Up North

Ben was full of funny comments and actions this weekend. I am going to try and recount as many as I can remember :) Jacob was a perfect little boy he was so content to just lay on the ground on his toy and play. I realized again how blessed I am to have such wonderful kids (and a great husband as well)

Friday
- Ben was getting a little antsy in the car and somewhere around Gaylord he start asking “are we up north yet” well obviously we were up north but not to our destination so we kept saying “not yet” “pretty soon”. We we arrived in the Cassel’s driveway we told Ben that we were here and he looked at the house and said “are we going to go in up north?”

- When we first got there Ben was quite wound up. Obviously considering that he had been couped in the car for 4 hours and when we got out to the back on the great deck Ben ran up and down the deck just screaming.

Saturday
- Ben was a huge fan of the water sports. He was on a jet ski or the Kyack all day on Saturday. He also liked the idea of throwing rocks into the water. Needless to say he was a little tired on Sunday.

THIS ONE WINS THE PRIZE FOR THE BEST STORY
- It was getting late on Saturday night and Ben was sitting on Opi's lap. Laura was playing this little piggy with his toes. Just as we was getting to the wee, wee, wee part my dad said "I think he has too . . . oh he did" and stood up to reveal that Ben did wee, wee, wee on Opi's lap. We just all laughed at the situation. Then Opi took Ben down the stairs to finish and he decided to go poppy in the woods as well. I guess he is born to camp :)

- After this adventure Ben was still having some issues going to sleep (surprise, surprise) so we enlisted lots of different people to put him to Ben. First Meg and Kat went up to read him stories, Then Mommy and Daddy, then Laura, then mommy and Daddy again and then finally just Daddy who got the job done. He heard lots and lots of Peanuts stories while trying to fall asleep


Sunday
- Ben had lots of fun with Kat and finally on Sunday just before we were getting ready to leave Ben looked over at her and said "can you meow" and Kat in all seriousness just said meow and moved on.

- I think that his favorite person of the entire weekend was Buddy the dog however :) We were sitting on the deck and looked over to see Ben and Buddy sitting facing the same direction with Ben’s arm around Buddy it was very cute

- Sunday as we were driving home Ben fell asleep after about 10 min. We stopped to get some dinner about an hour later and woke Ben up from that point on the answer to everything was "Yep" or "Yep, yep, yep" I am not sure who he picked it up from but it sure is cute.


General Comments
- Ben had lots of fun throwing snakes at Opi all weekend

- The Cassel’s was amazing and we are so grateful that they allowed us to invade this past weekend. We had so much fun and are so grateful for our time that we got to spend with them.

**Pictures to follow they are on Aunt Meg's camera so as soon as I get some from here I will post them

7 tips for Talking with your stuttering child

As many of you know Ben was/is going through a stuttering phase. I think that is is a part of lots of things going on in his life and is truly a phase. Anyway, I requested some information from the Stuttering foundation and it just came today. I thought that I would share some of what I learned from them. I actually think that Ben's stuttering has been much better this week and he has hardly stuttered at all but it could creep back up so here is some interesting reading

1. Speak with your child in an unhurried way, pausing frequently. Wait a few seconds after your child finishes speaking before you being to speak. Your own slow, relaxed speech will be far more effective than any criticism or advice such as "slow down" or "try it again slowly"


2. Reduce the number of questions you ask your child. Instead of asking questions, simply comment on what your child has said, thereby letting him know you heard him. Children speak more freely if they are expressing their own ideas rather than answering and adults questions.

3. Use your facial expressions and other body language to convey to your child that you are listening to the content of his message and not to how he's talking,

4. Set aside a few minutes at a regular time each day when you can give your undivided attention to your child. When you talk during this special time, use slow, calm, and relaxed speech, with plenty of pauses. This quiet, calm time can be a confidence-builder for younger children, letting them know you enjoy their company.

5. Help all members of the family learn to take turns talking and listening. Children, especially those who stutter, find it much easier to talk when there are few interruptions and they have the listeners' attention.

6. Observe the way you interact with your child. Try to increase those time that give your child the message that you are listening to he and she has plenty of time to talk. Try to decrease criticisms, rapid speech patterns, interruptions and questions.

