Animal Crackers

Sigh. You know those day that swing drastically from really great to really cruddy to really great to really cruddy...it's enough to give anyone a headache. We have had one of those days today. The kids seem to be in this mood swing thing today, and what they really need is to get out of the house. However, I am very round with child these days, and the idea of taking them to the park by myself just does not appeal.

Back to today. Up, down, up, down, up, down...We have been taking a nap in the morning the last two days in a row because for whatever reason, the kids are ready to fall out by 10am. This works well for me, as I am not sleeping well these days due to a wiggly baby. We got up the first time about 7 (oh bless the 7!), ate breakfast, played some, fought some, sang lots, whined some, read books then threw books at one another (the kids, not me), hung laundry on the laundry line (yeah for sunshine!), watched Elmo, and then Sarah Grace fell asleep in the floor. I moved her to her bed and Thomas and I curled up together in my bed. By 11am, we were all up and going again. Lunch was a loud, cranky affair. Nobody wanted to eat, and I didn't want to force the issue. I spooned bananas and rice cereal into their mouths and called it quits.

Then, they cried and whined and moaned and groaned for about two hours. Finally, about 1:30, things seemed to even out some. They suddenly found their cheerful sides and we did some handprints and footprints and played in the clay for a bit. When they tired of that, they started chanting for crackers. I consented, since they ate such a ratty lunch and it was snack time. They ate tons of the things, no wonder! While they sat contentedly at their little table and had crackers and apple juice, I worked on cleaning up the kitchen and the mess from the clay.

As I worked, I heard my kids laughing hysterically and calling out 'again, swim again'. It was several minutes before it registered in my fluff for brains head that their voices were fading in and out. I peeked around the corner and saw them sitting at their little table, swishing their arms around with animals crackers clenched in their fists. Fine by me, I thought. If they need to swing the crackers back and forth before they are deemed edible, far be it for me to stop them. They were CHEERFUL! The laughing and 'swimming' carried on in the living room, and I continued my work in the kitchen. When I finished, I rounded the corner to find that my laughing children were not in their seats.

Brace yourself. They were in the bathroom. Still chanting 'Again, swim, again!' Wanna know what was swimming? The animal crackers. Wanna know where? In the potty. Handfuls of animal crackers floating in the 'watering hole'. I couldn't help but laugh as I tried to chide my children. Innocent little creatures...the kids or the animal crackers. Take your pick.

As I write this, the kids are back in crabby mode. I have set them in their seats for chair time to help my sanity recover from 20 minutes of whining. Wish I knew what was up with them... Hope the animal crackers don't back up the potty...Hope tomorrow I manage to get them to a playground! =)

How you know things...

If it were not for Thomas, I think I would be totally oblivious. In fact, I am sure of it. His verbal skills have really taken off recently, and we do much to add to his expanding stringing together of words. We say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing countless songs through out the day, poems, finger plays, recite Bible verses, and any number of things you can think of, we have probably done it. For her part, Sarah Grace is picking up very quickly on many of these things, as well. She stares at us like crazy people occasionally, but that's okay, too.

In light of this information, you must know that Thomas points out every American flag he sees, and occasionally will spout off some random piece of the pledge. He is quick to tell me what color the traffic light is, and if the color means go or stop. He calls out to all the birds to 'Fly away, bird, fly away', hollers at vehicles who dare to pass us on the road to 'Wait for me, cars, wait for me!' He tells me when we are passing by a Wal Mart, a Target, or Kroger. He reminds me to 'Det gas, Mommy. We need gas', regardless of the fact that we just fill up the day before. He is quick to make sure I know I am in the front seat and he and Sarah are in the back seat, looses no time in reminding me that he is awake and not sleepy, but if I am sleepy, I should 'Take nap, Mommy. You sweepy.'

My favorite, though, would have to be the incessant cry I hear of 'I'm okay, Mommy. Don't worry. I'm okay.' I hear this if he trips, if he drops his cup, if he jumps from the couch to the floor, if he walks into a wall. In fact, if he is not crying in pain, he will reassure me that is is okay.

