I typically schedule my OB appointments for first thing in the morning so that the kids can stay home with Scott. This time however, his work schedule didn’t cooperate, so I brought the circus crew with me for my check up. I knew at 28 weeks they wouldn’t be doing an exam, so I felt comfortable having them tag along. I did come prepared with coloring books, crayons, snacks, and even lollipops which I saved for the very end if they were “super stars.”
First stop was of course the bathroom so I could “leave a sample.” So, in the 4 of us went. I thought peeing in a public bathroom with my crew was an invasion of privacy, but that holds nothing to peeing in a cup with 6 eyes staring at you. Thankfully the older two obeyed and faced the wall and just my youngest stared questioningly at me.
Of course I was bombarded with questions as I did my business.
“What are they going to do with your pee?” “How do they test it Mom?” “Why did you only pee a little?” and my favorite, “Hey, can I see the stick you peed on to find out you were having a baby?” (that would be my oldest, of course)
We filed out of the bathroom and then went to the nurses station where they checked my blood pressure and then I got to step on the scale. As I stepped up my son said, “I bet it’s going to say a lot, because your heavy!” (I knew there was a reason why I typically leave them home for these visits). All I could do was chuckle as the nurse told them you, “never, ever tell your Mommy she’s big!” They couldn’t figure out why in the world not.
Having been the source of numerous smirks at this point, we headed back to the room to wait for the Dr. I knew I’d be having my glucose test done as well, so I also prepped them for the fact that they’d be taking some of Mommy’s blood to check and make sure Mommy and the baby were healthy. When the woman came in to take my blood, she had a captive audience. Crayons instantly fell to the floor as they gathered around with wide eyes and watched. I assured them that “it doesn’t hurt, and she won’t take much, but Mommy typically doesn’t like to watch while they do it, so I usually look away.” They of course didn’t want to miss a thing. And thus I got to receive the play by play of the blood draw process. “Why do they tie that thing on your arm?” “Will she give you a band aid?” “Will she put the blood back in when she’s done?” and “Look, Mom it’s coming out, she’s getting lots.” I reminded them of when Daddy gave blood at church, how he gave lots more and this was just a tiny bit and my body would make more, just like Daddy’s did. They then told the lady how Daddy gave a whole bag of blood when he gave blood. Suddenly my two little vials seemed unimpressive.
Finally, we saw the doctor. The kids could now eat their beloved snacks (Trader Joes letter cookies) and we got to listen to the heart beat (my absolute favorite part). When I lifted my shirt there was a line on my skin from my pants. Of course, my son pointed this out and asked the Dr what it was. She told him my pants were probably a little tight and left a mark. Thanks son for drawing attention, yet again to my size.
Thankfully, everything looked good and we were on our way. As we checked out (“Like at a store?”, “What are you buying mom?”) I was able to make my appointments for just about the remainder of my pregnancy. I scheduled all of them up until the week before my due date (they weren’t scheduling into that final week yet). I couldn’t believe it! We’re really rounding the mark and coming in for the final stretch! In fact, tomorrow is the first day of my third trimester!
The other day my son told me he wanted to make all of us breakfast the next morning.
The only problem with this very sweet gesture was that it was the end of the month and we were at the “creative” stage of the month/meal plan.
Bread? No
Milk? No
Cereal? No
Not much available for a 5 yr old to fix, so I convinced him to wait till after I went grocery shopping on Monday.
Tuesday morning we woke, and stayed in bed per his request (didn’t really take much convincing since we aren’t exactly early risers).
A little after 7 we saw him race down the hallway (like a child on Christmas morning).
I had poured milk and orange juice into glasses the night before (per his request) so that he could do it himself. He ran to the bedroom once to have me open the jelly (without looking). And then when he was almost ready, we peeked around the corner and saw this.
“toast for Daddy”
don’t forget the cereal Dad. (brimming with milk)
He made Mommy chocolate Ovaltine
He even made both girls their breakfast as well.
