Year End Party

We're having a game night tonight at our place. If you read this blog and you know us IRL, you're invited. It's just a casual open-house style thing--call or e-mail me for details.

Still here

Not much to say. The holidays were nice. The time with family has been nice.

We're still making slow progress on the house. It's hard work, but it's good to see progress. Even though it feels like carving away at a glacier with a baby spoon.

We're still struggling with health and stuff. I'm having a pretty bad FMS/CFS flare-up at the moment, along with a seasonal cold. Nothing really serious; just annoying.

We've been sick quite a bit, as usual in the winter. Everybody is tired and grumpy. The gloomy weather contributes to that, I'm sure.

Homeschooling just plain isn't happening right now. We'll try again after the holidays.

I didn't think that having Baby E's allergies gone would make life all sunshine and roses. Really I didn't. But it would have been nice, wouldn't it?

I'm looking forward to spring.

Silent Night

There won't be much blogging for the next few days, most likely. We are busy spending precious time with our family, celebrating the greatest gift of all.



Many blessings to all of you. May peace and joy fill your lives, and may this year be filled with precious memories.

Popcorn, Cake and Cleaning

Today was so much fun.

After lunch DH and the kids gave me a gift the girls had picked out for me--a popcorn popper! It's a great gift that the whole family will enjoy--something I never would have imagined we'd even have in the house a few months ago. I'm still amazed that Baby E's allergies are gone. It makes life so much easier.

The popper is a charming enough design that it will actually be a decorative addition to the kitchen, too; I won't need to worry about finding a place in a cupboard for it.



AJ made me a cute book about a snowman, too--DH said it was her own idea and she did it all on her own initiative.

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The girls and I spent some time playing "Simon Says" this afternoon, which was great fun. AJ and M&M really got into the game and had fun making us all do funny things. Baby E's favorite thing to say was, "Sion Says dump up and dow." She recently learned to jump with both feet off the floor, so getting everyone to "jump up and down" with her is exciting for her. I'll try to figure out how to post a little video clip of the kids playing "Simon Says" when I get a chance.



DH and the kids made a delicious chocolate-chocolate-chip cake with homemade-from-scratch chocolate icing. They even decorated it with marshmallows. M&M has been studying groups of 10 and groups of 1 in math, so she was in charge of deciding how many blue candles (to represent groups of 10) and how many yellow candles (to represent groups of 1) needed to be on the cake. She did a great job.

My dad dropped by with some chocolates for me, I got some fun things in the mail, and we went out to dinner with my dad and sisters (mom is sick, unfortunately).

My sisters gave me a gorgeous purple blouse that can double as a dressy jacket. They'd each bought one like it for themselves, too, so we'll have to make sure to get a photo of us all in our matching blouses.

The cleaner came, looked at the house, gave us a quote and scheduled the crew to do the first cleaning near the beginning of January. I'm so thrilled with the progress we've already made on the house these last few weeks and months.

DH and I really got a lot done this week. We've taken bags and bags of stuff to donate, sold a few things, and threw a lot more away. We're trying to make sure that we only keep things that we actually like, use and have a place to store. And, today we finally found a solution for the laundry problem that's been plaguing us for years. We found a place other than the landing at the top of the stairs to use as a staging area.

With a bit of cleaning, decluttering, and reorganizing, all the laundry is finally actually contained in the laundry room. Since we're doing pretty well at keeping up on laundry lately, the empty and partially full laundry baskets all fit on top of the washer and dryer. Now we won't be constantly tripping over piles of clean laundry in the hall. I'm really happy about that.

Here are a couple of before and after photos:










It's coming along nicely.

Birthday

Today is my birthday.

Everyone is feeling fine now. I think I had the stomach virus Thursday night/Friday morning, but I just mostly felt bad--I wasn't nearly as sick as the kids got. Nobody was sick for more than 24 hours, which was nice--if you HAVE to have a stomach flu, let it be the short-lived kind.

DH got half the day off Friday, so we got in and really got a lot done at decluttering and organizing the house. Today the cleaner is supposed to come look at the house, give us an estimate, and schedule the first appointment. He was supposed to be here about 15 minutes ago, so hopefully he'll be here soon.

