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.  

February was a trying month.  I was still pretty sick from January, and then toward the last part of the month I developed what ended up being an abscess resulting from an unknown episode of mastitis.  They biopsied it, which led to a golf-ball sized hematoma under my skin and some SERIOUS pain that I finally couldn’t take anymore, and went into the ER, where they sent me into surgery to drain the hematoma and clean out the abscess, and left me with a nice sized hole next to my sternum to heal from the ground up.  I was SO relieved to be out of that pain, though, I just didn’t mind.  I had an overnight stay in the hospital after surgery, and my WONDERFUL MOTHER, who has been our helper in all of these similar scenarios, left immediately to come take care of the kids while friends from church filled in until she got here.  

I thought that Layla would be ok away from me for a night…but she was sick already with a bad cold and simply didn’t agree with my plan.   So she and Tim ended up camped out in my hospital room with me.  The hospital ended up moving us to an AWESOME room on peds, with a crib for Layla, a bed for me, and a bed for Tim.  Let me say this:  Nanticoke Hospital did an awesome job customer service wise, and were friendly and flexible.   

So that was February, and I sure am glad to be done with that episode!!!  

Here’s some pictures from Feb/March:

Giggling, wrasslin’ boys.

A cutie patootie checking on the dog.

Bath-time discussions.  Zion and Layla are great pals.

It’s just so good to drink that one must get every last delectable drop of bath water… 

My Valentine from Gabe.

Gabe reading to his attentive brothers.

Bedtime snacks with Grandma.

Grandma and Layla.

Miss Mess Mouse Moose.

Strawberry Face.

 

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. 

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.  

That wide-eyed smiley face deserved it’s very own paragraph, it did.  Because that’s a lot of miles with the passel o’ chillun’s we had on board.  

Memories of Christmas of 2011:

*Going to a Live Nativity the weekend before Christmas, in Lewes, DE.

We stood in line outside for a loooonnngg time.  It was cold.  But afterwards we got to have hot chocolate and cookies.  My boys are related to their mama, because they were asking excitedly about the hot chocolate before we even got there.    Me and mine offspring just loooooves us some celebratory finger foods.  

*The measuring cups/spoons, whisk, baster, set of serving spoons, and tongs that all three boys received in their stockings this year.  Now they have their very own kitchen/sandbox/bathroom sink/garden dirt utensils, and Mommy has her very own kitchen utensils that can stay. where. they. belong.  Amen.

*How Israel burst into tears when Gabe got a video camera and he got a electronic letter writer thingie (that was actually really cool and was later busily in use).  Sigh.  We were trying to give them each something electronic to avoid mega jealousy over the letter thingie…that worked well.  

*How all three boys joyfully rolled and played and tumbled and tusselled around their Grandma’s house, playing tricycles up in the bonus room.

 

Zion zonked out on our Christmas day there.  Hard work, opening all those presents!!!  

*How Layla did NOT sleep very well at all, unlike a month ago in the same crib where she slept awesomely.  She is working on her top two teeth and she had a cold.

*Spending time with my extended family at my Grandma Lou’s house, where we always have great food and a great time.

 

*How I had 2 1/2 hours of sleep between Zion and Layla before we left for IN on Christmas Day at 4:30 AM.  

Zion enjoying his blankie and a goodie from the Grandma Bag his Grandma tucked into his seat with him early in the morning.  

The trip actually went really well, and we got to IN around 2:30 PM.

 

Two of Layla’s favorite toys in IN – the kitchen timer and a coaster set.

*How the boys all enjoyed fondue (marinated steak and chicken, a swiss cheese fondue for bread pieces, chocolate fondue for fruit and marshmallows) at Grandpa Norm’s house.  

Zion particularly enjoyed the marshmallow/chocolate combo.  

We also enjoyed Great-Grandma Polly’s company, and I enjoyed getting to know her a little better. 

*Seeing how much Tyler and Aubrey had grown in a year’s time.  

