Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

We woke up this morning with big plans to visit the zoo with my best friend Stacey and her daughter S. We haven’t been to the zoo since May because it has been too hot.

The weather is beautiful this week. The doors and windows have been open yesterday and today. Mid-70s for highs. A perfect day for the zoo.

Everyone was up, dressed, fed, and ready to go at our appointed departure time. I got everyone buckled in their seats. We set off.

The car needed gas. Not a big deal, but a delay that would put us a few minutes behind when Stacey and I had agreed to meet. I got the car filled up and we were on our way again.

I got about 2 miles down the road and realized that I forgot to put on deodorant after I got out of the shower. U-turn back to the house. Again, not a big deal, just a delay. I ran in, put on deodorant, and we set off once more.

Just before we got to the interstate on-ramp, I heard explosive vomiting in the back seat. S had thrown up all over the car. I tried not to gag as I, once again, turned the car around and headed back home. I had two very disappointed kiddos on my hands, but what could I do?

We got home. I unloaded everyone from the car. I stripped two car seats (yep, the explosion got all over M’s seat and car seat as well). I cleaned the upholstery on two captain’s chairs. I dug into every nook and crevice in S’s seat trying to get it clean.

Once that was done, I gave S a bath to get the yick off of her. And started in on the laundry. I started the day with about 3 loads to do (plus a load of diapers). The explosion added 2 more loads (including the car seat covers). I still have a laundry room floor full of dirty laundry.

Now she acts like she’s fine.

Yep, some days are like this.

I want to write, but I only have a very few minutes before the littles emerge from rest time. So, I’ll give you a few outtakes from our day.

~ I am 23 weeks pregnant today. We have a lot to accomplish in the next 17ish weeks.

~ I wore a pair of non-maternity pants to my meeting this morning. I’m wondering how I kept them on my body pre-pregnancy.

~ S got her first busted knee this morning. J was trying to be helpful and hold her hand. He pulled a little too much.

~ We left home this morning in the rain. J had rain boots and no rain jacket. E had a rain jacket but wasn’t wearing her boots. I was wearing sandals. How’s that for prepared?

~ I’m trying a new recipe for dinner tonight. The listed prep time was 20 minutes. It took me almost an hour. And 3 pots/skillets. It’s a slow cooker recipe.

~ J’s birthday is this week. He’s requested a blueberry cake with chocolate icing. And Buzz and Woody on top.

~ E is singing a song to J about “never, ever play with matches.” At least we have fire safety covered.

~ In the car this morning, E was pretending to be a cat named Rainbow. She told me I could call her “rain” or “bow” or “rainbow” or just “cat”.

Hope you are all having a great Monday!

A couple weeks ago my wonderful mother-in-law (known around here as Nonnie) commented saying she would like to read about what God’s been teaching me in this season of three littles. Oh the pages I could fill.

But let’s start with this one, one I’ve been meaning to post for a couple of years now…

Just over two years ago (when J was about 9 months old), I was able to enjoy a ladies’ weekend with some wonderful ladies from church. We visited a beautiful lake house owned by the family of one of the ladies and spent the weekend hanging out, relaxing, eating, and enjoying some time with just the ladies.

I had J with me that weekend (the only guy allowed!) because he was still nursing full-time, so taking him with me was the only way I could go. At one point I was wearing him in the BabyHawk and he was all snuggled up against me with his head on my chest. I love wearing my babies like that because I love to be able to bend my head and kiss the top of their sweet little head.

One of the ladies commented on how that reminded her of the way God holds us sweetly, gently, like a parent holding their child. I thought of how precious that really is. God holds us close, draws us to his chest where we hear his heartbeat, leans over and kisses us on the top of the head.

One thing God has been revealing to me over the last 4+ years that I’ve been known as “mommy” is that part of his character that is loving parent, comforter, the one who draws us near and holds us close, loving us in spite of ourselves.

So, after writing about not being sure if I want to write, here I am again. However, I’m making a list because this is a bunch of random stuff.

1. I’m tired of the kids “blog names”. I have several reasons: Little isn’t so much my “little bit of girl” anymore and I’m realizing it more and more as we approach Kindergarten in the Fall. Boo – the boy received his name in utero before we knew whether he was a boy or a girl. We’ve never called him Boo; however, Boo (or Boo-Boo) is Baby Girl’s real-life nickname. Sometimes it gets confusing (to me) who I’m writing about. And then there’s Baby Girl…since we don’t know the gender of baby number 4 yet, Baby Girl may or may not be the “baby girl” anymore.

So, what am I going to do about it? Instead of changing their nicknames I’m going to go with single letter designations. Henceforth, Little will be known as “E”, Boo will be known as “J”, and Baby Girl will be known as “S”. And, for now, baby number four will be known as number four.

2. S is walking now! She decided about 3 weeks ago to let go and take a few steps. She’s been building up her “endurance” since then and is on her feet most of the time now. She looks so cute as her tiny little body toddles around.

