When I can’t, stories on CD are excellent! Your Story Hour is one of our favorite sources of stories. www.yourstoryhour.org
Another source I’ve just recently found is http://kids.audible.com
They have real books that you might be familiar with on CD!
Check ‘em out!
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Time and time again people at church (where my family is apparently the largest as far as I have seen) marvel over the fact that we can get to church on time, and what's more, I look "so calm" when we get there. People at our church with fewer children can't imagine how we do it. Some have asked if my husband and I "tag team" them to get everyone ready. Honestly, no. He ties a few shoes and dresses whatever small child is not dressed, if there is such a child, after I hand him the chosen outfit.
I don't really know what we do DIFFERENTLY from other people (I really do wonder what exactly, is so hard!), but here's what I do. We have to leave about 9:15 or 9:20 so I get up at 7:30 or 8. First I work on getting myself ready. I get ALMOST done before I start on the kids (by the way, I hardly ever do a shower Sunday morning...Saturday night is the better time). Around 8:15 I eat cereal and I fix 4 children a bowl of cereal (my nearly 8 year old fixes his own). They eat at the same time. Once they're done, they know it's time to get ready for church. The nearly 8, 6 and 5 year olds mostly do that on their own. The 5yo is particularly fond of dressing nicely (dress pants, nice long sleeved shirt, tie) and sometimes I have to find a shirt or pants for him to wear because he tends to stuff clothes in his closet rather than putting them in the laundry. If I don't regularly check out that closet, he WILL run out of church clothes! :o) I also pick out the clothes for the 3yo. I keep his nicest clothes in my closet and the rest of his clothes are in his drawers in my room. They are there so that I can easily keep tabs on his clothes, where they are and the condition of them (he will put dirty clothes back in his drawers). Also, since they are there in my room and he doesn't put them away very neatly, I usually go through his drawers a time or two a week just refolding and tucking them in (it's only about 3 or 4 minutes to do that mid week), so, come Sunday, I know exactly where his clothes are. I choose his clothes and help him dress if need be. Mostly he can do it but the buttons on a shirt sometimes get buttoned in the wrong place.
I dress the girls (4 mos and 22 months) as well. They require a little more thought, but not much. Maybe part of it is that the one year old only wears dresses. You don't have to find a shirt to match pants and also take into consideration whether they are acceptable for church. The 4 month old just wears whatever cute little outfit. Not difficult. They have to be dressed but that doesn't take all that long. Or, if Matt's up by that time, I just toss him the clothes and he takes if from there.
We keep all the kids shoes in the foyer in a laundry basket. We get home and take them off there. When the kids don't do that, we lose shoes. When we see shoes laying about the house we have a kid run them to the basket. Avoiding lost shoes is the very best thing to make Sunday morning's smoother. Before we lived here, we kept their shoes in one place in their room, always. No taking off shoes here or there. Take them off, keep them in one place. You'll always know where they are.
And there you have it! After that, I finish my hair, brush my teeth or whatever and off we go. Bibles are kept in the same place, notebooks for church are kept by the computer...
Oh! I guess we don't spend much time on "diaper bag" stuff either. We keep wipes in the car and I just make sure to have a diaper for the two babies in my purse. Since the two little ones stay with us through Sunday school and church we are quickly aware of any diaper needs and take them out to the car to take care of it (it doesn't go so long that it's all over the clothes as sometimes happens in nursery situations). Also, we don't do sippy cups or snacks for any of the kids so we don't need to worry about that (if they were in the nursery, we would probably need to because nursery workers are in the habit of giving your children food and beverages). And the baby nurses...a snack God already packed so no worries there! :o)
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To me, embracing motherhood means setting my mind to appreciate every
bit of what motherhood brings me. It means seeing a bigger picture and
thrilling in the part that I play. Practically speaking, it means
seeing beyond the mess to the glorious curiosity that MADE the mess. It
means rejoicing in the noise and chaos because of the noise/chaos makers
God has given us. It means, rather than telling someone to be quiet,
listening to long and rambling discussions of really odd things and
marveling at the little growing brain that produces this amazingly
unique thought process. It means rejoicing that I have the opportunity
to hold the baby that cries inopportunely, rather than bemoaning the
fact that I cannot cook dinner uninterrupted. It means loving the fact
that my bedtime is delayed by a procession of hugs and kisses from
little people who love their mommy.
