February reads

After getting off to a great start in January, I slowed down for a bit in February on my reading list. I was able to get in a third book, but with a week of sickness that took over our nap schedules and drained my evening energy, I didn't manage to get in any more. But hey, that's okay. I'm still really enjoying my picked-back-up hobby, and I've finished three more great books.


The Lucky One - Nicholas Sparks (this was not on my reading list)


Unlike my mother and sister, I had never read any of Nicholas Spark's books. I had seen some of the books-turned-great-movies, but had never picked up one of his novels. Then one day, while attending the movies with Karalee, I saw a preview for The Lucky One. The movie was coming out later in the spring, and by looking at the preview, it looked to be a pretty good one. I decided I wanted to read the book first, so after finding out that my mom had already bought it, I borrowed it and finished it in less than a week. At first, it was predictable and more surface-reading that poetic. I had just finished two great books that had more of an artistic and rhythmical tone to the reading, so this seemed very commercial. Does that make sense? Then I got engaged in the middle of the book, the characters came alive, and I was hooked. I got behind, once again, on laundry, dusting, ironing - you name it. It ended up being a very, very good read, and now I can't wait to see the movie.

Bringing Up Boys - James Dobson

I'll have to be honest, after reading three great novels (The Paris Wife, The Help and The Lucky One) is was difficult to make myself read this one in my free time. It wasn't a novel, of course, so it didn't have that lose-yourself-in-a-great-story appeal. I complained to my book-reading friend, and she suggested reading another book at the same time, but warned me that I might never finish it. I didn't want that. A close friend had suggested this book to me back when Heath and I found out that Cash was a boy (February of 2008). I had bought it, but never read it.
I decided to struggle through it, learn from it, and try to enjoy it. And I did. I learned so much for Dr. Dobson, while at the same time I did enjoy it. He's a very honest writer, not politically correct at all. Instead he's correct by what is Biblical, and I appreciated every word of it. From the stick-beating-gene to the harsh, but true realization that boys will pull away from their mothers and the constant combat that Heath and I are going to have against this world while raising our boys -- I read and reread chapters hoping to absorb and apply it all. This book also stirred up a few things in my heart. My boys are so precious to me, and my biggest prayer is that they will come to know God and live their lives to glorify Him. This book set it all out on the table, discipline, heart issues, school, media, the public, and more. What a huge challenge Heath and I have in front of us! I mentioned reading this book to Heath, and he has agreed making his way through the book one chapter at a time, too. I highly recommend this book to any parent or grandparent of these creatures we call boys. :)

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford

This novel was from my favorite genre, historical fiction. Bouncing back and forth from 1986 to the 1940s, it told the story of a Chinese-American boy that fell in love with a Japanese-American girl during the time where the Chinese were at war with the Japanese and the Americans were also at war with Japan right after Pearl Harbor. Most Japanese-Americans were forced in to camps for "their" protection, treated unfairly, and humiliated. This story tells of these two young Americans trying to find their identity, survive and love regardless of what his parents and their peers thought.
It was a great read. I think there were some errors in it as far as dates go, but they were easy to overlook. Happy endings are always good, too. The best part about this book is that the hotel in the book is real and can be visited. The items that were found in the basement of the hotel are also real and are displayed for the public, too. As Seattle is a place on my list to visit (we haven't seen the Mariners play yet), I'm definitely going to make my way down to Chinatown to visit the Panama Hotel and see these awesome artifacts in the Tea Room. :)

So those are the books I read in February. I'm reading another book now that's not on my reading list,  Choosing to See. Yes, I'm thoroughly enjoying this hobby!

Green monster smoothies

Yes, you read it right. Green monster smoothies, but really, there's no green monster, right? But if Popeye had his choice of any kind of smoothie, he would choose these yummy ones! They are packed with lots of spinach, and my boys love them!

I've been reading some on nutrition lately, and I've decided that my family just doesn't get enough spinach. It's rich in so, so many antioxidants, and it's a great source of Vitamins A, C, E, and K, manganese, magnesium, folate, iron, Vitamin B2 and B6, calcium and iron, folic acid, protein, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids. Awesome!

Now would I expect my some-of-the-time picky eaters to embrace this food and ask for more at each meal? Doubtful. So I do what any mother would do and make it fun by hiding it in smoothies and calling it a green monster smoothie. Works every time!

Here's Cash waiting for his cup to be filled with this yummy green drink.

And B wanted his cup filled, too. (He likes pushing the button on the blender, too.)

Almond milk, lots of spinach, some strawberries and maybe a banana - blend it up and drink it down!

Good to the last drop!

