JESUS! Sassy Sauce!

Jake's preschool teacher, Ms. Kathryn, told me about Sassy Sauce. Several months ago I was having trouble with Jake talking back, telling me 'no', etc. She said that someone had told her about it, and she wasn't claiming that it was a good parenting tool, but that she had tried it with her little boy (right Kathryn?) and it worked. Sassy sauce is apple cider vinegar sprayed in the mouth or spoon-fed to the sasser. Eeewwww.

Lately we have had quite a problem with our little boy and defiance. He doesn't want to obey, he throws a fit over not getting what he wants or he tells us no. We had reminded him of sassy sauce. So Monday I was shaking rugs out in the backyard and he wanted to come outside, but was wearing only a t-shirt and underwear. I told him to go get shorts on, then he could come. In response, my angelic son pushed past me in the doorway huffing, "but I WANT to come outside."

Uh-oh. Sassy sauce.

I couldn't find apple cider vinegar, only white balsalmic vinegar. Eeewww. He whined and cried a lot but finally took a spoonful from Andy. He cried so hard. Then as Andy was trying to calm him down and talk to him, he cried out in panic, "Jesus help me with sassy sauce!"

In his agony he cried out to Jesus!

We gave him a drink, talked about the offense and hugged and forgave. I was glad to find a consequence that he REALLY dreaded and that he knew Who to cry to for help! And the last few days the defiance has gotten a lot better.

Any thoughts? Are we cruel and unusual parents? :)

Neat Blog

My friend Mommy of 5 has a link on her blog to a blog that I read a lot. It's so good! This old post was listed as a favorite and it really encouraged me. Long, but encouraging and inspiring. Love you mommy friends!

Hope Missy at Almost Naptime doesn't mind! :S

http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-was-your-thursday.html

"p-tending"

Jake and his imagination...

I remember before having kids I thought it was so cute when kids pretended and used their imagination. I realize now that I'm so used to Jake doing it, I don't even notice. He's always some character -- baby little foot (a dinosaur from the Land Before Time; he does this when he's sleepy or wants baby attention like his little brother gets), a "bad robot dy," a robot spider (picture the robot from the Incredibles movie), a frog (which he likes to do before bed and explains that frogs jump in their beds), and a few others I can't remember.

An animal in a "tage."
Army men and their house; they were all friends and invited each other inside their house. The army tank had its own garage. (We worked on this one together. :))
they're sleeping
This was just today - Max got a stuffed animal from his surgery. Jake took the tag off of it and wanted these taped to his fingers to make "bad robot pincher things." Random - I would have never come up with that.
Picking stuff up - serious robot face. :D

Lord, may I appreciate these sweet days rather than focusing on the little frustrations. I want to look back at these days and know that I made the most of them and LOVED my boys, showing them how loving You are.

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." John 15:12

Ear Tubes

It went beautifully!



In case some of you didn't know, Max's ear/nose/throat doc said he needed tubes in his ears. He has only had one ear infection, but the fluid has lingered for a long time. He failed a hearing test - one ear was completely blocked and the other was half way blocked -- poor guy! Because it could also be affecting his balance and motor develpment, we decided to go for the surgery. I'm looking forward to seeing if he'll get around better or hear us better, and therefore talk a little more clearly (you know, for a 1-year-old!).

His teeny hospital gown!








Starting to get a little fussy. He had been up since 5:45 (now 7:30) with nothing in his belly.
















Starting to get punchy. They gave him what they called "drunk medicine" to relax him before taking him into surgery where he would go under with a mask. He was SO funny -- really limp and laughing at Andy and me over anything. HA!















He kept leaning WAY back. Wheeeee!

Max's E-I-E-I-O Party

Sunday afternoon we had Max's 1st birthday party at a local park. It was a pretty good spot --warm but not too bad in the shade. I liked the idea of a farm party (want to do the cute baby things like that before we get completely into Spiderman and Transformers :)). We had lots of farm/country decorations and Andy even had bluegrass music playing! It was a fun little party. Thank you sweet friends and family for making it fun!

