Category: General Family News

My husband just got a new “to go” coffee mug!

It’s 16-oz., BPA-free,  microwave- and dishwasher-safe.

Best of all, it’s only $5.99 here on Amazon!

I may need one of these.

Mara, at breakfast:

“On Wild Kratts the other day, I learned that if an octopus loses its arm, it can grow back. I wish I was an octopus so I could grow back MY arms!”

There was no break between her sentences for me to ask whether she really thought she’d ever find herself in the situation where she needed to “grow back her arms.”

She just continued: “Like–if a shark or another animal bites off its arm, it will grow back!. . . Maybe one day we can go to the beach, and put something in a cup that the octopus likes–like maybe a clam–and then put a lid on it with holes and put it in the water, so the octopus will come get it! I’m learning so much, all the time!”

Then she began listing her sources: “I’m learning from youuu. I’m learning from the showwwws.–But I think the shows are teaching me better than you.”

Thanks, Mara.

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Confirming my belief that CandyLand is a pretty boring game, my 2-1/2 year-old son stood up midway through (or about when he drew a Gumdrop card one step away from the Candy Castle!) and said: “You can finish the game, Mom. I’m going to go look at pictures on the computer.”

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While throwing away junk mail, we came across a picture of a newborn baby sleeping in a “Gerber” mailing. Mara saved it, cut it out in the shape of a heart and I found it between our pillows on our bed.

She told me she did that, so we could “see what the baby will be like.”

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Carissa is taking 2-3 steps quite frequently over the past couple of days. She has been pushing a walker for 3 months now, and she climbs the stairs and rides the “ride-on” toys, so it seems crazy that she’s not walking.

The highlight today was watching her–on her knees–“sword-fighting” with Daniel!

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The huge smile on her face was priceless.

She wants to do everything that Mara and Micah do!

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After dinner, I watched as my two-year-old and one-year-old played “baseball” with a beach ball and a lightsaber! (I was mostly amused that he was able to convince Carissa to throw the ball to him–because she usually tries to take away his lightsaber!)

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Can I just say that I am so thankful for my little four-year-old? Like all children, she has her moments of immaturity and selfishness, but today, what a sweet “surprise” when she said to me, “Mommy, I want to surprise you and fold the laundry while you’re making Daddy’s lunch!”

She folded an entire basket of laundry!

While much of it needed to be re-folded, she worked so diligently and so quickly on it until it was done, and I had never even suggested that she do it!

After she folded everything, she took it upstairs and delivered it to the various bedrooms.

I didn’t even mind finding Micah’s jeans in his PJs drawer or one of his shirts sitting with Carissa’s clothes outside the girls’ bedroom door (because Carissa was napping). . . I was just so very thankful that my little girl is starting to grow into a big girl that sees something that needs to be done and wants to help!

What a blessing! Thank you, God!

After we prayed last night, Micah was lying there in bed, and he said, “Come’re, Mommy, I wanna tell you a secret!”

I sat on his little bed and leaned over him. My little two year old son took my face in his hands and whispered, “You wanna guess what it is?–I love you! and Daddy loves you too.”

Overhearing the “secret,” big sister pipes up. “Wanna hear an even BIGGER secret?” she shouted. I was pretty sure this wasn’t going to be much of a secret, once Mara finished.

Micah looked nervous that he was–once again–about to be one-upped by his four-year-old sister. She shout-spit-whispered, as only preschoolers do, into my ear: “And GOD loves you even MORE!”

So the “secrets” were out.

When I told Daniel, I was slightly less touched, because he said that Micah had basically recited the same “secret” that Daniel had shared with Micah earlier.–Nearly word-for-word. But then I was still touched because obviously it meant something to Micah–enough for him to remember and share.

I love my “littles” and their “big secrets.” 🙂

My husband was downloading a pregnancy app on my Droid tonight, and I said, “I don’t need ‘Pregnancy Assistant’! This is my fourth child!”

“Yes, you do,” he said. “I asked how many weeks you are and you didn’t know.”

He held up my Droid: complete, now that it has Pregnancy Assistant. “Here! This says you’re 25 weeks. The baby is 12 or 13 inches long and about 1-1/2 pounds.” Daddy’s looking out for you, Braxton! (You’d think he was a first-time dad!)

So now, when you ask how many weeks I am?. . . I don’t even have to remember. I can just pull out my Droid. There’s nothing like personalized pregnancy tech support for those of us with fourth-pregnancy amnesia!

. . . because Mara just said, “I’m writing the baby brother a card, but . . . how do you spell ‘Braxton’?” (Hopefully, she’ll be able to make the transition from “Braxton Hicks” when I quit calling him that and we choose an actual name!)

She cut out a heart on a piece of paper and wrote “Dear Braxton I <3 you From Mara.”

Then Mara wrapped two toys in a box “for the baby” and told Carissa that she couldn’t play with them any more. (“They’re for the baby now,” she informed Carissa.)

Mara wanted me to unwrap the “gifts” she brought for the baby.

Afterwards, she exclaimed, “I love you, little brother!” and kissed my belly.