Emerging...

This morning as I was giving the kids breakfast, they asked if I had an early morning meeting to go to. I had on a nice-ish shirt and earrings. I did not have a meeting but had slept in my clothes the night before...just seemed like way too much work to put on pajamas! That said, I still believe we're beginning to emerge from our month long battle with the viral crud. I am on the tail end of a sinus infection and Meagan is still firmly planted on the couch with a low grade fever, but I think it's on it's way out. The same night that the ice storm hit a few weeks ago, we were driving NiNi to the immediate care center with a 103.5 degree fever and it just went downhill from there. We all started dropping like flies. Chris had to be in Miami the next day, so there I was, iced/snowed-in with sick kids. That's when it hit me...the stark reality of having three kids. It's funny that I keep waiting to feel like I'm on top of life again...to find my groove. Now I'm beginning to think I don't have one! I'm not trying to be down on myself and don't generally have a low self-esteem, but it's true that we all have strengths and weaknesses. I marvel at women who have 4,5,6 kids AND home school the entire brood AND workout AND eat from their own flourishing organic garden. I know that no one is perfect, but you can't deny that some women just have that certain something which makes them appear to breeze through motherhood with grace, style and a bubbly personality. And it's not a single quality, like organization or patience. It's some kind of rare super-maternal gene...a gene that I unfortunately did not inherit or manufacture. I know, I know, it's the low endorphins and February-in-Indiana-gray-skies talking. And regardless of whether I am "good" at it or not, I have these wonderful creatures that call me mom. So for now, let the laundry pile grow (and junk mail pile, toy pile, and stuff that needs to go in the attic pile) and it's frozen pizza for dinner tonight! I guess they all seem relatively well adjusted...


Here are some pictures from the warm spell we had last week



Attack of the psycho-sister



A quick update on the little man...He is growing! We have another weigh-in in a couple of weeks, but I'm guessing he's past the 20 lb mark now. And just in time so that we can turn his carseat forward-facing for our Spring Break drive to Florida. He's gonna LOVE looking a something besides the back of the seat! He runs the house these days, ordering us around by pulling our arms and motioning "come here." Still not talking but communicating FOR SURE. He hits us on the chest, or uses his little hands to turn our faces toward what he wants. He knows almost 20 signs (cracker, juice, milk, more, done, help, banana, please, thank you, sorry, hot, etc) and will even put 2 signs together.... "more eat" is a favorite combination:) He recently started pointing to his eye and saying "eye" and will make the "h" sound when signing "hot." He stays in the church nursery for the entire service now and will appropriately cry when I leave him and is happy when I come back...this is a good thing compared to when we first brought him home. Sleeping and napping much better now that his dairy allergy and reflux are under control (except when I forget to give him his medicine...oops) He loves his occupational therapist. When she comes over, he sits down and pats the floor beside him for her to sit down too. He is drinking from a straw a little bit now. He also loves his time with grandma...this week she is starting to watch him 2 days a week as I bump up my hours at work. Overall he is such a happy guy!