My Temperamental Monkey

Yes, I am referring to our youngest kiddo ... Sydney Grace ...

She's trying to give me gray hair before I reach 30. I have decided that in some situations, it is better to not even watch what she is doing, but to instead pray that God would continue to protect her! Her favorite thing to do on the swingset is to cimb up into the play area, then hang on one of the beams (above the steps, above the sliding board or above the rock wall) while swinging back and forth. I've tried to encourage this only on the beam that is above the sliding board (at least that way if she flies off, she will land on the sliding board instead of taking a 5 ft. fall to the ground or on the wodden ladder).

She is also a wonderful means of sanctification in my life (similarly to her brother and sister!). Every day I am challenged to be kind, loving and patient in all things. She is in a particular (and hopefully short-lived) season of life where she absolutely despises riding in a grocery cart. A once very pleasant and happy little girl turns into a very angry and upset little girl upon being places in any kind of cart. She thinks she is big enough to walk ... Mommy disagrees. To humor you all, I thought I'd share a little story about my trip to the grocery store yesterday ...
Some may think that it is rather foolish to continue going to the store with Sydney ... however, we want her to understand that riding in the cart (obeying Mommy and Daddy) is important for her to learn ... so although it's not something I do every week, I do use these kinds of opportunities as a training and teaching opportunity.

So back to my story ... the grocery store I went to on this particular day is one that has what my kiddos call "the fun car carts" ... identical to the kind that Home Depot has for anyone who knows what I'm talking about. Two kids can ride in the "car" where there are steering wheels, and then I typically put one kiddo in the big section where the groceries go (until there's not enough room, then one kid has to walk). I'm a big fan of having all the kids in the cart! The girlies were riding together in the car part, and Justin was in the large section. All was going well ... at least for the first 5 minutes while we were in the produce section.

As can be typical, I don't really know what triggered Sydney to begin crying/screaming ... but something did. I was eventually able to calm her down by letting her hold an item from the cart. That worked for about 3 minutes. Then all of the sudden (while I had turned to get something off the shelf for 3 seconds), I realized that houdini girl had managed to somehow wiggle herself out of her seatbelt (This is one of those times that weighing 20 lbs. and being skinny is not helpful ... I had the belt as tight as it goes!) and was now standing up in the cart trying to climb out. At this point, I know that I'm in trouble. Once she has gotten herself out of her seatbelt, getting her back in is much easier said than done. She is really good at arching her back, kicking, flailing and screaming all at the same time. Eventually, for the sake of others in the same isle as me ... I decided to hold her. So now Justin has moved into the "car" with Hailey, and I am holding Sydney with one arm while trying to push the monster cart with the other hand. At this point, I debated leaving, but I had some meat and deli items that were cold and didn't know what I woudl do with them. So I pressed on ... this time in a bit more of a hurried pace (well, as much as I could being that I was holding one kid and pushing the cart at the same time) to try and finish getting what was on my list (which by the way, really wasn't all that long!).

Enter the bakery section ... the kiddos favorite place because they get a free chocolate chip cookie. You'd think that this would solve my dilema with Sydney ... however, this is where things took a turn for the worse. Upon receiving her cookie, she gave it the old chuckaroo ... thankfully it landed in my purse, so I was still alright letting her have it. But because of the way she threw it, it broke into two pieces. And when I tried to give her two pieces instead of one whole piece, she did not like me too much. I had put her in the area with the groceries because I thought she would sit and eat a cookie ... after the cookie incident, she got really loud. Anyone who has been around Sydney knows that she is really good at screaming the very high pitched, worse than nails running down a chalkboard kind of scream. And that's the scream she began doing constantly ... and I couldn't get her to stop.

All throughout my route around the store I was getting all kinds of sympathtic looks ... mainly from elderly women ... some of them, when Sydney wasn't screaming so loud that I could actually hear would say something like "That's a handful," or "That's a cartful" ... I would smile and say yes it is, but I love it. By God's grace, I was able to remain patient and calm while talking to her and trying to get her to stop. I can only imagine what I actually looked like.

By the time I had gotten to the bakery, I was more than halfway finished and only needed some things in the dairy/frozen section. Well, here is where I decided to throw in the towel for the day! I was headed towards the milk when an older gentleman walked past me with his hands over his ears, gave me a look that displayed his feelings for me and walked away shaking his head. I gave him a nice smile, then made a bee line for the checkout! At that point, I was willing to make another trip back to the store (without the kiddos in tow, that is!) to get the rest of the things on my list.

In my own pride before having kids, I used to see Moms who couldn't control their screaming child in public and think that will never be me ... low and behold ... God is gracious to help me remove the log from my eye by giving me children who have all at some point been "uncontrollable" (more than once for that matter!) in public. How kind of God to serve me in this way! I'm thankful for much grace upon my life to assist me in dealing with my precious Sydney Grace, and daily pray that God would give me wisdom. I'm confident that situations like these remind me all the more of my need for a Savior and makes me more thankful for fresh mercies anew every day.

Here are some random pics of the kiddos ...

The kiddos love Uncle Ryan and Aunt Hollis' golf set ...