It means seeing the joy and God's blessing in situations that our
selfishness would have us complain of.
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The fun of reading with little people! I’m telling you guys about this so that when I do go a little nutsy (MORE nutsy?), you will be able to identify why and possibly find a remedy. Although, I suspect that the damage may be irreversible. At the same time, I realize that some of you may either not have had this wonderful experience in your life OR, perhaps it’s been so long that you really don’t recall these things. If you did indeed go through this and are still sane… There’s hope!!
So, let me tell you my tale. Because newly reading people read so slowly and don't really grasp punctuation and certainly don't read with proper inflection, things get very distorted. For instance "Help! A Monster!" Becomes "Help a monster." This doesn't make sense because no one wants to help a monster, right? The other thing that happens is that they don't finish a sentence and yet, expect it to make sense. So they STOP reading and exclaim over the fact that it doesn't make sense. For example, they read "I see three little fish." They say "I....see....three....litt
OR! If they don't do either of those and even if they do BOTH of those, they ALWAYS feel the need to do this (and this is the one that really drives me insane):
BOY READING: "Mike and Tom went to the beach."
BOY SPEAKING TO ME: "Mom, are we going to the beach again? I love going to the beach. Will we go when it's summer? When is summer?
ME TO BOY: "Yes, yes, it's later, READ."
BOY SPEAKING TO ME: "Well, will we go to Will's house? When are we going to Will's house?"
ME TO BOY: "In a long time, read."
BOY READING: "They ran into the waves."
BOY SPEAKING TO ME: "Mom, what happens when you run into a wave? Does it kill you?"
ME TO BOY: "You tell me, you've played in the waves before." (you see, they've gotten me off, sly things)
BOY SPEAKING TO ME: "If the wave goes on your face like this *sound effect-splushshshsh* then it gets in your eyes and it really hurts. It hurts a lot to get that water in your eyes."
ME TO BOY: *realizing that they got me off* "Yes, I know, read."
They also take note of the pictures and heaven forbid, the pictures don't match up with the story! In the beach story, for instance, at the end of the story it shows two little boys (with no adluts around) packing up their beach stuff to get ready to go home. My readers find this particular situation alarming. Incredulously they say, "They're all alone?! Their mom and dad have to be there! Kids can't be at the beach by themselves! What if they get hurt? How will they get home?" Ah, the illustrators of these stories cause me all kinds of trouble. I have to explain that sometimes people don't draw EVERYTHING that should be in the picture. And then there are the times that I have to explain that, in fact, sometimes they don't draw things correctly. Nothing like a story mentioning a jacket and the person NOT wearing a jacket! But often that doesn't satisfy so I have to make up my own story about WHY things are incorrect in the picture. "Well, his Dad and Mom are carrying the other towels and probably the buckets and shovels to the car already. The car isn't very far away, they can still see the kids and they'll be right back." The worries those illustrators stir up!
And on it goes. And it really drives me nuts because it DOUBLES the reading time. And it's not a fun doubling and it's not a quality time doubling, it's a "oh my gosh we've been reading these 4 pages for an HOUR...AKKKKK" kind of doubling. Neither of us like that. However, apparently it's only MY opinion that the discussion of nonrelated things should be thrown out while it's THEIR opinion that the reading part if the part we should do away with. Hmm.
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I've recently noticed an emphasis for where women are to be serving that I hadn't really noticed before. Titus 2 talks about what older women are to teach younger women so that the word of God won't be dishonored. To me, this says older women are to be focusing on teaching younger women who are IN THE CHURCH. 1 Timothy 5 says that a widow is to be supported by the church if she meets a number of criteria, one being that she has washed the saints feet. This is serivce to those IN THE CHURCH.
This wasn't just bundled into a general label like "good works". This is a specific area in which God wants us to serve. While this may be really obvious to some people, it's not taught. In fact, it's often left to those who want or enjoy doing that sort of thing (taking a meal, watching a young mother's children, helping a family move, etc). However, we aren't to do it because we want to, but because as sisters in Christ, we're SUPPOSED to be about serving others.
