Happy 4th Birthday Rhyan!

My sweet Rhyan

4 years ago today, after a solid day in the hospital trying to get to meet you, you finally made your appearance in this world! I remember seeing your sweet face for the first time, holding you for the first time, kissing your sweet face... and wondering how in the world I would ever figure out how to be a good Mommy to you!

We survived, though, and here you are today... FOUR years old! I am so amazed at all you have soaked up in the last 4 years. You are smart, Miss Rhyan! You are perceptive and can always tell if something is wrong with someone in your family. You are compassionate and nurturing! You love to help take care of people (and your baby dolls, stuffed animals, etc). You are absolutely loving and precious.

You do not like to be woken up from your naps each day. If we have to wake you, we pretty much just open your door and let the noises wake you because we're "scared" ;-). You are a GRUMP if we have to wake you!!! Naps are still pretty much a daily thing around here for you, although there are days (usually 2 a month) that you dont fall asleep and just lay there quietly for usually an hour before getting up to tell me that you're ready to get up. Silly girl. Nap time is for MOMMY! Not just you ;-)

Having your nails and toes painted is something you love. You can be quite the tom boy and love to play outside and ride your bike, climb and jump and run... but there is also a princess inside of you that requires a dress and hairbow and black shiny shoes. I absolutely love that you are not 100% tomboy or 100% girly girl... its so easy to get to enjoy a wide variety of activities with you because of this!

Every night, you and I play a little game. Idk how it started exactly? Something that you did with your "Mayer"... and we expanded on it a little. You say to me "You're my favorite... lamp" and I say "you're my favorite... bird". We continue to say that we are each others favorite random object and each respond with "nooooooo! i'm not a _____" until one of us finally says, " I know! You MUST be my favorite little girl/mommy". Then we give BIG hugs (which becomes another game... to see who can squeeze the other the hardest!) and BIG kiss (where i remind you to NOT smile and keep your lips closed b/c i dont want to kiss teeth!).

You remind us all daily that we must say our prayers before we eat. Quite the pharisee, we are raising! haha... certainly, that is exactly what we hope to avoid! You also remind me to read your bible to you each night and at your current age, I love that we can ask you questions from your night time bible and you really try to figure out the right answers. And it cracks me up that every time I ask you what is one way that we can show God that we love Him, you respond with "obey Mommy and Daddy". And every time i ask you how Jesus showed that He loved God you respond with "he obeyed his Mommy and Daddy" LOL! We've got some work to do, but you're learning ;-)

You are a really great big sister. Of course, you struggle with sharing at times with Mack, but overall you are really helpful and kind to him. You try to teach him how to say the blessing and how to ride his bike, etc... you kind of go back and forth between wanting to be a baby (and trying to talk like one) and  really taking on your role of big sister. We understand this conflict in your heart and just try to remind you of what it was like when YOU were little like Mack and all of the great things you get to enjoy now that you're bigger. Helping you see the perks of being older brings you right back to wanting to be the big sister!

We have a great time shopping together. You're such a great little buddy and always help me find nice gifts for friends, nice clothes for myself, etc.

You love Spud and always make sure he has food and water, and you let me know if he needs something. If his ears flip inside out, you fix it and tell him he's a silly boy. You're so good with him!

Lately, you've been telling me that you think we need a bigger family. Your specific requests are for 1. A cat (not happening... i'm allergic! sorry girl!) 2. A brother for Spud (not happening... i'm sick of cleaning dog hair, and trust me... he doesnt want a brother!) and 3. A sister for you. Cause you already have a brother ;-) haha... So demanding!

You have weathered the changing of church's like a champ. It was SUCH a hard decision to change from the only church you've ever known... where you were dedicated and loved for almost 4 years! But you have taken so well to your new church (Bethlehem Church) and are so sweet to tell Mack that he is a big boy and shouldnt cry and just to have fun!

This past year you have potty trained, learned to talk in full on conversation, comprehended reasoning skills, learned all your letters and can write most of them, know all colors (except gray), developed a great love for singing and all things princess's,  stopped sucking your fingers in your sleep! (thank you Mavala Stop!) and so much more! Some things I could live without is how picky you've become in your eating and the tone in which you sometimes answer me.

