"Fix the baby!"

I felt bad that my last two posts were about Joseph and Gabriella and I hadn't posted anything about Jamie, so today's post is dedicated to him. James is a very important part of our family, but sometimes it seems like he doesn't get as much attention because he doesn't DEMAND it the way the other two do! Our traditional Christmas present to the grandparents is a custom calendar with pictures of the kids, and this past year while I was working on it, I noticed a distinct lack of pictures of James. There were lots of Gabriella and lots of Joseph....and a few of James, most of which were blurry. I tried to take some more pictures of him - and figured out why there were so few Jamie pictures. He doesn't hold still long enough to take his picture! And because he still doesn't say much, I don't have as many cute little stories or sayings of his to post as I do of Joseph...

But today he said something so incredibly cute that I had to post it. I was watching a video that had a crying baby on it, and James heard it and came up to see what was going on. He heard the crying, and exclaimed "Oh no! The baby is broken!"

He's going to be such a good big brother to his new baby brother or sister...

I love you, Jamie!

My Sunshine

If it wasn't such a hippie-sounding name, I think we should have named Gabriella "Sunshine" because she really is that cheerful, all the time. Of course she has her moments of fussiness and temper tantrums (try putting her to bed) but for the most part, she is a happy little bundle of smiles. It's amazing how I can be exhausted, or grumpy, or frustrated, and suddenly look down and see this little dimpled face smiling at me, and that all falls away. (I'm sure we will pay for all this cheerfulness later, and she will be the world's most moody teenager, but we'll enjoy it while we can! ;-)

Her sweet little nature has really encouraged me in a couple of ways the last few days. On Saturday night, we were at my parents' house with a bunch of family and friends for Lydia/Robert/Dad's birthday, and some of the family had gathered in the living room playing the piano and singing worship songs. Gabriella wandered in there and, after they finished one song, she started singing it - to her own words, but in the exact same key as the song they had been singing! I suppose this shouldn't have surprised me, since this was the baby who, when I was 9 months pregnant with her and went to the opera for my birthday, started kicking in time with the tympani! She certainly seems to have an exception affinity to music - it will be interesting to see how that develops as she gets older.

And then yesterday, we were just finishing lunch when she noticed the Bibles sitting on the green shelf where we always keep them. Each child has their own Bible, and the kids and I try to start off every school day by praying and reading a story from each person's Bible.She ran over, grabbed up the Bibles, and distributed them to their appropriate owners. It was very clear she thought it was "Bible time," so we all went to the couch to read our Bibles. I wish I could finish this story by saying all the children sat still and behaved and read their Bibles...but in reality all three of them wiggled and fussed and we had some scoldings and spankings before we made it through. That's pretty much a typical day doing Bible - they are all still learning that they must sit still and quietly during this time. Many days the constant disciplining is so frustrating I want to just give up, and try again when they're older. But moments like yesterday remind me why it's so important to keep doing it, even when it's a fight. I'm not sure that Gabriella really understands or gets anything out of the Bible stories we read - yet. But the fact that she knows that this ritual is somehow important to our day and shouldn't be forgotten means that, on some level, Bible time is working. The understanding will come - it's already starting to for Joseph, and I know James and Gabriella will follow when they are able.

Now every time I am frustrated by their refusal to sit still or be obedient during Bible, I will remember my little 19-month old girl fetching the Bibles for everyone. It was like a little reminder from God that what I do really does matter.

The Green Shirt

Joseph has been obsessed with wearing a certain green striped shirt he owns because he wants to look like Steve from "Blues Clues." The trouble is, he only has 1 green striped shirt, and there are 7 days in the week....it is hard to keep it constantly clean. I've had to take away the shirt - by force - after several days in a row of him wearing it in order to put it the laundry.

But since today is St. Patrick's Day, I managed to wash the green striped shirt and give it to him to wear. His face lit up, he snatched the shirt, tore off his other shirt, and put it on, exclaiming

"You're the GREATEST mom EVER! Because GREEN is my FAVORITE color!"

It's nice to know that it doesn't take much to be "the greatest mom ever." ;-)

Maybe we should buy him a couple more green shirts...

Honesty is the best policy...except for surprise parties!

Well, the good news (at least I'm pretty sure its good news) is that I am definitely not cut out to lead a double life!

Today is Robert's 30th birthday, and last night I threw him a surprise party with some

of his friends. I had been planning this for weeks, and believe me, it took a LOT of planning, due to the fact that we have 3 kids and only 1 car to juggle! Many people helped me out, but I still ended up inventing a lot of excuses and fictional reasons to leave the house, leave the kids, or spend money! (I ended up having to order the cake on the phone, go get cash to pay for it to avoid the bakery showing up on our credit card, and then pick it up on a third day under the guise of "buying diapers!" Just one example of the elaborate subterfuge I had to resort to...)I think I told more lies this week than the whole rest of my life combined! Following the code of morality instilled in me by my mother, which is tell the truth at all times - except when it's someone's birthday! ;-) She's the expert at this. Me, on the other hand...

