If the thought of your toddler going to college makes the tears flow (like me) or if you're my mom and just dropped your 7th child off at BYU this past weekend, you should read this article.

After Mason's 2nd birthday party, when all of the chaos had died down, he fell asleep on our bed between Austin and I for a nap. Instead of sleeping I just looked at him and cried. And cried and cried. If 2 years went this fast, where will the rest of the time go?

And last night Miriam spent her first night in her own room. Five months has never passed so quickly in my life. These sweet babies are my greatest privilege and I cling desparately to every moment with them.

Please stop growing so fast, little ones.

Lifelong Learning

I consider myself to be a new mom; I'm definitely still green and raw when it comes to real deal parenting. I feel like I've barely wrapped my head around how to parent a newborn which is SO physical (feeding, sleeping, changing, bathing,etc) and now we've headed into the behavioral and emotional parenting aspects of our sweet toddler. 

I grew up in a home where I literally never heard my mother yell or even raise her voice. I never knew how difficult that must have been for her until I had a toddler. Sometimes they just push all the right buttons in just the right ways, don't they? But I have promised myself that I will not be a yelling mom because I am so grateful to my calm and kind mother who showed me how effective gentle parenting can be. She was not a push over by any means, we knew when she meant business. And it was usually when she was speaking quietly to us that we were the most afraid. =)

Mason is really rather well-behaved for a two year old. But he's still a two year old, so we have our episodes and challenges on a daily basis. Our usual method of "discipline" has been timeout, the traditional sit on the stairs for two minutes (because he's two) kind of thing. I always have a little discussion with him after the timer has gone off about why he was put on timeout. But I somehow feel like it's just not allowing me to teach him in the way that I want. It's more like getting him out of my hair for a couple minutes rather than helping him learn to behave a different way.

I finally sat myself down to research some alternative methods to timeout. I came across this fabulous blog called The Hippie Housewife. I've barely delved into the material that she has, but I love her already. We're obviously planning on tailoring these ideas to fit our family and each individual child. But I can't wait to implement her suggestions.

 

She says: " The purpose of our parenting should be problem-solving and teaching, not behaviour-training through consequences or punishments."

I think this perfectly sums up the approach I've been searching for. So tonight we had a Family Home Evening lesson on her post called "Gentle Discipline Basics: Ten Alternatives to Timeout". 

We used this in conjunction with Rosemary Wixom's talk from April General Conference titled "The Words We Speak." I am in love with this talk and highly recommend reading and re-reading it. She has such a powerful message.

I've been seeking to create a more peacful environment in our home and also really loved Elder Scott's talk "For Peace at Home". Another wonderful reminder that we should approach parenting in a Christ-like and loving manner.

I'm grateful to have access to so many resources that allow me to learn and grow as a parent. I definitely need all the help I can get! =)

Pool Party!

Grandma and Grandpa decided our summer wouldn't be complete without a POOL! Mason was pretty much thrilled all week about getting to go and swim. The weather here is crazy hot. Seriously. Crazy. Sweltering. Humid. Hot. Any method of cooling down is definitely in order.

The Miriam series.

Chubby baby. Skinny jeans. 'Nuff said.
These jeans are size 6 months and I could barely squeeze her chubby little thighs into them. It was just too cute to not take three dozen pictures of.
Her darling striped onesie was a gift picked out for her by Grandpa.

I could kiss those cheeks all day long.

Tiny Chef

Who doesn't love pizza? And the only thing better than pizza is homemade pizza. Mason was ecstatic about helping and I love that he's getting big enough to be interested in these kind of things. 

After we had pizza for dinner that first night, every time I asked him what he wanted for breakfast/lunch/dinner the answer was "umm...some pizza!" And he'd throw his hands in the air. How do I say no to that? 

So for lunch three days in a row we had pizza. 

I am still working on a breakfast pizza so I can really make his dreams come true.

Surveying the goods

Roll it, and roll it, and mark it with a "B"...

Sometimes you have to take your clothes off to make really good pizza.

Poor sister. Mason has a strange way of showing affection.

"We're makin' PIZZA!!!"

What a face.

Enjoying the fruits of his labor.

A small visitor

A couple of weeks ago Austin spotted a turtle out the window trying to run as fast as turtles can across our driveway. Luckily Austin isn't a total wuss like me, and he went and picked him up to show Mason. Of course he went into his shell, so we set him on the porch and watched quietly until he poked his little head out and started walking. Mason was thrilled! And then insisted that we feed him some carrots. On Blue's Clue's, Blue has a turtle named turquoise that eats carrots. My child is pretty educated via television. {Mom fail}.  We put out some carrots but he wasn't interested, and went on his way into the wilderness behind our house. So long little friend!

An assortment of adventures of a cute baby and a wild toddler.

Vintage baby sweater

Barnes and Noble reading nook

A Sunday hike in Clemmon's Park

Hopscotch!

Learning our numbers

The maiden voyage in the doubler stroller

T-shirt headbands

A trip to Goodwill. Just the essentials.

We did not buy these.

Don't mind my creepy face, but she love to cuddle like this and it's so darling and yummy.

Bows.

A pretty amazing shoe selection

"Do you want a bowl, Mason?"

"Hmm...let's see, no thank you."

More bows....

A whale hat and a big boy cup

Mason's solution to the missing candle.

Kool-Aid paint

Baby bed head

Tent reading

Pajama time

Insisted on wearing Daddy's old rain coat

Sidewalk chalk mishap

Sidewalk chalk clean up

Discovering toes!

Sharing baby snacks.