19 Kids and Counting

So I've been pretty much obsessed with the TLC show, 19 Kids and Counting. They are the Duggars and they live in Arkansas. You could say that I watch it all day long. I have it on on my ipod that is hooked up to a speaker in my kitchen so I listen to episodes while I cook, eat with Rhys and so on. I dunno what it is about this show but I love watching them just live their lives! All of their kids' names start with the letter J and they have 9 girls and 10 boys! They are: Joshua, Jana, John-David, Jessa, Jill, Jennifer, Josie, Jordyn, James, Jason, Jedidiah, Jeremiah, Jinger, Justin, Jackson, Josiah, Johannah, Joy-Anna, and Joseph! Whew!! The statistics worked out correctly in the long run! haha. They are a very religious family with very conservative values. Some of their values I don't think I could stick to or have our family stick to like the idea of courtship where instead of dating, you ask permission from the girl's parents and you basically court the girl you want to marry. You also can't kiss until you are married. I respect their values and they seem to have what it takes to keep a beautiful family and marriage together so they must be doing something right.

There is such a thing called "Duggar time" where they always have to tack on at least 30 mins to an hour when they are getting ready to leave to go somewhere. Since there are so many people, it's just too hard to get everyone out the door on time. I love it that they call it Duggar time. hehe. I would like to have a big family and have the home be bustling with people...but at the same time it is a lot of work. So I think I'll just live vicariously through the Duggars.

Playdates

Rhys at the park on one of our playdates

Rhys and I have been trying to go to more playdates these days as Rhys has gotten more active. Rhys enjoys going to the park and looking at the birds. He is OBSESSED with birds. He loves watching them and asks to be taken to the birds if they are far away. He mimics the cawing sounds that the birds make (we have mostly crows in our neighborhood). So we both are getting to enjoy more of this early fall San Diego sun. Rhys likes to bit and pull at other children, I believe as a show of his excitement...but it usually scares the other kids. I've actually started to worry about his biting. He will come charging at another kid with his mouth open and proceeds to grab the kid's face, arms, clothes...whatever he can get his little hands on. It feels like after every playdate, I'm telling Stephanie about how Rhys tried to bite yet another kid today. Earlier this week, I went to go meet a woman I became friends with at a playdate and he ended up biting her boy's fingers! I saw Rhys bite the kid and he bit hard! The other kid had a delayed reaction to the bite, but he cried a lot. I felt so bad that Rhys was the bully. I know he doesn't know that what he's doing is wrong, but I can't help but be a bit more stern when it comes to his biting. I really hope that this is a phase and he will grow out of it soon.