Baby Girl Turns One and Sundries

Layla turned one on April 25.  This first year has FLOWN!! 

 I'm so glad that she is around.  We all love her to pieces.

We celebrated her birthday at supper time; I made some baked macaroni and cheese because I figured she would like to eat it, and she did.  The two youngest boys and I had gone shopping in the afternoon, and Israel picked out her Tinkerbell balloon.  

Israel had also been insisting that Layla needed a "princess doll" for her birthday, so I let him pick a doll out for her.  He wrapped both it and another ball I gave her.  :)

He did a very good job ;) and was very very very pleased with the process.

Zion picked out a Tinkerbell watering can with sand toys in it.  I gave her a big baby doll -

she stared at the feet for a good while initially :) - a big stuffed cat thing, a spongy yellow ball, and a big soft aqua pillow.  She loves to sprawl out happily over pillows.  But her favorite thing was this pink ball that Gabe had chosen to give her from the choices I gave him.  

She couldn't hardly be parted with it.  

Here was the whole crew.  :)

She really liked her cupcake.

Big brother Gabe happily helped blow out the candle,

and tolerated her birthday hat surprisingly well.  

Right now she is cutting two teeth, each beside her top two teeth...girlfrien' ain't sleeping so hot.  At all.  She stands very sturdily, and raise to standing from sitting on her own without something to hold on to.  She seems to say "daddee"...not quite sure if she knows what it means or not.  She "talks" a lot.  Four teeth, with two more just starting to poke through her gums.  Naps in the afternoon from anywhere from 45 min (when sick) to about 2-3 hours (normally).  Falls asleep between 8:30-9:30 PM and wakes 1-3 times to eat during the night.  Enjoys feeding herself by picking up her food usually better than being fed.  Still breastfed, but also drinks water from a bottle.  She LOVES water, and fusses jealously for drinks out of a cup, and my phone. :)  Plays very well and happily for long periods of time.  Usually goes to sleep by nursing, although Tim can sometimes hold her to sleep.

 Crawls busily and speedily.  She has a good sense of humor, and giggles merrily at me over many things.  Loves to cuddle and leans in for kisses and hugs.  

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I'm hopefully on a home-run potty-training stretch for Zion.  Sigh.  I decided it was a good time to good ahead and jump in.  With Gabe, I tried too early, got frustrated, put him back in diapers - and then it just clicked.  Israel basically potty-trained himself; he initiated learning.  I have kept waiting for one of these two things to happen with Zion, but while he will often poop in the potty, the pee thing is just too much work for him to remember, he thinks. :)  He typically has peed in underwear whenever he has had them on, regardless of reminders.  I had talked to two people who said - put them in underwear for a week, and at the end of the week they will be trained.  This week, I just felt emotionally/mentally up to the project, and it's been a go, what with stickers on the potty chart, two gummy candies for successful potty ventures, and the promise of a prize when he is fully potty trained.  I have also been setting the timer for about every 45 minutes.  Yesterday was our second day and he initiated peeing on his own several times before that 45 minutes was up. 

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For some reason this morning, Israel was very interested in my decaf coffee, and sincerely and earnestly felt that he needed some.  So I agreed to give him a little, and he wanted to mix his coffee and milk and sugar in our little red teapot and pour it into his cup.  

He happily exclaimed over the party feel of this venture, as it also included cookies.  

Look at this adorable little Holly Hobbie thingie that I had his milk in.  

I just bought it off of Etsy this week.  I love Holly Hobbie.  And Etsy, for that matter. :)

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The "monkeys" in the "monkey tree" this week:

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Gabe had a track and field day at school the other day. 

 Each child in the first grade could choose three events to compete in.  Gabe chose to do the 50 meter dash, the standing broad jump, and the long jump.  

The race made me grin a bit.  Here he was as they are getting their instructions at the starting line: ;)

On your mark, get set - 

Go!!!

Here were the brotherly spectators:

The standing broad jump:

The long jump:

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Last Saturday, Tim took the boys bowling, and Layla and I went shopping in Salisbury.  She tolerated Target pretty well, but conked out in the mall.  :)

Love me my Ergo.

