For the love of art

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." 

Pablo Picasso

As a kid, I always thought that I'd be an artist when I grew up. Although that dream faded and died long ago, my love of art and art history did not. Lately I've been thinking a lot about how I can foster the same art appreciation in my kids, especially since they are starting to exhibit a real interest in creating their own masterpieces. Check out the paintings they brought home from preschool yesterday:

Isaac

Clockwise from bottom: "Tree, car, house, snake, tree, snake"
Isaac says: "That's my friend's house. The car is racing!"

  

Lucy

"A window circle"
I told her I think it looks like a stained glass window!

Jude

"A monster. His name is Cacas. He likes restaurants. He sleeps on a convertible that is purple like him. He has 3 stomping feet."
The paint really is purple; it just doesn't look like it here. And look at that texture!

Dahlia

Self-portrait with "dirty grass, umbrella, blueberry, light bulb, a duck on the ceiling, and the number 6"
As usual, Dahlia's favorite thing to draw is herself!

Don't you just love how each kid already displays his or her own distinctive style?

Each piece they produce is like a little window into their minds and makes me so excited about what they are capable of creating, especially with some further instruction. Call me crazy, but I'm hoping to start teaching them a little about art myself soon, via some of these kid-friendly art projects inspired by the masters. Donations of art supplies (or extra patience) welcome!

Adios, Abuelito

Last night my beloved Abuelito passed away. Although he'd been very ill for some time and his death was not unexpected, his departure still hurts. Although we are relieved that he is no longer in pain, our family still hurts. And although I know he is now in the presence of Jesus, my heart still hurts.

Growing up as a missionary kid, I did not have the privilege of seeing my grandparents very often. Yet, in Abuelito, the Lord blessed me with a loving grandfather who never made me feel like a stranger, despite the fact that we lived thousands of miles apart and saw each other only once every few years. 

As an adult, I didn't call him as often as I should have. When we did talk, though, my Abuelito always had something of value to share, whether the topic of conversation was a happy one or not. A couple of times he told me that during my pregnancy he'd look at the pictures of my growing belly and think, "Que valiente es mi madre." I replied that I wasn't brave, that I was just doing what I had to do, but he remained unswayed in his conviction. Many times since then, when I have felt unequal to the task of being a mother to quadruplets, I have recalled his words and felt reassured by his utter confidence in me.

When the babies were born, I knew that I would probably never be able to take the kids to Peru during my Abuelito's lifetime, and I was equally sure that he would never be able to make the trip here at his age (he was then 88). I was resigned to the fact that my last surviving grandparent would not meet my children. But when the babies were 8 months old, my Tio Ner and Tia Harriet gave me the incredible gift of bringing my Abuelito here to meet his great-grandchildren, a precious opportunity for which I will be forever grateful. 

Today, as I think about my parents traveling to Peru for the funeral on Sunday, I can't help but remember my last goodbye with Abuelito. It was here in my house, as he and my Tia Julia were getting ready to head to the airport. I met him between the kitchen and the playroom, and we embraced. We hugged for a long time. We held each other very tight. I did not want to let go. I cried very hard. I whispered in his ear, "This might be the last time I see you. You know that." Smiling, he replied, "Tal vez no" ("maybe not").

Turns out we were both right. 

I'll see you in heaven, Abuelito. Someday.

Hanging it up: DIY dress-up clothes rack

My kids love to dress up, but I was getting tired of looking at the growing heap of dress-up clothes crammed into our toy box:

The clothes were getting ruined, and it was impossible to find anything in that mess. So yesterday I decided to do something about it—by building a miniature garment rack!

