The Way to My Little Man's Heart

The cutest thing happened today. Eli was taking a sweet long nap this afternoon. I had to wake him up to get to Sat. night church. Aiden and I were both sweetly trying to wake him up and he was sleeping so hard. He started getting mad and kicking.

Then Aiden walked in with a bag of popcorn.

Without Eli even opening his eyes he softly says "popcorn?" and got a little grin (eyes still closed) and slowly started sitting up. My Little Man has a good sniffer! I can't believe that made him get up so happily and that he knew the smell so good!

Using some Johnny Maxwell in the Family :)

Something we are working on in our household lately is a simple little concept known as Self-Control. I am so convicted lately because I realize that "everything rises and falls on leadership" as John Maxwell says, and that doesn't just apply to the workplace, it completely relates to family life. How I go, is how the family tends to go.

If I want my kids to show self-control, I HAVE to show it first. This doesn't sound that a "light bulb" moment, but it is in my head. Every time I start to feel my blood pressure start to rise when the boys are getting wild, the first question that pops in my head now is "what am I doing?". It can spin out of control FAST if I don't take that second to pause and collect myself and assess.

Some tips I've heard that seem to help us with a 2 & 4 yr old are:
1. Get your kid to say the word. example: if they are being impatient and want something, make them stop and say the word "patient" and go over the definition. By the time they repeat it, it usually gets them to calm down enough that you can "talk". If it gets ugly from there, you know discipline must ensue. :) This works when trying to get them to learn any of the fruits of the Spirit.
2. The calmer you are, the quicker you see a change in their attitude. I am definitely working on. I get easily revved up, and I learned this lesson from watching the few episodes of the Duggar family with 18 kids, that mom is amazing how calm she stays in chaos.
3. Take a time out. As much as the kids may need it, I do too. :) If I don't take a few minutes to recollect myself, it's not pretty. This also goes for "time off". I don't like using that term, but it's the best way I can describe it. Taking a few hours, have someone stay with the kids (usually my hubby in my case) and decompress. My goal is to try to do that once a week.

So I in no way have it all figured out, and would love ANY tips you may have for teaching self-control and patience. This is a work in progress. :)

Kid Friendly Big Cities?

We got to travel up to NYC the 1st week of January to visit my sister in law and her hubby. We had a great time, but I discovered 1 thing, NYC is not kid friendly. I love visiting the Big Apple. This was our first trip with the boys. We had a great time. The 2 famous huge toy stores were the big hit for sure. NYC does have some great things to offer for little kids, Central Park, Times Square Toys R Us, FAO Schwartz, and a few others.... but the NYC Subway system is NOT, I repeat NOT kid friendly. I think I have gotten spoiled in DC with their Metro system & free events/museums.

#1 We don't have a rat problem here,

#2 we have elevators at every Metro stop, and escalators too,

#3 you have to pay for just about everything.

The entire time we were in NYC we didn't see 1 elevator or escalator for the stroller. Luckily we just brought our small umbrella one and we had extra hands, because we would have been out of luck if we had the double stroller.

So note to self, if you feel the itch to go to a big city with little kids, I recommend Washington, DC... so many free great places to go with kids, and a friendly Metro for sure! If you live in NYC- God Bless you if you have children, I don't know HOW you do it. :) Don't worry I still {heart} NYC!

Monthly Ministry Newsletters

If you are interested in reading our monthly ministry newsletters or signing up to be on the email list for them, let me know. Here is a link to check it out!

Middleton Monthly Ministry Newsletter

Peer Pressure Paying Off?

There is good peer pressure, that pushes you to do the right thing, then there is bad peer pressure.... i'm sure we all know about that one.

Tonight we moved Eli into a big boy bed for the 1st time! I am optimistic that this will go well from the looks of it tonight. After thinking about it, I honestly think it's because of good peer pressure! Aiden and Eli share a room, and Eli has been asking and asking to sleep in a big bed for weeks now. He started climbing out of his crib, so we had to make the decision. We didn't have such luck when Aiden made this transition... that was a battle. But I really think that since Eli has Aiden there (to tell on him) and to show by example Eli should do better.

Maybe it's a theory, we'll have to see how it goes. :) I can't believe how fast they grow up!!