No, this is not a political diatribe on capitalism or our consumerist culture. This is an introduction to the most effective tool we have ever seen in parenting. And no, I’m not talking about allowance as bribery, either! The Family Dollar system has transformed my family with four children from being resigned to never EVER going shopping with the boys again (even with 3 adults present I felt they were out of control!) to constantly receiving compliments on how well-behaved my boys are in public. Read on if you’re curious.

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I’m cleaning up my first blogs that I kept while going to grad school.  Here are some keeper posts about the 2 year-old version of Neils:

January 13, 2004

Growing lots

Man, is Neils growing! Every day I look at him in amazement. His speech is getting so much clearing and he is able to express himself very well.

Today, I was home for lunch, and was just watching him talk about a book while sitting on Melissa’s lap. He was talking about the different pictures and using his imagination very well. My eyes got all wet just thinking about what a handsome, smart, and loving boy we have.

…and there’s more: 

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So I thought we were looking at a miracle when it hit 50 degrees on Sunday and sent the boys out to play in just sweaters and scarves, then Tuesday we had a high of 60! If that’s not park weather I don’t know what is. I even took Eva outside to play. Well, observe from the baby carrier anyway! She would watch her brothers climb and swing and just giggle and gab… she’s already SUCH a chatterbox. Now if only I could catch it on camera… and figure out how to upload it.

I’m posting pics from Sunday, and Tuesday. Alas, last night it snowed and hasn’t really let up since. We’ve already got at least four inches.

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Your neighbor uses a backhoe to clear his drive

The “warming trend” for the week means a high of 18 degrees

You dress your baby girl in about 11 layers of clothing… for staying inside.

Ah well, she doesn’t seem to mind.

So I’ve always felt I had a missing gene… or hormone…which made me a non-baby-person. Don’t get me wrong, I love smelling baby heads as much as the next gal, and I ached to have children for years before we actually were blessed with a pregnancy, but I just have never LOVED that baby phase. It seemed to drag on forever with me just waiting for some way to communicate with that little person! When people would say "it just goes by too fast…" I never could quite wrap my head around it. it’s like a whole YEAR before that child can say much of anything or show you things or go wherever they want to go… It didn’t seem fast enough to me. 

Burke made a comment yesterday about how next time when Jesus is a baby he’d like to hold him, which is so sweet, but I explained that he would never be a baby again, he was all grown up, always and forever. And it finally hit.

My babies are babies once. Ever. In all eternity.

There will never be another time where they are so tiny and fragile and so completely adored and innocent. There will never be so many opportunities for me to just gaze in wonder at what they might become, snuggle their soft skin without objection, and wonder at God’s miracle in making them so perfect in miniature.  This is it.

So when Eve woke up after a way-too-short nap, rather than giving her a pacifier and a pat to encourage her to go back to sleep, I just held her. I snuggled her sweet fuzzy baby head. Kissed her tiny fingers and nose, told her how much I loved her, and carried her around all day. I will cherish every moment with my kids at every sweet tender age of childhood. These days will never come again.

So my post about Micah & Lizzie’s gift made me want to post about all the cool games we got from Matthan and Brenda. I would highly recommend all of them! WAY fun.

Here’s the list:

Coloretto

Vikings

Express

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Mystery Garden

Battle Ball

Bohnanza

I love that they included some great preschooler games like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Mystery Garden, a game with cool little figurines (Battleball), and that all of them are games we can play all together or at least with Neils soon if not already.  Thanks again Matthan and Brenda for such great gifts!

Lizzie’s post about Jodie’s gift reminded me that, although I took many photos, I never actually posted about my gift from Micah & Lizzie last year.

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The fun part of our vacation began once we hit the road to Ohio. It was slow going thanks to very cautious drivers in the snow, but we made it by the evening after Christmas. I don’t know why, but none of us seemed to be in photographer mode as we ended up with very few photos, none of Conan’s beloved siblings,  nearly none of our nieces and nephews, and zero group shots, which is sad since it may be quite awhile before we are all together like that again… in fact it’s probably safe to say that may never happen again! We were a little crowded (9 adults and 9 children–three of which were infants– in a 2 bedroom condo!) but it was wonderful to be so close. We played many games, took excursions to the zoo and Chuck E. Cheese, met up with one of Conan’s Middle School friends and his wife, and attended the temple. All in all, a wonderful vacation!

I think it’s safe to say, Grandma was in HEAVEN having so many grandbabies to love. Here is Milo and Peter dressed as twinners! 

She used her zoo pass to get us all in to the Columbus Zoo to see the Christmas lights… apparently that is a MUCH bigger event than I was anticipating! The line for parking snaked all the way to the road, and the zoo itself was no less than crammed. Talk about nervous-making! (Anyone read the Uglies series? Sorry, but that vocab is habit-forming!) It was a good thing we had so many adults looking out for the kids, because if you thought visiting a crowded zoo was difficult in broad daylight, imagine it at night, with a million twinkling, twirling lights to delight and distract them! Yikes. But it was lots of fun, and the kids really got a kick out of the light show set to Christmas music on the pond, though we pretty much just caught the finale with Neils’ favorite Transiberian Orchestra tune, Christmas / Sarajevo 12/24. Kind of a Carol of the Bells meets heavy metal number. Somehow the cutest photos I thought I was getting turned out to be video, which I still can’t figure out how to upload. Sorry kids! 

Our Chuck E. Cheese excursion:

So.. this really was a cute photo-op with Eve being totally delighted with her cousin Peter, and him just gabbing away at her… but we were too slow. Ah well, Peter is still adorable!

The Bella Bambina:

This year we decided that although we are very fond of seeing extended family at Christmas, we are not fond of becoming a moving company in order to do so. So we celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas day at home before heading to Ohio for some fun and games with family and friends. Love you all and hope yours was as happy.

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He’s really 3! I have thought of him as a three year old since the torrent of birthdays in October, and now he’s finally really truly three! Umm… in two days. But today was his birthday party, so as far as I’m concerned, he’s three. Oh, whatever. Enjoy the photos.

 (BTW– since there are so many pics I opted to post just the thumbnails, but click on any photo to enlarge it)

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