- How come the more thought-full I become, the less "thoughtful" I am? That thoughtful word is strange for me. If I truly want to be thoughtful and considerate of those around me, I have to not have too many other thoughts in my head. The more I'm thinking about, the more irritable I get with people around me.
- How come I used to think getting my eyebrows waxed was so excruciating? Now when I go to the salon to have them done, I feel like it's a mini-vacation. I get to lie down, sometimes there's soft music playing, no one is asking me to do anything for them during the whole 10 minutes... Last time I almost fell asleep. I certainly don't even notice the waxing part. Maybe after going through childbirth all other pain is relative.
- And speaking of eyebrows, I heard someone say the other day that the more you pluck the same hairs, the less grows back because you build up scar tissue underneath the skin. So, is the same principle at work when we "pluck" the same ol' nasty sins out of our lives over and over again? Can I be building up scar tissue so less comes back? I sure hope so!
- And how long has it been since the soap dispenser in the bathroom was dumped out by someone and refilled with just water? Exactly how long have the kids been washing their hands with that??
Now I need to get all these thoughts out of my head, so I can start being a little more thoughtful!
I am becoming increasingly convinced that Rayna is the live version of Curious George, and Colsen is Dennis the Menace incarnate. And the 2 of them together result in Bad Ideas Squared.
Inevitably, when I sit down to feed Miles, or am in some other way occupied, Colsen and Rayna will silently melt away into the nether regions of our house, so I find myself yelling "Colsen and Rayna, what are you guys doing??" every few minutes throughout the day. (I think I'm starting to yell it in my sleep now)
And sometimes I'll hear back, "Nothing!" which is not good, and sometimes I'll get no response at all, which is downright terrible. And then there are the classic responses like, "Colsen is brushing his teeth with your special lotion!" or "We just got glue everywhere!"
A few days ago, George and Dennis were upstairs while I was downstairs feeding Miles, and Dennis/Colsen yelled down to me in his I-think-something's-wrong-here voice:
C: Rayna gave me that!
Me: What??
C: Rayna gave me that.
Me: She gave you what?
C: THAT!
Me: What's that?
C: THAT!!
Me (finally realizing defeat on this front): Rayna, what did you give him?
R: I gave him THIS!
Not only do these two have mischievousness mastered, but they are becoming experts in the art of being elusive.
So Rayna is Curious George, Colsen is Dennis the Menace, and Strider is Calvin, (as in Calvin and Hobbes, but that is a whole other set of tales). I wonder who Miles will turn out to be....?
Life is definitely colorful around here!
Last week's Latin phrase that the kids learned for school was "Fuit homo missus a Deo" (which means, "There was man sent from God"). Colsen has been running around saying that phrase now, which was fine... But then today he came up to where Rayna and I were sitting and pointed at me, saying "Missus a Deo" which I thought was funny -- like Mrs. Adayo. Then he pointed at Rayna and said she was "Fuit homo." And that's what he keeps calling us, Mrs. Adayo and Fuit Homo. I just hope he doesn't start calling kids on the playground these names...
I had to ask myself: If I'm just now finally getting around to cleaning up a half-empty wine glass from last night, and it's 4:00 in the afternoon, does that mean it's been a really good weekend? Or does it just mean we're being a little too irresponsible and playing too much? Either way, we're thankful for the fun times.
The highlights...
On Friday we had some good play time with our friends the Dickmanns at a park nearby. The kids ran around and played while we adults had some good conversation time. Then we all went for a short hike through the woods, which we always love.
Friday night I was able to go out for awhile. Over 50 of the women from our church went on a retreat this weekend*, but for those of us who could not go, Sandy hosted an "Unretreat Girls Night Out" which turned out to be a lot of fun.
Saturday, we all bounded out of bed to head our separate directions (which is why the dishes did not get done and the wine glasses were not picked up!). Pete took Strider and Rayna uptown to meet Poppa and see the Harlem Globetrotters play. Before the game, the sports league Strider plays in arranged to have the kids get a chance to play on the court, etc., so they loved that. Plus there was both a trolley ride and a train ride, and lunch at a restaurant, thrown into the mix, so all in all they all had a great day.
