Feeling lucky.

I played soccer when I was little. I remember spending a lot of time hunting the soccer fields for four leaf clovers. More often than not, I wouldn't find one. But, when I found one, it was special. I'd carry my treasure over to mom and show her, then stuff it into my tube socks, next to my shin guards, and feel super lucky for that practice, or that game, or that tournament. 

This picture makes me feel content. It's one of those rare moments when everyone is happy and playing nice and quiet. At the same time.  I had to take a picture to remind myself that it does happen---just like four leaf clovers. I'm lucky, and it's nice to have that reminder to hold on to. 

Our cute baby is now three months old! 

We pulled out the walker and let him stand in it for a little while. He needs to have a couch pillow under his feet, but he seemed to like it, in moderation. He's also graduated to needing a seat belt in his swing and baby seat because he scoots down and gets mad that half his body is hanging out. Go figure. 

Gah! I love this next picture. 

Caleb loves Joe and I caught them making happy faces at each other. Caleb loves Rae, too, but more it looks more like hero worship than how he loves Joe, which is more like a friend. Joe has to help Caleb anyway he can. He (Joe) has hypotonia, which means it is hard for him to "grade" his movements. When Joe pats Caleb's back, he goes "whack, whack, whack" instead of "pat, pat, pat". Patting Caleb's head often means that Caleb eats carpet. 

I love that Caleb likes tummy time! Rae gets easily frustrated (because he is good at everything, so things that don't come easily to him are harder for him to deal with). Joe always works hard, but his results are slower in coming. I think that if Rae did as many squats as Joe, he'd be able to dead lift twice his body weight. Which is a long way of saying… Caleb is different than the other two! He consistently works hard, like Joe, but is strong, like Rae. It is wonderful to have a baby who does baby things. 

My big boys are funny. The next two pictures are of them sleeping. Yes, they are passed out, and if you look carefully (I wasn't going to turn on the light to snap the picture, they were sleeping after all), you can see Joe on the left. His head is on his mattress and body is sprawled out on the floor. Rae, is under the blankets, not on the mattress, but on the floor. He makes a nest of blankets next to his mattress and that is where he sleeps. 

Here's Rae hiding on our washer. Rae loves the washer and dryer. He likes to climb into the dryer. He likes to stand on the washer and "help" me put clothes into the dryer. Aye. I often can't reach the clothes in the washer because of all my good "help". 

And here's Joe, happily playing with food. I found mini wheats all over my house for a long time after this. Joe will hold onto something little (like cereal) in his hot little hands and carry it everywhere with him for hours. 

Note: Don't give Joe Hershey kisses. I give him one, go back to working on the computer, turn around a few minutes later and his hands are coated with chocolate. "Oh dear!" I exclaim, and Joe bursts into tears. I carry him to wash his hands as he smears them down the back of my shirt. Beautiful. My day is really not complete unless I have someone else's food, Caleb's spit up (he's a spit up king), and someone else's snot on my clothes. Motherhood is gross. 

I am, though, really good at picking other people's boogers. If you need help, I'm here for you. 

We had the missionaries over for dinner a couple nights ago. Rae was in fantastic form, too. I heard things bouncing off the walls, and the Elders saying things like "Put that down. Let's do something else. Watch out! That's not a good idea." etc. etc. I stopped helping with dinner and decided to bail them out. 

So we played Uno. 

Rae instantly calmed down and followed the rules and cooperated nicely. Brilliant. Joe, pretended to be Godzilla attacking Tokyo and would dismantle the discard and draw decks. One Elder took the draw deck and eventually we just memorized what the most recent card played was. The other Elder (who comes from a family of ten) kept a small deck of cards and would hand a card to Joe whenever he came over. Joe would nod at the peace offering and wander off for a little bit, then come back and demand another one. 

"That was the wildest game of Uno I have ever played" says one of the Elders. 

Oh, you have no idea. 

Mr. Graff talked about Gifts of the Spirit in his testimony and mentioned that parents have the gift of "functioning on very little sleep". Parenting is being a sleep-deprived lion tamer. Uno is just one trick up your sleeve. 

 I've recently taken to going on a 30-45 minute walk after Mr. Graff gets home. It helps me wind down and process the day better. I come home in a much better frame of mind. I've taken Rae with me a couple of times. He loves the piles of snow.   He actually handles the distance well, too.

Remember painting the closet last week? After three more trips to the hardware store, We Have Shelves! I feel like Hercules. And now I have a 1/2" drill bit. And more baskets for stuffs. One of the baskets has tape and rope in it. I labelled it "bondage". 

"I didn't know you were into that kind of thing," says Mr. Graff. 

Mr. Graff accepted a job offer to Hawaii. It's the government, so it's extremely slow and we don't know when we are actually reporting there, but this means that we will need to sell our house. Which means we need to fix it up so we can sell it. 

My next project: replacing the flooring by the front door. 

I wonder how many trips to the hardware store that will be…