Thank You, Great Grandma and Great Grandpa!

Easter arrived early this year, with Matt's grandparents coming in from Pennsylvania with a huge basket of goodies for the children.

We are all so grateful! The children are enjoying filling up their personalized sticker books, playing with their new Jacob's Ladders, and sampling their candies. We were so glad to be able to spend time with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa! Can't wait to see them again soon!

"FUN-IN-A-BOX"

We LOVE Dr. Seuss.

I feel like all his books were not just written to entertain children, but to make their parents feel not so very much alone. His sense of humor, intended or not, gets me through hard days.

It was raining here the other night, and the children were in a very bad place...until Matt brought home this Rubbermaid container for me. The moment I saw these pictures, it reminded me of a Dr. Seuss book we read at least 3 times a day.

"I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny."

"'In this box are two things

I will show to you now.

You will like these two things,'

Said the cat with a bow."

 "'These things will not bite you.

They want to have fun.'

Then, out of the box

Came Thing Two and Thing One!"

"Then those Things ran about

With big bumps, jumps and kicks

And with hops and big thumps

And all kinds of bad tricks.

And I said,

'I do NOT like the way that they play!

If Mother could see this,

Oh, what would she say!'"

When the kids get really crazy, Matt quotes his favorite line from The Cat in the Hat:

"So, as fast as I could,

I went after my net.

And I said, 'With my net

I can get them I bet.

I bet, with my net,

 I can get those Things yet!'"

(This picture is courtesy of Joseph, who has discovered he likes to be on the other side of the flash.)

SUN!

I intended on taking one million pictures when we got outside yesterday, but I ended up putting on my sunglasses and soaking up some serious Vitamin D instead.

Really and truly, these few pictures show what happened the entire day. I couldn't get the children off their bikes. When I first opened the front door to let them out, Thomas cried because he wanted to put his winter coat and mittens on. He thought I was making them go out in the snow, unprepared. Nathan insisted on wearing his winter hat. Hysterical. Instead of fighting them, I allowed them to dress up. When they walked out into the sun, they stood in the front yard, kinda dazed, for about 15 seconds. Then they ran in circles, like puppies. They were so happy. Until they got sweaty and started crying for their winter clothes to come off. I don't know if I have ever laughed like that before.

I opened the garage and they took out their vehicles and helmets. We took breaks for food, bathroom and therapy, but stayed outside until it was too dark to see anymore. Amazing. Thank you, God!



Boo is totally sticking his finger through the holes in Baby's helmet.

The funny part about this picture is the book on the flower bed behind Joseph. I forgot to mention that Nathan, along with his winter hat, wanted to bring out his favorite book: A Charlie Brown Christmas. Again, I wouldn't fight him on this one. I knew he'd drop it the moment he realized what the outside world felt like.

  At bedtime snack, I was looking at the children around the table and enjoying everyone talking about what they did outside. When I looked at Nathan, he was talking with his hands like his Daddy. It made me giggle. They look so much alike.

Cold, Cold Days

The babies have runny noses. Some still have coughs. I cancel playdates. I cancel birthday parties. I don't even take them to the grocery store anymore. They miss Church. I keep them away from the harsh wind and severe cold.

I am beginning to wonder if 100% healthy is over-rated and unattainable.

Bean says to me, as she blows her nose again, "We are always going to be sick. Forever!" She cries at her chapped hands. "I have to wash my hands all day, every day, FOREVER!", she claims. I calm her down and reassure her that no one can be sick forever. But I have this tugging at the bottom of my heart...an ache to get out of the infirmary, mixed with doubt of having a clean bill of health anytime in the near future for all four children.

Weather here has been dismal. Some sun. Some snow. Lots of rain. Lots of wind. Lots of cold. The forecast for today is sunny and warm! I told the children last night about the heat wave coming our way. Buzz would like to know if he can sleep outside on his bicycle. I get it, honey. I totally get it.

I am  ready early this morning. I feel like it is Christmas morning, with my stomach doing somersaults. Fresh Air! Hopefully there will be pictures to share of a sunny day spent outside today.

In the meantime, I thought I would post these. 

I feed the children early. Some days, they eat before Matt gets home from work. Then Matt and I get a "quiet" dinner while the children play peacefully with full tummies. On Monday, it was quiet while Matt and I ate. Really quiet. I saw Buzz dragging some blankets up and down the stairs, but I guess I wasn't really paying attention. Boo brought up some bean bags. Bean brought up some sleeping bags...and pillows. Baby stood at the top of the stairs giggling and running back and forth from the front room. I thought maybe they were cleaning up from our weekend "sleepover" in the playroom. Silly Mommy.

Yikes.

Ok, seriously?! Look at Baby. How old is this child?

Buzz, showing everyone how high he can jump. So tall, that one.

Bean, always the ballerina.

Boo, sweating and giggling.

