3!

thing 2 is 3 today! it's hard to think back to his birth day and know that was only three years ago. it seems like forever that i went from this

to this. 

and over three short years, he has gone from this

to this.

happy birthday, matthias! you have brought so many smiles and so much laughter into our lives. i can't imagine our family without you and am so happy that i get to be your mommy! you are awesome. i love you!

 

rules

being hiba's mom is exhausting.

i mean, i'm sure that being anyone's mom is exhausting. being matthias' mom is exhausting. but with hiba, it is extra exhausting.

one of the reasons is because of all the rules. she has rules for everything. every. little. thing. and it is really hard to follow them (not that i always do, but i try when i can) and it's exhausting to hear about them. i'm sure it's just as crazy for her, having all these rules in her head all the time. but, i think she likes it too - it gives structure to the chaos.

for example, she can't put her pink sparkly shoes on, because they have shoelaces, and whoever puts on shoes has to buckle or tie them and she can't tie them, so she can't put them on.

or, whoever raises their hand first can drive to church. and if you do not raise your hand, you do not drive.

when you play with the dollhouse, rose goes in her bedroom and boys cannot be in her bedroom because that is what it says and you cannot change it.

the bath calendar on the fridge tells you when to take a bath. if you want to take a bath a different day, you have to put it on the bath calendar.

if your peaches are touching your mashed potatoes, you cannot eat them because it is yucky and different food cannot touch each other.

when someone goes to bed, you have to let them be in bed and covered before you turn the light of. if you turn the light of too soon, they can't see their covers and then they will never be covered.

if you play hide and seek, the person seeking can't start counting until the person hiding is already hid. otherwise they won't have enough time to hide.

if she gets dressed by herself, when she comes out of her room, i have to close my eyes and then when she makes a "click" sound with her tongue, i can open them, but then i have to cover my eyes until she say "surprise!". and if i skip a step, we start over. 

and it goes on and on and on and on. there are rules about clothes, rules about food, rules about talking, rules about playing, rules about sleeping, rules about baths, rules about....well, you get the point. sometimes it's cute, sometimes it's funny, and sometimes it's just exhausting. controlling the chaos of the world is a tough thing to have to do. sometimes i can see the anxiety in her face, having to follow all the rules and having to communicate all rules to others. and other times, she loves it and i can see that the rules calm her.

encouragement

funny the difference a day makes...

*a two hour nap, thanks to some personal time from work.

*a cooperative little boy getting ready for bed, even if it was only because he is obsessed with playing games on my phone.

*a dance party with hiba including "i got a feeling", "God made me", and "dog days are over".

*a super wonderful little girl who loves to follow the rules, simply because they are rules.

*beautiful weather that means i can turn the ac off for a big part of the day.

*a sudden burst of energy that resulted in a clean(ish) house and five baskets of laundry folded.

*ice cream in the freezer to bribe reward matthias for putting his laundry away.

*full TEFRA funding approval for hiba, taking a huge weight off my shoulders.

*a cheap nice bottle of wine to share with my awesome husband at the end of long day. 

disappoitments

disappointments today - some bigger, some small, so trivial. and they will all pass, they will all be ok. but they are still disappointing. 

*watching the u.s. open and realizing i will probably never be the best in the world at anything.

*having a conversation with hiba and realizing her symptoms of autism will probably be around for the rest of her life. 

*watching matthias throw a tantrum, and another, and another, and another and realizing this phase of life may last longer than i was hoping.

*snapping at matthias after his billionth fit for the evening and realizing that i don't give him nearly enough patience as i should.

*watching the master chef finale and realizing that i don't have the time or energy to dream big, and realizing i don't know when i will.

*reading a friend's blog and realizing she got to go walk the streets of bethlehem again before i could.

*hearing about jason's doctors appointments and realizing we may be spending money on wrist surgery instead of trips i want to take.

labor day weekend highlights

we had a really great labor day weekend. jason was off on monday, which gave us an actual weekend together as a family.

saturday included a swim at the pool with this goofy boy:

 

sunday was full of bbqs - first with our church:

matthias and his burger - that's after eating a hotdog and chips

baggo tournament! not to brag, but gibann and i were totally the winners

although, matthias was pretty awesome too.

hiba explaining something super important to mark

throwing rocks in the stream

 and then sunday night with the neighbors.

hiba's newest funny face.

enjoying the swing

matthias loving on baby ruby

monday was spent doing yard work, napping, and one last swim at the pool. jason went with us to the pool and had hiba swimming all around within a few minutes. since he taught her to swim at the lake last month, she has not swam with me at all. i guess he just has the magic touch. it was a great end to the summer - now if only the weather would realize that fall is supposed to be here!