tidbits

I've been out of the habit of updating some of the bigger happenings as of late. So, to try to get back in the swing of things, this post will consist of some small tidbits of recent happenings.

We went out of town last weekend. The plan had been to stay with our close friends in Joplin but the recent tornado that devastated the town derailed our plan. We drove through though and had a look at things and it was beyond the worst my imagination could have conjured. All this talk of tornadoes has had an impact on the kids and Ella was really saddened by what she saw. I could hear her gasping in the back seat as she said over and over how SAD it was. And then I could hear her praying under her breath. That Sunday we visited Frontline church in Oklahoma City where Bryan was speaking as a guest and the kids talked about things they were afraid of as well as things they were thankful for. Ella's depiction of this was a drawing of a large blue tornado and a picture of Bryan and me. For clarification, she's thankful for us and scared of tornadoes.

On the same subject, Ella told me she wanted to move. Her exact words were, "Mom, I like our house a lot but I think I want to move somewhere else." I responded: "Why? Where do you want to move?" Ella: "I want to go somewhere where there aren't tornadoes." This spring has been kind of scary weather-wise.

Some hail at our house this month. It had begun to melt by the time the photo was snapped, but was originally around 2.5" diameter.

On a happy note, Ella finally learned how to blow a bubble! She also got her ears pierced and didn't even shed a tear!

Time with Simon has been fun and challenging at the same time. He is so sweet and kind and always the gentleman. But also, he's been pushing some discipline boundaries and picking silly fights with me about not wanting to comply with simple requests at random times throughout the day. Today was a bit challenging and, even though it was mainly a good day with lots of smiles and fun together, there were a couple of trying moments, mainly due to tiredness I think. As I prayed for him tonight, he made his requests known and instructed me to pray for the things he asks for every night: Good dreams, no bad dreams and no nightmares. But during the prayer, he tagged on, "And to OBEY." Sweet boy. I know sometimes it feels so hard to respond right in the moment, especially when you're physically out of whack and tired. I know he wants to. We have got to get this whole to nap or not to nap thing figured out.

Along with the prayer time, Simon pulled me close and asked if he could tell me a secret. I leaned in and he whispered, "When I grow up, I want to become a pilot." Dramatic pause...."or a PIRATE."

In Josie news, she's pretty much sleeping through the night and is close to being fully weaned. WOWZERS. She's growing UP! She's soooooo sweet. Such a hugger. Always cuddling and scrunching up her nose to give a sweet smile. Totally need to post some pictures soon. She's a doozy. Here's a quick lookie-loo:

Lovin' the swing!

Alrighty, that's all for now. Life is busy and changing...summer's almost here (Simon's school is over now and Ella's kindergarten graduation is tomorrow morning!! UGH. So ready to close this chapter of kindergarten stuff.) Onward and upward! Hoping to be better with the blog during the summer months!

Simon's last day of school.

pippi longstocking is poisoning our youth

We had a play date the other day. I was busy in the kitchen cooking and arranging for some grown up fun time and should have known better. Little did I know, my son was upstairs wreaking havoc with his little buddies. When the destruction was brought to my attention by one of the other kids, I was summoned upstairs to the bathroom first. There was water all over the floor and a broken glass. Hmmm...yes. Understandable. I do believe Simon knows better on this one...but I wasn't totally shocked that he wanted to play with water in the bathroom and a broken glass is an accident that could have been prevented by one of us lazy grown ups who should have put their empty water glass in the proper place (I'd point the finger at Bryan but I think it actually might have been mine...) I gave him a free pass on this one, aside from a stern look and some pointed questioning.

After cleaning up the wet floor, vacuuming the glass up and disposing of the trash, I chatted with Simon about his poor decision making some more. Then, I went in his room to check on the situation a bit further. Gasp! The room was littered with change! The whole floor was covered with pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters...what in the world???? I couldn't fathom what happened on this scene. So I sat with Simon on the floor and asked for an explanation. He told me he thought it would be fun to throw his money up in the air. So he emptied his piggy bank and tossed all the change up until it covered everything. I inquired further, "Did you really think that was ok to do? WHY would you DO that??" I was flabbergasted. I was totally dumbfounded by the ridiculousness of the whole thing.

Fast forward to this afternoon...Simon requests to watch The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, which the kids discovered while they were sick last week and watched like fifteen times. Ugh. But I oblige him and sit down to watch it as well. It's the opening scene. Pippi is on a ship singing a song about living life however she wants with no apologies to anyone ever. (Great role model, yes? I totally want my kids to never say they're sorry for anything, don't you?) After the opening number, she pulls jewelry and coins out of a treasure chest and asks her father what they'll use it for. Pleased with the bounty at her finger tips, she tosses all the coins in the air without a care in the world. Ahhh....now I get it.

