Trusting Like Adaleine

I haven’t felt like I had too much to write about for a while now, but Sissy Belle said something the other day that I just had to share. But first, a little background.

Adaleine broke her wrist last week :( It was a complete accident and really nobody’s fault, but the poor thing rode a zip-line straight into a tree. Both bones in her wrist/arm are broken.

As heartbreaking as it was to see my little girl in pain and distress, I could not have been more proud of this girl. The x-ray tech, the nurses, the receptionists, the doctors…everyone was so impressed with this little seven-year-old girl walking around holding her mangled wrist and bearing the pain without complaint.

Now don’t get me wrong—she cried. She was in a great amount of pain and if she had let herself she could have screamed and wailed with the best of them. But this girl is the toughest kid I have ever encountered when it comes to handling pain. Her resilience and strength the whole afternoon and evening after it happened took me back four years to when she got burned and never complained about the pain. Seriously.

But what was more striking to me was not her toughness, it was her composure. Like I said, she didn’t wail and moan. She was calm when they were looking her over, quiet even in the pain of moving her arm around for x-rays, and relaxed even when the anesthesiologist inserted the IV in the back of her little hand (complete with chippy sparkle nail polish.) Even when they wheeled her off in her bed to put her to sleep so they could set the bones, she smiled back at us. Time and again there were comments, “I have adults that don’t handle this as well as you!” and “I wish all my patients were this calm” and “My kids would be having a FIT right now!”

 There was a brief window in there where pride started to rear its ugly head and I thought, That’s right, she’s tough! We’re raising such a strong girl! Go us‼ How silly of me.

We asked her the day after it happened why she was able to be so calm. Her response without hesitation was, “Because I knew God could take care of me.”

Wow. My little Adaleine has such a grasp of God’s sovereignty that even when her little bones are snapped and she’s scared in a hospital, she can still cling to God’s peace and power. It brought tears to my eyes to know that in the moments when I couldn’t be with her—in the OR when they started the meds that would put her to sleep—in those moments she was relying on her heavenly Father to protect and comfort her.

“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.”

               Psalm 105:4

Every once in a while, my kids teach me a lesson or two. 

Momma...Out!

We’ve had kind of an interesting couple of weeks around the Bug household. I hesitate to say ‘difficult’ because it comes nowhere close to what some people deal with, but for me—yeah, it’s been rough.

 

Oh, no! The poor thing is sick! (This was the first day so I still had some sympathy)

We’ve been fighting off one bug or another between all three kids for almost two weeks now, and let me tell you I’ve had it. I’m exhausted and I’m worn out (which are totally different) and I’m at the point where the sound of my children’s laughter is grating on my nerves. I want them to just.be.quiet. and leave me alone or so help me I’m going to lose my mind.

Oh, shoot. Now this one, too! Oh well, let's play some games and make the most of it. (Again, I still had a bit of sympathy left at this point)

Yay! This one's feeling better! Let's braid her hair and throw a party because she can go back to school tomorrow!!

 I guess making silly faces can be fun. Let's do that. Whatever.

You know what you get when you combine sick kids home from school + snow days + 26 weeks pregnant + husband being gone 70% of the time + sick momma + general life conundrums? I’ll tell you what you get. You get a mom who is counting the seconds until her kids go to sleep and won’t even let them brush their teeth before heading to bed because oh my gosh just go right now.

Not my proudest mom-ing, but I think it would be safe to say that I’m not the only mom who has felt like this. 

For the love. Everyone feels fine and we get six freaking inches of snow so there's no school. Plus now I feel like crap. Dang kids and their dang nasty germs. TV all day!

Let me be clear: my kids really are great. Well, my seven-year-old is experimenting with the attitude of a teenager from time to time so she sort of sucks sometimes but other than that? Great. But there are three of them and one of me and I’m growing another one! And between Judah’s constant requests for food, Adaleine’s sore throat/fever/cough (God bless this poor girl!), and Eden’s occasional insights into how ridiculous and/or dumb everything is I am just…done.

Son of a...her fever's back. Yeah, she's cute laying there feeling the baby move. But wouldn't she be cuter if she were AT SCHOOL????!!!!

