Discipline & Training

One day last week, I woke up and thought "I do NOT want to discipline and train ANYONE today!!!!" Life with a wild and crazy 3 year old has been wearing me down. I have been getting really frustrated with Braylen and seem to have a very short fuse. He is learning to be more independent and more "I do want I want!" Not cool........ I have been reading this book called "Don't Make Me Count to Three" which is all about getting to the heart of discipline. It shows you how to discipline without threatening your child (hence the title of the book). My friend Jessica recommended it to me and I never finished it. It's really awesome. 

Potty training is super hard too. For some reason he wants nothing to do with it. I know that it doesn't help when I am showing my frustration but I can't help it! He knows how to do it but he just doesn't care. We did have a few break throughs today-he went on the potty twice! Yay! He walked around in his Diego underwear and didn't have a single accident. He kept walking by the mirror in our room and checking himself out. So funny. He was so happy with himself.

What I love about Braylen is that he really has no clue right now when I am upset with him. If I have a short fuse or just talk to him in an unloving way (like this morning he woke up at 6:45am and I was so tired that I kept telling him to leave me alone-so mean of me), he continues to treat me with kindness. He loves  me unconditionally-no matter what. It's amazing. I love thinking that that is how the Lord feels about us. Unconditional love. No matter what. Thank goodness that we have a Heavenly Father that feels that way about us.

Being a mom is so hard sometimes. I love it though. This great responsibility continues to teach me about patience, kindness, endurance, selfishness........to name a FEW! It's all worth it.

It is getting close to Braylen's bedtime. Better get off here and get him to bed. Here is a picture of Bray during one of his naps. He was having a hard time winding down but finally fell asleep at some point. I decided to check on him and this is what I found. 

That's one way to fall asleep! Good night! 

He was still breathing by the way! And yes I took the tote off of him after the pictures.

Lately.......

I feel like I am constantly saying things like "we've been so busy" or "what a few weeks it has been" but literally...............what a few weeks it has been! 

3 weeks ago Braylen started to lose his appetite and was having really terrible diarrhea (not to be gross just wanting to keep track of our crazy weeks). This was on a Monday which was also the same day that I was working hard on potty training! Thank the GOOD Lord that when he had a TERRIBLE accident he was in a training diaper and I happened to change him on the hardwood floor and not the carpet. Nasty. The poor kid had a week of no appetite and diarrhea. Well, then I started feeling sick! I also felt very, very stressed out. I couldn't eat or sleep. I just kept feeling very sorry for myself and hurt (for things that I don't really want to talk about now but maybe later). 

I finally started to feel better but Braylen started to have an asthma "flair up." I took him to the doctors and they gave him a prescription for cough medicine and told me to start giving him his inhaler again. Not fun! This was last Wednesday, and the next day we were flying down with my mom to see my sister and brother in law. Braylen seemed to cough less and less as the week ended. 

Que Friday- we were in Charlotte having a great time and got super cheap tickets to an NBA game ($3 bucks a piece!). We came home later and I put Braylen to bed. I decided to take some sleeping pills to help me sleep because I just felt unrested. Well it totally back fired. I can't really explain what happened but my mom and brother in law ended up taking my to the hospital. It was really really scary and we just didn't know what was going on. I ended up having a reverse reaction to the medicine because of stress and lack of sleep. :( Thankfully I was fine after resting and letting the medicine out of my system. Oh I forgot to mention that our basement started to flood while this was going on. My poor husband had to deal with that on top of me losing my mind. I am so thankful that we live close to our family because Guy's precious mom and dad really came to the rescue!! 

The next day we were all so tired but also knew that a certain 3 year old wakes up at 7am on the dot. Braylen was acting very strange Saturday morning and later threw up 4 times that day! Ugh. Poor thing. He continued to get sick a few times each day for over 4 days! Once we got back to NKY I was able to get him to see the doctors and the only thing he came up with was that Braylen had a reaction to the cough medicine he was taking. Braylen did not have a fever and was fine before and after he got sick. We stopped giving him the medicine and he is back to himself. However, now Guy is sick! Stay away from our family. :(

As I type all of this out, I really can't believe all that has happened these last few weeks. I am thankful that nothing worse happened and that God is constant and compassionate to our family. I have learned so much about my thought life and that I need to constantly fight to believe what is true. I get myself so worked up about things or worried that it affects everything about me. I've been feeling very misunderstood and I so badly what to voice what is true in my life but God is the one true Judge, and I am learning that I am justified by him. I can only imagine how his Son felt misunderstood his entire life. That brings me comfort! I am hopeful that instead of feeling sorry for myself or mistreated or stressed, I will just grow stronger. Stronger in my walk with the Lord and stronger in relationships. 

Big sigh of relief. 

Maybe next week will bring a "lighter" post. One about.............laughter and..........flowers.....or something like that. 

By the way, even though our trip to Charlotte was beyond CRAZY!!!, we still had a great time. My super cute sis is having a boy! Yay! I envision Braylen and baby Meiman as best buddies forever. I'm so excited to be an aunt! 

Here are the only 2 pictures that I took-which were on my phone! 

Paparazzi. :)

Just chillin' at the airport. Waiting for our ride. 

Thank you for reading! I can't wait to see what God has in store for us next!