Where She Gets It

Our Lieren-girl is the little woman among us.  I am grateful that she has such a wonderful group of women in our families, among our friends, and in our church to look up to, admire, learn from, and love.

At 18 months, Lieren is as girly as can be.  Today she wore around a pink beaded necklace, tucked babies into the Moses basket she just received from Grandma, and dressed up in the frilliest cowgirl costume you've ever seen.  Silas said she was a princess.

Our girl may be the smallest of our three, but she can hold her own with the boys.  She is just about running and loves to play chase with Silas.

Lieren is saying well over 75 words now.  But the cutest thing is when she answers, "Yeah" to just about any question.  The last few days, though, I have been noticing that she is getting much better at understanding what is actually being said to her and she has appropriately answered "no" several times.  The days are coming when I'll miss the yeah.

At the moment, Lieren is the best sleeper of our bunch.  She is ready for bed by 8, sleeps until about 8:30, wakes happily talking in bed, then naps for a good 3 hours.  I love going in to get her in the morning.  She asks for a "haci" (paci) which has inevitably fallen to the floor, pulls at her "banket" (wearable blanket) to ask me to take it off, grabs "baby", then points at "haff" (giraffe) who is sitting atop the bookshelf.  I love hearing her talk through each item, a concerned look on her face until each is addressed.  And if giraffe is downstairs, I reassure her we will see it when we head down for breakfast.  The only thing better than getting her up myself is when I take Simeon with me.  Those days he waits patiently at the door until I open it, then runs to her bed calling "Sissy".  She jumps up and with delight responds, "Simmy!"

Lieren does "light up Dad's life" (if you can see on her shirt).  She rarely cries when I leave, but has been known to cry when Daddy has to go.

Sweet girl also loves to sing.  Among her favorites (that I can figure out) are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the ABCs, Jesus Loves Me, If You're Happy and You Know It, and Elmo's World.

It is such a great responsibility, but such fun to have a little lady in the family to join us!

Our Christmas

This morning Shane, my parents, and my sister took the children to Monkey Joe's while I stayed home and attempted to bring some sort of calm to the chaos that became our house over the Christmas weekend.  I believe I have (with a very grateful heart) two sets of grandparents and some aunts and uncles to thank for that chaos.  But things are now much more organized; I put a slew of our old toys away, arranged our now deeply stocked craft area, and even tucked away in a closet a few new toys that hadn't been pulled out of their boxes yet.  Some cold winter day coming up we'll all be glad to discover new things.  And I did some laundry.

Anyhow, the celebrating of Christmas at our house began on Friday with a day of baking goodies.  Silas has been asking for weeks to make an apple pie.  He saw it on a Berenstein Bears video and thought it would be grand.  He could hardly stand it when he woke that morning to discover it was the 23rd (thank you, Advent Calendar) and Apple Pie Day.  It turned out pretty good for a recipe I looked up online that morning...

Saturday we had two big celebrations.  We opened presents and had lunch (pizza and wings has become a tradition) with Shane's family.  You should have seen the kid's eyes as Grandma and Grandpa, Wes and Brooke brought in the presents that morning.  It was sheer delight...

After a good rest that afternoon, we all (my parents and sister included) went to spend Christmas Eve with Shane's extended family.  There isn't really a house among us that will hold everyone so we gather at an indoor pavilion in a park.  It is always decorated for Christmas and has a kitchen so works great for the family.  It's another fun tradition.  There are also hundreds of lit trees in the park at Christmas, which we love to see as we come and go.

Christmas morning we woke to full stockings...

We then all went to church together, which was a nice retreat I thought from all the "stuff" of the weekend.  There wasn't childcare, though, so I didn't hear much of the sermon.  However, our children did very well and I found myself grateful for the chance to worship on Christmas Day.  We had a quick lunch at home then opened presents with my parents and sister.  The children were all about in meltdown mode as we finished so I whisked them away for a long nap.

That evening we had a big Christmas feast.  And would you like to see the treasure that was our Happy Birthday Jesus cake?

I've never claimed to be crafty nor skilled at cake decorating.  But Silas loved helping with it and put the candles on himself.  We then had Papa read the Christmas story while three little ones climbed up in laps and wandered and generally couldn't wait until we got to sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out candles.  It was sweet.  Nothing out of an idyllic movie, mind you, but very sweet...