Music Tots

After moving our membership to Rich Pond Baptist Church last August, we have fallen head over heals in love with every aspect of the church! Our new church family has embraced us with loving arms, we've made friends for life, and our hearts have been both blessed and convicted by the overwhelming amount of scripture that is poured out to us each week. There is definitely no "famine" of the Word. 

Our boys have also found their spot in the children's ministry. Baylen loves his play time in the nursery, and he's getting ready to move up to the two year old class. Cash is now in the rather large three year old class with his friends, and he's also loving Mission Kids on Wednesday nights and Music Tots on Sunday nights. Although he's still shy and my little introvert, he speaks of all his friends to Heath and I, shows concern for them when they are absent, and tells stories about what everyone did during "church."

On February 19th, they had Parents' Night for the Music Tots. After enjoying worship time and a little lesson from Mr. Jim in the sanctuary, we were able to walk down to their room to see what Music Tot time was all about. 

First, we had a craft. We were making a salvation bracelet. They have been learning the different colors each month. Cash wore black one night, red another night and last week he wore white.

Here's the class with the parents' helping out. Heath takes a church history class on Sunday nights, so he didn't come, but I enjoyed the time with my lil' man.

A huge thanks to Brice for taking some pictures while I was helping Cash and another friend with their bracelets.

 These are two of his sweeties, Maddie and Zachary. Cash loves Maddie and her big sister, Grace. Did I mention I went to school with their mom, Julie? Small world.

Here we are, hard at work. I'm thinking Brice takes much better pictures than I do with my camera. Hmmm....

Here's one of Cash's best buddies, Brody, with his parents Shelly and Mike. Love this family!

Cash was very unsure about putting the bracelets back in the baggies. He wanted to wear it, but his teachers were planning on keeping all of them so they could wear them during the program at the end of the semester. Smart idea!

After craft time, each child sat on a carpet square to sing some songs and play some listening games.

Here they are playing one of the listening games. Ms. Robin would play a sound on her CD and the kids would point to the picture of what they think made the sound. These kids really impressed me with their listening skills! 

What an absolute joy it is to feel the warmth and love of our church family, watching our children grow in it, and knowing that as we are praying for our boys' salvation, our church family is praying for it, too.

In jail

"Look, mommy! We're in jail like Joseph!"

** If you're unsure of who Joseph is, please let me know. I'd love to share the BIG story with you.

23 months

Today is February 23rd, and my little B is 23 months old. This next month will be the last month I'll be able to answer the question, "How old is he?" in months. From now on he will be two, three, five, eight, thirteen, sixteen, and so on. My baby is seriously, growing up.


But as I've said before, I'm not sure how long he was really a baby. From the time he was able to walk, which was at seven and a half months, Baylen has thought he was just as big and just as old and just as capable as big brother. Yes, there are plenty of times when he needs cuddling, hugging, holding and just to be rocked, but he's always been a little guy with big ambitions.

1. B is around 23 pounds and 34 inches tall. Still long and very lean.


2. He's had his first few haircuts. Although his hair is a different texture than Cash's (and usually stuck together somewhere with honey), he's another blonde Doggett boy. (I really should upload a picture of Heath as a little guy and you'd see where they get it.)


3. As of right now, he has all of his main baby teeth and two of his two-year molars are cutting their way through, and we have all felt the wrath of this little guy because of them. He's been chewing on everything, including plastic hangers, books, my slippers and his thumbs. Hopefully they will all make it through soon!


4. He has a definite sweet tooth. We are truly trying to cut back on this. Our holistic practitioner highly encouraged cutting out sweets during our last visit. It's really hard to, though, as you probably can guess. I'm trying to wean desserts away a little at a time.


5. Baylen has decided he wants a "tractor tractor" birthday party. Heath and I know this is from his favorite song, Tractor, Tractor. So I'm thinking we'll do green tractors and maybe some farm animals on his cake.


6. As far as talking: yes and all the time. It's been amazing to hear his little voice say just about anything and repeat everything! Being able to have conversations with this little guy just blesses my heart!


7. Unless congested or coughing, Baylen sleeps from 9:00 until around 6:30. Sometimes he goes to bed earlier than 9:00, and sometimes he wakes earlier than 6:30 - just depends on the day. He still takes a two or three hour nap in the afternoon from 1:30 until around 3:30 or 4.


8. Loves, loves to be outside. He a wanderer though. Cash always had a purpose and a mission when he played outside. B is just the opposite. He'll wander around, play with something from the garage, leave it and find a stick, pet the cat, then go ride his big wheel. Sometimes he'll just stick his hands in his pockets and roam around the yard. :)


9. Still is absolutely in love with Grammy and Bubba!


10. He's in size three diapers and wears a size seven shoe. His pants are 18 months (for length, but are usually big around the waist) and his shirts are either 12-18 months or just 18 months. Thankfully, he's been able to wear a lot of Cash and Kennick's hand-me-downs.


