Psalm 100
1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy.
This morning we woke up at 6:45am to Kaden rushing into our bedroom telling on Blue who was "ripping stuff". Upon inspection, yes, Blue had torn apart all sorts of flash cards in their room. Nice. I sent Kaden back to his room to play and made Blue sit in our room in the time out position (criss cross apple sauce, hands on your knees) as Kevin and I attempted to linger in bed a little longer. Soon came the sound of Blue's whine, "I have to peeee-eeee." My arm emerged from the covers and I pointed to our bathroom. The sound that followed was odd then clearly he found the bowl then the odd sound again. "He's peeing on the floor," Kevin said. I threw back the covers and stomped to the bathroom saying, "I am NOT thankful for that boy," as I went. I'm not sure how we confused the sounds but he'd peed on his shirt, not the floor.
And so began Thanksgiving in the Stratton household.
I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then Kevin prepared to head over to my mom's because he's painting her house this weekend. We decided he should take Blue with him. We want the boy to see his 4th birthday and we figured his chances were better with Kevin than with me.
Blue. (yesterday in the cockpit of one of MFI's DC3s)

And today en route to giving Gus some bones. Note that the bone on the left has bites taken out of it. The kid will eat a dog bone but didn't touch a bite of his Thanksgiving dinner. (Probably because he was so stuffed from eating that dog bone.)
Oh fine. I'm thankful for Blue.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.
So Blue and Daddy went to work leaving Kaden, Toby and I to hang out. And we're good hanger outers. I cleaned up from breakfast and prepared a green bean casserole. We went on a walk in the neighborhood. The boys watched a Christmas movie and snacked while I prepared a cranberry apple crisp. The boys watched the parade and snacked while I cleaned the kitchen again and started on deviled eggs... We did have one pause in this so I could read Kaden and Toby a Thanksgiving story and then comes my inevitable frustration with Kaden. When we're just hanging out, Kaden and I are great. Try to actively engage the boy in something and hello frustration.
This book was not a new story. We read it and talked about it just a few days ago (and many other times in years past). I asked what should have been an easy question and I'll be blunt, he gave me a really stupid answer. (Yes, there ARE stupid answers and no, he was not trying to be funny.) I asked again, rewording to make sure he understood. He gave me a different, but again, totally wrong answer. Down goes the book, out comes the lecture about listening. Fun times, huh? This is a pattern for Kaden and me. Ugh.
But then.
Toby went down for a nap. I took a shower. Unpause the parade (I'm thankful for DVR!) and after a little while out comes a school project.
Kaden's December project is to make a gingerbread man using the template the school sent home. I asked Kaden if he wanted to do a fun gingerbread man like a Santa suited one or a pirate. He chose pirate. I love that Kaden spontaneously put on a Santa hat before starting on the project.
And I also love how it turned out. (Blue's pirate birthday party is on Sunday so we had a lot of stuff available to use - look hard on the left, he's even wearing a gold hoop earring.) No frustrations, just a good, creative time for us.
5 For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
At speech this week Toby signed "more bubbles" without any prompting. The boy just wanted some more bubbles! He signed "milk" for me today. He's also loving the sound "pa" and does an adorable "papa" when I show him a picture of Kevin's dad, who we call Papa. He has finally started waving bye bye and sometimes he says it too. I am thrilled at his recent language progress. I am so thankful for this boy, his giggles, his cuddles, even his pouting which often makes me laugh.
Tonight, Toby was wound up from all the extra hoopla of the evening. When Kevin and Blue returned, my mom and a friend came over and the real Thanksgiving kitchen bustle commenced. When it came time to put him to bed he screamed and screamed. Nothing I could do or sing (the singing always works, but tonight only intermittently) kept him settled. I let him scream. Then Daddy took his turn. That might have made it worse. Finally I returned and he happily sat with me in the recliner in his room. I kicked it back and he babbled away, and we just sat like that in the dark until he wound down, yawned, quieted, yawned some more. Moments like this his momma attachment is adorable. Other times it's exhausting.
Yesterday at MFI, I tried to take his picture but here he is storming me down:

Even so, he did have his times off with the big boys. He even braved zooming around on a dolly:
Thanksgiving was like any other day. We had the usual frustrations and the usual giggles - just more food around when it all went down.
I am thankful for God's faithfulness to their generation. That even though I sometimes worry (Will Kaden ever "get it?" Will Blue ever behave? How will Toby continue to develop?) I can absolutely trust God as their Father, their much more capable parent. He made them, they are his. (I.E. It's ok to loosen your grip, Faydra!) I'm thankful for reading this Psalm today, for that reminder.
I'm even thankful for these early childhood stages, but I'm also thankful knowing this time will pass. Soon enough they'll be teenagers I can't get out of bed, and I will try to remember that tomorrow morning at 6-something-er-other when, inevitably, Kaden or Blue will come into our room telling us something we don't want to hear probably about Kaden or Blue peeing somewhere we wished they hadn't peed.
We're not a perfect family but we're... us. And I'm thankful.
