A Little Piece

It hits me suddenly, this urge to write.

The letters, words push up against me and the must be said and they must be heard, even if it's just here on this blank white page.

A flood after a dry spell.

And if I suppress this urge, this furtive desire to say, be, create

If I say, no, not now;  I don't have the time right now.

If I turn away, the words pile up and jumble together and the moment's lost and the thought is suppressed and it never comes together again in quite the same way.

And I am disappointed in myself for not being true to who I want to be and who I am.

But some days, I barely want to haul this tired body out of bed.  I don't want to go through the same old same old again...

Tears, fighting, whining, more tears, meltdowns...and that's just before lunch!

And I say, what am I doing?  What am I doing that is making a difference?  Why do I bother?  I go through the same motions every day and nothing seems to change.

How many times can you say don't jump on the couch because it's ripping apart just to turn around and see it being jumped upon again?  How many things do you need to say  no to that you never thought would need an explanation?  Like shampoo dumped on the bathroom floor by a child who is old enough to know better but says that they 'didn't know'.  How was I supposed to know that 'no dumping shampoo on the bathroom floor' needed to be a rule that would need to be spelled out?

And I know that parenting is a God given task and that it is a glorious one and that children are gifts from God,

but when I'm on my knees wiping up half a bottle of shampoo that I clipped coupons for and bought on sale because the budget's tight, and as I ring the sopping mess out into the bathtub and watch the lather wash down the drain wasted because it's been too long since the floor's been mopped to be able to salvage it, I wonder if I'm truly cut out for the job

because I don't see the joy right then.  I can't count the gifts, and I have nothing to offer but a tired, worn out body that houses a tired, worn out shell of a mom who feels inadequate and would much rather hide in a corner than reveal her shortcomings to the little ones that desire so much from her.

My knees cold on the hard floor, my back aching from the precarious balance it takes to get every last sud off the floor because the tiles are an ice rink when coated with the soapy film,

I can't see the glory.

But then I look over at the one who's helping me clean it all up.  I glance at the culprit and I realize that we are working together.  True, it's not fun, but who's to define 'fun'?  Maybe that's all they wanted.  Maybe the dumping of the soap was precipitated by the desire for the punishment:  clean up the mess with Mom.

With Mom.

Maybe that's all they really want.  Maybe they don't care that I'm tired and worn out.  Maybe to them I'm not worn out, but worn in

like comfy pajamas

and maybe all they really need, all they really want, all they are really asking for with their cries and grasping hands is for this tired worn out mom to sink into the couch and let them spread a book across my knees or let them push a deck of cards into my hands and match the colors and the numbers and let them win

or not.

Maybe my inadequacies are in my head, not theirs

So tomorrow morning, as I push back the blanket, and I push back my hair into a messy ponytail that's just messy and not cute messy, I will also push back the lies.

I will push away the lies that whisper in my ear:

You can't do it.  You're not good enough.  You don't have what it takes.  You're not what they need...

and in the pushing away, I will make space.

Space in my arms, space on my lap, space in my patience...

Space in my time.

Because that's all they're really looking for anyway,

Just a little space.  A little piece of Mom that can go a long way.

Putting it all in Perspective

Some of you have been asking to see pictures of baby Hazel.  And it is not that we are trying to hide her from the world, nor that she has some sort of deformity that we are keeping under wraps,

it is more that we are not sure that people will understand.  We do not want the beauty that is our Hazel Grace to be obscured by a photo that is misunderstood.

In talking to people, and actually in some cases, it doesn't seem to matter if they have seen a picture of our precious gift or not, I have realized that most people have no idea the size and form of a 24 week gestational baby.

For which I do not blame anyone.

A baby of this size should be hidden deep within to be knit in the private recesses of a mother's womb, safe under her heart.

But our little Hazel could not wait to meet the world, so meet the world she did.

And I want to help you all gain a little perspective on her.  I feel that through my writing, you have all been able to gain a little insight in the her that is her but not so much in the design of her.

Make sense?

