Conversations

I've had some interesting conversations with the children recently. Matthew and I went to Kohl's to exchange a gift he had received. It was a game he already had and he wanted to exchange it for a Transformer. On the way home, Matthew was asking me about Transformers and I dug into the deep recesses of my brain to remember everything I could about the cartoons. (I haven't seen the movies yet and am not sure I will....the trailer alone made my brain spin from all of the action!) We got on the topic of good guys and bad guys. I explained to him that some mommies won't let their little boys have bad guys b/c they don't want them pretending to be a bad guys. But, I pointed out to him that if you don't have a bad guy, the good guy will get very bored. He thought this was funny and decided to get a bad guy when he and Ben picked out their toys with their Christmas money. But, alas, the conversation was for naught and he got a good guy :) (Ben got Optimus Prime, which Matthew called Optimus Prom...can you even imagine that high school dance?)

Anna has been quite the chatterbox recently. She's stringing together more and more words into sentences. She also quite clearly communicates which boy has hurt her and what he did, much to her brothers' chagrin. She loves to sing, so we find a time each day when she sits on my lap for songs and fingerplays.

The boys learned several Christmas carols this year and not only do they know the words, but they alternate words with each other. One starts and they trade off who does the next word. ANNA has started doing this with them as well! She and Ben did the entire first verse of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" last night after supper. Remember, Anna is only 21 months old. Rob told her to go out and get a job to help the family since she's so smart. She ran away babbling baby babble and laughing. :)

The kids are just too much fun!

The 2009 Toy Awards

After living for a few days with the various gifts the children have received for Christmas, I thought I might like to give out a few awards to some of these wonderful toys.

Most Educational: Surprisingly, this award goes to Matthew's Hot Wheels Color Change Stunt Ramp. He has to direct the ramp into two tubs or onto another ramp. Go Physics!

Most Creative Use of a Toy: Anna's Sunshine Market. She pulled out the inside stuff and put her legs inside instead to watch TV. (She does play with it normally as well :)

Most Played With Now But Ignored When Opened: Ben's Busy Bugs. He barely glanced at them last Saturday, but he plays with them during school time.

Most Played With When Opened and Now Ignored: Matthew's dinosaurs. He keeps saying that it shrunk. Rob says it just isn't as big as he remembered it.

Most Shared Toy: Ben's "It's A Match" set. The boys sit together and play with it lots.

Cutest Toy: Hmmm....obviously an Anna winner...I think her Giggle Baby (as she calls it) wins this one. If it cries, she gives it kisses and it's blankie.

Most Annoying Use of a Toy: Now, these are not annoying by themselves, but the winners are a pair of books Anna received that play music. They are cute books, but the boys like to each take one and play them at the same time, along with another musical book of Anna's. It sounds like a karioke machine is dying a horrible, electronic death in my living room. Needless to say, Anna can read one at a time until this phase passes. Like I said, I love the books, but the boys can keep their hands off!

Most Useful: The kids got some clothes, which are very useful, but the winner is my kitchen towels. I really needed to replace several of my towels! Thanks Kim and Mom L.!!!

Most Likely to Amuse Mommy: A monkey that chatters when you squeeze it. My mom gave the kids some little stuffed animals that they enjoy when they are at her house. Ben just LOVES this little monkey and I have to admit that I love it too!

Best Game: Matthew's A to Z Jr. Rob and I played it with him yesterday and we're all three hooked on it. Matthew picked it up pretty quickly, I must say.

Best Game, Runner-Up: Ben's Elefun. You can't watch kids chase after butterflies and not smile :)

Funniest Use of a Toy: Ben's dragon riding around in his new dump truck with a small orange dinosaur driving.

Latest Arrival: Matthew and Ben had some Christmas money to spend and they each picked out a Transformer. They have never seen the cartoons, but hey, cars that turn into robots? Any boy would love that!

The kids love all of their gifts and have been bouncing from toy to toy the past few days. We've sat down to read a pile of new books and played many games. Fun times!

The Good Times

This Christmas season started with high hopes and ended up being one I'd like to put in the back of the memory books. Mostly due to the boys' behavior, I must say. And I'd rather not reflect on it in a blog, but rather I'll mention some fun moments with the children in my life. So here are some of the fun memories from Christmas 2009.

Niece Kara Joy (age 6) sitting on my lap right before we opened presents, me trying to convince her that Grandpa bought her a Transformer for Christmas (to her relief, it was a Barbie.)

Niece Kate (age 4) running up and giving me a hug when she arrived.

Niece Callie (age 2) NOT crying when I spoke to her.

