Testimonies and God's Hammer from on High

I love it when my family members remember things from those around us and share them.  Here are a few gems-- 

From Piper:

Occasionally, one of the little kids comes upstairs to join me for online seminary (it starts at 6:30 a.m.). Well, this morning it was Xai. He snuggled up by me and made a lot of suggestions like: "You should turn off your camera," or "You should rename yourself 'I am your best friend!'" Then I had to ask him to be a little quieter because I was turning on my mic and he conceded and scooted closer to me. After I finished and turned off my mic, he bellowed out "I WOULD LIKE TO BEAR MY TESTIMONY..." He is such a cute guy:D

From Quinn: On Saturday I was working outside and Liesl came up to me to tell me she found a dead spider. She wanted me to look at it and I told her in a fearful voice that the wind would blow the spider on me. To which she said without hesitation in her little Liesl voice, "The wind will blow it up and up and God will SMASH it with a hammer." 

My boys: Germs, Propositions and Haircuts

 I like to say prayers with my kiddos individually before they go to bed until they kind of "grow out of it" (and I still get goodnight hugs and kisses ;)...).  A few nights ago, our germaphobe (aka "German-phonebook") Spooner was diligently picking his nose with alternating hands when I knelt down and reached out for his hand.  He deliberately considered both hand and then extended the one that (I am assuming) was the "cleaner" of the two.  Before taking it, we had a little talk about how if he feels he can pick his nose, eat it and then still hold hands with me, he should be okay if his little brother accidentally sneezes near him or forgets to wash his own hands.  Now, I am all for cleanliness and hygiene and vigilantly encourage and require hand washing, sanitizing, etc.  However, Spooner's heightened sense of cleanliness has often led to anger and even violence against his siblings...which is just carrying it a bit too far.  It was a great time to turn the tables and hopefully open the door for a little compassion ;).

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Zsa-man had an interesting financial proposition to earn money for walkie-talkies the other day.  He came into where I was reading in my bedroom and demanded I get him a walkie-talkie.  Now.  I informed him that he could request it for Christmas or save up his 25 cents per day "allowance" for doing chores until he had enough.   Neither suggestion was acceptable.  He stormed out.

Moments later he came in with a "persuasive" look on his adorable, brown-eyed face.  "How much would you pay me to pull glass out of my foot?"  He was serious. 

"Ah, nothing." I said, shocked and amused.

***************

The Goob has been contemplating what to do next with his life...and his hair.  While I can't help him much on the life guidance other than support him in the healthiest way I can, I can help with hair!  When he said he was thinking of a mohawk, I thought I would just kind of leave him to it but then I came across an article in the New Era that had some pictures of what I thought was a good way to move forward (the article in the magazine has some better angles):

Quinn pointed out that the article mentioned:

His mom wouldn’t let him grow a mohawk until he had served a mission and gotten married.

I simply replied that the Goob and I are kind of past the point where I am "letting" him do anything ;).

So we found a hair dresser recommended by a friend and set up a hair appointment together!  Me for a trim and thin of my thick curly locks (it has been about a year) and him for...something new. :D

Before...

 After...

Love this boy!  Alright, man...but he'll always be my boy!

A lunch of Holy Milk and NOT Daddy Rice

 I love how the world looks through the eyes of new readers.

I just found out that we are actually drinking "Vitamin D Hol-y Milk," carefully sounded out by Xai.

***********************

Liliputian is little Zuli's lunch buddy.  Every day this week (and many times in weeks past), when Liliputian asks her, "What do you want for lunch?", Zuli responds brightly, "Palacsintak!" (Crepes.)  Whenever Quinn and I go out for dinner, the kids will make a giant batch of palacsintak that normally lasts for days after.  Thus, normally that lunch request is not a problem.

However--for whatever reason--we have had a famine of palacsintak in the last couple weeks and so daily Liliputian is left to persuade Zuli that something else will work just as well.  

Well, I had a plan.

When I heard her typical request on Monday...and then on Tuesday...and then on Wednesday I thought, I'm going to have one of the kiddos make a batch for their mom help one of these days so when she asks, voila!

This morning, the stars were aligned and the universe was at peace and my moment of awesomeness had arrived.   Well, technically Hava's because she actually made the batter, but I was the genius behind it ;).  The batter was in the fridge and the moment of triumph was here.

I gathered an appreciative audience around, anticipating victory.  Liliputian asked Zuli, "What do you want for lunch?"  Dramatic pause as Zuli's little 2 year old faces scrunches up with excitement.

"Daddy rice!!"

Ach!  Seriously :D. But I had to laugh.  This was a classic example of the result of my best laid plans of parenthood.

