We've Lost our N's & O's

My son Noah has recently been very distraught over the loss of N's and O's from his name. You see, his brother Josiah taught him the letters that go in his name, N, O, A & H. Noah couldn't know that other than memorizing what Josiah has told him. However a few nights back now we were called to his bedroom where a very distraught Noah could NOT go to sleep because he had lost both the N and the O in his name. The A and the H were safe and sound (and who knows where these 'letters' are even stored in the first place?) but even so, we had to 'find' the N & O and then he was able to get back to sleep again. Noah did think that someone had come and taken his N & O but Mommy & Daddy were strong enough to get them back for him. Hopefully we will not lose them again anytime soon.

On another kid note, Josiah today made his first attempt at flying. He created wings or a parachute of a sort out of a brown paper handled bag (putting the handles over his arms) and then was flying all over the house. I am very glad that that did not involve any further type of 'flying' thankfully!

And to round out the kid updates with Alexandria, well she is ALL GIRL. It's amazing just how very different she is from the boys and I can see more clearly every day the differences! I never could imagine so much drama could exist within a 14 month old but sure enough I find it there nearly every day. We are working hard on curbing the high pitched girl screams, the temper tantrums and mostly the hitting of her brothers. She enjoys walking up to the boys with whatever is in her hands and wacking them on the head just to see their reaction. Although I find it hard not to laugh, discipline does have to win over in those scenarios. I do feel in some ways though that the boys have had a part to play in making this girl a fighter! After all, Josiah regularly 'trades' with Lexie which is nothing more than stripping the toy from her hands and throwing another unwanted toy back at her. How nice, eh?

OK enough updates for now!

Noah's Quote of the Day

As usual for most any night here at the Finkler house, bedtime is preceeded by reading time. And as usual again, that involves Mr. Noah Bean (yes we do actually call him THE BEAN most of the time!) trying to get back downstairs and out of reading time as he knows that what is coming next is BEDTIME.
So this evening he very politey tells me as he's walking out of his bedroom that he needs to go downstairs now and do something 'kinda special'. I just had to start laughing, there was no self-control to be found there in keeping the straight face and only pushes Noah further into this crazed talk of his! I contine to ask him then what this thing is that he must do downstairs that is 'kinda special' and well, that would be watching the Veggie Tales DVD called, "God Made You Special!". Repeatedly throughout the day the boys and I will remark to one another this phrase of 'You know, God made you special!'. I think it is very cute and have enjoyed them taking to it so well. BUT I never realized that Noah would use this as yet another bedtime excuse.
My parents watched the children for me this past Friday night as I was at a Mom's group meeting and of course both of the boys pulled out all the tricks in trying to stay up later. They are so clever and mischevious, I wonder where they get that from? As I was threatened so many times during my youth, I would get full circle what was coming to me from my mischevious days...(why do our parents say those things to us? and now that I'm a parent why do I dream of the day that I get to say those things to my kids?!)

A very busy & full week

This week I spent pretty much all preparing for a board meeting at the Marina where I work - more specifically putting together a rough 1st draft of a 2010 budget. What fun, eh? However being the accountant that I am there is something in me that does enjoy the process, does enjoy the finished product and putting something of that nature together from beg to end. I am very thankful that I have the job that I do as I do enjoy the mental challenge of it all, in attempting to keep on top of everything down there. Is there always more work to do? Well of course, we know that answer to be the same for most any area in life!



The children fared well despite Mommy's increased absence in the home life. Lexie is the one to worry about most, I try not to go in and out of the house much for the mere fact of how much she screams every time that I leave. I feel quite bad for Lisa at those moments. It is something that all children must get over and learn - and soon enough we'll get past it. But for now with the Sunday meetings too, I'm a constant presence in the nursery with her as well. I believe I'll get to listen to another teaching soon though!



Josiah - rec'd his first 'progress report' from school. Now that's a blast from the past. All of a sudden I started to remember those much anticipated report cards coming home to see how many quarter's I would get for A's. I fared pretty well, those quarters were such an inspiration to me. Josiah's doing well, he does have this strange oddity with counting. He can count all the way to 29 however he has mysteriously decided that 16 doesn't exist as a #. I keep on trying to tell him to remember the 16 but not there yet. By the time he reaches 16 he will be very happy for that # but for now, a goal we are working on. The teacher noted that Josiah was a very happy student and a kind friend. Those were very encouraging to me as a parent! And I do know as well that the teacher awards kindnesses with certificates which Josiah loves - makes me think again on what kinds of things actually motivate Josiah himself. And those little things like a special paper certificate or a drawing really do motivate the kid.



