Timing is Everything

Today I was at an open house for a preschool friend, Amy, who is moving away (tear.) At one point I looked over at Amy holding a baby girl and made a comment about how cute the baby was. Someone asked me if it was making me want to have another and I said, "No, no, no!" Everyone knows that I want to have more babies, but now is not the time. I made a comment about how strange it is to not be thinking and planning about when I'm going to try to get pregnant again, but it's not even on my mind right now. My friend Maya said, "You just wait, you'll get into your new house and have a little room to spread out. You'll get past the holidays and come January, you'll be twiddling your fingers and that itch will come back." Later this evening we were all in the living room watching our family's (minus Mom's) favorite movie, Cars. I remembered that cute, funny story. I opened my mouth to tell it to Devan and to ask him if he thinks it will be time to start thinking of the next baby this winter. Before any words have left my mouth, Josh sits up, leans over, and vomits big chunks of peanut butter sandwich in my hair. As I'm in the shower a few minutes later, all I can think is, we'll have another baby someday, but not now. So not now.

All joking aside. We are in a good place right now. It's so nice to feel joy and completeness in the family I have right now, at this moment. And yes, my children still never wear clothes.

My return to blogging

It's been a long absence and I know my many, many readers have missed me. So, to reward your patience, here is a glimpse into life at the Steele home. The day was today. The time was 7:45. Dinner had been eaten, Dad wasn't home yet. The mother was mentally checked out. She peeked in at the 3 children playing happily in the bedroom and then had the audacity to sit on the couch and read for 20 minutes. She could hear them jumping on the bed, but as previously mentioned, she had clocked out for the day and was ignoring everything. Dad gets home, notes mother sitting glassy eyed in her pajamas on the couch, goes in their room, and calmly says, "I don't know how this was allowed to happen." An entire Costco-sized box of goldfish crackers had been dumped out all over the bedroom.

I don't know how it happened either. As previously mentioned. I'd JUST checked on them and didn't see any giant box of crackers in their possession. They are evil. They look so cute but they are so EVIL. All of them. Even the little one.

So, I went in and started putting the fishes back in the box (because if you know me at all, you know that there's no way I'm letting an entire box of snack food go to waste.) Still mentally checked out, but at least making an effort to go through the motions. From somewhere far away I hear the oldest and most evil of the three repeating a phrase over and over. It finally registers as, "Squish 'em in, squish 'em in, squish 'em in. It sure does take a long time to squish 'em all in!" Yes, Hannah, it does take a long time to squish all those crackers into your bed.

Hannah went to time out. I went to a fetal position in my bed. The crackers are still in the bedroom.

Ben learned how to climb out of his crib a couple of months ago. Since then bedtime has been a nightmare. Tonight I decided to lower his mattress all the way to the floor to see if I could trap him in his crib. Hannah had to sleep in our room all alone, which is one of the worst punishments for her. This isn't a problem for us because we sleep on a mattress pad on the living room floor, which we drag back and forth from our bedroom every morning and evening, just to keep up the appearance of civility, but still allowing us to pass out in front of the TV every night.

So, Ben's crib situation lasted about 2 minutes until he figured out how to climb out. Not willing to endure another night of sticking him back in bed over and over for two hours, Devan constructed a cage for the boy.   

Devan stuck the walker on top so he couldn't lift it off of himself. I think Hannah was responsible for the addition of their entire stuffed animal collection. I love his little hand sticking out the side. He'll be glad for such careful documentation when he has to tell his stories in therapy as an adult.

Once he was asleep, I took the cage off of him. See, he could have slept in a very nice bed, complete with animal friends and sheets. Instead, he will be spending tonight and perhaps every night in the future on the floor under a cage.

And so reader, you can leave your "thank you"s in the comments section because, as always, WE MAKE YOU LOOK SO GOOD!