It's been quiet around here. The last couple of weeks, I feel like I am finding my groove and adjusting to life with 6 kids. Anna is starting to sleep so nicely on her own at night (in our bed, just not with me there feeding her) that I have a little time each night to get stuff done, be it personal time, or chores. Mostly, I have been working on birthday gifts for Miriam's 4th birthday next month. I made her a holder for hair bows, as well as all different types of hair clippies to match her various favorite outfits. There are a few more bows I want to make for her, then I will move on to sewing her one or two new nightgowns, a couple of new skirts, and matching outfits for her favorite doll.
Here is a picture of Becky wearing two "loopy bows" I made for her. She really liked them, and they stayed in nicely all day long. Isn't she cute??!?
School is in full swing and going well, especially considering that we had a baby 7 weeks ago. We are almost half-way through this year's curriculum, and everyone is still going strong and enthusiastic (well, as much as can be expected). Wow, the kids are growing too fast. Solomon is up to my shoulders now!
Of course, everything is not sweetness and light all the time - I'm just the type who doesn't much want to relive life's inevitable challenges once the day is over and everyone is asleep in bed, safe and sound.
One thing this week made me really sad :( Isaac had lost a tooth last week, which to him is a joyous event because it represents a source of income. Now, I never will understand why kids in America get money for losing teeth, but they do, and so ours do, too. The thing that made me sad was not the fact that he lost his tooth (well, that too, but that's not what I wanted to talk about), but that I totally forgot about playing "tooth frog" for several nights after that.
Then on Monday it dawned on me that he had lost a tooth days earlier. Hoping he had likewise forgotten about it, I asked him if he ever had put the tooth under his pillow. Now, any other of our children would have reminded me, several times a day and especially before bedtime, that they had lost a tooth [hint, hint, wink, wink, nod, nod]. Not Isaac. He is such an easy-going person, and never one to pester or impose. He just goes with the flow, smiling the whole time. Because of his personality, I have a tendency to overlook his needs more than those of children who assert themselves. Anyway, he started looking really sad, and said that it had been there for days, to no avail. Still skeptical, I asked him to bring me the tooth. He dug this out from under his pillow:
" fine $2.50$ must Be Paid by tonight"
If you look closely, you can see his little baby tooth in the bottom right corner. I felt so bad, especially because I don't know how many nights ago he had written "must be paid by tonight" - and I didn't want to ask and find out. I tried to brush it off as to not make him feel more sad by cheerfully telling him that the tooth frog must have had more business than usual, and that surely he would come that night. Yes, he knows that I am the tooth frog, but still.
Later, after the kids had gone to bed, I was still feeling bad for having "forgotten" him, so I went back to his room to kiss him one more time and tell him good night. There he was in his bed, with his comforter pulled up all the way over his bed, silently crying really hard. Ugh, I felt so horrible. It wasn't about the tooth, it was just that he got overlooked, and we both felt the pain of that.
Anyway, I was able to chat with him for a minute and cheer him up. And I made dead sure that the tooth frog made his appearance that night:
I really have been fighting a cold/sinus infection all week - my third in the last two months! I have not been sick in what seems like forever, so this cold haunting me is really getting unpleasant.
As I said at the beginning, nothing much going on around here. I try to really focus on enjoying everyday life with the kids, rather than waiting for some big outing, vacation, or other special event. Even if life seems to be nothing more than a daily repetition of the same mundane tasks - the kids are growing older and bigger every day. This is the time in my life I will look back on years from now, and missing it. I am just trying to make the best use of the time we have together as a family.