Kidspeak

We often give the kids a dessert after dinner if they try everything on their plate. It can be anything from a popsicle to a cookie, but they love a little something sweet no matter what it is. One day I had a Hershey bar that I was planning on having them split after dinner. This conversation happened while they were eating dinner before dessert time.

Me: "Remember, if you do a good job on your dinner I have a special treat for you!"

For some reason "special treat" really gets my kids going. Maybe it's the novelty of not knowing what the treat is. Regardless, if I mention a special treat I can usually get them to eat a few more bites of veggies and such.

Sam: "Ohhhh, what is it?"

Me: "Can't tell you or it wouldn't be a surprise. Eat one more bite of broccoli and you can have it."

Sam: "Ok, I ate it! Now what is the surprise?"

Me: "Ok buddy, here it is!" (while showing him the Hershey bar)

Sam: "Oh Mommy ... chocolate makes me smile!"


And here's the blissful look of chocolate anticipation ...

Random Thoughts for Tuesday

You never realize how many places sand can hide on the human body until you spend a week at the beach with four small children. One week later and there is STILL sand in the tub after every bath.

The triplets are at the stage where they are having the occaisional bad dream at night. Typical for their age, but the subjects of their dreams sometimes stump me. Last week Adah had a nightmare about chiggers. Yes, the bugs. She woke up in the middle of the night convinced that they were all over her and in her bed. Apparently we skipped the boogie monster and have moved right on to blood sucking parasites. I guess leeches are next.

Do kids get headaches? I'm just wondering because they never complain about their heads hurting. I get headaches fairly often, so I was just curious. Maybe headaches just come with age ... or with having lots of children.

Why does the shampoo ALWAYS run out faster than the conditioner? If I buy an equal-sized bottle of each at the same time, the shampoo always runs outt way fater than the conditioner. And I swear I use exactly one pump of each EVERY TIME.

I wear more sweatshirts in the summer that I do in the winter. We keep our house pretty cool in the summer (in order to make sure the upstairs stays a comfortable temperature), so I tend to have to wear jackets and sweatshirts in the house to warm up. I have to admit that I feel kinda funny when I step outside in 90 degrees to get the mail with my sweats on. And I think the neighbors think I'm a bit odd too.

It took me a years and a half to finally get my NC driver's license. While I must admit that part of the delay was due to pure laziness, it was more because I had to re-take the written driver's test to get the license. Like the same test that you take when you turn 16 to get your license! I was so nervous about studying that it took me 18 months to get the courage up to take it. And now I will never forget that a blind pedestrian always has the right-of-way at an intersection where the movement of traffic is not regulated by a traffic officer or traffic control signals.

McDonalds just rolled out the new Rolo McFlurry. I will be trying one very soon. Ice cream + Chocolate + caramel = YES, please!

And while we're on the subject of food, shave ice is awesome. And it is shave ice, not shaveD ice for all you novices out there. This ain't your ordinary sno cone, it is soooo much better. Gotta get my fill in the summer while I can.

Enough randomness from me today, have a great Tuesday!

Picture of the Week - June 26

Wilson reeeeeeally wanted a bite of popsicle. Time to get him some more doggie ice cream.

Question of the Week

Sorry for the tardiness on this one - as you can see, QOTW was on vacation.

Clean Floors

The following is a pretty accurate vignette of the daily activity in our house. I would consider myself a neat person, but I'm definitely not a neat freak. Regardless, I seem to have raised children with an affinity for cleaning. Within 15 seconds of switching on the vacuum, this is what you will see in our house.

*Please excuse how loud it is as I was running the vacuum while filming. You may want to turn down your speakers a bit.

Hmmmm ... Maybe I should get a few more play vacuums so we don't have to pretend anymore with leaf blowers and ball popper toys? Or maybe they make miniature REAL vacuums. You'd be able to eat off the floors if that was the case.

Bookworms

I have always loved to read. I remember reading countless numbers of books as a child and it is something I definitely want to pass on to my kids. We have read to them since they were very young in hopes of instilling a love of reading in them at a very early age. Luckily, I think it is working. Adah is our resident book worm (hands down), but Peyton, Sam, and Luke love to listen to stories and "read" books by themselves as well. Being that we love our books around here, I thought I would share some of our favorites.

Best Books for the Little Ones (0-2 yrs)

Gossie, by Olivier Dunlea:  Cute set of books about a gosling and her many adventures. There are several books in the set. We like Gossie and Gertie and Gossie's Busy Day (a tab book, which the little guys really love).

Sandra Boynton books:  Any of these board books are great. They are quick and fun reads with lots of rhyming words you'll quickly find yourself repeating all day long. Our favorites are Pajama Time, The Going To Bed Book, and Barnyard Dance.