Although, even if he is okay, sometimes he still wants me to 'Tiss it.' It is so cool to be a Mommy to a toddler who thinks I can make everything better. Daunting, but so very cool.

Sleeping Habits

Thomas has broken the safety bed rails that we put on his bed to help insure him not falling off. This takes talent, and every time he sees the broken rail (Daddy is trying to fix it), he proudly announces "I bwoke it, Mommy, I bwoke it." What can you say to that?

So, anyway, we have quickly adjusted to not having rails on his bed, and he has made the transition quite nicely. I suppose, as far as he is concerned, I am not in a hurry to get the rails repaired. Gracie stays on her bed just fine with a rail on one side, and Thomas seems to be doing great with no rails anymore. In fact, I rather think he likes the new found freedom of not being caged onto his bed. He sure does slip off of it more frequently after bedtime. For those of you who don't know our house rule concerning bedtime, it goes like this. If you are a kid you go to your room, we tuck you in and say prayers, and then as long as you stay in your room and do not kick the walls or bang on things, you are free to stay up if you feel the need. This works great. Sarah Grace rarely gets up (she is begging for bed by 7 generally) and Thomas usually goes down pretty quick.

Not so since the breaking of the bed rails, however. He is staying up later and later, and for now, thankfully, sleeping in later and later. 7:30 this morning. And if you are one of those families whose kids sleep in until 8 or 9 on a daily basis, bless you, and now don't come bragging to me. We are so grateful for 7:30. Beats the heck out of 6. Stepping off the soap box now, when we check the kids before we go to bed, we are finding Thomas in the strangest places, as he doesn't seem to want to get back on the bed these days. (used to, he would turn on his light, play until he was tired, turn off the light, and crawl back into bed) One night, we found him curled under the chair in his room with his 'baby' and blanket. Snoring loudly. Otherwise, I might not have found him. Last night, he must have been feeling some cowboy stirrings, for we found him with his lower half of his body under the bed and the upper half sticking out, with his head resting on his stick horse. We laughed, and turned on the light and took pictures.

He slept through it all.



Yesterday, we were out for the majority of the morning. I was a horrible Mommy and forgot to pack a lunch, so when we arrived at the chiropractor's office at noon, I started handing out these little things that Gerber calls fruit puffs. They ate half the cannister before I put it away and said they would hold until we got home. They never did eat lunch yesterday. The zonked out on the way home, and were limp little ragdolls as I carried them inside and put them into their beds. Sarah woke up just long enough to ask for her 'bwanket' and 'babee' and was out again. Thomas never blinked. He stretched out in the wonderful sunbeam that was streaming directly over his bed and napped for nearly 3 hours. He looked like such a little man that I couldn't resist this shot.

Ramblings

I have been doing lots of reading over the past, well, since I found out I was pregnant with my first child, Thomas. I have read on how to be a good wife, house keeper, cook, mommy, friend, daughter, sister, home maker (which is SO different from house keeper, just in case you wondered), how to make more time in my life, to utilize our finances better, to train my children, to garden, and the list goes on. The Bible has much to say on these topics, as do many authors across both the secular and Christian writing arenas. There is absolutely no shortage of information/misinformation on any of these subjects. Google one, I dare you.

Don't kid yourself, I don't think myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I find myself realizing how uninformed I really am. In an effort to learn more, I have built up around myself a community of women who are walking that same path. Many I know personally, some I know only through email, and some don't even know I 'know' them. I am an avid blog reader, and have been fortunate enough to find a handful of ladies who write on their experiences. They are mostly women who have growing families and beliefs that parallel with my own. Some, well, not so much. But even they have something in their personalities that shine through their writing and draw me to them. Many of the ladies I know personally, I am related to or I go to church with or I am 'just' friends with. They may not realize how closely I watch them, or how much of an influence they are on me. Some are older, some are younger, but what we all have in common is this road we are on.

Motherhood.

