It's finally fall! A very wet fall, that is. It's been very rainy since the end of August. Unusually, we've had day after day of pouring rain. Yes, it often rains here, but not very hard or for very long. So we've been playing indoors a lot this month.
The month started off with "everyone" in a back to school flurry. And though we four aren't in school, it did signal a change in routine (and weather). It feels good to start to get in the swing of our new "schedule".
The death of someone we hardly really knew prompted a lot of conversation and reflection amongst our church family and Seth and I weren't an exception to that.
Ezra has really been struggling to obey this month, so we've stayed home for that reason as well. His willingness to obey often comes and goes in spurts, but this has been the longest period of time (so far!) that he has been so defiant and disobedient. And it's been demoralizing.
I think we've done a pretty good job of being consistent and firm. It's been oh so difficult though. I hate seeing and hearing his hard little heart. How could my beautiful little boy be so mean? so defiant - just for the sake of being defiant? I'm actually surprised that, when he told me "I hate you" for the first time, I didn't just burst into tears. But I did realize, in the moment, that he didn't actually mean that. He doesn't even know what that means! (And where did he hear that!?!!) He's testing our boundaries, though, and struggling against authority. A month later, and what feels like one hundred time outs later, he isn't being so verbally defiant and cruel, so I can see the fruit of our labor. I think.
He is so smart and so persistent that he presents us with a very strong willed (and ingeniously devious) set of obedience challenges. And he knows exactly what he's doing, because he'll tell us "I don't want to obey you!" (but isn't that how I act too sometimes? parenting is very convicting.) So pray for us to be wise and patient and consistent as we love him by disciplining him.
Ezra is very enjoyable company a great deal of the time. I love watching him experience the world and make connections about what he's seeing and hearing. I know every mother thinks her child to be brilliant, and I'm no exception. Ezra astounds me with his intelligence and memory and logic every day.
He also loves Isaac very well. It is so sweet to watch them interact. Isaac watches everything Ezra does and gets so excited when Ezra even comes into the room. Ezra likes to bring Isaac toys (and surprisingly, rarely takes them away) and most of all, loves to tell Isaac stories and explain/describe whatever in in Isaac's line of sight. I was entirely unprepared for them to have such a sweet and loving relationship so early. My heart melts every time I hear Ezra call Isaac "my little pal" or "my little buddy" or see Ezra kiss his brother.
This month, Isaac started and then mastered sitting up and crawling, just like I anticipated. He also started eating solid foods, which he's very excited about. He's also beginning to pull himself up on us and furniture too! I went and looked up when Ezra started pulling himself up and, surprisingly, Isaac is about a week ahead of Ezra in his physical development. Agh! I'm convinced that my boys are so ridiculously mobile at an early age because they're a lot smaller than their peers so it's easier for them to move their little bodies around.
Because of Ezra's disciplinary issues, the fact that our summer was so taxing and we're still trying to recover from it, the nearly constant rain and our general lack of sleep, we really didn't do anything "exciting" this month. Except for a trip to the Washington State Fair!
It was so much fun to go on a "family date". We are really enjoying the boys, despite our general lack of sleep or adult company or time together. They're so much fun and so smart and capable. We're completely infatuated by them, actually, and pretty excited that we get to be their parents for a long while yet. And that's all true "even" when we're "just" at home. But sometimes getting out of the house and doing something together makes us forget everything else and just enjoy the boys.
I've done BSF for several years now, but always the night class (without childcare). After hearing so many people praise the children's program, though, I finally decided to switch to the day class this year so that Ezra (and Isaac) could also participate. After four classes, Ezra's doing a bit better. He just does not like to be separated from me! But he does come home telling me about the things they did in class with excitement.
Seth started teaching the book of John for the high school Sunday School class at our church. It good to be back in these weekly studies.
Work for Seth is back to normal. They've been getting great reviews lately. It will start to slow down here soon, but we're in the middle of getting our new website up and running, as well as more advertising, so maybe work won't slow down too much.
I had my birthday too! It was pretty low key, but very sweet.
And that just about sums up our month. Joy, sorrow, growing, learning, exhaustion.
