Sights and Sounds

Luci at the beach when we went on church retreat. We were supposed to build a butterfly there out of leaves that she had brought from the retreat center but I didn't think or care about that in the cold. But she still reminds me about how I didn't follow through with that. Guess that's why she has a fresh batch of leaves on the table downstairs for me.


Tonight we had a CRM London get-together at our place. It looks much too spacious in the picture. Trust me, it wasn't. We had 8 children and 8 adults, with J being the only boy but that's okay because we discovered lately that he doesn't mind being pig-piled on by tons of girls.


Jesse did the eyeliner for angry eyebrows himself. Thanks to Papa Dan for giving him the book that inspired him.


Jesse and art. He made these amazing "scenes" taped standing up on plastic plates of ours.


Thought I'd post just little soundbites from around here lately in an attempt to recap what's been going on.

Don't worry, people but I am 2 weeks from my due date and Darren has been away on an almost 5 day work trip. It has been challenging in some ways (we both didn't really want him to go) but has worked out great in other ways. Before he left, I was having lots of at least pre-labor feelings--funny aches in my legs that I definitely had before J and L's births, etc. And I was a bit nervous that I would go into labor while he was away. If I did though, I would at least be encouraged by the presence of some great friends. Really the offers of help have been amazing--thank you friends! I had a list given to me by a bunch of friends at church that showed their am/pm availability in terms of child care or a car run to the birthing centre. My friend Noel and her husband have helped me out with taking Lu to school extra times since D has been away. Joel who lives across the street (an old friend/co-worker from Boston) took J to school on Friday. My friend Louise offered to cook dinner over here on Friday--wonderful--but an offer I didn't even take her up on because I already had 2 women coming over to hand out and were already providing dinner and a movie. And then my friend Will spontaneously took the kids on Saturday out to lunch with his kid and entertained them for another 4 hours. (While trying to keep the body sensations at bay I laid down, walked Peanut--and the only reliable and thorough way for me to do this now is for me to run her with me on the bike--wash the outside of my windows, and lay down again). I've felt really blessed by friends. Also, I was off to do an errand on Thursday when my leg had a shooting weird sensation so I turned around and walked back up the sidewalk to go home. It was about 30 seconds later that my friend Ivetta from across the street who is also a mom at J's school knocked on my door. She had seen me grab my leg and ran over to check on me, with just her slippers on. It was really touching.

FYI, Darren should be on a plane right now about to head home from Miami!

Needless to say, I'm feeling REALLY pregnant. I found myself doing some heavy breathing (not the labor kind) last night due to carrying all this weight around. (And, Americans, I have no idea how much weight because I don't own a scale and they do not weigh you during pregnancy here.) Truthfully, I have felt really good during this pregnancy, probably better than when I was pregnant with Luci, which wasn't all that bad, but I do think I am slightly bigger than before and this baby's kicks makes him appear to be huge. I've already decided that I need to sleep when he is sleeping because the kicking is a nuisance. I am trying to savor this, the last of my pregnancies, but I fluctuate--I want to meet him, then I want to read one more book or do one more project uninterrupted, and then I feel entirely bored by these outfits that repeat themselves incessantly.

I find myself wondering if you can psychologically put off labor while your husband is away, or while the bassinette is not quite put together or your not done painting the walls you plan to have done before the baby comes. We've now got the clothes lined up, the Moses Basket lined with clean sheets, the changing pad and rocking chair (though unassembled) arrived this week, my new citilite bargain stroller came in the post (Hurray!), and my friends who came over to dinner tonite also brought a crib that converts to toddler bed. I've also managed to a do a fair amount of cleaning out so that we haven't, at least, accumulated.

The kids have been interesting......They definitely had a significant bad streak since Lu's bday. Around that time I noticed how much she was advancing in certain areas but then also was digressing, which I think is a common thing to occur temporarily with kids. She was suddenly into threatening biting again, etc. but then was amazingly attempting shirts over her head (which she had insisted she was nevah, evah gonna do) by herself. I can honestly say she has been wowing me the past few days with her accomplishments like fully dressing herself this morning and doing it again with her pjs tonite. I love how she comes to me for affirmation--I AM so proud of her! While I celebrate her growth, I do want to hold onto certain things, like the way she says yellow, which is "lellow", and I wish Jesse would stop correcting her. She also tells me great stories from her day at school and things she doesn't like, like when she bumped her knee while walking past the table and the kids laughed but she didn't understand why. And she is forever my bottom-feeder, picking up lost buttons and glittery things she finds on the floor at school to bring home. We have also discovered that Luci is a gift person. Clearly the giving and loving to receive has gone on for a long time but I thought it was the usual kid thing and hadn't paid much attention. But she is always finding things (like daffodils which are rampant now in the parks!) to give people and one day--this really drove the point home--she asked me to pick a branch of cherry blossoms for her and one for Jesse to have when I picked her up from school so that she could receive them from me when her teachers called her name to dismiss her. I love that gifts (both giving and receiving) are her love language but it was a bit hard for me to swallow at first realizing how much of an anti-consumer I can be and the fact that I'm definitely NOT a gift-giver. I, of course, can't help but think of Lu's Aunt Sarah (D's sis) who enjoys the art of gift-giving and how much they must have in common.

So Jesse and Luci are 2 peas in a pod-for good and bad. They are soooo creative--I do want to compliment them but they have had me on edge lately because you never know when the next creative move or object will lead to harm or house destruction. Jesse churns out a thousand and one art creations every day, which are very good, but the impact is incredible--paper scraps, constant demands to find the end of the tape or the scissors, gluey table-tops, purple-tainted water spills from paint projects, lentils all over the living room from a sudden inclination to make a bean mosaic. This idea of him to make a bean mosaic was heart-warming. I can see him now, slaving away over his art table with our silver topped canisters containing red lentils, pinto beans, pop-corn. He puts so much care and inspiration into his creations. But I am struggling lately to appreciate and be enthusiastic about his endeavors because I am overwhelmed by how much clean-up that results. He honestly tries to clean up but I'm astonished by what he misses and can't believe this artist could overlook so many of his markers on the floor without tops.

On that note, however, he has been wonderful helping his sister get dressed or her coat on so that they can beat me getting ready to go out. He also tolerates a lot from her when he tries to correct or direct her. (One thing I've been trying to teach him lately is to be only my message bearer to Luci, not also my punitive measure bearer. He'll tell her that I want them to come down for dinner and then get really frustrated at her lack of compliance and start grabbing her, etc. which just leads to a fight.)
This leads me to say that it must be really hard to be the eldest sometimes and I do feel for him. But I am so happy about the beautiful friendship they have. Just the other day Luci was attacking Jesse from behind while he was trying to get dressed for school and they were giggling the whole time while he was trying to break free and get his shirt on. They truly love each other and it sure does make you wonder where this 3rd child is gonna position himself.

By the way, it was World Book Day at my kids' schools on Thursday and they were supposed to dress up as book characters. So Jesse was Pharoah and won a prize again this year in his class, and Luci was Angelina Ballerina.