Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Style of a Three Year Old

When I was 5 years old, I challenged my dad on the existence of Santa Claus and he admitted the truth.  My mom was not happy with him, being as I was their only child.  Similarly, I wanted to tell my kids early on about Santa, whereas my husband wanted to play along for a few years.  I tried hinting with Monk for years, but he was unswerving in his belief.  Finally, when he was 8 or 9 I couldn't take it any more.  I asked him point blank how he thought Santa could possibly make it to every house in the entire world in one night.  He rattled off something about the force and warp speed.  Thank you, Star Wars.  Next, I asked him how Santa could possibly squeeze down all those narrow chimneys.  Simple- he beamed down them, you know, teleportation.  Thank you, Star Trek.  After reminding him that both Star Wars and Star Trek are science FICTION, I had to resort to telling him straight out.  He did not take it well.  That evening his dad was trying to console him and said, "It's like with the Tooth Fairy..."  Monk got this stricken look on his face and said, "The TOOTH FAIRY?!"  Dad tried again with, "You know the Easter Bunny isn't real, right?"  Poor Monk.  With tears in his eyes he lamented, "Three in one night!"  Then and there, Big D and I decided that we couldn't let this ruse go on as long with the other children. 

She wore this tiara, shorts, and snow boots combo all day.

When I approached Twinkle Toes a few days later (she was 6 or 7), she took it well.  "I already knew that."  Maybe she takes after her momma.  The next year we let Measle in on the act and I've been very careful since then to never mislead the kids.  We don't rush to the mall to have their pictures made with Santa.  I don't talk about what Santa will bring them.  We don't write letters to the North Pole.  When Prince (5) and I were at the mall the other day, he saw a man in a Santa costume and looked like he wanted to go over to him.  Then he questioned, "You and dad buy my presents, right mom?"  I reassured him that he wasn't missing out on anything.  Then yesterday my parents treated us to the annual Santa's brunch at a local dinner club.  (The buffet is to die for!)  Every year we go and every year the kids see Santa and Mrs. Claus.  All my work is undone in an hour of seeing the "real" Santa! 

Gotta love those red shoes!  Perfect for playing ball!

As for the Tooth Fairy, I'm the worst, EVER.  Once, my husband left pixie dust when Measle lost a tooth.  That caused a lot of excitement.  Of course, I'm usually supposed to be the Tooth Fairy and I always forget.  When Monk and Twinkle Toes were little, I tried to play along.  I would palm some money and pretend to look everywhere for where the money could have fallen, before "finding" it to their joy.  Prince lost his first tooth the other day and he was so excited.  Of course, I forgot and the next morning when he mentioned it, I got some money out of my purse and gave it to him.  He took it in stride.  I did caution him not to tell any of his friends in school that I'm the Tooth Fairy.  He promised he wouldn't. 

A true Texan.  Boots and a gun complete any outfit.

Couch Swimming Champion

Lucie has a big brother and two big sisters who swim.  She has ALWAYS been interested in swimming.  Lately she has devised a way to participate in her favorite sport (since she doesn't actually know how to swim).  Couch swimming.

Every swimmer knows the importance of a good start.

 

We're gonna have to work on her stroke.

On the winner's stand.

Showing her muscles.

What's really amazing about our champion couch swimmer, is this was her an hour earlier:

After a little while Lucie said, "Daddy, am I done with my smoke?"  Calvin's checking out the nebulizer.  I wonder if he remembers RSV from last Christmas.  Hope we don't get a repeat.

Our Little Warrior

I haven't posted about Lucie in a while, but she's still at it.  She's always making us laugh with her larger than life personality.  I thought I'd post a few recent pics for kicks.

Have you ever heard yourself yell, "No, you're going to hurt yourself!  Wait.  Let me get my camera"?  I never would have said that pre-blog!

Fortunately she was still headed upstairs while I ran to get my camera.  I did take the scooter away as soon as I got the shot.  I encouraged her to ride her scooter on the flat sidewalk outside. 

A few minutes later I tried to capture Lucie as she flew past me in a flash.  And no, she isn't outside.  I noticed that, too.  After this picture, I took her scooter to the garage.

We had a big laugh a few years ago when I bought these swords for my then 10 year old from Vision Forum.  I was somehow invisioning something a little safer.  They are very heavy duty and meant for big kid sparring, not exactly what you want your 5 and 3 year olds playing with in your living room.  Cute, though.  My little warriors in training.  And if you're wondering what Lucie is wearing, that was one of my outfits from the 70's.  When you only have one child, you tend to hold onto a lot of her things.  Lucie sits every day at the little table and chairs my mom and dad bought for me in Germany 36 years ago. 

This just made me smile.  Lucie loves dressing up and can be found in any number of different ensembles.  I love the combination of ballerina, Dorothy shoes, and giant tennis ball, don't you?  Oh, and don't miss the knit snowman hat I bought her yesterday.  I'm sure she was thinking, it's pink, it matches.

