A Divine Partnership

Thank you to all who made comments on my last post, either here or by email or phone. It was much appreciated. I also took to heart some of the suggestions made. I read the book The Kazdin Method for Parenting the Defiant Child. Thanks for the recommendation, Michelle. There were some very good ideas in there, although, I do think, as you said, that his main thrust is directed at slightly older children. Also, thanks Stacy for your idea about struggle-free diaper changes. That's been working really well! In general, things are improving. Although, I think part of the improvement is simply because I Benjamin (and kids in general) seems to go through limit-testing phases. So we'll have a really bad day or week or two weeks, and then he'll realize, 'I guess the rules are still the same and she's not budging' and things will calm back down. Later on he'll wonder again, 'what can I get away with now? Has anything changed?' and we'll start over. So these last few days have been calmer and better. It's been a much needed break.

I have to say, though, despite its seemingly endless challenges, motherhood really is amazing. I'm teaching Young Women's in a few weeks, so last week I printed off the lesson plan to see what my topic would be. It's on "Our attitudes about our Divine Roles." Basically I'm to teach the girls to be happy that the Lord wants them to be mothers and wives, and not to see that as a punishment or a banishment to a life of slavery and second-class citizenship. As a result, I've been thinking about this topic a lot recently. How do I view my role? When I was those girls' age, I never viewed motherhood as something noble. It was just something you did if you were too lazy or stupid to get a degree and do something more with your life. It wasn't until my mission that I started to see motherhood in a completely new light. Now I am overcome with gratitude for my role as a mother and my opportunity to raise these amazing children. I plead with God every day for help and strength to do it right and to follow his will. I realize I'm in a daily partnership with the Divine to raise his children and every time I sincerely seek his guidance and help, with the intent to do whatever he directs, I've receive support, strength, and peace. It's great to read books and ask friends for advice, but no one knows these children like He does and when true understanding is needed, He's there to help. No other role allows one to so intimately connect with our Heavenly Father - to work hand in hand with him, to understand him better, and to become more like him. No amount of struggle or heartache could ever outweigh blessings like those. And there's certainly no corporate desk job that could ever provide the kind of fulfillment and joy I receive from my role as a mother. God has really given us the best job in the kingdom. :)

As proof, here's a few of our recent happenings that make me happy to be a mom. I read "If You Give A Moose A Muffin" to Benjamin and in it the moose makes sock puppets. We have puppets, but the concept that you could make them out of socks fascinated him and he immediately pulled off his socks and began his first sock puppet show. Luckily the camera was nearby. Note: because I own a PC and not a Mac, I am forced to use user-unfriendly video editing software and couldn't figure out how to put subtitles on this movie. So, for those of you who don't speak German (and Benji-speak), I first ask him what his puppets are and he tells me that they're a mouse and a giraffe. I tell him to say something with them and he says, "cheese" because isn't that what you always say when the camera is on? Then he proceeds to tell me, "Puppetshow weg!" meaning, the puppets are gone, because as all toddlers think, if they can't see it, then surely you can't either. Then Peek-a-boo, they're back - it's miracle! And we continue. I ask him again what the mouse and the giraffe say and he tells me they say, "La la la." Clearly, this puppet show is headed for Broadway. Then they meet their tragic demise as they get a little too carried away with their singing. Not an award winning performance, but I think it's adorable how incredibly hilarious Bella thinks it is. She's backed herself up under the table and can't even stop laughing long enough to get out.



Isabella is becoming increasingly mobile. She's never in one place for long. She's still not crawling forward, but she can sit herself up, lunge forward, sit herself up again, etc. until she's where she wants to be. She also frequently turns around and crawls backwards to an object. She's nothing if not creative. She's also discovered the joy of pulling herself up on furniture and of walking when held by mom or dad. She's laughed and squealed with delight to such an extent and gotten herself so excited during these little escapades that she's actually started vomiting. Now that's excitement! :) So here's a few of Bella enjoying the sock puppet show while trying to climb up on me and enjoying standing and walking around.






One other fun thing we did this week came after a discussion of where various animals live. We talked about how some live in water, some on land, some in trees, etc. I decided to take it one step further and gather his toy animals and put them in their "native habitats." So we got out a bowl of water and put his toy turtle, fish, shark, etc. in it and even made a diving board out of a spatula (not in the picture), because don't all marine animals enjoy a friendly diving competition from time to time? We all got soaking wet, but we had a great time and, at her insistence, Bella's awful toy dragon even got to take a plunge too.