Letting them be little men

These are just a couple of fun stories about my kiddos...  

Last week Sam and Marcus decided that they wanted to build a birdhouse that Sam had received for his birthday.  They insisted that they could do it themselves, and once the tools were set out, and I was assured that they didn't need my help, I headed up to take a rest in my bed for a bit while the youngest 2, who were recovering from sickness, slept.

Marcus made the first trek up to get me after about 5 minutes.  I followed him down and inquired as to the problem.  They were stuck on a step, and once we looked at it together, Sam figured it out on his own.  I asked if they were all set, and headed back up to bed.  This happened again, and the third time, I decided to just stay put on the couch.  They got stuck again, and asked me to help.  As I tried to figure out a slightly complicated step, Sam let me know that, once again, he'd figured it out.  My pride and interrupted rest time wanted to refuse to let him finish and just finish myself, but I felt a voice telling me to let him do it.  So, I did.  I went back to the couch for a second time, and waited.  He came in about 10 minutes later, a triumphant smile on his face, and showed me that he had, indeed figured it out.  I'm really glad I let him work through it!  I think it's so important to let these guys learn by doing and learn to solve problems.

Later that afternoon, I was on my way to wipe a butt, when I heard a crash from the kitchen.  I looked in, and there was Conrad.  He'd taken the bowl of salsa that was out for the kids to eat with chips, and thrown it on the floor hitting chairs, door, floor, walls, etc.  I literally started crying.  This is really so often the story of my life - go deal with one mess and another one or two are created.  My two big boys saw my tears, and started telling me to stop crying.  They let me know that they had this.  Sure enough, when I came out of the bathroom, they were busy with wet wash cloths cleaning up that mess.  They were so proud to be able to step up and fix it for me.  

I'm so blessed by these guys!

The days are long, but the time is flying by...

Two birthdays have come and gone already this year.  I knew when we started hitting birthday season, the reality of baby coming soon would start to hit me, and it has!  We are really in the home stretch now.  

First, we had our 3rd born who turned 4 in March.  While he may be a bit tiny in stature, he makes up for it with his big personality.  He still regularly tells me how glad he is to be 4 and that he's going to be 5 soon.  This guy has been determined to do school alongside his brothers, and I eventually stopped fighting it.  He has gone through so many books, and learned to read when he was still a tiny 3-year old.  He is incredibly determined.  I imagine you'd need to be with 2 big brothers.  He's a stinker who thrives on harassing his brothers, and almost seems to enjoy getting into trouble.  But, on the other had, he is so loving and sweet.  We sure love this guy!

Yesterday, my oldest turned 8!  Unfortunately, we've had a bug hit and we weren't up for celebrating.  This guy was sick first, last week, and yesterday he was ready to party.  Not so much for the rest of us.  Thankfully he's been a champ about celebrating this weekend when everyone is hopefully on the mend.  Sam is truly growing up so quickly.  He's really doing well in school, and has told me that science is his favorite subject.  He loves to discover things and how things work.  He was able to participate in a play at church for Good Friday.  He's really been enjoying his friendships there.  He is a big help to me these days, and although he does accuse me of slave labor on occasion, he's generally happy to help out with chores.  He's enjoying spring soccer now, and can't wait for summer, swimming, camping, baseball, exploring and fun plain fun!  He's also pretty stoked about baby sister's arrival.  Happy 8th, buddy!  We sure love you!  

Growing up so fast!

This guy has taken an interest in potty training.  The first week of trying resulted in lots of messes, but hey, if he wants to go for it, I'll work with him.  At least he knows to yell, "uh oh" when beginning to fill those undies.  It makes my job easier!  He loves to be read to, and so he will generally sit on the potty if I read to him.   It'd be nice to have him trained by time baby comes.  I'm keeping those expectations low though...:-)

Fit pregnancy

I am so thankful to have been recently gifted an old treadmill.  I'm one of those crazy people that gets excited about exercise options who likes to be as active as possible even during pregnancy.  I've never had much disposable income, and so gym memberships haven't been an option.  Thankfully, there are plenty of free exercise options so long as you're motivated!  I've been using this treadmill almost daily since my nausea eased.  This has been a lifesaver during the winter.  I'm able to go down to my basement, (not have to take my four youngsters walking in the cold, or get out of bed early and walk in the dark and cold) and get a nice walk/jog in.  We'll see how long I can keep this up, but it's been a highlight of my day for these winter months.  I couple walking and some slow  jogging with pre natal pilates, (via YouTube).  I'm weird, I know, but for me this time, clears my head and gives me a boost to get through the day. 

