These three are always ready and eager to help me cook. Afton mastered climbing on buckets so she can be part of the action. I'm not excited about this development but she is so joyful to be one with her big sisters. Note her cheesy grin with Millie. She is learning fast!
And some random pictures I found on my phone. These were taken while I was in the grocery store. Obviously they were having a good time.
One of the thoughts from conference that rang so true to me was about 'the powerful influence older siblings can have on younger in shaping their lives and helping them as they grow and develop!'
It is a struggle to have such vast differences in ages, developmental needs and interests but it is so good to hear and see them loving and teaching and nurturing each other. It's not all roses and smiles here though, there's LOTS of crying and disgruntled times but there are powerful teaching moments too. The insistence of the littles to do what the olders do is sometimes good- like potty training, reading scriptures and eating spinach!
Last week the olders decided we would have "their favorite spinach" as the hot vegetable for dinner. Millie and Livy do not like spinach. They watched in amazement as the olders raced to see who could eat their entire helping of spinach first and then declared "Yum! My favorite!! Look my muscles are growing!!" I sat silently watching and listening. Livy turned to her plate stirred her small pile of spinach tentatively stuck in her fork for a strand or two of spinach and tasted it again for the first time. She declared "yum? I like spinach?!" Millie looked quizzically at her also tenaciously trying the spinach on her plate. She was not so convinced.
I thought man all those years of force feeding the older 5 is sure paying off right now.
I did the sleepless nights, the awful mealtimes. The meltdowns and the messes. It was intense with the first 5 or 6, they all came so fast. And I thought I would loose my mind. Listening to people now I probably could have got med's and should have done counseling. But we did survive and they survived and they are so helpful and good now (for the most part....) We still go rounds as I am constantly warning and reminding them not to teach the youngers bad habits- climbing trees, hitting etc. But a lot of the enduring is paying off right now. Phew!!
Time does pass and from enduring and patiently spoon feeding the toddlers eventually makes kids who willingly and mostly happily eat their dinner and then they can do the dishes! Or maybe they even made the dinner or chose the dreaded courses! Life is good and thank goodness it keeps moving on.
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