7. Above all, convey that you accept your child as he is. The most powerful force will be your support of him, whether he stutters now or not.

Jacob

Well we all know that Jacob is a healthy eater from his chunkiness but I am so happy with everything he has tried so far.

He has had: (in this order)
banana's
sweet Potato's
Avocado
Peas
Carrots

So far he is a fan of everything except for peas. He will eat them he just does not really like them. I have made all the food for him so far except for the carrots. I guess that since there are so many nitrates in carrots you need to be careful about cooking them for babies which to me means just give them to him from a jar.

I took Jacob to the Dr. yesterday and he weighs: 18.5 pounds so he is not quite as heavy as I thought. He is so much fun :)

New Blue Pillow

Ben has been waking up at night frantic because he can't find his blue pillow in his bed. I decided this was because it was too small. I am sure I won't find another pillow to take blue pillow's place but I decided to buy a big blue pillow for him for his bed. We picked one up today at Pottery Barn Kids and it was quite an exciting experience for Ben. He was so happy when we got home and I put the pillow case on. He was laying in our bed with big blue pillow and little blue pillow. He is at the Oompaloopa's (Omi and Opi's) tonight wiht both big and little blue pillow :)

Our House

Well, we had an open house yesterday and once again no one came. Margie did say that someone stopped by but they were trying to sell her something. I so so happy with the way that the house looked when we left though. I am kind of bummed that no one looked but I guess this is where God wants us to be right now. Here are some pic's of my pretty table :)

Tonight we get to do something really fun :) We get to have our sewer fixed in our basement :o I guess there is a crack in the line down there so they have to break up a portion of the floor to fix it. $800 later we will not have that particular sewer issue again. I don't think that it will solve all of our plumbing issues but at least for now it will.

Jacob's Great Night

Last night was Jacob's best night of sleep yet. He slept for 8 hours straight. He slept from 10:30 until 6:30 :) Now if Ben would have stayed in bed all night I would feel very well rested

The mom of Two boys

For the most part I love being the mom of 2 boys. There have only been a few times that I have thought, "this would not happen if I had girls" and the other night was one of these nights.

Ben was watching a video with Josh while Jake and I went to the grocery store to buy food for the baby food that I am going to make for him. When I got home I sat on the couch with Ben and was hugging him and put him on my lap. A few minutes later I felt a warm sensation on my leg and Ben had peed on me. It has been quite sometime since he has had an accident like that I just hated that I had to be the recipient of the accident. A few hours later I woke Jake up for his 11:00 dream feed. I took his diaper off of him to change him and once again I was peed on :( Oh the joys of being a mom of 2 boys :)

Jacob

Here are some cute pictures of Jacob in his darling robe from Amy from France :)

Air Show

Saturday we went to the Air show with GAC and GUR (Great Aunt Cindy and Great Uncle Roberto) It was lots of fun. Much more fun that I was expecting.

Josh And Ben went for a tour and looked at all the planes that were on display

The Highlight of the day was watching the Blue Angles fly at the end. It was quite amazing to see how close they would get to one another

Power Outage

Our power was out on Wednesday night due to the "big storm".

Ben was very thrown off by the lights not being able to go on but after he got over that he had lots of fun with the flashlight on his head along with Daddy

The Worst Night Ever

Well Last night was an awful night for the Nast boys in their sleeping habits. I am not sure what was going on but neither one particularly wanted to sleep between the hours of 1:00 and 5:00 leaving a very tired mom. Well The one very comical thing of the night was when Josh and I left Ben in our bed to sleep. Josh was in his (Ben's) bed and I was in the family room nursing with Jacob (we are trying to teach Ben that he can sleep by himself again). All was quite for a few minutes when all of a sudden I heard horrible screaming from my room followed by footsteps and a 3 year old jumping into my arms almost on top of Jacob. I asked him what he was scared of and he said the big number!. I said do you mean the big monster? he said, no the big number. He was really scared not just playing around. he wanted me to come in an see it and sure enough Josh's cell phone (which has been acting super crazy) was glowing causing a shadow on the ceiling that Ben thought for sure was a number. He told me it was a 4.

