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Tender Mercy

Yesterday went something like this: Miles had two HUGE poops that leaked out everywhere and he wouldn't hold still for me to change them. Not five minutes after changing him into his third outfit, he threw up all over his shirt. Everyday lately seems to be a constant battle of "Miles, don't hit mom, it's not nice." Or, "Miles, please don't throw your toys(or whatever is in your hand) when you're angry." "Miles please stop crying and use your words, tell me what the matter is." And here's one my dad would appreciate, "Miles not so loud, please use your inside voice." Lately he yells "MOM" increasingly louder every time until I say, "What Miles" then he just smiles as if to say, "nothing mom, made you look."

Eli must be starting the teething process.... swollen lower gums, tons of drool, and my once good sleeper now wakes up every three hours throughout the night, and has done this now for two weeks. He too yesterday had a huge blow out.

I'm about 10 loads of laundry behind and it's all piled up on my closet floor. After getting both the boys down for a nap I came into my closet to tackle some of the laundry, tripped over one of the piles and hit my toe directly on the closet door. OUCH! At first I thought it was broken but now I think it's just badly bruised and swollen. It's actually a prettier color purple today. Yesterday it was black.

So to sum up my day yesterday: Poop, poop, more poop, throw up and a broken toe. By the time John got home a little after midnight, I was completely exhausted and almost in tears.

This morning at 8:30, as John was getting ready to leave I said to him, "I can't do it today, I just can't do it." And I truly felt that way. "How am I going to make it until 6:00 tonight when John gets home?" Well, here's how....The Lord showed me his tender mercy. It was 4 degrees in Ann Arbor when I woke up this morning. Eli went down for a nap just before noon and I knew this would be one of his longer naps (1 1/2 hours instead of 45 min.) It was sunny outside so I checked the temp and it was 22 degrees. I bundled myself and Miles up and said, "let's go". We walked to the park, which is practically in our back yard, saying a prayer along the way that Eli would be ok for a little while. Miles had a blast!! We ran in the snow across the field. He went down the slide a BUNCH of times and we wondered through the woods picking up sticks and poking holes and drawing trains in the snow. We were wet and cold and we loved it! When we got back, Eli was still sound asleep. We had chicken noodle soup for lunch, then Miles went down for a nap. I had time for a quick shower before Eli woke up. It's amazing how a hot, steamy shower can make you feel so much better, pampered almost. John got home at 5:00 instead of 6:00, YEAH!!!! Then we went to the mall. While John was looking for some new church shoes, Eli, Miles and I headed for the play area. And this moment was the icing on the cake. No, this was the mother of all desserts that have ever been made..... I was watching Miles play from across the play area. He and another little girl bumped into each other and they both fell down. When they got up Miles gave her a kiss on her forehead and said, "sorry." I'm almost in tears just re-thinking about it. That 10 seconds of time made my yesterday all worth while and completely validated me as a mother.

Summary of today: We went to the park, played in the snow, Miles was happy, dad came home early, Miles kissed a girl to make her feel better and mom feels like she's doing something right:) Thank you Heavenly Father!!!!

Tomorrow is another day:) -wendy

All About Eli

I can't believe how fast Eli is growing. I already miss the newborn phase. He is quite happy most of the time. Sometimes when I go in to check on him, and I think he's still sleeping, he's just hanging out in his bed, looking around. Then, when he sees my face, he just beams this huge smile! I fall in love with him more everyday. He's really trying to sit up on his own. He can't stand laying down anymore. He has to be able to see the action of big brother Miles playing. In fact, I think he may even skip rolling over (he HATES being on his tummy and there's no sign of him even trying to roll) and just go straight to sitting up. He's a good eater and a good sleeper and definitely a "mommy's boy". John's getting better with him and viceversa, but there was a time Eli would just cry the minute John tried to hold him. Eli also WON'T take a bottle to save his life. John and I have both tried. Then again, he never took a pacifier well either and hasn't used one since he was about a month old. Yesterday I had a dental appt at the U of M school of dentistry. It pretty much takes 3x longer than an appt at a dental office and I was gone 4 hours. John says that Eli just screamed for the whole last hour. Right when I walked in the door and picked him up, he smiled. Either Eli is going to have to take bottle, or I'm going to have to wait to do the other part of my dental work after the boy can eat baby food. Kudos to John for handling it well. We feel so blessed to have Eli in our home. We love our boys!!!!!

just a quick note....

I saw grass today for the first time in 10 weeks! It was such a lovely sight to see. That's all.... I just wanted to share that. I'll do an update in the next couple days.

One long week

John and his fellow students from Ave Maria who participated in the Sate court competition. John took 3rd place(yeah John)!! There were about 50 contenders from seven different law schools in Michigan.

I've been trying to get Miles interested in coloring for months now and he's finally enjoying it. He doesn't like crayons though, he prefers pens. So I went out and bought washable, scented pens. Well, while we were coloring, and without thinking, I put the pen to my nose to smell it (why I felt the need to smell a cherry scented pen, I don't know) so of course Miles had to smell the pen too.

Miles loves his trains. We play with his toy trains, we watch train movies, and we look at train books that we checked out from the library.


This past week was one of the longest weeks I've had in a while for a couple reasons....

Reason number one: Miles doesn't think he needs naps any more (and if he does take one it's usually been for an hour) and, he thinks his bed time should be when mommy and daddy go to bed. John had a really busy week full of late nights getting ready for his state court competition. One night Miles just would not fall asleep. So I thought I'd try an experiment to see just how late Miles could last until he crashed. Well, dad got home about 12:30 am and Miles was still going strong. We won't be doing that again for the sake of my sanity.

Reason number two: Up until this week I've been handling the frigid weather and staying home most days without a car pretty well. I don't know what hit me this week but I felt like I was having a panic attack that lasted three days!! It was horrible. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who could see me struggling and he came to my rescue. After his competition on Saturday, he really stepped it up around the house which allowed me to have some down time. Some good news about the weather though... yesterday (Sunday) it was 38 degrees and sunny! On our drive to church that afternoon (we only live 1.5 miles away) I saw one family snow shoeing in the park and another family making a giant snow man in their front yard. There must have been half a dozen people out walking their dogs and for the first time in two months I've actually seen black pavement on the roads in our neighborhood instead of snow packed white roads. I have to admit, the snow packed white roads were much prettier. In fact, it was so warm outside that John decided to scrape the snow off the barbecue and grill hot dogs and salmon. Yes my friends, spring fever has arrived in Michigan. This Wednesday it's supposed to get cold again (13 for the high and 3 for the low) but Friday should be sunny and back up into the thirties. I may even put on my bathing suit and catch some rays:)

What are the Watsons doing these days?

We got our hair cut

We've been dancing

We've been playing trains (big surprise)