Eric Carle books:  Any Eric Carle book is a classic and the pictures alone make the books worth it. My kids have read these over and over and still read them today. The best of the bunch are The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown:  If you have kids and don't have this book, you must live in a barn. With no electricity. And no contact with the outside world. Quite simply the most well-known book for babies ever.

Best Books for Toddlers/Preschool (2+ yrs)

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Laura Joffe Numeroff:  This book is quirky and fun and the kids love to follow along once they know what the mouse will do or ask for next. Numeroff has a whole series of these books. We also like If You Give A Pig A Pancake and If You Give A Moose A Muffin.

No, David, David Shannon:  The illustrations in this book are awesome and it is a funny and short read for those with short attention spans. This was one of the first books Luke would sit still for and he still absolutely loves it. I have often caught him reading it to himself and laughing. Shannon had some other David books, but we have yet to read them yet.

Llama Llama Red Pajama, Anna Dewdney:  The triplets fell in love with this book a little over a year ago and I think they know the entire thing by heart. It is an easy, fun read with lots of rhymes. Each of the Llama Llama books (there are several) centers on Llama dealing with everyday problems like a fear of the dark, starting school, or dealing with being mad at his Mama.

Best Books for Preschoolers (3+ yrs)

The Hello, Goodbye Window, Norton Juster:  We love this book because it is about a little girl and what happens when she visits her grandparents' house. The illustrations are beautiful and it brings back great memories for me about times spent with my grandparents at their homes. We change the names in the story to match with the names of our kids' grandparents, so they love reading about their own grandparents through this book.

A Treasury of Curious George, H.A. Rey:  There are too many Curious George stories to count and my kids love them all. This book contains eight well-loved monkey tails (haha!) and they love them all. I don't know what it is about him, but that monkey is timeless.

City Dog, Country Frog, Mo Willems:  This is my favorite book right now. A sweet, cute story about best friends and loss with an ending that will make you cry (but the kids don't really get the sentimentality of it quite yet). They love their "Crunchy Frog" book almost as much as I do!

My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts, Susan Hunt:  This book was recommended by my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group and it has been awesome. There is a bible verse for each letter of the alphabet along with a story to go with the verse to explain it and apply it practically. We are having our children memorize scripture verses as we feel it is a good foundation for the values and character that we want to instill in their hearts. They are doing great and have memorized about 8-10 verses so far, which is just amazing to me. Now if only they were as good at the practical application of the verses ...

Future Books We Hope To Read

I am really looking forward to the day when the kids are old enough to sit and listen to simple chapter books that we can read together. I recall my 2nd grade teacher reading us chapter books every day after lunch and it was one of the most special times I remember from school. I plan on reading them books like James and the Giant Peach, Charlotte's Webb, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (never read this, but heard it's great), and all of the Ramona books. I'm sure I will come across some more as we go along as well.

Well, there you have it. Hopefully some of you book worms will appreciate these suggestions. I always find it useful to get book recommendations instead of just perusing the book shelves at B&N hoping to find something I like. Please, please, please give me any suggestions if you have books that weren't on my lists. Happy reading!


 

Picture of the Week - June 19

Best. Daddy. Ever.

Happy Father's Day!

Summer Moments

A summer day in pictures ...

Luke's Present

Luke's present for Daddy today on his birthday.

Yes, I know he is singing Happy Birthday to himself, but he really does intend it for Matt. Promise. We just seem to have raised narcissistic children.

Stylin'

Happy Birthday to the most stylin' man I know. You still got it!

Question of the Week

If you have any great ideas/questions for Question of the Week, we'd love to hear them! In the meantime, enjoy the latest edition.

Picture of the Week - June 12

Cover your eyes or you'll be blinded! We need to get some sun on this boy!

Kidspeak

Disclaimer: You should know that, even though we live in the middle of Tarheel country, we have and always will be big Florida Gator fans. As far as I'm concerned, these North Carolinians know absolutely nothing about real college football. Sorry NC friends.

While riding in the car one day we got talking about balls. Sports balls, ok? This is a PG rated blog. I was asking the kids abut what color each ball was and they were trying to remember the answers.

Me: "Sam, what color is a baseball?"

Sam: "Ummmmm, white and red!"

Me: "Good! Adah, what color is a basketball?"

Adah: "I bounce the basketball!" (Says our resident space cadet)

Me: "Right. But what color is it?"

Adah: "Orange!"

Don't ask me why they feel it's necessary to answer such boring questions with unreserved gusto.

Me: "Ok Peyton, what color is a football?"

Peyton: "Ummmmm. I don't know."

Me: "Yes you do. Remember, we throw the football in the backyard and watch them score touchdowns on TV?"

Peyton: "Oh, I know! It's orange and blue!"


