Experiences

I guess I should have proof read my last blog title before posting...oops!

Now that I've cleared that up, unto my next thought.

Every tax season I fly with the kids down to Florida for a week or two to visit my parents. Why? One, because hello, it's WARM! But mostly because Chris is busy working and it's a great break for us, gives us something to look forward to, and I love that my kids get to see their grandparents and aunt and uncle and build their relationship with them.

But, every year I go to book the tickets (which get more expensive every year) and I question whether or not we should go. I think, "it's so much money and we could use that money for _________ " fill in the blank. Chris and I have had many discussions about money and how to spend it over the past eight years of our marriage and you know what we always decide, that we value experiences/relationships over things. We just don't know how long we'll be around or our parents will be around, or how many years we're actually going to be able to afford taking trips to Florida so we're going to enjoy them while we can.

OK, I am totally not saying that you should take out your life savings and fly to Tahiti for a week (although that is sounding better and better). I think it's important to be wise with the resources God has given us. But I also think that sometimes we spend too much time being consumed with saving every penny we make for the future. I don't know what the future holds. What I do know is that I have my family RIGHT NOW and I'm gonna enjoy them RIGHT NOW and spend time with them for as long as God allows me! So I'm gonna book those tickets to Florida and I'm not gonna feel guilty about it and I'm not gonna wonder how I could have spent that money more "wisely" and I'm going to hold on to those memories of taking my kids with me every tax season to see their Grammy and Papa. And I think I just wrote the longest sentence ever, but that's beside the point!

Andrea, if you're reading this I hope that you have an AMAZING time in California, I am SO excited for you guys. I know your kids will remember that trip for a long time and I'm sure you and Steve will never forget it! PS--I hope you don't mind me telling the world your vacation plans! :)

What Hannah loves about her Dadyd

Last night before bed Chris asked Hannah what she loved about her daddy.

She said

"That you love Jesus and that you give mommy kisses!"

Potty training

I dread potty training. I don't why, it went pretty smoothly with Hannah, it's just one of those things that I DON'T like to do. At least when they're wearing a diaper it's contained in a small area. Plus, you're not taking them to the potty all the time, which isn't that big of a deal when you're at home, but when you're in the check out lane at Walmart with half your groceries still in your cart....then, yeah, not so fun.

Anyway, Caden has been pooping and peeing regularly on the potty for the past six months, so I finally decided that I have GOT to potty train that kid.

Day one: One accident...kind of. I noticed that he was a little wet so I put him on the potty and he actually did still pee.

By the way, we just moved into a new house and since I don't want little pee spots all over our carpet I put him in his underwear with a diaper over top. (Thanks for the tip Maria). He looked HILARIOUS with his blue boxer briefs with a diaper over top. And he just happened to be wearing his "chick magnet" shirt. Man, I should have taken a picture of that.

Day two: NO ACCIDENTS, yet anyway. I was SO brave and even went to the bank and the store with him in his underwear.

So far it's going well. But I know that tomorrow is coming and since I'm on the second time around with potty training a child I know that just because we don't have accidents today doesn't mean we won't have any tomorrow.

By the way, if you have any advice on potty training I'd love to hear it. All I'm doing is letting him wear underwear and setting him on the potty every so often. I've noticed that if he sits willingly he really does have to go. He normally only fights me if he really doesn't have to go. So, I kinda go with his mood and so far it's working out.

Now if I can just get him to tell me when he has to go, that would be awesome!

Santa Claus

It happens every year. Someone comes up to Hannah and says, "Have you gone to see Santa yet??? What's he gonna bring you? Have you been a good girl?"

So, now that she's finally old enough to understand I gave her the "Santa" talk.

We don't celebrate Santa in our house; same reason we don't celebrate the Easter bunny. (Oh, we still give our kids candy on Easter but it comes from Mom and Dad and is just a part of celebrating the real reason for the holiday). Chris and I want Hannah and Caden to grow up knowing that Christmas is about Christ's birth, the reason we give presents is to celebrate that Christ gave us the greatest gift, His Son. To us, Christmas is a CELEBRATION of all that Christ has given us through his precious gift.

