Life At The Circus

Our conversations used to be about teachers and homework, now they are about how we’re going to school our own kids.  We used to discuss boys and dream about our future, now many of us are married to those boys and discuss how many children we plan to have.  They were the ones I called when Scott first told me he liked me, and when he first kissed me, and when he asked me to be his wife.  They were also the ones I couldn’t wait to tell when we were expecting our first baby (and our 2nd, and our 3rd, and our 4th).  So many things have changed since we were in high school.  We’ve traded in the plaid uniform kilts for nursing bras and maternity clothes.   We see each other a lot less frequently.  Used to be we saw each other every day, now months can go by without a phone call or a visit.  But when we get together again, in many ways it truly feels like nothing has changed at all.  Because these friends knew me then, but they know me no...

I hear his cries and stumble out of bed.  Cradling my son in my arms I make my way down the hall and to the couch where I sit to nurse him.  My eyes are burning, begging me to let them close again.  Instead I grab my phone and start scrolling through face book trying to keep myself awake while my little guy eagerly chugs down on his 4 am meal.  Not much has changed on face book since I last checked at 1 am.  Oddly, most of my friends aren’t up between 1 and 4 am and if they are, they aren't doing anything they want posted on face book for the world to see.  So, I grab the remote to see if there is something to entertain me keep me awake in these early morning hours.  One night I struck gold and found a rerun of The Cosby Show playing on Nick At Nit e (when did I become old enough for the shows I watched as a kid to be played on Nick At Nite)?  This night however I found myself watching an infomercial on Space Bags .  Have you seen these ...

When I told you of the never ending science lessons going on at the circus this summer, I was excited about my children getting to watch the baby birds grow until they were old enough to fly from the nest.  We learned that Daddy Robins help Mommy’s feed their babies, as we saw both the Mom and Dad at the nest at the same time.  By day 3 we even started seeing their little beaks peak out over the top of the nest in our “Robin cam.”  I was surprised to see how often the Momma left the nest to find food for her little ones.  It seemed she would no sooner arrive at the nest and feed her little babes, that she was off again hunting for food.  Sadly, on Thursday morning when I turned on the “Robin cam”  I didn’t see any activity in the nest.  Hoping the Momma had just left for awhile, I silently kept an eye on the camera as I went about tidying the house.  I never saw the Momma bird return to the nest.  I never saw the little beaks peaking ove...

I can’t believe my little guy is 3 weeks old already.  I feel like he is growing up so fast!  We’re settling into a routine of sorts here at the circus.  We ventured out this week to a friends house for a play date and to gymnastics…even had some friends over a few times.  I was reminded of how good it is to fellowship with friends and to let the kids play with their buddies.    It had been a while.  I am so thankful we had our baby in the summer as we have 3 months to play and take it easy and settle into a rhythm and routine before school starts in the fall.  (We do need to do some work over the summer and I plan to hit the books next week with the crew, but it will be at a more relaxed pace than in the school year).  I actually can’t believe the 4th of July is around the corner, summer always seems to slide quickly by once the 4th hits.  Our calendar is filling up  already (4 kids has a way of doing that to a calendar)....

I think I’ve mentioned before that my oldest three all share a room.  This week the kids have started taking turns sleeping with the baby.  Sunday night the boys got to sleep together.  My oldest was so excited about sharing a room with his little brother.  I couldn’t help but snap a picture as I peeked in on them before going to bed. When I went to look in on the girls I found them both cuddled up together on the floor… it appears they decided to have a sleep over of their own! The next night my oldest daughter wanted to sleep with the baby.  As she was getting ready for bed she told me to make sure when I put him to sleep that I put his pacifier where she could reach in the crib so that she could help him if he woke up.  She told me she’d take care of him and I wouldn’t have to get up.  One of the times when I went in to feed him, I found her by his crib giving him his pacifier and talking sweetly to him.  In the morning I found she had mov...

Just because it is summer, doesn’t mean we have to stop learning here at the circus.  God presented us with a wonderful science lesson, right in our back yard.  The best part is, I don’t even have to do any prep work for the lessons! A very brave and trusting Momma Robin built a nest under our deck.  Apparently, she doesn’t require peace and tranquility to feel safe as our crew stomps back and forth across our deck belting out songs or squeals or tantrums from morning till night.  Because of the location she chose to build her nest it is pretty much impossible to see inside. Though my brilliant husband  is not easily thwarted by Momma Robins.    First he took the camera from our baby video monitor and set it up beside the nest so that the kids could watch her on the video  monitor inside the house.  The first night we let them sleep with the monitor in their room.  They feel asleep watching the Momma bird sit in her nest.  ...