11. We still think Baylen has some dairy sensitivities, and we try to restrict his wheat intake. He also eats almond butter instead of peanut butter. Our holistic practitioner has tested these three things (milk, wheat and peanuts) with his system and they definitely stressed it. So for now, we try to feed him other options.


12. B is a daddy's boy. He tells me he "miss daddy" during the day, rushes to get the first hug when Heath walks in the back door, and wants daddy to "sing Jesus" every night to him before putting him to bed. Most of the time, he's Heath shadow following him into the closet to keep him company as he changes, holding his hand as they go downstairs to "play" in the basement," or being a big boy and helping daddy gather sticks in the yard. He loves his daddy.


13. Although he's unsure sometimes about all the commotion, Baylen has truly been enjoying Musikgarten this semester. I had decided that I wanted to take B to music classes just like I did with Cash, so in January I enrolled him, and every Monday morning we head to town for music class and mommy-Baylen time. (Cash stays at home with Grammy, which, of course, he loves!) Baylen hits the sticks together, claps his hands, dances with his scarf, and sings the songs (in the car). He loves the bouncing songs best, but his favorite is hammering the sticks like a hammer and nail. 100% boy!


14. Baylen is still completely attached to his little blue blanket, called his woobie. Our friends, the Keltners, gave him his first woobie when he was born. We've added another one to the household for back-up purposes, but when he's sleepy, feeling bad, or just wanting some comfort, he carries his woobie around. Naps and bedtime without the woobie would be torture, so as for now, it's a keeper!


15. Baylen shows a lot of interest in going potty like a big boy, but we haven't started potty-training yet. I think his interest in it comes from wanting to be like Cash. We'll probably wait and start the task of training our little guy closer to summer. We used the bare-bottom method with Cash and it worked really well. This method, however, is better when it's warm outside. :)


16. He's definitely still my little meat-eater. He loves hamburger, chicken, pork chops, bacon and sausage. He has been eating and trying more foods lately, though. He consistently eats just about any fruit, except oranges, and he also eats carrots (cooked or raw), green beans, potatoes, baked beans, squash and sometimes broccoli. For the most part, supper time has become an easy going time, when it used to be filled with some pleading and the occasional tear or fit.


17. His big brother is still his absolute favorite person, in my opinion. I know from experience that having a sibling close in age can cause "situations." No, they don't always get along. Not even close. They push each other's buttons, have the trouble-maker spirit, and test my patience to the limits some days. But really, I don't blog enough about the times where they sit and play together, jump on the couch together, get books out and read together - all with smiles, sweet conversations, and brotherly love. B seriously looks up to Cash. He is the definite monkey-see-monkey-do type of kid. He learns everyday from Cash, and seriously, Cash is a pretty good role model, if you're asking. I know that B will make his own tracks in a lot of things, he already does, but a lot of the time around here, I see my little guy walking in big brother's footsteps. :)


18. Baylen loves to read books. I guess really, he loves to be read to. When my mom comes over to the house, Baylen brings her book after book after book. She goes through them one at a time, reading and pointing to the pictures. After baths especially, Baylen likes Heath to read the books to him that are up in his room, and during the day, while my little TV watcher, Cash, is engrossed in his Tom and Jerry cartoons, B curls up in my lap with every library book from the coffee table. His favorites are the Spot books, Where is Spot? and Goodnight, Spot. They are lift-the-flap books, which he really enjoys. 


20. I've been doing lots of school games with Cash, but at the same time, I'm making sure that Baylen is getting lots of learning opportunities, too. It's hard sometimes to give equal talk time to my boys. I'll ask a question, and Cash is usually the first to answer. Even if I ask Baylen a specific question, if he stops just for a second to answer it, the silence is filled in with an answer from Cash. I don't think Baylen recalls as much as Cash did at this age, but I know he still comprehends a whole lot and is learning just the same. Getting him to answer the questions is tough, I think, because he's so used to Cash helping him. For example, I know he knows his colors, but getting him to answer questions or point to the right color is sometimes hard because he seems unsure. He'll get them though. I'm in no rush to expect him to be right where Cash was at this age. Kids are different, and being the second child to a very intelligent first child is something I have some experience with myself. :)


And because I was struggling to find three more, Heath has contributed 21-23


21. Baylen is certainly more “Doggett” in the category of hot foods, I mean pepper hot.  His love started recently with eating pico that Heath made last summer with tortilla chips.  It has quickly progressed into salsa dipping from Puerto’s and some homemade batches that Aunt Ali made.  He can’t (or we won’t let him) get into Daddy’s “burn your mouth off” salsa yet, but it is prolly coming because most people won’t eat Ali’s salsa without a gallon of water and some cheese nearby.  Amazingly he will dip her salsa, wipe his nose, drink his sippie, wimper a little, stick his tongue out, and go right back at it.  It is just the same as the rest of the Doggetts, no matter how hot you get, you can’t get enough.