Too Hot to Handle

(or more lovingly subtitled: The four hours in which I curse the 4 to possibly 5 males in my home for their sweetness.)

I don't sleep well right now: allergies + heat + pregnancy = no bueno.
So even though I only had about 4 hours of sleep the previous night and fought off the evil nap demon courageously and victoriously during the course of the next 19 hours of semi-comatose "awakeness," despite going to bed around 11 pm, I found myself tossing and turning around 1:30 am.

Zsa-man: 
Well, I tossed and turned myself face to face with a specter.
Enter Zsa-zsa, my cute little recently birthday-ed 5 year old.
"Mommy, I had a bad dream."

This seems to be somewhat a theme of the past three nights and I am sure that when I am again coherent enough to remember what a nice mommy is, I will try and see if I can help him deal with bad dreams.  But for the moment, he just started my struggling-to-sleep body into full alertness.

Fortunately, years of dealing with the repercussions of "horrible middle of the night responses" that have given my older children PTSD from waking up the sleeping momma bear have helped condition me to temper my responses.  It has actually been quite a while since I have gotten up angry.  Well, it wasn't the last time this fateful evening.

Staring blearily into the beautiful cow-like brown eyes of my Zsa-man, I found myself grumbling something about: "go potty first then you can snuggle with me."

Fast forward 2-45 minutes and once again I turn over--again, semi-comatose--and am once again startled into full wakefulness by the 5 year old specter haunting the side of my bed. I stifle my grumbling marginally successfully this time as I lovingly pick him up to set him between Quinn and I.
And then I feel the moisture.  My darling little bed-wetter has soaked through his pull-up once again and the process becomes infinitely more complicated.

The evil, sleep-deprived mom monster is beginning to make itself more asserted as I gently extract him from the bed before spreading anything to my own bed and say somewhat gruffly, "You need to change before you can sleep with us.  Back to the bathroom to change."
He and I go across the hall, bearing new jammies and wipes and he sweetly proceeds to dress, apologizing a few times, bless his heart. I assure him groggily that he is a sweet boy as I try to convince myself to keep the bear in the cage, knowing he is sweetly innocent and just needs a little magic mommy snuggle to scare away the nightmares.

We stumble back through the darkness into the night of my very own room and face the bed.

Enter the baby and Q-dawg's moment to "shine":
I face the bed that despite providing no real deep sleep supplies infinite comfort for my pregnant body. I consider the size of Zsa-man's body. I consider the space left by my husband's sweetly intended snuggling approach to beyond the middle of our queen size bed in his sleep.  I consider the space required for my over-large "pioneer stock" pregnant body to lay down. I whisper Quinn's name a couple times to no avail.  I gently push-encourage his body to return to "his side" of the bed. I lay Zsa-man down right next to his father. I squeeze myself sideways onto the remaining strip of luxury bedding.   For five minutes.  I change my position so my head is at the foot of the bed and my overly large tummy has room beneath the space left by Zsa-man's short body.  I am not left to only grumbling over my (possible) little infant son's ability to emanate large waves of heat and the continual block and flow of my allergy induced mucus in my head.  So grateful to be pregnant...just not appreciating the extra heat of having the snuggling inside and without at the moment.

Fast forward two hours--Spooner's turn!
I wake up to heat.  Lots of heat.  Zsa-man has snuggled away from his father and is making his way down to my end of the bed. I bless the Benadryl I took during my last bout of awakeness that allowed me a blessed few more hours of sleep. I hear quiet little kid breathing behind me.  All mothers know this sound.  The sound of a child waiting watchfully over their parent, eagerly awaiting their wakefulness in a semi-quiet state: quiet enough to indicate they are trying to be quiet to let the parent sleep and noisy enough to not allow that slumber.  Apparently, that is not enough for sweet little Spooner as he crawls onto the bed next to me, snuggling.

Going through my head is how sweet this moment should be, how it is truly special that my 7 year old is so tender-hearted and loving...as he gives me little kisses and puts his arm over and back and over and back and over and back off of my shoulder to snuggle.
Then, he gets the blanket.

I begin to feel the temperature escalate exponentially as he gently lays down a blanket over my pretending-to-sleep-overheating body.  Tucking it up under my chin, draping it carefully over my body and even making sure my toes are under, I hear a happy sigh and  whispered, "I love you, Mommy" as he then gets back onto the bed to snuggle against my back again.

That does it.  After a huge moment of self-restraint to savor the pure sweetness of the moment, I heave the blanket off my body, whisper what is the best "thanks" I can offer at this moment of sleep-deprived raging heat to my darling little boy and stumble into the bathroom, whipping the door closed behind me.  Glancing at the clock I see: 5:26 am.  Super.  Grumbling about "no way I am getting any more sleep tonight!" I deal with an awake momma bear.
The shower beckons.

