"Yes, Buddy, I Broke the Clock" and other Tales from Toddlerhood

I've been saving a couple stories up in my head to get down on paper one of these days before I forget …

While decorating for Christmas and rearranging the stuff on our mantel, I dropped our mantel clock that we got as a wedding gift.  I don't think it was particularly valuable (Pier 1, I believe) but I really liked the design and its been with us these seven years, so I was kind of oddly attached to it.  Not to mention, have you priced mantel clocks lately?  Nice looking ones are surprisingly pricey.  But that's not the point.

I dropped the clock in front of the ever-vigilant gaze of my two-year-old.  Not even thinking about how he might react to this event, I exclaimed, "Oh Benjamin!  I broke the clock" and I must admit that as I picked the pieces up off the floor, my voice got a little quavery.

And then Benjamin burst into a howl of tears like the world itself was going to fly to pieces.  "Money broke the clock! Money broke the clock!"  [he's been pronouncing "mommy" as "money" for several months now.  I don't how it started, but its totally endearing and I'm a little sad whenever he correctly pronounces it now.]

Anyway, I took him and sat down in the rocking chair, trying to explain that yes, Mommy did break the clock, but everything's OK, no one got hurt, nobody's going to get in trouble, etc.  It took him a few minutes to calm down a little and then, out of nowhere, he popped his head up and said, "I get scoo-dider [screwdriver]!  I fix it!"

So i thought to myself … none of the pieces themselves are particularly dangerous (I had already put away the loose screws and battery), so why not let him occupy himself with it and maybe i can get a few things done.  A few minutes later, i walked by his room to find him wandering around, wringing his hands as only a toddler can and repeating over and over, "Where scoo-dider?  I no know!"

Mommy helped him find his little toy screwdriver and as we sat down with the clock together, I thought I had chanced upon an excellent object lesson, so I commenced, "Buddy, ya know how Mommy is always saying to be careful and gentle with things?  Well, this is why.  Because things get broken when we're not careful and sometimes they can't be fixed."  I persevered despite the fact that his response to every statement was "Money broke the clock!"

For the next two hours, that was basically the only thing we talked about.  "Money broke the clock!  Money broke the clock!"  Yes, darling, Mommy broke the clock … can we move on, already???

Then Daddy got home, dinner was on the table, evening activities hastened on, and before I thought to pre-warn my sweet husband, he saw the clock pieces and said, "Hey!  What happened to the clock?"

"Money broke the clock! Money broke the clock!"  for another good hour.

He still mentions it from time to time.  Oh goody.  Another thing he can tell Dr. Phil about someday.

I bought a replacement clock (A wall clock this time, so not as much chance to drop it), but I'm afraid to  hang it because every time he sees it … yup, you guessed it … "Money broke the clock!"

(More tales to come…)

this will be interesting...

Ever since the ultrasound showed that Baby #2 was going to be Baby Brother, and that same ultrasound produced a profile picture that I was sure looked EXACTLY like Benjamin, I've been so curious to see how much our brothers are going to look alike … will they be as different as daylight and dark?  or will we have to label pictures so as not to get them confused?  or somewhere in between?

probably somewhere in between…  (all these pictures are of both boys at about 4 weeks)

Benjamin

Joshua

Benjamin

Joshua

Benjamin

Joshua

Ancient History

I recently realized that one of the best weeks of our summer went totally unmentioned on ye ole' blog… my parents came to visit in what turned out to be, for our little family, the best stay-cation ever!  of course, it was a quite a hike for Grandma and Grandpa, which made us even more thankful for their being here!

Hoping that you don't mind back-tracking a bit to catch up on some pictures!

Click here to view this photo book larger

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The Many Faces of Little Brother

This is a lot of pictures, but they were all so cute, I couldn't decide which ones to post!  (Just be thankful I didn't post all of them … after our little impromptu photo shoot, I had over 40 shots on my camera!)  It was just the perfect moment … great lighting, happy baby, occupied toddler!  :)

little thinker

smacking my lips!

has big brother been teaching you some dance moves?

being this cute is exhausting

Momma!  Are you watchin' Benjamin back there?

Benjamin constantly feels the need to pass his vast knowledge
on to his little brother … this time it was the months of the year,
courtesy of our UU flip calendar!

you just wanna kiss my cheeks right now, don't ya?

oh yay!  kisses!

back to being my contemplative little self

Joshua

Joshua

"The Lord is Salvation"

…because His saving grace surrounds, covers … every moment, every space of our lives.
May your life proclaim the glory of His Salvation!

Our prayer is that you would seek the face of God, just as Joshua of old…

"Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. 
When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, 

a young man, would not depart from the tent."  Exodus 33:11

Edmon

"Wealthy Protector"

May you be blessed with the wealth that is truly wealth, found only in knowing God.

May you be a fierce protector of the weak, the vulnerable, the defenseless ones, the ones overlooked by all but cherished by God.

