Asher

Is it really May? I guess I sort of let this blog project go by the wayside.

Asher is fascinating to me. I feel like just when I begin to figure him out, he changes course. His two great loves in life are Legos and Star Wars. He is always begging me to play Legos with him. Legos are much more Paul's thing. Paul can build incredible things out of Legos, and Asher is following in his footsteps. I secretly think that Asher likes to play Legos with me because he is so much better at it than I am. We were building a Lego city together the other day and I was assigned to build a bridge. I put a plank over two tallish pieces and declared it a bridge. "Um, Mom. That is a nice bridge, but-here, let me make it look like a real bridge." He took it from me and built a pattern of cables on the side and put a roof over it, and added lights to the top so the airplanes wouldn't run into it. I love that boy.

He is forever humming the "Imperial March" (The Darth Vader music from Star Wars), and peppering me with questions about minute plot points. I don't know much about Qui-gon Jinn (yes I googled the correct spelling) or about the layout of the Death Star. I do however know that Paul will know, and I happily turn the question over to him, or I consult google.

Asher loves his little sisters. He loves to care for Lydia, he is always trying to make her laugh. She bit him the other day, hard enough to draw blood. He cried, but through his tears he said "It hurts so bad! But Lydia is just too cute to stay mad at." He sees Madeleine as much more of a peer. He has a really hard time figuring out how to entertain himself when she is at preschool. Those two always have some elaborate, imagination fueld game going on.

A few weeks ago, we went on a family walk and a dog began barking as we walked past its fence. Asher froze, Madeleine walked confidently forward. He grabbed her hand and pulled her back to walk closer to me. He then dispensed his brotherly advice "Madeleine! When there is a big, mean dog, walk by Mom because she loves us the most. But make sure Dad is walking ahead of everyone because he is the toughest and will get the dog before it gets us". He then proceeded to lecture her for the next 5 minutes about how much he loves her and how careful she needs to be because we would all be so sad if anything happened to her. Of course I snapped pictures behind him.

He is a wonderful boy and I feel so blessed to be his mother.

My Madeleine 2/11

Madeleine is my sweet and imaginative 3 year old girly-girl. I remember when she was a newborn baby and I was terrified something was wrong with her. You see, this baby did NOT cry. She was pretty much constantly content, unfazed by any of the stresses of her new environment. She even slept 8-10 hours at night (once I got over the waking her every 3 hours to eat rule). With trepidation, I told my Doctor that I was worried something was wrong. He assured me that she perfectly normal, and it was probably just her personality.

She remains to this day my even-tempered girl. What she lacks in drama, she makes up for in stubbornness, however. Once she has her mind set, she will not bend or break. Often, I think I have bent her will, but she embodies the phrase "it is better to ask forgiveness than permission".

We have a strict rule in our family that unless we are staying the night somewhere else, the kids' bedtime lovies stay home. Madeleine always sleeps with her precious stuffed cow appropriately named, Moo Cow. A few Sundays ago, I was getting the three kids ready all by myself and Paul was already at the church. My other two were filling the family drama quota while I tried to rush to get to our meeting on time. I still have no idea how it happened, but during the service I glanced at Madeleine, and there was Moo Cow sitting reverently beside her.

She prefers to be called Madeleine instead of Maddie. She says it "embarrasses her" when I call her Maddie. Three years old, and I already embarrass her. I can't wait until 13.

She aspires to be a Grandma when she grows up. Today she told me she wants a grandbaby named "Baby Alive" and a grandbaby named "Lugarella" (Not sure if that is the proper spelling). I love this girl, she makes me laugh several times every day.

Lydia 2/11

For the next few entries, I want to bring you up to speed on each of our three little ahem "angels".

First up, our Lydia Judith:

These pictures were taken right after she ate ice cream, sorry for the mess :p

Lydia is a giant personality wrapped up in a compact package.

She has one volume-LOUD. It doesn't matter if she is happy, sad, or furious she pumps up the volume. We haven't quite figured out how to get her to use her inside voice yet. Really, I am not sure I want to, except for church.

Asher and Madeleine would do anything to extract emotion from her. They love it when she is laughing and playing- Lydia squealing in pure joy makes any game more fun. Unfortunately, Lydia screaming in anger also seems to have the same effect on their games.

She seems to be happiest doing whatever the big kids are doing. She loves playing dress up with Madeleine (as you can see in the pictures), she also tries her best to stay in the game with Asher playing Lego's. She has refused to have anything to do with sippy-cups for several months now. She climbs into bed with Madeleine or Asher every night while we are finishing up with the night time routine, hoping against hope we will overlook her and let her stay with them. Every night we scoop her back up and we put her in her own crib with 4 of her favorite loveys (she has a posse.) If we forget any of them, she'll scream "BABY!" "BEAR!" "BLANKY" "HARVEY!!!" until they are reunited.

Lydia has brought so much life into our home I cannot remember what life was like without her. By this third child, I have finally learned to extract the joy from every stage. I am not in a hurry for her to grow up, or change. I just wish time would slow down a bit.

Journal

I have gotten distracted by Facebook and I haven't even read any blogs for several months. Today, I began reading through old entries of mine, and I couldn't believe everything I had recorded. I then followed my friend's links and realized how much I truly miss blogging. I think this blog has been a terrific way to preserve our family memories and I want to get back into it.