Enter the final player, Chugger-dude:
As I turn the shower on, I remember a conversation I had with my sweet fifteen year old son just a regretfully short hours before as we both prepared for bed.  He commented on how since he started taking cold showers, doing the Polar Bear Plunge on Jan 1st into Lake Ontario hasn't been as hard.

Inspired, I thought about how refreshing that sounded considering my over-warm, heat-generating current condition, pulled on the shower and stepped in.  "This is horrible!" I exclaimed as I struggled to catch my breath.
Yes, he didn't force me in.
Yes, he would have probably encouraged me not to.
But somehow it was a very fitting "end" to my "night" that I should be cursing Chugger-dude, as I had all the other males in my home...

...and all because they are so sweet.

Spooner-isms: Number 3, Grumpy, and Cross-eyed

Having but one bathroom leads to many different interesting situations, but the one this morning was one that has topped the cake so far.

Because of pressing needs that come up while we are doing our toilet routine, some of the younger kids have become okay sharing the bathroom.  This morning we were pushing that boundary a little.

I was in the bathroom helping Spooner brush his teeth and comb his hair.  Hava comes charging in, "I've got to go to the bathroom!!!"

"That should be alright," I calmly replied, going in to help Spooner again.

"It's number 2!"  (Almost everything Hava says needs to be done with exclamation points...that's how she lives life :).)

First instinct was to run, but then I thought, Spooner probably won't care and I have a severely stuffed nose...sure, why not?

When she got settled down, Spooner casually said, "I got to go number three."

Pause.  

"Wow.  Let me know how that goes," I said as I continued to comb his long, blond Q-dawg preferred locks.

"It's broken," he informed me.

Yes.  That is probably why I never had to go number 3 as well.  Mine must also be broken.

**********************
Spooner to me: "I am man and you a person!!!

I am getting you."

Just the latest in the series of funnies by Spooner.

"I am not grumpy!!" He yelled from the back of the van on the way home today

At dinner, he stabbed about 12 olives onto one fork and was waving it around like a magic wand.  One flung off and hit the Goob before we calmed him down.  Then he entertained all his siblings across the table with his attempts to go cross-eyed (some of them hilariously successful). We looked up online and apparently there are no lasting negative effects of a little boy trying to go cross-eyed.  

He is quite the ham.

Spooner's Morning

Spooner just woke up with his usual exuberance :).  Love it!

He is now racing around outside, hollering about all he is finding, from the frogs to the light in the sky starting.

"What's dat, mommy?  What's dat?!" he is crying out again and again.

Sweet kid.

"It's 10 minutes now??  Oh no!!! It's 10 minutes now!!" Not sure what that means, but at least I understand the words.  Next step, actual communication.

From Fire Alarms to Poop

Last night, the Goob got to bed around 1 am after doing appraisal prep for Q-dawg (the Goob's lucrative job).  He stumbled over their Lego drawers, knocking them over, and then sensed something in front of him.  Startled he looked up to see Chugger-dude standing in front of him.  He didn't seem truly awake, so the Goob decided to test him.

"What is the name of your girlfriend?" the Goob asked.
"Ha, ha, ha," said Chugger-dude before he wandered away.  He was completely asleep the whole time.

It has been an eventful last few days.  Well, it is always "event"-full but these have been particularly memorable:

-Liliputian has swimmer ear which has put an unfortunately end to all her fun diving for rings in the deep end during swimming.  I had her put some natural oils on a cotton ball to see if it would help ease her ear pain.  Spooner got into the oils after and dumped a bunch of melaluca oil down his diaper.  Q-dawg stopped him but not before he got several drops in.

"Bleeding!  Bleeding!" he cried out in pain after the oil started "working."

Poor guy. I tried to get him to take a bath so I could use some soap to hopefully get some off, but he would have none of it.  So, he was a walking oil diffuser and my sinuses became clearer for his presence.

You should have seen his diaper afterwards.  I think the oils helped to disintegrate it!

-Apparently, Spooner should be potty-trained because the second incident also involves his diaper.  Yesterday, it was taking the typical 1 hour to get out the door. (Okay, normally it is 30 minutes, but often it is about an hour.) We were going to do note-booking a near-by nature preserve on reservation land, "Swallow Hollow."  I had already fielded all the "last minute" stuff, including a poopy diaper from Binks.  Or so I thought.

