Regression

Malachi (or "Meat Biscuit", as Danny likes to call him) has lately added a new accomplishment: the ability to roll over onto his back. Unfortunately, he hates being on his back, so he then flails around wildly, yelling and crying, until someone (me) comes to rescue him. He has also mastered the "whole-body smile", which more than makes up for all his little crying fits.

Other than this, there's really not a whole lot to write about from the past couple of weeks (at least, nothing you'd want to read!). A cough and high fever have made the rounds through all of the kids, including Malachi, so I've been out of circulation and offline for a while. For about a week, I've had a sore throat that made it difficult to even talk. Not exactly an ideal scenario with four small children!

I can't quite figure out why every one of the kids seems to have regressed in some way over the past few weeks (with the exception of Malachi, who has nothing to regress from). Just after one of the below pictures was taken, at the mall, Karis had an accident all over herself and one of the rides at the mall. She's started needing a pull-up again at night, and has had several days full of accidents at home. Rachel has gone back to sucking her thumb, after 2 years of abstaining, and we've had to duct tape mittens to her hands at night once again. She actually asks for them if we forget - it's like she knows she's an addict and wants to quit but can't quite do it on her own.

We've also had behavior issues with Zekers both at home and at church. We've now become the family with the problem child - aaaaggghhhh! He gets multiple spankings each day, and at this point, they don't seem to be doing much good.

I sort of wonder if they're not all still adjusting to having Malachi around. I think Rachel goes to her thumb for comfort, and it appears that Zekers is just trying to get attention. Karis has been really clingy lately, too, so I wonder if hers may be an attention thing as well.

The one positive thing that's come of everyone being sick is that I've been able to spend lots of extra time at home just loving on the kiddos. We've read just about every book they own; and spent several days in our PJ's, snuggling on the couch. I've definitely enjoyed that!

And now, some pictures . .. .


Brotherly love



Before the pants-wetting incident, the kiddos had a blast a couple of weeks ago at the mall. The got to play while Mommy hit the sales!



The way Zekers likes to dress for a trip to Kroger



Malachi's (overly-enthusiastic) fan club



Look at me!!