1 Birdie Year

October 12th rolled right around again, just like it did last year.  We celebrated our little girl low-key like. Cupcakes before dinner? Sounds like a plan, Fran. (BEEP! here's your official pink & yellow alert)

She dug right in her cupcake. The first of the Rivers children to get into all on their own! And not cry! (I'm looking at you Isaiah Kingston.)

Cake cleaned off and ready to open presents.

That sweet little gappy grin. Happy like a birthday girl should be!

Pointing to Granddaddy on the screen.

The ubiquitous "brothers surrounding me while I try to open my presents" shot. Every year baby girl. Just get used to it!

October 12th was one of those days our world changed forever, again. What a gift and a reminder of the Lord's presence you are sweet Ellie Bird! We love you! Happy Birthday!

The Middle is 3

 September seemed to creep by, but in that "tortoise and the hare" sort of way where the turtle keeps plugging along and suddenly he's won and the race is over.  If September was tortoise-y then I musta been the hare. The month felt crazy busy and I'm fairly sure my nap count rose to 2 over the course of the month. And even with all that time, I still never blogged. Meh.

Isaiah and September however, were in cahoots. My baby boy went and turned 3 years old. It's amazing what that year of 2 will do to a toddler! He's gone and gotten big. But I don't find myself freaking out about how old he is.

 Call it a case of the middles.

He's not the oldest so didn't have to forge the way into Three-dom. And he's not the baby so he won't be my last 3 year old. As a middle child myself I can see what a blessing it is to be a Middle-child. You get to age gracefully with all the joy and wonder of a new year with no one holding you back!

The celebration stretched out over a week. Isaiah was born on September 7. He was placed in our arms on September 11. And this year, the grand opening of Legoland in our city happened on September 15. So as you can see, what choice did we have but to do it up big and make it an 8-dayer?

McDonald's lunch. Fine cuisine chosen by the likes of a 3 year old.

 We went to Singapore too.
That place is full of free parks and cool stuff to see. (it's also full of really really expensive things too, if you're into that)
Like the light show at Marina Bay and walking around the huge gorgeous malls. We Rivers have long since stopped taking free air-conditioning for granted.

 Saturday rolled around and Legoland opened it's doors. To hear Isaiah say "Ego-and!" is just too cute. Maybe year 3 will hold the first consonants to all his words? Who knows? It WILL include learning to wipe his own rear-end and getting every last mile out of the annual pass to Legoland.

Thanks sweet boy for changing our lives forever! Happy Birthday!

Recent Findings

Life has continued since the viral poop nightmare and we have journeyed on.

Numero Uno has found just how smart his mouth can be and Mama and Daddy have been handing out spankings and timeouts regularly it seems.

And I've discovered in my 4 plus years parenting that children go through phases. Brilliant, I know. 

Really since turning 4 Isaac has been a dream child. He shook off the fits of his 2 & 3 year old days and became a kid who understood rules and followed them. Summer with him was great. Now, the independent spirit in him that I have always loved is finding it's way into the realm of bad attituding and smart mouthing.

But we ain't scared.

We've weathered everything so far and with the wisdom of God to help us, we'll guide him through. We'll make sure the smarts that come out of him are good for building up, encouraging, and as full of life as a 4 year old can manage. We'll teach him to ask God for help when he just can't muster kindness on his own. The Lord is full of kindness... He's got enough to share. Even with you, Son. 

All this may take years to get through that noggin' of his - it DID cause a csection, afterall. It knows it's way around stubborn. But if he can learn not to freak out over broken pop-tarts and bananas, he can learn to speak kindly.

But enough of that finding... it'll be a topic for decades I'm sure.

A big ol' dose of "Daddy let me get my tools!" when Daddy starts to hang the mirror in our bedroom is everything a Friday afternoon should be. (why, yes, that WAS over a year that we didn't have a mirror in our master bedroom or bathroom. You noticed?)

After a necessary battery change in the drills, the boys "started" the holes for Daddy.

My Southpaw is a drillin' boss.

 "Isaac, where did you find that snail? Where was he?"

 "I found him right here (pointing to floor beside table). He was just snailing right here and I picked him up."

 Maybe the Japanese Carp craft was more up Isaac's alley than Isaiah's.  Zayah refused to run with his. Coulda just been the heat. Isaac only last about 2 minutes.

