Words.

Here I am again. But tonight it is 10:06 when I begin typing. No one can ever suggest I am not a creature of habit. All of the munchkins are soundly in their beds, and my earnest prayer of the night is that they stay there. But I am not holding my breath. Last night, Mara and Joshua both ended up in my bed with me. The rules were very strict when Joshua was a baby. I was always petrified that I would create a bad habit. Take it from the one who relaxed all of the sleeping rules with Mara...brining a baby into bed with you absolutely creates a bad habit. But something has to give with baby #3. And apparently it was the "no kids in the bed" rule. Something tells me I will never for a single second regret those hours of snuggles with Mara when she is a teenager and no longer admits to knowing me.

I had an interesting interchange with the nurse at the pediatrician's office yesterday when I called to verify the dosage for Tylenol for Mara. The night before I had guessed and figured it would be worth a check in to be sure. Turns out I wasn't far off...thankfully. The whole thing has me thinking about the power of our words and how quick we all are to fling them about.  I am making a concerted effort to be mindful of my words and to make sure that I pray for my thoughts to be pure, and for the words that form from those thoughts would be used to encourage others and not hurt them. Anyway, the conversation went like this:

Me:  I am calling to ask how much Tylenol I can give my baby for a fever?

Her:  How old is she?

Me:  8 months

Her:  How much does she weigh?

Me:  14 1/2 lb.

Her:  How old did you say she was again?

Me:  8 months.

Her:  Are you sure?

Me:  Yep, very sure.

Her:  About her weight I mean.

Me:  Oh...yes. Very sure about that too.

Her:  Wow!  That's unreal.  She is really little. Do you realize how small she is?

Me:  (On the verge of tears)  How much Tylenol is she allowed to have?

Maybe this whole thing was meaningless, and perhaps I had a bit of sleep deprivation playing into the overreaction corner on this particular set of circumstances. But for a Mama with a sick baby, who has struggled and prayed about the baby's growth and weight gain, the last thing I needed to hear from my doctor's office of all places was an implication that I ought to be concerned about her weight. I know she is small, but I had sort of gotten to a place that I wasn't stressing daily about the mandatory 1/2 oz weight gain that we needed to produce. As if I had any control over it anyway. 

Hoping that the words you all have heard today have built you up and not torn you down.  

Good night all!

Things I should be doing.

It is 10:08...in real time that means 9:59 because for some reason I always set my bedroom clock 9 minutes faster than it actually is. As though somehow being able to snooze one extra time makes me feel like I am sticking it to the early morning when the radio starts blaring at me to wake up.   Although Jason is away for a few days I have managed successfully to get all three kids down and can hear two of the three of them snoring away. There are so many things I should be doing.

Like laundry. (Shocker, I know.).  I finally managed to get all of our vacation laundry done and put away this past weekend. And if anyone is keeping track, we got home on August 25th. Sadly, there are two more loads there now that I promised I would put away tonight, but between you and me, I just plain and simple didn't feel like it.

I should maybe also be sleeping. We have gotten our obligatory first week of school cold this past weekend. To add to the fun, it I spreading like wildfire through all withi Dugan blood coursing through their veins.  Including Mara. The poor sweet baby has it the worst of all of us and has been suffering the worst through the night time hours. I believe we have logged quite a few miles and too many hours to count in the rocking chair the past two nights. It is just one of those things that, despite the fact that I have been so tired that I think my eyes might be crossed, you just keep rocking, keep snuggling your sweet, helpless baby because you know you are her only hope for feeling better. She seems better tonight but the night is still young, which is why Inshould be sleeping.

But instead, I am blogging. Minus pictures but I will work on that. Frankly, my lack of pictures is what has been keeping me from blogging, but I may just start writing more 'pictureless' ones to rely more on my words than my camera to tell the stories of what is happening here.  With pictures added in as often as I can.

In terms of kid updates, Joshua ism doing very well in kindergarten. We are so proud of him.  Lauren misses him terribly when he is gone. I can hardly imagine how she will take it next year when he is there all day. Hopefully the advent if nursery school for her will help to pass the time a few days each week next year. And Miss Mara is still limp crawling, but is gaining speed with each passing day. I also saw her pull herself unto stand on about 10 different things tonight- the couch, laundry basket, Lauren's rolling car toy, and others. I keep trying to tell her that she dorsn't need to grow up do fast but she dosn't seem to listen.

We have a busy few days ahead, but if all goes well, I will try this again tomorrow- and maybe try to sneak in a picture or two.

Night!