Some things you just never think about - until they happen.

I've never "taught" any of my children to dress themselves. The just did it. Until now. Sterling, at the ripe old age of nearly two and a half, needs to learn this. Clothes, in his opinion, are meant to be worn until they wear off. He loves whatever he has on, most certainly does not want to change, and will protest if you make him. He's recently figured out how to put his shoes on, so I figured we'd take this a step further. The girls were changing their clothes multiple times a day at two, just for the fun of a cute new outfit. Sterling, not so much.

We started with pants, and he's worn jeans backwards often these days, but darn it, he did it himself. Socks were today's new item. He put one on quite successfully, put the second on rather crooked, and asked for help. I started straightening it when I realized he'd put the second sock over the first. Really?! Ah, we haven't progressed in this whole learning process quite as far as I thought. His underwear are beautifully backwards though - and his shoes happened to land on the right feet today.

I decided three nights ago that it was about time for little Miss Ruby to sleep through the night. I've allowed midnight nursings (and 2:00, and 4:00...) to last far too long. I moved Sterling's bed into Liberty and Eden's, woke Ruby up before I went to bed for a last feeding, and put her to bed feeling like I might just cry along with her at 2:00 am. She didn't wake until 4:20, I had to put her back in bed 4 times, but each time she only cried for a few seconds. It was strangely disappointing - Ruby has far more persistence than that! But all was good, and I was the only one laying wide awake, feeling the evidence of missing 4 nursings during the night!



The second night was even better - I had to put her back twice - I think. My brain doesn't remember that far back. It is pitiful when she comes wandering into my room at some random wee hour, little fists signing "milk" for all they are worth, and I deny her - but she takes it better than I dreamed possible.

Last night, I told her once to go back to sleep. Awesome. I actually slept most of the night without waking up. It's been, oh, a year and a half since that last happened. Sterling went back into his own bedroom, and nights have been reclaimed for sleep in our house. Beautiful.

Blaine's working at Bass Pro Shops in the "Creative Services" department. He helps set up products to be photographed. He's not actually touching a camera these days, painful for him, but at least it's in the right field - and a paycheck to boot. Yesterday he came home with a big blister on his hand - he'd steamed clothes for hours and apparently decided his finger was also a bit wrinkled. Ouch. He said he'd told his co-workers not to tell me that he can iron. He hasn't ironed in seven years. I told him neither had I! Not quite, but close. Wrinkles add character, right?

The work of a master.

Sterling wanted bread the other day. Blaine was eating some with his soup, and Sterling wanted two pieces. He was pretty direct about the two pieces part. This is what Blaine found a few minutes later...



Closer still....

Ah, yes. One hotdog still-in-the-package sandwich. Mmmmm.

Mom?

"Mom, that sign says people who smoke can't shop in this store."

"Um, not exactly Eden. They can shop here. They just can't smoke inside while they are shopping."

"Oh. Do they know how to stop smoking for a few minutes while they get the things they need?"

"Oh, baby, I sure hope so!"

Turns out, the earth is round.

Did you know? It's impossible to fall off the face of the earth. The internet, however, is flat, and there's a curb. It's possible to disappear in these parts. Somewhere between laundry, dishes, school, chasing after Ruby the Terror and Sterling with his Bare Bottom, I got lost on my way back to the blog. So sorry.

And thus, an update is required.

This is Ruby's new look:
It's been building for a few weeks - these days, she doesn't crawl, she walks. Or at least, she doesn't crawl unless I'm trying to get photos. It took 10 minutes, a belly crawl on the floor (my belly-crawl, mind you - now that's something for photos!), Blaine and Liberty's coaxing, and 12 deleted photos before she finally showed off. Seriously, this one is just out to make my life harder. Oh, and the one side pony? She pulled the other out and tried to eat the band. Mmmm.
This is Sterling's favorite look. He's just out to relax and take life as easy as he can. Like the strategically placed bowl? Me too. Unintentional, and when he's 16 he'll wish he'd grabbed a bigger bowl, just for show. This is Sterling's new ball. It's about, oh, 6 hours old. An hour in, Ruby had three bites eaten and Sterling asked for bandaids for his new ball's owies. Fair enough. I told you Ruby's trouble.

She looks all but evil. Cute, but evil. She stole Liberty's hat quite cleverly, and wore it and giggled while Liberty searched for it. Liberty thought I'd hidden it and ran past Ruby a half a dozen times before she realized Ruby was wearing it. Ruby was in stitches she thought it was so funny.


