Dr. Seuss Themed New Beginnings

 Sarah and her friend Taylor were in charge of 

New Beginnings as one of their value projects.

There was a quote from a different Dr. Seuss book for each value.
There's my Rebecca talking about Divine Nature!

 I gotta say assemble-your-own-Schlopp is quite good!

This was the introduction of the new girls table. 

There is a poem in the background written about them in Dr. Seuss style. That was my job. 

Taylor's mother supervised everything else.
She says she got a lot of ideas online.

I think she's glad this is over!

Each girl got to take one of these home.

Saturday Morning

 Starting to sit on his own for longer periods of time now.

 The Droolmeister completely saturates his clothes

 and has discovered his hands.

Turning 38 on my 400th post!

 Visiting Teachers bring me a cake.

 I sat right down in front of them and ate two pieces of it without batting an eye. 

It is my birthday after all:)

Course, I shared.

 Rebecca got up in the middle of the night to hang these around the kitchen for me so I'd see them first thing. 

I thought that was really sweet . . .

and a little crazy!

 She also got me a yellow rose. She said that when the florist asked if she wanted a red one she said, "Nah, I like the yellow ones." That's my girl!

 (all above photos compliments of Rebecca)

My biggest present is this guy. I remember quite clearly feeling miserably sick for my last birthday but look what I got to show for it now:

Baby thighs. Aren't they the best?

April learns about AA

On Friday Peter and I went to a birthday party for someone he works with. I didn't know much about this person but had been told by Peter he was a good guy that had seen some hard times in his life.

When I got to the restaurant where I expected to find a small group of people waiting to surprise the birthday boy I found instead an enormous room full of at least 75 people. I looked around and thought wow, this guy has a lot of friends.

As I sat at the table I asked the couple sitting across from us who all of these people were and was told they were from his association with AA. Having not had a whole lot of experience with alcoholics you can imagine this was an eye opener. But I thought that was nice and joked with Peter about the fact that we'd probably not see anyone drinking and that if it came right down to it we could all use AA type groups for different aspects of our lives.

After the guest of honor arrived, a humble, rather weather-beaten and very surprised looking man, they had everyone in the room stand, in turn, and tell how they knew him. What I heard was incredibly inspirational. Each and every person in that room had been touched in one way or another by this man who has been through hell and back in his life. Each of them shared how blessed they are to know him and how they look up to him as he has been a "sponsor" in their personal roads to recovery. I can only imagine how many AA meetings he has driven people to as dozens of them spoke of how he had picked them up at ridiculously early times in the morning and throughout the day to go to meetings together. There has obviously been countless hours he has spent in his life devoted to helping others through their darkest days.

There was a lot about AA I never knew that I learned at this party. Some people go three times a day when they are trying to fight their demons and pull their lives back together. One moment I especially remember was when a woman thanked him for helping her husband because in helping to save her husband he saved her life as well. There were lots of tears, and jokes going around about crazy situations in which he had picked them up from jail, or rehab, or stuck in the middle of nowhere they could all laugh about now but must have been terribly difficult at the time.

I can imagine these people have all had a time in their life when they "hit bottom" and felt alone and desperate in a way no one would ever wish on anyone. The hopelessness was probably almost more than they could bear and yet here they all were, looking from many respects just like regular folks. I would have never suspected most of these people to have a drinking problem had I seen them in any other situation.

Stories of redemption are my absolute favorite thing. What an incredible and inspirational experience it was to be there for this event-- being an eyewitness to a person hearing all the things we may never take the time to say to one another. It was difficult for him I could see, but I sure appreciated being able to see it. It was like an early present for my birthday tomorrow-- a celebration of an very imperfect life made wonderful through sacrifice and service and true atonement is the greatest celebration there could ever be!

That night Peter left straight from the restaurant to finish packing and disassembling his desk for the big move they were planning on the next day as the firm was relocating. Everyone has been in a frenzy getting ready with all the particulars of the phones, files, hiring staff, etc. He got home late that night and went in to supervise the movers the next day. His co-worker, the aforementioned guest of honor, was there after spending all night in a hotel room taking turns helping someone "detox,"which is basically where you sit and watch a person to make sure they don't drown in their own vomit.

Wow. Makes you think about your problems in a different light doesn't it?

Love this boy

  

Dating

Nathaniel says things that everyone thinks, but don't even realize they are thinking. 
(Does that make sense?)

Anyway, sometimes it is annoying, and sometimes it is downright hilarious.

Tonight he came home from a date. I made a comment about something and he says, "Mom, you don't even remember what it was like to date in high school."

"Maybe so," I said. "And I'm glad because I hate dating."

"Why would you hate dating? You don't even have to do the asking. All you have to do is stay home and feel bad that you didn't get asked."

Only Nathaniel can make me laugh as he insults me.

Our second thumb sucker . . .

 Well, we tried, but Will has officially chosen the thumb over the pacifier and has been sleeping through the night semi-regularly ever since.

Rebecca was a thumb sucker until she was seven (as was her daddy.) She was also my best sleeper at night, which was a blessed gift from above because during the day she was very hard and slept in 5-10 min. increments. 

Will likes to be holding something in his hand while he is sucking away at that thumb. So funny how he goes to put a toy or blanket in his mouth and instead there goes the thumb. 

We did all kinds of things to get Rebecca to stop so I'm hoping we don't have to go through the same thing with Will but he sure is adorable with his thumb isn't he?

Will's first solid food

So I'm doing something different with this child and am actually going to try to regularly feed him solid foods starting at 6 months, which happens to be tomorrow. 

With my other ones they just never seemed that interested in the whole baby food thing and I just let them decide when they were ready to start eating. But I've since done more reading and talked with pediatrician and turns out if you feed them at this age you have a better chance of getting them to eat more diversely later. I'm told taste is learned and the older they get, even by a few months, the more opinionated they are about trying new things. 

Pediatrician also said to start them on vegetables first because you want them to develop a taste for that before the sweetness in fruit, which makes sense to me. Why did I never understand this before?

(John's place setting at right--note no food, only toys--arghh!!)

Since meals with the family STILL consist of John eating NOTHING I'm hoping I do a better job cultivating a more diverse palate with Will. Guess we'll find out how much control I have over it!

Me and Mom