As I finished putting stuff in the door, Spooner yelled out "Yucky." He literally was holding handfuls of feces. Gloopy feces.  And it was all over his legs, stomach and (fortunately) only a little on his car booster and none of the car.  Small miracles.  The kids all held their breaths, waiting for the imminent mom-explosion and I started talking very quietly.  Very quietly.

After a very quiet 15 minutes of cleaning up, standing outside our van in our driveway (which is right inside the entrance to the park, remember), cleaning all the poop off this very naked, very white little boy....I finished up, the kids all took a deep breath, and we got in to finally go.  I got several compliments from the kids and affirmations of love after not exploding at the situation.  Yay for me :).

-I guess Spooner is the one being show-cased right now.  The day before yesterday, we were waiting for the three little girls to finish up their swimming lessons.  This involves me keeping Binks and Spooner out of trouble while they are very tired. (Lessons are during nap time.)  Binks loves "chasing" Spooner up and down the hallway of the school where our lessons are located.  He is hilarious to watch because his paunch is so huge that he has to have his arms slightly back and sticks his belly out to balance while he runs.  Hilarious.  He took a tripping dive several times but just jumps right back up to chase some more; fortunately he has a low center of gravity.

Anyway, while I was watching Binks, I noticed that Spooner had made his way across the hall to the lockers...and the fire alarm. Yep.  He pulled it.  Who puts a fire alarm within easy reach of a three year old??  The doors on the end started closing as the lights flashed and the alarm went off. I hurried into the swimming pool area to let them know the real cause of the alarm.  Meanwhile, a school officer was walking down the hall casually to turn it off.  She had seen the whole thing and knew it wasn't really an alarm.  I was relieved to learn that we didn't have to wait for the fire engines to arrive to clear up the situation.  The alarm was reset.  The kids returned to swimming.  And I took Spooner somewhere else.

-The last event I wanted to mention was yesterday, as we arrived home after swimming, I asked everyone to grab things to take in, including the baby.   It had to have been 15-20 minutes later when I heard Binks screaming in terror...outside.  Horrified, I rushed out the front door and there was my baby, by himself, in the front yard, panicked over a truck's alarm that had gone off in the park.  Thankfully!!!!!!  I just grabbed him and held him and snuggled him for the next 10 minutes at least!!  Oh, the horrors that could have happened in that much time with a little 1 year old out alone in the yard by a busy street and a park!  Huge miracle and blessing.

Speaking of huge miracles and blessings, we put up five more pieces of drywall yesterday!!!!  Blessing!

Lastly, but not leastly, I like Q-dawg.  He is just a nice guy.  He tries really hard to make me happy and I certainly have not made it easy over the years.  He is just a good guy and I love him. (Even if he doesn't like Shakespeare :).)*
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Speaking of Shakespeare:
*On Friday, the kids and I are going to Shakespeare in the Park, a free performance of "Taming of the Shrew."  When I mentioned that I wanted to go to Q-dawg, he got a mock distressed look on his face. "Don't you have flag football practice that night?" I asked, amused.
"Oh yah," he sighed. "I think I do."
"Mind if I bring the kids?" I smiled.
"Yah, I think that would be great."
Love that man :).    I know one of his first questions to the kids will be "Did you understand anything?" :)

Fruit Flies are Pooper Cute...and so is Mom

Spooner the fruit fly is hovering over the bowl of fruit.  Must be time for breakfast. 

Too late.  He is enjoying his apple :).

Spooner is talking a lot more now and is way into "super."  Everything is "super"...or "pooper" as he puts it  :D. (Whenever I type ":D" I think of Dad reading our missionary letters aloud and saying "Big D Smiley Face!" Fun!) 

So back to Spooner, oatmeal is "pooper yummy!" 

Bink's diaper is "pooper gross" (I guess that one fits...and maybe many think the oatmeal one does too :D BIG D SMILEY FACE!!!!). 

I, Mom, am "pooper awesome"....well, I won't try and analyze that one.

Precision, Princess Mommy and Plans

"Mom, it's only 7:01 and I have an hour...nope, wait," checks his watch, "...59 minutes to finish my other jobs. I have already done my basics." I love the precision of that little lad, Chugger-dude.  Growing up in so many ways.

Spooner made me smile the other day in his own way.  We were loading up into the van to run to the store and get some ground beef. (It turned into a Daddy, Chugger-dude, Papaya, Binks, Mommy and Spooner "date.")  Anyway, I was making pirate sounds to him as I buckled him in.

"I'm Pirate mommy," I growled. "Argh!"

He looked at me seriously.  "No.  You pincess mommy," he informed me with a "duh, mommy" look.

Oh!  So sweet.  My little guy sees me as a princess.  Love it!

