It is amazing

that at 14 months he still has the ability to cry for an hour.  Not sure why he's upset, but he's not getting a bottle at 4 o' clock in the morning.  He doesn't like to be held too long.  I guess he wants to cry it out.  Poor cying Pinky and the Brain.

Day 5

My mom and I accidentally woke him up this morning.  Okay, really it was the TV.  Jem came on really loudly. He likes Jem and the Holograms but maybe not that loudly at 4:25.  So I rubbed his back and he went back to sleep.  Now our yelling woke him again at 6:15.

Day 4

He woke up at 5.  I picked him up, laid him next to me.  Within five minutes he was back to sleep.  He woke up again at 6:30.  This kid is on his way to being a rock star.

Day 3

He woke up at 6.  Go Pinky and the Brain!!!

Day 2 Part 2

Three minutes after our last post, Jack's cries woke Oma and she came to get him.  He eagerly reaches for her and she takes him.

Off they went to get a bottle because "the baby wanted some milk."  I told her he could wait until six.  She said, it would be six in ten minutes.  He was happily silent soon after.

Day 2

He woke up at 5:29, it's now 5:47 and he quieted down for the first time.  He thought about it, "cried" again for 20 seconds and now is down again.  Hmm, only 20 minutes today.  Maybe tomorrow, he won't wake at all for a bottle.   We'll see.

And so it begins...

at 3:55PM on Monday, I'm officially beginning to put together the 2015-2016 schedule.  I think Friday is going to be a looonnnnggggg day.

Praying all goes well.

It's hard being 12 months

For the last 36 minutes, my poor Pinky and the Brain has been crying.  He's distraught.  Wondering why he lives in such horrible conditions.  Is he really meant to sleep from 9PM to 6 or 7AM with no bottle?  Really?  Is that what God intended for him?  NO.  God wants him to be happy, yet now he's being tortured.  Tortured.  He's like a prisoner being held in Guantanamo.

Forty minutes and now there is silence for a minute.  Life is still horribly unfair and cruel.  But maybe just maybe he could live in a world where he doesn't wake up at 4:30 or 5 and get a bottle.  We'll see.

Fifty-two minutes later, he's asleep.  The torture is finally over.

Beverly Crawford - He's Done Enough

[Lead:]
If the Lord never does anything else for me
He's done enough
If the Lord never does anything else for me
He's done enough
He's blessed me once
and he blessed me twice
The Lord keeps on blessing me everyday of my life

Ohh if the Lord (if the Lord- doesn't do anything else for me...he's-- done enough--)

Ohh the Lord has been good to me...and the Lord
The Lord has made so many ways for me oh-
The Lord-- he's opened up so many doors oh-
Brand new mercies I see over and over and over again--
He blessed me once and he blessed me twice
ooo the Lord keeps on blessing me everyday of my life

Ohhh if the Lord (if the Lord- doesn't do anything else for me... he's-- done enough--)

He's done enough (Choir repeats several times and lead ad libs)
Thank ya (choir repeats several time and Lead ad libs)

He's done enough (choir repeats several times again while lead ad libs)
Thank ya ( same as above)

 

 If the Lord- doesn't do anything else for me he's--- done-- enough

What was I thinking?

The girls and I were having an one way discussion on how we don't make wardrobe changes at will during the week.  We get our clothes up for the week on Sunday and that's what we wear.  As this discussion was going on, I hear, "Mommy."  A few seconds later, "Mommy."

"Jory, am I talking to the girls?"

"Yes."

"So should you be interrupting?  And what are you suppose to say?"

"No.  And I should say, 'Excuse me.'"

"Thank you."  I said and finished talking to the girls.  "Jory, what did you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to show you something, but it's too late now."

"What was it?"

"I get FM radio on my phone and Go Country was playing the song you like.  You know the one about the shotgun, standing by the door, and cigarette."

It seems wrong that my ten-year-old is talking about shotguns and cigarettes, but I still  think country music is better lyric wise than hip hop and even a lot of top 40 songs. At least he's not singing the Usher lie, "Shawty, I don't mind If you dance on a pole that don't make you a hoe."  And really that song is pretty awesome and provides a teachable moment for my son.

I'm goin' home
Gonna load my shotgun
Wait by the door and light a cigarette
He wants a fight well now he's got one
He ain't seen me crazy yet
Slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll
Don't that sound like a real man
I'm gonna show him what a little girl's made of
Gun powder and lead

Teachable moment - Another reason we don't hit women because she might be waiting for you one day with a shotgun she knows how to shoot.

Why didn't tell anyone tell me?

"Why are you treating Jory like a girl?" Oma asked, as I walked into the family room so we could pray then take her to work.