Not being a handy person, I wasn't exactly sure how to go about this, but a quick Google search led me to an eHow tutorial that seemed doable. Armed with my step-by-step instructions, I confidently headed to Home Depot to get my supplies, only to learn (after I'd already had the guy cut my PVC pipe) that home-improvement stores don't even carry the 4-way connectors that the tutorial requires (apparently they were used only in a type of boiler that is no longer in production). Miraculously, however, my non-engineer brain was able to quickly come up with a simple work-around. Here's my revised list of supplies:

• 2 36-inch lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe
• 2 30-inch lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe
• 4 12-inch lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe
• 2 6-inch lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe
• 6 90-degree elbow joints for 1-inch PVC pipe
• 4 tee connectors for 1-inch PVC pipe
• All-purpose cement for PVC

Using the eHow tutorial as my guide, putting the rack together took mere minutes:

Here's what you do for my version:

1. Join two 12-inch lengths of pipe horizontally with a tee connector. Place an elbow joint on each end to create your first foot. Repeat for the other foot.
2. Join a 6-inch and 30-inch length of pipe with a tee connector. Put the other end of the 6-inch piece into the top of one foot, with remaining tee opening positioned perpendicular to the foot, to create one leg. Place an elbow joint on the other end of the 30-inch piece, facing the same direction as the tee opening, to finish your first leg. Repeat steps with the other foot to create the other leg.
3. Now place each length of 36-inch pipe into the elbow joint at the top of one leg and the remaining tee opening toward the bottom of that leg. Connect the legs by placing the other ends of the 36-inch pipes into the elbow joint and tee connector on the other leg. 
4. Once you've dry-fitted the rack, take apart and reassemble using all-purpose cement to glue the pieces together. When the glue is dry, hang your clothes on the rack. 

Ta-da!

The kids love it, and so do I! It's the perfect size for preschoolers, and even once it's outlived its current purpose, I can still see myself using it to hang clothes in the laundry room or even at a yard sale. Cheap, easy, and super-useful ... that's my kind of project!

**Update: After just a few days of use, I didn't like the way the feet were sagging in the middle, where the two 12-inch pieces are inserted in the tee connector. So, since I hadn't glued the elbows on the ends of the feet yet, I decided to turn them inward for the time being. I plan to replace these elbows with caps and will post updated pictures when I do.

Driver's education

Every day is a learning experience with these guys, and our 4 days on the road for our second trip to Texas were no exception. Some things we learned on our way there and back:

• Poor Isaac has inherited Mommy and Daddy's car-sickness genes. Pass the bucket!
• Lucy could do sticker pages all day and all night. Even in the dark. (No car-sickness genes for her!)
• As long as the DVD player is running, my kids will not sleep. Not a wink.
• The real trick to getting the Fab Four to sleep in the car is to say that it's nap time and then quit talking to them. (They didn't sleep at all in the car the first time we drove to Texas, so I was elated to find a way to get them to take a nap!)

Asleep at last!

• In the car, Dahlia is always the last to succumb to Mr. Sandman. Always.
• Jude is really, really nasty when he wakes up from a car nap. Stay clear!
• The most effective way to settle down a restless Fab Four: Turn on some Beatles. Instant peace.
• Speaking of peace, it's harder to come by now that the kids' arms and legs are getting longer. We're running out of space in this van!
• It is possible to hear the question, "Are we in Texas?" a bajillion times without strangling anybody. It is possible, but just barely.

And, last but not least, we confirmed something we already knew:

• It really stinks to live a 2-day car drive away from our abuelitos!!

They're 4!

When the kids were born, they changed everything, including the way we celebrate Christmas Eve. This year, we changed the way we celebrate their birthday. For the first time, they did not sit in their quad table at home. Instead, they sat around the dining room table at Abuelito and Abuelita's house in TEXAS!

On the big day, Abuelita prepared an eclectic lunch menu composed of each kid's special requests, which the kids did not even touch. They were too excited about the cake! Familiar with our tradition, Abuelita had ordered cupcakes in each kid's special color:

After eating their fill of cake (or, to be more accurate, frosting), the kids were more than ready to attack the mountain of presents from Mommy and Daddy, the abuelitos, and Tio Johnny and Tia Holly:

The kids got a lot of great stuff, but for me the best gift was having my entire family together on December 24 for the first time since the kids were born:

The kids' birthday was already a whole week ago, but it feels like the party never stopped. We've been having a blast here at Abuelito and Abuelita's house ... it's gonna be hard to leave!

