Easter Grace

On Easter Sunday we attended church with Adam's parents at The Branch. Easter is a holiday that we usually spend with Navis' and we always enjoy our day with them, including the service at The Branch. This Easter Sunday, I could not help but reflect back to the service we attended there on another Easter Sunday.

It was 2007. Adam and I had been trying to get pregnant for a long time and I was heartbroken and empty. The Branch is a great church for young families, and on that Easter Sunday, the sanctuary was just packed with beautiful little people. The young children were parading around in their Easter best, smiling and singing. The parents were doing likewise.

And I just stood and cried.

I remember that hurt very well. I know that the pain that I was experiencing in those days was nothing like the pain of the Cross, but it sure felt like torture to me.

Little did I know that God's grace was waiting for me later that same year with news of a pregnancy. Though aided by doctors and more interventions than anyone really plans for, it remains a miracle. Then, just two years after the news of those two, another miracle... God's amazing grace visited us again, reminding us that He had it designed all along. And He's full of surprises!

So this year, I stood in that same sanctuary and sang Amazing Grace while holding my little miracle, while my two older miracles stood on their chairs and with their grandparents and daddy and danced to the music. And I again shed tears...but this time, not at all empty, but as I let the words pour over me, FULL of His grace and His love for me. "My chains are gone, I've been set free, my God my Savior has ransomed me!" I don't ever take these three for granted because for a long time, I thought they wouldn't exist. Praise God for my children, constant reminders to me of God's love and His amazing grace!

Update on Eden's Writing

I posted a picture in March of Eden's first attempt at writing her name. Here we are, not even quite six weeks later, and she has made definite progress. We don't really work on writing letters! I am telling you, this girl is a go-getter. Today Eden wanted paper and her crayons and she said, totally unprompted, "I'll write my name!" And this is what she did.

Interestingly enough, if I ask Eden how to spell her name, she does not tell me. I'm not sure if she can't tell me, but she doesn't answer. She asks me to answer. But she can sit down and decide to write it.

Not to compare, but since most people ask about Sebastien when I bring things like this up... Sebastien does not have the same interest in writing letters. He loves books, he knows all his letters, both big and small. But he doesn't care to sit and write. He also doesn't really color or draw much. It's just not his thing. I'm not worried about it; the time will come when he will be able to as well. I mean, they're not even 3 years old!

(But certainly learning to write "Sebastien" is going to be much harder!)

Thank you, Eric Carle.

You've probably heard of, if not read, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," by Eric Carle. There's a line at the end that says something like, "He wasn't a little caterpillar anymore...He was a big fat caterpillar." We like to read this part with emphasis..."He was a BIG, FAT caterpillar!"

Well, my kids love to hear stories about "When mommy was a little girl" and "When daddy was a little boy." It's one of our bedtime rituals, we tell them little stories about when we were kids - stories based on little memories like "Mommy and Uncle Eric would catch fireflies in the back yard." But I find that even these little snippets of memory can become interesting enough stories for 2 1/2 year olds.

Eden almost always ends these stories with, "And Mommy grew and grew and grew until she wasn't a little girl anymore, she was a BIG FAT Mommy!"

Thank you, Eric Carle, thank you.

17 lbs 3 oz

Violet had her weigh in yesterday and all is well. She is back up the 47th percentile, and her doctor and I are both confident that she is growing and developing well. I'm very thankful for this news.

The bad news was that the cold that Violet caught from her brother and sister led to an ear infection (and it is "not subtle," in Dr. Warmoth's words) and Bronchiolitis. We were just there for a weight check, so I feel blessed that Dr. Warmoth checked Vi out after hearing her cough. I'm not sure that I would have taken her in quite yet. I had expected that she would follow in Bash and E's footsteps and naturally just get better after about a week. But we caught the ear infection before it caused Violet too much discomfort, and we can get the antibiotics working their magic.

She had a rough night of not-sleep last night, so I know that she is uncomfortable now. Hopefully she will feel better soon and be back to her cheery self.

Gulf Shores - Part 2: The Rest

Here's a breakdown of the rest of the trip. (For those of you uninterested in reading all the details, here it is in short: It was really good.)

We had absolutely gorgeous weather the entire time. The worst day was not even cloudy, just kind of hazy and foggy. It rained and stormed one night, but not until after dark, so it didn't really affect us much.

Our beach house was beautiful, my favorite place we've stayed by far. We were kindly offered the master bedroom, since all 5 of us were sharing a room that week, and we needed to fit two air mattresses and a Pack N Play in with us. There was a huge walk in closet that fit the Pack N Play with room to spare, so...Violet slept in the closet. That worked out wonderfully. There was plenty of room to fit the kids' beds on the floor without inhibiting our movement too much. There was a gorgeous balcony off our room, though we blocked it off most of the time so that the kids didn't wander out there when they were supposed to be sleeping. The master bathroom was a dream.

