Friends, I had a rough winter. I don't want to write about it or talk about it, but I will say this: longer days of sunshine and rising temperatures have done wonders for my soul. Opening the windows in our house is every bit as good as airing out the cobwebs in my head and shaking off the dust of worry and anxiety that just seemed to pile up in the cold and dreary months. I feel like I can breathe again (oddly enough, I can't actually breathe at all because of my stupid, incessant allergies)!
Anyway, this past weekend we took our first family hike in the creek behind our house. I used to hate creek hikes, but as the girls are getting older I'm starting to see myself in them and I'm starting to remember how much fun creeks were at that age. I remember feeling the cold water seep into my socks and smiling at the crazy notion that I was doing something people don't usually do. I remember how my heart would race as I turned over rocks, looking for bugs or snakes or treasures. I remember keeping one eye on my feet and one eye on my brother, because I thought it was my job to keep him safe. I remember feeling more triumphant with each leap onto a dry rock, and looking ahead to the next rock I would conquer. I remember wearing dried mud like a badge of honor on my arms, legs and face, smiling from ear to ear as we walked back to the house in our sloshy shoes and dripping t shirts.
I watched the girls do exactly that in the creek on Sunday and I gave a little nod to God in the sky for giving us such a beautiful day and a wonderful family adventure. Also - I took pictures. Because heaven knows I don't want to forget this.
Is it just me, or did Sylvia grow about ten inches since her birthday?
Margot was hesitant until she got her feet wet.
Conqueror of the Creek
Noticer In Training
"Margot, if you need help, just call for me, okay? I'll come get you."
Main Man #1
Main Man #2
I mean....I just.....my heart is melting.
It was like I could see her brain growing. So much learning in such a short time!
The best pic I could get of his chubby fingers grabbing branches.
I loved that the brush wasn't too overgrown yet.
When we hiked back up the hill, the girls didn't whine or complain or ask to be carried. They were stopping every five feet to pick up more "treasures" but I didn't care. I got a sweet glimpse ahead to our summer plans - nothing. This time is so precious, especially now that Sylvia's almost in school. We have no agendas, no pressing classes or sports or homework. These preschool years are MINE and I get to watch these kids grow and learn naturally without a curriculum. We can go where ever we want, read whatever we want, sing anything we want....this summer will be their roller coaster and I'll just be along for the ride! I'm so glad winter is over. I'm so glad spring is here. I'm so glad I can enjoy these sweet babies I've been blessed with and that I get them all to myself for one more summer!
Tonight is Sylvia's last night as a four year old. At 3:19am she will officially be 5. When I put her to bed, I told her her birth story (again) and I looked at those sweet blue eyes and tried to imagine her future. I've had her for five whole years. I hope she's learned some things from me, but just to be safe, I'm writing down a few things I think she needs to know. These things are very important because once she starts Kindergarten, they'll be harder to teach and harder to learn. These are things I think my 5 year old should have a good grasp on already.
1. You are loved. Please know that this is where it all starts. We love you, your grandparents love you, God especially loves you and chose you for something special. Also, so many people at your new school already love you! You have a very safe place to land while you explore this beautiful world. We're all in your corner. Go get 'em, girl!
2. Our pride, like our love, is unconditional. You can't have any more or any less of it. Nothing you will ever achieve will make me more proud of you. And no mistake you ever make will make me less proud of you. You are you. You are enough.
3. I'm sorry I'm not perfect, but I'm glad you know that by now. I thought it was my job to keep you perfect - the way you were when I got you. But I've learned that it's my job to show you what imperfection looks like. It's my job to show you how to solve problems, how to get mad, how to make the most of the crap that life throws at you. I don't always make the best choices, and sometimes I yell and get scary...but I don't hurt people, and that's what I hope to show you. It's okay to be mad or sad or cranky or upset. It's normal! Just remember that your feelings never validate harming someone else. Not even your sister.
4. Fairy tales make you smart, as long as you're willing to think about the hard parts. Never settle for the first rendition. Ask questions. Create your own endings. Imagine what the world would be like if you were that princess in the tower, or living in a far away land, or scrubbing floors. The real magic in fairy tales is the unique perspective they give us on the world. With a healthy imagination and a lot of empathy, you will change lives.