I cant believe what this next year will bring... you will be starting pre-K in the fall, which is SO bittersweet. I know you are SO ready! You're so excited and tell your Daddy and I all the time about how great it will be and how you know that we will miss you, and that its ok. :-)

Your Daddy and you are little peas in a pod. You play together and you are always SO goofy around him!
You and your bother LOVE each other, too. I'm always surprised at what great friends you are and how well you play together. It makes me so glad that you are so close in age!

This past weekend leading up to your birthday, I went to a Christian children's ministry leadership conference. The whole theme of the conference was symbolized with a marble in a jar for each week from today till the time a kid turns 18. There were jars everywhere labeled with the ages and it was a real visual for how quickly time passes. I loved the idea and am starting a jar for you and your bother soon. I need to take a marble out each week so I can reflect on the week and think about how well your Daddy and I poured into you and made time matter. How well we loved you during that week. I look forward to that reminder, and hope that the Lord will guide us as to how to make each week of your life count as we disciple you!
 
More than anything, I absolutely adore being your Mommy. I struggle with learning how to be a good one, that much is still true. But my motive and desire is there, so I continue to trust the Lord and see Him for discernment and wisdom on how best to parent your precious heart. I treasure you, Rhyan Shlaine Ford. And I always will. Just in the way that NOTHING can separate you from the love of God, so it will be with my love, as well.

There once was a girl

There once was a girl

 Who had a little curl 

Right in the middle of her forehead.

  And when she was good 

She was very good indeed

And when she was bad, she was horrid. 

-Longfellow

And her name was Rhyan ;-)

Growing Up

I'm amazed at how quickly Rhyan seems to be growing up. Its so true, the old saying that with children "The Days are Long and the Years are Short".

 One day, Rhyan came in the kitchen with her magnadoodle... she had drawn her first ever, by herself "R". She was kinda bashful about it, but oh so proud of herself.  I couldnt believe it! We work on letters some, but I rarely can get her to attempt to write one. She is very much the first child perfectionist and has the tendency to not want to try things unless she knows she can do it well... or at least practice in private where no one will see her struggle or try until she gets it "right".  So really... i was SO proud!

Back in December, we decided to let Rhyan try out gymnastics! We let her do a couple of "trial" classes at extreme tumbling in winder (not far at all from us!) and she seemed to like it, so we signed her up. She goes every monday for 45 minutes. We went through a brief period of her saying she didnt want to go (right after we signed her up, of course) but that quickly resolved.

This was on her first official class. There were 5 girls in the class. Now... there are two. And sometimes the other little girl doesnt come so Rhyan gets a private lesson! haha.

Rhyan really enjoys her "nastics" but doesnt really like to practice at home or show off what she's learned. Again, goes back to her not wanting to do things in front of us (specifically her parents... she'll try things in front of strangers more than us!). So, we try to get her to work on her bridges and handstands and flips, but she usually says she doesnt want to. And thats ok. We're not looking to train an olympian or anything ;-) Really, we signed her up to give her the experience of having something to do that is just "hers" before she starts school in the fall... but with this, I can look through the window in the observation room and see how she interacts with other kids and how much confidence she has/lacks. It serves its purpose.

Fall pics

One beautiful day in early November, I decided to take the kids to our neighbors yard and get a few pics of them on this big rock, with a pretty tree behind it. I'm no professional, but i did think the kids did pretty well because of it being such a relaxed, unplanned thing :-)

Doing "itsy bitsy spider" :-)... he's a tough cookie to crack, btw... doesnt smile on command and with all of the ear infections and teething he endured in Oct, Nov and Dec of last year, we saw very few smiles. (I'm happy to say that so far, so good in 2013! knock on wood!)

I did NOT tell them to kiss... they truly do just love each other (for now! haha)

I LOVE that they were holding hands here :-)

Our babies being 2 years apart can be hard sometimes... but the relationship they share is priceless!

Oak Hill Fall Festival

Halloween fell on a Wednesday this year. And our church had its fall festival the Sunday before. We had taken part in the Dacula Festival the day before (Saturday) which was kind of a bust so we left and went to Shlaine's church (our old church) and took part in their festival where the kids ate chili and played on their playground, etc... but somehow i didnt get any pics?! :-( So on we move to our church festival...