*Missing Nana Carol, who was in Thailand with Lynette and Rusty, for…

*The birth of Henry Miles Polinder in Bangkok, Thailand.  8 lbs 10 oz, 20 1/2 inches long.  Born in approximately 40 minutes after the doctor broke Lynette’s water.

Soooooooooo glad my newest nephew is here safe and sound.  We missed you too, Lynette and Rusty!!!!

*Watching everybody play outside in the snow while Layla and I were snug and warm inside.  

They also hooked sleds up to the Gator to slide around and had a marvelous time.  

Again, during this part I was also snug and warm and content inside.  I’m getting very boring in my old age.  

*Time with Carol’s extended family.  

Layla doing her Layla-Lean.

*Hearing Tyler, Gabe, and Israel giggle and talk long into the night.  

*Skyping with far away family.

*How Layla did NOT sleep very well at all in IN, either.  The night before we were to leave for DE at 4 AM, she stayed up until around 12 AM, then was up from 2 AM-4 AM screeching her head off in exhausted discomfort.  I think her stomach hurt her, but I don’t know why.  Or maybe it was her teeth.  I don’t know, but she screamed and screamed.  I felt really bad for her, but when I finally tried to give her Tylenol, she did what she does and puked all over everything.  I can’t give the child Tylenol since they changed the formulation and you have to give them so much more.  She’s a gaggy girl.  Gabe was always that way too.  So then we had to do an entire outfit change and bath at 3 AM, and change the sheets on the guest bed where I was holding her.  Needless to say, we scrapped the 4 AM plans.  Layla was up again from about 5-5:30 AM.   (This particular smiley face seems to have shown up a lot in this post.) We left around 12:30 PM instead.  

*Our trip home was truthfully somewhat more painful than the trip there.  But we made it.  We got home to DE around 1:30 AM.  The nice thing was that all the kids were asleep and they stayed asleep when we laid them in their little beddie-byes.  

*I thought of my nephew, Oliver, a lot, who was 5 1/2 hours south of us in Bloomington.  I am sure he had a splendid Christmas too, and one of these times his Aunt Carrie can give him a biiiiiiggg hug again.  

*I also thought of my niece Olive a lot, as her brother Henry was born.  We miss her too, and love her very much.  And will always.

Thanks soooooooooooooooo much to all of our family, for their generosity and for the great times we had at our homes!!  We love you all!!!

1.  This year I’m going into Christmas a little wearily.  It sort of feels like we just took down the Christmas decorations about four months ago, instead of eleven.  And, can I just say decorating for Christmas is an awful lot of work?  To turn around and take down a few weeks later?  So this year I resolve to leave my decorations up all year.  Not really. 

But I really am doing it just for the kids.  If it were up to me, I think I might skip it this year.  Last night we finally got the tree up, and mostly decorated.  My camera didn’t even come out to see it happening.  It was being lazy.  After we decorated the tree, we made pretzels together.  The boys thoroughly enjoyed this activity.  Here’s my one measly picture from this activity (actually I took more than one, just of the same thing).  

Here’s another, so you can enjoy Tim’s face.  You’re welcome.

I like the idea of Christmas traditions.  I like the pretzel making with the tree decorating, although truthfully the whole decorating bit is a bit hard to rope the husband into.  His holiday energy is sort of short.  ;)  But he helped me anyway.  He must love me.  I also brought out my delightful stack of Christmas books today.  And I revved up the baking with some Chocolate Revel Bars.  Hello, lusciousness.  The boys also really enjoy doing an Advent calendar with doors that open every day of the month.  My mom always sends them one of those.  I expect over the years we will add some more.  I love their wide eyed delight in Christmas.  It makes Christmas really fun.  And worth going to all the bother for.  

2.  I am currently in the throes of dread in regards to our Christmas traveling.  I am totally excited about the destinations, and seeing family, some that we only get to see once a year, but the Layla Factor makes my stomach knot up and squeeze.  I have been going back and forth and hemming and hawing and scheming and planning on the BEST WAY to travel 11 hours with a 8 month (she turns 8 months on Christmas Day) old child who despises traveling.  Currently my plan is to leave early early early on Christmas morning, and have Layla in the back between Gabe and Israel, and drive 760 mph safely in our jet car so as to get to IN within 30 minutes.  Except not actually.  Oh yes – and the very very first part of my traveling plan is to pray VERY HARD that Layla would be a peaceful and happy traveler.  If anyone wants to join me in that prayer, I would welcome it.  