Even without the cleaner, I told DH that all his work the last few weeks helping work toward getting the house under control is the best birthday gift I could have asked for. Now that meals, Baby E and life in general are so much less energy-intensive, I think we'll be able to maintain the house pretty well once we get things in order.

DH let me sleep in this morning, as usual on Saturdays. He's going to make my favorite banana-chocolate-chip waffles for brunch. The kids are excitedly making cards for me, and DH and the girls have a chocolate cake mix they're going to bake this evening.

Between last weekend and this weekend, this has got to be one of the best birthdays ever.

DH doesn't have to work again until Wednesday. We plan to fully enjoy our Christmas this year. We have some fun things planned with our own immediate family and with DH's family.

For most of the last 5 years or so, we've had some sort of major upheaval or crisis happening at holiday time--moving, death or serious illness in the family, etc. This year, Lord willing, seems to be the long-awaited calm and peaceful holiday season we've been missing.

Life is good.

Sick Baby

What M&M had Sunday night must have been a virus after all, because now Baby E has it. She has had severe watery diarrhea all evening, and now vomiting.

The weaning idea has gone by the wayside for now. She wants "Mommy milk" and at this point we just need to do whatever we can to keep her hydrated.

She did go from Friday night to Tuesday night without nursing.

Not a Baby

Baby E decided she'd rather keep her doll and have food instead than give up her doll and have milk. So she still has Muffin.



Bonus conversation after E taking herself to the potty:

"Good job! You're such a big girl! Whatever happened to my baby? I don't have a baby any more. No more Baby E. Just Big Girl E now."

"Not big durl E."

"You're not big girl E? Are you Baby E?"

"No, I not Baby E."

"Are you just plain E?"

"No, I TODDLEW E! I a toddlew."

The End of MILK?

Well, after my last post, Baby E of course had to prove me wrong.

The next morning, with a little gentle prodding from DH, Baby E decided she wanted the new doll badly enough to forego nursing. DH told her that if she made it through all day that day and the next day with no milk from Mommy, she could have her doll at bedtime the next evening.

It helped, of course, that it was the weekend. DH let me sleep in while he fed the kids breakfast and entertained them. Then he took the kids shopping while I took off for my birthday celebration (a week early to work around holiday schedules).

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After last year (when I spent my birthday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years home alone with one or more sick kids), I decided I should just plan my own party. It was a great party, if I do say so myself. :) I haven't had so much fun in ages.

First I went to see a movie with Morning and Dr. A. We saw Enchanted and enjoyed it a lot. I did wish I hadn't watched so many of the trailers, sneak previews, and clips of the songs on the website, though. Most of the really cute/funny moments were not a surprise to me because of that.

Dr. A had only seen one trailer and Morning knew nothing about the movie before seeing it, and the fun little twists in plot and tongue-in-cheek moments were more unexpected for them.

So, my recommendation is that if you go to see it, don't watch the songs and all the extra material on the website first. :)

Morning bought a big tub of movie theater popcorn and I ate a large portion of it---mmmm. It's been literally years since I had movie theater popcorn. It's so nice to be able to eat pretty much anything I want now.

Morning had to leave after that, so Dr. A and I went shopping for lactose-free pizza (we ended up buying two Amy's soy-cheese pizzas and found some toppings in the deli to add) and some other goodies, then went to pick up JT (my fellow writing major friend, also married to a computer geek) and then back to Dr. A's apartment to eat, visit and play a board game.

We had all the necessary ingredients for a good time: junk food, munchy snacks (including some fresh fruits and veggies), friends, fun, laughter, and of course chocolate.

All in all, it was a fabulous day.

By the time I got home, the kids were already in bed and asleep. So the first day of official weaning was easy. DH said that Baby E only asked for milk once or twice, and quickly changed her mind when he reminded her about the doll. I'm sure it helped that I wasn't there, anyway. :)

Sunday Baby E and I still had colds and Baby E's cough had returned, so DH took the older two girls to church while Baby E and I stayed home. DH had gotten a bunch of cleaning and organizing done the day before (including doing things like installing furniture anchors to stabilize a wobbly bookcase), which was a wonderful surprise. But there was still quite a bit to do to get ready for our Bible study/fellowship group to meet at our home in the afternoon.

