I figured it was a little too easy

Well, Tyler went cold turkey on the thumb-sucking. After two rough nights, he's "cured."

Bad news is, he has now stopped napping and has regressed on his potty training. He has no problem pooping in his pants during quiet time each afternoon, or peeing in his pants if he just doesn't feel like coming in the house to use the potty. This after being completely trained for almost six months now.

Color me frustrated.

The Importance of Prayer

Tonight at Bible study we heard from Pastor Noel about prayer. On the drive home, Tyler asked what we did at Bible study (the kids have their own supervised play room). When I told him we talked about prayer, in classic 2-year-old fashion, he asked, "Why?"

I told him, "Well, because it's important to pray. We get to talk to God..communicate..."

He interrupted, "Where is it?"

Me: "Where is what?"

Tyler: "The communi-cake!"

It's always fulfilling to know your children are learning the spiritual lessons you're trying to get across.

Happy Easter!

Annual Torture Event

You would swear I was torturing my children by asking them to sit on a stool while I take their pictures. Of course, this also requires they look at the camera, smile at least a little bit, and sit still for about 10 minutes. A lot to ask, I know! But I've made it a yearly tradition to try and take some nice spring/Easter photos of the boys, so out of 255 shots, here are the winners this year:

As if Easter wasn't already early this year

The family got together today for Easter.

We had fantastic weather; we all have sunburns!

This guy personifies his Mr. Funny shirt

My new favorite picture of Colby





My favorite picture of the day. I call it, "Big Brothers Have an Advantage"

When we got home, we worked on some resurrection cookies, so we'll see how those turn out in the morning.

Happy Easter!

Doing much better

Last night was 100% better for Tyler, and therefore, us. He went right to sleep without any fuss and without sucking his thumb. This is his 4th day of no thumb at all, and he's doing great. Let's pray it sticks. :)

Rough going

By way of a thumb-sucking update, it's going well during the day. I kept the band-aid off last night and he didn't even try to suck his thumb while we were watching a movie, which has usually been a prime sucking opportunity.

At night... well, that's an entirely different story. The first night it took him almost two hours to go to sleep; this after not napping during the day and being extremely tired. Last night was even worse. He was still up after midnight. At about 11:30pm I gave up and took the band-aid off, knowing it was probably the wrong decision, but just hoping he would be able to get some sleep. Much to my surprise, he still didn't suck his thumb! Unfortunately that meant he didn't fall asleep either.

We're about to head into another naptime, so I'm hoping that our adventures at the park this morning have worn him out enough to let him nap instead of getting into mischief. We shall see....

Poor guy

I don't know why, but today is the day I decided to break Tyler of his thumb-sucking. The fact that he does it isn't what bothers me. In fact, if I'm honest, I think it's rather cute. Problem is, his mouth is already becoming oddly-shaped and he's going to have major problems with his teeth if he doesn't stop soon. I'm also afraid of speech problems, although he doesn't seem to have any yet.

So this morning I wrapped one of those really rough-type band-aids around his thumb. He asked me once all morning if I could take it off, but I just reminded him that we're trying to keep his thumb dry now. Nap time is a different story, though. It's been a real struggle for him so far, and for me as I hear him crying and calling for me to take the band-aid off.

I just hope it works. I've heard of other kids who just pick a different finger to suck, or even just suck their thumb band-aid and all. We'll just have to see how it goes. Pray for my little guy!

What do I know

Tyler and I were chatting just now and he mentioned seeing Colby's teacher this morning. One of the parents had brought a bird in to show the class, so I asked Tyler, "Did you see a birdie, too?"

"No, he's not birdie. He's parrot."

Heartbreaking

Mom throws boys off overpass: link

It just breaks my heart to think of those poor little boys, wrestling with their mom, trying to keep her from hurling them off the overpass. Why do children have to go through things like that? Some of us, myself definitely included, are so naive and have led such sheltered, priviledged lives. I pray those little boys can find some peace and hopefully the Lord one of these days.