3.  Seems like there are babies popping out right and left around here lately.  I can think of at least eleven babies just born or due very soon or kind of soon to people I know. Phew.  I ain’t climbin’ on that bandwagon, though, no sirree.  I got me a little baby and she is quite enough work right now, thank you kindly.  And dear and precious.  Look at her squeezy little legs.  

Note to anyone with eyes.  Enjoy the mess on the floor behind Layla, and then you can come clean it for me.  You’re welcome for that, too.  ;) 

4.  Tim was gone for part of last week, going to a conference thing in PA.  He left Tuesday night and got back Saturday night.  Things actually went really smoothly here.  Something about adjusting my expectations to fit the week.  I did feel like my evenings were basically chock full of Layla Baby.  Girlfrien’ likes to nurse 28 hours a day, especially in the evening.  She can happily nurse the entire evening away.  She’ll be tired and cranky, and not quite asleep, but not really ready to do anything else.  Probably needs the drink…she’s such a skinny ol’ thing…  

The cool thing was that I got to webcast into the same place Tim was at – I could even see Tim right on the second row.  

It made him not feel very far away.  

Here are me and Layla Baby while Tim was gone, in a delightful self portrait where I shamelessly merged the best picture of her and the best picture of me.  

Photoshop is nice that way. 

On a lot more sober note,

5.  Tim’s maternal grandfather, Henry, is in the process of going from this world into the other.  I really liked this picture that his aunt Kathy posted on Facebook this morning:

I love that he is going with his family by his side, with his wife who loves him to send him on, and his children to take care of the things that need to be done.  What a treasure.  I pray for blessing on Henry and Polly and all of their children that wait with them.  I pray for a gentle going, for peace, for freedom from pain and a heart that can rest in Jesus.  And bless his family with Your presence, and a quiet peace, and wrap the arms of Your presence around Polly as she says goodbye to her husband.  May she feel Your spirit tangibly supporting her.  In Jesus’ name.  

It’s “good ‘n fall” around here.  Leaves turned, grey heavy skies, damp wind. 

 

Here’s my Baby Girl on some pretty fall ground.

 

We are (I think) coming out of a little over a month of very interrupted sleep.  Layla was sick, then cutting teeth, then sick again, and the other boys were sick also during that time.  I don’t think I have ever felt such a sleep deficit in my life.  I have been up every 1-2 hours a night for a month.  I would go to bed with a sense of dread as to when I would have to wake up again, and just feel almost desperate for sleep to the point of tears at night sometimes.  Layla would stay up late, and I’d have to get up multiple times for her, and often Zion would wake up and not be able to get back to sleep for at least an hour, and then my alarm would go off a little after 7 AM to get Gabe up for school, and then the boys are up.  Tim helps too, by the way.

On the up side, it made the sleep aspect of travel not intimidating at all in terms of Thanksgiving, because there was no way that anybody could sleep any more terribly than they had been.  On our first night in VA, Layla slept the entire night solidly after going to sleep around midnight, and woke around 9 AM, for really the first time ever I think.  Our first night back home to DE, she slept from 9 PM to 9 AM with one wake up at around 5 AM.  Ironically, that first night in VA that Layla slept through, we were up at around six with an extremely croupy Israel.  :)  If ain’t one thing it’s another – but it’s still easier rest-wise than the every hour thing.  Phew.

Gabe

Israel

Zion David.  

 

Fall picture.

 

Gabe, age 7; Israel, age 5; Zion, age 3; Layla, 6 months

 My Eskimo baby.

 

The boys went trick-or-treating for the first time this year.  This is the first year that we have been home and/or not completely exhausted by pregnancy.  

I sent Tim out with them; Layla was sleeping.  They were just overcome with excitement, and I was so excited for them that I just couldn’t take it, and soon scooped Layla out of the crib and went off in search of them to share in the fun.  

