spring has sprung!

yep, that’s what a successful mealtime looks like in our house.

we got to go up and visit Grammy yesterday. it was such fun to have a wonderful visit as well as a delicious dinner prepared for us (and cleaned up too!).

it was
completely
gorgeous
outside
today.
the big kids played outside for hours, painted and even had a picnic lunch.
there was a lovely breeze flowing though the house and i heard birds chirping and
smelled the sweet scent of night jasmine (B and my absolute favorite)
wafting through the open windows.

one of my little artists.

i told myself (and everyone) that i wouldn’t start working out since having L until his sleep got better (because that meant that my sleep would get better).
well folks, that time has finally come! i am proud to announce that he only woke one time last night. but, that also means that it’s time for me to get fit. i was trying to explain my workout plan to B last night, but he had a hard time understanding me because of the thin mints in my mouth.

D and i built forts with his wooden blocks this afternoon. even though his uncle proudly serves in the army, D’s army guys are the bad guys.
it’s because, apparently they are from a different country.

B took the big kids on a run today. God bless him. L was sleeping and i relished in the
absolute
silence
of the house.
there wasn’t so loud as a peep made. i spent the time prepping for dinner and breakfast while cleaning my kitchen sink. i mean really cleaning it. flylady says “shine your sink!” i used to work in a house where after we used the sink we’d have to wipe it out with a paper towel so that there wouldn’t be any water left in the sink.
yes, the sink in which its sole function is to have water flowing through it.

tonight, B and i got our taxes in order. i am in charge of any and all medical expenses and thankfully, B does everything else. it was tough, really tough remembering so vividly what went on last year. not just the hospital stays but the unbelievable amount of doctor’s visits we had to go to.
just from october and november, L had eight appointments.
and it wasn’t only going to the doctor’s that was hard.
it was what they would tell me.
the things that no mother
ever.
ever.
wants to hear.
but, i can now see that so many things they told me so matter-of-factly,
haven’t happened. and they probably never will.
it has taken quite a while but i have finally started to not worry about such things.
our only job is to be faithful to the Lord who cares for us like no other.
be faithful under every circumstance.

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus,
“but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
John 9:1-3

watching tv yesterday morning.
all of these buddies are so important to these kids yet when bedtime rolls around, they have no idea where they have last put them. once each and every one of them are found, the seven-minute (if we’re lucky) routine of setting them up perfectly
in each of their beds begins.

“i want to eat an elephant!” K says.
after much conversing, i discovered that apparently that meant that she wanted to eat her o’s and milk
in
the elephant cup.

my little love bug.
Praise God.
after months and months and months and months (i wish i were joking) of dealing with the state (i.e. fighting for every single thing imaginable) we’ve
f i n a l l y
been accepted into a wonderful mommy-and-me program that will be just perfect for our sweet little guy. i cannot wait to start.

just working on his sitting in the bathtub in the family room.

in her new pack ‘n play that is the perfect size for baby doll.
and for her, i suppose.

this afternoon, B and i took the kids to toys r us. it was wild.
it was the complete opposite of hibernation.
here are the kids in their first cadillac. the craziest thing about this car is that the radio worked. either that or NPR is a standard feature (i can’t take credit for that… it was B’s joke).

in the past, both B’s uncle and my uncle and have been put in intensive care units
from motorcycle accidents.
so because of that,
every
single
time
we see a motorcycle, we say “motorcycles are dangerous.” my hope is that the thousand and thousand of times over the years that my children hear this will form a subconscious message in their brains that motorcycles are dangerous.

as you can see, it’s totally working.
and yes, she is making motorcycle noises.
her first boyfriend is going to ride a motorcycle. i just know it.

the reflection of the sun going down on the rear window of the car.
what a beautiful day it was.

i was able to get a jump start on the week. yesterday morning, i showered (so rare to do this in the morning), blow dried my hair (even more rare), started laundry
AND pureed sweet potatoes. all before 8:30am. thanks to B who watched all three kids
(no simple feat… i should know) while i worked my tushy off.

yesterday, the kids and i were able to visit with my
most inspirational friend, Katherine Wolf. she visited me in the hospital before L was born, brought me blue hydrangeas (a southern custom) and encouraged me beyond my wildest dreams. suddenly, my six weeks in the hospital seemed so minor compared to all that she has endured.

yesterday, we commiserated over ongoing health insurance issues and the benefit of therapeutic programs. but what we have both experienced as a result of
the power of prayer has been miraculous.
truly miraculous.

as the kids and i scurried off to meet L’s OT, i couldn’t be anything more than encouraged and uplifted. we may have a long road ahead of us with our little L,
but knowing that we are able to share in God’s glory is more than enough.

i let K do the dishes.
she didn’t break anything and proudly showed her dad
the huge pile of dishes stacked in the sink.
i guess it was better than having them on the counter.

their more serious sides.

the bros just hanging out.

controlled chaos.

when D was younger he asked me if i became pregnant while eating him. today while eating lunch, he asked “how did L get in your tummy?”
he was satisfied by my response that God put him there.
inquiring minds want to know.
phew for now.

