Somebody Pinch Me

The last couple weeks have been really rainy, which is ususally a nightmare with a 2 year old boy couped up in the house, but this time it has been different. Elliot's new favorite things to say are, "Oh, okay", and "Oh, sorry Mommy (when he does something naughty)". It's like I'm dreaming, and it's really too good to be true. He's been in such a great mood the majority of the time, and following instruction, complementing me, and saying sorry when I remind him that he is disobeying. Of course, there are the moments when he gets into the candy stash, or my cosmetics, but at least he says he's sorry, which makes it so much easier on my part. I know it won't last... in fact it's probably the calm before the storm of some huge unexplainable tantrums or something like that, but I thought I would share my joy for now.

Meanwhile, if anyone is looking for something to do on a rainy day, I must point out a great website that my friend, Brooke, told me about. It's www.kiddierecords.com, and it's a huge archive of 1920-1960 story and song records which have been converted into mp3 format, and are available for free download along with their beautiful vintage cover art. It's a treasure trove of golden age stories and music. Have a beautiful rainy day.

So, it's been a while

I haven't blogged in so long! It seems like I have been really busy up until now. Suddenly I am faced with a bunch of rainy days, Erik not home, and no transcribing to keep be busy! It's actually wonderful. I am getting really inspired to do lots of crafts. I just made my first attempt at printing my own fabric. What I really mean by printing is stamping. I created a big stamp out of foam sheets that I cut up into a really cute birdy design. I'm pretty thrilled about it, and keep telling myself that this is the first of many fabric designs to come. :) I don't really feel that I have the energy to catch you up on the whole past six months, so I will just tell a really funny story instead:

Let's call this "People who need people"

Elliot has been wanting to do everything by himself lately. I usually try to encourage this, since I view being independent as pretty much a good thing, being that I myself am a very independent person. So, I humor him. Let him put his clothes on, climb in and out of the car, pick his clothes out, clean up some of his spills, cook his own "hot milk" in the microwave, etc. All of these things take load of patience on my part, but nonetheless, he persists. His major problem came when he decided that he wanted to kiss his own owies. You know how when little kids get hurt, mom and dad kiss it and it's all better? We do that. So now when he gets hurt, he says, "No, mommy! Elliot's gonna kiss it. Don't touch Elliot!" This became very hilarious when he bumped his head and tried to kiss the owie on his own forehead! He put his hands on top of his head and pushed down, and squished up his little lips like they were trying to reach up to the owie. It was so funny, and so sad at the same time. The next day he was playing around in his underwear (most likely not wanting me to help him put clothes on), and somehow fell on a toy or something and hurt his bottom. Can you see this one coming? "No, Mommy! (not that I was going to kiss his butt) Elliot's gonna kiss it!" He then proceeded to bed over with his head between his legs and try with all his might to kiss his own rear end! I pretty much died laughing. Later as the day went on, I can't remember what was going on, but I found myself thinking, "I wonder if I should ask someone to help me with this.... no, I can do it myself. It will be fine." Then suddenly I realized I was being silly. I remembered that God designs us to rely on each other, and help each other out, and that it's okay -- it's really necesary to accept other peoples' help now and again. From God's perspective, when we refuse help that we really need, we probably seem just as silly as a little blond toddler we all know, trying to kiss his own tushie. Now every time I think of Elliot's wanting to kiss his own owies, I laugh and then I think that I better not try to kiss my own next time I need help. :)

Here are some recent pictures of Elliot, and a photo of my fabric.