How funny that the son of an accountant is scared of numbers :)

4

A Almost 3 year old's greatest Day

Today we had our gas meter moved from inside of our house to the outside. It seems like a very easy process but it actually took about 3 1/2 hours and caused lots of holes in our yard. They had to move the meter from essentially the front West inside corner of the house to the back east side corner. There is ton's of cement in the back so the digging of the holes was not the easiest. This whole process did create a little more room in our basement so it was fine with us and I have really never seen Ben so happy as he was when this pulled up

Ben thought he was really cool standing next to the trailer that brought the backhoe over

And look how big the tire is on the dump truck

These are all the parts the Scoop, Shovel and Tire as I am told by my 3 year old

And here are the patches of bare grass that are left in our yard. They assure me that they will make sure the grass grows but we will see about that one :)

A few more pictures for your viewing enjoyment. I have about 20 more if you ever want to see some pictures of a backhoe :)

Shepherding a Child's Heart

Josh and I decided this weekend that we needed to change some things in the way that we have been disciplining Ben. It just doesn't seem to be working and we need to be more consistent. We pulled out our copy of Shepherding a Child's heart and this is what we learned: obviously don't feel like you need to read all of this I just kind of wanted it write it out so that I could look back and remind myself from time to time

The "When" of Spanking

A child needs to be spanked when you have given a directive that they have heard and is within the capacity to understand and he has not obeyed without challenge, without excuse or without delay .
If anyone has seen Ben in action he has a lot more spanking before he gets to this point

You must not warn. You must not ask if they want to be spanked. If you do you are training them to wait for the warning before they obey

The "How" of Spanking

Warnings - you must avoid responding in Anger, you must avoid treating the child with proper respect for his personal dignity. You must temper unwavering firmness with kindness and gentleness. You must keep the spanking focused on the issues of the heart.
The 4 steps
1. take your child to a private place where he can be spanked with in privacy (you show respect for the child to taking them away from others and not humiliating him)
2. Tell him specifically what he has done or failed to do. With preschoolers the spankings must always be associated with and issue
3. Secure an acknowledgement from the child of what he has done (this can take some time) you must get them to admit that they were wrong.
example: Father: Daddy told you that you should pick up your toys didn't he?
Child: nodding yes
Father: you didn't obey me, did you?
Child: no
Father you know what Daddy must do. he must spank you . . .
4. remind the child that you must spank because it will bring him back to the place of Blessing with God. The spanking shows the parents willingness to submit to God's directives as well
5. Tell the child how many spanks he will get (this helps make sure that you are in control of yourself)
6. Remove the underwear (diaper) so that spanking is not lost in the padding of the pants (remove the underwear immediately before the spanking takes place and replace as soon as it is over)
7. After you have spanked, put the child on your lap telling him how much you love him, give hugs Tell him you do not like to spank him and that you hope to not have to do it again At this point there should be complete restoration between you and the child if there is still anger or resentment something was not handled correctly.
8. Pray - Remind the child that there is forgiveness through Christ

The "Why" of Spanking

God Commands it. It also enables you to deal with issues of the heart

The focal point of spanking is the heart of the child being called into submission to God's authority

Mom is always right

I don't really ever question what Mom tells me about kids. She has raised three (pretty well I might add) and has a degree in childhood development so she knows what she is talking about. Anyway, she always tells me that if Ben is being crazy I should stick him in the sandbox or give him some water to play in. The sensation of it running through his hands seems to calm kids. Well I have always know that the sandbox works with Ben but so does Playdoh. Yesterday was a bad day. Josh and I were both exhausted and Ben wanted to run and was pretty out of control all day. Around 7:00 he said he wanted to play playdoh. I gladly got it out and he sat down and calmed down instantly making his creations. It is amazing how differently he was acting in the one second that it took him to get into his toy.

And a picture of Jake just for fun

Buddies

I don't think that there is much else to say!!!

Crazy Sleepers

They say that Children under the age on one should not sleep with anything in their beds to help protect them from SIDS. Ben thinks that Jacob is lonely in his crib and needs some playmates :)

And talk about crazy sleepers it looks like Ben fell asleep with his arm in the air ready to color at any moment on his favorite "coloring thing"