My Little Angel

10 and a half months ago I once again welcomed a male child into my world. He was huge and stubbornly refused to nurse, and I knew he was exactly the little kid that could survive three older brothers who were rather lacking in the "children should be seen but not heard" department.

As Liam is Caleb's brother, we are all holding our breath waiting to see just how much of the "Caleb" gene he possesses.

Because of the problems Liam had with his ears and needing ear tubes, he is kind of behind on talking. The day that he started saying "dada" I rolled my eyes. Of course he would say daddy first, as if daddy was the one who got up in the middle of the night and came back to bed with spit up running down his legs, or cleaned up the diaper that managed to located its contents clear up to Liam's ears, or sat with carrots splattered all over his face when Liam decided to show his impressive raspberry talent at lunch time.

But mama had to be next, right?

Nope!

It was Micah! Come one! Mama is a lot easier than Micah! Next it was Kyler, then baba, and possibly hi. By this time I was thinking the kid would say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, before he said mommy. But finally last week Mr. Liam was crying for his bottle. I was doing dishes and trying to tune him out long enough to get the day old spaghetti off of the bowl. In desperation, on a sob, he broke down and wailed, "MAMA!" 

I dropped the pan, spaghetti and all and started hollering. Liam stopped crying mid-wail, and with terror in his huge eyes, stared at his crazy mama. I gave him his bottle, heck I gave him two! After he was done, I encouraged him to say it again. He did and again I jumped around the room cheering! Liam dissolved into tears of fear. I forgot about his reaction and did this 3 or 6 or possibly 10 more times. Needless to say Liam doesn't say mama very much anymore.

On a side note, we think he says Caleb too, only it sounds like a high pitched please-someone-save-me scream. 

Liam means "protective". I can't help wondering if there is something very unique that Liam was created for, something special that God has him here to "protect". Of course Kevin reminds me that very few mothers think, yeah that's a kid who will probably be a high school drop out, with no future and very little potential. But I still think my kid is something special!

I thank God for Liam. I thank God that Liam is Liam and not "Leah" like I thought he should have been =). I thank God for my special little boy that completed the "Wilson brotherhood". He is an incredible joy to our family!!

I pray that Liam will stand firm in his faith and have clear direction in life. I pray that he will have a purpose worth dying for and live every day to the absolute fullest. I pray that he will be kind and gentle and humble. I pray that he will always love his brothers like he does now and that all 4 boys will be best friends until the day they die. I pray that Liam will be an incredible protector of justice, and will change the world!

Caleb

A few days ago, my darling husband asked me if I was planning on writing blogs on each of the boys. I told him that I had planned on it. He chuckled and shook his head. "Good luck writing the one on Caleb!"

Ask anyone of us and even on the most exhausting day, we would all tell you that we are thankful that Caleb is part of our lives. We will probably be rolling our eyes and shaking our heads, but even the brothers kind of like having the little turkey around; even if its for the sole reason that he takes the attention and disciplinary actions off of them.

Caleb was one of the easiest babies in the world. He slept 13 hours through the night when he was just a month old. He was oh so happy all of the time and cute as a button. At just nine months he became very mobile and we were given a frightening glimps of what this child might be capable of.

When dividing up the kids, the equal division goes, Caleb and then the rest of the boys, and we will argue over who gets the three. At night when he is tucked in his bed sleeping away with Liam's pacifier in his mouth that he had hidden under his bed, we smile down at him and comment on how adorable he is. In the morning when we get up for the day, we threaten anyone who wakes him up. Wake everyone up if you must, just not Caleb!

Even our babysitter has threatened to start charging us double to watch him!

Caleb has a talent for scaling any height and for scouring the darkest corner to get to a pacifier. I am honestly worried that if we don't find a support group soon, the pacifier will soon become a permanent part of his mouth. Can't find Caleb? Look under the crib; look in the pantry; look in the drier. You will find him in any of these places, sucking on a pacifier.

Caleb recently dicovered a love of coffee. As if uncaffeinated Caleb wasn't ....amazing enough. We told him there were yucky caffein bugs in coffee. Now he goes around crying for caffein bugs; Starbucks is the caffein bug place! One night he ran back and forth across the living room making siren noises after drinking half of my coffee. He didn't even take breaths!! We sat on the couch watching him in terror!

He watches Backyardigans and Veggie Tales incessantly, and he sings Taylor Swift songs at the top of his lungs. He loves to use the word actually and he is obessed with Q-tips. The other day we were walking through the store. Next to a display of candy was a rack of Q-tips. Caleb starting yelling at the an impressive decible with imense enthusiasm. "mommy, Q-tips!!!"

I have no idea what I did with all of my time and energy before Caleb became part of my life!