So, let me help you.

This...


is not our Hazel Grace.  This is a pretty close to newborn full term baby.

This...

is not our Hazel Grace.  This baby was born at almost 36 weeks gestation.

This....

is getting closer, but this is not our Hazel Grace.  This baby was born at 29 weeks.

And this...

Well, this isn't our Hazel Grace, but this is a baby that was born at 24 weeks, just like her.

To put a size on it all, here's another picture of the same baby...



Tiny.  Beautiful, but tiny.

Hazel Grace's diapers are the size of a deck of playing cards...and they are way too big for her.  The mask that covers her nose to help her breathe?  The size of the tip of your pinky finger.

Hold out your hand, palm up.  Hazel Grace would fit in your hand with the back of her head on the end of your middle finger and her feet resting comfortably on your wrist.

Tiny.

But strong.

She is doing well today.  She is still on the ventilator, but she is doing well.

And I will put up pictures of our actual Hazel Grace soon.

Soon, but not yet.

My heart can't handle it yet.

A Walk in the Dark

Jo and Elizabeth share a room.  And while it's not as if when they are awake they are the best of friends, but when Elizabeth is not there to sleep with her, Jo can get very stressed.  This stress causes her to sleepwalk even more than  usual.  Actually, it's not that she sleepwalks that often, but she does often get up and cry or scream,  not like night terror scream, but just like her usual loud cry scream, or talk in the middle of the night, and sometimes she gets out of bed and calls to us.  When she does this, it is sometimes hard to tell if she is sleeping or not because she will attempt to have a conversation with us, often about what has happened in the day or what she is looking forward to for the next day.

This week, Elizabeth is gone at camp, so Jo is sleeping alone and she just got up out of bed and tried to come down the stairs.  This is the first time she has done that.  She almost fell, but Jimmy was in the living room and when I heard her, I recognized her sleep voice and told him to run up because she was not actually awake and needed to be lead back to bed.

But that's kind of a scary thing.  We now need to remember to close the gate at the top of the stairs.  We also have a house alarm that we were considering upgrading, and I think that we will move ahead and get it done.  Not only will it protect us from the boogie men outside, but more importantly, perhaps, it will let us know if Jo ever gets as far as going out the door.

Does anyone else have experience with this?  She is almost 6, and it shows no sign of abating.

Memorial Day!

Jimmy only had to work a half day last Monday, Memorial Day, so we got to have a little fun after he came home.  

First, we grilled some dinner, then we got the fire going in the fire bowl and while that was getting to perfection for roasting marshmallows, we played some Uno.  It's a great game because it's pretty much a game of chance that we can all play as long as someone helps Gabriel with his cards a little.  

Then, we got down to the serious business of roasting the marshmallows.

Then, we managed to get marshmallow in our hair....

And, of course, all over our mouth!

But showers afterwards removed most of the stickiness (can you ever really get all the stickiness off a 3 year old boy?) and it was declared a fun evening by all!

Family Tree

I want to finish the story of the trip to my brother's house, but I really have to diverge and put this up instead.

I mentioned before that Gabriel's Native American name is Little Acorn, and it still fits him well, although it seems that as his hair grows, he turns from and acorn into more of a squirrel.  So, I call him Mommy's Little Squirrel and tell him he is the cutest squirrel ever.  Sometimes, he tells me that no, he is not a squirrel, but rather a little boy, but sometimes he says, Look, Mom!  I'm your squirrel!

I don't know...it's just something about the hair and the shape of the face and the fact that he climbs everything in sight that just reminds me of a squirrel.  A super cute one, but a squirrel, none-the-less.

Anyway, in MOPS on Tuesday morning, the teachers had the kids make pictures of their family by cutting people out of magazines that the kids thought represented their family.

This is what Gabriel came up with:

front

back

Yep...that's Gabriel...the fuzzy one in the top right corner of the back side of his picture.  He couldn't remember who was who for the rest of the pictures, but he was quick to point out the picture of himself that he glued on there.

