Soccer's Here!

 While Dean may or may not refer to it as a Communist Sport, Tommy has officially begun soccer season. And yes, Dean is coaching.  We had a special treat this week as his Aunt Sarah (former soccer superstar... still a superstar in our book) was the guest coach!  Here are some of the finer moments.

They all ran in a big pack wherever the ball went.  Gotta love the girl in the back running the other way.

No game is complete without a "Go Lions!" cheer (yes, Dean arranged for our team to be the Lions)

Interestingly enough, this is Ty's expression in 98.7% of the pictures we have of him

Inserra Family Fun Night

Every Friday night we try to do something fun as a family. It usually involves whatever sport happens to be in season. Last night we took in our first Leon football game of the year. It was also alumni night so they brought back as many former football players and cheerleaders as possible. The boys had a blast at the Leon football field and I had a great time talking to the former hall of fame players and cheerleaders.  On a fun note, there were two cheerleaders there who were from the class of 1937! Holy moly!

Raising a World Changer

I've shared with many of my friends (and maybe even on this blog) that I happen to be raising a strong-willed child.  This is no easy task and as one who is more on the compliant and easy-going side, it's particularly exhausting.  I just can't figure out why he won't simply listen and obey.  It's so much easier!!  But as Dean has said to me before, he definitely has a "world changing personality".  The trick is to harness that and keep him from getting in too much trouble in the meantime.

As Tommy has gotten older, it has become more challenging to shape that spirit, but it's also gotten slightly easier because he is able to communicate so much better.  We've had our good days and we've certainly had our bad days, but here are a few things I've learned along the way

1. Prayer: I cannot say enough about the importance of this. I am constantly praying for my family, and when it comes to my children, I'm praying for huge amounts of wisdom on my end and sometimes I'm just praying "Lord, please don't let me just lose it right now!" And I notice the calmness that comes over me as I pray in the midst of a scuffle.

2. Never Waste an Opportunity: Tommy is a pastor's kid, so hopefully he's at least been exposed to the Gospel.  That should be said of every child growing up in a Christian home.  We've read his children's Bible together.  We talk about the truths of forgiveness and repentance and mercy and grace. The key is Deut. 6:7 "Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." We try to turn everything into an discussion on a biblical truth (without overdoing it and making him hate the Bible because it says he can't have a cookie because his body is God's temple and God doesn't want too many chocolate chips in his temple).

The other day I had a couple conversations with Tommy that completely blew me away. We had just had a very large "battle of the wills", if you will, and Tommy had been sent to his room for "freaking out" (one of our house rules is "no freak-outs"). He came out after I told him he could and he told me through his just-dried tears "Mommy, when I was in my room just now, I prayed for God to let Jesus die on the cross for my sins."

Well that about made me cry and so we talked about the fact that Jesus only needed to die once, even for the sin that he just did, even for the sins he'd do the next day and next year and everything. I was thrilled with that conversation, thinking we'd just turned a big corner.  Then he came home from school and basically spent the entire afternoon in his room (as a punishment, not because he was being reclusive).  I was a little disappointed, to say the least. But the next morning he came out and asked me, "Mommy, why do I keep freaking out like this?" and I said, "Honey, I have no idea." His response was "Well, I feel like I have God on one side and Satan on the other side and it's going Satan, God, Satan God, Satan, God", as he was doing a tug-of-war motion.  I explained that he was exactly right and in the Bible it talks about a spiritual battle (he loves battles) and how Satan's the bad guy and God's the good guy and God always wins in the end, but it's important to not listen to the bad guy and let him win the little battles. He seemed to get that and it's opened the door to more conversations like that.

This is an awesome part of parenting, but I admit to know I'll do this all over again with Ty is a bit of an exhausting thought. But at the same time, I can't wait.  There's nothing like it.

What Happens When You Leave Your Baby Unattended with a Cup of Yogurt

A House Divided

My poor confused child.  I'm trying to get him to do the chop. Tommy's trying to get him to "do the U".  Which one will he pick? Watch and find out.

Good Eats

This makes my heart happy. Ty is enjoying his third bowl of black bean and corn salsa.

Early Risers

I'm not a morning person.  Not at all.  Well, I've been waking up every morning for the last 5 years around 7 or 7:30 so I guess I'm more of one than I was before.  But either way I still despise waking up in the morning.  And it seems even worse when I wake up to the sound of  (from across the house) "MOM!!!  I'M READY TO GET UP NOW!!!! COME WAKE ME UP NOW PLEASE!!" followed shortly by the sound of Ty crying after being abruptly woken up by his brother.  For some reason that wake up call doesn't put me in the best of moods. 

