Pres likes his infant seat...15 months too late!

My dear friend Chrissy is about to pop any day now with the birth of her first son. I can't wait for him to get here. I've had tons of fun going through all of Pres' old toys and passing them along. It's a blessing to know that these things that Pres loved will now be able to be loved by baby A! Slowly but surely we've been sending everything out. This week the last items were sent. The stroller, car seat, and cradle.

Pete had them set out in the dining area so he wouldn't forget to take and have them shipped the other morning. I was making Pres' breakfast and didn't even think that he would be interested in the items. After all, the car seat has NO special memories for Pres. He hated that thing from the moment we put him in it and only slept in it when he had exhausted himself screaming! Having said this, imagine my surprise when I go to get Pres to feed him breakfast and I find him like this:


It was too much and I stood there taking as many pictures as I could. After all, I don't think I have any of him actually in it when he was little-he was always screaming!

Bath Time

Bath time has been a roll of the dice since Pres was born. On some nights, he absolutely loves it, and on others he is a big pain about it. Once Pres could sit up in the tub, Pete took over bath time (my hero when I've had a long day!). They do all kinds of silly things from playing with cars to splashing all over the place. Here's some pictures of Pres' new favorite kind of bath-a bubble bath. Make sure to notice the Thomas and Salty trains. That child is waaaaaay to into those silly trains.

Toddler Fun

Our nap time wake up routine is as follows...I open his door and am greeted with either a grump (if it wasn't long enough nap) or a big grin. He then wants to be picked up, head to the kitchen and get some juice. Once he has his juice cup, he lays about on the couch drinking it for a bit. Once he's done, he tosses the juice cup, gives a big stretch, and then begins to run to his toys.









Today he wanted to go and play outside. I needed to weed, so it was the perfect thing to do. He played in the sprinkler and had a blast "helping" me water the plants- for some reason the front door needed to be watered today!










Who knew you could have so much fun with a $2.99 sprinkler from Home Depot!

TGIF

**UPDATE for Jackie in Denver** My sister left her camera at her bf's house, I should have them on Wednesday!!!


We have a new tradition here at the Dean household. We have (insert the trumpet sound) da da daaaaa "Soccer Extravaganza Fridays"! My nephew is playing soccer now in this league and he has games every Friday. Last week was tons of fun and Pres happily played and giggled his way through our first game day. He only tried to run to his cousin once on the field, but in his defense, Dyer did try and run to us off the field once as well!

I made a picnic last week and am doing the same this week. It is so much fun to have all of the families together and eat and have a good laugh as the 6 & 7 year olds try and learn the game. We are quite the blended bunch with my sister, her ex-husband with his new wife, my parents, her ex's parents plus me, Pete and Pres! I enjoy all of them very much. They are just a great group of people and I am proud to be apart of them!

Last week Dyer scored a goal and I hope for the same this week! I didn't bring my camera last time because I didn't have high hopes for Pres lasting the entire time, but this week I am camera ready! I'll add pics in here tomorrow from our fun time!

Off to the smell of sweaty kids, dirt, and freshly cut grass...life is good!

Daddy Day

I titled this post "Daddy Day" because this Saturday all Pres wanted to do was be with Pete. From the moment he woke up yelling "Hiiiii Da-da" to naptime when he blew Pete and big smack with a "Mu-AH" "bi-yeeee daddy" on our way to his bed to finally bed time when daddy had to rock him to sleep, Pres was ALL about Pete. It was super cute and here are some pics of them doing boy stuff a.k.a. making a total mess of my house!




Snuggles for daddy after he woke up from his nap.


The obligatory picture for mommy...don't they look thrilled?!


Daddy simultaneously not missing his Premiership game and entertaining the kiddo.

Too cool for school! This cracks me up as he was shaking it all the way to give me a hug!

These next ones are Pete playing the guitar for Pres. He gets so excited and just runs in circles around Pete as he plays!

Fort Rucker Update #2

Pete has his orders, and he leaves for WOC school on November 24. He will get a two week break for Christmas, then graduate on Jan. 14. After that, he begins his flight training on Jan. 19th! Not too much time to get everything situated between the two, so we are trying to do it before.

Things are so crazy here. I am very stressed about settling things here and have been shocked with the things potential renters will say or even do. It's really disgusting and people should be ashamed of themselves. We thought we had a renter, but they are doing A LOT of back stepping right now. I'm about to hand in the towel and tell them forget it. I can't believe the requests and demands that people make. On one hand, I want to meet them because I don't want to be apart from Pete for 18 months. On the other hand, some things are just pushing it and I am reaching my bulls*#@ limit very quickly. We'll see how that goes. I'd like to ask you all to continue to pray that we find the right situation. Who knows...maybe we'll even get a miracle and be able to sell our home.

The Army has some assistance programs and I am in the process of getting together the information I need for them. They can help us with the sale of our home if we are having trouble. I'm not too sure if we qualify or not (probably not), but I will try and take advantage of every opportunity so that we can be together as a family.

Here's our Buyowner ad. http://www.buyowner.com/property.asp?code=orl26873

That's about all for now because I am at max capacity emotionally.

