Little Surprises

the children are constantly giving me little surprises.  just last week, zane proudly told me that he had something in his coat pocket, "mommy, i have you a surpriiiiiise" (as he pats his pocket and smiles from ear to ear.  he refused to show me on the bus and told he wanted to show me later.  fine, i have two other children talking at my face right now and one at home who will be waking up for a snack in just a few minutes time.  i can wait for that surprise...

several days passed and when friday snuck up on me, i realized zane's coat was in desperate need of soap and water!  it was covered in mud.  as i was preparing it for the wash (you know what i mean, moms, every nook and cranny must be searched because you never know what you'll find that you don't want to go into the wash).  i reached my hand in his little coat pocket and there it was....my "surpriiiiiiise"!  inside his coat was caked up dirt from where he had apparently put in a mud ball.  also, i found 4 rocks.

oh, sweet zane, you shouldn't have....

before going to bed at night, i love to sneak in and check on each one of the children.  isn't it the sweetest to see them lying so still?  so peaceful.  the boys are all contorted, blankets and body parts in all directions, sweet reese looks like a little angel, and echo is in peaceful bliss.  i love those moments.  i think God makes children so cute when they sleep so that we'll want to keep them for another day.  sometimes the kids leave me surprises before they go to bed.  a few nights ago i walked in, snuck in with my most stealthliest moves possible and as i was tip-toeing over to maddox's bed, ever so lovingly, i stepped on the sharpest, tiniest, most glass-like object!  what the.....!?  not expecting to watch out for objects that feel like shards of glass, i began to limp and whimper, going down to my knees in sheer pain of what had just occurred.

why!?  why oh why would you leave that stinking tiny toy in the thick carpet maddox?

and not to make anyone squirm too much, but if you have young children, you know that you may, at any given time, find a little gift in any toilet around the house at any given time....

"guys......!!!!??  who pooped in the potty and not flush when they were done!!!!!???"  and then one will slink in telling me "sorry, mommy" as they flush and run away.

little surprises.  what would my life be without all these little surprises?

today, i came in from the gym and quickly started to pick up our piles of clothes from yesterday's snow day.  we were wet from head to toe and decided to let it all dry out overnight.  i was picking up gloves and hats and kept smelling an all too familiar smell.  what was that?  where is it coming from?  upon turning over echo and maddox's gloves i realized that the foul smell was dog poop.  i thought back to our snowball fight and cringed.  thank you Lord that we all got into the bath immediately after stripping down last night.  because some of those snow balls.....were actually poop balls.

and speaking of poop balls, this morning heath woke echo up and brought her into the kitchen for her breakfast.  he quickly tore off her pull-up to switch her over to her undies.  and as he pulled, tiny little poop balls went bouncing around the kitchen floor.  we all stood in horror as daddy tried to compose himself and rush echo to the nearest toilet to clean her up.  he hasn't quite figured out that when waking a small child in the morning and taking off her pull-up, one must proceed with caution.   although she is potty trained for the most part, she can still produce little surprises.  he can be such a rookie sometimes.... 

yes, it's these little surprises that remind me how young our family still is.  i mean, i no longer have many of the surprises that come along with the infancy or the baby stage.  yes, i've successfully lived through each of those stages.  and let me tell you, those were some serious surprises!  but i am certainly, without a doubt, still in a big-fat-surprise stage right now.  and i don't think the surprises will end for a very long time.  i shudder to think of what pranks and surprises the children will leave for me in the future.  i shiver, i cringe and i do a bit of a gagging. i also can't help but laugh.  there is never a dull moment.

and why would we want dull?  why would we want anything less than the fun and silliness that comes with these little people we call children?  they constantly teach me to lighten up, to laugh and to take life in stride.

so, moms, let's lighten up.  let's laugh.  and let's take it in stride.  may you, too, have a blessed day...full of lots of little surprises!

Snowball fight of January 2013.  

"He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children.  
Praise the Lord!" Psalm 113:9