I spy

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And with my camera-phobic kids, sometimes that means hiding with the camera if I want to catch them doing something cute. It's how I got video of them running on the couch when they were about 18 months old and then having a dance party a month later, it's how I managed to record a peekaboo giggle-fest between the girls close to their second birthday ... and it's how I was able to capture them playing "Ring Around the Rosie" today:



The best part? How Lucy asks Isaac to marry her at the end. The worst part? That I stopped filming just before Jude told Dahlia he would marry her. The funniest part? Gotta be Jude's choice of footwear!

Thinking of thanks

Last year on Thanksgiving I recorded what the kids said they were thankful for on that particular day. This year I continued the tradition by jotting down what they expressed thankfulness for on our way to Grandma and Grandpa T's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Here is what they said:

Isaac

Chick-Fil-A, White Castle (can you see a theme here?), and school

Lucia

Our kitty cat (of whom she is, incidentally, terrified), us, clothes, a house, and Christmas

Jude

My birthday (he's been talking about it all year!), my house, my church, and my teachers

Dahlia

Grandma and Grandpa, Bisabuelo, and Jesus (okay, I must be doing something right)

As for me, I am thankful for God's faithfulness and for the ways in which he has revealed himself to me so powerfully this year. I am also thankful for a husband who, despite having to work long hours, still finds time to balance the checkbook, maintain the house, and support me in any way he can. I am thankful for our church, which has enabled our family to grow in so many ways this year; for our parents, whose assistance has often kept us afloat since the kids came along; and for good friends who continue to give of themselves to help us clothe, teach, entertain, and love our kiddos.

And, yes, I am thankful for the little rascals themselves:

Posing outside Grandma and Grandpa T's house on Thanksgiving Day

 
(Even if they do continue to give me fits when I'm trying to get a good group shot!)

Being almost 4

Sometimes I forget how little you are,
That you haven't seen everything,
That, to you, the world is still new.
And then I do something ordinary,
Like blow bubbles with my chewing gum,
Something totally ordinary that,
Through you, becomes extraordinary.
And I'm reminded of the wonder,
The sheer wonder of being almost 4.

Sentenced

Seven months ago, Isaac shocked us by teaching himself to write words on his magnadoodle. Today, 6 weeks shy of his 4th birthday, he surprised us again by writing his very first sentence:

"It's my waffle"

Yeah, he got a little creative with the spelling of "waffle," but look closely: He knew to put an apostrophe in "it's"! That's my boy!

His brother also surprised me today, with a sentence of a different sort. See, on Monday I decided to start reading My ABC Bible Verses to the kids. But since they didn't seem too interested in the first entry, I kind of forgot about it for a few days. This morning at breakfast I had them repeat Monday's key verse with me a few times and figured that was that.

But that was not that: As I was serving lunch, Jude looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and confidently recited, "A soft answer turns away wrath." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Just like that, he'd memorized Proverbs 15:1! That's my boy!!

Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of serving a life sentence as mom to these two incredibly precious boys!

Our first Halloween!

Okay, so it wasn't technically our first Halloween, but it sure felt like it. First jack o' lanterns? Check. First Halloween costumes? Check. First time trick-or-treating? Check!

We kicked off the season with our first trip to a pumpkin patch, where we went on our first hayride and got to pick out our very own gourds:

Then, as Halloween approached, we gathered around the kitchen table for our very first pumpkin-carving session:

The girls loved touching pumpkin guts for the first time:

But the boys were content to just watch:

And direct Mommy and Daddy:

"Mommy, take out the mouth!"

When we asked the kids what they wanted their first jack o' lanterns to look like, Isaac said he wanted a happy face, Jude a scary face, Dahlia a rude face, and Lucy? Well, Lucy wanted a happy face with eyebrows ... and hair ... and bangs. HA!

