{The Strong Willed Child}

Kicking. Screaming. Yelling. Slamming doors. Hitting. All before 7:30am! Oye Vey - I think I'm having an anxiety attack.

 

I did some googling this morning on strong willed children and found this awesome article[http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/positive-discipline/Parenting-Strong-Willed-Child] and helped me put some things into perspective. So often I feel like I need to "break" his strong will and that is exactly the opposite of what I need to be doing!!! Thank you Google for once again saving the day!

 

If you have any advice on handling a strong willed child, please let me know! I am going research a book that a friend recently suggested and see if I can find it. I know with all my heart that God sent Isaac to us, but man, sometimes he is a tough cookie!

 

I've often told myself, "God doesn't give us more than we can take." Well, God must think I'm freaking super-woman! :)

{Happy 1/2 Birthday}

I am constantly amazed at how great our God is! Sometimes we can't see his plan while we are in the storm, but man, when we get out and look back and see His hand in it, that gives me chills!

 

October 15, 2010 started like any normal day, but by mid-morning, I had received a call that would change our lives. A little boy was being released from the children's hospital and needed a family to love him - and we were going to be that family. The day that Pauly B came into our lives was one of the best days of my life. The excitement of getting to meet him and hold him for the first time was a feeling that I can't explain. I really thought we were going to be able to adopt that little boy and was beyond devastated when he had to leave us, but what God had in store for us was beyond our comprehension!

 

Fast forward exactly 6 months - a fiery little boy was born and he was going to come live with us. I can honestly say that I've loved Isaac from the moment I laid on eyes on him, but it was a different love than I had for Pauly. When we met Isaac, our hearts were guarded. We fell too hard for our sweet Pauly, so we knew we had to keep a wall up because the odds were that Isaac was not going to stay with us. I didn't realize that Isaac was born 6 months to the day that we got Pauly, and it's because technically we were in a whole new storm with Isaac. We dealt with visits, court dates and a lot of back-and-forth with Isaac before we were finally able to call him "ours". It was just last year, when his adoption was almost final that I realized what God had done - given us a special gift on the half-year anniversary of getting Pauly. What a cool way to show us that HE had things planned!

 

I know with all my heart that God created Isaac specifically for us and I love him more and more each day. I am so thankful that God gave us that little rugrat :) Happy half birthday to my little lovie today!!! I can't believe he is already 2 1/2!!

{The Stuff Kids Say}

My little man will be 2 1/2 on the 15th - I can't believe it! How time flies. Yet some days it feels like it's creeping by. We have had a couple of rough weeks at school - hitting, biting, fighting...overall it's been freaking fantabulous. 

Seriously, how do kids know how to bite??? I'm telling you that once they bite and realize they can inflict pain on another human being, it is all downhill from there. How do you stop them?! Thankfully he does not bite us, but he has been attacking another student quite frequently. It's so frustrating to see your child hurt another child. So we pray (and pray and pray) for nice hands, teeth that only want to bite food and a heart that is full of Jesus. One day it has to sink in, right? 

On a good note, the little bugger has been getting really smart! He can say pretty much anything that we do and it can be so funny. Here's a conversation we had last week: 

Me: Let's go home buddy!

Ise: Hey, it's Brayden's mommy!

Me: Yes, that is Brayden's mommy, good job. 

Ise: Who's mommy is that? (pointing to a random lady)

Me: I have no idea honey. Where is YOUR mommy? 

Ise: (points to me) You my mommy. You Becky!

Me: yes, I am your mommy and yes, my name is Becky. 

Ise: And my daddy is Matt!!! 

Awesome, so now he is calling us Becky & Matt. He is too smart for his own good. Even though he is smart-butt, he is pretty hilarious. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love having conversations with him. I asked him if he had pooped and his reply was "no, I no poop. I just pee". Good to know buddy. 

If you have any tips or advice on how to get my kid to stop bitting, I would love to hear. But when giving me advice, please be sure to share a story about how your kiddo is a nut job too, just so I feel a little better :) 

{The Big 3-0}

Holy moly, I am only a day away from being thirty! That's 30 for you people who don't like to "read" numbers written out :) The past decade has been the coolest decade of my life and I'm sure my future decades will not hold as much random/cool stuff! I mean, really, the amount of stuff you do in your 20s in insane! I finished college, moved out on my own, got married, moved across the country, was in about a billion weddings (okay, it more like 8, but it felt like a billion!), had great jobs and had had crappy jobs, started my career, bought my first home, sold my first home, rode on my first airplane ride, became a super-traveler, battled infertility, became a foster parent, adopted our sweet boy, became an auntie x 4, watched my friends have babies, watched a couple friends adopt internationally and grown in my faith tremendously!

Birthdays are special to me because my mom treated our birthdays like little holidays. That is why I am obsessed with my birthday and get so excited for that special day to be here. I plan on doing the same thing with Isaac :) I can't wait for him to wake up on his birthdays and be excited that it's HIS special day!

What a great 30 years it has been!!!

{15 Years Later}

It has officially been half my life that my grandpa has been gone. That is hard to think about. Every year I do a blog about my grandpa's death, and I do so for a few reasons. One is that it is one of the only times I let myself relive those moments. That day was one of the scariest days of my life and one of the most life altering. Second, I want to make sure I remember his "got to meet Jesus day". Even though I am sad that he wasn't there to watch me and the others grow up, I am happy knowing that he is in Heaven with Jesus!

 

I have been dreading this anniversary for a few years because I knew it would be the "half my life without him" point. And yes, it's as hard as I imagined it would be. I think about my grandma being without him and it breaks my heart. I truly believe that they were the love of each other's lives and their time together was cut so short. I think about all the things that he's missed over the years, and it makes me really sad.

 

But he gets to watch all of our lives play out from above and he is the one having a blast with Jesus, so I guess we should all be happy for him and not sad!

 

Love you Grandpa Charlie!