We just went around our two blocks, and they scored enough candy to last them for a good year or so.

 One day Mr. Messy Moose was alone for about 30 seconds in the master bath and promptly dumped basically an ENTIRE bottle of baby wash into the tub.  

Of course, his brothers were quite gleefully excited about this.

 Tim and I went to a conference in PA at the end of October and took little Layla Love.  I expected her to not be too much work, but…she sort of was.  She slept really badly and it was such a physically tiring few days, because of all the additional holding – no exersaucer, crib to take naps in, etc., combined with poor sleep.  We were pretty tired at the end of it.  But it was still well worth the trip, and fun to spend that time together.  

My mom stayed here at our house with the boysies.  

Israel also got croupy the last night we were gone.  Apparently we like to give Grandma all these fun things to deal with – croup and H1N1.  I think that’s about enough for one year.  :)

Speaking of H1N1, I still am shaking my head in relief that that horrible month is over.  Phew.  The boys got a flu vaccine for the first time ever this year.  Layla will get hers soon.  A year goes by so fast, but somehow that whole adventure feels like a combination of a long time ago and yet not long enough.

Sometimes there are naked refrigerator raids at my house.  Apparently.   

Zion was actually very cranky about me taking his picture.

Gabe lost his first tooth at 7 years, 1 month, and 4 days.  

A very exciting time.  It had been pretty loose for a while, and came out while I was brushing his teeth.  He was hoping to lose it at school, because then he would get his name on some list or something.  His other bottom tooth is getting pretty loose too right now.  He is losing his two bottom teeth at the same time that Layla is getting hers in.

One night we Skyped with cousins Tyler and Aubrey in KS.  

The boys had a grand ol’ time with this, and there was an excessive amount of silliness and noise making, all around.  :)  That pesky little window at the top of the screen that allows you to see all the wonderfully delightful faces you are making is just simply. irresistible. 

 Zion likes to have “belts”.

 

Waaaay back in September, we had church camp, or as the boys call it “Camp Church”.  They are so excited about this every year.  

Zion socializes, and Mark helps carry chubby Baby Girl.

We have stayed there overnight each year so far, but this year we didn’t, and it was just a lot easier not to, with the Layla factor.  Had a great time as always, though.

Here are my boys with their neighbor buddies that they spent a significant part of the end of the summer playing with.  

Today my eyes are crossing from the combination of whining, snot (from all three children currently at home), loudness during the baby’s nap, and plethora of tasks.  I want to go hide in a hole somewhere where nobody can whine at me.

******************

A conversation I overheard today…:

Israel: “And now we are going to play church!”

Zion: “No, school!”

Israel: “No, church!”

Zion: “No, school!”

Israel: “And we will need these kinds of guns…” 

He trails off, busily obtaining the appropriate guns for, um, such occasions.  As church and school would lend.    Boys are just weird.

Last Thanksgiving, we stayed home in VA and had a splendid little Thanksgiving all by our little old selves.  This year, we wanted to have a splendid Thanksgiving in VA.  And it was splendid indeed.  Except for the traveling.  Layla Lou, who is cutting her bottom two teeth (which are through the gums) AND has a cold, fussed, cried, and screamed the whole way home, except for a few grouchy minutes of sleep.  But we made it.  We did have to stop off somewhere close to Washington, D.C. at a Five Guys Burgers and Fries so that some of us would not go mentally insane from all of the screeching.  Poor baby girlfriend.

Thanksgiving with my extended family on my mom’s side was at my parent’s house this year, with my aunt Sharon cooking.  It was deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious.  With a capital D.  It was a relaxed evening of chatting and eating. 

The table full of talking kids.

There were 39 of us there.  Only missing my nephew Oliver.

Here are four generations:  My Grandma Lou, my mom, me, and Baby Girl, ages 87?? to 1 day shy of 7 months.

Layla and my cousin, Andrea.

A very happy Thanksgiving.  Like to wore a Grandaddy and Grandbaby out.

