A Reason to Celebrate

On Friday, we picked up Gabe and got this:

That's his latest report card. Did you notice that his lowest grade this semester was a 95? A 95! Lowest grade! Needless to say, we were impressed and very proud of his hard work. I never want our kids to be "defined" by their grades BUT I do want them to be very diligent in their studies as if doing everything for the Lord (Colossians 3:23) so we do want to make a HUGE deal when this is accomplished. So that is what we did! We asked Gabe how he wanted to celebrate and he picked dinner out with the family and Chuck E Cheese. (Honestly, he asked to go to Toys R Us first, and we shot that down. The child just got 40 million toys for Christmas, and his bday is next month at which point he'll get 40 million more toys AND he's a little obsessed with "stuff"so we encouraged him to come up with something else that wasn't "stuff" so Chuck E Cheese was choice #2.)

Uncle Eli offered to stay home with baby Jack so that we weren't lugging a baby, worrying about fussiness and bed times, and we got to enjoy our big boys for the night. This was Max's first time to Chuck E Cheese  that he remembers (he visited once when he was 6 months old for Gabe's birthday) and Gabe showed him the ropes. These two had a ball! They went through their 90 tokens in about an hour or so, and racked up enough tickets to pick out several pieces of candy and small toys as prizes. And although Max wasn't really a fan of Chuck E Cheese himself (he's rather scared of people in costumes) he hasn't stopped talking about "when we went to the game store with Gabe". Gabe pretty much mastered most of the games, and was a stud on the virtual jump rope.

And Chad and I just really enjoyed being the parents to some really great boys. We all had fun playing games and celebrating Gabe and his awesome grades. Way to go GTB, we're so proud of you!

(Can you tell they enjoyed the candy on the way home?)

Farewell Paci

We're 15 days into the month of January, and you can say I've up and made myself crazy.

Let's start at the beginning....

Max has been a paci baby his whole life... I have WAY more pictures of him with the paci in his mouth than without. Recently, between our "paci jar" and the "you're not in your bed" rule, we've cut down on it quite a lot, but with Max, if he's chill for more than 5 seconds than he needs his paci-buggle, which is one word, because they go together so strongly in his mind-- kind of like the Max version of pb& j-- you just wouldn't have one without the other.

Well somewhere along the line, (WAY back in 2011) I decided that on January 1st, 2012 that we would throw the paci away-- there are a couple reasons for this:
1) I was falling victim to social pressures and disapproval for allowing my 2+ year old to have a paci
2) Chad is constantly worrying about his teeth
3) I thought January 1st, 2012 was a long, Long, LONG way away

But on January 1st, when he got out of bed, as we had discussed for the previous 1-2 weeks, Max put the paci in the trashcan and it hasn't been seen since. I must say that he handled it WAY better than I did-- it made me sad, like real tears were shed, and it still hurts my heart to think about it- probably because it did cause him some emotional distress, but mainly, because it was his last "baby" thing-- it made him look young and tiny and like my little baby Max.

Max fared much better.... he was a little bit sad but he never could find words for what he was feeling. He never asked for it, but when it came time to watch tv or cuddle up for his nap, there was something missing and he knew it. For a couple nights and a couple naps, he didn't sleep as well and he slept a little shorter than normal. He'd wake up whimpering in the night, but within a few minutes, he'd fall back to sleep. Which is good, because this sad mama heart would not have stood for much more. But now, here we sit 2 weeks later and he's completely whole, completely happy, sleeping as good as ever. (But I'm never taking his buggle away-- if he wants to take it to college, I'll encourage it! Slumber parties? Go right ahead! Put it in his coat pocket the day of his wedding? You betcha, that's every woman's dream for her groom!)

But since ripping that band-aid off wasn't nearly as painful as I had planned, I decided to go all in-- we had a couple more "bad" habits going on at the Bowman homestead, so why not conquer them all at once? I wasn't sleep good anyway, so why not make it worse? So, the new rules for Jack include not being picked up/ fed anytime before 4am (he eats at 7:30 and then started waking up like every hour or 2 and screaming his head off....) and I went ahead and broke his swaddle as well. "Swaddle?" you say, "isn't that for newborns?" To which I'd say yes! And Jack. He loves it. It makes him so happy-- he'll be fussing and I'll go swaddle him and he's practically asleep before I can lay him down. But he's almost outgrown every swaddle I can find on the market AND he needs to be rolling around and playing in his crib to develop all his muscles and learn new tricks-- so I went all in. Can't you just see that crazy in my eyes?

