K5 Chapel with 5th Grade Buddies

How Did I Miss This Post

Party Planning

Can you believe my little Liam is almost a year old?

He is a hot mess, but absolutely loves life.  He knows what he wants, and expects it the second he wants it.  Liam is full of love and kisses.  He is without a doubt a Momma's Boy!

Angry Words

Well it finally happened.  Yesterday while playing Jacob decided to throw a bucket at Liam's head.  He seemed surprised when I took the bucket away, and placed it out of reach.  He stood up and with hands on hips said, "I don't love you anymore."  If he knew and understood the word "hate," I would imagine he would have chosen that word instead.  Unfortunately for him, "hate" is a word I have made an effort not to use around him, for this distinct purpose.  I knew one day he would want to say he hates me.  I figured if he didn't have that terminology, he wouldn't be able to.  Well, my three year old is smarter than me it seems.  He is a manipulator, and knew just how to voice his opinions without the word "hate."  I figured if he wasn't able to say he hates me, then I would never have to deal with it.  Now I am faced with a dilemma.  How do you handle it when a child, that you have spent every moment of their existence caring for, says they don't love you?  Do you laugh at them?  Do you simply ignore them?  The first time this happened I got down on his level, and explained that he doesn't really mean it.  I will love him no matter what. Blah, blah, blah.  This has happened three times today.  I can't have this conversation every time he says it.  Is this just a phase?  Will it go away?  I am not phased by this, honest.  I know he was simply frustrated with me.  How do I get him to understand that though?

On a side note, he does understand it is wrong.  Today, after yelling at me, spitting, and hitting (did he eat food coloring somewhere?) he finally laid down for a nap.  {Yep, he was mad at me for making him sleep.  I seriously cannot wait until he is a teenager and has been out late.  He will be seeing me bright an early.  I might go jump on his bed, or  maybe just sing at the top of my lungs outside of his room.  I'm not sure yet.  I will let the Spirit move me.  There will be payback my friends.}  Of course I had to lay down with him.  After I finally fell asleep, (ok, it was only 2 minutes in before I was out) he leaned over with a kiss and said "Momma, I'm sorry for saying stupid."  Then a few minutes later another kiss and "I'm sorry I said I don't love you anymore.  I love you Momma."  I know he is trying to get a rise out of me, so for now, I guess I will ignore it.

In other news, we had an interesting day.  J is learning the art of lying and the consequences of such.  Yesterday while in timeout he told me he needed to go potty.  We let him get up only for him to say he didn't need to go.  Today he was in time out, and the same scenario played out.  Only this time I did not let him get up.  MISTAKE.  I walked back to his room and before I opened the door,  I knew he wasn't playing.  Low and behold the child actually needed to go this time.  Needless to say we had a conversation about the boy who cried wolf.

I am exhausted and it is only the second week of summer.  I love my children.  I have loved being home with them.  I also like going to the bathroom by myself.  Apparently that is a luxury I only have during the school year.  I couldn't even take a shower this morning without both children banging (I kid you not) on my shower door.  They were both screaming too.  The second I stepped out of the shower, everyone was fine.  Really guys?  I can understand Liam suffering from separation anxiety, but Jacob has already been through that.  I did not realize he would regress.  I left yesterday morning to take Liam to an appointment.  We have a chain up at the top of our door to make sure the boys cannot unlock it at unwanted times.  Matthew had to hold J back, and chain the door.  As I was backing out of the driveway, all I could see was his little hand poking out through the small opening the chain allows.  He broke my heart, and I felt so guilty.  I was only gone for two hours max.  His Daddy was still home, but no, that wasn't good enough.  He likes the whole fam.i.ly to be together. 

Yesterday he had us all on the couch together to take a picture.  Sammie was even up there, but she wasn't up for being photographed yesterday.  In all seriousness, we have had so much fun this summer.  We have been to a wedding.  Our cousin came to spend a week with us.  We have gone to Six Flags twice, White Water Park, Zoo Atlanta, the library, and had a mall play date.  We have been busy little Beasleys.  The down times are what make summer difficult.  Those are the times J acts up the most.  Plus, when I am tired, I am not as patient as I could be.

 I'm pretty sure I carried everything to the car myself.

No matter what, I can honestly say I love my boys.  I do my best to provide for them every day.  We have fun times, and we have difficult times.  Life is ebb and flow.  The roller coaster analogy has been used many times, but since I am fresh off a trip from Six Flags, I'm going to use it.  Some days I am just holding on for dear life, and others I put my hands up and let go.  At the end of the ride, I hope my boys will look back and say, "man, that was awesome."

