Delightful.

Please note: The following post was writing under the influence of a full night of sleep. Perspectives may vary depending on future sleep levels.

Back in my Bible College days, I sang in the choir and one of the songs that we sang came from Zephaniah 3:17. "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." I like the picture of God delighting me, His child.

And so last night while Elijah and I were playing, I realized how delightful my children are. I genuinely enjoy being their mom.

Elijah has such a kind soul. The way he talks to Nora makes me laugh sometimes. He does a very good job of talking to her like I do. He is a boy through and through. If he can swing it, it's probably a sword. His imagination is definitely not lacking. I will spare him the future embarassment of a picture, but last night he was running the living room with a Pull Up on his head, using it as a helmut. That was worth an hour of entertainment.

Lillian has spirit. The other day when I was feeding Nora she came to me and told me "I need some attention". How do you not laugh at that honesty? She already has some strong opinions about what she's going to wear and currently matching isn't a high priority.

And my little Nora has a smile that melts my heart. First thing in the morning when she's just waking up, she is full of happy smiles. (She also sleeps at night. After two kids that didn't, I'm rather enjoying this.)

I leave you with this picture of Lillian and Elijah. What's missing on it is the fact that she is actually rubbing his back. Eating popcorn. Watching a movie. Rubbing his back. Snuggled up together.

Mennonite in Training

The sign of some good Mennonite blood is the ability to "Knack Zoat". (My apologies for what may be an incorrect spelling of the Low German language/dialect.) Elijah is learning to eat sunflower seeds. He's still two handing it and can't crack them in his mouth yet but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Nora smiling

It's easy to forget in the first few weeks home from the hospital that your new baby will start interacting with you at some point. Nora really started to do that this week. She was making eye contact and "conversing" and my favourite part - smiling at me.

Sleeping through the night

if you have a newborn, or have had a conversation about a newborn with someone, the likelihood of their sleep patterns has likely come up. You know, the customary "Getting much sleep?" "Are they sleeping through the night?". These conversations take place with the assumption that once they get older you will sleep more. But here's the reality (at least for us), movement out of the newborn stage has not equated to sleep for parents. This occured to me last night at 3 a.m. while I was tending to my four year old's bloody nose.

Sure, I have been up at night with Nora over the past several weeks. But, I have also been up with my other two kids. Elijah has had several bloody noses, bad dreams and necessary trips to the potty. Lillian has screamed so loud you are certain that something traumatic has taken place - only to learn that her dearly loved soother has gone missing.

Now I only have experience as a parent until age four, however, I was also a child once and I do recall that my parents spent many a late night waiting up for me (or at least lying in bed pretending to sleep while they waited for me to come home and try to quietly walk past their room to mine.)

See, what I'm beginning to understand is that I will never sleep through the night again. Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep? A distant memory. Not going happen again.

I think I need a nap.

No pretties

I tried to put pretties in Lillian's hair again yesterday. You can tell by the look on her face and the very large lower lip that we did not have success. Try as I might she does not let me put anything in her hair. She claims it hurts. I think she just wants short hair like her mom. :)

Say "Cheese"

A year ago we bought a DLSR camera which I have loved. Rarely does a day go by that I don't take a picture. I love to catch those moments in my kids lives when they are doing the things that make them kids. Playing with Lego. Jumping off couches. Experiencing life.

The kids have been pretty interested in my camera lately and in an attempt to distract them, I decided to haul out my old camera. They have taken great delight in it. It warms my heart to see this and I wonder if this is the moment that they will look back and say they started to have an interest in photography. It is so much fun to see them discovering the things of life.

I have also been reminded that kids are always watching what you do. I was told by Elijah yesterday to move to a certain place for a quick family picture. His voice sounded EXACTLY like mine when I'm trying to generate excitement for another posed shot.

Here are some shots of their photographic adventure. This first one warms my heart to see all of my kids together. Elijah is instructing Lillian on how to use the camera. (Which she still doesn't really know how to do but loves pointing it at things saying "Cheese".)

Hockey Night in Canada

Well, I guess it's more Hockey Night in Our Living Room.

What better way to help your kids learn to skate than to have them play hockey in your living room? Both kids have gotten surprisingly good at balancing on skates. It will be interesting to see Lillian when she finally gets to go on the ice in skates.