That's my Gator girl!

Question of the Week

Here we go ...

Picture of the Week - June 5

Future members of the classes of 2030 and 2031.

Death and Dying

I don't mean to scare anyone off with the title, but this is something that has been on my mind this week. Matt's grandfather (Pa Pa) passed away earlier this week and it got me to thinking about death and what it will really be like for me when I experience it on a very close level. I have had a grandparent and great grandparents die, and even though these were painful losses I just don't think they will equate to the loss of a parent, spouse or child. Luckily I have not had to experience this yet, and I hope I won't have to for a very long time.

The death of Pa Pa really lit a fire under me when thinking about what will be in store when I eventually do lose my parents. You spend your entire life with these people that you constantly can turn to for advice, ideas, and unconditional love. More than anyone, we know our parents will always love us. Even though I am an adult with children of my own, I still am someone else's child. I am still childish is some sense of the word. And once my parents are gone, so is my childishness to some extent. I think that the moment when both of my parents are gone and I become the oldest, the person of authority for my family, I will be scared. Not having an older person to rely on, to be there for me, that will be hard. It will be something terrifying and empowering at the same time. It will be the last and greatest step in my life's independence.

As for my husband, losing him to death is a matter that reduces me to a stage of weakness I cannot fully explain. I know that we will both die, and I hope that (God willing) it will be after a long and fruitful life together. In witnessing the death of Pa Pa, I found myself not thinking as much about him as I was about his wife. The one who was left behind. I believe in Jesus and I am confident that when my day comes I will join him in heaven for a life of eternal worship and serving of the Lord. What I am scared of is being the one who is left behind if Matt dies before I do. I cannot imagine the ache and loneliness I would feel having lost the person I was closest to on this earth. The person with whom I have shared joy, pain, birth, death, and everything in between. The hole it would leave in my heart would be cavernous and gaping. I cannot perceive a more hellacious existence here on earth than one without my husband in it.

But as I thought about how much it would hurt to lose my husband, God put a new idea in my heart. Marriage and the loving of your spouse is God's way of teaching us how to love Him. Unconditionally, faithfully, and mercifully with a whole lot of grace thrown in. I think of how much I love Matt and would ache at his passing, and then I think of the fact that God loves me more infinitely than that and He will NEVER leave my life. He will be with me until my dying day and beyond. He would be able to fill my loneliness and calm my fears if I was ever to lose the person I love most in this life. This is why loving God is the number one priority in my life. He will never leave. He will always persist. He will always be trying to win me to Him. And He will always be there. I don't have to worry about dying before Him.

So even though the events of this week unleashed a swell of emotions in me, I finally feel some sort of peace after a couple of days. Losing any member of my family would unmistakeably be a tragedy filled with pain and hurt. But in any loss, God will be there. He will take my hand and let me know that I can endure and that I can go on loving because He is still in my life. And He will make me hunger even more for the day when I finally get to meet Him, surrounded by those who have gone before me. And if one of those people happens to be Matt, then I will be so excited to kiss him hello while bowing to worship together the first love of both our lives, our Heavenly Father.

Portrait

It's finally here.

I must admit, I've been waiting for this for the past few years. From the first time the triplets picked up a crayon in their chubby little fingers I have been waiting. For what, you ask? Budding creativity in the form of crayon houses and rainbows? For the first time they write their names by themselves? For the day they realize that crayons really don't taste that good?

No.

I've been waiting for the portrait.

Today, Peyton obliged my wildest fantasy. According to her, this is a picture of me ...

I have no idea why all children do this. Why they first draw people with only a head and disproportionately long appendages. At first, it kinda makes you wonder if you really DO look that bad. Is my right eye really bigger than my left? Is that the biggest smile I've been able to muster since they woke up this morning? Am I suffering from alopecia?

But then, you could also look at it from the glass half full perspective. Man do I have some skinny legs! And girl, they are looooooooong! I could give Ana Hickman a run for her money with those stems. And look how there's no stubble on those legs. You'd think I wouldn't have time to shave my legs with four kids, but no, I'm Supermom! Able to shave legs and make grilled cheese sandwiches in a single bound! And being that I only consist of a head and four spindly appendages, I'd guess I can't weigh more than 30 pounds, right? Nothing like a little preschool art to help you drop 100+ pounds!

This picture is now hanging proudly on our refrigerator and I'm going to be hard pressed to take it down any time soon. Peyton did draw some cups of juice in my hands after I took this picture (which makes we wonder if she sees me more as a mom or an automatic juice dispenser) to add some "decoration" (her word, not mine). Either way, I will always cherish the first portrait. I just need to make sure we work on things like hair and noses from now on. She can save the body and the 100+ extra pounds until a little later on!