09-04-15 Spontaneous

Spontaneous is not a word that I would ever use to describe me. I like routine. I like knowing what to expect. I'm not a planner per se, but I work better under structure and it's pretty hard for me to roll with the punches. With that said, today I decided to be spontaneous. 

Tim has been working a lot of hours lately, and he's pretty tired, so I decided to pack up the kids and drive out to the shop this evening to surprise him with a visit! And from there we would head to my parents' house. That way when he is done working tonight he can drive twenty minutes to be with us instead of over an hour. 

Once I got off from work, I picked up the kids, ordered pizza, and packed the bags and the van as quickly as I could. Granted it looks like Hurricane Joanna hit the rest of the house, but I will deal with that when we get back! It was definitely worth it! I loaded up the kids and we headed out. Tim didn't expect a thing and was super surprised when we pulled up to the shop! 

The kids were glad to see daddy!

They were fascinated watching him work!

It's funny how familiar the shop is to me. No, it's not one of the ones my parents had while I was growing up, but walking inside is so familiar. The smell of wood and lacquer. The sound the spray booth makes when it turns on, and the loud rumble that follows. The sound of the spray gun as it swishes back and forth covering the wood with stain.

Seeing my children wandering around the shop was both strange and comforting. It was my childhood. Sure they are different kids, it's a different shop, but the games were the same... Weaving in between dollies of drying panels, asking a million questions. 

My sister and I spent countless hours in our parents' shop growing up. No one was there to play us. We created our own adventures, earned our first 'pay checks' and entertained ourselves with boxes of rags, rolls of masking tape, and various paint buckets. It was a unique childhood, but one I am grateful to have experienced. I am happy that at least to some extent, my children are experiencing it too! 

Two weeks of school down and going strong! I got to see my sweet girl get on the bus this morning, a real treat for mommy! 

09-03-15 Who is that dapper gentleman?

Tim and I have one mailbox key. This is sad because he has said mailbox key and I keep forgetting to get a copy of my own. So when I checked my order from Amazon online today and saw that it had been delivered to the mailbox I was a bit bummed because it meant I wouldn't be able to get to it until tomorrow. So imagine my delight when I was walking through the living room this evening and saw an opened Amazon box on the couch. Could it be?!?

Yes!!! Tim must have checked the mail before he went to work. He was probably kinda perplexed because I forgot to mention I had purchased these. 

Big E had a mustache paci when he was a baby, but sadly it was lost in the move. I wanted to get a new one for Baby E before he outgrows the paci stage. He wasn't sure what to think about it at first. The Stache makes it a little top heavy and it kept falling out of his mouth. Also, he prefers to suck on it upside down. 

I think he looks awesome!

Seriously, they should pass these things out at the hospital after you have a baby. I hope you guys don't tire easily of pictures of mustachioed babies, because I foresee quite a few photos in our future!

Tonight was a rough evening. All three kids were overly tired, so they were all extra cranky. It was one of those evenings where I had to conceal how happy I was that it was finally time for them to go to sleep! 

I don't know why, but Big E looks so much like Tim's side of the family in this picture.

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C- Bryce is my best friend. (She has a new best friend every day.) I really like him but I don't know yet if  I want to marry him.

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C came home with evening with a blue square colored on her school calendar. She says that means she was extra good today and moved from green up to blue. Good job C!

09-02-15 Yup, that was my naked kid...

I had a MOPS steering team meeting this evening at church. It has been on the books for weeks, but it wasn't until this morning that it occurred to me that Tim would be working, so he wouldn't be able to watch the kids. That would mean I'd either miss the meeting or bring them with me. (Yikes!) 

Neither option was sounding ideal, but I really didn't want to miss the meeting since we are starting up our MOPS year in a few weeks and this would be our last steering meeting before then. So I opted to bring them with me. I made sure they were all fed and they picked out toys to bring with them. We had a talk in the car about how important it was for them to be on their best behavior while we were there because there probably wouldn't be childcare and likely no other kids there. Of course they smiled and agreed to behave. 

What could possibly go wrong?

Let's just say that after a full day of school for C, and a long day for the boys, my children were in fine form. In between asking to go to the water fountain every five minutes, screeching up and down the hallways, and ramming Baby E and his walker into the walls, there were a few moments of blessed silence. It was during one such reprieve when I look up just in time to see Big E go running past the door and down the hallway naked! Well, mostly naked. In his defense he had a shirt on. Nothing else. And since public nudity is generally frowned upon in this corner of the world, I promptly chased him down the hallway, at which point he screamed and hid. Yup, I had to track down my naked kid... In a church. I found him hiding under the water fountain.

