The Kind of Friend I Want to Be

A sweet mom friend of mine recently gave me a very cool thank-you happy for helping her with the Fall Party for our homeschool group.  Who else but another living-the-crazy-life mom could know how appreciated a bar of chocolate and a pair of fuzzy socks can be?

And this got me to thinking.  My last post was a little depressing, I'll admit.  We all have Those Days, but this one just got to me more than usual.  And, I guess I wanted to vent with the hopes that I'd get some encouragement to soldier on.

And I did.  Praise God for who He has put in my life!

Back to what got me to thinking.  We have all kinds of friends in our lives, yes?  And we need all of them - so I'm not saying that any one kind is better than the other.  But I tell you what...  I hope that I can be a chocolate-bar-and-warm-fuzzy-socks type of friend more often.  The kind of friend who wraps you up with understanding and commiseration and encouragement and a little dose of realistic thinking, all the while she/he is praying for you and lifting you up.  That's the kind of friend I want to be to more people.  No judgement.  Just humor and encouragement and some eyes-up talk!

Chocolate and warm fuzzy socks.  Instant smile maker.

Tooter's Speech

I've talked before about how Tooter doesn't speak/listen/comprehend at his age level.  But I know that is sort of a broad thing to say that doesn't necessarily explain our position with him.  It doesn't explain the difficulties that we have with a 4 year old boy (in physical stature) who sometimes relates to us at a younger age level.  His behavior is directly related to his communication skills at times, but that's really hard to explain to people who see a single situation and really don't know anything about us.

Here's an example.  He still relies on a pacifier to help him sleep.  It helps him get back to sleep after scratching episodes in the middle of the night, and I just don't feel guilty about letting him still use one.  HowEVER, he does need to learn to do without it, or it's going to cause issues with his teeth alignment.  So, today, I told him that he is going to need to learn to take his nap with no passie.  (Grammar police, please stand down for a moment).  He tells me, "No Mommy, I need to take a nap with yes passie".

Entry in the Cutest Things Kids Say contest, you say?  Yeah....  it is sort of cute.  Except that I know that he is generally not "getting" what I just said.  It's not just cute talk.  Ahhhh...  I have dreams of having that wonderful personality that allows me to just relax and not worry about things like this.  So I can just let it go and know that this will work itself out.  So I can ignore those people who get judgmental about the behavior issues we have with him, when we're just doing the best we can with the situation at hand.

Blugh.  I think I'm using the blog to vent today.  Lucky you.  :-)  It has been one of Those Days.  Hmmm.  Maybe I just need a Yes Passie of my own.

Three Months Session

Some photos from Lollypop's portrait session!  Family et al, I took all of these, so just let me know which ones you would like and what size you want them in, and I'll have them printed!  It's no problem - the photographer cut me a great deal.  ;-)  Just send me an email.

And a quick CONGRATULATIONS to the Foster family!!!  I'm so glad baby Fiona is here!

And this last one is not a "real" portrait-portrait.  But I sure do love it.  She was such a good girl for me the day we did these!  (And, yes, I do mean day.  It took a lot of short sessions.  But, I was at home with two other, um, helpers.  ;-)  Who still needed to be schooled and fed and put to nap and all those other things that happen during a day).  Sweet Lollypop did such a beautiful job!

For a Giggle

I'm spending today working on getting Lollypop's in-a-dress-studio-portrait 3 month photos today.  This isn't the money shot, but it's so funny...  It just makes me laugh!  Who doesn't love a big gummy grin from a baby?

Three Months

Lollypop!

You are three months old today!  What a sweet girl you are - and getting so big.  When your Aunt Amy held you a couple of nights ago at Tooter's birthday party, I realized just how much you have grown.

Your clogged tear duct has cleared up!  Since you were born, your left eye always looked as if you were coming down with pink eye, minus the actual red eye part.  You would get the gunky stuff every morning, and a few times during the day.  Your doctor told us to just massage the area and wait.  We did, and you are finally clear of all that stuff.  Yay!

