basking in the babiness

We have pictures of A. eating at Thanksgiving 2008.  That means she was about 3.5 months old

Then, with K.  we waited until he was a little over 4 months old

But, with this little guy, I just want to keep him a baby.  He is so fantastic and I feel in NO rush to let him grow up.  However, he has started reaching for our food and the big kids have been begging to feed him.  So, we started with some sweet potatoes that we were eating and then moved on to carrots and pears.  All the same foods that we had for lunch or dinner, just mashed a bit.

So far, an empty spoon is really fun.  Spoons with food are very interesting and maybe gross.

And... bibs, hair, highchairs, floors, and Mommy look way better with food splattered all over.

Sweet baby boy, I know you will grow up.  Just, please help us to remember to savor all this time with you!

Love,

Mommy

Take 2

Over the summer, I found myself yelling at K. more frequently.  OK, was it a 4 year old boy thing or could this kid really not hear me?  K. and A. both had ear tubes when they were infants.  They inherited bad ear anatomy and short little legs from their Daddy.  Despite his history, B. thought that he could hear and the problem was listening.  So, we waited a bit.  Then, in November, K. failed his school hearing screening.  They thought it was probably fall allergies.  I had a newborn at the time so I wasn't overly concerned.  However, when he failed again in December, it was time to revisit his ENT.  Yep, a failed hearing test.  However, the doctor just wanted to try to have him pop his ears everynight for about a month and see if the fluid went away.  Bad mom alert... we only had him try to blow up the baloon to pop his ears a handful of times.  Who thinks about blowing up balloons after a the other million things that this busy family lis doing during the day?  Needless to say, his hearing did not get better.  It, instead, got worse.  So, last friday, this little champion got his second set of ear tubes.

He wasn't worried at all.  He was pretty psyched because we told him that if they took out his adenoids as well, he would get ice cream for lunch...

I went back with them as he was falling asleep.  He was chatting with the anesthesiologist for a few minutes. 

 Doctor:   "What do you like to do?"

K:  "I like to draw."  

Doctor:  "What do you like to draw?"

K.:  "I.  ddddrrrraaawwww.    mmmmoonnnssssttttteeeerrrrrssss

K.:  silently laughing 

Doctor:  ok, I think he is sufficiently asleep

20 minutes later, this was my boy

Poor guy felt hungover yet didn't get to participate in the fun leading up to being hung over...

1 hour later...

Back to himself

Well, no more bad dad thinking that K. just can't listen.  No more bad mom slacking on appointments and ear popping.  And, no more excuses for my boy.  

what's next

A. has been an inquisitive girl FOREVER.  I think I've written about her "what's next" question about a million times on this blog.  I remember actually counting her questions when she was 4.  B has counted recently when in one conversation, she asked 11 consecutive questions.  I try to remember that it will sometime serve her well and that she is constantly learning. But, it isn't easy!

Once A. knows the answer to a question, she either starts another scenerio in her head, or she worries about the answer.  Anything new happening and anything changing a sleep routine causes a whole new kind of angst.  On this particular day, we were at a birthday party with all 3 kiddos.  K. was staying after the party for a sleepover.  WHAT?!?  He is old enough to stay somewhere else?!?  He won't be home to ready a story?!?  What if he wakes up worried?  What if he wakes up and isn't worried?  Does that mean that he doesn't miss us?  Does that mean that he doesn't love us?  Will A. be able to sleep if he's not in our house?  Are we going to go straight home from the party without him?  SO. Many. Questions.

Well, K. was old enough to stay.  He did feel worried for awhile but then did completely fine.  He did love us.  And...

We didn't go straight home.  

village

I can not emphasise how much we need our village to raise our kids.  This "village" is the people that we trust to care for our kids on the millions of fog delays, early dismissals, and snow days.   It's the family that went to pick up A. when I forgot it was an early dismissal day (oops!).   It's the people that don't mind being called or texted at 6:40 am when I'm trying to reconfigure my patient's and still make sure that my kids are loved and supervised.  It's the people that share and instill the values in our kids.  It's the people that probably will be future advisors and trusted companions to our kids when they don't want to or feel like they can't come to us with whatever issue.  I take pride in finding these people and am sooo grateful for them!!!

some of our village

Living in small town America, we do most things with at least one of the people in our village.  However, we are just now venturing into the world of Lacrosse.  Being from VA, neither B nor I have any experience with Lacrosse.  We know one other family; it's a family that we adore and is DEFINATELY part of our village.  However, on this particular day, that family was not there.  This was one of the very first lacrosse practices and I was on my own with the 3 kiddos.  R. needed to be fed, A. needed to go to the bathroom, and K. was feeling nervous about getting on the field.  The coach started talking and K.'s nose started to drip, drip, drip blood.  Then it began to gush, gush, gush blood.  Thankfully, having an infant, I had wipes.  A. forgot about the bathroom and fed R. while I dealt with K's nose.  30 minutes later and an entire package of wipes later, we finally got him on the field.  I took over feeding the baby and A. could escape to the bathroom.

Now, I do take pride in being calm in an unpleasant situation, but I really can't imagine that I looked like everything was completely under control.  I do not believe that I looked like I was such a super mom that an offer to help was totally unwarranted.  I don't think that I was so amazing that the cop in uniform or the aquantance that I know for sure is an offduty nurse could not have even acknowledged the situation.  However, I do know that the lack of my village being there made me so sad.  I do know that I question even taking K. back to practice because the people that I want to be in his life would have helped or at least offered.  I do know that I've been thinking about this for days and I've come to the conclusion that this is where I have to practice what I preach to the kids.  I have to model how I would act and hope that as I get to know these people, they will become a different type of village.  I"m going to have to, as I say to the kids, "let my little Jesus light shine".