"For [you] are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, 

which God prepared beforehand that [you] should walk in them."  Ephesians 2:10

We love you Joshua Edmon and pledge ourselves to faithfully parent you in truth.  

We look forward to watching you walk in the great work 

that God has prepared for you to do!

Welcome, Little One!

Joshua Edmon Trautman

Born September 28, 2011, 4:36 am

9 pounds, 3 ounces

22 inches long

Funny that my last post was September 27 … I went to bed that night, and by the next morning, we had a baby!  And I thought since that baby is already two weeks old, I should update the blog with some pictures and the birth story … which, actually, is surprisingly short.

Back to Tuesday, September 27 - I was getting just slightly desperate to have this baby.  My mom's days with us were numbered, my emotional endurance was waning, and I dreaded the thought of another induction.  (Though my labor with Benjamin went very smoothly after the initial induction, my desire is always to let labor take the most natural course possible.)  So Tuesday we went to the zoo in the morning, ran errands in the afternoon, and I made dinner that night - staying as busy and active as possible.  One of the errands was to the natural foods section of our grocery store, where I procured both raspberry leaf tea and evening primrose oil capsules - old midwife-standby's for inducing labor.

After dinner, I took an evening primrose oil capsule and drank three … yes, three … cups of raspberry tea.  I went to bed hopeful, as always, but honestly not expecting much.

A few minutes before 3:00 am, I woke up to  a pretty strong contraction.  About ten minutes later, another came.  I knew they were strong, but I'd been having decent contractions for a couple of weeks that would be fairly regular for an hour or so and then stop.  I somehow sensed that these were different, but was still unsure of what was really going on.  

Problem was that after those first two contractions ten minutes apart, they jumped to three minutes apart, got even more intense, and then even closer together.  I couldn't tell time or really do anything except hang on for dear life!  Will woke Mom up and she finished packing my suitcase (I had well-laid plans of doing last minute prep between contractions, but that plan quickly bit the dust).  Labor was already so intense that I was having trouble communicating to Will exactly what was going on.   He was still asking me if I was sure I was ready to go the hospital, and all I knew was if we were going to go somewhere, it had better be now, because I wasn't going to be able to move for much longer.

On the way to hospital, I was still in the midst of an internal tug-of-war on how bad this really was.  On the one hand, it had only been an hour, surely I was jumping the gun a little bit.  On the other hand, I felt this deep-seated urgency to just get there, and get there fast.

Good thing we only live about five minutes from the hospital.  By the time we got there, I could barely walk.  The poor little security guard kept insisting I get in a wheelchair as I stood breathing through a contraction in the middle of the automatic doors.

(Insert here a lot of rushing, nurses yelling and running around .. it's all a blur to me.)

Then, four minutes after we arrived at the hospital, little Joshua was born!  We didn't even make it out of triage!

The whole story, even as I type it now, still seems a little surreal … did that really happen to me?  that's like something you read on one of those crazy blogs somewhere!

But we so very grateful to God for a safe, healthy baby boy (he's already gained almost a pound!); a safe, healthy mommy, and yes, even a quick labor … grateful that he wasn't born on the side of the road or in the hospital lobby!  :)

"The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad." Ps. 126:3

seems like an understatement :)

Reasoning with a Toddler + Pregnancy Hormones = Much Hilarity

If anyone is counting, I am now seven days past my due date.  We've been walking, running errands, going to the zoo; I've been toting groceries, and a toddler, and forcing myself to pick things up off the floor.  Anything I can think of to get this show on the road.  While I do have the occasional hormonal meltdown, I am really working on being at peace with the process, trusting God and "leaning not on my own understanding."

In the midst of this process, Benjamin's verbal skills have been just exploding lately … forming sentences, asking questions, pretending and role-playing … generally being funny, and sweet, and only occasionally ornery :)

The combination of these two scenarios has resulted in some pretty remarkable conversations lately… primarily resulting from my inability to think up anything to say but the matter-of-fact truth.

Yesterday at the park, Benjamin decided he'd rather be at the zoo.  In response to his continual no's, I said, "Well, we're at the park Buddy, so you gotta deal with reality."  He responded with an energetic, "Deee wit re-ad-a-wee!"

Benjamin loves seeing trucks and construction equipment while we're out … problem is that one is never enough.  The excitement is always followed with, "More digger!"  "More school bus!" etc.  Today, after hearing enough "More dump truck" to drive a momma crazy, I said, "Ya know, Benjamin, there's a thing called contentment.  You see something cool, you say, 'Oh wow! Dump truck! Awesome!' then "OK! Movin' on!"  He responded with a perfectly pronounced, "O-tay! Movin' on!" as if he totally understood what I meant.  And who knows, maybe he did?

Honestly, I have no idea if these matter-of-fact responses are good parenting strategy or not … it's just all I can think of right now.  And I don't know if his affirmative responses are actually good signs of progress in attitude, or just a reflection of how much he loves to try new words and expressions.

But, for right now, it's working for us.