The Simple Life

Since RL arrived, we've been taking it as easy as we can. It's taking me a while to figure out how to take care of more little ones on way less sleep. Thankfully we had planned to take a break from most of our schoolwork, so our schedule at home is less structured (even by our standards!). And thanks to many very kind friends, family members, and neighbors, I've had to do very little shopping and cooking in the last weeks. We've resumed going to church and Bible study with RL accompanying us, and we've made it to a soccer game, the library, and LL's dance class with him in tow. I've even ventured out by myself with all 4 to do some shopping a few times. But for the most part, each day arrives without a master plan and we take it an hour at a time... which has been nice (though I have to tell myself occasionally that it's OK!). I've noticed a few times lately how little they really ask for much of the time. It's so easy to focus on the moments when everyone needs something immediately, simultaneously, desperately. There are those times, but truthfully, there are also plenty of times when the girls keep themselves (and each other) happily occupied for long stretches with little to no intervention or assistance needed from me. It's sort of weirdly nice to occasionally feel like a wallflower in such a generally busy season of life!

The girls have been really sweet with RL and have been pretty gracious with me as I've pretty abruptly been less available and come to expect more independence from them. Their play has, not surprisingly, often revolved around taking care of babies, and even their "cooking" in their kitchen has taken the form of preparation and delivery of pretend meals to someone in need. Today we walked around the block and all three girls took along babies, diaper bags, etc. I looked back to see that AG had her baby doll's head stuck under her shirt with her whole tummy showing, nevermind that we were on a fairly busy street with plenty of traffic. Surely I've been more discreet than this with RL's meals!?!

A few cute things I want to remember:
Monday the girls got into playing wedding before lunch (LL was marrying "Miguel", played by the biggest stuffed rabbit we have in our collection) so our lunch became the reception. All three girls had on white dress-up dresses, and as they were eating I decided this would be a good time to talk about how the Bible teaches us that the relationship between Jesus and the church is like that of a groom and bride. They listened for a few minutes before AG remarked with a question in her voice, "But not everybody in the church is a girl"!

At supper that night we were talking about the upcoming winter Olympics. The girls seem to be really excited about watching them, and I was trying to name as many of the winter events as I could. Speed skating, figure skating, skiing, all the races downhill on sleds...I paused and searched my mind for another event. "Maybe making a snowman?" LL suggested, so seriously. It was so precious.

SJ seems so much bigger and can do so much now. She totally hangs with her sisters during playtime and it works out really well most of the time. Some of the main things I want to remember about her during this season are her unique ways of saying things, particularly how she always says things at least twice, sometimes way more for added emphasis, and often with a tilted head and raised eyebrows. She likes to compare others to herself, even when it totally doesn't apply, by saying "...like me, like me!" And she constantly adds extra "-es" to her plurals, with one of her favorite words being "mineses".

That's all for now! Hope to post more photos soon...