Tonight we got on the topic of belly buttons. The kids like to feel my protruding belly button. Jonah thinks it is the baby's "piggy toes" he is feeling. I showed him my belly button. He chuckled and said "It's closed". Come to think of it, I don't even remember what my belly button looked like before babies! Brian doesn't remember either :-)
Anyway, Jonah then needed to take a look at Brian's belly button. "That's cool!" he chuckled. Then we had Jonah show us his. We told him he had a pretty cool belly button.
"Yeah. It's just like my p---s", Jonah stated matter-of-factly.
"Bub, how is it like your p---s?", Brian asked.
Jonah responded "Well, it has a little hole in it like my p---s does."
Hmm. Funny how "that word" has become such an everyday word in our house. When we had our first son, it was always spoken rarely, quickly and quietly. I honestly never thought we would talk so freely about these parts. (Note: I'm avoiding it's use here to avoid google crawling my text and associating me with undesirable company!)
Ah, yes. Another day full of smiles.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Open It Up
So tonight I was letting the girls feel around on my belly and find their baby sisters various body parts. 'Timothy' was watching in his high chair and asked to get down so he could feel too.
When he touched my belly and felt her move, he asked with excitement, "Can I open it up, can I????" We laughed and then 'Elizabeth' told him, "Very soon you can open it up." AUGH! Wrong promise. He then went running through the house singing "I can open it up! I can open it up! I can open it up! Oh, dank yu, mommy! I can open it up!"
Thankfully 3 year olds have short memories and I still have WAY LONG to go for him to remember his sister's promise. Although, she has already suggested we wrap the baby up in a box in the hospital and let him open "it" up! Fun times.
When he touched my belly and felt her move, he asked with excitement, "Can I open it up, can I????" We laughed and then 'Elizabeth' told him, "Very soon you can open it up." AUGH! Wrong promise. He then went running through the house singing "I can open it up! I can open it up! I can open it up! Oh, dank yu, mommy! I can open it up!"
Thankfully 3 year olds have short memories and I still have WAY LONG to go for him to remember his sister's promise. Although, she has already suggested we wrap the baby up in a box in the hospital and let him open "it" up! Fun times.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Process Addiction
Never knew there was such a thing. BUT it totally makes sense from a few observations I've made of late.
I've never worked outside the home as a mom. But from walking with some friend who have, I've learned some new things about parenting. And as a result, feel somewhat more 'normal' in my struggles.
Working a conventional job outside the home can bring with it a lot of instant (or at least semi-quick) results. You start a project to re-write a manual and, in time, it gets done and checked off the list! You're given a list of calls to make and reservations to secure and, after a few potential 'run arounds' with the airlines or hotel desk, voila! Mission accomplished. A sense of satisfaction ensues. Ah. Feels good.
Hmm. Don't quite get that same feeling from a cleaned baby butt (for the 4th time that day) or a healthy snack served (30 minutes after lunch). I haven't even mentioned yet the hard talks about issues of the heart that seem to go in one ear and out the other. No instant gratification there!
Then I learned recently about something called "process addiction". In an effort to suppress emotions or avoid other destructive behavior, some people develop a process addiction. The way I understand it, when a task gets successfully executed, a certain chemical is released in one's body that can become addictive. Hence we can develop this performance based identity and value that is a lie from the pit of hell.
I wonder if that is why, as mom's (especially mom's who once worked outside the home), we struggle with losing our identity in our mommy jobs. With little time to truly process emotions or get healed from past hurts, we throw ourselves into the tasks at hand but often end up disappointed and unsatisfied when the jobs are done. Or, worse yet, we beat ourselves up when we realize the jobs never really get done when we choose to invest the same time we could be doing the dishes in cuddling up with "Corderoy" and our 4 year old instead. (because that's not usually on our list to be checked off!) Maybe I'm not making any sense, but there's something to this and I must keep processing...
I've never worked outside the home as a mom. But from walking with some friend who have, I've learned some new things about parenting. And as a result, feel somewhat more 'normal' in my struggles.
Working a conventional job outside the home can bring with it a lot of instant (or at least semi-quick) results. You start a project to re-write a manual and, in time, it gets done and checked off the list! You're given a list of calls to make and reservations to secure and, after a few potential 'run arounds' with the airlines or hotel desk, voila! Mission accomplished. A sense of satisfaction ensues. Ah. Feels good.
Hmm. Don't quite get that same feeling from a cleaned baby butt (for the 4th time that day) or a healthy snack served (30 minutes after lunch). I haven't even mentioned yet the hard talks about issues of the heart that seem to go in one ear and out the other. No instant gratification there!
Then I learned recently about something called "process addiction". In an effort to suppress emotions or avoid other destructive behavior, some people develop a process addiction. The way I understand it, when a task gets successfully executed, a certain chemical is released in one's body that can become addictive. Hence we can develop this performance based identity and value that is a lie from the pit of hell.
I wonder if that is why, as mom's (especially mom's who once worked outside the home), we struggle with losing our identity in our mommy jobs. With little time to truly process emotions or get healed from past hurts, we throw ourselves into the tasks at hand but often end up disappointed and unsatisfied when the jobs are done. Or, worse yet, we beat ourselves up when we realize the jobs never really get done when we choose to invest the same time we could be doing the dishes in cuddling up with "Corderoy" and our 4 year old instead. (because that's not usually on our list to be checked off!) Maybe I'm not making any sense, but there's something to this and I must keep processing...
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