Monday we had our final celebration of the weekend with Shane's dad.  Shane's sister, Tara, has our children's only cousin, who is just a bit younger than Simeon and Lieren.  Tara is also due to have a little boy just a month before our baby so they will all be super close.  We had to laugh after this picture; one day Simeon will wonder, Why in the world was I holding a toothbrush?

The children have a plethora a fun new things now.  Silas has really enjoyed his new marble run and Melissa & Doug food you can cut.  Lieren loves her new baby doll diaper bag and accessories.  Simeon hasn't quite latched on to one thing, but he and Lieren both seem to really like this set of the Three Little Pigs they got.  The children didn't get any new DVDs this year, unless you count Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas, which Shane ordered for them.  It was a classic in his home growing up, just like Christmas Eve on Sesame Street was in mine.

I personally received some really great gifts this year: dishes, a vacuum, maternity clothes, some pots and pans, and frivolous but much-loved new perfume (thank you, sister!) among some other things.  But my favorite gift was sitting on my pillow when I came to bed Christmas night.  Shane had even written in it...

This season of so many little ones in the little years has not been easy for me.  There is nothing I've ever wanted to do more, but nothing that has been harder.  I admit to tears when I saw it sitting there, realizing how much Shane knows my heart.  He sees the best of the best and the worst of the worst.  Yet he still is right here, loving the little years with me.

In true Brittany fashion, I opened directly to the last page.  I read what follows.  Then fell asleep with the book in hand...

So rejoice in your children.  Look them in the eyes and give thanks.  You will not even remember the work of all this planting when the harvest of joy overwhelms you.

She's Having a Pink Christmas

Joys of the Moment

My children snuggling with Nana and Papa (after 9 months apart!)...

My children snuggling with me...

Baking and decorating cookies with friends (thanks to the ever-crafty Natalie for this fun morning!)...

Time with dear friends...

Getting to play outside in the frost (doesn't look like it will be a white Christmas for us this year)...

A new hat...

The playing of many games now that Aunt Tara is here...

The continually growing wall of Christmas greetings (reminding me every time I look at it how blessed we are by the people in our lives)...

And one of the greatest joys of these moments has been reading God Gave Us Christmas to Silas over and over again the past few days.  I cleaned out our finished attic room last weekend because my sister needed a space to stay since my parents are here too.  I found a big stack of books and games that has been hidden away in a box since we moved.  Silas has loved the new reading selections and has made his way through several of the games with Aunt Tara (watch out if you come over to play, Si can hold his own at Dominoes).   Anyway, back to the book, I was reading with him the other night and started getting teary realizing the Truth that Silas was absorbing when he said, "There's the baby Jesus pig," and pointed to the picture.  Y'all, the baby does look like a pig.  Hope I haven't ruined the book for you!  But it was great for me; the balance of what I would like life to be and what it is.  Like the fact that one of our baby Jesus' has been thrown away twice and thankfully recovered.  Or that now the littler baby Jesus stays permanently in his manger on the island along with the animal's hay because one little boy has been known to put the entirety of those things in his mouth.

Oh my.  Joys of the moment.  Realities in this home.  Thankful that as God Gave Us Christmas teaches, God can be found everywhere...even in the messiness that is life with little ones.  He truly is Immanuel, God with us.

Another Little Man

I could tell on the ultrasound screen before the tech even said anything.  I said, "Oh it's a boy, isn't it?"  She laughed and confirmed.  Shane said, "That's what I was thinking too!"

I guess when you've seen as many ultrasounds as we have, you start to figure it out.

So our fourth child will be a boy, a baby brother, another little man.  We couldn't be more pleased.  He will fit right in among the crazy and cozy, love, laughter and fullness that is our home.  I already love saying him and he and his.  In the past 30 or so hours, the discussion on names has hit an all-time high.  It's so fun.  Lieren will remain our darling, it seems.  And my good friend Nikki reminded me late yesterday afternoon that I used to always say I wanted to be a mom to a house-full of boys.  Love how the Lord often puts things deep in our hearts which He alone knows how to fulfill.

In light of there being another baby on the way, the reality of whom just multiplied exponentially, I decided it was high time I quit giving bottles to the two in the house whom we still call babies.  Yes, at 17 months, Simeon and Lieren were still getting an evening bottle of whole milk before bedtime.  I did the same thing with Silas.  I had been thinking about transitioning them off it for a while, then on Saturday we had friends here in the evening so I just decided to do it.  Those two babies didn't even seem to notice.  I gave them a sippy cup instead and they didn't bat an eye.  What big kids!

