Joy Through the Eyes of a Child

It snowed this morning, which made most of the adults I know pretty grumpy. I have to admit that I was none to excited about it myself. But, the children were thrilled. Max flew through breakfast and got dressed faster than any day this school year so that he could go outside. Lauren's first words of the morning were "It's snowing! I need to put on my snow pants!" and off she went to dress in clothing suitable for blizzard conditions. I figured it wasn't worth arguing about, so I helped the dress and they played outside for quite a while. It was really fun to watch.

It is easy to forget how much I love my children when I am parenting each day. Lauren has been a huge challenge recently. She is completely exhausting me. She still isn't fully potty trained and a good day is one where she only has one or two accidents, and they seem like true accidents rather than when she says "No, I don't have to go to the bathroom." and then pees on the floor standing next to the potty. She is definitely struggling with James and I have to watch her like a hawk with him because I really fear she will hurt him. But, this morning was just pure joy for me. They were so happy out there. Even James seemed to sense the excitement. I wanted to post some pictures while it is quiet here and I am still remembering how nice it was.

Silly Time

Boy, over 2 months since we have posted. I will try to be better. For the time being, though, here are a couple of silly pictures of four out of five of our "kids" playing together (okay, I don't think Cisco was really playing. It was more like he was waiting for them to go someplace else). Lauren and Max have a definitely love/hate relationship these days. One moment, they are playing really nicely together, and the next, they are yelling, hitting, screaming, crying, etc. In fact, as I wrote this, they did that exact thing. Sigh. Obviously, I prefer them getting along. :) Max adores James and James adores Max. Lauren goes between being killing James with kindness and just killing him. He might be scooting along on the floor and she will decide to "help" him sit up. Or, he might be sitting up, and she might shove him over. James usually looks at Lauren with suspicion. Who can blame him. However, Josh managed to capture a moment when all three were happy. Here are a couple of pictures.