If Jack wakes before 4am, I just go in and sing. Slowly but surely he's decided that while those songs are nice, he'd rather just sleep if he can't get to GOOD stuff (milk!). So 3 of 4 last several nights, he's only woken up once. PTL. AND he has already taught himself to fall asleep unswaddled. Sometimes he does still wake up in the middle of the night, but he's not mad. He talks, rolls around, turns himself about, does a little hokey pokey, and then goes right back to sleep. So, once this becomes the rule, rather than the exception and blogworthy news, then I'm just going to sing at 4am too.

February will be the month where all the Bowman people sleep through the night, every single night. AND I'm busting my booty in January to make sure this is the case! It's go BIG or go home-- team MOM rocks!

Max's first picture ever with a paci:

Max's last picture ever with a paci

Rainy Days

I woke up this morning at 6am to a humungous thunderstorm. I'm talking house shaking, light filling the very dark house, over and over and over. I just waited for it to wake the babes in my life from their slumber. As I laid there, I contemplated what kind of things a rainy day should be made up of...

In my kid-less days, it meant more sleep-- like way more than I needed, hot teas, books on the couch, and the occasional lifetime movie. When I surveyed my options, I realized that none of those would be conducive to the 2 year old in my life. Or that 7 month old for that matter! So what to do?

The obvious choice was to stay in our jammies all day and I could hope and pray for really long naps. But let's be honest, there isn't much adventure to all that. But what's a mom to do?

Wait for their genius child, full of genius ideas, that's what!

Shortly after lunch, in the midst of a magnificent, roof collapsing downpour, Max came up with this:

He needs yegs out (aka his pants off) and his flip-flops on....

He was a man with a plan.....

A kid on a mission.....

And quite adorable at that!

2011, In Review

2011 was a great year for the Bowmans... and that is putting it lightly! Some highlights include our beautiful, wonderful baby Jack, my new job: stay at home mom, learning and growing and strengthening our marriage in so many ways that are noticeable daily, paying off our debt, and a new church. If you've been following along here, you know that sometimes have been tough, there has been heart ache and tears, but there has also been so many answered prayers and so many reasons just to sit at the Lord's feet and say "thank you" a hundred million trillion times. We're ending 2011 on a mountain top for sure!

Billy Phenix who is the campus pastor at Buckhead Church tweeted this PDF for married couples to talk through-- Chad and I took advantage of it on one of our hour long drive through the Texas hill country this past week-- it was so cool to talk through 2011 and plan for 2012. It was funny because most of the time our answers were different, but it was great to get into Chad's head a little and be able to compare notes. I really recommend making time to do this with your other half, and aim to do it THIS week... because let's be honest, it's just a matter of time before we're onto the next thing.

On Sunday, our family pastor, Matt, who happens to be my Danielle's husband, Reed's dad, and one of the 4 men in our small group, preached a really great message to kick off the new year. It's really worth a listen! (The video is not up yet, but you'll be able to watch it here in the next day or so.) The main point is using our past, and present, to move to the future, but how he ended was really a kicker for me and Chad, and I'm still mulling over it regularly--  he quoted Colossians 3: 1-4, which honestly are verses that a really familiar to me but this time, God really used them to poke at my heart (man, how I love the power of scripture!):

¹ Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your^[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Matt zeroed in on verse 4, where it says "who is your life"-- he went onto challenge us NOT to make spiritual goals and physical goals and relational goals, separately-- but instead, make Christ our life-- meaning the He is in everything, He is who we are and who we're about-- Christ is the end all, be all.

Oh that just gets me all rattled, in a great way-- what would my relational goals and physical goals and family goals look like if Christ was my life? I wouldn't need spiritual goals, because apart from Him, I'd be nothing! So as I proceed over these next several days, and think through what I want 2012 to look like, that's where I'm heading... I want Christ to be my life!