The final straw.You couldn't just hold out, kid?! Just HAD to get sick, didn't ya? Oh, I see you've sneezed snot all over your shirt again. Let me take care of that for you.

So this is me declaring that until the girls go back to school on Monday, I officially don’t care. Wanna watch TV? You bet! Wanna watch another movie? Go for it. You want fast food for dinner? Let’s get on that. You don’t want to brush your teeth? They’re your baby teeth anyway so who really cares!

If you see me or my kids on Monday and we look a little worse for wear, just look away and walk on by. Unless you happen to have chocolate. Then you’d better just hand it over. Momma needs it.

The Sanchez Family Recap Because I'm a Slacker

Alrighty then. I’m a bad blogger/procrastinator/over-committer and I haven’t written for months. Which seriously makes me hurt inside. I’ve got stuff to say, people! I’ve got thoughts and feelings and random musings! But it felt wrong to sit down and write a ‘musings’ post when I haven’t written a ‘here’s what’s going on in our lives’ post in so long. So, without further ado…

Here’s what’s going on in our lives! A recap of the last couple of months. With pictures. You’re so so welcome.

Eden and Adaleine ran in a one-mile kid’s run called the Pumpkin Run in October and loved it! Eden ran in the second grade heat and finished that mile in 10:30, then decided to run again in Adaleine’s kindergarten heat a little bit later and finished 40 seconds faster! Leave it to the oldest to show up her kid sister in her own heat! Anyway, Eden had so much fun in that race she wanted to run in the Governor’s Cup Run the next weekend and finished in 9:02. She was the second 7-year-old girl to finish, and the first one was only one second ahead of her! 

The girls before the Pumpkin Run

Miss Eden before the Governor's Cup Run

We played in the leaves...

Halloween went off without a hitch. Well, except for the bald patches all over my head from pulling my hair out while trying to make three costumes last-minute because I had about two crazy weeks leading up to it. Anywho…Halloween. We went for a Star Wars theme this year because our kids are young and impressionable and we were able to convince them that’s what they wanted to be. #Winning. Judah rocked the world as Han Solo, Adaleine was the cutest little Leia you’ve ever seen, and Eden was Padme. The coolest part? They all had their own {fake!} gun. We’re pretty serious about Halloween, y’all. 

 

Right after Halloween, we shared some pretty big news with the world…new baby due in May! We find out this next week whether it’ll be pink or blue because I obviously cannot wait until May to find out. Did you just meet me? I’ve gotta plan and decorate and stress over names! Oh, and before you ask: yes, this was on purpose. Yes, we know how this keeps happening. No, we’re not crazy. And yes, we know our lives are going to be turned upside-down. We can’t wait!

Adaleine Grace turned six! Six. Seriously. Let’s let that sink in for a second. Here she was yesterday:

And now she’s six. It ain’t right. 

We celebrated with a Princess and the Pea Pajamas & Pancakes Party {say that ten times fast} and it was a hit! Party time was a Saturday morning and all of her little friends came over in their pajamas, which was a special treat. I didn’t do a big dessert table or anything for this party like I’ve done in the past; I just set up a long table on cement blocks on the floor and had the girls eat their pancakes, fruit and sausage together to kick off the party. For party games, we played ‘Pin the Pea on the Mattress’ which really had no winner and was just fun. I also had kits for everyone so they could make their own princess on a pile of mattresses, but we ran out of time during the party so they took those home. Sissy had so much fun and so did her friends!

Thanksgiving. Eden and Adaleine both won the wishbone battle so we’ll probably be like the luckiest family in Lincoln for all of 2015. We visited family after Turkey Day and the girls wrangled chickens. Because that’s what you do on the farm. My grandpa, who is 98 years old, dressed up as Santa Claus! He didn’t fool any of the kids but they loved it! He pretty much rocks.

 

The girls had their Christmas concert at school in which they both--of course--sang beautifully and stole the show. {Biased mom alert!}

Ready to head out to the concert!

