Family photo

My sister, Jessie, asked for a family photo months ago, but it seems so hard to get a picture of all of us - especially a decent one. We tried once at the beach, but my hair was sad, and the girls were making weird faces.And now it's time for Claire's baby dedication, and church is requesting a family picture. So Michelle took some pictures of us the other day. Here are the best ones...

Jessie, let me know which one would work best for your frame and I'll email it to you.

Oh, Adam...

I'm so sad... I was really looking forward to seeing Adam Lambert on the AMA's last night. I'm so disappointed and disgusted by his performance... It was so unnecessary.
I tried to cancel my pre-ordered CD, but apparently it's already shipped.
I knew he was gay.
I'd seen all the risque photos of him out there.
But this was way over the line. Yuck.
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

Feeling thankful

Ruby had another dilatation today. Last time, Baby Claire was just a couple months old, so I asked Donnie to go instead of me. But since we value his vacation days like gold, I decided I would go this time, and leave the other 3 with my mom, as usual. It would be the longest I've ever been away from the baby, and I was dreading it. I had a couple bottles of milk ready, and had asked my mom for reassurance over and over.
Every night this week, I've laid in bed, pushing thoughts of it out of my mind, as it left me feeling empty and so sad. Yesterday was a hard day, as I dreaded it more with each passing hour. I kept trying to push the thoughts out of my mind, but it left me feeling irritable and impatient.
Finally, I decided to just take the baby with me. I had wanted to be able to give Ruby my undivided attention, but as it turned out, she was elated to know the baby was coming with us.
I was given a little bit of a bad time about having the baby there during flu season, but it all ended up going just fine. Claire proved a good distraction for Ruby, and I loved having her near me. She was happy and low-maintenance the whole time.
The nurse told us she is on her 2nd day back from maternity leave, and her baby is in daycare. She got emotional looking at Claire, sleeping in my lap and told me how much she's cried the last 2 mornings, saying goodbye to her baby girl.
I am so, so grateful to Donnie for the sacrifices he's been willing to make for me to be able to stay home with our kids. No cable, old or borrowed cars, rarely eating out, no big vacations, no big fancy house. He comes home to a sometimes-stressed out woman and four half-dressed crazy kids running around a messy house, with dinner rarely ready on time.
I wonder sometimes how he does it - stays patient, loving, encouraging, and happy. Especially because before he met me, this was so not the life he envisioned for himself.
But when those half-dressed crazy kids let up a huge roar of excitement at his arrival home and run into his arms (or run away to "hide from Daddy") and then show him the letters they wrote him and the pictures they drew for him and beg him to horse around with them... I guess he knows what really matters.
And when I'm sitting in a hospital room with my baby passed out on my lap, belly full of milk, and look at the face of a nurse whose heart is breaking over the baby she left in daycare... I'm even that much more thankful for this husband of mine.

My mom does childcare. I know that if I were to choose to go back to work, my mom would willingly take care of my kids for cheap, if not free. She's a softy that way. And if my mom took care of my kids, I know she'd do a great job. My kids would have a great time, being cared for someone who loves them almost as much as I do.
But I want to be here. I want to see them play, be part of their conversations, wipe their tears, kiss their cheeks, smile into their eyes, read them books, take them places, watch TV with them piled in my lap, remind them to be nice and polite and sweet... I want that relationship that's closer than close. I want to know them better than anyone else. I don't want to miss a thing.

So I'm just acknowledging today how very blessed I am to have a husband who works his tail off so that his wife can hang with the kiddos. I have a t-shirt that says My Husband Rocks. 'Cause he does.

Typing with one hand while I nurse my baby. Impressive, huh? :)

Time for a baby update:

