Clive time

Today a dear friend of mine took Chloe home for an afternoon playdate (thank you, dear friend!).

Imagining the extra time I would have this afternoon with one less child to manage, I immediately envisioned myself doing something productive around the house. Maybe I could finally scrub the bathtub, dust away the inch-thick layers of sediment settling in our living room, or begin working on Chloe's halloween costume. Ah, the lovely fantasies and unrealistic expectations of my dreaming mind . . .

What DID end up happening was that I got to spend some super good quality time with Clive. Since he's the middle child, I don't get much alone time with him. He's a crazy fun and unbelievably adorable kiddo. I love him to pieces. But thinking of a special activity for JUST him and me gave me pause. I didn't really want to dig in the sandbox or play cars in the dirt. But I did want him to feel like the center of attention since he's always living in his older sis' shadow.

Clive got pretty sad when his big sis left so I distracted him with smoothie making. He sat on the counter and dumped frozen strawberries and yogurt into the blender eagerly. We ate our lunch on the porch so we could watch for the garbage truck. (Exciting lives we lead, eh?) After some pretend fixing of the porch railing with his tools, we made peanut butter cookies together.

Making cookies with an active 2.6 year old is certainly an interesting experience. He wanted to do EVERYTHING himself. If I wouldn't have been on my toes, we would have ended up with some extremely unique tasting peanut butter cookies (I barely saved the dough from an extra cup of sugar Clive wanted to add). Once we got the ingredients correctly measured and mixed up, Clive's job was to roll the cookie-dough balls into the sugar. And then he took it upon himself to throw the dough onto the baking sheet. Sheesh. Can't blame him though, I DID call them "balls". And my boy knows what do to with a ball!

We had loads of fun and even though no household appliances were scrubbed this afternoon, I made a lasting memory with my dear middle boy.

How do you make your second child feel special?

Happy Birthday, Dear Clive-y!

Two years ago today we welcomed Clive Simeon Horn into our little family. We had no idea how God would use our joyful little guy to change the dynamic of our family!

Clive has been a pure joy and I can't imagine our family without him. God has used Clive in many ways in each of our lives. Clive, in his overt happiness and ready smiliness, spreads joy easily.

But for me Clive's smile is intensely personal. Since he was just a teensy weensy peanut I've felt a tight unique bond with my boy. Before having Clive, I had no clue how it would be possible for me to love any child as much as I already loved Chloe. However trite it may sound, I truly love both Chloe and Clive in full yet different ways.

In his first weeks I acutely recall holding Clive close and dancing with him to Paul Baloche's You have been so good to me in an effort to console him back to sleep. In those moments my heart sang the words to that simple song and I thought to myself, "How am I ever going to give this little boy up if he gets married?"

As I reflect on Clive's 2nd birthday today the words to Paul Baloche's song ring in my brain . . .
(couldn't find it as an mp3 so here it is via youtube)





Here are some of my favorite pictures of my favorite little guy!

My stubborn little son

Today Clive and I spent a record 90 minutes battling over a spoonful of three macaroni noodles.

I came out victorious but not without many tears (from both of us), spankings and wavering in my stamina.

Poor little stubborn guy. He didn't know who he was up against. :)

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, "One more spoonful and you can be done" I knew I had to back up my charge. Clive obviously did NOT like the homemade mac-n-cheese I fixed for lunch (I think homemade mac-n-cheese is world's better than the boxed variety but my kids beg to differ). Lest you think I starve my children, Clive devoured his pumpkin muffin and oranges. He happily salted and peppered the mac-n-cheese noodles but then refused to open his mouth for a spoonful.

By this time, Chloe had finished her lunch and asked for seconds. She quickly finished, cleared her dishes and was off to play. She was an ANGEL during the 90 minute showdown! She even tried convincing Clive to eat his spoonful and tried reading him a book to calm him down. To reward her for her helpfulness I read 5 books to her before quiet time (that's a record) and I plan on treating her to a special bowl of ice cream after supper tonight.

In reflecting on the ordeal, it was interesting to see my emotional progression. I'm a pretty stubborn gal at heart so once I decided I needed to stand my ground, I was in it for the long haul. I started out with optimistic determinism, then proceeded to frustration, anger, empathy, total desperation and humility (during which time I cried to God for help), and finally exhausted determinism.

Though I know I did the right thing in making my words weighty and displaying my follow-through with Clive, I did not enjoy the process. My heart broke for Clive when again and again I asked him if he was ready to eat his noodles and he whimpered, "No". And when he cryingly said, "Hold you! Hold you!" I balled right along with him as we hugged.

Man, am I glad that's over! After we all crashed for long naps this afternoon, I plan to take the kiddos outside for some fall raking and jumping fun. I'm tired of being the mean mommy.

