Faces of Terrible Twos

My fourth child is now showing some signs that the flood gates of the terrible twos shall spring forth in all there glory.  I don't see how something so sweet and cuddly can turn into something so....not.  One day they are giggles and smiles and the next day they are....not.  BUT something kind of helpful came out of something kind of fun which we started with our first and continued to do with all four of these little angels turned...not angels.  I would take little baby Anna in my lap and teach her "make a happy face".  I would smile real big and dorky (more than I usually do thank you very much) and over her babyhood she would smile all big and dorky right back at me. We made many faces like mad face, sad face, surprised face (always very cute one with babies), bored face, sleepy face, and we even had a debonair face which would kind of turn out to be a cross between superman and lunatic.  This little gem of a game, we did all the time.  Lo and behold this came in VERY handy as each baby blossomed into toddlerhood.  Caleb was so classy when he did it.  Anna would wrong him in some way and he would walk into the kitchen and look at me with a down turned mouth and Groucho eyebrows and say...."mad"...and then walk away.  At any point of our day I could just all of a sudden say "surprise" and my kids would take in the most perfect mock gasp that would get them a starring role on any novella in the world.  I could have put us all on vaudeville. And then my cute babies....turned two. 
They say two years olds often have tantrums because they get so frustrated when they can't tell you what they want.  So they scream.  Whatever.  My two year olds could tell me very well want they wanted.  It was when I did not GIVE them what they wanted did they then get frustrated and then thus scream. 
BUT....I think I've got them figured out.  You see, I put my self in their shoes.  I'm always tripping on their shoes so might as well put them on for a minute so here it goes.  It's not that they get frustrated about not being able to express themselves...no no no...it's that they have all of these emotions or faces inside of them that they wish to express BUT they just don't know how to control the volume or when that emotion should really just be on mute.  The mad face is turned REALLY REALLY HIGH when they are mad and holy mole wouldn't it be nice if they could just do the debonair face once in a while.  So....YOU yes YOU need to teach them how to switch faces and I truly believe the face controls the volume when it comes to toddlers. Scenario please!
Ben screams and puts on the Mad Face.
I start the counter attack with "Benjamin, you are mad and you are going to your room until you have a happy face."
Between 30seconds to 5minutes later he is back wearing a Happy Face (which of course is a very strained happy face which looks more like "Oh Mother dear, I am greatly constipated" but by golly, I'll take it)
This really does work for my kids BUT start when they are babies and if that's not an option start now!
Okay, good luck out there.  Remember you're the parent and that's the two year old.  You feed it, wash it, love it to death, now put the right face on it.  Do Not run from it or it will sense your feelings of inadequacy and make you have a "when will he be in college? face"  As we say in my house, "I'm the mom and you're the two year old."  Now go be the mom!

Anonymous

Anonymous

Who is this fellow named Anonymous

Who writes these poems so hilarious

Poems of all sorts and kinds

That talk of love and speak in rhymes

Is it a first name or a last

Is it boy or girl

Does his mother call her Any

Or does she prefer to call him Nony

I wish he would come out from shyness

And stop his forever slyness

And see all the royalties he has ensued

I would pat him on the back

And maybe give his face a slap

For keeping us in the dark this way

Please tell me when and how

This person 

or maybe cow

Could and will

Forever be

Anonymous

What Picks Me Up

What Picks Me Up

When I am feeling low you see

There’s not but one great love for me

It picks me up when my head drags down

It cures the lazies like none around

Yes tis true, there is no other

Okay, you guessed it

It’s peanut butter

J.O.Y. That thing you're supposed to "count it all"

Lord, please make me like Elisabeth Elliot but maybe without the suffering?  Can you make me like DL Moody but not have a city burn down around me?  Oh my...what a classic Navy wife day it was.  It even brought me to blog at 11:30 when I haven't even looked up my blog in seven months.  So so classic.  You know the kind when you just need your husband to pat you on the head and say "I know your day fell a part, honey, but you look cute when you're mad."  Ah cheese wiz.  Yes, about Amy Carmichael, Lord....Could I write a little book called "If" that thousands are going to be inspired by but not suffer through the years of exhausting missionary work in India?  You know Lord, the book of James says that trials produce patience...I kind of feel the opposite of patient when I'm in a trial. It says "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience..." Hmmm how have you tested my faith?
Age 5...Are you going to lose your temper at your sister? No Lord, I shall not lose my temper.
Age 12..Can you handle teaching Sunday School?  Yes Lord, I am your maidservant.
Age 14...Rededicate and start having a radical devotional life? Of course Lord.
Age 21...How about being a missionary to Peru and yes it will get lonely?  I'm  there, Lord.
Age 29...Will you supply every need for your children without losing your temper and teach them every Sunday school lesson in the Bible and continue to maintain a radical devotional life which will in turn radically effect their devotional life and missionary your home until the day you die AND don't lose your temper?  And sometimes you will be lonely..very very lonely.
.....Well Lord...for goodness sake...I can't say You didn't prepare me. WOW. Isn't He good...He lined all that up because He loves me that BIG.  AND so I could blog it all down at midnight after having a classic Navy Wife day.  AND so He could really help me laugh and see me for the the silly girl I am.  I really think He looks straight at me and says, "You DO look cute when you're mad" but then He says very sarcastically, "Now buck up because we have a lot more suffering to do"...He's a funny guy.  I know that because He made me...
Oh sorry, I didn't tell you what's up with the J.O.Y...it's a Navy wife thing...I'll share though.  When having a classic Navy wife day please repeat while face down in pillow and all children are safely on their beds awaiting further interigation which has produced classic Navy wife day..J.O.Y meaning
Jesus...kind of hard to keep panicking when you look at the situation through His eyes
Others...kind of hard to feel sorry for yourself when your children really need your solid example
Yaks...I'm sorry but yaks make me laugh.  What? They do!
Ask any Navy wife about their classic Navy wife day and then give them J.O.Y.  Count it all JOY and go get it done.  This Navy wife is out.

I am so Half Made

When I was in my young girl dreaming stage of life, being a ballerina or singer or horse trainer or actress was far behind my desire to be a published writer.  Not fiction.  No sir.  I'm really quite terrible at writing fiction (I'm just too corny).  I wanted to be the next Elisabeth Elliot.  I wanted to inspire and enlighten and encourage other women to be as godly as they could be.  But over the past twenty years of wanting to be a published writer, I have one severe problem:  everything is half done.  I have stacks of notebooks up to my arched eyebrows of poems, plays, and nonfiction articles all over my house.  Then someone out there, perhaps named Mr Blog, invented a way for me to "publish" my thoughts and creativity.  I think this is going to be really fun.  Welcome to my stack of notebooks.