Saturday, October 27, 2012
It's Fall!
This afternoon, we took Shepherd and Lydia to a pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful fall day, and we had a wonderful time. Here are just a few pictures from our outing.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The New Title
For three months now, I've had a daughter, which means that for three months, Just Me and My Boys has not been an appropriate title for my blog. I hadn't changed the title yet, though, because I could not come up with a good replacement. But finally, I've decided on a title that fits what this blog has always been and hopefully will continue to be: Doing Family Nerd Style. Since deciding, I've had several moments of confidence about this title. Here is a list of just a few:
-BJ turning on a podcast of Hardcore History about Genghis Khan for the two minute drive from the YMCA to our house.
-Me reading Stanley Hauerwas's Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memior aloud to BJ as road trip entertainment on our way to Ft. Worth.
-Us showing off Shepherd's "Little Trekkie" t-shirt at his birthday party. Shepherd loves their theme song.
-Watching the presidential debate with Lydia in her "Babies for Obama" onesie. Lydia is such a nerd.
-Going to a museum exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls with BJ, and BJ excitedly buying a t-shirt that says, "Hebrew? It's Greek to me."
Yes, I'm pretty sure this title will work.
-BJ turning on a podcast of Hardcore History about Genghis Khan for the two minute drive from the YMCA to our house.
-Me reading Stanley Hauerwas's Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memior aloud to BJ as road trip entertainment on our way to Ft. Worth.
-Us showing off Shepherd's "Little Trekkie" t-shirt at his birthday party. Shepherd loves their theme song.
-Watching the presidential debate with Lydia in her "Babies for Obama" onesie. Lydia is such a nerd.
-Going to a museum exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls with BJ, and BJ excitedly buying a t-shirt that says, "Hebrew? It's Greek to me."
Yes, I'm pretty sure this title will work.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Look Who's TWO!!!
Monday, Shepherd turned two years old. I can't believe it. And I really can't believe that on his second birthday, we have a three month old. If you had told me that two years ago, I would have laughed, and then maybe cried a little, and then laughed some more.
We had a wonderful time watching Shepherd open presents.
Notice Lydia's participation. She is pretty content to chill on the sidelines.
The night before, I stayed up until one in the morning decoration and cooking. BJ walked out of our bedroom at 12:45 to find me hanging the bunting. His exact words: "Seriously, Kalyn?" Yes, I seriously decorate for my son's birthday. Seriously.
Monday evening, we had some friends over to celebrate. There is nothing like celebrating the birth of your wonderful son with wonderful friends who also love him.
Before everyone left, I asked Steve to take a picture of the four of us. The kids weren't that into it, so BJ and I overcompensated with ridiculously exagerated smiles. We look wierd. So all in all, a pretty accurate family portrait.
Lydia then got tired of the party.
That pretty much sums up the day. Needless to say, it was a wonderful day, not despite of all the chaos created by my children, but rather because we were specifically celebrating Shepherd and his chaos-inducing little self. I love my little buddy.
We had a wonderful time watching Shepherd open presents.
Notice Lydia's participation. She is pretty content to chill on the sidelines.
The night before, I stayed up until one in the morning decoration and cooking. BJ walked out of our bedroom at 12:45 to find me hanging the bunting. His exact words: "Seriously, Kalyn?" Yes, I seriously decorate for my son's birthday. Seriously.
Monday evening, we had some friends over to celebrate. There is nothing like celebrating the birth of your wonderful son with wonderful friends who also love him.
Before everyone left, I asked Steve to take a picture of the four of us. The kids weren't that into it, so BJ and I overcompensated with ridiculously exagerated smiles. We look wierd. So all in all, a pretty accurate family portrait.
Lydia then got tired of the party.
That pretty much sums up the day. Needless to say, it was a wonderful day, not despite of all the chaos created by my children, but rather because we were specifically celebrating Shepherd and his chaos-inducing little self. I love my little buddy.
Monday, October 08, 2012
For anyone and everyone with a "baby itch", look at your own risk.
In the comments for my last blog post (the one concerning my chaotic Sunday at church), my dear friend, Carolyn, thanked me for posting something that cancelled out all of the cute pictures I'm always posting of Shepherd and Lydia. Apparently, the pictures had been giving her the baby itch, but my post brought her back to reality. Well, since I do love babies and I think Carolyn and her husband would have very cute babies, I decided to spend this past week collecting adorable pictures of my children. Here we go.
-All little boys need a fort, so while I was cooking lunch the other day, I helped Shepherd assemble his first fort under our kitchen table.
