Lydia's turn (on stage)

One very excited little girl headed off to school this morning - it was her turn in the spotlight :)

Matt was the parent to attend this afternoon and he said she was a superstar, dancing away with the rest of her class!

Love seeing her smiles and excitement, and watching her come bursting in the door ready to tell the rest of the family all about it (only one person per family can attend - really limited space and seating). 

Two down, one more to go! 

Children's Day times three

Children's Day (June 1st) is a big deal here.  Our kids have school performances - that's three different performances on three different afternoons.  Now you know what I'll be doing this week :)  We'll all be ready for a vacation by the time Children's Day rolls around on Friday! 


Today was Isaac's big day and he had a good time making silly faces for the camera.  And seemed to enjoy himself plenty. 

The teachers asked that he wear white shirt and blue pants.  I had nothing to do with the other "costume decorations" they added :) 

This is the entire first year class (preschool lasts three years).  They are divided into two different classrooms with two different sets of teachers.  But it's still a LOT of children, maybe about 60-70 total?   (See my blond boy in the back row?)

Yay for you Isaac!  We're pretty proud of the way you've charged right into the classroom after a few  years of watching your big sisters from the sidelines. 

the well stimulated child :)

I remember shortly after Lydia was born.... I watched the two girls interacting and marveled at how much energy and entertainment and excitement (and occasional pain) Julianna brought into Lydia's life.

Julianna's infancy looked just plain boring in comparison with Lydia's.  Sure, it wasn't all cake-walking for my second born.  Along with all the entertainment and energy Julianna brought a nice mix of early toddler risk and confusion to baby Lydia's life.  But in the end, I decided the second - born spot was pretty enviable. 

Then Isaac arrived.  And his infancy made Lydia's early months look like a white walled room with no visual or auditory stimuli.  He adored Julianna.  He regarded Lydia with equal parts fear and fun.  And he was captivated by them both.  Life as the third born?   Pretty great.   

Well, you can probably see where this is going :)

Cue Luke's entrance into the family.  This fourth born baby is one well stimulated little man :) 

Sure, there are moments that the big kids totally ignore him.  Like today when Lydia glanced at his empty blue playmat and said "Mom, where did he go?"

Luke had been in his bed sleeping for at least a half hour.  Thanks for noticing he was gone Lyds. 

Luke often gets stuck in middle of a "how many needs can Mommy simultaneously meet" contest.  And there was that time that Isaac tripped and fell onto me and Luke, clonking him on the head with a plastic police car. 

But Luke is also the recipient of some pretty sweet, full-on, focused big sibling attention. 

And if I was choosing my spot in the birth order of a family?  Well, fourth born isn't looking too bad.  Nope, not bad at all :) 

May 24th

is my birthday :)

We celebrated Friday.  Honestly, it was a really long tough day book-ended with a fun present-opening and skype (with my parents, brother, sister in law and  new nephew) in the morning and Happy Birthday song singing that evening. 

The gifts, primarily handmade loot :)  love this about our kids, our family. 

Here we are getting ready to dig in to the key lime pie that Matt and the kids made for me.  The big pillar candles were already on the table (power outage during dinner on Wednesday night and I hadn't put them away yet).... perfect! 

While Matt rigged up the camera and timer I would lift Luke and put him face first towards the pie like he was going to take a huge bite.  It was hilarious and we were all busy laughing.  Well, Luke didn't technically laugh, but he was enjoying himself :) 

Because it's embarrassing how few photos we have of just Matt and me.  Years from now I want to remember what I looked like :) 

That's me on my 35th birthday.  I don't feel that old.  But then again, some days I do. 

on two wheels

I'm learning, more and more, to just look straight at my children and celebrate THEM.  All too often I am tempted to compare (and let's be honest, compare not just my children, but myself, my home as well).  And then, based on these comparisons, I assess value.

My home is smaller (not good), cleaner (good).  I work harder (good), I get less sleep (not good).  I have more _____ (good), I have less _____ (not good).  My kids do this (good), my kids do that (not good). 

It's so ridiculous and so sin-filled.  Such a faulty, self-driven way of assessing value.  What I really want to do is assess value like Jesus does.  I want to look at the heart - mine, my children's.  I want to know, as my wise father-in-law would say "where does the energy for that come from?"  What drives my heart to see the world through these "comparison" eyes? 

The moments when I am really able to celebrate and enjoy my children's accomplishments, just pure celebration and joy - you know, I'm sad to confess that they are fewer than you might think. 

But this new bike rider girl - this was (gladly) one of those moments!  She's a lot like me, my Julianna.  She hesitates to take big risks, she likes graduated risks :)  She so badly wanted to ride on two wheels, but it was too risky for her.  So she asked her Daddy to move her training wheels up one notch.  And then another notch.  And then another.  Until her training wheels were perched in the air, high on the sides of her rear wheel.  Then she perfected starting and stopping without relying on her training wheels. 

And then she was ready.  Off came the training wheels and off she went, Matt at her side (you know, graduated riskiness - just in case all her previous prep work had been inadequate.)

She surprised only herself when she biked the length of our central courtyard, on her own, on her first try. 

In the next half hour she worked on turning, and bumpy ground, and a few other anomalies. 

And now she rides on two wheels :)

And I am thrilled for her.  Not because she did it earlier, or later, or better, or faster, or easier.  But just because she did it! 

welcome to the weekend

Matt works late on Saturday nights so our 'weekend' starts on Sunday morning.... everyone still in pjs, piled on the couch with Daddy.

I love a good weekend :)

Oh, and another big morale booster?  I tried a paci with a fussy tired Luke yesterday and he took it!  Woohoo!!  And, he took a bottle!  So glad that now I'll be able to enjoy a few missed feedings :)

I was so excited about the paci I took a picture (self-portrait, so not the best, but this was worth documenting - I still think he will eventually be a thumb sucker, but he's working on perfecting his technique and I'm happy to have the paci in the meantime.)

He's still not a stellar night sleeper so I'm off to an early bed, tomorrow is another weekend day! yay!

holding Luke

I spend a lot of time holding Luke.  He's two months old, he needs a lot of holding.  And he needs a lot of feeding. 

All of it adds up to a lot of Luke snuggles.  So I'm glad to let others share the Luke-love. 

Isaac has about a three minute attention span when it comes to holding Luke.  I stick close by, because it usually goes down just like this.

Me: Ok buddy, here you go, here's Luke.

And he's done. 

That's why I stick close.