Your head control is getting way better.  I was "riding horsey" with you about a week ago, and you were holding your own head up so well!  And you can pick your head and your shoulders up now when you're on your tummy.  You're not exactly pushing up with your arms to do it, but still using your back and neck muscles to lift everything.  What a strong girl!  You'll be pushing up before I'm ready for you to do it, I'm sure!

You smile all the time and you have this short giggle that you will give us now.  At times, when we're just talking to you, you'll let out a giggle to let us know when we have tickled your fancy.  I'm so looking forward to the "real" baby laughs that I know are on their way!

You still have a love-love relationship with the ceiling fans in the house.  You love them.  They're just brilliant to you.

But probably my most favorite thing you do right now is give us the in-love-with-us looks that make me absolutely melt into a mushy puddle.  There are times that you will look at us with this soft, dewy smile in your eyes that can only be described as a baby in love with her parents.  And I can not tell you what this look does to melt our hearts.

Oh, sweet girl.  You owe so much to your big sister and brother.  I can assure you, I was nowhere near as understanding and relaxed about baby-things with them.  I sincerely didn't know how to truly enjoy a baby with sweet Poodle.  I was only slightly better with dear Tooter.  But they taught me, by the grace of God.  And I learned a little bit.  And now you are the lucky recipient of a more aware Mommy.  More aware of the fleeting time we have when you're little.  More aware that "this too shall pass", both the easy and the hard.  More aware that the purity that shines from your precious face doesn't equal a sinless soul.  But that it does equal an innocent child who is depending on our example to learn about behavior.  And love.  And most importantly, God.

I was talking with Daddy a few nights ago about that Sunday morning at church when he and I were sitting in the fellowship hall, waiting on the OB's office to call us back, thinking that we were never going to meet you.  Oh, God's mercy is overflowing in our life.  We have three wonderful children (and a most precious marriage) as proof of that mercy.  And Love.  Your being here reminds me of that.  And that is a blessing unto itself.

We love you so very much!

Four Years

My sweet Tooter Pooter,

You are a big four year old boy today!  I still remember every minute of the day you were born, and can not have wished for a better little man to call my son.  Your daddy and I are so proud of you - we are proud of the way you are growing and overcoming your obstacles and using your beautiful abilities.

Just born - 2 days old.  Poodle is 2 years old.

You are still struggling with your eczema.  It's not much better, but we are getting better with dealing with it.  And if that's the worst thing you have to medically encounter in your life, then you're in good shape.  Other than some scars here and there, it's not leaving too much of a mark on you.

On his way home from the hospital, in his daddy's going home outfit.  He barely fit in it!

Your communication skills are getting better!  You're definitely not completely up to age-level yet, and you struggle with finding words to explain what you want and need.  Sometimes, you mask it by arguing with us, when in reality, you just don't know what to say to us.  Of course, sometimes you ARE just arguing.  ;-)  But you get better every day.  In a few years, I suspect you will have this vocabulary stuff all worked out.

One year old.  Wearing the overhauls that Papaw gave to Jmk when Jmk was a baby.  This doesn't do justice to just HOW fat he was, but it's one of my all time favorite pictures of him.

In the past year, you've learned to ride a bike (with training wheels of course!), and you've taught us to duck when your bat makes contact with a ball.  You're so coordinated and talented.  Just like your daddy!  You are ALL boy - you run everywhere you go and you have an endless supply of energy.  Thankfully you haven't started bringing critters in the house yet.  Ha!

You are such a sweet, loving boy.  You're a great snuggler, but you've put the kebosh on most of the kissing that Mommy likes to do.  :-D  Your big sister is your best friend ever and you want to be with her all the time.  Y'all can argue, no doubt.  But there is also no doubt who you love to play with.

Two Years Old

You sit through church beautifully now!  You know all your letters and numbers and can write most of them.  You love to write your name and other names in the family.  You've begun asking "what's this word" which I can only assume is a very early prelude to reading.  We're not really working on that right now, but you may be wanting to start before too much longer.  And you're finally potty trained!  Woohoo!  (You even get through the night all dry sometimes).

