I have been blogging for three year now!! I am so glad that I began doing this so that we can look back and remember everything and see how quickly our kids are growing. There have been some slower months in blogging, but since Harper has been born I have been blogging like crazy. I can't say the same for her baby book! Typing it out just seems the easier way to go. But....I have been slacking in the writing department. Looking back, I used to write so much more as far as what the kids enjoy, issues we are having with them, etc. So..I am going to try and do better. I want to be able to remember the activities that we did of course. But I also want to remember the hard times, behavior issues we had, and how we resolved them.
What brings this up? Well, today it rained a lot of the day and the five of us stayed at home all day minus Maddie's gymnastic practice this morning. It was a hard day. Turner probably got 5 spankings and is just having a hard time minding. I know that part of the problem is consistency on our part. We must stay on top of him. A new thing he is doing-spitting. I think this started being outside with his daddy. They will be working in the yard and I guess Kevin sometimes spits. So Turner sometimes spits. Outside, I guess this is acceptable. Inside the house, on our den floor, it is not. Tonight Maddie made him mad...so he spit at her. He got a spanking-a big one. It breaks our heart, but we must break his bad habits. Sometimes I wonder how many times it has to happen before he will learn. I love our little boy to pieces, but he has definitely been the harder child.
Another thing I have been horrible about-letting him watch too much tv. When Maddie was at school all day and I have had two babies at home it was way too easy to let Turner just watch tv, and more tv. I felt so guilty about it, and yet couldn't find the time to do anything with him. I am so glad that it is summer and Kevin is home and there are more hands to go around for everyone. Turner doesn't like playing outside by himself, but he loves playing with his sister. Aubry is walking now and can go outside with them and one of us can watch Harper inside, even though she has been outside with us some as well. Raising these kids is the most important thing I will ever do, and I want to make sure that no matter what decisions they make....we can look back and know that we did the best that we could!
So how is Maddie at 6 1/2? She is turning into quite the sensitive, dramatic little girl! Spankings might not effect Turner quite how we would like, but they about do Maddie in. She hates time out and spankings and fortunately rarely gets them. She does whine more that Turner and gets her feelings hurt a lot easier. She loves feeding and holding Harper and has been a lot of help. If I am trying to cook dinner and Harper needs to be fed, then Maddie is my girl. So while we have more issues with Turner at home, we have had more issues with Maddie at school (which really surprised me). Turner is the model student and his teachers always sang his praises. He is a little leader and absolutely loves going. I am so afraid he is going to get bored at home this summer. Maddie is thrilled to be on summer break! She thinks school is boring and wants to be homeschooled. Although if we ever tried that I am sure she would change her mind! She made good grades and never had trouble academically, but our sweet girl has a hard time keeping her mouth shut in class. I have no idea who she might have gotten that from:) This past year, I received several calls from her teacher about her conduct. A lot of it happened the months before Harper was born. Luckily, once Harper was here everything calmed down. I think she had some anxiety about the unknown, but fortunately must have felt better about things once the baby was here. Praise the Lord!!
So, in my opinion transitioning from 2 to 3 kids has been more difficult that from 1 to 2. I think having Maddie and Turner older made it harder as well which really surprised me. But they have had years with it just being the two of them and things have changed. Harper was so fussy the first two months that we hardly did anything together as a family. It seemed like one of us would have the baby and the other would have the other two. Thankfully, Harper is finally getting on track and we are feeling more like a family unit. It is getting easier for us all to go somewhere together. Those first few weeks I probably could have benefited from some medicine. I think my parents and the hubs were afraid I was losing my mind. But I am much better now and couldn't imagine our family any different than it is. We have three wonderful children, each so very different from the other. I can't wait to see what kind of personality Harper is going to have. Right now she is content to sit in her rocker or just lay on the floor and watch everyone. Kevin said she is lazy:) She has yet to attempt to roll over. And that is ok...Harper will do things when Harper is ready. She is smiling all the time and making sweet noises all the time. Thank you Lord for blessing our family with another baby and giving us another child to love.
We aren't perfect and our children aren't perfect. But we are trying to raise them to love the Lord and each other. We are trying to teach them to mind and respect us and each other. We want them to be kind to others and raise them to be productive members of society. We want them to be able to live in the world without being worldy. We want so much for them and we have to set the example. I have to remember that. They learn the most from us and I have to continually pray for patience and guidance. I can't expect more from them than I expect of myself. This parenting role is so much harder than I ever imagined....and so much more rewarding!!
So no pics with this post, but hopefully more words will follow the pics next time. The pictures can only tell so much of the story!
