From a fellow MOB (Mother of Boys)...

I ran across this column by Rachel Balducci, mother of five boys.

It is a weekday morning and we are getting ready for school. The boys are getting dressed, and I'm working on bringing breakfast to the table while I make lunches.

As I walk toward the refridgerator I stumble across a boy seated on the kitchen floor. I look closer to discover that he is tied to the column that is part of my kitchen island. Should I even try to get to the bottom of this, I ask myself, and then decide no. It's probably better to just keep moving forward to get us out the door on time.

"Go put your shoes on," I say to the boy, ignoring the detail of his being tethered to our cabinetry.

"Yes, ma'am," he says and gets himself free.

I realize someone needs a patch ironed onto his one pair of clean school pants. I leave the kitchen in search of my sewing box and find that the only patch I have is blue. I use it anyway. When I am done I hold up the pants to verify that yes, you can totally see that blue patch through the khaki cotton.

"This is awesome," says my son. "Thanks mom."

I walk back into the kitchen to find another boy tied up, this time in an elaborate knot system designed to challenge his maneuvering skills.

"I'm trying to get free," he says happily. His brothers look on as he works his magic.

"Untie him so he can get dressed," I say to the oldest. And then wonder how many other women are uttering those same words to their children as they get ready for the day. Surely I'm not alone.

In the midst of all this craziness - on this day and so many others just like it - we keep on keeping on. I realize that having a family of boys is going to make my family look and act in ways unlike other families. It's not a bad thing - just different.

My goal is to ebrace our life, to enjoy this unique vantage of having five sons while I continue to strive for those same ideals Paul and I had for our family before our children were even born.

We want our boys to love the faith. We want them to have a real love for Jesus, to look to the saints for inspiration, to seek the Lord in everything. We want to use these formative years to plant seeds that will be with them forever.

Our standards and ideals haven't changed, but our approach has. Because we didn't anticipate the unique nature of our crew - and this nature certainly affects a lot.

The way we pray, what our prayer time looks like, and even the saints we are drawn to - these details will differ from family to family, based on personality and charisms and yes, gender. I realized recently that our family will likely never be charter members of the St. Maria Goretti Fan Club, and that's okay.

What Paul and I can do is tether ourselves to our boys' imagination and boyish charm and even some of that spunk and mischief - and then we can direct those engergies back toward Jesus. It might look different from what another family is doing, but we pray for the same end result - that each of our boys will have a firm, unwavering love of the Lord, and desire to seek him always.

Every family is different. This I tell myself often. I look to other families for inspiration, to be reminded of our ideals when they start to slip. I want to be around other men and women who want to raise their children in God's ways.

I have to remember, though, that I can't cross the line that separates, "seeking inspiration" to "comparing." Comparing can be dangerous, especially if there has to be a "winner."

We seek the Lord, and we embrace the family God gave us, who he made us to be. And then, with all that in mind, we travel down the path he sets before us.

Well, at least he's honest

After correcting one of my boys recently I instructed him to say "sorry."

"But mom," the boy said, straight-faced, "I don't like that word."

Potty training...on hold

Brian recently pulled the Max's Potty book off the shelf to read to Carter in hopes of sparking some interest in "going potty."

The experience led him to the conclusion that it might be best to put potty training on hold.

You see, Max's Potty is a lift-the-flap book that goes something like, "Who sits on the potty? Does a monkey sit on the potty?" Lift the flap. "No, a monkey doesn't sit on the potty!" "Does an elephant sit on the potty?" Lift the flap. "No, silly! An elephant doesn't sit on the potty. He's too big!" You get the point. Eventually Max sits on the potty, etc. On the last page there is a picture of Max with the words, "Max is a big boy now. Look what Max is wearing (big boy underwear)!"

This is when Carter lifted both arms in victory and screamed excitedly, "A shirt!"

Moving On...

This past Friday Grant participated in his first school program. The kindergarten classes presented "Gettin' Down with Mama Goose," a nursery rhyme re-mix. Grant was all business about it, of course, and wouldn't give us any specifics on his part in the program before the big debut. With Mommy, Daddy, Gramma, and all three brothers in the audience, our serious little performer waved to us from the stage. Wearing his "Old King Cole" crown and working hard on the choreography, Grant sang about Humpty-Dumpty, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Little Miss Muffet. He had fun performing and we all enjoyed watching our big kindergartner.

Friday was a momentous day for our family as later that evening we sold our house! After only 14 days on the market, we signed a contract and are scheduled to close April 23. Wow! It really has been amazing to see the Lord line up so many things as this process of moving unfolds. We praise him for bringing along a buyer so quickly. More to come as we pack up and move along to our "summer house" next month (a rental home in a nearby community--Brian is excited as it backs up to a golf course).

A funny highlight of the weekend was a comment Grant made on Saturday. Brian took the older two boys out to practice golf Saturday morning and while they were putting an elderly man joined them. So, it was just Brian, Grant, Bryce and this elderly gentleman around the putting green. Apparently this man was well up there in years and was sort of hobbling around. Grant looked at Brian and said (we're hoping this man was also hard at hearing), "Dad, that man has been playing golf for a really long time!"

Tree climbing

I learned the other day that boys need height restrictions on tree climbing.

The TOP of the tree (about twenty-something feet up) is way TOO HIGH (especially for a four-year-old)!

He said he was going to be like the squirrels and monkeys and swing from tree to tree.

This is why I pray for the Lord's protection over my testosterone-driven brood.

