Saturday, April 26, 2008

Sometimes it's fun

to see where YOU are. That's why I put the live feed out on the side- something fun to glance at now and then. But this morning I was amazed that of the last 10 visitors coming and going, they represented 6 different countries! How neat! And as a side note, I cannot believe that this blog that has been running since the beginning of September (7 1/2 months) has had over 61,000 hits. I love being able to share our story and to have the prayer support as well as the KNOWLEDGE that you all have right at my fingertips. So... THANKS for being a part of our little piece of life :)

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United States

Venezuela

Germany

Canada

Norway

United Kingdom

***By the way, I never have a clue who you are! LOL I just know what's on the left, and it only shows 10 visitors, so no worries ;) ***

(Yes, that's for you Stephanie ;) )

Friday, April 25, 2008

Kristopherisms

Kristopher just walked over to the computer so I could read him some of the replies to his post. Then he asked to see the pictures. When he saw the first one of himself he replied with "WOW, I look SCARY!!"

And just for fun, I'll share another funny Kristopher moment with you. Last night in the car K was singing a song from church. It was coming out like this:

He's the Alpha the Omega, the beginning and the end, but most of all He's my best friend bbbbbbbssssssssszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzztttttttttttttttttttt He's the Alpha the Omega, the beginning and the end, but most of all He's my best friend CLICKKKK bbbbbbsssssszzzzzzzzzzttttt

We finally stopped him and said "do you not remember the rest of the words?" to which he replied with "I do, but that's what it sounded like when they were messing with the tape player" :)

Got to love him :) :)

Some more pics by other people

At the Mom's Lunch

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Kristopher with his teachers Sandy and Jamie

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At the park

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At home

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From Mom

Kristopher is looking forward to hearing from everyone, so if you can spare a minute to comment, he's excited to read the replies :)
 

Ahhh... my littlest blogger!

From Kristopher

Yesterday I took pictures of everybody at my school while Mommy and me had our lunch. And today I took pictures of everybody in the whole house. Here are the pictures I took:

At school

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At home

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PS: Yes, I really took them ALL BY MYSELF (even the one of ME)!  Mommy didn't even know I took some of them because she was getting Brianna out of bed and I was taking pictures :)

Are you a toy-passer, a toy-tosser, or a toy- storer?

Here's my dilemma: we have 10,000 toys, and there's always something else the kids are coming home with that is their "new favorite toy". I'm pretty good about taking toys that are broken or missing vital pieces and tossing them or passing them on. And I can go through the toys and take out some so that there's not SO MANY toys out. And the garage sale finds that are 10 cents a piece aren't so difficult to put back out at our own garage sale. Toys that the kids don't play with AT ALL and never have? No problem letting go of those either. But what I have a problem with, is getting rid of toys that the kids really enjoyed.

I suppose some of it is connected to the knowledge that my little ones are getting bigger (in a good way!), and the toy that K doesn't play with this week might be B's favorite next week, then M's after that! Really, I have a preschooler, toddler, and two "infants" as far as their toy interests go. And development, too- since I have the bouncy seat out for M and E, the baby swing out for M, the "jumperoo" out for M and B, but E has been in it too. Then we have a kid's rocking chair for K and some big things like a play kitchen, workshop, and ride-on tractor. Add in that Bria's learning to walk and we have a stable shopping cart for her to walk behind and of course every little girl needs a dollhouse!

I just took our "standing toys" out of the playroom, but I don't want to get rid of them because I know that M will be needing them soon. There's a table with buttons on top that make all kinds of different noises which is the perfect height for my tiny kids learning to bear weight and wanting to STAY that way! My mom bought it at a garage sale and I've never seen another one like it. There's the toys the kids enjoy and there's the toys the kids need. You know, the therapy toys. Shape sorter, stacking blocks, pop together beads, squishy balls, "busy box", etc. The ones that the kids wouldn't pick out to play with (mine don't anyway) but that you don't want to put away because they need to learn those skills.

