A Little Worry

Ruth is 10 1/2 and has started to get her hips, and a small belly. She came to me worried some time ago. She was worried that she is going to grow up fat. I told her that she just needed to form good habits now and then she will be okay and that she would never have to worry about getting fat. Of course, being my daughter, hips are inevitable. I explained that she should eat her vegetables and exercise most days. Since then, Ruth has been exercising almost daily and eating her vegetables at every meal. I am proud of her for making an effort to be in shape and to eat right. I am also rather impressed with her determination to follow my counsel. I think that it will help how she feels about herself in the near future. I remember feeling like I was the ugliest person in the world. It is nice that my daughters still think they are beautiful princesses still. I am sure that is going to change soon.

When 6 Kids is Too Many Kids

I went to the store with Ruth and Kate last night just after I had put the younger kids to bed. We only needed one thing, but I thought it would be fun to look at the Christmas stuff. We walked over to the Christmas section and while Ruth and Kate were admiring all of the delicate, shiny ornaments, a red shiny bag of peanut m&m's caught my eye. Those m&m's called me over and before I had the will to resist, the m&m's were in my car driving home with me. I put Ruth and Kate to bed, and then went to my bed with my lovely book and my shiney red bag of peanut m&m's. After some time John came in, laid down next to me and said,"Are those peanut m&m's you are not sharing?" So I shared, and when John finished working we put on a netflix animae disc, "Black Cat." It is a "not for young children" Japanese cartoon series that we enjoy. Each episode is about a half hour. We watched one episode and we wanted to watch another, but we decided to be responsible and go to bed because at that point it was midnight. Well, we went to bed and about 20 minutes later the cat was jumping on us, my bedside table, and in the bathroom sink. We knew that cat must need water, so I got up, got the cat, took him out to the garage, got his water bowl, brought the bowl inside and filled it up, then I brought the water back out to the garage, came in, and locked the door. I went right back to bed, but I could not sleep because of those mean old m&m's (John had the same problem.). I think I did fall alseep around 1:30am. At 3am, the baby started crying, and one of the older kids went into the bathroom and did not sound happy. John went downstairs to take care of Anya, and I went to the bathroom. It was Adam in the bahroom trying to peel off soaking wet pajamas. I helped Adam out of his pajamas, onto the toilet and then into the bathtub. I then went into his room and stripped down his bed, washed off the plastic cover, put on a clean sheet and pillow case and then I put on the only two blankets we had left unused upstairs. At this point John had come back from settling Anya down and was bathing Adam. I got Adam some clean pajamas, and then I helped John dry Adam off and get him into his pajamas. Adam was shivering pretty hard, so John went downstairs and got him the big quilt fromoff the TV couch. We finally had Adam settled back down and warm so we went to bed. By this time the m&m's were no longer bothering me so I went right to sleep, only to be woken up by Rachel crying at 4am. I took care of Rachel, and went back to sleep. Then at 5am Johnny came into our bedroom. I was actually dreaming that my kids had the stomach flu, and so when I heard Johnny, I thought he was there to tell me that he was sick. I yelled, "get to bathroom, quick." Johnny then jumped up on me. That scared me, so I jumped out of bed and ran out of my bedroom screaming. (I don't normally do that.) Well, that woke John up and he asked what was wrong. Johnny said, "I only had a nightmare." I asked him if he felt sick and he said no. So we sent Johnny to the bathroom and to say his prayers. Then John decided to put on the audio scriptures stories to help Johnny get back to sleep in his own bed. The batteries were dead in the cd player so he fumbled in the dark for a charged battery near the battery recharger. He found a charged one on the third try, got the stories started, tucked Johnny back into bed and then came back to bed. At 6:56am, I heard Ruth and Kate's alarm clock and knew that it was time to get up and get the kids ready for school. I think that I was more tired when I woke up, then when I went to bed, and I thought, "we should have been irresponsible and watched the rest of the black cat disc like we wanted to. I don't think I would have felt less tired right now."

