Quintessentially Crystal: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Luke's baby blessing

Two Sundays ago we had Luke's baby blessing. I went against common protocol to do the blessing at the church during sacrament meeting, and instead received permission to just do it at home. Lately I've heard of more and more people doing it at home, and I decided that was for me. Simple and sweet and I didn't have to plan a big family get together, which I think is overwhelming for a mom of a new little one. I love our extended families and I felt bad not inviting all of them, but we have had and will have plenty of family gatherings.

We invited my parents, Chad's parents, my Grandma, and my brother. After the blessing we enjoyed a lovely dinner. And while I was trying hard to keep things simple as not to stress myself out, when it comes to food, I tend to go a little overboard. Oh well, that's me.

I took some pictures of Luke with a cute little bonnet on, but then Chad pointed out to me that it was kind of girly. And when I asked some friends their opinion they said it looked old fashion. I thought the pictures were cute, but decided that I better take some without the bonnet. I can just hear Luke saying to me when he gets older, "why am I wearing a bonnet in those pictures?" So, the bonnet pictures are for me.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Silly Jack

Jack has been saying the funniest things lately. Well, at least they are funny to me.

* Yesterday he was talking to me all about his birthday (which is still three months away) and exactly the kind of party he wants to have. I asked him what he would like me to put on his birthday wishlist and his first answer was, "a beanstalk." I guess since his name is Jack he determined he needs a beanstalk.

* Jack asked me if he could play with some very noisy rocket balloons we have. When Ben and Jack blow them up their eyeballs look like they are going to pop right out of their heads, and after a while Ben complains that he has a headache. Then they want me to blow them up and I really don't want to. It gives me a headache. Anyway when Jack asked if he could play with them and I kind of hummed and hawed and said, "I dunno know." To which he replied, "what's the problem mom?" And the tone in his voice was kind and concerned like he was thinking, "what are your concerns mom, how can I resolve them?" Made me laugh.

* And one morning after he woke up he said to me, "Mom, you know those things inside of you that tell you that you need to go pee? That's the Holy Ghost."

Lucky

When Luke was born one of the nurses at the hospital told us that there was something very special about our little boy. She told us that she sat and held him the second night for two hours and she couldn't believe how calm and peaceful he was. Granted, the only other baby in the hospital at the time screamed a lot, but Luke was especially mellow. The nurse probably tells a lot of parents that there is something special about their little one, because isn't there always something special about every little spirit that enters this world? We of course think that Luke is something special because he is ours. And while each of our boys has wonderful qualities, the past couple months we have been especially blessed by the newest little one in our home.

I am really enjoying being a mom to a newborn this time around. After three kids I feel a confidence, in taking care of a baby, that I have never felt before. Ben and Jack were both very mellow babies, who never cried much, but the shock of being a first time mom was more than difficult and then having Jack and adjusting to two kids was very hard too. Not that having a third hasn't been crazy, it's just that taking care of a new one is way easier that taking care of his wild and crazy brothers. Obviously my perspective has changed a lot. I now understand why people said that babies wear you down physically, but the older kids get the more they wear you down mentally. It's exhausting.

Ben absolutely adores Luke and Jack cannot stop kissing him. About a month ago Luke started smiling at us and Ben and Jack can't get enough of his cute little smiles. And of course Chad and I love those smiles too. And the cooing he has started doing the in the past couple of weeks? So cute!

And one of the best things about Luke is that he is an amazing sleeper!! The first night we had Luke in our home Ben slept through the night (I wrote a blog about this.) I call him my sweet little angel baby because I never thought Ben was going to sleep through the night and having Luke made it happen. I'm not sure why, but I am not going to question it. And while Ben doesn't sleep through the night every night, he is doing it a whole lot more often than in the past six years.

About a week and a half ago, Luke has started sleeping most nights between seven and eight hours. When he was first born it was about four hours, then evolved to six hours. With Ben sleeping through the night and Luke sleeping about six hours I have been getting more consistent sleep that I have gotten since I was pregnant with Ben. Who would have thought that with a newborn in the house I would be getting better sleep?

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Mother's Day 2011

This year for Mother's Day my sister, Jennifer, and I arranged a Mother's Day brunch on Saturday with the women in my extended family.

We ate outside in the beautiful spring weather at a fun little restaurant. The restaurant is about a mile and a half away from my house. Chad had both the older boys with him doing soccer practice and cleaning the church, so I decided to walk to the restaurant.

I love my boys, but Ben and Jack can be very intense at times. Although I need a break from them sometimes, I often feel guilty when I am away from them. I miss them. On my walk to the restaurant I was able to convince myself not to feel guilty and just enjoy the break to recharge my batteries. On the way to the restaurant I had an amazing peaceful feeling that I haven't had for a long time. It probably help a lot that I was staring at this cute little guy.

For Mother's Day I made my favorite dinner, Lasagna, and invited my mom, dad, brother, sister, and her family. Ben and Jack gave me flowers and candy. And Chad was more than sweet to me and spoiled me more than he should.

And now my thoughts this Mother's Day on being a mother-

I wish Mother's Day meant that my kids didn't fight all day long, they were perfectly obedient, the house cleaned itself, breakfast, lunch, and dinner magically appeared, and I could do whatever I wanted all day long. In the past I dreamed that's the way it should be and I would be bitter that it wasn't that way.

I know there are many women who wish they were mothers and they aren't. I fiercely love my children and I wouldn't trade them for the world, but sometimes being a mom simply sucks. Wait, not sometimes, a lot of the time. It's not that there is something else I would really rather be doing (well anything that's practical), it's just I wish that being a mom wasn't so intensely difficult most of the time. Yep, I am dreaming again.

There is never a day goes by that I don' think to myself, "oh my goodness, this is why my mom was the way she was." The longer I am a mother the more I realize that my mom did the best she could. She was ornery and she was mean sometimes, but she didn't want to be that way. I am ornery and I am mean some point every single day. Even if I am not trying to be mean my kids think I am because I won't let them eat candy for breakfast, watch television all day long, play in the street, beat each other up, stay up as late as they want, draw on the walls, buy them whatever they wanted, etc... You get the point.

The other day Ben told me I was a mean mom. Both the boys tell me that often. I know kids just do that, but it always stings a little. I ended up saying to Ben, "You know what Ben? I am a nice person. People like me."

One time at a family party I was reprimanding Ben for something and my aunt Teresa came up to me and said, "I know it's hard, but thank you for discipling your children." She works at an elementary school and explained to me that she sees a lot of children who have parents who don't discipline.

I don't like coming across as a mean person, I hate repeating myself over and over and over again to my children, but I love my children and because I love them I expect a lot out of them and I discipline them. And it's amazing to me how forgiving they are. Like they know I love them because I have expectations of them. Almost every day my children tell me they love me, unsolicited. And everyday I am more and more grateful for all the women I know who are mothers, especially my own mother.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Easter 2011

Easter this year was strange. Most of the time we go camping, with the Phillips Family. And if we don't go camping, we at least get together with them. Well, we didn't do either of those things. It just felt weird. We didn't even get the opportunity to decorate cookies with my extended family. At the last minute, on the day before Easter, my sister and I decided we should do something Eastery, so we put together a quick little party for the kids.

Look at this awesome cookie my sister decorated.

It's me!

And I then I made one that looked like her-