Heehee...that's my boy squirrel!

Mother's Day at Uncle Aaron's

Well, Sunday actually came and went and it was a good time!  It was a packed day, but I do believe that fun was had by all, so that makes it all OK.

We started the morning by going to church to worship and we took some really nice pictures on our way out.

First, one of just me and kids...

Then one of all of us!

Then we headed home for lunch and nap, where I promptly broke down in my realization that I am nowhere near what a Proverbs 31 woman looks like.  My breakdown helped no one, and the time would have probably been better spent had I taken a nap myself.

Then, we hurried to get to Uncle Aaron's house on time.  We are always the ones that set the times that things happen since we are the only ones with kids, so I always feel kind of bad when we set a time and then are late anyway, but my rule is pretty much to not wake a sleeping child...ever.  So, that means that we are sometimes late for things in the afternoons because their naps can sometimes run long.  But I think that everyone, if they knew the alternative, would be happier that we were late than deal with the consequences of waking a sleeping child.

So, we arrived just fashionably late and the kids hopped out of the car, and ran off to say 'hey' to everyone.

Uncle Aaron gave them the tour of the yard, and because I am uberly proud of my brother and his ability to build things, I will post far more pictures than anyone else probably really wants to see!

First, there is his hammock in the back yard...

Then the fountain in the side yard...You can see the very edge of the screened in porch that he added to his house in this picture...

 Then there's the boat that he built!  Pretty neat, if I do say so myself! (Above his head you can see the master bedroom he added to the house above the garage.  It is beautiful with a gas fireplace, 2 walk in closets, and a full bathroom tiled in stone.  And behind him, to the left of the picture, you can see the workshop that he built to house all his tools and projects.)

But, of course, the neatest part was that he let the kids get in it and 'drive' it.  They loved it!

Isn't he handsome?  I always wondered why it took him so long to get married!  I guess he was just holding out for the right one.

We found Elizabeth in the basement playing on the piano that my brother built, (he also made the cabinet that's hanging on the wall)

and my mom admiring the bar he put in.

But I personally think that this is one of the most awesome aspects of the house...

He built his own cupola on the top of the house!  He took one of the bedrooms and cut open the roof and added stairs and put a little room up there!  Each step has a built in drawer where (yes, I peeked!) he keeps his wood working magazines.  I also like the built in bookshelf that can be accessed from the stairs.

These are the stairs going up...

Baby Jesse enjoyed exploring, too.

This is the view from the stairs looking into the room...

And this is from the room looking down the stairs.

My brother is just so talented.  I am constantly amazed by him.  He will see something he likes somewhere or on TV of something, and then just make it himself!

But this is my personal pride and joy:

This is the VW bug that I bought when we lived in Hawaii, and then my brother shipped it back here when we moved back.  Then, as our family grew, we traded the bug for some work that he did in our yard.  Aaron has now completely restored the bug and it is beautiful!

But now Jesse is awake, so I will have to write more in another post...

Spanish Food

I called my brother today just to confirm plans for Mother's Day and to ask him if he and his new wife planned to serve dinner or if we needed to be prepared to feed the kids dinner after leaving his house and before going to the church for the musical that Jo is singing in.

His response?

"Uh...yeah...I think so.  Eloisa is planning everything.  I think she's cooking food.  She said she is going to make some kind of Spanish food, so that means your kids will like it because they are half Spanish, right?"

Um....yeah, Aaron.  We're good.  We'll be fine.  Can't wait.  See you tomorrow.

Note to self...pack snacks....

This Weekend...

Well, it turns out that my brother got married last Friday.  We all knew the girl, but we didn't know that he was going to get married!  In fact, we had kind of given up hope that he would ever settle down and marry, but lo and behold,  he did.  Our family here is very small.  I have one brother and one sister, and my sister and her husband do not have any children, and my mother was an only child.  My father's family is in Georgia and only one of his 2 siblings has any children, and they only had 2 boys...one of which married and now has triplets (!) and the other has 2 children, but they all live far away, and the most that we get down to visit them is once every few years, if that.