most people know that when their child wakes up happy that they’ve gotten
enough sleep. well, when K wakes up belting out “we wish you a merry Christmas”
(this happens more than once a week) i know we’re in for a great rest of the day.

i am convinced that she would eat him up if she could.

how rare it is for me to take photos of my sleeping children. but, since D shouldn’t have been sleeping (he cannot get to sleep at night if i let him nap during the day. seriously, last week i enjoyed the silent and peaceful house while all thee kids napped and D was up until 10:15pm. i told him that i was going to bed so he had to also.)
i figured there was no harm in waking him with the sound of my camera.
of course, he slept right through it, so i had to resort to tickling.

for someone who loves order, i am bewildered at the fact
that he doesn’t mind wearing two different socks.
he truly is a combo of B and me.
i could never do such a thing.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,
if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Romans 8:16-17

B was on a quick business trip over the weekend.
somehow, we all survived.
i’m not even being sarcastic.
boy, was i tired when he returned. i took the 20 minute nap he offered me and slept for nearly three hours. it was monitor-free and it was lovely.

it rained on saturday so what did we do? well, we enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate with marshmallows of course! but not just any marshmallows. marshmallows from Israel. you may wonder how we have marshmallows from Israel. to be honest, they just showed up on our counter one day. i would bet that Auntie B had something to do with it though.

D is at such a great age in many ways.
he politely asked for two marshmallows and when i told him that he could only have one, he asked me to cut it in half so that he could have two. i did him one better and cut them in half again so that he could have four.

i don’t know why i had never thought of it before. it’s probably the extreme sleep deprivation i have been experiencing for well over ten months (bedrest in the hospital definitely counts. can anyone say mrs. davenport?). while i was making something in the kitchen, i asked the two big kids to entertain L in his bouncy seat. he generally enjoys (beware, i use this word lightly as he really just barely tolerates) the bouncy seat for about three-and-a-half minutes. he loved their dancing and was especially fond of D pretending he was a dog. L even had a good chuckle over that. D and K are now assigned the job of distracting him while i need to get food on the table.

L was super excited for the Oscars and begged me to put on his fanciest onesie for the event. too bad his bedtime arrived before we started watching it.

this afternoon, D wanted to play computer games but i realized that i was in a little time crunch. i needed to bake some sweet potatoes (for L’s solids) so that the oven would be free for our insanely delicious prime rib dinner. so what’s a mom to do? i had D scrub the potatoes and i held L. much much better than me trying to clean potatoes and hold L. yeah, that wouldn’t have happened. in no time, D was playing on the computer and the potatoes were in the oven.
perfecto.

i think the most inefficient element of my house in the laundry situation. don’t get me wrong, i love doing laundry. it’s the folding and putting away that gets me.

my least favorite thing is searching amongst this humongous piles of clean clothes for that one item i need.

my parents took the big kids for the night last night. while enjoying a very quiet morning, B and i had some delicious chocolate croissants with only L around. it’s so amazing how when you have your first child everything is so overwhelming. but, when you have three and two go away for the night, one child is sooooo easy.

the very first thing i did with a quiet(er) house was clean the bathroom. i relished in the fact that it wasn’t dirtied by two cute little bodies for a whopping 19 hours.

how can he be this happy and sleep so terribly at night?
now, that’s the question.
oh well. he’s pretty darn sweet.

it’s always a good day when Auntie B visits.

the verse that i am really, really, really, really trying to focus on is:
“Do everything without complaining or arguing…”
Philippians 2:14

and boy is that hard.

well, i bet you’ve all been wondering what we
have been up to since hibernation has ceased.
it’s been terribly exciting.
too exciting.
and very memorable.
so fun, that after a very pleasant time out of the house on monday morning, we were headed to trader joe’s and then the library on monday afternoon… of the very first day back in the real world. but, on our way into trader joe’s i pulled a muscle in my back while getting L out of his car seat. it was so horrendous as i wasn’t even sure if would be able to get L back into his car seat. i couldn’t speak and was in so much pain. pain worse than childbirth, dare i say. i waited for a few minutes in absolute pain and then bit the bullet and put L back. we went home and waited in the car for B to come home and rescue us. i spent the next 16 hours in bed. and it wasn’t restful sleep, it was uncomfortable sleep. i thought that instead of calling my blog
capturing motherhood,
i should have called it
capturing fatherhood
because B was doing everything.
and i mean everything.

after being on bedrest for six weeks while preggo with L, once those six weeks were over i made B promise that he’d never give me breakfast in bed again.
well, there i was having breakfast in bed. but, i wasn’t enjoying it.

what a way to celebrate our first few days of freedom. yesterday and today have been mellow days … quite similar to hibernation. too similar. today was the first day i was able to pick up L. until now, B would just bring him to me when i needed to nurse him. i am on the mend though. back to capturing motherhood.

yesterday, B had a fancy dinner to go to with my parents (golf related) so we all headed to my parents’ for the afternoon so that i could get some help. we packed up this much stuff (and more) that we needed for only a few hours if you can believe that.
i bet you can.

singing along to her beautiful song.

the kids have full reign over my dad’s office supplies.
and yes, this is a huge rubber band adorning K’s head.
and yes, pink is her favorite color.

