My Boy is Turning Three

I miss my little kids when they grow up, and I forget what they were like.  Watching my kids be little right now makes me sad I will forget them at this age.  This is my attempt at remembering the things I love about my two year old little boy.

Max runs everywhere, usually pumping his fists or forcing them out in front of him like Superman.

His new thing is to start every request (or demand) with "Mom, I told you that I wanted . . ."

He is addicted to electronics.  He would go anywhere with anyone if they let him play with their iPhone.  I don't know how he has figured out how to quickly navigate the Xbox dashboard; he's better at it than I am.  The boy even plays video games.  He loves the Lego Star Wars game.  I sat and watched him play it.  He can do everything, climb a wall, blow things up, even switch what character he's using.  How did he figure that out? He's two!

He has a happy dance.

He loves Disneyland and watching the video of us there.  He has it memorized.  He talks along with everyone while he watches.

He loves Penny.  He has to say goodnight to her and gives her a hug before he goes to bed.  He climbs on her, slides down her.  We are trying to get him to stop jumping on her when she's laying down.  He plays tag with her.  He'll chase her down the hall and grab her, then run the other way and she follows him.  When he stops, she sniffs him, he giggles and she runs off down the hall and he chases her down the hall again.

He sings in the car, and pretty much everywhere he goes.  Some of his favorite songs are the Al Green song "I'm So Tired of Being Alone", Dean Martin's "Good Morning Life", Bohemian Rhapsody, which he calls "Mama Mia,"  and all the Brak songs.  Jared loves to film him singing and post it on Facebook.

He's a total stink that rarely listens, and it's cute because he's two, but it won't be when he's older.  So I can enjoy it now and keep teaching him that he has to listen, whether he is cute or not.  Yesterday, we were having another battle with him about going to sleep.  After 2 hours of trying to get him down, we heard him coming down the stairs, again.  Jared, in his stern voice, said, "Max go back to bed or I will spank your bum."  Max said, "But, but, but my blankie!" and starts to cry.  I told Jared he probably needs help getting his blanket on again.  Then in comes Max, dragging his pillow pet in one hand and struggling to drag his twin size blanket in his other hand.  He sees Jared start to get up and runs to make himself a bed on the floor.  "I sleep here, okay? I sleep here."

Oh yeah, he stutters when he's flustered.  It's so cute.

There are things that are frustrating about two year olds, but I'm with Jared when he says he would keep Max at this age forever if he could, or at least until Elliot turns two.

An Almost 3 Year Old's Favorite Books

Tall by Jez Alborough
George Shrinks
Caps for Sale
Baby Says
From Head to Toe
Alice in Wonderland (Disney version)
Goodnight Moon
The Goodnight Knight Book
Hop on Pop by Dr Suess
Fox in Sox by Dr Suess
Moo Baa La La La

Talk- Power of the Scriptures

I'm horrible at recognizing faces. I will probably introduce myself 5 or 10 times before I will recognize someone reliably. After Jared and I got engaged, he went to Washington, DC for an internship for a couple of months. I was to pick him up at the airport when he flew back. I saw a guy grinning at me walking down the airport hallway and thought "What's with him?" I didn't realize it was my fiance until he was hugging me and had started talking.

Everyone always refers to that first year of marriage as the "Honeymoon" year. That was not how it was for Jared and I. That year was horrible. We fought constantly. I'd like to say it was because we decided to have children right away, so it was just pregnancy hormones, but it wouldn't be true. Jared was just really immature back then. Any small irritated snap would cause a full blown fight and if Jared didn't apologize, I wouldn't talk to him, for days. I like to fume and do nice things just to make Jared feel bad. I'm pretty sure we spent at least half of that first year married not talking to each other.

The second year, we were still fighting like crazy, but we started getting our spiritual lives together a little more. We started doing family scripture study; which consisted of Jared, our daughter Scout, and me. Like most spiritual things, we didn't notice it making any difference when we read daily, but on the days we forgot to read, we fought all day long. Then it would take a few days of reading again to get back to having a pleasant family life.

Elder Richard G. Scott explains, "Scriptures can calm an agitated soul, giving peace, hope and restoration of confidence in one's ability to overcome the challenges of life. They have the potent power to heal emotional challenges when there is faith in the Savior."

D&C 68:4 "First seek to obtain my word, and then... if you desire, you shall have my spirit and my word, yea, the power of God."

How can we get more, spiritually, out of our scripture study?

First, we need to remember as we read, individually or as a family, that the main purpose is to fall in love with the scriptures. Pres. Eyring said, " If you don't really love the scriptures yourself, then scripture study doesn't have as much power (for you or your family)."

I am not a touchy person and sitting on the couch with kids climbing on me, while one throws a fit because they wanted to sit in that spot, and the two year old is screaming because nobody is watching him sing every song he can think of all while I am trying to have a deep theological discussion didn't work. I didn't love getting kicked in the head by kids trying to do head stands on the couch and the kids didn't love getting yelled at and sent to bed once I finally blew up at them.

Now we scale back. We even switched to the Old Testament to change it up. My kids are young so we only read the scripture verses that tell stories right now. I figure, if I can get my kids to love the scriptures by just sticking to the stories, then they will have the rest of their lives go deeper. The goal is, when we go to read the Old Testament again, for they will be excited. It's working, too. A month ago, my nine year old told me, "Some people think reading the scriptures is boring, but I don't. I think they are like Indiana Jones."

