consequence for disobedience not only affects the child but the parent or whole family as well.

Take today for example:

The plan was for the kids to go to the indoor park to play. One child decided to dump all of the toys out of the toy bin. He refused to pick them up. After timeouts and spankings, he still refused. But he wanted to go to the park still. He was told, more than once, that if he did not pick up the toys quickly that he would not be able to go. Bummer for everyone. Part of this reasoning was, 1. there wouldn't be enough time to play and 2. willful disobedience. I think this is where the hard part of parenting comes in. You know you can't give in and yet you want to because you want them to get out of the house for a while. So, the toys got taken away for the rest of the day. We'll see how that goes.......

We teach our children by rules, consistency, and follow-through. I hate when I am out and I see a child whining about something at a store and after hearing the mom say no a dozen times, she gives in just to get the child to be quiet.

Biblical philosophy: let your yes be yes and your no be no.

Kids pick up on our weaknesses, our frustration, and they use that to their advantage. As parents, it is our job to train our children in what is right, what is honorable, and what is Godly. I write this as an encouragement as much to myself as to other parents. Keep the good fight. Train your children in the way they should go. Remember that you are not the only one dealing with these issues.

Let me know how you handle these hard situations. I'm always looking for new ideas.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

The End is In Sight

It feels weird to think that very soon we are going to have another little boy in our house. We are excited and overwhelmed. Although, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure which is more exciting, having the baby or being off of bedrest.

Earlier this week I was told that I will only be receiving 2 more 17P injections. And, in 2 more weeks they will likely lift some of my restrictions!!! This is great. It will be strange to start doing things again.  I can tell that over the last 8 1/2 weeks I have become weaker. I get light-headed and dizzy when I am up and walking around, as in, going to Dr. J's office. My blood pressure it much lower than normal which makes it harder to be up.

I am feeling the need to be doing more around the house. Not because the help we have isn't amazing, they are the best. But because my little boys need me. Corbin climbs up next to me, wants me to read to him, to snuggle him, and lay with him in his bed when he is going to sleep. I want to be able to play with him and teach him things. Silas is walking much more and if he is crawling, he is super fast. He wants to be with me as well. Wants me to hold him and carry him. I want to as well. There are times where I feel like my little boy has missed out on a lot of one on one time with me.

Last night I was sitting and organizing all the things of our new little man. Getting his clothes ready and put away. Organizing his blankets and burp cloths. I am still waiting for our diapers to arrive. And have just discovered that I am going to need to buy nuks. I love the Soothie nuks that they use at the hospital. That is what the other boys use. But we seem to have misplaced all of them but 4!! This is bad news. Corbin has to have two to go to bed. One for his mouth and one in his hand. I really want to break him of this habit but not sure when the best time is to do that. With everything else that is going on, a nuk seems like the least of our problems. Fortunately, Silas doesn't use them so much for sleep. He does use them during the day because he is teething and fussy. I will say, Soothie Nuks are a life-saver in this household. But how we went from 15+ to 4 is a mystery to me. I guess I'll have to order more for the new guy.

On a huge plus, I've been able to get a few night of better sleep. I have resorted to sleeping almost completely upright due to heartburn. But unless one of my children wakes me for something, I've been get 5-6 hours of uninterrupted sleep this week!!!! I know this will be short lived, so I am enjoying it while I can. I've also been napping a lot lately thanks to other people watching the boys.

All that being said, it may only be 2 more weeks before this baby comes. Or longer. We stop the medication after next week and will be off all bedrest in 3 1/2 weeks. This time is coming to an end and bringing with it a new chapter in our lives.

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