Fun Facts

I made bread for the first time on Ash Wednesday. Real bread. Like, I had to knead it by hand for 8 minutes. It was an incredible process. The whole house smelled good. The children waited by the oven for the last 3 minutes and were so eager to taste it! There was something really fulfilling about sitting at the table with all four of them, watching them enjoy something that I had made with my own hands...that wasn't macaroni and cheese.

Buzz received this sticker book for Christmas from his Godparents. They know him too well. It is a Lego sticker book. He eats with this book, sleeps with this book and cries when it is time for school because he doesn't want to leave this book. The other children are helping him memorize the names of each and every Lego guy...there are well over 200!

 Yes, that is a diaper. A clean one. But still, a diaper. Boo will do anything for a laugh. And I mean ANYTHING.

This really happens. Matt cannot get down on the floor with the children without getting sat on, bounced on, and wrestled.

This really happens too. This is to show you (and me) how patient Bean truly is. All she wanted to do was read a book. Nate wants attention and a playmate. I love the last-ditch effort of his feet in this video. Brothers are something special.

Happy Thoughts

When I was in high school, I had a friend who always seemed to be a little too happy. She never stopped smiling. Even when it seemed the world around her was falling apart (which it frequently does when you are in high school) she always had something positive to say. She was so enjoyable to be around, and drew people to her with her sweetness. I asked her one day why nothing depressed her. She showed me a worn-out notebook. A Happy Thoughts Book, she called it. It listed everything in the entire world that she was grateful for. At age 16, she had over 735 Happy Thoughts. She added more every night before she fell asleep. She said to me, "When you are grateful for the things you have, you don't really have time to be sad about the things you don't have." I remember being in awe. I had no inner surge of, "Wow! She's right!" But, being a teen, I wanted to be just like her. So I went home and started my own Happy Thoughts Book.

I chuckle to myself now about the things I wrote back then. I think I was grasping at straws. It was a good place to start. I needed a little jump start. I needed to remember that there is A Reason for everything. That there was Someone to be grateful to...even if it was gratitude for red popsicles and fresh-cut grass (Numbers 2 and 6 on my list, respectively). Fast forward 12 years.

The "winter blah" has hit home. I believe, where we live, it is called Seasonal Depression...a real diagnosis. Without realizing, I let myself fall pretty far. So... I talked to a priest. Talked to my husband. Talked to my mother. Talked to a friend. The message was the same: Remember to be grateful.

 Monday morning is the best day to start with an attitude of gratitude. No particular order...just trying to get started.

#1. This man, showing God's love to me here on earth.
 (Grilling in freezing temperatures because his gestating wife had a craving.) 



#2. This relationship

#3. These Babies



#4. This relationship


#5. The 32 single socks in my laundry room that I just cannot manage to find pairs for...because the children helped me sort the socks
#6. A warm house on a snowy day
#7. Faith
#8.Family
#9.Friends
#10. The kids wanting to help me with the chores

Happy Saint Valentine's Day!



The Love Multiplies.

When we had one child, we were on a power play.
With two children, we played man-to-man defense.
With three, we switched to zone defense...and the kids had a power play.
Four, we were double-teamed.
 I don't think there is a term for 5 on 2.

We pulled in the driveway. The snow started falling hard. It was getting cold. The children were spent, as we were just getting home from the circus we call grocery shopping. I was trying to unlock the front door, with Nate on one hip and Tom on the other. Sarah and Joseph were fighting over who would get to be the line leader and enter the house first. The door opens, and we all trip up the step into the house. Sarah looks at Joseph and says, "Mommy is so strong. She can carry three babies at once!"

That's right, Bean. The new baby counts too.

Passing the Torch

When I was pregnant with Sarah, I read approximately 34 books on pregnancy and 12 books on parenting. We were going to raise her "by the book". If I could talk to my past-self, today, I would say, "Delusional Anne, take a breath. Those books all have contradicting themes. You are going to harm yourself trying to be the best, firm, soft, rule-oriented, lax, natural, hi-tech mother around."

One good thing I DID take away from all that literature was the urgency to teach my children to read. What a huge gift reading has been in my life. If I could teach my children to love doing anything, it would be reading.

Matt understood that he wouldn't be able to escape my pregnant dreams of perfection, so he promptly began reading to Sarah in the womb. Dr. Suess, Robotics and Design, Dilbert cartoons...these were all favorites (Matt's Favorites). He was so patient and understanding and compliant, my Matt. Maybe he feared for his life. I guess I was a little intimidating as a pregnant, first-time mom.

Anyway, after Sarah was born, I continued to read to her. And read. And read. By the time Sarah was 21 months, she had memorized one of her favorite books and could "read" it to anyone. The Hair Book, by Dr. Suess. I was so proud. She would sit in her rocking chair, with a basket of books at her feet and pore through them. Then she would start all over again.

I was practically neurotic about making sure I read to BOTH children after Joseph was born. He didn't seem as interested, and didn't like to be held as much, so as soon as he learned to climb down from my lap, he was off doing his Joseph thing. I figured as long as he was in the same room and hearing the same words, maybe it would still instill that desire to learn. Joseph reads books now, but only by himself.

