14 Weeks

She's sweet.  She's probably had 3 colds in 3 months thanks to a lot of kisses and holding from brothers.  The little primary children love her and comment on how cute she is or her little toes or her hair every week.  She does cute little almost laughs.  I haven't found the magic trick to a full on laugh yet.  

This brother loves her so much.  I could not ask for better older siblings for her.  Now if they will stay that way when she is able to play with their toys...

In other news, it was a busy week.  Wow.  It's a busy life.  I feel like there are just a few moments where I can "come up for air", but it is a good life, so I can't legitimately complain.

This was a SWEET part of Saturday.  I asked Daddy to hold Daphne, and Shawn was feeling cuddly and near napping practically.  They both sat on his lap for quite a long time, and I got a long bout of cleaning done as they were perfectly satisfied hanging out with Dad.  Lucas did point out that he can see how Daphne might initiate fights with Shawn when she is a little older because of the way she seemed to look at him when he encroached on her space on Daddy's lap, but sibling rivalry? I am SO used to that.  I think I can handle it.

Also, Friday and Saturday Lucas put together what is called a geometric climbing dome for the kids to play on in our backyard.  They love it and it should last and look nice for many years.  I say that we can give the credit for actually getting it to Ben.  He started asking for a play set, and when I showed him pictures, he liked a $17,000 best (!) and a $1000+ second best.  So, um, I wanted to get them something fun but not ridiculously overpriced for us, and here you have it.

 Friday we put on a primary activity for the kids about building strong families.  ENERGY!  But the teachers were so great in helping make it a success.  I am not so good at yelling over hyper TGIF kids, but they all had fun and there was a plethora of Rice Krispies made in the process and leftover, even after seconds.  Below is Shawn in one of the construction hats.  He was in heaven running around crazily with some of the others leader's children as we set up.  Talk about someone who thrives in chaos...he does have those 4 siblings that make it easy for him to do so.

 Lily, tall, beautiful, mostly good Lily.  She is VERY GOOD at sneaking this and that from the kitchen.  Where is my pepperoni?  How did the pickles and Cheez-Its disappear?  And yet she is not very good and never getting caught.  She's growing.  I can't fault her too much.  I just want none of us to starve (not a problem for me, but Ben?).

 After bath hair.  We call Matthew the hedgehog when he needs a hair cut.  It stands straight up, is thick and spiky.  Now the 2 blondie boys can get away with longer hair for a longer time, but I think we are pushing it with lil Shawn.  Shawn and I did a little role reversal for fun this week.  He gets the biggest kick out of being mommy taking care of silly Shawn.  He also says NO to anything, unless you ask him if he wants candy.  Then he throws tantrums if you don't give him what he wants even though he said, no, he didn't want it.  Oy!  He is a good play bud.  One thing I love so much is when he is cranky/tantrum throwing/crying, if I keep calm and don't make a big deal out of it, he is laughing and happy shortly.  He just needs to know he is loved but I am firm (not my thighs though), and then he works threw his growing mind's issue and is ready to move on.  It teaches me patience.  If I were to throw a mommy tantrum or be rude with him, I would just extend the situation, but with patience and calm, it gets nipped in the bud fairly quickly.  May not be the case when he turns 3, but it is a good place we are in now.

 Monday, my man needed his car mat on the table all morning.  I don't know if a lot of little girls do this, but give a 2-year-old boy cars and he is playing happily for hours.  I love little boys!  And little girls!

And now, as I've traveled backward through the last week, let us jump to today.  Lucas is in the kitchen decorating his cupcakes for Cupcake Wars at work.  Yep, he's got some seriously fun people on his team . They do a lot of fun things (many of them not calorie friendly), but fun!!!  He was trying some different combinations tonight and having me try them, and I had to laugh because we are all rinsing our mouth between tastings and I thought I guess this is the closest I will ever get to wine tasting.  Not sophisticated but definitely delicious and cute.  I daren't say what his cupcakes are though, so THE END.