Spotlight on Emma

I've been wanting to blog lately, but things have been craazy busy. If someone were to ask me what I did all day, I would have a hard time knowing what to say. I guess cleaning up poop would be on the top of the list. And making macaroni. Yes, it seems that the fun never stops. And a big part of that fun is Emma.

Jakers and I have described Emma as the "will and the energy" in our family. She is very social, lively, opinionated, and isn't scared to tell the world what she thinks. We hope that will be a good thing as she gets older, but we often find ourselves at a loss as to how to respond to her when she "dominates".  She does, however, have a very sweet, funny and loving side too.

Emma really loves her baby sister.  Often when I go get Madwell up from a nap, Emma has her surrounded with blankets and stuffed animals. She really loves hugging and snuggling up to Madwell. A few weeks ago Emma hugged one of my legs and said, "I like your legs, Mom. They're squishy like Madwell's." Aside from off days, Emma's been really helpful with Madwell. When I ask her to get me a diaper or something like that, she'll respond with "of course, Mommy" and help me out.

Emma also really loves helping me in the kitchen. She likes making cookies, but recently discovered her love of peeling carrots (pictured below: she peeled half of the carrot off and took a bite in the middle).

I think one of my favorite things about parenting Emma has been witnessing her spirited personality. One woman in our ward told me that Emma glows, and I'd have to agree with her (I'm her mom, so of course I'm biased). She really takes in life and connects with people, or, as well as a 3 1/2 year old can :-)

And I guess that's all I have to say about Emma for now.

P.S. LOVE the Easter pictures. Did you have those professionally taken? They are adorable.

ALSO-- still really annoyed that I can't figure out how to comment. But I wanted to thank you for the Happy Easter wish and say that we hope you had a good one as well! We love you too, Hughes family. And we totally get having to hold off on blogging about Christopher. Timing is everything when writing about our kids :-) We look forward to reading about him though in the future.

Easter

I'm not going to sugar coat it folks, Christopher's been a little hellion this week, and so for the sake of your eyes and ears I've put off writing his spotlight. The only adjectives and nouns that are coming to mind are cuss words, so I'll just leave it your imaginations to fill in the dots.

However, since it's Easter and I thought I'd at least post a couple pics we managed to take after church today. Here ya go:

The weather here, as you can see, has been stunning and we are drinking it in. I feel like we are awakening from a very deep and deary sleep! Easter felt simply magical, and my heart has been filled with a lot of gratitude for new beginnings and reset buttons. That's what Easter has meant to me this year.

We love you awesome Goddards! Happy Easter.

A Short Post

I am having a moment that almost never happens during the day-- both kids are napping at the same time! So I thought I'd write for however many glorious minutes this lasts.

I LOVED reading the spotlight on Mikey. He is so adorable and I can start to see a little more of Christy and Dan in him.

Thank you, Christy, for sharing those "crack induced" moments. As strange as it sounds to say and write, I have had some experiences as well where I feel that, through a tender mercy, the veil is very thin.  Those experiences leave me saying to myself, "did I just experience that?" which I conclude that I did because I wouldn't be asking myself that question if I had not.

I also love your idea to spotlight each of your kids. I can't wait to read more about your kids. I may have to copy your idea and spotlight both of mine as well.  But that will have to be in a future post as I'm already hearing crying coming from downstairs!

P.S. We can't wait to see you guys in May! We will have to get together and do something uber fun.

And P.S. again. Have you guys ever watched the Twilight Honest Trailer? Jacob showed it to me and it's quite funny :)

FYI

Christopher saw a picture of a super cute baby on a diaper box today and said, "Awww. It's baby Madeline."

Just thought you'd want to know. ;)

Meet Mikey

I've been having a hard time figuring out what to write about so I thought I'd post some spotlights and thoughts I have about each of my kids. Hopefully you'll get to know them a little more.

Up first is Michael, who Christopher likes to call "Yo Mikey" sometimes.

As you know we really struggled over his name and it really wasn't until maybe three weeks ago that I finally settled in my mind that Michael is his name. For a couple days I played around with the name Augustus--calling him Gus--to see if that might fit. I've always thought it was strange that we are supposed to figure out our children's names minutes after they are born, and in my case, while high on morphine. Naming someone feels really intimate and important, and I really like to feel like I know the person before slapping them with an identity they will carry for the rest of their life. But I hope we did right by Michael because we searched long and hard before bestowing his name upon him. In the end, I feel like he chose the name for himself. I don't know how to say it without sounding like I'm on crack, but there were many moments where I felt like he was saying to me, "my name is Michael."

Speaking of crack induced experiences, I have had a few, and I really mean just a few, spiritual moments in my life where I felt like the veil was parted for a brief time. Three of those experiences were individual visits from my kids over the span of thirteen years. I count those purely as tender mercies in my infertility journey since the visits came at times when I wasn't sure about whether or not I would be able to have children, another child, etc. But each experience involved a little insight into the character of my kids which has been fun to see unfold.

