No pity party here

Joe got a little racecar launcher (Lightening McQueen, actually). The “bumper” of the tiny car has a hole in it that you insert part of the launcher – kind of like a wind-up mechanism. Anyway, Joe was pointing at the hole this morning and said, “Daddy, Racecar go potty!”

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A friend from church – actually one of the wonderful ladies that came over to help out when the twins were born – came by to visit with her daughter and niece. The twins and Joe had a wonderful time playing with them. Joe wasn’t shy at all and was actually running around the house like a mad man. What a ham!

Kathy and Patrick

Tara swinging Joseph

Gracie playing with the babies.

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We had a wonderful time at the zoo on Saturday. Joe had seen their dinosaur exhibit before and couldn’t stop talking about it. It was just a display of mechanical dinosaurs complete with their noises. We decided to take him again, but this time he was totally scared of them! Leave it to an unpredictable two-year-old!

At the big cat house, the cheetah came right up to the window and was nose to nose with Joe! He totally loved it! (I was a little bit freaked out, though) He wanted to watch them all day long.

Joe, Daddy and Luke

We also ventured on to the train. Joe loved it, but we had quite a time trying to get him off of the train when the ride was over! With each of us holding a baby, dragging a screaming toddler out of the train station was quite a struggle. We got lots of sympathetic looks.

Mom and Patrick

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Speaking of sympathy, Scott and I were talking about the totally inappropriate things that people say to us. It happens pretty often now that we have a family that is already larger than the average family. Here are some of our favorites:

“Oh, my goodness, you have three! Is your husband getting what I’m getting for Christmas? A vasectomy?” (He thought he was pretty funny)

“We would love to have another kid, but I don’t want to end up like you!” (Yes, someone really said this to my face!)

“They have too many babies!” said by a preschooler being pushed past us in a stroller as her parents commented on how busy we must be.

“You’re going to have more? Are you crazy?”

“God bless you!” said with a mixture of sarcasm and pity – to which I usually reply cheerfully “Yes, he has!”

Okay, granted, we know that having kids this close is not for everyone. We didn’t choose to have twins – that was just a bonus! But there are many people in this world that have way more kids than we do. Many people have struggled through these times like we do. Yes, I don’t get out of the house very often (even getting them all to the back yard is kind of rough) and Scott and I don’t go on vacations just the two of us – heck, we hardly get date nights. We choose not to think of what we are “sacrificing” by having these children. Who can think of what we can’t do when we get to see these beautiful smiling faces every day. Would I trade any one of them for a little more freedom and not having to drive a minivan? Of course not! Raising little children is a LOT of effort, but we have a LOT of love in the house that I know not everyone has. We are grateful for our sweet little blessings from God!