I know that there have been times that I've kinda resented the fact that stay-at-home moms are called to do things so often. Hey, I've got 6 kids, I've got to homeschool and do all the housework that comes from having 6 kids in my house 24 hours a day! Do you think I have LESS to do than anyone else? Do you think it's easier for me to haul 6 small children around while doing these things? I'm ashamed of that attitude. It's true! I AM home and I CAN alter my daily schedule in ways that working women aren't able to do. Here I want to teach my children te serve, but I apparently have a certain type of serving I want to do. Only ask me to do the things I LIKE! But that's not "washing the saints feet" is it? Feet are kinda gross and while I don't mind washing little tiny piggys, I'd be a little grossed out washing big, sweaty, dirty feet. But it's those things, the things we don't particularly like, that we're called to do for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
In addition, I really believe that God wanted women to be keepers at home so that they would be available to serve in this and many other ways. If I'm home but refuse to be used, it's not much better than me going out and getting a job, huh?
How neat it would be for peole to see (in this world where so many women work outside of the home) that being a stay at home mom with 6 kids doesn't hold me back from serving! I want to be the reason people start to understand part of the reason why God wanted women to be workers at home.
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I've just started doing this with my 10 month old because she's hit the stage where she is no longer content to nurse/sleep quietly through the church service (the whole church time...SS and the service, is her usual morning nap time). She's easily awakened at church and...well, she just tends to get noisy just sitting on my lap. And, I'm not interested in doing the nursery thing....I'm more adamant this time. The one time I left her in the nursery, she came down with a really rough cold later in the week. Ugh! Not a pleasant way to pay for leaving her in nursery. Several nights of having a fussy, non-sleeping baby, days of snot and not being able to go around others....not worth it. SO, I've started blanket training in hopes that perhaps she'll be used to that enough to sit and play fairly quietly in church before too long. Being on the floor already will help with the racket we make dropping toys! We're not there yet, but I'm definitely seeing some success.
In only about 6 days worth of training (that's one or occasionally two blanket times a day since we started last week), she's definitely learned that she's expected to stay on the blanket. She still ventures off sometimes, but for the most part she's doing really well with it. I usually put the blanket by the table in the kitchen while I'm doing school stuff with the boys (right after breakfast). I've also put it in the living room while I'm working in the kitchen (it's all one big room....she's farther away, but we can both see each other). That was a little more difficult because when she ventured off the blanket while my back was turned, I had to hustle across the room to remind her....I can be more prompt (read consistent with requiring her to stay on the blanket) if she's only 4-5 feet away even if I don't see her right away. I think I would like to try it in a few different settings (maybe someone else's house, the park, etc) to make sure she's clear on it. I did set her on the blanket in the yard yesterday for about 10-15 minutes, and while she did grab a wood chip to chew on (!), she didn't wander off the blanket.
She caught onto the idea really quickly, with the second and third training sessions spent by her adamantly expressing her dismay that I would request that she stay in one place. I was really kinda amazed that she obviously understood the idea so quickly.
As she's come to understand that, yes, I really expect her to stay on there, she has gotten progressively more content to sit there and play with whatever until I pick her up. She, of course, is never allowed to just crawl away at the end. I pick her up and put the blanket away (off the floor) to make it clear.
I've found that kids cups are entertaining to her. Since I mostly let her wander around at will, I don't usually have to actually FIND a toy that she thinks is entertaining. When I try, I often discover that she isn't nearly as enthralled as I think she would be. It's interesting that it seems baby toys in genenral are less interesting to them than just about anything else.
I really haven't timed how long she stays (at first I only tried it for 10-15 minutes) there now, but I don't make her stay there more than 25 minutes I guess. I do need to work up to 45 minutes, I think, to make sure we could make it through church. Of course, I also would need to try it at nap time. I want to make sure it will work before trying it at church.
It's always amazing to see how bright babies are, and how well they can pick up on things. Also amazing to see them have some selfcontrol! Of course, you start expecting some level of obedience when they're walking. You know the old "come here." "stay right here" sort of stuff you have to do once they're on their own two feet. I guess we often underestimate the ability of a smaller baby to obey some simple directions from Mom or Dad.
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"Remind me again why I stay home all day wiping butts, getting puked on,
dealing with squabbles........."
Because, it's not just "wiping butts, getting puked on," etc. That is
the very view many of the women in our culture have and it's the very
reason they ship their offspring off (quite literally springing-off at 6
weeks or 6 months post partum), and they head off to the office to get
stroked by people who say they do such a good job and to reap the reward
of actual financial pay.
