Cry Baby

Emilia loves noise. It has been an acquired taste for her. In the beginning, anything above inside voices would make her cry. Now she seems lost without the chaos. We dropped all of the kids off at aunt Summer's house except her. On the way there she did not make a sound, but once the car was empty she started talking to herself. Talking progressed to complaining, which progressed to full-on hysterics. The only time she ever cries in the car anymore is when she does not have company. My perfect little baby is no longer sleeping through the night. My theory is that she is hungrier now. Somehow just nursing is not doing it for her anymore. We have been feeding her cereal in the evening and she gobbles it up, which makes her my only child ever to actually like baby cereal.

Lilly's preschool class made gingerbread houses at our house last week. All of the moms came to help, but Lilly wanted nothing from me. She wanted to do it herself, which is great. I believe independence is an important part of building a child's autonomy...in theory. In practice, it took all of my self control not to jump in and make her gingerbread house for her. There was no order to Lilly's gingerbread house, no vision. At least not my vision. Of course the point was that she got to be creative and have fun, which she did. And her gingerbread house was just as beautiful as a house designed by a 4-year-old could be. It looks like I might be making my own gingerbread house this week.

On the way to karate yesterday Rachel got discouraged when she could not get her seat belt buckled. She exclaimed "All the bad stuff in the world happens to me!" I might not be mother of the year, but I happen to think Rachel has a pretty decent life, so I took her claim pretty personally. "Oh Really Rachel? There are people in this world who don't get to eat every day. There are people in this world who are so sick they can't get out of bed. There are people in this world who don't have a house to live in. Now do you really think all the bad things in the world happen to you?" There was a brief silence before she said "yes." There is no reasoning with a 6-year-old.

Over the last few months we have had someone elaser's kids to play over at our house more days than not. On the days we do not have extra kids, my kids are at other people's houses. I love this coming and going of children. Our house is full of laughter and chaos. But there are times it makes me feel slightly frazzled. I was contemplating this feeling earlier today when a thought occured to me. It is not that I am overwhelmed with these children and the friends and families they belong to. It is almost like there is so much love, service, and consideration going around amongst these families that my finite little heart wants to explode! The thought instantly made me smile. We are so blessed!