The finished results looked pretty good in the daytime:

Left to right: Lucy, Jude, Isaac, and Dahlia's jack o' lanterns

But our jack o' lanterns really came alive at night!

When the big day finally arrived, the kids couldn't wait to put on their first Halloween costumes. The girls asked to be "ballerinas in long dresses":

Dahlia and Lucy in ballerina costumes

And, thanks to Benny the Bull in Dora's Costume Party, the boys wanted to be slices of pizza:

Isaac and Jude in pizza costumes (sewn by Abuelita!)

Halloween night was frigid, but nothing could have kept these kids from going trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for the first time!

And they're off!

All four of them had a ball ringing doorbells and picking out candy, and I think they had just about mastered the "trick or treat" and "thank you" routine by the time we finished our route. Many thanks to all of our neighbors who helped make our kids' "first" Halloween a great experience:

They had so much fun that they are already talking about what they will dress up as next year, on their "second" Halloween!

A truly GREAT-grandma

My abuelita was 30 years old when she delivered my dad (her firstborn), and my dad was 30 years old when I (her first grandchild) was born. I promised her once that I would have a child before I turned 30 so that she would not have to wait until she was 90 to be a great-grandmother, but that turned out to be a promise I couldn't keep. By the time the quads were born, I was 32—and their Bisabuela was already gone. Today, on the 5th anniversary of her death, I remember her here with a tribute I wrote on the day of her funeral:

Her Faith Is Now Sight 

They're burying my abuelita today. I won't be there, but fortunately my dad was able to fly out soon after we got the news on Thursday. Although in Peru it is customary to bury a person the day after she passes away, the family chose to delay my abuelita's funeral long enough for my dad, her firstborn, to arrive. I am glad he will be there.

It will be strange to visit Peru next week with my abuelita gone. The family revolved around her. And despite the fact that thousands of miles separated us from her, she was a strong presence even in my nuclear family. I am certain that her steadfast Christian example shaped the way my dad treats my mom, as well as the way my parents raised me and my brother. Every single time I talked with my abuelita, she told me how much she loved me and that she was praying for me.

She and my abuelito, both of whom devoted their lives to the ministry, made a lot of sacrifices to provide for their family of nine. My dad remembers how his mother's hands used to bleed from doing housework. And she was always trying to find a way to make things last a little longer. When she could still see, she would tear plastic bags into strips and then crochet them into rugs. I didn't appreciate the beauty of these recycled treasures until I was older, so I got rid of most of them years ago. But I still have a lovely purse that she crocheted for me out of clear plastic bags, and I cherish it.

My abuelita was the family historian. She loved to talk and, if you let her, she could go on for hours, usually telling stories about people long dead. She had such a soft voice that I sometimes could not even hear what she was saying, but she did not seem to mind. She just wanted to reminisce. I was the first grandchild and I was born on my dad's birthday, so that day was like a national holiday for my abuelita. She would send us beautiful birthday cards decorated with traditional Peruvian scenes, and inside she would write: "¡Viva el 3 de setiembre!" For a while, she would even kill two turkeys on our birthday, and the family in Peru would feast in our honor.

My abuelita could also be quite cheeky. In Peru, we would say that she had a chispa, a spark. She retained it even when she was so sick that she could barely speak. In fact, when we thought she was near death on our last visit, I mentioned to her that I was growing my hair to donate it, and she immediately said, "Te regalo mis trenzas" ("I will my braids to you"). We all just had to laugh through our tears. I am sure that next week I will hear many more stories about all the funny things my abuelita did and said during her long and blessed life.

Everyone who knew my abuelita will miss her terribly. But even as I mourn, I am reminded that this is also a time to rejoice. Her pain and suffering are over, and she is finally home.