Outside there was a nice area under the house that was shady. The house was fully loaded with stuff for kids to play outside, including two little toy pools. This was great because we had actually considered buying one when we got down there so there was an alternative to play in the Gulf. (My kids were scared to get too close to the Gulf of Mexico.)

The rest of the house was great too - three other bedrooms and bathrooms fit us all comfortably, especially considering the bunk beds that were in a closet in one hallway. Strange set up but helpful for some of the big cousins. There was a nice sized living room, kitchen and dining room. Our group was 15 total, and we never felt cramped.

Speaking of 15 total, we had a lot of help which was part of what made the trip so enjoyable for Adam and me. If we had done this trip by ourselves and the kids had gotten sick, we would have had zero time to relax. But as it was, we had lots of eager helpers, which we appreciate so much! (This would be a great place to insert a picture of the group, if I had one. Mikaela has them and I have yet to get copies.)


The biggest downside was that by Saturday night (the first night in the beach house) it was pretty clear that Eden and Sebastien were sick. They had fevers, rashes, more congestion, and their coughs were getting worse. Their energy was fairly low and they had little interest in being outside. This was a bummer. We had planned on over stimulated kids, kids that wouldn't want to get out of the sun, kids that wouldn't be sleeping because they were so tired...that kind of thing we planned for. But sick kids who didn't want to be outside? Boo. While inside, they actually did fairly well. It was obvious they weren't 100% themselves, but they weren't totally miserable. Their sleep was affected in a weird way. They fell asleep much faster than they usually would, which was good. But their overnights were very restless, especially for Sebastien. This made the overnights less restful than we would have hoped for on vacation.

By Thursday, Sebastien and Eden were starting to want to be outside and they were getting some energy back. This was so encouraging...However, Wednesday night Violet had a slight fever, and on Thursday it was a full-on fever, with cough and congestion to boot. I also started to get sick on Thursday. (The best word to describe all this sick stuff is BUMMER.) Friday the kids were almost back to themselves. They spent a long time outside playing with the whole gang (minus Adam and me; we were busy packing) and they had SO much fun. Adam and I both felt like Friday night was a window into what the week could have been like for them, if only they hadn't been sick.

But all in all, our assessment is this: beautiful weather + great location + great company - healthy kids + lots of help = still a pretty great time.

Gulf Shores - Part 1: Travel

Many people have asked us how our traveling with three young children went. This is a long and detailed account.

My family spent every Spring Break (5th grade-12th grade) in Gulf Shores, AL. After Adam and I got married, we joined my parents there a few more times. We hadn't been there since I was pregnant with the twins, but this year we were invited to join my parents, my aunt and uncle with their three teenage kids, and three of my other teenage cousins in a beautiful beach house.

We hesitated at first, mostly because of the drive (approximately 18 hours.) But in the end decided that we wanted to try it. We did a lot of thinking about how the make the drive go well...We got new books, took crayons and coloring books, the kids toy computers, looked up some in-car crafts, and bought some new sticker books. We also bought dual screen portable DVD players and stocked up on new Veggie Tales and various other toddler favorites.

On the ride down, we left at 11am and drove until about 11pm, where we stayed in a hotel for the night. We were nervous about how the kids would do during the drive, but the DVD players were pretty much all we needed. The kids barely touched any of the other goodies, they were just so excited to get to sit and watch so much TV. Eden and Sebastien didn't nap. And actually, Violet didn't either. She blew through her afternoon nap, and started to get really pretty cranky after dinner time. She finally fell asleep around 6:00, but only slept about 45 minutes before she woke up, upset and hungry. The twins did fine having not slept... at least until about 10:00pm, when they were just done. Neither could get comfortable enough to sleep deeply, but luckily we were only about a half-hour from the hotel when this started to be a problem. At least, it was supposed to be just a half-hour...until we hit the traffic jam.

We arrived at the hotel around 11:15, and this of course, gave all 3 kids a surge of energy, as they'd never stayed in a hotel before. Plus, Eden got to sleep with Daddy and Sebastien with Mommy, and they were very excited about this. Violey ate a little (more for soothing and relaxing than for hunger) and then settled right into her Pack N Play and fell asleep. Sebastien and Eden rolled around and giggled and talked for about a half-hour before exhaustion set in.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and got right on the road. We had about 5-6 hours of driving ahead of us, so we let the other two cars go on without us so that we could take longer stops when needed. Violet took a good morning nap in the car. Sebastien and Eden were doing fine for the first couple hours. But then Sebastien started getting hot. Really hot, really uncomfortable, and sort of just whimpered on and off. At one stop I let him out of his seat and he was just roasting. He curled up in my lap and just cried. He barely ate. And really, Eden didn't eat much either. These should have been clues to me, but I just kept thinking that they were sleep deprived and tired of driving.

