On the weekends, Big E is usually the first one up in the mornings. He is definitely my morning kid and always finds his way into our room just before the sun comes up. This morning was no exception as I heard the door open a few moments before my alarm was scheduled to wake us up. His big sister was right behind him. Since I’ve had a cold for a few weeks the kids know they aren’t allowed to cuddle on Mommy’s side of the bed, so they curled up with their daddy. When daddy got up out of bed I looked over to find them wrapped in each other’s arms and snuggling close. Considering most of their waking hours fluctuate drastically between playing and picking on each other, it was such a serene moment to watch them peacefully enjoy each others’ company. A perfect moment!

We’ve been parents of three kids for about 16 months now and I have decided to share with you how life now is different from when we had just the two…

1- The car situation. With two kids, it didn’t really matter what we drove because we all fit. Two adults in the front seat, two kids in the back. When you add a third kid it changes everything when it comes to your transportation needs. With two kids the minivan was a luxury (I know, that’s an oxymoron) but with three kids that puppy is a necessity. For example… Tim drives a Toyota Matrix. We love our matrix. However, it is an adult version of Tetris getting all three kids’ car seats in the back. The main reason we haven’t switched baby E out of his infant car seat is that once we do, we have to figure out how to get three regular carseats in the back of Tim’s car. (thankfully Baby E is small for his age so he can still ride safely in the infant seat.) But we will have to make the transition soon.

2- The laundry situation. I thought my pile of laundry with two kids was bad. Adding a third means laundry is never ever finished in our house. And trying to match three different sizes of kids socks is pure torture. We actually just have a large sock drawer that all the socks get dumped into and then we dig through when we need some.

3- The dishes situation.  The concept is the same as from above. More people = more dishes.

4- Bed time routine. Adding an additional little person to the bedtime routine adds a good fifteen minutes to the night. (Sure, fifteen minutes doesn’t sound like much, but when you are dead tired, it might as well be an hour!)

5- More cuddles. See? Not all the differences are negatives. This is probably my favorite. With three kids in the house that is six little arms that want to be around you and thirty little fingers to hold. You are sure to find someone to cuddle and keep you company.

Ok, that’s all for tonight. I’m sure I could think of more if I wasn’t quite so tired!! There’s a time change coming and we all need to get to bed soon!

The kids got to spend time with their neighbor-cousins tonight eating, rough housing, and participating in various other shenanigans. 

Things I’m thankful for…

• I’m thankful to be home with my family tonight.
• I’m thankful that the weather has been so beautiful these past few days.
• I’m thankful that my husband is working the morning shift again, so we get to have our evenings together.
• I’m thankful that I’ve got an amazing group of people that watch my kids each day while I am at work.
• I’m thankful for such a large and happy family, and the recent announcement of an upcoming niece or nephew.
• I’m thankful for our townhouse and our lovely family neighbors three doors down!
• I’m thankful for my job and all the awesome, talented people I work with each day.
• I’m thankful for a fridge and pantry with food and clean water coming out of my tap.
• I’m thankful for our vehicles to get us to the place we need to go.
• I’m thankful for my MOPS group- an amazing group of women for sure!
• I’m thankful for my church family, which has been in my life nearly as long as my real family!
• I’m thankful for my Bible… my daily access to the most important relationship in my life.
• I’m thankful for my husband, who works hard and watches out for his family.
• I’m thankful for my savages, every last one of them, as they have taught me so much about love, selflessness, and grace.

What are you thankful for?

Someone I love went through something very difficult today and he has many more difficult days ahead of him. It isn’t my story to tell, so I won’t share details, but my heart is broken for him. It feels like walking a tightrope- on one hand I am incredibly thankful for the end result, but on the other hand I greatly mourn the sacrifice that came at its expense.

I sit here staring at the screen, not knowing whether to praise God or shout at Him. But I know in reality it isn’t Him that I am angry at. He answered my prayers with mostly a Yes, but the No part still hurts.

I know all the pat responses, God knows what he’s doing. Trust God. Keep praying. When He closes one door, He opens another.

We’ve been trained to say these things in the face of pain… In the face of someone else’s pain. But what comfort does that give?

Don’t get me wrong, there is probably room for those sentiments, but not in the early moments of trauma, when the visceral overrides the sentimental. The early moments need something unscripted, something honest.

So here it is… I’m sorry. What’s happening is horrible. It isn’t fair. It isn’t pretty. But I love you, and you’re not alone.  

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. ~Psalm 147:3

Today was the first time I dropped both the boys off with a sitter they hadn’t both met before. (Baby E has been there, but Big E has not.) I was a little worried that Big E would freak out, as I forgot to prepare him for it. When he woke up this morning he asked the same question he asks every morning… “Where am I going today?”

I told him that he was going to go meet new friends. He got a huge grin on his face and squealed, “new friends!!!!”

Whew! So far so good. The rest of the morning I kept reminding him about his new friends, “Come on Big E, you need to get dressed so we can go meet your new friends!!” This would give him a burst of excitement and every mention of his new friends motivated him to keep the morning moving.

Once we arrived I expected him to get super shy, but he boldly jumped out of the van and chattered all the way up to the door. Once inside, I introduced him to his new friends. After the introductions, I leaned over to him and said, “Aren’t you so excited to be here?”