Baby E did ask for milk. I told her that she could have milk after breakfast if she wanted it, but reminded her that this would mean she wouldn't get her doll that night. After a little cuddle time and some breakfast, she decided that she would rather have me play a board game with her.

So she taught me how to play "Don't Feed the Gators", a new game DH and the kids had picked up the day before.

"You woll duh dice wike dis and den make duh monkey doh. At duh end he tan eat the food. Yum, yum!

"Don't det it in the owlidattow's mouf, owr it might eat it! The wed monkey tan make duh awwidatow eat it. Yike dis . . . aaah! The monkey is in duh owlidattow's mouf! Oh no! The owlidattow ate my lellow monkey! Aaaah!

"See? Now, I be lellow. What tolowr monkey do you want be, Mommy?"

We played. My monkey got eaten by the alligator, so Baby E won. We both had a blast.

(Is it just me, or is it rather precocious that a not-long-turned-2-year-old can play simple board games [with some coaching and help counting/moving the pieces] and doesn't have difficulty taking turns and understanding the general concept of the game?)

Baby E did ask for milk a few times throughout the day. Each time I told her that she was welcome to have milk if she chose, but that then she wouldn't get her dolly that night. Then I offered her a choice between milk from Mommy, some other food or beverage, or some cuddling/play time with Mommy. Each time she chose to forego the MILK.

Her reflux is definitely worse from drinking so much orange juice, but we are slowly finding other options that she's at least willing to try and that are thick enough not to cause aspiration issues. The suggestions from readers are helpful--keep them coming!

Baby E got her doll last night. She's so thrilled and proud of herself.

The doll is named Muffin. E is adamant that it's a boy. She's really enjoying naming things and giving them their own little personalities right now. Her other favorite doll is Rosie ("Woh-thee") and her stuffed poodle is named Baby Shower ("Baby Tlowuh"). Yes, the dog is named Baby Shower. She got very frustrated with me before I finally deciphered what she was saying on that one. LOL.

Last night after the excitement of home group and lots of cheese crackers, then dinner followed by ice cream, M&M was complaining of her tummy.

After hardly any complaints of her tummy or legs hurting while we had the kids off milk, she's complaining of her tummy frequently again now that we've reintroduced dairy products. After the first few days, AJ flat-out refused to eat anything with milk in it, so I think both girls are probably lactose-intolerant like their mommy. No big surprise there. They seem to do all right with low-lactose or lactose-free dairy products, so I think it's a lactose issue rather than a general milk issue.

In the middle of the night M&M came and climbed into our bed, snuggling down between us. "My tummy really, really hurts," she whimpered. Then she threw up.

I must say, DH and I make a great team in such situations--almost without words we both jump into action. One changes the bed while the other bathes and soothes the child; one fetches a bowl in case of future vomiting while the other weaves a braid to keep hair out of the child's face--yes, we make a good team.

We had several opportunities to practice our great teamwork skills last night--including three changes of bedding and multiple trips down the hallway and stairs. DH ended up staying in the kids' room at the end and letting me go back to bed, which was terribly sweet of him.

M&M seems to be fine this morning, so we may never know what exactly caused the illness. I guess if someone else comes down with it in a day or two we'll know it was a virus. :)

Right now the kids are watching Bob the Builder.

I still haven't figured out the relationship between Bob and Wendy. When I inquired, the kids informed me that Bob and Wendy are married, but they live in different houses. They said that Bob and Wendy used to share a house until Bob built Wendy her own house (pink, with a flower on it) and now they live nearby with a little pathway going between their houses.

"They're husband and wife. Well, I guess maybe they're not husband and wife, but they're partners. They build and fix things together . . . they're partners."

So, can anyone clue me in on this one? Do my kids have it a bit mixed up, or is that the basic story?

Hmmm, I hear Baby E coming, shouting, "MILK! I want milk! Milk!"

We'll see what transpires . . .

Weaning . . . or not

I've been attempting to gradually wean Baby E from nursing for several months now. It's not going very well.

