When Pictures Get you Thinkin'

Scott has some cool new contraption hooked up to the t.v. It's some sort of Apple web/t.v. decvice that picks up  photos and movies and images from other Apple devices and streams them to your computer...

I can hardly write this blog post because baby picture after baby picture after baby picture of the girls is streaming by on our flat screen television.

I can't help but think about all of the things that all of the older women have said to me on all of the occasions that we have been out in public, or at a party, or in church...

They said it would go fast...I didn't expect it to go THIS fast and to realize it so soon.

The ladies at church...they said the girls would only be this small for a short time...I was certain the diapers and the mid- night crying and the messes were going to last an eternity (well...the messes persist, but the other parts, they are figments of our past already!).

On so many days I say to Scott..."Really, you want another one...really? After all of this!?"

He looks at me in defeat and says..."Oh man...I dunno".

But then we see the pictures and I think Really, can I imagine not kissing one of those little heads one more time, or squeezing their cheeks, or watching them sleep in a swing, or smile at my glance or coo in response to a hello. Really...am I done with all of that?


I watched a gal that I really admire walk around our MOPS meeting the other day. She is preggo with her fifth. Yes, you heard me right...her FIFTH! Oh my...I see women like that sometimes and think God must have forgotten to install one last microchip in my brain...

God, I ask, where is the chip that makes me feel like I could handle 3 or 4 or 5 kids? How come some women make it look so easy...and then chicks like me make people never want to have kids. Ever. Ever.


As I watched that mom at my group the other day I felt a sense of awe and respect for her. With each child we have we are forced to give away a little piece (and peace!) of our independence...a little piece of our freedom and the ability to do the things we want to do...I could say that another way...and this is what I see when I look at her...With each child we must forgo selfishness a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more...it becomes less and less and less about you and your dreams...for a time anyway...and more and more and more about loving a child into the world to bear dreams of their own.


Sometimes I ask myself, Lisa, really, if God has one more little life to bring into this world that is part you and part Scott, could you really say "No...I can't do it...I'm in over my head."


Now that wouldn't be very faithful of me, would it?  To say to the God that promises to fill us with everything we need to do the tasks He sets before us that I'm not strong enough, capable enough.

Funny thing is...He already knows that. He knows we ALL have insecurities, we all have weaknesses...we all NEED Him!


As I've said to friends...I feel like there is one more little Littlewood that is supposed to be in this world...

Sometimes I tease Scott and tell him he better find a second wife to help out with that...because this mommas not sure her belly or her mental stability can really be stretched that far...

Just kidding honey.

All that to say...children are beautiful gifts from God. We will likely jump of the edge and have another one of these days...

So while I may be ready to be done with this...

(I got a LOT bigger, for the record! this is one of the nicer pictures)

And DEFINITELY this...

just in case you didn't believe me...no, this is not a stock photo...that's MY  belly!






 I'm not quite ready to be done with this...

Or this...

Or this...

Pure sweetness...those last three...

But for now...well, maybe I'll just reminisce, enjoy the very quiet house...and...turn off that gadget before I get any more ideas!!



P.S. I just read this post to my husband and guess what he said?

                                                                                              "I don't mind if you get ideas!"

Oh my...out of the mouths of men!!! 

Someday I'll Be on Time Again...

I used to be on time...really...I did...

I was actually the very committed person who chose 8 a.m. classes (while living at home mind you so it wasn't as if I could just roll out of bed) and got to campus with my books at 7:15 in the morning so that I could review my notes, study a bit and be ready when the professor showed up.

Go ahead, call me a nerd. It's o.k. We're not in high-school so I kinda like the term now!

Even after Scott and I started dating and got married I was pretty prompt and pretty crabby if I wasn't...poor Scott...I'm not sure he was ever Mr. Prompt. As a matter of fact my dad likes to tease us, and especially him, that we usually arrive at family functions on "Littlewood" time...a.k.a. 20-40 minutes late!!! It's a long family joke, but basically...well...for those of you who know us we'll leave it at that...and in defense of my husband I won't go "there" with the rest of the story (: He's had to deal with me on more than one occasion (too many to count, I'm thinking) when I was crabby because we were running behind!