I spent a lot of time around babies, growing up. A lot. By the time I had my own babies, I'd already changed hundreds of diapers, been drenched by spit-up countless times, and had held, rocked, and played with dozens of babies. Donnie, on the other hand, had hardly held a baby for more than a few minutes (if even).
But in all my baby experience, I'd never seen anyone play with babies the way Donnie does.
The first time Donnie started making our infants "talk" with his ridiculously high voice, sounding totally absurd, I kind of laughed, embarrassed. He did it all the time. He made them have the craziest voices and say the goofiest things. He had the babies referring to us as "you guys," as in, "Hey, you guys! Let's pull an all-nighter tonight, whadda you say?" I found myself cringing when he did it in front of people. It seemed so strange.
Soon, however, it became one of my favorite pastimes, sitting in our tiny little house those first few months, playing with our infants. Donnie would have me doubled over in laughter, as he made Lily bounce around the living room, jumping off the furniture, exclaiming she was Spider Girl. They were only a couple months old, and they already had alter-egos, catch-phrases, songs and dances. I made up my own song and dance for Reid, which he performed often. Part of the fun was that we were delirious with lack of sleep and our worlds had just been turned up-side-down with the arrival of these babies. Still, we had some good times. :)
With the arrival of Baby Claire and 3 older kids enjoying the fun, our baby play has hit new heights. Baby Claire has her own catch-phrases, opinions, questions, and funny antics. We crack each other up. In the beginning, when she was so cranky all the time, we dubbed her Cranky Face, and she always ended every sentence with a verbal sneer. Trust me, it was hilarious. :) When the kids play Spiderman, Baby Claire is always the Green Goblin, and she chases them around the house. She fancies herself very good at martial arts and can hold her own against Reid.
She also holds long conversations with the kids. It's cool listening to the things they tell her about. They've told her all about her birth story, and how she came into the world. (They remember a LOT!) Ruby has told her all about her adoption, and how she joined this family. They explain the workings of the world to her. It's adorable.
One of the funniest things I've ever seen is Donnie making Baby Claire run around the house, peeking around pieces of furniture, until she sneaks up on me and jumps into my arms. I laugh so hard it hurts.

Besides that craziness, the kids adore and dote on this baby. When she gets upset in the car or sometimes at home, the kids have discovered that singing "Baby Beluga" makes her happy. And it works about 85% of the time. It's so cool! One will start singing, and they all join in, and she immediately quiets down. I never remember to ask them to sing. Never. They do it all on their own, and for some reason, I'm always surprised when it works. :)
Baby is no longer Cranky Face though. Lily has renamed her Mae-Mae. Don't know why, but it's stuck, and we all call her that. She's shed her tough, cranky image, and is now a happier baby who loves to chew on Ruby's chin and roll on the floor with Reid.
I thinks it's way cool how she can communicate and anticipate things, like if she's crying in the car and I park and open the door, she starts smiling. Or if she kicks her legs and makes a whiny sound, I'll make eye-contact with her, and she smiles and kicks harder, looking at me expectantly. When Donnie gets home, she's always so happy to see him, and wiggles and smiles and talks. If he has to leave the room, she watches him and then BURSTS into tears. It's way, way cute.

So that's my update. We're enjoying this baby immensely. :)

In the mood to complain....

Lily fell asleep at 5:30 last night, and woke up at 9:45, so she slept with us. I was sandwiched between Lily and Claire, hardly able to move. Then Reid joined us and peed the bed. I woke up wet, with a stiff neck, but I couldn't move, because the baby was nursing.
Baby Claire has had a cold this week, and has been a little high-maintenance. I've hardly gotten anything done and the house is a wreck!
I finally have a moment to get something done, and I'm so tired, I'm just sitting at the computer and complaining to everyone. :)
Okay, I feel better now. I'm gonna go do some laundry.

Tonight, we were discussing a common topic on Reid's mind - what he would do if we were to come upon a bunch of bad guys. This time, the scenario was, if we were to get in a space ship and fly to another planet and there were a bunch of bad guys there waiting to fight us, Reid would fight them off. (We'd recently watched Star Wars.) He asked each of us if we would fight with him or run away, and whether Daddy would hide the baby first.
Lily was at the computer with her back turned to us. After we'd discussed all the details, with Mommy, Baby and both girls hiding, and Daddy and Reid fighting off the bad guys, Lily said gravely, "You guys, I don't think that's a very good idea for Reid to fight the bad guys. It's not a good idea."
Reid was pretty sure he could fight them, though. He's got some pretty impressive skills. :)

Homeschooling tool

Check out this link showing the relative size of different things like an amoeba, a skin cell, a water molecule, etc. Pretty cool.
Cell size and scale (slide the slidey thing at the bottom to see the teeny-tiny things)