Teaching baby sister the ropes

Tonight, I came into our bedroom to discover Marlowe with daddy on the bed. Anson was talking non-stop (as he does), with a running commentary on life as we know it.

“This is your hair, Marlowe. And this is your ear, you have two of them!” he explained. Then, he hopped off the bed.

“That was a jump, Marlowe!” he continued enthusiastically. Then he grabbed a football off the floor and threw it at the wall. “That’s called throwing,” he shared. He picked up the football, then pretended to throw but didn’t actually release the ball. “And that was a pretend throw!” He turned to Zeb and asked, “what is that called again? When you pretend to throw?”

“A fake.”

“That was a fake, Marlowe!”

I see Anson will be teaching our daughter all she needs to know about life and sports.

Eenie meenie miney moe

The kids do this thing where they play “eenie meenie miney moe” to decide who gets out of the bathtub first.

Tonight, Anson won. Maddox was bummed. She wanted to be the one to do “eenie meenie miney moe” despite her own ignorance of all the words.

Anson got out, Maddox whining The Whole Time. And then, it was time for Maddox to get out of the tub.

“Maddox, it’s time to get out!”

“I wanna do eenie meenie miney moe.”

“Okay, do it!”

Then Maddox would look around the tub, presumably searching for somebody to face off against.

This went on several times before I finally used the old “1, 2, …..” hoping she wouldn’t make me get to 3 and have to fabricate an appropriate consequence for not doing eenie meenie miney moe in a timely fashion.

“Eenie, meenie…” she started in, but her heart wasn’t in it. “…miney moe…” and then the big crocodile tears started to flow.

It was the saddest nursery rhyme I ever heard.

Maddox and her allegiance

Tonight I got extra cuddles with our middle girlie.

And daddy got extra cuddles with Marlowe.

During movie night, Marlowe got fussy and so I gave her a bath a little early, got her into pajamas, and held her in my lap for the last 15 minutes of “Cars 3.” I gave her a big squeeze at one point and observed, “‘i get to cuddle with you, Maddox! Lucky me! And daddy gets to cuddle with Marlowe. Lucky daddy!”

Maddox, who is apparently shifting allegiances towards her father, responded, “Lucky MARLOWE.”

You’re welcome

Tonight, Anson’s snuggly hedgehog died.

That is to say, something in the microwave made the thing explode and blow its little “scentsy” balls all over the kitchen floor.

Anson was pretty bummed. And it impacted bedtime.

He came out of his room several times seeking a partner in mourning.

The last time I tucked him back into bed, it struck me how sweet and sensitive this little dude is. So I told him how much I loved it.

“You’re the sweetest little boy I know,” I said, as I tucked him back under his sheets for the fourth time and kissed his little temple.

No joke: he pointed a finger at me and said, “you’re welcome,” before nestling in with his substitute stuffed animal and closing his eyes.

What life gives you

Tonight at dinner, Marlowe started fussing a bit in her bouncer. I picked her up to hold her and was struck by something so crazy I had to say it aloud to Zeb:

Marlowe isn’t getting any smaller.

Marlowe is our last baby, and today, at just over two months, she’s as small as she will ever be from here on out.

It’s crazy to think how fast the super-new baby rubs off and you have just a regular baby on your hands. I’ve retired more onesies after one wear this time around than I care to admit.

And here she is, eating great, sleeping through the night, being good natured and strong and sweet. And no longer tiny.

Will I yearn for a teeny tiny baby again?

I’m sure I will, but we are done with the procreating stage of life and on to the Life Building stage.

Which brings me to the title of the post: what life gives you.

I don’t chalk this beautiful family we have up to chance. Zeb and I faced the worst kind of loss and got right back on the baby train three.more.times.

And if we hadn’t been brave enough to face loss again? Three incredible human beings wouldn’t be around today. Who knows what cool stuff they’ll contribute to society!

I believe we can create a beautiful existence out of less than beautiful circumstances. I believe that in life, we have opportunities to rise above the worst and give our best. And I believe that no matter where we are at in life, whether that be the darkest place or at the pinnacle of what we had dreamed:

Every day is a chance to live better than the day before.

