Three's a (fun-loving) crowd

Somewhere in the past couple of months, the dynamics of our three kids has changed. It used to be baby Lucy was doted on and fought over constantly (well this does still happen). Then it seemed like Austin and Lucy got along better and Bennett felt left out. Then more recently Bennett and Lucy became good playmates and Austin was more left out and just seemed... older. But lately, suddenly, all three seem to enjoy playing together. Lucy seems old enough to enjoy the older boys' make believe games and Austin seems not too old still to play.  They like playing boat, camping, going to America (lots of that one lately), tickling and wrestling, reading to each other, chasing baby hippos (that was last weekend). Lucy has gotten interested in playing cars. Building blocks. And so on. Now, the three of them peacefully playing together only lasts so long, but it does last sometimes now. I sometimes worried that Lucy would feel left out with two older brothers so close in age, but at least for now, they all seem to be enjoying each other.

 We learned recently that Nero was the first person to put points on a crown (he styled it after Jupiter, who he decided was his ancestor). So we made crowns and Austin was king, Bennett a prince and mei mei of course was the princess.

 What could be more fun than taking turns pushing each other and riding in the stroller? Especially when you have a large, flat concrete area with (amazingly) few people. And on rollerblades. Note- Austin was getting pretty tired.

 They spent a couple hours in these "woods" in the park across the street. They found centipedes, ants, sticks, climbed trees and pretended they were monkeys for quite awhile. These woods have the added bonus of being near a train track (don't worry it is separated from the park) so you can have your nature and trains too!

They were looking out for hippos. Not sure how that started, but I think it was Lucy's idea. She LOVES animals of all kinds right now. They ended up walking about 20 baby hippos home with them on imaginary leashes. Boy, those hippos pulled and pulled and tired them out :)

Fly away from captivity... be set free

Well I have had my share of anxiety over the past couple of weeks.  We have made a total of 8 or 9 trips to the doctor/ER/hospital in the past two and a half weeks. Austin fell and hit his head, needing one staple (but thankfully no concussion). I had an abscessed cyst that overnight became infected with red going down my leg. The family doctor lanced it, drained it, actually pushed the cyst itself out too in the doctor's office and now I have to go back every 3 days or so to get it packed and repacked with gauze (they keep the wound open to heal from the inside out).

And sweet Lucy...the chalazions on her eyes continued to grow and both the right and left eyes became infected and we needed to go ahead and do the surgery to remove them (the chalazions, not her eyes).  So Thursday morning we went in bright and early (and hot- it reached 104 degrees that day) for her surgery. It was considered a rather minor procedure, however in addition to general anesthesia there was a risk of permanent damage to her tear duct- which could have resulted in constant tearing out of her eye for the rest of her life.  So I was a little nervous, to say the least. It is definitely hard to see your little one hurt and was really hard when they had to take her away into the operating room- they didn't sedate her until she was in the OR. Though they did get everything ready so I think they put the gas mask on pretty quickly after taking her from us.

After an hour and a half they brought her back- somewhat awake and rather confused and sad. But after holding her a little while, she laid back down and slept for about an hour. Then she woke up. Since she couldn't see very well, Chris played her current favorite song, by our friend Doug.  She had been listening to it a lot this week and knew most of the words and even had hand motions to go along with the song. Well, as soon as she heard the song, she sat straight up and even with her swollen eyes and partly incoherent self, she sang the whole song along with the hand motions. It was the cutest and sweetest moment..one in which I felt God's grace strongly. In all the stress of the last few weeks and worry about seeing your little one go through surgery, the life in her came out even after surgery through that song. It was a sweet moment and one I will not forget. Soon after that she wanted to play toys and eat. Slowly she started playing toys (was a toss up between her doll and Lightening McQueen), got to drink some water and later ate some toast. By the time we left the hospital at 2 pm, she was running around the room, playing peek a boo in the curtains and hugging the nurse goodbye.  Wish i bounced back from surgery that fast!

She has had a few unhappy moments since then, but overall has done great. She looks much better now- only a little red bump on the upper lid. This morning they were able to take her stitch out of her eye (not fun, but she did a good job). I got the green light that my wound is healing and hopefully won't need to go back for that. We are looking forward to not going to the doctor ( a good hour trip there one way in regular traffic) for while we hope!  Thanks to all who prayed and were with us in spirit for this! Our friends here also took care of the boys and were very helpful as we did all this. So thankful for our community here.

 Pre-surgery. She happily let them check her pulse. When they checked her temperature in one ear she wanted them to also check the other ear. She saw a stethoscope and insisted they listen to her heartbeat. Of course she still really had no idea what was coming at this point...

 Curious George went to the hospital...just like Lucy!  This book helped a lot actually with understanding what was going to happen.

 A fairly happy moment outside the OR before she realized Mommy could not go in with her. That was the hardest moment for me- when they took her away still awake into the OR. Yes we were very generous with that paci we have been preparing to wean off of lately. Sometimes you just need your paci.

 Right after returning to her room. Sweet baby.

After the song, she was ready to play!  Amazing.

Here she is attempting to sing and do her hand motions to the song. "Fly away from captivity, be set free. I want to breath the air where you are, where you are" Those are the words of the chorus...and true for me too. Fly away from the captivity of anxiety and worry and be set free. Such a sweet moment to be reminded of that.

