Saturday, October 10, 2009

Oh boy!

Every so often, someone will ask me if we'll have a fifth child to "try for a girl." I have to stop myself from bursting into laughter. For one thing, our fourth child was a surprise beyond all surprises and miracle beyond all miracles. Don't get me wrong, I'm convinced that Fall2 was meant to be with our family. He fit in seamlessly with everyone else and if my family can agree on nothing else, we all agree that Fall2 is about the happiest and most joyful baby you'll ever meet. It's just that we're not going to try to make more of anything. Besides, I have four boys. If I had five children, I'd probably have five boys. I wouldn't trade my boys for anything but four is plenty, thankyouverymuch.

When I was pregnant with Fall2, some friends told me that he must be my girl. I knew, just knew, that he wasn't. And that was fine. I'd made peace with being a mom of all boys long ago. I will miss out on alot of girly things but that's okay. As far as I'm concerned, being the only female in the family means I have no competition for queen/princess/goddess of the house. Plus, I have a nice matched set of children. And what kind of girl would I have with three big brothers? Probably a girly girl wearing a dress but carrying worms around in a purse. Would she ever be asked out on a date? As protective as my boys are of me, I can only imagine what they'd be like with a little sister.

I hope to have one daughter-in-law who likes me. The odds seem good. My own mother-in-law is a great role model...everyone likes her. I pay careful attention to friends' in-law horror stories because I definitely don't want to be the dreaded kind of mother-in-law.

Daughters-in-law are waaaay in the future. Right now, I content myself with nieces and friends' daughters and stories about their girls. Some of these stories make me realize how loud and active my boys are. Some of these stories make me grateful for my loud and active but far less dramatic boys. Regardless, I have four wonderful, healthy, happy and funny children and I am grateful for those little men every day.

Anyway, Summer10 and Spring7 are sure that one of the goldfish must be a girl. Maybe I could just glue a pink bow on the hermit crab's shell? Um, maybe not.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I'm Baaaa-aaack

Okay, so no one ever told me that writing is like exercising. All is fine and dandy when you're in the routine but if you take a couple weeks off, say to get everyone back into school schedules, BAM all of the sudden it's more than two weeks and hard to get back into it.

I have missed writing. I've received so many compliments about my blog...many from people who are not related to me. Amazing! I kid but truly appreciate all the nice things people have to say.

So what's happened over the last few weeks? For one, my Fall baby is no longer "Fallwhatevermonths," he's an official Fall2. How much easier is that to write and read?! Spring7 and Summer10 are bouncing along with life. Winter3 started preschool two days a week and he hates it less every week. He never really hated school, he just hated me leaving him. On the second day of preschool, he had to bring a family picture to school. He spent the entire four hours wandering around the classroom, sucking his thumb and looking at our picture. How's that for heart wrenching? He does enjoy it now, doesn't mope around the classroom but drop off time is still hard. Leave it to my family to create a scene beyond all scenes. Imagine this...teacher steers Winter3 into class. Winter3 bursts into tears and begins yelling "Mommy! Moooommmmyyyy! I want Moooommmmyyy!" This hysteria causes Fall2 to burst into tears because a.)he doesn't like it when his brother is sad and b.) he doesn't like to leave his brother any more than his brother likes to be left. Good times. We're definitely not people who can come and go unnoticed.

Winter3 talks about his friends and teachers. He sings me songs from music class. Tells me what he did in gym class. Laughs about the book "Mrs. Sporkey" read (not quite close to her name but it works for him). I know he's happy and loved at school. I know the transitions will get easier because I went through the same thing with his big brothers. I just hope he finds a good balance...I don't want it to be too easy for him to leave me at any age!