Mama-luia

Anna Therese Marie Born October 26th, 2013 She is healthy, we are blessed, God is good.

My darling youngest (ex utero) child is beginning, I think, to feel the tectonic plates shifting already: He is going to be a big brother very soon. While this is mostly good and wonderful news to his sweet two-year-old self, a milestone event like this can't not involve some trepidation. So he is expressing his hesitancy, and doing so in curious ways. Our champion-sleeper is suddenly having frequent night wakings. He cries and cries and wants Mommy-only-Mommy , so even if I ship Patrick off to ease him back into slumber, I hear the crying continue and realize he'll remain inconsolable until I waddle into the boys' room and sing verse after verse of whatever soothing song I can think of as he drifts back into sleep. Meanwhile, he is waking up earlier, too, -- at about 5am -- and I have 'programmed' him to want and expect to crawl into our bed at that hour. I am too lazy / tired / pregnant / what-have-you to think of a better way to get him back into sleep...

So here I am, just four days away from my due date, having squandered my last shred of energy on batch-cooking for the freezer (and now, with no energy left, we have already dug into those freezer meals. Oops).  So given my exhausted state, sitting around and writing a blog post, it is! 1. This fabulous video. Young Ethan Metzger competes in a Bronx Youth Poetry slam  and gives a brilliant apologia for his faith.  Worth watching! 2. "It's not the school's fault if your child is a lazy wuss" Another great post from the clever mind of Matt Walsh  ( he-who-dared-stir-up-the-"Mommy Wars" ).  This post is so uproariously funny at times that it made both me and my husband cry-laugh. I like a good cry-laugh now and then. 3. Rules for the Jane Austen drinking game Imagine playing this while watching the five-hour long BBC "Pride and Prejudice"?  I'd call that a fast-track to getting very inebri...

We enjoyed a most wonderful Thanksgiving this past week. I was feeling rather nostalgic in the days preceding, realizing it was my first Thanksgiving since we had children that they couldn't be with their grandparents. But we managed to have a peaceful, joyous weekend, filled with good food, laughs and happy memories. I was determined to get a craft set up for the boys, but also determined to make a turkey dinner, complete with three pies (yes, for only five people. I inherited a gene from my Mom who always multiplies the number of expected guests by two and cooks accordingly.) So Patrick's sister sat down with the boys and got them to create this. I had cut out the leaves at 3:30 AM Thanksgiving morning, so she had them interview everyone in the house what they were thankful for this year, and Noah drew a tree to paste the leaves on. It's going up in my laundry room, permanently, because it makes me so happy. This could have been a great picture if I ha...

It's 5am and you wake up to the sound of a crying tot who needs attention. After a fitful night's sleep, this early morning seems all the worse.  You go to him, see his smiling face and realize all he wanted was you. You're exhausted but somehow, it's affirming, being on the receiving end of a tiny person's fierce unconditional love. You're not a martyr though. There's no way you're taking this tot downstairs for breakfast at this hour. So you pick him up and deposit him in your own bed and settle yourself back down.  You try to get back to sleep but he keeps chatting about his Big Plans for the day. "No, sweetheart, it's time to sleep. It's still dark out." "I not sleepin' anymore. I just talkin'." Yes, clearly . Finally he does drift off but you find yourself wired for sound -- making to-do lists and setting big, impressive goals for how your day will pan out. Or fretting that so little slee...

I'm uploading a few photos here, so I can remember the happy minutia of our life. Here goes: I think the following two photos illustrate the idea of a mom having her "hands full" Isaiah had just woken up from a too-short nap, and needed some cuddles to help transition him back into the waking, noisy world his older brother runs on his behalf. Noah saw my lap (which hardly exists anymore) and decided to join in, too. They are extremely adorable, aren't they? Sweet little Noah is working on his skills of taking self-portraits.  I think he's getting remarkably good at it. I took off to see my midwife this morning and Patrick was left in charge. This is what I came home to. In fairness to him, he brought his laptop into the dining room and continued to fight the culture war while the kids destroyed things played. I fought my own culture war by trying to get them to put their stuff back into the toy cupboard.  ...

Why can't I nest like a normal woman? I have read inspiring stories of women who get this overpowering urge to clean everything in sight before their baby is born. Oh my. I wonder if perhaps these women are already clean & tidy sorts, and they're just getting the energy to do the things they would normally do anyway despite being so huge and tired? Maybe. My oh my, I would love for that energetic surge to be put to something useful like scrubbing my dirty kitchen floor or baseboards. But no. I do odd things. Here is my newest version of "nesting." First off, while my parents were here, I set my dear old dad to work. (Does delegating even count as nesting? Probably not, but bear with me.) We forgot to take a true "Before" picture, but you get the basic idea. Our lovely country-ish kitchen is wood, wood everywhere. Pine (at least, I think it's pine) cabinets, wooden wall panelling, then a matching pine table and chairs. The floor, ho...