Waffles and Syrup

I need to start my entry with a little information I feel is important. As I am finding out that more people read this than I thought(except you never leave comments...boo!) and that people may not be familiar with the world of blogging yet, I want to reassure you that I do try my best to be a good mommy. I really don't sit at the computer all day. In fact, it is so easy to blog that I am surprised at how many people are impressed with it. I just feel I need to make sure you know that I do play with my child, fix dinner, keep my house moderately clean, and all the other duties of being a stay-at-home mom(plus unpacking a house!). In fact, I am writing this entry after an hour long romp in the yard with Danny and Pollack and Danny is happily eating his snack. I think Pollack might be enjoying the "etzel" snack as well, since I just heard a pretzel drop, Pollack munching, and Danny giggling.

Now for the story. Some of you know I went on a women's retreat this weekend with our new church and had a fabulous time making new friends. It was my special treat after doing the single mom thing in Atlanta for two months and gave Danny and Daddy some much needed bonding time. They had a great weekend and even though Danny was excited to see his mommy Sunday afternoon, he wasn't ready to give up the full time attention from Daddy. In fact, he has started equally calling our names in the morning from his crib, which is really nice when I can legitimately lean over and tell Scott "He is calling for you, so I guess you have to get him!"

But like I said, they had a great weekend, except for one little mishap. We have these crazy locks on our doors that feel unlocked when you turn them from the inside, but are really locked on the outside. I have locked my self out a few times, but decided to hide a key. Sunday morning the key was not in it's place since we had let our babysitter use it and Scott had not had a chance to re-hide it. Just after putting Danny in his highchair with a plate of waffles and syrup, Scott headed out our laundry room door that goes into the garage to let Pollack in through the side garage door. As he closed the door, he knew he had made a mistake. Thirty minutes later, Scott was able to reenter our house with the help of a kind neighbor, his crowbar, and one very broken door. Fortunately we don't close our blinds in front of the breakfast table, so Scott was able to periodically check on Danny in his chair. Danny just waved at his Daddy and proceeded to make a sticky messy.

I am including a photo of the door after it's date with a crowbar and one anxious daddy.

So, as you can guess, we just bought a new door and new locks for the entire house. No boys weekend is completely without at least one chance to use a crow bar, tear down a door, and make a mess at a meal. And don't worry...there will be many more boys weekends! Scott and Danny had a blast together despite their crazy morning.

Where does he get it from?

So, we have a little talker on our hands. Anyone who has spent time with Danny knows that fact. Danny has always been a very verbal child and has amazed us with his skills. I used to laugh when the nurse at Danny's doctor would start the long list of developmental questions and ask us how many words Danny would say. She would give me some options such as 5 words or 10 words, because I believe she thought my pause meant I misunderstood the question. But the actual truth was I was trying to count words in my head really fast and realizing that it was way beyond being able to count. I think I just said "At least twenty?" with question in my voice, because I felt like I hadn't given the answer she expected.

Well, yesterday he amazed us again in the word of language development by READING! No really...I'm not kidding. At least that is what we thought had happened. And I am not talking about the kind of reading that he currently does at home when we read a book. I will start a sentence and he "remembers" the word from one of our previous fifty times reading that book and will finish the sentence for me. That is also impressive for an 18 month old, but not quite like our experience yesterday.

Here is what happened:

Danny and I were out doing our usual Monday grocery shopping and were blessed to have Scott be able to join us for lunch(one of the many perks of our new place...Scott is about 10 minutes away from our house!) So, being the frugal shopper that I am, Danny and I had already decided we wanted to take advantage of the $1.50 deals at Sam's Club for lunch. Mmmmm, I can taste the yummy hot dog now. We were in line debating what to get for lunch for Danny. Should we go for the pizza? No, pizza had been on the "boy's weekend" menu, so we continued to chat about the options. I was having the hot dog, as was Scott, but we are always worried about giving a hot dog to a small child. But after realizing that I could use a knife to cut it up into itty bitty portions, we opted for the hot dog special times three. I guess while Scott and I were conversing, Danny was working on his new reading skills, because all of a sudden he yelled out "ICEE". It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about(we call the teethers in the freezer icees also, but there weren't any in sight) Then I gazed past the cashier and noticed the large Icee machine behind the counter. OK, you are saying to yourself that I must have bought one on a previous visit, but I haven't. I have never bought him an Icee at Sams and his only similar experience might have been when we had a Costco membership and I used to get a fruit smoothie to share. Different machine, different name, and it has been at least 6-8 months since he has had a Costco fruit smoothie. I can assume that he read the words, right? How else would he know? I am still trying to figure that one out.

So, therefore, we can only conclude that he is a genius. Of course all parents say that about their kid, but this one is actually legit. He is reading at 18 months...Any Mensa members that happen upon this blog, please take note. You have a future member named Daniel.

He takes after his Daddy...


(No,we didn't get an Icee, but we got really excited about it though!)