So I decided that in my never-ending quest to be a better mom, I should start waking up before the boys.  Tommy's usually up around 6:45 or 7, so I figured I should set my alarm for 6:30.  That should be plenty of time to get up, get my coffee going, maybe pray and read my Bible for a minute or two and then greet my children with a smile.  Sounds like a great plan.

Except for the last few days (actually the first day that I set my alarm), I've had that same wake-up call... at 5:50 am!!  I'm not ready to set an alarm for 5:30. I just don't think I can do it.

Ty's First Smoothie

Yesterday I was driving down the road and saw a man dressed as a giant banana and immediately pulled over.  He had a sign saying smoothies at Tropical Smoothie were 99 cents.  So I decided that was as good a time as any for Ty to try his first smoothie.  We ordered some pineapple banana concoction and I was pleased to see that he liked it.  Actually he loved it.  He didn't want to share and I promise he drank more than half of that cup. 

While we were sitting outside enjoying our smoothie and the salsa music (not sure exactly what it was, but it felt tropical... or at least Hispanic) a woman and her little girl walked by.  We started talking to them and they joined us at our table.  Ty had been playing with my keys and dropped them through the holes in his chair and was really mad about it.  He was trying to reach his chubby little hand through the hole, looking at me and going "Mamamamama!", all the while refusing to give up his smoothie.  Just as I started to get frustrated, the woman said "Wow, what great communication he has!"  I had to laugh and agreed that he certainly lets me know when he's upset.

What she said next made me so thankful for every frustrating encounter I've had.

"My older son is autistic and I've been working really hard with him to get him to communicate at all.  You need to be thankful for how great he is at showing his emotion."

And I was.

And it just wound up being a neat conversation about experiences we've had with our boys and things like early intervention programs, therapies, and the like.  And I think we both left grateful for the incredible experiences we've been able to have so far with our boys.

All because of a guy in a banana suit.

Happy Football Season

It's here. The first college football weekend. Tommy loved the first FSU game (so did Ty) and he even did the chop. I think we're making a Seminole fan out of him, much to Dean's dismay.

Aahhh... the Weekend

It's Saturday morning at 8;30 and I've already clocked a very busy 12 hours.  As of 8:30 last night here has been my activities:

1. Come home from Downtown Getdown to see and smell the fact that I may have left a diaper or two in Ty's trash can in his room and I may or may not have closed the door.  Dorsi took advantage of that fun and ate the diapers.  Poopy ones are her favorite.

2. Clean diaper messes out of the dining room, living room, and Ty's room.  Which resulted in having to swiff and mop all the floors in our house.

3. Hear Dorsi in our room vomiting all over the place.  Apparently poopy diapers don't actually sit well with her.

4. Run as fast as I can to grab her and let her outside to finish getting sick.  She doesn't make it.  There's now piles on our living room rug.

5. Clean all throwup piles.  Oxyclean is my best friend and works wonders.

6. Proclaim that now I'm going to bed before anyone else can cry, vomit, wet the bed, or just wake up in general. 

7. Look down to see that now the refrigerator is leaking.  By now this is almost comical.  Clean up refrigerator. Go to bed.

8. Wake up to realize that Tommy had an accident in bed.  Wash bedding.

9. Perform surgery on Big White Bear, whose head was falling off and was leaving trails of stuffing.  Tommy praised my amazing sewing skills.  Little does he know, his head will probably fall off again in the next few weeks because of those amazing skills (or lack thereof). 

Now I want to relax a little.  I'm looking forward to the first Gameday show, the general atmosphere of football season, and most of all, naptime.

A New Year

No, it's not January already (although it seems about that long since I've last posted).  But living in a college town, being part of a church that reaches lots of college students, and now having a little school go-er of my own, I firmly believe that New Year's Day needs to be changed to September 1.  But that's another post for another time.

Since I've last written, lots has happened.  Tommy turned 5.

Sarah and Todd got married, creating the union of Todd Inserra and Sarah Inserra (say it out loud and it's really fun... thanks Dane!)  Sadly the only pictures I have are professional ones that are on Facebook and I can't put them on here.  But just know it was beautiful and lots of fun!

And Tommy started Kindergarten.  He's going to a half day program and will repeat it at our public school next year because of his incredibly late birthday.  But judging by how much he loves Kindergarten now, I don't think he'll mind doing it again next year!