Yay!

I'm getting so excited. Matt and I are actually getting close to launching my stationery business, and I can't wait! We have printed several designs, and Matt's been working on my website. We just bought the domain name last week, and we're putting together the nuts and bolts. Papers, envelopes, stickers, and bag tags have arrived....ready to be printed with my own original designs. I still have some ordering to do (packaging supplies, ribbons, etc.)...this is so much fun! We've probably bitten off just a bit much, but we'll take it a little at at time. It's been a great opportunity to collaborate on a creative project together. This is the first undertaking like this we've done together, and it's been lots of fun. I've enjoyed tackling something other than dishes with Matt! I'll have to keep you posted as we get closer to the grand opening! YAY!

Gotta go to bed now...I've been up since 4:45 since we had the scary night with Abby. I thought I'd crash early tonight, but I've been wired. Hopefully I won't oversleep tomorrow and rush them kids off to preschool but rather have a slow, peaceful morning. We missed church today since we were up with Abby all night and since her body was so out of whack blood sugar wise (no way she would have been able to go to Sunday School or Children's Worship)...so today felt so long. We had a whole day with nowhere to be which is just odd for our weekends. We rested alot and just spent time as a family. We've got a bustling week ahead with doctor appointments, garage sale prep, errands to run, parties to attend, dance, preschool programs...a full week for sure. Gotta sleep and get geared up! LAter!

Parenting 24/7

Oh, the joys of life with diabetes. Many thanks to Matt for staying up until 4:45 this morning to keep a watchful eye over Abby. We had a major blood sugar issue last night, and we knew we had to check her blood sugar at least once an hour all night long. We both heartily agreed that we needed to take shifts to make sure that she got checked because we knew that we'd miss a reading if we slept and just set alarms. Matt and I both volunteered to stay up for the first 4 hours (we were already up at midnight doing various projects). He said he really thought he could make it, so I took the next shift (4 a.m. until...). We work better that way. e can pull an all-nighter and crash. Just let me sleep for 4 hours, and I can get up for the day. Not that we usually live like this. But with four kids, you have these nights when they are sick, are injured, or have bad blood sugar scares. So Matt checked her once an hour (blood sugars all good actually), and he actually stayed up until 4:45 (thanks for the extra 45 minutes of sleep). Since I'd gotten 4.5 hours, I was good to go. So here's the early a.m. blog! I'm not a part of the early bloggers club.

I'm so thankful our prayers were answered with Abby's blood sugars. I prayed fervently over her last night, and God listened. She's been fine all night, and she's slept well...never knowing that her parents were up crazy hours tending to her. God does that for us. And I know from first hand experience that although it's hard...you do it when you love someone (and because you know they need it). Thank God that He does that for us!

Learning Their Love Languages

So I've really been trying to focus on meeting my kids' needs through their "love languages" (see Gary Chapman's materials for more details). All of my kids need different things from me in different degrees. And of course at such young ages, what they need most now will most likely be very different in a few years or even just a few months.

I've learned that Isabella is my "words of affirmation" chick. She has to have LOTS of encouraging words. All kids need plenty of doses of affirmation. This chick needs about four times the normal dose. And a single harsh word is a major blow to her. In fact, she notices when I compliment one child and not her. For example, this morning Abby wore a beautiful new Strasburg dress to church (It was a $142 dress that I got for like $27 on the clearance rack!). When she got dressed, I told her how beautiful she was in her new dress. Isabella IMMEDIATELY said, "I don't look pretty in my dress." Well, of course Isabella looked pretty. She could model for any children's company easily...have you seen those blue eyes? And she does have her photo up in a local boutique...so yes, she's pretty! Anyway, I immediatelyl complimented how pretty she looked in her pink dress. While I know she needed that, she did still complain that she didn't have the same dress as Abby. Definitely a preschooler! No older child would be begging to match her sister! I remember begging my mom not to match my younger sister and I once we got older.

Abby is my quality time chick. She could spend HOURS with me shopping, Ebaying, folding clothes, creating stationery designs, cutting shrubs, you name it. She just wants to be with me. It doesn't matter what I'm doing. She wants me and just me. She loves to be affirmed, receive gifts, etc. but nothing speaks to her like quality time does. She gets that from her dad! He's the same way. So with Abby I have to be very intentional to carve out time for us to just hang out. Oftentimes that means involving her in the household affairs while the other 3 sleep. She loves it. We also go on "dates" once in a while just the two of us. And it's not just me...she loves to invest in time with Matt too. I love that. I found her tonight snuggled up on the couch with Matt just loving on him. Oh, I treasure these days!

Ali Kate's love language I'm still working on. She seems to need a little bit of everything. Physical touch may be hers. She is my snuggly bug. She always has a lovey, usually her dog Chuzzy or Ruf Ruf. She loves to nestle against my shoulder and suck her thumb. I can hold her in my arms and just sway her. The funny thing? As a baby, she was not a snuggly one at all. My how times have changed! She's the kid who always wants Mama to hold her and to sit with her. When I actually do sit during the day, you can usually find Ali Kate in my lap or on top of me!