Caleb loves his brothers! He can't wait to hug Liam every morning and he always makes sure his older brothers know how much he misses them when they are at school. He meets his daddy at the door everyday as if Kevin has just come back from years away at war.

Caleb loves to hug. He hugged the Schwan's man the other day...although when he brings Rocky Road ice cream, who can blame him? The other day I was in a restaurant when I turned around to find that Caleb had a stanger's baby in a headlock, smooching the poor unsuspecting child full on the mouth!

I am so glad God decided my life was a little too boring and needed massive amounts of excitment. There is something so incredibly unique about Mr. Caleb, and I can't wait to see all that God has for him! I pray that his heart will always be big. I pray that he will live life to the absolute fullest and always smile at the future. I pray that his loyalty and passion, touch everyone he meets and makes this world a better place.

Thank you God for my gift of Caleb!!!

Farmers and Egyptians

Today I am thankful for my kids' school. I almost want to go back and go through grade school. I never did all of the things my kids get to do!

Last year I was introduced to Mother Goose Day in the Kindergarten class. If you will remember we had quite the adventure creating Humpty Dumpty for Micah. Thjis year it was Kyler's turn to participate in Mother Goose Day. Thankfully I chose this year andidn't even let him think there was a choice. I drove to every store in town before heading out to Falcon to find overalls in Kyler's size; insert Falcon jokes here. We got a hat and caled Kyler Old Macdonald. He was adorable! 

In class when it came time for him to recite Old Macdonald, he proudly added that Old Macdonald had a snake. I breathed a sigh of relief, no costume's to uncover my horrific lack of creaive skills.

WRONG!

Micah mentioned Egyptian Day and in exploring the website I found that he was supossed to be dressed as one; a week from the day I was looking at the flier!

I couldn't find a costume for boys.  A friend found one, but it was kind of expensive. So I went online and found "easy" instructions to make my own. I went out and spent the same amount on supplies that I would have spent on ordering the already made costume.

I spent hours cutting ans ewing an recutting and trying on a piece of fabric on Micah that was full of needles holding everything in place.

He started screaming at me at one point because there was a needle stuck in his ear. I told him to stop being so dramatic and pulled it out. Then I threatened his life if he got blood on the white fabric. We already had one bleeding character for school!

This morning my little boy skipped off to school in what we are calling an Egyptian costume. There is no way he is coming home with that thing in one piece!!

I am told that in the later grades wll be reinacting a war and will need sardines and toilet paper bandages. Maybe if I had days like that I wouldn't have minded history so much!! Especially if the cute kid I studied in class instead of my American History was part of the history lesson......

Surprise Miracles

Confession: I am currently supossed to be working on finding a cause for night leg cramps in a middle aged woman and writing a convincing plan for combatting said leg cramps, but all I can come up with is, give up your tennis for soap operas. Since I know my teacher won't accept this treatment plan, I decided to turn on the TV. I freaked out when I heard who they were predicting to win today's election and ate 5 Snicker Bars. Since eating massive amounts of sugar and biting my nails off wasn't being productive in helping me procrastinate, I decided to blog!

Today I am immensly thankful for my Kyler bug!

I was told I couldn't have children. We used fertility measures to conceive our first and were somewhat shocked at how easy the process was. When that first kiddo was only 7 months old, I found out I was 2 months along with an all natural and shocking pregnancy.

Kyler has been consistent in keeping us in a state of shock ever since!

When he was little he was infamous for changing his own diaper and hiding the dirty one in any conceivable place. At two he emptied an entire pan of lasagna on the white living room floor while I was getting dressed.

At three he got a peanut stuck in his nose; at 4 he broke his foot; at 5 he broke his collar bone.

Kyler is fascinated with anything that he is not allowed to do! But he has discovered so much! Like how shocked people act when you tell them that the woman dragging you through the store is not your mommy. How loud the neighbor girl screams when she notices a little boy peeing out in the yard next door. How hard you hit your head on the wall at the bottom of the stairs when you ride the laundry basket down them.

Kyler loves to laugh. His giggle is the most contageous thing I have ever heard. Kyler also holds the world record on how many questions one little boy can possibly ask. "What would happen if I stuck that quarter in the electrical socket?" "How did I get here?" "Do you think God could make a real light saber?"

Kyler loves to cuddle, especially after he has been told to go to bed. Those are the best cuddle times ever! Kyler has been named, "The best friend in class" in school, and is one of the most loyal kids I know.

Once when describing one of his friends who had a different skin color, he described hair color and height and clothing, but never once did he mention that his friend had a different appearance than himself.

