Child of God Returns

Here's another rendition of "I am a Child of God," or as Rychen P. says, "Child of God Song." This morning as I practiced piano for church, he got the little songbook and wanted to sing along! So I played a few that he knows. It was SO HILARIOUS, the way he stands and holds his book, like he's performing in a recital!

Deck the Halls!

Being Oregonians, our fun (code word for freezing) family tradition is cutting down our own Christmas tree, the weekend after Thanksgiving, from a local Christmas tree farm! It was really cool my first time, but now it's just cold. Anyway.... Rychen Parker did have a great time though, because Dad made it super fun. So I put on a happy face.


Step 1: Look for a tree. (They all look the same to me, but for some reason we have to search high and low for the perfect height, shape, top angle, fullness, without any imperfection whatsoever.)

Step 2: Saw the thing down! Timber!

Step 3: Measure it, pay for it, and pack it in the car!






Step 4: Unload, set it up, and show it off! (notice the fourth hat-bearing member of our family)









Step 5: Oh yeah, decorate it, of course.


We put it upstairs since we have this cool diagonal window facing the street corner. Hopefully it will stand out more when it's darker outside.







Here are our other decorations, most of which was inherited or gifts.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a day full of fun! It started out early with football (youth from a couple wards here) - Rychen took Rychen P. and met Logan there too.

Then we went to play some games and bake at Grandma Jones' house. Here is Rychen P. helping to make bread and pies. He loves bread! He was waiting for this for 2 days! He was so excited about the bread, and so patient, that when we finally sat down for dinner, all he wanted was bread!

And here was dinner, at the Gates family's house.

Rychen P. enjoyed some of their toys, especially this doll stroller! He pushed it everywhere, and even took it outside. I had to beg him to come back in, out of the freezing cold!

...and, finally, we took the opportunity to take some cutsie couple pictures in our fall colors!

Yum Yummy!

We had fun at dinner tonight. First, Rychen P. said, "Look! A banana chair!" I thought it was so cute that we grabbed the camera....



And here's a fun meal idea we figured out on accident - and WOW they are SO GOOD! And not in a healthy-good sort of way, in a REALLY yum-yum way!

1. Cut a BIG potato really thin, length-wise, using a mandolin.
2. Bake the thin slices long enough to be soft, but NOT crispy.
3. Fill them with something and roll up like a tortilla!


For our filling we used lentils spiced with turmeric, ginger, and coriander, mixed with egg, topped with avocado and honey.

I just made this up without meaning to. We were eating lentils for dinner and also baking potatos. Normally we do wedges, but we didn't have enough time for them to bake so we did the mandolin slices. Then I had the idea to put my lentils in it! Rychen P. had the avocado/honey on his plate, so I stole those and made these cute little wraps. How fun! We love making up dishes around here. It's something Rychen and I both enjoy. (One of his favorite things to make is taco salad, with his own corn tortilla home-made spicy strips!)

Talkin on the phone

I took some pictures while Rychen P. was on the phone with "Bamma Bamma Edge-itch" (Grandma Gremlich)





Bonus picture: Being creative with mandarin oranges before peeling them for the juicer! Rychen P. can actually peel one of these suckers all by himself! And he is very involved in the juicing also. We've all been drinking OJ every morning since these mandarins are on sale (and yes, we all wake up early enough to have breakfast with Dad, as much as I regret I tell you...)

A trip down memory lane

We don't have many new photos to put up, so I thought we could look back on our first days together as a family of three.

I apoligize if this first one is offensive to anybody, but it's my favorite and this is my blog! Meeting my little sweetheart for the first time. My first words were, "You have big eyes! Just like your daddy." I couldn't believe this was the person I felt inside me for so long, only now to experience visually. (oh yeah and I was thinking, I DID IT!)

Cousin Ethan

We got to visit with Melan & Ethan (my brother Erick's family, from Salt Lake) for a little while Thursday evening and Friday. We took the boys to Jamba Juice and a park where we could see the Willamette river. And after we all took naps, we shared some raw pecan pie! (It was one of my best so far, I looooove pecans!)

It was so hard to get them BOTH (and by both I mean Ethan!) so sit still long enough to take this picture. It was just too much to ask for them to be sitting closer... And it was so cute to see Ethan wearing this outfit that Rychen P. used to wear!

Pie & apple bread. Ethan LOVED my apple bread! (recipe: apple pulp, ground sunflower seeds, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg - dehydrated)

And when the apple/beet juice gave Rychen a big "lipstick" lip, I just had to document it for posterity.

Time to move on

Rychen Parker has recently improved in his abilities to keep himself entertained. I am soooooo relieved. For instance right now, I am just surfing the web, with him playing blocks on the floor. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. Usually I have to fight him off, or try to do it with him on my lap, or just wait until after bedtime. This all started last week when I told him bluntly, "Mom needs to get work done. If I play with you for ten minutes, could you play by yourself for a half hour while I do some work upstairs?" and he did! He is starting to respond to our needs when we explain them, and work with us. He does good with negotiating, say he begs to do something, we say, "OK 5 minutes. Then we have to ___." And usually he is really good about that. Just another testament that when you respect your kids, they will respect you.

That being said, NIGHTS have been an entire different issue. I haven't stayed in bed through the night for an entire week. The past 4 nights, Rychen has woken up and refused to sleep. At least this morning it was 4:30 so Rychen just woke up with him and let him play. So with nights off like this, he is taking 2 naps and still going to bed before 8. I've been snoozing around the clock, so now at nighttime, I find that I can't sleep!! Our bio-clocks are all messed up now. *sigh* We're really struggled this week, and a couple times I had to disappear, or put myself in time out.

Times like this I wish we had a community of mothers, so we could step in and take kids when moms are losing their wits. I don't really have anyone I can call on when I am going crazy (or need to sleep in, for instance). But yesterday I had a nice talk with my visiting teacher and got a lot off my chest. I think this whole experience has been beneficial for me to be humbled, stop trying to be the ideal mom, and learn that it's OK to be imperfect, and it's OK to need help. Also no parenting philosophy is going to be perfect, but our children will be just fine if we love them as much as we can, and balance that with taking care of ourselves. What does that mean? Rychen P. is ready to detach from my hip, it's time for him to have babysitters, time to wean because this whole scenario has gotten way out of control. I also had some great insight from Pamala, that this is really about MY need, my reluctance to let him grow up. As soon as I release him from this role (of "baby") he will willingly grow up, wean, get out of our bed, etc. I admit, this is an issue, and it's hard for me to see him grow up. Yet I know I need to turn my focus to the next child, and that will only happen when Rychen P. makes room for somebody else to be in the "baby" role. Let's hope we see the transition by the end of the year.

P.S. (11/14) We've transitioned beautifully, and now Rychen P. sleeps all night, from about 7 to 6. We've also been focusing on various ways of being close and staying entertained, so he hasn't nursed and hasn't missed it! (he's nursed once in the past week)