A Smattering of Duehrings

This afternoon we had a Fall Festival at our church. I took the 3 oldest kids and left the babies home with daddy to take their naps. There were games boothes, craft tables, face painting, moonwalks, hayrides, and horse and buggy rides. The kids had a blast.

The kids loved the horse and buggy rides and were so excited because they got to take the reigns and steer the horse. “Mr Rick” or “Cowboy”, as the boys call him, was giving the rides. He and his wife are Eli and Evan’s Sunday School teachers. It is supposed to be the 2-3 year olds class, but we have a terrible time getting our boys to move out of their class. Micah was in there until he was 5 and Evan is still in there at age 4. The boys (especially Evan) love “Mr Rick and Miss Lori”. I don’t think Evan would have gotten up behind the horse with anyone else.

Damon is at a retreat with the youth group from church until tomorrow and I am desperately trying to get the kids to sleep. It isn’t going good at all so I am taking a computer break.

It was a beautiful day today and the kids were able to play outside all day. They should be exhausted. Tomorrow it is supposed to be in the mid 70’s again. Our trees are beautiful right now. I went out and took a picture of them tonight, but the color just isn’t the same in the picture. They are a beautiful red color, especially when the sun shines on them.  Over the past 4 years Damon has slowly added a few trees a year so we have about 8 or 9 trees around our property now. I can’t wait till they grow really tall and give our yard some shade.

Today was Maggie’s last soccer game. She finally got the trophy she has been wanting for a long time. She used to see her cousins trophies and tell me she couldn’t wait to get a trophy some day. Now she has one. I was really proud of her and how hard she played at practice and at her games all season. I am sure she will play next year, too.

Molly ate her first grilled cheese sandwich tonight. She sucked the whole thing down. She kept shoving it in just a little bit further until it disappeared.

Molly also took her first big girl bath tonight. Since she was born I have been bathing her in the sink since the bathtub is usually full of boys. Tonight I let her in and she loved it. She splashed and giggles and squealed the whole time.

And here she is showing off her two teeth she has so far. She is wearing Maggie’s granny scarf on her head. Maggie is having more and more fun with her everyday. Every afternoon Maggie “babysits” Molly in her bedroom for about an hour so I can get things done or rest. Maggie can’t wait until they can be roomates.

Molly is so close to crawling. Right now she get onto her hands and knees and goes backwards. She always ends up in corners or behind furniture. Pretty soon she will be going everywhere.

And I believe the kids just might have all fallen asleep for the night. I am hearing nothing but silence right now and it is only 9:30. This is next thing to a miracle for me since I don’t have daddy’s help tonight.

It’s funny, the things you find in a closet…

It has been about a week now since we changed rooms. Some things are better and some things are worse.

Bedtime is worse with 3 boys in one room. We have figured out that Micah is the troublemaker, though. That boy has nonstop energy and is so sneaky. He knows how to keep Eli going without getting caught himself. When we pull him out of the room to lay in the hallway, the other two boys go to sleep pretty quickly. (Micah is talking to himself in the hallway even now as I write this.) Evan just ignores Eli and goes to sleep leaving Eli with no one to talk to. We always hear Eli in there saying “Eban, Eban!” Evan never answers him.

Then there is little Molly who slept through the night last night for the first time since she was 2 months old. I woke up twice during the night and had to go check on her because I was worried that she wasn’t waking me. What is wrong with me? Damon noted this morning that the bags under my eyes weren’t quite as dark as they have been. I may start to get better sleep if this continues. It’s only been one night so we will wait and see. She also is taking 2 naps a day for me now in her new little room.

I did make a mistake by waiting until Molly was going through her seperation anxiety stage to put her in her own room. As soon as I am done feeding her at night she starts watching the door like she wants out of there. Then she cries her little eyes out when I lay her down and I turn to leave. She will get used to it, though. The crying period is getting shorter and shorter each night.

Naptime for everyone is MUCH better since we switched rooms. Eli falls asleep everyday in his new room unlike his old room where he would almost never fall asleep. He hasn’t desroyed anything and just lays down and goes to sleep. This is probably due to waking so early in the morning and being exhausted. Evan takes a nap in our room everyday. Molly sleeps in her room. Maggie and Micah finish their schoolwork and then play downstairs. I am starting to have peaceful afternoons again.

And that is the end of my sleep update.