"Because I Said So"

Well it has happened - I have started using the dreaded parental words - "Because I Said So!" I now know why they are used so frequently because I just can't help myself - I have run out of other things to say! The story: Haylie's newest favorite response to anything and everything I say is " WHY?" This has been going on for about the past month (I keep forgetting to include it in "The Little Things" - not sure how...)

Some examples:

M: "It's time to go to bed." H:"Why?
M: "Can you give James a toy?" H: "Why?"
M: "OK, let's get in the car so we can go to the park." H: "Why?"
M: "Do you want ice cream?" H: "Why?"

A typical conversation goes like this:

M: It's time to eat dinner"
H: "Why?"
M: "Because you said you were hungry."
H: "Why?"
M: "Because you haven't eaten in a little while."
H: "Why?"
M: "Because you just woke up from your nap."
H: "Why?"
M: "Because you needed to get some rest."
H: "Why?"
M: "Because we went to the park this morning."
H: "Why?"
M: "Because we wanted to go have fun."
H: "Why?"

So the next response.... (How many times would you be able answer the question "why?" before resorting to one of the following fallback responses):

-"Because I said so"
-"Don't ask me why anymore"
-"That's enough"
-"Because God made it that way" (this is Micah's good-natured response, although I have tried it and it usually prompts another "Why?" which could lead to many more answers and many more Why's, unless I follow it by one of the other fallback responses listed above.)

Sidebar:

In the car we like to sing "Old McDonald Had a Farm." When Haylie runs out of animals we move onto people. When we get to Haylie we sing the following (and she loves it!!):

"Old McDonald had a farm, EIEIO. And on this farm he had a Haylie, EIEIO. With a WHY WHY here and WHY WHY there, here a WHY, there a WHY, everywhere a WHY WHY WHY WHY..."

M: "Smile for Mommy." H: "WHY???"

The Little Things - All By Myself

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault

Haylie - The following are Haylie's latest "little things..."
"By myself "- Haylie now wants to do everything by herself! I think it started with potty training. Since she is now a big girl it seems there is nothing she cannot do by herself. I want to put on my clothes "by myself," I want to go potty "by myself," I want to go night night "by myself," she even told Daddy not to hold her in the pool recently because she wanted to swim "by myself." (She changed her tune once she sucked in a little water!)

Afraid of the dark - Strangely enough, despite her now found independence, Haylie has very recently become afraid of the dark. Every time she goes to bed now she requests the light on and / or the door open. We bought her a little night light which she seems to be ok with for now. We have been trying to decide if she is really afraid of the dark or just wants the light so she can get her books and read in bed!

James - James really wants to crawl (especially since Haylie keeps taking away his toys and seems to leave them just out of his reach). He gets up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth but can't manage to get anywhere - soon soon!

Raider - Raider is my new shopping buddy. I wrote about his first purchase awhile ago - the first time he showed any interest in spending his money on something other than video games and candy :) Throughout our whole time in Canada - he jumped at any mention of shopping and wanted to make sure he was counted in (before he did anything he could to get out of it). While in Victoria we walked into a mall for a little while during our adventure around town (mostly to get out of the rain). Both Raider and I bought a sweater (sweatshirt for him) - at the same store! Not sure if that's bad for me or him (he quickly reminded me we both shop at Old Navy..) Here is Raider posing in a phone booth in his new sweatshirt.

Eleventeen

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Eleventeen
Fifteen

Wait what was that??? Yes ELEVENTEEN. Didn't you know? Eleventeen is the new Fourteen. At least according to Haylie. I have explained to her that fourteen is the next number in line, like 3, 4, 5 - 13, 14, 15 but I think she prefers her own version, because every time I ask her to count - eleventeen it is!!

Vacation Part 6 - Heading Home

This is the final post about our vacation. I decided to break it out into these 6 parts because I know I'll never remember all the little stories that were important in each place we went - and I especially want to remember them for when I get around to scrapbooking our time (which probably won't be until next year since I seem to stay about a year behind lately). One part of the story I know I will never forget is the 4 HOURS that we spent at the US Border waiting to go home. It was unbelievable - the line was sooo long and backed up it took us 4 hours to go .7 miles. By the time we finally got across we were a little grumpy and hungry (we were at the border from about 12 -4 so we hadn't eaten lunch yet). We had to rush to get to Seattle so Micah and Raider could make their baseball game.

