Restart?

Well, yes, it has indeed been over a year since I've blogged.  I wonder:  Is anyone out there?  Regardless, this is largely for my benefit, to record memories that are not well-served by my own brain.  More soon--really.

thumb prayers

The greatest thing happened to me last night. We were down in the basement, he, playing, and I, working on a quilt for his bed. Early he'd disregarded my warning and handled the rotary cutter, and had consequently given himself a nick on his thumb. We duly put on a bandage (he wears them like badges of honor) and returned to our activites. About 1/2 hr later he stopped, ran over to me, and held out his thumb.

"Mom, will you pray for me?" he asked.
What? Did I hear that right? "What'd you say, Elias?"
"Mom, will you pray for me, for my thumb?"

Awwww! How absolutely wonderful. So of course I prayed over his thumb, and, satisfied, he happily ran back to whatever it was he was doing.

He's never asked for prayer before. As one who foolishly/stubbornly/faithlessly neglects to ask for enough prayer herself, I most certainly hope (and pray) that this would continue to come easily for him, and he would know the power and presence of prayer interwoven in all aspects of his life. Amen.

1st burrito

Elias enjoyed "making burritos" on SesameStreet.org yesterday, so I decided to have them for dinner. We did the whole shebang: ground beef, refried beans, corn, lettuce, salsa, cheese, tomatoes, olives and sour cream/guacamole. Of course, like Mom, he put way too much on the tortilla to roll up, but after removing 1/2 the filling to another plate we could roll it up. He ate it all, plus the extra filling, and then asked for an ate another later that evening. He says he's had burritos before, but I think this was his first. This is how my son eats burritos:

Yep, from the middle out. For the longest time he also ate apples and pears straight through "left to right" (core and all), rather than concentrically. I love it how kids challenge your everyday assumptions as to the "right" way of doing things.

bits & pieces

Well, I just spent 2 hours writing and editing a great blog about today, when my computer went nuts, highlighted all the text, deleted it, then autosaved it, in the space of about 1 second.  It actually does that frequently, but never with the bad luck of immediate autosave.  Since I can't recover anything except a lone "y", and it's late, I'll substitute this.
Some favorite Elias quotes:

(in a Welsh accent, from watching BBC videos) Mom! Quit muckin' about!

Me: Not yet. Elias: Not yet...(3 seconds pass)...is it "yet" yet?

(in a crafts store) Elias: Look, grapes! Me: no, those are fake grapes.
Elias (pretending to pick and eat the grapes) umm...grape-y!  (with great emotion) I very like grapes.

(when told to go to bed) But I'm too TIRED to go to bed!
(when in bed) I'm too TIRED to go to sleep.  
(also, from bed) Mom!  I'm asleep, Mom!

(and of course I forget others, now that I'm writing them down!)

A quick anecdote from yesterday:
I was on the phone so of course Elias insisted I help him find The Great Discovery on Netflix on my iPhone, relinquished to him to keep him busy while I talked, because he is very jealous of me talking to others.  I opened search, typed it in and found it for him, still having my conversation.  He moved onto my lap and started watching the movie, but only a minute before he decided that wasn't quite right.  He wanted Super Why instead.  I tried ignoring him, but he became very insistent that I help him, because "Why wasn't why working?!" Huh?  I looked at the iPhone thrust in my face.  He had opened the Netflix search engine and typed in WHY, but Super Why episodes wouldn't come up.  He'd spelled it correctly, but didn't erase "great discovery" first.  Wow.  I never (intentionally) showed him how to do that--he just figured it out from watching.  Of course then my conversation switched to how smart he is, so he then got both his wishes:  to watch Super Why and have himself at the center of my attention.

back to WI

We got back from California today! Amazingly enough, with 4 carry-on bags and a very active 4 year old, the flights were about as easy as could be expected. Still, I'm very tired, but sort of in that mode of too-tired-to-do-what's-good-for-me-and-go-to-bed. Did want to order Christmas cards tonight to get multiple discounts, though, which I downloaded as a separate post for everyone to see and also to get the shameless $10 coupon bribe. I did get Elias to bed on time even with the time change--a good thing, because we have an 8am appointment with a behavior therapist tomorrow morning! Ugh.

It's been more than 2 decades since I spent a Thanksgiving with my family back in CA. Some of the same treasured traditions are still active, like cutting the Christmas tree in the national forest on "black Friday" (definitely NOT a day for shopping in our family). I hope to have some more pictures up soon.

Stationery card

Christ Wishes Religious Christmas Card

Create personalized Christmas card designs at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

anatomy of a tantrum

It seems like a lot has happened over the last month, but I've been too tuckered out to blog about it, opting instead for earlier bedtimes.

Elias's great love has, sadly, switched from books to video. He especially likes surfing around the kids programs on Netflix or video clips at sesamestreet.org. Screentime is normally reserved as a special treat for Saturdays and an occasional weeknight, and in the mornings when getting ready to go. After school today we were doing well in the real world, looking for marshmallow sticks for his school trip tomorrow, visiting with the chickens, then making a pizza. Then he caught sight of my laptop, on, in the office and rushed over to load videos. I told him no, not until after dinner, when I'd watch something with him, which he glumly accepted and walked out. I went to take the trash out. When I returned, there he was at the computer, with Sesame Street loaded, looking very guilty. I reminded him I told him he couldn't play on the computer until after dinner (ignoring his hasty but heart-felt excuse that had something to do with Cookie Monster), and because he disobeyed, now he couldn't play on the computer at all tonight. It's not the first time this senario has played out, but tonight, Oh, the drama! He burst out crying, bawling, lamenting, hanging onto me...which went on for over an hour. I think that's a record. He'd get himself just under control, then after several seconds remember the "harsh"sentence visited upon him and start up all over again. When we sat down for dinner and I prayed, he tacked on, bitterly, "and THANK YOU for the computer and THANK YOU that Mom said I can't play on the computer tonight and is making me very, VERY upset! Amen." Then he told me "yes, I'm telling God on you." He abandoned that route when I reminded him that God wants us to obey our parents, and reverted to the cycle of bawling, catching his breath, asking again if he can play on the computer (with variations of wording, or proffered limitations to particular programs, or provisions, or justifications), objecting to the same, un-nuansed "no" answer, and then more sobbing. I probably could have stopped it by getting him to do something else, or refusing to let him "tantrum" in the kitchen where I was, or even ordering him to stop, but I wondered how he'd get over it himself. I was fascinated at how all-encompassing and deep-felt his disappointment was, far in excess of the happiness afforded a little computer time, and how much effort he expended in sustaining his anger. In the talking parts of the cycle, I was impressed how eloquently he voiced his assessment, objections, and attempted negotiations of the matter. I was pleased he never tried to ignore my ruling by sneaking off to play on the computer, nor did he act out his frustration; rather, he clung to me seeking comfort in his distress. So we cuddled and talked until he wore himself out. Meekly, still weeping, he got ready for bed, then fell deeply asleep on me after just one book. It was all said and done by 7:50. I bet tomorrow it'll be as if nothing happened, except (hopefully) a lesson learned.

Elias' tantrum was just so ridiculously overblown and unreasonable, at times I fought back a smile, but then it got me thinking: do I do the same thing? I'm upset and stressed about not being fairly paid at work, but I got myself into this situation, and it's clear that my reasoning, begging, and emotional stress aren't going to change their decision one whit--so what am I whining about? Why do I keep presenting ever-more-eloquent reasoning to a brick wall? I need to chill out, accept it, and move on a little bit wiser. Like Elias.