Three Little Pumpkins

It was a fairly busy weekend with friends and family which made Monday come a little more quickly than usual. One thing Kwang and I have in common is that we both have a horrible memory. Awful. Terrible. So when Kwang asked me to remind him first thing in the morning to defrost some meat to grill on Saturday, I wrote myself a sticky note because I knew I'd probably forget. So, yes, I made a reminder to remind myself to remind Kwang. Wandering around the house trying to find an effective place to stick the note, Kwang laughed at me for thinking so hard about it and said that simply putting it on the refrigerator was sufficient for even him to see. I thought it would be more effective upstairs on something like our bathroom mirror, but I did as he said. Well, the next morning I went downstairs to find all the boys lounging around and playing and found that the meat hadn't been taken out. So I asked Kwang about it and he realized he completely missed the bright orange sticky note which, it turns out, wasn't as effective on the refrigerator as he thought. But I most certainly did not tell him that I told him so, did I not tell him so? I think I told him so, wait, let me check, yes, right there, that's when I told him so, and maybe he shouldn't laugh at me next time. I didn't say any of that. I just smiled and felt justified for my neuroticism.

So anyway, Kwang grilled up some yummy food and it was a nice weekend overall. We had his family over for dinner on Sunday after our little Audrey was baptized. Being our most active baby at this age, the antithesis of Eli, my mother-in-law was afraid Audrey would squirm her way out of Pastor Owen's arms. But our little sweet pea was an angel:

The hairclip was my feeble attempt at making Audrey look more like a girl. I was able to clip it onto all five strands of her front hair. She was baptized on the same day as Charlotte, another little one at our church. As I look at this picture, I'm not sure why we thought it'd be nice to take a picture of Audrey with such a cute baby girl, because it only emphasizes the fact that Audrey does indeed look very much like a baby boy dressed in frilly pink. But I suppose it will make for a nice memory:

Audrey (7mos) and her cousin Joshua (1mo), Bo/Bonnie's 2nd son:

And this past Friday was Pumpkin Patch day at Jude & Eli's school. I took a little time off work to snap some pictures of the boys. At first, they didn't know I was there and I tried hiding behind my camera so they wouldn't come charging at me. But in this picture, I could tell Eli thought this might be me taking pictures but couldn't tell for sure because he couldn't see my face:

Jude and his obligatory smile for mom:

Reality Bytes

Our pastor spoke today about God's "steadfast love", a gentle and welcomed reminder. It's been a bit tough these days to stay optimistic when so much around us is negative. Kwang has been out of work for a little while, our 401k has dropped 30%, and nothing in the news gives any sort of hope. Yet I know full well that God is in control. As my sister shared from her pastor, "A God that is present in the good but absent from the bad, is not big enough for life." Our God's hand is sovereign.

So after watching the news, I like to give myself a dose of Eli:

This year, I've noticed a difference in Jude from his previous two years of preschool. Last year, if I'd ask what he did or who his friends were, without fail his answer would always be, "I don't know." But now on our way home, he'll share in detail what he did in school, who he played with, and what his thoughts are about certain things. It's my favorite time of the day, our drive home in the car.

And in the last week, something of a miracle has happened in our home. Jude and Eli have always loved playing with each other, but it's been a love/hate relationship with equal amounts of love and hate. There really is no such thing as a day in our home without time-outs. But these days, Jude and Eli will play together for long periods of time WITHOUT FIGHTING. The first day it happened, I assumed it was a fluke. But after a week, I timed it one evening and sure enough, the boys played together on their own non-stop for OVER TWO HOURS. It's probably pathetic that I'm overjoyed about this, but I'd been starting to wonder why I thought it was a good idea to pop three kids out so close in age and now I think I might have my answer. This is what I turned around to yesterday after washing the dishes (the picture is blurry, because I couldn't take my gloves off and focus the camera quickly enough):

 

 

Really, mom, must we?

We must, Audrey, we must.

I Always Love A Good Air Guitar

I think this is the time of our life that I am going to miss the most once our kids grow up. I love listening to Jude and Eli converse and play together, I want to bottle up Eli's adorableness, and I wish Audrey would always stay this small and cute. Of course, I am beyond tired and sometimes wonder how I'll make it through another day of an endless list of "to do"s, but it's fairly easy to get over the slump when you find your kids as cute as I do mine. The other day in the car, Jude closed his eyes, bit his bottom lip, and moved to the beat of a song on the radio. It was so cute that I tried capturing it on camera at home but my attempt failed because he knew what I was doing. Eli, however, did NOT know what I was doing and danced to his heart's content:

I found the boys lounging in Jude's bed together when I came out of the shower on Sunday. These kinds of moments melt my heart. I say this because about two minutes after I took this picture, they were screaming and fighting with each other:

This past Sunday at church, a woman asked what daycare I send my kids to because she has a friend who is looking for one and she thought to ask me because she noticed our kids are so well-behaved. For a split second I thought she mistook me for someone else since these days I feel like our kids are so out of control. I don't have enough fingers or toes to count how many times a day Jude and Eli fight with each other or are disobedient. You know the mother you see at the market or store who looks worn down and at her wit's end? Yeah, that's me. I tell Kwang that I absolutely hate hearing me talk sometimes, because I sound like a... a... mom.
That's why I wish Audrey would stay her delightful, teeny, tiny self. The goofiest smile that brightens my day every day: