These Little Moments

A few tiny moments this week that could bear some remembering:

Addra’s Silly Dream

When we get up in the morning, I often ask Coriel if she had any silly dreams, and she generally tells me something that I suspect wasn’t a dream. But it sure is fun. Yesterday she told me she hadn’t had any dreams, but Addra had. “Addra dreamed that she went up into outer space, and she brought with her milk and cookies and all the other things she needed to grow strong and healthy.”

How Parenting Is Not Always Pretty

I was so grateful for this wonderful post. I have often thought similar things but never really known how to express it without making it sound like I hate being a mom (although honestly, sometimes it’s not on my “favorite things” list). Yes, parenting is awesome. No, it’s not constantly awesome. It’s more like awesome overall with a lot of really deep potholes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glennon-melton/dont-carpe-diem_b_1206346.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Vomit and the Awesome Hubby

I realized today, as I wiped Addra’s barf off the kitchen floor* and tried to contain my gag reflex, that in all the years I’ve been married, I have almost never cleaned up barf on my own. And can I just say that this is yet another reason why I will never be able to measure the sheer wonderfulness that is Brice? I mean, seriously, he has even cleaned up my vomit when I was pregnant and I knew that if I tried to clean it up, I’d just add to it. So yeah, he’s awesome.

Awesome

If you are thinking by now that I use the word “awesome” far too much, you are wrong. If I wasn’t generally surrounded by so much awesomeness, you would probably be right. But I am, so you’re not.

Completing Tasks

We have a whiteboard in our hallway on which we’ve begun to keep a list of the things we need to get done. As you can imagine, the list gets longer much faster than it gets shorter. However, there is this vast sense of satisfaction in erasing anything. And so what a blessing it has been to get to erase several items this week. Including (hooray!) having a handyman come fix our attic step, our front door, and our motion sensor light. *Happy sigh.*

Misnomers

Earlier this day, in a particularly trying moment, I was struck with wondering if—instead of our daughters’ middle names being Felice and Bliss—they should have been Melancholy and Tragic.**

Sympathetic Crying

Sometimes Addra will be doing just fine and then something upsets Coriel. Coriel bursts into tears, and then Addra begins to join in, I think just in sympathy. If this happens on a particularly long day (like today), I sometimes join in too. And if Brice has particularly lucky timing, he gets to arrive home from work to three wailing women. Lucky him.

Clouds

A couple of days ago, we were driving somewhere and Coriel was in the backseat jabbering away. What was she telling me? “Heavenly Father should make his house out of clouds. He could have a cloud chimney and a cloud couch.” I thought that sounded wonderful.

Sleep, Baby, Sleep

Addra has a cold and has been sleeping so very badly. Poor Brice has been taking much of the baby sleep duty (notice, please, more awesomeness) and has been having a rough time of it. Last night, I believe, was the height of the ick when I don’t think he got more than about two hours of sleep before 5 a.m. At that point, I was taking over and dealing with a shrieking eel as well. Finally, though, she fell asleep in my arms but was not settled enough to be set down. So I stayed up and held her and read on the couch. It was sad but lovely at the same time. Her head was so warm against my chest, and she stirred a few times but settled down comfortably again. She was pressed right up against me like she was in a tight hug, just being held and loved. Though I ended up quite tired (not as tired as Brice), I was grateful for those sweet quiet moments when I felt I could give her exactly what she needed.

After she finally fell asleep deeply enough for me to let go of her (it only lasted about 15 minutes).

 

Sandwich Sleeping

Another exciting night of sleep, earlier this week, found me lying in Addra’s room next to her on her bed (a futon mattress on the floor) with my arm under her. I couldn’t move without waking her, so I lay there silently. At some point Coriel came in and wanted to snuggle up as well. So we ended up, all three of us, on a twin bed, with me sleeping on my side and squished between two darling daughters. Not the most comfortable sleep ever, but kinda cute.

The Four Elements

It turns out that, according to Coriel, the four elements are no longer earth, fire, water, and air. They are now peanut butter, jelly, honey, and bread.

*It’s not that she’s vomity sick; she just swallowed something wrong and threw it all back up.
**It occurred to me, after discussing it with Brice, that it would have been better to suggest Tristan and Dolores. 

P.S. I just remembered (whoops!) that I was supposed to link to this post since I posted my link on her site. Hooray for blog hops!