Randy left on Friday for his last "away" rotation to Tulsa, OK where he'll be completing a family practice rotation at In His Image, a Christ-centered FP Residency Program. While we are excited to see if this program is a contender for where we'd like to go for residency, it saddens all of us to be away from each other for so long. I endured two long months during October and November while Randy was in Cleveland, OH and Harlingen, TX, respectively....and the only reason I got through it (and quite sanely, if I do say so myself) was because the Lord gave me the strength I needed to deal with a toddler while trying to overcome the extreme exhaustion of the first trimester.
While I'm not feeling too tired or uncomfortable yet, Josiah is going through a stage where he is testing his limits, saying "no" a lot. And as you can imagine, this is a very tiring stage for parents, especially for me when I don't have a lot of patience to begin with. Randy and I both believe in spanking; however, we are in constant reflection about what is punishable by spanking. I've been encouraged to read Dare to Discipline by James Dobson in an effort to help us identify when to spank or use alternative methods of discipline. So that's next on my "to read" list.
Josiah and I will also be traveling to OK on the 24th to spend a few days checking out the program but mostly to spend time with Randy and his brother's family, who we haven't seen since last Christmas. I'm pretty excited for Josiah to be able to play with his cousins (he was just 4 months last year) and watch how he interacts with them. :-)
If I may submit a prayer request, please pray that I stay constant in my disciplining Josiah and that I am given the knowledge to realize when he is being out-right defiant or when he's just testing his limits as all children do.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Another Month Away
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3 comments:
So sorry to hear that you will be alone for such a long time, but one month is so short when you compare it to all the moments you two will have together in the coming years.
Discipline...yeah, that's a hard one. I haven't heard of a "how to" book yet. There are lots out there to help guide you, but mainly you have to decide what's good for you.
Dare to Discipline, Sheparding a Child's Heart and Creative Correction are a few that I've ready that helped me get a plan.
You can also start using time out. I just remembered that this was about how old Kelly was when I started it and so Kyle will have his first session the next time I'm tired of saying no.
I love it that you call the baby "Josiah's baby." We did the same thing. When I was pregnant with Jake he was "Isabelle's baby" and now we call this one "Our baby." It's definitely a family event this time around.
For discipline, I loved Dare to Discipline and Creative Correction, although CC is probably more suited for older kids. I know that Dobson encourages spanking only for direct defiance and not until 18 months, but we definitely swatted lots of hands when they were much younger than that. If they can understand "don't touch the _____" then they are old enough to get swatted when they do. Dobson's books Raising Sons is very good at helping us moms understand the minds of our little boys. I still refer to it when I don't quite understand Jake's little boy tendencies.
In the meantime, be encouraged that this is a season and you only get to (have to!) live through it once. Even when it's hard, it's a sweet time for you and Josiah and I'm sure you'll reflect on it one day and remember much more good than bad. We're praying for you and look forward to the end of the month when the kids can play together.
Oops! Dobson's book is called Bringing up Boys. You can look at my copy when you're here if you want.
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