Serene. That's how I feel. I feel like a still body of water, without a ripple or wave, just quiet and content. I wish I could bottle up this feeling and revisit it whenever I want! :)
Isaiah is in his highchair, happily flinging cheerios (good for dexterity and the dog's are also a fan!) Eli is "coloring" me a picture, and by coloring I mean throwing crayons and balling up printer paper. Zach is carefully sketching his favorite Mario Bros. characters, and Hailey is in time out for a bad attitude. After a weekend of camping with the girl scouts, I think both she and Josh will sleep fantastically tonight.
Life is good. It is busy and chaotic, it is frustrating and unpredictable too. But, with the unpredictable, also come unexpected blessings and joys. I had the best weekend just chilling out with the boys. We took a walk, colored with chalk on the driveway, made cupcakes, snuggled a ton and Zach and I stayed up late to play video games and watch movies. It was awesome. I've always loved spending time with my kids, but the one on one time is even more special to me now that there are six of us.
The twins have officially been with us for a month now!!! I can hardly believe it! We had our first post-placement visit with our caseworker last week. It was so great to see her and share out joys and challenges. We've been so fortunate to have her along for the ride! She's been a valuable source of information, guidance and has become a great friend.
Today is the last day of Spring Break! I'm a little sad to see the kids go back to school tomorrow, but I do love routine, so the idea of getting back into ours gives me some comfort. The coming week will bring a girl scouts meeting, a visit from the boys' caseworker, a long overdue coffee and playdate with a missed friend, and who knows what else... I suspect laundry will be involved...
I'm so proud of Hailey and Josh. They were camping all weekend with the girl scouts and had such an amazing time! I'm sure Hails needed some one on one time with Daddy, and I know he needed a little time away from the chaos. (By the sounds of it though, I don't think ten girl scouts is a whole lot less stressful than our brood!) Hails tried rock climbing, holding a worm and a fish and the thing she was MOST scared of....going potty in an outhouse.
Before he left, Josh buzzed the boys' heads. They look so cute and no more macaroni in the hair, yay!
Last week we finally got to meet with Isaiah's neurologist. He was a very nice older gentleman, with lots of experience, patience and tact. I liked him. He has a lot of hope for our boy. He said he seems to have made a lot of progress since his last appointment and really feels that he is thriving. I couldn't agree more! Isaiah's newest thing is that he can say "yeah" and says it in response to every question he's asked. It's so adorable. :)
And my favorite kid-ism of the week goes to Zach:
Zach: someone should make lids for shopping carts so Elijah can't keep standing up in the back.
Me: couldn't stand up...couldn't breathe?
Zach: he'd be okay, there are holes in the bottom
And with that I will go start dinner. (Don't worry, Hailey's not still in time out..lol)
Thank you for reading and helping me stay connected to the world around me <3
All day I've just been feeling this need to write. If feels good to finally carve out a little time to let it flow...
Today was an awesome day! The kids and I were up, dressed and out the door by 9:30 this morning. We had a few errands to run, and thought it would be fun to hit a few yard sales along the way. Hailey and Zach took turns staying in the van with the boys. We got some great deals and even managed to find Josh a framed Ghostbusters poster for the movie room (only $3!!) woohoo! Zach was so sweet, when it was his turn to go with me, he insisted on buying his sister a stuffed animal that he knew she would love. At the next yard sale she returned the favor by buying him an M&M dispenser. I love how generous they are. We swung through a drivethru so I could get my sugar free vanilla iced coffee (yum!) and get the kids each a cookie for their stellar behaviour, though the person on the other end of the speaker kept insisting that I was saying "sweet tea" and not "cookie." I had to finally say, "dessert, cookie, chocolate chip, you know...COOKIE!" The kids thought this was hilarious. Eventually speaker dude figured out what I was saying, and we were on the road again. Errands complete, we had one more stop to make. We had to replace Zachary's recently deceased fish. Go figure..we've had a pair of tetras for over 5 years now! They have survived 2 house moves, but didn't survive the move from sitting room to Zach's bedroom yesterday.
By the time we got home, we felt very accomplished! We ate a little lunch, Hailey changed a few diapers (I knew her baby doll fascination would one day pay off!), and it was off to sleepy town for the twins.
Zach and I got his new fish, Bob, all set up in his tank, got in a little video game time ('Worms, A Space Oddity' is out new obsession!) and then I got in a quick nap. I startled awake, unrefreshed and sporting a bracelet indentation on my face. Hailey's fish had also died (apparently this was a seriously rough move on both the fish) so off to Walmart we went again. The dogs escaped as we tried to leave and after chasing them down, reprimanding them and locking them in the backyard, we were on the road again. Hailey was bummed that all the pretty Betas were male, but settled on a beautiful shimmery blue one, that she named Treasure.
Again we unloaded and headed inside. Josh has been sick the last few days, so we were glad to find him up and feeling a little more alert. He had fun playing with the babies while the big kids and I made a dinner of pigs in a blanket and baked beans. Isaiah has been trying a few different stage 1 baby foods and for the most part, has just played with them. But yesterday and today he has really been eating them, and well!! He seems to loooove green beans and be on the fence about carrots and peas. We'll keep working with him. This is exciting progress!
