Turning it off

      Our family has been trying something new. No t.v. on Sundays. For about three months we have fought with the children, and explained over and over and over and over again why we are trying to keep the boob tube off for the day.

    And every Sunday, I see my kids weep, and wail, and gnash their teeth... and tell me they don't like Sundays. But then we spend the day coloring as a family, reading books, playing games, and having the best quality time out of the whole week. And it makes the arguing and the tears sooooooo worth it in my book!

   

I am blessed. (not sarcasm)

     I've been really struggling for the past few weeks. We found out a few days before Christmas that I was expecting baby number four, and the following day I was hit by morning sickness. Hard. And I'm exhausted. And I'm taking care of three constantly moving living creatures. I know this was our choice to go through this again, but I was sort of hoping that being the fourth time around and all... it'd be a little easier. (Please... stifle your laughter)

    A lot of my prayers have been answered lately though. On a night I had no plans for dinner and was desperately trying to find the motivation to move off the couch and pour the kids a bowl of cereal, there was a knock at the door. A lady in my ward had just thought to bring over a hot meal, worried that I had already made dinner.

LIFE SAVER!!!!

  Two friends of mine have picked up my kids so I could have a break. In which I spent the entire time wallowing on the couch and napping.

LIFE SAVERS!!!!

   And then today... I was frantically and pitifully trying to get my house clean for a Young Women Presidency meeting. Elbow deep in dishes, I felt the stress tears coming, I was waaaay more behind than I thought I'd be. When I received a text.

   My friend, Melody, text me saying her husband was home to watch the kids, and she was coming over to clean my house.

LIFE SAVER!!!!! Together we got my house presentable for the meeting, and the cleanest it's been in weeks.

It felt so amazing to actually have a clean house today.

    And then my daughter dropped her sticky fruit cup on my freshly mopped floor. Spilled sticky lemonade on the table. Dumped out a bag of cool ranch nacho chips on my vacuumed carpet. Ran into the wall and cried forever. Pooped in the tub. And then peed on the carpet.

So thank you, Melody, for returning my sanity... right before I lost it again.

He can't handle the tooth

My son was casually eating an apple at the table when all of the sudden he started frantically saying, "My tooth! My tooth!" He ran over to me so I could examine the issue, and I could see his tooth had moved, significantly. Before I could explain this was normal (I was hoping this was normal), he wiggled his tooth with his tongue. And then exploded.

It scared him.

(Don't judge me for taking a picture in his moment of utter terror... but I had to send it to my husband who was missing the whole ordeal!)

After he calmed down a bit, I jumped online and read to him about loosing teeth, explaining that it was completely normal. After considering it for a while, he thought it was pretty cool that he was going to be like Ethan from primary. So it turned out to be fun. He kept wiggling his tooth all day, and when Doctor Dad came home, he popped it right out for him.

Grayson was so excited to call Mema and B-pa to tell them he "broke" his tooth. He was even more excited to be introduced to the Tooth Fairy. So naturally, my little artist had to draw her a picture.

He was so worried about whether to draw a boy or girl fairy, and what color the fairy is.

My little boy is getting not so little now.

Maybe that's why we're having another one. :)