I am missing the Goob as he is at NYLT, but I am very excited for our anniversary weekend to go and pick him up!  We were going to go to Broadway but decided on a better option...visiting Q-dawg's parents in PA!!!  I am so excited!  We are going to drive down to beautiful Watkin's Glen on the way down to PA and hike, then hopefully meet up with them for dinner and then games!  I love playing games and just spending time with them and so does Q-dawg, so it will be a fun way to spend it.  We will spend the night there and then head over to NJersey to the Goob's camp the next morning to pick him up then begin the long drive home.  We have friends staying with the kids at home and tons of garbage (aka "yummy" food) to keep them happy :).  "Cold cereal!!!" they cried for joy when I asked what they wanted.  So funny :).  We will all be happy, right?

Liliputian also headed out for a bunch of fun with cousins for the rest of the week and I am missing my olders but also enjoying the dynamic of youngers.  They are so calm and sweet :).  Well, I guess most people wouldn't use the word "calm" to describe the levels of noise and activity that ruled our house most of yesterday (including Chugger-dude whistling through my 15 minute attempt at a nap...not so happy mommy!).  But the underlying feelings are ones of peace with no residual contention or frustration.  I'll take it!

"I hu-gry"

"I hu-gry." The little tow-head had a look of pain and discomfort on his face.  The ironic thing?  He had just finished up two cups of juice (after spilling one all over!), some scrambled eggs and one very full bowl of oatmeal.

"I go to bed."

Okay.  Maybe "hungry" means "my body doesn't feel good"?

Sweet little guy.  He is going up to bed.  9:04 am.  Some day he will look back and wish he was here again, a carefree little 3 year old, going back to bed after a big breakfast.

Princess Goob and Plungers

"Come here, Princess {Goob}," called Spooner from the top of the stairs.  We had just sung to him for his birthday and Spooner knows that because he is special, he must be a princess :).  Well, he does like pink!

Yesterday I opened the door to the washing machine to rotate. What is this? I thought as I saw a clear handle sticking out of the middle of the clothes.  Pulling it out, I found our plunger.

"I saw Binks put it in last night when we were in the bathroom," explained Liliputian with a smile.  "I didn't think someone would start a batch of laundry with it still in there!"

I guess it is clean, right?  The washing machine still seems to work (it doesn't have a central agitator, being a stacking washer and dryer) so I guess we will just chalk this up to another baby moment :).

Baby Zsa on the Move, Constitution Game Fun, and Spooner-isms

Papaya and Zsa-man shared suckers today...no wonder he loves her!  He spent most of quiet time trying to work his way to where she was, even if she was in time-out for being too noisy (normally because of him!).  Zsa-man has teeth coming in to match his initial four en masse. He is also chair surfing and bucket pushing, standing and applauding himself on occasion. He knows he has a devoted audience :).

Yesterday he kept trying to deliberately butt his head into the hard chair.  Ow!  I told the kids it reminded me of Lek who, when the same age, would do the same thing with his grandparent's bench: bonk, bonk, bonk.  Each time he would look up with a hurt expression...and then do it again!  Crazy.  Well, look how great Lek turned out :).  No worries, eh?

I have given up trying to catch him without blurs...well, sometimes.  This kid just knows when to move!

If I just threw away all the blurry pics, I would have not photos capturing his smiles and expressions...sigh.

At least we can capture him in videos!

Hava was Zsa-man's personal escort during basketball today.  We would race back and forth up and down the court and have to dodge and jump the baby crossing :).   Fortunately I had fed him before we got there so he was content to be re-directed by Hava and Papaya when she got out of the portable ball pit that they like to ride around. (I am so glad the vigilant helpers at the Y have not ruled that out!)

Basketball was awesome. I wish I would have taken a video of our first games and compared them to now:
-Hava dribbling most of the way up the court with her wonder granny shot that makes it so often Lek and the Goob give her a little pressure now and then :)
-Pipalicious hauling it up from almost back to the free throw line and making them, that tiny little body exerting everything to get that ball that far!
-the Goob and his tenacious pursuit of a rebound and his sweetly consistent lay-ups
-Chugger-dude who swoops out of nowhere to steal the ball from everyone,
-Lek who gives his dad a run for his money and even stuffs him on occasion (not to mention he has a wicked three point shot),
-Avot and her smiling, persistent pursuit of those she is guarding and her ability to get into the open position,
-and last, but certainly not least, we have Liliputian the bold who fearlessly guards her brothers, wresting rebounds from them and shooting whenever she can without hesitation.  Love it!