So with that intro one of the messages that Michael brought was something along the lines of "I want to join the party and I'm coming fast." And this is SO Michael. First, I got pregnant with him lightning quick. And secondly, he is just all about being part of the action. When he was first born we had to leave the bedroom door open so that he would sleep. Mind you, the bedroom door is right next to the kitchen where all the loud stuff is happening, but he would scream if the door was closed. He liked the noise. He can now sleep with the bedroom closed but he hates, hates, hates to nap. He gets upset the moment you walk him into the bedroom because he just wants to stay out with everybody else. He'll talk to anyone he can see and is constantly observing what others are doing around him.

Michael loves to laugh and giggle, and is very ticklish. He is a big fan of eating and putting any and everything in his mouth. I think we finally have a fist or thumb sucker in our family! We started him on solids two days ago and he's already into it. We can't get the spoon up to his mouth fast enough, and he complains between each bite. One sad thing though is that we found out he is really allergic to milk protein and has had some intestinal bleeding. That's been a bit hard to navigate, and I've had to give up dairy products to keep nursing him. Good thing I love him because all of my favorite foods have dairy in them. It's been a huge sacrifice for me, but he's worth it.

He's also cutting his two bottom teeth, like Madwell, and is a rolling over machine. I have to watch him every second so that he doesn't roll into a furniture corner or onto the tile. He rolls over to get to wherever he wants to go, and it just cracks me up.

Most of the time he's a pretty happy camper and has a pretty relaxed temperament, except when naps or food are involved.

I'm really glad he came to our family, and quickly too. Three kids is kinda crazy for me. I'm not sure I'm cut out for it, but man, I love them.

Pacing

Still can't figure out how to comment on people's blogs, so before I blog I would like to comment!

Christy - I love the activity! Emma said she wants to do that (although I don't think she is into baking like Christopher).

Dan- Thank you so much for posting those pictures. I love your attention to detail. You are truly talented. I showed them to Emma and she loved them. She is going through a pirate phase, so she's been dressing Madwell up as a pirate and herself as a "great Cowboy".

Jakers - You already have the El Guapo dance move down. I'd say you are well on your way.

So, back to my post...

A few months ago, Jakers and I went on a double date with our newly-married friends who do not yet have children. Going out with them reminded us of how different the pace was of our lives before we had kids. The moments when we were actually looking for things to do and hobbies to pursue have pasted, and our lives are filled with kids, work, cleaning, laundry (we relate to the picture Christy posted!). Movies, biking (Jakers) and running (me) are nice breaks from the daily grind.

I've been really thankful for running. Recently I became a "Pace Mentor" for a Women's Running Academy. That basically means that I pace and take women through various routes in Portland every Saturday and try not to get them lost. Some of the routes have really pretty scenery.

Most of the women in the academy are new to running and are training for either a 5K, 10K or half marathon. So far it's been a great experience and inspiring as I've met women who are dealing with serious challenges (such as lung cancer and hip dysplasia). It's also helped me reflect a lot on my blessings. Even with our pace being crazy busy these days, I'm sure I'll miss a lot of the things that are happening now.

Madwell finally cut two teeth a few days ago. And we just registered Emma for preschool. Kids grow so fast. Jakers was saying that there was a saying on his mission that "the days go by like months and the months go by like days". I think that's probably true about parenthood too :)


 

Christmas in March

It's still Christmas at our house primarily because Christopher and Ella read Christmas themed books nearly every day. Naturally, this means that a lot of our conversations end up revolving around gingerbread cookies, snowmen and the like. And Christopher is completely obsessed with baking; I think 90% of his sentences have something to do with baking. So when Ella had an early out day of school this week I decided to surprise them with a gingerbread baking activity.

Christopher was literally shaking with excitement as we made gingerbread cookies. Ella had loads of fun decorating the cookies. I guess I made it on the good mom list for once.

Fortunately, Michael was well-behaved enough during the chaos:

And I tried not to stare and stress over the piles of laundry that were going unfolded:

I, too, have been trying to limit screen time more, and have found that usually means I have to be okay with having more mess to clean up which somedays feels beyond exhausting. It's worth it though, right?

The hardest part for me about having three kids is trying to keep up with all their needs, which seem never-ending to me, without becoming resentful. I feel so grateful to have these three cute kiddos but sometimes forget how to act grateful. I really dislike that about myself, and am trying to change it.

I listened to a podcast about motherhood about a year ago and really liked the direction they took with that loaded topic. One of the interviewees spoke about how she feels motherhood is a gift that many women are given because it gives us countless opportunities to practice becoming more like God. She kept saying repeatedly that motherhood is for us, not for our kids. That makes a lot of sense to me since, as Sarah said, I'm doing most of the learning and discovering. My poor kids are just the lab rats. Sorry about that, kiddos, but sometimes I make you gingerbread cookie dough and let you have at it. I hope that balances things out a bit.