The problem is point of view. Any point of view that degrades what we do
to just being milk factories, baby factories and so on is a problem. It's a
depressing point of view that makes what we do a disgusting job, not
worth a cent. And that's just rubbish. We get to thinking like that and
we think the grass is greener somewhere else. Rubbish again. The grass
is PAINTED on the other side of the fence. It's not real. And God
didn't make it that way. God made the REAL grass and it's some good
stuff.....if only we see it for what it is!
You know, what we do IS totally pointless if there's not a point to what
we do. Come again? Yes, there must be a purpose, a goal we can remind
ourselves of as we do those necessary things that aren't so glamourous.
Is there a purpose for your children? Are they just here? No, there is
a very specific purpose in each one of my children. I'm at THIS end of
his life so I dont' know what it is, but God does so, hand in hand with
God, I'm trying to train him up for his special job. I don't want to
just usher them into adulthood, and dust my hands off saying "whew!" I
want to look into these little blue eyes (those are the ones right here
staring at me) and ask God what exactly do you want me to work on in THIS
little one right now, and I want to KNOW that what He give me to do is
something special to prepare this ONE single person for the job God has
for him later. I might yell and lose my temper but I don't think that
cancels out everything else.
There is SO much more to what we do than what most see.That reminds me of a
bit in Nancy Campbell's book Power of Motherhood.
Three Masons
Once a man came upon three rock masons at work. "What are you doing?" he
asked of them.
"I am carving these stones into the different sized wanted," answered the
first.
"I am earning six dollars a day," replied the second.
"I am helping to build a great cathedral," commented the last. Only he
had caught the vision of the great work that he was helping to do!
Three Mothers
Once a woman came upon three mothers at work. "What are you doing?" she
asked of them.
"I am doing the weekly washing," answered the first.
"I am doing a bit of household drudgery," replied the second.
"I am mothering three young children who some day will fill important and
useful spheres in life, and wash-day is a part of my grand task in caring
for these souls who shall live forever," replied the third.
Only she had caught the vision of the great work she was doing!
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I got a letter from a sister-in-law the other day that vented
frustration. She felt overwhelmed and inept at her mothering duties
and felt like I couldn't identify because, she said I "always portray a sense
of joy in your kids and what you are doing". It made me laugh (because I
live with me)....but then, I considered what keeps me from feeling miserable.
And here's what I had to tell her (slightly altered for those who don't
know me to better understand)....this is why I'm not ALWAYS in a muddle
(though sometimes I am):
Dear ~
On my attitudes regarding children. It's not that I can't identify with
you.
I'm not appalled at what you say and I can indeed imagine what it's like. If I let
myself go, I could be right there with you in minutes. In fact, I might
be able to feel worse than you.
I've never been a baby person. I always (in my prechildren years) expected to feel like I would
gladly hand my small children/toddlers/school aged/teenaged/college aged
children over to someone else to deal with all day if it weren't for my
deeply ingrained sense of duty/responsibility to do otherwise. :o) I
would love them, but I didn't think I would enjoy this mothering
experience.
So, I came into motherhood with a dim view of enjoying motherhood. I
felt a responsibility/conviction to do certain things (homeschooling for example), and some of these
things are going to be a part of my life for years and years and years.
Read "no visible light at the end of the tunnel." I wasn't expecting to really
enjoy children at all. Not taht I expected to moan all my days, but I expected that I would be trudging along, doing what I must because....I must!
I did discover that your children become your heart throb...and
yet.....sigh. I found myself wondering "What am I doing with my life?" And please don't tell me
this IS my life! When my second baby was just a tiny thing....5 or 6
months old (and my oldest 14 months older than that), this mentality (a
wide spread thing in the world-the reason most have so few children) came
crashing down on me. So there I was, sitting in a puddle of my
responsibilities, my convictions about what would please God most....and
how I felt that, all in all, it was a miserable load of trash that had
little or no pleasure in it. Sure, what a cute smile, and how sweet to
see them sleeping, but past that....come on!!!
