Pictures

One of my goals this year is to document what's going on with my kiddos a little better. We'll see how well that goes :)

Today, we've been working on a little potty training. We've done this off and on for a while, so Cade definitely knows what to do. It's now just a matter of getting him to want to. We made it from waking up this morning until naptime in underwear with no accidents, with approximately 9 trips to the potty. Seriously.

Here are my 2 babies...Cade is watching some Diego-go as a reward and Ava is playing.

Two: A Testimony of Faith

God is good. We now have two job offers. Within hours of each other yesterday. Neither of which will require a drastic change in lifestyle. They're both pretty close to what Ryan is making right now, it's just divided up differently with benefits and such.

Now it's just a matter of deciding what is a better fit, and checking with God to see if He has a preference :)

Faith. I have several tangible reminders of God's faithfulness to me. Ava's very existence is one. This will be another. Friends, do not ever hesitate to step out on faith with God. He will catch you. Every. Time.

Stepping out on faith

If there has been a theme to my life over the past couple of years, it has been faith. And I wouldn't say that I have a hard time putting my faith and trust in God, so it seems reasonable to me that this journey isn't just for me. I'm supposed to share it. So here's the latest installment...

Two months ago, Ryan turned in a letter at his job lining out a list of things that are a part of their business practices that he feels are unethical. He did this after we had had many, many discussions about it over the previous few months, and MUCH prayer. It was basically, fix this, or I'm out. To their credit, they fixed much of what he felt was wrong. But not all. So a little over 6 weeks ago, he turned in his resignation. They worked out the details of this, and we are now down to his final 2 weeks. As in, today is Monday. One week from this Friday will be his last day. He doesn't have a job lined up.

Now let me back up for a second. I am a stay-at-home mom. I have NO income. Ryan's salary is the ONLY income we have. When we made the decision for him to resign (which, for the record, was ONLY because we felt that was what God wanted us to do), he had been talking to a company off and on for a couple of months about a position they were creating that they really wanted him for. But it was going nowhere fast. In fact, it's now been weeks since we heard ANYTHING from them. But that was it. We didn't have any leads on anything. We were just praying. And stepping out on faith.

Needless to say, this has been a little terrifying. We have some savings, but it's certainly not going to last very long. But we have continued to tithe and honor all the commitments we had made. In the meantime, as a family, we have been to the doctor more times in the past several weeks than we have ever before. And we're on insurance that is pretty terrible because his company just switched insurance and we had to switch doctors (that's a whole 'nother story that I am still pretty bitter about). So that's been fun, too.

So here we are. After Ryan let several of his contacts know that he was actively looking for a job, he's had several interviews. It's been pretty amazing to see God working in all of this. Please pray for us, especially this week. We expect to hear back about two jobs this week.

Stay tuned for an update!

Cloth Diaper Giveaway

So, I've been slightly addicted to entering giveaways for the past year or so. I haven't been able to do it as often as I would like since I've been juggling two little darlins, BUT I've managed to win four giveaways in the past 2 weeks! Just wanted to share about a giveaway event that is coming up that includes lots of cloth diapers! :)
Check out Life With My Littles and One More Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest starting next week for their Newborns and Cloth Event!

Peepee on the potty

That's the phrase we use. Everyone has a different one. And I'm not really sure how that one became ours. I'm pretty sure Ryan said it first. "Cade, do you want to go peepee on the potty?" And now it's stuck. Not my favorite, but it gets the job done!

Speaking of which...

Yesterday, Cade went peepee on the potty 12 times. Yes, that's TWELVE times. And in between, there were only 2 slightly wet diapers. But the diaper during naptime didn't get wet! There were only 2 of the times that he went peepee on the potty (see? I can't not say it!) that I suggested it. All of the rest of them were his idea. And he peed every time he sat on the potty.

The child is a pee-making machine. Several of those times were less than 20 minutes apart. And he peed. Every. Single. Time. He gets frogs (nerds) every time he pees. But since he was doing so well yesterday, and I wanted to encourage that, I upped the ante to keep him wanting to go. Sometimes that was a phone call to Daddy or Nana or Papa or Aunt Cora. Sometimes it was watching TV. One time, it was getting to ride in Daddy's car when he got home from work. But let me tell you, that kid is not only a pee-making maching, he is SMART. After we had watched TV twice in a row, I told him that he had to go two more times before he could watch Diego again. And dadgum if that kid didn't go pee, then wait about 5 minutes, and ask to go again. And did! Turkey.