So... what do YOU do? Do you pass it on? Toss it? Or store it??

Ironic?

My mom just called me, she and Dad are vacationing in DC as a long weekend. Of course she was calling to check on the kids and find out if the surgeon's appointment was scheduled for, but more than that was a little bit of ironic info... They had called my sister Elizabeth (the one in MN that watched my kids) because they wanted to know if there was anything important to know when coming into DC or with the Metro, etc. She goes there for work fairly frequently and they figured she might know some helpful info. She didn't pick up but got their message when she got out of her meeting and said--- She'ld meet them for dinner! LOL She, too, is in DC!

What are the chances??

Elizabeth's coming down to visit and meet the kids for Memorial weekend in May. I can't wait :)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Busy day today

It began last night when I got to bed around 1:30am. I was TIRED. 5:45 and Micah was looking for food (he's doing better! YAY!) so I was up. Back out on the couch for a few minutes, but I'm sure I got no more than 4 hrs of sleep.

Of course a lack of sleep meant that we ran a little late this morning and K and B both go to our church KAD program Tues/Thurs mornings for a few hours. So by the time I left my house (about 10 min from the church) it was 8:55. KAD started at 8:30. I called on my way- just in case- since they were doing a "Mother's Lunch" with the older classes today and I didn't want him being late to leave he and I out of the count for the activity. No problem, we were fine :).

By the time I got there and unloaded all 4 children it was about 9:10 and both K and B's classes were in the gym. Normally on Thursdays Brianna goes to the 'baby room' for the first hour or so because she's not walking and the teachers aren't comfortable having her in the gym (but I hope she'll be able to soon!!). But since it was only another 20 minutes until they were going back to the classroom and Brianna's been a little clingy the past day or two I decided to just hang out in the gym with her (and Emma and Micah) until her class went back. That way she didn't have to go to the other room for just a few minutes.

Finally about 9:50 I left (after mysteriously finding one of the gym balls UNDER the baby carseat in the back of the double stroller... still not sure how it got there but I re-packed the kids and went to return it!) and headed for home. I got home, unloaded Emma and Micah, warmed their bottles, fed them, repacked them into the car, and headed back out!

Kristopher's lunch started at 11 and I made it just in time. We had a nice time together and I got to wear a beautiful necklace that K made for me :) We sat with his friends Taylor and Landon and he was so excited to get to share his special day with me. I thought I had the cutest date in the room :D

After lunch we picked up the rest of the crew and headed back home, which made it a little after 1 when we got home. After unloading 4 it was time for another round of bottles and Brianna was already asleep so she went straight to bed. Then naps all-around (except for K who sat on the couch with me), including Mommy. Yep, I conked out too. K woke me up (he was laying with me) when he heard Bria fussing so we were mostly all up around 3:30 or so. Except Emma. She slept until about 4:40!

We played and hung out in the afternoon a bit then packed everyone up, changed diapers, another round of bottles of course, and we headed out the door. We were supposed to meet up with family from out of town but with kids not feeling great and the morning stuff that threw our nap time off we had to cancel. We still wanted to meet up but when we left the house to swing by there we missed them again.

Off to Wendy's we went and picked up some burgers and chicken nuggets. It was a BEAUTIFUL day at the park and we sat at a picnic table and enjoyed our dinner-- complete with our favorite person who we picked up along the way-- DADDY!! I brought an air powered rocket with us to the park and after lunch a small crew of little boys arrived out of nowhere and we were glad it had 7 little rockets with it :) Each kid had their turn jumping on the little air bladder and shooting the rocket off then chasing it down to do it again!

The girls enjoyed the swing and Micah liked sitting in the swing and watching the world go around. He wasn't so impressed with SWINGING. Kristopher found yet another friend and played on the slides and even tried his own on the big swings. He's getting very independent which is nice to see. Believe it or not he gets quite coddled sometimes and it's nice to see him reaching out and doing things on his own!