5. Your daddy is your prince. Sure, he's my husband and the love of my life, but he's your prince. You have a relationship with him that is separate and whole and beautiful. He makes you a better person, even if you're resistant to that idea. He is teaching you his first language - the language of his parents and your grandparents - so that you will have access to half of your family story. Without him, you're just a girl in a play dress, but with him, you are royalty. Don't forget that.
6. Being nice is really
hard sometimes, but it's always worth it. People can be so mean. When
someone is mean to you, it's hard not to hate them. But hate is like the
plaque that causes cavities! It eats away at us until there's a big
hole in our hearts. Being nice isn't easy, but it's every bit as
important as brushing your teeth.
7. The whining has got to go. You
can think of better ways to persuade people. You are so clever.
Sometimes I'm shocked at how easily I give in to your well-planned
requests. Words are more powerful than tears, and you know a lot of great words.
8. Food is your friend.
Enjoy it. All of it. I don't worry that you'll be overweight or
underweight. I worry that you won't understand how amazing food can
be! Color, flavor, texture...it's a road trip for the senses! Don't
panic. It won't kill you.
9. Don't forget about your sister and brother. It's
your job to love them when we're not around. Someday they'll be in school,
too. You don't need to be a knight in shining armor, but please don't
be an enemy. They need to know you're all on the same team.
10. You are the intersection of two lines of heritage. Each branch of our tree was formed by someone else's choices. Your grandparents made bold choices. We made bold choices. And because of that...the world has you! You are truly a miracle. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
"On the night you were born,
The moon smiled with such wonder
That the stars peeked in to see you
And the night wind whispered,
'Life will never be the same,'
Because there had never been anyone like you,
Ever in the world."
Nancy Tillman, On The Night You Were Born
Here's a song that reminds me of you, with some pictures that show how much you've grown in five short years. We love you, Nugget. Keep being awesome.
Last year we had no parties at our house for Sylvia's fourth birthday because...you know...we were in France so we took her to a castle. It was, in my opinion, a big deal. We told her we'd have a party when we got home, but our trip was long enough and exciting enough that by the time we got home she completely forgot about our promise so we carried on with our lives. But this year, the girl wanted a party.
Her theme changed from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Frozen Mutant Ninja Turtles to just plain old Frozen. I was happy with that because it was easy! She has 17 kids in her preschool class and we initially thought about just inviting the six kids she most often talks about. No disrespect to any parents who choose to do that - I totally get it! - but as a teacher I've seen too many heartbroken nine-year olds who come to find on Monday morning that they weren't invited to a birthday party. The thought of 17 kids in my house was enough to make me break out into hives, so we strategically scheduled her party for the day before Easter, which was also during Spring Break, in the hopes that some families might be busy already. Is that terrible? Or is it brilliant? I'll let you decide.
We ended up with 12 kids, including Sylvia, Margot, and Addie's little sister Norah. I'll let the pictures do the talking in a minute, but before I do, let me say this: those kids were awesome. Every one of them was polite and friendly and they all played so well together! A few parents chose to stay for the party while most just dropped off their kids and hit the road, and the ones who stayed were so nice and I was thrilled to get the chance to chat with them. It was a really nice afternoon!
Before her guests arrived, we gave her our present: a new Elsa dress! It has a sparkly cape.
Those Frozen banners are shopping bags from the dollar section at Target! I hung them all over the house and then made the kids take them home at the end of the party. I used 432 rolls of tape to make them and attach them to the doors, bannister and tv stand.
Grammy made the North Mountain cake. It was a hit!
Brody and Robin designed a killer train track while waiting for more guests to arrive.
Pin the nose on the Olaf was a hit. As you can see, we spared no expense in our game supplies. Yes, those are Margot's Christmas tights used as a blind fold!
Snacks in the sunshine!
Pre-present photo op. These kids are so sweet!
Morgan was DYING to show Sylvia how her card had it's own little pouch on the front of her gift bag.
Sylvia's BFF, Addie helped control the gift flow. Robin gave her Lois Ehlert's books!
Lighting the candles.
Margot and Norah, the little sisters, share a chair. How cute are they? They get to start preschool together next year!
Jason photo bombed the candle blowing photo. Good job, buddy!
Happy Birthday!!!!!
Ann and Albert. I guess we had 14 kids, since I forgot to count the baby brothers!
The Dads thought it was a beer drinking party.
Sylvia let her friends help her color her new bag, which made it look really cool in the end!
I couldn't find Sylvia, then I caught her and Robin downstairs digging into her new Lego set!
