perspective

A few days ago, I bid adieu to my two precious older ones and left them in 

grandma & grandpa's care.

(not to worry, they are having a LOT of fun)

 And Abigail and I boarded a 10 hour plane ride,

only to discover that the bassinet
 I had requested,
 counted on,
 confirmed
and then confirmed again
was not available.

(the airline booked two babies in the same row and had oversold the flight - oops)

So I got moved to a seat with no bassinet and no way of setting down Abigail for 10 hours.
Did I mention that Abigail starting running a fever just a few hours before the flight and that I was pretty sure she had an ear infection.

This was seriously the makings for a mommy meltdown.
And four years ago I most certainly would have started crying and wondering how I was ever going to make it through to meet Matt.

But you know what?

I stayed totally calm.
I remembered the 11 hour bus ride through West Africa where I only stood up once and
the enormously long flight to India with Hannah and
the time I flew with Hannah & Peter by myself to LA and
Hannah's ear infection that we got treated in Chennai
and I thought what a treat it was for a stay at home mom to travel internationally
with only one child
and I took a deep breath and thought I can do this!

And joy of all joys the stewards found an old bassinet (thanks be to God),
shoved it under the empty seat next to me and Abigail slept for 6 hours of the flight!!

Can you see her down there?

 And we made it!

Reunited with Daddy

and ready to explore!

my boy

Peter is two and 2 1/2 months!

And like many two year olds there are some landmark challenges that come with this stage
- our current one -
staying in bed when you realize you have the ability to get out.

I think I've mentioned before that Peter is kind of a like a monkey - he loves climbing!



For the past two weeks, he's decided that climbing out of his crib (at all hours of the night), turning on the light and running out of his room - is way better than sleeping.

And this tired mommy (and daddy) are working like crazy to figure out how to get him to sleep again.

 In this midst of this I've been reminding myself of some of the things I love about this little guy.

Peter gives great hugs.

He loves "choo-choos" (trains).  And gets very excited whenever we see one go by.

Helicopters fascinate him.

He is very musical and loves to play his ukulele with Daddy's picks.

He really enjoys eating everything and doesn't mind making a mess.

Anything with wheels (motorcycles, cars, bikes) is 

simply amazing to him!

And with some wise insight (from other parents who have gone before us), as well as a lot of man hours - deconstructing the crib, and turning Peter's room into a toddler-proof fortress, we finally have a sleeper again!

Each time he gets up from a nap or in the morning - our whole family celebrates 
Peter staying in his "big boy" bed with a cheer and a dance.

Today we even celebrated with a Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treat at snack.

Rejoicing at being "big"

Big sister "Ahn - uh" (peter's sweet way of saying Hannah)

has been instrumental in making Peter's bed an exciting place to be and showing him how to sleep in it.

Okay, so your challenge may not be keeping a 2 year old in his bed, 

but whatever it is - with patience, prayer and the support of others -

 if this tired, pregnant, and sick with a cold mommy can do it - 

you can do it too!!!

grunt work

My kids love to have jobs.

I love it when their "jobs" are actually helpful.

Sunday night we were outside and I noticed that there were about one hundred green plums in our yard (from Matt pruning our neighbors' tree).  They all have to be picked up so that our dog does not eat them and so they do not go into the soil and sprout 30 or 40 little plum trees.

I was getting tired just thinking of bending down and picking all these up on a hot night.

And then I thought - my kids would be great at this!

So I put them to work!


They were enthusiastic,

effective,

and joyous little workers

 

Of course, breaks must be taken to jump out of cars and go down slides.

The best part of all, is that Hannah (on her own initiative) went back outside tonight and collected even more.



Ah, I love little hands!

cupcakes

Tonight I made cupcakes for Hannah's class.

My first adventure into being a classroom mom.
(Although, at her school every mom is a class mom, since it's a co-op.)

Kind of thinking there are a lot more nights like this ahead of me. 



There are definitely a lot more nights of cupcake making awaiting me in the next week -

as both of these cuties turn a year older!

 

 

Halloween pt. 2

Pumpkin Carving

With little kids around, it seems that Matt & I have been very consistent about purchasing pumpkins and very terrible about actually carving pumpkins. Well, this year we set out to change that.

After the Trunk or Treat, we changed out of costumes and got ready to do the messy business of pumpkin carving.

Hannah drew a face on her pumpkin.



And Daddy set to work cutting open the pumpkins - it was fascinating work.

Then came the kids' role of scooping out the seeds.

Peter stopped for a taste test.

Then back to work.

I got involved to make sure that the seeds actually made their way out of the pumpkin.

And then decided to start having some fun.

Because really, having kids is a lot of work but grasping the opportunities for silly, messy fun is without question one of the best perks of parenthood.

And for my daughter who hates being messy - she got a kick out of mommy chasing her with gooey hands.

Joy!

Eeewww!

Fun!

Back to work

And yes, our pumpkins did actually get carved into jack-o-lanterns but my hands were much too messy by that point to take a picture.

yes

I've been conscious recently of wanting to say yes to Hannah more than I say no. (I find it all to easy to slip into the mode where I say no to everything she asks and forget to embrace her desires and spontaneity.)

Yesterday she wanted to make pink cupcakes (of course).
And I decided to say Yes!

Unfortunately I could not find our food coloring at the right moment - so we had white cupcakes with pink sprinkles instead.



She definitely did not mind and loved the experience...

savoring every last crumb of her post-dinner cupcake.

parenthood

heading out the door to the hospital

3 years ago tonight we headed to the hospital bursting with anticipation about becoming parents and this new little life to join our family.

(must note - that I am not in labor at this point - hence, the great smiles of happiness)

in labor post-epidural

Tomorrow we celebrate not only Hannah's 3rd birthday, but 3 years of being parents!

first outing with baby Hannah - to Peet's to get some coffee for these tired parents

And look how our family has grown!

For the record, I must say that I am so grateful to be here at this point!
The beginning is very special - but being a seasoned parent also has its benefits!