*Now, I want to clarify that there is nothing I am doing because I think
I will win points with God....there are things that I do/want to do
simply because I believe it's God's best plan, it's truly the best thing
for my family, for me, for whatever. God's ways are always the best and
even though I don't always WANT what He wants, I want to try and do what
He wants, hoping, of course, that as I try and follow Him, He will give
me the desires of my heart (or change my hearts desires). I really want
to do what He would most like, just like I really want to do the things
that Matt (my husband) most likes...even when I don't like them so much.
I had to write this to avoid the"legalistic" thought. This is not about
rules, this is about wanting what I believe is the best because I believe
it's what God intended.*
So....ahead of me, I was looking at a life of boredom...simply
tolerating, but not enjoying. Little happiness. Little pleasure. Little
contentment. Just me being miserable doing or trying to do what I
thought was God's best. God's best, meaning that in the long run it would be
beneficial for SOMEONE. Beats me who would REALLY get something good out
of it, but I was just going on faith that it really was the best thing.
And I read something that made me suddenly realize that I can have
PURPOSE doing this!!! In fact, I can have happiness, pleasure,
contentment, etc WHILE doing these things that I feel I must/should. I
just have to change how I see things a bit. And so, my battle against my
negative feelings began and my journey to find the pleasure of mothering
began. It's taken work and it's continuous. But, it's worth the
work....I can say I'm much happier and joyful as a mother than I would
have been had I never decided to pursue the delights of mothering.
Regardless of what I'm doing, I don't want to be UNhappy. I don't want
to be depressed. I don't want to feel like I'm accomplishing nothing. I
don't want to feel like someone can do a better job than I at what I feel
I'm SUPPOSED to be doing. You know, like God gave me this job but if
only I handed it over, it would be done better. I want to feel happy
and confident. I want to feel like I AM accomplishing something that
MATTERS, I want to feel like I'm doing the best job I can do, I want to
feel happy, confident, joyful.
I personally was expecting that I might have a large number of babies.
If I'm going to hate that, I'm going to be miserable a LOT. If I want to
be happy, I'm gonna have to work on taking some pleasure in that. I'm
going to have a number of toddlers through out the years.....if I want to
enjoy life, I'm gonna have to study and figure out some ways to enjoy
that. I'm going to homeschool my children....and I intend to homeschool
them for a long time. That's another thing I'm going to have to find
some pleasure in. Because of the above items, I will be around my
children a LOT....I've got to figure out how to enjoy that! The list
goes on. Yes, there are overwhelming things, there are frustrating
things, there are uncontrollable things but I have to find a way around
them. It's imperative that I find a way to look past the things that
must be, to change the things that can be changed, to find the delight in
spite of things. This IS what I've been given and as I see it, I can be
miserable for years and years and years. But I don't want that....so, my
efforts are into NOT being miserable.
I certainly have my negative moments, and I have my depressed moments,
I have my discouraged moments, but I put a lot of effort into fighting
them away. I guess that I've more or less decided that there are some
points of view or attitudes about mothering that I WILL NOT hold to. I
refuse! I may be inclined to and my circumstances may seem to be forcing
me into it at times....but if that's the case I'm going to use every
ounce of stubborn will I have to make sure I DON'T get stuck in that. By
George, I will NOT! I don't like how they make me feel about my current
life as well as my life for many years into the future. Those things do
get me feeling rather basketcase-ish and what a horrible feeling!! I've
got to get past it and just muddling in it isn't going to get me past it.
Complaining NEVER makes me feel better. Listing my inadequacies NEVER
helps me out. I'm tempted to do both frequently but having done both,
I've found they're not useful to me. I do it sometimes, but I cut down
on it as much as I can. What IS useful is figuring out some of the
situations that bother me and work to find a solution that fits me and my
circumstances.
There IS a way to do this!! This doesn't have to be this bad!! Some
things CAN get better! And if any other woman on earth can handle 5 (and
more for crying out loud) then why can't I?! With God's help, I WILL
find a way to do what I'm doing and I WILL find a way to enjoy to the
best of my ability and I WILL change what I need to change, but above all
I WILL DO IT!!!
I'm just not going to sit and tell myself I'm in over my head. I'm not
going to tell myself (what I sometimes feel) that all the suggestions
I've ever heard just won't work. When I really put my mind to a certain
annoying situation, I generally CAN come up with some solution to make it
easier. It may take a lot of effort, but the effort DOES pay off in some
way. Granted, I will tell my husband how frustrated I am, and I will pray and
BEG God for pointers, and I will probably tell my MIL (who supports me in so many
things) about my discouragements....and I might even tell my mom.....at
which point she'll give me some good pointers and also infuriate me by
insinuating that I should be doing something different in this or that
area that I WASN"T asking about!