It is an overwhelming experience. Full of joys, sorrows, frustrations, laughs, tears, pride in your youngsters, and a breaking of pride in yourself. It demands so much attention and time. It is a series of incredibly long days, and weeks that fly by. It is a trial to everything that you thought you had ever learned. It is the gold medal of, well, I can't say life, as that is Christ our Savior, but it is certainly a gold medal of something. It can be a stumbling block in your marriage, and a breaking point to a friendship. It can be the point from where friendships are formed, and an amazing opportunity to build a stronger and more communicative relationship with your husband. It can cause headaches and heartaches, and joy beyond anything you could ever have imagined. Motherhood is truly a blessing from the Lord.

As several of you know, Joshua and I had been married a short ten months when Thomas came along. Thankfully, we transitioned into marriage rather smoothly, weather that was a natural smoothness or a result of realizing the fruitlessness of quibbling over the little things with the responsibility of a child so quickly on the horizon, I do not know. It doesn't matter. I praise God for the ease of which He has given us in that area of our lives. We had dated for nearly 5 1/2 years, and were pretty comfortable with each other and each others' family. Again, not to say there haven't been lessons to learn and things to work out, just that we have had fairly easy time of it. I listened to a speaker recently who said that we must vow to ourselves to be lifelong students of our partner, never thinking we know them fully, but always seeking to know and understand them better. It has been a joy to do as such with my Joshua.

For our 3 1/2 year anniversary, we are expecting our third child. If you are counting, that gives us three under the age of three. In many ways, I am glad to be having our children so close together. Thomas will never know what it was like to not be a big brother, he has had to share for most of his life, weather he was cognizant of it or not. Sarah Grace and Thomas are so fun to watch. They are just shy of one year apart, though you would guess that they were much closer in age in many ways. They will grow up always having an ally, for siblings can rain all kinds of nasty things on one another, but will always stand up for and protect the other to an outside foe. Our children will experience so many things together because of the closeness of age, and always have playmates, confidants, and competition. This thrills my soul. My sisters are 5 and 10 years younger than me, and playmates we were not. As we get older, confidants we are becoming, but it has been slow in coming, and the 'baby' is only 19, with a long road ahead of her. My children will, by God's grace, always be close, even though I know there will be the inevitable sibling rivalry.

This pregnancy, I have to admit, scares me, though. Joshua and I are about to be outnumbered. No more one on one when we go out in public, or at home. The Kids team will be bigger in numbers than the Parents team. And it doesn't help that to a person, everyone I have talked to says that number three in the hardest. That scares me, I admit it.

For the most part, I am totally fine with three little people in diapers, not totally communicative, not fully understanding that they just simply cannot have Mommy's undivided attention for the entire time that they are awake, mostly, though perhaps not fully, capable of feeding themselves, don't understand whisper, can't be relied on to not scream at the top of their lungs should their emotions be more than they know to express, still learning what is and isn't allowed, super active, highly entertaining, so incredibly lovable...what more can I say about them? If you have children, you know what the two's are like, and the one's, and then of course, infancy.

But I have doubts. How on earth am I going to manage three little ones? Joshua and I are just now finding a comfortable stride concerning training and discipline. I feel good about that area, and I feel good about how the training is going concerning the new baby. We have set up a bed for him or her, and the kids understand that it is not to throw their toys into, or to climb on or shake. We will start working soon on baby gear and not shaking it up or tipping it over, so that I don't have to fear my two older ones somehow squashing the baby. But what of just simply making it to a doctor's appointment? Grocery shopping? Errand running? Will I still be able to manage Bible study? Will I be able to maintain friendships? Will I be able to maintain a sense of sanity, patience, and a house that is at the very least livable, if not messy? Will anyone ever babysit for me again?

