Y!

One of the best things we've done as a family is get a membership to the local YMCA! I finally got a chance to bring my camera today and capture (albeit imperfectly) a little bit of why we love going there.

We go to the pool most Sunday afternoons after the girls' rest times are done. It's become a really fun family tradition and a great way to bond together.

Brad generally takes Carolyn and throws her higher and higher to her heart's content, while I hold Nora in the water and we sing Kindermusik songs and dance together and watch big sister and Daddy. Nora's not quite ready to "swim" on her own.

Carolyn looks a little silly in this picture and she'll probably hate it if I put it on the bulletin board at her high school graduation party- but this is how cute and funny she looks in her big red goggles. Oddly enough, it was the goggles that made the difference for her as she's really begun to learn to swim in the last couple of months. Now that the water doesn't get into her eyes, she feels free to put her face in the water and can even swim on top of the water now! She's in her second session of swim classes, and it'll be fun this summer to take her out to the water and let her really swim a little bit!

Nora takes some "watching" while we're at the pool since she flatly refuses to wear a "floatie." But she has a good time every time we go.

The Y has been good for Mommy and Daddy too! We've become a family that "works out"- at least sometimes. The locker room, that seemed like such an alien and foreign place to the habitually sedentary person I'd always been before that fateful day I had such a bad day at home with the kids that I needed to take them somewhere- ANYWHERE (reasonably safe)- where I could drop them off and do something else for a little while!- that locker room feels comfortable now, and I've found we actually do "fit" in this community of fitness. :) I haven't had the guts (or managed to get there at the right time :)) to go to any of the classes yet, but I've been jogging on the treadmill, preparing for the Shamrock Shuffle in April! On  Saturday, I ran 5 miles in a row for the first time in my life! And I didn't even die! :) Brad's been getting all buff and stuff, and we both generally feel good, are sleeping better, have better energy, and all that good stuff. Can't believe we didn't do this sooner! :)

Two Year Olds

Wow, my blogging has gotten REALLY bad! The days have been so busy and full that I just don't seem to have much time or mental energy at the end of the day to do much recording of my life for posterity. The posts are all in my head, but just don't come out in writing... I need to do better with this! I don't want to look back on this year and see a black hole of nothingness! There's plenty of the wonderful, down-home, everydayness stuff to write about, and this week I am feeling especially mindful of how blessed we are in these two girls. I sometimes think it is fun to look back and see pictures of them at the same age.

Here is Carolyn, at age two.

And here's Nora this week. They really don't look nearly as much alike as they used to! Definitely sisters... but as their expressions and personality have started to have a more dominant influence over what they actually look like, they have really started to look different. I think Carolyn looks more like Brad, and Nora looks more like me. What do you think?

Butterflies

 On Thursday last week we went to the indoor gardens in town- they have a butterfly exhibit that runs in March and April, but the secret is to go a few days before the official event starts because there are just about as many butterflies, but not nearly as many people! Nora was captivated by the butterflies (for at least 10 minutes... short attention span at 2... one reason I'm glad we have a membership and didn't pay $12/person to go see the butterflies!)

Carolyn insisted on wearing this dress in hopes that a butterfly would land on her. She wasn't quite still enough to entice any butterfly landings, but she looked pretty anyway. :)

 We went with our friends Rachel and Caimon and their mommies and little sisters.

Hard to believe these are the same kiddos!! :) We don't all see each other as much as we would like to anymore since our "big kids" are getting so big and so busy, but I am so glad we have each other. :)

Family

Today I got to thinking about families... and how families look lots of different ways. Sometimes, when you thought you had a plan for how life was supposed to turn out, and it doesn't end up working out the way that you thought it would- it's easy to get discontent and see only people who have what you wish you had and don't. When I wanted so badly to have a baby, ALL I seemed to see around me was pregnant women and little babies! And then a couple years later, when Carolyn-my-baby was shooting up into a wild and crazy toddler and all I wanted was for her to have a sibling (especially, a sister!)- the families around me seemed to have all morphed into two-kid families with both kids less than 2 years apart! I vividly remember going to the park the spring that my womb felt SO empty and my heart just burst with longing for another baby, seeing moms of two, and feeling as though I was lagging behind in a race or coming up short in a test because my baby was about to turn two and there still wasn't another in the works. Of course, as it turned out, there was tremendous blessing just around the corner from those spring moments as we learned that Nora was coming in June, just before Carolyn did turn two.

And now... here we are, a couple years later- that same "empty" feeling as my baby is growing up and moving away from my arms into the wider world... and as my longing for another little one to hold and cuddle increases, the discontented part of me only seems to see families with a whole brood of little ones and many reaching hands clamoring for the mother's attention as she strains to see over her pregnant belly to see who's down there- and of course, I fail to recognize in my moments of envy- that even ONE DAY like that would drive me CRAZY!! It's easy to only see what you want to see around you. Because I wanted to have my babies close together and it didn't work out that way- all I see is people for whom it did work out. Because I want a third child and our minivan has way too many seats for just the 4 of us and our dinner table really needs another messy placemat... it seems like people everywhere have just that and the lack of it "taunts" me and keeps me wallowing in self-pity and jealousy and feeling like a failure for being unable to reproduce in a way that seems timely to me.