-This is just Lydia sleeping. I thought I'd also post a close up of her sleeping, because babies sleeping are incredibly cute.
-While baking cookies with me, Shepherd accidentally burned his hand. The only way we could console him was for him to lay on BJ (who was sick) and hold my cold water bottle. They both fell asleep during the process. I thought it was pretty adorable.
-This picture is of my children's faces. I love their faces.
-This is Lydia and BJ sharing a moment. Is there anything cuter than a father and daughter sharing a moment?
-Here are some more angles of the moment. Are her ears not the coolest ears ever put on a child? When I'm feeling blue, I just lay her on my lap and stare at her ears. It makes me happy.
-This is Shepherd ready for our first really cold day this fall. Love it!
-This is Lydia being Lydia with her cute scrunchy face. Enough said.
-To really pack the cute punch, I dressed both of my children in overalls today. Overalls+babies=bliss.
-And the grand finale: The Kiss!
Public service announcement: If anyone suddenly feels compelled to toss out birth control pills, I've heard doing it in the toilet is bad for the water supply and the environment. Dispose responsibly!
-All little boys need a fort, so while I was cooking lunch the other day, I helped Shepherd assemble his first fort under our kitchen table.
-This is just Lydia sleeping. I thought I'd also post a close up of her sleeping, because babies sleeping are incredibly cute.
-While baking cookies with me, Shepherd accidentally burned his hand. The only way we could console him was for him to lay on BJ (who was sick) and hold my cold water bottle. They both fell asleep during the process. I thought it was pretty adorable.
-This picture is of my children's faces. I love their faces.
-This is Lydia and BJ sharing a moment. Is there anything cuter than a father and daughter sharing a moment?
-Here are some more angles of the moment. Are her ears not the coolest ears ever put on a child? When I'm feeling blue, I just lay her on my lap and stare at her ears. It makes me happy.
-This is Shepherd ready for our first really cold day this fall. Love it!
-This is Lydia being Lydia with her cute scrunchy face. Enough said.
-To really pack the cute punch, I dressed both of my children in overalls today. Overalls+babies=bliss.
-And the grand finale: The Kiss!
Public service announcement: If anyone suddenly feels compelled to toss out birth control pills, I've heard doing it in the toilet is bad for the water supply and the environment. Dispose responsibly!
Monday, October 01, 2012
Navigating Sundays
As a minister in the Disciples of Christ, BJ sits at the front of our sanctuary for the entire service. This means that from 10:40 a.m. to 12:00 noon every Sunday, I'm a single mom. While I was pregnant with Lydia, I kept thinking to myself, "This is going to get really hard when I have two." Turns out, I was right.
Here is a quick recap of yesterday's church service. As soon as the organ started playing to cue people to sit down, Lydia decided she was hungry, but not just hungry: she was in fact famished. I left Shepherd on our pew with Steve and Lana and went to the small sitting room in our ladies' bathroom to nurse Lydia. After a quick feeding, I returned to the sanctuary. About 10 minutes after returning, Lydia wet a diaper and demanded I change it. I got up to leave once again, but Shepherd quickly made it clear that if I left without him again, he would be deeply heartbroken. So to avoid a scene, I took him with us back to the ladies' room.
I changed Lydia, and decided to nurse her just long enough to put her to sleep before returning. While nursing her, Shepherd snuck into the connecting bathroom. He came back with a wet hand. Guess how it got wet? I cleaned him up one handed without Lydia ever stopping her nursing (she had apparently decided to make this intended snack a drawn out feast) and returned to the sitting room bench. Shepherd then started examining some artificial flowers in a large, beautiful vase that decorated the space. After pulling one flower for closer examination, the vase fell to the tile floor and crashed into a hundred pieces. I was mortified. Lydia was still eating. About five seconds after the crash, a wonderful woman (another young mother) came running into the bathroom to check on us. She was gracious enough to sweep up the mess.
Just as the mess was cleaned, Lydia unlatched and immediately pooped. Of course, as luck would have it, I was fresh out of wet wipes. So after putting my boobs back in place, grabbing the diaper bag and Lydia, and holding Shepherd's hand, I started to journey over to the nursery. On the way, I took communion at the back of the church. When I got to the nursery, Shepherd immediately feared I was going to leave him there and broke down sobbing (he has recently decided that he wants to be in church for the entire service). I had to pass Lydia off while I comforted him, but I was finally able to change her diaper and we headed back to the service.