After the concert with their flowers from Mr. Bug

Then finally, Christmas. The munsters gave a little concert of Christmas songs at their Nana & Papa's on Christmas night, and I wasn't even the only one who thought they were cute! We had about two weeks off of school, so we spent a week on the road visiting family and the second week at home in our pajamas. Basically the perfect vacation.  

Santa usually stops by my in-laws' house if we're there on Christmas Eve ;)

Ready to open presents Christmas morning! Judah loves snuggling up to his girls.

So that’s our last couple months in a nutshell. I’m hoping to get back here a little more regularly in the future, so hopefully we’ll have more regular updates from now on! I hope everyone is having a fabulous and marvelous and beautimous new year so far!

 

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Sissy Belle is Sneaking Off to Kindergarten

School starts the day after tomorrow and I’m having a hard time catching my breath. This summer seemed to fly by, and although I’m ready to send my girls off to start their school year, it’s a little bit bittersweet for me this year.

Sissy Belle is starting kindergarten and in typical middle child fashion—she is completely unfazed and unconcerned with the idea of being away from me all day. The difference between her and Miss Eden, who was still asking me to walk her to her classroom 3/4 of the way through her kindergarten year, is like night and day. When I walked Adaleine in to her first day of preschool, she said, “Okay, Mom. You can go now.” Independent much?

I’m so glad that my little Adaleine Grace is brave. I’m so glad that she’s confident and strong and ready to take on the world without me. Her whole attitude when it comes to trying new things is so easygoing and ‘I got this.’ How can there possibly be any downside to this trait in my girl?

The downside is this: she doesn’t make a big deal of things. Sometimes it’s a good thing but other times—like with the start of kindergarten—we need to make a big deal of things! Just because she’s acting like it ain’t no thang (I’m sorry, I know I’m waaay too white to say that) doesn’t mean that I should blow it off. 

So here’s the deal: if you talk to me on Tuesday or Wednesday, remind me that kindergarten is kiiiinnnnd of a big deal. I will try to remember to squeal and make a fuss over my little laid-back girly. She deserves it :)

Adaleine Grace, Night Owl

You know how everyone tells you that all kids are different and you have to parent them differently? And you think, “Well, obviously all kids are different. That’s so obvious! Of course I’ll remember that when I want to tear my hair out scream at them beg them to listen face challenges.”

The thing is, you don’t. Not always anyway. Sometimes all you can think about is how one child can be so much more difficult at times, and it never occurs to you that it’s just because they’re different. So obvious—but so easy to miss.

Mr. Bug and I are night owls. We always have been. In college, having to take an 8:00 am class was almost a reason to swear off college completely, and starting a movie at 11:30 pm seemed completely reasonable. Now that we’re (a little bit) older that’s been toned back a bit, but it’s still just a part of who we are.

Eden and Judah wake up bright and early around 6:30 and are usually annoyingly ready to take on the day. Not so with Adaleine. This girl would sleep until 9:00 every day if she could, and when she does wake up you really shouldn’t talk to her right away. I can see her being a big coffee fan when she’s older.

The flip side of this is that Miss Eden and The Boy fall asleep fast and hard at night. Judah usually doesn’t make it past songs and prayers, and Eden usually lasts about three minutes past the winding of the music box. It’s like tranquilizer darts were set loose in their room and they’re out cold.

And then there’s Sissy Belle. For about three years I have struggled with how hard it is to get this little girl to sleep at night. She lays in bed anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, just sighing and singing and talking to herself. And for those three years it has been driving me nuts. 

Then the other night dear Mr. Bug said something that smacked me on the head so hard I think I can still feel the bump. He went into their room after the other two were asleep and we could hear Adaleine singing to herself. And he said, “You know what? Mommy and Daddy are night owls, too. We’ve always had a hard time getting to sleep at night.” He then told her that that’s okay, and reminded her not to forget she shares her room with her brother and sister so she still needed to stay kind of quiet.

Parent your kids differently. Sissy is a night owl, poor thing. One of the things we’ve handed down. She will be the one who texts me at 11:30 at night when she’s older with a random question. She won’t be able to text Eden that late because Eden will probably be in bed by 8:00 her whole life. But I’ll still be awake, because I’m a night owl. Just like my Adaleine Grace.