You're still a REALLY picky eater!  (I'm sooo getting my payback for being picky when I was little.)  There's not a lot you'll eat, but at least you do and can eat.  There are plenty of little ones who can't because of some difficult illness.  We're grateful for your overall good health.  And your beautiful smile. And your huge, bright, sparkly blue eyes.  And your random "I love you"'s that never fail to make us smile and melt.

Three Years Old

You love Spiderman and Cars and movies and your family and football and soccer and helicopters and planes and popcorn and smoothies.  (Not necessarily in that order!)  You play at PBSkids on the computer and can tell me more about dinosaurs than I thought I'd know at this stage.  You also play at Barbie.com for which you can thank your big sister.

You loooooove Lollypop.  She's "the cutest baby in the world" according to you.  (Hard to argue with that one).  Your adorable face makes her smile so big and you love holding her and petting her head.  I love hearing you say "awww, she's sooo cah-yute".

You're as different as night and day from your big sister, and sometimes you're just like her.  I love to look at your face, and I can already see tiny bits of the all-baby face starting to disappear.  It makes my heart sad.  But, thankfully, it's not all gone yet.  Especially when you're resting.  Then you're all baby. :-)

Almost Four Years Old - from July 2009

God was so good when He gave us you.  We love you, son.  Happy Birthday to our delight!

When you're educated at home...

...you can wear whatever tickles your fancy that day! (This was Tuesday's contribution to fashion).

I wanted to give a special shot-out to my mom for helping so much with school/baby things lately. Up until a few weeks ago, I was barely having to leave the house with Lollypop, because Mom was taking the older two everywhere for me. It was nice being spoiled! But I finally manned up and started handling things myself. :-)

However, school field trips are another matter. We are blessed to have a very active, very busy homeschool group. There have been a couple of events lately that made me nervous; dealing with all the kids was going to be tough.

But, at the corn maze last Friday, Mom held the baby in the van for four hours straight while I walked around with the older ones. Yesterday, she held and fed Lollypop for five hours during our Fall Festival party, so I could be outside with the kids.

That's huge!

Thank you so much, Mom, for helping me educate the kids by being a support system. It means more than you know!

Mallory, BFF Spencer, and Poodle at the Fall party

For the Beehive

I know, right?!?

No, I didn't take this one.  I wish I had!  Stacey Williams took this totally spectacular picture of Tooter at our homeschool group field trip to a Corn Maze/Ranch this past Friday.  I had to share it because photoshop is usually involved in this cool of a photo.  Yet, this is what came out of her camera!  Extraordinary picture.

Anyway, I'm joining a ceilidh at The Beehive, so here's my most recent favorite poem.  I never would have read this one if it wasn't for the booklist at Ambleside Online.  I'm not really a "poetry" kind of person, (my degree is in math and my art preference is ballet), so I took notice when this little poem tickled my fancy.  May we all find a little Fairy Bread this week!

Fairy Bread

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Come up here, O dusty feet!

Here is fairy bread to eat.

Here in my retiring room,

     Children, you may dine

On the golden smell of broom

     And the shade of pine;

And when you have eaten well,

Fairy stories hear and tell

Punkins and Princesses and Spiders, Oh My!

Oh, Halloween.  That much discussed "holiday" that brings bags of sugary diet-busters into one's home each year.  Oh how amazing it is to show up at a neighbor's house, cheerfully utter three magic words, and receive some tiny treats that make little ones giggle with excitement!  Back in my day, of course, there were always those cool houses that would give out popcorn balls - remember those?  Can't do that in these different times, but we have our memories.  Hmmm.  Maybe I need to make my kids some?

ANYway, little Lollypop (you know, the one we used to call Sparkie on here) was a punkin, but she didn't actually join the intrepid trick-or-treaters.  It was a bit chilly, and we didn't want the wee girl to be uncomfortable.  Besides, it's not like she has any idea what's going on.  Really.  So, MooMoo "had" to stay at our house with her so I could go out for a little bit with the other kids.