I am content to stay at home most of the time, which is good, as it seems to be the advice from many who have traveled the road before me. I understand in my head not to over commit, though, those who know me best know my heart never remembers that when the volunteer sheet comes my way. I have a desire to help, and even a need to command certain things, that overruns my common sense sometimes. I enjoy my home, though. I love that Joshua and I can manage to keep me here to love and teach our kids our beliefs and our morals and our standards. I have so much fun doing different activities with them; baking and block building, coloring and cleaning (take that one with a grain of salt), reading to them and snuggling with them. Oh, and this wonderful world of pretend that they are so masterful with!

However, there is this niggling in my heart or my head, or maybe both, to do more than be a homemaker/housewife/stay at home mom. I have ideas of all sorts, though nothing concrete. I struggle with discontentment, and the source of that discontentment. Is it that I really do not want to stay home with my children, or is it a result of societal expectations due to the whole feminist bit? And are those real or imagined expectations, anyway?

My fears concerning our growing family are not real defined. And I am not sure I if I should call them fears, or if it is simply just not knowing. I think they are one and the same. As I draw closer to the due date, I tend to doubt my capabilities more. This amuses me somewhat, as I ran a class of 24 four year olds. Let me tell you, a day time teaching job is a piece of cake compared to the reality of 24/7 Mommy-ing. As a Mommy, I wake up to them, I spend my day with them, I tuck them in at night, and on some of those days, one or both of them are sick! But my days are so full and, at times, so complicated, with just the two children. What on earth am I going to do with three? And three so young? There are those who pat my back and say "This, too, shall pass" or "Hang in there, it gets better" or "Enjoy it while they are young. It flies by so fast". I believe each and everyone of these phrases. I do my level best to enjoy my children, as I can already look at them and exclaim over how fast they are growing. I don't think that I am truly in a hurry to get them all grown up, I just long for a day or two of sleeping in and not being needed for every little thing. I marvel at Thomas for all the things that he is learning to do, and I still catch myself despairing that he can't do more, when in reality, I don't want him to grow up too fast. I want to savor and enjoy these wonderful days and put off tomorrow until tomorrow. It will get here soon enough!

And then I am at peace again. For I know that my children are a blessing from the Lord. He chose to entrust these precious lives to me and to Joshua. He hand picked our family. He is faithful to love me and will not give up on me. He has given me tools and resources and grace for today, and He will do the same thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that.

I am a music lover, and I have an inexplicable draw to country music. I have been humming Bring on the Rain (JoDee Messina, I think) for the majority of this entry. The songs chorus goes like this:

Tomorrows another day
And I'm thirsty anyway
So bring on the rain

It sounds to be in direct contradiction to the actual peace that I feel about our rapidly expanding family, but I think it is the perfect reminder that even if the sky does fall, chicken little, the Lord is still in control, ordering my steps throughout each day.

Oatmilk, anyone?

So, we are home sick today. Kids with temperatures, colds, upset stomachs. Makes for an exciting day. But, considering I have been busier than normal, it was almost a welcome break. To stay home and just hang out with my kids, do a bit of catch up cleaning on the house, just be. Oh, and the nap in the middle of the day was luxurious. Necessary, since Thomas rolled out of bed at six am, but luxurious, nonetheless.

I did take Thomas back to his room, tuck him back into bed, and said see ya later, pal. It is not time to get up yet. He obliged and went back to sleep. We made it until almost seven. However, mean Mommy that I am, I made them stay in their rooms until 730 so I could get a shower and feel somewhat prepared for the day.

The popular question of the morning is always, what's for breakfast? The answer that I get the majority of the time is OATMILK! If you missed the last translating blog entry, that means oatmeal. So, I mixed up some oatmeal, plopped it into a bowl and started shoveling it into their mouths. It took about two bites for each kid for me to realize that I did not want to feed them. So, I divided it out into two smaller bowls, plastic, I might add, and gave it over to the kids.

After watching them for a couple minutes to make sure all was under control, I went off to vacuum and start some of that housework that just never quits. When I went back to check on them, this is what I was greeted with. Cute, eh?


As you can see, Sarah Grace gave up on the spooning bit. She did the shovel and shove game, and must have been concerned about her hair at some point, given that there was enough oatmeal up there to feed, well, something, anyway. Thomas faired much better, as he has had quite a bit more practice with a spoon. However, I had to snap his picture, too, when he saw the camera out.

