"All creatures of our God and king, ha-way-woo-yuh, ha-way-woo-yuh, so much going on, ha-way-woo-yuh, ha-way-woo-yuh!"
I don't know if she's interpreting "burning sun with golden beam" as "so much going on" or if she's just inserting a phrase she's heard me say a few times! I love the way she sings what she hears :D
Lily (Jack and Charlotte too) loves her Grandpa!
Jack's half-birthday (he's 6.5 now!). I made shortbread cookies with his help, and he ran around the house in pure excited joy between bouts of "helping" me. He was thrilled to get to ice the cookies, and I was impressed with the effort he put into his creations!
This is his "camera" smile. I love it because it's crooked :D
This is his real smile!
Charlotte got some new clothes (yay!) because I canNOT find the clothes Lily wore when she was Charlotte's size (boo!). Charlotte also got to pose on the couch, just like baby Lily did!
Yes, I think my daughter looks like a supermodel, only prettier :D
This is her "I'm chewing on my tongue" face!
And this is her "I'm trying to blow spit bubbles" face!
She loves her Daddy, and he loves her too!
Oh aren't babies fun! They see a stream of water and think it's something solid they can grab!
Charlotte got a bath in the sink because I HAD to cook supper right then, and she HAD to have a bath right then too. So I cleaned out the sink (one-handed, with a naked baby in the other) and multitasked for a few minutes, then looked over and saw that Lily and Charlotte were talking to each other. There is a special bond between those two; there is also a special bond between Lily and Jack, and between Jack and Charlotte, and just as none of the three of them is exactly like another, all these relationships are unique. It's fun to watch!
Halloween 2012: a ladybug, a flower, and a ballerina princess (and their parents)! This was before going to the ward chili cookoff and trunk-or-treat.
Halloween 2012, revisited: a care bear, a flower, and a ladybug! This was at the little festival in downtown (ha!) New Boston. Since Halloween fell on a Wednesday, Tim was in church activities (he's the Young Men's president) and I didn't want to take the kids trick-or-treat-ing without his help, so we went to the party instead.
Today was one of those days in which I felt imprisoned by my daily duties and harassed by my kids and husband. All I wanted to do was go outside and work on the garden site (well, that and eat bon-bons and read fiction... but working on the garden is both productive AND fun so I tried to just do that!), but there were 4 mouths that would not be fed if I didn't feed them, two bums that would not be wiped if I didn't wipe them, two girls that would not sleep if I didn't soothe them, and a houseful of clutter that would not be picked up unless I supervised it. I tried to tell myself that my children are only tiny for a short while and I should enjoy them while I can, and that did help immensely while the thought stayed nicely in my mind, but the stress of my duties overwhelmed me at times. Jack was spectacular, and every time he noticed I was stressed he sidled up to me and rubbed my arm and gave me one of his smiles. That helped a bit! A friend came over to play, too, bringing her 3 kids. I take my hat off to her, she has the same number of kids as I do, but her oldest is a year and a half younger than my oldest, and her youngest is a year and a half older than my youngest; in other words, when her youngest was born, she had three kids under three years old! Her kids are intensely curious and not always so good at listening, but they have kind hearts and gentle spirits and they play well with my kids. She herself (Samantha) is creative, intelligent, kind, and just fun to be around, so I was happy when she showed up to play!
Finding balance, or more correctly, the attempt to find balance, is almost always the source of my stress. One the one hand, the kids need my undivided attention and love, and they feel it best when I play with them. On the other hand, I am the keeper of the home, and it needs to be neat and orderly. To further complicate the matter, the kids need to learn how to keep the home as well, and I show them love by teaching them and working with them to keep the home. I don't think it's a good idea to spend all day inside the house, cleaning it, but neither is it a good idea to spend all day playing and just do some token tidying. At lunchtime I was making bread, and every single room in the house needed some tidying, but the kids were playing.
Me: "Jack, do you notice what I'm doing? I'm making food for all of us. Can you do this?"
Jack: "No."
Me: "Since you can't do this work that I'm doing, can you do something for me that you CAN do? Every single room in this house needs to be tidied. Can you and Lily tidy one of them?"
Jack (groaning): "Do I have to tidy the whole room?"
Me: "You know, we counted all the rooms in the house once. There are fourteen! I only asked you to tidy one of them."
Jack was getting up to tidy, but he was still dragging his feet, and I wanted Lily to get involved, too, so I sweetened the deal with an offer of a chocolate chip for anyone who tidied continuously for fifteen minutes. They liked it so much they did it twice! That helped my mind a lot, but the house needed much more!
Tomorrow is another day!
Definitely a chocolate day! :D
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