Jimmy has a large extended family, but only his mom and dad are here.  He has one sister who is still living and she has 3 kids, but they are all in El Salvador.  His brother, who passed away a few years ago, didn't have any children.

So to me, it is kind of exciting that my brother finally got married.  Maybe they will have children and my kids can have some cousins t play with.

Ok, let's be honest.  Maybe they will have kids so that when something gets broken at my parents' house during a family get-together, it won't always be our fault.

No, but seriously, I think that the more family and extended family you have, the better.  That way, if you have a falling out with one person, you have a lot more to still talk to and maybe one of them can help you fix the issue you have with the one that's mad at you.

We don't really have that right now, but maybe soon...

Anyway, for all of our family gatherings, we always get together at my parents' house since their house is the biggest and that way my parents don't have to travel.

But this year, Mother's Day is going to be something different.  My brother's new wife has invited us all to their house for Mother's Day!

I am pretty excited about this.  It has been forever since I have been to my brother's house even though he only lives about 20 minutes away since he is always out or working.

So, my first thought was 'wow!  This is going to be so fun!'

Then my next thought was 'wow!  He has no kids and has no idea about child-proofing a home!'

Not that I am expecting him to puts plugs in all the outlets and baby gates on the stairs or anything, but I mean more like fragile stuff on end tables and valuables at eye level.

So, I called him back after he invited us and I said, 'Ummmm...Aaron?  I don't know if you knew this or not, but baby Jesse's walking now, so that means that he kind of gets into everything.'

His response?  'That's ok.  We don't really have anything for him to get into.'

Hmmmmm....

Well, I guess we'll find out on Sunday!

To Fold or Not to Fold...That is the Question...

I feel kinda like I have been just treading water around here...or, in our case, treading laundry since that seems to be what we are drowning in.

When my in-laws moved out, we decided to make their old room into a huge walk-in closet.  (Have I told this before?  Sorry if I have...)

Anyway, although it may seem like a huge waste of space in our little house, it actually works out quite well.  The kids never do anything in their rooms but sleep, so it seemed like a waste to put one of them in the second biggest bedroom in the house. (Jimmy's and mine is the biggest, although not by much, and it is a lot hotter in the summer and the ceilings are slanted, so there is something to be argued about if someone says we took the best room in the house.  We also have 4 people in our room, so I figure it's warranted.)  So, we put all of the dressers in the bedroom as well as a special bookshelf just for library books and a few drawers and cabinets for our homeschool and craft supplies.  The thing is that there are only 3 dressers, and we have 6 people.  It works out ok, though, because I have a basket on a table for my socks and stuff, and the Jesse and Gabriel share a dresser and Jimmy has one drawer in Elizabeth's dresser and one in Jo's dresser.  I do think that I am going to move the rest of my stuff back into our room, though, since right now all my stuff is just folded in a laundry basket and that makes it really hard to find anything.

But here's the catch:

One of the big reasons we decided to do this was because the kids always seem to be needing to change their clothes when they are downstairs.  They come downstairs to eat in the morning, then they change.  They take their showers in the bathroom, which is downstairs, and then they change.  So we figured that since all the clothes somehow ended up on the floor or shoved in drawers never to be seen again when the dressers were upstairs, if the dressers were DOWNSTAIRS, then Jimmy and I could keep a better eye on things.

Ok, let's be serious.  I could keep a better eye on things.  Jimmy's socks often don't make it where they belong, either.

But it seems that no matter how close of an eye I keep on things, that room seems to be constantly in some state of explosion!

I can wash and dry all the laundry and put it in the room, but if I don't fold and put it away immediately, then someone sits in the basket and dumps it or looks for that elusive t-shirt and tosses half of it on the floor, or someone 'forgets' that the dirty laundry goes in the bathroom and tosses their stinky socks on top.

