Marlo's Memo

It has been a beautiful day...wonderful temps, sunny yet partly cloudy, great weather for playing outside this afternoon and evening which is what our children did for hours. We decided to sit outside to eat dinner tonight. After we finished, our children continued to play. Randy and I sat out there and read while laughter filled the air -ours and our kids'. What a wonderful way to spend our evening...what a wonderful start to our Easter week-end. BUT is that even a good thing to say on this Good Friday? Good Friday. Think back to the story of that Friday, when Christ was betrayed, wrongly accused and convicted, sentenced to crucifixion, beaten, crucified, then He died. It might have been a beautiful day of weather where the children could play outside, where people went about their business, where it was seemingly a normal day... BUT on that Friday evening, Jesus was dead and buried in a tomb. The remaining disciples, one of whom had denied even knowing Jesus, we're huddle...

I'm missing my husband today. Yesterday, he embarqued on a journey to Africa. Ghana to be exact. It's his first time to travel there, and I am very excited for him. At first, my thoughts of this trip were along the lines of, "What are we going to do without him here? How will I be able to manage being a single mom of sorts while he's gone? I'm not going to sleep well. I'll be exhausted." etc. Looking back at each of those comments, what I notice is selfishness. I was completely consumed with ME! "Poor, pititful me" BOO HOO! Call the "Waaaambulance". Seriously. That's what was running through my mind. Then, I realized that my routine is going to be basically the same. I'll eat foods I like...and know what they are. I'll sleep in my own bed, have running water...hot and cold. I'll have safe water to drink. I'll see a mosquito and not worry about malaria. I'll kiss my kids every night and morning. ...

Here I am just a little over 14 days until Sutton's c-section date, and my emotions are weird, again! I am so excited to have her here to hold her, kiss her, watch her being loved on and hugged on by Sydney and Micah. It is just so exciting!!! However, at the same time, I'm sad. I've come to realize that this the last time I'll be pregnant...which is something I truly enjoy. So the "mixed" part is that I don't want her to come out just yet. I want to continue to feel her kicking and moving around on the inside. It's such an amazing feeling that only God could create! So that is where I am. Pray for me, please. Both are strong emotions right now. My other concern is I don't want to go through post-partum like I did with Sydney. Thanks for reading this one =)

Micah is doing great with using the potty. We still, however, put him in a diaper overnight. Sometimes he's dry in the morning. Sometimes he's not. Last night he wanted to wear his underwear. I was reluctant. Randy asked him what he would do if he needed to go tee-tee during the night. M: "I ' feeze ' it" R: "What?" M: "I feeze ' it" I thought maybe he was saying "reach" because he uses an f instead of an r, so we asked. R: "Reach it?" M: "No. ' Feeze ' it" R: "Do you mean freeze it?" M: "Yes" We still had no idea what that meant but were already laughing. R: "Like the cops say "freeze" and you hold your hands up?" M: "Yes. I say ' feeze ' and go in there and go potty" as he pointed to the bathroom. We all laughed hysterically !!

My day started early...well I just didn't sleep well. My stomach hurt. I still haven't figured out why. It's something to do with a little Miss Sutton in there. At 6:38 am on this Saturday morning, I had to go potty - not unusual since I'm 33 weeks pregnant. When I got back in bed, I still could not get comfy. Randy snuggled up behind me and put his hand on my "bouncing" tummy. We just lay there for a while feeling Sutton kick, squirm, flip, jump, karate chop - this is at least what it felt like! He finally said, "She's doing cartwheels this morning. Can you sleep when she does that?" I laughed and said no. I had just been lying there smiling. I like it when he gets to feel her move. So that's how the Daddy/Daughter day started. Daddy "feeling" his youngest girl move and say "Good Morning World"...she may be just like him in the mornings =) At 3:40 pm, our doorbell rang. It was Daddy coming to pick up Sydney ...

I've always heard it's easier to train girls than boys. I'm finding out that this statement is true. S was completely trained by 2 yrs and 8 mos - including overnight. However, she was waking up completely dry in the mornings. She also realized when she was wet or going to be wet. She didn't like being wet. M is completely different. He wakes up almost every day w/ a very full diaper. I know...don't give him anything to drink. I can't do that. I still sometimes need a drink of water in the middle of the night. It's awful when you're thirsty and can't get a drink. Anyway, he also doesn't care that his diaper is wet or dirty. He only lets us know he's dirty when there is something he wants to do that might be inhibited by wearing a diaper full of poop! I'm trying again today to just let him wear underwear and take him to the potty every 15-30 minutes. So far, so good...about 1 1/2 hrs. He knows he'll get a piece of candy if he uses the ...

This is going to sound like I was mean, but read with an open mind. Last night the kids were arguing with each other to the point of one of them crying while the other came to find me to tattle. I had gone over by the front door to turn on the exterior lights. It had started to get darker outside, and there were no lights on in the living room. As I heard them coming, I decided to just stand in my slightly shadowed spot to see what they would do. I could easily be seen if they were looking for me and not just hoping to find me wherever I was, but I was not out in the middle of the living room. They were both calling for me...each to tattle on the other. I watched them walk through the living room into my bedroom never turning on a light. When they called as they walked into my bedroom, I answered, but they neither one turned around. They just kept on walking all the way to my bathroom. They called, again, and again I answered. They could hear me, but they couldn't see me. When they...