Adjusting

Well, we've been in our home for just over a month now, and I still haven't really established a pattern, which is kind of driving me nuts. I'm torn between wanting to go out and find things to do for the kids and between staying home and trying to figure out how to get Alice to sleep during the day if she isn't being held.

I'm starting to think that the natural state for newborns is to only want to sleep if being held. If you think about it, they were "held" by my womb for their whole lives up to this point, so I guess it makes sense that would be more comfortable for them. However, Alice will sleep at night without being held. From around 7:30 pm to around 5:00 am, she'll sleep in her bassinet by herself. But after the second or third time she wakes up, she will only sleep if she is being held. I usually let Jeff hold her, and when he gets up from work, he leaves her, and she doesn't wake up for a few hours even though she isn't being held. Isn't that funny? So all day and then for a few hours in the very early morning, she has to be held to sleep. But during the night and in the later morning, she'll sleep by herself. Interesting.

While I try to figure out how to get Alice to sleep and get things done around the house, Jill and Danny are enjoying the warm weather we're experiencing now. (The high today is 88!) They play on the porch, water the grass, ride their tricycles on the deck, and have picnics. One of their favorite indoor games is prince and princess, as well as having dance parties. And, of course, they are always desperate to watch movies and always eager to squish their new baby sister.

And here are some photo collages to illustrate how we've been spending our time!

My parents and Jeff's mom have come to visit!

Jill has a lot of dress-up clothes that people have given her: ballerina outfits, a gymnastics leotard, a Dora dress, a Rapunzel dress, a Tinkerbell dress, a cheerleader costume, and a Cinderella dress. No friends have ever given me hand-me down boy dress-up clothes though. Danny always wants to do what Jill does, so he was often found walking around in a dress and heels following his sister around the house, unbelievably happy. My mother-in-law visited and bought him a Superman outfit. Since the cape entered our household, he has asked to wear it every single day and has never asked to wear another dress. I had wondered previously if he just really liked dresses, but since he's never asked for them again, I have decided that he must have just wanted to get to play dress-up, too. He loves running around in his cape and pretending to fly.

Playing dress-up

When my mother-in-law was here, I braved going into the city. I decided I'd rather ride the metro than drive. I had to pay for parking and the metro rides there and back. If I had driven into the city (it would have been twenty minutes shorter, because the metro line to Herndon won't be finished until December), then I would have had to pay the toll, find a parking spot, and pay for parking. The metro is also fun, because I can engage with my kids instead of having them locked in car seats. Once we got there, DC did not disappoint. The cherry trees are in blossom and look gorgeous! I think I could live here my whole life and still not see everything the capital has to offer.

And, of course, we celebrated Easter. We have never done an Easter egg hunt before, but this year we had three! The church did one, the grocery store did one, and we did one at our house. It was a lot of fun. I was surprised by how hard it was for Jill and Danny to find the eggs that weren't really even hidden. Jill and Danny loved the Easter bunny; Danny thought he was really soft and kept rubbing his head on the bunny's leg—awkward. In my picture, down in the corner, I was part of the Easter museum we put on for the primary kids at church. At my museum "exhibit," I showed a representation of Jesus's robe and described what happened at the Mount of Olives/Garden of Gethsemane. It was pretty funny, except for one mistake that made me feel dumb. Oh well. :) I was very impressed by how quiet the children were during the presentations.

The children were asked, "Why do we celebrate Easter?" I held my breath, waiting to see what they would say. Jill said, "Because Jesus died!" I was really pleased that she didn't say "the Easter bunny" or "chocolate eggs," but Jeff replied, "No, because Jesus lived again." And that is a pretty good example of how he has higher expectations for our children than I do. :)

Whenever Jill talks about how Jesus lived again, she always mentions that that is why we know that Tabitha lives again. I kind of love that she still remembers and talks about Tabitha. Today is sweet Tabitha's birthday. She would have been two like Danny. We sure miss her.

We live in an area with a lot of diversity, which is cool. There are a lot of Asians and Indians (like India, not Native American) around here. It is interesting to have my children be the minority at the playground. Two days ago, for instance, we were at the neighborhood playground. There were eleven children there. Mine are caucasian, and all of the other kids were Indian. I wish I were better at pronouncing their names. Jill is doing a really good job of being outgoing, approaching them, and trying to make friends. We've met some nice kids!

So, a little four year old boy asked me where people go where they die. I felt uncomfortable, because I had no idea what religion he was being raised in. So, I replied that I believed they went to heaven, but he would have to ask his parents what they believed happened after death. I hope that was an appropriate response.

It will be interesting for my kids to grow up with the knowledge that there are a lot of different races, religions, and ideas out there instead of assuming (for a while at least) that their parents' way of life is the only way.

So that's what we've been up to.

. . . do you want to come visit??