I Have Four Small Children and a little trouble getting to Solla Sollew!!!!!!!!
I guess toddlers are kind of like cats. Put a box down, and in they go.
Today little John David turns 3 months old.
I have no adorable new photo to post. Check out Tuesday’s post for that. He still looks the same. ; ) I have no exciting new milestone news to share, and I have no energy. I DO have a horrible case of hay fever.
Do you know what’s harder than taking care of four small children? I do! It’s taking care of four small children when your head feels like it’s going to explode.
….There was a moment today, there was a moment where I really could have lost it. I’m quite surprised that I didn’t lose it, but I guess not much shocks me anymore. I just want a moment of peace. Maybe because I’m sick. Maybe it’s because we’ve already been through so many antics already. Maybe it’s just too much to ask….
I was in John David’s room, changing Daniel’s poopy pull-up, John David was in his little floor gym crying, and Joshua and Caleb were jumping on the trampoline, in their swimming trunks, with the water hose.
As I shouted out the window for them to come inside and turn off the hose, I also noticed that Caleb’s only school shoes were beside the trampoline, drenched. Then Joshua proudly announced that he was bringing me back my (only) salt shaker (empty and wet), and it had killed that slug “real good.” Nice.
Just yesterday I was thinking I was pretty much done potty training Dan.
He’d gone two days without wetting his underwear. He even went #2 on the potty. Today I made the mistake of letting him wear a pull-up all day. I guess the sickness clouded my thinking.
This has just been one of those days that beats you with a stick all day long.
Every day I send the older boys to school. It’d be a lot easier if they stayed home, and I could send John David and Daniel to school. Those two are WORK.
So anyway, it’s been three months. John David is precious. He’s a very good baby, and he’s super sweet and sociable. His brothers all adore him. At this particular moment, he’s a little cranky. Caleb woke him from his nap as he went stomping up the stairs.
Apparently Caleb didn’t approve of our making him clean up the backyard mess that he made.
Fourth babies learn very quickly that the house just doesn’t revolve around them.
All of this reminds me of a really wonderful book by Dr. Seuss called I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew.
Best children’s book I’ve read in a while! Here are some quotes from the book:
“And I learned there are troubles of more than one kind
Some come from ahead and some come from behind”
First he tries to prevent problems from happening by standing guard:
“I’ll watch out for trouble in front and back sections by spinning my eyeballs in different directions.
I found this to be quite a difficult stunt, but now I was safe both in back and in front.”
….So he meets a man who tells him to move to Solla Sollew, where there are no troubles at all, or at last very few….and he encounters serious troubles in trying to get there, until finally he gets there and finds that he can’t even get into the town b/c the town is having trouble with the lock to the town, so the character finally decides:
“Then I started back home to the Valley of Vung
I know I’ll have troubles. I’ll maybe get stung.
I’ll always have troubles. I’ll maybe get bit.
By the Green-Headed Quail on the place where I sit.”
“But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”
………….So the lesson here is that what I need is a BIG BAT! Haaaaaa! No, but really, I thought this was a great lesson for us all about facing up to our troubles, and right now I would say that I do have a few.
Here’s wishing you all a great weekend. May none of you even need your bat. I’ll have mine right here beside me. ; )
Hope you are feeling better. Love you, Nana
Watch out trouble! The slug and the salt…ahh, the memories…
Hope you are feeling better soon!
“Walk softly and carry a big stick.”~Teddy Roosevelt (Daddy-O)