Nephew Caleb (age 16 mos) giving Anna lots of hugs and kisses.

Nephew Ezra (age 16 mos) laughing uproariously as Uncle Rob tickled him.

Niece Makenzie (age 17 mos) smiling at me continually.

Nephew Zach (age 11 weeks) smiling and cooing at me and falling asleep on me.

Nephew Jamie (age 2) giggling with Matthew and Ben as they played Elefun and running up and giving me a hug at the restaurant today.

Nephew Julian (age 1 month) looking all snuggly and adorable in his sleeper today.

Daughter Anna (age 21 months) trying to play with Uncle Dan's dog Charlie, getting licked in the face, and putting back the dog toy because she didn't want to play anymore.

Son Benjamin (age 3) opening his dinosaur toy at the Fulkerson side get-together and being VERY surprised.

Son Matthew (age 5) snuggling up to read a pile of books with me on Christmas morning.

So there were some fun moments, thankfully. God also preserved us today on the ride home. A semi got into our lane and almost ran us off the road. God kept Rob calm and he was able to get back onto the highway and pass the semi.

Merry Christmas!

Here's a picture of my cuties before church this past Sunday. Matthew sang in the Cherub Choir, which performed before the big children's program. Next year, he'll be in the program and Ben will be in the Cherub Choir.

Well, the last of the baking is finally done. I had to make two more batches of cookies to take with me to Illinois tomorrow and some rolls for Rob's Christmas party at work. All of the homemade gifts are finished, cards are all done and out, and I think we're ready to just relax with our families. We take off tomorrow afternoon when Rob gets off work and we'll hopefully return on Saturday. The weather looks to be pretty yucky, but we might just make it in and out during the lighter times.

Merry Christmas to all of you and if I don't see you later, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

Fixing my Mistake

I mentioned in yesterday's post that Ben was jealous of Matthew's present. Mr. Benjamin proceeded to make life pretty miserable for all of us yesterday and his bad attitude eventually effected Matthew as well. We ended up putting the boys to bed early after multiple punishments. Something just kept bugging me about the day, though. I ended up going to bed early myself, but I couldn't sleep. It suddenly dawned on me that the bad behavior stemmed from jealousy. And the jealousy happened b/c Mommy gave Matthew a cool toy and gave Ben some educational items. Sure, the train is a toy, but putting it together was frustrating for Ben. After much prayer and contemplation, I realized that my sweet, little Benjamin just wanted a toy for Christmas.

Now, I know, I know, some parents can be overly indulgent with their children, which is certainly not the case with us. But I could hear his little thoughts as I watched his expressions throughout the day. It was not necessarily about the lack of toy...it was more about the thought behind it. See, my love language is gift-giving so I tend to attach love to gifts. Well, if your older brother gets a cooler gift than you, it must mean that Mom and Dad love older brother more. I know that might seem crazy to some of you, but that only means your love language isn't gift giving. :)

So I did the only thing I could think to do. At 10:40pm, I got dressed and went to Wal-Mart. I prayed the entire time that I was doing the right thing, and sure enough, God answered my prayer. I found the biggest fire truck Wal-Mart had: it was on sale and the last one left. If that doesn't scream RIGHT THING TO DO, then nothing did. I also grabbed a pair of Super Mario Galaxy pj's for Matthew, which was something big on his list. For Anna, I put one of her new sippy cups in a little bag.

When the boys woke up this morning, I told them "Santa" had left them another present. They hurried downstairs (they don't really believe in Santa, but it's fun to tease them). Matthew was excited about the pjs, Anna immediately demanded juice, but Ben's face was priceless. He was trying to get the bindings off the truck with his bare hands.

You know, I don't normally do things like this, but God taught me a lesson last night. Let my kids be kids. I need to leave the teacher hat aside more often and just be Mommy.

Christmas 2009

Since we'll be in Illinois from the 23rd-26th and since we like to do the "wake and open gifts" thing here, we opened our Christmas presents this morning. This year, we decided to buy three gifts for each child instead of one and let them buy the stocking stuffers. I took Matthew out and Rob took Ben shopping for those items. The boys had fun and kept telling each other that they did not buy soda for each other. That was Rob's way of helping them keep from spilling the beans.