And my Grant just loves attention....hugs, kisses, googoo eyes, coos, whatever he gets. He's in that goo goo eye phase where he coos at you, and I just love it! This is such a fun stage with him! I try to make sure that he gets some snuggle time every day when the others are off doing something else.

Ok, so I had no idea this post would be this long...but I'm a talker. And so are my girls...making for lots of words in this house each day. Poor Matt and Grant. Anyway, the point of it all...I try to make sure that I'm depositing daily into my kids what each kid most needs. Do I always make the mark? Absolutely not. But I keep trying. And I keep learning. And I also speak to their other needs...Isabella will enjoy that tomorrow when I send her some chocolate chip cookies as a suprise in her lunch box to school (the language of gifts).

Thanks for joining my 3rd Multiple Kids Mondays. I hope you're enjoying this! Please join in and post whatever you want about your life with multiple kids.

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Redneck Fun Matt Style

Oh, I just have to blog this. I only wish I had video to go with it. So I've been doing lots of landscaping this week (i.e. cutting back lots of shrubs that were in dire need of attention), and today Matt helped cut the tops that I couldn't reach. Yes, they were that high! I'm ashamed even as I type this. I do have four kids though, so I cut myself some slack. Anyway, I did a little more pruning after he trimmed their tops this afternoon. So after we grabbed dinner, Matt got out the blower to blow the last tiny pieces off the driveway. Well, Isabella was riding her tricycle in circles around the bottom of the driveway. Matt decides for no apparent reason that it would be fun to blow her with the blower. She LOVED it! He just aimed that thing right at my baby, and she squealed with delight as her hair blew straight up! And to calm everyone's nerves (including my own), let me note that she was several feet away...no danger of getting blown away or having something blown into her eye. Well, he did this a couple of times (to her delight) before mean ole Wendy insisted that this just had to be dangerous (hey, there could be flying rocks or debris involved) and that the redneck fun had to cease. Just plain ole trike riding the rest of the day. While I'll probably never let them do that again, I just had to record for memory's sake my technological husband's bit of redneck fun!

St. Louis Zoo

 

A very kind lady offered to take this photo of me and the kids at the St. Louis Zoo. We were stopped for a minute for one of the approximately 2,890 stops we made that day. You know the ones...stops to tie a shoe, give a pacifier, change a diaper, go potty, check blood sugar, fix a hairbow, eat a snack, eat lunch, change a diaper, give some juice, hold a crying baby, change a diaper. You get the picture. I took the kids solo to the zoo while Matt was in a No Fluff conference for work. We had a great time once we made our way into the zoo. That zoo is HUGE! We were there for 6 and a half hours, and we still didn't see everything. We made reservations for the Imagination Station (I don't know if that's the right name but that's what we called it) where they have a huge play center similar to a children's museum. It was awesome. That was everyone's favorite part. They did water play, sand play, arts and crafts, puppets, gardening, and more. Grant just looked at everyone and absorbed his surroundings! We did fine until we had to leave and Abby dropped to 35, Ali Kate was screaming, and I had to shuffle four tiny kids into a crowd so that we could leave (You have to leave at scheduled times). We had a really rough 15 minutes or so while I tried to stabilize Abby while somehow not lose the other three kids in the crowd. Somehow we managed to pull it all back together and have a WONDERFUL afternoon after that.


We got to see Sally, the camel, who did indeed have two humps.

We also got to see kangaroos for the first time in my 29 years on this earth. I think I was more excited than the kids. No pictures though because I was having to keep Ali Kate and Isabella from climbing into the kangaroo exhibit. Literally!

A sample of Abby's Poetry

 

At the Magic House in St. Louis, they had a Poetry Tree where you could "tie" your poetry leaves to the branches. Here's the poem that Abby wrote. It touched my mama's heart. I let the other two "write" their poems (i.e. scribble pictures), and we tied their poems to the tree too. This was probably the most serious part of our Magic House adventure. I've got to blog about and post some pictures of this Children's Museum. It was awesome!

Future President?

 

I think a Presidential Office may be in the future for Miss Abby Stine! Doesn't she look so at home behind the official seal?

This little lady is already on her way to such things. Let me just take a mama minute to brag on my baby girl! Abby not only can read just about anything that you put before her, but she is writing books now. For fun, she takes a notepad and her fancy plumed pen into the car when we're running errands or going somewhere long distance (which is over 5 miles for the kids). She will think up a story and ask me how to spell words she doesn't know. Together we've written 3 books I think now. She is totally into the way words come together. It's incredible watching her wheels turn when she's figuring something out. That kid is bright! I mean bright! Not only does she have a perfect memory but her ability to pick up material is staggering! She now reads signs, menus, books, whatever she sees. It's awesome!

Anyway, I just had to brag and record this for posterity. One day I'll want to read about my Pre-K novelist! And one day I may need written proof that I taught the President how to read and write!