| Tag Archive | Motherhood

Tag Archive - Motherhood

Week One of “The Chart”

February 16, 2009 in Chance, Family, Motherhood with 21 Comments

I posted our new CHART adventure last week. I was hopeful… but here are the results:

Yeah… check out the “poopy in toilet” row. NO STICKERS!!!

Seriously, people… he LOVES the stickers and looks forward to sticking them on at the end of the day, but he still isn’t working for the poop.

He already lost his poopy sticker for today, even. He cried and cried and cried for a diaper as I was putting him down for his quiet time. Finally, I told him today was the LAST day he’d get a diaper during the day. Diapers at night time only from tomorrow on. He said, “ok”.

Then he dropped a deuce… in the diaper. NAST!!! As I was cleaning him up, I brought the soiled wipe up to his face to sniff. He said, “Mommy… that’s yucky!” And I said, “I know… next time you poopy in your pants, you have to clean it yourself because it’s not very nice to make Mommy do it when I know you can poopy in the toilet.”

I’m hoping the smell of poop next to his face left a lasting impression for him.

We’re gonna keep going on the chart for a few more weeks. Mostly because I already bought the posterboard and stickers.

Any other ideas, people???

REAL Rehearsal

February 12, 2009 in Chance, Friends, Motherhood, Music, Worship with 8 Comments

A quick peek into what Holly and my rehearsal times look like.

Hillsong’s “You’ll Come” – Holly & Jenni from Jenni Clayville on Vimeo.

Btw… Holly is a ROCKSTAR cuz she LITERALLY heard this song for the first time only minutes before we hit record.

Props, girl… PROPS!!!

Drastic Times…

February 10, 2009 in Chance, Family, Home, Motherhood with 14 Comments

… lead to drastic measures.

Chance seems to have “outgrown” his naptimes. But Mama needs some “pull-it-together” time everyday. So, we’ve compromised to having “QUIET TIMES”. Sometimes, he falls asleep… but usually not.

This is what we usually get:

Here’s a close-up of the situation:

Yeah. He’s quiet… but NOT in his room. He likes spying on me.

The other situation is his “poopy” habits. He CAN and HAS gone poopy in the toilet, but he’d RATHER go in a diaper during his quiet time. Go ahead and judge me. It’s ok. I don’t know you’re doing it anyway.

So, yesterday… my mother-in-law says,

“Why don’t you start a sticker chart? I did that for Kevin (Brian’s older brother) when he was little and it worked really well!”

Chance likes stickers… and he LOVES to be praised for doing something well.

She’s BRILLIANT.

Off to Target for posterboard and stickers.

Sorry for the not-so-great quality picture of the chart. I was lazy and took it with my iPhone.

Since it’s Tuesday today, Monday doesn’t count for the week. It’s only fair.

Let’s see how this goes.

Do YOU have any pointers???

3 Months???

February 9, 2009 in Home, Motherhood, Paxton with 6 Comments

Paxton turned THREE months last Friday, February 6th.

I can’t believe it’s flown by. I know… everyone says that stuff… but when you’re living it, it’s pretty nuts.

He’s starting to fatten up a bit. I LOVE that. His chubby little thighs call to me… and his cheeks tell me they want me to suck on them (I used to suck on my baby sisters cheeks too… that’s a WHOLE ’notha blogpost though).

So I do.

We’re currently enjoying a little bit of floor time. He’s gonna roll over soon… he’s halfway there… when I’m not laying on top of him. Hmmm….

I love to take big bites out of babies.

YOU???

My Baby’s Growing Up

September 9, 2008 in Chance, Family, Personal Entries with 7 Comments

Many of my friends have posted about their kids first day of school (Alli & Holly to name a couple) so I don’t feel as silly doing it now.

I’m not really a sentimental kind of a person. I don’t keep “keepsakes”. I don’t hold “sentimental value” to many objects, though I probably should (I’m actually a bit too quick at getting rid of the clutter – if I haven’t used it in a year… it’s going to Goodwill). I don’t cry easily at the thought of Chance growing up.

In fact, though I thoroughly enjoy spending time with him NOW as “my baby”, I’m most looking forward to seeing what kind of man he’s going to become. Maybe that’s just me being naive (some of you parents of high schoolers are probably shaking your heads right now) but I think that may just be how I’m wired.

Though I LOVE LOVE LOVE babies, and refuse to squander away any moment with my kids while they’re kids… I am more in love with seeing God’s final, or close to final, product. I’m not sure if that makes sense to you.

All that to say this: Today was Chance’s FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL.

Though I was far from the blubbering Mom, I DID bring my camera and did feel those little butterflies in my stomach for him. So many questions in my head:

Will the kids like him?
Will he like the kids?
Will he go to the big boy potty by himself when I’m not there to remind him?
Does he know I’m coming back to pick him up at 11:30?
I hope he likes his teacher as much as I like her.

On the way there, he said to me:

“Mommy, I’m a little nervous about school. Can we just play in the backyard instead?”

I just wanted to eat him up, that was so cute.

Once we got to school, he was ok. He didn’t exactly go off running, but he saw Grant and Lukas there so he was fine. He was open to playing with toys, and though he was a bit clingy at first, he eventually let go so I could slip out. Here are some pictures:

Good thing Chance was with his good friends he’s known since birth. We got really lucky. We enrolled Chance in the same preschool as 4 of my MOMS (Moms Offering Moms Support Ministry) friends. We started our MOMS group when our babies were just born and now they’re all going into Preschool at the same time. This is great, because Chance seemed to be a little less nervous once he saw Grant and Lukas.

I guess it’s human nature to fear the unknown… but the moment Chance said he was nervous, I wanted to protect him from anything that would ever hurt him. I knew, THIS WAS THE BEGINNING of releasing him into the world. This was the first day of really allowing someone else to influence my child. Today, I introduced my son to a world that can and WILL hurt him at some time in his life. Though my daily prayers are that Chance will choose Jesus to follow, I know that the doors to choose Jesus vs. the world are a bit more in his line of site starting today.

All this means is I’ve got to be more proactive about my son’s spiritual life. I can’t wait to hear all he has to say about school when I pick him up in an hour here.

If anything… Brian and I have already started saving up for his probable counseling sessions. At least we’re covered there