What we've been laughing at lately

You'll have to click on the picture to make it bigger - and it's worth it.
How does a photographer manage to terrify/confuse 6 toddlers, and make 1 laugh?
On a Roberts' family note: we can now identify this as Carson's "what the what?" face. He looked like this for 10 straight minutes on his first train ride at Keemah yesterday. --- awesome!

A Confession

"How's Carson doing?"

My most common responses of late: such a pill ... wit's end ... obstinate ... frustrated ... fire station (as in leave him there)

Yes, my son has reached his "terrible 1 and a halfs" and being primary care provider to this guy has been downright exhausting. True there are good days and bad days, but by the end of the bad days, I can hardly stand up.

My nearest and dearest have only heard lately of these predicaments I face, and have truly responded w/ grace and encouragement. However, they fail to realize I'm looking for a solution -- not endurance.

So I'm driving the other day complaining to myself ... and God (because I believe He's listening) ... but mostly to myself. Like my close friends, I've found that God generally encourages me in the "endurance" area, and I've already tried to explain that I'm a quick-fix kind of gal.

So with this hardened heart, a Word still breaks through and I'm reminded "to not be surprised by the trials you face as though something strange were happening to you." (1 Peter 4:12). I'm not trying to take anything out of context and realize this message was originally written to those who are suffering for the sake of Christ and I'm merely subject to the wrath of a toddler. However, (and here's my point) I guess I've realized this week to not freak out when being a mom gets hard. This isn't strange, and it shouldn't surprise me. And I suppose that if I will endure, and stop threatening to take him to Kyle Field and let him work with Daddy for the day, then there might be a little refining in it for me.

I also have to extend my deepest gratitude toward the women in my life who listen to me rant and don't roll their eyes as I dramatize my most recent problems. In fact, Pam, Donna, and Barbara, Lisa, Debbie, Mommy -- you've been so faithful to me, I must name you! Oh and I'd be remiss to not mention my husband who doesn't benefit from any efforts on my part to hide my frustration or even exercise civility on those previously mentioned bad days.

Escape attempt #1

This morning I woke up w/ 45 minutes to spare (meaning, C wasn't due to get up until then). These are the precious moments I use to shower, fix my hair, make lunches, and mentally collect the sanity needed for my day. Well 5 minutes into this self-proclaimed "me time" I hear the little guy crying.
"Well, he's just going to have to wait 20 mins b/c today is not going to be a pony-tail day." I told myself.
So my morning soundtrack was Carson crying/whimpering every so often. Then, the whimpering turned into all-out screaming.
"That's fear/panic." This mom knows her son's screams ... perhaps I am a little too well acquainted with them.
I rush into his room, and Carson is hanging over the front rail of his crib. His weight is perfectly balanced, and he's stuck! Head and arms on one side, butt and feet on the other. His paci on the ground under his head. At the moment, I was horrified, running to hold and comfort him, but all he wanted was his paci, and once it was back in his mouth the screaming stopped.
Since then, the picture in my head has only prompted laughter. And for your viewing pleasure, I've attempted to recreate the scene.



Oh and for those of you who are wondering, (which I presume is everyone) today was an excellent hair day.

What happens when you go to church hungry...

We have a Saturday night church service where we serve refreshments and one of the most popular items on the "menu" are these cheese balls we get from Sam's. They're like cheetos only with even less recognizable ingredients - but man are they good -- like the kind of good where you can't stop eating them ... so as I was not-stopping-eating them I thought...

"If I got to choose how I would die, I think it would be eating these to death ... or maybe donuts --- boy do I love donuts! Wouldn't it be awesome if we knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow and so we could just spend today eating anything and as much of everything we ever wanted."

Did I mention that I was at church thinking these thoughts? yikes! so then I figured I should start thinking about evangelism and stuff and how if I knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow I should share the Gospel with everyone I could find ... but maybe do so w/ a donut in hand???

Ug! WHAT IS MY DEAL?

Okay, pals, I don't know why I haven't been much into blogging the past couple of months -- its not that our lives aren't totally entertaining and important and worth writing/reading about. I've just found myself pretty apathetic toward the ol' blogger lately. I've even considered quitting my blog or at least taking a sabbatical of sorts, but today I opened this guy up, read a few posts and remembered how hilarious I am and that I should stop withholding this gift from my readers -- so here's my attempt to get back into the swing of things (yeah, not that much of an effort I realize -- but still...) My goal is to have Christmas recapped by Valentine's Day - and then maybe be fully caught up by March or so -- and then who knows, maybe I'll start blogging about the future!

Carson at 15 months

There's a little animal roaming our house these days, and I don't mean Wrigley .... and I also don't mean we have a pest-control problem. Carson is non-stop. He spends most of his time taking laps around the house -- going from one room to the other looking for treasures and good places to stash them.

He is really verbal -- constant dialogue and babble. His favorite words/phrases:
- Ball, or baaaaaaa-aaaaaall (if he's really excited)
- What's that?
- Bigyaball (means basketball)
- mama and dada (interestingly, he refers to both me and himself as "mama")
- various animals and their noises
- and a few names of people: Matt, Mamy (Miss Amy, his teacher), Nonna (Miss Donna our Children's Dir. at church)
- Veggie Tales (his version, at least)
- oh and "Bible" -- they taught him a song in KK

He is completely obsessed (and I'm not exaggerating) with balls. Every time he sees something round he shouts out, "BALL". Target is one of his favorite stores b/c of the big red balls outside -- he always tries to pick them up. He loves to throw balls (and actually has a really good arm). In fact when he throws his food across the dinner table, its sometimes hard to reprimand ... dan and I look at each other w/ raised eyebrows and whisper, "that was a good throw", and then try to tell him "no" without laughing.

His preferred methods of greeting others:
- high five
- kiss
- a good, old-fashioned head bump

Physically, He's really tall and skinny and those cheeks that I used to kiss for hours have disappeared :( His head is big and round (when he sees pictures of himself he says, "ball" ... or "mama" of course.)

His general disposition is awesome -- he's happy and playful about 99% of the time. The rest of the time is filled w/ short-lived tantrums that are breezy to snap him out of.

Oh and I should mention that he usually sleeps until 8:30 every morning. My friend Courtney put it best this week when she said, "I think he's the perfect son for you". What a gift from God Carson is every moment!

... and speaking of tantrum - gotta go.

The Christmas Card we never sent

I don't know what to say: blogging and sending Christmas cards got dropped from the priority list this month. whah! (I suppose I should add "working out" to that as well.) What good is a New Year's Resolution if you're already doing everything you know you should -- save it 'til 2010 has been my motto this December!