4 Months

And we're still best friends.

Poor Clare

With school comes bug season! She's not feeling so well, and she fell asleep with her bowl in the most convenient place.

Hope she feels better soon and no one else gets it. (Even though I know Gregory shared something with her this morning and I shared several things with Gregory later...sigh)

Lost in Translation

John: Football's making Daddy sad today.

Gregory: Football's making Daddy's day.

Going Her Way

Clare has a little boy she likes at school. Today his mother approached me.

K's Mom: K came home yesterday and told me that he's marrying Clare.
Me: Sounds like Clare, she says she's going to marry K
K's Mom: I asked him why he was marrying Clare and he said "Clare told me to".

Clare and K have to say goodbye everyday after school and often exchange little gifts. We have about 4 paper hearts K has made Clare. K's Mom has 20 or so at her house.

Talents - What's Yours?

Clare loves the Tinkerbell fairy books. In case you don't follow Disney fairy tales, each fairy has a special set of talents - such as water, light, cooking, gardening, etc. This led to the following conversation:

Clare: Mommy, how do the fairies pick their talents?
Me: They don't, Clare. The fairies are born with them, just like people. Everyone has different talents they are born with.
Clare: What's yours?
Me: (Stumped for the moment and distracted by trying to get Gregory to eat his dinner) I don't really know.
Clare: Maybe it's loving Jesus
Me: I sure hope so.
Clare: I really hope loving Jesus is my talent when I grow up.

Me too, kid, me too.

Gregory's adenoids

Gregory got to see the inside of his nose on TV yesterday.

Gregory's a mouth breather. I never thought much of this, until his dentist pointed it out. Since it is causing his teeth to move we went to see an ear, nose and throat specialist.

One common underlying cause for mouth breathing is enlarged adenoids. To check them the doctor takes a little camera in what looks like a long black piece of spaghetti and sticks it up the child's nose. (I am so amazed that the doctor could take a look and tell me what's wrong in 5 minutes or less)

It turns out that Gregory's adenoids cover 80-90% of his nasal passages. Poor kid - he can't really breath through his nose. So he will have to have them out.

It should clear up a whole list of things we've struggled with it, so it's a good thing. And he gets to tell everyone his nose is on TV.

Low Brain Power

My poor neglected blog, I just don't seem to have the energy or brain power at the current time to keep up with it.

At some point I will return to daily readings in Caritas in Veritate and more frequent posts.

Everything is going pretty well for us at moment, we are settling into the schedule of school and we're even blessed to have John home for the week. The kids are happy and I feel pretty content. It's just that the end of each day I just want to settle onto my bed and read a book when the baby goes to sleep. Each morning seems to come very quickly.

To keep up to date I'm thinking about trying to post a picture every day for a month. We're not doing much that is extraordinary, but it would give family a glimpse into what the kids do each day. Hopefully having something to post but not needing to type will inspire me, or help me to remember the funny things the kids say/do each day.

Guess Who's Hungry?

Clare Sense and Parole

Tonight Clare and I were doing simple addition problems on the side from her regular school work.

Looking at a problem that gave the options of 8 and 5 for the equation 6 + 2, she very calmly states "it can't be 5 that doesn't make sense. It's smaller than 6."

She is enjoying school, however Gregory misses her very much.

Once a week we go to do recess duty. I watch one corner of the playground and make sure there no escapees in my zone. Generally no children come within 10 yards of me, so it's not a worry.

Clare's class is the exception. Today I had a small herd of kindergarden girls milling around me. Luckily the school doesn't mind if Gregory plays with Clare and her friends. If they did, we wouldn't be able to volunteer.

The moment Clare appears it's as if she's been lost for years. Gregory runs to her and she runs to him. He plays with the girls for the full 20 minutes. At the whistle signalling the end of recess he follows Clare over to her lunch line. He then proceeds to lament her leaving as a greek woman might lament the death of her husband - prostrate on the ground, sobbing his heart out.

I'm not sure who's on parole here, Clare from class or Gregory from the day without Clare.

The Best Toy to Have

The kids were just talking about toys they want. Since I hear these desires often I pretty much tuned out the conversation.

I'll admit I don't know how Clare started, but this is when I tuned back in

Clare:...Thomas....A big toy, I mean really huge, that you can play with and pull on, throw up on, laugh at, and really really like.

I thought to myself - how sweet of her to be coming up with toys Thomas might like, I wonder what toy she's thinking about. Here I'm imagining toys with ribbons, bells and strings, soft and crinkly everything a little baby might like to get his fingers into.

Clare: Thomas, you're so lucky, you've got the best toy: Mommy! The milk bomb!

Quick Takes Snap Shot Edition

Here' what's been keeping us so busy (or at least some of it)

1) Clare started school and loves it!2) Brothers! While Clare's away the boys get all my attention. It's amazing how quiet the house is without Clare. 3)Corrina and Gregory playing under the table. Can you guess Gregory's favorite football team?4)Labor Day Weekend with the grandparents.

5)Clare, Gregory and friends all having a tea party.

6)Thomas loving some time with Daddy7) Thomas is 3 months and a chunk. It's so cute, right down to the fat dimples on the his elbows.

Time flies when you're having fun and you have 3 kids.