I just gave you the long....the short of it is, I think there IS joy to
be found in mothering. Perhaps I am overly confident, but I feel that
I'm a bright woman, endowed by God with some creativity, I am no less
able than other women. Why should I not be able to have joy in
mothering? If it's worth having and if it's accessible...and I believe
both are true....then why on earth shouldn't I have a bit of it for
myself and my family?
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This subject, I think, is more of a thing that goes to fit
individual mommies and their babies. That is, it may drive one mom
insane to have a schedule and another insane to not have a schedule.
Some swear by a schedule and others swear by not looking at the clock all
day! :o) Of course, some of it has to do with their thinking on the
subject, some has to do with their lifestyle, etc.
I have a good friend who is ALL over scheduling her babies and having
them sleep through the night asap. I'm ALL over NOT having a schedule.
We have different reasons for valuing what we do....and we have different
personalities and habits that make what we do work for us.
Interestingly, we have many things in common and except for a few little
details, you wouldn't guess that we see completely differently on that.
As for the babies, they can thrive under either situation....with
scheduling you have to pay more attention (if you're one of those strict
schedulers who will NOT be flexible, that's not too good for baby but I haven't seen too many of those).
Some people HAVE to relax a schedule due to milk production issues, some
people need to nurse more frequently (be it demand or scheduled) if
they're going to postpone ovulation a bit longer.
I will say, that there are some passages in scripture that hint at
nursing for other reasons that JUST physical nourishment (that is,
comfort) and I believe that studying less "progressive" cultures, you will
find that a variation of on demand nursing is more common in the
mothering world (when you live in huts, the whole town doesn't want to
hear everyone else's babies cry as they are being trained to wait for the
scheduled time). In more primitive times and places, babies sleep with
their mothers, not far away in a crib in another room. This (sleeping
with mommy) tends to lead to on-demand nursing. What mom in that
situation, is going to stay awake, trying to find other ways to comfort
the baby when she could just nurse and sleep? And, babies sleeping with
their mothers tend to want to nurse more at night, too. In some things,
like mothering, I think looking at less developed cultures can sometimes give us more
of an idea of how God created mothering to be. (Granted, there are always exceptions!) We've come up with so
many things to make mothering fit with our "normal" life (a mothering
lifestyle NOT being normal for our culture) and it's kinda altered the
whole mothering picture. At least, that's how I think of it.
In addition, I think scheduling is obviously something that couldn't much
be done without clocks. Or something where you could gauge time pretty
accurately. Of course, I may not have a clue, here, but in Bible times,
I imagine women carried their infants with them more or less all the
time and responded to the infant's body clock, rather than responding to
the sun.
AND I've found it interesting the connection of child spacing and more
on-demand type nursing....especially for those of us who seem to require
more frequent nursing for that spacing effect.
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I wrote this a year ago as I was contemplating my life and the changes that had crept in:
I'm shocked to find that I'm already, SO SOON, moving to a new stage. My
boys are 5, 4, 3 and 1 right now (with my GIRL due the first week of May)
and it's really astounding how different things are from when I had a 2,
1 and new born, just 3 years ago. On the one hand, saying "three years"
sounds like a longish time but it's truly flashed by with remarkable
speed. Can it really have been so long?!
These days, the older guys can go check and see what the little one is up
to, they can get him out of the high chair, they can make beds (more or
less), get dressed (even if it does look odd), bring me diapers, wipes,
what have you....answer the phone. Cleaning up can be slightly
quicker....I just have to keep giving directions to the 4 and 3 year old
who get quickly distracted when picking up toys.
And they can be so utterly sweet in their concern for their siblings. I
guess this started really young but it's a delightful blessing to a
mother to see at any age and the form changes as they age. My oldest
used to just express concern when a brother would cry. Now he's careful
to hold his little brothers hand when going through a revolving door, or
otherwise try to prevent instances of his younger brothers crying. And
it's the best when you see it between two that aren't usually too
concerned about each other. That just makes me all smiley and toasty
inside!