The handy part of having everything together is that I can just fold and put away just standing there right in the middle of the room.  It's great.  The BAD part of having everything together is that there is usually one huge mess in there unless I REALLY stay on top of things.  And let's just say I haven't.  Really.

But then I realized that I would rather have one huge mess that I can see and tackle in one sitting than to have several smaller messes in separate rooms where I have to actually enter the room to find the mess and then sort out what is clothing mess and what is paper and toy mess and then tackle it.  (Elizabeth and Jo's room is so small I avoid entering it at almost all costs.  All they have in there is their 2 beds and a desk and a dresser full of Elizabeth's books, but somehow it is always a disaster and I can't enter without risking stepping on someone's something important and breaking it.)

So now, it seems that our roomer, Charlie, has also moved out, so we are quite giddy with thinking about what to do with his empty room.  Well, it's not actually empty since he let us use it even when he was living there, but it's more empty than it needs to be so we keep tossing ideas around about what to do with it.  The problem with it is that it is very very small, and it is also on the first floor.  The bedroom where Jimmy and I sleep is on the second floor.  So, to put a kid down there means that they would be all alone down on the main floor of the house.

Anyway, I'm not really sure what the point of this posting is, but if I wasn't here typing, I would probably be feeling guilty about not folding laundry.

So maybe that's the point of the post.  To assuage my guilt by pretending that I am doing something worthwhile instead of rolling socks!

One a Month

In our family, we have a birthday every month from February-July.  Jesse was in February, and in March it was Gabriel's turn.  Then comes Elizabeth in April, Jimmy in May, me in June and Jo in July.  

Part of the 'resolutions' that I have made concerning our family is that we will be sure to celebrate everyone on their birthday.  Jimmy and I have been trying to reduce the 'gifty-ness' of Christmas, and so to compensate for that, we have decided to do more for each child's birthday.  We figure it means more that way anyway.  Each child can be specially recognized on their special day with a special day and their presents.

We can't always have a party on the actual day of the birthday, so in order to be sure that everyone can gather around and celebrate at least a bit on the actual day, we have started a new tradition of doing a special breakfast.  This worked even better for me since I had given up sweets for lent, and Gabriel's birthday falls right in that time frame.

Our weeks are often very busy, so we planned ahead and Elizabeth made a huge stack of pancakes on Tuesday.  She did a wonderful job on them!  They were perfectly formed and evenly sized with just the right amount of brown on them.  Beautiful!  We took those and wrapped them up with wax paper between them and put them in the fridge.  Then, Wednesday night, I whipped up a batch of whipping cream and put that in the fridge, too.

Thursday morning, I got up early and heated a stack of pancakes in the oven, leaving one cold to put on the top.  I cut a hole in the top one to put the number '3' candle in, and then stacked it on top of the warm pancakes, stuck the candle in and decorated the whole thing with the whipped cream.

Then everyone came downstairs and in their pj's we sang happy birthday, Gabriel blew out the candles and we had cake!  Pancakes, to be exact.  It was so much fun!

Next, we opened presents.  Well, actually, we opened present, singular because what I ordered for him online had not gotten here yet.

He was very particular about not ripping the paper, and finally he had to get some help from his big sister.

Yay!  A train puzzle!  He and Jo wasted no time in putting it together on the floor while I dropped Jimmy off at work.  It was a great start to a special day!

Then, when his other present FINALLY got here about 5 days late, he got to open that one, too!  I have a picture of it, but I can't upload it for some reason, but it's the cutest little guitar.  It's actually a musical instrument and not a toy, really.  It has metal strings and a very nice body that is white with different colored and sized polka dots all over it.  He absolutely LOVES it.  Elizabeth has a ukulele that we brought back with us from Hawaii, but that was more of a toy with the plastic strings that broke quickly and wouldn't stay in tune and he wore that one completely out, so we decided to go ahead and get him one of a little better quality.  He carries it everywhere and likes to take it in the car and strum it while he listens to and sings his favorite songs on the radio.  So cute!