Whether we aren't reading, or we are but infrequently, we need to start reading our scriptures daily. Elder Bednar said, "One of the best ways to draw near unto (the Savior) and to both learn about and become more like the Lord Jesus Christ is to consistently study the holy scriptures- to daily feast upon the words of Christ."

Pres. Henry B. Eyring said, "The Holy Ghost confirms to us the word of God when we read (the scriptures). That confirmation, repeated often, strengthens our faith. And it is by faith that we overcome obstacles and resist temptation."

Commit to reading at least a few verses every day. To do this, Pres. Eyring suggests setting a time of day to study the scriptures. He does his every morning and night, which I really like. If your goal is to read every morning and night, and you accidentally miss one, you have still done it daily.

Another suggestion to help with daily scripture reading is to keep track of how many consecutive days you have read. Make a game of it, see who can read the most days without missing. Plan a special activity or treat for every 10th consecutive day you read. You could also team up with a friend and check in on each other every day to make sure scripture reading got done.

Pres. Eyring gives encouragement saying, "Once you get used to a regular scripture study, you miss it if you don't have it." That will help you get back on track if you don't ignore the feeling.

Pres. Eyring does mention that reading scriptures with teenagers can be difficult. Often they will say they would rather read by themselves then with the family. He encourages parents to see this as a victory instead of a defeat. He says your child may be saying, "I'm getting something when I'm alone that I don't get when we are all together.' Take that as a wonderful sign that the scripture study is beginning to take hold in your teens heart." I know a family that sets reading assignments for each family member to read that day. Then they gather around the dinner table and discuss insights each has gained during their study.

Daily reading and a love for the scriptures in my children is all I really hope for right now in my family scripture study. But sometimes we want or need more out of it personally. Elder Bednar advises us to pray for understanding and to have the spirit, then ponder how these scriptures apply to us, and write down our impressions, thoughts and feelings.

President Eyring strongly encourages us to go looking for help in the scriptures in times of trials. He will buy a cheap Book of Mormon and type questions or problems he is having in different colored ink. Then when he reads he looks for verses that relate to those questions and problems and highlights them in the corresponding color. Pres Eyring said, "The Lord seemed to anticipate all of our problems and all of our needs and He put help in the scriptures for us- if only we seek it."

Both Pres. Eyring and Elder Scott suggest memorizing scriptures. Elder Scott said, "Learning, pondering, searching, and memorizing scriptures is like filling a filing cabinet with friends, values and truths that can be called upon anytime, anywhere in the world."

Pres. Eyring related his admiration of President Hinkley and Bruce R. McConkie's ability to speak the words of the scriptures in their daily conversations in a way that you couldn't tell if they were quoting a scripture or just talking. He tells us, "We all can have the dream of someday having the word of God be so much a part of us that the Lord can draw upon it and we can learn to think as He does. And in the process we can come unto him."

I know that reading the scriptures can invite the Holy Ghost to play a prominent part in our lives to change us all for the better and brings us closer to the Lord.

Week 1

I found this blog on Pinterest for 31 days to Happier Kids. I liked the ideas but figured it takes me longer then a day to implement things, so we are doing it in weeks. This week, we are doing the first "assignment"- What to Expect.

Right now we are severely lacking in this category. My kids think they can get out of doing home school by taking to long for their chores or just not listening. Unfortunately, too often, it works for them. So, this week I am giving us a schedule, with times to stick to, set meals, and naps for the little ones. It will be easy to implement it next with without Jared around the throw us off it.

Also, I am making our rules list with the punishment written down. I am tired of Scout telling me I don't ever forgive anything because she wants out of a consequence. I am also tired of the kids not doing their stuff till I forget they had it. I'm sure the kids are sick of not knowing if something they did wrong is going to give them a "Don't do that," or a grounding, depending on my mood. We could all really use a little more structure and follow-through.

And lastly, I am going to give them set days they can play with their school friends. It's much to stressful for me to constantly be running back and forth picking up and dropping off people from noon till dinnertime. This will hopefully pare it down a little.

My Issues with Facebook

Facebook is a farce. It's like a magicians trick to make people think they are involved in other people's lives, when, really, it's just an act. Most people don't post on Facebook the things they are really struggling with, and if they do, how do comments help? Facebook is replacing the actual physical interactions between people, but it's not an equal trade.

Did you know hoarders have a shorter life span then most people, not because of the filth they live in, but because of a lack of personal interaction with other people? How is this trend to replace phone calls and stopping by someone's house to see how they are doing with a text or a comment on Facebook going to effect the health of our generation? Not to mention the lack of an example to our children on how to be kind and loving towards others.

Everyone keeps asking me why I left Facebook. They say they feel bad I am out of the loop. My feeling is, I would rather feel out of the loop because I am not on there at all then feel out of the loop while I am on there because I just don't fit in. I like my friends, I enjoy hanging out with them and talking to them on the phone, but Facebook makes me acutely aware of how little my interests coincide with the people in my circle. I struggled with that before having it pointed out to me on an hourly basis on Facebook.

My biggest reason for leaving is I want to be a happier (ie, kinder, more spiritual, more involved, etc.) person and I feel leaving Facebook brings me a step closer to the kind of person I want to be.

A benefit of not being on it is, I have a lot more time in my day. I'm back to reading blogs, which I like. It's easy for me to find people I connect with on blogs. It's nice to feel like there are other people like me out there, even if I haven't been able to get to know any of them in person.