By the numbers

So here’s a recap of my weekend by the numbers….

4 sick kids

2 kids with multiple fevers (they kept coming back)

3 kids with constant diarrhea diapers (sorry for the tmi—just keepin’ it real)

2 times I got puked ON.

1 vomit episode on the bed (all by the same kid—Poor Little Rascal)

3 different kinds of meds (essential oils, tylenol, and a kids cough syrup)

15 loads of laundry washed and dried (FIFTEEN!!!) [notice I didn’t say folded?!]

1 master bathroom toilet repair

1 downstairs family ceiling leak (due to previous mention about master toilet)

3 different grocery stores shopped at

7 make ahead freezer meals DONE.

2 times a day the dishwasher washes a full load

1 very dirty kitchen floor

1 grumpy-still-working-nearly-all-the-time-daddy

1 doing-90%-childcare-and-can’t-wait-for-hubby’s-work-to-let-up-and-exhausted momma

Goodnight.

Mini Man’s 4th

Happy 4th Birthday Little Man!

Little Man you have taught me what a true gentleman is.  You exude a gentleness that I never knew existed with boys.  When I was pregnant with you, Daddy and I decided to not find out whether you were a boy or a girl, but I had a strong suspicion that you were all boy in there.  And boy did it terrify me.  All I knew about boys were destruction, trips to the ER, and trouble with a capital T.

But you turned all that upside down with your bashful smile and tender hugs.  Your shy demeanor might turn away some, but when you decide that someone is safe, that special person gets to witness the ginormous heart that you have.  I can already see that you might not have a ton a friends when you get older, but the friends that you do make will be lifelong buddies.

You impress anybody who is patient enough to listen.  You were talking so well by age 2, I constantly forgot that you weren’t 4 already.  You knew your letters and numbers by your 2nd birthday.  When everybody talked about how boys mature so far behind girls, I kept shaking my head wondering what they were talking about.  You are brilliant and I can’t wait to see where it leads you one day.

Your daddy and I can already see some musical aptitude (hence your nickname here).  You have natural rhythm and love to “play” your guitar just like daddy.  You also graciously musically accompany your sister when she is putting on her one woman sing-a-long show.   You are patient with your take charge sister and willingly allow her to dress you up in whatever girly get up suits her fancy for that day.

You are often (but not always) are patient with your emotional little brother during his highs and encouraging him during his lows.  When your baby brother came home, my heart burst with joy at the amount of love you showered him.  I’ll never forget you holding our baby for nearly 2 hours content to sit with him like nothing was more important.  You even cried when I offered to take the baby so you could play with toys.  I couldn’t believe what a fantastic boy we got with you.

You my little guy are most certainly quality.  The Lord has rewarded me with a fantastic son.

I couldn’t be more proud to be your mommy.

Love,

Your very blessed mommy

But, I’d be even more thrilled if you would just be potty trained already.  Seriously kid.

London Family Fog

Turkey.  Stuffing.  Sides.  Pie.  Laughter.  Joy.

These are the things I look forward to during the lovely Thanksgiving holiday.  Most of these things were served up and went down my gullet just fine.  Although, this year we departed from tradition and celebrated way too early.  In fact, we ate our fancy feast the weekend after Halloween.  We decided that it was more important that we were all together on this celebration than apart on the actual calendar day.  However, along with the delicious food, someone decided to heap this onto my full plate…

Drama.  Chaos.  Internal Family Combustion.

Needless to say our Turkey day wasn’t as awesome as I had hoped for.

Since then I haven’t been able to concentrate or be creative in many ways.  Perhaps this is the reason that every time I have tried to write a blog post, I seem to be unable.  My mind goes blank.  Thoughts drip out of my head like a leaky faucet.  It doesn’t help that during my most potentially productive time, the kids are around and it makes it harder to shut them out focus.

When I’m able to process more and pull my head out of the fog, I’ll update you on what is going on.  But until then, enjoy a couple of cute kiddos.  I do.

Double the birthday cake

We were blessed to be invited to another birthday party recently, this time it was for my sweet little niece.  She turned 7 and since she is 1/2 Filipino, it is customary to have a big celebration of this particular milestone.  She had her party at the Science Museum which was a great field trip.  Counts as school right?  Right???  lol

Here is daddy and Ariel checking out how high you can project a tennis ball.

It soars in the air!

 

Here is Miss Ariel pulling a giant lever

PULL baby girl!

Next we played with wheels to see how fast they go

Weeeeeee!

But the real treat was the ‘special guest’ Elsa who took pictures with each and every one of the kids who wanted to, told the Frozen story, and even sang the hit song Let It Go (which was highly impressive given that she was accompanied by a measly cd player and surrounded by a pleather a of professional musicians).  She did a lovely job.

Grandpa Music Man’s birthday was just 2 days later, so we all piled into my brother in laws house and took over for a lovely family dinner and celebration.

Happy Birthday just got bumped up a notch with an entire family of musicians.

 

Hello…. there’s a violin involved!

My man….  *swoon*

And the birthday boy himself… taking a picture of his own cake.

