the Tillotsons

The Tillotsons (aka TNT) are currently a family of 6 but are expanding to 7 this spring.
Our oldest is Helaman, a 6 year old in first grade. He is a great big brother and has developed the patience of a saint with his younger sisters. Of course, being with so many littler ones he sometimes forgets to act his own very mature age. Helaman loves figuring out the mechanics of things. Case in point: we had a pool in the backyard at our previous house and he spent most of his pool time thoroughly cleaning the pool filter and checking it's function. Helaman likes to be in the middle of things and directing the action.
Olivia is 5 years old and missed the school cut-off for kindergarden by a few days; I have really enjoyed having her home this year. She keeps asking when school starts. Olivia is also a great sister. She is into hamming it up, going for the laughs and often using movie lines for her delivery. Olivia is interested in all things Helaman and they are very close. 'Liv is not one for too much exertion, either with exercise or housework; I suspect she feels she relates to Cinderella. Olivia shares a room with her sister Meredith, which creates its own kind of relationship tension. They share a lot and Olivia especially wants to define herself in terms of their differences; the days of matching outfits and toys are OVER.
Meredith is 4 years old and is a great sister. She loves tagging along with the older two and shows a lot of selflessness to her baby sister. Meredith seems easygoing and resilient, although she's no pushover. When the others get themselves worked into a tizzy she usually just sucks her thumb, shrugs, and goes on her merry way. Meredith enjoys helping Mom a lot, especially when I'm baking. She likes playing with others but also plays by herself very well.
Sophia is a fabulous 22 month old. She is a lot of personality in a small package. She is our most rough and tumble child, and most of the time when bumps happen she jumps right back into the fray. Right now she seems busy trying to express to Meredith that she is her own boss - and maybe Mer's boss, too. But nobody better take her place on Momma's lap or they are cruisin' for a bruisin' (yeah, we're working on that). She's tough and headstrong but still loves to cuddle up regularly. Sophia has recently made it known that it's potty-training time - she won't stay in a wet diaper for more than a couple of minutes, and you can just forget about the dirty ones! She is keeping Mom on her toes; most nights I wander the house looking for any discarded pull-ups I missed earlier in the day.
I'm about half-way through my 5th pregnancy (it doesn't seem possible that it's number 5) and hanging in there. The emotional upheaval that usually hits me in the first trimester seems to have been on hold for the second trimester; and I thought I was going to get away without it this time! Hey, as long as the baby doesn't get comfy on my sciatic nerve, I'll survive!
Josh is involved in a big 6 month project at work as VP of IT up north in Zelienople, but it's nice to have him home every night since for most of our married life he was on the road 2-3 weeks/month. He's a great dad; the kids try to put their feet down every now and then and ask him to be "serious dad" for a change. He works hard at keeping us all from taking ourselves too seriously.

Welcome to our Parenting Discussion Group blog!

So glad you made it to our new blog.  Hope you like what we are putting together in our group!

How to use a blog

To view our blog, always go to www.parentingdiscussiongroup.blogspot.com.  Make it a bookmark.  (click on Bookmarks=>Add Bookmarks)  

On the left, you will see the titles of all the entries that have been made to our blog so far.  You can read all you want, but if you want to respond to any entries or create your own, you'll have to sign in.  Do so by clicking on "sign in" in the upper right hand corner of tis very window.  You probably haven't become a registered user yet.  If not, type in your e-mail address and click on sign in.  You will come to a window that will offer you a chance to sign up for the first time.  

Once you are signed in, here's what you do to type in your own thoughts.  Click on one of the titles to the left, and up will come the entry in the main area to the right.  If you want to respond to one of the things that has been said, you click on the title of the entry, then on "post a comment" at the bottom of the entry.  Up will come a white box where you can type in whatever you want.  If you would like to e-mail what you said to the author of the original entry, you'll see a spot where you can click on a box to send it to her.  Then, click on Publish your comment, and you'll see it.  

If you want to begin a new entry all together, like to publish an overview of your family, click on "New Entry".  

