when you ask the tough questions....

...be prepared for tough answers.


me (trying to help calvary take pride in his role as the oldest boy in the house): what should you do if someone tries to be ugly to harper or oliver jack?

calvary: throw rocks at them.

me (suggesting less violent methods of protection): or you could say, 'excuse me, you are not going to treat my sister that way.'

calvary: or i could throw rocks at them.


lesson learned: do not mess with calvary or his brood.

evangelism by tots...

me: "calvary, who is this?"

calvary: "baby God."

me: "well, baby Jesus."

calvary (with a look of certainty and air of annoyance): "Jesus is God...so...it is baby God."

touche.

looking on the bright side...

one good thing about being fat is that the ring around my waist provides an excellent seat for the baby.

kindergarten...

blows.


i have thought about this for a long time. we have been preparing for years. literally. i have checked out so many schools, applied for charter schools, and even taken part in a few tours. i have been checking the mail daily for any lists so that i can be sure to buy all of the necessary supplies to make sure that my little lady is prepared for her first day. in all of this preparation i realized one thing: i am totally not prepared.

she may have an adorable back pack with matching lunch box.
she may have a box of crayons, safety scissors, and pencil box.
she may have beautiful dresses and the most perfect pair of school shoes ever.
but she won't have me.
and she needs me.


or maybe i need her.

in my mind, once harper walks through the doors of that old building and puts her bag in the little cubby bearing her name she will transform into mini skirt wearing, black eye liner bearing, little sailor swearing adolescent that will no longer want or need me around. sure, some may say that this is a far stretch. but is it?

this 5th birthday is, in my mind, the official end of the baby years. she has graduated into childhood and i am not sure i am ready for it. well, i know i am not. my camera is full of pictures because i am not sure if each moment will be the last. will this be the last picture she makes for me? will this be the last time she falls asleep for a nap? will this be the last time that i can trick her into eating tomato soup by calling it red soup? i am constantly reminded by people that it all goes by so quickly and i feel like this kindergarten thing has me digging my heels in refusing to let go.
it is only just now that i question the system; why do we send our prized ones off to an establishment outside of ourselves with the trust that they will be educated and shaped into the adults that we imagine? should i just sequester my family away from the world and its influence and maybe, just maybe, i will be able to keep a hold of the precious innocence for just a bit longer? then i think of the calling to "be in the world, but not of it".
there is a world out there that needs positive values to counter set the negative ones that are bringing such chaos into the lives of those who live by them. there are people that need to be reconciled to God. sure, harper may not be the one little girl that can change the world, but maybe she will be....or maybe she will change one person's world. whatever it may be, she is not mine to hide away. she is a gift. a true, beautiful gift that i am not ready to share but i know that i must...
i have told kyle that he will need to take the day off of work.
and i have made a list of things i will need to do to make sure that i am ready when it is calvary's turn to head on out to the big bad world.

1. check out schools.
2. make a list of my top priorities.
3. find out the admission requirements for each school and complete list.
4. make a doctor's appointment to get the kindergarten physical completed.
5. have a certified copy of the birth certificate.
6. have a copy of social security card.
7. have proof of residency.
8. have a truck load of valium.

beach shots...

a prayer...

calvary's breakfast prayer...

"God is great...
God is good...
and birds are crazy."

oliver jack is 7 months old...

we made it to another milestone. oliver jack officially turned 7 months old yesterday and we marked the occasion by putting him in his high chair for the first time. he absolutely loves it. he sits at the end of the table with such an expression of pride and delight and it makes me laugh.

he is still a super sweet baby and even though people keep telling me that he might make a turn for the worse he is maintaining a wonderfully laid back disposition. i am praying that he does not make a dreadful turn and i am faithfully believing that his disposition is an answer to prayer...not a result of little r's hanging out in the lower corner of the punit square.

he has tipped the scales at 20lbs.

he has not started crawling yet but he is quite mobile without the conventional all four's method. rolling, pivoting, and scooting has worked well enough and i am not in any hurry to see this busy little man take off.

although he is very much still cheekin' and squeakin' and we enjoyed his laid back persona for many reasons at our latest beach trip, he has been taking teething rather harshly.

one of his flaws is that he does not seem to be able to manage pain as well as harper and calvary.

he has had 2 ear infections that have caused him to be quite sad but the doctor only rated them as a 3 on a scale from 1-10. this inability to take pain like a champ has resulted in a very sad teething process. it breaks my heart because i look at him and just know that he is in pain. harper and calvary never really struggled with sleeping while teething, but oliver jack is waking up screaming in the middle of the night and refusing bottles (which is an obvious personality change by the looks of those thighs :) ). i am hoping that these dirty culprits break the skin quickly and stop reeking havoc on his little body.

we are enjoying every (well almost every) day as a family of 5 and i am sad to know that 7 months of his life has already passed by me. having harper approach her 5th birthday makes me painstakingly aware of how quickly it all does pass (even though i heard it almost every day for the past 5 years).