This was yesterday, pumpkin picking with friends. The kids had a blast! It was definitely easier than last year's escapade. That one included a hayride, two babies not walking, an hour long corn maze, and me trying to carry three pumpkins, deciding that despite paying for four pumpkins, we were NOT getting four, because that meant me carrying two babies, four pumpkins and a camera that failed to capture photos of the dreaded pumpkin patch because, well, I lacked a free hand for that. This one was definitely less stressful.
Ruby, though, might have disagreed before it was all over with.
That's about it for news. Blaine's job search continues, school is going great but taking up more of our day than I would like, the house contains nine unpacked boxes, each containing Blaine's camera/work stuff, so I'm calling us unpacked. The garage doesn't count, does it?

We found a new pediatrician that I love thus far, I get lost less and less around town, and south continues to be argued as east in my mind. I don't know why, but I'm spun 90 degrees. I thought I'd solve my directional challenge, bought a compass and found out that it doesn't always work. Don't contemplate that one too hard. Sometimes working, as far as a compass is concerned, is just as bad as not working ever. Who decides when it's working? If it stuck still, it'd be right 25% if the time, right? Yeah, I don't think so either.

My new favorite: Acorn Squash. Cut it in half lengthwise, put 1T maple syrup and 1T whipping cream or butter in each hollow (ditch the seeds/pulp) and bake at 350 for an hour. Mmm.


See ya!

Random non-news and... well, that's pretty much it.

Our shower whistles sometimes. Who knows? Eden was a bit concerned when it started it's shriek this morning. "Daddy! The alarm o'clock is beeping!" Ah, yes. We laughed.

Went for a drive tonight. We found a house for sale, with the info out front. Before I went to the info envelope, we both guessed on the home's selling price. I said $129,000. Blaine said $70,000 tops. Not so much. $169,900. Seriously, that house apparently had a whole lot more going on inside than it did outside. But, just for the record, I am by no means competitive and didn't make sure that Blaine knew I was closer in my estimation. Definitely not.We've had some fun weekends lately. We went to the zoo last weekend for a whopping $4 admission for all of us. Gotta love dollar days. Poor Ruby though... she's loved. Blaine shot the photo, and it just made me laugh. Poor Ruby.

Monday we went to Branson, and stopped at this dam along the way. Ruby thought she was hot stuff, holding hands and walking all the way up the path back to the car. She'll take about 6 steps, fall down, get back up and try again over and over again these days. All I can say is that it's a good thing that she wears diapers. She needs the padding.

You told me to blow!

Ruby, birthday cake in front of her, in the front yard. Like my sprinkle work? I know, I'm so very talented, I can't even stand it.Told to blow, she blew! Oh, baby.
Mmm, cake. Decorated by Ruby, even. She blew her two cents in.


Yep, must be good.



Ruby got a baby doll for her birthday. I'm not sure which she liked better, the doll or the doll's bottle.Hmmm, what, the bottle's not for me? Now that's just mean.

Presenting...

We've been here three and a half weeks, so I'm going to consider this on time - mostly. The computer didn't crash when I uploaded the camera, but I've chosen not to check the memory usage. It's better that way, right?!

Without further ado... our house. I have a few more blogs coming asap, now that the camera's dumped. Ruby's birthday being one of them. That was only...2 1/2 weeks ago. That's not late either, by this standard!



Goodbye, Pennsylvania.My view for a thousand miles.Just in case you were wondering. We were very, very full.
Very.Hello, Missouri.My big kitchen. Love it!Dining room/other half of kitchen. The open door is through the living room to the front of the house, the closed door is to the non-garage. The laundry/back door is just to the right of the white wall you see on the right of the photo.Living room/front door, complete with the moving truck parked on the street.Laundry. Back door is to the right.

Master bedroom.
The girls' room. The door shown there is to the babies' room. You have to go through the girls' room to get to the babies' room.
The babies' room. Slightly bigger than it looks. Slightly. It works well for the two little beds though.
The bathroom. Eden looks like she was about to use it. Sorry folks, it was a long drive!
And, for the non-grand finale, the non-garage. Blessed room that it is, it makes for great storage. One day we'll get it organized. It's not looking like this these days, but it's getting there.

And that's the house - pre-move in. One of these days I'll get photos of it now. I figure I've got, say, another month.

Nope, still no photos.

Sorry folks. I'm just not that good. Mostly, my computer is full and dumping a memory card full of photos is more than likely going to be the death of it. We'll get there though.

