Adjusting

I’ve been wanting to blog for awhile to answer most of your questions and give you an idea of how our life has been over the past two weeks. Problem is, I’m having trouble deciding what to share and not share, as well as finding the time to do this. For example, in these past two sentences that I’ve typed I’ve had to deal with Luke 3 times!!! So, my writing is pretty touch and go. (Sorry for the randomness.)

Basically in a nutshell, our life is pretty chaotic right now to be quite real and honest. The kids are doing wonderfully with Jonathan. I am so so thankful for that. I’ll start with Luke. My biggest fear was that Luke would be mean to Jonathan and that I wouldn’t be able to set Jonathan down for fear of Luke messing with him. But really, Luke has been so great! In fact, sometimes when I’m nursing Jonathan, Luke will come sit by us, start to suck his thumb, and then take his other hand and pet Jonathan’s head real sweet and gentle the whole time. This is definitely a different change for me considering when I brought Grace home from the hospital, Isaac took one look at her and spit his crackers all over her. There wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t mean to her. So for now, it is very refreshing to see a 22 month old be so sweet and gentle to the “bay-biEEE.” Luke’s downfall is how he gets into EVERYTHING! I thought he perhaps kicked it up a notch once this baby was born…but I’m realizing he’s just the same. I just can’t stop him like I used to because of my hands being full with the baby and his needs. However, he did learn to climb the gates and has learned to dump anything out that will help him “reach” his goal. Literally. He will dump a trash can over, empty a laundry basket, find a stool, or any other toy that can act as a stool for him just to get to what he wants that’s “high up.”

I almost stopped this happening today by mere seconds!

A brand new box of Kix cereal dumped out!

It was extremely challenging my fist week home because Luke wasn’t feeling well. He was so overtired and wanted to cuddle the whole time. Which I totally wanted to do but just wasn’t able to as much as we both wanted. One day I had Luke in one arm, Jonathan in the other, and Grace decided to take cereal in the living room and pour it in a bowl ON THE COUCH!  (What’s up with my kids and cereal??) I started freaking out on her because she never had permission to have cereal, AND she was trying to pour it in the living room ON THE COUCH! At that moment I looked up to see my friend who had just showed up to our house for her lunch break. I said exhausted, “Hi…I’m maxed out.” She laughed and said, “I can tell.”

Grace has loved having the new baby home. She has started playing with her dolls a lot more now. All her doll and girl stuff is in Jonathan’s room (since someday it will be her room) so many times when I come to lay Jonathan down I see stuff like this by his crib:

Don't ask me why the crutches are there?!?!

All her dolls are lined up along the wall.

She has also been feeding her babies differently now too.

She loves to hold baby Jonathan and asks to hold him all the time. She has been quite the helper and has learned how to pull Luke down from things to help Mommy out. Only once has curiosity gotten the best of her. She cut Luke's HAIR!! Here's a chunk she managed to free from his head with the scissors I asked her to put away:

Isaac loves holding the new baby too. He has really been a big helper too. The other day when Chris and I were feeling pretty stressed out, he went upstairs to make all the beds for us. It was so sweet.  He also put all the library books by the bed for Daddy. Daddy always gets upset because he has to hunt down the library books at bed time every night. Isaac says to Chris, “Yeah Daddy, I even put the library books by the bed so you wouldn’t have to HUNT THEM DOWN.” Now when he said, “HUNT THEM DOWN,” he did AIR QUOTES AROUND THOSE WORDS AND EMPHASIZED THEM!!! Chris died laughing. What Kindergartner knows how to use air quotes correctly? (It’s just not as funny trying to type it here though as telling it)

And now for my husband. Well, he’s pretty behind in school. The week of the baby being born really put him back. To say he’s maxed out would probably be an understatement. He feels bad because he wants to help me out but he really can’t because of school. And I feel bad because I wish I could help him out more but I can’t either.  We both pretty much feel like we are pretty maxed out. But he will be done for the summer here in May and that will be so refreshing. He amazes me with his commitment to getting up at 4:30 in the morning to do homework and spend time in the word before he goes to work. He also stays up pretty late too. So between his lack of sleep and mine we are both pretty tired. But God’s grace is here for us for such a time as this. Someday we’ll look back on this intense season and laugh more about it than we are now…I’m sure of it.

This spring weather has been such a blessing as well. Isaac and Grace have been playing outside from the moment Isaac gets home from school until supper time. It’s been so wonderful! How can spring not be any mom’s favorite season??? Seeing Luke jump on the trampoline cracks us up so much too. He’s so little and he has no fear. He just flops around on it like it’s nothing. The trampoline has been a Godsend for sure!

Oh and I almost forgot…JONATHAN! Ha! He’s adjusting perfectly to our family. His head has only been stepped on one time by Luke!! Woohoo! LOL! Seriously though… he’s doing great. He had an appointment last Friday and was already at 7 lbs 11 oz. He’s gained pretty much an entire pound before he was three weeks old! He doesn’t feel quite so little any more L  He’s absolutely perfect and we are so thankful for our little blessing. (He’s definitely spoiled too!) Luke is the only one in the family allowed to call him anything other than Jonathan since he can’t pronounce his name yet. It’s so cute when he says it…. “Shawn-knee” He also pronounces the word “pappy” incorrectly. (We call the pacifier a “pappy” thanks to Victoria Robertson when she lived with us when Isaac was born) Anyways, he calls it a “Happy.” So anytime Jonathan is crying he says, “Haa-peee” and tries to shove it in his poor little mouth.

Well, that’s pretty much it in a nutshell. We are all loving our little addition and I especially am so thankful to not be pregnant anymore!!!! I forgot how nice and easy life’s tasks are when you don’t have the huge belly in front of you...like giving massages! God is so faithful and we are so thankful for his grace and provision. Thank you as well to those of you who brought us meals!! What a blessing! We are so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people. MY CUP OVERFLOWS!!!