Sprinkles Galore!

Bethany and I baked cupcakes today.  From Scratch. We made these cakes here from this site.  They Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.  They required 6.5 sticks of butters, 2 1/4 c of brown sugar, 3 c of powder sugar and tons of other gooey goodness.  Seriously, these suckers took me several hours to make and I am sure they will take several days to work off.  But man they are delicious!

Well, while we were in between steps, I took a break from stirring, licking and adding calories to check something online (no, actually I wasn't on Facebook).  Anyway.  When I turned around. This is what I found.




Seriously. How fast can that kid move? I wasn't zoned out that long. But remember this has happened to use before. Remember the Goldfish incident or the Pudding disaster?  But at least she had the sprinkles in the neat lil' cupcake holders.  Too bad that didn't last too long.  What you missed was the dumping of two containers of said sprinkles on the floor. Then she proceeded to nibble away!  That girl! I tell you what, it is great I bear only 1 child at a time. I don't know what I'd do if I had twins! :O)

Testing...1...2...3

Seems that we are testing how things work around here. We are testing limits, testing patience and testing our parents'abilities to forgive. I know. She is pretty adorable. Do I really mean she is testing the limits. This one? Oh heck ya!

This potty training business is more than learning where to put the poop and pee. It is more about asserting independence and making her voice heard. Believe me. We hear it! So does half of the metropolitan area. The other day we had a melt down. Code Red Meltdown. It was insane. Cory heard the meltdown. From outside. Under the deck. Yeah...it was one of those meltdown. The catalysis of this meltdown was good ole #2. We won't get into specifics of that situation. But what my thoughts were during and after the crisis-of-the-century.

She was a screamin', a kickin', a throwin', the whole nine yards. It was frustrating. I just want what is best for her. She needs to learn the valuable life skill of pooing in the potty. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my intentions. Yet she fights me. Repeatedly.

I sat there. During her tantrum. Thinking about what my options are: spanking, yelling, grabbing her, sitting, singing, praying, soothing. I decided to sit, pray and soothe her. I ignored the screaming, validated her feelings and explained my desires for her. Then I wondered.

How often are we kicking and screaming through life. Through what is best for us. Poor God. He just looks at us and shakes his head. "Really," He must think. "Really, you are throwing a fit over this."

But what is amazing is that He forgives. He lets us throw our tantrums. He lets us deviate from the desired course. Then, when we are ready He welcomes us back--with open arms--always.

How amazing is that! It was those thoughts that pulled me through the tantrum. She will come to the realization that pooping in the potty isn't the end of the world. She'll turn around. I know it. I will not (even though it was hard) hold a grudge or be upset with her because of the fit. As soon as the ability to hear returned to my ears and the screaming, kicking and all was over; she became my sweet, clingy, wanna-eat-dinner-on-my-lap lil' girl again. Just like that. She flipped the switch.

We do that too. All too often we screw up, then out of the clear blue we have a change of heart and then we want to be good with God again. And you know what the amazing thing is...we are. We are always good with God, when we truly, sincerely want to be.

If God's forgiveness is for those who ask for it. Even those who do the most horrendous of offenses; then why shouldn't I forgive my lil' one for her tantrums and snits. After all. He already has.

Cruel Irony

Whenever the kids need something, we are sure to go and buy it. During bath time, Owen's gotten in the habit of walking around the bathtub. He has an unsafe fascination with the faucet. I was concerned about Owen slipping and smashing his head on it.

So, we went to BabiesRus to buy this.

The Elmo Spout cover kept on slipping off the faucet. So we took it back and bought another one.






Here was our second bet.

A cute blow-up cover with little frogs. Well, that didn't work either. Instead of buying anymore spout covers.






I decided to take matters in my own hands.

With a hand towel and 2 ponytail holders, I custom-fitted a spout cover that was for sure to work. See, that is a perfect spout cover that would, for sure, protect our lil' boy from any possible ouchies.

See, now Owen didn't care as much for the spout as usual. I typically can't get him away from it all.
Well, Owen did find his way back faucet. I was working on adjusting the towel a little, while at that I got distracted by a 2-year-old. As cruel irony has it, Owen slipped and hit his eye on the very faucet I was working so hard to protect him from. The one day I actually had a suitable cover on it, he still hurts himself!

He didn't seem to care too much. He is pretty tough!
See, the lesson learned--is that sometimes the stuff you buy at stores can't stand up to good old-fashioned intuitiveness. :O)

Who's the Boss?

When Mommy is away the kids and Daddy will play!

I go out one evening for a meeting. When I come home...

The


House

Is


A

Disaster!
There were toys in the living room, books in the dining room, empty baskets that once housed coloring books, rugs were over turned, toys were sitting in time-out, a pair of glasses rested on the top of the tent AND one empty toy box was setting amongst the chaos!

Things were a mess.

When talking to Bethany about what happened and who was going to clean it up...she certainly had a couple of opinions...

For the record, she did help clean it up after a short stint in time-out to motivate her! :o)