The Collective Miscellaneous of My Life

So. Um.  There is this soup called White Bean and Kale soup that is very yummy.  I was hungry for it.  It calls for a pound of Kale. I decided to be "sneaky mommy" and blend the kale into little pieces to get Zion to eat it better.  Um.  Do you know how much kale is in a pound of kale?  Like, the entire bag is a pound.  So I blend and blend and blend...and then we have Green Sludge for supper.

HAAAA!!!  It was so green.  The funny part was that neither Tim or I said a word; we just sort of exchanged squinty glances and then looked away, and the boys happily ate Green Soup.  Although they only had one bowl, and I dumped the rest.  It was just too sludge-y.  

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I have noticed that when a new box of Band-Aids walk into the house, there is a veritable explosion of wounds around the house.  I had bought a decidedly boring box of them this last go around, thinking perhaps they would be less inspiration for bandage-craving children, but they seem to be riding high in popularity around here regardless of their flesh-colored blandness.  The other day as I was working in the kitchen, Zion was very quiet over on the couch in the office, and when I happened to pause and peer in at him, I discovered this:

Why yes, that is about twenty band-aids, carefully applied to bilateral shins.  Hummm.  

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I think that Layla looks like a Gerber Baby in this picture. :)

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"Ohhhhh, 'H'its a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor...won't you be mine...won't you be mine...?"

Gorgeous days around here these past few days.  Barefoot boys outside, pounding the grass with running footsteps, soaking up the sun.  Just like a mommy likes it.  Israel carefully constructed this sign for the backyard the other day, with my spelling assistance.  

He really enjoys writing words as I spell them out to him.  This was attached to a jump rope and strung up on the back porch in front of the screen door.  

Layla has also felt the siren call of the outdoors.

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I found this dress at Old Navy this season for Layla and simply just HAD to have it.  I just love it. :) 

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 I feel like Gabe gets the short end of the picture stick around here lately because he's not home as much.  Here he is on Easter Sunday:

He had a school program the week before Easter break, and his first grade class sang in it.  They did a great job.  He was supposed to wear a white shirt and tie; I had to go buy a tie for him.  He made me smile to watch him; he was on the front row and kept "falling" off of the risers, and had to turn around to look at who was behind him, and squint out at the audience and wiggle and squirm.  Just Gabe. :)  He did a great job singing.  

Here he is sitting happily with his class before the program started.

This is his first grade class:

This is him singing with the K-6th grades:

We were initially sitting near him on the bleachers,

but I was out in the foyer for a lot of the time with Ms. Wiggle Worm, who needed to busily crawl.  She had some other crawl/totter/scamper buddies out there with her.  Here she is practicing her standing:

She fell fast asleep before we left.

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Lately I've been teaching the boys a few new games; we've played Uno, all of us together, and then I got some regular card decks to teach Gabe Egyptian Rat Killer.  I loved playing that with my friends in middle school, and still really like it.  We're in the middle of a stretched out game, since it can take a while to finish, being as that I am delaying some of my doubles slaps to let him catch on and have a chance. :)  I LOVE having a buddy to play cards with me!!  It's just good times.

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Lately Israel has been asking to take some pictures with my camera.  Here's two lately of me, in all my wild-haired, sweatshirt clothed, be-spectacled glory.

Isn't motherhood becoming on me?  

I'm still wearing my glasses because of this ratty pink eye that never seems to quiiiiiite leave.  It could have something to do with the fact that I keep forgetting to use my antibiotic drops on a proper schedule, but whatever.  Horribly annoying, the whole mess.

Babies et. al.

My baby girl is such a sweet, happy, jolly, little merry friend.  She is such a delight and a joy.  I love her SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!

She has been a bit of a goob in the sleep department for a long time now, however, between virus and teething virusteething virusteething virus-teething-virus-teething-virus-teething-ad-infinitum-run-screaming-madly-sigh.  

She has had her one stretch of getting to bed very very late around 1 or 2 AM night after night in a row with short naps during the day.  This got totally exhausting because her loving parents have to get up bright and early to get Eldest Child off to school.  

Then she went through a stage where she went to bed at a normal time, but it would take F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to get her to sleep - like, 45 minutes - every single time she woke up.  And she would startle awake so easily when I laid her down.  So then I'd have to go through another looooooooong time of nursing her back to sleep.  Aaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhh.  I would spend more than half of my night out of my bed, asleep in the chair by her crib with my neck cricked off to the side.  Horridly uncomfortable.  And I would be juuuust creeping back into my (cold) sheets and making myself comfy, and there she would go again.  I think that stage was the worst one.  