Learning by doing.

I'm a big fan of letting my kids learn by doing; however, sometimes letting them help can be stressful.  They all love to cook, and so I do my best to let them help me whenever they can.  Marcus is making spaghetti sauce, Sam and Isaac are making Caesar salad, and Conrad is eating whatever he can find!  

5th time around...

We are having a girl!

We would have been thrilled with another boy, but there is quite the excitement for baby girl #1 around here.  When we went in for the ultra sound all of the boys said they really wanted a baby sister, and they were a little shocked when we said, "it's a girl!"  Isaac especially has communicated just how happy he is to finally have a sister.  Peter called this one as a girl from the first time we heard the heartbeat.  He insists that the boys have all had a particular sound, but this one was different.  He has called them all correctly so far.  Fun times!

I'm looking forward to having a daughter, I'm not going to lie; it's intimidating on the one hand, but, on the other hand, isn't anything that is new to us intimidating?  I honestly don't care if she's "harder" than the boys, "adds more drama" to our lives, etc. etc.  I'm a female, and despite that apparent drawback, (according to some random people out there) I think I contribute an awful lot to the world around me.  I am confident that she will, too.  I can't wait to experience this new blessing come June!

Just Laugh

Back when I was a mom of 2, I was visiting a mom of 4.  I remember asking her how she did it.  One piece of wisdom that I gleaned from her that day is to learn to laugh.  At this particular moment in our conversation, all 4 of her kids were demanding her attention at once, and she smiled wryly and suggested that sometimes she tries to just laugh at the crazy circus that motherhood is.

Now, here I sit mother to 4, soon to be five, and that piece of advice came to mind recently.  I've been thinking on it and realizing that it can help to diffuse situations.  

We have had some rough months I'm not going to lie.  I was very sick with this baby girl for the first several months, and often found it hard to get off of my couch.  My youngest 2 especially resent my resting at all and often take those opportunities to crawl all over me or cry in my face.  Add homeschooling grades 2nd and kindergarten, and I was feeling stretched thin.  Thankfully by Christmas the nausea eased.  Then we had the rough reentry into school after Christmas break.  It was at this time when I really began to feel frustrated often with my kids.  I was speaking sharply to them, and I found that I had little patience for their childlike ways.  They fought a lot, (small house, cold weather, 4 boys; any wonder?)  They resisted the schooling I was asking of them, my 3-year-old, while cute-as-a-button, is often a catalyst for chaos, and my teething toddler seemed to be either destroying something or crying all day; save nap time.  I started to feel like we were getting somewhere about 2 weeks ago.  Oh it was still chaos, but the routine was becoming more established, I was feeling better, and everyone had settled back into somewhat of a normal routine.  Then the tummy bug hit.  We all wound up with it, and it was bad.  I haven't been that sick in years.  What's amazing is that today, 4 days after I stopped throwing up, I am still struggling to eat, and the nausea is back.  Hopefully, once my tummy heals from that, It will clear up.  

I have really digressed from my original point which is this:  Yesterday, after another exhausting day of diffusing arguments, what felt like constant interruptions, the need for consistent discipline, and resistance to school, I thought about trying to laugh more rather than giving into my frustration as I have been doing so often of late.  In a Leap Frog movie my kids grabbed at the library, whenever a character says "help" a screen comes up and another character says, "What seems to be the problem?"  I decided to try this with my kids.  We've been training them to say "please help" rather than hitting, punching, kicking, or pushing the offender (boy house here, folks) and I let them know that I was going to be silly if they remembered to ask for help in the right way.  The funny thing is, when we had this little exchange, the angry kid would begin to smile and then laugh, and I would laugh with them.  It did help us to just kind of relax before we launched into the next issue to resolve.  So, while I am still struggling through each day lately, I'm going to try to remember that even God reminds us that laughter is good medicine, and that it can help me be a better, more positive parent, rather than and angry, tired and frustrated one.  This, of course, is only achieved by God's grace.