And then it happened…

With a sideways glance and clinched teeth he said, “Mom!!!”

He was totally embarrassed of his mama!!!

I honestly thought I had a few years before I started becoming an embarrassment to my children, but apparently it started today!! Sheesh!

There are some commutes that are good. Some that aren’t too bad. And sometimes there are bad ones. But a few times a year you get a commute so horrible that at some point during your drive you begin to question whether you will ever see your home again. Today was one of those days.

Tim and I both had horrible commutes. I got home around 7:30 and Tim got home around 8. I should note that I left work around 5:30 and Tim left work before 4pm. Two out of three kids fell asleep after Tim picked them up, only to be woken up for a late dinner of drive thru food, and then straight to bed.

Spring is coming. I can feel it in the air. I can see it in the daffodil stems that are peaking out of the earth. I can hear it in the peepers that are singing in the wetlands behind our house. I’m glad of it. It has been a long, dark winter with too much cold and illness. Soon the trees will be budding and blossoming and the warm days will outnumber the cold. The days will grow longer, and that means evening walks and playtime outside!

The three of them play together now. Baby E joins in on their games, and while he doesn’t know the rules, he is good for squealing and dancing and playing hide and seek. He adores his brother and sister, while still requiring that they keep a safe distance. When they go to bed at night he walks up to each of their beds and chatters with them before I put him down. In the morning, they sneak into his room and climb into his crib to entertain him until I can get there. He firmly believes that all toys belong to him and should be at his disposal at all times, and beware the sibling that doesn’t remember that. He is headstrong and knows his mind. But he is also gentle and kind, and loves to cuddle and snuggle. He is a sweetheart. He is our Goobs!

These are my goofballs. They are best friends. They know just what to say to cheer each other up and just want to say to frustrate each other. The love to play and they love to pick on each other. But when one or the other is away, they don’t know what to do with themselves. I hope their relationship is always as close, and silly, and loving as it is now!

If you know me, or follow me along on this blog, you probably can figure out that I am an order takeout, stay in my pjs, watch a movie kind of girl. I’m not spontaneous. I’m not too adventurous. I like routine and I like to know what to expect! Well Tim and I have been talking for awhile about going out and doing more things with the kids. It’s something we discuss, but usually put on the back burner figuring we will get around to it eventually. After all, it isn’t like we don’t have a million and one little odd and end jobs we need to get done around the house. Well, with the success of our trip to the Natural History Museum last week, and my trip to the Phillips Collection yesterday, we decided to ride the momentum and take the kids to the Air and Space Museum today. I’ve been under the weather all week with a cold, so when I woke up this morning the thought of a trip to DC really didn’t sound too appealing. Normally I would have cancelled, but I told Tim if he could pretty much handle the kids, I’d be game to give it a try.

We got into town around 11:30 and found an awesome parking spot about a block away from the Air and Space Museum. We ate our lunch in the car, got the troops assembled, fed the meter and then headed towards the museum. When we got there there was a line. A long line. A long, very slow line. It wasn’t moving. Uh oh. We only had two hours on the meter and it was going to take at least 45 minutes to even get in the door. This was no good.

We discussed it and decided, why not hit the Natural History Museum again? After all, we hadn’t seen too much of it last week and the kids really enjoyed what he had seen. The only downside was that our awesome parking spot was literally a block away from Air and Space! Oh well. We booked it across the Mall and then meandered through the sculpture garden. They loved the sculpture of the bunny but then they hated it. Big E liked the spider and then he didn’t. We made it to the Natural History Museum and after an essential potty break, we realized we would only have about 45-55 minutes to be there before we would have to leave to get to the car before the meter ended. (Seriously DC, what’s so bad about a three hour meter? Two hours cuts it way too close!!)

What to do? Dinosaurs again? Then we saw a sign that talked about a Q?rius room for kids 8 and under that boasted hands on activities and games. So, we grabbed an elevator and headed there. It was a pretty good sized room set up with a bunch of different stations including microscopes, coloring, puzzles, dress up, bones, puppets, etc. The kids took their time doing various activities. One of the workers sat down with Big E for most of the time we were there assembling dinosaur puzzles. He was having a blast and even got a little embarrassed with Tim came over to check on him. I think he was enjoying his companion.

Baby E was walking around and touching everything in site while jabbering like he owned the place. He flirted with every girl and woman that he passed.

C was in her element moving from station to station, doing each activity, asking questions and being engaged. She enjoyed the puppets the best.

When it was time to go, we gathered up the kids and trekked back to the car, getting there with two minutes to spare. Exhausted, we headed towards home, but stopped at a church spaghetti dinner that we had been invited to by some friends from our church. It was a nice chance to sit, relax, spend time with friends we don’t see often, and eat a nice warm meal we didn’t have to prepare ourselves.

Now it is almost 8pm, but it feels like midnight! It’s going to be an early night for us. I think we earned it!

We got to make a visit into DC today to visit the Phillips Collection. It was my first time there and I was surprised to see that they had works from artists like Monet, Van Goh, O’Keefe, and Renoir (and many, many others.) The Renoir painting was the one I was excited to see and it didn’t disappoint. It was beautiful!