Liam will eat anything, including Jacob's head.

Jacob's first ride of the day

Not sure what to think

#SillyFaces

I Will Just Love Him

Before visiting the Easter Bunny, J said, "I will not whine.  I will not cry.  I will just love him."  He was clearly a little concerned about seeing the EB.  Matthew added a little fuel to that fire of course.  M told J to watch out.  That when he wasn't looking, the EB just might nibble on his ear.  Awesome.  J is finally at a point in which he wants to visit the EB (he even wanted to take him a present), and his daddy tried freaking him out. I guess that is what dads do.  Right before going up to see the EB he said "the Easter Bunny won't get me, right?"

Liam wasn't scared at all.  He was more curious than anything.  Liam spent most of his time with the bunny trying to figure out his furry face.  Both boys had fun visiting the Easter Bunny this year!  I cant wait to hunt Easter eggs.  I am sure by then, Liam will have figured out this crawling business.

He is such a happy boy!

Little Helping Hands

Ever since the beginning of the year, I have been really focused on the the issue of human trafficking.  Specifically CSEC, or the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.  This is a huge issue in the Atlanta area.  If you thought slavery was abolished back in the days of Abraham Lincoln, then you are wrong.  Slavery still exists today, and it exists in the United States.  This isn't a problem for inner city Atlanta either.  In fact, 42% of the sex trafficking crimes take place north of Atlanta.  I have become super passionate about this topic, and look for any and all opportunities to be involved.  For many children, hunger is a entry point to being trafficked.  Many children do have full pantries like we do.  They don't have homes to go home to.  There are a ton of kids in our area that live in motels, and move around from day to do.  With Spring Break coming up, a local organization called Street Grace, wanted to do something to help.  They created Blessing Bags.  These bags were filled with food, and will be distributed to the local homeless youth.  This is being done in hopes of preventing these vulnerable children from being lured into the dangerous world of human trafficking. 

This morning, we went as a family to help stuff the Blessing Bags (BBs).  There was a nursery, so Jacob and Liam stayed there for most of the morning, but I did have Jacob come for a while.  They handed out bags at the start of the assembly route, and Jacob took his own.  He walked around filling the bag.  Previous to going, I did my best to explain, that there are some children that do not have food to eat every day.  We were going to serve those children.  Although he didn't truly understand, he did get that he was helping people.  Before dropping our bags off, we moved aside to pray for the children that would receive the bags we filled.  I told Jacob, "see, you were able to help another little boy or girl today."  He said, "yeah, like you helped me fill up my bag."  He understands the concept of helping.  This statement just affirmed that.  He helped me pray for those children, then we passed our bags along.

Although this was a very small effort on our parts today, I am really praying these small efforts will make some difference to these children.  I am also hoping to build a love of service in my children.  The idea of serving as a family is so important to me.  I really do believe we have a responsibility to those around us, and I just pray my children grow up with that same belief.  Today was a good day. Seeing my oldest, though only three, help other people was sweet.

Throw Back

I found this older video today from Jacob's second Christmas.  I loved seeing his use of sign language, and limited vocabulary.  By limited I mean, he says "ugh."  Now he has full on conversations.  I cannot believe how far he has come in such a short amount of time.

Messy Baby, Time to Clean Up

 

 Liam is such a messy eater.  I don't remember ever having to clean baby food off of Jacob's eye brows or from inside of his ears.  Liam sure does love his food.  If you do not feed him quickly enough, he will fuss.  When I say fuss, it is almost a scream.  You would think he is about to starve to death.  I love everything about him.  Everything.

And a Happy New You!

Starving

Eating has always been a passion of mine, but recently Momma has taken food to a whole new level. Suddenly I have gone from eating just milk (still my favorite) to gourmet meals of peas, carrots, squash seasoned with garlic, and green beans. All of course are prepared by my personal chef, Momma. I must say as much as I love her savory dishes, she makes a mean smashed banana. Oh my goodness, bananas are a-mazing. I have figured out too that all I have to do us squirm and squeal (aka cry), and she will feed me even faster. I'm working on increasing my palette daily. To all my friends out there,I would have to give apples two thumbs down. Maybe Momma will figure something out to help me like those better. In thinking a little apples with my oatmeal would be superb. For now I will continue enjoying my milk (seriously it is so good I even wake up craving it) and hoping and praying Momma keeps those smashed bananas in stock!

~XoXo
Liam, Guest Blogger