So there are several things on my list of goals for kicking off this year-- hopefully by March, I can say these following things are done--


1) Read Mark Driscoll's new book, Real Marriage, with Chad... and actually finish it, together, working through it along the way. (We're really great at starting books together and never finishing them... we have quite a collection on the shelf in our room if you'd like to borrow any!)
2) Have Jack sleeping through the night (again!)
3) Get Max back into big boy underwear and get rid of his paci
4) Be more assertive when it comes to my family- stop saying "yes" if it's not what's best for this stage of life I'm in now-- which is a wife and a mom of young children, first and foremost. (Sandra Stanley, along with Andy, did a great talk (the whole series is great, but Part 4 applies here) on this a while back-- I have to re-listen regularly to remind myself that “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Nehemiah 6:3)
5) Reach my goal weight, go to the gym 5-6 times a week, cut out sugar for the month of January
6) Make time to continue writing my book
7) Become a better steward of the food we buy- not let things go to waste
8) House projects: switch bedrooms, re-do closets, make garage into playroom, purge things we don't need

And that's just getting me started.... BUT what would these look like if Christ was my life? How would that change my attitude and my motives? And can you even imagine the state of my heart? And what it would do to my fears and my worries? What if scripture was all over my brain and I was cleaning up pee and changing wet sheets? Oh, it'd be nothing but goodness, that's what!


So here's to 2012-- and making Christ my life!

Christmas 2011

Christmas really started off with a bang when Max and Jack both decided to start getting new teeth, take on some nasty stomach bug (think horrid diapers) and catch a cold, simultaneously, on the 22nd of December. It was awesome.... what, you don't believe me?

Well honestly this did all happen-- we're not totally over it, and I'm so negative in the sleep the department that I see things from time to time, BUT my kids rocked it. They were sweet and happy, we enjoyed family and celebrating, and we celebrated Jesus' birthday party with gusto!

On the 23rd, my parents arrived from Indiana. (Sam had to stay in Indy of this job.) My mom had just had foot surgery and had just been released from crutches to her boot, so I fretted over her while she was here- wondering if she was doing too much and worrying if Max would accidentally hit it-- but despite her insistence on carrying Max and Jack as they wished, the trip was great, we enjoyed their company, but as always it went too fast!

On the 24th, Gabe came over and we watched him open his presents. This is the first year that he got all toys from us (none of those yucky clothes/ jammies/ etc) so he was pumped. Then, that afternoon, we had my Dad's family over for Christmas Eve-- we served lunch and they brought all the desserts and goodies.... yum! We enjoyed seeing everyone, swapping some gifts, hearing good stories, and celebrating Christmas. We also were blessed because my aunt Nancy who had had open heart surgery just weeks before was able to come.

Later that night, after attending the Christmas Eve service and getting the boys to bed, Chad and I got to be "Santa's Helpers" for the first time-- putting a few new things together for when the boys came downstairs in the morning. Max really wanted a red car (aka a Cozy Coupe) and we got Jack a jumparoo. (I think that's one of those gifts that's actually for mom too!) My parents and Uncle E-yi helped with that and it was just really fun.

Christmas morning was great- Max seemed to understand that it was Jesus' birthday and he could tell you the gist of the story and the reason for celebrating. This is the first time he has shown any interest in presents and enjoyed opening them and playing with things as he got them. He thought pi's, big boy undies, books, play doh, and his red car was all awesome! He'd open something and play with it, then a few minutes later ask, "Can I open anudder one?"

For the most part, it was a lazy day- we had a yummy brunch, everyone got naps, and I packed all of our bags to head to Texas to see Chad's family. My parents and brother cooked a great steak dinner as I did laundry and made my last check on my lists, and then we had time to play some games that evening too. It was a great Christmas with my family, and it left us really excited about their move down here in the next month or so.

Now for Christmas part II:

On the 26th, we picked up Gabe while it was still dark and headed to the airport for our trip to Texas. Gabe's school started back earlier this year (Jan 3rd!), so I trip was short, but we all had a great time. On the 27th, we had Christmas morning all over again... Texas style! Chad's brother, wife, and their two boys all came over to Chad's parent's house, where we were staying, with donuts. After a yummy and healthy breakfast, we turned our attention to the stockings and another Christmas tree. Once again, the boys were so spoiled, getting great gifts and lots of love from everyone.