3. S goes to the doctor again this morning to discuss her weight gain “issues”. At 13 months she weighed 16 lbs. 14 oz. and the doc was really wanting her to be at 17 pounds by then. We’ll see what we find out this morning.

4. I’ve turned that 16 week corner in this pregnancy and am feeling much better. Today is doc appointment day, and I am really looking forward to hearing baby’s heartbeat. I’m hoping we’ll have the big ultrasound 4 weeks from today and find out whether this tiny one is a boy or girl.

5. E and J are doing great. They are constantly making us laugh, making us smile, and making us question our ability to parent. Just as it should be with little ones, I suppose.

I think that’s all for now.

In an effort to get back to writing, I’d love to know if there is anything that you guys would like me to write about. Any questions for me, any ideas, anything you’d like to read about?

Tuesday morning I put on my shirt only to find that it was stained. Just like Saturday I put on my jacket and found a snot mark on the sleeve.

Such is life as mom.

I wore my stained shirt anyway. Because, really, there isn’t much I own that isn’t marked in some way by these three little people who call me “Mommy”. And, quite frankly, it would have had something on it by the end of the day anyway.

Such is life as mom.

While we were at Target I needed to pick up a couple of long sleeve tees to add to my “wardrobe”. At the time I only owned two or three long sleeve shirts, mainly because I wore maternity clothes the entirety of last winter. I don’t tend to buy clothes for myself very often. It’s just more fun to buy for the kids.

Such is life as mom.

After picking up my new shirts, we wandered the aisles of Target and picked up the other things we needed. Baby Girl tried (repeatedly) to climb over the back of the cart seat and Boo made “towers” with the items in the cart with him. Shopping is always an adventure.

Such is life as mom.

We made it to the check out line, and as I put the shirts on the counter I noticed that one had a wet spot on it. It seems, Boo’s sippy cup had dripped on it while it was in the cart. (fortunately, it was just water) Apparently I can’t even purchase a shirt before the kids make their mark on it.

Such is life as mom.

And I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

I think I’m going to start using Friday (at least this week) to post 5 random out takes from our week. So, what’s been going on this week?

1. Monday started with a trip to the doctor for Little. She had been running fever off and on (but mainly on) since Thursday night. She ended up having ear infections in both ears.

2. To continue with the sickies, Baby Girl has had a runny nose and congested cough (when she’s laying down) since Tuesday. And now I’ve caught her cold and it looks like Boo probably has as well.

3. Moving on to happier thoughts…we put up our Christmas trees this week. The first one went up Sunday evening; it’s a smallish tree in the kitchen with snowman ornaments on it. The second tree went up last night; it’s our big tree in the living room. I love having the tree lights on!

4. We’ve been in the house A LOT more than usual this week. It’s been both good and bad.

5. We are really enjoying the Jesse Tree the last few days. Little asked several times yesterday about our Bible story, and she took the “stump of Jesse” ornament for show-and-share at school. I hope this becomes a meaningful tradition for the kids.

Happy weekend!

The Advent season is upon us again. I’ve been planning in my head for quite a while, but nothing has gone onto paper. Matt and I had a very general idea of what we wanted to do, but we needed to nail some things down. I am nothing if not a procrastinator, so yesterday during nap time I searched my mind and the web to come up with our “plan” for the next 25 days.

This year we will be doing a Jesse Tree for our daily devotionals. Each day we will do a reading and hang a corresponding ornament on a tree (I haven’t decided whether to use one of our regular trees or to devote a small one just to these ornaments). The readings will take us from Genesis through the birth of Jesus. I’m really looking forward to these devotionals and showing the kids how the whole Bible talks about and points to Jesus.

We will also be doing an Advent wreath again this year (we even have the correct candles this time!). The plan is to light the candles and do the weekly devotionals as part of our small group (from church) meeting each Sunday evening. In true procrastinator fashion, we missed the first Sunday of Advent, so we’ll do the first two candles this coming Sunday.

I’ve also planned Christmas related activities for each of the first 24 days of the month. Of course, on the 25th we’ll celebrate Christmas. I’m making (today, again, the procrastinator thing) a paper chain from Christmas scrapbook paper and each “link” will have the day’s corresponding activity written on it. We’ll use the chain as our “calendar”.

Day 1 – make ornaments for Jesse Tree
Day 2 – decorate our Christmas tree
Day 3 – write letters/draw pictures for our sponsored children
Day 4 – make Christmas cards to mail to the grandparents
Day 5 – Advent candles
Day 6 – make footprint reindeer
Day 7 – wrap gifts for the kids’ friends
Day 8 – make/package gifts for teachers, friends, etc
Day 9 – Christmas coloring page
Day 10 – family movie night w/a Christmas movie
Day 11 – Alpine Village (event at a local church)
Day 12 – Advent candles
Day 13 – decorate paper Christmas trees
Day 14 – make paper plate wreaths
Day 15 – read story of candy canes and make candy cane ornaments
Day 16 – Christmas coloring page
Day 17 – drive to look at Christmas lights (and maybe a special treat)
Day 18 – make nativity scenes
Day 19 – Advent candles
Day 20 – Holiday Science Lab & Enchanted Forest
Day 21 – make birthday cards for Jesus
Day 22 – Christmas “party” with friends
Day 23 – decorate “gingerbread” houses
Day 24 – Christmas Eve service, open one gift
Day 25 – CHRISTMAS DAY!

