Do any of you remember this song from when you were a kid? "Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry..." I sing this to my kids all the time and right now I'm singing it to myself for several reasons:

First, I bought a camera and I look like a child who needs to go potty while his/her mom is in the checkout line. You know, dancing around trying to hold it? I decided on a Canon ELPH and found it online at Walmart for only $199, about $50 cheaper than everywhere else I'd checked. It seems to do everything I want, with the ratings that I demand (had bad experiences with other digital cameras) and the price I could afford. If I used the site to store shipping method it's free, so I went with that. Unfortunately it takes longer than if I had it sent to my house, but the important part is, it's free. It should be here this weekend and I'm about to die to get my hands on it!

Second, rain, raIN, RAIN!!!!!!!! Has anyone heard about how much rain we've been getting in the southern region? Of course you have! Who hasn't??? My kids are dying to go outside and play and as you may have seen in my last post, we just let Christopher go play in the puddles b/c it's cleaner than letting him dig in the mud. We have been to as many friends' houses and fast food playgrounds to get more than our fill of indoor playing. I have actually fixed a meal every night this week b/c I don't lose track of time outside with the kids. To me, that's sad! (But it has been yummier around here.) It's supposed to rain again today and then tomorrow they say it will be sunny. Our friend Melissa is taking her kids to the beach and I think we just might join them. They deserve a fun reward for surviving the storm(s).

Third, Christopher. Though we don't mention the pacifier anymore we are still having a bit of trouble getting Christopher to go to sleep. He doesn't want to take naps anymore. I still have to get him to fall asleep on the couch with me, but sometimes we can just lie in his bed, but he throws a fit doing that. At night he has started talking about monsters in his room and I'm not sure if this is a stalling method or truly a fear. He now knows we are falling for any of the other attempts at staying up late, so this is the newest. He still says he doesn't like his new bed, but it's very comfy, so we don't think that's it. He also has a word that he likes to say and it just grates on my nerves. It's usually said with emphasis, "NO!" I know they say it when they are little, he just didn't say it all that much until now and he usually yells it very firmly and with a little bit of anger behind it. I'm starting to think he gets it from me, but I say it just as he's about to whack or knock over Sophie or get into or onto something that isn't safe. He says this for just about everything I tell him and it's past getting old. Thankfully Brandon is cracking down on him b/c my words just go in one ear and out the other these days. I feel like we are more two these days than ever before, and he's 3. Wouldn't it be nice if the day they turned 3 the rumors of terrible 2s just vanished?

Fourth, poor Sophie is cutting teeth again. Unlike her brother we have had a very nice long break from the last time we cut teeth. Christopher just gave us about a week off before more would come in and that lasted for over a year. Sophie been great, but the last week or two she's been more fussy and last week she would wake up in the middle of the night and had a yucky nose. These two things usually only happen when she's cutting teeth. I couldn't see anything so the other night I held her upside down, the only time she opens her mouth really wide and Brandon saw a molar coming in. Praise the Lord! Hopefully 3 more will follow very quickly.

Last, Brandon is on call Saturday so that means we don't really have a weekend. For anyone who has a husband in residency knows what this feels like. You don't like weekend calls, but if you have to pick, Sunday is the day to do it. You get Saturday to spend together, Sunday to work and they rest on Monday. But Saturday call means they are gone all day/night and then rest on Sunday to be back at work Monday. I just pray that things go smoothly while he's there and will be able to get some rest. His last night on call was awful and it took him almost a whole week to recover, no help to the storms waking Christopher and teeth waking Sophie.

I'm off to go practice what I try very hard to preach. I'm not so sure how well I'm doing, but I'm going to do my very best! After all, we can't expect that from our kids and not do it ourselves, right?