L loved the new environment.

i got up with the kids this morning (B usually lets me sleep in until 7am).
and yes, that is considered sleeping in in our house.
this delicious little moment was before the other kids woke up.

for some reason, K decided to color on herself today.
i don’t think that this one was intentional.

but this zebra arm was.
and so was the red bic pen she used all over her legs.
i guess she’ll be wearing pants tomorrow to our Bible class.

today, while on the phone with my mom, K explained that “we were in the parking lot at trader joe’s and then mommy’s back hurt and she grabbed her back and said it hurt. and then we came home.” she finished her story with “and i have a cute dress on.”
one lesson in storytelling is to personalize your stories. she’s got that covered.

we got to see Grammy for a little bit this afternoon. L was mesmerized.

tonight, D hurt his foot so B had it
airlifted to the nearest hospital with his toy helicopter.

that’s the end. there isn’t any more.
looking forward to a more “normal” day out of hibernation tomorrow.

last night, B and i heard some pounding noises coming out of the big kids’ bedroom. we thought it was D getting out of bed. we turned on the light and this is what we found instead…

what a silly, silly girl.

heading down to the very high tided beach (we ended up going to a different one because this one ended up not having any beach at all… just a lot of water).

we celebrated this
very
last
day of hibernation
with a fun family day at the beach!
and yes, we did stop at coffee bean on the way.

L and i hung out, put our toes in the sand and
watched the crazy kids run around with their dad.
it was perfect.

the day was filled with building,

chasing,

having a ball,

and getting as sandy as humanly possible.

when we got home, i put L down for his third nap. he was rolling around in his crib so i went back in to tuck him in. well, he greeted me with one perfectly prepared raspberry and a big smile. i got the message alright…
he wasn’t going to take a nap.

i’ve learned
a lot
over these last fifty-nine days.

most of all, i’ve learned to not let those little mundane moments slip by. the ones that distract you from whatever it was that you were on your way to do. the minute simple moments. i’ve learned to turn those into unmissable moments.
moments to cherish for a lifetime.

i’ve also learned that if i’m ever stuck in the house in the future,
we will survive.
we will think of crazy and new things to do.

i just don’t want to do that anytime soon.

i have also learned that even though there were those few nights where the thought of updating the blog seemed laborious, i really enjoyed blogging. accomplishing something from start to finish was so rewarding and just what this mom needed.
and needs.

it’s also been so great to wonder “what did we do last tuesday” and to know exactly what we did.
what made our day special.
different from all the rest.
so… i have decided to continue blogging.
i will not be blogging every single day but i will still update the blog often.

B loves ice blendeds from coffee bean. he hates coffee in all other forms but loves that drink. this morning, he allowed me to make some tea for him. i carefully chose the most flavorful bag i had, (good earth original – my favorite!) knowing that this would either only happen this one time or that i might successfully convert him. i added some cream and a bunch of sugar. shockingly, he said that he liked it. it’s been all day and i still can’t believe it. but, i wouldn’t be at all surprised if he got himself an ice blended tomorrow.

while the kids were eating breakfast this morning i ran out the front door, went across the street and captured the sun peeking out and glimmering on these rain drenched leaves. to my surprise, nobody was crying when i came back 90 seconds later. might have been a new record.

i found some old make up and brushes and let K go wild with it. she put them all in her purse and wouldn’t let D use any because “it’s for just girls.”

here she is trying to get a drop of my empty apple cider mug. her hair was especially curly today. every time i looked at it it reminded me of an old lady who slept in curlers. her hair does go half-way down her back, but you’d never know it because it completely coils up.

my little dolly babe. when i was helping her change from her jammies into her clothes this morning, i saw that her jammies were a size three and i thought to myself, how great that she can wear her age. (D is just wearing his age for the first time… ever.) but then hours later, i realized that she is only two, not three and that she isn’t in fact wearing her age but she is wearing a size bigger than her age. i must be really tired if i’m forgetting how old she is.

sharing tea from our tea party.

in our house, we try to avoid listening to children’s music as much as possible. instead, we listen to soundtracks like mary poppins or the incredible sound of music. children’s music, especially when its sung by children, puts me in an instant bad mood. i especially can’t stand american kids faking british accents. anyone else feel this same way? this book has the best chapter title: “children’s music, why?” but i think i finally came to the revelation as to why i hate it so very much: it sounds like even more children are in my house. like we need more noise around here.

our eleven-toed wonder.

he is perfect.

the sign for water. i’m pretty sure that he’s signing that on purpose… not positive yet though.

no matter how hard i try, i can never hide from him. even at dinner tonight, he was not satisfied by sitting in B’s lap and looking directly across the table at me. he had to be in my lap. what a momma’s boy. i do love every moment.

D and K doing wii yoga.
D was surprisingly very accurate. K on the other hand was too busy eating D’s popcorn.

B took the big kids out on a few errands before dinner. L was soundly sleeping and so i did something crazy. i did the the unimaginable…
i took a bath.
it was simply wonderful.
it was even sweeter knowing that there were a billion other things i probably should have been doing. i don’t regret it for one minute.