Big Girl Bed

So for the last week or so Evie, our youngest child who is sixteen months old, has been crying at bedtime. We first suspected teething (those eye teeth are a doozie!) but then when she was out of her pack n play which is parked next to her older siblings' bunk bed, she would bee-line for the bottom bunk. She liked to climb in, pull up the covers, reach up to turn on the reading lamp and grab herself a book. It was adorable. It also reminded me that both of the older kids had been transitioned to a big kid bed (in our house this constitutes a mattress on the floor) at about 15 months. Evie is 16 months and I am guessing that she had figured out the discrepancy in sleeping arrangements.

So last night as she bathed with her big sister, I cleared a space and with much effort hauled our old queen mattress out of the playroom and into the kids' shared bedroom. After realising that I was going to have to move more furniture than I intended on moving (Jeremy was with Eli at tumbling class) I got the mattress t lay down. Then discovered that it was longer than a twin, so I had to move more things and turn it around again.

Once it was in place, stinking out enough for a perfect toddler sized sleeping area, I returned to the hallway where I had left the partially collapsed pack n play. Now here is where I started getting choked up. I was puling my baby's blankies and dolls out of the bed that had been her crib since she was born and it hit me that she is growing up. I started asking myself if I did not do this, would I be able to slow down her growing up? Not a rational thought but it crossed my mind. No, of course not I told myself, besides she was so sad about being treated like a baby when her sibs were in their big beds right next to her.

So, we did it. I placed all her lovies on her new bed and went to get her form the bath. She was not sure what to think at first as I tried to get her jammies on while sitting with her on the new bed. It did not take ling though and she climbed right up to Hannah's bed and snuggled down on the pillow. I told her that was Hannah's bed and this was HER bed. She got a proud grin on her face and slowly slid down to her bed and put her head down on her pillow.

After a little bit of exploration in which she discovered she could stand on the edge of Hannah's bed and reach the bottom rung of the top bunk and then arch her head back and say "weeee!!!" just like in tumbling class, we settled in for some stories.

I had to stay with her for a while, rubbing her back, but she drifted off on her own after I left and there were no tears. She is proud of her new bed and her new big girl status.

So while a part of me is still aching at the loss of baby-hood, I feel good about it knowing that she is building her self-esteem and confidence.

Controversy

Sorry, those of you who know me know that I do not shy away from controversy. I try to be careful but I am passionate about a lot of things.

So I have been following the buzz about the Tebows' Superbowl ad and there are a couple things that bother me about it. First of all it is the first ever advocacy ad permitted to run during the superbowl game. Why did they have to go and pick what is arguably the hottest topic out there to run in during a show that families and friends are watching together. I'm sure there will be more than one household shake-up as a result. Secondly, it is being watched by families which means that there are going to be a lot of parents out there thrust into explaining abortion to their kids. Why do they think this is a good idea??? It is beyond me. Why couldn't they use the gazillion bucks they are going to spend running the ad on something worthwhile like, I don't know, Haiti, orphans, starving people in their own community, homeless, poor, oppressed, AIDS, malaria, ANYTHING????!!!!

Here is the thing. I think that people who are anti-choice are missing something, I think that they assume that if you are pro-choice, you are pro-abortion. NO WAY! I think it is one of the worst, saddest most horrible things. BUT. But I do not think that anyone has the right to make that decision for anyone else unless they have walked a mile in their shoes. I could give all the sad and terrible examples that I'm sure any intelligent person could think of on their own, but one of the most impassioned arguments I have ever heard in favor of choice was a situation that I had never thought of - a woman carrying twins was told that if she did not terminate one twin, they would both die due to a complication known as twin to twin transfusion. Now, she was lucky enough to have been somewhere where that was an option for her. As horrid as that was for her, would the anti-choice folks have told her that she should have let them both die instead?

Yes, a loaded one, I know. But these situations are real and I do not believe that we should be the ones to make the judgement call on anyone when we do not even have a clue what they are facing.

I am not going to watch the superbowl, not out of protest of this ad, I never have watched it anyway. But, I am glad that I won't be the parent who has to explain to my kids what the ad is saying.