Right now she will go to bed at a normal time, and I can lay her down fairly quickly and easily, but now she is waking up at 3 or 5 AM and being hello bright cheerio it's a beautiful morning chirp.  She is happy and not interested in going back to sleep.  Actually, Tim has been fairly awesome with this stage, because often after a good while of working diligently to convince her that she wants to go back to sleep, he has gotten up with her while I collapse back into bed.  

She is a very busy girl these days.  Helps out with all kinds of things, especially emptying the dishwasher.  ;)  

Or emptying the tupperware cabinet.  Or opening cabinet doors and shutting them for a long time.  

Or shredding tissues.  

Or messing happily in the dog water.  Or eating the dog food.  Or pulling the trash cans over.  Or trying to play in the toilet.  Or hustling to get out the back door onto the porch with a feverish crawl and a wild glint in her eye.  

She is pushing up to standing on her own.  She parks her legs into a wide stance and carefully raises herself up.  She is VERY proud of herself as she sways in place.  :)

She actually drinks out of a bottle really well, although I am still nursing her a lot.  

I give her water in her bottle.  She LOOOOOVES water, and LOVES drinking water out of a cup, and loves making a very satisfied "Ahhhhh!" sound afterwards with a big proud smile on her face. 

Israel was sick two days ago.  

He was really quiet and lethargic the whole day that I took this picture and he slept a lot, and then the next day he was better.  

I think we have all had this virus.  Mine has included four days of pink eye in both eyes.  Vicious, that stuff is.  

Zion is just still such a cutie.  

Still feels little to me, although I know this is soon to change.  Right now I'm just enjoying the last vestiges of babyness left in him; the soft skin, the baby face, the giggles, the little cuddler that he is. :)  He hums and clicks his way through his day, "Nnnnn nnnnnn nnnnnnnhhhhhhhh, (clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth) nnnnnnnnnhh (click click)..."  He is a little mischievous scamp.

 I just love him in this little lumber-jack shirt. 

He took a special liking to this roll-up picnic blanket that I found at Goodwill, and liked to drive his car down the "road".

Carl came over the other day and tilled our garden for us.  He had lots of helpers. 

Zion was playing with his wheelbarrow off to the side.

The first dandelions of the season.

The boys have been so cute bringing them in to me.  Zion waits very happily and watches me put them behind my ears with a very satisfied look on his face.  :)  Sometimes there are more dandelions than there are ears on my head.  This provides a good excuse for another mess.  

These two can be very busy together. :)  

I'm surprised at how well they play together already.  Zion usually plays well with her, but now and then he will administer a random whack and then go fleeing.  Roll of the eyes.  Layla likes to chase him on his Y-bike, or they chase a ball together, or Zion gives her toys or puts sunglasses on and giggles as she pulls them off. 

Here's the other half of the crew.  

Right now Israel wants to do anything and everything just like Gabe.  "Israel, do you want red or blue?" "What did Gabe pick?"  "Red." "Then I want red!!" (jumps up and down excitedly).  Sometimes Gabe gets tired of all this Gabe-love. :)  Sometimes, though, it is just a symbiotic little Bossy Pants Firstborn and Happy To Comply Second Born relationship. 

Lately I have really been crying out to God for grace in the parenting department.  I go through cycles, where I feel like I am being gentle and patient, and then I enter another cycle where I can't seem to find that gentleness or patience ANYWHERE for the life of me.  And let me tell you, four small children ages 7-11 months require a great deal of said gentleness and patience.  Sometimes I really have to remind myself - the very nature of children is to need.  That's how it's supposed to work.  It probably sounds absurd that I might forget that, but when you have so many needs that interrupt the meeting of other needs it can be easy to forget.  Some days the baby is tired and wants to be put to sleep and somebody needs help finding something and somebody else is asking about juice and then there's another diaper change needed and the kids are not leaving Layla alone and Zion bumped something and wants to be held and the dishes are looming and so is the laundry and the living room was just clean and now it's wrecked and Gabe forgot to do his homework and Tim is gone for a meeting and as soon as I finally get everyone settled and asleep the dog barks and wants food/water/bathroom and sometimes I just don't want anybody to need me for at least a good twenty minutes.  