Pres "fixing" the table, diaper shenanigans, and pencil fun

I am so busy lately that I barely have time to think. School is intense and the extra classes are giving me about two hours of homework a day. Sorry the blog has been neglected. We had a wonderful weekend and a great week.

Pres found a pencil the other day and I have no idea where it came from. I asked him to give it to me (which he did and is very good at doing) and then proceeded to tell him that it could hurt him. No more than seconds into my speech, I jab the pencil into my palm and hurt myself. This produced instant tears from me and a stunned look on Pres' face. Here's a pic of the damage.







Yesterday I was putting batteries in one of Pres' old toys for his friend Colton to play with. He watched me do it, reached for the screwdriver, then proceeded to flip the toy over and "work" on it, then flip it back to check it out just as I had. It was super cute! I think Colton was very happy that his friend made the toy work for him.








Other than that, Pres now will not keep his diaper on. It is becoming such a pain as he will take it off, throw it in the garbage and then proceed to run around the house naked. I wouldn't mind so much if this didn't leave me BIG pee pee messes to clean up! His tushy is cute and here's what I came out to the other morning after my shower. I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to do, but it sure is funny watching him try and fit in the back part of his Tonka truck!









This about sums up the past week pretty well! I just hope we get him potty trained before he starts to take off the poopy diapers! Heaven help me if we don't!

A little (big) rant...

Today started off to be a very promising day. Pres slept all through the night and woke up at 7am. He was happy and fun to be around. Nap time came and he went down like a champ UNTIL my annoying, overbearing, and self important Home Owner's Association president decided that he had to talk to me. He knocked on the door, I ignored it, after all nap time is when I do school. He knocked again, I ignored it again. He then began to ring the doorbell again and again and again and again. At this point, Pres is awake and screaming his head off, and I am irritated. To make it worse, he then begins to scream out my name!!!! Goodness. All of my blinds are shut and that is a big indication to GO AWAY! Rude, rude man. I throw open the door and he proceeds to tell me that the new grass they put in (on the common area) needs to be watered for 1 hour every day for the next 6 weeks. Uh-huh...okay...why is he telling ME this. I tell him that was the more idiotic excuse I have ever heard for his banging on my door repeatedly and not so nicely informed him that if he wanted it watered then he could do it himself! After all, that is why I pay $400.00 a month in home owner's fees, so they take care of that stuff. He then gets angry and says that the grass will die. At this point, Pres is still screaming and I had just had enough. I won't tell you what I said to him-it's not fit to print-but suffice to say I doubt he will ever knock on my door again. This afternoon, the sprinkler guys were here adding to the sprinkler system to water the grass. The moral of the story...sometimes it pays to be a big b*@#h.

Is Man good, or is man bad?

I am currently taking this course titled "What is Right with Me." Yikes...I know. I knew from the moment I saw the name on my school page that I was in trouble. This statement alone goes against every principle that I hold dear. For those of you who might not know, I hold dear to my saving grace relationship with Jesus Christ. This means, that there is nothing "right with me" and only by the grace of God am I not living in eternal darkness.

So...I'm in the first week of class and am trying to keep a low profile. I did not originally answer my discussion questions toting my faith as my argument. I used the principles of my faith, but I am well aware that there is a time and place for everything. Apparently my words hit home with some of my classmates. Two of them in fact came at me pretty aggressively. Frankly, for those of you who know me well, I am not one to back down and have terrible "foot in mouth syndrome". When I got the first one, I called Chrissy. She's the person who can reason with me and help me talk out what I want to say. She helped me and sent me on a search to make sure I would not make incorrect assertions.

Our discussion in class this week has been on autonomy and freedom; with this in mind, I was able to find these wonderful words from John Piper (if you don't know him, his website is www.desiringgod.org) and they were powerful. Some don't apply to what I need to do, but I think if you read the whole thing, you can see the point better.

What John Piper Said in Washington, D.C.
Download:

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By John Piper November 24, 2003


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I was invited to address a noontime forum called "Politics and Principle" in Washington D.C., sponsored by the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship. I thank them publicly here for that privilege. Since they do not tape the event, I promised my listeners that I would make some of my remarks available on the Desiring God website. The following remarks (with a few additions) were my introduction to a lecture on the life and ministry of William Wilberforce which can be read in its original form here.

More than ever since 9/11, Christians in America, and especially Christians in the U.S. government, should make clear that there is a radical distinction between Christianity, on the one hand, and American culture and the American political system, on the other hand. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, atheists, and all other non-Christians need to know this for Christ's sake.

They need to know that Jesus Christ-crucified for sinners, risen from the dead, and reigning as God from heaven today-was accomplishing his purposes, gathering a people for himself from every culture, and building his church before America ever existed, and will be omnipotently doing the same centuries from now, even if America becomes a footnote in world history. Christianity and American culture are radically distinct. It is possible to be a faithful Christian under any regime in the world-and may be easier to be a radical, cross-bearing disciple of Jesus in regimes less prosperous than America.

We should make that clear over and over in these days.