We have been having fun playing games with the Constitution Bee:

-First, we have "chubby bunny" where they have to say "under the authority of the United States" with marshmallows in my mouth.

-Second, we played the Mummy Toilet Paper game, which represents that we are bound by the Constitution when we make laws for our country:

Guess who?

...And again?

Papaya helped to wrap them up.  Any guesses yet?

Final guesses?

The cool pants probably give away Liliputian, for any who have seen her recently (she loves those pants!).  The Goob is the give-away on the right when you see how much taller than Liliputian he is :).

Now it is Pipalicious and Papaya's turn...hurry, hurry, hurry! Cover every spot!

Spooner started getting more interested as the game unfolded.

(Next thing we know, he will be doing his own TP designs...watch out, Mommy!)

Papaya is covered from head to toe...very effectively

Pipalicious!  The Goob is good.

Last one...or two, I should say :)

Liliputian is finished.  The Goob is determined to use every square of paper.

Finished!

They emerge!

Voila!  Chugger-dude and Hava unleashed!

Final Poses...before the clean-up :).  Totally worth 6 rolls of toilet paper.

Onto other memories...

Spooner is such a polite little fellow.  I am really enjoying his snuggles and cuddles (even if he wakes up with me at 5 am or crawls in bed to do it, like last night and this morning!).  I sure missed him last week and it is good to be back with him.  He asks for several drinks at night but is now getting better at 

Spooner does a cute little "-ah" after everything he says: "Mommy-a, Daddy-a, eat-a, baby-a, NO-A!" Once we figured that out, understanding him has gotten a little easier.  When Q-dawg walked past Sunbeams yesterday, he heard interspersed with the cute little kid voices an R2D2 unit...aka Spooner.  He is pretty distinct with the three sweetest parts of his vocabulary that he uses often: "please-a," "thank you-a" and "love you, mommy-a!"

However, he has a distinct sense of self!  When I call him "[Spooner]-a" he shakes his head decidedly and states, "No." Points to himself, "[Spooner]-a."  He will do this until I just say his name with no "-a" on the end.  Adorable.  He is also not a little boy. He is not a big boy. He is not my baby.  He is just himself :).  Love it!  Three year olds are so fun!

He is becoming quite the snuggler, burrowing into my lap and going to sleep. I love it. He has done it twice in the past three days.  Zsa-man is a threat to his territory, though, and we are trying our best to help him feel the love. "Gentle."  "Nice."  "The baby is your friend."  Subtle, I know.

Little People and Night Time Fun

Papaya is so big!  She is learning to do jobs.  She sees the older kids get their allowances, which helps, too.  In our family, the little ones "help" all the time and have little responsibilities.  When they turn five, I start having them help more regularly and more out of their comfort zone.  When they are eight, they are officially in the rotation.   So Papaya has been showing more confidence in her little areas. Her favorite job--no big surprise--is taking care of Zsa-man.

Spooner is still at the table after everyone else has left, stuffing his little tummy with Daddy Rice. He needs to stock up for all the other meals he refuses to eat more than what I make him eat.  He is starting to show a little resentment towards his little brother, who loves Spooner and likes to "love whack" him.  Spooner understandably doesn't understand this mode of affection, nor Zsa-man's tendency to reach out and grab everything near him.  They will get it, I am sure, but in the meantime, I try and get some "love vibes" going between them, as Zsa-man doesn't understand the resentment and anger being fired his way by an intense three-year-old :).

Last night, sigh...what a night.  It actually went really well up until 5:20 am, unlike other nights.  Zsa-man awoke after sleeping all night long, ready to nurse.  When I went to pick him up, he had leaked out of his diaper with diarrhea because he has been sick off and on for the last few days, poor guy. I changed him and then started nursing him, hoping to get it done quickly. I had arranged with several of the kids to go to the gym at 5:30 and knew that wasn't going to happen, but thought I would still try and shoot for it.  5:40 rolled around and I stood up with the baby, heading into the other room where Q-dawg was sleeping so he could take the little guy.

Vomit.

Everywhere.

Two, three times.  Covered.

"Q-dawg!" I whispered loudly, standing in one spot to minimize the "drippage" all over the carpet.  Poor guy stumbled in for the rescue, grabbing a towel to wrap around the sickie after sponging off the worst of it and then holding the baby so I could get cleaned up before cleaning the baby up.  As I passed Zsa-man off, I remarked, "At least he slept through the night!"

Q-dawg paused.  "Did he?  Isn't it still night?"  Poor guy.  He has been staying up late regularly to finish up appraisals and stay on top of things and gets to bed after me sometimes by hours.  I hesitated to go, also hearing Spooner's cute little voice chirping from the other room and knew it wouldn't be very restful for my friend and husband.  Trooper that he is, he murmured a response to my hesitation, "Yah...it's alright," and headed back to bed with two little boys on either side, both of who went back to sleep nestled up next to him.

