Busy, Busy, Busy

This past week has been super fun, really hectic, and a little crazy.  From Thanksgiving meals with delicious food and visits with family to Christmas decorating at home, it feels like the past 4 days we've been going non-stop.  With everything I want to say, bullet-points seem to work best.  So, here goes!

• At Granny's in Litchfield we ate way too much, watched Barrett ride the exercise bike and wear himself out (I think we might need to get one just for that reason) and visited with family.

• Fletcher started crawling last week, but in the past four days he's really refined his craft.  At my parents house, he got the lid off of a small popcorn tin and quickly found out that it made some really exciting noise. 

• Audrey (with some help from my brother and sister-in-law) convinced Billy to put a whole roll of bubble tape gum in his mouth. 

• The only reason Barrett slowed down all weekend was to sleep or sit on Laurenn's lap.

• We decorated for Christmas, and in the process we: disovered the handheld Dyson wasn't charged, broke a glass ornament full of little white fuzz balls, lost an ornament that fell down in the tree because the tree was so big, found that ornament after 5 solid minutes of looking, found out Fletcher likes wearing reindeer antlers, and were constantly surprised by how far Fletcher had crawled and what he was getting into.

Yes, look at that last photo again, because I think that makes it official.  Fletcher is mobile.  Our lives will never be the same.  Watch out world!

Unexpected Joys

One of the ways God has used my children to bless me is to help me appreciate the little joys and to help me be more flexible.  I like structure.  I am a perfectionist.  I like things to be organized, and I ALWAYS need to have a plan.  Children, however, have forced me to get outside of my comfort zone by going with the flow, making plans on the fly, and just accepting the unexpected.  God has helped me to appreciate and accept those learnings by making so many of those unexpected occurances joy-filled...or at least hilarious (when I look back on them). 

In the past few weeks, some of those unexpected joys have made me pause to truly appreciate the way that my children have changed my life and me.  There is a Dan Allender book called How Children Raise Parents, and that title really says it all.  I obviously would not be the parent I am without my children, but I also wouldn't be the daughter, sister, wife, friend, co-worker, boss, and nieghbor that I am without my children. 

Here are just a couple of the moments from recent weeks where my children have continued to open my mind and heart with the little surprises they bring to my life.

• Fletcher got to go to his first Blues hockey game this week.  It was fun to watch him look around and take in all of the sights and sounds.  I was amused by his reactions to the loud horn and cheers when the Blues scored a goal.  I was also happy to see how Audrey and Barrett enjoyed the game, the popcorn they convinced their daddy to buy, and playing wiht their little brother at the game.  What I did not expect was getting to hold my 4 year old in my arms for an entire period while he slept peacefully despite the excited fans cheering around him.

• A couple of weeks ago, my brother and sister-in-law came into town.  We had a ton of stuff going on that weekend, but we ended up being able to go to dinner with them and my parents on Saturday night.  My mom was so excited to see the kids, she convinced us to let her take Audrey and Barrett for the night.  As if all of that wasn't unexpected enough (and all planned on the fly while we were having dessert), I also ended up driving to Greenville after church on Sunday to pick up the kids while Billy worked on some things in the basement.  It was while I was in Greenville that God used all of those last minute plans to touch my heart.  My grandparents came over to my parents house for a bit, and my grandmother was delighted to see Fletcher.  She was always very structured and somewhat strict when I was growing up.  She clearly loved us, and I knew it, but she wasn't exactly the soft and gentle type of grandma.  That day in Greenville, I got to see her softer side as she played with Fletcher.  He smiled at her, and I could see how it touched her heart and almost brought her to tears.  Her reaction, in turn, touched me and softened my heart as well.

• Daylight savings time has become sort of a bad word in our house the past couple of weeks.  Since the fall switch, my children all wake up way too early, and no one is on a really consistent sleeping schedule.  Barrett has always been an early riser, but now he usually wakes up before me.  So, while I am getting ready, he comes in the bathroom with me and plays while I put on my makeup and do my hair.  His new "play" consists of organizing all of the drawers in my bathroom vanity, and getting mad at me when I don't put everything back just the way he put it.  While it has become sort of a routine, the first few days it was wholly unexpected.  It made me realize just how much all of my children watch and learn from me.  It is more obvious with Audrey, because she is a girl.  But it is so clear that, even though Barrett is like a mini-Billy in many ways, he is also a lot like me.  Good or bad, he has my same love of sleep, organization, and focus on doing a good job. 