When you first arrive at our church festival, they always take pictures to give you when they come visit (if you're a visitor) and share more about the church. Well, we may not need a visit from the visitation team, but we DO appreciate the scenery and thought we'd catch our own pic! Yes, i should crop. But i didnt. Hello, people. I'm just trying to catch up at this point! HA!

Rhyan had actually woken up with a random fever but didnt seem to have any symptoms. So we had kept her home from church that morning so as not to "share". But the festival was all outside and she was feeling much better and fever free so we went. And then the wind started blowing and we were so COLD! :-( And i felt bad for taking her, but she had a blast! So we just stayed a little while and let her play some games while Mack played and it was all good...

Mack and our youth pastor, Kyle (who looks like a youth himself!!!)

Mack kept wanting us to help him up this ladder and signed "please" over and over :-) Cute!

Btw, we didnt let Rhyan wear her dress b/c it was too cold and we wanted her WARM.

Here's my baby playing putt-putt for the first time! She did AWESOME!

We told her to try to throw the hoop around the post, so she walked up to it and tossed it. 

SUCCESS! Ha! We'll take it how we can get it :-)

So proud of herself!

And in this game you're supposed to toss the ball into the can... so again, she walked up to it :-)

Toss the ball into the boot?

Too hard! Dropping it is easier :-) After all, you've got to ensure that you get CANDY!

We had a great time with our babies! We ALWAYS love outdoor fun, although we enjoy it more when its warm :-) Not to be picky or anything! haha...

Rhyan: 3.5

I feel like my little girl has really grown and changed in the last 6 months! Of course, this makes me proud and excited, but on the other hand, it makes me SAD to see her growing up! I was just telling her tonight how I was looking through some pics of her when she was a baby and how tiny and sweet she was... I miss that baby girl! But am so proud of the little lady she's becoming :-)

In this last 6 months, Rhyan and I have enjoyed some girl time. She's become the best little shopping buddy! Although, if I tell her that, she promptly says "i am NOT a buddy! I am a GIRL!" haha

She has hit the emotional 3 year old phase. :-( She is tenderhearted and gets her feelings hurt pretty easily. But whats worse is that she cries if she gets embarassed. And she gets embarrassed easily! If she thinks you're making fun of her at ALL, she boohoo's. She's not a girl that can laugh at herself... this reminds me SO much of myself when I was little. Heck, it reminds me of myself now! Difference is, I now better understand that I'm like that because I'm insecure... and I also know that I dont have any reason to be really. Neither does she! But it will take time for her to gain confidence... something we pray the Lord will give her. The ability to laugh at yourself and your mistakes is a GREAT trait in life... one worth working to achieve!

Rhyan still sucks her fingers when she sleeps :-(. This is, again, something we talk to her about a LOT. She tells me that she tries to not suck them, but that she neeeeeds to so she can sleep. Poor baby. We will resort to gloves or something in the new year... but I know it will be hard for her to learn to self soothe w/o it.

She is much more willing to try stuff by herself these days, although she still has times that she wants to be right with me... which I dont mind a bit :-)

Rhyan is VERY into "Tangled" (the movie) and wants her hair to be long like Rapunzel's! So, its growing. She also refuses to allow me to put it up in ANY way. No pony tails. no braids. no half up... Just down. Like Rapunzels. It drives me nuts! She is enjoying playing dress up and is showing more of an imagination as of late, but it is still obvious that she is a concrete, literal thinker. She still prefers to sit and do puzzles or play her memory game with me over any game of pretend. She loves to be chased but it almost always ends in her crying for some reason... I think its a girl thing... I'm still that way. Love the chase, hate being caught. HA!