Have you had a similar battling experience with your kiddos?

Boys and toys

My husband Matt is a treasure. He's dear to me for lots of reasons but especially because of his lovable quirks.

Matt is a genius in several ways (thinking, writing, inventing, and creative problem solving to name a few) but he's also a fun-spirited little boy at heart. It's been incredibly rich to watch Matt so fully enjoying the kids and our family life together. He is a perfect blend of silliness, sweetness, and seriousness. (And no, I did not plan to alliterate that last sentence.)

Now, I grew up in a female-only home so as Clive grows into boyness it's a completely foreign world for me. Trucks, balls, and dirt were not high on my play list growing up. That said, I don't get the fascination with motor vehicles. Matt obviously does though . . .

Matt's latest much-needed distraction from writing his dissertation has been the electric race track. It all began a few weekends ago when we happened upon a humongous yard sale during an after-supper walk. It was as though Matt was magnetically drawn to the box of miscellaneous track pieces and wiring. Matt snatched up the track pieces for $2 with ambition and schemes for the race course already speeding in his mind.

Long story short the yard sale race track was not ideal. Even after Matt's expert tinkering it didn't work properly. So, he scraped it and bought a $10 race track set from the drug store.

The look of happiness on Clive's face when he got to race was priceless! In all the pictures I snapped Clive has his mouth completely agape with joy as the cars whiz by on the race track.

That's $10 very well spent.

What toys are your boys infatuated with right now?

A stand-off with a 17 mos. old?

For awhile now we've noticed that Clive is a much fiestier toddler than Chloe ever was. Fiestier meaning he's super stubborn and vocal about it. He's done his share of whining and has already earned himself heinie-discipline.

Last night Clive made his stand at the dinner table. I usually serve a main dish along with some kind of bread, fruit and veggies. Clive is most assuredly a fruit and bread man. Last night he saw the muffins and the fruit on the table and he REFUSED to eat his main dish (a yummy bowl of turkey tetrazzini).

We tried spoonful after spoonful and he obstinately kept his mouth shut and vehemently shook his head "no". We explained that he couldn't have a muffin until he ate some of his food. He cried and cried and cried and still would not open his mouth for a spoonful of tetrazzini.

For what seemed like ages, Matt and I repeated our instructions to Clive that he needed to eat one spoonful before getting to partake in muffin bliss. The rest of us finished our dinner while Clive cried intermittently before finally calming down.

We regathered at the table to read a devotional story and Clive decided to try a bite of the turkey tetrazzini. We applauded him loudly and praised him profusely for eating his dinner. By the time the story was over, he had cleaned his bowl.

Matt stood firm and was not about to lose the dinner-fight with Clive. I was so surprised that such a young kiddo would exhibit such a strong will over a spoonful of food! And I'm so glad we won round one. Parents 1, Clive 0.

Have you all experienced this same kind of dinner-table-stubbornness? How do you handle it? Any tips are welcome! Is it just my imagination, or is this rather young for a kiddo to show such overt stubbornness?

Blackberry smoothies

Today started out slowly for me. I was weary and unmotivated. (I'd blame my thyroiditis but it could very well have just been that I'm weary from chasing after two kids. I don't know HOW moms of more than two do it!)

After coloring with the kids awhile this morning, I loaded Clive up in the stroller and we all took a walk. The Vitamin-D filled sunshine always helps lift my mood. We had a nice walk to the drug store and then we stopped at Dairy Queen to share an ice cream cone between the three of us. On the way home we even snagged a kid-sized plastic table someone had left curb-side. I'm sure we were quite a sight to see. Me struggling to carry the table while pushing Clive's stroller and Chloe walking beside us with a new-found walking stick about 5 feet tall. :)

We then had a simple lunch and I tried out a new blackberry smoothie recipe. Clive went crazy on his smoothie and resorted to chugging it instead of using his spoon. He's such a cute and messy eater! Chloe ate her smoothie a bit more slowly and I warned her sternly NOT to let Clive get a hold of her cup. He's snatchy and quick when it comes to grabbing what he wants. I'm not usually a huge stickler about keeping clean at the lunch table but this particular smoothie was blackberry heavy and a VERY dark purple.

While they finished up their lunches, I ran upstairs to use the bathroom (am I the only mom who completely neglects her own bladder until it's an emergency?) and was gone for a few minutes. Suddenly I heard Chloe's panic-filled voice calling for me as she raced up the steps.

When I came down I discovered the reason for her panic. Chloe had left the table to play and Clive reached her smoothie cup and DUMPED it all over the carpet below. I sat down on the floor and cried. It was one of those moments that struck a raw nerve. I cried for awhile and scolded Chloe angrily. Poor girl. I apologized to her later and spent some extra-snuggly time with her tonight. I'm so thankful little kids are such quick-forgivers!