My Singer

Rachel sings a lot, She sings when she is holding a doll. She sings when she is looking at a book. She sings when we are driving in the car, and she sings when she is just walking around. Our whole family just loves it. I have seem Ruth and Kate just watch Rachel sing. Johnny will tell everyone in the car to be quiet so we can hear Rachel singing. (I will have to put an audio of it on here at some point.) Well, yesterday Rachel came to me and said that she wanted to watch the barbie movie. I asked her which one. She said she wanted the one with the girl who sings like Rae-rae.

A Tragedy

Johnny likes his hair long, like in the top picture. The other day I was giving him a hair cut and he would not stop wiggling, rubbing his eyes, and turning his head from side to side. I told him to hold still and put his head up several times. He would just say, "I can't," or "I am," or "I am trying". But he kept on moving a lot. First, I messed up the back of his hair. So I had to cut the front shorter to match the too short back. While I was doing that, he looked down and Bammo, the front was a tremendous mess. I was terribly frustrated, grabbed the clippers and buzzed off the rest. I am not sure I could have salvaged a bit more hair. Looking back, I think I could have left more length on the top, but I was so frustrated with Johnny that I did not stop to think about the nicest way I could fix the problem. I feel bad for my poor, poor little boy. His beautiful hair is all gone and he hates it. I mostly agree, I like his long hair. The only redeeming thing about the buzz is that you can now see Johnny's beautiful dark chocolate eyes a whole lot better. I suspect his hair will all be back by summer. Johnny is hoping it will be back by Christmas, and we are both relieved that he will not have to have a hair cut for at least four months.

Warts and being Fired

A year and a half ago Ruth and Adam got warts on their stinky, sweaty feet (Ruth has read this and says that her feet are beautiful, soft, rosy feet). Well, John took care of Ruth's wart and I took care of Adam's. With some blood and pain I got rid of Adam's wart within a month. John and Ruth have been very gently trying to get rid of Ruth's wart for one and a half years, in which time she has gotten a second wart near the first wart. About a week ago, I told Ruth she was fired from the job of wart removal and that I am officially hired. Tonight, I was working on Ruth's wart some when John came in to claim it as his job. I told John that I already fired Ruth, and that I have now officially fired him. John asked what can he fire me from? I suggested the laundry, but he did not agree. Then John went to take care of Kate, who was about to stick a q-tip deep inside her ear. This whole time, Adam had been sitting by watching me pick off pieces of Ruth's wart. Adam stayed by us after I had finished picking her warts and put on the wart medicine and was holding Ruth's foot for the medicine to dry. Adam called to me. He looked up at me with his big innocent brown eyes, and in a voice frocked with concern, Adam asked, "Your not going to turn me into fire, are you, Mommy?"

Little Miss Teeny Tiny

I took Anya to the doctors for her 10 month well baby check. She weighs 13 pounds and 12 ounces, and is 26 1/4 inches tall. That puts Anya in the 0.07% for weight and 5% for height. All of my kids are very small for their ages, especially the girls, but Anya is the smallest. She is a little more than a pound lighter than all of her sisters were at the same age. She is really cute being so small. She has the biggest, sweetest smile. A very gentle temperament, and is just so little and cute. I always want to sweep her up and cuddle her. After she was born I would say, "just stay little one more day,". I didn't think that she would obey.

Anya really enjoys her older brothers and sisters. When they are running around the house she is always crawling after them as fast as she can squealing with delight. She also loves the outside. Every morning when we open the front door, Anya crawls as fast as she can outside. She has not figured out how to get down steps yet, so she goes no further than the front porch. Adam usually follows her out and pulls her in by her pajamas. It has become a funny morning tradition. But as soon as she hears that door open anytime of the day, Anya is going as fast as her little body can move her to get outside before we shut the door. She is such a delight and a cutie. I am so glad that despite all my inhibitions and fears of having another baby, I went ahead and had little Anya. She is a wonderful addition to our family.

Singing and Dancing

We were singing, "Angel's We Have Heard on High" for family home evening. My children, lead by our dear oldest daughter, began dancing around as soon as we started singing. This is the usual way for Ruth to sing a song during family home evening, but it rarely involves singing. Ruth has always just been a little fairy who cannot help dancing when she hears a song. Her siblings mostly join in the dance and often make the family song a brawl. It does not make for a very musical family like I imagined we would be (sigh). So I was surprised when Kate, while doing a little piroet, sang out beautifully, "In our house we de-o."