We've been in Springfield for a week and a half at this point. I've gotten lost half a dozen times, made my first successful trip to Walmart and back without having to turn around once, the lawnmower won't start, my kitchen is mostly unpacked but not completely, I love my dishwasher, and 950 square feet isn't quite big enough for this crew - or this amount of crap, one or the other. I thought I threw away a lot before we moved, but I've pared down even farther. Amazingly enough, I love that.

We've enjoyed our church so far, aren't sure where it's going, but are loving the people there. We've been to homes of people from church 3 times and are invited to another one tomorrow night - in a week and a half, I remind you. PA was so very unfriendly. I can think of 3 homes, total that we were invited to in PA. It's a world away at this point.

I was very nice to Liberty this afternoon. She asked to drink my cold coffee I hadn't finished, I agreed, and three hours past bedtime, she's still lying awake in there. Bad momma. Didn't think of that. She's a good sport though. If she starts talking to me, she doesn't even slow down to take a breath. It's comical.

Ruby turned one last week. We celebrated Monday - when I finally got her presents wrapped and cake made. First born gets a party, fourth gets a cake four days late - and a crazy cake at that. It was homemade though, give me that much. Really, what happened between kid one and kid four? Sleep wasn't it, that's for sure.

We started school (again) today. It went well, I guess. Liberty forgot how to write! She spent an hour doing the two pages of cursive I required of her. We worked through the summer to avoid this day, and here we are anyway. I got an awesome Bible curriculum though, and it sparked some great conversations. That was the highlight of my day - unless you count the part where I got all the laundry done for that brief moment in time. That one was pretty great too.

Bedtime for me. Liberty, want to lock up? I thought it would be a few more years before my kids were up later than me. Craziness.

They spend WAY too much time around me.

We were at a meeting for the soon-to-be-no-longer-URC URC church last night. Afterward, the one and only elder was talking to Eden and he suggested we could meet for services in her room. She giggled, said there wasn't enough room, and he said maybe we could all fit under her bed. Her reply made me cringe.

"No, we won't fit. There's too much crap under there!"

Oh, baby. Thankfully, he went with it and laughed, said there is too much crap under his bed too, and that his eight year old son is constantly telling him not to say "crap". Somebody should have told that one to Eden's momma, I'm thinking.

Yes, I am a bit slow.

But admitting it is the first step to recovery, right?

We got here Friday morning. We left Wednesday, saw cousins in Columbus Ohio, pulled one all nighter, got better gas mileage than we expected with both vehicles, returned the "big yellow uck" (Sterling speak for truck) yesterday, and now we're trying to find the living room - and the dining room. It's bad, I tell you. Very, very bad.

The house is awesome. The lack of storage isn't, but the house is nicer than any of the others I've lived in. And I have a dishwasher! So cool. The washing machine is finally hooked up, I have a week's laundry to wash and some major grocery shopping ahead of me tomorrow. It'll be grand. I already washed two loads, but the dryer needs a vent before I can continue - those two loads were a Sunday necessity, I'm pretty sure. The smell of wet moldy bathing suits and towels was pretty impressive upon walking in from church.

House photos to follow. Blaine took them, but getting them onto the computer has been low-priority, sorry. One of these days - maybe after I find my pots and pans. I made syrup in the microwave tonight for lack of a saucepan. Didn't even know you could do that.

We visited the United Reformed Church here today. We were really excited, then we found this last night. It was a bit of a blow, but we went anyway, and were so glad we did. We met a bunch of awesome reformed people, found out the church may have a life outside of the URC, and I think we'll stick with it to see what happens.

Our food situation in dire. I scraped up pancakes for supper, we've had PBJ and cereal... it's worked, but I need to get to the store. Didn't want to until the kitchen was unpacked, but it's time. When Sterling was hungry yesterday and went to wander the kitchen, he came back with a cereal bar in his hand exclaiming, "Mama! (F)ind (f)ood!" It was a wonderful moment for his meager diet these last few days, he was certain.

Sterling also keeps getting lost. Our new house is laid out very well and not at all confusing to those of us taller than 4 feet, but Sterling is having a harder time of it. I told him to go to the kitchen for something, he landed in the bathroom and hollered, "Mama! Help! Kitchen go?" That was yesterday. Today he went to brush his teeth, ended up in my bedroom instead, and asked "Bathroom go, Mama?" He's so confused. Darn rooms keep up and moving on him.

What help you are, dear sister.

Eleven and three-quarter months into nursing my fourth baby, how is it that I get my first plugged duct now? Really?

Calling my sister, since she's run the gamut of breast-feeding problems with her boys, she tells me that a plugged duct is the least painful thing she's had.