When I asked him what prompted this gesture of love, he told me that they talked the other day at his tutorial about how if your mom was sick, you could help her out by making breakfast for her. He said, “I thought, why wait till your sick to do it!”
Scott had a meeting he had to rush to get to at work, and we had schoolwork to get done before a well check up at the pediatrician’s office and our field trip that afternoon.
But we sat and waited while he jellied our toast, poured our cereal, and stirred our milk.
And as I watched him serve with joy and excitement, I was reminded of the privilege it is to serve one’s family.
Guess what the kids and I spotted outside this afternoon? Crocuses!!! Oh, how I love those little purple blooms… they are the signal to me that spring is around the corner! And as much as I have loved, (and truly, I know I whined that one day, but really, I have loved this record breaking snowy winter), but I am excited for spring.
And I am really excited… I am looking forward to taking walks with the kids in the evenings. And I can’t wait to go to the playground and have picnics at the park. My son is hoping to catch a “keeper” this year and just can’t wait for the first day of fishing season. My 4 yr is playing soccer for the first time and practice starts next week. My son’s baseball practice’s start at the end of the month. I know I’ll be racing around like a crazy mom with shin guards, mitts, water bottles, and snacks, but I love being a little league mom. I do… I love watching them run around on the field and screaming for them during games! I love peeking through the window at my daughter in gymnastics and watching the kids swim around in the pool for swim lessons. I don’t mind being a Taxi driver, it’s totally worth it when I get there and watch them practice and improve and succeed. I thoroughly enjoy it! Did you see that Olympic commercial by PG for moms? Oh, it gave me goose bumps and a lump in my throat.
I told Scott… I think they are right… as awesome as it was for the Olympians, I bet it was 10x better for their moms!!
But, umm, back to spring…
Last night as my son and I were driving to evening church, I noticed it was 5:45 and the sun had not set. And in less than 2 weeks we get to spring ahead an hour! Yippee for longer days!
Spring really is coming folks!!! 2o more days!! (mark your calendars now… Free Rita’s Italian ice on the first day of spring… a circus fam tradition)!
What are you most looking forward to about this spring?
My girls, especially my youngest, love to change clothes. And often. It borders on ridiculous. I knew if I didn’t document it, no one would believe me.
So, take a look at Thursdays attire here at the circus. (I will mention that we never left the house today).
The day started at 7:00am, didn’t have the camera ready then, but here she is at 8:30am. (wearing the clothes she wore last night plus a coat)
11 minutes later at 8:41am she is sporting her “bubble bathing suit” (so named b/c of the polka dots on the ruffles)
This lasted all of 18 minutes because by 8:59am she traded swim suits with her big sister
By 10:57 am, she added her winter boots, hat, and mittens. She was determined to go outside, but didn’t make it past the door. (hmmm… wonder why)
At 11:17am (20 minutes later) she discovered the too short Winnie the Pooh sailor dress from last summer that I keep trying to hide and she keeps discovering.
Thankfully the scandalous dress didn’t last long as she changed into her lady bug pajamas at 11:42am.
15 minutes later at 11:57am she again had donned the hat and boots and was ready yielding a rather dangerous looking light saber.
She then changed into her leotard and accessorized with my high heel shoes at 12:33pm.
She napped in her leotard (hence the 3 hour reprieve on outfit changes). Upon waking up at 3:33 she decided to change back into her lady bug pajammies.
By 5:20pm however she was back into her sisters bathing suit and they were having swim class on the living room floor (note her sister is wearing her brothers bathing suit…apparently all bathing suits are up for grabs here).
At 5:40pm, I discovered her sporting her Dora and Boots undies, but decided it best not to post such a picture on the internet.
Since Daddy was coming home soon, I prompted her to put on some clothes. Here she is helping with dinner at 6:10pm in an actual shirt and pants!!