Rhyan now has 4 things she must do each night before bedtime and for the most part she does them well! 1.Go potty 2. Wash hands 3.Brush teeth 4. Put on night time panties and pj's. She can FINALLY fully dress and undress herself. Tracy and I were talking about how we needed to work on this with Rhyan as she is the kind of kid who is pretty content letting you do things for her that she feels she may not be able to do herself successfully (she's a bit of a "if i might fail i wont even try" kind of kid... again, a trait i easily recognize b/c i see it in myself). So we had a few rough days with her learning to take shirts off by herself (admittedly a tough task to learn) but now she is QUITE independent and will not allow for any help :-)

In this last 6 months, my mom accidentally bought her a 100 piece puzzle at a yard sale. She assumed it was a typical kids 24 or 36 piece and just didnt look at the box very well. I hid it from Rhyan b/c I kind of detest puzzles and didnt want to get "stuck" helping... but she found it. And to my astonishment, she put the whole thing together by herself. It blew us all away. She's not even 3.5 at this point and did a 100 piece puzzle slated for 5+ years! I know every mom thinks their kid is genius, but for real... thats pretty good, right?!

Gotta love my kids crazy hair. This is a typical bedhead for her... and it doesnt even phase her! Those curls are insane!!! And she HATES having it brushed (um, b/c its so tangled all the time!)

Rhyan is quite bossy! She thinks its ok to tell Jeff and I to not sing, not dance, basically not do anything she doesnt like at that moment. We repeatedly tell her that she's not the boss and that its not nice to try to tell people what to do all the time. I was re-reading pre-school wise searching for answers and read a section i have marked and underlined, but apparently had forgotten. In short, the Ezzos talk about how children who have too many choices start to think that they are at a minimum your peer, at best your boss. Its not life changing choices that make them feel this way. Its when you put their milk in a blue cup and they tell you they want the pink cup and you, thinking "no big deal", switch to the pink cup. It re-iterates that they are in charge. So the Ezzo's recommend keeping choices to a minimum at this age for the sake of them not getting "too big for their britches" as we say around here :-) This is something we've worked on and seen pretty good changes. Of course, its always harder to un-do what has been done (which is why its so important to be intentional in our parenting!) but its worth the effort!

Rhyan is a GREAT big sister. She tells her brother anytime he has a fit over not getting his way (which is a LOT) that "its ok buddy! you're ok!". They play together SO well and love each other! She told me recently that "Mackey is my best friend!" and my absolute favorite quote about him as I was getting ready to put him to bed is, "dont put him away, yet, mommy! i'm gonna play with him"... like he's a TOY! So cute :-)

Rhyan is a decent eater, but tries to hold out for snacks if we let her. So in return, she's skinnier than I would like. Still healthy and all, I just like a chunky baby. I know, i know, she's not a baby. But it'd be nice to have some remnants of some baby fat to make me THINK she's still my baby!
She is still a great night time sleeper, although she goes through stages of coming in our room in the middle of the night asking to get in bed with us (which we never oblige). She still wears pull ups to bed and sleeps HARD enough that she doesnt realize she goes pee in them. She almost always wakes up and tells me she kept them dry, but they are not. ha. The dr said this is totally normal for hard sleepers and that theres nothing to do about it... she needs her consecutive night time sleep (so do we) and she'll grow out of it in time. She still naps from 12:30 or 1pm-between 3-4pm each day. She occasionally takes a while to fall asleep only if she has not been active in the morning. She goes to bed at 8pm each night and gets up at 7am.

Rhyan,
Your daddy and I adore you! You are so fun and can be SO sweet and compassionate, loving and kind! You share so well when you want to and I see the heart of Jesus within you. I also see sin, which is what I expect to see. So we continue to work on lots of things like how to speak nicely to people, how to ask nicely for things and how to share when you DONT want to :-) These are things Mommy and Daddy are still working on at our old ages, so its normal... we're all working on it together!
Your little brother, mack, loooooves you! And you get along great! You love to imitate one another and you are so proud of him for all of his new words. You get so excited that "Mack can TALK!" and you try to teach him new words all the time. You're so sweet with him (usually)!
You obey me (your Mommy) pretty well. You test me at times, which I expect, but overall you are very obedient and helpful. You do not obey your daddy quite so well, but thats because he is a softie... which he is working on :-) haha.
You love to sing, play games, do puzzles, play outside, pet spud, visit family, go to church, play with Shelby, help take care of Colt, be a mommy to your babies, play in your kitchen and watch tv.
You are so verbal and talk all the time. I have no idea where you get that from ;-)
And i simply adore you. You bring pure joy to my life and I'm proud to be your mommy!