The Monarch

This last weekend I took the girls up to Brainerd to visit Grandma and Grandpa. While both the girls love visiting, Berlin is especially fond of the big yard and different outdoors to play in and discover.

We got there Friday night and Berlin immediately went outside to see what kind of creatures live in Grandma and Grandpa's yard and to see what kinds of flowers might be available for picking. I was sitting inside when Berlin came running inside sobbing like her heart was broken.

"What's wrong sweetie?" I asked her.

"There was a Monarch and Sadie ate it!" Berlin cried. Sadie is Grandpa's yellow lab.

"Oh no! That wasn't very nice of Sadie was it?"

Just more sobbing.

Turns out that Grandpa had saved The Monarch (which was actually a huge, very ugly hummingbird type moth) from Sadie and was holding it. After Sadie was put away in her kennel Berlin was given the moth with the understanding that it was injured and wasn't going to live long.

Well, Berlin decided that she wanted to put The Monarch in her bug container. Yes, she has an empty yogurt container with holes punched in the lid which travels with us everywhere we go. She currently has about 8 caterpillars in there, 5 of which turned into cocoons over the weekend.

Anyway, she got out her bug container and sat on the step to remove the lid. She set The (big hairy) Monarch down and, lo and behold, Dido, a dog visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house, came up and snatched that moth from right next to Berlin.

Poor Berli started shrieking at Dido, "Stop! Dido, stop! No! No, no, no!" But Dido was not impressed by the hysterical girl. Dido chomped that moth to pieces and swallowed it right in front of Berlin. You would have thought Dido had just eaten her favorite toy from the wailing that ensued.

Thankfully Grandpa came out and distracted Berlin with hugs and cycles of life information, which Berlin seemed to actually find quite interesting.

Whew.

                                                   (Best picture I can find of one of the moths...ew.)

P.S. If Berlin comes running up to you with her hands cupped over something, chances are you might not want to find out what's in there.

Exhausting Love

Having an almost one year old is exhausting. Let's be honest. The reason why I haven't been blogging much is not just due to running more. It's because I have an almost one year old. And he is exhausting.

There is the whole finding healthy foods that he is able to eat and out of those select foods finding the few that he actually wants to eat. It's a wild guess to try and decipher what is going to fit his fancy at any particular meal. The things he never rejects are blueberries, raspberries, cheese, pasta (most of the time), scrambled eggs (with cheese in them), pancakes, and yogurt. But he can't live off of those select foods, and everything else is hit and miss.

Then there is the whole part about  literally watching him almost every second that he is awake. He is on the move, crawling and pulling himself up on things, which is great, but that also means that he is a huge danger to himself because he doesn't know what being careful or cautious is all about. And he doesn't know the rules yet.

Speaking of, we are also having lots of discussions about the word "no" which mostly consist of me sounding like a broken record and him screaming at me. He is a lot more willing to try things over and over again than his sisters were. :) 

And he is just busy, busy, busy. Always wanting to do, do, do. Which means he gets bored a lot, which means that I have to find new ways or toys to entertain him. He also likes to be busy as soon as he wakes up, which lately has been 5am or 6am. Most days I feel like I haven't slept in so long.

On top of all that, I just really, really, really, really, really love this kid. Seriously. He is the cutest, sweetest, funniest, most loved boy of all time. He has the best laugh ever, I wish you could hear it right now.

We finally moved him into his own room last night, which, let's be clear, it's not like I was holding off on this and not getting enough sleep just because. He room was occupied and unavailable so we were making do and using a corner of our room for him. It worked just fine. But I was nervous going to sleep last night, and feeling a little sad and melancholy that the day had finally come and really feeling the fact that he is becoming less and less of a baby. Since he is our last baby, I do not at all regret the time that he got to sleep in our room - regardless of how little sleep I got. However, I got a truly real full night of sleep in my own bed last night with Kye in his room and I feel like a new person today. It's awesome.

So this morning I am celebrating the fact that this busy and tiring boy is getting older. I am reveling in the fact that I remember thinking how much easier it was to have a two and a four year old when I found out I was pregnant with this most loved boy in the world.

I will always, maybe forever, miss the baby days, but here's to full nights of sleep and - in the future - no more changing poopy diapers!! Haha!!

Walking Berlin

Sometimes it is hard to take Berlin on a walk.

This is what I sound like:

Berlin, stay on this side.

Pedal faster sweetie!

Berlin, please pay attention.

Watch out!

Come on! You need to stay with us.

Berlin, please focus and pay attention.

Focus, please.

