Saturday! Fun Day =)

I can feel little Benjamin kicking!!

Okay, so I am actually very lucky in that I have been able to SEE all my babies move much sooner than I can feel them move. The reason is this is because my uterus doesn't move out of my pelvis in a timely manner. On the one hand, very uncomfortable--causes back pain and lots of aches. But on the other hand, the baby gets a little too big to be confined in my narrow hips and so I can see them randomly bulging out. It's weird--very alien-esque.

Anyways, the last couple of weeks, I have started getting the gentle flutters and flips signifying that there is a little baby in there and he is growing and active. Yay! =)

Thursday after our little Easter, the kids took a good nap and Cassie came over for speech therapy with Gabriel. He was cranky and unwieldy, but she says he is making good progress, which is always a happy thing to hear.

Emerald has been taking it hard that Cassie is no longer coming to see HER, as Cassie used to be Emerald's speech therapist, but Emerald got a new bubble toy that made her very happy and kept her fairly occupied.

Friday was mostly uneventful--the kids took an extra long nap and we went to the store and did a bit of shopping. Not much to say there, really.

Which finally brings us to today--I have been reading through the old posts on the blog and realizing that some practices we just fell out of when really, they were fun and good for all of us, especially when it comes to keeping tempers in check.

There were two big ones that I have noticed.

The first was taking walks around the neighborhood.

Obviously we probably stopped doing it because we were taking four long walks a week--to and from daycare; or because of the weather; or largely due to the fact that with Emerald and Gabriel weighing in at an impressive 70 pounds combined, I am currently unable to wrangle them, their belongings, and a big double stroller around anywhere.

Then I remembered something:

Emerald is nearly 4 years old. She is more than capable of walking on her own. Taking on the burden of pushing her 42 lbs is borderline absurd. So, this morning I got out the umbrella stroller and set Gabriel up in it, dressed Emerald, and we went out a'tottering about the block.

At first, Gabriel was very hesitant. He was sleepy and hungry and cranky and didn't know how long we would be gone, so he didn't want to go at all. Seeing as I was pushing myself to go in the first place, his reluctance was frustrating and tempting to give in to.

Emerald was all about going out, though, so that helped bolster my enthusiasm. We ended up walking around for about 30 minutes, which was perfect. Before lunch is actually quite beautiful right now. After lunch is when it gets unbearably hot, so we are more confined to inside or the backyard where we have the water hose (and I feel safe with the children playing, as it is enclosed).

I let her tell me stories about the birds in the trees or where she thought the people in the cars passing us by were going; Gabriel babbled back, just like he used to--even though he originally did not want to come, he was having fun despite himself. It was hard pacing ourselves because Emerald got a nasty cut on the top of one of her feet, and I think the shoe was rubbing it the wrong way, but she had a great time when I let her push the stroller. Little girl is stronger than she looks if she is able to push all 29 pounds of Gabriel.

The second thing that I realized is that my backyard has kind of lost it "sanctuary" vibe. It used to be a wonderful place for me and the children to hang out because of the thick green grass, the swing and slide, the water hose and any pools we had back there at the time, and getting to color with chalk on the side walk.

Unfortunately, it has kind of gone to seed lately. There are large persistent weeds that just look awful; some trash that keeps getting blown in by the wind; and the wonderful green grass has died and left in it's place awful, scratchy, brushy grass that hurts to walk on and is horrible to look at. It is making me so very sad because I do not want that special retreat to go away for us when it really works wonders for our collective tempers.

The second is going to take some work, but I think we can get it back to the way it used to be. Maybe praying hard would be the first step, because without rain, my grass is going to continue to be a hideous carpeting marring the essential beauty of my backyard. I could water it, but with it as dry as it is, I wouldn't be surprised to hear about a water restriction going on currently if not soon.

Anyways, so that is basically what we have been doing with our day. The kids are napping now, hopefully I will be able to do something lovely with our afternoon!

~Andie~