Rob and I woke up before the kids this morning and started breakfast. The boys got up at 7am and had to wait upstairs until we were ready and Anna had a diaper change, then they grabbed their stockings off the railing as they headed downstairs. We opened our stockings and tried to guess who gave us what. Anna got a box of Reese's pieces from Ben, M & M's from Matthew, and a peanut butter tree from herself. Ben got a candy cane of chocolates from Matthew, a peanut butter tree from Anna, and a dinosaur egg he can grow and hatch from us. Matthew got a candy cane of Runts from Ben, a peanut butter tree from Anna (I had her purchase a package of them to give away), and a little dinosaur thingy he can excavate on his own. We had bought the dinosaur things before we decided to let the kids do stocking stuffers. Rob got a 2 liter of Coke from Ben, Junior Mints from Matthew, and a pb tree from Anna. I got a Hershey bar from Matthew, chips from Ben, pb tree from Anna, and Rob snuck some Lindt chocolates into my stocking (stinker, we weren't supposed to buy gifts for each other this year!)

Stocking stuffers and early-morning Christmas present opening is a tradition on my side. To bring in one of Rob's family's traditions, we start with the youngest child in present opening. Anna ripped into a book right away (ladybug counting book), and also got a Glow Worm (she was instantly attached and has hardly put it down since) and a set of blocks made by her Daddy. Benjamin got the book "If You Give a Moose a Muffin", the Busy Bugs set from Discovery Toys, and a Motor Works train to add to the Motor Works set. Matthew got the book "Puzzle Island" from Discovery Toys, the game Whiz Kids, and a dinosaur play set. Ben is rather jealous of the dinosaur set, but I know he's getting one from Gma F (shh, don't tell!) so it'll even out later.

We had a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls (or cindy rolls, as Anna calls them) and breakfast pizza. We did have to run an errand, but otherwise we'll hang out here today. Rob will take the boys over to the Market (an eclectic little mall on our block) to see a huge model train display. We've also been working on our "Less is More" gift for the Fulkerson Christmas. We're 8/9 of the way done with it!

And just to keep things interesting....

...Matthew "decided" to hit his face against the radiator this evening and pulled out several eyelashes from the middle of his eyelids.

Seriously, I'm NOT getting up tomorrow!!!!

It keeps getting better!

After yesterday's little electrical incident (see previous post) I was hoping for a smoother week. Well. Matthew came racing into the kitchen today holding his head. I didn't see bleeding initially, but then saw the red patch on top of his head. Ben had thrown a truck and Matthew got into the way. The cut was very small, but he had a bump and it was bleeding badly. We got the bleeding to stop and then I washed his hair.

About 20 minutes later, I catch Matthew coming down the stairs with his scissors. I questioned him and he said, "Ben had gum in his hair, but I took care of it." I asked how Ben got gum in his hair and Matthew said he had put it there. Funny, because Ben was the one chewing gum!! Thankfully, the patch on Ben's head is very small and easily hidden by the rest of his hair.

I think I'm going to sleep through the rest of the week and wake up on Saturday.

Angels Working Overtime

What do you get when you add a metal fork,

an electrical outlet,

the plug for the Christmas lights,

and a disobedient three-year-old? Thankfully, nothing more than a surprised little boy!! Today I was in the kitchen and I saw a bright flash out of the corner of my eye. I had just told Ben to stay away from the Christmas lights and I guess he got it in his head to whack the plug with his fork. He wasn't shocked at all and since both the fork and the plug were melted, that's very surprising. Rob looked at the damage and can't see any way Ben didn't get hurt except for guardian angels. Unless somebody out there is an electrician and can explain it to us :)

Praise the Lord for His hand of protection on disobedient children!!!

Getting Ready for Christmas

We've had a fun week of Christmas preparation and activities around here. I've been baking loads of cookies and am planning to make more. My list includes: chocolate covered cherries, chocolate krinkles, molasses krinkles, sugar cookies, chocolate bon-bons (thanks alot, Rach, for giving me such an addictive recipe!), buckeyes, gingerbread cookies, cream cheese candies, mint bars, fudge, chocolate chai bread, and a partridge in a pear tree. We're giving away cookies as gifts this year, so that's why I made so many. The kids took plate-fuls to their Sunday school and children's church teachers today and we're planning to take some to their Tiny Trackers workers on Wednesday. We have a few other plans for the cookies that I'll reveal later. My family is not giving gifts this year, but is instead doing something for others and mine involves cookies, so I can't spoil it for my sibs and parents :)

We also got about a foot of snow on Tuesday, so I gave the boys a snow day on Wednesday. Rob came home early and they all went outside and built a snow fort. Rob was just as excited as they were. He said what they have in the front yard is bigger than anything he built as a child and we're only going to get more snow as the winter progresses, so it should be pretty impressive before it melts. The boys just LOVE getting out there and playing! It was too cold on Thursday and Friday to send them out, but they scampered around as much as they cold on Saturday!