All that said, we had one child...and then two...and now I can't get out of the house by 9 a.m. to save my life. Seriously. Ava starts preschool at 9:30 in the morning...we consistently arrive at about 9:35 smiling sheepishly (me) because the door to the room is usually already closed and most of the other kids are already sitting around tables settled in and working on puzzles...

Sigh...

I'd like to be there on time Miss Lynn and Miss Jean, really I would!

But...there is ALWAYS something...

Like this morning...

I got up later than I'd have liked because I went to bed later than I should have...Scott left the house early this morning so there was no set of extra hands (some days there are and some days there are not...)...So I made the breakfast, and packed the bags, unloaded the dishwasher, found and wrote a birthday card for Ava to take a friend to school, got myself dressed, packed my "work" bag, made more toast for the girls (they were hungry!), rifled down 1/3 of a cup of coffee, a greek yogurt and a piece of toast and peanut butter, got dressed, got the girls dressed, got their boots and gloves and coats out, started the car so that it would warm up (it was 10 degrees here last night!), went in to brush Ava's hair and put the girls coats on, tried to clean up the breakfast mess in the living room (when I'm running really late I  typically end up letting the girls watch t.v. while they eat breakfast...it makes things easier!)

....suddenly at 9:15 Ava rounded the corner of the couch right into my arm which sent a cup of fruit shake flying into the air and landing on the ground...that stinkin' fruit shake splattered all over the floor, all over Santa (see picture), down the hall, on the bathroom door and all over the tissue paper and dirty laundry that was sitting by the basement stairs...

...darned fruit shake!

Now I know what your thinking...Lisa, I see the glass sitting on the ground there...WHY on earth would you give either of your preschool aged children fruit shake in a glass cup in the LIVING ROOM?!!!

I do have an good explanation I swear!

Both girls were enjoying their covered fruit shakes SO much (in plastic cups with straws) that they finished it all and Ava asked for more...I had poured the little bit that was left in that glass so that I could drink it, but when Ava asked I of course told her she could have it...hence...the open glass...

She took it into the living room while I was rapidly and incoherently trying to dress myself upstairs...

Sigh...

So, at 9:17 Ava and I were cleaning up fruit shake...

And this is why I blog...so that I have an excuse to take pictures of such ridiculousness and post them here so that A) you can commiserate, B) you can laugh C) Ic an laugh at myself and D)when her teachers start asking why we are tardy I can point them to this post with a big smile (:

Here's why I was running late, yet again, this morning my friends....

it was WAY worse than my i-phone could portray here...seriously, droplets of fruitshake for 5 feet down the hall, on the wall, all over EVERYTHING! I didn't know so little fruitshake could make so much mess! 

Our Lives...A Bit Zoo-ey, But Fun

I'm sure you've all seen the Johnson and Johnson baby commercials...serene mom holds sleeping baby, voiceover starts..."A baby changes everything"...

I've decided that since I need money to potentially pay for Christian school for Ava next year I'm suing Johnson and Johnson for false advertising...and perhaps emotional duress caused by false advertising.

Ethical way to make a few bucks, huh?!

The commercial should really portray a mom with graying hair, unwashed and pulled back in a haphazard pony tail...the baby might be sleeping, but she will not be looking serenely and calmly at her beautiful child...she will be exhaling a sigh of relief that the baby finally fell asleep as she carefully practices acrobatic moves to gently slide the baby off of her arms and into the crib as to not wake him up. She will then make her way to the couch where she will take a deep breath, look around,  take inventory of the days damage to her surroundings and either fall quickly to sleep or turn on some really fluffy and totally brainless television show while making the decision to clean up tomorrow.

THEN voiceover can begin..."A baby changes everything."

I say this all from the most lighthearted place...Of course we all love, love, LOVE our children, but they do change everything in ways we could have NEVER imagined...for the good, the hard and the sometimes exhausted.

This page...this space...A Little Monkey Business is where I record the nuttiness of our lives for my curious family, and friends looking for some signs that when their days get crazy they are not alone! Come on into our lives for a 5 minutes via this blog and you will rest assured that you have not gone crazy, and no, aliens did not transport you via UFO to another planet called CHAOS while you slept. They also did not transport you to the zoo, which is where we often joke that we live.

You are home, sweet home...I promise. It's just that when you have kids, well, everything changes....

Our lives look a little more like this these days...

 And this...

And of course this...