On Thursday Traci Slager stopped by the office. She and nine-month old Nathanael were back in town to visit friends. It was good to see them both. We were catching up on life, standing in the doorway to my office, me holding Nathanael (marvelling at how much he has grown up), when Patti came up to us. The phone had just rung, and now she had a question for me: someone wanted to know if we had any tumblingmats?
I had no idea, so I instinctively looked at Traci. Maybe she saw it coming, but she was ready for me: "What are you looking at me for? I don't work here anymore?" We all laughed...it was true, but some habits die hard. It just goes to show how much we miss the Slagers. For so long, anything related to youthy stuff, I automatically just turned to Traci. And of course Traci would help me out. And standing there in the doorway, after her mild rebuff, she began brainstorming on whether we had any tumbling mats. We decided we didn't, and never had.
Tara and I had a good chuckle with that story, and the three of us smiled about it again the next night when Traci and Nathanael stopped by our house for Tara's scrapbooking open house. Which led to some fun moments.
Tara's party started at 5pm. She needed donut holes (or as my nephew Josh calls them: donut balls!). Me and the three kids were on a mission: go to Scotts and get a bucket of donut holes (my secret mission: stall for as long as possible to keep the kids out of the house). So we came home with flowers for Mom, donut balls for the party, milk and cereal, sausage links for our pancake breakfast in the morning, some cleaning supplies, and other goodies. All in all, a successful (secret) mission.
We left an empty house and came home to a packed party. And Traci was there with Nathanael. After quickly unloading our groceries, I took all four kids upstairs. Traci was brave, leaving Nathanael in Levi and Isaac's hands, but she knew I'd be around. How trusting. Nathanael is very strong - he can pull himself up, he can crawl over Levi, and wrestle toys away from Isaac. Emma tried entertaining him by diving into a pile of blankets, but to no avail. He wanted to hang out with the guys.
I thought my guys were still "babies". Not anymore. They dwarfed Nathanael. Nothing against the little guy, but it dawned on me that Levi and Isaac are "big boys" now. And they did really good with Nathanael. They played with him, shared toys with him, and even let him eat his own food without stealing it. Impressive.
I was curious to see how my three kids would do with me holding and playing with Nathanael. I noticed that Levi and Isaac became very interested in me when I was holding Nathanael. Emma seemed okay with it, but my guys kept a close eye on Nathanael whenever he was in my lap. I suppose Traci told them to keep an eye on me. Holding Nathanael reminded me that yes, I'm ready for another Baby Hallman. One more time...it'll be fun.
So, thanks Traci from bringing over Nathanael!
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