Wow!  What could I have done when I literally haven't seen this boy yet this morning?  Did he come out of his room naked or something?   "How am I treating him like a girl?'

"When men get up, they get dressed," she answered.

One week ago today, it was fifteen years since my dad died, so my memory isn't completely clear but I don't think every time he walked out of their bedroom at 6:30AM he was completely dress. But it's been a while so maybe I"m remembering wrong.  Maybe he was dressed.

Though my feminist side rears its head and wonders, so women don't have to get up and get dressed before they leave their rooms?

I am so in love...

with my 10-year-old.  I finally have in my grubby little hands (yes, I stole the phrase from Whose Line) worksheets were cursive letters look like cursive letters on the ENTIRE PAGE.  ENTIRE PAGE!!!!  What a way to start the day.  I think this little boy is going to get a sticker.

"Can I wear...

shorts again?" Jory asked through the tiny door opening.

I didn't know what the temperature would be today, but sure why not it's a Friday.  "Sure."

Jory closed the tiny opening and as he walked down the hallway he said in a funny voice, "My mom is the best mom ever!"

24 Years Ago....

while watching the Tevin Campbell episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, my grandma heard the call.  While I don't know how the episode ended, I know my grandma fell into the arms of her Savior and heard, "Well done, my good and faithful one.  Well done."

We love and miss you, Grandma.  See you in a little while.

Secret note found...

under the baby's bed.

1:00 layla be thier see you at 1:00 in the nite.  Bye.


Jory trying to rendezvous with his partner in crime to play wii.

Awesome

So I couldn't think of a new song, or rather couldn't decide on the new song the kids should learn during devotionals, so I fell back on an old favorite - - you choose the song.  Jory couldn't chose between "Don't Build Your House on the Sandy Land" and "Empty" by Tait. (My son knows a song by Tait.  I could cry, I'm so overcome with emotion.  Are there DC Talk covernbands?)  He went with "Sandy Land." 

When it was Rowan's turn, she said she wanted to sing "Awesome."  I looked at her puzzled.  She obviously wasn't talking about our God is an awesome God.  Then Layla started to sing, "My God is awesome/Keeps me in the valley/Hides me from the rain."  Oh yes, that song.  Gotta love Sirius Radio's Kirk Franklin's Praise Channel.

My God is awesome

He can move mountains
Keep me in the valley

Hide me from the rain
My God is awesome

Heals me when I'm broken
Strength where I've been weakened, 

Forever He will reign
(repeat)

My God is awesome

Awesome

Awesome

Awesome
(repeat)

My God is awesome

Savior of the whole world
Giver of salvation

By His stripes I am healed
My God is awesome

Today I am forgiven
His grace is why I'm living

Praise His holy name

My God is awesome

Awesome

Awesome

Awesome
(repeat)

He's Mighty

He's Mighty

He's Mighty

He's Mighty

Awesome

Awesome

He's Holy

He's Holy

He's Holy

He's Holy
Awesome

Awesome

He's Great

He's Great

He's Great

He's Great

Awesome

Awesome

He's Mighty

He's Mighty

He's Mighty

He's Mighty

Awesome

Awesome

Deliverer

Deliverer

Deliverer

Deliverer 

Awesome

Awesome

He's Holy

He's Holy

He's Holy

He's Holy
Awesome

Awesome

Provider
Provider
Provider
Provider

Awesome

Awesome

Protector

Protector

Protector

Protector
Awesome

Awesome

My God is awesome

He can move mountains
Keep me in the valley

Hide me from the rain
My God is awesome

Heals me when I'm broken
Strength where I've been weakened, 

Forever He will reign

I love music.  And I love that God is putting songs on their hearts to sing, to worship Him.  They are learning verses  at AWANA and when I'm not looking learning songs on their own reminding them of how great He is, how awesome He is, how He can move mountains.  God is good.  All the time He is good.

Exactly one week later...

The second tooth has broken in.  He can now officially bite you.

February 28

His first bottom tooth has broken through.  He keeps growing up on me.

CBN anchor

Things don't go right for us, so we start complaining and thinking, God you're not running the universe right for me today. 

I love that!

One of the disadvantages of having...

a stuffy nose is that you wake up at 3AM to discover TTT in your bed, in all of their horrible sleeping positions.  I say a prayer for my future children, their future spouses.  Yikes!

On the plus side, it only took Liam 40 minutes to go back to sleep.  Go Liam!  Probably could have went to sleep faster, if he had had some elbow room in the bed.

Why is it...

that every time Liam does something to frustrate or annoy me, say like refusing to unclench his fist to get his hand through his shirt's opening, I call him Layla in my mind?