They were working so hard, so I just sat down and took some pictures.
Frozen paper dolls!
A selfie with Norah, Margot's partner in crime.
Addie and Norah entertain Albert.
The Cooneys and the Reynolds hung out for the after party: pizza and beer/juice boxes.
My Nugget.
It was an awesome party. I have another post coming before her actual birthday hits on Wednesday. That's the day I have no choice but to call her a 5 year old. My heart is soaring and breaking at the same time. I'm so over-the-moon in love with this little girl. She's turning out to be such a cool person.
That's our sponsor child, Fernando! If you have a minute, read Sylvain's blog post about how it all went down yesterday. You'll notice that he says, "We discussed it quickly and voiced our concerns and decided to go on with it." Well, from my point of view, it wasn't quite so easy and quick!
The lead pastor of our church, Crossroads, gave an amazing sermon about the organization called Compassion International.He shared his own experience with a sponsor child as well as his visit to Nicaragua to check out the organization and the work they're doing on the ground in third world countries. We saw a video of a girl who was thanking her sponsor family for sending a backpack full of school supplies and my heart just couldn't take it any more, so I started crying. I was so afraid to ask Sylvain if he wanted to sponsor a child, not because I thought he'd say, "No way!" but because I knew he'd have a lot of reasonable things to say to convince me why we shouldn't.
There were hundreds of packets hanging on the walls around the auditorium and after the sermon was over, the lights came up and families were encouraged to walk to the wall and accept a child. We were warned against "shopping" for the right one, and we were also warned not to take one unless we were ready for the long term commitment of sponsorship. Sylvian and I sat in our seats. I just didn't think we were going to do it, so instead I said, "What do you think about this?" We discussed the financial commitment ($38 a month), we discussed the option of checking it out online when we got home so we could think more about it....we also discussed our goal of giving 10% by the end of the year and how this would help us get closer to that goal. I mentioned that sponsorship is something we've thought about before but never got around to researching. We watched all these other families get up and take a child off the wall. We listened to the most beautiful song (I don't even remember the words) and all I know is that we were both so....moved. He looked at me and said, "You know what? We have the opportunity, let's just do it." I said, "Okay! Are you sure?" He said, "Yes!" and I was SO HAPPY! We stood up...and we were probably the last family to do it....and we walked over to the wall. I was nervous and crying. My eyes landed on a little boy who looked to be about Sylvia's age. I was drawn to his birthday, August 9th, one month later than Albert, and 2010, same year as Sylvia. I saw his name: Fernando! And then I saw his face. End of story. I was madly in love with him.
I immediately knew that we would love him forever, or as long as the organization will let us. I thought it was crazy and that people would think we were nuts. We didn't know anyone who sponsored a child before, but I vaguely remember my mom doing it when we were little. I thought it might be something we should keep quiet, because people don't like to talk about poverty and problems, especially in other countries. People will say we should spend our 10% here at home. People will say we're getting scammed or ripped off. People will say it's useless because Nicaragua is hopeless. But my heart didn't care one bit for all of that, and I wanted everyone to know that we now have a fourth child, sweet little Fernando!
Since yesterday, we've discovered that we do, in fact, know LOTS of people who sponsor kids in other countries! Why is no one talking about this?? If you come to our house, expect to see a photo album on the table behind the couch with Fernando's pictures and letters. Expect to hear all about him, not because we're bragging about our sponsorship, but because we LOVE HIM like he's our own and we want you to love him, too. We'll celebrate his birthday. We'll send him and his family gifts. And maybe someday we'll travel there to help Compassion International with the important work of loving kids. Sylvia was thrilled to learn that Fernando likes soccer, running and bicycles, just like her. She's excited to write to him and learn more about Nicaragua and how we can help from way over here.
My heart is totally full and completely into this, guys. I think I found my thing.
If you're interested in sponsoring a child, you can go through our churchand help one of Fernando's friends in Nicaragua. Or you can go straight to Compassion International if you want to check out the other countries and opportunities available. If a long term sponsorship isn't for you right now, they have lots of opportunities to send one-time gifts. Get on it, friends! Love all the babies!!!
Albert Daniel was baptized at St. Patrick's Church on Sunday, January 11th. It was such a special day! Not only was it the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord but it was also my Dad's birthday. Sylvia was baptized on Sylvain's Dad's birthday, so this was fitting and perfect and I loved it.
