Happy Thoughts….

I realized recently that many of my posts have been not so happy and full of hope.  All of this medical stuff can really suck the life out of you!  It can happen even to the best of us, so I am dedicating today’s post to happy thoughts!

 

This weekend Drew and I  had the opportunity to go out to dinner ALONE!  Yes, you read correctly, we went out to dinner on Friday night at 6:00 pm (a normal dinner hour) all by our lonesome's!  How you ask did we manage that?  We were presented with this opportunity when I finally agreed to accept the offer of  babysitting from Megan and Sophie and Lucy’s ballet teacher.   I say Lucy too because she has attended ballet with the girls all year and has fallen in love with Miss Cherie, the girl’s ballet teacher.  We have all fallen in love with Miss Cherie, she has embraced our family this year in a way that has made us feel so loved.  The girls look forward to Thursday when they get to be with Miss Cherie, even Lucy.  Lucy puts her arms up in the air when Miss Cherie comes near her, she looks at Cherie to pick her up and dance with her around the room.  For those of you who know our Lucy, you know that it takes a very special person to be able to pick her up and not have her cry in your arms for you to give her back to Mommy.  Drew and I needed a night out more than we even knew.  That one night out recharged our batteries and helped to give us some clarity in our semi-foggy state of minds.   Thanks Miss Cherie,  for loving our kids and allowing their mommy and daddy a night out. 

This weekend was dedicated to spending time together as a  family.  We spent time together watching movies, playing outside,  taking the kids to Build a Bear, and going to the pet store to replace the fish family that we “lost” soon after they came to live with us.  In keeping with my “happy thoughts” theme I am just going to say that I hope our new fish family is a bit more durable than the last.  We have really been feeling  the need to connect with all of our kids, especially our older three recently.   It seems you blink and suddenly before your very eyes they have grown.  I have felt the need to do things with my kids recently that I have always wanted to do but have not for one reason or another.  It is empowering to be able to embrace a moment and leave all the stuff of life behind so that you can enjoy what is  in front of you right now!

 

As far as the kids go,  all are really doing remarkably well in spite of all the chaos!  Jack has really surprised his Dad and I recently by waking up on time for school and getting ready quickly.   He comes home from school and does his homework right away so that he can go outside to play.  He has really stepped up to the plate this year and has become very reliable.   He continues to be an avid reader, reading the Harry Potter series now.  He is into the Jonas Brothers, my iPod,  playing Nintendo DS and Wii, Pokémon, Legos, tree climbing, scootering,  and playing the keyboard, he even taught himself how to play the Harry Potter Theme Song.   He is growing up so fast, but still loves for me to sit with him on the couch and snuggle up with a good book or a movie.  He loves it when I lay with him in his bed at night and talk with him about “anything”.

Megan is such a mama’s helper!  She and Sophie spend hours playing together!  Sophie misses Megan when she is at school in the morning.  Megan often reiterates, through play, the lessons that she learned in kindergarten that day.  Sophie is, usually, eager to learn and be involved in Megan’s play plots.  Megan is always eager to take a nap in the afternoon which helps to convince Sophie that napping is necessary.  I now have many afternoons when I have the three girls sleeping at the same time for at least twenty to thirty minutes, that my friends is a good thing!   Megan loves to color, paint, draw, or create something out of a simple piece of paper.  I love the way she draws people right now.  Megan is kind and compassionate, but at the same time will not think twice about squishing a bug on the sidewalk.  She loves her brother and sisters.  She and Jack have been bunk bed buddies for about a year now.  When given the choice to move back to her bed or stay bunking with Jack she chose to stay with Jack.  Partly because she doesn’t want him to sleep alone and he doesn’t want to sleep alone either.  The other part is because nobody wants to sleep with Sophie, she talks too much!  We know that this will one day be just the opposite, they will crave their privacy all too soon.  So for now, we just smile and allow them to be together. 

Sophie is always  full of thought and has a reason for why she does what she does.  It may not always be a good reason but it is a reason none the less.  Sophie makes me smile every day.  She has this look in her eye, it’s been there since the day she was born.   She is very funny, but even funnier because she has no idea that she is funny.  Did you follow that?  Sophie reminds me to slow down and to “stop and smell the roses”.   I need her in my life in more ways than she’ll ever know.  She loves playing with someone and she also loves to  play all by herself, just ask her and she’ll let you know what she prefers at that moment.  She is becoming more “regular” if you know what I mean (read yesterday’s post for more clarification) and that my friends is also a good thing!  Sophie loves dressing up, doing my hair, playing with anything messy, making a mess, going to the park, planning her next birthday party, playing with anything that is Megan’s, singing  and dancing, thumb sucking, laying in our bed at night after the big kids have gone to sleep and having extra bedtime stories read to her,  and anything that is frosted or has sugar in it.  She has the ability to make us laugh and cry all in the same moment.  She was perhaps our most needy child as a baby, but is now too independent at times.  She has the ability to do anything that she puts her mind to and for that I need to warn you, LOOK OUT.

As for Lucy, well I write about  her medical ailments all of the time, but she is really just like many other one year old babies.  She loves to be in the middle of all the action in our house.  She can clear a coffee table in no time.  She empties the laundry basket faster than I can fold the laundry and put it back in.   She is getting very fast at crawling and loves it when you play “I’m going to get you” with her.  She has no doubt eaten her weight in Cheerios.  She is extremely ticklish and has the best laugh!  She crinkles up her nose when she is being silly!   She has no words for anything yet, but is able to express herself very clearly.  She loves her “binky” but I think that Drew and I love  it more.  If you asked me what one thing I could not live without, hands down I would say Lucy’s pacifier!   She has given us the most worry of all of our babies, at the same time we celebrate all of her milestones with the greatest enthusiasm!  She has an amazing coping mechanism  that we are always in awe of.  She has the brightest blue eyes and red hair.  She loves her brother and sisters especially at bedtime when she crawls around their beds and gives them the best wide open mouth kisses they will ever get!  Lucy has taught us all to value each and every day and not to take anything for granted.  Thant alone is more than anyone could ever give! 

Happy thoughts…