I'm sure you'll all get the hang of it quickly.  If you have any questions about how to do anything, you can always just e-mail me and I'll help you out.  It's always hard to figure something out for the first time.  You'll get the hang of it, as I did!  You might like blogging so much that you want to set up a family blog (as some of the members of our discussion have!)

How our discussion works

Before you get started, write up a quick overview of your family, just so we are all on the same page.  Then, either send in a message about one of your own current parenting dilemmas, or respond to someone else's parenting problem.  If you catch someone being a great parent, don't be afraid to post it here!  

Purpose

To strengthen and support our kids by creating a forum to share parenting ideas, support one another, celebrate our successes, and when necessary, vent about our failures!

Jackson Clan overview

I have 4 kids: 

Sammi loves books and art. She just turned 4 this month.  She always has something to say, and bosses her brothers around.  She absolutely hates to be in trouble, but also hates to be said no to.  She loves girly things, but can be convinced to do all the boy things too.  

Scotti loves sports. He and Sammi are twins, so he just turned 4 years too.  He loves to run, and is pretty fast.  He always has a jersey on, or something sports related, and refuses to wear anything but "running pants."  Scotti has a furious temper and is often caught losing it, especially when Cooper tries to get his stuff. 

Cooper mostly loves to play with people.  He loves to cuddle and wrestle and run.  He wants to be where the action is.  I haven't successfully found any toys that he adores, because he mostly just wants to play with people.  He is a really good eater and sleeper, but seems to get in trouble a lot with Sammi and Scotti because he plays their games wrong.

Everett is the sweetest baby ever.  He loves his mom, and sleeps and eats when he's told.  He laughs at his brothers and sister, and loves to play by himself.  He is really ticklish, but his favorite thing is to wrestle!

Dad is working hard to finally be a fully trained professional, and doesn't seem to be home much, but when he is, he works hard and is a huge support.  Grant loves good food and lots of stress-relieving fun.  

As for the Mom.  Hmmmm.....  I think I am a mom who tries to find a serious balance between giving my kids the benefit of the doubt and refusing to be taken advantage of.  I can yell and slam doors and grab my kids hard by the wrist, but I can also wrestle and cuddle and comfort.  I am amazed at how much my kids understand principles of life like having a good attitude, telling the truth, etc.  I try to have as much fun as possible and try not to spoil them.  I'm a seriously confused parent with good intent.  

Would each of you start our blogging out by sending an overview of each of your families?  Title it however you want, but notice that if you put the same label on you entry that I did, "Family Overviews", that all the overviews will be organized together (I think!).  If you get it done by the end of January, we can all start some great discussion come February that will really benefit our families.  Please feel free to use this forum to test how to put up a post or whatever.  Don't confuse my many posts with stringent structure.  This is a relaxed place for conversation and lots of technical and otherwise mistakes!  

Discussion Expectations

  In our discussions, let's be sure that we are all working on the same page by setting up a few guidelines.

1.  Each of us will approach our discussions with prayer and a charitable heart.  That means no judging.  That means trying to see each mother as she can potentially be, as God sees us.  Parenting is such a personal and important issue, it brings with it the potential for hurt feelings and taking offense.  We each need to resolve that we will give people the benefit of the doubt, and will not let our feelings be hurt because we know of the good intent of the women involved.  

2.  All situations are different.  Every child is different, every parent is different.  We can offer ideas, because we have full confidence that he mother herself will be the best judge of whether or not to try our ideas.  When she doesn't try it, we support her judgement.

3.  All ideas are worth considering.  The mothers in our group are varied--mothers of infants to mothers of teenagers, to not mothers yet at all.  Regardless of experience, each of us can come up with ideas that can be helpful and should be respectfully considered.

4.  We are here to both support and to be supported.  Please be sure to fill both roles.

5.  Our children deserve confidentiality and respect.  Let's remember that our children are of divine descent and try to look at them that way as we discuss their upbringing.  Please do not share anything too personal about your children.  We should remember that they have a right to their own privacy as well.  The information shared here is shared with the intent of helping parents help kids.  Let's be sure to use it only for that purpose.

6.  If there are other expectations that I am missing that ought to be mentioned here, please e-mail me, and we'll let them be published as well.