It's bizarre.  It's not like the baby frustrates me more than her twin and her brother.  They all annoy and frustrate me equally.  Maybe it's because she was the youngest in the family for so long.  Things that make you go hmmm...I wonder if it will stay like this always, or just until he starts talking.  But for now next time, I want to change his diaper and he wants to roll over and scoot away, I'm sure in my mind I'll say, "Layla, can you please lay down and let me change your diaper."

Questionnaires

I'm filling out a questionnaire for the twins.  One of the questions is:

What age did your child say his or her first word?  And what was it?

For a second, it crossed my mind to write.  She's not my first born so how am I supposed to know.  But I figured that's not the answer they wanted so I"ll just leave it blank.

At least I can kind of answer the walking question.  I can't give an age and date like with Jory, obviously, but at least I have an approximate age.  I know for the twins it was over a year.  Rowan it was around 13 or 14 months.  Layla, closer to 18 months.

But how cute, what was age of your child's first word?  Obviously someone with no kids or only one wrote this questionnaire.

It's like the time the woman at the dentist office asked me, how old one of the twins was when they got their first tooth.  I must have given her the most puzzled stare.  Then she said, "Oh, you have more than one.  That's fine."  Smart woman.

I'm sharing this with Rowan's One before he marries her

"Mommy, will Santa be able to find us on the ship?" Rowan asked, as we were driving work and school.

"Yes," I answered.

"How will he get on the ship?" she questioned.

"He's Santa," I responded vaguely.

"Maybe he will bring me my puppy on the ship," she continued.

"You can't have a dog until you are grown and out of the house," Layla reminded her Irish twin.

Oh, my beautiful baby.  She remembered.

"I don't want a dog," Jory interjected, "you have to clean up his poop."







"Yeah, I don't want either.  I don't want to clean up anyone's poop," the baby agreed.


"My husband will clean up after the dog.  And he'll change our baby's diapers.  And he'll cook," Rowan informed her siblings.




"He's going to leave you if he has to do all that," the baby told her sister.

"No, he's not.  I'm going to sit down and relax and hold the baby."

I want my future son to know what he's getting before he proposes.  :)  The things that run through the mind of seven-year-old blonde girls named Rowan.

Layla vs Liam aka Jack aka Maybe Jack

Layla so wants to be like her big brother and older Irish twin.  She wants to be able to hold Liam, carry him from room to room, or carry him outside to the car.  But I don't let her.  I tell her, he's half her size.  But I am more than happy to let her sit on the sofa or on the bed or on the floor and hold him.  And she does, until he starts crying, fussing, or she loses interest.  Usually the later happens first.

So anyhoo, we went to the doctor and four-month-old Liam weighed in at 18 lbs and 10 ozs.  He's not as chunky as Teddy was.  When Jory weighed that much, he was walking.

Layla goes to the doctor and she weighs in at 39 1/2 lbs.

There is an 11 pound difference between my baby and Liam.  There is six and a half year age difference between the two of them.

Our doctor is young and so sweet.  He won't call Liam fat.  Uh, he is.  And he basically said, my baby can't afford to miss a meal.

It's a good thing I don't let her walk around the house holding him.  One throwing back of the head and they'd both topple to the ground.  (Not that he throws back his head, but in case he did.)

MLK Weekend

So I put Liam at the end of the baby's bed, while I supervised the girls cleaning out the drawers, since no one knows how to make sure clothes are actually folded properly and laying in the drawer and not sticking out of the drawer.  I looked down and Liam was in my lap.  I thought that's odd.  Did he move up here on his own?  Nah.

I turned him around facing the opposite end of the bed and waited.  Next thing I knew, Pinky and the Brain was on the move.  Friday night of MLK weekend, he lived out Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's cry, "Free at last!  Free at last!" 

My Pinky is on the move.  God help us all.

The difference between the first and the fourth

When Jory did new things, I was so excited.  I wanted to tell the whole world.  I called Mona at 6AM to let her know her three-month-old nephew rolled over from stomach to back.  She thought someone had died or was hurt.  Really a 6AM call makes you think death?  And not my first nephew from my only sister just rolled over?  Bygones...


I put Liam on his back on his little activity center thingy so I could get ready and take Jory to guitar lessons.  When I walked back into the family room, Liam was on his stomach.  Wait, I put him on his back right?

"Did I roll over by himself?"  I asked his Oma, who was sitting on the sofa behind him.

"Yes," she answered.

He can roll from his back to his stomach to his back. "Ugh.  Now he's dangerous," I said to myself, under my breath. 

And there you have it, the difference between being number one and being number four.  Jory rolling over from back to stomach - -  YIPPEEEE!!!  My baby is a genius.  Liam doing it - UGH!  This combined with his other new skill, really?!  Why can't he stay a cute, non-moving, non-talking baby?

There are tons of perks with being the first.