My strong-willed child

Today I got a new book from the library. (The New) Strong-Willed Child by Dr. James Dobson.

Elijah has been acting out more and more lately, throwing fits, hitting, at times biting. That sounds terrible... He is mostly a good kid and fairly obedient, but he definitely has his moments. He is also trying to assert his independence by choosing to do some things he knows are not allowed, or telling us "no" when we give him direction.

Chris and I have decided that a crack-down is in order. We are not afraid of disciplining our child, in fact we are strong proponents of disciplining in any way necessary. Of course I do not beat my child, but I definitely spank. However, spanking does not seem to faze Elijah one bit. And time-outs are difficult to follow through with since he is so young. Since he is our first child, we get to do all the experimenting on him (that is until the next one comes along and is completely different...) :-)

I've heard a lot of good things about this book, I have no idea yet what advice Dr. Dobson has, but I am definitely looking forward to it. If Elijah is anything like his parents - he is very strong-willed.

New Boots

I have searched high and low this winter for a pair of boots that would satisfy my incredibly picky taste. I am not a girl of many shoes, I prefer to find a pair of shoes that will last me at least several years rather than buying some spur of the moment. Don't get me wrong, in a dream world I would love to buy a pair of shoes for every outfit and then some, but I just can't justify that in real life. I believe I own between 5 and 7 pairs of shoes, but I only wear 2 - my Adidas Samba tennis shoes in the winter and my $3 Walmart flip-flops (which sometimes do last more than 1 year) in the summer. But for several years now I have really wanted to get some boots because my feet are always freezing in the winter when I wear my Sambas. Plus I have been on a kick lately to try to dress a little more feminine, and that means cute boots instead of men's tennis shoes.

So I shopped and I shopped (well I didn't shop that much because I hate shopping, but I did shop quite a bit compared to my normal amount of shopping, which is not at all) and I never seemed to be able to find a pair of boots that was exactly what I wanted - cute, practical, and warm. Plus I didn't have any money, so I was waiting until I got gift cards and/or money for Christmas. However, after Christmas I tried shopping again and still couldn't find anything because all the stores I went to were on their last few pairs of boots and after Christmas they don't get in any new inventory. So I was pretty much out of luck.

Then we were on our way home from up north and my brilliant husband suggests stopping at the outlets in Albertville. Good idea, brilliant husband! So we stopped there and it was a million degrees below zero so we were sprinting from shoe store to shoe store without any luck. Then finally we come to the last store - Skechers. I was a little hesitant because the Skechers boots I've seen in other stores were rather bizarre. However, Chris wanted to go to Wilson's Leather to look at coats and they happened to be just a store apart, so we went our separate ways and agreed that whoever realized their store had nothing first would go and meet the other.

Well, I walk into Skechers and down the boot aisle and I am overwhelmed by cute boots! Then began the trying-on of about 7 different pairs. After all this Chris still hadn't showed up so I had to call him and he was overwhelmed by coats at Wilson's Leather, but decided to come help me choose boots first (what a great husband :-D).

Ok, this story is getting too long, so here they are, the boots I chose.


I love that they are black, I love that they don't have any fur on them, I love that they are relatively simple, I love that they are comfortable, and I love that they were on sale and therefore the cheapest boots I found.

I don't love that the zipper only goes up to the trim so it is quite a feat to get them on and get my pants tucked into them, I don't love that they are not weatherproof, and I don't love that I had to spend money on them no matter how cheap they were.


I still have the box and the receipt because I tend to talk myself out of purchases. I'm interested to find out if I will keep these or not. Any comments?

I love the idea that God will never give us more trouble than we are able to handle (with His help of course). Typically in my life when something goes wrong - everything goes wrong. Then I start to wonder if it can get any worse... And it does.

Today, however, God showed me that not everything is going to go wrong. It was 31 degrees below zero this morning and my 12 year old little Mazda started after only a couple tries. It was a miracle. An everyday miracle.

Animal Sounds

Here are the animal sounds Elijah has mastered. Sometimes he will say what the puppy and the kitty say, but not as often as the rest... I especially love the dinosaur sound :-)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This year has been filled with many changes, many trials, and many blessings. We are pleased to say that through it all God has been incredibly faithful and gracious to us. Christmas comes along as a reminder that God loved us enough to send his own Son to be miraculously born on this earth to walk among us and eventually die to save us. As for our little family, we don't need a holiday to remind us of God's goodness, we see it every day when we look at our son, alive and well and growing faster than we can keep track of! Merry Christmas and God bless you all!

Updated Vocab

Update on Elijah's vocabulary, here are the words he can say now:

1) Touchdown
2) Uh-Oh
3) That
4) Ball
5) Car
6) Shirt
7) Door
8) Shower
9) Shoe
10) Sock
11) Cracker
12) Beau (his cousin)
13) Diddy (one of our kitties)
14) Hat
15) Bubbles
16) No
17) Sit
18) Boot
19) Coat
20) Book
21) Eye
22) Nose
23) Boat
24) Hello
25) Clock
26) Wow/Woah
27) Pooh (Winnie)
28) Outside
29) Bye
30) Toe
31) Ninny (our other kitty)
32) Go
33) Down
34) Dad
35) Remote
36) Balloon
37) Toast
38) Block

And that doesn't include the sound effects he makes:

1) Vroom-vroom
2) Woof-woof
3) Roar
4) Moo
5) Meow
6) Boom

The N Word

Elijah has learned how to say "no."

Crap.

I'm not entirely sure he understands the full meaning of it yet. Sometimes he will just be talking to himself saying "nooooo, noooooo, nooo." Sometimes I will tell him "no!" and he will respond "no!" Sometimes I will say something random to him and he will say "no." And sometimes he will start to do something that he knows is wrong and he will tell himself "no." So, I'm really not sure what he thinks about the word.

Whatever it is that he thinks about it, I am simply not ready for him to use that word. I was under the impression that the "no" stage came along with the terrible twos... Oh wait, Elijah is in the terrible twos right now! But how can that be, he's only 16 months! That's right, the terrible twos really last about a total of 3 years, they just don't tell you that until there's nothing you can do about it!

Elijah is definitely learning how to be a stinker and if he's anything like his daddy (which he is, in every way, shape, and form) then he is going to be very, very good at it :-P. But then again he is the cutest, smartest, sweetest, funniest kid in the world so I guess he can be as big a stinker as he wants and I will still love him to death! :-)