The really golden moments: a weeks worth of joy and pain

LAYLA

I'm laughing because after I announced that Thursday would be baked potato bar night Layla, 7, dramatically said, "Ohhh no not baked potato bar night, I always have a problem on baked potato night." She says this kind of stuff in a really cute way.

Then we had a good laugh about it. Layla has really moody moods and really hard times with certain situations. I can't find a pattern or reason to it. I had a difficult time growing up so I can only guess it's something like I had to go through. She gets so frustrated and it's hard and impossible for her to understand why. She does have certain triggers but most of the time her moods and anger come on when we are least prepared for it. She has a point though, baked potato night is a hard night for her because the last 2 or 3 she was in BAD moods and didn't eat. She and I had a laugh about it and talked about how we'd just need to make sure she didn't have a bad night.

SEBASTIAN

I just walked by the bathroom and Sebastian, 3, was naked and 'mummy wrapping' himself with toilet paper, the best part was the toilet paper was still on the roll attached to the wall. He was twirling around in circles and I watched. It was so cute...by the time I ran for the camera he was done and just looking at me sheepishly with a pile of toilet paper at his feet. That kid is so funny.

What are some of the best words I can hear from three year old Sebastian?

 "Hold me Mommy." I love those three little words. He's Captain America, a knight, a builder, Superman and a T-rex by day. But, at night he's my baby boy. After a few minutes he said some more sweet words I always love, "Lay down with me." Ever since I could remember he closes his eyes, puts his head to mine and wiggles into bed to get cozy. He nods his head up and down as he nuzzles into my head. Then if he is actually sleepy he simply goes to sleep. I never tire of how cute it is.

Sage comes in the kitchen and says, "Mom, what's today?" Sebastian says, "Banana bread day." heheh. We had banana bread in the oven at the time.

PENELOPE

Five year old Penelope made me laugh today when out of the blue she said, "Mom remember you said you should have another baby if the world's going to end anyway." We were talking about the Mayan calendar the other day...hahaha. Remember that kids are always listening!

BABIES and their sibligs

The other day I was thinking about the keen sense and ear my kids have for little Everett. A stifled baby cough from the next room and I have some kid checking on him (or telling me about it) because it sounds like he could be choking. A dining room table full of kids who are all busy drawing will stop what they are doing when Everett races to the front door that is open; one kid will jump up and intercept his fast feet. An echoed baby voice is recognized from another room and a kid will rescue Everett because he's climbed up a chair and is now dancing on the table top. Any one of our kids ages 3 through 15 will merely walk into the same room as Everett take one look at him and exclaim, "Everett do you have something in your mouth!? What do you have?" I will never forget how awesome it is to watch these kids be so connected to him.

Sure it helps me immensely, and they've learned it from me asking for help from them. But, I love that it shapes who these kids are. They are so aware of so many other people in the home. They all are just ga-ga over him, too. Everyday every single kid calls him cute, plays with him, laughs at him, holds him, and cares for him in some way. Every single day. I never want to forget that, it's a wonderful thing. Children and babies bring even each other tons of joy.

EVERETT

Everett is getting so big. It was just yesterday I was rocking him and soothing him to sleep when I thought about how much he is still my baby. I'm so glad for it too! This is the last really super solid year before he becomes a REAL toddler. Then today seeing him in his car seat he looked huge. His legs are so big. his hands are so chubby. His fat fingers grab things all the time. He can turn lights on and off when lifted up (a game he likes). He says, "light!" He says a few words here and there. He says "side" when he wants to go outside --which is always. He says eat and drink although it's hard to understand. When you give him something and say, "Here you go." He says, "tank" for thank you. Its SO cute. But If you don't say "here you go" he just looks at you waiting for you to say your line first because that's his cue to say "tank." It's hilarious.

Everett has been teething and it's just awful for him. His teeth are coming in sooo slow. He screamed for an hour tonight and finally settled down to nurse. I feel like nursing him sedates him through the night. Luckily at bed time the pain reliever I give him gets him a few hours of good, solid rest. In the wee morning hours he seems to cope by nursing several times. One morning he was sleeping next to me with his little chunky hand on his cheek and once in a while he'd cry out and then go back to sleep.  

FUCKING SAVE ME

Tonight I texted my husband the following: Fucking save me!!!

He called me an hour later and told me he was on his way to save me. I told him everything the little kids had been doing; grabbing each other, pushing each other, laughing at each other, peeing on each other (Sebastian peed on Penelope because she was too loud, Huh?), crying at each other, screaming at each other, running, jumping, yelling, fighting, being silly, being mean, being INSANELY CRAZY and bringing the house down loud.

My dear husband said, "Ok! Put a beer in the freezer, because that is like my spinach and I'm coming to save you."

LOL. I loooove him. I feel better already.

Even Everett is in on the wild crazy action, he's biting and hitting when they act like this, and no wonder because he sees them hit and yell. In addition teething makes him act mean just like Sebastian did when he was teething. It just seems like any problem between siblings in the hous makes Everett act out. Usually when the kids act like this they've been watching too much TV or I haven't had enough structure for them. TV off day tomorrow!!!!!! And I feel like we've had structure, but I could do better. Tomorrow/this week we'll try 2 crafts a day, upstairs playtime (which is a huge pain because they don't stay up there unless I go too), outside time and kid yoga.