I found these marshmallow farm animals at Toys R Us (of all places). They were perfect for what I had in mind. Pretzel fence - Andy's sturdy design; mini wheat cereal for hay bales; and a comb through the field to make the soil look "tilled." The past couple years I've gone to this website for great cake ideas.Max's chick cake
Grammy and Old MaxDonald
walking with Grandpa Bob

Grandpa Clay (aka Papa) with Aunt Erin and cousins Elysa and Emilyswinging with Grandma and Grandpa PaulJake and Tyler being airplanes
big brother helping open

not sure what to thinkwe don't need that anyway!he found and really liked the marshmallow chick

See the flying cake? YAY!!he always has his feet crossed :)the only thing he really cared about - the balloons

Grandpa Clay's gift - neat push around car

Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Thank you Lord for these and so many blessings.

Max's Year in Review

Happy Birthday Max! You have brought such fun and joy to us. We love you buddy!

Updated note: I'm having trouble seeing the slideshow - it just loads forever. Are you (my few faithful readers) able to see it? I'm needing a better website for slideshows...

Bootie Scootin' Boogie

Although the occupational therapist through ECI says moving on his belly is better, this is his favorite way of getting around. HA!

Thoughts from the Pot

Jake came running from the bathroom yesterday with his pants around his ankles yelling, "Mom! Pee starts with P!!!" :)

Tag - About My Man

1. Who is your man? Andrew John Kelley
2. How long have you been together? together 8 years, married 6 1/2
3. How long dated? dated 11 months, engaged 5 months

4. How old is your man? 32
5. Who eats more? usually Andy, but lately he's been Mr. Healthy and it's a toss-up
6. Who said “I love you” first? so terrible, neither of us could remember! pretty sure we were dating. it wasn't hard to decide if we loved each other.
7. Who is taller? Andy, by 8 inches
8. Who sings better? he does...he's not shy about singing like I am
9. Who is smarter? definitely Andy. one of the things that most attracted me to him...articulate and smart, but also humble
10. Whose temper is worse? neither of us have much of a temper, but he can get riled (sp?) up a bit
11. Who does the laundry? Me 90% of the time, but he's great about folding a basket of clothes that I haven't gotten to for days (maybe because he has no clothes to wear...? I've been bad lately...blogging too much?)
12. Who takes out the garbage? Andy most of the time
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? me
14. Who pays the bills? me
15. Who is better with the computer? (D, I liked your response to this one! ;D) Umm...not sure. Andy probably.
16. Who mows the lawn? Andy. He's so great at keeping on top of it - the edging, mowing and blowing.
17. Who cooks dinner? me. Andy does like to grill steaks.
18. Who drives when you are together? usually Andy
19. Who pays when you go out? usually Andy
20. Who is most stubborn? dunno...him maybe if he's REALLY sure about something
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? me. Like Robin, I like a resolution to a conflict so I like to get the apologizing ball rolling.
22. Whose parents do you see the most? Mine. His dad is 5 hours away.
23. Who kissed who first? We held off kissing for a long time and we were in my car after a date discussing when we should. Andy said something like, "let's stop talking" and planted one! Because we had waited, there were major, MAJOR sparks. I remember that well.

24. Who asked who out? He called me, out of the blue, and asked me to a co-worker's wedding.
25. Who proposed? Andy...on the Great Wall of China. :D
26. Who is more sensitive? definitely me
27. Who has more friends? me, I guess
28. Who has more siblings? he does
29. Who wears the pants in the family? definitely Andy, but he's great usually about conferring with me. I'm glad he wears the pants -- he's wise and level-headed.

This was fun! Thanks girls!

New Title and Banner

So, some blogging friends/family (thank you Bloggertons! :)) turned me on to http://www.scrapblog.com/. It's the coolest thing and free! I'm still waiting for there to be some catch...but I couldn't find any! Anyway, I played around and made my new banner. Then I settled on this silly title. It made me smile. And I couldn't come up with anything beautiful or inspiring. So there.