Remember, It's Julia's Birthday!

Today our Julia is 11 years old! Please, please, please stop by her blog and wish her a happy birthday! She started the morning by going out for breakfast with her Daddy--- a tradition that John does with all of the kids. Since I usually end up buying the kids' presents, he wanted to do something for her that was completely on his own. He bought three dozens donuts for her to share with her whole class in spirit of her birthday being today. She was very happy about that.

Even though we are actually celebrating her birthday this Saturday, we did have a nice birthday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. I made chicken fried steak with country gravy, mashed potatoes, and salad. Rachel took lots of pictures with the old camera I gave to all of my girls since my cousin gave me his camera. Julia blew out candles on her Oreo cake!

We split Julia's presents up so that she would have some to open tonight and some to open on Saturday. Tonight she got three pairs of new shoes!

Julia thank you for being you! What a blessing you are to all of us!
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Even though Julia's birthday was very nice, something must have been in the air causing a few of my kids to have to be sent to bed before 8:00 pm. William was incredibly grumpy because Julia got three new, cool pairs of shoes and nobody ever bought him any shoes. He wanted us to know that he should have gotten some cool shoes too because he would have paid for them. What William totally forgot was that I just took him to look for shoes this past Sunday and the ones that he wanted were not in his size so I said I would take him out looking again this coming weekend. What he also forgot was that he got a new pair of shoes for his birthday just two months ago. Not able to reason with him, he had to go to bed--- obviously he was tired. After he calmed down, I was able to talk to him about trying to have a happy heart for the person who is celebrating their birthday instead of focusing on himself. I asked him if he would like if Julia got all upset when she saw him open up a really neat present, and tried to get everyone feeling sorry for her instead of being happy for him. He kind of got the gist of what I was trying to tell him.... he had no problem letting me give him a kiss and a hug when I tugged him in.

As soon as Julia was done opening presents, Rachel was on the computer searching for shoes for herself just like her sister had just received instead of helping to clear off the table. I had to explain to Rachel who got at least five pairs of shoes on her birthday that tonight was not the night for her to shoe shop for herself. It was Julia's special day and it would be nice if she could be happy for her sister instead of looking at shoes for herself. Again, I had a similar talk with her that I had with William about how she would feel on her birthday if Julia focused on what she could get for herself instead of giving Rachel the limelight on her special day. She understood but huffed as she got off the computer. I ignored it.

We walked back into the kitchen together and sat down to play Racko. For whatever reason, Annalyn started talking about her crooked teeth. I said we would consider braces for her in a year or two because of how her teeth were coming in and Rachel started in on how she wanted a retainer. No reason really just that she wanted one. Once I explained that her teeth were really nice and probably wouldn't need braces (with Grandma agreeing), she wanted to argue that her teeth were crooked-- in fact, more crooked than Annalyn's. I actually humored her and argued back and forth for about a minute before realizing that today was just one of those days that no matter what I said would evoke arguing with her. Rachel's behavior reminded me of the times that my girls acted out during previous holidays and birthdays. Ten steps forward, two steps back.
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Dennis is definitely showing signs that he is two! One minute he is a terrific two year old--- the next he is a tantruming two year old. As he finished eating his cake, he began getting upset over nothing. Did he want more cake? Nope. Water? Nope. To be cleaned up? Nope. To be held? Nope. Maybe a toy? Nope. I put my face next to his, nose to nose and spoke firmly yet gently, "Dennis please stop whining. If you can't stop I will have to put you in your crib for five minutes."

He paused. He looked at me straight in the eyes and then proceeded to whine some more.

So, I took him up to his bed, laid him down, dimmed the light, and reminded him that I would get him up as soon as he calmed down.

At first he yelled at me, "Aga-ba-da! Ya-di-aga!" I repeated that I would get him up as soon as he calmed down and left the room.

Miss Anna was waiting for me outside his door and acted as if she was going to go in and and lay down with him. I told her no. This has been a problem for a while with two of my daughters. I know they mean well, but they have been undermining my authority here and there and it has not been productive. A little upset with me for not letting her go in and baby him, I explained to her how I saw her behavior. As I was two minutes into my talk with her, Dennis stopped fussing and I walked back in and got him up.

Anna watched me.

"Thanks Dennis for calming down. No more fussing okay?"

And that was that. Later, when I put him and Jonny down for bed, Jonny asked if I could give him not one but four kisses. One on his forehead, one on each cheek, and one on his lips. I sure could and did, and then Dennis showed me he wanted a kiss too by puckering his lips together the best that he could. It was so darn cute, that after his four kisses, I continued to play "You pucker and then I'll kiss" back and forth. It was the sweetest thing!

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William loves Dennis just as much as his siblings do! Yesterday he had fun showing Dennis how to drive the cars off the edge of the bench. Everytime one of the cars crashed on the floor, it made Dennis laugh! It was music to our ears!


Last night, Annalyn and Jonny wanted to work on the puzzle with me. It was nice spending time with just the two of them. The puzzle was hard so I made up a game so that they wouldn't get bored sitting there with me. Everytime either of them got a piece of the puzzle done, they had to ring a little bell. This was such fun for them! It inspired Aannalyn to step it into high gear and she started racing with me to see who got a piece done first. To help us both out, we told Jonny to ring the bell for us each time we got a piece.

"Ring the bell Jonny!" Annalyn yelled.

"Ring the bell for me too, Jonny!" I yelled.

This went on till it was time for Jonny to go to bed.
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Ever since I read what this Mom was doing with her kids, it has been on my heart to do something similar with mine. Every Monday night, John takes Andrew, Anna, and William to Bible Study Fellowship. That leaves me with Jonny and Dennis and the older kids. At 8:00 pm I put Jonny and Dennis down so that I could sit down in the living room to read a chapter of The Purpose Driven Life. We open up in prayer asking God to stir our hearts, open our ears to hear what he is trying to share with us, and to help us to apply what we have heard to our own lives. We just completed the third chapter last night. This has been such a wonderful thing that I can't thank Kathy enough for the idea. The most impactful chapter so far was last week's lesson about our lives not being an accident. It was such a good thing for my kids to hear this author share since I have been telling them this for a long time. At the end of the chapter was the question, "I know God uniquely created me. What areas of my personality, background, and physical appearance am I struggling to accept?" I shared with them, and they surprisingly trusted each other enough to share what I mostly already knew to be their biggest struggles with themselves. I was able to share with each of them my thoughts as to why God may have made them the way He did. It was good for them to participate in the conversation.

Many of the kids look forward to the next chapter. So do I.