Well, we’re mostly over the sickness that plagued our family the past couple weeks. The boys seem like they’re back to normal, but I still have a little bit of a cough left and some nasal congestion, however it is much much better. I don’t feel like I have my full energy back, however, which has been hard because I’ve had a strong urge to prepare the nursery. I’ve been sorting through a ton of baby clothes lately and trying to remove those pesky protein stain from little outfits that will, in many cases, be put to use for the forth time. I also sorted through a couple boxes of baby girl clothes that I had slowly accumulated over the past few years. Anything that was even slightly used was placed in a bag to go to the Crisis Pregnancy Center and anything that still had tags was placed in another box, which will be stored away to either be saved for if we decide to have any more children and end up with a girl, or if one of my sisters or brother end up having a daughter. Right now I’m not totally opposed to having more kids, but I would definitely like to wait a while before we decide to add to the brood again. Four boys in the course of 4 1/2 years is a lot to handle, and I feel like it would be better for my body to get a break, and also for us to focus on raising our sons. Adoption is also another option we’ve considered- most likely from China, though I worry about things like cost and being able to accept an adopted child, especially one that we do not receive as a newborn, into the family as easily as a birth child. I know it’s possible and that a lot of people have done it, but it is still something that I think and worry about.
As far as the boys, Patrick is growing smarter in leaps and bounds. He’s showing a real interest in learning what words begin with which letters, and he’s starting to be able to identify simple words. I feel like I owe a lot of to the preschool he’s been attending. He’s also really expanded in his creativity, and loves to draw the most facinating things. He is very independent and loves to dress himself in the morning- I think Sunday mornings and special events are the only times when I ever pick out his clothes anymore.
Sammy continues to be the cuddlebug of the family. He loves soft things and gets very upset if any of his brothers so much as lays on his big bear or multiple blankies. He is beginning to become a lot more vocal lately, and his most commonly used phrases are “Patrick (or Ethie) hit me” and “Help me, mama!”. We are still working on him with the potty training- I haven’t been very pushy, and he knows what to do every time he sits down on the potty, but I haven’t been consistent in reminding him, and he has a lot of accidents. I am hoping that once the weather is a little nicer we can begin encouraging it more. It’s going to be hard for him to say good-bye to his diapers though- he really likes them 🙂
Ethan has been, well, probably our most challenging child yet. We’re realizing that he will be the daredevil of the family- he simply does not have any fear and he’s such a thrill seeker. At 17 months he is doing things that Sammy has never dreamed of doing- pulling out drawers and using them as step stools to reach things on the countertop, attempting to climb out of his high chair on many occasions, and climbing over furniture as if he were a monkey. I just know that the first major ER trip we ever have to do is going to involve this little guy. He is quite the demanding little guy, but he can be very sweet when he wants to be.
As for me, the business is going well. I am planning to close everything down on May 1st to start preparing for the baby, and I’ve had a lot of people asking me to do customs for them before I stop. It’s gotten to the point where I have been a little overwelmed and have started keeping a waiting list because I just don’t know how much I can handle these days. As much as I enjoy doing what I do, I really want to start working on getting things ready for the new baby. I have so much fabric and yarn that is dying to be made into all sorts of fun little things for this next little one, and the business feels like it’s dragging me down a little bit at the moment.
Andrew has been doing well, too. We had a little bit of a scare for a while that the work was drying up out here and we began to look into different options in CA, TX and a few other places. However, Andrew’s company approved a new contract yesterday and it looks like Andrew will be taking charge of it! This was definitely an answer to prayer- while we were not opposed to moving, we felt strongly that it would be the sort of thing where it was a last resort in the event that we simply could not get more work out here. I don’t think I would mind moving sometime in the future- I have to admit that the thought of moving to a warmer climate has been very appealing to me this winter, but for now I feel like we’re settled here and I wouldn’t want to uproot us just yet.
I cannot believe that Easter is coming up so soon. Tomorrow we will be going to an Easter egg hunt at the home of some friends. I feel like we really missed St. Patrick’s Day this year, since we never threw a party like we have in years past. Between the operation and the illness we had going around, however, it was impossible for us to do anything. We’ll just have to throw a huge party next year to make up for it 🙂 It’s also weird that we won’t be celebrating Easter with my parents, since they’re in Bangladesh (doing well, by the way, in case anyone was interested). I haven’t quite decided what we’ll do, but it will probably be a very small family dinner. I am lucky these days if I am able to get a full home-cooked meal on the table more than a couple times a week.
Well, in case I don’t write again until then, I hope everyone has a Happy Easter!
