MamaBlogga

About a year ago, I made a valiant attempt to amputate Hayden’s ear. (Apparently I haven’t discussed this on the blog before.) It started innocently enough: I was on the last snip of a pretty dang good haircut—”but man, why won’t these scissors close? Hayden, stop screaming, hold still, I’m almost—HOLY CRAP that’s your ear!!”

Yeah. Although the damage wasn’t nearly as severe as I’d feared (a bandaid was enough to patch him up physically), I figured his hysterical fear of haircuts was justified. Since then, I’ve made him endure a grand total of two haircuts (one by me and Ryan [and Aunt Brooke?] while Hayden screamed and we took turns restraining/hugging him—anybody have that footage?—and the other at a kid haircutting place which I didn’t witness but heard wasn’t too much better).

Last night, Ryan finally succeeded in convincing Hayden that not only did he need a haircut, but he could get one tonight.

By some miracle, he also convinced Hayden that the clippers tickle. Hayden giggled the whole time, and never ended up taking our offer of chocolate chips.

And now . . . I have regrets. But Hayden doesn’t!

I guess I liked him shaggy.

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And not to leave Rebecca out: we pulled out the doll bed her late great-grandfather made. I figured since she walks around with baby dolls or Pinky, cradling and shushing and lullabying them, she might like it.

This wasn’t what I meant by that:

(And yeah, that’s the entertainment center. She takes after her brother, apparently.)

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How have you helped your kids overcome their fears?

The other day I had a virulent strain of the hiccups. I groaned about it and Hayden asked, “What?”

“I just want these hiccups to be done.”

“Well,” he counseled, “they will just go away by themselves, when they’re done.”

Wise indeed.

Rebecca, meanwhile, discovered oven mitts.

Hayden has taken up “speaking” for his stuffed monkey, Marty. But since Marty’s mouth is sewn shut, Hayden keeps his lips closed and kind of hums.

We’re not sure, but this might be where Rebecca picked up the habit of squealing with her mouth closed every time she sees her favorite stuffed animal/lovey, Pinky.

Logical creatures, children.

What unexpected leaps (logical or otherwise) have you seen from your children?

Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope you had a good one. We had fun—can you tell what we were? (Hint: we’re in a specific order here. Technically, we could use two more people, too.)

(The answer.)

How was your Halloween?

Note to self: fix the rest of the clocks. This is getting really confusing.

One of the keys to finding fulfillment, no matter what our station in life, is to love ourselves. To accept ourselves. To recognize that we’re not perfect, but we’re not terrible. We’re trying, and that says a lot—and most of all, we’re people of value.

I think this is especially important because really, valuing motherhood begins with mothers valuing themselves. We have to set the precedent for our families. Yes, we serve them and we break our backs to keep them happy and healthy—but at the same time, we teach them to respect others, respect themselves, respect us—and respect motherhood.

We must value ourselves as mothers. We must recognize and embrace this high and holy calling, and then help our families and those around us to learn to value us as individuals and as mothers, and to value motherhood and the things we’ve done for them.

Of course, some of us have an easier time of loving ourselves:

But, then, I think this shows us what a key time childhood is. If we work to instill this value for motherhood in our children now—if we show them that we love them and serve them, but we also value ourselves as individuals, and if we teach them to value themselves—we can get a jumpstart on the negative messages that are sure to come.

What do you think? How do you show your children that you value motherhood, and yourself? How do you teach your children to value you as their mother?

A few weeks ago, Ryan (and our neighbors) took Hayden on his first camping trip.

Although he wasn’t interested in eating marshmallows that were all “mewty,” and, thus, s’mores, though he whined about coming home pretty much all night, and despite one smashed finger, Hayden pretty much loved it.

He’s asked to go camping almost every weekend since then.

Any fun firsts for you lately?

When you have a child, you want him or her to be able to succeed. To take on the world and win.

When you have two, you want them to do that together.

And some other fun pictures from the park today:

Shots 1, 2, 3

Hayden dancing on the stage and singing his ABCs

What have you done to help prepare your kids to take on the world—including giving them a sibling to work side-by-side with?