I had seriously been considering starting up Wednesday night's at church with the kids next week, but after tonight's, ahem, display, I need to rethink this.

Seriously, I need to learn how to draw. 

09-01-15 An Inconvenient Pillow

One might argue that the metal strip between the carpet and the linoleum bathroom floor makes a poor pillow, but Baby E would beg to differ. In fact, he took a good twenty minute nap there this evening. 

I'm pleased to announce that Baby E is finally sleeping through the night. At least I think he is. It is quite possible that I am finally sleeping through Baby E! Either way, we are starting to get a little more sleep in our house, and that is a good thing!

Now the only things standing between me and world domination are spiders and Big E, who has been wandering into our room every night around 4, (Big E, not the spiders.)  He crawls in bed, lays there for a couple of minutes, and then promptly returns to his bed when I tell him to. Strange. This is my kid who is scared of everything. He is scared of the living room in the middle of the day if there is no light on. Yet somehow in the dark of night he musters up enough courage to venture through dark rooms and hallways to find us. At least he doesn't fight going back to bed. 

C is certainly enjoying school. She decided to read us a book this evening and she put on the sternest teacher voice she could manage and ordered us to be quiet. She asked that next time I please refrain from bringing my baby to the library as he makes too much noise. Yes, ma'am! She also gave Big E the choice of two names to go by- Ronald or Mr. Stretchy Pants. Surprisingly he chose Ronald.

I'm so very thankful that her transition to school has been pretty seamless. I was expecting a rough ride, but I have been pleasantly surprised! 

08-31-15 Exhausted

With the second week of school officially underway, our evenings have taken on a whole new dynamic. We've never been much for keeping the kids up late, but now that we have to keep school in mind, bedtime has become a bit more consistent. Tim has been working a later schedule for the past few weeks, so that means dinner and bedtime are on me. It's fine, really, it just all takes a little longer with only one person.

Between someone pooping on the floor, someone sitting on Baby E's head, and someone running their head into a door frame, I'd say our night had plenty of adventure. I was so exhausted that when I brought Baby E downstairs, we sat in the rocking chair and both promptly fell asleep. I love feeling a sleeping baby on top of me, listening to his rhythmic breathing, feeling his warm skin against my cheek.  It was the perfect ending to an exhausting day!

Conversations with C-

About school-

Me- So what's the name of the kid that sits next to you at school?

C- I don't know. He got a red light. They took him away. He hasn't come back.

Me- Whats a red light?

C- That means you've been bad. I'm always on the green light. 

The other night-

C- I think we should get a hunting camera and set it up in the woods and when we see a picture of a deer on it then daddy should go out and kill the deer so that I can eat it. But if he gets scared he should take a flashlight. Pause. But what if the deer tries to eat daddy?!?!

Me- it's ok, deer don't eat meat, they only eat plants.

C- Wait? Are people made of meat?

Me- yes. 

C- Ew!!!!

08-30-15 It will happen soon.

Dear Baby E,

I can see it in your face before you even try. You spy something just out of reach and your eyes open wide. Your arms start to flap in anticipation. And then you dive face first towards your goal. Rarely do you reach it. But you want to, oh how you want to. You let out your frustration with squeals and cries, and begin to maneuver yourself by rolling back and forth, stretching out your arms until you grab what you first dove for. I want to reach down and help you, but you have to learn this on your own. 

I know we are weeks, maybe days from you crawling, and all that that entails. It's the calm before the storm, really. Once you learn that skill then the game changes. Every staircase, every lost small toy part, every piece of dropped food will be fair game. (I will never forget the day I pulled cat poop out of your sister's mouth or the dead stink bug out of your brother's.) Kids can be gross. 

It's a bittersweet milestone for mommies, I think. We love to see our kids grow and develop and we know that with crawling they are one step closer to walking. But it's also the moment our children start to assert their independence. It's their first taste of freedom, and the moment they begin a lifelong pursuit of it.

So while I am excited that you are getting closer to mobility, I will enjoy the last short weeks when I can find you where I set you down and not worry about outlets, kitchen cabinets, and (Lord willing) deceased insects and cat poop. 

08-29-15 A surprisingly wonderful day...