One of the highlights of Micah's trip was getting to check out SafeCo field at a Seattle Mariner's game. He and Raider had some guy time while I hung out with Sarah a little more. Luckily they made it to the game and only missed the 1st inning.

On Saturday we had the opportunity to stop in Portland and visit with the Marleau family, some friends of mine from work. We hung out at the Portland waterfront and found a really big fountain...

...which Haylie had a great time playing in.

The car ride home on Saturday was very long because Micah decided to drive all the way through. He was a trooper as he drove the entire trip, a total of over 2000 miles. We got in at 4 in the morning and we were all exhausted. Look at all these happy faces in the car on our way home though. What a fun time.

At the end of it all Micah and I decided that although we had a great vacation we are not doing anymore big road trips until the kids are older. We were thinking we probably could have had "almost" as much fun without driving 2000+ miles in a week. Especially considering Haylie's favorite parts of the trip were the park, the train ride and the pool - all of which we could have done at home :), and Raider's favorite part was the arcade! However, one thing we definitely could not have done at home was visting with all our friends - the Dillards and the Marleaus. Haylie still asks to go back to Jack's house!

My favorite part was just spending all day every day with my favorite people - can't beat that!!!

Please Pray

We need prayers right now for Micah's mom (Sharon) and our family. I wrote previously about Micah's mom's lung condition here, in a post I had titled "Prayer Works," so now we really need that prayer to work. Sharon's health continues to deteriorate as she awaits new lungs, and most recently she is back in the hospital due to a bad reaction to some medicine she is taking. It is so hard to watch someone you love deal with any kind of pain, but Sharon is such an amazing person that we just can't help but count our blessings that we have her in our life.

As I was sitting by her bed today, she wanted me to read something out of her devotional book from Friday which had really spoken to her. The book is a devotional and journal for every day of the year. As I flipped through the pages I couldn't help but notice the thorough journaling that filled every single page up until today. I started reading through some of the entries and saw that she is faithfully praying for each member of our family every single day. I read her prayers for when I was waiting to give birth to James, for my recovery, for our various travels and other things going on in our life. What a blessing to have someone who loves us so much that she faithfully spends time EVERY day talking / writing to God on our behalf.

In our Bible Study we are reading Proverbs and one verse stood out to me yesterday "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones." Prov 3:7-8 Even in the midst of her pain and discomfort Sharon continues to Praise God and point everyone around her right back to Him. She has a healthy fear of the Lord and I pray this verse would be true that He will bring health to her body and nourishment to her bones!

Snake Update

The snake was spotted again tonight under the kitchen cabinet. Thankfully Micah was the one who opened it - I don't think I could have handled that!!! Unfortunately he noticed it just in time to see it slithering back into a crack in the wall. Hopefully it will come back soon - tomorrow we are going to the store to see if they have a snake trap!

Vacation part 5 - Victoria

OK last time we left off on vacation, Raider was very sick on the way to Vancouver. Thankfully after our first day in Vancouver Raider was feeling better , and no one else ended up sick. So we headed on to Victoria via ferry. We loved it because you drive your car onto the very large boat and then just walk upstairs where there is seating, restaurants, gift shops and even a little play structure for the kids.

When we got to Victoria it was cold and raining outside, of course. We seemed to have a little rain cloud following us everwhere we went! We had planned to go see the famous Butchart Gardens but when we arrived there, the kids had fallen asleep and it was miserable outside. So we opted not to get out - we did a little loop in the car and snapped a quick photo of part of the gardens.

We checked into our hotel which we were excited to see also had a pretty nice view of the town and the ocean from the balcony.

We had no idea what we were going to do since the weather wasn't cooperating, but Micah and I decided we weren't going to let it ruin our time there so we strapped on our jackets, bought some ponchos to put over the strollers and headed out for a walk around town in the rain. It was actually a fun time all together, getting wet. :) The town was adorable and my favorite part was the hanging flower pots that were everywhere, lining the streets on every lamppost and all along the restaurants.

Later that evening we came back and swam in the hotel pool before bed. James really liked playing in the water and as usual Haylie and Raider loved swimming too. Overall we had a great time in Victoria and had to prepare for heading back home...