We cleaned our wall. Amazing how fast green will grow on your "garden wall" in these parts. 

 "Terima Kasih Daun Keladi" translated is, "Thank you taro leaf"...or it's MEANING is, "Thanks a whole lot!" Those are pretty big leaves and completely and utterly worthy of being hauled back on your bike like the treasure they are.

 Our Bird can walk now!  She still preferring all fours and in grass is a super speedy crab-walker.

Isn't my baby messy adorable? She really likes being filthy dirty outside. What you can't see in this picture is her first black eye. Numero Dos didn't want her standing where she was so pushed her out of the way (and into the corner of the couch) and she came up with a shiner. Looks like eye shadow though. Purples do her baby-browns justice I tell ya.

And here's an edited video of our Immanuelle's first steps. Well...the very very first ones happened 30 seconds before we got the video camera out.  Naturally. But other than those, these are the first. :)


If you were wanting something cute in your day, you'll find it there.

Got a question...

Here's the scene. One of your children, the middle one, isn't sick, and the 2 others with explosive diarrhea have simultaneous fast-poopage, and the husband is out buying more diapers, more toilet paper, and more bananas.

What does the well child do while Mama is busy with fast poop?

*Ahem* A blogpost....

If you scan through blogpost dates, I'm sure 0.00 of you would believe that I actually LIKE blogging.

But it's true. I do. I like to think that the 30 or so (ok, lets be honest, 5) of you who read my blogs have it in the morning queue of online scheduled stops and it's just after Facebook and CNN. (or BBC if you read the word "queue" and know what it means and know how to prounounce it. Anyone else enjoy the British flavor of the Olympics?)

So even though it's time for Immanuelle's "oh gracious how did she get so big so fast?" monthly photo-op, I'm gonna save that part for last and actually update you on my other two wee ones first. Let's just do it simple-like and stick with birth order.

Isaac:

My adventure-seeker.
He LOVES exploring. He gets out front, calls others to follow, and convinces them to do what he's doing...even if it's hunting caterpillars for the 75th day in a row or that it WOULD be fun to climb through slimy slippery rocks and stand in the freezing water fall.  

He is sensitive to criticism but gets slap ate-up with confidence when he's given verbal praise. He is learning to read and impresses me daily with his smarts and his funny.  And just like his Mama before him, it's going to take quite a few spankings to get that smart mouth under control.

Every stinking time I put his yellow and gray tshirt on him I think, "Why in the WORLD haven't I bought you more gray things to wear?" His eyes are just the most fantastic blue-gray... I think my next stop after this blogpost will be Oldnavy.com....they've probably got something gray for him to wear.

Isaiah:
If I hadn't been told there was Caribbean blood in him I would have guessed it by now.  He holds hands, sits on laps, and gives kisses like no rastafarian singing, "One Love!" has ever done before him.

He melts and I mean MELTS when corrected.  I mean when he's not even in trouble he melts. "Isaiah, here, let Mama help you hold your pencil."- Melts. He is one with the people and when he's singled out it doesn't bode well. He's a challenge for sure as I come from a family where there hasn't been a wallflower in the bunch for at least 4 generations. "His kindness leads us to repentance" is taking discipline right down to its bare-bones with this one.

But man oh man. Those snuggles. Those adorable feet. That dangerous quiet that sets over a room when he's doing something naughty. Those tears that have flown down crocodile-big since I first saw him at 4 days old.  Every brown inch is loved.

Immanuelle:
Our Bird. She is 10 months old and hasn't looked back. Homebird crawls around with a rag in her hand these days. Soon she'll probably be walking around with a rag in her hand. She talks and talks and talks. Her eyes are brown. Not brown like Zayah's. Brown like almost green, brown.

I don't know if it's her general easiness or if maybe me the "veteran mom" might have actually learnt me a thing or two since Numero Uno cried through the night... but our Ellie Bird is quite the on-schedule Bird. She eats, takes naps, sleeps, poops, and starts whining at 5pm for food like a coo-coo-clock.

Her hair is getting longer and every strand that emerges curls right on up. I have yet to buy her a baby doll as she seems well contented with all her big brothers' toys....though Legoland opens next month in our city and we plan to stock-up on as many pink and purple Legos as are necessary.