mornings

Mornings lately have been my favorite time of day.  (This picture is deceiving as this was not taken in the morning, but at 10:30am, just before the sunrise. When we wake up (between 5:30 and 6am) it is pitch black outside, and remains so until after 9am.)

Despite the dark, I have been loving our mornings together.  I am usually the one to wake up with the kids. During this time, we watch an episode of Arthur on PBS, all three boys snuggling up on the couch with me under the blankets while I read my daily Facebook message from Julie.

Then at 7am, Josh comes down, freshly showered and we switch. He does breakfast for the boys, and I get to have a peaceful shower; make all the beds; and tidy up upstairs.

At 7:30am Josh leaves for work.  Each day the last week has gotten colder and colder.  Today it was cold, windy and snowing!  The snow was like tiny little ice rocks and you could hear them beating against the house as we sat on the couch. I felt terrible that Josh had to go out there and get pelted in the face with them.

Days like this make me really grateful that I am a stay-at-home mom. It was so nice to stay here, in our cozy house with our boys, not having to bundle them up or rush out the door when all any of us really wanted was to keep laying on the couch reading books.

After Josh leaves for work I have a bowl of cereal while the three boys play in the playroom. Then at 8am, I put Wyatt down for his morning nap.  He sleeps 8-10am everyday. It's awesome.  The boys get to watch Super Why & Dinosaur Train on PBS while I blog and read blogs or journal.

From 9-10am we do school.  I love that we are able to get it done in the morning, while Wyatt is asleep and the boys are able to really focus.  Later this week I will be doing trimester testing to see what they have learned. I can't wait to compare the data to that which I collected back in August! It will be exciting to see their progress in black and white.

Once Wyatt wakes up from his naps, we do morning snacks, and then play until Josh gets home for lunch at 11:30am.  The time from when he leaves until he is home goes so fast!  And can I just say that I love that he is home for lunch everyday? It's the best!

The boys, as you can see in the above picture of Wyatt, have been sick.  It started last Monday, so we are on day nine of sick here.  Wyatt started it, with a runny nose and fever, and what we thought might be an ear infection.  Then the twins got it, and Logan threw up.  Jack never threw up, but they were far more lethargic and symptomatic than Wyatt had been. 

 Josh ended up staying home three days last week to help me care for our three sick boys.  One day he took Wyatt to the clinic to make sure he didn't have an ear infection, and the other two days, he just helped me manage naps, feeding, medicine and three super whiny children.

 Logan, at one point, was taking two naps a day, and still falling asleep immediately at night.  Now he is down to just one nap a day, but he is still really sick.  Fever and the worst runny nose and cough I have heard in a long time.

 I think maybe the throwing up was a fluke from the crazy coughing he was doing, because the other two boys never threw up.  When it happened, I was in the kitchen washing dishes.  Josh was doing tutoring and then had to do an airport run, so he wasn't here, of course, when it happened.  Luckily, we know our kids pretty well, and when Logan refused to eat, we had a feeling throw up was not out of the question. So Logan had a bowl next to him on the couch.  He had been asleep when he woke up and said in a tiny voice, "Uh oh." I flew into the room, grabbed the bowl and caught all of the vomit.  I was so thankful!

 I posted on Facebook that you are truly a parent when you hear the retching, see the vomit, and smell the rancidness, without throwing up yourself!  I think that is the closest I have ever come to throwing up right along with him. It took all my willpower to keep it together.

Right now, as I blog this, Jack has fallen asleep on the couch. (I love that he is holding his glasses in his hand. How cute is that?)  I hope that in the next few days the boys start feeling better. And I also hope that Josh and I continue to stay healthy.

Meanwhile, I am going to enjoy the heck out of these sweet snuggly mornings I get with my boys!