You might have noticed that there are quite a few “crafts” in this list. If you know me well, you know that I’m not much into the arts & crafts with the kiddos thing. But I’m sucking it up and hoping to make some good memories with my little people this month.

I’m really looking forward to our devotionals and activities these next few weeks. This is a very special time of year, and I really want to pass that along to my children.

So, this week didn’t go exactly as I had planned (or would have liked). But such is life with three littles, I suppose.

Last weekend Little and Boo went with my parents to visit my brother and his family. Can’t say I was real happy that they were going to Florida and I wasn’t, but it was nice to have a weekend with just Matt and Baby Girl. And it was very quiet around here!

Monday was a good day: BSF leaders’ meeting, lunch with my friend J, errands with Baby Girl, a quiet afternoon, and the kids homecoming that night.

Tuesday morning we went to the Botanical Gardens with Stacey and her girls (more on that in a post later this week…hopefully). We had a blast!

I noticed that morning that BG was running a low grade fever, but I brushed it off as teething and went on with the day. When we got back from the gardens I noticed she felt warmer, so I took her temp. 102.

Her fever topped at around 104.5 Tuesday night, and we spent the next few days battling a moderate fever (101-103). She had a VERY stuffy nose, was lethargic, and wasn’t eating. Since she won’t drink from a cup, I tried a lot of approaches to getting water in her before I finally found one cup she would take (as long as I held it).

Out the door went any plans we might have had for the rest of the week – BSF on Wednesday, a trip to the library and park on Thursday (we did do dance on Friday, but only because the fever finally broke). We stayed home and tried to get the baby girl well (which involved a lot of holding, coddling, and tylenol). In fact, on Thursday I was still in my pj’s when Stacey came by at 3:15.

It wasn’t exactly the week I expected, but it was kind of nice to have a couple of slow days being at home.

Now if we can just get her totally well so she will nurse again and stop waking up screaming in the middle of the night!

Oh yeah, and now I have pink eye!

There has been a lot and not much going on here all at the same time. As of today our Fall activities are in full swing, and we are busy.

Little is going to preschool two days a week at a local church. She was so excited to go to “big school”, and she seems to love it. My oldest girl thrives on structure, so school is right up her alley; guess I’ll have to get my act together if we decide to homeschool next year for Kindergarten.

Little has also begun taking dance. She is part of a class held at a local church and led by a lady from our church. It is a pretty casual class (no big production, no make up, no stage moms), which was just what we were looking for to start her off. Mrs. Kim teaches them ballet and tap, and Little is really excited to dance.

This is my fourth year participating in Bible Study Fellowship, and this year I am serving as a leader in the children’s program. That means that I have leaders’ meetings on Mondays in addition to our regular class meeting, and a couple of hours of teaching prep on top of the usual class homework. It seems odd to a lot of people that I, mom to three kids four and under, am working in the children’s program, and all I can say is that sometimes God calls us to do (seemingly) strange things.

I’m also doing a Bible study at church this Fall. We’ve started a new ministry for moms and this study is kind of a “kick-off”. This ministry is something that has been on my heart and in my mind for a while now, so I was very excited when I was approached about being part of the leadership/vision team. The last couple of years God has really placed a burden on my heart for young moms, children, and families. I am excitedly anticipating God’s work through the moms ministry this year!

And between all of these things we are trying to fit in playdates, housework, and rest. We’re looking forward to a fun and exciting Fall.

I’ve run across several good reads in the last few months that I thought I would share with you guys. Enjoy!

~ Suck it! The REAL Way to Prep for Breastfeeding @ Parenting.com – as a veteran nursing mom I find this article hilarious; if you are expecting (read: Lindsey) don’t let it scare you, it’s usually not this bad…usually

~ Why Having a Toddler is Like Being at a Frat Party @ Suburban Snapshots – absolutely, laugh-out-loud, hysterically funny

~ I Don’t Want My Children to Be Happy @ It’s Almost Naptime!! – The only non-funny link in the bunch. I read this several months ago and think about it often. Right in line with much of our parenting philosophy.

~What Your Email Address Says About Your Computer Skills @ The Oatmeal – I’m married to a web programmer. ‘Nuff said.

And finally, my new favorite quote (seen recently on Twitter): “Unless life also gives you water and sugar, your lemonade’s gonna suck.”

Happy Friday!