Zion busily helping clean up the next day.  He’s such a Helper Henry.  And a Messy Moose.

Gabe got curious about checkers while we were there, and I started to teach him on a chess board, and then Uncle Quentin took over.

They played a bunch of games.  

Layla in her borrowed exersaucer.  

The last night we were there, Layla was very fussy, and after giving her a bath,

Mom was rocking her back and forth and singing to her, and Layla was really relaxed.  It was just really cute.

The trip back to DE was unfortunately, somewhat similarly painful to the trip to VA, Layla-wise.  We’re sort of cringing at the thought of the 10+ hour trip to IN that awaits us this Christmas.  But it will be well worth the pain, never you fear.  ;)  Hope everybody had a very happy Thanksgiving!!

Zion: (as he is looking through the bananas for one that meets his ripeness requirements) “Oh, that’s not a sunny day one…oh, yes it is a sunny day one.”  HOW CUTE IS THAT??  A sunny day banana.  

**************

Israel: (admiringly) “I like the people at Dunkin’ Donuts.  They give us coffee and donuts!!”  

Which is why I like the people at the bank.  They give me money.  

Wait a minute…

 Yesterday I felt INTENSELY crabby.  Trapped and caged and a bit wild-eyed.  I decided to take the kids for a walk in the nearby woods, which are only a few minutes drive away.  But first, I had to find pants for Zion, a shirt for Israel, Layla’s pacifier, diapers all around, wipes, Layla’s sweatshirt, Israel’s sweatshirt, Zion’s sweater, my sweatshirt, my phone, my wallet, my keys, make some hot tea because that’s just what I decided I needed, find the Ergo, change Layla’s diaper, change my clothes, get shoes for the boys, and…I think that’s it.  My point being – it takes a lot to simply get out the door.  

When we were there, the weather was just gorgeous.  It was so peaceful walking through the trees, and the air was warm with fall in it, and the woods smelled so nice.  We ate our doughnut holes from Dunkin’ Donuts down by the creek, which was completely clear, letting you see straight down to the bottom.  The boys threw pine cones in the water, Layla started to fuss, and I held her to sleep.  I decided the reason I love this weather and the woods so much is because they remind me of India, when I went there with Reach.  Something about the season there when we went.  And we went hiking in the woods there too.  Something about the slant of the light and the feel of the air.  Such good associations for me.  

And then Israel started complaining about not having a rock to throw in the water and the boys were being noisy so I suggested that we walk.  And Zion’s flip flops kept coming off and he kept throwing fits about them and I was carrying Layla in the Ergo and she was sleeping and I was TOTALLY getting tired of standing in one place for ten minutes while he fussed on the ground about his flip flops and I couldn’t very easily get down there with him, and he wouldn’t put them on even though he is able, and then he would and then they would come off again and the whole scenario would be repeated and we kept retracing our steps and I just wanted to take a nice peaceful walk already and introduce some sanity to my soul and Israel is complaining that he doesn’t want to be in the woods (while having a marvelous time nonetheless) but instead he wants to go to the guitar shop and look at the drum set (another story), and my shoulders and neck are starting to twinge from the weight of Layla despite the Ergo’s marvelous design and then she woke up, and I lost my patience with Zion and he’s wailing, and…such is life with young children.  

After marching a few feet away angrily with the stinkin’ flip flops the first time, I took a deep breath and reminded myself that the reason that Zion was acting like he was was because he was tired and needed to rest, and steeled myself to be patient with him.  He finally agreed to leave his flip flops off after they came off one more time, and asked in his little voice that was a little ragged from the combination of the virus he is recovering from and tears, “Mommy?  Can I hold your hand?”  So we walk down the path, Zion’s soft little sweet hand in mine.  And the breeze is still beautiful.  And Layla’s sleepy blue eyes are looking up at me and her soft head is against my face.  

I thought how this is just life.  Life with multiple young children, and life in general.  The idealism mixed with the reality; the tears and the soft breeze, the trapped feelings and the soft hand, the whining mixed with the smell of the pines, the mess of life mixed with the beauty of it.