We also want our children to know that they get presents from us regardless of how bad or good they've been. We love our children, not because of what they do, but because of who they are, and that is why we give them gifts. We just don't want them thinking they have to DO something in order to receive good gifts. I know some of you think we're crazy, but I do think we need to be very careful about the messages we're sending our children.

Now I realize that our views on Santa Claus are probably a lot different then yours...that's OK. I don't think that Santa is the devil incarnate, and that everyone who brings their kids to sit on Santa's lap is not teaching their kids the real meaning of Christmas. Chris's family always got a present from Santa every year and he turned out normal! :)

So, we just told Hannah "some people celebrate Christmas with Santa Claus, he's just a made up pretend man who brings presents to children who've been good for Christmas. We give you presents because we love you and you're our child. We celebrate Christmas as Christ's birthday and we give gifts as a part of celebrating Christ giving us the BEST GIFT EVER!.. JESUS!!!"

More Injuries

Anyone who knows Hannah knows that she's an active girl. She loves to run, wrestle, jump, tackle, fall. The surprising thing is that we've had 4 1/2 years without incident; until about a month ago when she broke her nose, and until Sunday when she broke her elbow.

We had some friends over and one of the kids was playing around with Hannah and tossed her on her bed. Hannah came out of her room white as a ghost and screaming. At one point she even said "this is the worstest time of my life" (which actually made me laugh.)

Her elbow swelled up and she still wasn't bending it on Monday morning so we took her in. Four hours and three doctors appointments later we were on our way home with Hannah in a bright pink cast. She'll be in the cast for 4 weeks which doesn't sound long to any of you I'm sure, but to me it sounds looonnggg. No riding bikes, no sledding, no horse playing, no hitting brother with the casted arm. Hello, have you met my child??? It won't be easy. Although I will say that she's been a lot more docile since the incident and she's even been encouraging Caden to stop jumping off the arm of our chairs.

So, now I'm back in the mode of taking her potty, getting her dressed, helping her take the lids off the markers, you name it. She still has pretty limited mobility in her fingers but I'm hoping that will be getter as the swelling goes down.

Never a dull moment in the Wassenaar household!

Only one more day

....
to hear the wood floor creaking at 5 am when Chris gets up for work

to wash and dry all my dishes by hand

to use my stove from 1954 that takes 30 min to boil water

until I have shades on my windows that don't fall down every time I try to open them

to have the towel rack fall down after my shower

to sweep up dust bunnies...all the time...no matter how often I sweep

to climb over Chris just to get out of bed, which I'm sure he just LOVES at 2 a.m. when the kids are crying for me

to double check the fridge door every time you close it to make sure it actually is closed. Yes, it's been left open all night before.

to clean my entire house in 30 min flat

to have one square foot of counter space to prepare all my meals

Yahoo! Moving day is only one day away! Although we've been very grateful for our little rental house, we are also very ready to be in our own place again. Chris has assured me that even if not a single person helps him he WILL move all our possessions into the new house tomorrow!

Tuesday

I was sitting in Women's Bible Study and I hear Hannah SCREAMING for her mommy, which is not like her. She's a pretty tough cookie most of the time so I knew something must be wrong. I walked down to the nursery and one of the workers was on her way out to get me.

"Hannah fell down and bumped her nose, it's bleeding and she's pretty upset."

Yeah, I can tell she's upset, she is screaming so hard she can barely breath. So I head in the nursery and they've got her laying down to stop the bleeding. I scoop her into my arms, take one look at her nose and about freak out. The poor girls nose was about twice the size of normal....it looked more like Caden's nose then her own. (No offense little man, but you're a guy, you don't need a cute petite nose like little Hannah). The bleeding was almost done by the time I got there so I just held her while she cried. I gave her a piece of candy and even that didn't work!!!

Thankfully Marie was at Bible study (a friend whose a pediatrician) and she said that if it was broken there wasn't much they could do unless it was crooked or obstructing her breathing, which thankfully doesn't seem to be the case.

So for now, she just has a big, black and blue nose. She's such a trooper though, she hasn't really complained about it at all. The swelling seems to be going down so I think she's on the mend.

Here are the pictures to prove it (although it looks worse in person)