Love and Logic...

Before I forget. I wanted to blog about some things I "learned" today...

A mom and her three kids were at the pool. The oldest child was teaching one of the younger kids how to kick her feet in the water using a kick board while mom smoked a few cigarettes and listened to her ipod. When the youngest sibling had to go to the bathroom again the mom said, "hey, take your sister pee again..." and then as the oldest went out the gate she threw in, "sucks being the oldest doesn't it."


A second mother was bragging about a parenting seminar she attended call Love and Logic. As her oldest child teased about jumping from the top pool to the bottom pool via the water fall she yelled, "If you jump after I told you no, and you break something, you WILL find someone else to take you to the hospital, because I will not." Then turning and giggling to her friends she said, "if she doesn't respect me enough to listen, then I don't respect her enough to care when she gets hurt."

Somehow, I think she missed the mark...(http://www.loveandlogic.com/)

And lastly, pit bulls are scary. While we were at the pool today (18 Apr 08), some guy brought his pit bull and 2 puppies. The pool was full of children. (while the above mentioned mothers discussed using handguns to shoot any pit bull that came near their children, and other various dog attack stories) I'm not saying all pit bulls are evil, trained for blood, but I think they are somewhat unstable. I was reading an article about people who train their dogs to like the taste of blood by putting a live cat in a bag and throwing it into a tree with a rope. The dogs attack and kill the cat and thus develop a taste for blood. Pit bulls were bread to fight and attack. They are wired differently than other dogs, therefore making them unstable. That same article said that pit bulls are responsible for 1/3 of all U.S. dog bites/attacks. Yikes. Also...most dogs will growl, bark, take some sort of stance before they attack or bite. Warning person or animal to back off. Pit bulls don't usually do this, they just attack. Scary as that is, the main problem with pit bulls is the owners. People don't usually choose aggressive dogs because they are cute. I won't say ALL, but I think it's probably mostly true that aggressive people choose aggressive dogs.

Alright..that's it for my rant.

23

Happy Birthday Em! :) It's not til tomorrow in the USA, but it's today in Australia! I hope it's a great birthday! We love you and We miss you!

beautiful

I've been blessed with one beautiful baby boy. I love looking at him.

Our day was rather uneventful. The house was apparently hit by a couple of tornadoes over the weekend..so I tried to do some cleaning today. I got the entire kitchen done, and rearranged some stuff. So I had a little sense of accomplishment.

Benjamin's 3rd tooth popped through today! It's his top left. I am hoping the other top one isn't too far behind.

Anyway, I know Ben is only 9 months old, but we've started sitting him on the potty every night before his bath. I want him to get used to the toilet, and not be afraid of it. So far, I think he likes it. He's even peed in there twice. :)

As I mentioned in my last post, Rick is gone for the week. Boo. It's so boring when he's not around. I talked to Liz on the phone today, and other than Benjamin getting VERY excited over a thin mint cookie, that was the highlight of my day.

We were eating lunch today and after I was done eating I needed to have something sweet. So I got the last two thin mint cookies from the cupboard. As soon as Ben saw those cookies he wouldn't eat one more bite of his lunch. He cried, banged on the table, and basically threw a fit. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. So I put the cookies down and checked him out, I couldn't find anything that could be wrong. I walked into the kitchen and when I came back he looked like that (above). Happy as could be eating my cookie that he swiped off the table. He's trouble. But cute trouble. So I let him munch on the cookie while I snapped a few pictures and then like the mean ol' mommy I am, I took it away. He didn't seem to mind though, just needed a little taste.

Anyway...we are fast approaching our last weekend in GA. So Rick and I are going to Atlanta. So I've got to find fun activities to do before he comes home. I really just want to go to the zoo or the aquarium, stay in a hotel that has a pool and a hot tub, and go out to eat at a yummy restaurant. But, I plan on searching out anything else that's cool that we should see while we're there.

Oh, I almost forgot. I put Benjamin in the nursery at church for the first time on Sunday. I know, it's a little silly to have waited so long. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I like to have him with us, but he's just getting too noisy to sit in church. The reason I didn't while we were home in Ohio was because church was right during his nap time. The church here starts an hour later, but since we didn't know anyone, I just didn't want to do it. Of course, this week, he was just being too loud and disruptive, so Rick took him to the nursery. He was totally fine. LOVED the other kids, and the toys. One of the caregivers told me, "he was a joy..." So I feel a little better about it now. I will still probably count the minutes until I can have him back...but it's nice to give my full attention to the sermon too.

Slacking!

Right after I told him his soccer pj's were in the laundry....

We had a nice week. On Wednesday-Friday Richard got to come home early. So we got to spend a lot of quality time together. We went swimming, went shopping, went out to eat with some friends and hung out around the house. Much needed quality time.

Sadly, he will be in the field all week again this coming week. *Sigh*

In other news...between Wednesday and now (Sunday) I've taken almost NO pictures! I can't believe it. Ah Well...

Benjamin has figured out how to shake his head "no." It's one of the cutest things I've seen in awhile. He does it when he dances now too. I'll get a video of that soon.

Well...we are down to the wire now. We are moving in 11 days. I am ready. Nervous. I've decided to go ahead and drive with Rick. We've got a little more time to get there than the last time we drove cross country, so if we just need to stop and take a break, we will be able to. I am hoping that it won't be too stressful and that Benjamin will be ok with it...So if you remember, pray for us and our upcoming trip. ;)

Well...I'm tired and I've only got little more time awake with my husband...goodnight!

 

Fell asleep during our walk today... :)