We still had a poopy diaper yesterday. But we made some serious progress. And it has, so far, (knock on wood) continued today. He's already gone 8 times today. There's only been once that his diaper was even slightly wet, and that was after a bout of fit-throwing and spankings, so I'm pretty sure he accidentally peed a little when he was crying hysterically. I mean, we all do that, right? No? Hmm. OK. :)

The only problem now is that I'm having a hard time getting excited every single time he goes peepee. Because now I know he can. On command, apparently. And I had no idea how tiring it is to strip him down and get him dressed 9,000 times a day. (He just had on a diaper today until after lunch, which helped) And to have to listen to Ava crying while I can't tend to her because I'm in the bathroom with Cade. But we will conquer this. And it might not be right now. I'm trying to prepare myself for the fact that we may do this 4 days in a row, and then relapse when we go to church on Sunday. But it's PROGRESS. Yay!!

Poop rewards

We're working on potty-training. Not hard-core potty-training, but slightly more serious than before. We're trying to put him on the potty when he first gets up in the morning and before bed, and any time in between when he mentions that he might be interested. And also if I think he's about to poop :)

So far, we've had probably 10-15 times that he's gone peepee on the potty. (Yay!) We've actually had one time that he went poopoo on the potty (side note: you probably don't want to continue reading this if you're not a mom :). It was after he had been constipated for a few days and I'd started feeding him fiber like crazy, so it was kind of a one-time deal that none of us really care to repeat.

Here are a few conversations we've had lately:

Cade: 'Anna go to Tar-get.
Mommy: OK, go poopoo on the potty and we can go to Target.
Cade: No. 'Anna go to Tar-get.
Mommy: You have to go poopoo on the potty first.
Cade: No. 'Anna go to Tar-get.
...And nothing.

Cade: I 'ant ice screen.
Mommy: OK, go poopoo on the potty and you can have ice cream.
Cade: I 'ant ice screen, cu-cake, choc-wat.
Mommy: OK, you can have ice cream, a cupcake, and chocolate if you go poopoo on the potty.
Cade: I 'ant ice screen, cu-cake, choc-wat, frogs [this is what he calls Nerds...they look like frogs jumping on the package...go look! :)].
Mommy: OK, you can have ice cream, a cupcake, chocolate, and frogs if you go poopoo on the potty.
....And nothing.

It's hysterical. All day long, this is what we do...he mentions something that he wants and I tell him he can have it if he'll go poopoo on the potty. Some other things that have been promised (but none have happened yet!) include: going to the zoo, riding in Daddy's car, going to eat lunch with Daddy, riding in the van, and once I may have told him he could have a million dollars. Good thing he doesn't know what that is. But we're probably going to be in trouble when he randomly decides to actually do it :)

First day of preschool

Cade started preschool today. It's only 5 hours. And right now, it's only once a week. But still...I was a mess last night.

I cried while I was getting all of his stuff together last night. I cried while Ryan and I were praying before we went to sleep. And then this morning...I was ok. I prayed with Cade before we got Ava up, and I got a little teary while I was praying, but it made me feel better. I know that no matter what, God is in control and is watching over my sweet boy when I'm not with him. For that matter, He's in control and watches over Cade when I AM with him :)

It's been really rough around here lately. And that's one of the reasons that we needed to do this. It'll be good for Cade socially, and I know that he'll learn some things earlier than he probably would being here with me and Ava, just because Ava needs so much attention right now. It'll be good for me to have a break from him every now and then (can I just say that it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G to eat lunch by myself??? [Ava was napping]). It'll be good for Ava to have some peace and quiet and undivided attention from Mommy. I know this is the right thing for our family right now.

But. That little boy has been with me all day every day since he was born. Two years, 4 months, and 13 days ago. The times he's been away from me have been with family. It's hard for me to know that he's having experiences that I'm not a part of. It's hard for me to let go and trust that someone else is capable of taking care of him. It's hard for me to let someone else teach him new things. But I am. With God's help. And a few tears. :)