Conversations with a 4 year old

On vacation, fixing a plate of pancakes for my boy~

Jadon: I want not too much peanut butter, but too much syrup.

Same vacation, early morning in the tent, looking up at the sky~

Jadon: Mom, look, the day is coming!

Later that same day, trying to get things packed up~

Me: Get away from the campsite and go play in the parking lot!

This morning, as I was getting ready for church~

Jadon: Mommy, do you know why we have 2 shoes?

Me: Why, JJ?

Jadon: Because we have 2 feet.

Gotta love that boy!

A night with my guys

Every Wednesday, Kevin takes Chloe and Micah to AWANA and I get to hang out with Jadon and Isaac.  I usually try to get Isaac down early so J and I can have some time with just the two of us, but tonight Zac had other plans.  So Jadon and I had to make do.  We played a little Wii.

And read a book.  And then we made some cookies.

That was, of course, the best part.  Actually, I think the best part was eating them!

Chocolate chip is Jadon's favorite.  Just look at that grin!

Isaac didn't get to try them today, but he still had fun playing with Mommy and brother.

Milestones

Well there is certainly lots going on around here these days.  It seems like my boys have all decided they're going to grow up this week.  Today happens to be Micah's birthday.  Happy Birthday Micah!!  He got to spend his sixth birthday looking for deer in the woods with his Daddy.  What a fun day! 


While Micah is getting a little bigger, he's still the same ball playing kiddo he's always been. But he has certainly added a wealth of football knowledge as well as a serious interest in soccer recently.  So far, his size doesn't seem to be impeding his athletic ability much.

Micah's baby brother also just happened to turn two months old today.  Just look how cute my boys are together.  At least they're cute when they want to be ;)


Isaac has changed quite a bit over the last month.  He still doesn't like the car, but now he does tolerate it under certain circumstances.  We've even discovered that he will take  a MAM pacifier if we insist, but usually he'd just prefer a blanket and a cuddle.  The best part of this new two month old baby is the smiles.  He's decided he loves to play with us first thing in the morning, right after breakfast that is.  He'll smile and laugh at anyone who comes to him for a good ten minutes if he's just eaten.  Baby smiles are just the best aren't they?!

Now for Jadon.  His birthday was last month, but he's decided he's not to be left out of the growing boys' club.  We had an unusually calm week, so he and I spent the better part of Monday through Wed in the bathroom on the potty.  And believe it or not, my boy is potty trained.  If you ask him, he'll be sure to tell you big boys go in the potty and babies go in the diaper.  And Jadon is definitely a big boy!!

Some days I just can't stand the fact that my kids are growing up so fast, but most days I'm so proud.  They are great kids, aren't they?

Are you ready...?

...For some Football?

The last two weeks have been completely chaotic.  I must have been insane when I filled my schedule to overflowing just a month after having a baby.  We have had dr appts and photo shoots and retreats and just a few birthday parties.  But we survived and had a little fun on the way. 


Micah and Jadon's birthdays are exactly 4 weeks apart, and because of the sheer number of fall birthdays in the Rodie clan, we've celebrated them together the last couple of years.  Last year, we had an airplane party at the church where we threw paratroopers and foam gliders off the balcony into the gym.  I wasn't sure if we could top that this year, but we sure had a good time trying. 


Everyone agrees that Micah is the king of baseball, but Jadon has become a pretty big football fan.  And what's more appropriate for fall birthdays than football?  So we borrowed some flags from Aunt Jody, and invited all our friends.  And then we prayed for good weather.  It turned out to be a perfectly fall day.  We did get a little sprinkle during the game, but not too bad at all.


So how do you throw a football party with a bunch of kids ages 3 to 7?  Well first you need teams.

Kevin and Justin were our captains.  They did a great job teaching the kids how to play.  And how cute are these little football huddles?


Then you start running!

Caleb was a little intimidated to begin with, but he quickly got the hang of the game.  Look at him go!!


Of course we had to have a cheerleader.  "Touchdown!" 

Eliana was happy to oblige.

After an hour, all the kids were pretty tired and sweaty so we headed inside for some cake and yummy hot chocolate.  What a great party!

He knew he was supposed to say something...

Last night, at dinner, Aunt Jody told all the kids they had to say a bible verse to get their pizza. So one by one they raised their hands and said a verse. After a couple of kids had said a verse, Jadon raised his hand. He waited patiently until Jody called his name at which point he said,

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"

Thanks

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for Jadon. His surgery was this morning and it went very well. After having yucky, full-feeling ears myself for the last week, I really feel for the guy having both ears infected for months at a time. Not fun. Hopefully, this will help him feel a lot better, although right now he's feeling pretty crabby.

Another bout with ear infections

As most of you know, Jadon and Micah have both had tubes in their ears at one time or another. Jadon had his put in about 18 months ago. The idea is that some kids' Eustachian tubes are not long enough or have enough to drain properly. A surgeon puts tubes into their eardrums to allow fluid to drain and prevent pressure from building and perforating the eardrum as well as minimizing the ability of bacteria to grow in the ear canal. They typically fall out as the child grows sometime between one and two years after placement.

