Bedtime miracle

Here's how it played out.
 Scene: Emanuel and Symphony sitting on my lap. Betsy playing on floor next to us.

Emanuel: Mommy, can I have some more juice?
Me: No son, It's almost bedtime, so no more juice today.
Sophie: (jumping up and running towards room) Pillow, blanket, binkie!?!
Me: okay sweetie, mommy will put you down.
Emanuel: Can I go to bed too?
Me: Sure
(Emanuel runs to room)
At this point Beatrix pipes in with her tired cry, whick I interpretted as: "please mommy, don't forget about me, I'm tired too!")

Scene: Kid's room with two oldest children. Mommy is lowering Sophie into her bed with night night prayers and kisses.

Emanuel: Oh! Mommy, can I have a fresh diaper?
Me: Absolutely!
( Emanuel leaves rooom)

Scene: Living room diaper changing station. Emanuel lays on changing pad with diaper in hand)
I change diaper, change him into his jammies, kiss him and tell him what a precious son he is.

Emanuel trots off to bed, I follow, tuck him in.
Emanuel : Night Night mommy! Love you! See you in the morning!
Sophie: Nigh Nigh! Wuvvu! Morning!

I leave room, put Betsy down and she immediately falls asleep, no fussing.
Thanks Lord. I needed that!

fishing

It was a lovely day today so I took the kids down to the creek for a bit this afternoon. All of the fancy toys in the world are no match for water, sticks, and rocks. Why is it so satisfying to throw rocks into water, and SPLASH!

precosious memories

I hear quite often how I should be writing down the hilarious things my kids seem to spew forth constantly, and I've decided to act on that advice. After all, I'm starting to get a feel for just how freakishly fast kids grow up, and I realize that they'll be trading in cute and innocent for angtsy, sexy, and cool in a very short time. Here a some typical clips from the circus that is our life.

Emanuel announces conversationally that there is a scary monster in his room. Dustin takes the reins on this one; "Son, there are no such things as monsters, they're just pretend." Without pausing, "Yeah Daddy, there are monsters pretending to be in my room."

Children tend to see the world as a beautiful place. Through rose colored glasses, well sorta.. Emanuel prefers chocolate to roses. In fact he claims that, "the dark is made up of chocolate!" Ignorance is bliss, no?

Sophie will be 2 this summer, but she seems to think she can do anything. Anything bubba can do, she can do better. Unfortunately her little (said with a hint of irony) body isn't quite there. She tries to climb the jungle gym, she falls flat on her ample tushie, she tries to drink out of a "spillie cup" and she gets drenched. So far this week she has gotten both a black eye and a bloody lip. It's not all physical though, she has the most darling tuneless version of "twinkle twinkle little star" you could ever hear, though it is missing most of the words. Part of that could be from her brother/teacher who insists on singing "upa upa world so high, diamond diamond in the sky", and yes I've tried going over the words slowly. He loves singing. He's always making up little songs, and when baby Betsy (yes, yet another baby) cries he sits at her side and serenades her with his very favorite song; "ABCDEFG". No, she is not comforted, but he sweetly persists.

Beatrix (AKA Betsy, AKA Trixie pop), Is almost 4 mos old and a sweeter baby, I've yet to meet. And yes, My older two are included. She is mellow and good natured, she doesn't need a ton of attention, but she accepts it by showering the giver with smiles, coos, and, lately, squeals of laughter. She's a redhead. Well, strawberry blond, and when she has a bath her hair sticks out in a wild frizzy halo, not unlike Bozo the Clown.

We're buying our first house, so we'll have somewhere to stash all of these babies. We close next week and move in on the 24th. Dustin and I have house stuff constantly on the brain. We'll be having a deep discussion about classic literature, philosophy or whether we think Pam will end up going back to work, and somebody will interject with, "Oh, we'll need to look into pest extermination, cause you know, an ounce of prevention and all that." Or, "How do you feel about yellow kitchens?" etc. I have been packing like mad, and though I try to only pack up things we won't be needing in the interim, You just never know when a muffin craving is going to hit. Hint: It will be the day after you pack up your rarely used muffin tins.
  Speaking of baked goods, I had a wonderful bread pudding tonight. It was springy and dense and buttery, and oh so yummy. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, something about fish I think. It was a night out with some of our friends that was desperately needed. I feel quite refreshed after only a few hours spent, not with toddlers, but with people who go potty all by themselves.
 Well, If I'm actually going to keep up with this blogging thing, I'd better save some material for next time. Ciao!