You've got your hands full

People are always telling me I have my hands full. Funny thing is I'm often out with only *some* of the kids when they tell me that!

Here, in this post, are a few examples of what it looks like around here to "have my hands full."

Home Schooling with your hands full:

Kindergarten math lesson happening on the right. On the left, a mid-morning g-tube feeding. In the center, Evania and Gloria playing with the dish of coins we use for learning kindergarten money concepts.

I've learned that if they have something to *do* with the coins (like putting them into little cups) they're much less likely to put them in other less desirable places...like their mouths. Most of the time it works.

Sometimes this is what it looks like to have my hands full:

Why is it that "you sure have your hands full" always has such a negative overtone? Everyone, if they would stop to think about it, has their hands full of something. This just happens to be what I've been given to fill my hands with, and there are few things I would rather have filling my hands than this!

Or this! Sorry about the funky hair - this was right after a hair wash, so we're taking advantage of rolling over to spend some time holding her in my arms. She'll get her hair brushed after she's laying down again. But look at that amazing girl! Look how alive she looks! She is starting to get so good at this sitting upright thing that last night we gave her her bedtime neb sitting up in mommy's lap. It went well enough that we did it again tonight before bed, and I was able to even hold her a little beyond that before we could tell it was time to be done.

Here's Mira with her hands full:

Mira's little 5-year-old cousin from England wanted to send her a stuffed animal when she was in the hospital. It finally arrived this past week, which was actually perfect timing. While Mira was in the hospital, she was not even capable of holding something like this in her arms; now a toy like this is perfect size to fill the space that she is now loose enough to maintain!

 Even the littler ones have their hands full:

Evania (yes, that's still lunch on her face, thank you!) wanted to help me bathe Mira. Here she is trying to put a fresh sock onto her older sister's tiny foot. As Rinnah watched me washing Mira's hair, she said to me, wistfully, "I wish I had my own little girl like Mira to take care of, but I know I have to wait until I am older."

Owen with his hands full. 😀

And again - how neat is it to get a ride from your big brother!! The older that firstborn son of mine gets, the more he enjoys his baby siblings.

We've also had our hands full with this guy:

Reuben, after his amazing 22 day stretch of being seizure free, has had at least one seizure on 9 of the last 12 days since then, with three of those days escalating to the point that we administered his rescue meds. Reuben's normal for the last few years has been a bad run of seizures once a week. This almost every day thing really keeps us on our toes. But in a heartbeat I tell you that I'd rather have my hands full of the challenge of being Reuben's mom than miss out on loving this little guy.

So, yes. I've got my hands full. But I don't think anyone could convince me that what I've been given to fill them with is anything but a good thing.