But you know there are actually things that I miss about having 3 under
three. I miss the super woman feeling!! Ha! Sometimes I would
mentally marvel at how hard that SOUNDED (and how hard some people
thought it must be for me) as opposed to how it really was! I would
think, hey, this isn't that bad! Sure, it took a little planning and
some creative thinking at times, but I can't say that it was miserable.
Honestly, I think I had some of my best and rosiest mothering thoughts at
that stage. I wasn't all together or organized by any means....my house
is much neater every day now than it ever was then and I spend more time
on them now than I think I did then but I was tickled to death with my
adorable little boys. I didn't mind carrying a baby in a sling and
having two in my grocery cart....I loved it all. I will say that
things were quite a bit more simple then in a number of areas. Sure, I
had three in diapers, but you know, I've never found changing diapers to
be a big deal. An endless stream of diapers....it's not the Mt. Everest
that people make it out to be....unless someone has the runs, you know?
Since they were little and there were only three, I made sure to figure a
way to keep them all off their feet (making sure I was in total control
of where those feet where!) when grocery shopping...something I can't do
now since some are too big, the groceries I need in a week are more (thus
less room in the cart), they can't be as close for as long due to fights,
etc.
At that stage, I also miss the fact that my baby was generally attached
to me....that gave me only two others to keep track of. My two year old
still preferred the security of being somewhat near me. And since my
oldest has always been one to desire constant companionship, he never
went far. Now the oldest two are happy making their way FAR from mommy
doing things that make evident a lack of common sense (that men may never
develop in some instances!!), the 3rd (then the new born) bounces through
life with reckless abandon, and the current baby will follow all his
brothers to the ends of the earth....where they all like to venture!!!
No one stays by mommy anymore!! How I miss those days where they all
showed that they were most content being near mommy.
OH! And then, with a 2, 1 and newborn....only ONE could talk much.
AHHHH! No arguments that could be carried on from across the room, you
know?! The only fights were over a toy and those were fairly easy to
take care of. Now, they can simply SAY something to provoke the other.
Which they seem to enjoy doing to some extent.
AND....I never had to deal with my kids wanting to wear odd
clothes/combinations in public! Ha! They didn't care. I didn't ever
end up looking at my child in the middle of a church service and realize
that he has only ONE sock on (because he couldn't find another one and
didn't mention it to me). We didn't get somewhere in public only to have
me realize that my son's pants are 2 or 3 inches too short! (Honey, we
passed those to your bother LAST year!!) Or have your son tell you out
of the blue that he hasn't been wearing underwear all day!! What?!
Sure, I had to do it all....but when you do it yourself, you know it's
done! But NOW!! Ha!!! I'm working on making sure I give them all a
once over before we leave the house.
And of course, back then, I only had to deal with ME wanting to be around
other people...my little guys were perfectly happy to be home all the
time. Didn't care about going anywhere. Now I have to deal with several
other people wanting to see outside people or go somewhere and do
something all the time! Akkk!
OH! And they all took naps! I'd have to work a bit to get the
scheduling to match up at times but they did all take naps at that stage.
Now, I'm lucky to have 2 take a nap and the stars have to be aligned for
all 4 of them to nap.
Another great thing was that everything funny they did was almost totally
unintentional....making it that much funnier....and because everything in
the world is so new to them at 1 and 2, their fresh perspective made
things so very interesting. NOW the 5, 4 and 3 year olds will do the
same thing over and over and over just to be funny. Needless to say, it
lost a great deal of it's effect the 10th time or so.
Anyway.....I suppose I could sit here all day and come up with a ton of
things that I really enjoyed about that stage of my life but seeing as
how I am in THIS stage (and 3 of the 4 are not taking a nap today), I'd
best get moving.
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*Talking to myself* What possessed you to get a blog? You have too much free time? You feel the need to write things that people may never read? There are other ways to do that! You think you have things to say that people will actually want to read? Peer pressure!! It was peer pressure! That and someone appealed to my ego. Someone actually said they thought I SHOULD have a blog! In reality, the blog worthy things that I have to say are few and far between.....this really just encourages me to write a lot of things that aren't worth reading at all. Someone reming me when I'm just wasting space. *psst! Kelly, you're doing it now!* Ah, yes, well.....until I have something to say....