5 Months

Last Sunday marked 5 months since Claire's birth. We love her more every day. She is such a joy to have in our home. She dazzles everyone with her sweet smiles. She is a very giggly girl. All I have to do is look at her funny and she will laugh. She also is very ticklish and that makes her laugh, too. Last weekend she had her first taste of solids: avocado. Since then she has also had bananas. Tomorrow we shall try sweet potatoes. Sleeping is still a struggle. She typically wakes up sometime around 3:15, but sometimes she wakes up twice. Recently, I started feeding her during the night again because I could hear her stomach growling. I can hardly blame her for wanting a middle of the night snack; my own stomach growls when I am up with her during the night. At least she's darling and cute. I hardly even mind when, sometimes, she ends up snuggled in bed with me. She SO loves to cuddle. Claire has been enjoying playing with toys lately. One of her favorites is a musical zoo and sometimes she's even successful at pushing the button. She loves instrumental music and when all else fails to settle her down, I sing to her. She is such a treasure.

Hands On! Hendersonville

Recently, I purchased a deal for admission for four to Hands On! A Child's Gallery in Hendersonville, NC. I figured for $10 it would be a nice day out and a change of scenery. Once I read the fine print AFTER I bought the deal, I realized that it would expire before summer, meaning we would have to go on a Saturday since Sam only has one remaining absence to use from school and it's already bookmarked for another adventure. So, last Saturday, upon waking, we decided it was a good day to head to Hendersonville. With it being the first Saturday of spring break, I anticipated that it would be crowded. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was not crowded at all and though the place was quite small, they had done a good job of maximizing every inch with fun, interactive activities for the kids. The boys headed right for the Lego build and race center, followed by some painting.

There was much more fun to be had throughout: acting as a travel agent, scanning groceries at the grocery store, even sliding down a big mountain....or, rather, a smallish hill. And Sam enjoyed serving me (and some other kid's grandma) ice cream for quite awhile. Then Claire needed a bottle and shortly thereafter decided to blow out her pants. I was just going to carry her back to the van to change her diaper, but Paul, wisely, suggested I might not want to carry her. He had a feeling by the time I got to the van she and I might be covered in it. He had the great idea that I should sit her on a burp cloth in the stroller. Let's just say.....

 

 

While I was away the boys decided to put on a puppet show and some sort of strange play. I hate that I missed those. The boys played for quite a while, until Paul was so hungry and his craving for pho was so great that he could take it no longer.

 

So we headed back homeward. As I said, Paul was craving pho. He had been for several weeks and had been begging me to go with him to a restaurant he had discovered via internet search. I had been putting it off. Not because I'm a picky eater. I am not. I'm quite adventurous, actually, having even tried cuy in Peru (look it up). But, our last visit to a Vietnamese restaurant had a less than appetising ending. Having finished our meal, and actually having enjoyed it, I noticed something crawling on the menu propped against the wall at the edge of our table. Not just something, but a ROACH. Yep. So, with that memory pushed far enough back in my mind, I decided I may as well oblige him and we stopped by Mekong on the way home. Well, we were all a bit tired and I was, admittedly, already a bit on edge from a crying baby who just needed a nap, so perhaps I was quick to notice all the imperfections as soon as I walked through the door. Sorry, I just like the floor, table, and, preferably, the items on the table to be perhaps a little bit clean when I'm going to eat a meal somewhere. But that's just me, and I know I can be a bit quirky. Paul ordered his pho and I picked, rather randomly, lemongrass chicken. It seemed safe enough. I love Thai food but am less experienced with Vietnamese. We ordered a plate of fried rice for the boys to share, but really should have known better. They just wanted plain rice and this stuff was LOADED with veggies etc. So, Paul started to load up a plate for Sam, who has never sat still at a table in his life. Just as Paul was adding another spoonful, somehow Sam knocked the plate and it went crashing to the floor, shattering all over. Epic fail #1. We tried to eat the rest of our meal without any more episodes. Having eaten a good portion of my meal, and thinking it wasn't too bad, I discovered something. "Please tell me what this is," I said to Paul as I placed a thin, black thing on an empty plate in front of him. "An eyebrow? That's what it looks like. Yours I hope?" "It's NOT mine!" Yep. That's right. I told him not to ever ask me to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant again. Roaches, eyebrows. Blech!

Aside from blogging about it, I've tried to pretend we never went there. Our morning in Hendersonville was a lot of fun. The boys continue to talk about it and ask to go back. Sam especially wants to return, in hopes that they will still have his painted masterpiece hanging on the wall. We forgot to gather them up to take home before we left. Way to ruin their childhoods, Mom.


This boy

This boy is a tender soul. This boy impresses me. Sure, he has his moments. He fights with his brother. He throws tantrums. He yells at me and at others. But he has a sweet heart and is full of faith.

A few months ago, there were severe storms in our area. We had been at Mimi and Pop Pop's house and knew that there was a tornado watch in the area, so we were hurrying to get back home. Sam, who is a very fearful child, was very nervous. I insisted that we would be ok, but I reminded him that if he was scared he could pray. He immediately requested that we say a prayer that there would be no tornadoes in our area and we did. Later when we were home and Nathanael was concerned about a tornado coming, Sam reassured him, "Nate, there's not going to be a tornado in our area. We already prayed about it, and I believe it's going to work."

Some weeks ago, Sam awoke in the middle of the night crying out in pain. He was having growing pains in his leg and he was in agony. My first response was annoyance and an anxious need to quiet him before he woke the whole house. I gave him some Tylenol and he requested that I say a prayer with him that the pain would go away. I did and he immediately settled down and went back to sleep.

Sam can't stand to hear or read bad words; s-t-u-p-i-d, d-u-m-b, those are our bad words and he can't fathom that there are much worse ones out there. One day he came home from school and told me that one of the little girls in his class had said a bad word on the playground. When I inquired, he spelled which of the two it was. Then he reported to me "some kids said I said a bad word." I asked what he had said. "I said dam, like a beaver's dam, and they said that's a bad word, which is crazy." I asked if they had told on him, which of course they had. His teacher then educated him that damn is, indeed, a bad word (or can also be a beaver's dwelling when there's no n). That's probably the first thing he's learned through public education.

In the very early morning hours this past Monday, after having been loose since the last days of February, Sam's first tooth fell out. It was 4:19 AM when he came, crying, into our room lamenting that he had lost his tooth! He couldn't find it! He had dropped it on the carpet. Minutes later, 3 children were awake. That blasted tooth! Paul finally did find it and the tooth fairy came to visit the following night.

I love his innocence. I love that he shields his eyes if something bad or scary comes on tv and calls out "turn it! Bad show!" I know that too soon these little bad words won't be bad to him anymore and will become commonplace in his vocabulary. I know that his mind will lose the innocence it has now. I know he will make bigger mistakes. I hope that he will always recognize the power of prayer and that it will always be his first thought when he is scared, sad, or in need of forgiveness. He is growing up so fast.