8 days

I have 3 nephews, J & T- 14 year old twins and L who will soon be 12. Their parents are currently in Europe traveling for 8 days and we are staying with them until their return. Right now, I am a mother to 5 boys and I am LOVING IT! It is a lot of cooking, a lot of cleaning up and a lot of repeating...but they are amazing and obedient and super loving. They have extremely similar personalities to my boys which means the house is fun but calm. My little ones are so excited to get some special time with their cousins and I am just as happy to bond with the guys who have grown so fast. Their Mom and I were best friends before I married my Hubby (if that is confusing, she is married to my bro-in-law) so I have watched them grow since the twins were one. When they were babies, they felt like my own and I spent so much time with them, they could have been. As kids grow, life gets busy and it is hard to spend as much time together, so I am soaking all of this stay up I can. This is the summer before High School. As I write this, I am listening to the twins talk to Hubby about sports and their voices are just as low as his. HOW did this happen?

Something surprising has come out of this stay, I look at Izzy as little again. For a while, I have been feeling like he is a big boy and it has broken my heart. He is the big boy at our house, but I need to remember he is still a little boy and when put in a house of teenagers, it puts it all in perspective. His sweet soft voice, his requests for help, and complete innocence and excitement for everything, it goes so fast and I need to let him be little while he can, which includes making mistakes and learning.

The schedule around here is crazy and they went easy on us. L has swim practices and meets, twins have competitive baseball non-stop and football practices. Most of it, their parents let them skip except for the mandatory events like the baseball tournament they are in this weekend. I took the little ones to one of the games last night and the catcher got his nose broken by a player sliding in with metal cleats. OUCH! Makes me appreciate the fun of T-ball!

I have lots of stuff I would love to do while we stay here, but I don't know if the weather is going to cooperate with me. Rain is being called for the next 7 days, which is totally making me nervous because Izzy's 5th Birthday party is scheduled for next Saturday! Let the prayers begin!

Staying here has also pretty much cemented the fact that I would like to have another baby. We are in talks...negotiations. Gotta figure out the timing and get my body ready. It has been a great few days here with my 5 boys. Hoping for some sunshine for the day..maybe a pool day and then a movie in the park tonight!