Future WNBA player?  I hope not, but it's a funny picture.

This girl is all about action.  She asked me this morning if she could get her jacket on and ride her scooter to Nana's house.  Uh, no.  Then she asked her big brother if he would take her.  It's awfully hard to say no to Lucie.  She's so much fun and such a blessing!  (Just stay out of her way when she's armed.)

Lucie is 3 and that has me reflecting...

What a treasure and a joy our Lucie is to us!  I've written before about my journey to becoming quiverfull.  If the Lord hadn't moved on my heart almost 5 years ago, we would only have 4 children, I would still have a career, I would be stressed out most all of the time,  our kids would all go to school, my husband would be sorely neglected, the kids and I wouldn't be able to participate in Community Bible Study together or do a great many of things together that we do, I wouldn't have embarked on the life-changing 90 day Bible journey again and again, I wouldn't know you, and who knows what else would be different. 

But God did move on my heart and gave me a greater desire to be home with my children and make them my mission field than to feel the approval of the world or have my intellectual needs met.  And he moved on my husband's heart so that he would give me his blessing to come home and dramatically reduce our income in the process.  My husband was reluctant at first, but then made the committment to do whatever it took, even if it meant working more than one job.  But God (those two words again) was gracious and intervened and provided for us over and above what we could have imagined and we are no worse off financially than when I was working!  God is so good!

I became pregnant almost immediately after this change of heart and giving my notice and took it as a sign that this was God's will.  Then I miscarried (what a misnomer, but that's another post) and it left me wondering why.  Not why did I miscarry, but why did God change my heart and the course of my life, all our lives, and then take this child that I took to be a sign of being in God's will.  You know how it is with these things, you never really know why for sure other than to bring you closer to the Lord through suffering, but I thought maybe it was so I would appreciate the four children He had already blessed us with more than I had before.  The thought that God had moved mountains in my heart and mind in order to have me home with my four kids was astounding to me.  We enjoyed a fun family ski vacation after my miscarriage and then the Lord blessed us with another pregnancy.  This time we got Lucie!  She was worth waiting for!

Notice she's holding her guitar like a violin.  Too funny!

Lucie has truly brought us joy every day of her life.  The big kids and the grandparents get onto me about how permissive I am with her.  It's not that she doesn't have to mind, she does, but things she does that the other kids got into trouble for, her dad and I just laugh at now.  Big D and I joke that with these babies of our old age, we've become our own children's grandparents!  (I was 34 and Big D was 38 when we came to this change of heart.)  I love that when Big D and I are in our 50s and all our friends are empty nesters, we'll still have kids at home.  What fun!  God has blessed us so much beyond what we deserve or could even have asked for!

We're book people.

Calvin is beginning to get more mobile.  Catching him studying these picture books made me smile and run for the camera.  I think it's a good sign, don't you?  He's going to be a book person, too!

The bookshelf Calvin is studying holds all of Prince's Five in a Row books.  I'm so excited to have the opportunity to review Before Five in a Row, as part of the TOS Crew this year!  Can you tell Calvin is excited, too?  Oh, how it thrills my heart to see this kid reaching for books.  I remember when another little one was first discovering the joys of reading.

Ha!  If I had only known then what I know now!!  This morning in the 30 second head-start she got on me out of her bedroom, she managed to procure and open a bottle of nail polish.  She painted two toes before I could get to her.  (I was trying to put her shoes on her so she could go to lunch with Nana.)  Anyway, I'm just glad Big D and I are raising little bibliophiles :).  Are you a book lover, too?

Somebody should get this girl a violin!

Lately everything has become a "biolin" to Queen.  It must be torture to have a big sister with a real live violin, but not have one of your own.  Yesterday Queen was improvising with a fork as her bow and stabbed herself several times before giving it up.  Now that's dedication!

Who can say no to that face?  And notice the bare feet and big sister's fancy dress on backwards.  This girl has always made us laugh.  What a blessing she is to us all!

In case you were wondering, she's still at it.

I haven't posted about Queen's adventures lately, but she hasn't slowed down one bit.  Just a few minutes ago I found her with my wallet.  I recovered $60 and my credit card fairly quickly, but it took me awhile to find my debit card.  I was starting to sweat a little.

I only catch her on camera one time out of ten, but here are a couple of recent shots for laughs.



By the time I realized Queen was upstairs unattended, she had already gotten into the

"permanent" ink I bought for our domino ornaments.



Doesn't that pose crack you up?  Measle Bug has got to learn to keep up with her ipod!



My crazy kids!



Looking pleased with herself, as usual.

