House Rules

If you get dressed by yourself then you get to choose your own outfit. 
Even if it's a school day.

Darn It!

Sometimes several years can go by and it feels that life is much the same as it has been.

But other times,

Naomi looks like a woman and smiles confidently as she leaves for high school.

Marko runs off to his kindergarten line because he already knows where it is.

And the game of pretending that Lucy is still a baby gets a bit ridiculous as she tells me that "Technically if a peregrine falcon didn't have wings it wouldn't be a bird." 

Darn those other times, when I realize that this stage is slipping away. 

I didn't know last night...

...that it was their last day as little guys
sharing a pink and blue room
with a rocking chair.
I didn't know
when I tucked them in
that today they'd move on
to big bunk beds
and separate rooms.

Darn Craigslist
for having a great deal
on bunk beds that matched
Chas's bedroom set.

Lucy's Heartfelt Wish Revealed

"Ohhh!  I wish I could've been born on MY birthday!"

(After she discovered that Marko was born on his birthday.)

Conversations with Lucy during the Sacrament

"The Wise Men brought Jesus presents.  Would you like to give Jesus a gift?"

Yes

"What present would you like to give Jesus?"

A hotel to be born in.

"The present Jesus really wants from us is for us to be kind.  Would you like to give that present to Jesus?"

But he couldn't open it.