Meanwhile, I took the 2 younger boys to our neighborhood's annual Kite Day. Colsen had fun making a couple of crafts and seeing all the kites -- although he may have had just as much fun seeing the men with their lawnmowers in the yards we passed on the way walking to and from the field. Then the 3 of us packed up and went to run some errands. It makes me smile to think about how I would have dreaded taking 2 kids to the store with me when I just had Strider and Rayna. But now it seems much simpler-- and even enjoyable. I love the feeling of growing into motherhood. I think I've been a very late bloomer in this arena, but slowly and surely I'm feeling a little more capable as the years go by. :)
Saturday night (just minutes after we finally got the house and kitchen picked up) Katie and Graham came over, bringing Shepherd's Pie for dinner, and a couple games to play afterwards. It was a very fun evening with them... no pictures to show, though.
I was very thankful for a Day of Rest today... though I'm not sure how I should feel about the fact that I needed a break after so much playing!
*As a side note, I always enjoy going to church on the Sundays when all the women are gone -- it's fun to see how the kids show up, if their clothes match or not, and how bedraggled the dads all look! But I have to say, I was very impressed today. In fact, the scraggliest-looking kids were probably my own. So many dads were there with smiles, looking very sweet with their children.)
When I walked into the room, I was greeted with, "Wook Mom! We're checking our computers together!"
Yes, that's a calculator that he found somewhere to repurpose as a computer. Or maybe it's the new model of Apple's laptop.
Apparently this little soft chair thing has become very popular among all the Cool Babies... I had never even seen one until last year. Miles heard through the Cool Baby Grapevine that he simply must have one, so we borrowed this one from his cousins.
So far it's been a big hit:
... But he has to fight for it, because...
Strange.
I heard about some new group golf lessons being offered for kids at a course nearby our house, and since they were quite inexpensive, we decided to sign Strider up. It's turned out to be a great deal -- no one else signed up in this timeslot, so Strider is now essentially receiving private lessons -- it's just him and his teacher! The teacher has been wonderful, -- he apparently played in the European version of the PGA, and has been a pro for years. And to make the deal even sweeter, the instructor told Pete this week that if he wanted to start bringing his clubs, he can join the lesson as well! (As Pete says, "I found out that everything I've been doing all these years is wrong, so it will be good to get real lessons.") Two-for-one -- love that!
Rayna, meanwhile, has been going to a Praise Dance class that a couple of teenagers have been offering. It's been such a blessing for her -- she LOVES it.
And Colsen has been taking his love of TOOLS to the next level....
And as for Miles.... he spent last week enjoying one of his new favorite activities: being held by Gee-Gee. Pete's mom visited for the week and it was so great to have a 3rd adult around... those extra 2 hands make all the difference!
I've decided that Miles is just too little for his name at this point. In fact, he's not even big enough to be called Mile. Really, he's not even as big as a kilometer, but if I shorten it to Kilo, it feels just about right. So that's what I'm calling him these days.
Having said that, though, it seems like he's getting so big already! We're still struggling to capture his smiles on camera, but here are a couple half-way ones...
Our favorites, however, are when he smiles with his whole mouth wide open... like this:
It's hard to believe he's only been here 5 weeks... but as I type this he's reminding me loud and clear that he IS here and WOULD like some attention, please. Robert Frost's lines* "And Miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep" run through my head each evening right about this time!
We recently acquired a Flip video camera and Pete has been having fun taking videos. For some reason (probably having to do with the kids' desire to stall the actual going-to-bed part of the evening), most of the goofy things the kids do are after they've gotten their PJ's on at night. So here are a couple of scenes from our ragamuffin-looking group.
Ever since the kids saw the Plain White T's perform "Hey There Delilah" (here's the video if you're not familiar with the song), they've been intermittently breaking out into the chorus at random times. Here's some footage of that. Note how Colsen's hammer, which usually doubles as a leaf-blower or vacuum, is now both a guitar and a microphone. Note also how probably none of these kids are likely to end up on American Idol or any of the America-Can-Dance-type shows:
Strider and Rayna have been learning the first several verses of John 1 in Latin for school, and we were surprised one day when Colsen chimed in. Turns out he's actually learned quite a bit of it. Pete tried to capture it on film, but Cole decided to turn into a broken Latin record instead, repeating the same phrase over and over... so Rayna took over... Colsen decided to join in finally at the very end...
This picture cracks us up... Strider's class, which happens to be all boys, having a very girly baby shower for their teacher, who is expecting a girl!
