The Orchard

The Yellow Chair

Playing

“Hello and welcome to St Teresa parish family. I’m Fr. Goodwin and we will be celebrating the first day of the Sundays. This Mass will be offered for John Henry (the plumber). Levi is going to sing The Very Bold Heart. Please stand.”

All these animals needed rescuing from the tree. 

We created a LEGO area that can be closed off to crawling babies in preparation for Levi starting to move. He isn’t yet. Still sitting in one place to play. 

He’s been painting a lot again. His color combos are fun to watch. 

They set up two elaborate veterinary clinics. 

Greta and I had a little girls night in. :)

Running Around

I’m in the car constantly. Why? Because everyone has needs to be met. School. Doctor’s appointments. Food. Shoes. Returns. More doctor’s appointments. It never ends. And I have an infant in tow who, to be honest, has a high tolerance for the car. Thank goodness because there’s really no choice. 

We stopped by my parents house to say hello because my mom has been sick with a cough etc for a month. We are tired of not seeing them much, and we wanted to put a smile on Grandma’s face, so we made her a sign and took her some apple strudel bread. 

This is always a hard, exhausting errand. It’s so much physical work hauling home giant but necessary boxes of food. And it’s far. But we do it and it’s worth it because then we aren’t out of food every other day. I wish I was exaggerating. #fratlife

It exhausts them just as much as it does me. Elias rarely falls asleep in the car. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that the job of stay at home mom would benefit from a personal assistant. 

Birthday Lunch

Grandpa Burda stopped by with a birthday gift for Lewis. We had a nice lunch, lego building, and story reading together. 

5 Months Old

Levi is five months old!

He has two teeth. 

He rides in the shopping cart, much to his big brothers’ delight. 

He is noticing books and tries to turn the pages. 

He plays 911 call center with his brothers. 

He prefers to nap on his own. 

He loves his bible study buddy. They cuddle every week. 

He dabbled I’m sleeping flat again, but it was short lived because of a cold settling in. 

He’s so easy to get to sleep. I enjoy cuddling him for a few minutes as he falls asleep before I put him down. 

He’s been sitting up for a month already. He can not believe the red lady at the top of his hanging toys. He looks at her like this every.single.time he sees her and flails in excitement. 

He was fascinated by the vacuum the other day. When he is trying to figure things out he knocks on them with his fist and talks about it. It never gets old. 

The Leader

I talk to Augustine about being the leader of the brothers a lot. His behavior matters because everyone else will follow suit. It’s a big responsibility but I know he can do a good job in his role. 

The other week Augustine was in a bad mood for days. He just couldn’t shake it. This particular day I was growing weary of his mood, and I asked him what would help him snap out of his bad mood, what would make him feel happy. He said all he wanted was for Levi to fall asleep on his lap like he used to.

You better believe I said a fierce prayer under my breath right then and there. 

And lo and behold...Levi fell asleep on Augustine’s lap for the first time in months. 

It happened the next day too. Thank. You. Jesus. 

Augustine seems to have a natural nack for babies. He’s just really good at making them happy and meeting their needs. I’m so grateful for the little ways he helps his baby brother. 

He loves to read. I love the example he sets by sitting around on evenings and weekends reading chapter book after chapter book. The middle boys usually check out a couple of chapter books each week too, but not because they want to read them. It’s simply because that’s what Augustine does. Lewis just puts them on the shelf all week, and Elias flips through every page “reading” like Augustine. 

They sat exactly the same way in two different poses while they took apart the dead video baby monitor with Logan. It’s a favorite activity around here...take apart electronics that are no longer working to see how they work. 

My view every day we walk home from school. I can’t hear their conversation, but the big boys talk all the way as they lead us home.