Some kids respond so well, they never have another ear infection. My boys have not done quite that well, but when they go from constant ear infections with no relief to occasional ear infections that respond well to antibiotics, who can complain? However, about two months ago, Jadon came down with a raging ear infection that was unresponsive to antibiotics. We saw his ENT physician on Monday, and she confirmed my fear. One tube is out completely and the other is only partially in the eardrum, rendering it completely ineffective. So Jadon is going to have 2 new tubes put in a couple weeks from now, as well as having his adenoids removed.

I'm so thankful for the doctors that we have right now. His ENT works closely with an audiologist who sees each child with ear infections before and after surgery. Jadon's hearing is poor right now, which is to be expected and hopefully will be rectified by the surgery. But the audiologist always does a baseline reading and explains it thoroughly. That way, if we have concerns about his hearing sometime in the future, we can have a better idea of the reason for any hearing difficulties as well as whether we should expect improvement.

As I write this, I'm reminded of how blessed we are to have a pediatrician who has taken our concerns so seriously. Jadon had his tubes put in after 4 infections, rather than 13 that Micah had. The last 6 weeks or so of not feeling well, Jadon has remained a pretty happy, loving little guy, despite the pain he has had to be in. He'll probably have the infection right up until surgery, when they'll clean everything out. I can't stop thinking of how God has protected his hearing by providing such excellent physicians. Many times, kids with repeated unresolved ear infections wind up with scar tissue in their ears and resulting in hearing loss. Thankfully, that has not been the case for my boys. Please keep us in your prayers as we wait for surgery. It's not anything new to us, but that doesn't keep it from been a little unnerving.

We'll keep you posted.

Funny Guy

This cracks me up daily. At any given moment in our home, you should not be surprised to find Jadon like this. He loves to brush his teeth. Great thing for dental care. Not so great when he's literally running around with the toothbrush protruding from his mouth. But the kid just loves toothbrushes. He got a Lightning McQueen toothbrush for Christmas (it may have been his favorite gift) in the hopes that he would prefer that one over everyone else's. He generally doesn't care who's toothbrush he has in his mouth. Kinda gross. But funny just the same.

Finally!

I finally got around to checking out Jody's photos from the birthday party and they are really cute. Here are some of my favorites. Thanks a bunch Jody!

The airplane cake was gorgeous. Thanks Amelia.

Jadon got his own cupcakes sans milk. He seemed to think they were pretty yummy.

This is how Micah started out the evening. It seems his face was a magnet for the bat.

But he still loves that bat.

Jadon knows all too well what that camera is all about.

Double vision. Two year old cousins.

This was definitely Jadon's favorite gift. He took it to bed the next 2 or 3 nights and even fed it breakfast Sunday morning.

Two for one Birthday Special

The Rodie family is suddenly overflowing with fall birthdays. In the next week, Lydia and Teegan will both turn 1 and Micah will be 5! Jadon turned 2 about 3 weeks ago, and of course, we have new little Elianna (sp?) just 2 weeks old. So this year we decided that maybe Micah and Jadon could share their birthday party, just to make things simple. I called Jami up at the church several months ago and asked her to find a time for me sometime between October and November when the gymnasium would be available for the boys' birthday party. She came up with last Saturday.

Micah, of course, wanted to play baseball. Who could have guessed? And Jadon has really gotten into airplanes. So we had an airplane themed party, and played baseball. Amelia made an airplane cake to look like Uncle John's plane. And we had foam gliders(airplanes) and paratroopers for all the kids. We took the kids up to the balcony to drop their little paratroopers down to the gym floor. They all thought that was really cool.

We only had 36 people(I think) because of some unfortunate sicknesses and a very unfortunate run-in with a deer(literally), but it was still quite a fun crowd. And we did polish off most of the food. I don't have any pictures yet but I promise they're coming. I asked Aunt Jody to take pictures for me because I was afraid I'd miss most of the fun shots while I was trying to run the party. I think it was a good call, because I didn't even see the boys open their gifts. So as soon as we get around to it, I'll get you some photos. I'm actually pretty excited to see them myself!

Jadon is 2!

Despite the fact that Jadon is now 2, I think he will always be my baby. I know it's cliche, but the time goes really fast. This afternoon, Kevin took the big kids fishing while JJ and I took off for the park for a two year old photo shoot. As we pulled in, Jadon cheered. We had been shopping for about an hour, so he was thrilled to see the trees and the lake. It's kinda funny that a two year old can recognize that we were there to play even though there was no playground in sight. He had lots of fun running through the leaves and looking out at the lake. It was particularly great that he got Mommy all to himself. He's such a big boy!

JJ's big day

This morning as I was folding laundry, Jadon came into the room. I didn't pay much attention to him until I heard him yelling, "Eww, Mess!" Usually this means he's spilled something or gotten into something he shouldn't have. So I got up and came around to where he was playing to see this

He looked up at me and said, "Goop!" His usual request for "goop" comes often after a diaper change. He ran and got the play powder from Chloe's baby doll box.

A short time later he was eating his lunch in the high chair. I left the room for a few minutes and this is what I returned to.

I'm with ya JJ, taking care of babies sure is hard work.