The other morning while I was nursing Calvin, Queen came into my bedroom smelling of Big Red and announcing proudly that she had gum.  I never buy gum so I asked her where she got it.  "On the floor," was her answer.  Oh no.  I started interrogating kids and Twinkle Toes admitted that she had been chewing a piece of Big Red the night before which flew out of her mouth when her dad scared her.  Twinkle Toes claims she couldn't locate the missing wad of gum to throw in the trash.  Her loss evidently became Queen's gain the next morning.  Isn't that lovely?  

And I'm glad Calvin's feeling better, but we really do need to work on his smile.

Seat drops in the sanctuary and breast milk in the eye: it's been one of those weeks.

I've shared with you before about what a challenge it has been for me to train Queen (2) to sit quietly through church.  I really struggled with her from around 1 yr to 18 months, but then she seemed to get it and we settled into a routine.  Now that Calvin has arrived, Queen has been testing her limits... again.  I've been sitting on the end of our row in church with Calvin in his carseat/carrier in the aisle and Queen on my other side.  Though I try my best to participate throughout worship, my eyes do tend to dart back and forth as if I'm watching a tennis match.  First I check on Queen then move my attention to Calvin then to Queen again and back to Calvin, giving Queen the eye when needed and rocking Calvin's seat when he stirs or makes a noise.  At one point yesterday when swtitching my attention from Calvin to Queen, I caught the tail end of her doing a seat drop from standing in her chair (we were standing singing) to sitting on the floor.  She immediately realized her folly and began pitifully rubbing her bottom and complaining that "that hurt me".  Thankfully, we were still singing so no one else noticed Queen's acrobatics.  The rest of the service was pretty calm except for when Monk (11) took Queen's hair clip away from her.  In his defense, he said she was poking him with it.  Needless to say, he returned it quickly to her when she cried out, "That's MINE!"  Unfortunately we were not singing at that point.  Let's just say I got two messages in church yesterday, the one my husband preached on from Mathew chapter 10 and the one my children reminded me of:  I need God's grace.  It would be an understatement to say that things have been a little chaotic since Calvin arrived.  I thrive on schedules, order, quiet, calm, clean, and organized.  We've had none of those lately.  I need an extra measure of God's grace to get through these chaotic days without losing my patience with my kids.  I'm so thankful that His strength is manifest in our weakness.  I know that's true, even when it doesn't feel like it.

Now you're probably wondering about the breast milk in the eye.  Calvin's left eye started oozing gunk Saturday and I was so upset about it.  He could barely open it and it looked terrible.  I'm not a doctor, but it looked a lot like when my kids have had conjunctivitis.  I happened to have some opthalmic antibiotic drops, but was afraid to use them on him since he's so young.  I fretted about his eye, applied warm compresses, prayed about it, and called my husband at the church to give him periodic updates.  Then at some point Saturday night I remembered hearing or reading somewhere that breast milk, since it's rich in antibodies, can be applied topically to help fight infections.  I know this sounds crazy, but I started right in treating his oozing eye with breast milk.  It's almost totally healed up today.  I know it wasn't exactly a cotrolled experiment, but whether the breast milk did it or not, I'm just grateful his eye is better.

So there you have it.  It's been a crazy week.  Hopefully things will settle down a bit and slowly begin to return to normal. 

Her last day as the baby!

I can hardly believe tomorrow our new little one will arrive.  (Though I'm still hoping he'll decide to come today.)

It seems like just yesterday Queen was our new baby.  Now she's 2 and today is her last day as the baby of the family.  She doesn't know what's about to hit her, does she?  Innocent bliss.

Prince survived the transition.  He can tell her all about it. 

They may not be the babies anymore, but they sure are cute!

I check into the hospital at 7 am tomorrow morning.  Please pray for a quick and uneventful delivery.  I've asked my doctor to break my water first and try for a no pitocin induction.  We'll see how that goes.

Anyone out there think this kid will weigh less than 9 lbs?  I'm hoping, but thinking it's highly unlikely as I've never delivered this late.  It will be fun to see.  Well, maybe not fun during delivery, but you know what I mean.

Queen turns 2 with a bang!

Queen started her second birthday with a bang.  Before we left for Bible study that morning she had already dug through Measle's purse, found lip gloss, and rubbed it into the carpet in the girls' room.   Next she moved to the girls' bathroom where she proceeded to completely flood it.  There was a drawer with towels open and every single towel was completely drenched, as well as the floor and cabinets.  I got to do a little extra laundry that morning.  Yes, Queen is officially 2.

Eating her birthday breakfast of homemade applesauce.  She had 3 helpings.

 

Granny gave her a fuzzy vest and a keyboard!



Dora, of course.



Nana gave Queen her first American Girl doll.  I wish I had stock in that company.  They're minting money.  My older girls have more than one plus Bitty Babies, too.  And the accessories, oh my goodness.  I'm just grateful the girls have grandparents that buy them!




Big sibs holding Queen up to see her cake.  She is so loved by her brothers and sisters!



Enjoying her cake!



The Box