• Barrett has also noticed that with the construction going on in the basement, there is often a trail of dust between the front door and the basement door.  So, he enjoys getting out the swiffer duster and cleaning the house for me.  It is still a form of play for him, but I think the reason he really enjoys it is because he feels like he is helping.  When I compliment his efforts, he has such a look of pride on his face.  It's just amazing how big his heart is and it makes me want to make my heart bigger too. 
• Audrey and Barrett fight like brother and sister...I wonder why!  They can play togthether nicely when they want to, but there is a lot of arguing and general meanness that transpires as well.  Audrey is particularly unkind and bossy with Barrett, and even though he often reacts with anger, it's clear that his feelings really get hurt.  The other day, Audrey made a card for her brother.  It wasn't for any reason in particular other than that she wanted to tell him that she loves him and is glad he's her brother. 

7 Months

You're seven months old now, and you've officially hit that age where it seems like every day you are learning something new.  The biggest milestone that is close on the horizon is crawling.  You can get yourself up on all fours, but you haven't figured out how to actually move your arms and legs from that position yet.  In the meantime, you roll and scoot to get where you want to go.  We can't leave you, even for just a minute, because when we come back, you'll be in a completely different spot. 

You'r newfound coordination makes you a lot more fun to play with.  You've learned to roll a ball in the past few days.  It is pretty funny to watch, because you basically flap your arms around until you hit the ball and it rolls away from you.  You also kick the ball sometimes.  Similarly, that consists of you moving your feet back and forth until you make contact with the ball and it rolls away.  You are also extremely fascinated by toys that make noise or light up.  We have a little play radio that both Audrey and Barrett liked a lot as well.  It is now you're favorite toy too.  You also liked the remote control toy that plays music and talks, but your older brother claimed that one for himself again.  Your improving accuracy with movement also makes it more challenging at times, like when you planted your hand in my tomato soup at bread co. 

You've started to make even more sounds then before.  Last weekend, you surprised us all by blurting out "da-da" when your daddy was holding you.  You've been really entertained by making the "da" sound as well as "ba."  Generally though, you still like to be loud.  When your siblings are being even a little loud, it seems as though you want to confirm your presence by trying to be the loudest one in the room. 

You've started getting little bits of real food that isn't pureed.  Initially, you didn't know what to do with it, but now you gobble up pufss, yogurt bites, and bananas.  You do well with steamed carrots and peas too.  You also love crackers.  When we saw your great-grandparents in Greenville last weekend, your meemaw got a big kick out of feeding you crackers.  You're also improving your accuracy rate; I'd say that about 70% of the food you attempt to put in your mouth actually ends up there. 

You still love to put everything in your mouth.  The biggest challenge lately is dog toys.  Jack likes to bring you his toys so you'll play fetch with him, but I don't think he realizes you can't throw.  So, instead of throwing the toys, you try to put them in your mouth.  You also like chewing on your hands, but you don't suck your thumbs at all.  You are a pacifier baby.  You can even get your pacifier back in your mouth when it falls out now.  I just wish you'd start doing that at night so that you'd go right back to sleep when you wake up. 

Speaking of sleeping, I think your siblings have conditioned you to like noisy environments.  At hom, you fight going to sleep tooth and nail when you need a nap, but if it's noisy, you fall asleep with little persuasion.  At the movies last night, you fell asleep easily.  This morning while your dad and siblings were having an obnoxiously loud dance party, you fell asleep.  Granted, in both cases, I was holding you, but still...there is no way I could have slept in either scenario. 

All in all, you're a happy baby, especially when you're outside.  Even with the increasingly cool temperatures, you don't seem to mind.  You don't even have to be playing with anything.  You like to just look around.  Granted, if there is a stick, leaf or nut within your reach, you're going to grab it and check it out. 

I am so excited to see all of the new things you learn in the coming months.  You are getting so much bigger, stronger, and more inquisitive than you've ever been.  As I look at you, I am so thankful that God blessed me with three amazing children, all unique, all special, and all loved deeply by their mommy. 

Prehistoric Space Pirates

Themed family costumes for Halloween are all the rage these days.  I don't know if that's always been a thing or not...I just know my family never did it growing up.  I've tried to get Audrey and Barrett to have at least somewhat related costumes each year, but this year there was no agreement between them.  Audrey insisted on being a pirate and Barrett wanted to be Darth Vader. 
Since there was no obvious theme, we dressed up Fletcher in the same monkey costume Audrey wore as a baby. 

 Then, you throw in my fourth child (a.k.a. my husband) that insisted on being a dinosaur.  What do you call a family with costumes that include a pirate, monkey, dinosaur, and Darth Vader.  Well, the best title I can thing I can come up with is Prehistoric Space Pirates.  So, i guess that's what we went as.  The important thing is that we all had fun and the kiddos looked incredibly cute.  Even our Darth Vader who literally ran from house to house and was dripping with sweat by the end of the night (it was almost 80 degrees after all), would be considered adorable by most. 

Some may argue that the best part of Halloween is the costumes. Others (including my older kids) will say the candy. I think it's just the opportunity to have fun together as a family.