Poodle was Princess Aurora, something she had spent months saying she wanted to be.  (Whoever had the genius to market all these Disney princesses the way they do now wasn't paid enough for his or her idea.  I'm just sayin').  Tooter was Spiderman - or as he says:  "SpiderName!  Scawy!!!  He kept that fabric mask on for a great deal of the evening, which surprised me.  And they were so glad that their sweet cousin, Audrey, was able to go around with them.  She had a blast as Princess Audrey and was amazed that people kept giving her candy!  Brilliant!  Every time someone would tell her she looked beautiful, she would make this low and slow bow that was so cute.

We managed to keep the busy candy-seekers from eating too terribly much of their loot, but they did sugared up a little bit when we all got home.  Poodle quickly changed into her pj's, and Tooter shed his spider skin pretty quickly as well.  But Princess Audrey reigned through the whole evening!

The next day, we went to SueSue's house after church to visit with some family who hadn't had a chance to meet Lollypop yet.  Aunt Jennifer loved and snuggled on her as she likes to do with these babies. 

And Robert and Megan finally got to see her as well.  Lollypop flirted her little heart out with Meggie - loved her!  And Mr. "I'm not good with babies" was a natural with her.  He snuggled like an old pro.

It was a fun, good weekend - although I'll admit to being tired when it was all done.  One might say that I'm getting o-l-d.  One might be correct.  ;-)

Sharing

I hesitate to share these pictures, because I genuinely do not want to be "that Mom". I don't want to violate the rules that Jesus Christ set forth for us in Matthew 6:1-4. But, because a friend (thanks Kat!) shared this idea when her daughter did it, the thought was put in our hearts to do it ourselves. That's why I'm going to share this with all of you. Because I'm glad someone told us about the idea.

I'm ashamed to say that I don't think I would have come up with this idea on my own. But it was such a great experience. The original idea came from Bridget's 6th birthday party, when she had her guests bring food donations for a local animal shelter, instead of bringing presents. (As you know, between parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles, kids get a LOT of birthday presents right there!). I talked with Bear about doing something like this for her big birthday party, but instead of the animal shelter, we could collect food donations for a new food pantry that a local church in our area had just opened months before. After she was assured that she would still get presents from us and her grandparents and her aunts and uncles (she IS only 6, after all.... presents on your birthday are just - well - important), she really looked forward to her friends bringing the food donations.

We went a few days ago to deliver the bags of food to this new Care Center. Like I said before, it was a special experience. Especially because Poodle was allowed to help stock the food on the shelves! It was a really beautiful way to cement in her mind what she was doing and had done. The people volunteering there were as kind as they could be, and the whole process was truly a gentle one. I'm so glad Bear was willing to do this. We were blessed to be a blessing, I hope.

And even NoMan got in on the act - although he didn't really know what was going on. He just wanted to be like Poodle.

Two Months

Sweet Lollypop!

You are two months old today, and oh, how fast the time is flying by.  I am holding on so tightly to each minute with you.  Yet the days still zoom past me like a teenager in a Mustang.  I think about things like that in only 4 short months, you will be trying solid foods for the first time, and I want to beg someone to slow down the spinning earth.  But, that can't happen.  So we will just continue to try to enjoy every minute.

You are such a happy, precious little girl!  Despite what seems to be reasonable, you laugh already!  It's not a regular laugh, but more of a burst of sound when you are smiling and looking at something that pleases you greatly.  Like Daddy's face, especially.  Poodle and Tooter are always good for a smile from you also.  And when you catch Mommy's face in a mirror (which you just began doing), I get a huge grin and even a "laugh" myself.

Your head control is getting better every day and your hand control is starting to seem a tiny bit more "on purpose".  You are beginning to grasp with your hands and my hair is usually the victim of the random grabbing.  You LOVE to eat, as evidenced by the multiple chins ::grin::, and you get downright tickled sometimes when you get settled in to eat.

You're sort of hit-and-miss with a pacifier, and will suck on your fist sometimes instead.  You've been a good girl at church so far, and love to hear the congregation sing.