And now we head into the weekend without Daddy for it's opening season for deer hunting which means Larry is gone hunting. He so looks forward to this weekend every year - him and buddy Jono head up north to go sit in the woods and wait for a deer to walk by. I honestly would not be a good hunter at all, I can't quite get my head around sitting cold in a forest just waiting and waiting - day in and day out - when I could be doing so many other things with that time. I guess if I could be warm enough and read a good book, then I'm game BUT then I would definitely miss the deer so what's the point? And what about coffee? How would I get a nice cup of hot coffee throughout the day too?



Well we hope that they come back with something and then my task will be to find recipes to make with the meat that disguise the 'gamey' taste. I still do feel bad for little Bambi though especially after the boys got a rare opportunity this summer to feed a fawn at the Dejno's deer farm...hopefully they won't connect the 2!



On to our weekend now...and will post some new photos hopefully soon!

Effective Marketing for a 4 Year Old

So while at the dinner table this evening, Josiah comes up with the following;

'Save money
Live better
Walmart'

I thought to myself, how could it be that Walmart's advertising is this effective even for the age of a 4 year old? And a 4 year old that doesn't regularly watch any TV or TV ads outside of what is displayed during Sunday afternoon football games. Wow they have infiltrated even him! And that's not to mention the other cruddy TV commercials and advertisements for programs that fill that afternoon time slot either, ugh.

He has no idea what that phrase would even mean but as far as I'm concerned they've won in fixating the 'idea' of Walmart within his head. And if the toy magazine arrives this year from Walmart and he connects the pieces, we may be in for trouble :).

I was just literally amazed at this!

Halloween Photos 2009

I finally got around to downloading a few of the photos from Halloween this year. It turned out a slightly colder day - which the day before had been beautiful! So we were hard pressed to get Noah out of the wagon even when candy or 'special treats' were involved. Lexie of course had no clue what was going on other than a fistful of pretty wrapped packages that smelled pretty good but she couldn't quite get inside.
And Josiah, well he fully got Halloween for all of the CANDY associated with it and was happy to run up to each and every house, whether or not they even had a light on!
So after we got home, Larry did what he does best - dumped out all of the bags of candy and took out what HE liked best!
We also gave out candy at our house which the boys really loved to help out with this year. And we definitely did not run out so we still have a large bowl full of candy that we are eating through - and not needing - so if you are in the area please feel free to come trick or treat way after the fact, please!



One of the few times Noah was motivated enough by candy to get out of the wagon!


Hmmm...looks like he is seriously plotting how to manage to eat all of his candy?!


Lexie is trying to eat the candy through the wrapper.

What would Halloween have been this year without Ironman!

Lexie's First Words

So far here is the account of Lexie's first words, there seems to be an emerging pattern here. I can most confidently say that her first word was 'Mama', 2nd word 'Dada'. And after that the next words were as follows;

Amen (very slow and deliberate)
Jesus (courtesy of her Praise Baby DVD which she absolutely ADORES!)

And just tonight, 'Bible'.

Since we seem to be on the biblical word road here, I thought I might try Hallelujah next!

She has her own unrecognizable renditions of 'thank you', 'more' and 'please'. Working on those all the time....

Whereas Josiah's very first word at 9 months was 'HOT', I find it really interesting that her first words that she fully understands are amen, Jesus and bible. And she loves to say amen at the end of meal prayer (which is really where she learned it from).

I am quite surprised that Noah's first words were not 'sausage' since he is affixated on this now, even today he was thanking Jesus for bringing the sausage to breakfast. Crazy kid that he is :).

That's it for Lexie's words update - more to come later - much more to come I am sure!

Parenting by the Spirit

I've recently been reading through a book by Kathie Walters called, "Parenting by the Spirit". Here are a few excerpts from that book and the significance that I believe it bears upon me / us.

This is very simple & profound here - "If children are going to learn to obey God's voice then they must first learn to obey yours."

"The Christian life is not difficult and boring. It is exciting and adventurous, because it is supernatural."

SO...

"Be simple, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to return to your first love. Fall in love with Jesus again, and enjoy your relationship with Him."

This next quote is really well written and so true - I loved this quote from this book and plan to sow this truth on a regular basis into our children. The author states this during use of discipline, however this is just as much valuable during any season or walk of life with them I believe!