It's a discipline, this mothering thing!!  There is so much in me that fights to be sarcastic or impatient or heave a sigh or roll my eyes - when really my children are just being that. Children.  Who want attention and time and mothering and comfort.  And I am the one here to give them those things.  The only one.  So time and time again I find myself begging the Lord to give me what I don't have.  I so feel the inadequacy of me, plain me, just me.  I need more than me.  I need Him to break in, to break through the selfishness that resides so stubbornly in my person, and to give me what I don't possess in and of myself.  

Lately, along with that prayer I have been asking Him to show me how to best communicate love to my children, because with all the hurry's and tasks of life, I worry that too much time is spent instructing and admonishing and I want the important truths of how much I love them to sink down into their souls.  We are all made with different ways of receiving love, and sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what those things are in my children.  As the Lord has been yet again granting that prayer for the infilling of His Spirit to give me patience and kindness with my kids, I have also seen breakthroughs in understanding each of them.  I am so thankful for each of these things.  

A Progression of Days

One of my prayers and deep desires for my boys is that they grow up to be great friends.  And then, of course, come the inevitable squabbles, etc. - at this stage, especially in relation to Zion, as both boys get frustrated with him or he gets frustrated with them.  I thought it was so sweet the other day when Gabe said, "I think Israel should get an extra reward, because he is so nice to everybody."  

Israel is nice.  I sure do like him.  He has a tender spirit.  

Tonight the boys were carrying blankets they had taken into the living room back into their bedroom, and Israel said, "Gabe went and got my blanket for me today."  "That was nice of him!" I responded.  "Yes," Israel said, "He does lots of nice things for me."  It's just nice to see them appreciating each other like that.  Warms a mommy's heart. :)  

It will be interesting to see how Zion relates to them as he gets a little older, and if he will be closer to them or to Layla.  I love that they all have each other.  

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As I was zooming my speedy little cart around Walmart the other day my eye fell on these items on clearance and I simply. couldn't. resist.  

Don't they just look like just the things that a boy and his brothers need to work out some excess energy during the winter months? :)

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Zion is such a cuddly little tousle-haired destroyer of all things clean who also lets loose with ear piercing screeching insistence and tears when things are not pleasing.  He initially automatically votes "no" to any option presented him.  This is something that is so typical of him:  This morning he was sitting on Tim's lap on the couch, and Tim said to me, "Mom loves her Kindle Fire."  And Zion instantly said, quietly and distractedly as he examined his blanket corners, "No, she does not love her Kindle Fire."

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"Can I have these how much balls?" asks Zion, heading toward the door with an armload of whiffle balls.

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Layla is 9 months old.  

She is 21.5 lbs.  

When I catch sight of her in the mirror while I'm carrying her, she really seems like she is getting big. :)

When not sick, she will sleep from about 9 PM to 9 AM, waking once or twice to eat.  Lately she has been sick or teething more than not, however, and she seems to not sleep much when she is either of those.  

She nurses to sleep.  For about a month, she has often fallen asleep while gently clutching her exposed ear.  She also has this habit lately of vigorously smacking herself in the head as she is falling asleep.  Or stabbing herself in the head with her thumb while her fingers are spread open.  Smack, smack, smack.  Stab, stab, stab.  Roll of the mommy's eyes.  She will sit and play happily for a long while, and really maneuvers herself around while sitting or laying.  

She is a very sturdy sitter.  She can go from laying to sitting, but still only does this on the floor and not in her crib.  Still not crawling, but still close.  She will get on her knees with one leg folded inwards...and then sprawl on her stomach.  

She is a happy, friendly girl.

 Her top two teeth are finally through the gums and slowly coming all the way in.  She is eating baby food, and can put items into her mouth.  She is the first one of my children to put items from the floor into her mouth that she finds.  She can be very busy finding things. :)  

Goose.  Her hair is slowly coming in and is fluffy and curls a lot in the back.