Kyler is the best surprise I have ever received and every time I think of my shock and surprise I laugh out loud. I am so glad God knew we needed Kyler, even if we didn't. Our family wouldn't be the same without him!

I pray that Kyler is always thankful for the person God created him to be. I pray he continues to love and care about people. I pray that he never gets tired of asking questions and uses his discoveries to honor God and his fellow man.

I pray that he will be all God created him to be and will always choose to see the good in everyone and every circumstance. I pray that he will always have a soft heart!

I am so thankful for my Kyler bug and I thank God every day for the miracle that is my little boy!

My Rock

Ok its like day 4 or 5, (wait what day is it???) and this is my second proclamation of thanksgiving, but I am currently up to my eyeballs in sewing Egytian costumes and writing research papers on chicken pox.

Today I am thankful for my husband. His name is Kevin, he is hot, and he is way way older than me! He is bi-polar on Sunday during football season and addicted to Starbucks. He makes me laugh and roll my eyes and feel like the most special girl in the world.

If there is an easy way to do something, he will find every other possible way to do it. Without his iphone, he would be sitting on the side of the road three hours in the wrong direction at any given time. If there is a problem with my car, he can fix it, and if I need a lightbulb changed he'll do it....within the year!

My husband is one of the most caring people I have ever met! He spends every day working at a job that is taking care of hungry little children all over the world. He dedicates himself to speaking up for those you can't speak up for themselves.

He is an amazing husband. He is my defender and protector. The sholder I cry on and the other sholder I punch when he makes fun of me. He does dishes almost every night and he changes a diaper every other month! He has stuck with me through the hardest times of a marriage and through the most happy and romantic times. He is my best friend!

Kevin loves being a dad, even when he realizes that his two-year-old is snapping his DVD's in half. He loves roasting marshamllows with his boys....and a heating gun. He plays catch in the backyard and will talk to his boys about anything they want to talk about. At Christmas I usually only have to remind him a few times that we bought the toys for the kids and that he should probably let them have a turn.

Kevin has tought me so much! How to tell what year a Chevelle is; how to forgive when its the hardest thing in the world to do; how to laugh at myself realizing that tomorrow its not going to seem so devastating. He has taught me how to properly put the roll of toilet paper on the dispenser and that duct tape really can fix anything. He has taught me that a fishing trip where only one fish is caught is indeed a successful fishing trip!

Just last night he drove across town to deliver the wolds heaviest tv that he sold for $20 on craigslist, for a young mom who couldn't fit it in her car and had just moved here by herself with her 20 month old little girl, after her husband headed off to Korea for a year. True he spent the money that he made on gas, but that people is my man!!!

He is an amazing man, friend and lover and I am FOREVER thankful that I get to spend the rest of my life by his side!!

Micah

I have friends who every year use November to say what they are thankful for every day of the month. While I will never have the time to actually verbalize it, I'll do my best to think of something new every day and whisper it to myself in the shower, which very well could be the thing I am thankful for.

I must confess I have gotten into a bad habit of reciting to myself al of the things that I am frustrated about; this is making my shower longer and longer and then our water bill goes up and I irritated with one more thing!

So today I am thankful for my oldest son, Micah. He is turning into such an incredible boy! He'll be 7 in 3 months. If you ask him he already has the days counted down until his birthday!

It really doesn't feel like its been 7 years since I laid in a hospital bed crying my eyes out convinced that this baby would NEVER come into the world! He had to be helped along by a C-section and he was very purple from his reluctance to leave his little cucoon, but I have never felt that kind of love as they handed me my son.

I knew I would do anything for him! I purposed to be the perfect mother to him and never yell and make sure he ate broccoli and could read by the time he was two. I didn't do any of those things, but in spite of my imperfect mothering he is turning out ok!

True, he does like to see if he can make his classmates laugh by sticking rocks in his ears and up his nose, and he thinks its hilarious to leave plastic spiders in my jammie drawer, and that its awesome to watch Star Wars every day, but its probably the lack of broccoli I feed him.

Micah is one of the most caring people I know. Unless he's yelling at his brother or fighting with his carpool "sister" he can't stand seeing other people hurting. He gets upset when he sees other people being picked on, an he will confront anyone who dares to look at his brothers cross-eyed.

His smile can turn my whole day around! I don't know why God saw fit to give me such an incredible blessing, but he did and I will thank Him for it every single day of my life.

I pray that someday Micah will grow to be a man that loves God with his whole heart and seeks to serve him every day. I pray that he learns how love his wife with a selfless love and never ever stop pursuing her. I pray that he kisses his kids every day and knows that throwing a ball around in the backyard, has much more eternal value than working longer hours to make a few more bucks.

Thank you God for an amazing gift! Thank  you for giving me Micah!!