But today as I was talking to really neat woman I met at my daughter's music class, I realized that there are whole other kinds of families out there. This cool lady CHOSE to time her children's births to be between 3 and 4 years apart because she wanted to be able to give the best of herself to them. She didn't feel like she'd lost the race or worry that she'd have to get all those babies quickly in order to have time to have the "right" family before getting too old to do it- she simply trusted that God would take care of their family and provide for them.

I'm not saying this well, but it really got me thinking that maybe I've been holding up this "ideal" and feeling like a loser because I haven't achieved it- but maybe, just maybe, God has another ideal for our family. And it isn't to make me miserable or always living in longing. Maybe He knows that I could not have handled simultaneous toddlers- and that I will give myself best to whoever will one day fill that next seat in our van and throw food from our high chair if I have a little more time to be ready for it. And maybe, just maybe, I will be happier, better adjusted, and a better parent for the children I do have, if I can learn to embrace His ideal for my family instead of trying so hard to get my square-peg dreams to fit in the round hole He made for me.

Last night, I held my girls, and we shared such a sweet moment. It was just a simple movie night when Brad was in surgery late... we didn't do anything special, but time seemed to pause for a whole hour as we sat together on the couch, and I held both of those girls. And I thought, this is pretty sweet.

Family doesn't have to look exactly the same. There is blessing and goodness and rightness in many different ways. And I'm going to try to see that in the everydayness of this life I'm living with these three people who are so dear to me.

We Don't Get Out Much

Well, at least not lately... I've been pulling my hair out the past few days of being stuck in the house! Wracking my brain for activities to keep us all from going bonkers! If I'm not careful, I spend the better part of the day staring at my laundry, watching the dishes "soak" in the sink, and feeling a little jolt, followed by a letdown every one of the hundred or so times I get a junk email each day. 

Yesterday, I did a little better... I did actually fold and put away a bunch of laundry... and I let the kids play with paints. Really not that creative- when in doubt, I typically bake cookies or paint... sometimes both... usually not at the same time... this day I let them paint their hands. They enjoyed it immensely. 

 Sometimes the mess is worth it. :)

The doctor's office said we can come out of quarantine now... assuming none of the rest of us comes down with it in the next day or so. They said that Nora's already passed the most contagious part of the illness and now it's just managing the aftermath. Being a mom, I'm really not all that fussed about poop... but seriously, the past few days have been excessive, and I'm quite frankly tired of it. So we're hoping the BRAT diet does something about that, and then we can get back on the Potty Train. :)

A Weekend In

We spent the weekend inside, for obvious reasons... there is no way I'd wish this on anyone! No one but Nora has gotten sick yet... but I'm not counting it out yet... we've all been amply exposed. And she's felt really lousy the last few days. I talked to the Dr.'s office this morning and apparently they are seeing this bug last up to 6 days. Ugh!!

 She's pretty much been lying around most of the time. Yesterday Brad took Carolyn out to burn off some steam and escape from our quarantined house and they went to Build A Bear and made a monkey for Nora. She was so excited to see it. It was about the only time she smiled all day! Unfortunately I made the mistake of letting her sleep with the monkey and when I had to come in a couple hours after she went to bed to clean poop out of Nora's hair (I think I should win a parenting laurel for that!)- the monkey was soaked. His instructions were to "surface wash only" but he managed to survive a wash cycle on hot and a trip through the dryer, so I guess he's made of firmer stuff than Build A Bear claims. :)

 Today I stayed in mostly with Nora, but Brad took Carolyn out to play in the snow- we got several inches of heavy, wet snow this afternoon and they had a great time sledding.

 It's so sweet to watch a daddy with his little girl. I so enjoy watching their special relationship grow as Carolyn gets older. They have so much fun together!

 He helped Carolyn build the cutest snowman that ever was in our front yard. :)

 Unfortunately she wasn't really looking at the camera when I tried to take a pic of them together... but you get the idea. :)

 Inside, I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies for the first time and they turned out wonderfully. :)

So... it's been a long weekend and I feel somewhat weary at the end of it and not ready for the start of a new week... but we're all just praying that the bug will stop with Nora and spare the rest of us!! Bless her sweet heart, she's still working so hard on the potty training even with all the digestive issues she's having- she just really doesn't like the diapers (neither do I!). Hoping we can get that process wrapped up once we're through with this!

Quarantine

 That yucky stomach bug made its way to our house this week. Nora's had it for about 24 hours and we're waiting for the rest of us to get it as we've all been amply exposed. She seems to be on the mend... so at least it looks to be a relatively short one... today we spent ALL DAY in the house, despite the sunshine outside. ALL DAY and I felt like I did NOTHING. We watched a lot more TV than usual. Guess that's just how some days go...