A Stolen Letter To My Children

So, someone shared a link on Facebook to a Mommy blog called Mrs. Gore's Diary.  I read it and it was good.  It was basically, like hey, being a stay at home Mom is hard, but remember, I signed up for this!  So basically saying, stop complaining about the hardness of motherhood and remember you want/wanted this!
Someone commented who was accidentally pregnant and said something like, why would anyone want to do this?  The author posted a link to a previous post she had written so the girl could see the joy in motherhood.  I loved it even more!  It is  called A Letter To My Children to read in 2030.
I'm going to steal part of it.  Not all of it is true for me, like she said before she had kids all she thought about was her beautiful hair, but once they were born she'd have shaved her head bald if they needed her to.  I never thought about my beautiful hair, (it's not) but I am not sure I would have shaved my head either!  Okay, if my kids REALLY needed it I would, but not without a few tears probably.
Anyway, here are the paragraph's that I am stealing, the ones that touched my heart and I agreed with - but I'm not taking credit for them, so it's not plagiarism right?  The first paragraph is probably my favorite.

Did you know that I liked to watch you when you didn’t know I was looking and study every curve and line of your face, sometimes while you were sleeping, sometimes while you were watching TV, sometimes when you were coloring? The Bible is right. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. I know it full well.
Did you know that I really didn’t care if you played sports or knew lots of poems or had the longest eyelashes…I just loved you and my favorite thing about you was that you were mine. You didn’t have to do anything to earn my love. It was your birthright, from Day 1.
Did you know that when I was grouchy with you I always felt conflicted on the inside? I couldn’t be happy in my grouchiness against you…it didn’t sit right with me, and so I worked really hard to get over it and enjoy you.
Did you know that I don’t know how I’m going to survive having you grow up? Seriously. If you go to college or get married and leave me, I’ll probably be dead by the time you read this.
Did you know that, in caring for you, I have found more fulfillment than I ever thought possible? Diamonds and fame and wealth are nothing with you under my wings. Nothing.
Did you know that God has used you to help me grow? I have never needed Him more or prayed to Him more or praised Him more or thanked Him more or confessed my failings more. He knew I needed you in order to know Him better.
Did you ever stop to consider how many times you got poop on my hand? Too many times to count. Just thought you should know.
Did you know that, even though you were tiny and young, you ministered to me so many times, and that when my heart was sad, your sweet hugs and your childish ways lifted me up?

Okay, this is me again, but I don't know how to change the font back to normal.  For some reason being pregnant for the 4th time in 6 years I have noticed that I feel a little more self-conscious about it.  If I lived in Utah with all the other quickly multiplying families maybe I wouldn't feel so awkward, but there are so few people in the foreign service who have 4 kids and somehow I feel like people are looking at me funny and thinking, oh, she's one of THOSE, or wow, is she crazy?  Don't they believe in birth control?  I don't know why I let those thoughts come to me, but I do and I'm trying not to worry about what other people think.  And ultimately, I don't.  I love being a Mom.  Sometimes I feel burdened by it and tired and frustrated and last night I had to ask Levin to give me 5 minutes of quiet downstairs after dinner.  BUT when I think of my sweet angels I can't imagine anything else.  I can't imagine my life without them and I love that every time I have a new baby my heart grows in size like the Grinch's and I am filled with more love for the other kids and more than I thought possible.  Here is to the greatest job ever!

Oliver Boliver Butt

I feel like I have been writing so many things about Leah lately that I need to write some things about this sweet kid, Oliver.  In a Dr. Seuss book about Too Many Daves there is a suggestion of naming one of them Oliver Boliver Butt.  So . . I may call Oliver that sometimes, but then I get reminded that we don't say butt.  Maybe that's why its fun to say.

The Sunday before Christmas I asked Levin to take a picture of the kids in their nice looking clothes.  Somehow I didn't get what I really wanted . . . . but oh well, its all we have.  Oliver's isn't even taken that day, but another day, but this is the outfit he wore.  Pretty handsome huh?