We just got home from our church's cantata, which was wonderful. Ben slept through most of it, but Matthew stayed awake and enjoyed it. We were hopping back in the nursery checking in children since we had loads of visitors, but it was fun. I did have to turn away several children b/c we don't take three-year-olds on Sunday nights. I also had parents trying to check in some 5's, 6's, and I think a 10-year-old! That was kind of crazy.

The boys went to the last library storytime for the year on Tuesday. It was a cookie theme and they got cookies, of course. Anna had fun running around in the baby room playing with toys, only joining her brothers for songs and finger plays.

Ben and I went to a cookie bake on Friday night hosted by a little girl in his Sunday school class and he had a good time. There were many children there he didn't know so he played by himself, but he did enjoy baking cookies.

I also have my Christmas cards finished and plan to mail them out this week. Rob helped me out this year, as well as Ben, so it was a family effort.

Here are a few quotes from our week:

Matthew: (the day after eating chili) "Mom, no more chili for me. That was rough!"

Anna: (To the tune of Ring-Around-the-Rosie) Ring the rosie, Is-a-bel Brody, Anna Anna (and there's no final line.) These are children she plays with in the nursery.

Ben: Well, no quotes for him, but the moms at the cookie bake found him to be a very serious little guy. He's so cute!

A Christmas Carol

Last night, Rob and I took Matthew to see Maranatha's production of A Christmas Carol. Matthew has seen the Mickey Mouse version more times than I can count, so I knew he had the basic storyline down. This was his first live performance, however, so Rob and I were both hoping for the best. He kept asking me questions about the story this week as well as who would play what parts. Two of his friends were in it (one as Tiny Tim and one as Ignorance) and there were several other children and adults he knew in it as well (Scrooge, Christmas Past, and various other roles.) He did ask me who was playing Jimeny Cricket and Mickey Mouse, so we had to explain a few more things to him :)

Rob didn't call for our tickets until Tuesday, but we ended up with front row seats. I was so glad b/c I wanted Matthew to be able to see everything. Since Rob's alumni membership is current we got in for free: otherwise it would have cost $25. Go Alumni!!!

We dropped off Anna and Ben at the sitters and got to MBBC a little early. Matthew was a bit bored in the lobby waiting, and when he gets bored, he gets creative. We were able to keep him busy until we got to our seats. We had explained to him that we couldn't leave once the lights were down so he agreed to hit the bathroom beforehand. And then the play started. Matthew was hooked from the first word! Being opening night, it was a little shaky at the start, but picked up quickly, especially when Jacob Marley entered. They had rods or something in the actors costume so when Scrooge asked him to sit down, it looked like he was sitting in mid-air. Matthew was soooo excited and still says that was his favorite part. There was lots of smoke and some strobe light action during the Christmas Future part. Matthew gripped my leg, put his hands over his ears (but not his eyes) and grabbed my arm and put it over his head, but he just loved it! He also kept telling me it wasn't real, but I think he was trying to convince himself :)

When it all ended, he was beyond excited. He can't wait to go to another play! The Lion King will be in Madison at the end of April and I'd like to take both boys to see it. Looks like we have the makings of another theater junkie in the family!

HA!

I was teasing Rob a few minutes ago and said, "So, should we go to Applebees for supper?" He laughed and then the boys started begging to go. Rob told them no and Ben said, "Come on, Daddy! Don't you get money from work??"

Random Silliness

This week, the boys have been very busy trying to dig a hole to the other side of the world. They got the idea from the book "How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World" which does a great job of explaining what's beneath the earth's surface. Rob thinks they may have moved a few centimeters of dirt from the back yard. They did come running in with what they think is a fossil. I'm pretty sure it's just a hard clump of dirt, but I'm not spoiling the fun :)

Anna had Rob and I cracking up tonight. She knew it was time to get dressed for church, so she came into the room, took off her shirt and pants, took off her diaper, and then ran out yelling, "Bye-bye! Have fun! See you later!"

Anna may be getting over her fear of "Away in a Manger" finally. She kept crying whenever we sang it to her, but she sang the first line or two tonight on her own. Then Ben and I finished it but she started whining at the end. I think it may just be an act at this point.

Ben thinks kissing is rather fascinating. If Rob and I are smooching, he'll come in and sit on our feet and watch us. He finds it so interesting that he's decided to test it out. With Matthew. Matthew is not nearly as enthusiastic as Benjamin. I'm sure you can predict the outcome of that one!

I just love my kids. I was thinking today of what a wonderful gift it is that I stay home with them all the time and am homeschooling. There are so many moments I would miss if I didn't get to be around the kids all of the time. They are so cute :)