The big backyard and Rome

I love our neighborhood. Especially in the spring. For a big big city, our little neighborhood has an impressive amount of grass, water, tadpoles, frogs, dandelions and other signs of nature. Last week we spent a day just wandering...a rare day with no afternoon school and beautiful weather. So we just wandered through the neighborhood- spying tadpoles, collecting algae for our own tadpoles at home, blowing dandelions and enjoying the neighborhood, which sometimes feels like one big backyard.

Lucy learning to blow dandelion seeds.

These neighbors had a hutch with chickens, a parrot and a talking black bird. They were entertained there for twenty minutes or more just watching and talking to them.

Climbing on the giant fish statues.

 We have been studying the Roman Empire and attempted to make aquaducts. I often shy away from such ambitious projects but felt like this one was worth trying. The boys love projects like this.

Fish Day 2014

Last Saturday dawned clear and bright- just in time for Fish Day. In case you are new to the blog, Fish Day is our neighborhood tradition of letting the kids in the neighborhood release goldfish into the ponds and streams after the water has been put back in every spring. A super fun tradition that we enjoy with our neighbors.  Check out this video showing Lucy's intense excitement this year.  After most of the fish had been distributed, there were leftovers. So this shu shu came around with extras and Lucy got very into it. The video does not show her chucking them into the water one by one, however you can use your imagination.

Wish I could say that no fish were harmed in the making of this video...but I think a few of them at least  met a bad end by being thrown against a rock or being manhandled.

 The boys are experts at fish day now and went back for rounds 2, 3 4 and possibly more.

Notice the difference between what my children are wearing and the local friends next to us.  Hmm, is is shorts and t shirt weather or sweaters?

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

We enjoyed our Resurrection Day fully. Started off with hot cross buns and Easter baskets, a great service at church, a first picnic with a larger group at the park across the street from our complex and then a smaller second picnic/egg hunt/fun dinner in the neighborhood with our 3 neighborhood families. A fun day, nice weather and the wonderful celebration that He is Risen!

It's Friday

Today is Good Friday. Easter has snuck up on me this year so quickly.  I decided we had better do some Easter activities at the beginning of the week, so we tried a painting project. But before you might begin to be impressed or think this was all fun and happiness, I will give you the 

"real" version. We were making potato Easter stamps that looked like eggs and crosses.  It started out ok- for the first 5 minutes.

 This is Austin's finished product. It looks very nice I think- but it was a LONG road to get here. He was upset that the potato slipped as he made his first stamp. Frustrated that the colors mixed. Wanted to throw it out and start over. And on and on. After 15 minutes I was ready to send him away and my emotions were ...not calm.

 Then they upped the ante a bit. Bennett's work. Also very nice.You probably can't notice in the picture but the right corner is very wet. Lucy accidently knocked the dirty paint water over- all over Bennett, his picture, his pants and the floor. Crying and screaming ensued from all directions, including mine. I might have even yelled "We are never painting again" by the end. Honestly it is not the mess so much as the crying and whining and  inability to cope with mistakes that put me completely over the edge.

 I realize how often I want to make a holiday or whatever time special, but end up getting angry and feeling out of control puts me over the edge and cancels out any fun we might have had. In the end, I had to confess my anger to the kids and they were gracious to forgive me. I concluded the most "Easter" thing about it all was clearly demonstrating Mommy's need for the gospel. I have been learning a lot about how daily, daily I need his grace and acceptance and so often start from a place of thinking I "should" be better at this by now. But this Friday I am thankful that Sunday is coming, the day we celebrate the glorious day when all is finished and triumphant. Thankful that as parenting strips me from any illusion that I might have had it together or been growing more holy- HE is perfect and holy and covers it all.

 Today, Friday, we tried again to do something for Easter involving potential mess.

 We did have a purple dye disaster (again, Lucy spilled something all over poor Bennett and his egg) but we all seemed to handle it a bit better this time. Especially Mommy. As I take deep breaths and remember it does not depend on me getting everything under control.  Or convincing my kids that mess is ok. Or that my mess is ok. It is not ok, but it is not up to me to get it all cleaned up.

This Friday I am thankful for the cross, for the mess that he takes on and cleans for me, for the gospel that is ongoing, every day in the crazy. 

The newest readers

I love that we are a family of readers. Bennett has been working so hard at reading this year and is doing great!  He finished the 100th lesson in his reading book (which is the last lesson) and got to choose a play place outing to celebrate his accomplishment.

And Lucy is SO into reading books lately.  She loves to lay on my bed with me and read. Her recent favorites have been Little Bear series, and especially The Goblin Story (which was one of my favorites growing up). When she is by herself, I can hear her saying "pit-pat-pit-pat". Today she read for over an hour by herself in her room (maybe a first). Of course when I peeked in, I saw this.

 Notice almost every book was off the shelf and on the floor. A small price to pay for enjoying reading (and giving mommy an HOUR of quiet!).

I have loved this stage of all of my children when they start to "read" books outloud around age 2. She is "reading" all the pictures with lots to say "There is the moon.  oooh a triangle. What does the lion say?" Or actually memorizing parts of the actual stories.

Lucy is now two and a half!  She is adamantly refusing potty training, after seeming to want to use the potty last summer. She loves to say "what is that noising?" whenever she hears an unfamiliar noise. She is still obsessed with sleeping with her pacifier, though we are working on maybe wanting to give them to baby Grace this summer as a present. She usually agrees except she always says "Not the red one" her current favorite.  She knows all the hand motions to "Get off the phone" a Rhett and Link video she  loves to watch with Daddy. She is still cute and charms everyone she meets, loves older jie jies (sisters) and other favorite phrase right now is "I do it myself".