Now a few things about Oliver.
1.  Lately he is into the Why?  Mommy, look at me.  Cool, I say.  Then I get, "why did you say cool?" Why are we having pizza for dinner?  Why is the pizza cooking?  Why? Why? Why???  But I decided tonight part of having kids is teaching them, so I'm going to be more patient and try to TEACH him instead of saying, I don't know a million trillion times a day.
2.  At bedtime when I ask him what his favorite part of the day was and he can't think of anything he'll say, "my favorite part of the day was when I love you." And he gives me a big hug.
3.  Sometimes he wake up at night, usually after being in bed only an hour or two, and is bawling his eyes out!  You go down and ask what's wrong and when he finally calms down to talk he says, "I need water."  Whoah!  But of course I always get him some and then cuddle him for a minute so its not so bad.
4.  When he finishes a prayer and says Amen, he always ends it like he is ending a cheer and raises his hands above his head in victory.  Autumn is starting to mimic him.
5.  He still hums when he eats something really yummy.
6.  He hums when he wakes up at night and needs to get resettled.  Mostly this happens when we're sleeping in a hotel room all together.  I think it is Levin's snoring that wakes him up. :)  But he is so loud in a monotone hum and he twirls his hair while he does it.
7.  He used to twirl his hair when he got tired, but he is trying hard not to do it anymore.  I showed him how it made his hair stand straight up and so now when we comb his hair he says, "and I'll never twirl my hair ever again!"  He still does sometimes, but he honestly is tons better.  I guess he just had to make that choice on his own.
8.  He has been out of nursery at church for a couple of weeks and he misses it.  He even started calling it "church" and when I got confused he said, "church with the toys."  But at the time he was explaining it he was mad at me because I won't let him go anymore.  He does behave well enough in primary though.
9.  He used to be so shy, but I feel like that kid is gone!  He talks to strangers almost as well we Leah now.
10.  He loves LEAH!  He gets upset when he can't find her in the house.  He wants to wear the same type of shoes as her, he won't let me start reading his bedtime story without waiting for Leah, he even sometimes tries to find underwear in his drawer that looks like Leah's.  Yep, had to throw that one in there to tease him about when he's a teenager!  My favorite is sometimes he refers to her as "my Leah."
11.  He loves to get new clothes in the mail.  I guess because the girls need more clothes somehow, or when I order his I just get more of the same thing, I don't know.  BUT he is so sad if Leah gets a new shirt in the mail and he doesn't.  I have to beg Leah to try on her clothes, but he is always super anxious to try his on.  He doesn't always like them past the first day of them, but he always loves them at first.
12.  He changes his clothes multiple times a day.  It is below zero outside every day in  Moscow now and he wears shorts and a t-shirt as much as he can unless he really wants to go somewhere outside because he knows I won't let him go dressed like that.
13.  He is definitely a boy, even though sometimes he is so lovey dovey.  He definitely wants the boy colors of plates and cups unless he is REALLY hungry then he'll take whatever.  When Leah talked me into playing Barbies he grabbed a black truck and that was his "doll" with a personality.  His name was Car and he was our friend.  We played again a week or so later and he saw me agree to play and RAN over to get Car and joined right along.
15.  He starts every sentence to me with, "mom, can I tell you something?"  Sometimes it is, can you just follow me wherever I go?
16.  AND lastly, he is such a fun kid!  He is always up for going somewhere or doing something in the house and sometimes when I give him something he wants he'll say, Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I love that boy!!  I told him I would miss him when he grew up and he said, we'll just have to get another little boy.  And we are!  Here is hoping his little brother is as fun as Oliver!  And as sweet.  He is the sweetest boy ever!  I'm trying to find other words to say though because no big kid wants their mom hugging them and saying, "you're the sweetest boy ever!"