Six

 

The day began with breakfast in bed. Mike bought mammoth muffins from the grocery store last night, so we could be prepared for breakfast in bed this morning. Note: We wake with wild hair around here. W.I.L.D.  It should be also noted that Miss Mouse mentioned to me as we were brushing her teeth this morning that, "My hair really was pretty tame this morning, wasn't it, Mom?". Just sayin'.

 

 

This is how they woke up about 10 days ago. Before I turned in one night, I checked on them as always and found them both asleep in "the box" which is created when Miss Mouse has her bed in a trundle position pulled out from underneath the lofted bed. Sunny's crabby face is fake here, though when she was denied one of her sister's birthday stickers today, she did draw a "crabby face" of herself that was remarkably accurate. Ah, the play therapy at chez Toomey.  Anyway, they were allowed to sleep in the box tonight again as a way to celebrate Miss Mouse's birthday. They'll enjoy it again in about ten days for Sunny's.

 

 

So, how did the tiny, new baby above turn into the long-legged little girl below?

 

I think we brought her home and blinked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miss Mouse seemed like such a big girl in the picture above, but she was only 3.5 and still had a full set of baby teeth.

 

 

 

Now we have a full set of six-year molars, four permanent teeth, do a great job sounding out words, put up beautifully with Mommy's insistence on phonics-rules-learning, can explain addition facts left and right, cannot seem to stop dancing even to brush teeth, and just this week learned Ode to Joy on the piano. 

 

 

 Yet, if she could do none of those things, Miss Mouse would still be the most amazing Miss Mouse I know.  Her sensitivity, her caring, her love, her sense of humor that often just doesn't quite "get it"....Those are what make her, her.

 

 

It's not because of all she can do that we celebrate this birthday and cherish these past six years and look ahead to the next years we get to share with her.

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It's because of who she is. Quiet, sensitive, perceptive, slightly aloof sometimes (Daddy says she's "his girl" in that), very focused on what she's interested in, trusting, faithful, determined....What's exciting is to see what she and God do with who she is, and what they've done in the past six years has been so fun to see.

 



 

Miss Mouse

Random January Pictures

 

Mighty Mouse was let in on the action. Sunny made sure to share her microphone with him.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

 

What?

 



 

I'm not sure about this....

 

 

 

 

I decline to comment...Humph.

 

 

I think I'll snuggle my alpaca teddy bear instead, thank you very much!

 

 

 

Mighty Mouse perhaps did not appreciate the beauty of this holiday season as much as the rest of us, but he certainly has been a beautiful addition to our season. Being now the mommy of a baby boy has turned me into a puddle everytime I think about what we are really celebrating tonight - Jesus being born into our world as a baby....to die as a young man on a cross....so that we may not perish.  Yikes. In answer to the song's lyrics, "Mary, did you know?", I will say that I hope she did not.  There has been another song playing on our Christian station talking about Jesus' "tiny heart whose blood will save us", and it just undoes me everytime I hear it. Usually I have a tiny little boy's heart nestled close to mine at the time, and I cannot imagine.

 

Last week at Mike's work Christmas party, they showed a video. It was great. A really ridiculous man was trying to get totally "into" his role as Joseph in the live nativity. It was hilarious. He made a complete fool out of himself and was just generally goofy. At the end, though, just as he was going to go out to fulfill his "role", he glanced at his wife and young son and said, "I couldn't do it."  His confused wife asked him what he was talking about, thinking that surely he could "do" the part of Joseph after "practicing" for weeks! He stated again, "I couldn't do it" but then added, "I couldn't give up my son. I couldn't do it. The world would just be out of luck."

 

For sure.

 

The girls before Christmas Eve service.

 

 

We had help today in the form of a really nice lady from church who volunteered to go to the service with me and help out. With windchills far below zero, there's no way I could have taken these kiddos out, especially Mighty Mouse, without her along. I dropped them all at the door and parked; she carried my purse. Wow. I could hardly believe she volunteered to be with us; it was definitely an early Christmas present!

 

I could really get spoiled. For Miss Mouse's Christmas program day, I called some friends who rode with us and allowed me to drop them at the door with the kiddos, too.  Maybe doing everything by myself was a silly idea in the first place because this is really great.....

 

 

Mighty Mouse is getting a Christmas tooth. He enjoyed some much-needed respite from his teething for the first 30 minutes of the service.

 

Our sweet baby and our sweet not-so-babies.

 



 

She's a squirrel.