I've also been weaning them (Sim, mainly) off their pacis except for sleeptimes.  You probably think Sim always has a paci because he does seem to have one in most pictures lately.  I admit we went through a few weeks there where I did let him have it a lot.  He was getting teeth and needed some kind of soothing.  And because his language was still growing, I wasn't that concerned.  But now we're through that phase so I've been leaving their pacifiers in their room for the most part and not even taking them on some outings.  Both babies have done great, even Sim not having one at church at all this past Sunday!

So here are a few other random things I want to remember about these days (continuing the list from the other day):

5.  Shane vacuums for us every single morning before he leaves for work.  It is so nice to start the day fresh like that.  And if you have dogs like ours, you understand!

6.  I realized yesterday that I have been doing our to-and-from the car routine for over a year now.  Because we live on a busy street, I don't just let the children out freely.  One sits by the front door in a stroller while I get the other two.  It makes for lots more back-and-forths, especially when we go somewhere by ourselves more than once in a day (like Sundays), but at least I know everyone is safe.

7.  I have been training Sim and Lieren to come when I ask so I have been taking their little hands and leading them to where I am as I repeat, "Say yes, Mommy."  It has been adorable to hear Sim at random times walk around saying it.  His version sounds like, "Eh mahmmy."

8.  The day we opened up the nativity set, Shane took one look at the baby Jesus and stated that they must have been wanting to emphasize the passage that says He had no beauty that we should desire Him (Isaiah 53).  Ha!  I wondered if it was in poor taste to actually write that out, but Shane assured me that if you took one look at it, you would agree.

9.  Playgroup was at our house today.  Nine children and four mommies, with 2 of us pregnant. I couldn't be more thankful for good friends.

And I'll finish with an even number 10.  I told someone this evening at a women's ministry meeting that life is nice and calm right now.  The lady next to me laughed and said, "Your house? Calm?" in a very loving way (she is someone we know well).  I laughed back.  Yeah, I guess calm is relative.  We are loving this stage, though.  We have the cutest conversations with Silas and the babies are just plain fun (I really love this 18-month-ish age).  So maybe calm isn't the best descriptor, but it is a good season to be thinking about adding another little one to the mix.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we will find out whether this little person joining our family is a boy or a girl.  There is something about finding out that makes it all so much more personal for me.  We'll start to call the baby "he" or "she" and we'll settle on a name.  We'll begin to imagine how this addition will fit into the bigger picture of our family.  And I'll finally know if our beloved green highchair is on its way out, leaving only the pink one behind, or vice versa.

It will be a good day for me.  This entire pregnancy I've found myself saying really? to myself a lot.  Really?  Pregnant?  Then a test confirms...yes, really.  And an ultrasound shows...yes, really.  Next the sickness proves...yes, really.  Then pulling out the maternity jeans reveal...yes, really.  Recently the slight flutters of baby kicks remind...yes, really.  And now the sonogram will take me to a new level of bonding with this child.  Really, I know you are coming, little one.  But really, I still can't believe the wonder of it.

In the beginning I had a strong feeling about whether this one was a boy or girl.  But now, not so much.  What I am thankful for is that I can honestly say I will be thrilled either way.  Shane and I discussed it tonight and agreed we were in the same place about it:  great benefits whether this one is a boy or a girl.  The Lord has been good to us and we know we can trust Him to add whomever needs to be in our family right now.

So since I guess I am too excited to sleep, I am going to recount a few things about recent days I want to remember...

1.  Silas seeing his friend Jack at church, giving him a big hug, and saying, "Now you're happy because I'm here!"  Silas then went into his class and happily saw another friend, Haley.  They awkwardly kind-of hugged and kind-of tried to give high-fives but it ended up looking like they were both just jumping up and down flapping their hands at each other.  I had to laugh.  Their teachers always say the three of them are quite a threesome.

2.  Simeon is now jumping with both feet off the ground.  The boy is crazy I tell you.  We have started to have to discipline him for attempting to climb the gate at the bottom of the stairs to try to get to the light switches or the videos.  His passion and zest for life are astounding.  I just pray he survives toddlerhood.

3.  Lieren had to go to the ER a couple weeks ago for a concussion after a fall.  She fully recovered that night, and we were thankful that the Lord protected her.  How Sim has never landed himself in an ambulance is beyond me.

4.  I ordered the children a nativity set they can play with and it came in the mail yesterday.  We got it out this morning, which provided great entertainment on this stay-at-home day.  I showed Lieren baby Jesus and told her Mary was his mommy.  She then took baby Jesus and put him in Mary's arms (as best you can a plastic figure) and rocked them.  So sweet!