We have been building our family for the past seven years. And in that stretch of time, we have met some seriously intense challenges and enjoyed some incredible moments of joy. Every day has been filled with a chance to learn, to be a bit better, to give back. Life has given us these four beautiful humans and now, it’s our job to raise three of them into beautiful grown ups who change the world.

What will you do with another day to embrace all that life gives you? Will you seize the opportunity that each sunrise represents? Whatever life “gives” you is only what you choose to make of it.

I’m choosing to make this life the best that I can.

Funny things my kids have said in the past 72 hours

My Grandma, or as my kids refer to her, G.G., got back from an extended trip to Hawaii about two weeks ago and brought with her some honey roasted macadamia nuts. Maddox loves them, but she is confused as to what they are. The other day I offered her a handful and she said, “Yea! I want some dog food!”

We had some friends over for dinner the other night, and their seven-year-old brought her wallet. She thought it would be a fun game to hide her wallet and let the smaller kids search for it. Maddox was quite taken with this game and salvaged her own glittery owl wallet to play with. When the older kid asked her what was in her wallet, Maddox responded with reverence, “one thousand dollars!”

Marlowe had her two-moth check up on Sunday, which meant three immunizations. She now has two tiny Tweetie Bird bandaids on one thigh and one on the other. Tonight Anson noticed these for the first time. “Ugh! Marlowe has TWO bandaids? How did she get those?!” he asked jealously. Because bandaids = badge of honor.

Getting dressed for the day

Honestly, I think Maddox is better at dressing herself than her big brother is.

She’s in that hyper independent stage where she wants to do everything herself. This stage takes immense patience.

But yesterday, she picked out her own outfit: striped pants with gold stars on the knees, and a tee shirt with some girl power words on the front.

She then proceeded to put both on, all by herself… backwards.

Gold stars in the back of her legs and girl power words on her back.

Then she refused to let me fix it.

This girl will probably be the end of me come the teenage years, but for right now, I love the independence and the tenacity and especially her devil may care attitude about fashion.

Bedtime wishes

Tonight, as I tucked Anson into bed, he let me know an important new thing about himself:

“I wish I was nocturnal.”

Wow. Just, wow.

The truth about microphones

Anson and Maddox got a sweet drum set for Christmas this year – and it came with a functional microphone.

Big mistake, I know.

What is it about a microphone that makes a toddler feel like they must YELL into it? Anson blows his lungs out almost daily singing his signature jam, “Rockin’ the town”.

Today, a close friend of mine shared video footage with me from the Elton John concert she has been to the night before. Anson’s favorite song is “I’m still standing,” and my friend had captured Elton himself rocking out to it.

Not to be outdone, Anson picked up his microphone and started belting, “I’M STILL STANDING AFTER ALL THIS TIME… LOOKING LIKE A TRUE SURVIVOR, FEELING LIKE A LITTLE KID!”

(I realize these aren’t the lyrics in order. This is how Anson sings it.)

I informed Anson, as gently as I could while still being heard over the din, that a microphone’s only job was to make your voice louder, therefore, he didn’t need to yell.

“Did you know that?” I asked as a way of confirming he understood.

“Here’s what I know about microphones,” Anson said conspiratorially as he plopped onto the bench that came with the toy drum set. “They copy your talk.”

Blast off

We took the kids bowling tonight with their cousin Carson. The rails were up. The little chute for the bowling ball was down. Tater tots and French fries were ordered. Hello, kid heaven.

Maddox, however, wasn’t 100% into it. The bowling shoes, she dug. She very much enjoyed the bright pink kids bowling ball, until she nearly crushed her foot dropping it on the slick floor. But once the tater tots and French fries arrived, she was sort of over the bowling.

Zeb intervened. He got her back into the game and I let her bowl most of my turns. I spotted her with the pink ball all the way to the chute, and as she flung her arms out to send the ball down the lane, she exclaimed “Blast off!”

Yes. A thousand times, yes. Bowling alley win!