She tries to have conversations and drives off the road. She tries to watch her shadow and forgets to keep pedaling. Sometimes she just stops pedaling for no particular reason that I can find. There have been a few times that she coasts to a stop, only Tryn is the thing that makes her stop when Berlin isn't looking and crashes right into her.

At one point during our walk Berlin was chanting to herself, "I am focusing, I am focusing, I am focusing." Only she was focusing so much on her chant that she drove herself right into the grass.

Steve gets to teach her how to drive a car.

Little Helpers

I have some really great helpers. Tryn and Berlin help me out with lots of things. They like to set the table, empty silverware from the dishwasher, bake, do food prep, vacuum, sweep, and dust. The crazy thing is that they love to do these things. They get super excited if we ask them to help and a lot of the times they are the ones who actually ask if they can help. I don't know why they are so excited about helping with chores, but I am afraid that someday they are going to wake up and really realize what's going on. :) Their favorite thing to help with is Kye. Anytime I ask them to help by putting something away or get something for Kye they always say yes. Anytime I ask them to hang out with Kye they get excited about it. And they especially like things like helping with the diaper changing process or feeding the man child. Example:

Snippets With God

I have been running a lot lately. It seems like whenever I start running a lot I stop blogging a lot. I am not sure why these two things go hand in hand for me, but I remember the last time I was running a lot I didn't blog much then either.

I am training for another half marathon, 13.1 miles. Tomorrow is my longest training run before the race. Anyone want to join me for a really long run that will result in nothing but the satisfaction from achieving a personal goal that I somehow convinced my brain I needed to accomplish? Haha!

Last time I trained I didn't listen to music at all when I ran. It was a tough strange year over all for us during that time when I learned how to run. Maybe I had lots of things to work through on my runs, but I would really look forward to them as a time to think about things. I loved being alone with the silence. And I needed thinking to get me through my runs. I would talk myself through miles, convincing myself that I could keep going because I had endured many more long hours and more pain in bringing children into this world.

This year, however, I started listening to music instead of thinking as a way to get through my runs. Last time I trained the few times I listened to music I tried listening to a list of my favorite songs. It would bore and annoy me. This time I had Steve help me make a really long playlist of all of my favorite worship songs. I tell you what, there are definitely some miles that I would have started walking through if I did not have those songs as motivators.

Because I am listening to my favorite worship songs during my runs I actually spend a lot of time praying or feeling like I am just hanging out with God while I am running. Sometimes when I am getting tired one of the greatest songs will come on and it literally feels like God is there with me. Like if I turned my head to the side really fast I would actually catch a glimpse of him running there beside me. And I would feel like if God is for me and my mind is my biggest adversary, then how could I quit? My runs have been a sweet time for me lately. Lots of time to spend with God.

The best thing is that since I am listening to these songs for several hours each week these are the songs getting stuck in my head. All throughout the day I am hearing lines running through my head that say things like,"Come to Me, I'm all you need..." or "My God is mighty to save..." or "...lead me to the cross, where Your love poured out. Bring me to my knees, Lord I lay me down. Rid me of myself, I belong to you..." it's like having snippets with God all day long.

Cutest Thing Ever

My Trynie has such a great heart. She has taken to writing notes to people lately, I posted about one on Facebook the other day. We were going to her friend Ava's birthday party and - all of her own accord - she came up to me right before we left with a card for Ava that she had made. It said, "Dear Ava, I like you very much. I like to play together with you. You are a nice friend. Love, Trynica." How sweet is that?

For Steve's birthday Tryn wrote him a beautiful note, all on her own. Yesterday she made him a card that said (and this is with my spelling corrections so you can read it), "Dear Daddy, I hope your smiles are perfect. Dad, I love you more than anything. To Daddy, Love Trynie. I always think that I will be loved." Melt my heart. Seriously.

She wrote this card to Cait, "Dear Cait, I like you for so many reasons too. I love you. I like you so very, very much. To Cait, Love Trynie."

But my favorite of all was this picture that she wrote for Berlin after Berlin fell down and scrapped her knee yesterday:


(Dear Berlin, I do not like when you fall or get hurt really really bad. I am so sorry. To Berlin, Love Trynica.)

She also drew the two cupcakes and told Berlin the bigger one was for her, which made Berlin very happy.

Cutest thing ever. Seriously. Tryn is fully embracing the gift of encouragement and freely giving words of affirmation. It's awesome. I am so proud of her. :)

Photo Shoot of Sorts

I took a few pics of Kye the other day. 9 month pics. Problem is I didn't get many of his face because his backside was too darn cute. :)



I know I have mentioned this before, but I have to say it again - I just LOVE the back of this little man's head! His ear sticking out like that are just way too cute for his own good.