Quick 5

What is the best way to follow a week of unusual 90 degree September weather?  With a week of unusual steady, heavy rain.  I love it!  Except for all the flooding and destruction and Coast Guard calling going on. 

1.  We've been dealing with the Kindergarten Krud around here.  Alaina, of course, brought it home a couple of weeks ago.  Joya, in all of her putting everything in her mouth still glory, caught it soon after.  Then Lee.  The girls still have lingering coughs, but I thought Bria and I were going to make it through unscathed.  Until Wednesday, when someone turned a faucet on in my nose and Bria started sniffling and coughing.  It's not terrible, but it's enough to be annoying and to downgrade our sleep from Pretty Good Considering My Infant Still Wakes Up To Eat Once A Night Or When She Rolls Over Onto Her Belly to Settle In Folks We'll Probably Be Up At Least Three Times Tonight.  I'd like to thank our Freddy Frog Cool Mist Humidifier and Baby VapoRub for all their help the past couple of nights.

2.  Some morning last week, the girls and I were in the lobby of Alaina's school waiting for her to line up.  There are about 7 or 8 kid/parent combos who all wait in there at the same time, so we're getting used to seeing the same faces every morning.  Anyway, there is this one sweet little boy who LOVES Bria.  The first day of school he bounced right over to her, much to his parents' embarrassment.  I told them that it was perfectly fine for him to look and talk.  He didn't try to grab her or anything.  Now, anyone can tell by the pale skin of his parents and by his lovely chocolate skin that he is adopted.  And clearly it is a topic they have covered extensively with him, because on this particular morning he said, "Oh, I can't wait until I'm 25 and can adopt a baby.  Did you adopt all these babies from an orphanage?" (referring to both Joya and Bria.)  I told him no, that I grew the babies inside my belly.  He said, "Oh" and moved on to line up.  It was such a cute exchange.

3.  Bria is getting to be quite the busy little baby.  I can't even rock her to sleep anymore; if I'm holding her she wants to be up and looking around.  Or grabbing something.  Like my hair or ear or cheek.  Keeping her entertained is quite the chore, although this is one of her favorite places to play each night.

And don't you dare try to hand her a toy.  She wants to lean over and grab it by herself.  It keeps her entertained for about 45 minutes, which is quite a long time in baby minutes.

4.  Speaking of by herself, that is Joya's battle cry lately.  It is teaching me patience in ways I never thought possible, since whenever Joya does something by herself it adds anywhere from one to five minutes, depending on the task.  I love that she's learning to dress herself completely, but it takes her about 15 to 20 minutes to do it.  That works at night for jammie time, but not in the morning when we have to get dressed, eat breakfast and get out the door.  Of course, I'm not exactly sure how much of the 15 minutes is used up by running around her room naked, shrieking with her sister.  I don't really want to know.  The point is, she really CAN get her jammies and pull-up on all by herself, as long as we not pressed for time.

Joya and the frozen banana I made in 7th Grade home-ec

5.  This weekend is the big fall kick-off at church, which means we are changing our service times to Saturday at 4:00 and Sundays at 9:00 and 10:30.  So for the next month or so, since I'm the nursery director and Lee is a member of the worship, we will be attending all services.  That will change eventually, but I definitely need to be close by to assist all the ministry partners with the adjustment.  I haven't thought too hard about what it will be like to be at church all weekend, but we can do anything for a season.  And this season is brief and has a definite end in sight.  I know it's not quite the same, but it seems to me that when I was growing up we were at church Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday nights.  I have good memories of running around with all the kids, especially around the night services, so hopefully my girls will have good memories too.

Stay dry and flood free this weekend!