But, Daddy didn’t get home in time to see his daughter in real clothes because by 6:38pm she was back in the “bubble bathing suit”
She ate in the bubble suit and kept it on until bedtime when she changed into her “footie pajamas” at 8:04pm
13 hours and 13 outfits changes…seriously, this kiddo has more costume changes than a Broadway star. And I promise, this is a normal day…including the multiple changes and the preference for swim suits and pajamas…
Mary has created a carnival to help us record those funny and precious things our kids say, so we’ll remember them in years to come. Some weeks I’ve got nothing…this week, however, my kids gave me a few gems I don’t want to forget.
Last week my five year old and I were working on handwriting. Handwriting is often a battlefield for us. This particular day I knew he wasn’t giving it his all and I wasn’t seeing his best work. I told him he needed to do his best and reminded him that his tutor would be looking at it the next time he goes his class. His response, “What? I thought this was just a scrimmage!”
I have a thing for those red hot candies at Valentine’s day. Seriously, could eat em by the handful for hours. And I was having a hard time waiting till nap time to sneak them so my kids caught me and thus, I had to share. When my son had his first taste of a red hot he described it as tasting “like Michael’s smells at Christmas time!” I just loved his description and his simile.
Last night I was holding my girls on my lap when they began to play a little rough. I reminded them that there was a baby in my belly and they needed to be gentle.
My 4 yr old then said, “Mom, I don’t think you really have a baby in your belly. I think it is just food.”
I assured her there really is a baby in there and reminded her that she’s seen the baby’s picture and heard the heart beat.
“Yea,” she said, “But I think your wrong, I think you’re going to go to the hospital and that is not what is going to come out.”
So basically, my daughter thinks I am fat and she told me so to my face.
In Science we’ve been talking about what God created on each of the 6 days of creation. Currently we’re on day 6 and discussing the creatures that walked on the land.
While the kids were playing on Friday, they got the idea to group their stuffed animals according to classification. Of course they didn’t use these exact words. But, they made a pile of non mammals and another of mammals and then called me in to take a look. I praised their scientific efforts. They then decided to find ALL of their stuffed animals to group.
I was excited that they were so easily self entertained and let them go at it, while I worked to clean other areas of the house. (trying really hard not to think about the mess huge pile of toys that was being formed in the schoolroom).
Every few minutes one of them would come out to ask me, “Is this a mammal?” “What about horses?” I reviewed with my son the criteria for mammals. A short while later he appeared and said, “Mom, what about boys? Are boys mammals? We have hair, but we don’t make milk.”
They were so excited to show me their giant mammal pile, themselves included as they too are mammals.
One thing my husband and I try to stress to our kids is that life is not all about them. We love them dearly, and pour much of our time, love, energy and attention out onto them. But, because we love them, we also try to teach them that life does not revolve around them.
We are a family of 5 soon to be 6. So, in a lot of ways this is a lesson that is taught early on out of practicality. We just can’t meet everyone’s needs all the time right when they think they should be met. Sometimes you have to wait. And sometimes you have to go to places and events that you may not want to go to. But, if you cry and throw a tantrum about either, you will calmly be told, “I am sorry you are disappointed and don’t like this, but life is not all about you.”
With this in mind, I thought it was so funny the other day when my almost four year old said to me quite out of the blue, “Mom, ya know, I wish life was all about me.” I wanted to chuckle, b/c like I said it was totally out of the blue… it wasn’t like a few minutes prior we had discussed this. In fact, I think she was sitting on the potty, truth be told.
I love her honesty. Truthfully, don’t we all wish the same thing? I know even in my roles as wife and mom, selfishness creeps in poisons my attitude and outlook. I often need to remind myself that life is not about me.
All that being said, she is quite excited about her birthday in a few weeks. Because birthdays at the circus are a big deal and they are a day when things get to be all about you. (Within reason of course as my son quickly pointed out the other day, even on your birthday it’s really all about God, not you).
That’s right after her total regression back to diapers in August (after a completely embarrassing trip to the grocery store which involved my wiping pee up off of the floor–twice, the shopping cart, not to mention our groceries….I thought I would never leave the house with her in underwear again) but after Christmas we decided to give the ol potty train a try once more. My mom told her at Christmas it could be her New Years resolution. To which she replied in her sing songy voice, “resolution? I don’t have any resolutions!”
