A messier kind of normal

When you first have a baby helpful friends and family are constantly popping by with a meal or offering to help with kids or housework. I love these people. They are so generous and helpful. BUT. I think they have their timing wrong.

After 9 months of nesting, our houses are usually fairly tidy, including the medicine cabinet and the junk drawer (which, for some strange reason, biology dictated that we wake up at 2am to scrub and reorganize). We have also had time to plan ahead and the freezer is filled with yummy treats and nutritious meals.

"You must be so exhausted!" they all say, but to be honest, those first few weeks are a bit of a honeymoon unless the baby's birth was in some way extreme. For the first month baby sleeps a lot. They are incapable of rolling over, so they are conveniently tidy and generally adorable. As long as wacky hormones stay in check, things go along swimmingly.

Fast forward several months. The yummy treats are gone. Meals requiring many steps are replaced by sushi from the grocery store. The shiny clean medicine cabinet is now dumped into that junk drawer in a jumble of baby tylenol, safety pins, broken pencils, and several prescriptions that you no longer can tell from one another. And lets not mention the kitchen countertop or the dust bunnies under the beds.

Baby begins to crawl, climb and explore. They get into the laundry, pull toiletpaper off the roll, and knock over the milk. (My little one loves to put things away for me - but sometimes it just isn't very helpful to have someone pulling all of the folded laundry out of the pile and putting it back into the basket. I'm picky, I know.) They learn that they have preferences and learn to assert their will - refusing to get dressed or demanding that they be allowed to climb over the baby gate. Life just isn't as easy.

The newness has worn off in a good way too. Baby is now beginning to sleep on a schedule and a new kind of "normal" is settling in. But this normal is certainly not as clean or organized as the previous normal.

Wouldn't it be nice if the church committee that brings meals to new moms decided to save a few? They could bring those meals to the same moms when they arrive to church 4 (or 14) months later looking as if they forgot to brush their hair. Really - it is a needed ministry.

Favorite Person

There is just something about having a best friend.

Someone to laugh and play with.
Someone who shares your passions.
Someone you want to be close to all the time.
Someone to share life's milestones with.
Someone to aspire to be like and to encourage as she grows.
Someone who knows everything about you.
Someone you know everything about.
Someone you love.

These girls have been best friends from the moment they were born. Okay, so maybe their mommies had a bit to do with it at first, but the fact remains - they adore each other.

Today my little girl was getting dressed for dance class slowly, not because she didn't want to dance, but because we would be driving there alone today. She wanted to be with her cousin. I explained that they would both be in class but we weren't traveling together today. They would see each other in just a few minutes.

My 7 year old sighed a big full body sigh, looked up into my eyes, grabbed my hand and tried to explain the situation as slowly and clearly as she could . . .

"But mom, she is my favorite person. If she isn't with me I really don't think I can ever have fun again!"

Disappointed

Last week we discovered that a robin had decided to build a nest on our wood pile. It was in a perfect location for spying on her - right at nose level so that the kids could peek in and see the eggs while momma bird was away.
Unfortunately, the same reason that made it "perfect" also made it terrible. I'm not sure if it was the noise of our lawnmower, the constant foot traffic, or another threat, but momma bird abandoned this nest.

Of course, it also could have been that my helpful little ones noticed momma bird had flown away and didn't want the eggs to be cold

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So

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they covered the nest with grass clippings to help the eggs stay warm.

They're helpful like that.

We love hands on nature study in this family. God help the nature!