Nevertheless, Christian participation in, and support for, democracy and freedom is rooted in our supreme allegiance to Jesus Christ. This is true in at least two ways.

1. Because Jesus Christ is the only person who can be trusted with absolute power, Christians are very suspicious of any move toward the dictatorship of a sinful man-that is, any man. For the Christian, democracy is not rooted in the wisdom and trustworthiness of self-governing man, but in the sole right of Christ to govern absolutely with his supreme wisdom and trustworthiness, and in the folly, pride, sinfulness, and untrustworthiness of all other men.

C. S. Lewis put it like this in 1943:

I am a democrat [believer in democracy] because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they're not true. . . . I find that they're not true without looking further than myself. I don't deserve a share in governing a hen-roost. Much less a nation. . . . The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters. ("Equality," in C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces, ed. by Lesley Walmsley [London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2000,] p. 666)

2. Because Jesus Christ accepts only uncoerced belief and obedience, Christians reject the use of the sword and the bullet to constrain religious faith, especially Christianity. Jesus said, "This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me" (Matthew 15:8). He also said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting" (John 18:36). Coerced lip-religion is vain. A kingdom built with bullets is not the kingdom of Christ. He alone will build his kingdom in the end, and it will be with the sword of his own mouth, not the sword of our hands (Revelation 19:15, 21).This leads to the position that for the sake of Christ, Christians support freedom and its inevitable correlate, pluralism, in politics and culture. That is, for Christ's sake Christians support the legal protection of many beliefs and behaviors that are anti-Christ.

In summary:

1. For Christ's sake we must radically distinguish Christianity from the American, cultural, political system of democracy and freedom.

2. And for Christ's sake we may support and serve the cause of truth and justice through that system.


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© Desiring God

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org



So...despite what was so rudely put to me in class, as a Christian, I am able to be a follower of Christ and still stand for American freedom! I only wish I could post this on my class page, but I will refrain. I do find it ironic, that they are accusing me of judgment, yet they were the ones to judge me.

Apples, "Na-na-na's", and Algebra?!

It's been a crazy transition the past few days. Pres has gone into this ALL FRUIT ALL OF THE TIME phase and I've been up to my eyeballs in the wonderful diaper related consequences of tons of fiber!

His favorite fruits right now are apples and bananas.

(Side note here...has anyone every had a crooked apple core?!)


I keep a bowl on the counter that has fruit in it. Pres has taken to walking in the kitchen and pointing up towards the bowl. If he wants a banana, he'll say "Na-NAAAN-Na". It is really one of the cutest things. I will always repeat the word back to him correctly, and he gives me this tolerant grin that seems to tell me: "Duh mom, that's what I just said!."

He is talking up a storm and will phonetically pronounce certain words. We'll say words to him like truck as "t, t, t, T-ruck, k, k" So now he will either say "t, t, truck" or truck, k, k"! It's all very cute and Pete and I have been joking that we should go a little easier on the pronunciation! He's only 14 months old and he'll get it as long as we don't speak back to him in baby talk.



Here's a pic of my little talker as he is being naughty with daddy's stapler. I love this, "what, I'm not doing anything wrong" look!



Here are some (I'm bound to forget as he is firing them off lately) of his new words-mainly the ones that he's super cute about:


tight (this is my favorite right now, it comes from his finger book and he will bunch his hands in a fist and grunt "tiiiiiiiight"

banana (nanana)

daddy

train (this comes from his OBSESSION with Thomas the Tank Engine)

truck

pig

nose

feet

His favorite game right now is chase. He wants you to run after him and scoop him up, then immediately put him down and repeat. This is his favorite, we get out of the car and he runs to a neighbor's doorway!

This game is fun at home, but not so much in public. Yesterday at Walgreen's he took off out the door as I was paying. I think the old lady checking me out almost had a heart attack as I continued to pay. (He won't keep running unless I am chasing.) I told her this, but she gave me a look like I must be some negligent mother. I always want to tell these people that give you looks, that I have a strong willed child. I must choose my battles carefully because some days EVERYTHING is a battle. I can't do that so I simply must smile and quickly grab my child before he gets too far.

Now onto the Algebra. In my attempt to work on a whole different degree, I was given some bad news transcript wise. For my new degree, College Math and Trig, and did I mention the TWO Statistics classes I've taken, do not count. (WHAT!!!!) Seriously. Here I am having to take Algebra 1 & 2. It's been so many years since I've had to do this math that I am lost a little! I somewhat snootily informed my professor that as an adult, I am WELL aware that I do not need this class to work with clients. He then, in the same tone, reminded me that however true that is, in order to get the DEGREE to treat the clients, I must take these classes! Touche and score one for the boring math professor! Did I mention I think I'm going to really like this prof?!! Other than this little hitch, things are going very well. In 18 months, I will have my Master's in Psychology and be able to work with people. I am focusing on military families and post traumatic stress syndrome (shocker...I know) and am really looking forward to being able to take my personal experience and knowledge to make a difference. Keep me in your prayers as the work is getting harder, I am doing accelerated classes, and we are about to have a whole new life in 4 months!