Little boys

Funny how fast and slow kids grow up... and how they are in a constant state of flux. Honestly, we are tired and frustrated with how hard it is to raise 3 little kids at one time - someone is always crying, waking up at night, having a runny nose or a cranky day. Can drive us crazy! It's just a lot of work to keep them fed, bathed, happy (as in not hitting each other) and then trying to add any type of training/discipline/home-schooling to the mix and we often end each day wiped out and discouraged. But they are growing and changing so fast...

- Elijah, at almost 5, can now bathe himself (pretty much - have to make sure he uses the right amount of soap and not the whole bottle!) It is SO nice to be able to say "Elijah, go get a bath" and he does. Makes me dream of the day when bathing little boys doesn't take an hour of each evening.

- We are working on potty-training Caleb. It's been a horrible, messy, slow process. But the very fact that we're working on it means the end of diapers is in sight with him. So that will mean we will have more kids OUT of diapers than IN diapers. We calculated last night the savings from him alone will be enough to buy a plane ticket to Bali in a year. :)

- Ezra is eating real food... has also been a process. He's my only kid who has not easily taken to eating people food. It's kinda funny, really, as he's so incredibly fat, you would think all he likes to do is eat. But in reality he just likes his mommy. :) But as he begins to warm up to rice cereal and bananas I am seeing weaning around the corner. No more nursing my baby...

So we comfort ourselves by saying that in the next 5 years or so our lives should be a lot easier. It's funny, when we were in the States people always told us "Enjoy this time when the kids are small... it's goes so fast and then you miss it." Here people say "Don't worry; you will get through it and it will be over soon." I think the difference is not that missionaries are negative people who don't like little kids, but that life is so much harder over here and having little kids brings a lot of challenges.... medical issues (we are constantly treating one kid or the other for fungus, skin infections, parasites); cleanliness issues (DON'T EVEN THINK OF LETTING ONE DROP OF BATH WATER GET NEAR YOUR MOUTH OR YOU WILL GET SOME HORRIBLE PARASITE YOU COULD DIE FROM); and a whole host of other things... don't touch the dog that probably has rabies; don't crawl on the floor - even though I just mopped it - the ants and termites and spiders are thick; smile and eat whatever weird thing the national people just offered you or it will ruin our testimony; be quiet and entertained on 24+ hour plane rides; sit through a church service in a language you don't understand for 2 hours with no nursery or Sunday school class....

The other thing is PB&J is really expensive here... and Goldfish crackers, applesauce, and Cheerios are non-existent. How are you supposed to raise kids without Cheerios? :)

Last night I stumbled onto a blog of a mom of 4 little kids. She called it "Cherishing the little hands" and it was on how great and fun little kids are and how much she enjoyed her little kids. I bet she doesn't stay up at night and wonder if the anti-malaria medicine she gives her kids will destroy their livers or if it's better to give her kids skin cancer from bug spray or dengue fever from mosquito bites.

We love our little boys and the funny things they say and how they are so snugly and cute at this age. But I will be so thankful when we are past the eating dirt stage. Maybe it's just my Western prejudice, but I think American dirt is cleaner.