Category — Parenting

In case you can’t tell by the title, you and I are in the midst of another Adventure in Senseless Blogging! Truth be told, the topic of this post absolutely could make for serious bloggin’. But, honestly, I’m not in the state to do much serious blogging.

I’ll be upfront with you on another point too. The title of this post addresses what I wish I was really writing about but feel conflicted about whether or not I should. Basically, I’m being cryptic and taking advantage of you. But at least I’m being honest about it, right?

If you disagree, now would be the time to bail. . . .

So my family was in town last week. Two of those days, Mom and I watched my niece so my sister could go to a conference. While Caelyn and Claire napped, Mom and I sat in the living room. I got out the laptop. She got out a blanket.

“You takin’ a nap, too?”

Mom looked at me with the same face she makes when the waiter at Abuelo’s asks if we want “dessert nachos,” and she wants some but doesn’t want to be the one to say it: “Maybe, unless someone wants to talk to me.”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know. What are you reading about?” she hinted, with raised eyebrows.

I wasn’t reading anything, but I said I was thinking about some personality stuff online that I’d checked out recently: “You wanna take a test?”

“Sure!”

And that’s how we ended up spending the next two afternoons personality testing. I started her off with the Enneagram. Mom was uncomfortable with the open-endedness of the questions. She wanted me to further define about 70% of them. In the end, she came out as a One. (If I’m not mistaken, that’s what I predicted.)

Personally, I think that assessment is pretty accurate. (I’m trusting you to have the skills to Google “Enneagram One” and any other terms I might toss in.) But Mom wasn’t so convinced:

“Are you sure this is THE VERY BEST personality test?”

I told her that I really like it, but to understand the Enneagram and get the most out of it, you have to do more than just take a test. You’ve got to really consider it, because the Enneagram isn’t just about personality traits. It’s about motivation.

She looked at me dubiously, “What about that test Jennifer made Kevin take? Can you give me that one?”

I assumed she meant the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which I informed her could be taken for free in short form, but not in full-form. And, just like that, we were out of the Enneagram and into Jung.

It’s not surprising that she’s an (extreme on every trait) ESTJ. When Dad got back from the mall, she talked him into taking the test too. He turned up ISTJ. My sister’s an ESTJ.

And, me? I’m a (fairly extreme on every trait) INFP. (No wonder I’m a Four.)

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It’s been a while. So long, in fact, that you probably thought that last post was THE last post. (Actually, I did think about doing that, as it would’ve been appropriate in theme, I think.) But, really, I’ve just been pretty darn busy lately with birthdays and family and all sorts of various extravaganzas.

Obviously, I’ve got lots to tell you about and tons of responding to do. (Hey, John!) And eventually it’ll all happen. (I hope to be caught up and back in the swing of things by Monday.) But for now, I’ll just get things rolling with Caelyn’s 2nd Birthday Party, Online Photo Album Edition.

The party featured The Tubes of Irving Bible Church, 28 guests (all family members), and, of course, Caelyn:

This year’s cake was a whole different story than last year’s, and not just because this year’s cake was really cupcakes.

(Meet me after the jump for way too many b-day pics!)
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Between my blogging history, Twitter, and context clues, you probably already know, but today is Caelyn’s 2nd birthday. We’re having a party this Saturday with the immediate and extended fam, but it was on this date two years ago in an operating room that a doctor peeked over the sheet at an incredibly swollen me and said, “Okay, it’s gonna feel like there’s an elephant on your chest. Ready?” and then drew his elbow way back past his ear and shoved Caelyn’s head out of my ribcage.

Caelyn doesn’t know today’s her birthday. I burst into her room this morning with a huge smile and a, “HEY! IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY!” She just smiled, pointed at her posterior, and said, “Biper?”

But, still, I couldn’t let the day go uncelebrated, could I?

Birthday Stop No. 2

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I’m working during a short, late nap here, so I don’t have time to tell you all the things I’ve been thinking about over the last week (like the Britax Boulevard and visiting family and passed fitness goals and why the Kingdom keeps slipping into my conversations), so I’ll just tell you the most time-sensitive one:

Happy (late) Father’s Day!

. . . to the fathers who frequent For the Record and especially to Chris, who, in case you don’t know, is the father of that little cutie we feature here on a regular basis, Caelyn. (Incidentally, he’s also my husband.)

Our church is launching a new non-profit organization called Parenting Alone, which will provide resources, child care, counseling, and other assistance to single parents. (IBC already has a substantial single parenting ministry, but Parenting Alone is envisioned as something nondenominational and outside of the church that will hopefully grow into multiple store-fronts across the country.)

This past Sunday, they introduced the idea to the congregation via a video of IBC women sharing the pain and struggles they faced after going through a divorce with children. (Of course, not all single parents are divorcees and not all single parents are women. Some parents even start out as single parents. The peolpe on this video just happened to be divorced women. No matter the case, I’d guess that facing parenthood on your own isn’t easy. I think it’s downright terrifying for a lot of people.) Even though I’ve never been a single parent, these women’s stories stirred something in my heart for them and other parents like them, and they made me think about my own life, particularly back to before Caelyn was born when I worked at a biblical counseling ministry in North Dallas.

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Sorry for my cyber-absence. It’s been a long week.

Last Monday, Caelyn stuck a hair clip in her mouth and choked on it until she finally (miraculously) got it down. I’ve always felt that putting anything in her hair was risky, but she rarely takes those clips out. And two weeks ago I bought bigger ones with the specific intention of reducing the choking risk.

Needless to say, she did take one out and I didn’t reduce the risk enough.

After the orange incident THE FREAKIN’ WEEK BEFORE, I brushed up on my “What to do when my toddler chokes” knowledge, so I knew the moves. Doing them, though, was more complicated than I expected, because she resisted me with all her strength. But I did my best, which was enough to help her breathe off and on before downing the thing. And, fortunately, Chris was there and came out when I banged on the wall.

Even with it swallowed, we had to go to the ER to make sure it was in a “good” place, which meant Caelyn couldn’t have anything to eat/drink (she missed snack and dinner) in case we needed to do a procedure, and we were in for a long evening of waiting, hunger, stranger anxiety, exhaustion, and outright terror.

In the end, we were only there for 3 1/2 hours, and although Caelyn thought they were ripping her heart out of her chest when they took x-rays, everything turned out fine. The clip had cleared the chest cavity and all we had to do was wait for it to come out — which it did 2 days later.

I’d thought about kids swallowing things before, but never about the possible consequences besides choking or poisoning. The triage nurse told us not to let her throw up, because she could just as easily choke (and die) when it came back up. So if it had gotten stuck somewhere in the middle they would’ve had to surgically go in and remove it.

Thankfully, that’s not how it went for us. We all came home healthy and even a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see the x-rays.

Then on Thursday Caelyn and I got an early start on errands. We picked up sparkly stickers for party favors at Michael’s, then headed south for lunch and Hobby Lobby, but our trip was cut short in front of Wal-Mart, where a lady pulled out in front of me and the only thing to do was hit her.

I’ve never been in a wreck (or a “fender bender”) as a driver or a passenger. I’ve never even gotten a traffic ticket, so all the excitement was “novel” to me. Still, as cynical as this may seem, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Everyone’s number has to come up eventually. Seriously, I don’t know how anyone can commute in the metroplex for any length of time and not think something like that. On the most part, I don’t mind DFW traffic, and I think it’s “friendlier” than most of the traffic in other big Texas cities, but when you pass one or two accidents both to and from work every single day, you gotta wonder.

I stopped wondering last week.

Here’s the recap:

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