A Good Day

For any parent with young children, the theory of relativity definitely comes into play when assessing whether the day was good.

For example, if you've made it all the way through the night without hearing your kid scream somewhere between midnight-5 a.m. whether from a nightmare or wet sheets, that's a great start. Then you 'officially' start your day, hopefully with more than 4 hours of consecutive sleep on the books. If you make it through breakfast without having to change someone's clothes more than once or enter into a philosophical debate of strawberry vs. grape jelly, well, that's pretty good, too. (Especially if the argument usually covers 8 of the 10 minutes you had allotted for breakfast.) And I'm sure ALL school aged parents agree that ANY day your kid gets to school with all his backpack items secured, homework completed, uniform correctly assembled AND on time before the tardy bell rings...well, you're just plain pushing your luck now. After school there's always the mad rush home to figure out what to do for dinner. If you brave fixing something at home and get the dinner all the way to the dinner table without hearing too many, "We're hunnnnnggggrrrry"s, things are looking up. And the winner is - If you can make it to the end of your day without having to test your basic math skills too many times (oonnnnneeee. ..tttwwwwwwwwoooOOOO.....THHRRREEEE!), you really HAVE had a good day!

Seriously, according to this scale, our day was pretty good.

I've Got the Joy...Everyday

Over the last year I've had the privledge (and I do mean privledge) to teach 3, 4, and 5 year olds in preschool choir every week. They have provided free entertainment to me in that time.

This week was a prime example: The song we were singing was I've Got the Joy. Come on, if you ever attended VBS as a child you know the tune. "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Down in my heart to stay."

After the second time through, Nathan - a kindergartner - asked me, "Why only on Tuesdays?"

Priceless.

'Crusty, The Incredible Catnabber'

Sometimes after children's church on Wednesday nights, Mark, the children's minister at church takes his work home with him. AKA, the Hamilton boys. The reason for this is that childcare at church ends at 8 p.m. but band practice often goes until 8:30 p.m. While the graciously-patient-with-children music minister doesn't mind the kiddos hanging out, I personally find it disturbingly distracting from my practice. Sooo...that's the background information needed to tell this story.

Tonight after practice when I went to pick up the boys, Mark tells me that he had an interesting conversation with Blaine. Braylon had asked where the family cat was and Mark replied, "Oh he's out doing his cat thing." Blaine very commonly asked, "Is he out fighting crime?"

HAHAHA

(Sorry, Mark, don't know the cat's real name...)

Back in West Texas

The boys and I made it back onto the West Texas scene last night around 7:30 p.m. We had a fast and furious trip to East Texas (a 10 hour drive for you out-of-staters) from Wednesday-Saturday. Twenty hours in the car round trip. The boys behaved well and I hesitate to say beautifully. I can only recall a few "Mooommm, he hit me" fights to break up. They enjoyed seeing Grampy, so 20 hours in the car with them was well worth it. Now, I don't propose another trip that far anytime soon (hint, hint Grampy...).

Sons of Thunder

I brought the boys to see their Grampy this week. After 10 hours in the car, we got here yesterday at lunch. The boys didn't waste time repeating an activity they did last summer when we visited - Making 'thunder' on the extra long handicap ramp that runs off the porch. I think they were almost as excited about doing that than they were to see their Grampy - But perhaps the thought of doing that with Grampy was the key component.

The boys have also been very sweet to love on their incompentent great-grandmother. They can't understand the words she is trying to say, but they are always quick to run up to her and hug and kiss on her. Very sweet to see. I will try to post pictures if I am able.

Tough Guy

Braylon has discovered a new joy in his life - The Disney Channel. Up until 3 months ago, we didn't have the Disney Channel in our home. This evening he slipped into the back living room to watch TDC, where his Daddy was on the laptop computer. After some amount of time, Brandon looks up over his laptop and sees a girl ice skating to pretty 'girl' music and Braylon's eyes glued in utter interest. Brandon then said, "Are you watching a girl movie?" Braylon solemnly replies, "It's Ice Princess, Dad. Don't laugh." Dad did laugh, but then they watched more together.

Hate the Game

....Not the Player

This evening we treated the boys to a trip to a cool park in town. The weather was B-E-A-utiful, so it was sort of a treat for us, too. After the park we hopped in the car to go to Texas Burger where they have burgers and ice cream. Brandon said, "Momma, the boys have been so good, I bet we could treat them to an ice cream." Knowing that Brandon had an ulterior motive for 'treating the boys' to ice cream, I just said, "We'll see." This was met with various, "Oh, pllleeeeaaase Mom???s" After I again said, "We'll just see," it got quiet in there. Then a sweet little 3 year old voice with all evidence of sincerity says, "Mom, you're pretty."

Ok, I realize the game being played here, but believe me, we all got ice cream tonight.