After everyone had been cleaned up, jammied and snuggled, we put the boys to bed. Through his I-don't-want-to-go-to-bed-yet-tears, Isaiah clapped for me after my nightly rendition of "You Are My Sunshine." He makes me smile right down to my soul.
In honor of Josh's new poster (and the fact that Nick @ Night bleeped out all the curse words) the rest of us cuddled up to watch Ghostbusters. In true Zach fashion, he fell asleep about ten minutes in. Hailey was riveted, claiming this was the best movie she's ever seen and wondering when part 2 would air. (On a side note, Zach crawled into my bed so he could watch his little brothers sleep on the video monitor <3 he's sooo good with them.)
And now they are all in bed, sleeping off the day's adventures and gearing up for new ones tomorrow. Soon, I'll do the same. But before then, I'm going to snuggle up to my best friend/love of my life and watch a movie with him. I'll hold his hand, he'll play with my hair, and for just a moment, we'll give each other our most valuable treasure -our undivided attention.
Ahhhh....naptime again. My favorite time of day :) Just enough time to catch my breath, eat some lunch, throw in a load of laundry and maybe catch a nap or a shower! :)
It's been a great week so far. On Tuesday night I was determined to turn our unused sitting room into a playroom for the boys. I stayed up until 1am (overachiever), and aside from demolishing our desk, being accosted by a large spider and rendering our entertainment center homeless, I was successful!!
Wednesday was spent recovering from Tuesday night's ambitions. The little ones and I played on the driveway and watched the big kids play on their scooters. We enjoyed the fresh warm air and snacked on string cheese. It was nice. :) I thought it wise to nap while they napped. After the boys went to bed, the big kiddos and I snuggled up and passed out on the couch watching movies. I love when they fall asleep on me like that, even Tapatio (our chihuahua) was snoring...so cute!
Today we ate our green pancakes and drank our green milk! We donned our green attire and headed out to get some grocery shopping done. Thank God for Bashas free childcare!! The big kiddos made St. Patty's Day masks while the little kiddos and I trekked through the store, searching for pots of gold, but only coming up with Cheerios and strawberries. Good enough for me!
As I look around I see the homeless entertainment center in my hallway, the laundry optimistically piled up on the couch and the table adorned with crayons, stickers and paper, I realize that my house has never been so messy and never felt more like a home. <3
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| My Little Leprechauns <3 |
All four of my beautiful angels are tucked snuggly into their beds. It has been 15 days since the twins moved in. In some ways it feels like it was just yesterday and yet, I can't imagine my days without them in it.
I have wanted to write again for a while now, and tried to start a few times, but our adoption story feels complete for now. So I decided to start this blog as a way to share all of the touching firsts, hilarious situations and adorable moments that have been happening around here lately.
Firsts:
- Mama: Elijah said "Mama" and melted my heart...then we realized he calls everyone Mama when he wants something. LOL
- Grocery shopping trip: Took 2 carts and 2 adults, but we did it! The boys behaved so well, and waved at everyone that walked by.
- Birthday Party: We went to a birthday party of a close family friend. I admit, I was a little nervous. It was just me...and 4 kids. But they all behaved so very well. Elijah had a blast! He ate a slice of pizza, shared a piece of cake with me and got to play a little basketball. They all slept great that night. :)
- Clap: Isaiah learned how to clap!! Open fisted, with both hands! (this is HUGE for him!) and he says "Yaaaayyy" while he does it. Not only that, but he knows the appropriate situations in which to do it.
- School Event: The kids had a "show off all the awesome stuff you've been working on all quarter" night at school last week. I braved it with all 4 kids! I wasn't sure if I could do it, but I did. Hails and Zach had fun showing off their little brothers to their teachers and all of their friends. Isaiah waved and high fived everyone he could, and Elijah tried his best to con anyone into helping him escape his stroller.
- Dr's Appointment: this deserves it's own post...you'll understand why when you read it.
- Playdate: We had a playdate with one of our favorite families. The big kids ran around outside, Isaiah melted everyone's heart and showed off his recently learned tricks and Elijah made lots of new friends and learned that he likes yogurt melts.
- Day From Hell: Oh yes, we had one. Four days in. We had one of those Daddy is at work-Isaiah's feeding machine not working-Hailey freaking out about the afore mentioned feeding machine-Elijah screaming about wanting to get out of his high chair-Zach begging to go play wii-Mama still trying to fix feeding machine-Elijah biting Zach-Zach sassing Mama-Mama weeping on the floor-friend coming over to help out-kind of nights. It all worked out. We had a family meeting the next morning and talked about what we all could have done differently to make things go smoother. :) No more days like that since :)
There has been so much change in my day to day life over the past two weeks. At times life has felt very overwhelming. There have been moments where I felt somewhat alone, or isolated from the world. There have been moments where I questioned my abilities as a mother, as woman. But, there have also been moments filled with such clarity of purpose. There have been moments when friends and family have stepped forward with such love and generosity that I was humbled. I have learned a lot over the past two weeks. I am now a pro at loading/unloading a minivan, changing crib bedding one handed, administering meds, and getting macaroni and cheese out of a toddler's hair. But I have also learned that I am capable of more than I ever thought I was. I feel like a braver, stronger, more confident version of my former self. I don't know how I got to be so blessed with the four little miracles asleep in their beds, and the big miracle snoring in his comfy chair beside me, but I will do my best to never take them for granted and make sure they always have an abundance of love. <3
