Summer

So I have not done a very good job updating this blog at all but I think the people who check it are aware that we have an amazing new addition to our family, a sweet little boy named Joshua Ryder and that Rylee just turned 3 last week.  So I will not go through all of that but I will share how we are currently doing.
Rylee is happy and busy as usual.  Tiresome threes I think are what they call it, yep we are there.  Who knew someone could have so much energy all day long.  She wakes up and starts singing right away, plays all day long, when its time for her to lay down for nap she even goes out singing, wakes up ready to go again, plays all evening, then goes to bed singing and talking to herself.  She just turned 3 last week and we normally just have a birthday party at our house with immediate family.  This year we realized with just immediate family it is a lot of people so we decided to have a birthday party at Air It Out.  She LOVED it!
Ryder is wonderful... on the 13th he will be 3 months old. Roo (Rylee's current nickname for him) has been sleeping through the night now for a little over two weeks, which I'm so very thankful for.  He is such a happy baby.  The only time he is ever fussy is when he's sleepy or hungry.  Once those issues are satisfied he is full of smiles and is even starting to muster up a little noise that sounds like a laugh.  Rylee LOVES her brother.  She has a little jealousy but none of it has been taken out on him which is wonderful.  She is as great as I thought she would be with him.  So ready to help him when he is sad, she will surround him with all of her toys.  Even her favorite ones this normally does not help but I'm so proud of her sweet and caring spirit.  One of her favorite things to do is play mama with her babies and she has put all of that pretending to good use these days.  She has been a great help to me too, fetching diapers, wipes, burp rags and what ever else I ask her to get for me.
Now of course there have been some hard times thrown in there.   When one child is sorta whining and asking you a million questions and the other is crying because he is sleepy and I'm trying to make lunch or get something cleaned up it's really easy to get more frustrated than I need to be in those moments.  It's really easy to expect more out of my little girl than I should, and to just want some peaceful life changing silence so this week we have started asking God to help us with that.  To help us be sweet and gentle and of course you can always count on proverbs for some wisdom.
 A gentle answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger.  Prov. 15:
 One of the books I am currently reading is by Charlotte Mason whose method of education is famous in the homeschooling world.  One of the things she mentions that has really stuck with me is how adults view their children. Sometimes it is really easy to be condescending and make them feel less than for all the things they do not know and may need help with, or just when they are asking you the same question over and over and over.  It's easy to see them just as children and feel like you don't need to always respect them, that the only thing that matters is that they respect you.  Charlotte Mason instructs us to view them and us as the same though.  God has not only created our children but us as well and we are all his children.  He has made us all unique, just as he wants us to be.  A child is an individual who thinks, acts, and feels.  Charlotte Mason believes "He is a separate human being whose strength lies in who he is, not in who he will become."  A child is just a person who needs to grow in knowledge is what she tells us.  Reading things like that is pretty helpful in these times.  It helps guide me to the mama God would want me to be to our precious little ones.