Last week my mom came and spent the week with us.  My parents live 5 hrs away from us and even though they do an awesome job of coming to visit for weekends, it always seems like the visit is over before it starts and I am often left wishing I had some more time to spend with them.  Having mom here for a week was such a blessing.  Not only did she do my laundry for me all week as well as cook our dinners and even do the dishes, but she also shared my days with me.  A treat I don’t often get to enjoy with her.             We had a blast…  she took the kids for bike rides, raced my 2 yr old on the basketball court, went swimming in the bay with the kids, let them help with dinner preparations, watched Scott’s sailing race, worked on projects—(such as building an ant farm, and sewing cow costumes for Cow Appreciation Day), ate picnic lunches on the deck, enjoyed tea and scones for lunc...

First baseball game First Wednesday Night Sailing race First trip to the beach So many firsts for him to experience…

Those of you with more than one kiddo know how insanely difficult it is to get a good picture of all your children together ….if you don’t know what I am talking about, check out this post or this one , and you will get an idea of what I am referring to.  You have aspirations of all three children sitting still, smiling, and looking at the camera.  After about 30 clicks of the camera and at least 20 begs and pleas to “look at mommy” and “please sit down” you suddenly set your sights a bit lower and just hope for all of them smiling… who cares where they look and how they sit…. After an almost 3 year quest for that perfect picture of our children together, we finally got it.  (we got really close this Easter with our “best group shot yet” picture) On our way to the hospital to have our fourth child, Scott decided to quick snap a picture of the kids as we dropped them off with Great Grandpa.  He told the kids to smile really nice b/c this was the last picture we’...

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Mark your calendars now for the 2024 Olympics… our little gymnast has started training!  I must say I have truly enjoyed watching her at her gymnastics class this year.  Since I can’t even do a forward roll, I am always so amazed as I watch her do back rolls or “flip overs” on the bars.  Neither Scott nor I did gymnastics growing up so it is not a sport we would have normally thought of but she is so short, strong and flexible (remember she still sleeps folded in half ) that we just had to get her involved .  Add to that her f earlessness and toughness and I think you have all the attributes one looks for in a gymnast (and a whole lot of attributes her mom does not share).   She’s had a ton of fun this year at gymnastics and it turns out our intuition was right.  This summer she was invited to the join the precompetition class for the next session. Perhaps one day we’ll see her on another medal stand?

I think we may have a future engineer on our hands.   Which quite naturally brings a smile to the face of his engineer father.  Last week my son came out one morning and told us he thought up a robot in his mind the night before.  He wanted to know if he and Daddy could build it.   The timing couldn’t have been better as Scott had taken the week off of work as we welcomed the baby into our family. Scott told him to first draw a picture of the design because before you can build something, you should first have a design for it.   Here is the initial drawing my son came up with. After drawing it, they talked through the design.  Scott brought up some potential problems they might encounter and my son would go away and come back having brainstormed a solution.  My son wanted the robot made out of a paper or plastic cup.  He wanted the head to be a light bulb and he wanted one arm to be a light bulb.  He also wanted one of th...

They say newborns don’t do much other than sleeping, eating, pooping, and crying.  While that may be true, I gotta tell you the circus crew has not yet tired of watching their baby brother do these things.  It’s been a week since we brought our little man home from the hospital.  And every-single-time we have to change his diaper, one can hear a stampede of feet as the three of them race for a spot by the changing table to watch.  They even brought a stool in there so they can better see.  Need a paper towel moistened to wipe his bottom?  No problem, there are 3 eager volunteers to help with that.    My youngest daughter will eagerly grab a diaper from the basket and open up the tabs for me.    Bath time was a huge hit at the circus household.  The kids were so eager to watch as I gave him his first sponge bath.  One could hear a rousing rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star being belted out over the sounds of his c...

Funny how time dulls the memory.  It’s been 3 yrs since I’ve had a newborn around the house and it seems I forgot a few things, like…. How many diapers a newborn goes through…this little man seems to poop, all-the-time, already went through the two small packs of newborn diapers we had in less than a week.  Thankfully I had bought a huge box of Swaddlers size 1-2 which he can technically fit in and which totally saved the day night when we ran out of the newborn sized diapers in the middle of the night.  The  importance of pointing *it* down when sealing up a diaper… went through many onesies before Scott reminded me of that little nugget. The amount of time one spends nursing.  This little man eats every 2 hrs, with a few 3 hrs stretches thrown in there and one long 4-5 hour stretch in the morning.  I am not complaining mind you.  But, when he eats every 2 hours and he falls asleep while nursing, requiring me to go to great lengths to wa...