Don't you wish you had bright orange lipstick like this?

C is really getting the hang of solids now and loves bread...in fact, she will sit and yell, "Bah!" at us for more food. She particularly likes graham crackers.

Unfortunately, E and J have been pretty sick this past week with fevers, fatigue and lack of appetite. Tomorrow I will take them to a new doctor (haven't needed one since we moved here) and hopefully we will find out if they have strep throat or not. One of E's classmates had strep last week about the same time E got sick. My throat hurts just thinking about it. I sure do pray that all of this sick stuff is gone in time for us to enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at our home church. (not to mention in time for us to travel to see family!) Having little kids has truly been tough when it comes to passing around the colds and bugs. Maybe we should just pass the carrots, please!

This is the day I turned 33! I had a pretty typical Monday that day and we had take-out mexican and half a chocolate cake for dinner.

Unfortunately a stomach bug hit me in the middle of the night and didn't completely leave for 5 days or so. J was the only other one to be affected and seemed to get over it much quicker than me. We have been pretty well since then until today. E has a fever and I pray that no one else gets this new invader. I am really finding that having little children can be so physically taxing on parents. It's hard to get enough sleep (amen to that) and viruses creep in from all sides. Plus, messes are just waiting to happen. I had a great idea (haha) about trying to potty-train J. He seems to do fine if you let him run around in the nude (at least bottoms free). He will go sit on his little potty if he needs to go. So I thought if I just left a diaper off and just pulled up his pants maybe we could just take him to the potty regularly AND he could tell if he needed to go. This morning we had one pee-pee 'AH-OH' but not a huge mess and then I let him play outside a bit and boy was that a mistake! Let's just say, "poop filled his jeans". Baths are good, but this boy has had a diaper on all the rest of the day and the jeans, socks, and shoes are soaking in Oxiclean. Maybe we'll wait to do some more 'free-be' days.

So I finally put some insulation in the empty space under our kitchen cabinets where the terribly cold draft was coming through making our tile floor freezing cold. (Hubby helped)
On my way out to the garage to get the insulation, a fat possum was sitting in our yard and scampered away up into the tree that our kids like to play around. It is a bit warmer here today and slightly rainy. Our garage door is acting up again....bounces right back up after closing all the way, so the man who installed it is coming out tomorrow to show me how to reprogram it and also take a look to see why it is still doing this. Apparently when they poured the foundation for our garage it was a bit uneven and this makes the garage door opener a bit unhappy. My husband is writing loooong papers this week and will soon have Christmas break. Yay! C has started giving me mischievious looks already and J is turning into a monster toddler. (absolutely no progress with the potty training). The playroom is much neater as most of the toys are stored in our basement where I started a toy 'library'. No more huge messes that the monster toddler can make in there. There is still laundry sitting around the house that needs to be folded and put away. Wanna come help? Our neighbor across the street had their baby boy last Friday morning and we got to see him tonight. New life is amazing. We hope to go caroling at the end of this week. I hope I can remember all the words and that my voice cooperates. Better go to bed. It's already early Tuesday morning and hopefully it's a day full of Grace.

I have been pondering the wonderment of God becoming man...a baby, like C....like we all were once. I hope this time preceding Christmas is as full of amazement for you as it is for me. Mostly, as I struggle with the ongoing stresses of every day life with little children who take a lot of physical care and cause Mommy to get less sleep, I pray for hands that are as caring and gentle as the Theotokos's hands in this icon. If only we could completely tame our hands and our tongues. Luke 2:51b "and his mother kept all these things in her heart."

Has it really been since mid-November since I have posted? YES! Life is just so hectic here, but Praise GOD we survive, even when the children seem to break something in our house daily. NO MORE JUMPING ON THE BED!!!! C is hiding under the desk as I type. She doesn't like to sit up on her own yet (still pushes a lot with her legs) but she can roll a long ways if she is interested. She laughs quite a bit and has learned to make a smacking noise at dinner time and when it's time to kiss the icons at prayers. She still says many "ma, ma, ma, mas" when she wants help and is eating lots more variety of solids.....getting big. J is not really interested in potty training even when coaxed by the offer of a big lolipop. Mom is tired of messy diapers. E was wearing big girl pants by now...even throught the night. oh boys!