Adventures in Parenting – Part Deux (Precious Parenting Moments)

Potty school (as we’re calling it) went much better today. Only 1 accident and several successful trips to the potty. Although, he’s learned to ask for chocolate after he goes. We need to work on weaning off the treats. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow if this is a trend that will continue. But all in all, Mike and I are very much encouraged.

Our first successful potty trip this morning was really cute. He sat down, and went immediately and was so proud. He runs into our room (after the chocolate, of course) to find daddy and tell him. Each time, he came out to tell everyone that he went tee-tee on the potty. To see him be so proud in his accomplishment after being so discouraged the day before was a precious parenting moment.

Sarah had a good day today also. She played Amazing Grace for the offertory in church. Our church, if you weren’t aware, has 2 services and probably had 400 people in each service today (which is low with the holidays). Needless to say, it was a pretty big deal for a 6 year old. And she did great. She bobbled a few times, but moved on and it didn’t phase her.

It was so sweet when she finished, our pastor came and took her by the hand and took her to the center of the platform (mostly since she’s so little, nobody could see anything of her but her feet dangling down from the piano bench) and had her give him a high five while the congregation in both services stood clapping. I was in tears the first service. To witness my child using her God given talents to praise Him and bless others in the process... it was truly a precious parenting moment.

Adventures in Parenting (aka Dear God, help us, we’re potty training!)

So yesterday was the day. We took away the diapers and went to training pants. Right now, I wish we were still in diapers.

I have been thinking that he’s been ready for weeks now. In fact, it was about the time that I was starting work at the beginning of October that He really began to indicate that he was ready. He was telling us when he was “stinky” and he would tee-tee on the little potty sometimes – not every time he sat on it, but I would have him sit on it when I thought he would go, and usually he did. I also thought that I would remember enough little things from the book I read with Sarah and what I did with her that I would know what I was doing. I see now that I may be wrong on both accounts.

NCAA Football aside… Gig ‘em! Ags 14, Penn St 0… okay – just kidding Ags 14, Penn St 7. And did you see that about Florida State? 36 players suspended from their bowl game! Holy Moly!

We had very little success yesterday. And most of the little successes that we had felt like they were coincidental. We talked about it and he seemed to understand the idea of going in the potty and keeping his “big boy underpants” dry. But there was a connection between his bladder and his brain that wasn’t, well, connecting.

Today, I was so beat after an entire morning of taking him to sit on the potty every 5-15 minutes only to end in accidents, that I just had to step away from it all this afternoon. And as of dinner time, we (parents) were o-fer. 2 year old 10 – parents 0. We were feeling very defeated. However, he had a big success after dinner so we weren’t shut out completely. It gave us a glimmer of hope.

So, now, after two days, I’m waffling on whether or not I think he’s ready for all this. One part of me says, “If he’s old enough to come out of the play room and tell you his underpants are wet, then he’s old enough to go in the potty.” Another part says, “If he won’t go when I take him and yet has an accident 2 minutes later, then maybe he’s not ready.” Then, the other part says, “Is there some bit of training or teaching that he needs that I haven’t given him to enable him to achieve success?”

Dear God, help us, we’re potty training!

Merry Christmas!

It’s the day after Christmas
And throughout the house of Cornell,
All the children are sleeping
So, for mom, all is well.

Well, I hope everyone who reads this can look back at the last couple of days and think, “Yeah, we had a great Christmas.” I know we did. As of today, we have participated in many Christmas festivities and spent time with pretty much all our family and had a good time with all of it.

We saw Santa land at our church in a helicopter 2 Sundays ago. As we watched him be fixated on the helpicopters, we asked Nathan if he was going to fly helicopters in the army. He replied an emphatic, "Yes!"

On her last day of school before Christmas break, Sarah's class did their Luke 2 play for the parents. I was able to break away from work for a few minutes to watch the play, but could not stay for the rest of their class party. It was incredibly cute and Sarah was an angel along with 3 other friends from her class.

We spent Saturday at my sister's house with my parents and all the cousins. The cousins all exchanged books and we had a good afternoon of baking and decorating gingerbread cookies and just hanging out together.

On Christmas Eve we spent the day cleaning and finishing up some last minute shopping, then went to worship service at our church and had dinner at our house with Mike's mom and sister. Nathan was such a big boy and sat (or squirmed as the case may be) with us during the entire service. We had fajitas for dinner and they opened gifts with Nanny and Brooke.

Christmas Day was busy. Mike and I woke up and got our showers early. The kids didn't get up until around 8-8:30. They got to see their Santa gifts (Sarah got a big bike and Nathan got a train table) and then we did our Happy Birthday Jesus cake before stockings and the rest of the gifts. My parents arrived and then a couple of hours later the rest of my family arrived for a late lunch. In the evening, my aunt and her kids + families came over and we were all together for the evening. It was wonderful having everyone there.

Oh, and let the record reflect that I baked a crackless cheesecake for yesterday.