Mother of the Year

You ever have one of those days that you just feel like a terrible Mom? Saturday was one of those for me.

It started off a little crazy, Jody called to say that all the girls (from around here) and all the kids were going to the "big city" to go shopping and did I want to go with them? Of course I did. So off we went. It takes about an hour to get there, with a short stop at the bank to get the air conditioned car from Daddy.

We did quite a bit of shopping as well as playing at the park over lunch. Around 5, Shelly and I were in the Marshall's parking lot trying to decide whether we were going home or going to Target or whatever else we could decide.

I put Jadon in the car so he could climb around and not play in the parking lot. He was pushing buttons, but the door was open and I was watching him, so it was no big deal.

That is until big brother thought it would be funny to shut the door on him. With my purse in there. And my keys in the purse. If you want to really freak yourself out, just lock your baby in the car with the keys when you are an hour away from the nearest spare set. I won't keep you in suspense, it took about 25 minutes for the police to get him out. We were trying to get JJ to unlock it himself, but he kept pushing "lock" instead of "unlock" (I'm guessing he did that about 15 times.)

Jadon stayed pretty happy most of the time. He thought it was a game. And he certainly enjoyed my half-full Dr. Pepper.

The officers who unlocked the car were fantastic, as were the paramedics who came to check him out, just in case. But the police officer stationed in the parking lot was a real bonehead. He kept asking me if I had OnStar and telling me that they can remotely open the car. They did that when he locked his dog in. I wonder what made him think that was helpful. And, Jadon's my kid, not my dog, definitely not the same thing to have your baby locked in a car.

I just realized that this is not the first time I've commented on boneheaded policemen. Please note, that I was very grateful for the 2 that came to unlock the car. I'm even grateful boneheaded guy was there. I can only assume he was unmarried without children to have made the comments he did. Totally unrelated to the policeman's duties. Just in need of some life experience.

Also, we have recently dealt with many police officers, many more than I have ever wanted to have need for. I am really grateful for their assistance with the baby in the car and the vandalism to the same car. And even blocking the traffic so I could turn around when Kevin was helping Tyler out the other day(another ridiculous car story). So many thanks to the boys in blue. Just be a little more sensitive to us crazy, tired Mamas.

Just a note: Jadon has now been fully educated on which button to push to actually get out of the car. Pray he never needs to remember that lesson.

A study in Toddlerhood

This almost 2 age is really wearing this mama down.

Jadon has decided that this week he is going from 2 naps a day to no naps at all. Monday through thursday he has napped a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes. That's all 4 days combined, and assuming that anytime he was quiet, he was asleep.

He's my first child to ever climb out of a pack-n-play.

I bought a baby gate for the first time ever last week, because JJ has taken to going to the kitchen cabinet and helping himself to whatever cereal or crackers happen to be in there. If he's not satisfied with those options, he'll pull the barstool up to the counter and climb up to see what's there.

The first thing he did after I put up the gate was move a chair over to it and climb on.
No amount of clips or straps or buckles will keep the child in a high chair or stroller.


Any door left slightly ajar is simply an invitation for escape. Try keeping every door in your house securely shut with a big sister and big brother around.


He discovered last week where the suckers were and had eated 3 or 4 before I found his stash.


This morning, he climbed up on the top of the changing table to get 2 of his pacifiers down. Apparently the 3 that he had just retrieved from his crib were not enough.


He'll sit for most of one softball game, but if there are 2, forget about it. He asks every aunt or grandma available to hold him, always with the intention of getting down just as soon as he's on a lap.
He loves his sister and brother so much, he has to do everything they do. He's often heard shrieking because he's just not quite big enough. But he loves to give hugs a chase the kids and play ball. So for now, I'll try to focus on that. Maybe someday I'll even get to take a nap again.

JJ

Don't tell anybody, but Jadon is in my favorite child stage(as far as the ones I know, anyway). I love the baby stage, and I am really enjoying Chloe and Micah's stages, you know what I mean, when they start being able to do so much more on their own. But I love this stage when they are just starting to talk, so everything they say is cute. I even giggle at the sound of his current favorite word "MY MY" despite the fact that he so rarely says it about something that actually is his. He's walking all by himself up and down stairs. Running away from Mommy and screeching at the top of his lungs when Chloe or Micah displeases him the slightest bit. All of these are behaviors that we deal with appropriately, but not without a little chuckle or just that little bit of tug on my heart. He is actually nearing the end of the cuddly stage, at least for this kid. And he won't be nursing much longer, or even sleeping in a crib. The next few years, will be battles over staying in bed and eating your vegetables instead of, or at least before, your candy(I type this as he walks into the room holding a half eated piece of candy still in the wrapper, maybe he's already reached the next few years.) I do not look forward to weaning this Mama's Boy and potty training is definitely not my idea of a good time. So today I'm feeling nostalgic about my boy who is learning to fold his hands during prayers and eat with a spoon without spilling and even say a few words that start with more than an "m" or a "b". But for at least a little while longer he'll be my baby to cuddle and rock and sing songs with at night. And now I have to go deal with the screaming in defiance of not being allowed to wake Chloe up from her nap.