You have days when you won't nap correctly for love or money.  But, like Daddy reminded me, you may be like PoodleBear, who never could nap very well when she was working on a new "trick" like sitting up or walking, etc.  We can't figure out what tricks you could be working on at this age, but maybe it's nothing more than you're starting to recognize your family, and you just can't sleep because of it some days.  :-)

Although, most nights are wonderful.  You wake up only to eat and then you go right back to sleep.  Of course, you ARE getting to sleep with Mommy.  So that probably helps a lot.

People ask who you look like...  we like to say that if you put Poodle and Noman in a blender, what would come out would be you.  You have pieces of both of them, but like PopPop insists, you just look like our sweet Lollypop.

We love you honey and can't wait to see what the next month will bring!  (But please, can't someone slow down time a little bit?)

For Grandmother

Jmk's grandmother is having a birthday next week, and I wanted to get a picture of SueSue and the great-grandbabies for Grandmother. Here's what we got. It's so sweet!

Where oh where have the zoo monkeys gone?

They're still here!!!

No, really. I can barely get pictures off of the camera these days. The blog is seriously suffering. Shoot, I don't know how in the world I'm going to find time to actually get the photo albums made for the grandparents this year. Yikes.

But here are some new pics to help everyone keep up with the fast-growing weed that we call our baby.

I guess if we were going to mail out a birth announcement, this might be the picture that we'd use. These days, with blogs and Facebooks and emails, there's almost no need for a picture laden birth announcement other than for tradition's sake. Jmk took this one - she was a couple of weeks old.

Poodle with two of her friends at her birthday party a couple of weekends ago. This is Spencer and Lydia. Darling girls, both of them!

Poodle and Bridget, at the party. B is the daughter of my sweet friend Kathleen. We don't get to see them enough, but the girls have fun when they do get to hook up!

Tooter, right before being tossed in the air by Daddy. Yeah, he didn't have any fun at the party. Not at all.

See, now, if I were cool and knew some basketball terms, I could add a witty and sports-themed caption to this picture that would brilliantly describe what he's doing.

But I'm not. And I can't.

My poor mother and sister are cringing right now. They both played basketball. I embarrass them.

Audrey loved this car. Loved it. It was the bomb.

A reminder why I call them monkeys and this place the Zoo. Ahem.

The week after Poodle's party, the Toot man and I weathered a horrid stomach virus and then I developed mastitis. Loads of fun. This was followed by Jmk's birthday last weekend. We were tired from either being sick (me) or from taking care of sick people (Jmk). So there wasn't a whole lot of celebratin' going on. But Lollypop did don the onesie her sister wore 6 years ago.

(unfortunately, I was a day late getting it on her, because the sieve that I call my brain didn't remember the onesie until the day after his birthday. Bad wife).

We tried to get them in a similar pose, because the sisters have moments of looking like twins. But we couldn't do it this time.

The beautiful Aunt Amy with Sparkie. This little baby was all snuggled up and soooo comfortable!

I know we've always said Poodle is a mini-me to Amy. And she is. But, MAN, is she not a mini-me to Sue Sue in this picture??? Wowie.

Buncha gorgeous girls in this picture!

And now, just some more pictures of the wee'est one, a.k.a. Lollypop. Or Sparkie. I just love her smile. :-)

Her eyes are still developing their color, but they are looking like they're going to go blue like the other two. She's also going to be all squishy like the other two were as babies as well. Love me some fat babies!

This is a little lovey brought back from Scotland by MooMoo and GaGa. It's as big as she is!

Last picture, and I'll probably disappear for another two weeks. :-) I start so many fabulous posts in my head during the day, but none of them make their way to the computer. You'll just have to believe me that I have brilliant and witty things to say. You believe me, yes?

Oh! And one more thing! Lollypop has laughed. Seriously. I know a 6-week old baby shouldn't, wouldn't laugh. But Jmk was talking to her the other night and blowing in her face or something like that, and she was grinning at him.... and he gave her some big eyes... All of sudden, she let out this blast of sound with an open-mouthed, squinted-eye, joyous smile, and I would put money on that sound being a laugh. I'm just sayin'.