The next day, we all headed out to Chad's brother's family's new piece of property. It's on top of a big hill (I'm pretty sure in GA, we'd consider it a mountain!) and has and incredible view. It's many many  many acres- so they've had to overhaul brush, and make places for roads, pour the pad for the house, dig for a well, and lots of other labor intensive things. The men worked for hours, as an 18-wheeler dumped 3 loads of dirt-- Gabe and Max even got to ride on the tractors- they thought they were hot stuff!

On Thursday, we took our annual trip into San Antonio for lunch at Chris Madrid's- Chad's favorite restaurant- and lots of friends and family met us there. We then hit up some shopping- like the Bass Pro Shop, of course, and ended the night with some family karaoke.

By Friday, I was so worn out, purely from my nights with Jack. I told Barbara, my mother in law, that I don't think I've ever slept through the night at her house! I've managed to have a sick child or a new baby at every visit, ay yi yi! This time it was Jack, and instead of his pre-Christmas cold getting better, it kept getting worse. I spent the wee hours of the morning on Friday with his pack n' play right beside us so I could check for his breathing. After speaking with his pediatrician from home first thing in the morning, they decided a trip to the ER was necessary. After an X-ray, a breathing treatment, and some other tests, it was determined that he had RSV, which can be really serious in babies. We got loaded up with medicines, a breathing machine of our own, some antibiotics, and a list of signs to look for, and were released. It wasn't exactly what we had in mind for the last day of our trip, but we're so thankful that Jack is doing much better now!

On Saturday morning, we boarded a plane once again with our crew, and headed back to Georgia. Despite the germs and all the lack of sleep, everyone was wonderful and so well-mannered, even Chad :) Honestly, all of the celebrating and visits with family feel like a blur at this point. I know they happened, and they were wonderful, but I'm pretty sure we didn't get ample time to appreciate it all. More than anything, we are grateful for the birth of God's son, who came as a babe, to shower his love and his sacrifice on the world. We're grateful for our big family that we get to celebrate with, and our three precious boys that make each day, and especially Christmas, wonderful!

We've had our baby J for 7 whole months!

My little Jack is 7 months old- and even though it pains me to admit it, I can't even pretend he's a newborn tiny tot anymore. He likes to sit on my hip when I hold him, he plays with toys, he'll entertain himself on his play mat or in his exosaucer for long periods of time, and he can sit up for a couple of minutes at a time. The only "tiny baby" about him is his hands and his sleeping schedule.

Jack is mostly bottle fed at this point, because he rejects nursing the majority of the time. He has to be really sleepy and mellow to nurse, otherwise, he needs a bottle so that he can look around. Sometimes it makes me frustrated, but I keep reminding myself that it's not my fault, it doesn't make me a bad mom, and that he had over 6 good months of the good stuff. Hopefully all the immunities are in place. Honestly, I think because I worked for the first 5 months of his life and he took pumped milk in bottles while I was away, he learned rather quickly that bottles were easier, less work, and gave him more freedom to enjoy his surroundings while eating.

Jack has also moved into three meals of solid food a day-- and he's doing great. He usually has a cereal feeding and orange veggie feeding and a green veggie feeding. And we mix fruit in there most of the time too, although the only veggie that requires fruit are green beans- they literally give him the shakes and gags if I don't mix in some applesauce, ha! I'm also making his baby food, like I did with Max. I'm going to do a whole opinionated post on that after the new year-- my goal is to convince all moms that is SO easy, SO much cheaper, and you're in complete control of what they're eating-- fresh, no preservatives, organic if you choose, etc.... but I'll elaborate on that soapbox later :)

Like I mentioned before, Jack's sleeping is less than stellar... naps are great, 2, two-hour naps during the day, the occasional cat nap around dinner time, but then night time in a whole other story.  For some reason, it's getting worse-- he's had ear infections, a throat virus, and tummy ache, and now he's teething-- plus several out of town trips and holidays and such- so I'm trying to just "get through" until the new year, but me and baby J see each other many times during the night--arrrghhhh! He's usually easy to get back down- but the poor boy, he slept better when he was 2 weeks old! But on the in-between nights, when he's not any of the things mentioned about, he'll sleep from about 7:30/8p to about 5am, and then with a little paci insertion, I can get him to go another hour or two. But honestly this mom just needs so sleep-- like more than 3 ours in a row.

