Something Pretty Clever

Where to start....
Children. Sheesh. Who knew?
Saben is hilarious these days. He talks up a storm. And talks some more. And really, he never stops talking. At the very least he's making noises like pig grunts or talking about who the heck knows what. Most of the time it is adorable, sometimes its difficult to concentrate and every now & then I want to scream.

Pretty much every action I perform or noise I utter is met with questions from him. the notorious "WHY?" being a favorite.

Mom: "Come one...."
Saben: "Come on who?"
Mom: "I want that car to get going"
Saben: "Which car?"
Mom: "the blue one"
Saben "Why should it get going?"
Mom: "the light is green and its not moving"
Saben: "Why is the light green?"
Mom: "Because it is time to go."
Saben: "why isn't the car going?"
Mom: "well it is going now"
Saben:.....you get the picture, just continue for another five minutes until I say something else fascinating that begs for 20 questions.

My biggest joy is that Saben is finally nearly potty trained. It is still unbelievable to me that it finally happened and really, I have to agree with everyone else.... no magic tricks, it just suddenly clicked. Well, maybe one magic trick, but it is so gross that even I won't post it here, you'll have to ask me if you're ever struggling with potty training yourself someday.

I can't believe the days are over when I will drop human feces out of underwear and almost fall down as I accidentally step in it and slide across the hallway. How I will miss those days.

Speaking of gross, today they played the song "Mister hanky the christmas poo" in my exercise class. I've NEVER been one to laugh at poop, fart, pee, or other sick jokes. Really. But for some reason it made me giggle uncontrolably even though it was absolutely disgusting. It was really embarassing actually because I could not stop laughing and I was the only one losing it in the middle of doing our squats. (part of the hilarity was the fact that we were doing these squats & listening to a song about pooping.) I blame it on potty training.

We've reached an incredible milestone with Annika too. She actually made it through MOPS & a church service last week in the nursery! The first times ever! Honestly, we've been pretty sporadic at church lately because it is smack dab in the middle of her nap. And its the only service at our church that has Sunday school for Saben. Every single time we attend I spend half the service in the nursery. Then she's grumpy & our whole "schedule" for the day is completely screwed up.

Not to mention the fact that Saben generally throws a fit each week as we are leaving because there are DONUTS at church and he desperately wants one. It all adds up to a gay old time with plenty of good cheer by the time we leave in our car. But last week was awesome, and I actually got to hear the entire sermon. Because I like sermons. A lot. They always get me thinking.....

It actually amazes me how pastors always seem to include one point that is special, just for me, to mull over during the week. Even last week, when it was all singing & sharing time, they put in a special hymn for me that included the words "break me". As a mommy, singing those words makes me feel like I got punched in the gut. It takes my breath away for a moment.

I'll be honest, it scares me to death to sing those words. Which is why I decided to read our book club selection "the shack" this month. At first I was excited by "Theologically Controversial". Then AFTER I bought it, I read the back and realized it was about a young girl who gets kidnapped & murdered & how her Dad finds peace with God afterwards. Generally I avoid all movies and books about children dying.....But seeing as how it was in the context of something serious & spiritual I figured I should suffer through it. See how my book club picked a book I needed to read? Wasn't that nice of them?

So that's what's been on my mind lately. We still have men banging around in our basement every day and tons of important decisions to make like "which of these 30 toilets is the one for us?" as we remodel our basement. Seriously, is there anything worse than being stuck at lowes at 7:30pm with two cranky kids trying to make heads or tails out of toilets that range from $70-$300?

Oh, and Annika & Saben have not napped at the same time for a couple weeks now which is why I have been remiss in updating my blog.