Way Overdue Glimpse of Our World

Cake??? But her birthday isn't till the 3rd, right? Yes, correct. BUT, the YMCA could only host her "gymnastics party" this Saturday so the b-day got bumped forward. I said to Jim, "It's a little expensive but they hang balloons, decorate the table and give 12 kids a guided gymnastics playtime for 65 minutes." "Book it!" We show up with kids and cake and goody bags. The cake decorating scheme I totally ripped off my friend, Holly Marie ( Holly, the cake you made for Ben's birthday where you lined it with kit-kats; I saw that and realized I could just candy-up the cake and it would look much more impressive). Voila! Anyways, Marie is bursting with excitement. The great thing is the variety of activities that the YMCA will make available. Bounce House, Bounce Slide, Tumble Track, trampoline, pit of foam and lots of little things Ty likes too. Wait, no the BEST part is we get to walk away from it all and not have a mess in our house. Jim is right - write the check!


Last weekend my brother and his 3 children drove up and spent the night at my mother's in Grand Rapids. So Sunday, I took the kids down and we spent the day with them. (Jim stayed home and put the lights up in the basement. We are almost ready to drywall. A little more wiring and then good to go.) Anyways, the older cousins played just beautifully with baby Ty and Marie. I was so touched. From the moment we got there, Syd and Shelby took over Ty and Lukie and Marie went off to do whatever it is they do. Marie even went upstairs to play with Luke and she rarely will go to a different part of the house without me. Only for Lukie! Ty loved knocking down the towers that Shelby built for him and was thrilled with the game of "Pile On." The older kids would lie down on the rug and Ty would charge them and throw his body on top of theirs, laughing and drooling and screaming. Like I said, they were great with him. The above picts are from our walk. In the top picture, all 5 cousins are in it with the older two supervising the younger 3. In the bottom picture, you can see the 3 youngest. Ty had to hold everyone's hand at some point. He would alternate who was in his non-Marie hand but, of course, had to have Marie with him at all times. He does love her best!

I just love this! My Mom was given a singing card and she saved it for Ty. He was charmed! Thanks, Mom! You know him well! He did remember her and was thrilled to see his peeps.

One more...it was dinner time but Ty needed to go out and burn some energy. Jim, however, was lacking a little energy and didn't want to bend down to help Ty scoot along our unpaved drive. So, in true Jim form, he fashioned this device to satisfy both of their current physical needs.

Which highlights the mood here right now. Jim and I are tired! I have spent the fall thinking, "Oh, next week things will settle down." It's Thanksgiving and that has yet to happen. I was feeling quite down on myself, couldn't figure out why things were so difficult. And then I realized, this is the first time I have worked with TWO children. Two YOUNG children. I didn't realize that when I went back to work this September that I would be coming home to two children under 4. This sounds so naive but it took me a while to realize things were different so naturally, life was going to be a bit more hectic. The past few weeks I have started to plan dinner menus on Sunday for the week, noting what I must get ready the night prior so I didn't have to do too much cooking with my 18 month old clinging to my ankles. I have been better about my lesson planning, trying to do as much ahead of time as I can. And I have made sure to set aside time to go to the gym and read - two ways to get some ME time in. So while things have indeed been frazzled and may remain so for a while, some subtle shifts are happening.