As Q-dawg described it, it was sweet but he didn't get any more sleep after that since he couldn't budge. :)

I actually wrote a poem dedicated to my nights for Author's in the Attic last night. Avot said I should include it here. To set the stage, you need to know that Q-dawg and I sleep on pads on the floor right next to the kids's triple bunk bed, where Spooner, Papaya, and Hava and Pipalicious share the top bunk.

Night time
Cars rain down from over head
"Drink!" "Blankie!" a little boy said.

Try to sleep
Little fevered body nurses some
Nursing...more and more to come!

Turn over
Blanket sharing with a baby makes
For lots of wiggles, squirms and shakes.

Watch out!
Now two feet dangle overhead
Oh no...has she already wet the bed?

Feel around
She is still dry...whew!
Hurry  off to the bathroom with no more ado!

Resting back:
A song drifts from the girl where she goes pee:
"I love you and you love me!"

Close eyes
Could it be I can get some sleep?
Sigh, feels so good...oh no! Another peep!

"Mom, I'm scared!"
Having children sure is great,
But that full night's sleep will have to wait.

Our little dancer

Little Spooner continues to delight us with his response to music.  Capturing a moment! (And love those little girls and their imaginative play!  I came upstairs to see Spooner dancing and them playing.  So grateful for cameras!)

End of school year 2015--"newsletter": Lek

Can I just start by saying how much I am going to miss this guy when he leaves us...sigh.
 
Lek adds so much personality and fun to our family.  With that twinkle in his eye in that handsome face of his he gets himself into and out of trouble faster than I can keep up with most of the time :). I don't know if I can really capture a year and a personality in words, but I pray that the Spirit will open my mind to truth and memories for him and for all the rest of these amazing children we have been blessed with.

Biology class...I think :)

Lek has a way with his younger siblings. I think they all would do pretty much anything he asked them to if he asked in the right way.  I see them all stand a little taller when he takes the time to talk to them and support them and he and the Goob have drawn closer this last year, which has been fun to see.  "When do you think the Goob will be big enough to really wrestle with me?" Lek speculated the other day.  "Not until after your mission, I am guessing" I mused smilingly, thinking of the fun physical rivalry between Q-dawg and Lek expanding to include the Goob.  The Goob definitely wants it but would probably be broken at this point if Lek or Q-dawg really got into wrestling or tackling with him.  That's alright...it took Lek a few years and was only really within this last year or so that Q-dawg and Lek have really been able to have it out on the field of competition, man to man.  That has got to be one of my favorite things about this year: watching the two of them compete, whether in wrestling, arm wrestles, football or any other sport they engage in.  Sports days and football days have been especially awesome. I go more to watch my kids perform and Q-dawg and Lek have it out than for anything, although the exercise itself is nice.  I am excited for Lek to try out for the local football team in New York in the fall!

Lek definitely also has a soft spot for the little ones in our family.  Lek is the official instigator of our Spooner sequence: "Knuckles, high five, head butt, kisses."  It is now a thrill for any of the kids to get Spooner to go through this whole sequence with them :). I love it!  Just this morning Lek and Spooner were bantering back and forth in the early hours.  Spooner was denying Lek his completed sequence, so the interaction changed to physical picking at each other, my 17 year old and my 2 year old.  It was darling :).  Finally, I overheard Lek say,  "Don't pick my nose!  That might really hurt!"  Maybe their closeness came from their time together sharing a room...who knows!  Lek is also so sweet with babies.  He finally let me capture him on the camera, doing some male bonding with the newest member of the Lek-Fan-Club: baby Zsa.

Some specific highlights of Lek's academic/extra-curricular year: 

-Lek participated in a madrigal-type choral/dance group called "Resonate," with many amazing peformances in various places. I think one of my favorite numbers that they did was a medley of Newsies this spring and Lek and some of his friends did some amazing dance moves, along with a couple great solos.  It was so cool to see my son sing and dance who probably wouldn't have dreamed of doing that just a few short years ago.  This has been an amazing year to see him blossom in confidence and competence in presenting himself. 