Tim has been working a lot of hours lately and when I heard he had to go to work today, I admit I was pretty bummed. When I have all three kids by myself, I tend not to be as adventurous because I kinda feel overwhelmed. So I figured we would be spending most of the day at home, which didn't sound appealing. 

As it turns out, though, a dear friend came over and spent the day with me and the kids and it was wonderful. Having her over made the difference between a day I was kinda dreading to a day I didn't want to end! I think that might be the mark of a pretty good friendship, huh?!! 

Anyways, in between talking, playing with the kids, watching tv, etc., we also took the kids out to play on their bikes and they were joined by their cousins. 

Overall it was a surprisingly wonderful day!

08-28-15 Week One

C survived her first week of Kindergarten. Maybe survived isn't the right word. Perhaps thrived. She loves it. She usually isn't much for opening up about her day, but since starting school she enthusiastically answers all of my questions and volunteers information and stories. It's fun to see her so excited about all the new experiences. Her greatest disappointment is that they haven't started painting in art class, and by painting, she means painting walls. She loves the library and she is starting to make friends. She had P.E. Today but informed me that they didn't play games they just raced from one end of the gym to the other. She cracked me up when she told me about an interaction with one of her classmates. 

C- Bryce really wanted to win, so I decided to run a little faster. 

Me- Did you beat him? 

C- yeah, I did.  

Poor Bryce, whoever he is! 

She has a new best friend that rides her bus, but she cannot seem to remember his name (I love how kids make friends so quickly!) 

Overall she is having a blast! We will see if that attitude continues after they start sending home homework! 

Sorry there are no pictures tonight. Tim is working late, so I braved the farmers market with my three crazies. Halfway there I started thinking, wow, this is such a bad idea! But I sucked it up and took them anyways! Thankfully they were pretty well behaved. We had Rita's and walked around. C complained I talked with other people too much. The kids were disappointed they couldn't play on the beach, but I'm waiting until Big E's toe heals completely before I let him anywhere near sand. Also, without Tim I didn't relish the idea of trying to drag over tired kids off of the beach. 

By the time we got home it was dark. They are now fast asleep and soon I will be too! 

08-27-15 A Tight Spot

Baby E rolled himself into a tight spot this evening... Literally.

I heard him fussing from the other room and when I came in I found him crammed in the bottom floor of C's dollhouse. He was not amused. 

At one point he just gave up. I thought he might fall asleep there!

Later I caught C reading a book to Baby E. So sweet!

08-26-15 Happy Birthday, C!

Dear Sweet One,

I gave you a bath this evening and when you got out, I wrapped you in a towel, and you let me hold you much like I held you that first night five years ago. You see, it has been five years since we met face to face. But I knew you much longer than that. At first you were just a fluttering... A promise that something, that someone was growing inside me. I felt dizzy and sick, but that didn't last long and soon my belly started to get bigger. I nicknamed you Shlomo.

I was scared of you at first. I didn't know much about children and even less about babies. And as my belly grew, so did my doubts. Not about you.  I never doubted I wanted you! I doubted my ability to be a good mommy to you. I was scared I would mess you up! But I followed all the rules. I didn't eat lunchmeat. I avoided sushi. I didn't shovel my driveway when it snowed!

And at long last you came. Not how I had envisioned, of course. I had handed the nurse my birth plan and within a few hours it was thrown out the window, replaced with the reality that every time I moved your heart rate dropped. And when they couldn't get it back up they forced a smile and announced your birthday was happening right now as they wheeled me to an operating room. The room was deathly quiet save the noise of the machines and the low murmuring of the doctors. But within minutes you were born. And I cried. I cried because you were safe. I cried because you were the girl I always wanted. 

I was a mommy. 

It was easily one of the most profound moments of my life. Over the next few days I couldn't stop staring at you. Your little fingers. Your little toes. Your tiny little mouth and nose and ears. Everything about you was perfect! You stole my heart.

As predicted, it happened quickly. The last few years a blur of milestones, sicknesses, chaos, and victories! 

But the overarching emotion is joy. Joy for being your mommy and getting the privilege to watch you grow. 

And today you are five. 

I think I am going to enjoy this age. You have a lot of energy and optimism. You are curious about everything and love to adventure. You swing between being fiercely independent and needing to hold my hand. You let me in on all your secrets and you still think the best of everyone you meet. In these moments, I like to think that I am getting a glimpse into the woman that you are going to become and I feel blessed to be your mom. You are so very dear to me! 

I love you, 

Mommy

Thank you Mrs. Rebecca for the flowers, bear, and balloons!!!