So, we have not yet had an actual birthday party for him with a traditional cake and friends over and whatnot, but we did celebrate, and hopefully we can pull something together soon...before Elizabeth's birthday!

What's going on here...

Wow!  It's been a week since I've written!  A lot has actually happened, which is one reason why I have not written.  It has been pretty busy around here.

Jimmy's mom and dad had left to go home to El Salvador in November to live there permanently.  They are residents of the US, and in order to keep their residency, and therefore their ability to travel back and forth from the US and El Salvador, they need to come to the US to visit once every 5 months.

Well, the five months is now up, and so we called them to see if they wanted to set up a time to get the plane tickets to come and visit or if they didn't want to come back and just wanted to let their residency expire.  Much to our surprise, Jimmy's sister answered the phone and told us that Jimmy's dad was planning on 'surprising' us by appearing on our doorstep and announcing that he was going to move back to the US and stay here 'permanently'.

My!  Well, then.  That would have been quite a surprise!  I am glad that we called.

So, in the end, it turned out that we found out on Sunday that both of them decided to come back to live in the US permanently, and their flight was coming in a 2AM on Friday.  That didn't leave us much time to prepare.

We had already talked with them about how when the left in November, we were going to take over the room that they were leaving and that we would not be able to empty it again since in reality we really needed that space anyway.  We are, after all, a family of 6 in only 2 bedrooms, and we sorely needed that extra space.

But then we come to the problem of where do they stay?  With no job and no money, exactly where could they go?  At first, they slept in Elizabeth's bed and she slept on the couch downstairs, then Jimmy's dad went to stay with a friend and his mom slept on Jo's bed and Jo and Elizabeth slept together in her bed, and finally,  after much prayer and obvious intervention from God, his mom moved down to stay with his dad at the friend's house.  It turns out that the family has 3 kids and their live-in nanny/housekeeper is leaving on vacation for a month, so Jimmy's mom is going to take her place while she is gone, and there is a possibility that she will not come back!  That means that Jimmy's mom could have a permanent job with them which includes room and board for both of them plus cash every week!  And they live right down Rt 1, so it is not too far, and there is easy bus access when they need it.

What a blessing!

Christmas All Year 'Round

I have a confession to make:

We still have our Christmas lights up on the outside of our house.

Anyone who drives Elizabeth home late from babysitting or from choir knows this is true.  

'Our house is the one there with the fence,' she says.

'Oh, the one with the Christmas lights still on?' they ask.

'Umm...yeah.  That would be ours.  I'll just get out here...'

But really, what's wrong with a little extra color and lights in the evening?  

Honestly, it's just that Gabriel really likes them and turns them on every day and every time I mention to Jimmy that it just might be time to take the lights down, there is a sorrowful 'Noooooooo!' that comes from the back seat of the truck, and so, they stay up one more week.

I did, however, put my foot down on the red ball that was hanging in the middle of the front stoop.  I never really liked the placement of that ball.  There are supposed to be balls all around the gutters where the lights are hung, but somehow, whoever hung the lights this year didn't get the memo.  Not like we don't do them the same way every year...for the last 8 years or so.  But hey, it's easy to forget, right?  I mean you open the box of 'outdoor decorations', see a few strings of lights and a whole bunch of plastic balls, and you think, 'Yep.  It must be just one...just one up there right in the middle.  Just one lonely red ball dangling there all be its lonesome.  That must be what is meant to be done with this big box of balls'

But I digress.  And next year, I will be sure to either write clear instructions or be home during the application of the outdoor decorations.  I mean, I know our big plastic balls are a little hokey, but at least if there are multiples of them, it doesn't look like some weird red nose hanging on our house!

Anyhow, the solitary red ball had to go.

And, of course, we can't just use a ladder like normal people...oh, no.  We have to make a spectacle of ourselves to get it down.

Gabriel was looking on to be sure that we didn't sneak up there and take his lights down, too.

Don't worry, little buddy, we're still the odd ones in the neighborhood with our Christmas lights still up.  

If the Shoe Fits...