Junk

Getting rid of junk is so liberating. All junk, junk mail, knick knacky junk, general clutter, the stuff that never gets used, the toys no one plays with, the clothes that don't get worn... All of it!

I signed up for tonic mailstopper (did it change names again? I can't remember). For a few bucks, they get rid of most of your junk mail. Love it! Every day now, I get a small handful of mail, some of it junk, but not nearly the quantity we had two years ago before using mailstopper.

I sell the kids clothes when no one here can wear them anymore. Okay, this is the one that backfired on me. We got rid of the baby clothes before we decided on adding baby number three. Oh well, no biggie! She gets new ones.

Goodwill, veterans, anyone who wants stuff will get it form us at regular intervals. Ther eis not room in this house to keep it!

So I was interested recently when my friend was talking about this new diet book she got. It is written by one of the women on the show 'The Biggest Loser'. She actually recommends an organic diet, but more importantly she recommends cutting the junk. No not just the junk food, but also the fillers that are found in things that are advertised as 'healthy' - the low fat and fat-free versions of our favorites. My Mom told me years ago (yes, they do get wiser as we get older!) that unless your doctor has prescribed a fat-free/low fat diet for you, it is healthier to eat the regular fat foods and just be sure you eat the proper amounts. Makes sense to me, but the part I never understood that this woman points out in her book is that these artificial fillers (the junk) actually mess with our metabolism and slow it down. Wow! Now it all makes so much more sense. I usually do avoid these things, and knew that the fillers were not good, but now why.

So now we keep on getting rid of that junk.

Would life really be boring if it were simple? Someday I'd like to be able to answer that question.

The Manger

Okay, this is something that has been on my mind for a long long time and I have not had a proper outlet for sharing my thoughts.

It makes me sad when we sing songs and talk about Mary laying this precious baby in an animal's feeding trough. Very sad. I know that this image is supposed to tell us how humble Christ was at birth, but seriously? Are we supposed to believe that Mary would do something that no one else did at that time? Nobody had cribs! There was no such thing! Co-sleeping was the norm. "In fact, in Luke 11:5-7 tells a story that depicts how families slept in Bible times.

"Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything'." (http://www.unhinderedliving.com/bed.html)

The above site goes on to tell of the bed made for the royal family in England that could sleep 102 people in the 1600s! Clearly co-sleeping was not only practiced by poor peasants, but was the norm for everyone!

So I honestly do not believe that with wild animals around and strangers coming to check out her babe, Mary would wrap up her newborn and lay him down to sleep in a manger. Nay (neigh!), I think the mention of the manger was perhaps referring only to the fact that there was not a real bed for any of them in the barn and maybe when visitors came to see the baby, she may have laid him in there rather than on the floor to allow people to see him while she stood close by. Maybe she even just laid him down there while she tried to figure out how to construct a bed for the family? Or to use it as a changing table? Regardless, there is not a chance that Mary would have left the Baby Jesus to sleep in a feeding trough. Sure she wrapped him in swaddling cloths but then she picked him up and held him close and snuggled into bed with him asleep in her arms, safe, warm and loved.

One More Thing

Because there just enough enough for me to do these days, I thought I'd start a blog. Maybe it is because I miss 'grown-up' conversation. I just feel the need to write. So here goes.

If you know me, you know I am opinionated and passionate. Blame it on the Norwegian blood but suffice it to say that I do not intend to offend or criticize anyone, I just need a place to get my thoughts down. If you find any of it amusing or helpful, then I am glad.

So in between prepping for teaching Bradley classes at night, going to class at Aurora University for my Masters, driving the kids to swimming, ballet, guitar, choir, tumbling, tumbling again and pretty soon t-bal too, co-leading a Daisy Girl Scout troop, cooking, cleaning, laundering, diapering, dressing, shoveling (what did I forget?) - somewhere in there I will find the time to write things down. Things that bug me, things that I want to do when I am a teacher, things I want to do for the kids, halloween costume ideas, etc... whatever is on my mind.

Thanks for reading!