 I love her so very very very very much.  We all do.  :)

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To follow up on my last post, the same week that I wrote about a month of sickness and exhaustion, I got really sick.  Chills and achiness and totally fatigued and drenching night sweats.  And right sided pleurisy in addition to the left sided pleurisy I already had.  And continued to cough and cough and cough.  I called the doctor back after antibiotics hadn't done anything, and she sent me for a chest x-ray.  The night after I got my x-ray, after getting up to feed Layla during the night, I almost passed out when I came back into our room; I felt TERRIBLE for about 5-10 minutes, and then felt really weak.  Tim was totally afraid that I had some kind of infection that was going septic, and he wanted me to go to the ER.  I went; they basically said - looks like you have an infection somewhere, we just don't know where.  The chest x-ray was negative for pneumonia.  I came home and started on the new antibiotic my doctor had prescribed, and slowly improved over the next week.  It is SO. GOOD. to have energy again.  I still have some cough, and some lingering pleurisy, but just feel SOOOOO much better than I had.  But here's the good part.  

The morning that I returned home from the ER, Tim kept getting persistent texts from our friend, Sydney, asking if a group of women could come over to help.  I finally agreed (which was harder than you may think, because I would much rather be prepared for people to come over than for everything to be way behind and need help), but a group of lovely wonderful amazing friends swarmed in late that morning and went to work, cleaning, and taking my laundry away and taking the boys away for the afternoon and bringing food and holding Layla and basically making us feel like we were "attended by angels".  I shuffled around when I could, and sometimes just sat exhaustedly with my eyes closed while people worked around me, and then more people came in the evening to pray for us and bring more food, and then more people came back the next day to finish things up and to bring back laundry and brought more food, and two people came the day after that, one to iron and one to help me get clean laundry put away...I'm telling you, it was amazing.   My house was clean basically from head to toe, all viruses had been Lysol-ed away, my laundry was clean and folded - and I wasn't in a total wiped out state getting it all done, but was able to rest and heal.  

A few weeks into my sickness, someone had prayed for me at church and had said that something good was going to come out of this sickness, and Tim and I have just so humbled and blessed by the OUTPOURING of love and care we experienced.  I just pray for each of those people an outpouring of spiritual blessing, where they know the love and presence of God in a way they have never experienced; for an outpouring of financial blessing that goes beyond their needs and allows for provision for wants and for generosity; for an outpouring of closeness and blessing in their family lives - for reconciliations and deepened relationships in the closest relationships of their lives.  I just simply cannot say thank you enough to you all.  We love you so very much and are humbled by your care for us.  

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Tim went away for about 5 days last week for a conference out of state.  He was gone from Saturday to Thursday.  This was (sort of) ok...until Gabe got sick.  Poor dude had strep, which had been making the rounds in his classroom.  He had a headache, sore throat, no appetite, and an itchy rash that covered him from head to foot.  Even the bottoms of his feet were covered in the rash and itchy.

Tuesday found all five of us waiting in the doctor's office to be seen, which is an experience in and of itself, if you've ever taken multiple young children to wait in a doctor's office.  Then, the mommy took all four children into Walmart to pick up Gabe's antibiotic, and to get some things for a Valentine's Day party.  Gabe had burst into tears when he realized that he had to miss the Valentine's Day party at school and his mommy felt very badly for him and had promised that we would have a Valentine's Day party at home.  So, at Walmart, I had Layla, Gabe, and Zion in one cart, and was pushing that with one hand while pulling another cart to get groceries/medicine/party items.  This, my friends, was just yet another experience for the week.  

Gabe was grouchy and sick and kept yelling at Zion who would touch him with his feet.  Layla tilted too far and whacked her head on the side of the cart, so then I was holding her in one arm, and alternately pushing one cart a few steps and going back to retrieve the other cart for a few steps, as Israel got teary and intimidated about pushing the grocery cart for me.  Finally I put Layla back in, and right toward the end of our shopping, she fell fast asleep and stayed that way until I lifted her out of the cart to put her back in her seat out in the minivan.  

Can I just say - that was probably one of the most exhausting Walmart trips I have ever experienced.  

When we came home, my party energy was hanging on by a fragile pink thread...I had promised to make cupcakes and had agreed to make both chocolate and strawberry...and then I was pretty much done. :)  The boys seemed to roundly enjoy their supper of cupcakes and raspberry sherbet punch and cheese curls and other similar goodies.  Nothing like good nutrition during illness......but it would just have to do.  

