Jason and I laugh often about being in the joys of parenting…….sometimes it’s facetious and sometimes it’s with real pleasure. Here are some of our latest joys:
· I found the website for Thomas the Train and was so truly happy to discover in the “Sing Along Songs” section the Thomas the Train theme song. Jantzen LOVES this song and requests it often, but since I’ve only heard it on the cartoon up until now, I had kind of made up my own words for about half of the song. We listened to it a couple of times, so that we know the real words now – it was VERY exciting. Also, it was very cute that Jantzen clapped his hands in pure delight and shouted YAY after every song!
· I am learning to speak “boy” and to truly enjoy Jantzen for being different from his sisters. He enjoys helping me in the kitchen quite a bit. Last week we made cookies and I explained that the cup measurer is like the scoop on the digger truck and the bowl is the dump truck. So, he helped me dig and dump the flour, sugar, and other ingredients as we made wonderful truck sounds together. Yesterday, we made rolls and I use a little metal spatula to scrape the dough off of the counter when I’m done rolling it out. Jantzen wanted to “help you” and he was flinging the flour everywhere with the spatula until I explained that it works like a snowplow and scrapes the flour into the trash can. No problem with flinging after that!
· Alyssa often delights me with the things she says. This week we were going to the Dollar Store and as we’re driving along she says, “You know what would be so cool, Mom? If everything at the store was FREE!!!” I laughed out loud……yes, that would be very cool! She also talked to me this week about how cool (one of her new favorite words) it would be if we moved in with Grandma……because, you know, she has that whole big kitchen downstairs now and LOTS of room for us to live! I love the kids’ perspective on things.
· Ashtyn is growing up and I miss her not being with us every day. (However, the last two days of Christmas vacation I felt like I needed to be wearing my referee stripes for all of the arguing and tattling that was going on.) We often have our own quiet time in the morning before school because the other kids sleep late. She still climbs up into my lap, even though she is getting very tall, and we snuggle and talk. I hope that she will do that for a long time yet. A few weeks ago she received an invitation to a friend’s birthday party. It was on a Sunday. When we looked at the calendar, she said, “Oh well, it’s on a Sunday. I’ll have to just take her a present to her house sometime”. It wasn’t even a question. She is a very good girl and is already excited about her “upcoming” 8th birthday this December. She is also reminding us that we said she could get a dog when she turned 8 years old. That seemed like long time off two years ago!
· Ainsley has mellowed out since reaching three months of age……much to our great relief and delight. She has been very happy and smiling lately, and happy to just sit by us and observe the goings-on. She is starting to vocalize more and more and the kids think it’s so great that she is “talking” to them. She loves it too when they come around. We are so blessed that they all get along nicely a good share of the time.
· Now for the “joys”, fighting another round of coughs and kids who are sick who like to sleep in Mom and Dad’s room even if it’s on the sleeping back on the floor. Go figure. I told Jason we should just get another big king bed in our room to stuff them all in and rent out the rooms in the basement! Jantzen coughed most of the night, despite all of our efforts, of course this eventually resulted in puking all over Mom and Dad’s bed. (I am so happy to have the “Sanitize” cycle on my new washer and dryer. It is a dream come true!) After the clean-up Jason went to spent the night in the race car bed, which is actually quite comfortable. He awoke to the lovely sound of our neighbor starting up his big diesel truck….which he lets run for an hour, I swear, before he heads off to work. I mean, I know it’s cold out, but really?! I am afraid it has been waking Ainsley up too early lately. I was most chapped about it this morning as she had been up and down and up and down with coughing herself all during the wee hours of the morning. Between the diesel truck guy and our crazy lady neighbor who is frequently out around 5 am, talking to herself VERY LOUDLY……I told Jason I was fed up this morning! I told him I was going to spend my day finding us that new house! Of course, I haven’t, but I sure would’ve liked to. Instead, we painted watercolors and organized some stuff in the kitchen…..Jantzen LOVES to organize, anything that requires pulling things out of places and throwing them all over is great! Oh yeah, and washed that pukey laundry…..YUCK!....and held a feverish (again) baby Ainsley. She helped me “work my core muscles” on the treadmill today. She wouldn’t stay asleep long enough for me to run, so I walked with her in the sling. Hey, at least it’s something.
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