Darn that Pippi. She's bad news.

wedding blues

This weekend, our dear Michael and Amie got married! For those unfamiliar with these two wonderful people whom we dearly love and majorly adore, Michael is Bryan's youngest brother. Amie has been a friend of our family for years but in the last couple of years, has become one of my closest friends and, before she moved down to Atlanta to be with her now husband, was a weekly babysitter of our kids. Needless to say, she was already family to us, before she and Mike even decided to date. So, we've been counting down the days till their wedding, first and foremost just so we could SEE them again (Atlanta feels so far away sometimes!) but also because it's a really exciting occasion to celebrate their marriage!

Ella is somewhat of a romantic at her ripe age of six and a half. So she LOOOOVES weddings. And Bryan had taken Simon shopping this week to pick out some fancy clothes to wear. He was so excited about his new dress pants, shirt, vest and tie and had been asking me all week if he could wear it. I kept saying, "Wait till the wedding on Saturday! Then you can wear it!!"

Wednesday, the coughing began. Thursday, the runny nose took off. Overnight on Thursday, raging fever ensued. And Friday, I began to get a little panicky that the kids and I were going to have to sit this one out and miss the wedding we've so anticipated.

Friday night was the rehearsal and Bryan and I tag teamed it so he could do the officiating and I could see family and friends for a bit. But Saturday was still up in the air. I monitored the kids closely all day Saturday and the virus seemed to progress. Ella barely got off the couch all day which you KNOW is a bad sign. It was a guarantee that the kids wouldn't be well enough to attend, and with most of our friends and all of our St. Louis family attending the wedding, all hope seemed lost that I would be able to attend as well.

But then, HOPE! I have a wonderful friend named Sarah who I met at the kids' preschool (I'm sure there will be posts to come about their family as our kids love playing together and we so enjoy Sarah and her husband Kyle) whose kids had the same virus the week before. I texted her questions wondering how high and how long their fevers persisted. In the midst of our texting, she offered to come stay with the kids so I could go to the wedding.

Elation! But major GUILT in having to leave the kids behind. Ella was teary and bleary eyed and didn't seem to understand WHY she couldn't just go for a little bit. She had her heart set on seeing them and especially dancing with them. And in all the rush to get ready, Simon didn't seem to get all the information that he wasn't going to be able to go either. (His fever was equally as high as Ella's but he was still bouncing off the wall all day.) As I got my heels on to walk out the door I heard him calling out from upstairs, "MOOOOMMM! MOM!!! I need  you!" Which is usually code for, "I'm on the toilet and could you please come wipe me." But this time, I reached the second floor to find him in his room trying to put on his new clothes. He said, "Mom, I need you to help me with my tie!" My heart shattered. Totally destroyed. "Oh Simo. You're sick buddy and you're not going to be able to go." Oh the horror. The guilt. The tears.

After the ceremony, which was so lovely, moving, beautiful, joyous, etc, I came right home. There was a reception a few hours later which Sarah offered to come back to watch the kids for. But after visiting with the kids, especially Ella, I didn't think I could bear the guilt of leaving them behind. Ella asked me lots of questions about Michael and Amie's plans and if she'd get to see them soon. I told her they'd be going on their honeymoon really early the next morning and they would fly home to Atlanta after that. She began to tear up again and said, "I don't want them to go on their honeymoon, Mom. I miss them so much!" 

But again, HOPE! Bryan made a few phone calls and was able to reach Michael and, joy of joys, Michael and Amie were able to drop by our house on their way to the reception in order to give Simon and Ella a little squeeze. I can't express how special this short 20 minute stop off was to us all, especially Ella. It seemed to take the sting out.

Uncle Michael

Beautiful Aunt Amie and poor sickly Ella.

This made everything right in the world.

 

So now, it's the day after the wedding and the kids are beginning to mend. Fevers are down to low grade and the coughing has let up a bit. And so I'll close this post with some comic relief. Do you notice the severe chapping of Ella's nose in the middle photo? That poor girl chaps like nobody's business when she gets a cold. Her hands go crazy dry and cracked in the wintertime too. For this reason, there is a huge tub of Eucerin in her room. Since she's been sick, she often globs a big mustache of Eucerin on her upper lip but it hasn't seemed to help all that much. So we switched to Aquafor which has soothed and healed a bit more effectively. After we read books and got tucked in bed, I set her up with a fresh box of tissues and her Aquafor within reach for nighttime use. She slathered her nose with it and said quite seriously, "Aquarfor rules. Eucerine drools." And then we both laughed for a solid three minutes. Ahhh....we needed that.

eavesdropping

We were out a bit past bedtime last night and as we were driving home we enjoyed the sleepy ponderings of our oldest two.

Simon: Mommy? I want to go to heaven.
Me: Why do you want to go to heaven, Simo?
Simon: Because I love God. And I want to see Grandma Florence. Where IS heaven? I think it's up in the clouds. I think God lives on one cloud.
Ella: How will we get there? 
Simon: God will make himself invisible and he will come and get us. While we are sleeping, God comes and takes us.

I think Simon believes God comes and whisks him away every night while he dreams. I just love hearing what comes out of those little mouths!