I just don't get it.  When I was growing up, we had 4 pairs of shoes:  sneakers (you know, the blue ones with the 2 white stripes down the side), flip-flops (thick foam soles and wide nylon straps, usually in rainbow colors), winter black 'pretty shoes' for church and summer sandals or jellies for church.  That's it.  We got up in the morning, pulled our tube socks up over our calves, shoved our feet in our sneakers where they stayed til it was bath time.  The only time we removed our shoes during the day was after church when we went up to our rooms, took off our pretty shoes, put them in the closet and replaced them with our sneaks.

I do remember that when we were older, we would sometimes go around the house barefoot, but never ever in the winter (we would get sick, or so we were told), and we never ever ever wore socks with no shoes...or shoes with no socks, for that matter.  We were pretty severely chastised if we were found wandering the house with just socks on because we would wear out our socks.  It just wasn't done!

So what changed?  When did it suddenly become all the rage to take your shoes off...every time you enter the house and everywhere you go????  I see kids take off their shoes at church and wander around in their socks!  I don't remember being told repeatedly to put my shoes on or to go find them because they were always always on my feet!  I mean, I understand if you run a household where you take your shoes off when you enter the house because then the shoes (supposedly) stay at the door and are there when you need them.  But that is not the case in our house.  We have hardwood floors through most of the house, and because of all the entering and exiting of both children and pets, the floors just aren't that clean (although Baby B and Jesse do and nice job of mopping them frequently with their pj's as they scoot across the floor...)


The thing is that it's not like I really care whether they wear their shoes in the house or not, although I stick with my dad's rule of no socks without shoes, so we have supplied all the walking people in the house with either slippers or sock-feet (that's what we call the socks that have the leather on the bottom.  They are awesome).

But the problem is that if there are no shoes on their feet while they are in the house, it takes that much longer to get ready to go anywhere!  Holy cow!  It must add at least 15 minutes to the get-out-the-door process!  First you have to find the shoes, preferably a matching pair, and then you have to apply both socks and shoes to twitchy little feet!

Add to that the diapers that need to be changed before we head out and it can take up to 30 minutes to get everyone clean, diapered, shoed, buckled into the appropriate car seats and down the road.  We have cubbies and shelves where the shoes are supposed to go, but they inevitably end up dumped on the floor where Jesse will pick one up to chew on the irresistible rubber sole, and when the shoe is removed from his mouth, it is usually tossed on top of the guinea pig cage in an effort to effectively keep it out of his reach.

I am seriously considering super glue.  I figure that it will wear off by the time they grow out of their shoes, so it could work out to be perfect timing!

A Maiden Voyage

We did it.  We finally braved the big wide world and traveled to the library with all of the kids in tow.  Elizabeth and I planned carefully.  The timing had to be just right:  after morning nap at 9, but before lunch.  So, when the little ones woke up at about 10, we mobilized.

First, we had to feed Jesse and Baby B.  Then change diapers.  Pack the diaper bag.  Put Jo and Gabriel into the car.  Give them a snack to eat in the car so that they don't run all around and impede progress.  Apply coats and hats to Baby B and Jesse.  Stuff them in their car seats.  Attach said seats to the car.

Whew!

Drive down the street.

Arrive.  Choose parking space carefully.  Must be near the entrance with the least amount of street to cover to get the door, but it must have enough space around it to open all the doors.  Park.  Unload.

Stroller first.  (Still looking for a front/back double stroller.  We had to use the jogger today.  It almost didn't fit through the front door of the library.)  Then one baby followed by the other.  Then Gabriel.  Jo.  Books.  Diaper bag.

Squeeze through the entrance.  Snake through the shelves to the kids' room.  Park outside 'cuz the stroller won't fit.

Yay!  We made it!  And fun was had by all.

Then, reverse the process, arrive home, make lunch, feed 4 hungry mouths, tuck things one and two into their cribs.  Read 3 and 4 a new library story.  Tuck 3 into bed followed closely by 4.

Whew!  Done!

We did it!!!!