To tell the truth (finally!), all this lying really took a toll on me! I have been way stressed out trying to come up with the right excuses for all my odd behavior, and the things I was doing, and trying to keep Robert from finding out about the party. I am not a very good liar to begin with - Robert can always tell when I'm trying to hide something from him, and he can even guess what I got him for his birthday or Christmas half the time! Although I must have done a pretty good job this time because he didn't figure anything out until he walked into his party! Yay! I am very excited that I managed to surprise him...but mostly I'm just relieved that I don't have to lie to him anymore! I was afraid to open my mouth all week for fear I would give something away, and he actually got kind of mad at me a couple of times when my behavior was inexplicably strange - and there was nothing I could do to defend myself even though I had very good reasons for all my actions!

I can laugh about it all now....but I am definitely not designed to keep secrets! So I think for the sake of my own sanity, this is the last surprise party I'll ever throw!

Happy Birthday, dear husband!

A play-by-play of our night

10:30 pm put Gabriella to sleep in her bed

10:45 pm she wakes up

11:15 pm get Gabriella back to sleep in her bed; parents go to bed

3:00 am Gabriella wakes up and crawls in bed with us

3:15 am she goes back to sleep

3:30 am Mama gets up to use the bathroom

3:35 am Gabriella rolls over looking for Mama and falls out of bed

3:35-4:00 am lots of crying and comforting

4:00-5:00 am Mama tries to get Gabriella back to sleep in her own bed

5:00 am Gabriella finally goes back to sleep

5:05 am Mama goes back to bed

5:10 am Daddy wakes up

Apologies in advance to anyone we may have been grumpy to today. See above.

A visual illustration of my life

This video made me laugh SO hard because it is exactly what my life feels like sometimes:

To all you other "mama cats" who know what I'm talking about: you have my empathy and understanding! ;-) At least we don't have more than one at a time, right?

Defeating Dinnertime

I am not usually very good about planning meals in advance. I try to, I really do, but something inevitably goes wrong. The meat I got out 3 hours ago didn’t defrost sufficiently, or I start cooking only to discover that I’m missing half the ingredients for my recipe…and we end up having peanut butter and jelly for dinner again. But today I feel ridiculously proud of myself. Why, you ask? Because it is 3:30 pm and I already have dinner made – lasagna with gluten free-noodles. It is sitting in the refrigerator just waiting to be cooked right before dinnertime. I will throw together a salad and maybe some garlic toast, and we will have a lovely meal without me having to deal with the horrors of cooking during the “witching hour,” as we always call that 5-6 pm time when everybody’s cranky and I’m trying to get dinner ready.

And if that isn’t enough, I made double the amount of meat sauce for my lasagna. Which I will put in the fridge until tomorrow, when I’ll add peppers, chili powder, and kidney beans, and presto! It will be chili that I can throw in the crock pot for dinner tomorrow night. That’s right – I am now 2 dinners ahead. Which means I don’t have to start panicking about dinner until Sunday now! I really should make this a habit!

We’ll mercifully draw a veil over the state of my kitchen right now…maybe I’ll get to that once I’ve sat down for a few minutes. ;-)

words of encouragement

People are not always supportive when they find out you're having 4 kids in 5 years. The world in general, and in many cases even the Church (global), no longer views lots of children as a blessing. We live in the age of the 2.4 child "status quo." And many times, Robert and I have been on the receiving end of thoughtful remarks ranging from "you're having another baby?!" to "when are you going to start using birth control?"

But we have also been extremely blessed to have family and friends who are genuinely happy for and supportive of us and our decision to let God have control of our "family planning." And recently it has hit me how blessed we are to have a church family that is supportive as well. We are the only people, as far as I can tell, at our church who have this many kids, this quickly. I can tell that some of them, at least, think we're a little odd. Yet we have gotten nothing but kind and supportive comments from everyone who found out that we are having our 4th baby.

Two people in particular have blessed me lately. There is an elderly man named Jim (don't know his last name) who met us in the hallway one day, and started talking to us, and found out we're having a baby. He is a little hard of hearing, and he calls me "Katy" because that's as close to my name as he can get, but he never fails to remind us, week after week, that he is praying for a safe and healthy delivery for our baby. He is so sweet. And then tonight, we finally made it back to choir after being out for nearly 2 months with one person or another sick, and our choir director Wayne made quite a point of welcoming us back. He prayed specifically for us and our baby, and our ability to be good parents. I was sitting there wiping away tears. It's not that I need some sort of public validation before God - or the church - to know that we are doing His will. But it was so wonderful to have that encouragement from someone who is a leader, an elder of the church, and a friend.

I must admit, there are times when I'm nervous about having 4 kids. It sounds like a lot! And it feels overwhelming, especially on days like today when we were running on no sleep from being up with a teething 18 month old. But God used these 2 men to remind me today that He has chosen to bless us with another child. And that somehow He knows that we can handle it, even if we don't necessarily feel like it! So I am praising God for Wayne and Jim and our whole church family at Eastern Hills Baptist Church.