Another Stand Off

It has been 34 hours since Emma has drunk anything. No, she isn't ill. No, we are not out of beverages at our house. We are giving up the bottle and she has decided that she can wait it out. Well, so have I and let me just say, it's harder for me than her. I spoke with Dr. H's office yesterday and he encouraged me to throw away the bottles so that I wouldn't be tempted to give them back to her. I didn't throw them away, but I did hide them so others in the house (dh) wouldn't be tempted:) He also encouraged me that she will drink if she is thirsty. I keep offering her the cup with milk and she will let me put it to her mouth and then turn her head away. She has taken a couple of sips over the last 24 hours, but will not attempt to drink from the cup with any real effort. She has eaten a lot of applesauce to help with the hydration issue. So, here we are. I hate it. I can't stand for her not to drink and in all reality I love giving her a bottle, but she is 2 and needs to drink from a cup. Her teeth are already showing signs of too much bottle and it will make life much easier if she can take a cup with her when we are out. But she is STUBBORN. So please say a prayer for her that she will begin to drink soon and that I will have the endurance to get over this little battle of the wills.


Losing our innocence. I've been thinking about that with her giving up her bottle. As she gets older and has to give up those little things that make her a kid. Remember those? I've been thinking about how simple life was when I was a kid. It was a different time and when I look at the things that are going on around us in our own back yard and what my boys have to face everyday, it just blows my mind and makes me so sad. A few weeks ago Brady accidentally took a pocket knife to school in his backpack and one of his friends saw it. Luckily no teacher saw it or Brady would have been kicked out of school. When he told me that afternoon that he had taken it to school he said he just forgot about it being in there and he had been in the woods "scouting" the day before and had taken his supplies in his backpack. Simple enough. We live in a rural area and our kids have a lot of woods to play in and I am thankful for that. But that got me to thinking about growing up in the 80's and going to high school and never thinking about the fact that most of the boys in school had a pocket knife with them. It was just a normal thing and you never worried about someone stabbing someone else. Those same boys had a hunting rifle or a shotgun in the cab of their trucks that they would use later on in the day during hunting season. Again, you never thought about someone shooting someone else at school. I think that innocence was completely lost 10 years ago at Columbine. I think it was probably lost before then, but that is the moment that really sticks out in my mind. What a sad world our world has become. Our kids are forced to grow up too soon in the environment that we live in. Our kids are surrounded by the Internet, t.v., movies, lack of parental involvement, etc. I know those same issues were there when I was a kid (minus Internet), but certainly not to the same extent. I miss the 80's.


I was talking with someone recently about being a stay at home mom and how thankful I was that I could be home with the kids. I have worked full time and know how hard it is for everyone. When the boys were little and they were at a sitter's house for 12-13 hours it killed me. Praise God that I can be home with them now and that was the point of the conversation. I really believe it's better to be home with them now when they are older than it was when they were babies. I am home every afternoon and I get to hear about what is going on at school. I get to pick them up everyday and although that can be a pain, I am glad to have the opportunity to hear them talk about what is going on in school and with the other kids. I am lucky that my boys share with me, especially Brady. I am also lucky to be very sneaky and able to con them into telling me things when they don't realize that I am doing so:)

Well, I didn't realize that my post was going to head in that direction, but it's been on my heart. Above all, it's so good to know that God is with us all the way. He will not leave us, even when we leave him. So when I am worrying about my daughter not drinking or my boys growing up in this crazy world, He is right beside me through it all.