Moments

There are moments that occur (maybe not daily, but often enough if I'm paying attention) that make me grateful to be a mom. My heart swells with love and pride for my kids during these moments. One of these moments is happening right now. I'm not sure if it's because Christmas is only two days away and no one wants to be on the naughty list, or if it is because they are actually learning to treat each other kindly, or maybe it's just some of their awesomeness leaking through. But whatever the reason, I'll take the moment and file it away into my folder marked "special, sweet moments" in my memory bank.

Right now all 5 of my little ones are playing nicely together, building blanket forts in the boy's room on the bunk bed. It happens so rarely that they are all playing together, that it stands out as a "moment". So often the older two don't want to include the little ones in their play because the little ones have a habit of "breaking, ruining, and destroying" stuff. It makes me happy to hear them including the little ones in their play. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I will enjoy it while it does.

Another of these "moments" I wanted to mention happened yesterday morning. My oldest daughter Hailey, age 9, was asked to help me by giving her 4-year-old sister (Maizie) a bath and getting her dressed. A little while later I find H and M in the bathroom. M is sitting very still (a huge accomplishment to get this one to hold still) on a little pink princess chair while H does her hair. M is dressed in a pretty pink dress and white cardigan with tights on, and H is braiding her hair and has a large pink flower ready to clip onto her head. As I walk by I can hear H telling M how pretty she is. How pretty her dress is, how pretty her hair looks. Over and over again she tells M that she is a very pretty little girl. Sweet, right? Now add to this image the fact that Miss M was born with Down Syndrome. She will never be deemed "beautiful" by wordly standards. But there is no doubt that H is sincere in her compliments. She thinks M looks pretty, and she's right. M is a very pretty little girl in her pink dress and white cardigan and tights with her hair all done up nice by her older sister. My heart swells with love and pride for my little girls in that moment and I file it away in my "sweet and special" folder. It suddenly occurs to me that this folder could end up being the thickest, fattest one in my memory bank.

Sick days

As a parents there is nothing worse than seeing your child(ren) suffer. And sick days are no exception. This time of year seems to bring more sickness and germs into our home than any other season. I hate seeing my little ones struggling with sickness, it breaks my heart. I try to be extra sweet and caring with them when I know they don' feel good. We spend more time cuddling on the couch while chores and errands wait their turn. Hey, they aren't going anywhere and my baby needs me! So that's pretty much what the last two days have been like for me since Mr. C's been sick. He's been running a fever, has a nasty cough, and a sore throat which results in a pathetically cute squeeky voice.

I wish I could end there and have everyone thinking I'm a great mom who does such an awesome job taking care of her sick kid. But I did promise to be 100% truthful. So I have to admit that after two days of said "pathetically cute voice" whining at me every time I'm not holding/cuddling him, I am about ready to scream! Not only does he whine at me constantly, but he also keeps asking for food which he then refuses to eat. I understand that his throat hurts, but if he's not going to eat it, why does he keep asking? My patience level is almost non existant at this point in time. There is only so much of it that I can handle and two days seems to be my limit. Now, maybe I could deal with it longer if I wasn't also dealing with a lack of sleep. (Which is due to being woken up several times last night by 3 of my kiddos, and not being able to fall back asleep for 2 hours in the middle of the night. Insomnia? Maybe.) I also have 4 other kids to deal with every day, so I admit that might wear me down as well. But seriously? He can't go 2 minutes without being held before he starts to whine. I can't even take a potty break without him following me into the bathroom and asking "hold me mommy?"

Like I said before, I try to be extra loving and caring, but mommy's gotta pee, or eat, or change a diaper. It's really just not possible to hold my sick little boy all day long! So after 2 days I find myself snapping at C for whining at me, and then I feel guilty for getting upset with him since he's sick and doesn't feel good. Which means that now we both are just feeling bad. Did I mention that I hate sick days?

Why a new blog?

Well I've been thinking about the idea of a new blog for a while now and finally decided to act on it. As the mom of 5 awesome kids, there is always something happening at our house. So this is my attempt to record those happenings. Some of them are crazy and wild, other times they are hilariously funny, occasionally they are maddening and frustrating, and also there are the quiet, special moments. Whichever category it falls under, all the happenings recorded here will be 100% true, and therefore give you a look at what it's really like to raise 5 Little Neffs.