Night Time Reflections While Daniel's Away

Hmmmm what is there to say.  Let's see.  As I type this, all four children are asleep and Daniel is out of town on business.  When I manage to put all the kids to sleep by myself, I feel like a magician with ninja powers.  I am aware that I actually owe all the glory to God, who mercifully created kids to require sleep.  At some point, their own physiology sabotages their attempts to stay awake forever, complaining about covers slipping off their feet or the unacceptable lack of light in the room.  Seriously, praise be to God for the sleep wake cycle.



We've had some notable visitors the last couple weeks -- Aunt Karen from Iowa and Aunt Heidi from Ohio!  They didn't visit together, of course.  But the kids really enjoyed seeing both aunts.



Aunt Karen is a no-nonsense professional educator who enjoys "telling it like it is," choir, and having tea parties with my kids.  



Lucy liked showing her how she can button her sweater all by herself.



Aunt Heidi is an exceptional narrator.  The kids loved listening to her read stories.



She also went with us on a 3 mile fast-paced walk, with Charlie strapped to her the whole time!  She did great.  He did great.  The kids did great.

Can I just saw how grateful I am to anybody who reads to my kids?  I really enjoy reading to them (when Oliver's not screaming at me to turn back the pages so he can wave bye-bye to the truck two pages back... and when the kids aren't fighting over who gets to sit in my lap).  But it always seems like there's something else that needs to be done.  

Dishes, laundry, wiping bottoms, changing diapers, breastfeeding... the list goes on and on and on.  And it seems like there are precious few reading moments in a given day.  

So any day that someone reads to the kids -- I am grateful.  (Get a load of that laundry!  Haha.  Get it?  Load?)

How many kids does it take to change a record in a vintage record player?  Three.  And one infant, for moral support.  

This particular infant is delightfully smiley nowadays.  

He's also a big laugher!  He laughs a ton at being tickled and also at being thrown up in the air.  

We took him with us to our small group this past Sunday, and boy was he a hit!  It's really lovely to see the joy in people's faces when they make eye contact with him and he smiles from ear to ear.  Strangers seem instantly transformed -- from bored or busy to completely engaged and excited and just delighted.  

I know that will be me some day, making eyes at some baby in some young mother's arms in a park or at church.  Right now it's just a real gift to be able to brighten someone's day with the sheer presence of my baby.  

And speaking of babies, can I just tell you how ridiculous it is to see Oliver pretending to be one?  He crawls around going, "mama.  mama."  

And he climbs into Charlie's swing and bats at the mobile.  

The kid seriously has like 10 words at this point.  He is mostly baby.  And yet he is such a little boy, too.  His new hobby is sitting on the potty about 20 times a day and flushing a square of toilet paper down after each "dry run."  

I expect him to either start peeing in the potty or totally give up the whole thing any day now.  

Anyways, that's how we're doing.  We're doing bed times, meals, snacks, pottying, reading, and walking.  And I'm trying my darndest to keep my sanity while (in the kids' words) Daniel's away "getting money for our family."  Sleep long tonight, kiddos.  Sleep long.