It's 8:45 on a Monday night, all three children are in their beds (not asleep mind you, but in bed) and Gary is at this month's Elder's meeting at church. It's quiet. The only noise is the occasional car going down the road, the occasional dog bark from next door, and the ringing in my ears. I wonder if that is always there but I just don't usually hear it? Most nights it's much later before there is this much quiet. This is our "couple" time and by the time two children get up to go potty a few times waking the wee one or a nightmare wakes one and daddy goes to sleep it's nearing or past midnight. The quiet always comes, sometimes it's just more welcome than others.
I find it hard to believe it's October already. The apple calendar pieces are put away and out come the pumpkin ones. Out come the sweaters and bathrobes, slippers and jackets. Socks must be found and matched and put in appropriate drawers and it's high time Tyler learned to tie "real" shoes. We even turned on the heat. I wanted to wait till November 1. That's always my goal... and God tested that even in September! We spent that last week of really warm weather inside hte house bundled up fighting fevers. When Gary woke up Sunday morning and even he was cold, on the heat came. It's set really really low though. :)
We discovered this month that Esther is "a little bit" lactose intolerant. Soy milk has stopped her signs of illness and now she eats as much or more than her sister. I'm having a hard time deciding what to give her to eat because at this age the other two began a lot of cheese and yogurt. Even things like mac and cheese and most casserole's I'm avoiding for now. I never realized how much cream-of soup and cheese I used in my recipes! We see the Dr. this month and I can find out more, but for now i'm keeping her as dairy free as possible. She's a good eater though so fruits and veggies and the occasional pureed meat (yuk) is fine with her. She's a bread eater like me and can't get enough crackers or O's.
She's still sweet as can be. She's found her voice and does yell some but she responds well to direction and has learned not to touch most things. She checks to see if we are watching sometimes, and likes to throw her paci out of the bed... but when it does not always get returned to her, she will just lay down and go to sleep herself. When it does get returned, she rarely throws it out again. She's cruising on the furniture and can let go and stand for several seconds. She prefers to crawl and is getting faster and faster. She tries to pull herself up on everything so we've had to work on boundaries a bit more the past couple weeks-including the steps. She responds to "NO" really well and comes over to see you as if it say "I love you mommy, I just wanted to try!". She's loving and always happy and content. We can (and do!) take her everywhere. She either watches what is going on, or puts herself to sleep. This month, she will be ONE. I can hardly remember a year ago being pregnant. I can hardly remember a lot of things. Ha! She's my sweet angel and her name fits. Esther Joy. She's queen of the house always happy. She loves her brother and sister and they love her too. THey seem to have mixed emotions about her improving play abilities. They love that she can do things, but she doesn't just do what they want. While I enjoy that she cannot yet talk back, they seem to be frustrated by not knowing what she wants when she does make noises, or throw things, or crawl away. It's a good lesson in stopping and paying attention. It's kind of fun to teach Tyler now to pay attention and be respectful to the women in the house, since he's surrounded by 3 of them all day. No wonder he's desperate for Daddy time by 4! As I pray for his future, and his future spouse, I pray some of the things I am trying to teach him now about girls will stick. Stephanie always tells me about things Gary does "I raised him better than that" and I always reply "I know." :) The knowledge is there but the follow through is not always worth the work for men. As long as I can get the knowledge into Tyler i'll have fought a good battle. :)
Speaking of knowledge, these kids are sponges! They love learning and even on our bad and frustrating days, I love teaching them. Awana's has been wonderful and I"m glad we did not wait another year. Tyler seems to enjoy the challenge of memorizing and he's good at it. He loves the games they play and the extra physical activity is great for him. He is also getting to know other children and his sensitive heart comes out when we talk about it. I love that he talks to me. I dread the years ahead when he will not talk to me constantly about the things his friends say and do and what he thinks about it. He seems to remember these things most during Handwriting time when he is supposed to be sitting still, quiet, and focusing. That's my 5 year old BOY! His skills are improving in spite of the fact that he'd rather play all day than deal with books and papers. Once we get going he enjoys it and I try to break it up and offer plenty of breaks. I can see lots of places where he is reading more and more and sometimes he does not even realize it himself. Sometimes it's memorization, but he's learning. He still loves for me to read to him, and I like that. I truly hope his appreciation for literature will continue when he needs to be the one doing the reading.
Grace loves all things "school" and is constantly frustrated that I have to ask her to please go play so I can focus some of my time and attention on Tyler. She's just not ready for what he's learning, and while I allow her to listen to almost all of it, and I give her her own "work" to do, Tyler needs that individual attention. We could get through his lessons so much quicker each day if we could go at his pace. I"m very mindful of him getting bored so sometimes, the distraction of the little sisters needs to be removed. She's writing better and loves to color so that skill is improving as well. She's finally beginning to retain some of her knowledge of letters, the sounds they make, and math concepts. Her language skills and vocabulary are really improving and I'm so glad. She still confuses her words when she talks, but it's adorable and I know she'll get it. She says "anything" instead of "nothing" which can get quite confusing! She also can't open the gate when she's cleaning up toys because she's "full of hands". There was another one today but I can't remember it.
I found an apple orchard literally 3 miles from our house completely by accident. We live about 500 feet from a bar and Saturday, all of a sudden, a hot air balloon was blown up out in front. Tyler was obsessed with why it was there and what was going on and he wanted to see it. I told him that it was a place for grownups and that he could not go and it would not be an event for children. He could not understand why grown ups would want to have a party, with a balloon, and not include children. So finally, I wanted to know what it was too, so I told the two elder to get into the van and I'd drive them down the road so they could see the balloon (it was raining and I did NOT want to walk- it's a very busy road!). I drove a mile or so down the road before turning around just because they were tired and cranky from a day of shopping and no rest time and they wanted to "go for a ride". Turns out, the road I turned at had a sign for an apple orchard! Not too far down the road there it was! It was closed when we went by so Sunday I went back and got a half a bushel of apples for $9. I'm so excited. I've already made applesauce that was delicious, and I did not add anything but water. No sugar- nothing. I hope to find a recipe for a pie filling that I can make and freeze so later this winter I can just roll out crust, throw the filling in and bake. The people were so helpful to show me what kinds to get. It's fun to support local produce!
Gary's home so my random ramblings must end. If you are reading this, chances are very good that you are someone I love dearly and am praying for regularly. As Pastor Dan would say ~Blessings~