Family time is always so sweet and this was a lovely time.

A beautiful reminder

With our new set of routines (if you can call it that) and new things we are doing, its very easy to not see what’s really going on.

I usually ask Miss Ariel how her day at school went.  She goes to a drop off Art and Science class with our church and gets to experience new people and learn new things.  She and I both love it.

What she told me next blew me away.

“Mommy, there is a girl and she asked another girl if she could play, but that girl said no.  I went over to her and asked her to play because I thought she was sad.  She said yes.  I even asked her what she wanted to play.  [The new friend] found a ball and she threw it to me and then I threw it to her.  Maybe she can come over and play with my princess dresses!”

Did you catch all that?  My girl, the youngest and littlest baby girl saw that another girl was rejected by a potential friend and took the initiative to be thoughtful and friendly.  Ariel didn’t even dominate what game they played [which she often does at home with her younger brothers].

My precious pumpkin was kind.

And thoughtful.

And a peacemaker.

My daughter was another girls hero.

To say I was proud would be an understatement.  She put into practice everything I had been trying to teach her.

This quote came to mind.

Don’t let yourself become so concerned with raising a good kid, that you forget you already have one. — Glennon Melton

I saw in motion that I already have a good child.  Better than good, great.  A great little person.  Thank you Lord for this beautiful reminder.

The Princess and the Toad

This week has been quite the whirlwind.  You see we had to fly (Mr. Sunshine and I) and drive (Music Man and the rest of the munchkins) back to California.  *more on this in a later post*

Well its no small feat to accomplish this big task of moving back home.  Well our other home I guess.  Which means we had lots of work to get done beforehand.  So while my in-laws, Music Man and I were hard at work, Ariel and Mini Man were hard at work too.  They were busy in the garden with us, busy exploring nature, and most of all they were busy playing with found toads.

I just LOVE the juxtaposition of my baby girl all frilly-ed up petting her toad.

Just couldn’t be happier.

Here she is kissing the toad.  Perhaps she honestly believes it will turn into a prince?

Grandma had a good idea about creating a place for the toad to sit.  Ariel actually said “We are creating a habitat!”.  Grandma and I were so surprised to hear this come from my 5 year old.

First you have to start with water…

Then you put in some rocks for the poor little bugger to sit.  Do you see him?

There he is!

Mini Man was so gentle.  Look at that one finger touch.  Like a pro.

Next up on the to-do list is helping Grandma in the garden.  She was lucky to find an actual shovel just Mini Man’s size.

He was a genuinely good helper.  He is only 3 1/2 but he was out there for a couple of hours right there alongside his Grandma.  I couldn’t believe it!  As Music Man says “he’ll make a good farm hand!”  And with all of our produce that our garden grows, we will surely need the help!

Summer surgery

There are few moments when you realize that you are completely and totally out of control.  Granted, being in control is a total farce, but we sure like to believe the lie don’t we?  Well I had the opportunity this week to submit any ounce of control into a surgeons hands while he took care of a birth defect in my son, Little Rascal.

It is in these precious moments when I can really see God’s mighty hand at work.  It is one thing to utter a simple “oh God’s in control!” when you act as though it is you plainly in charge.  When tragedy strikes or you are forced to give your baby over to someone else, you are forced to recognize that it truly is the Lord who is in control and who loves you and your children, even more than you do.

These are the moments that are a true act of faith.

Here is daddy and Little Rascal touching the stars for them to make animal sounds!  I really appreciated the amazing amount of effort to help kids who are sick at this hospital.  We could not have asked for better.

Here he is getting his blood pressure checked.

LR is getting prepped for the big occasion, but before the doctor is ready a volunteer brought in the tractor toy which LR LOVED.  he immediately went for it and everybody in the room laughed.  In fact he had to hold it while he was put in the surgery room, while the nurse asked “um, isn’t there something a little more cuddly you want to take little guy?”.  Luckily momma brought his special sleepy tiger, but Little Rascal thought it best to bring BOTH toys.

I was pretty grateful that they let me come into the room with him until he went under with anesthesia.  This shot was BEFORE he had any sleepy medicine.  It was just an unfortunate selfie for LR.

After surgery pouty face.  Daddy was a lucky dad who got to hold his sleepy son while he slept for another hour while the nurses kept checking in on him.

Here is his incision.  Good thing boys think scars are cool.  *pictured on day 2* *sorry for the shadow, its hard to capture a moving target*

Chowing down a bunch of toast after a full day of no eating.  By the time we got home he was ready to run around with his big brother and big sister, although a bit tipsy, he was still happy to be up and around.

Prayers were certainly answered.  Little Rascal was as good as gold for such a big day.

God is good all the time.  All the time God is good.

Special sibling love

From the moment I asked my 4 year old what she thought of name choices and wound up naming my son, my daughter and my baby boy, have had a special bond.

I can’t wait to see what their relationship is like as they grow up together.

Nobody makes Mr. Sunshine smile and laugh the way his big sister can.  The sound of his laugh is precious.

 

Ariel took this picture herself because “Mr. Sunshine is sooooo cute!”  Gotta say I agree.