 



O Christmas Tree

An almost-sleeping Mighty Mouse by the Christmas tree.....It's so delicious, I can hardly go to bed tonight for staring at his picture (this is regardless of the fact that with his crib in our room I can stare at the real him all night!).

 



 

There's just something about babies and Christmas trees and lights all amidst the darkness of this time of year.

 

Miss Mouse wanted photo after photo in front of the tree. She has declared it the "most beautiful tree ever" but was sure to add that we "won't tell anyone ours is the most beautiful if we go to their house and their tree is nice, too". Yep, our six foot, artificial tree has really impressed this sweet mouse!

 

She's taken several pictures of the tree on her camera, as well....

 

 

And then there was Sunny.  Her Daddy had several captions for these pictures, but none of the captions were printable on my blog.  Suffice it to say, this is Sunny trying really, really hard not to touch the ornaments. Or the lights. Or the tree.

 

This is Sunny trying so hard because she knows she could tip it over on "Brother"....She told me tonight she does not like our "house fancy". Mike and I think we have a solution to be implemented in the morning. Hopefully it will help everyone in the house be able to succeed and enjoy this Christmas season - Mighty Mouse to not have a tree fall on him; Miss Mouse to have a Christmas tree; and Sunny to not feel like a continual failure because, really, who wants THAT feeling to be what she associates with the Christmas season!  We want her to gaze lovingly at pictures of her babies in front of a tree someday....without going into a post-traumatic episode of some sort!

 

I'll end with a disclaimer that the pictures of Mighty Mouse are mighty nice in color, but he was reclining on a very pink blanket which his Daddy thought should perhaps be eliminated from the photo. Not being talented enough for that, I chose the b&w option! "Real baby boys lay on pink", right? Or something like that!

Our Little John Deere Bison Elf

Our nephew/cousin Matthias got to visit last week. There will be a copious amount of pictures including him in the next couple of days, but since Mighty Mouse has decided to make up for his comfortable tummy last Thurs-Sun by having an upset one for the past two days, I'm not sure when I'll get around to another post. I wanted to get these up for my sister without too much procrastination, though!

 

I'm getting rid of as many hats as possible. If you want one, let me know, and I'll let you know what colors/sizes/styles I have! As you can see, Matthias is modeling a Christmas elf-style hat. He was pretty okay with it!

 

In the above picture, he is doing what my sister calls "looking down his nose at you". It's really very funny.

 



I see my Grandpa Don and my Great Auntie Elsie in him in these two pictures. Otherwise I always and only see my brother-in-law! Well, I do think Matthias has my sister's pretty mouth, but I told him (Matthias) that I won't keep telling him, "You have such a pretty mouth!" for too much longer!

 



 

More elf hat. I think he's getting a little tired of it in the picture below....

 



Since he was tired of the elf hat, I grabbed the Bison hat. My Mom pointed out that it is also a John Deere hat, making it more acceptable and appropo for a child of my sister. Ahem. Cough. Cough.

 



It would be more fun to see my nephew in a Bison hat if my sister had actually enjoyed her time at the other school. Still. I'll do what I can to create another future Bison.

 



Grandpa Bob got this smile, I believe.

 



Pretty sure that I earned this stare. He was done and tired, but he's such a sweetie! He and Mighty Mouse are going to be such good friends! And the girls just absolutely love on both of them like crazy. Both girl Mice listed Matthias as one of the best parts of their weekend, which was really fun. He has taken a lot of "their" time with Auntie Laura away from them, but what he's given them is going to be beyond measure. It's so fun that they already can sense that.

 

Speaking of the weekend, we had a marvelous one in which we welcomed little Mighty Mouse into the family of God and celebrated with both of our families. Because I got just a little stretched thin on Sunday, none of the baptism pictures are on my camera, except some nice ones of the amazing (A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!) cake that my sister-in-law created (she didn't "bake" this thing - she CREATED it!). We were so thankful for great travelling weather so that all of Mighty Mouse's awesome and faithful sponsors (his Auntie Stephi, Auntie Laura, and Uncle Jon) could make it as well as all of his grandparents! The girls and I even got to swim with both aunties and one grandma (Mighty Mouse's only water usage was his baptism).

Bond

Bond. James. Bond.

 

I'm told this is how most little boys feel about wearing suits.  In my defense, I did leave the adorable (and comfy-looking!) little coat off. This time.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

After asking him repeatedly, "who's my little munchkin-bunny?" I got this hint of a smile. He is such a tolerant and easy-going little guy, but he does not care to smile at me with a camera in front of my face.

Smiles for which I am thankful