BUT in all other areas, Jack is perfection. His smile, his personality, his roll legs, his laugh, his go with the flow attitude, his ability to "hang" with a busy big brother, his need for cuddles, and his love for his momma! His separation anxiety seems to be gone (for now at least)- I go to the gym 4-5 times a week and he does great, and he's becoming a regular in the church nursery too-- making it the whole time. His hair is long enough to actually stick up at this point-- but it's white and therefore see-through still.... but just get close and you'll love it. And his eye lashes are 47 miles long. Oh this baby is beautiful and happy and wonderful.

And loved.  A lot!

He's just now moving out of the 6 month clothes-- into the 6-9 month or just 9 months range. As soon as this batch of diapers are finished, we'll move to size 3 of those too, just because I feel like his man parts need room to grow ;)  I would love it if he would totally master sitting up so I don't have to lug his carseat around, otherwise, I'd like to freeze him right here for a couple years. This is honestly such a fun stage- there is so much light in his eyes and excitement for the world around.

Needless to say Mr. Jack, we think you are awesome. You are such an important part of our family and I just love the balance and chill you bring to my life. It's been wonderful loving on you through this Christmas season and putting myself in Mary's shoes-- it's so unbelievably amazing to be your mom, I just can't imagine how Mary felt bringing the Savior of the world into the world. I really hope you enjoy this first Christmas and that somehow, it plants a seed in your heart forever, to recognize the joy a certain little baby brought so many years ago- He came in human form for me and for you-- He came to save us from our sin. Having you as a baby really changed my world, but when Jesus came as a baby, he changed the whole world, FOREVER. Praise God, baby J, praise Him with your whole life!  Make Him your life! I love you!

Toddler For Sale!

Oh people, let me just say this nicely... I have a toddler for sale today. Oh my word- this child! You just can't really understand the throes of the "terrible two's" until you have a terrible two. This child makes me want to knock my own head against the wall over and over and over and over. On purpose. They were on to something when they gave it that name... whoever "they" are!

But "they" left out an adjective, in my opinion- I think this stage that my Max is in should be deemed the "terribly terrific twos". His brain is like no other, and when he's sweet, man he melts me. When he's thinking, man he tickles me to death. But when he's rotten and disobeying and thinking he's king of the world, man, it's all I can do not to put him at the intersection with a sign reading "free to a good home".

Recently, while riding in the car, he told me and Chad "God makes me happy!"And after talking about the letter "V" and teaching him that my mom (his Annie's) name is Vicki and that starts with a 'V' he then decided that she was indeed VICKI MOUSE, much to mine and Gabe's amusement. If you ask him, Snowmen have corn for a nose and Christmas is Jesus' birthday party. This is all terrific!

The past two Wednesdays, while I was at youth group, Max just politely and cutely told his Dad that he didn't want a bath, and got out of it both times. And earlier this week, when I was trying to discipline Max, he started talking about the ceiling and trying to get me to "yook at it" so I asked him why he was distracting me... he responded "I not want to know what you say." He was a poot the entire time we tried to take family pictures a couple weeks ago. And he'll also throw things, stomp, lay down and kick, and scream like a dying pig if he doesn't get his way. This is all terrible.

But do you know what gets me the most? We didn't teach him this- it just came with the package that is Max. Our wooden spoon gets a lot of use and usually spends the night right beside Max on his bedside table as a "reminder" of what happens to little boys who don't obey. My child raising books are also getting a lot of use right now. But my hugs and my smiles and my laughs get a lot of use too. Sometimes I try to remember what my life was like before I had my little buddy Max and I just can't-- he brings me so much joy and reminds me at least hourly of how blessed we are to have him.

So that's how I ended up with the terribly terrific twos. I vote we start a movement to change the name. Not because this stage isn't hard- it is-- so very hard! But because it's also equally as wonderful and why in the world would we want to scare anyone away from enjoying this phenomena of the second year of a child's life? It shows how wonderful God made each and everyone of us, how He crafted our amazing brains and our amazing bodies.... and it shows how sinful we are, naturally, in our flesh, and then it shows our need for a Savior, and once again, points us all back to a great big wonderful loving God, who loved us while we were sinners, and sent his Son in the form of a baby to save us from ourselves.

So when my two year old is driving me nuts, thank you God for your grace. And when my two year old is amazing me and bringing me joy, thank you God for your grace. And when I question my own sanity in motherhood, thank you God for your grace. And when my eyes fill with tears over the blessing of this babe, thank you God for your grace!