A Fisher out of Water

How is it possible that I have had a baby this amazing for this long (6 months) and hardly written anything about him?
Well, it turns out that three kids keep me pretty busy. I can't say that three kids are harder than two, but it's just very busy!
So William is 6 months old now. He is working on learning to crawl, and in the next few weeks, I'm pretty sure he will do it. At 4 months, I started putting him in the Bumbo. The girls loved the Bumbo, since they got to sit up and look around instead of just lying on their backs. But William didn't take to it. He knew that whenever I would put him in the Bumbo, I would then walk away (to get something done-- imagine that!), and he was not a fan. But at 5 months he could sit on his own, which allowed him to reach and grab his toys, and he liked that much better. Now he's on his way to crawling, and I'm wondering how to slow it all down!
I have enjoyed this baby immensely. The first reason, and the only thing I can give myself credit for, is that I have gotten more sleep with this baby. He doesn't sleep that well at night, and I can't control when he wakes up in the morning. But what I can control is when I go to sleep. Instead of putting the kids to bed and then unwinding on the couch for a couple hours every night, I would unwind while I slept. It wasn't unusual for me to go to bed by 8:00, and there were a handful of nights where I'd be asleep by 7:15. It saved my bacon. Instead of feeling zombie tired for months and years like I did with the first two babies, I actually felt great and happy to have such a fantastic baby!
And William is a fantastic baby. He is easygoing and contented. He doesn't cry very much, and when he does, he is easily appeased. When he falls asleep in the car 5 minutes before we get home, get this: he TRANSFERS into his bed-- still sleeping! Ahhhh, it's amazing!
Now that Penny is in Kindergarten all day, Naomi and William are building a fun friendship. Naomi LOVES her little brother and can make him laugh just by smiling up close to his face. She loves to play with him, and just tonight she got in trouble because she wouldn't leave the room when William was trying to go to sleep. She just wanted to keep touching and snuggling and playing with her little brother. And it's hard to put a baby to sleep with such a fun sister in the room!

When your kindergartener falls asleep on the way TO the birthday party, you're definitely not in Kansas anymore. We left last night at 7:30 (PM!!) for a birthday party of one of Penny's classmates from kindergarten. She was turning six, and the other little boy was turning five. It started at 7:30, which is Portuguese for, "If you show up at 7:30, you can help the catering staff set up."
So we left our house then. It was outside the city in a suburb I've never been to. I couldn't find the exact address on the map before I left, so I set out with just a vague idea of where it was. Cut to the point: we got lost. We made a brief detour through one of the little towns outside Brasilia. Isn't that why we're here in Brazil? To see the world and explore new places? It is, but I don't usually mean to do it on the way to birthday parties. We found the place on our fourth try, and Penny was asleep in the car.
I woke her up, and we went to an amazing party. It was at a birthday party center, which was like a small carnival with rides, an extensive McDonald's-type play place, a zip line, and cotton candy,  hot dogs, and kebabs. It was a fun party, and Penny ran off to do the rides with her friends from school. It's amazing how being at a carnival makes my sleepy five-year-old suddenly perky again!
There's not a lot to do at a party where you don't know anyone or even speak their language very well. But Penny had a blast.
Eventually, I decided we'd better go home. I knew Penny would sleep the moment she sat in the car, and I was guessing that William was probably awake and hungry again at home. When we left at 9:45, we were the only ones leaving. There was a buffet set up, but the food hadn't come out yet. The party favors and grandiose birthday cake had yet to be broken open. We were leaving several hours too early. But we're crazy Americans who go to bed early-- even on weekends.

Yesterday I saw the most beautiful butterfly I've ever seen. Each wing was thickly outlined in black, surrounding a vivid blue. Then at the bottom, there was a row of four hot pink dots, two on each wing, like they'd been painted on with nail polish. I've seen beautiful butterflies flying around, and I've seen some in museums. But the beauty is taken to the next level when you get to watch one up close in the morning sun. As it slowly moves, the light catches its wings at different angles, and it just glistens.
Of course, my first thought was, "Where's my camera?" I could have run inside for it, but there is no way a butterfly would sit still long enough for me to come back. And when I did eventually move, it was startled and flew off. So I'm glad I just stood and enjoyed it for a minute. I enjoy life more when I stop to enjoy the moments.

It must have been this kind of butterfly. It's lovely in this picture, but it was ten times more beautiful in real life.

After school, Penny came running to find me in the house. "There's a butterfly flapping and flapping in the pool!" I rushed outside with her. Now let me explain, our pool is well fenced, and there's no way for Penny to get in without help. But the life preserver that hangs on the fence was now lying on the ground inside the fence. Penny had flung it as far as she could to try and rescue this poor butterfly. It was still flapping in the pool, so I was able to fish it out with our net. It was exhausted, so it stayed on our net for several hours, until I assume it flew away.

Life is not entirely rainbows and butterflies-- though with my little girls, there are a lot of those around the house! Last week I fished a dead centipede from the pool, which somehow didn't make it onto my blog. (I'll let you find your own picture. Just trust me, it was gross.) We have a lot of normal moments, a few gross moments, and several special moments, some of which I try to post on my blog.
I hope you enjoy your moments today!