By the time we got to Gulf Shores, both kids were restless and uncomfortable. They were real troopers, but at this point, they were sort of just done. We got out of the car, explored the house, got on some sunscreen and bathing suits and headed to the beach. It was soon after this that we discovered that both kids had rashes and fevers; they were also developing nasty coughs, and the congestion that we thought we had kicked just in time for our trip was back with a vengeance. But more about that later. This post, after all, is about the travel portion.

Fast forward one week, and it's time to go back. Fevers and rashes are gone, but cough and congestion remain. Moods and energy have improved greatly, however, and we were optimistic about the drive home. We tilted the car seats back for the big kids, something we had not done on the way south.

We left at 4:00am, and of course all kids woke up when we put them in the car. But by 5:30am, they were all sleeping again. Eden struggled to fall asleep in particular, she kept telling me, "Mommy, I'm stuck in my seat." I think she wanted to roll over to get more comfortable. They slept until about 7:30am.

The morning went well. Violet took a great nap, the twins watched their shows and read books. I read the last of the Hunger Games series with little interruption. :) The kids ate lunch in the car, and then I declared it nap time. We put on nappy music, read some books, sang songs, and tucked in just like we would at home. They were both asleep within a few minutes. Unfortunately, this "successful" nap only lasted about a half-hour. I'm still glad they slept.

The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully. It was about 5:30 when things started to fall apart. And really, just for Eden. It started with some unconvincing "Waaah's," a cry she does when she is pretending to be a baby while we are playing. But the frequency and intensity of these cries both increased, turning into full on crying within about 20 minutes. She could not be consoled, and even when promised that we were about to stop for dinner, her only responses were "I don't like food," and "I just want to drive for a while!" Poor girl.

We stopped for dinner, and she ate some. Sebastien and Violet had a nice stop, stretched their legs, visited with our traveling companions. But Eden just was too upset. At this point, we decided it would be best for daddy to join us in the car. (He was needed in other vehicles to provide breaks for other drivers. The kids rode with Grandma, Grandpa and me for most of the trip.) Having daddy in the van helped, since Eden is primarily a Daddy's girl.

She was alright for a bit, but then around 7:00, she started to fall apart again. We felt so bad for her, it was a long trip and she was just done. Adam had just given Violet her bottle, and she drifted off to sleep. Adam and I switched so that he was up front while my mom drove, and I took the child-care seat. By 7:30, after many complaints that she was stuck in her seat, and after I found her huge comforter from her bed and tucked her in with that instead of the small travel blankets, she fell asleep. It was fairly fitful sleep, but it was sleep.

Sebastien also fell asleep at about 8:30 and Violet stayed sleeping until we got closer to home. We arrived home just after 10:00.

Sebastien got right in his bed, and he sat there giggling. This indicating to us that he was glad to be home. Eden got right in bed and went right to sleep. Violet ate a little (again more for comfort) and then went right to sleep too. Adam and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Not too bad for an 18 hour trip with 3 under 3.

Ode to Sebastien

I love posting my kids' quotes as my Facebook statuses, and I love posting pictures, even more now that I have a fun new iPod Touch to play with. But I often feel like these things showcase my girls a little more than my son.

And here's why.

First - Sebastien was not as verbal as early as Eden, therefore his language is not as sophisticated as hers. He is catching up quickly, but his brand of speaking doesn't lend to quick quotes for a Facebook status.

Second - The boy is on the move, and he is very hard to get a picture of. My camera is not very fancy, it's kind of slow. By the time it has finally processed my request to take a picture, he has moved on. I have lots of pictures of the side of his face.

Here are just a few things I want everyone to know about Sebastien. Sebastien is happy-go-lucky. He plays very well with his sister, he plays very well by himself. He likes to cuddle, he is not at all clingy. (Unless he's sick or something.) He is laid back, the opposite of intense. He has an enormous imagination and a great memory, which leads to lots of pretend play. He is very VERY funny, but it's difficult to translate his humor if it's not witnessed in person. Sebastien loves music; he pays very close attention and has for awhile now impressed us with his pitch. (Starting very early, we knew what he was singing, not by his articulation of his words, but by the tune.) He loves drums and tubas. (He will often hear a song and say "I hear the tuba!") He loves singing. He's a great dancer. Sebastien is a ham, but not a show off. He is tender-hearted and sensitive in a way that makes me want to scoop him up just hug him all day long. He loves his twin sister, and he likes to make his baby sister giggle. He is well rounded - he likes to dress up in hats and different shoes and he likes to throw balls high up in the air. He is great at identifying shapes and fitting them together. He loves playing with "little guys" of any sort.

He is a fantastic kid.

Writing this I find that I could go on about him all day long. But this is a start.