Brothers

To Do

This is my desk.

Do you see the piles of receipts sitting in the inbox? The blue paper is a postage due notice from the post office. It's at least a month old. This desk reminds me of the bills to be paid, accounts to be reconciled (personal and company), Mary Kay orders to be taken, Primary calls to make. . . the list goes on. In fact, if you look closely, under the camera case is my trusty legal pad with my list of things to do. But instead of all that, here I am (enjoy the headless self-portrait):

Can anyone blame me?

Confessions of a Pumpkin Baby

My mom thinks it's cute to dress me as a

pumpkin baby.

For her sake, I try to play it cool, like I don't care. . .

Just between you and me, this is how I really feel.

Twins

When my sister-in-law Kaila commented that Jacob is her son Oliver's twin, she wasn't kidding. Check out these pictures: Here is Jacob, taken today. Other than the open mouth, I tried to get the same shot.

Here is Kaila's son Oliver, taken almost exactly a year ago. Since neither of these two are biologically related (to me or each other) I think this is crazy!

Cute baby update

Our new little family. Jacob was just one month old in this picture.

Jacob isn't a huge fan of wearing hat. I think I got two photos before he started crying and protesting the odd thing on his head.

Jacob is doing so well! He sleeps at least 4 hours at night, sometimes longer if I'm lucky. He's up to eating 5-6 ounces at a time, which feels like a miracle after working so hard to get him to take just 2 in the hospital!

He loves to be held but starts fussing when he's tired--he doesn't like being held to sleep! I have to reduce the stimulation (quiet room, fan, lights off, blinds pulled), and even then he sometimes has to fuss himself to sleep. I've found if I interrupt to "settle" him, it just takes longer. So I've learned to let him holler all he wants, and he will suddenly settle down and go right to sleep in under 7 minutes. So I set my timer and grit my teeth and resist. I know I'll get to cuddle him all I want as soon as he wakes up!

He's a really cute little boy, but I have to admit he only has one expression, as seen above and below. We can't wait for him to start smiling at us!

We went to Cornbelly's (a local fall festival) and I forgot to bring a hat for Jacob, so we borrowed one from my friend Holly. He looked so funny and cute, I had to take a picture!

My Van Runneth Over

About a year and a half ago, we bought a van from my sister Rachelle. It was my parents' van, and Rachelle purchased it from them when they sold their whole life to move to Africa. To say the least, Rachelle gave us a great deal--we paid only the trade in value (which we all know is about half of the private value of a vehicle). At the time we were hopeful about an adoption situation, and I was feeling like we just might "need" a van anyway, since another baby would mean three car seats--Adam, Avery (girl I nanny), and baby.

That adoption situation didn't work out, and I have to say that it was sometimes depressing and I felt silly driving around a big van (and paying for gas) with just one child inside. I joked that buying the van was an act of faith, sort of a Field of Dreams "If you buy it, they will come."

Fast forward to yesterday--my first day since Jacob that I had both Avery and Brynlee. I've watched Avery for over two years now, and she's like Adam's best friend and sort-of-sister, combined. As Adam explained it during all this change, Avery is part of the "old days" that he sometimes longs for. Brynlee is a new addition--she's just under two, and I've only been watching her since July.

When Jacob came, I took a break from having extra kids for a while. Two weeks ago I started up again, with just Avery. Then last week I had only Brynlee (Ave was on vacation). Yesterday I had both. The day began at 6am, which was barely enough time to shower and get ready, feed 3 kids, feed a baby, and load everyone into the car in time to get Adam to preschool by 9:15am. The day went well, but I was totally exhausted by the end.

And it wasn't until this morning that I realized that my van is full. As this dawned on me I was overwhelmed, this time with gratitude. It is amazing to me how the Lord has given me exactly what I want and need, without giving me exactly what I planned. My plan was to get married and have children--between 7-9 of them. Eight years later I was 29 and having my first baby through adoption; five years after that, Jacob has come into our lives.

Even though our family has grown more slowly than I hoped, my van, our home, and our lives are full of children. I am so grateful for the opportunity to love and care for Avery and Brynlee--that their parents entrust them to me. They bring so much fulness into our lives, and I get to be a mom of a herd of little children, like I'd always dreamed.

The Irony of Peace and Quiet

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

Anywhere I go I have a peanut gallery in the back seat (also known as Adam and Avery). They provide a constant dialogue that sounds something like this: "Hey Mister Too-too!" "You are Mister Too-too, Poo-poo!" Me: "No potty language please." "This is a real dum-dum." "Oh yeah, a dum-dum!" "Look there, Pee!" Me: "No potty language please." "No mom, not like pee in the potty, the letter 'P', the letter 'P' is okay. It's not potty language." It goes on. If you've ever had a 5 year old boy coupled with any child old enough to talk, you know what's going on here. I recently bought an IPOD (from my lovely sister, Kate), and I've loaded the top 100 songs of every year from 1980-1989. I've been going through rating them so I can create a playlist of my favorites (my real dream is to recreate a playlist of classic "Super Saturday" stake dance songs). Who would have guessed that when I skipped past the song "Photograph" Adam would say "Mom, I like that one, go back to it so I can hear it!" Then just minutes later after dropping Adam at preschool I rated "Armageddon It" and Avery made the same request. Who knew these kids would like Def Leppard? So as you listen to these classic 80's rock songs, you can understand the sweet irony of peace and quiet. This is what it sounds like for me--Def Leppard blaring, kids silent. I'll take it!