Happy Birthday Molly!

Today is Molly's 1st Birthday!!

What a darling girl..what a wonderful year...what a blessing she is to me and to this family!

This Little Light Of Mine!

Quick Ben story...

After several long months of wonderful, easy sleeping for Ben, he suddenly began aggressively resisting bedtime. He would not want to go to bed. He would ask us to sit in the hallway until he fell asleep. He would fuss and whine for the longest time each night. One night last week, he was up fussing and calling for us to come talk to him until almost 11 p.m.! It was getting out of control, and we were exhausted and at our wits end.

So, after prayer and reflection, and just a little hand-wringing, we came to accept that we could put the child to bed, but we couldn't make the child sleep. But we couldn't just let him stay up until we went to bed every night...he needs more sleep than that, and we need adult time! So we decided that we didn't care if he was asleep or not, but we needed him to be in his bed, and quiet. And those were the only 2 things we needed.

So, in a stroke of good luck, I remembered a tiny flashlight that Nana had given him a long time ago. I dug out the flashlight, and that night, when we put him to bed, we told him that he could pick a favorite book to take to bed, and he could have his special flashlight. We said that he didn't have to sleep at all. He could play with his light and read his book all that he wanted, but that he did have to be quiet and restful. He looked at us incredulously...we were actually going to just let him have a book and play with a flashlight and we didn't care if he slept or not??!!

Well, long story short, he was asleep that night within about 7 minutes, and he even turned off the flashlight himself before he fell asleep. He has been perfect with nights and naps every day since, thanks to his trusty little flashlight!

"This little light of mine...I'm gonna let it shine..."

Benner

A couple of short stories:

1. Nap time.
I have no idea why, but most days Ben takes a nap for about 1 hour and 45 min to 2 hours. And when he takes a nap for that length, he always wakes up crying and cranky. Almost every single day, for nearly 2 years now, ever since he has only been taking the one afternoon nap, it has been like this. But, occasionally, he will nap for about 2 and a half hours. When he takes the longer nap, he wakes up fresh, happy, and ready for the rest of the day.
It is strange, because a 2-hour nap is really not that bad. And I can't ever find any pattern or explanation as to why he doesn't wake up happy after the shorter nap, or as to why he so infrequently takes the longer, happy nap.
But anyway, yesterday was one of those blessed days when he took the longer nap. And just to illustrate how perfectly happy he is after the longer naps, here is what I heard yesterday...instead of the usual crying and whining, all of the sudden out of the silence, at around the 2.5 hour mark, I heard, "I'm all done!"
I spoke into the dark room, "Did you say you were all done?" He replied, "Yep, I'm all done sleeping now. I'm ready to get up!"
So I happily got him up, and we proceeded to have a wonderful afternoon, waiting for Daddy to get home. If only it was like this every day!

2. Prayer
Sometimes when we pray, Ben will add in the most random prayers. I can never figure out what made him think of what it is that he is praying for. He almost threw me for a loop again today.
The story: A dear friend of mine was expecting triplets this month, and she had to have an early c-section that was scheduled for this morning. Well, the kids and I were out on a walk during the time that the surgery was scheduled. So at the time of the surgery, I stopped our walk and told Ben that we should take a moment to say a prayer for our friend and her babies. He gravely folded his hands and closed his eyes and listened well at first as I asked God to watch over Katie and the babies.
But several times as I was praying, he tried to interrupt me. So, at first, I thought he was just done praying and was trying to change the subject. But finally he got my full attention and said, "And thank you God for the almonds and M&M's that Katie could eat to make the babies grow!"
I was clueless at first...but then soon remembered that last time Katie had been over for a visit, she had been snacking from a bag of trail mix with a bunch of different nuts and dried fruits and some chocolate pieces. She was trying to take in more calories to "help the babies grow", and Ben had spent the entire morning eying the trail mix. Apparently it made quite an impression!

Sick Kids...

It was only a matter of time...in the past couple of weeks, it seemed like every other day I heard of some new friend or family member of ours who was sick. Fever, aches, chills, generally feeling yucky.

We seemed to dodge it for a while, but I just knew that it was headed our way eventually.

Well, it hit today. Both kiddos are running fevers and seem generally achy. Molly also has a runny nose. So we are in full sick-mode here with lots of snuggles, cuddles, lazy sitting on the couch, humidifiers running in both bedrooms, and (Ben's personal favorite!) soda-juice to stay hydrated. Molly is eying the soda-juice enviously, but as she is still nursing, she doesn't get any yet...maybe this time next year if she gets sick.

Wish us a speedy return to health...and also that Aaron and I somehow dodge the bullet. We aren't sick yet, but somehow I bet that it is also just a matter of time for us too!