These Are the Days

Whew...things here are busy.  Busy.  Very busy.

I'm very tired, running on coffee, and pushing through several slumps a day...but I still find myself smiling most of the time.

The kids are changing, growing, and each becoming more and more of their very own person.  

Clinton is definitely our ring leader.  The other two kids often watch him for cues.  When Clinton is wild and loud, there are often two others who are wild and loud.  

Heidi Sage is our caretaker and second mother.  She's always making sure that Rex has his blanket and paci, and if she can't find his she is willing to give up hers.  So sweet.  And when Clinton is in trouble, she can be found at my side pointing her finger and running her jibberish as if she, too, is letting Clinton know what he is in for.  Truly a site to see.  

And Rex is our doll baby.  He is so sweet.  He is so happy.  He loves sitting and visiting with each of us as much as he can.

Some days we're all out and about.  Some days we sit and chill.  Some weekend nights, we're out socializing.  Some weekend nights, we're sitting picking thorns out of our feet.  Because the mommy in this house doesn't insist on the kids wearing shoes.  Oopsie.

Rex is such a great go-with-the-flow kid...and thank goodness because I think he's got years of this ahead of him.

Keeping up with three kids is never easy.  Even when they're napping, I'm moving working on laundry, dinner, cleaning bathrooms, etc.  And sometimes when they're awake and I'm feeling productive, things in the next room are usually going like this.  It looks like a bomb has gone off...and at least one child is in the floor crying.

Not this child, of course.  He's still perfectly innocent and not responsible for anything...yet.  I'm sure his day is coming.

Our summer started off as a scorcher, but the past week or so has shown some great relief from the heat. We've been getting outside playing in the yard.  As Heidi Sage gets older, I see her and Clinton playing together more and more.  They get so tickled with each other I find myself sometimes shedding a tear or two just from the sheer joy I feel listening to their happiness.

Of course, we've done plenty of crafts this summer.  It just wouldn't be our house without some paint on the furniture and confetti on the floor.  Heidi Sage added quite a bit of color to our all-black patio set.

Clinton asks at least once a week to paint rocks.  It's easy, so we do it.  We just keep adding the rocks to our Pumpkin Patch.

We've also kept busy with some baking.  The kids love decorating with sprinkles.  I'm not sure my vacuum loves it.  The only problem with sweets is that my kids want to eat them until they're completely gone.  It's hard to explain rationing.  Especially when they're laying on the floor screaming so loud they can't hear me.  Seriously fun.

The kids love riding their bikes in our cul-de-sac.  Clinton also loves using Daddy's tools to "fix" his bike.  Heidi Sage stands by telling him over and over and over..."Dat's daddy's.  Not yours.  Dat's daddy's."

While Clinton is a child who constantly needs interaction with others, Heidi Sage is more like her mother and enjoys some time to herself.  You can often find her upstairs playing in her kitchen, in her room playing with her babies, or outside gathering up stuff.  She's often collecting things.  You can find her shopping cart and baby carriage both full of stuff at any given moment, and she loves carrying bags stuffed with as many things as they can possibly hold.

She's also my water baby.  She loves to play outside in the water.  Rodney has also taken her to the big pool a few times and says she's fearless.

Both of my little delinquents have a tendency to get a little out of control with markers.  A little tighter supervision might be helpful in preventing these incidents, but I'm not exactly a helicopter parent.  :-)

Clinton loves and truly values his rare one and one time with me.  He still gets quite a few outings with Rodney, but I usually have the little kids.  This picture was taken during one of our rare evenings when the little ones went down early and we had a chance to go play outside.  You can see the excitement in his face.  And he always says, "Go Honghorns!" when he wants me to smile...and it works every time.

We spent a lot of evenings this spring sitting on our front porch watching this mommy bird care for her babies.  They've flown the nest now, but the kids loved seeing the babies and were intrigued by how their mother fed them...and what she fed them.  Worms and cicadas!  Yum-o!

In the evenings, I try to get my kids outside and run them until they're worn out.  I have them race from one end of the yard to the other.  They LOVE it...especially when I join them.  It's one of my forms of exercise.  Rex sits in his exersaucer and watches us intently.

Heidi Sage gets lots of photo shoots for our DHS blog, and occasionally Clinton vies for my attention by giving me his best pose so I'll take pictures of him, too.  I've been trying to be more mindful of this and not make the photo shoots just about Heidi Sage, but use them as an opportunity to get more pictures of all the kids.

That's what's been going on here.  We've got some fun family events planned for the holiday weekend and upcoming week.  I'll try to get lots of family pictures and get a post up next week.  "Try" is the key word.  :-)