Hang On!!!

I feel like life is going at break-neck speed this week. Part of that has to do with Christmas and part of it has to do with having two kids in school and another one toddling around and part of it has to do with having church responsibilities and part of it has to do with starting a new eating/exercise plan. And that's just a start.

I go to bed exhausted and wake up to start the merry-go-round again. I used to revel in the nothingness of our schedule. When the only thing on my calendar was storytime at the library or a trip to the grocery store (never both on the same day). But those days are gone. As I walked up to Lizzie's school for drop-off, carrying Rachel and holding Miriam's hand and trying to tell Lizzie to have a good day, someone commented, "How to do you do it with three?" I wanted to laugh out loud. "You just do!" I wanted to say. I make it work. Sometimes it doesn't work very well, but usually it's good enough. And if I had four, it would be the same thing!

Enough mourning of the quiet, slow days. I just wanted to mention some quick small things that the girls have been up to. They really are my pride and joy. For Lizzie's homework this week she had to go on an alphabet hunt and find things in her house that started with each letter of the alphabet. I was amazed as she found things and then sounded them out and then wrote them down. The majority of the time, she was correct in her spelling!!! She got stuck on 'k' and I explained that sometimes the 'k' is silent. "You mean like 'knife'?" I don't know where she pulled that from, but I was impressed. She even spelled it correctly on her own! I love that she has learned the rules of phonics and follows them! Unfortunately, the English language is a rule-breaking language and this frustrates her sometimes. (It frustrates a lot of people a lot of the time.) I was ready to let a letter or two slip by if we couldn't think of something, but she managed to come up with something for every letter....right down to 'Xbox' for 'x'. Now that is impressive!

Miriam is still my drama queen. But Christmas has turned her drama in a new direction. She has been learning songs at school for the Christmas program. When Lizzie did this last year, I didn't hear the songs until I showed up for the program (maybe one). But Miriam sings them non-stop: during lunch, while playing with toys, in the car, on the potty. Always singing. But she has also started to learn some other Christmas songs with me in the car. I play the station with Christmas music all month long and she has picked up a couple new ones this year just from singing with Mom. She also still dances non-stop. I only mind when she is clearing her dishes. But usually, I love it. Even her walk is a dance: on her toes, graceful and sweet. When she catches me watching her, she grins with her adorable little dimple and I just love her even more.

Rachel is still so cute it hurts my heart. She just wants to be a big girl and do what the big girls do. If Lizzie leaves her lunch box or folder alone for a second, she sneaks off with it. When we wait to pick up/drop off Lizzie, she's always trying to get on the school bus. The girls tell knock-knock jokes all the time and she joins in the fun by saying, "Naw-naw." The girls love it! She climbs onto her sisters' beds and is just excited to be on a big bed. You can see it on her face. Sometimes I catch her laying on the bed. Yesterday, she had a baby laying next to her and was holding the baby's hand. You see how it makes my heart hurt with her cuteness?!?! She discovered this basket trick this week and thought that was pretty great. Now she tries it all the time, but isn't patient enough to empty it of toys, so she's usually frustrated in her efforts.
She is in a climbing phase and climbs on everything. Unfortunately, she hasn't yet learned how to get down. She'll just cry until I come and get her. Luckily, she hasn't gotten any higher than the kitchen chair. She knows about all the advent calendars and makes sure she gets her chocolate one and then gets a turn in our morning routine. Her vocabulary is also growing by leaps and bounds. When she got up from her nap today, she just started naming things she could see. No need for flashcards or speech therapy for a third child.

She fights for her turn to brush her teeth and get her hair done. I call in one of the big girls and before they can get there, Rachel's already on the stool reaching for the toothpaste. She also fights to get a turn to get her hair brushed after her bath. To pacify her when it's not her turn, I let her hold the detangler bottle. Then she bonks everyone on the head trying to put it on them! The phone (real or toy) is one of her favorite toys. She doesn't say 'phone', but she puts her hand to her ear and says, 'ha-o'. Then she begs for a turn to hold it. We have about 8 toy phones (at last count) and it still never seems to be enough.

She's very possessive of my lap and anything she thinks should be her's. Even if she's happily playing elsewhere and Miriam climbs on my lap, she's instantly upset. It also upsets her if I close my eyes. She feels it's her duty to wake me up. She doesn't like it when I play my flute or exercise or do my hair or brush my teeth or fix meals. Mostly I just have to say, "Tough!" and eventually she moves on, finding something off-limits to get into. But she loves to do the motions to the little nursery rhyme songs we know and she is one of the most excited about Hickory-Dickory Dock at storytime. She pulls out her nursery rhyme book most often, but loves to read all her books (and her sisters'). I keep a bunch in the car for her and they keep her pretty well entertained.

My heart is full with my love for my children. It is an amazing phenomenon how much love one can have in one's heart. I enjoy pondering that concept sometimes and then thinking about the love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for ALL of their children. Wow. It humbles me. Anyway, this post ran a little longer than I had originally planned, but I had been wanting to record these things for a while. If you made it to the end, thanks for reading!