-This leads me to one of my favorite parts of the year for Lek: ballroom dancing and cabaret with Silhouette Ballroom...amazing.  I was in tears several times as I watched his end of the year performance, particularly as he performed the Viennese waltz to an amazing routine set to perfect music.  I watched my young man sweep a girl around the floor as a gentleman would and then lifting another one in perfect timing with the other dancers swirling around them at the climax.  I can't wait for the DVD of it so I can see it again!  It was as if I could see his manhood expressing itself on the floor, a glimpse of the noble husband and father he will be someday.  Lek and his team competed successfully in several competitions this year and he has really thrived and excelled as a dancer.  Perhaps someday he will be on the BYU ballroom team.  Wherever he goes, I am sure he will find some outlet to use his dancing...maybe on the football field :).

-Speaking of manhood being expressed in his dancing, Lek played the lead male role in the play, "Jane Eyre": Mr. Rochester.  I wondered if he could pull off such a serious and demanding part...and he did it, incredibly well.  He had some people in tears during his last performance up at Shine Camp, carrying off a part that included sentiment, passion and fury.  I was so proud of him!

-At Shine Camp, Lek also served on the staff, leading a group of youth around and helping out with different aspects of the camp. I was so grateful that he was able to work with Sister Johnson, one of the most amazing mentors I know, in this capacity and it was exciting to see his learning and growth as she helped them take on the responsibilities that were involved.

-Lek had an intense year with a fabulous Speech and Debate instructor who gave us many interesting subjects for dinner-time discussion :).  I also really valued his mentor's ability to earn the respect of the students.  I remember Lek coming home after talking to him about his hard choice between the end of the year debate competition and a missionary-immersion church-sponsored experience.  "Mom, he gave me his actual opinion which he never does, and I really appreciated it," Lek said. It was meaningful to me to hear the respect in Lek's voice for his mentor. 

-While we were living at my parents' house, we visited my parents' ward.  Our last week of being there, the bishop approached Lek and asked if he would speak the next week in their ward.  I guess we were staying another week :)!  It was totally worth it.  Lek gave one of the most amazing talks I have heard on "grace," with excellent presentation, great stories and a strong spirit that went with it.  It was truly amazing to see him up there, confident and expressive.  I was so proud of him!

-Lek performed in many Solo and Ensemble Choral numbers for Symphonics Showcase, including this amazing "patty-cake" version of "Think of You" which not only included detailed hand motions but a capella four-part harmony.  Amazing!

-Many classes, from leadership to Biology complete with many good friends and good mentors.  He also led many classes and activities in our Vanguard Youth group in the fall.  He served on the staff of the Winter Homeschooling Conference.  Lek really pushed himself this year and I am excited to see where he goes with this newly discovered ability to push himself next year :).

Lek is still considered one of the best (if not the best, by some of the kids) cook in our house. I am happy to let him continue to establish that reputation :).  Pizza breadsticks and various new ethnic foods are some favorites.  Everyone knows if Lek is in the kitchen, something yummy will emerge. He and his friend Grace had a friendly on-going competition in Speech and Debate to see who could bring the most delicious treat to their Speech and Debate mentor.

Lek and Avot have spent the year playing tag-team on the computer doing appraisal prep-work, with Lek typically doing it in the lat evening hours and Avot waking up early.  They also have been diligent in getting to early-morning seminary three days a week, but it has been worth it as they have enjoyed Sister Edward's seminary class out in Syracuse. She is an amazing mentor and has inspired them with her love of the Gospel and of the scriptures.  We will miss her so much!

Lek is developing quite the sense of style with his clothes and his hair and seldom lets a day go by without at least one shower.  I am grateful for his example for younger siblings, who are slowly catching on that showers are cool :).  Whew!  An older sibling's example is worth a thousand parental words.

We enjoy late-night conversations laughing with Lek and watching Q-dawg make him squirm.  Lek is much like me when it comes to "ease in being publicly embarrassed" and Q-dawg has a lot of fun with that.  Fortunately Lek is learning to laugh more with it and actually posed for that picture with his father in the pink robe...yes, this one:

He loves military books, being with friends, movies, music, playing sports and dancing. This year he has been branching out, dabbling in German, piano, cello and other hobbies.  He also has a knack for finding and fixing things (which comes in handy with all the times his younger siblings get into his belongings...especially his candy, which his "knacks" don't particularly help with after it has been eaten). It will be fun to watch him remodel our new house with his dad and brothers this summer...woohoo!  He recently went to a build camp with them to learn how to make a drift-trike and use different tools.  Lek especially loved it when he got to operate the equipment more on his own the last day.

Lek and the Goob chillin' for a moment...

Lek is very perceptive and often the first one to ask if something is wrong with me.  He has keen insights (when he chooses to share them, the turkey) and I sometimes find myself amazed to see how deeply he has been thinking or how much he has been paying attention. He likes to watch people, like I do, and is good at lighting up the room with his personality, smile and humor.  We love our Lek!