Top 10

I recently read an article out of "Parents" Magazine that I really liked titled "Let Your Child Soar." It lists 50 ways to be a fantastic parent. Out of that list, here are my top 10: (Things I added in parenthesis)

1) Play with your children - Let them choose the activity, and don't worry about rules. Just go with the flow and have fun. That's the name of the game.
2) Eat at least one meal as a family each day - Sitting down at the table together is a relaxed way for everyone to connect. A time to share happy news, talk about the day, or tell a silly joke. It also helps your kids develop healthy eating habits.
3) Read books together every day. Get started when he's a newborn; babies love listening to the sound of their parents' voices. (And make sure you do all the voices that you hear the characters say in your head. It makes all the difference.)
4) Always tell the truth. It's how you want your child to behave, right?
5) Gossip about your kids. Fact: What we overhear is far more potent than what we are told directly. Make praise more effective by letting your child "catch" you whispering a compliment about him to Grandma, Dad, or even his teddy. (I don't advocate talking to inanimate objects, however. That's weird.)
6) Kiss and hug your spouse in front of the kids. Your marriage is the only example your child has of what an intimate relationship looks, feels, and sounds like. So it's your job to set a great standard.
7) Fess up when you blow it. This is the best way to show your child how and when she should apologize.
8) Give yourself a break. Hitting the drive-through when you're too tired to cook doesn't make you a bad parent. (Amen, sister!)
9) Don't accept disrespect from your child. Never allow her to be rude or say hurtful things to you or anyone else. If she does, tell her firmly that you will not tolerate any form of disrespect. (This one is hardest for me.)
10) (AND #1 in my play book) Say "I love you" whenever you feel it, even if it's 743 times a day. You simply can not spoil a child with too many mushy words of affection and too many smootches. Not possible.

Day at the Museum

Thursday at lunch Brandon and I got a wild hair to jump in the van on Friday and drive to Lubbock for the night. Brandon had just completed an intense 8 week, front-loaded semester and was ready to relieve stress with some quality family time. So, Friday at quitting time we all hopped in the family fun van and went to Lubbock (about a 2 hour drive exactly).

While there we let the kids stay up late and watch the Disney Channel until we could no longer stand the Jonas Brother or Zach and Cody. We got up fairly early to go play at their favorite Lubbock park that has a huge fort-like house that is big enough for adults to go in. We had fun playing hide and scream with each other. Then we took them to the Science Spectrum museum and IMAX to check out the Sea Monster movie and exhibit. We ended up staying there for about 2.5 hours - A feat for a family with small children.

While at the museum we accidentally lost Braylon. That can go on our 'bad parenting of the year' list. We are going for some kind of record. I thought Braylon was staying with Brandon and Brandon assumed he was going with Blaine and I to look at the fish. Ooops. Big ooops. Braylon started crying after he couldn't find us and a nice man stopped and helped him find Brandon, who was actually not far from him the whole time. Still scary for a 5 year old - Especially right by the moving, life-sized T-Rex exhibit. Things to work out in therapy later in life.

Blaine was cute when we were looking at the fish. I saw a orange and white fish and exclaimed, "Look, Blaine! It's Nemo!" Blaine looked very carefully and replied, "That's not Nemo, Mom. It's just a clown fish." That kid is too smart...

After the 12:00 movie about Sea Monsters, the kids were TIRED and HUNGRY. We couldn't get to the restaurant fast enough. We had a great venture from start to finish (well, except the losing Braylon part) and we are all glad we got that wild hair!

Movie Review

He's Just Not That Into You
Rated: PG-13

Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, Scarlet Johanasen, Jennifer Connelly

This is a series of stories of different people in different walks of life who live in the same city and who are all connected in some way. (Sound vague enough?) Someone is single looking to find her perfect match among imperfect choices. Someone is married still seeking his soul mate. Someone is married trying to save her marriage. Someone is single looking to figure out the new dating technology. Someone is commitment shy, yet in a 7 year relationship. Someone is completely in love, but wants to take her relationship to the next level. So many situations in one movie plot!

Becky's Rating: A-

This movie has questionable views on marriage and for that it didn't get a higher rating in my book. However, it was very well written and all the plots were interesting to follow. I found myself rooting for certain characters and being totally enamored with others. I was very pleased with the endings for all the characters, which usually doesn't happen in movies with various plot lines. I will likely either rent this or buy it when it comes out on DVD.

Bottom line: I'm definitely into this movie!

Big Daddy Weave

This weekend Brandon and I had an opportunity (one of those seemingly rare ones) to sneak off without the kids and enjoy some great Christian rock at a Big Daddy Weave concert. If you haven't heard this group, you're short-changing yourself. It was a great experience even though I was fighting a sinus headache the whole time. Totally not their fault.

Little Noses

Blaine is on a roll with cute little life moments. Don't worry, Braylon fans. I'm sure the tables will turn soon. They always do.

Blaine has strep throat (again) and has several medications this go around. Blaine's doctor is trying to avoid a referral to the ear, nose and throat specialist, so he's being aggressive in his approach to remedy the problem. Anyway, this evening Blaine was being as patient as a 3 year old can possibly be while I was going back and forth reading all the directions for the various prescriptions, etc. The last medicine I came to was for prescription strength nose spray. He participated well and either out of sympathy for Mom or just to be funny, he states loudly & immediately after the first spray, "I can ALMOST smell!!!"

Struck me as funny.