Father Jeff had a beautiful homily in which he mentioned that Albert was uniquely made and that "his mom and dad were hand picked for him, and his mom and dad are the best mom and dad for him." I got teary. After the homily we stood in front of church with Albert's special Godparents: my brother John and my cousin Gina.
I must say....we picked awesome Godparents for our boy! John is an amazing Uncle to all of our babies, but when he held Albert for the first time in the hospital, when Albert was only hours old, I took one look at John and knew instantly that he was Albert's Godfather. The same goes for Gina. She has been here for us in a pinch in more ways than one. She loves my girls fiercely and joyfully and when Albert came along....she was the first helper on the scene! She helped me through the first scary moments of labor and she stayed with my sleeping babies while I went and had another one. I felt so secure and safe standing up on the altar, holding baby Albert, with Sylvain, John and Gina at my side. This boy's got it made!
At one point during the baptism, Father Jeff called him "Albert the Great," and my mother-in-law later informed me that he is the patron saint of.....wait for it.....SCIENTISTS! I should have known that, but whatever. She's a scientist and she gave Albert a St. Albert the Great medal as a gift. The boy now has a nickname that's way better than Prince Albert. He shall henceforth be known as....Albert the Great!
Poor Albert. No monthly pics for this dude! But his six month pics just came in and ISN'T HE HANDSOME?!?!
He continues to be the world's greatest baby and we are really enjoying his journey into our family. His personality is starting to shine and I often wonder what he must think of the rest of us! Can you imagine life as a baby with two older sisters? The boy never gets a moment's peace!
I wish I could post his six month check up stats here, but sadly, I have no idea what they are. I think he weighed about 15 pounds? Maybe? I know he was in the 9th percentile for weight, height and head, which blew my mind because he seems like such a chunker to me! He's wearing 6-9 month clothes, though, so I know he's not too tiny!
I intended to write an update every month, like I did with Margot, but guess what? Since he's our third, I just couldn't find a whole lot to say each month! Here are a few quick facts about our 1/2 year old:
Likes: nursing all day and all night, rolling over, chewing on anything he can get his hands on, reaching for whatever you're holding, playing on his playmat, jumping in the jumperoo, eating baby food, laughing at his sisters, sleeping with his dou dou bears, any and all types of eye contact or facial expressions.
Dislikes: loud and startling noises (especially the blender), being alone in the middle of the damn night, being poked in the eye, waiting to be fed or changed.
Accomplishments: rolling over was a big deal (don't ask me when he started that, but he's been doing it for a while) and he's starting to push up on his hands and knees, but no official crawling yet. He is also very close to sitting up on his own. He was baptized in January, if you count that as an accomplishment, but I'll write a separate post about that lovely day. His most recent accomplishment happened at dinner time tonight when he finally grabbed at a puff and scooped it into his own mouth without pushing it out! He's starting to figure out this food thing and I'm dying to give him more finger foods instead of purees, but OH MY GOSH that boy loves pureed baby food. I can't shovel it in fast enough!
Life with Albert: Things are really starting to fall into a rhythm around here and our days are getting more and more predictable. He's taking some solid naps and he usually only wakes up once a night to nurse, but sometimes he wakes up twice and, rarely, three times. I try to remind myself that he is probably our last baby and the middle-of-the-night feedings won't last forever, but it's taking its toll. Luckily, the girls and Sylvain all sleep right through his crying, so I'm the only one who acts like a zombie all day. Sylvain is enjoying his time at home with the kids, but he just started a new work-at-home job and it's challenging, to say the least. We've made our way through some rough patches over the last few months, probably because of the holidays, maybe because of some lingering post-partum hormones, or maybe just because three tiny kids are downright hard, but things are getting easier every day. It helps that Albert is the most easy-going and care free baby we've ever met. He is so genuinely happy and it's so EASY to make him laugh or giggle. We are so lucky to have him here!
I can't wait to see what the next few months will bring. Sitting up and crawling are right around the corner and then it's....you know.......college.
I'm Rachael. My occupations include, in this order: daughter, sister, friend, teacher, wife, and mother. I may seem like a grown up, but don't be fooled - I have no idea what I'm doing. I do know that sometimes I have big thoughts and nowhere else to put them, so here they are. I also try to keep up with daily life around here, but I do most of my daily updates on Facebook and Instagram. Enjoy the chaos you find here!
