We were driving to storytime this morning and talking about the friends that would be there. Ace stopped and said "I wish my heart were bigger, like this big [stretches out his arms really big] because there are so many people that I like. I want to love so many people and have so many friends."
Ace, trust me, your heart is plenty big.

3am

At 3am Lucy's cries woke me from a dream of my past self, a time before I was a wife and a mom and had a baby who woke me regularly at 3am just to say Hi! It wasn't a particularly good dream and I woke up feeling anxious and regretful.  It seemed like all the mistakes I made had decided to pop into my subconscious  all at once and I couldn't shake the bad feeling. I wished I could go back and do so many things over. It was 3am and I thought "I did so many things wrong".

I went to Lucy and brought her back to my bed. She nursed and stuck her feet in my face to kiss them, she giggled and opened one eye when I thought she had finally fallen back to sleep. My dream and the anxious feeling it brought on started to fade away.  I turned around to try and convince her that playtime was over and she snuggled into my back and soon started snoring away. I turned back towards her and watched her sleep. I didn't want to go back in time, I wanted to stay right where I was. It was 3:30 and I thought "Well, I must have done something right."

Parent/Teacher Conference Highlights

Some quotes from Julia's portfolio:

"...a delight to have in class. She has spunk and is always smiling. ..a smart little girl, who picks up on concepts and will answer most of the questions asked on circle time. ...she has confidence in herself and has been a pleasure to work with in class."


And from Ace's:

"Ace is one of the those children who you would describe as wearing his heart on his sleeve. He is one of the most social and caring boys I have had in a class in a long time. He cares more about his friends than he does about himself."

I'm so proud of my little scholars. I pray everyday that they succeed in school and do well academically but above all else, I want them to have confidence in themselves and be kind to others. I'm so happy that they are in a school environment that nurtures those qualities and recognizes them for their individuality and strength.

We Love Lucy

Lucy has 2  new habits. One is sticking things under her armpits. If she doesn't like the dinner I serve, she will tear the food into small pieces and stick them in her armpit. At bathtime, entire slices of torn up pizza will fall out from her shirt when we take it off. She also does it with small toys that she wants to keep from her siblings. Julia has a wooden birthday cake with small decorations. Lucy doesn't show much interest in eating them but we still try and keep them away from her. When she finds one she doesn't want it taken away so she stores in under her arm. All of her shirts have stretched out necklines from where she tugs on them to stick things in her armpit.

Her second new habit is wiping her bottom. Perhaps this is an early step towards potty training so I encourage it. Plus, it is funny. Anytime she has a paper towel or a baby wipe she goes right to wiping. She also tries to wipe her brother and sister's bottoms. And the dogs. Dolls. Her Dad.  But mostly her own bottom.

There are many reasons we love Lucy but one of them is definitely her ability to do something that we would otherwise consider socially unacceptable and slightly gross and turn it into charming and adorable. Don't even get me started about how much she loves to make people smell her feet.



Here is a picture of what Lucy was doing a lot of one year ago:

Some of this and some of that....

After our holiday travels and Julia's birthday celebrations, we are falling into our winter hibernation mode. Partly to avoid germs and try to have a healthy winter but also, I admit, because the cold weather  makes me lazy and what I most want to do is cuddle under the blankets and sleep the season away. I want to come back in a future life as a bear.
We can not possibly survive a winter with four very active kids on DVDs and hot chocolate alone though, so we do have some fun plans for the next few months.  I have set aside some "mad money" to fund ice skating and bowling afternoons on the weekends and the kids have their busy school routines. We got a new dog, Coco, who is big and needs a lot of exercise so on days when the weather is tolerable we want to take her out to run and play. And of course we have 3 more big birthdays to celebrate (Ace in Feb, Andy and Hayley in March). So, winter may be long and cold but we'll make it fun.
I've been impressed with how hard Ace is trying to be more cooperative, I think he must have made a secret New Year's resolution. He is having fewer outbursts and is not using his "bully" attitude to try and get his way as much anymore. He is even remembering to use his words to show affection, instead of just frustration. Tonight I told him he was my favorite boy in the world and he said "You are too, Mommy". Then he thought for a minute and realized that wasn't quite right so he said "No, your not my favorite boy, you're just a girl that I love." I was the best moment of my night.
There are about 10 stories that I would love to share about Hayley because she is at this age where almost everyday she does something new and great (like today, when she decided at 7:30 am to write an Ode to Butterflies and asked me how to spell eerie) but once in a while I'll tell someone about something cute she did or some funny story and then realize that she was embarrassed because she thought I was making fun of her. I don't want her to feel that way so if you realize she is underrepresented in this blog, that is why. It's not because I don't have great stories about her, it's  that they are now her stories to share when and where she chooses. Maybe she'll start blogging, she would rock the blogosphere.

3

Happy Birthday, Julia Marie

You are so cool.