"When you have to discipline your children tell them constantly how much God loves them. Tell then He wants them to be saved and to know Jesus and tell them about the great plan that He has for their lives. Tell about the great annointing they will come into as they give their lives to Him. Let them know they were ordained by God, before the foundation of the world, they have a place that no one else in the whole world can fill. A great destiny, what a privilege, what a special person they are."

As I think more on this, it is key to teach our children, even at a very young age, that there is something more than the instant gratification of life. I don't believe it's impossible to start instilling these things within them either. More than anything for them to always hear of how much God loves them as I believe that will open doors within their hearts.

** A small disclaimer here, as with any book that I read, I do pull out the key things that speak to me the most (applicable to our current situation) and even as I was reading through this book, there were some things that I didn't necessarily agree with per say however the TRUTH that was still contained and lines up with the Word of God is still TRUTH. Enough said!

The Doors are Sick

Noah announced today that the doors in our house are also sick and need medicine. I asked him how he knew that and he 'showed' me by opening up a few doors saying, 'See? They are sick!'. He then let me know everyone in the family including our nanny, Miss Lisa, along with the doors and then the sausage were all sick - hence everyone needs medicine.

I never thought about a door needing medicine before today...and quite honestly I do not know if I will again unless Noah could be onto something and notifying me of the need to disinfect the doors / handles in the house - now that logical thought process I can actually do something about! However giving medicine to sick doors, well, I have no idea just how to begin that one...

Wonderful Waffles

Made these waffles the other day out of cookbook someone had given me entitled 'Waffles'. I'm amazed at all of the uses of waffles - many being a complete dinner meal! I haven't tried those yet however I have tried these lovely granola whole wheat waffles (that the entire family loves) and just recently a very basic classic waffles recipe. My first try with that one and they were fantastic - here's the recipe;

Best-Ever Classic Waffles

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup milk
2 large eggs, separated
8 tbsp butter (melted and slightly cooled)
2 tsp almond extract (Jenn's addition!)

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, egg yolks & almond extract until completely blended. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites until firm, but not stiff.
Make a well in dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture until just blended. Add the butter in a slow stream until incorporated. Gently fold in the egg whites.
Pour generous 1/2 cup batter per waffle, spreading to edges of waffle maker. Cook approximately 3 minutes until crisp & golden brown.

** So for me, I did not pull out the heavy duty mixer for beating the egg whites and they still turned out just fine.
** And it's got to be all that lovely butter that makes them so delicously crisp!

Either way, this waffle recipe is here to stay! Waffle Wednesdays everyone :)...

Pretty & Nice & Cozy

Noah requested me to hold him this morning, he's starting to not feel so well himself although it has a lot more to do with the fact that he wants medicine like Josiah than anything else. I keep on taking his temperature and saying, 'No, no fever - that's great news!' to which he responds - 'I want a fever, I want a fever, I want a fever!'. Nutso kid.

He is coming down with some form of a cold though and sniffles are beg -as I picked him up to honor his request, he said to me, 'Mom you are so pretty and nice and cozy'. And then proceeds to snuggle up close to me. You can't get much better than that! How I love the children's honest and simple affection. Noah's very aware of all things nice and cozy and continually likes to express his desire to be nice and cozy. And helps me to know now as well that I am a nice and cozy Momma :).

Home Sick

It seems since the beg of October that someone in the Finkler household has not been feeling well. It started off with Larry, so fair enough, we'll just blame him for it all! He came down with cough, cold, fever and other like symptoms earlier in the month of October and he STILL has this cough lagging on. Since that point, our nanny Lisa's been sick too on and off, myself a few weeks back along with Alexandria and now Josiah.

After missing the church meeting last week to stay home and get some rest myself, I'm again missing today to stay home with Josiah (who has been running a fever) and Alexandria (sneezing and coughing all over the place). I feel now it's been ages that I've even been in a church meeting as I was teaching in with the 2 to 3 years olds the week before that! I know this is a season and we will all get through it but it seems as if you miss so much of life's routines, like Sunday morning church meetings, etc, when you have little children that inevitably become sick. I am believing soon and some day to make more of our church meetings than not - I wholeheartedly miss worshipping with our church body, hearing the prophetic words and teachings brought. But again, to remember it is a season and praying to be a SHORT one at that.

At one point today with Josiah running a fever still and knowing that he's just miserable, he put his head on my shoulder and said, 'ah Mom, I just think my head is broke'. Poor guy!

So back to another round of DVD's and wiping runny noses and dishing out Tylenol and Motrin like candy...