Man, was I tired at the end of that day.  Phew.   

So anywho, we celebrated Valentine's Day with a healthy dose of scarlet fever.  (I think scarlet fever sounds just so much more exciting that "strep with a rash".  Do you not agree??)  An illness with a colorful name befitting the holiday, eh??  

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In the days it has taken to complete this post, Layla has started to crawl, at about 9 months 2 1/2 weeks.  She has been the slowest of my children to crawl by one week, I think.  Since then, she has found herself a busy busy girl.  Head straight to the wood pellet stove to try to grab those pretty orange flames...check.  Dump out the trashcan(s)...check.  Empty dog waterbowl and/or food bowl...check.  Attempt to obtain silverware out of the dishwasher basket...check.  

Hmmmmmmmm.  Between Layla and Zion, I shouldn't be bored.  Or in any want of things to clean up.

What a Cheezer Mcfreezer. 

Hack Sniffle Doze

Soooo...it's been very quiet on the home front around here.  Except for all the rattling coughs and the blowing of the noses.  And the occasional puking of the children.  What a very pleasant time we have been having since arriving home from Christmas, indeed.  

I've had this horrible nasty horrible deep nasty cough for about three weeks.  Layla has been sick and cutting her top two teeth all month.  This is how the nights have gone for about a month:

Layla falls tiredly asleep around 9:00 PM.  

I lay her in her bed.  

She wakes up coughing in about 30 minutes, and will not, absolutely will not, go back to sleep.  

Until about 12:30 or 1:00 AM.  

I lay her down and hurriedly creep into bed.  

She reawakens coughing in about 30 minutes, right as I am on the edge of sleep.  

I wearily trudge back into her room and nurse her back to sleep, but as she is just falling asleep, I am overcome with involuntary convulsive coughing, which reawakens her.  

She finally settles back into sleep, and I fall asleep in the chair nursing her...

until she wakes herself up by coughing, then nurses back to sleep...

right as I begin convulsively coughing again.  

Rinse and repeat.  

I creep back to bed finally at some random hour of the night, only to repeat this cycle 3-4 times a night, then rise and shine flicker a tired and feeble light a bit after 7 AM to get Gabe out the door for school, and Layla wakes up so there is no going back to bed, and then she naps about 30 minutes maybe twice a day because of her coughing, which means no naps for me, and then we re-enter the horrible nighttime cycle.  

Dearie, you may ask, with a confused look on your face, why on earth why don't you take some cough medicine??  This is an excellent question, indeed, and one that my sleep deprived brain cells did not entertain until I also developed an upper respiratory infection and pleurisy (ie. stabbing pain to your lung when you take a deep breath or cough.  TWICE within the span of a year I have gotten this horrible thing.)  SO, two and half weeks after my cough begins, I rush to the medicine cabinet to make it stop.  Novel concept.  It's a wonderful thing, not coughing.

Dearie, you may ask, with a confused look on your face, why on earth don't you give that baby of yours some medicine to help her sleep better??  This is another excellent question, and once again I refer you to the previously mentioned brain cells.  Baby Girl can't stomach the multiple milliliters of Tylenol now required since they have phased out infant dosing, and it wasn't until three nights ago I finally bought some baby ibuprofen.  And cough medicine.  And Baby Orajel.  And two nights ago, it took, and for the first time in probably six months, Layla slept from 10 PM to 5 AM.  Then she woke to drink, and went back to sleep until 10 AM.  

It. Was. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.  She's been waking about once a night since then and napping regularly.  Hallelujah!!!!

I, however, am worn out.  I think this is actually why I have gotten pleurisy twice in one year.  So now I am diligently taking my vitamins, and my antibiotics, and my cough medicine, and my ibuprofen, and trying to heal.  What a month.  

Along the way, I turned 34 on January 7.  Doesn't that sound suspiciously close to 40 to you??  I thought so too.  We got a sitter to take the kids away, went to do some returns in Salisbury, picked up Indian food takeout and a movie and came back home.  Just easier with an 8 month old on board.  It was a good time.  My main impression of my 34th birthday was that I felt very tired and flat.  Like I had been feeling.  And like I still am.  Apparently it's the theme of the month.