Clive didn't know how to handle my crying. He stared for a few moments and then when he saw Chloe jump in my lap to hug me he came racing over too. That was an incredibly sweet moment. His darling little smile and whole-bodied hug melted my heart immediately.

Anyways, I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed some more using first water and then two different carpet cleaners. And surprisingly the dark purple blotch is almost completely gone!

After some much-needed naps for everyone the day got much better. Now I'm looking forward to a bath, Bible reading, and an early bedtime. Whew. This is one day I'm glad is almost over.

What's your worst stain story?

Calamity Clive and Commando Chloe

Clive has certainly made our lives more interesting! He is an active and curious boy, to say the very least.

Somehow even though I know how curious and quick Clive is I still manage to be two seconds behind him on his messes. At least he's into cleaning things up with me! A definite plus since I have a feeling we'll be doing lots of cleaning up after this boy.

Despite his messiness, Clive is an absolute darling. His smile is infectious and I can't seriously be angry with him for more than 5 seconds. (Unless those 5 seconds include his whiny cry that is. He is already showing us that he's a stubborn boy and often refuses to sign please.)

To round out this alliterated "C" post, I'll tell you about Chloe's first no-undies experience.

We've been attending the local gym lately and it includes a huge kid-friendly pool. It's a blast to finish up our workout time with a swim in the pool! But, taking two small children swimming is also a bit stressful for me when I have to do it alone. The worst part of the swimming time is when we're all finished and I have to change and dry everyone in the family bathroom. Chloe is usually semi-able to dress herself but when she's wet and dripping she can't pull on her pants too well (who can?).

Anyways, I try to dry and dress the kiddos as quickly as possible. I had done a super-speedy dressing job on Chloe and when I went to pack up our belongings I saw it. Chloe's clean pair of pink cupcake undies. Oops! There was NO way I was stripping her down again to put those undies on so Chloe went commando. And then the kicker was she said she liked not wearing undies. Hope I haven't inadvertently started something here!

Tell me I'm not the only mom who has ever done that?

Enjoy the pictures below from recent times in the Horn household. Can you guess which picture Chloe took?

Clive: toddler or candy cane?

I realize I've been horribly delinquent at blogging lately. Forgive me! I've had the busiest week ever with my online job. I've had to pull several vvvvvvvery late nights and I'm sorry to say I've used Wonder Pets dvd's as a Chloe-sitter so I can finish all my work tasks.

Matt has been great about watching the kids so I can have some extra working time. That comes with a few quirks though as you'll see from the photos of Clive below. I guess this is Matt's idea of a matching outfit? It certainly does match but it's a dizzying to behold. May I present to you, Clive, the human candy cane!

Has your hubby ever dressed up the kids in peculiar ensembles?

Clive turns 1!

It's hard to believe an entire year has passed since we brought our little Clive Simeon Horn home from the hospital! This healthy active boy seems so different from the tiny (ok, 8 lbs. 14 oz. isn't tiny to most people but compared to his 10 lb. sister he was a peanut!) newborn who had to spend his first few day in an incubator to regulate his temperature.

It's so cool to see how God grew our baby Clive into such a healthy active toddling boy. He's changed in countless ways but he still has those same skinny chicken legs he did as a newborn. He definitely gets those from his daddy.


































Since I was struggling with a wretched cold, we decided to just have a small family shindig to celebrate Clive's 1st birthday. I made a teddy bear cake that was decidedly NOT like the picture on the box. In fact, the chocolate teddy cake was seriously laughable to anyone who knows anything about cake decorating. But, Clive and Chloe both liked it and it was destroyed in less than 30 seconds anyways. Also made some yummy homemade mac-n-cheese and steamed veggies. Then Clive opened some gifts and Chloe quickly snatched them up to play with. :)

Happy Birthday, dear Clive-y! We love you and are so glad God added you to our family!

Happy Half-Birthday, Clive!

I am in shock that our Clive turned 6 months old today! Where have the last six months gone?!?

Clive Simeon had his 6 month appointment today and he weighed in at 17 lbs. 9 oz. and measured 27.5 inches long. He's a good sized baby.

Clive is the happiest baby ever (are you tired of hearing about that yet?)! He smiled at everyone in the doctor's office today except the doctor. :)

We celebrated his half-birthday by going to Hudson and eating cookies (the cupcake shop was closed). Poor Clive didn't get to partake in the cookie feasting though. He's stuck eating mashed sweet potatoes and bananas.

So far he has two teeth that are steadily pushing through his lower gum line. He rolls around and stands very well. Sitting up he's still wobbly at. He is incredibly active and wiggly ALL THE TIME. When he starts crawling we'll really be in trouble.

Here are some of my fave photos of our smiley guy.