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I've got her down to nursing only 2-4 times per day, but only by flat-out refusing to nurse her more than that. Her preference would be to still be nursing every 2-4 hours. The few times a day I'm willing to nurse her, she happily settles in for the long haul and nurses as long as I'll let her. Then she goes into huge tantrums when I decide she's had enough.

She acts like she'd just prefer to stay latched on all day. The longest I've made it in a nursing session is about an hour before I make her stop, and she hasn't been ready to stop even those times. Usually I lose patience after more like 20-40 minutes, especially when she's biting me because my milk supply isn't very plentiful.

She hasn't been willing to end a nursing session on her own unless she falls asleep, and then usually she wakes up as soon as I detach her and/or lay her down, and immediately demands more milk. Once she's awake after once dozing off, she won't fall asleep again no matter how long I nurse her. I think she knows that once she's asleep the spigot will be cut off, so she tries her hardest to stay awake.

She's been missing naps lately because of that--she won't go to sleep without nursing, but if I nurse her she falls asleep nursing and then wakes up, and there's no getting her to go to sleep again. It ends up deteriorating into a colossal battle just to get her to stay in her room for the duration of quiet time.

The rest of the day she's grumpy, whiny and short-fused, spending much of the day following me around clinging to me and begging for milk until both of us are going crazy, or growling at anyone who gets in her way.

Both of my other kids really liked the formula we switched them to when I weaned them, and they were quite happy to have that instead. Weaning was quite easy with them.

With Baby E, not so much.

The main problem is that I haven't yet found anything she's willing to drink as a substitute. She can't drink plain water--she still aspirates thin liquids. Even I agree that thickened water with no flavoring tastes pretty disgusting. She will drink thickened orange juice (very diluted), but too much of that seems to make her reflux worse. Most other juices seem to give her issues with diarrhea and stomachaches if she has more than a very small amount.

We've tried cow's milk, rice milk, soy milk, formula, and even a potato-based milk substitute. I've tried adding vanilla-flavored non-dairy creamer and various other flavorings and sweeteners to all of the above options. Nothing gets more than a taste--even if she says she likes it, she won't drink much of it. Certainly not enough to meet her nutritional or liquid intake needs.

DH is picking up some chocolate syrup today to try mixing in, but given her response to chocolate-flavored rice milk I have little hope for that. Even if I do get her drinking chocolate milk, what then? I certainly don't want to be giving her chocolate milk several times a day on a regular basis.

Today I did get her to drink some of a cherry-banana smoothie with baby formula mixed in, but although she drank more of it than she normally drinks, I can still tell from her urine output that she's not really getting enough fluids. At this point she's reluctant to accept even the thickened orange juice she normally enjoys, just because she's mad that I'm not letting her nurse more.

My milk supply has been waning for quite some time, anyway, and I am so ready to be done with nursing. She's 2 and 1/2. She can eat just about anything now, and I've already nursed her much longer than I nursed either of my other two. I really don't want to do it any more.

Meanwhile, Baby E spends much of her day clinging to me screaming, trying to tear my shirt open, and acting like she fully believes the end of the world is imminent because MILK is not immediately forthcoming.

I've been talking to her a lot lately about how only babies drink milk from their mommies, and big kids drink other milk. She's completely unimpressed by that.

Today I even offered her a doll she's really been wanting. I told her that she could have it when she doesn't drink milk from Mommy any more and learns to drink other milk instead. She wanted the doll, but not enough to dry drinking cow's milk.

Maybe I'll call the pediatrician and see what he has to say.

How many clothes?

I'm trying to sort through my girls' clothes . . . they have more than will fit in their drawers and closets, really. Half the time the clothes end up back in the dirty clothes hamper without even being worn.

I'm thinking of telling the kids to each pick their favorite X number of pants outfits and dresses and getting rid of the rest.

How many pairs of pants, shirts, dresses and skirts does a little girl need? They are now 6 (almost 7), 5 and 1/2, and 2.

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I'm tired of having to do multiple loads of laundry a day to keep up with 5 people! LOL! (I do wash all the bedding every 3 days or so b/c of dust mite allergies, so that adds a lot to the laundry.)

