Transitions...

A mom of 2 little children recently asked me which # of children was the hardest.  I quickly replied, "2-3"!!!  And added quickly that #4 was the easiest...by far!!!   She said, "Oh, good, it's so nice to hear that!"   I went on to say, though, that 0-1, 1-2, and 2-3 were all hard...but in their own way.  Kinda ironic that #4 would be easiest! 

As most mom-conversations go, the subject was dropped b/c 1 or more of us had to go chase children.  But, later I was thinking about my journey through motherhood.  I honestly think that it's ME that has changed, not necessarily that the # of children got easier...in many ways the work multiplies exponentially.  The Lord is changing me...and I know that has affected my attitude, stress level, and perspective of motherhood. 

I now know how fast it goes.  Wow, it goes fast.  I'm saying that and I'm still "in it"...the people that tell me how fast it goes now that their children are grown must really know what they are talking about! 

After I had my 3rd baby, I honestly didn't know how mom's "kept going" having 4,5,6....or, God-bless-her...Mrs. Duggar having 20!  Now I know the secret: CHILDREN GROW UP!  And all those days of intense training...feeling like it's correction after correction...mess after mess...they EVENTUALLY start to "get it"!  Hallelujah!!!  And, although my children are not perfect...they do grow up to take baby steps toward initiave, obedience, and responsibility.  Yay!  There is light at the end of the dark-tunnel-of-days :)  My husband graciously reminds me that we don't always "get it" after 1 correction in our relationship w/ God...how true.  I'm learning LONG-suffering/patience and a host of other fruits of the spirits I thought I had down pat, pre-kids. 

I did happen to mention in our 2-minute-mom-discussion...that my 3 older children can all make p & j's.  (!!!)  Three years ago, I would've never fathomed that!  I guess I didn't really see past the particular day I was living...ha, ha.  The mom that I was telling that to, repeated back to me, "Oh, wow, so they can make lunch now!!"  I quickly responded, "Well, not exactly"  When they make p and j's ...you can look at my kitchen and tell that a 3, 4 and 6 year old made their OWN p & j's...but it's a start, eh?!

I enjoy reading http://inashoe.com/   The mom that writes that blog has many children and often posts answers to questions she gets.  She answered the question of which # of children was the hardest.  (hers was maybe #4??)  Anyway, her explanation made a lot of sense to me.  She said that the more children you have over the age of 5 directly affects the "easyness" of adding #'s to the fam. (And alternatly, the more you have under age 5, well...it's challenging!) I agree w/ her theory...and that would be true in my case.  When I had my 3rd, my oldest was still 2 (but, almost 3!)  Wow...no wonder there were lots of moments of chaos!  Children mature LOTS from 3-5!  When I had my 4th, Samuel was 51/2...and William and Madeline were 21/2 yrs older...that made a big difference for me.  Oh, and I've also become less perfectionistic...that helps too! 

So, anyway...enough rambling...

What was YOUR trickiest transition??  Or were the transitions seamless?? 

(I have a feeling that the space btween children can make things smoother...or perhaps what "type" of person, how "laid back one is, and/or what standards you have for housekeeping...ha, ha...housekeeping??)

What about twins??  I'm curious about how that is...seems efficient to me...preggo once=2 babies
(My mother-in-law claims that having her twins was way easier than just having 1...)

This photo makes me laugh...now that the 3 olders are big, they would rather walk than ride.  But doesn't it look like we're missing someone?  Ha, ha! :)

May's Random Photos...

"Tuckered Out"

 Mother's Day...

 Saturday Adventure...

 And "tuckered out" again! 

Happy 36th

Happy B-day!!

A few more from the weekend...

The Goff's as of 5/6/12

 The Arch

 Fun times as a family...Justin's early-celebratory-b-day dinner at The Spaghetti Factory

 The kids had just as much fun swimming as anything else...

 Madeline jumped in and forgot her swimmies...oops!  I threw the camera down and jumped in as soon as Samuel alerted me.  She was trying her best to stay afloat by doggie-paddling...but she wasn't keeping her head up.  Mommy to the rescue!  Yikes!

Sweet Baby...

Grant's Farm

City Museum St. Louis

 Wow!  Did we have a blast this weekend!  We are now big-time recommenders of St. Louis' City Museum...we will have to go back, because we didn't have enough time to see all of it.  Plus the roof-top opens next weekend. 

 How to describe this museum??  Well, I'd say it's a zany, creative, trash-dump turned indoor/outdoor adventure park.  Get ready to either re-live being a kid or come to the realization that you're getting old.  (ouch!)  This museum is for the adventure-some and strong in spirit...great training ground, for sure!  And, you can't be afraid of heights at this place!

 The boys piling up at the bottom of the "10 Story Slide"  (it's not actually 10...just 3:)

 Skate-board park...w/out the skate boards.  I thought this part would be boring, but even Justin and I had a blast!

 Justin and Madeline w/ their painted "tatoos" :)

 There's a train track for little kids, complete w/ a mini-conductor.  Samuel wanted to know why he was so little...I had to explain what a dwarf was.  :)

   This place was so fun...and the fun thing, was, that the kids were encouraged to make a mess, create, explore, and have fun. An idea was born here at the craft station...I need a kid-friendly craft room in my house!!  How fun to have a room that can stay messy and the kids can do all those "mom-hater" crafts...like painting and glitter w/out worrying about tracking it all over the house.  Ok...maybe I can transform part of the dungeon,..er, I mean my basement sometime.  :)

 There was a 6 and under toddler area...the kids like the ball pit :)

 Ever been on a life-sized gerbil wheel??  Samuel, William, Justin and I jumped on and were not expecting how fast that thing goes and how tricky it is to stop.  We laughed and laughed...even the people watching us were laughing...so fun!  Oh, and it's loud too...right up the boys' alley!

 A rolley-slide...the more you weigh, the faster you go.  I laughed so hard at some of the adults that went down...it looked slightly painful, though, so I didn't try that slide. :)

 This place has climby, crawly areas all over.  The boys scrambled across the log and shouted back to Justin, "Hey, Dad!   We're racoons!"  Justin said he seriously thought he was stuck in the log...some of the spaces were hard to squeeze through.  I enjoyed watching them from my stroller-watching perch.  I climbed through some with them, but it made me semi-clausterphobic...didn't know that about myself. :)

Well, we will definitely be going back to this place!  There were 2 lg. exhibits that we didn't see + the kids would have so much fun again.  We could easily spend a full day there.  It was well worth the $$...but I won't be bringing the double stroller again...it's not exactly stroller-friendly. :)