Growing Pains

When children are young, sometimes they will experience growing pains. I don't remember ever having them, but I hear that it is extremely painful leg cramps due to growth spurts a child's body goes through.

We are experiencing growing pains at my house. No, they aren't the kind that cause a child to wake up at night crying out in pain. They are the kind that keep me up late crying out for help. The growth spurts occurring don't cause a child to gain a few inches. They cause a child grow in maturity. These pains don't go away with massages and Tylenol. They go away with maturing and experience.

My sweet, kind, loving child is going through a painful time. She is learning about the world, boundaries, and what it means to become more independent. This beautiful child is trying to learn who she is and who she wants to become. She is learning of the power she holds within herself-- the power to help, the power to choose, the power to become.

How do I guide you? How do I teach you in this new phase of your life? How do I help you to temper your responses? How do I guide you to want to be kind and loving? How do I direct you toward your Heavenly Father? How do I discipline without alienating you?

Know that I love you. I look at you as you are sleeping and tears come to my eyes. I want so much for you to feel of my deep love for you. I want to understand you. I want for you to open up and share your thoughts, your feelings, your hopes and dreams, your fears and insecurities. I want you to know I will help you and support you through all your ups and downs.

Eight years ago, I was excited at the impending arrival of a sweet baby girl. I didn't have the foresight then to see much past frilly newborn dresses and sweet chubby cheeks. The biggest challenges were fussiness and not sleeping at night. Now I look at a growing, maturing child and think of how simple the challenges were back then. I am trying to be up for this new challenge of parenthood. I will do my best to find out how to massage the hurts you are experiencing so that you can stand tall after this growth spurt.

Play Dough

Since the girls are back in school, Joseph gets bored with just Mom around. So I pulled out the play dough for him to play with while I try to do the dishes or cook. In general, he really likes it. He has lots of fun using the different tools we have. Of course, it is much more fun when his sisters are there to play with him, so I don't have too long to get things done.

Joseph also discovered that play dough doesn't taste that great. Hopefully he will remember that lesson! Yuck!!!

Pumpkin Patch

Last Wednesday the girls had off of school, and since the weather was nice, we headed over to the pumpkin patch. This year we didn't get any pumpkins from our garden, so we actually bought some from the pumpkin patch. The girls enjoyed looking over the pumpkins and choosing which one they wanted. (We had to be careful since we have already had a hard freeze.) Joseph was asleep in the van during this part of the trip, so I picked a pumpkin for him.

Once Joseph woke up, he wasn't too interested in being in any cute pictures. Oh, well. Later on he warmed up.

The pumpkin patch we went to also had animals, an inflatable slide, a hay maze and lots of areas for good pictures.

Miriam was posing again. This is only one of many she requested that I take.

We had a lot of fun, and only paid for the pumpkins! A great day for free admission!

53 Weeks

53 weeks. One year and one week. So many things can happen, so many things can change. For me, in 53 weeks, I went from having one sideways tooth and a bite that was off to having perfect teeth. How exciting.

Joseph at the Zoo

Last Wednesday, Oct 9th Joseph and I went to the zoo. Julie and Sebastian came along, and we had a great time! It was a beautiful day, and I enjoyed being able to show Joseph the zoo.

At first, Joseph seemed a little confused. He normally doesn't get out of the stroller at the zoo, so he can't see much besides the bar or fence in front of the cage. So he and Sebastian had a great time playing with the bar here.

The first couple animals we saw were not easy to find. They were either in the back corner, hiding or sleeping, so Joseph didn't notice them. About the third animal we saw was the elephants. That was when Joseph first saw an animal. He was pretty excited. It was like the light bulb went off and he realized what we were doing here.

I loved this picture of the two boys. They were trying to see the ducks.

It was a successful trip to the zoo!

Water Optional

While we were on our trip, we bought some souvenirs for the kids. One thing we found was a small body board at Ron Jon's. We thought the kids would have fun playing with it at the pool. Miriam found it was fun even without water. She pulled Joseph around on it for a while, and then when he lost interest, she put one of her baby dolls on it to pull around.

The Wild Side of Florida

We spent one day seeing the part of Florida that doesn't have theme parks or restaurants. We had a great time seeing the wildlife and beautiful scenery in Florida. In the morning, we went on an "Eco Safari" at the Forever Florida Ranch.

This is the first alligator we saw. He was not very big, and only stuck his head up out of the water.
These are wild pigs that tear up the land, so the ranchers put them in a pen and then let the employees have them for meat.

Here is a mother alligator. If you notice the striped lines around her, those are the babies. The tour guide said she could see at least 10 babies.

Here is a turtle hanging out on the water.

These are long-horned cows. They keep them to show visitors what the first cows brought over by the Spanish looked like, and to butcher for their little cafe. We had some for lunch, and it wasn't the best hamburger I've ever had...

Here is an armadillo. He is sleeping. Ignore the hole in the side of his armor. Jack told me to say he is just sleeping.

There was a beautiful path built over some of the more swampy areas.

This was our fancy tour bus.

There is Spanish Moss hanging from these trees. I thought it was beautiful. It made me think of a good fantasy story where there is a sorceress living in the forest.

I was fascinated by the white sand on the streets. The tour guide told us that even though we were in central Florida, you would find sand that was like the beach because for a long time, the water level would fluctuate so much that this area was under water.

After we left the Forever Florida Ranch, we went over to the Boggy Creek Airboat Rides. While we were waiting for the ride, there was this cage with little alligators in it. After just having been in a natural area where the animals were not disturbed, it was sad to me to see these alligators crammed into this cage.

This is the airboat. The water is not very deep, so they use this big fan on the back of the boat to get around.

The area was beautiful.

The bird is standing in the water. There was so much vegetation on the water, it was hard to see the water sometimes!

Here was the view from the front of the boat at one point.

Here is the little alligator we saw in the water.

When we got back, they used the baby alligators in the cage to educate about alligators. They also let you hold the alligator and take your picture. (Please don't take your own picture, we want to sell you ours...) So we didn't hold an alligator.

It was a fabulous day. I really enjoyed the beauty of this part of the country.