tangential rumination

so phil began his second year of residency last month.  just in time for lauren’s arrival.  looking back, it appears that each of our children were born at just the *wrong* time– mikey came just before phil began third year of med school when he had to start taking overnight call.  allie came just before phil began intern year when his call schedule became more demanding and stressful.  and now lauren has arrived just as phil begins the year in which he has to take call on either friday or saturday of every week in addition to mid-week call and now it has been decided to extend the regular workday from ten hours to twelve.  definitely the *wrong* time to have children by all appearances and yet the Lord had His perfect plan in place for us. 

we couldn’t do without each of them now.  they each add something special and unique to our family and oh how we enjoy them!  mikey with his silly sense of humor and good-hearted nature, allie with her sweet little voice and happy smile, lauren with her little tiny baby ways.  collectively, God has used them to teach me so much about both being a mother and a person.

i’ve had to learn to let go of control (not that i ever had it in the first place!), learn to grow in patience, learn to relinquish what i thought were my rights, the list could go on and on.  and definitely i’m still learning and having to repent and ask for forgiveness many times.  yet with each child, letting go of certain expectations (like getting a full night’s sleep in X amount of weeks) has gotten easier.  God has been faithful to teach me how to parent and has shown me areas in which i need to grow and has been patient in the many times i’ve failed.  i’ve grown in many areas and yet still have so much more to go.  parenting a newborn now is much easier and less stressful than parenting mikey as a newborn only because experience has taught me that it all comes in stages and it won’t last forever.  i find myself even kinda looking forward to the middle-of-the-night feedings because that’s our only “just the two of us” time that i really enjoy.  so i’m not even in that much of a hurry to get lauren to sleep through the night (though that’s not to say that i haven’t put her on a routine or that i’m not giving her opportunity to learn how to self-soothe– because i know those things are best for her in the long run.  lauren does a fair amount of crying each day simply because i can’t get to her or the other kids as soon as they’d like, since there’s now three of them and one of me!  i’m just not stressing myself out to get it all done so quickly).  i know we’ll get there eventually and i’m just enjoying these early newborn days.  how i wish i could bottle up that newborn smell and keep it forever.  as it stands, i inhale it as much as i can. 

but i digress.  my original point for this post was to say that with phil working most weekends since lauren’s birth, it has felt like the weeks just blur into one another, dragging on and on with no breaks in sight.  but, he was given a random tuesday off last week and so we made a day of it at the discovery science center.  how thankful i am for phil and his willingness to still plan fun family outings for us and carve out time to go places.

a friend lent us this sit-n-stand stroller which has come in quite handy toolin’ around town with three.  we call this our kiddy train.  choo choo!  (sidenote– look how much allie looks like phil in this picture!)

the kids were quite absorbed with these puzzles.  allie was in love with the kid-sized chair and table.

mikey totally looks like phil here when he’s deep in thought.  funny how my kids don’t really resemble each other, yet they each are variations of their daddy.  even lauren, my last hope for a kid to look like me, is actually “phil 3.0”!

swimmin’ with the fishies.

the current exhibit is bob the builder.  allie went over to hang with her buds.

an experiment with water density.  mikey just wanted to get the ball out.

we got a family membership (we’ve become suckers for family memberships!) so hopefully we’ll get to go back soon and explore some more.