I posted on Facebook earlier today about a sweet interaction between Laela and Rowan over breakfast. The big kids woke up before Ro did, so they were done breakfast by the time he had his. Laela opted to stay and sit at the table with him and I while I fed him his oatmeal and yogurt. She has such a sweet little high pitched voice already, but it gets even higher (and thank goodness, softer) when she talks to Rowan. As he waved some rogue Cheerios around, she reminded him “Don’t throw it!” He then offered her his handful of sweaty Cheerios to which she responded “Oh, no sanks, you eat it!” He stared blankly at her, as if confused why she wouldn’t want them. She just giggled at him and said “Here, I get it,” and proceeded to take one from him and feed it to him. She is SO nice to him, like 99% of the time, which I would say is a LOT!
Later on in the morning, we were upstairs playing in the loft, and Rowan crawled over to me. He very slowly lay down on his belly, and just lay still. I asked him how he was already so tired, and I rubbed his back gently. Aaaaand then he barfed. He crying or fussing involved at all, but he barfed up a big pile of puke. I sat him up right away so he didn’t accidentally inject any of it, and he just looked up at me, heaved once, and puked again. This time, his pants caught the waterfall. All of this happened in a matter of seconds, and suddenly, I had three small children within inches of me, two piles of barf, a sick kid, and a tall mug of hot coffee on the carpet, just waiting to be knocked over. I asked Dekker if he could help, and he jumped to the pump, let me tell you! He put his toys down and said “I’m on top of it! Help is on the way!” He booked down the stairs, and I could hear him whispering to himself, though I couldn’t hear what he was saying. From the bottom of the stairs, he yelled up “Remember to try to stay calm!” I told him I would, and thanked him. He was back up in the loft within seconds with the cloth from the kitchen. I wiped up Rowan and lay him back down so I could sneak his pants off without spilling any extra puke onto the floor. I scooped up the worst of it, and then headed down to the kitchen to rinse the cloth and give it another good scrub. When I went back up, Rowan had already climbed over to the stairs to see where I had gone, and Dekker was standing directly between him and the stairs, with a strong grip on his shirt, doing everything in his power to protect him. I cleaned up the rest of the mess and all was well. Rowan clearly felt better, as he was back into the toys up to his naked knees right away. I think he had just maybe eaten too much to fast. He’s not sick. But I made a BIG show of praising Dekker up. He didn’t get scared when something was out of sorts, like he so often does. He saw a need, and he took care of it. What an amazing boy! I’m SO proud of my little group of nurturers here! They are so loving.
Soon after that, I got a Facebook message from Willa, and ten minutes later, she was at the door with treats and about an hour to kill, hanging with me and the kids. It was SUCH a nice visit to break up the day, and see a friend. We made a plan for another date next week.
We have the afternoon to ourselves, and as per usual, we’re taking these hours pretty easy. Rowan’s napping, kids are resting their brains and watching a bit of tv, and I’m putting my feet up for a bit. As the baby is kicking me in the ribs, he’s also managing to head butt the laptop as it sits on my lap at the same time. Silly goose. I can’t wait to hold him, and have him join our crew. Who am I kidding? He’s already a big part of it! Just can’t wait to have him earth side.