My abuelita in 1946, at age 30 (left), and in 2004, at age 88 (right)

Cycle of sickies

Remember how we used to "lock down" for RSV season so that our premature babies wouldn't run the risk of getting sick? Yeah, I'm kinda wishing for those days right about now!

Just since school started, we've dealt with colds, vomiting, impetigo, more colds, more vomiting, four simultaneous cases of strep throat, and—as if that weren't enough—last week Lucy was hospitalized for pneumonia!

Thankfully, she had to stay only a little more than 24 hours, as she was not exactly a pleasant patient (despite her sparkly dress and unicorn sticker):

With our first trip to the hospital since the NICU behind us, I was hoping for a little break from illness. But not long after the kids got to school today, I got a call from the nurse, saying that Dahlia had a temperature of 101.7. At my mom's urging, I took Dahlia straight from school to the doctor. Diagnosis: strep!

Here we go again ...

The best medicine

El nombre de Isaac significa risa y no llanto. 

The name Isaac means laughter, not weeping.

That's what my abuelito told me when I called him almost two years ago, crying because we'd learned that Isaac's failure to start talking pointed to more than just a speech delay. In fact, our state's early intervention program had determined him to also be delayed in the areas of social skills, fine motor skills, and sensory integration. He'd qualified for speech, developmental, and occupational therapy, and we had no idea whether these interventions would even help.

The entire next year was hard. It was hard not knowing what exactly was going on with Isaac, and it was hard to see his siblings' development progress by leaps and bounds while he (and we) struggled on a daily basis. Even as I was thankful for an otherwise healthy child, I mourned what I considered the loss of everything I didn't even know I had envisioned for him.

But even in the midst of my doubts, God has been faithful. He's led us to some wonderful therapists and teachers, we've gotten a few answers, and today—after a lot of hard work, a lot of tears, and a lot of prayer—we have so much hope. Especially since Isaac began to read, we have seen significant progress in both his communication and his social skills, and his sensory issues have greatly improved, as well. So much so, in fact, that this semester he was able to join his siblings in the integrated classroom at the developmental preschool that they all attend!

Naturally, we will continue to watch Isaac's development in the years to come, and we are anxious to do whatever we can to help him catch up to his siblings. There are hard days in which I despair of this ever happening, but—more and more—these are balanced out by so many great moments in which Isaac thrills me with all the new things that he says and does. It's taken me a while, but I now realize that my abuelito was right: This boy was meant to bring me joy!



Thank you, Lord, for the healing balm of Isaac's giggles!

Picture, picture

Yesterday Ted and I accompanied the kids on a school field trip to a local farm. We had an amazing time as a family, and I took lots and lots of pictures—a grand total of 207 in the space of 3 hours, to be exact!

My faves? These two, which I think say so much about what I want my life to look like:

Mostly happy!

And what my life actually feels like most of the time:

Frazzled mommy, disgruntled kiddos!

Ah, 3-year-old quadruplets. Hard to live with 'em ... wouldn't want to live without 'em!

Turn your day around

Once upon a time, before the kids experienced the wonders of the school bus, they were car riders. Back then, more often than not, we'd scarf down our lunch, comb our hair, go potty, put on our shoes, and rush out the door in a frenzy to get to school on time ... only to get there early. While we waited in the van for the teachers to open the gates, claustrophobia would set in, and with it would come lots of whining, random crying, and plenty of shoving as impatient little bodies jockeyed for space.

At some point, to distract everyone from the misery of our close quarters, I began to sing "This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made." Almost immediately, I noticed that everyone's attitude changed! Singing praise proved so effective at turning around a bad day that I made it a daily before-school routine, and soon all four kids were joining me in singing both the English and the Spanish versions.

We got out of the habit of singing our song over the summer, but last week we started up again while waiting for the school bus to arrive. Surprisingly, everyone remembers the words, and, as you can see, Isaac is especially happy to be singing our special song again:



Now, be honest: Your day just got a little bit better, too, didn't it?

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

(Psalm 118:24)