So.

It's a few months ahead of schedule and we aren't exactly all the way prepared for it, but my job was "restructured" this week and I'm suddenly, for the first time in 20 years, out of a job.

What am I going to do with all this free time?






haha.

This

is how the kid that is NEVER alone with Mama celebrates being alone with Mama.

Wheeeee!

For Melrose

Mostly because I can't figure out how to un-privatize only select pictures in the album I had these in...

This was day 2 or 3.  The spots had gone from looking like bug bites to zits. Not really much complaining, but I was using oatmeal baths as kind of a preventative measure.

A couple of days later.  Again, still not complaining.  :)

This picture was captioned "Day 12".  The spots had pretty much scabbed over by this point.  The ones in her hair were the first to ooze and scab, but also the last ones to completely heal.  Probably because she has long hair.

Weight Gain

is a good thing, in the Tiny Toddler's case. 

She's still in some 12 mo clothes (and a few 18 month) and, since her pants tend to just fall off (even with the adjustable waistbands cinched all the way up), she's wearing a lot of dresses with tights, but...

BUT!  We went to the pediatrician this morning to check out an excess of snot and she's gained a little over a pound and a half in the last two months and...

AND!  She's broken 20 pounds - her official (fully clothed) weight was 20 pounds, 7 ounces.

I'll take it.  This is the second two month stretch in a row that she's gained over a pound and a half.  At this rate, we might make it back onto the growth charts by her birthday.  :)

I'm sure you've seen this making the rounds

but just in case... Here's the link to the whole post about not Carpe-ing the Diem, and below is the part that I found myself first nodding in agreement, then wanting to go find a toddler and sniff her head...

There are two different types of time. Chronos time is what we live in. It's regular time, it's one minute at a time, it's staring down the clock till bedtime time, it's ten excruciating minutes in the Target line time, it's four screaming minutes in time out time, it's two hours till daddy gets home time. Chronos is the hard, slow passing time we parents often live in.


Then there's Kairos time. Kairos is God's time. It's time outside of time. It's metaphysical time. It's those magical moments in which time stands still. I have a few of those moments each day. And I cherish them.

Like when I actually stop what I'm doing and really look at Tish. I notice how perfectly smooth and brownish her skin is. I notice the perfect curves of her teeny elf mouth and her asianish brown eyes, and I breathe in her soft Tishy smell. In these moments, I see that her mouth is moving but I can't hear her because all I can think is -- This is the first time I've really seen Tish all day, and my God -- she is so beautiful. Kairos.

Like when I'm stuck in chronos time in the grocery line and I'm haggard and annoyed and angry at the slow check-out clerk. And then I look at my cart and I'm transported out of chronos. And suddenly I notice the piles and piles of healthy food I'll feed my children to grow their bodies and minds and I remember that most of the world's mamas would kill for this opportunity. This chance to stand in a grocery line with enough money to pay. And I just stare at my cart. At the abundance. The bounty. Thank you, God. Kairos.

In Case You Were Wondering

this happened. 

We were a little bit optomistic with our compensation hopes (it's still totally fair, it'll just take a little bit longer to reach some financial goals), but my husband recieved (and accepted) his offer letter last week and it's effective today.

Random

Mostly because I don't want to forget this.

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In the car the other morning, my 3YO asked for "the magic see" song. When I was confused, she elaborated: "on the singing music. with the clapping".


After frantically inserting and ejecting every CD I had in the car, listening to the first few bars of each song to jog my memory, I got the right song, and maybe three bars in, she exclaimed "That IT! The Magic See SONG!" It turns out, on a CD of VBS music from 3 years ago (I don't even know when she heard it), the 4th song has a line in the middle about "majesty". And there is clapping at the end.

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My 3YO prays chatty prayers while running and jumping and fidgeting and playing hand games.  She has no patience for recited prayers, other than the Lord's Prayer at bedtime (which she asks for over and over and again and again.  I bet we pray the Lord's Prayer 15 times in a row every night.).  She prays for the kitten that she saw and for those kids that the firemen were going to save "yesterday"* and for all the people that love her and for the caterpillar and for the weatherman to say that it will be sunny tomorrow and thank you, God, for bubbles and cousins and chocolate chip cookies. 
My 20MO sits stone still, with her hands folded, until the last two or three words of the prayer (or Creed or whatever), then raises her big blue eyes and solomnly says "A-mem".

*by "yesterday", she means pretty much any time in the past.  It might have been 5 minutes ago or 5 months ago.  There's really no telling.