Admendment to yesterday's blog

So, I was thinking this morning as I got ready to go out and run errands that I wasn't completely honest about our situation here in Richmond. I said that we don't have any "real" friends and that is not completely true. It is true that I don't really know anybody at our church yet(but the women's retreat this weekend should change that) and that we haven't really found a group of "friends" that we socialize with on a regular basis....but we do have some wonderful new friends. We have a couple at Scott's work that have a little girl around Danny's age that have already had us over for dinner twice(we can't wait to welcome them over to our home!) We are already brainstorming some fun summer activities to do together since she is a teacher and will have the summer off. Scott has great work friends that help make his day enjoyable. And I have felt a kindred connection to a few neighbors who are already helping me plan a backyard bible club for our community. It is nice to be able to speak the same language(and celebrate the same beliefs about God in many cases) as the people who live around you.....that was a disadvantage to our previous home. Not that our old home didn't produce many ministry opportunities, but my Romanian, Bosnian, Spanish, and Pakistani language skills are lacking to say the least.....English is about it for me, unfortunately. So, all that to say, God has blessed us in so many ways and I am going to be thankful despite circumstances.

Hello, hello, hello....is anybody in there?

I am stealing a line from Comfortably Numb/Pink Floyd for my title today in order to reinforce Scott's recent point that you shouldn't blog if you don't have anything to say. As a reader of multiple hilarious blogs on politics/sports/and sometimes the two together, Scott thinks that a pregnant stay at home mom can't have much to say, much less very many people reading her blog. I know this isn't a stab at my chosen proffession, b/c we are in complete agreement that my being at home is best for our children, but he knows that my experiences are limited to pretty much what happens in our home and what I read on the internet during the day.

So, there lies my intro to today's words.....it is amazing what you learn reading with your 18 month old.

Let me introduce you to one of our favorite books....Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. For those of you who have not had the pleasure to read this wonderful book, let me tell you that it is pretty great as far as children's books go....it has a wonderful rhythm and a lesson that I took as my own teaching for the day today. Did you know that God can use children's books to speak to us? Of course, why would he be limited? He is amazing.....The story starts with telling us about a bear in the deep sleep stages of hibernation. Other wild animals find their way into his lair and start a party of sorts with a warm fire and many yummy goodies, including my dad's favorite line "so they pop white corn and they brew black tea" while "the bear snores on". This book has been a favorite of my parent's and Danny since I gave them a few of my "bear" books to read. One of the blessings of having a mommy that is a former Kindergarten teacher is the wealth of books as Danny's disposal. He even has his own library and reading couch in our upstairs landing of our new house....but I digress. So this bear sleeps as everyone parties until a "small pepper fleck" makes him wake up and give a huge "raaaaa-choooooo!!!!" At this point in the story the whole crowd(mouse, hare, badger, gopher, mole, wren, and raven) "freezes" and awaits the punishment of being caught in a bear's home uninvited. After much gnarling, snarling, roars, rumbles, and other such angry emotions, the bear begins to whimper and moan about there being a party and he slept through it....what a whiner! But the animals reassure him that they can still have fun and proceed to "pop more corn" and "brew more tea" as they "spin tall tales through the blustery night".

I have read this story at least 50 times and have never seen it quite like I did today. How many times am I like that bear? I whine about something that seems ridiculous when you see the big story. Not only is the bear failing to get prospective here, but it seems as if he is unaware of the fact that his ability to dwarf the other animals in size gives him the power to call the shots here. Do I have God's power at my fingertips and fail to see the blessing because I am caught up in the "little" circumstances? And how many times have I looked at my circumstances and only seen the negative and not the the blessing that lie within, such as having friends around you when you wake up. All he saw was the fact that he missed out....it took the little mouse's wise words to bring him back to reality and then be able to enjoy himself with the wealth of food and friends that surrounded him. In light of this revelation, I am determined to begin thanking God for my blessings more than I currently am doing....Danny and I started by thanking Him for our wonderful house(despite the circumstances of work to be done) and the wealth of great neighbors(despite the fact that we officially have no "real" friends yet). I want to see the positive in even the situations that seems difficult. And remembering that God is worthy of my praise even when the things around me are REALLY bad, which of course is not the case right now. In fact, other than those two mentioned negatives, life is pretty great for us here in Richmond. We know this is where God has called us to be for this stage in our life!
So, I go back to the beginning and say to Scott that I hope this post has qualified me as having "something to say". And for the five of you who read this blog, I hope this has been a blessing to you. And go check out Bear Snores On or another good children's book and look for the message that lies within. I wonder if Ms. Wilson ever intended this message when she penned this great classic!

Moved in and loving Richmond!

We are moved into our new house and are so excited to be in Richmond. We have been amazed by the kindness of our neighbors....we were only here two days and we already had two cakes, cupcakes, and cookies to enjoy. Fattening us up for sure! Danny seems to have adjusted well and as you can see he is ready for Mommy and Daddy to put together his big boy bed. He loves his train table and new Christmas gifts that Mommy put away after Christmas. Pollack loves his yard and is pretty much wiped out 90% of the time when he is in the house due to squirrel chasing and barking at the birds. He has a new friend behind us....our backyard backs up to a house with a yellow lab and they like to run along the fences and play together. We worked hard unpacking and are down to the organizing stage now. We had Nana here for a few days, which was a tremendous blessing. I think Danny thought Nana lived with us now and was a little confused after she left. He still comes home and hollers upstairs for her, but we just remind him that Max needs someone to take care of him. Well, time to go sort through some more stuff(we have too much stuff!) and play "hit ball"(golf) with Danny. More to come later!