Catching Up

Whew! I do have a lot of catching up to do! It’s been a while since my last post, and it’s been quite busy at the Little household. Here are a few highlights from the past few weeks:

In mid-February I took Grant and Bryce on a “Mommy date” to the circus. I hadn't been since I was a little girl and I think I was looking forward to the show just as much as the boys were. The week prior I was ordering our tickets online when after selecting our seats I was trying to locate my purse (so that I could pay for the tickets) when Bryce said, “Wait a minute, mom!” I thought perhaps he knew where my purse was, but instead he came down with his bank from his dresser and dumped out all of the money (totaling $4) and cheerfully said that he wanted to help pay for the tickets. He was so proud to be able to help out. And this was all his idea! What a sweet boy (sometimes, at least). It was the boys’ first time going to the circus and they were overwhelmingly excited about the event. I did, however, have to explain that it was not going to be in a tent but rather in the coliseum. It seems that all of the children’s books and movies talk about a circus tent. We had a grand time. Bryce was amazed at the man jumping through the ring of fire and the highlight for Grant was the people getting shot out of a cannon.

Bryce called this act the "candy cane girls."

I'm sure Dumbo's in the line-up somewhere.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Grant is really into Star Wars lately. It seems to be popular among boys his age. Recently when Brian was watching golf on TV Grant dramatically pointed at the screen and proclaimed, “Dad, its Anakin!” Brian laughed and acknowledged that yes, he did look a lot like Anakin, but his name was Camillo Villegas and he is a golfer. A few moments later Grant was sitting on the couch and said out loud to himself (holding his Star Wars figurines), “Maybe Star Wars is real.”

Another monthly occurrence at our household is “Mama’s Hair Salon,” when I give all the boys hair cuts. I usually try to do this on a day when I am feeling particularly well-rested and patient. While I am cutting each boy’s hair I try to use the time to have some one on one conversation, a rare treat most days. During Carter’s haircut this is a challenge because at two he is word-limited. So, we were playing the “What do you like best?” game. It went like this:

Mommy: What do you like best, cars or trucks?

Carter: trucks

Mommy: What do you like best, cake or ice-cream?

Carter: ice-cream

Mommy: What do you like best, apples or bananas?

Carter: No, snacks

Mommy: What do you like best, apples or bananas?

Carter: No, SNAAACKS!

Oh well, I tried.

Bryce was second in line for the hair cut. And by the way, I did learn that drawing straws is a good way to determine who goes next for the much-dreaded haircut. Yes, with real straws. We all know that cutting hair is just another method that mommies use to torture little boys, right? This does at least seem to cut down on the complaining for getting the next boy into the chair. After Bryce had been sitting in the chair for several minutes and I was telling him for the umpteenth time to please be still he looked at me and quite seriously asked, “Mom, what does still mean?” You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought. But, I realized that he was asking for real, no joke. After explaining the meaning of still he said, “Oh, you mean like freeze. Like freeze tag.” Who knew that I needed to explain what I meant by, "BE STILL!!!?"

We also had an unusual welcome into March—a tremendous snowstorm. The most snow our boys had ever seen. We bundled them up and tromped through the snow. Our attempts at a snowman were pretty sad, however, as the snow did not want to stick. But we did have a fun snowball fight. It seems I was the target! The snow brought about three and a half snow days, Grant's first snow days ever. I do believe he was the only kid in Chesterfield County wanting to go back to school. When we told him the night of the big snow that he probably wasn’t going to school the next day he insisted that the snow would melt so that he could go. He was greatly disappointed to miss a day of school. What a blessing that kindergarten has been such a great experience for him! I’m sure I’ll probably have to remind him of this in a few years.

Carter wasn't so keen on the snow.

We came inside to discover that he had found the treasure box
while the rest of us were out playing in the snow.

Another big happening this month was that as of this past Friday our house is officially for sale. This was a big undertaking and in only a couple of weeks we went from looking, to picking out a new home, to getting ours ready to sell. We are hoping to get more space for our growing family. Of course, all of this is in the Lord’s hands and if this is his plan for our family we pray that the right buyer will come along. Now that the house is de-cluttered, carpets cleaned, and paint touched up, I am doing my best to keep the house presentable all with three little tornadoes running around behind me…not counting baby tornado number four.

While Brian and I were cleaning and painting we heard cries of "Help!" from downstairs.

Bryce was stuck in the trash can.

Of course I had to grab the camera before helping him out.

Carter is in that silly two-year-old stage when they talk a lot, you can understand about 70% of what they say, and they say some really funny things. Today driving around in the car with him he excitedly pointed out all the things we drove past that were meaningful to him, “Nudder wun (another one) Mer-kan (American flag). Nudder wun mo-ky-kel (motorcycle). Nudder wun twuuuck (truck).” These observations were pointed out at every flag, motorcycle and truck.

Grant had the most hilarious observation the other day while riding with Brian in his car. Brian, Grant and Bryce were all in the car and the boys were thrilled to see another car riding in front of them that looked just like their car (who knew they made more than one green Ford Escape?). So, Brian pulled up alongside the other car and Grant looked at the other vehicle and noticed that there was an African-American man driving. He then exclaimed, “Dad, it looks like Black Obama!” I guess we need to work on explaining exactly what our president's name is...

Oh yeah, and we learned this week that Bryce knows how to dial 911.

Giving Him All the Praise

He is worthy of all our praise.

Since I last posted I have witnessed firsthand the power of God's healing hand. The weekend of February 7, 2009 was one of the most challenging times of my life. In the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital, holding my mom's frail hand and caressing her wavy red hair, He was right by my side. When I felt sick to my stomach with worry, I knew that He loves her even more than I do. When I felt like screaming, "Somebody figure out what is wrong with her!" I knew that He already had the answer. And the solution. Returning to the hospital with a heavy heart, He provided strength that I needed. Not knowing what the future held, there was peace that He had a perfect plan.

My mom is at home now and doing well. I give Him all the praise.

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Psalm 91:1&2

"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him." Psalm 91:14&15