I'm trying to fine-tune my own wardrobe too. Now that I seem to have stabilized to a size 4 petite, I'm getting rid of my 1 and 2 size clothes and not keeping anything above a size 6P. I'm storing a few size 6P items I really like, and I'm trying to make sure that everything in my drawers and closets is something that fits me well and that I like and use.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how many blouses, slacks, etc. I really need.

How do YOU decide what to keep and what to cull?

Monkeying Around

I'm trying to create a crochet pattern for a sock monkey sweater.

The first attempt didn't turn out all that well--the hood is too big, the front needs to be a little wider (and it needs buttons of course), the mouth needs work, and I'm not sure I like the eyes. I may try button eyes next time, and a tan and white instead of black and tan yarn.

But I'm liking the general idea if I can get a pattern that really works well. I think I know which parts I need to rework in my next version.

What do you think? Constructive criticism is welcome.

Art Therapy

AJ had her last session at the play therapist's today. The therapist has been teaching me how to do the play therapy with AJ. The last couple of sessions have been me doing it with AJ at the therapist's office with the T observing and giving feedback. She feels I'm ready to do it on my own, so from now on we'll just do it at home.

It's been really interesting watching how AJ uses the various toys and activities to process her feelings. Here's a picture she drew today.



She said, "It's a giraffe that's unhappy because he doesn't like having colorful spots. He wants to have plain spots like everybody else, so he's very sad. He doesn't like being different. He doesn't know yet that he's special."

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We had a good little conversation about it, and how people feel like that sometimes too, yet it's often their differences that make them special.

When we got home, we had to rush to secretly wrap up the picture, because AJ decided it would be a gift for M&M. She's quite proud of it.

I'm proud of her--not just her creativity and expression, but also the way she's learning to process through the things that bother her, and the wisdom with which she so often resolves things.

Wordless Wednesday: My Princesses

Dolls and Dollies

I was getting some of my dolls set up to display a custom crochet project I just finished, so I could take pictures.

As I was digging through all the leftover baby clothes looking (rather unsuccessfully) for something holiday-ish for one of the dolls to wear, I could hear Baby E chatting to the dolls in the next room.

"Otay, Mommy, " I heard her say in a squeaky voice. I couldn't hear what the reply was, but it sounded like she was enjoying herself.

When I returned, I discovered that she had added a couple of her dollies to the scene.

"Dey'we weading a stowy 'bout Dod," she said.

I had to snap a picture, of course . . .

Life and Death

Our newest niece was born last week, November 28. She's named after DH's mom and her middle name is very similar to Baby E's middle name. Her initials are the same as her big sister G who is a few months younger than Baby E.

After 5 days in the hospital, Baby GE finally got to go home. She's beautiful and healthy. Last night her family--Adventurous BIL, Artistic SIL, big brother J, Toddler G and Baby GE drove down to a gathering at SIL The Mentor's house. Several of DH's family from out of state and out of country were there, so it was great to see everyone.

I got to hold the baby. She's about the same size Baby E was when she was born. It's hard to remember E being that small. She's gorgeous. She reminded me a little bit of all three of her older siblings--J, William (who would have been 3 now), and G. I could see bits of both sides of the family in her, but she's definitely her own gorgeous little person.

I'm not sure exactly what number grandchild she is for DH's parents--55 I think? There seem to be always a few babies on the way in this family, with DH's parents having had 12 kids and most of them having medium to large size families. I think we and Science Teacher BIL/SIL The Mentor have the fewest children at 3 apiece.



My dad called today to let us know that Lauren died yesterday. She's my second cousin (my dad's cousin's child), but she was only 13 years old. Please keep her family in your prayers. They have had a rough time of it with her dad being seriously ill as well.

My dad's aunt died a couple of weeks ago, too, so it's a difficult time for that side of the family.

Cavalli

I finally got the Cavalli listed on eBay, but for now it's just in my store. I just need to decide when would be the best time to start it on 10-day auction and what to set the starting bid at.

Tute

"Daddy, wook at my haiwr! Isn't my haiwr tute?"

"Yes, you look very beautiful."

"No! I'n not bwootifwuw. I'n TUTE!"