Always Unexpected

Lewis is full of the unexpected. When he gets an idea, he’s gotta act on it. When he doesn’t get his way, it’s an all out screaming fit. When he feels like doing something he does it all. 

Has an idea on how to get the little tikes fire truck into the fort in the backyard? Ropes are rigged up before I know what he’s even thinking. 

Wants to bake cookies because we talked about it a week ago? Ingredients are everywhere before my “not right now” registers in his brain. Giant fit ensues. 

Gets a notion to do chores? He vacuumes the ENTIRE upstairs before I can get my pregnant self up the steps. 

He’s just unpredictable, and most days I forget to appreciate the beauty of it as I clean up the messes. 

And some days the beauty is so apparent that it brings tears to my eyes. 

From the principal at school:

This past Thursday morning I walked a kindergarten girl to the gym because she was crying.  As I was walking in the gym Lewis came right up and walk us to her spot in the line. He sat down with her and almost face to face he was saying some consoling words. I couldn’t hear what was said but she was nodding her head yes.  I left her in good hands.  What a true witness of God’s mercy and love!

My skin is like sand paper. It’s a combo of it being winter, dehydration from pregnancy (weekly IV fluids don’t seem to help skin), and my not being able to reach my legs to lotion them at 30 weeks pregnant. Last night lewis noticed how dry my ankles are and said “Mom you need lotion on there. My legs hurt when they are dry skin.” I told him he was right but I can’t reach to put lotion on. He said “do you want me to help?” and proceeded to lotion half of my legs, arms, and hands. When he was satisfied with his work he said “If you need me to do that tomorrow, I can.” 

Such a beautiful showing of love, and so unexpected. 

Trivia Night 2019

We like to switch up the team every year for fun and we had a great one this year! So much random knowledge!

Our theme got honorable mention! It’s always fun to come up with something interactive. This year we delivered boxes of cookies to random tables throughout the evening. 

And we were in first place for a round or two of trivia! We came in 8th out of 25...not bad! It was fun as always!

Creative Play

Elias has been very creative in his play this week. 

His baby was sick so there were a lot of doctor appointments. 

He loves the Curious George episode “Candy Counter”, and the candies in the show look a lot like the pieces to our Memory Caps game, so he started making candies. 

He talked about the shapes and colors just like Goeorge in the show. 

And then put them in his oven to bake them. 

Elias asked me if I wanted to have a picnic with him, so I said yes, and he proceeded to tell me “I just kill this lion. Let’s eat the guts!”

“Do you want some brains mom?”

“Please pass the guts, Mom.”

“Mmmm! That’s pretty good! Do you want to try some?!”

“Ew. This is greasy.”

“Dad, do you want some nose?”

What’s your favorite part Elias?

“I like to make the eyeballs.”

This is what we get for letting him watch Bizarre Foods with us. 

We also had a family movie afternoon and watched Planes: Fire & Rescue. He was GLUED. We just happen to have some of the trucks from the movie from when Augustine was super into it, so he’s been  reenacting the scenes where these trucks go into the forest to make fire breaks. He keeps asking me what each truck’s name is...thank goodness the names are printed on the sides of the trucks!

Valentine’s Day

I didn’t used to like Valentine’s Day, but marriage and kids has made me enjoy it a lot more. It’s easy to decorate for, easy to teach the story of St. Valentine, and really fun to make valentines. I’m a very much prefer a homemade valentine to a store bought one, so each year I pick three options for my boys to choose from for their classmates. 

Lewis chose a fish one. Super simple. 

Augustine chose silly straws. Even more simple. 

And Elias discovered the happiness of glue sticks and stickers. He must have made 15 different valentines. They’re all hilariously cute. 

Grandma & Grandpa gave us valentines and a cake for after school snack, and Grandma Kathleen stopped by with valentines for everyone too!

Lewis’ favorite is the fun dip candy. He traded Augustine for all of his fun dips. 

Augustine’s favorite was the hot chocolate kit. 

Elias’ favorite was the cake, but I didn’t get a picture of him eating it. It took us quite a while to convince him that the cake was for our whole family and not just him. 

More Baby Food

Today’s baby appointment went well. Blood sugars are good. Blood pressure is high maintenance but it’s up to a much better level for now. I’m not constantly dizzy with legs that feel like jello. Baby “is not big” which is the goal, so woot! Only 11 more weeks to go. 

I just wanted something good to eat tonight.  I know low carb will always be *almost* good, but oh well. We do breakfast for dinner a lot these days because it’s easy and Aldi has cheap eggs. These almond flour cinnamon scones rolled out very nicely. The dough was easy to work with. 

They baked up nicely too, and were delicious served warm with deviled eggs. 

I had another one after bedtime and it wasn’t as good. I guess straight out of the oven is best. 

Grocery Store

I saved some boxes from my latest trip to the store. We’ve added more in the last day or two so it’s even more fun! I sat with him and played for about 10 min to help him get into a creative groove, and he got it very quickly. 

He understands the money part way too well. “Mommy, I need to beep your card.”

Lewis wanted to play but was being quite bossy and Elias finally said, “Lewis, you can be my assistant.” I had no idea he knew the word “assistant”, let alone use it in context. 

He must have packed up groceries in the bags and then restocked the shelves to do it again 20 times over. Then his big brothers set up a restaurant next door and called him for grocery delivery. Such easy fun!

Fix-It Man

He was trying to find a place to put his hammer yesterday as he worked so I showed him the tool belt. 

He couldn’t believe there was such a thing. SO handy. 

The washer/dryer had all sorts of issues, but he got it working again.