Christmas 2014

We've been "doing" Christmas since mid-November, thanks to the daycare teachers who like to be sure everyone knows their carols. It was so fun to celebrate Christmas twice with the three amigos, and Junebug, of course, made it even more fun.

Things to remember about this year:

**Like last year, the kids, namely Speed, were afraid of Santa. They asked every night for many nights before Christmas if Santa stays downstairs when he visits and if he looks at them. I am pretty sure my poor Elf on the Shelf is closeted for the remainder of their childhood.

**Chickadee knows all the words to "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" except she says "park" instead of "hark".

**Speed knows a LOT of the words, but not all. But to him, "God and sinners ROCK IN STYLE."

**Sunshine's favorite tune was "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

**The kids had been excited since early November to participate in the pageant at church. Sunshine was adamant that she'd be a sheep for the show. She held onto this belief till the rehearsal when the rest of "us girls" were being angels, so she changed her mind. Speed stuck to being a king the whole time.

**Though the details are not mine to share, there are aspects of Speed that make him difficult, and sometimes out in public, others may be able to tell that these bits of him exist. The girls and I went to a sing-a-long at his school the week before Christmas. We crammed in the gym with about 500 other people as kids sang a bunch of holiday songs. In an overstimulating room of 500, with family watching and no adult near him to keep him feeling secure, Speed belted out every single song and danced his little heart out. If someone had told me that this happened, I wouldn't have believed. I was so happy to get to see him appear carefree in such an environment.

**Sunshine, too, has her own little quirks that were completely invisible during her daycare's Christmas performance. This was not.the.case. last year.

**Chickadee made me a coffee can with her picture on it for Christmas. She opened it for me a few days before Christmas and told me I had to share. It was a package of microwave popcorn and a fun sized bag of M and Ms. She ate those M and Ms tonight for dessert. And didn't share.

**We were blessed with an overabundance of gifts. So many that when we were almost finished unwrapping and put a gift on Junebug's lap, Junebug said, "no more," in a very pathetic little voice.

**Although Junebug is on her way out AND is a gigantic pain in church, I was happy to have her with us for all the festivities. We have a most awesome picture of her lying on the floor of the sanctuary in an angel costume. It is second only to the other fine photo of her scratching her nose but it looks like she is flipping off the entire congregation. :)

Merry, Merry, Merry and Happy 2015!

A Perk of Weekend Visits

...and full time daycare.

I have changed only one dirty diaper since last Tuesday. One. :)

This is NOT My Kid

A couple weeks ago, a friend sent me a picture of the cover of a DVD about parenting traumatized children and said: Is this Chickadee?

Why, yes, yes it is. How'd she get there?

Then a second friend (who doesn't know the first friend) texted me asking the same thing.

Our therapist looked at the picture and thought the same thing.

Chickadee has those earrings, that shirt and that is my go-to hair do.

We did some digging. Found the source of the photo and believe it or not, that is not her. She has a twin out there somewhere. A twin born in 2009 rather than 2012, but a twin nonetheless.

A Weekend without Junebug

We've lost Junebug for the weekends from here on out. We have her for fewer waking hours than her family at this point. I am in full support of this reunification and can only think of two other cases when I have felt this good about the outcome.

Everyone seemed OK without Junebug except for Chickadee. She asked for her multiple times a day (though did enjoy riding in Junebug's car seat). Today, she asked where she was again.

C: Where Junebug?
Me: With her mama and dada, remember?
C: But she MY Junebug! *I* love her!
Me: Lots of people love her. You will see her at school today though.
C: Ok. I give her a big hug.

I wonder what the big kids think of all this, but being their nonexpressive little beings, they won't say.

The difference between four kids and three kids was noticeable to me in only 2 ways: 1. we can get in the car and ready for school faster and 2. there are things that aren't developmentally appropriate for Junebug that we can do when she is not around. Otherwise, I guess the saying that once you get three kids you don't notice when more are added is true.