I feel tons better now, Sister. Tons.

It's smells funny around here!

My posts have been fewer these days - the set move-date is fast approaching and I feel like I need to have a little meltdown. Who wants to pack so I can work on that one?

Yeah, didn't think so. I did make progress today. The attic - both Liberty and Eden's rooms and the closets up there are all packed. L & E are sleeping on their mattresses on the floor for the time being. Or, in Liberty's world, their air mattresses. She can't get it into her head that there's no air involved.

Sterling and Ruby's room is also packed. Beds remain intact in there though. Ruby would have everything unpacked in short order if I didn't have her contained in the crib. Her favorite thing is grabbing things from inside boxes or laundry baskets and chucking them behind her as far as she can through. Great thrill, I tell you.

As for everything else... I'm getting there. I packed everything I can get my hands on at this point. Tomorrow's the kitchen. We'll eat cereal on paper plates for every meal pretty soon. Plates, yes. Bowls we're lacking. Someone packed them...

We have a house, we have utilities connecting next week, and we have a new phone number. I'm feeling all organized this move. I even have the utilities here set to disconnect. It's rather strange, but everything seems to be coming together very well. When a friend's son asked Liberty today why we had to move, they were standing on the front porch. She pointed to the neighbor's door 2 feet from ours and said, "See those people in there? They stink." They heard, I'm sure. And while they most definitely do stink, I'm not sure that going all the way to Missouri was necessary to avoid the stench. It'll get the job done though, I suppose.

More no-ide photos and the highlights of my day.

I took the kids to the park for photos. I learned, and this was a new realization, that there's a window of time where photos are good. Ruby grins, she laughs - she's all good. The worst that can happen is that she decides to crawl to another spot on the grass - the bugs over there look tastier.




However, 2 is not a good age to photograph. Sterling would agree with this statement, if he hadn't been sent to bed for crying when I asked for a kiss. Seriously, the kid's moodier than a PMSing teenaged girl. Ask for a photo? Forget it. He'd rather scowl - and he will. If he stops crying, that is.
The window is back once two is past. You might get goofy grins or fake smiles, but they are more than willing to work for their reward.

Six years old, I'm afraid, is the edge of this window. I can see awkward pre-teen coming from many miles away. She's not there yet, but it's coming. Every once in a while, a glimpse of what will be is seen. And that glimpse has scared me far worse than what a two year old can throw at me. This house is full of girls. And it's gonna be bad.And with that little narration of what parenting in my house looks like - another about a house. We found one! Should you so desire, check out 2074 N. Columbia Ave listed here under houses. That's the plan.

I washed the floor today. Then Ruby spilled peas everywhere. Not awful, but a mess. Then, Eden dumped her plate of buttered pasta. Ok, Momma's getting crabby. Then, Eden dropped the pyrex bowl of red sauce and meatballs. The pyrex shattered (grrrr. That makes Momma very crabby. Tile is not nice to my favorite dishes.) and red spaghetti sauce sprayed from one end of the dining room, across the room and into the kitchen. The packed boxes? Yep, pretty in red polka dots. The table legs? Beautiful with their new pattern.

There's a new mandate in my house. If you come, wear shoes. Glass is hard to find and easy to miss. Ruby will be in mittens and knee pads for a few days, I'm afraid. Foam flip flops? Not a good glass-on-the-floor cleaning option. They'll pick up the glass for you sure. But then what?!

Oh, and then, after mopping the floor again, Ruby spilled rice everywhere. Seriously, why mop?

Ruby then changed tactics. The bottle of fluoride rinse, gloriously close to empty for a change (this isn't the first time I've mopped up gargle) was dumped/drank in the living room all over the coffee table. Thank you, Miss Rue, for missing carpet. I might have screamed. But Ruby is smelling oh so minty fresh tonight!

Oh, the drama!

Blaine says boys don't whine. I disagree. See for yourself.

Ok, tears done. Photos commence?Nope, not so much.Now?Yep. Time for some deep-cleaning in the toes. Perfect.

But the flowers were pretty! The best photo I got of them all together? It's slightly out of focus, Sterling's not happy, and they are all looking only somewhat towards the camera. We'll be sending wallet sized prints out for Christmas this year. You know, so you can't really see their faces...

Look, a smile! Only one I saw all day. Took Ruby sticking her fingers in his crying mouth to get that. Oh, and in case you were wondering, that two-year-old fit was because we walked past the slide on the way to the pond and he wanted to "ide". He got to sit on the bench with Momma while the girls played after that fit. I'm just mean like that.