So now, it's the day after Christmas. December 26th. Nathan has been coughing the last few days and we were out of albuterol for the nebulizer so I got him in to see a nurse practitioner today. Almost 2 hours later, we left without the albuterol perscription, but we had one for amoxicillin for his strep throat. Ugh! And we were around 9 other children yesterday.

As I look back over the last month (while sitting here and cleaning out all my email I haven't checked all month) I realize I didn’t do as well as I had hoped I would this year about all the things I wanted to do with my kids around the Advent season. We started out good… reading a prophesy about Christ from the Old Testament and it’s fulfillment in the New Testament each day. But in the busyness of work, musicals, preparing to spend time with family and just life, we were not as good about it as I would have liked. Goodness… in our house, baby Jesus was late to Christmas. We forgot to add baby Jesus to the Advent calendar yesterday, but he made his appearance there today. Whew!

Good thing he was on time that first Christmas when He came over 2000 years ago. Galatians 4:4-5 says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”

Did you get that? The “time had fully come.” He wasn’t early. He wasn’t late. He was right on time. Something that I haven't been in a long time. Thank you Jesus! Thank you that You do not let busyness get in the way of your business. Forgive us, Lord, when we do.

It’s over, but it’s not

As I type this, I’m in the middle of rehearsal for our Christmas musical at church. I find myself incredibly thankful that my part is no bigger than it is. I’m watching all these people running around with multiple costume changes in a short amount of time. I have 1 costume change and I have several scenes in between my scenes. With starting work this year, I don’t know that I could have handled much more than what I’m doing.

Well, Sarah and I had the talk about Santa this evening. She is so okay with it all. Kind of like the tooth fairy. She still wants to do all of the seeing him and pictures and all of that like we did this evening at Chic-fil-a. So I think we’ll still have fun with it. However, after it first came up a week or so ago, I really began to think about it.

Not only did I not want to ever technically lie to her about it, but I also didn’t want her to hear words about something make-believe concerning Christmas coming out of the same mouth that is telling her the truth about Jesus birth at Christmas. I guess I became concerned that she might think that if I was telling her stories of a make-believe Santa Claus that the stories we tell of Jesus might also be make-believe.

So, she has this picture in her mind of Mike dressing up as Santa, kind of like me dressing in black to be the tooth fairy. It’s so funny what their little brains come up with. So, the wonder and amazement of Santa Claus is over for Sarah, but in a way, it’s not. And we continue to look forward to having a lot of fun for years to come with Santa.

Christmas is upon us...

5 December 2007

Christmas is upon us. It’s time. And I’m not at all ready. Well, I’m ready, but I’m not ready.

I’m not ready because I still have so many gifts to think about and buy. It’s stressing me out a little. I’m usually done with my shopping by Halloween, but with working this year, it’s just not done yet. It’ll be fine, but I’d be more comfortable if it was already all done.

I’m also not ready because we’re getting questions about Santa. We don’t want to perpetuate something that it is time to let go of, but I also don’t want to dash something she still may want to believe. It’s hard.

I don’t know if you knew this, but we never really had a tooth fairy. From the beginning she said, “I think it’s just you, mom.” Well, I can’t lie, so I confirmed that it was me (us) but it was a way for us to celebrate her getting older and losing her teeth. She’s great with it. In fact, she has in her mind that I dress up in a black dress and a black mask so that I blend in with the dark in her room. How funny is that?

We were at a birthday party the other day and a couple of other girls were talking about how Santa isn’t real. So, she asked and I put her off until later. I figured I would wait and see if she asked again. And she did, but not until the next day.

“Is Santa real?”
“Well, what do you think?”
“I think he is.”
“Hmm. Why is that?”
“Well, because we go and see him and tell him what we want for Christmas.”
“Okay.”

So, now I can’t decide if I answered the right way. Did I lie? I don’t think so, but I’m sure others would disagree. We really are amazed that she hasn’t put it all together considering the tooth fairy thing, but apparently she wants to believe it for now. So, we’re going to go with that and have fun with it for as long as it lasts.

However, I am ready for Christmas. It is my favorite time of the year. It is the one holiday each year that I specifically decorate for and I love it. This is the first year in several that I have been able to fully all-out decorate. In 2005 we were in temporary housing and didn’t have anything other than a tree. In 2006, we had a 1 year old and I just didn’t have it in me to deal with really thinking about it very much. But it was fun this year as he was old enough to help decorate the tree and begin to understand a lot more.

I have also been ready to do some more Christ related things with my kids at Christmas. I’m trying to really celebrate the season of Advent and not just the day. This year we are going through a different prophesy from the Old Testament each day about Jesus and how it was fulfilled in the New Testament. This is something that I am really looking forward to doing in some form each year going forward.

And as we approach this weekend, we have Christmas parties (btw, we are going to both our office parties Friday night), productions at church, recitals, school programs and parties… it’s going to be busy for the next couple of weeks, but I am so looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun.

I pray that you are able to have fun over the next couple of weeks as we approach Christmas Day and celebrate the glorious incarnation and birth of Jesus Christ our Savior.