Yesterday we put our house up for sale. We don't know if it will sell this summer , but we thought it would be worth a try. We want a house with more space ( livable basement, 2 bathrooms, garage ...) and are looking in the Kingsville area. That square sign in our front yard is the cause of lots of muscle pain :( . Mark and I have been cleaning /yard work. Cleaning a house to sell is crazy hard with 4 little mess makers running around needing things almost constantly. It still amazes me how fast those kids can make a mess and get into trouble.
When I thought of the word "trouble" Hannah came to mind. She is "bumming" around (doing little hops on her bum to get around) and getting into lots of trouble. Originally I thought "How much trouble could she get into? The others get into stuff all the time - I'll just herd her away with them" . I forgot that she is at floor level :( Hannah emptys the garbage can and eats the garbage , she finds every scrap of paper on the floor and eats it, she eats more dog food then the dog and spills his water (somehow getting wet from head to toe), she likes chalk, dog bones and pretty much anything else I don't want her to eat. She is starting to figure out how to open drawers and cupboards-yikes! What am I going to do with her when she does walk? On second thought I will like it when she walks because then she will slim down a bit- she is in size 6 diapers and they are getting a little tight (I don't think they make them any bigger then that) She has 6 teeth now and will use all of them on anything she grabs to put in her mouth (including your fingers).
Right now Abby is screaming like a banshee- she had a long nap this afternoon, I guess that entitles one to stay up all night. Her angry gibberish is starting to make sense , which is the cause of more scraps between her siblings. She is starting to play with and mimic Sarah. Its so cute watching them playing with the "daddy" and "baby" bear in the tub. I sometimes feel like I get the short end of the stick as the mother representative in their animals. The daddy bear is a good quality German made model, the mommy bear is a goofy looking yogi bear from Mc Donald's. The daddy giraffe is the good quality German model but the mommy giraffe came from China and looks like she is lame :( . Maybe I will have to get them more animals, but then again maybe not ... the dog eats them.
Nathan is almost toilet trained - he wears underwear all day and night and rarely needs to change them. He still needs constant reminders to go to the bathroom (approx. every 45 minutes) and will still throw a temper tantrum every once in a while as I haul him (literately , on my hip) to the bathroom. This morning Sarah noted Nathan eating his pancakes with his fingers and said "Use your fork man!" . Which made me think of another time when Nathan caught Sarah (or Abby?) eating with their fingers and freaked out yelling at them to "USE THE FORK!" as he used his fingers to eat (like he always does). They both are picking up expressions said by us or from the TV/computer. The other day I put up a sticker chart for Nathan that featured numbers counting by threes and got a laugh when his response was "Count by threes? Are you kidding me? That's COOL!"
As I think about all the things I experience during a day or week or month with my family I remember how much I love them. I still would not have it any other way. I pity the women who somehow don't feel fulfilled staying at home raising kids , believing the well told lie that women need a job and career to be worth something. I can't say I'm entirely free from those lies myself . Everyday I feel God snipping away at them freeing me up to be myself :)
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| Nathan took this picture |
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| And he took several like this as well :) |
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| I can just picture her flapping her arms and squealing in this picture |
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| Abby is "reorganizing" the bandaids , testing some of them. Apparently Sarah helped. |
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| Can you listen to my heart? ...For some reason I hear that question often when I'm trying to eat a meal |