 22.  B has certainly made great strides physically.  He is eating more and after supper sometimes even looks like a snake that ate a goose.  But mainly he has went from the feeble kid who needed help keeping balance and going up stairs to the kid that can bounce, jump, hold himself up, and run quite well.  So much for “failing to thrive”.  Told ya so Dr. Mainstream.

23. His smile is simply the brightest and cutest around, as seen in the above picture.

And there you have it - 23 little facts about my 23 month old cutie, Britches.

At the gun range

The other morning while we were eating breakfast, I noticed quite a few rather large birds flying just behind the house above the field across the river. (That was a lot of prepositional phrases, but you get the idea, right?) You see, when I sit at my seat for breakfast, I'm facing the back of the house that overlooks the hill going down to the river, and on the other side of the river is a beautiful farm. That particular morning, lots of huge birds were catching my eye as I was eating with the boys. Then it dawned on me. Heath had killed an opossum the day before and thrown it over the hill. Lovely. Yes, they were buzzards, huge buzzards (and later that day we saw two red-tail hawks).

I pointed the huge buzzards out to the boys. They hurried to finish their breakfast and then went to the windows to check them out, count them, and keep up with where they all landed. We counted eight total, and they were all around the backyard sitting in the tops of trees. We had never had an opossum cause such a flock of scavengers before.

What did the boys do next? They grabbed their guns, of course!

Here they are taking aim at the one in the tree just outside the breakfast nook window.

B was seriously on a war path. He meant business. "Dat buzzard in my tree! Pew! Pew" (He has sweet little shooting noises - if gun noises can be cute. But really, from this little 23 month old, they are!)

Yes, indeed. He was ready for them to make their move!

Cash got bored with waiting for them to move and decided to go rabbit hunting.

Baylen wanted his turn at hitting the rabbit. This is a sweet stuffed rabbit that goes with the book Guess How Much I Love You. Leave it to my boys to use it for hunting practice.

What a shot!

Looks like we're having rabbit soup for supper!

Boys and sticks

In the book that I'm currently reading, Dr. James Dobson, gives oodles and oodles of great information on raising boys. I've been "raising boys" for almost four years now, but never have I looked at raising boys from a perspective like this. I'm really enjoying taking a step back from my parenting and seeing all the different forces that are currently playing small roles in my boys/ lives, but sure enough, they will one day (probably) play larger roles, thus having greater influences.

One fact that Dr. Dobson did bring up was the obvious raising-little-boys-are-different-from-raising-little-girls aspect. He spoke a lot about this, actually. He mentioned that they need crazy amounts of daddy time (girls, too, but in a different way, of course), they would (sad!) pull away from their mothers around the ages of 3-5, and that each boy is equipped with what he calls a "stick-beating gene." Hilarious!

I have long known about the gene, but didn't really know it "existed." My boys are drawn to sticks, and they always have been. Since they could walk outside around the yard independently, they would turn their stick radar on, find one, and beat, hit, smack anything around. The morning after I read this chapter in the book, I took these pictures...

Cash's stick-beating gene in full force.

Here he is taking a whack at the trees in the yard. Notice little brother doing the same.

Love my lil' man! There's plenty to do; play with his machines, ride his tricycle, go to the woodpile and play. But nah, it's a stick-beating kind of day!

After reading about this gene, it makes me proud to know that my boys are true, 100% boys!

Although he doesn't have quite the aim as big brother, he still exercises his stick-beating gene, too.

It was a perfect day for it, too! But really, what day isn't good for beating everything in sight with a stick? :)

Although I know there's actually no true gene encoded for beating things with sticks, it's obvious to me that boys are wired in such a way that grabbing anything, really, carrying it around, and sometimes using it as a club, bat, etc. comes very natural to them!

Fabulous fun with Ff

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 6:23

A few weeks ago, and by that I'm thinking this was the second week of February, we studied the letter F. I had been trying to do some different things with the letter F, because honestly, I think that Cash was getting tired of the same activities for each letter. I know that I was! We still did some of the same ones that I pull from the Letter of the Week curriculum, but I added in some more, too, from other sites that I keep an eye on.

