I looked at my daughter this morning and noticed her belly had gotten much bigger. “What is in your jammies”, I asked. She informed me that she too had a baby in her belly. If only my pregnancy could be so short and my delivery so easy. 

This week my baby girl asked me to put her hair in two braids. When did her hair get long enough to braid?  She was quite excited to pose for me afterwards. Doesn’t she look so grown up? Seriously, when did this happen? Visit here or here for more fun with pictures.

In Science we’ve been talking about what God created on each of the 6 days of creation. Currently we’re on day 6 and discussing the creatures that walked on the land. While the kids were playing on Friday, they got the idea to group their stuffed animals according to classification. Of course they didn’t use these exact words. But, they made a pile of non mammals and another of mammals and then called me in to take a look.

February is here. I am happy to say I’ve finally put away all our Christmas decor and while it isn’t completely conquered, I have tamed the laundry beast and gotten somewhat of a grip on the house chores and school work. For now So, with this new month, I’ve set some goals for some things I’d like to get done around the house. And thanks to two different blogging friends, I have some accountability and inspiration.

My oldest two have gotten into the habit of “e-mailing” each other at the beginning of nap time. And by e-mailing they really mean they are drawing pictures and writing messages back and forth to each other. We’ve worked out a system in which they are allowed to e-mail for the first 30 minutes of nap time. Then, they have to have quiet time in separate rooms for the remaining hour and a half.

The other night as we were driving home from out of town friends, our youngest complained that her belly didn’t feel good. A few minutes later I heard a cough and knew instantly what it meant. We pulled over and began clean up. For once I was thankful for our less than clean minivan as it provided numerous things for us to use as barf bags and clean up rags for the remaining hour drive home.

One thing my husband and I try to stress to our kids is that life is not all about them. We love them dearly, and pour much of our time, love, energy and attention out onto them. But, because we love them, we also try to teach them that life does not revolve around them. We are a family of 5 soon to be 6. So, in a lot of ways this is a lesson that is taught early on out of practicality.

That’s right after her total regression back to diapers in August (after a completely embarrassing trip to the grocery store which involved my wiping pee up off of the floor–twice, the shopping cart, not to mention our groceries….I thought I would never leave the house with her in underwear again) but after Christmas we decided to give the ol potty train a try once more. My mom told her at Christmas it could be her New Years resolution.

January has been hard for me. We have our Christmas decorations down, but still not put away. There is a underlying sense of clutter and chaos lurking around the circus, rather than the clean slate, fresh start of a new year. I long for a good, deep clean to get things in order, top to bottom and help me to feel on top of things once again. But, it seems each day I am pulled by the more immediate needs of the day… sick kids… volunteering at school, entertaining guests, New Years cards (never got to the Christmas cards, did print New Years cards and really wanted them mailed before Feb), and school work.

My son always has tons of questions about the world around him and the way things work. Most of the time, I am at a loss as to how to answer these questions. For example, the other day he wanted to know about signals and how we could see them. As in, radio signals or cell phone signals. He wondered if they were like infrared light and could only be seen with special glasses or if we can’t see them at all.