Needless to say, the kids had a bath this morning.

Who's That Baby?

Don't you just love games? I do. My dear friend, Lora, posted a game on her blog and it reminded me I wanted to create one for our baby. We don't know what the baby is (boy or girl) and it just makes the game that much more exciting. Well, maybe I am just excited because it is our baby! Please join in the fun and submit a guess here! The name of the game is BabyFreemanGame. Happy Guessing!

Squeaky Clean

We didn't get to tub time until bedtime tonight. The whole day has been like that. About an hour off balance. But the kids have been excellent today. It has been a really good day for everyone. Nothing particularly special, just good.

So, tub time. Thomas is an excema victim, and this time of year and this kind of weather makes for a really tough time for him. We do oatmeal baths, use special soaps and lotions, and just try to keep him moisturized as best we can. Being a little boy, he does not get real excited about any of this. Tell Sarah Grace you are making her pretty, and she will stand for most anything. Tell Thomas that, and he is still just as impatient to get back to his trucks. He cooperates, but with that kind of restrained energy that boys are labeled for.

Tonight, as we did the Exit Routine from the bath, I slathered lotion thickly all over Thomas. Head to toe, and back again, just for good measure. Then, because we have been having a really hard time with his poor little scalp, I doused my hands in the lotion again, and proceeded to rub it all over his scalp. Then, we dried the kids hair with the hair dryer. Sarah Grace looked all clean and neat and ready for bed. (Why is it that I clean my kids to go to bed rather than to face the day?) Thomas, well, he didn't fare so well. As the pictures show, he is now our Thom-a-saurus.

Shiny New Toys

It has been a week of sparkles and glimmers around here. We woke up one morning to shiny, happy toddlers bombarding our bed. After much wriggling about by the miniatures that invaded us, I bailed, leaving Joshua to fend for himself against the twosome. As I was hauling myself up, Thomas declared, 'take picture'. He was not to be swayed from this, and so I grabbed the camera and made everyone blink! Cute, aren't they?



That evening, Joshua came home in a fire building mood. Not that I blame him. It was cold out, and snow was being predicted. This being Alabama, I don't put a lot of stock in the weathermen when they start shouting the dire warnings of snow and ice and blah, blah, blah. So very frequently, it just turns out to be rain and cold. But rarely cold enough to make that rain into snow. Anyway, Thomas and Joshua headed to the back yard wood pile to grab up some fuel for our fire. Thomas was a helper by carrying the 'flashylight' for Daddy, and they soon returned with a box full of wood. Thomas was interested in the fire building process, but it simply could not compare to his newfound tool. The 'flashylight'. Once we had the fire going, we cut all the lights and enjoyed the firelight. And the flashylight. Thomas was enamored.





Alas, we took his beloved flashylight away. In reality, it is a big MagLite, and we did not want to chance an argument between our offspring, just in case the 'don't hit' part wasn't at the forefront of two little brains. One whack with that flashylight could do some serious damage! Thomas was crushed. So much so that Joshua went out the next day and bought cheapy, light weight flashylights for the kids.

Did I mention that we did get that snow? Yup. In a rare turn of events, the weathermen had it right, and we awoke to snow on Thursday morning. Not much, mind you, but still, there was a fine shimmering layer of snow (mostly ice and sleet build up, but who's counting?) covering our world. And it was raining, slowly chipping away at our blessed whiteness. Our front yard was an odd mixture of flowers who think it is Spring and sparkley snow.



With the help of Sarah and Thomas and their new flashylights, the laundry process is gaining momentum. I hear shouts of 'I help, Mommy, I help' each time I enter the utility room. I am happy to let them assist me, and am actually grateful as my belly grows larger to accommodate Baby 3, that they insist on lugging the laundry baskets around for me. Thank goodness for the flashylights, though. Otherwise, we might never find our way to the utility room with only the light of day to guide us!