mrs617

Hey, I'm doing it! I've been able to successfully not only go to other journals, but also post a couple comments on the first try, so I thought I'd do a quick post before putting the baby down for his nap. This one will be about me!

I've kind of been in a 'holding pattern' of sorts for the last few months, and I'm trying to change that. Part of it is due to my lack of sleep (Raynier is still waking, on average, every three hours at night) and the drain that breastfeeding has on your body, and part of it is the emotional drain that is there when dealing with small children 24/7. Having said that though, complacency and procrastination have always been things that I struggle with, so I can't really blame the kids. The things I'm struggling with are making time for Bible reading, and maintaining even a moderately tidy home. I remember visiting my sister when she had only two or three little ones, and being embarrassed by the fact that she didn't keep her home tidier. Sorry Heather, I obviously had no place to judge! My Mama always told us that she kept her home clean even with four little ones, and the only difference I can see (other than personality) is that she didn't have internet/computers. I've thought about going on an internet fast (other than emails), but I can see me not holding myself to it, fudging here or there and then letting it go. So I've been trying to think of other practical ways to motivate myself. One thing I thought of yesterday was to take ten or fifteen minutes to clean something first whenever I feel like taking a break. I've tried doing it the other way, but once I sit down I don't feel like getting back up and working :P It is difficult keeping a good balance of spending time with the kids, keeping the house livable and keeping myself from getting emotionally spent. I do not want my kids growing up thinking that I always have to be cleaning and never spend time with them, but neither do I want them growing up in a pig sty.

Never mind, we'll get there in the end.

After all that though, I am very happy where I am. This whole mothering thing, as difficult as it can be sometimes, is my dream job, and jobs are more interesting when there are challenges, right? Right. I love having these beautiful children to focus my time and energy on. I love the rewards and overcoming challenges. I love that these little people love me and need me. I love seeing how much they are capable of, even as really small ones. I love seeing their accomplishments and the excited glow they get when they do something new.

And I really have fantastic support. Bryan is a big support and encouragement to me, and having his family nearby and constantly involved in our family is so fantastic. His parents have not only been great in-laws, they have proved to be wonderful Grandparents as well.

Anyway, enough about me, I have some children who are due for some attention (and not in a bad way either). <3

ETA: I just wanted to be sure that no one thinks I'm implying that my Mama didn't do things with us kids or anything like that by saying that her house was clean!

It has been ages since I have posted. So. I am determined to start posting again. Posts with words too, not just photos. Posts that tell about the kids and what's going on here and all those sorts of things. I feel kinda sad that I let that go and that there is no real way of catching it all up again. And I can't guarantee big newsy posts either, more likely it'll be short snippets, but it's better than nothing, right?

So.

Raynier is nine months now. Crazy, I know! He's about the age that Verity was when we went back to the US as a family! He's been crawling since six and a half months, pulls himself up on things and has started walking around the things he pulled himself up on. He has two little bottom teeth, and no sign of any more coming. I have to say though, that we didn't really have much warning about the first two, so who knows.
He continues to be my happy chappy. He seems to have a laid back personality, at this stage anyway. He loves his family, and wants to be wherever the action is. If the older kids are gone, he is sometimes at a loss as to what to do with himself.
He is having three solid meals a day now, which has finally moved our two hourly feeds to three hourly. Four times out of seven he will take a long (more than 1.5 hours) nap and a short nap. The rest of the time, two (or one, eep!) short naps. Still not anywhere close to sleeping through the night.

Verity is two and a half today! She is a constant companion to her older brother, whether he likes it or not :) For the most part, she plays well with him, but of course there are the differences of opinion. It is fun to see her own little person coming out instead of just wanting to copy whatever Symeon does. She has an excellent vocabulary, and talks nearly constantly. She still retains her two year old jabber though, and every once in a while just starts talking jibberish. She likes to choose her own clothes, wear toenail polish, tries on shoes and has a handful of bead necklaces to wear. But then she also like to play with the train set and Lego. She has definite ideas of what the baby should or shouldn't do, and I have to make sure she doesn't force him. She must be related to her mother. At least she hasn't sat on him! She continues to be the better eater of the two and also more adventurous, wanting to try anything and everything.

Symeon will be four in just nine days. How the time went so fast, I don't know! He is so definitely 'little boy' now instead of toddler, and of course it is a bit sad, but it is also very exciting. I love seeing him figuring things out and learning and growing! He loves street names, and his constantly asking what street we are on when we go somewhere has paid off to the point that he pretty much knows most of the more well traveled streets in our suburb. He has a little laminated map of Blockhouse Bay and likes to peer over it, figuring out different routes to different familiar places (grandparents' house, aunt's house, friend's house, Church, library, etc.). When Hilary was here, she pretended that it made her sad to go on roundabouts, so he likes to 'take Aunty to Grandad and Mutti's house without going on any roundabouts'. He has figured out counting to 100, and has decided that Grandad will be 100 on his next birthday since the standing joke is that Grandad is 99. He's pretty good with basic addition, if you ask him something along the lines of "if there are five people here and three more are coming, how many will there be altogether?" there is little or no hesitation before giving the answer. In trying to keep his autonomy, he is very careful not to do the same thing as Verity (other than playing with toys). If Verity has square sandwiches, he wants triangles. If Verity wants to go up the street, he wants to go down. He loves his brother, and will jump around to amuse him if he's cranky. He also is very compassionate to his sister, and protective of her as well.

I guess this is going to be it for now, the baby is making himself heard, and I have things to do. See you soon, I hope!

April 1. The kids reading in the garden at the library. <3

 ( The rest of April )

February 18. What happens when we remember about a photo late at night...

 ( The rest of February )

Okay, so I figured we'd have a broken bone sometime, I mean, it happens with kids! But I totally didn't expect it so soon!

As you can see, our little Verity (just two) has a broken leg. Poor baby. Thankfully it hasn't been too painful, and as far as breaks go, it's about the 'best' you can get. Still, it's new, it's awkward, it's uncomfortable...

No one actually saw it happen, but she was going from one room to another and fell somehow. There wasn't anything to trip over, and we could hear her, she didn't fall over anything. It just broke. She was such a trooper going to the doctor, going to get x-rays (although the x-ray machine frightened her), being examined by another doctor, and then getting the cast on. Such a good girl! We have to go back today to have it checked, and if she continues to be relatively pain free we might have to go out for ice cream afterwards.

I see (haha) a lot of movies in our immediate future.

Hmmm... she'll still have her cast on when we go to the Wiggles concert. Wonder if we'll get a better seat? ;)

And for the record, I wasn't tickling him. :)

February 15. A birthday package arrived! Grandma made her dress, and Aunty Hilary made her baby a blanket.

February 16. ♥

February 17. Happy baby!

( Read more... )

And a link to other photos:

I don't know if I mentioned before about Symeon's train track building prowess, but here are photos. These are all tracks he's made since the 25th of January. Makin' Tracks!

January 26. I decided to start taking a photo of all Symeon's track designs. This happened to be the only thing I photographed today.

January 27. Rolled over again! Just look at those gorgeous chubby thighs!

January 28. Who needs blocks?

January 29. He sat up there for all of 30 seconds. :)

Aaaand I missed the 24th.

January 21. Holly: "Are you reading to the baby?" (thinking, awww!) Verity: "No, I'm reading to me!"

January 22. Last piece!

January 23. Amazing what can happen in five minutes.

January 25. I don't know who gets more pleasure out of Symeon's track making skills, him or me.