Putting it into Perspective

Tonight was a very busy night.  It was one of those nights when we had three commitments overlapping each other.  One of which was the elementary talent show.

Here's Lily playing her piano piece.

Anyway, the kids didn't get home until 8:30, which is normally bed time on a school night, yet they still needed baths and Tom was already late for his 8:00 meeting (he just got put in as the Elder's Quorum President AGAIN :).
So I was already pretty stressed, the day being as it had been already.  I was getting less and less patient with the kids and trying to get them to bed at the now past 9:00 hour.  Lily is really sensitive and cries a lot when I get too worked up, stressed and inpatient.  So I felt bad that she was crying again and when we both calmed down I went in and talked to her.  I said "imagine your teacher giving you four assignments at 2:00, but then telling you they are due at 1:30.  So they are already past due.  Then, you are trying to quickly get them done and someone walks by and spills all over your paper, so you have to take time to clean it up and start all over again.  Then someone else comes in and starts distracting you by playing a trombone while you are trying to get your work done.  You are yelling at them to stop, but they don't.  Well that's how I feel as a mom.  I am trying to put four kids to bed, when it's already past their bedtimes and little things just keep getting in the way, no matter how fast I try to get it done.  Do you see why I get so stressed and impatient?"  With that little analogy, Lily looked at me and smiled saying "thanks mom for telling me in such a way that I understand".  And gave me a big hug!  With that, I continued to put the last few kids in bed and now it's time to clean up the leftover messes.

Reenactment

 Lily: age 1 year

Sophie: age 1 year

Valentine's Day & Stuff

I haven't posted for a while.  I've been busy with the day-to-day.  Nothing too exciting to blog about and no time to do it.

However, Valentine's Day was Thursday.  Here are the kids Valentine boxes they made for their class parties.

Lily was a love bug.  She's very creative!

 Jeff was a monster (Mom did most of the work).

Here's Cedric eating his heart cookie at the preschool Valentine's party.

I woke up to these beautiful peach roses, chocolate dipped strawberries and a sweet card from Tom.  He also had each of the kids give me a box of chocolates too.  It was so cute!

 I gave him a giant Reese's PB heart and the blue-ray, "The Three Amigo's".  I used the Buttercup song from the movie as the poem on his card.  Cheesy, I know.

That night we got pizza.  The kids ate their heart-shaped pizza and watched a movie upstairs, while Tom and I ate our pizza and watched a movie downstairs.  That's how it goes on Valentine's Day when you have little ones.  It was a fun day though.

Yesterday was Sophie's 14 month birthday!  She's eating all big people food now.

She's a full-fledged walker and even tries to walk down the stairs.

 It's not too often our busy toddler falls asleep in our arms.  This was her in Sunday School last Sunday.

 She is curious about everything.  

What is that thing swimming around in there?

 Where did the fish go?

 I can't believe how big my baby is getting!

Tucking in Cedric

So tonight I was tucking Cedric into bed and he said, "we need to sleep in other people's rooms when I tell you."  Knowing it was his way of saying he was worried about bad dreams I said, "no, everybody has their own room and bed and that's where they sleep. If you're worried about bad dreams then just think of something happy." He said, " well, I have bad dreams mostually (he made up a word combining most and usually) nights." I say something sympathetic.  He says, "well, when I think of those things the bad dream just pushes it out." Sympathy from me again.  He says "but, I can turn it off when I open eyes."
He's just so cute sometimes I can't stand it!
I feel bad I am so busy most days and have to tell him so. I'm trying harder to not say I'm too busy, and watch whatever silly little thing he wants me to see. I know it means a lot to him and someday I'll miss his constant persistence for my attention.
I love my Ceddy boy!