February 4, 2008 | Mama Smith

happy birthday to wee-why

Who arrived at 2pm a year ago. To a tentative threesome, having no clue just how much their world would be rocked by the little 8 pound bundle.

With a mere 18 months after Brighton’s arrival , we were completely unprepared to enter BabyLand again. And Brighton was completely unprepared to welcome a little brother into his world. Are they ever ready though?

He cried when my mom left – thinking she had brought the baby – after returning to the den and finding Levi still napping there. “Baby! Baby!” he sobbed running to the door, as if to reminding her she needed to take her unwanted “luggage” back with her, so the world that revolved around him could get back to normal.

But slowly he warmed to his little Wee-Why and now, despite the occasional fights over toys, they are officially buddies. Laughing and chasing each other around the house, passing books back and forth in the car and tackling each other on the bed.

We celebrated on Saturday, despite both Matthew, Levi and Brighton being sick. It was quite a chilled out affair due to all the coughing, sniffling and fatigue going around.

Brighton graciously offered to help me with the cake preparations. And Levi didn’t hesitate for a moment before diving in to it.

He is definitely the second child who can down sugar in seconds. Unlike the sheltered first child who when into sugar convulsions for his first birthday.

After blearily opening some presents, Levi began to fade and the three sick boys all went off to nap. Quite a rousing party, for sure.

As you can tell through the lack of posts, we have been out of sorts the past few weeks. The cloud of sickness, that has been hovering over our house…well, since we moved here 5 months ago…has brought a particularly nasty round of viruses for all the men in the family. Brighton started the hacking two weeks ago, which quickly spread to Levi despite all my attempts at hand-washing and sanitizing toys, which then spread to Matthew, and is probably plotting how it can hack into my body at this very moment. Hopefully all the Airborne and hand-washing will keep it at bay for as long as possible.

All you mothers can attest to the insanity one begins to feel after being stuck indoors for two weeks. Last Friday, I was standing at the door with my coat on, keys in hand, waiting for Matthew to return from work…so I could flee and regain some sense of sanity.

It was a looong, hard, wearing week.

By 10am Friday morning, I had had enough and ended up unwrapping Levi’s birthday gift – a sand and water OUTDOOR play table – and positioned it in the middle of our hallway on the hardwood floors. I just didn’t even care any more. I just wanted a few moments of tear-free, whine-free, snot-free peace.

After a river of water trailed into the kitchen, I crammed the table into the bathroom. Until spacial issue fights broke out between the boys and one ended up sobbing on the checkered tile floor.

That’s when I contemplated leaving. Calling Matthew and telling him he better come home to our abandoned children, that I was on my way to Mexico. But I didn’t feel like spending the weekend in jail.

As the illness begins to wear off, hopefully this week will offer a little more peace in our household and fewer sleepless night for all four of us.

Through the process of being worn so thin these past few weeks, Christ has been driving home the passage from Isaiah 40:11, that He, ultimately, is the one shepherding our family. When Matthew and I have absolutely nothing left to give. No more compassion at 2am with a hacking child. No more energy to feed a choking, mucusy baby. That He will gently lead us with these young.

“He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young“. Isaiah 40:11

That’s all I have to lean on after weeks like these.