A New Hope

As you probably know by now, my daughter has not really been what I had long anticipated for my baby girl.  Colic, fussiness, agitation... you name it, Selah Nicole Sher, has had it.  The other day we were walking through WalMart, a favorite pastime of ours, and my hope in having a gentle and loving little girl was renewed.  She hugged a doll.  What, you think -- that hardly seems noteworthy.  But, oh, it is extremely noteworthy in my mind!  The moment actually brought tears to my eyes.  Let me tell you why...

Selah's favorite sound is "AHHHHHHHHH!!!!"  She does it to anyone and anything.  Zeke wakes up in the morning and goes to kiss her face and she turns to him with a sour expression and says, "AHHHHH!!!"  Ummm, okay?  We fill her sippy cup with water because she has brought it to us and she will throw it down and say, "AHHHHH!" because it is not the juice she desired.  Her BFF Halle tries to give her a hug and she says, "AHHHHH!" as she pushes her away.   Selah gets irritated with her stroller because she has run it into the wall and it need to be turned around.  What does she say?  "AHHHHH" as she bangs it into the wall again and again.  She's not partial, people and things alike are the target of her frustration.  

So, walking through WalMart our friend Olivia hands Selah a doll.  Immediately Selah coos at the doll, gives it a kiss on the mouth, and then hugs it while she pats it on the back.  And that's when my eyes watered!  I am praying that this daughter of mine will turn into sugar and spice and all things nice.  Maybe, just maybe, we are heading that way! 

The Symphony of My Life

Last night I was making dinner while listening to the "music" of my life.  Let me explain... I was home by myself with the kids, B was at work(lucky man!).  I am making a family favorite of homemade waffles and scrambled eggs.  This is when the music began.  The pan is sizzling with the eggs while the vent sucks up the smoke.  The waffle iron is sweltering hot and creaks and groans in response to the batter.  Zekey has just pooped and is calling my name repeatedly from the bathroom, with "MAMA, CAN YOU COME AND WIPE ME" thrown in a few times for good measure.  Noah is playing handball on our front door (inside our entryway, mind you) and asking me again and again, "Mommy, come and watch how good I can hit the ball".  And the ball goes, "bap, bap, bap."  Selah is screaming bloody murder in her bed (already being there in time out for stomping her feet and throwing her cup down in anger) and calling "MAMAMAMAMAMAMA."  The phone actually had the audacity to ring during this crescendo of it all.  All during this time I wondered what people do when they have more than 3 kids.  I am actually considering celibacy just to make sure that B's vasectomy will never have the opportunity to show it just didn't take.

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Okay... since we are back to school tomorrow I have been spending this past week trying to catch up in all areas of my life.  My blog was last on my list of things to update -- so... da da da daaaaa, here we go!  Since I knew I wanted to update my oh-so-outdated blog, I have been thinking about what I want to say.  And the biggest thing I am thinking about is how many different forms of communication our society has.  I am actually a little overwhelmed.  It starts with my home phone which I always check my messages on.  Then I also have my cell with which people can call me, leave a message, or even text me.  And how do people decide if they want to call and chat or just text?  I have had email forever and liked checking that to see who emailed me a note.  I set up my shutterfly account about a year ago which lets people see my pictures and I always included explanations about what our family has been up to.  If friends want, they can post a note to us in response to our pictures.  About a month ago I set up a twitter account and was occasionally updating people on my boring life.  Just this week I signed up for facebook and realized that people can now email me on that or just post a little note to me.  Basically, I am utterly confused.  How do I know which is the best way to communicate with friends?  It is pretty exhausting to check all these different forms of communication every day to make sure you don't miss anyone or anything.  Does anyone agree with me?