I found these printouts online for each letter. I printed out the big letter for Cash and the little letter for Baylen. We colored them first, because Cash insisted, and then we glued on some things that started with the letter F.

We glued on pretzel goldfish and feathers. The feathers were fun for the boys to play with, blow across the table, and then later, all over the kitchen. It wasn't such a great time for me trying to keep them contained to one area. :)

Here's Cash's finished product. Fish and feathers!

And here's B's finished product. Awesome coloring job!

We also played all week long with different flashlights. This one was Cash's favorite - Heath's headlamp. We even built a fort one night and turned the lights off and played inside in the dark with just our flashlights on. Cool! Forts and flashlights!

Instead of graphing with our Do-A-Dot markers, we used pretzel goldfish to practice our counting. B is wearing Heath's headlamp around his neck in this picture.

Cash would count the fish and then lay out that many pretzel fish below. He did a great job, but this is one of those activities that I need to take to the next level. He's a champ at counting to ten, and most of the time he does great at counting to twenty, but he still needs practice on perfecting 15-20.

Baylen picked up all the pretzel fish later and put them back in the bag. :) Even the ones that were on the floor. Great!

One night we had hamburgers with homemade fries! The boys helped to dry them off before we fried them.

And, of course, they helped to eat them! Yum!

We also read The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. Afterwards, we made our own rainbow fish with paper plates, tissue paper, sequins and some mod podge. 

Cash loved the "painting on glue" part.

Baylen decided he didn't want sequins on his after he had already glued his sequins on.

Thus, he got upset. :(

We also colored an underwater scene and glued the big F fish on one side and the little f fish on the other.

Yay for the letter F! It was a fabulously fun week!

More machines than Scott & Murphy

You name it, we've got it. Bulldozers, dump trucks, backhoes, bobcats (with wheels and tracks), wheeled excavators, trackhoes, tractors, and loaders. When these machines aren't busy working, they're parked here in the garage. Yes, I believe that we might have more machines that Scott & Murphy.

Out and about

Tuesday, the 7th of this month was another beautiful, warm day (at least warm for February).

We set off in the car for town for a fun morning. I had a little something up my sleeve. :)

I had packed a snack and the boys sippies, and if all went well, we'd be back home for lunch.

I steered the car toward downtown, and of course, Cash started asking questions. I told him that we were going downtown, and he immediately replied with, "Can we go see that big crane?" 

You see, I know my boys pretty well, and I knew that a morning watching the big red crane and all the other machines at the building site downtown would be a great way enjoy the nice morning.

When we got there, we found a track hoe with a hammer on it. If you're ever around Cash, ask him how a hammer on a track hoe goes. He'll tell you. "Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh!"

"There's dat red trane, mommy!" We're working on some speech skills, but crane still sounds like crane. We'll get there though... Although we got to see it up close, it wasn't doing any work that morning. The boys didn't mind though. There was plenty to see.

We got to see a backhoe digging a deep hole on the other side of the structure.

We waved to the concrete truck driver as he backed out. I got tickled at the boys. They waved to everyone on the site. I think a lot of the workers got a kick out of being so "cool." Most waved back, too. The track hoe driver didn't though. He was too busy texting while he was hammering at the rocks.

Cash pointed this out. He said that the crane was taller than the pump truck, and he was right. Look at that beautiful blue sky!

While we were watching all the machines work, the boys were able to eat their morning snack. Then we packed up in the car and headed to the park. I asked the boys which park they wanted to go to, and Cash answered, "The one with all dos hills." I knew exactly which one he was talking about!

There's a small park on top of "hospital hill" that has lots of hills to run and play on. The boys have always loved climbing and running on them. We used to bring these Super capes to wear when they would run around at this park. Too bad I didn't have them packed!

Here's B climbing up one of the hills. He has grown so much. I swear he thinks he 3 1/2 just like big brother!

There they go! I'm not up on my history of this park. I'm wondering if this is an old fort? Maybe that's the reasons there's a series of random hills on top of this hill...

B looks upset in this picture, but I think it's because he was working so hard to keep himself up on this bar. He's got such little chicken wing arms, they have to do a lot of work to keep him up! :)

More running on the hills up the hills

There's a great play place there, too. We climbed a bit on the climbing wall, took a few turns down the slide, but both wanted to swing.

When they start swinging on their bellies, it tells me that they are getting a bit tired. So we did some more swinging, took one more trip up the hills, and then headed to the car.

After we got home, we enjoyed some peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch while watching Tom and Jerry, and then two little boys took two very long naps! What a wonderful day out and about with my two little guys! I love being able to have these special days with them.