I used to be such a good little blogger. Then I had another baby. And got a part-time job. And a chronic disease. Excuses, excuses. Well, tonight Hubby is on a night shift, AND dish network has completely gone out, making it much more difficult for me to obsess over election returns, so I guess the night has been ordained for blogging!

We have been surfing a wave of illness for over a month now...it rotates between colds to bronchitis to nausea/vomiting and back again, but it has become pretty plain that we will not all ever be healthy again until spring. Aack. At least LB is getting big enough now that he tolerates his frequent bouts of the snots pretty well, though he HATES having his nose wiped.

As my facebook friends know, the kids were Tinkerbell, Snow White, and Yoda, respectively (and in order of age). They all looked adorable, but we've discovered now that it is impossible to take multiple children trick or treating at this age without one of them having some issue or another. Last year it was BS -- she got scared and halfway through refused to go to any doors. This year, it was LS's turn. She was happy-go-lucky all day and thrilled to pieces to get into her costume, then within 5 minutes of being out the door, she was sobbing, intermittently providing various nonsensical reasons for her upset nature. She got into the whole trick-or-treating thing for about 4 houses, then wanted no part of it, clinging to my hand and sobbing (keep in mind, her black eye - see previous post - was still there, though morphed to a sickly yellow-brown tinge), so the sobbing, bruised Snow White was quite a picture tromping along behind her skipping Tinkerbell sister. When we got home, she got her jammies on and went straight to bed, not even having any dinner. When she woke up the next morning she threw up. Go figure.

Tinkerbell, on the other hand, was in her element. She danced and skipped up to the doors all by herself, even managing crowds of big kids, then joyfully pausing in each driveway on the way back to announce in her loudest voice what she had received. She waved her magic wand and just charmed every person she came in contact with, and she didn't even have to use Pixie Dust! When we got home, she kept her costume on and answered the door herself, giving candy to the other trick-or-treaters all by herself (as Mommy & Daddy watched from a few feet away), and playing with Yoda, who was content to stay parked in his stroller by the front door and check out all the strange sights. She was polite, gracious, and adorable. I looked at her and marveled at what my first baby has become already, and realized how the years have slipped away...

We had a veggie quiche for dinner, and after she put her jammies on (leaving her silk flower tiara on until bedtime ;-)), we settled in front of the TV with dinner and watched, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Then she twirled and skipped off to bed, with a big "I love you!" for Mommy and Daddy. As my mom said later, these are the moments that make it all worthwhile!

LB has already transformed from "baby" to "little boy." He plays with his blocks and babbles and screeches and giggles...and is turning all of us in the family into better people with his winning smiles and sweet nature. He is starting to master a few sign language "signs" that we use for "all done," and "hungry," and is so cute when he does them! He is very frustrated by his inability to crawl (except backwards), but unfortunately feels the need to pour his energy into screeching rather than locomotion. Hopefully this will be a short stage! He is growing so fast that I find myself jealously snatching baby time with him...a quick snuggle here, a quick rock and sing there, and oh, maybe he can stay up a LITTLE later than his sisters and hang out with Mommy...I am sadly behind on scrapping his baby book, and last night as I started to catch up I was amazed to see how more than 8 months have already passed.

BS is a mini-me, and LB is a sweet little open book, but LS is a tough nut to crack. She's her own little woman, and so different than Hubby and I in her personality that we struggle daily to understand her needs, what motivates her, and how to love her best. She is adorable and sweet but also extremely stubborn and emotional...(maybe that's all 3 year olds, but I don't remember BS being quite this extreme). I am desperate for her not to feel like a "middle child," but she is just so...different, and I feel like we fail far more often than we succeed. This for me is one of the struggles of motherhood -- I thought it would be enough to just love the pants off her, but I still feel like we're missing something. Maybe I'm overthinking this. ?

I read an article this week about how mothering changes us -- about how it teaches us and molds us in ways that nothing else can. I can see daily how the Lord uses my children to draw me closer to Him, and make me more like Him, and despite the long days and frustrations, I am grateful.