Birthday Surprise

So today was my 27th birthday, a day that was going to be a relatively boring, uneventful day. We awoke this morning and had the normal routine of showering, getting dressed, feeding the kids, and getting ready to head into the church. I could hear the trash truck coming down the road and had remembered that I hadn't put the trash at the curb due to the fact that a thunderstorm had been in full force when I got back from work at 10:15 last night. As I rushed to get my shoes on and get the trash out, I turned to my neighbors driveway(the house is vacant, so I park there) and noticed what looked like a small tree on top of my car.

So it wasn't terrible.....no broken windows or major damage, just a few small(softball size) dents in the trunk. After a few moments of shock, I moved the branch and proceeded to go on with the rest of my day!

Concerns

Over a week ago I visited the midwife for a standard check up, attended by all three children due to an unfortunate miscommunication between Jeremiah and myself.

After an hour of discussing delicate female issues in front of an exceptionally inquisitive four year old, policing a particularly stubborn one year old whose powers of exploration have greatly expanded with the addition of half an inch of height, and finally coddling the would be explorer after his sister, finding my policing deficient, decided to protect her brother from unknown harm by slamming shut the heavy wooden cabinet lid... on his finger, the midwife decided the increase in frequency and intensity of my contractions to be a bit concerning.

Finding my cervix potentially prepped for pre-term labor, we left the birth center with a disgustingly swollen, black one year old thumb, a big sister feeling unjustly punished, a million four year old questions the parenting books don't tell you how to deal with, and the order to be on bed rest until tests could help clarify my bodies intentions towards this new little life.

Thankfully we were blessed with two mothers who took the yoke of motherhood upon themselves, and thus I was forced to adopt a recliner as my new home for an agonizing week. (Thank you Mom and Fay!) After the week of waiting, the Lord blessed us with a negative test result (that being a good thing), and the conclusion is that my body is simply well prepped, having done this a few times before. Although both mothers are not letting me off the hook that easily and are strongly encouraging a reunion between myself and the recliner.

Thank you to all who have prayed for us, and please continue to pray for the wise discernment of our midwives and our acceptance of our Lord's will.

Ranger's Opening Day

I started on Tuesday what I hope to be a yearly tradition with all of my children. I took the day off of work along with 48,000 of my closest Ranger fans and headed out to Ranger's Ballpark for the opening home game for our Texas Rangers. Before yesterday, the Rangers were 3-3, which is a much better start than the last 7 or so years.
We got out to the ballpark early to watch bp (batting practice for the uneducated) and to get an early start on the food. Peter ate a thing of popcorn, peanuts and most of a Dr. Pepper even before the anthem was sung. Since we got there almost 2 hours before the game started, Peter was very ready for the most exciting part of the game, (and it pretty much was the highlight of the day) the B1 Bomber fly-over.

The game soon got started and we made our first of 6 bathroom trips in the middle of the first inning. By the time the Rangers went down in order in the bottom of the 1st, I could tell Peter was bored with the game. I kept him busy during the 2nd inning by explaining the intricateness of each play and pitch, and why the white guys and the gray guys kept running in and out of the dugouts. By the 3rd, Peter was ready to move around some, and so we headed out to Vandergriff plaza near center field to play some of the kid games. We ended up just watching the games and getting a snow cone, a hot dog, and some more Dr. Pepper!

This is Peter's impression of baseball, fighter jets, food, and a little bit of cheering and booing mixed in for some unknown reason. Overall it was a great day. Beautiful weather, packed ballpark, good fans, overpriced food and drinks, and a great day that I and I hope Peter will remember for a long time.

There is just something amazing about the power of baseball to bring people together. No matter how popular other sports become, baseball will always be America's past time. It is a great sport that anyone can play, but only a few can play at such a high level. Being out at the ballpark is one of those things that every young boy should do at least once a year. The smell of the grass, the sound of the bat, the joy in my child's eye as he takes it all in; this is what baseball does, it brings together different generations to the same place and time, to cheer for their team, watch a great game of baseball, and the only thing that matters isn't the totals on the scoreboard,(which wasn't good for the Rangers) it is the time spent together!

The NEBULIZER

A new and strange creature entered our lives recently with the introduction of Peter's first asthma atack.

Peter is not a big fan of it.

But Isabelle thinks the purple chicken is just great!

Bed Time

Jeremiah works two or three evenings a week, leaving the rest of us to enjoy each others' company during those final, exhausting hours of the day without daddy's calm, rational counterbalance...

A few nights ago, after finishing dinner, cleaning up, wrestling various body parts into PJs, warming/cooling/warming milk to the acceptable temperature for Daniel, the kids and I settled on the kitchen floor to drink our milk and read books before bed.

Peter selected his new favorite bed time story Planet Earth, now to gain full appreciation for this book, you will have to read his favorite paragraph...

"In a large storm cloud, as water droplets collide, water becomes electrically charged. Positive charges collect at the top of the cloud and negative charges at the bottom. The negative charge creates a positive charge on the ground surface, which builds until lightning sparks from the cloud to the ground and back again."

this was followed by, "oh wow, so now tell me all about lightning!"

Having been plagued by "mother's guilt" already that day, I decided to invest the one on one attention necessary to communicate to my child how tremendously important he is (and the attention necessary to explain such a topic to my four year old!).

Unfortunately, our youngest child's attention radar was immediately conscious of the shift in his paradigm and the necessity to set things straight. Realizing both my sides were flanked by either sibling, he had no choice but to scale the book separating him from my lap. This of course, infuriated his older brother, whose intellect was tediously being enlightened by our conversation, "you see, well... the atoms,... well atoms are..."

Now Daniel, being quite the strategist, realized the frontal approach, although successful in attaining the desired lap, was not going to stop such an intense discussion, but an over-tired, emotional sister who could care less about lightening was the perfect distraction...

"uh, no, so the water molecules,..." Placing one hand on the page of his sister's book, he grins and waits for the scream and shove. "um, no, not molecules, the..." The shove of course causes a slight tear in the page and increased panic from his sister. "well the drops of water,... they, um" Realizing this is more fun than he thought, Daniel persists, this time laughing, which only adds to his sisters anguish. "and, um, they rub,..." But feeling like our natural science discussion was finally getting somewhere, "oh, yeah, um I don't know how they rub..., well, they're like balls...." I ignore the squeals of "IT not FUNNNNNY Dang-uol!!!" Until the final push/pull/shove which succeeds in removing the entire page and sends his sister into hysterical sobs. "so, um, if they rub,... and then negative energy..." Now, not even the hope of understanding lightening can keep Peter's attention, and he perceives the mortal wound received by the book. "well, a charge really,... and then positive,... well, they're attracted..." He too joins in the hysterical sobbing, and Daniel not wanting to stand out, joins their tears, although without the intensity as he clearly does not understand why they were crying.

With that, the victorious baby had re-centered the universe and would go to bed cuddled safely in his mother's arms without any imposing discussions about nature!