She was ready this time. We’ve been accident free during the day for several weeks now and this week we took the plunge and starting putting her to bed in her underwear.
It’s official folks…after 5.5 years…the circus is diaper free (for 4 months anyway).
My son always has tons of questions about the world around him and the way things work. Most of the time, I am at a loss as to how to answer these questions. For example, the other day he wanted to know about signals and how we could see them. As in, radio signals or cell phone signals. He wondered if they were like infrared light and could only be seen with special glasses or if we can’t see them at all. I had no clue and suggested he bring the topic up with his dad b/c, “Daddy knows a lot about signals and things like that.” I’ll be honest… quite often, I have to suggest he bring his question to Daddy b/c Daddy knows a lot about that subject. Like how e-mails make it from our computer to Daddy’s work….or infrared light making the remote tell the tv to turn on…and countless other things.
So, I found it particularly endearing the other night when the two of us were driving to catechism and he says, “Mom, what’s something you know about that Daddy doesn’t?” I had to think a minute b/c to be honest, I think Scott is quite a bit smarter than I am b/c he has spent his life questioning things and finding out how things work and why they work. But, here was my 5 year old seeking me out, to find out what he could ask me about that I would know the answer to. It totally warmed my heart. So, I said, “Well, I know a little about cooking and Daddy doesn’t.” “Tell me about cooking, Mom,” “What do you know?” Hmm… how does one answer such an open ended question. For some reason, I started telling him about cooking things from scratch over using a mix. I told him with a boxed mix, you typically just add a few ingredients, but when you cook from scratch you have to basically make the mix. It often takes more work, but typically it tastes better than a mix. We talked about cookies and brownies and how we don’t make brownies that often. (I am more a sucker for chocolate chip cookies than brownies).
2 days later I was looking around the kitchen to make a dessert to take to our friend’s house for dinner. I found a recipe for mint chocolate brownies on the back of the mint chocolate chip bag. As the kids and I began to bake them, my son said, “Hey, is this baking from scratch?” Indeed it was.
I love that my son wanted to take the time to learn from me and and get to know more about my interests and “expertise.” And I loved how he recalled that conversation a few days later. It was one of those bonding moments, that I want to savor.
This morning we had our sonogram appointment. While it is our fourth pregnancy, I try as hard as I can to not take anything for granted. I don’t think I realized how much I was “holding my breath” so to speak before the appointment. Words can’t adequately express the feelings of thanksgiving that overwhelmed me when the tech and then the doctor told us that everything looked healthy and normal.
As if that wasn’t blessing enough, we were blessed with an amazing, go the extra mile, super kind tech. We brought the whole circus with us. She let us point out things to the children. She then printed a picture of the baby waving for each kid and even typed their names on each picture so that they each got a picture of the baby saying hi to them. This totally melted my mommy’s heart.
And the baby completely cooperated put on a show for us. The baby waved, put his her hand on his/her face…grabbed his/her feet… and even yawned. It was truly amazing to watch. I don’t recall any of the other children being so animated during our sonograms.
It was a precious moment of bonding for our now family of 6 as we stared at the screen this morning. I am so overwhelmingly thankful…for the life that lives inside me, for the lives asleep in the room beside mine who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their baby brother or sister, for their Daddy whose smile lit up the room when he saw his baby for the first time, for the technology that provided this wonderful bonding experience and the tech whose patience and care made the visit all the more special.
Psalm 139:13-15
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
My roles as wife, homemaker and mother of 3 feel much like a circus with 3 rings constantly vying for my attention. Life is often chaotic but I'm loving every minute and wouldn't want it any other way. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show. I won't let you miss a thing.
It was a precious moment of bonding for our now family of 6 as we stared at the screen this morning. I am so overwhelmingly thankful…for the life that lives inside me, for the lives asleep in the room beside mine who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their baby brother or sister, for their Daddy whose smile lit up the room when he saw his baby for the first time, for the technology that provided this wonderful bonding experience and the tech whose patience and care made the visit all the more special. 
