Month 9: Meeting Needs

There are so many needs in our house and so many are immediate--spills and accidents need cleaning, the ringing telephone needs answering, a diaper needs changing, so do a pair of pants, an entire outfit...  Sometimes it feels as though the loudest bird in the nest gets the worm, and all of the birds are shouting at the same time.  That's the challenge of motherhood sometimes, isn't it?  There's a continual triage of events, a hope to meet everyone's needs, including our own.  And we can guess whose needs are the first to be overlooked, can't we?  

It's a blessing, though, this season of our life.  We're all growing, letting go of the unimportant.

B... is adjusting to his new and very early schedule.  In order to reach his job on time he has to be out of the door by 7 am.  In order to be out of the door by 7, he has to begin his day at 5.  

I...am learning as much as I am teaching.  

Z...is just about the best big sister there is.  She's got a gift, I tell you, for caring for her little brothers.

M...is making paper airplanes, hundreds of 'em.  And they're all different.

T...is making our lives that much more jolly.  Lately he has been using nonsense words for everything.  "Gime" (pronounced with a hard "g" and rhyming with "time") is his very favorite.

G...is in the process of learning to fall asleep on his own.  We came to this moment because I had been carrying him all day--even during naps--throughout the summer, and sleeping with him all night.  I was exhausted, and needed a change.  G likes learning this just about as much as I enjoy teaching it: not at all.  We've made an agreement, though.  He'll sleep in his own bed as long as I rub his back until he's asleep.  I think we can both live with that, and I know that we'll all be much happier when I'm better rested.

p.s.  Here are those teeth.  Watch out!  They're very sharp.