Once Upon A Time

There were fan books.  Remember those? Luke's obsession with ceiling fans led him to tote around fan catalogs and pour through the pages day after day.

That faded quite some time ago but seeing him devour this Lego catalog over and over again, saying with complete accuracy things like, "This set has two thousand, four hundred and twenty nine pieces" takes me back to the fan and clock days.

We've been enjoying our summer pretty well.  We all survived my time at Young Women's Camp.

Mom came and stayed with the kids during the day and of course Dan was home at night. Ava finished up her week at basketball camp, which she just loved.  And I'm not gonna lie, that made me really, really happy.

Finn came around to the bottle and put all my hard-earned pumped milk to good use.

 Pumping milk, every three hours, on the bottom of a too short bunk bed, under a nursing cover, in a cabin, in 100 degree weather, wasn't my highlight.  And then dumping it all in the grass because I didn't have a way to freeze it was also not awesome.

But playing with the girls, watching them build their relationships with each other, hearing and seeing their testimonies of Jesus Christ grow right before my eyes, more than made up for all that milk stuff.

I came up with pretty much the ultimate camp prank. Of course I would never have the heart to go through with it.  But if you ever find yourself as a leader of unsuspecting campers with access to an endless supply of breastmilk, and the job of distributing the nightly treat of cookies....just promise you'll think of me.

Max held out long enough for me to get home before needing to go to urgent care for bronchitis and an ear infection. And of course it has been successfully passed to the baby. The other kids were so paranoid about catching it they've avoided him like the plague and come screaming to me, "MAX TOUCHED ME! HE TOUCHED MY HAND!"

Max seems to have felt the two's were not worth being terrible over. The three's, however, is a different story.  Probably combined with Finn being born and then being sick this week, he's almost more than I can bear.  Seriously, the only descriptor I can think of for him is Hell on Wheels, only he doesn't even have any wheels.  I should possibly delete this before printing out the blog book but on the other hand, I shouldn't because he totally deserves to read this about himself in 5 years.

Max, I love you but you are a nightmare! The display you put on in the dentist office today, with your complete disobedience, loud whining and forced wailing was reprehensible and embarrassing.  You have now ensured yourself of my total commitment to at least one episode of middle school pda.  Prepare to have your face cleaned with my spit, your hand held, and maybe even a kiss on the mouth when you are 14 and standing in front of the girl you like.  Consider yourself warned.
Love, Mom

We're off to the beach tomorrow and I will consider it a success if we return with all four children!