Well, I'm feeling bedtime coming on.  We are going to play with friends in the morning then our ultrasound is in the afternoon.  So we'll be in touch...  

Ringing In the Holidays

I put up our Christmas tree the week before Thanksgiving.  I have never put it up that early before but was itching to start getting the decorations out.  We actually didn't decorate it until this week because I needed to switch out some lights but long gone are the days of getting all the decorating done in a day so I am glad I started early.

I can't remember a Holiday season in recent years when I have been more excited about Christmas.  I know it is in part because I am not in the sick days of a pregnancy like 2 years ago, nor are we just coming off a move with 2 little babies in the house like last year.  This year we are settled and rested and I am thrilled to feel up to decorating.  I am also counting down the days until my parents come to visit, which will be one of the best gifts I'll get this year!

We started off telling the children that they needed to leave the ornaments on the tree.  We quickly abandoned that expectation, I bought a bunch of cheap red and green balls at Walmart, filled the reachable branches with them, and let them pull to their hearts content.  It has actually been fun.  I packed away the trains and a few other toys to re-claim our dining room for the Holidays so all three have loved having something new to play with.  And I have resigned myself again to the reality that we are not about perfection in our home.  I won't be surprised if the tree looks bare in spots like this for most of the season...

My sister was here all week.  We both had a first this year and went out for some Black Friday shopping.  We went at midnight on Thursday and dropped into bed around 4.  It was a fun experience, not one I'm sure I will make a yearly tradition, but fun nonetheless.

We spent Thanksgiving day with Shane's family.  I finally found the best way to take a photo of the children with someone else...strap them in!

Because typically this is what we get...

Anyhow, we had a blast having Aunt Tara here this week, thoroughly enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal with family, worked off any pounds we gained feasting by taking all three kids to Monkey Joe's on Friday, and were sad to drive her to the airport today...

And mainly for my parent's enjoyment, here is one of the many things Tara got to do while she was here.  You just never know when Silas is going to bust out a "dancey-dance" he learned on Yo Gabba Gabba!

If You Were Silas...

...you would have thoroughly enjoyed your first trip ever to the library earlier this fall.  You would have then looked forward to Tuesdays when you and Mommy went to Rhythm and Rhyme Storytime while the babies took a nap.  You would have asked repeatedly on Tuesday mornings if Miss Alexis was going to come while the babies slept.  And you might not have realized it, but your Mommy would breathe in deep each week of the time alone with you, getting to see you and hear you and take time with you.

If you were Silas, you would have finished up your fall tumbling class recently.  You would have shown off your skills on the last day to a room full of moms and dads who are probably a bit like your parents: wondering where this little flurry of activity at age 3 will take us in the years to come.

If you were Silas, you would be loving having your Aunt Tara here to visit this week.  You would have counted down the days on the calendar till she came, anticipating a trip to the airport to pick her up.  You would be making up all kinds of silly games for her to play while requesting that your brother and sister "go see Mommy right now" so as not to interrupt all the game-playing.

If you were Silas, you would be fully aware that another baby is on the way in your home.  After staunchly assuring those who would listen that it was a girl baby for many weeks, you would now be convinced it is a boy whose name should be Tiger.  Good call, sweetie.  We'll think about it.

And if you were Silas, you would not have known that your Mommy has recently been praying for ways for you to see the reality of the world; to grow up knowing that life is not all videos and new toys and playdates and trips to Target.  But on Monday you would have gotten to be part of something that answered those prayers:  you served alongside Daddy and many others from our church to fill and deliver Thanksgiving baskets.  Then when you got home, you would have said, "We gave food to the people because we love Jesus.  And Jesus would give food to people.  Some of them didn't have a turkey.  But now they have a turkey for Thanksgiving!"

I know you're not Silas.  But if you were, you would probably never know how full my life is because of you.


*I feel compelled to add how grateful I was that it worked out for Silas to go with Shane to help with the baskets on Monday.  It really was a last-minute decision but I can see looking back that the Lord was answering my prayers.  Our lives are sheer survival to some extent and I have been begging the Lord to show me how we can teach our children to be the hands and feet of Christ when I can't even get the laundry done or dinner made every day.  So it was a gracious gift that turned out to be the perfect training opportunity for our oldest son.  His understanding of the event was surprising and a reminder that the Lord knew better than I how ready he was for something like this.*