a sign for my front door. Let it read:
Welcome to all!
Before you come in, I want you to know,
that this is A House Where Children Live.
I will not apologize for the
toys on the floor,
the books unshelved,
or all the little handprints on the windows and walls.
Children here are living, learning, and loving.
I may be a housewife,
but I am also a living, learning, and loving momma.
If you want to see my house in perfect order,
come back in 18 years.Sincerely,
HappyMama
I knew I was arachnaphobic even before the movie came out. I am trying to hide that irrational aspect of my psyche from my children, but some days it is hard.
My 3yo loves bugs. He catches the crickets in our basement without hesitation and throws them outside for me. Tonight I was sitting outside watching the boys play in the gorgeous nearly-autumn weather when he walks over to me and thrusts his hand in my face, saying “look, mom!” and in the process drops a daddy-long-leg spider on my knee. It was a good thing I didn’t drop the baby when I jumped up.
“Oh my, you caught another spider.” (translate: that’s so, so gross.)
“Drop it in the pool, and see if it can swim.” (translate: I hope it can’t.)
It can’t, but Joey is there to save the day. He plays with it a while longer, and then decides it might like to be put down in the grass. Unfortunately for the spider, by the time of his release, he has lost one of his legs, which remains behind in the palm of my sons hand. “Look, mom, the leg is still moving!” It was. It continued to move for another, oh, 4 seconds. It was really weird. And interesting. But still so, so gross.
She fits into my arms just perfectly. She looked me in the eyes and smiled for the first time. And although we’ve been wondering who in the world she looks like, we were recently visiting my parents and when I looked at my own baby pictures, there she was, looking right back at me.
For the first time, we have an infant who doesn’t suffer from reflux, and is therefore a good sleeper. Friends have told me in the past that their babies were sleeping 4 & 5 hour stretches, and I was alternately disbelieving or insanely jealous. Now I believe them. Katie sleeps so well. (Hubby says she gets her sleepiness from me.) When she is finally ready to get up in the morning and I carry her out of our room, the boys smother her with hugs, kisses, and cries of “good morning!” and then they are off running and playing again.
I’m a very blessed mommy.
Baby is nursing. Do I:
1, stare into her beautiful face,
2, close my eyes and nod off, or
3, continue nursing while I go make sure the 3yo is not trying to give the ferret another hair-cut
Baby falls asleep nursing. Do I:
1, sit and hold her, knowing how fast she’ll grow,
2, lay her down, put on a video for the boys, and take a nap, or
3, go scrub the 6 layers of goop underneath the kitchen table
All the kids are tucked in for the night and finally sleeping. Do I:
1, go immediately to sleep,
2, take a much-needed shower, or
3, realize that I’m dreaming. It’s actually 7am and time to start another day!
Board games. I’ve mentioned my 5yo loves ‘em, especially chess, checkers, and yahtzee. He could play them all day, every day.
Here are 2 links we’ve used to:
When it comes to commenting on the presidential election, all I can say is: out of 304 million people, why can’t we find a better candidate?!
Of course, I’m pleased with McCain’s voting record on abortion-related issues. So, he’ll get my vote. Today I first glanced at his daughter’s blog, and I like how “personal” her blog makes him seem as a candidate. Take a look here.
Cheers to hubby, who figured out why I couldn’t post pictures: one of the plug-ins was preventing Java yadda yadda yadda. I don’t understand it, but I’m grateful! (Hold your mouse over the pictures to see the captions.)
So, here are pictures of our temporary pet. The first 2 days, the novelty and newness of the animal made me think that we’d adopt her permanently. That has changed. Maybe in about 4 more years we’ll be ready for a pet like this, when the kids are all old enough to clean out the litter box and stop pulling on its tail and carrying it around by the neck.
We’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately. It’s just too cute not to.