After the park we attempted once again to meet up with family but caught them right after they left. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. We headed home then, had a quick snack and hit the sack. All the kids are tired after a day like today and I'm quite ready for bed myself.

And yes, of course I took pictures, but they will wait until tomorrow :)

If you actually made it this far-- I'd like to ask you to say a little prayer for Miss Emma. She's got an ear infection and got vaccines yesterday so it is expected, but she has been running a low-grade fever all day today. She went on another bit of an eating strike earlier in the day but after lunchtime ate 2 good bottles. I may go offer her another now if she's awake because she refused one at bedtime.

Also, Brianna's been on a bit of an eating strike herself. She's not feverish, snotty, or coughing, but she just hasn't eaten very well since throwing it back up at dinner on Tuesday night. She is playing, happy, etc, just not very hungry.

Thanks for keeping our family in your prayers. They are always appreciated and very often have immediate results!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Life happens, in spite of our best intentions

If you've known me "in real life" for any period of time you've probably heard that phrase. Yes, in spite of all we do to make things "right", life just happens sometimes! And that's the only explanation that I can give for this:

The Bruise: The Culprit:

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Emma was having a blast this evening playing with this stroller. Chewing on the wheels (yay, she put something in her mouth!), rolling it back and forth, and then, pulling over onto her head. All in all, I think she enjoyed it, but she does have a nice black and blue mark to show for her experience!

After that fun time I gathered all the kids and we took an exciting trip in their PJ's to... the pharmacy :) But on our way home, Kristopher drew this little man:

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I'm so proud of him! Kristopher was never really into drawing until about a week or two ago. And all of the sudden he's got a head, torso (line), stomach (circle), and it has hands with fingers, feet, an eye and a frown. I asked him why one eye and he said it's looking to the side. Makes sense to me! LOL! And the frown? He had a very long story about how he was doubting and then he started sinking into the water and he didn't like it so he frowned. I'm guessing he's read the story of Peter when he walked out onto the water toward Jesus then began to sink as doubts entered his mind. Great Job Kristopher!!

And a big brag for Miss Emma-- WOO HOO!! I don't remember who told me to try this (tell me so I can thank you properly!!!) but someone suggested lollipops! So I started to put one to Emma's lips and at first she did this:

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and then this:

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but eventually I got a little bit onto her lips:

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and she realized it wasn't SO bad

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and then she even wanted it!!

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Here's a little video of her adventure with a dum dum:





I did give Micah a little lick, but as you can see he wasn't quite as impressed:

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Pitiful, isn't it?

After Emma and Micah got lollipops, Brianna and Kristopher thought they should get some too:

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and I was smart enough to let them have them--- in the TUB!

I thought I'd share this trick I learned with you too. As you can see below, medicine got a little more complicated in our house tonight. Brianna and Kristopher don't have any regular medications, so I've never had to come up with any way to tell who gets what or anything else. But since Emma's on 3 regular medications plus now an antibiotic, and Micah's on one medication, and both needed Tylenol tonight because of their shots today, well... it got complicated! I actually started this system when it was just Emma's meds so I could tell them apart, but I was glad I did tonight!

My idea? All of the medications have a different color on their lid (sharpie marker), and each of the syringes have the same color on their "push" end. That way the .4 and the 4 aren't given with the wrong syringes and get the dosages crossed! And the bottle of heart meds that looks just like the Zantac bottle doesn't get mixed up with it either. I still have to keep track of who gets what colors, but at least the meds won't get mixed up as far as their dosages!! Also, if my sweet little STRONG girl happens to get a hold of a syringe before she gets the meds, I know which of the medications she squirted out! When they were unmarked it was always a guessing game (was it yellowish? not sure, it's mixed into the carpet now... was it cold? Could have been... dunno!). And now that there's 2 kids with regular medications, I can dose them all up and not wonder which one goes to which kid and have to throw them away and start again :) See? It's good LOL!

Tomorrow is back to "normal" and 2 of those 7 syringes can disappear with the Tylenol ;)

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