When Thomas was born, I am afraid I let time escape me. I rarely had time to read. But even when I did, Thomas had ZERO desire to hold still. He would rip the book out of my hand after the first page and chuck it across the room. Thomas further displayed his dissatisfaction with the written word by swiping his arm down the bookshelf, at least three times a day, to knock all the books on the floor. Then he would dance on them. Uh-huh. This really happened.

I tried to read to Nate. I really did. But he liked the taste of books more than the sound of my voice. Of the library of books we had, there was an attrition rate of nearly 25% whenever I tried to read to him. Only recently did he realize that books were enjoyable. Now, he will walk over to the bookcase, pick out one of his little chubby board books and find the nearest, breathing mammal. He will back on up (he should come with a warning sound) and sit down without looking at his target. He sat on Thomas' head three times last week. Just recently, though, Nathan found the perfect lap. A well-trained tongue, if you will.

Yes, I know he is as big as she is. But she loves the audience and he loves the books! There is almost nothing so sweet as hearing Sarah read to her brothers. Now, even Joseph and Thomas bring her books. My sweet, sweet girl. I'd like to think that it was my insistance that provoked her brilliance. But now I know that I can't teach or force that. I am just grateful that she is so generous with her gift.

It's Tom-Boo Day!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Thomas Stephen!

We love you tremendous amounts.

Thank you for always making us laugh! You terrify and astound us with your sense of humor. Your sensitivity blows us away. We are so proud of the little man you are becoming and couldn't be happier that God sent you to us!

Yesterday, at Mass, I think we got a clear picture of what life with Tom is going to be like for a while. I had brought a lone granola bar (really bad idea) to Church in my pocket. The children must have smelled it through my jacket and the wrapper, because as soon as they realized there was food in the vicinity, they promptly forgot about the seven course breakfast they ate just moments before.

The cries began. "Mommmmmmmmmmmm, I'm STARRRRRRRRVING!" Joseph started holding his belly and whimpering. So sad. Sarah put on her puppy dog face and maybe even poked herself in the eye so she would start crying, drawing immediate attention from the elderly woman in the pew behind us. Thomas began sniffing my coat and shoving his hands in my pockets. Nathan just hollered.

I split the bar into four miniscule pieces. The children seemed satisfied. The three older ones ate them very quickly. I think they were nervous that someone else in the church might be hungry too...and maybe they would have to share.

Nathan was savoring each and every tiny crumb. Thomas came over to me and asked if he could finish Nathan's piece. I told him he would have to ask the baby. Thomas swiped the bar from Nathan as he was asking, so nicely, if he could please have the rest. Nathan shrieked and received a quick escort to the back of church. Thomas gobbled the tiny piece down and I think I heard a stifled chuckle.

After Mass, Thomas said, "Mom, why did Mrs. Dreis have to take the baby in the back of church?"

I responded, "Because you made a very sad decision and took the baby's granola bar from him before he had a chance to answer you."

Thomas replied, "Oh yeah! That was AWESOME!"

As I said, he terrifies and astounds.

Mainly terrifies.

Random Thoughts

Sarah is proving to Tommy that big sisters are the very best.



We picked up this Power Wheels on the side of the road. No battery? No Problem. It runs on good ol' sister power!

I still can't believe that this child gave me problems about eating table food. Here he is, in all his post-yogurt glory, demanding another bowl full of the good stuff.

Joseph received his VERY FIRST "Good Listener Stamp" at school! It is a thumbs-up sign! Matt and I are thrilled and we had a small celebration for our big guy...He is trying so very hard.

Ummmmm, ok. This boy is so trouble.

I don't know where the time goes.

The Three Amigos: Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms and Ned Nederlander.
Lucky Day: Wherever there is injustice, you will find us.
Ned Nederlander: Wherever there is suffering, we'll be there.
Dusty Bottoms: Wherever liberty is threatened, you will find...
Lucky Day, Ned Nederlander, Dusty Bottoms: The Three Amigos!

(*the snowfrog on the side is Sarah's and would prefer to have no association with the other "people" in this picture.*)

Lego Land

Joseph's Legos from Christmas brought Matt back to the good ol' days.

A couple of days after Christmas, he dug through the crawl space in the basement and pulled up this cardboard box.

Some of Matt's old models and sets from when he was a child.



Can't see Matt's face in this picture, but just look at Joseph. They have the same expression.
 Complete awe.

Sharing. Sharing. Sharing.

It looks like our kids spend a great deal of time on top of the table.
Actually, they do. Just looking at this picture made me yell, aloud, "Please get down!"

Amazing that these tiny little blocks can make these guys hold so still for so long.
Matt said he never imagined that someday he would be sharing these with his own children. He loves to watch them build cars, houses and cities. There is something really incredible watching our children enjoy something that we enjoyed, dream the way we dreamed, and invent things that we never would have thought of.