We made it for the beginning of BJ's sermon. I laid Lydia next to me on the pew and Shepherd set on my lap happily eating bunny grahams and watching his dad. Of course, by this time Lydia was tired from eating then peeing then eating then pooping. So she lost it. Shepherd was totally un-phased by this and just stayed right on my lap not caring that I needed to comfort his sister. I managed to get Lydia into an awkward side hold that allowed for some semblance of bouncing. She found it all very unsatisfying. Thankfully, one of the ladies came and offered to take Lydia for a walk. Lydia immediately fell asleep and the remaining 10 minutes of the service where uneventful.
Needless to say, by the end of this I was fried, but what I kept telling myself was that I could not let this really horrible, no good, very bad morning get to me. The fact is, any standards we mothers put on ourselves and our babies is put on by us and/or societal expectations. God sure as heck isn't doing it. He just cares that we were there and we were trying. My hope is that seeing the preacher's family in total disarray will make everyone else feel a little more comfortable when it is their kids having the especially bad morning.
Next Sunday, me and my two hooligans will be back with my total lack of knowing what I'm doing and their total lack of sophistication to worship God again. I'm actually not at all sure that what we did yesterday morning wasn't worship. Lydia was fully and unabashedly human. God loves that. Shepherd was curious about the world around him while also totally devoted to being with his parents while they did this weird thing they do once a week. God loves that, too. As for me, I was being humbled by the incredible chaos my beautiful children are capable of creating. I think that might just be worship, too.
Here is a quick recap of yesterday's church service. As soon as the organ started playing to cue people to sit down, Lydia decided she was hungry, but not just hungry: she was in fact famished. I left Shepherd on our pew with Steve and Lana and went to the small sitting room in our ladies' bathroom to nurse Lydia. After a quick feeding, I returned to the sanctuary. About 10 minutes after returning, Lydia wet a diaper and demanded I change it. I got up to leave once again, but Shepherd quickly made it clear that if I left without him again, he would be deeply heartbroken. So to avoid a scene, I took him with us back to the ladies' room.
I changed Lydia, and decided to nurse her just long enough to put her to sleep before returning. While nursing her, Shepherd snuck into the connecting bathroom. He came back with a wet hand. Guess how it got wet? I cleaned him up one handed without Lydia ever stopping her nursing (she had apparently decided to make this intended snack a drawn out feast) and returned to the sitting room bench. Shepherd then started examining some artificial flowers in a large, beautiful vase that decorated the space. After pulling one flower for closer examination, the vase fell to the tile floor and crashed into a hundred pieces. I was mortified. Lydia was still eating. About five seconds after the crash, a wonderful woman (another young mother) came running into the bathroom to check on us. She was gracious enough to sweep up the mess.
Just as the mess was cleaned, Lydia unlatched and immediately pooped. Of course, as luck would have it, I was fresh out of wet wipes. So after putting my boobs back in place, grabbing the diaper bag and Lydia, and holding Shepherd's hand, I started to journey over to the nursery. On the way, I took communion at the back of the church. When I got to the nursery, Shepherd immediately feared I was going to leave him there and broke down sobbing (he has recently decided that he wants to be in church for the entire service). I had to pass Lydia off while I comforted him, but I was finally able to change her diaper and we headed back to the service.
We made it for the beginning of BJ's sermon. I laid Lydia next to me on the pew and Shepherd set on my lap happily eating bunny grahams and watching his dad. Of course, by this time Lydia was tired from eating then peeing then eating then pooping. So she lost it. Shepherd was totally un-phased by this and just stayed right on my lap not caring that I needed to comfort his sister. I managed to get Lydia into an awkward side hold that allowed for some semblance of bouncing. She found it all very unsatisfying. Thankfully, one of the ladies came and offered to take Lydia for a walk. Lydia immediately fell asleep and the remaining 10 minutes of the service where uneventful.
Needless to say, by the end of this I was fried, but what I kept telling myself was that I could not let this really horrible, no good, very bad morning get to me. The fact is, any standards we mothers put on ourselves and our babies is put on by us and/or societal expectations. God sure as heck isn't doing it. He just cares that we were there and we were trying. My hope is that seeing the preacher's family in total disarray will make everyone else feel a little more comfortable when it is their kids having the especially bad morning.
Next Sunday, me and my two hooligans will be back with my total lack of knowing what I'm doing and their total lack of sophistication to worship God again. I'm actually not at all sure that what we did yesterday morning wasn't worship. Lydia was fully and unabashedly human. God loves that. Shepherd was curious about the world around him while also totally devoted to being with his parents while they did this weird thing they do once a week. God loves that, too. As for me, I was being humbled by the incredible chaos my beautiful children are capable of creating. I think that might just be worship, too.
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