It all started at 5:30 Tuesday morning. An hour of the morning where I prefer to be sound asleep. An hour of the morning that I prefer to NEVER see pass by on the clock. Thats when it started... Hannah threw up...in my bed...all over me. Yeah. When Hannah sleeps flat on her back she tends to get a little congested, so I thought that she must have gagged a little and threw up. We cleaned up enough to go back to sleep, morning was right around the corner. She threw up 3 times by noon and another 2 by 3:00. So much for the congested theory. One more doozie at 9:30 and finally she's done with throwing up. Did I mention that EVERY SINGLE TIME she threw up that it was ON ME?! I showered often. She slept most of Tuesday. Wednesday she woke up and seemed better already. Thank you Lord! After returning from Hershey I made lunch for everyone and Roger's Mom stayed for our "gourmet" meal of mac n' cheese and chicken patties. I was cleaning up lunch when I heard Roger and his Mom say at the same time "Oh my! Did you see that?!" Fingers pointed at Hannah, I turned my attention to her, and the poop bubbling up the back of her diaper and splattering on the carpet. Literally. I should have kept to the dishes. So Wednesday was spent changing diapers... and using the Bissel "little green" on the carpet where Hannah so graciously left poopy butt prints. Not kidding there either. Fast forward to Thursday. Roger and I were talking and saying how thankful we were that Hannah seemed to be the only one plagued with the stomach bug. If only we can all make it to Friday I think we will be ok! Fast Forward once again... this time to Friday 12:30AM. Joseph appears at the side of our bed. "Mommy my mouth feels funny!!" Roger brings him back to bed while I lay there wondering why his mouth feels funny. Is he thirsty, I wonder? As I lay in bed looking down the hall into Joseph's room I see Roger picking up Joseph and RUNNING to the bathroom. Ok, I should probably get out of bed. Joseph got the stomach bug too. So.. we cleaned up as best as you can at 12:30 in the morning. Sprayed some febreeze, as to not make Nehemiah have bad dreams about the horrible smell that now encompasses his room. Tuck Joseph back in. Goodnight... or not! Roger had crawled back into bed and minutes later Joseph appeared "Mommy! I get sprite because I'm sick!" Nothing was said in a hushed tone. I thought my heart was going to leap right out of my chest he scared me so bad. "I'll buy sprite tomorrow, goodnight" Fast Fwd... it's morning. Everyone is awake except for Nehemiah. I'm left to wonder how he's feeling. Will he get this yucky bug now too? Finally Nehemiah awakes and I go up to get him out of bed. He was happy and talking. Looking at him I was shocked, was that poop smeared all over his body?! I step a little closer, not ready to pull him into my arms quite yet. Eww! Nehemiah apparently threw up in the middle of the night and we never new it! The poor kid was laying in it, rolling in it, SLEEPING in it!! Oh, God help me! Quick bath and plop him in front of the tv to watch a movie with Joseph and Daddy (who by the way stayed home from work because he felt a little "weak in the stomach" himself) Thank God that the boys each only threw up once! I am SO counting my blessings there. We opened all of the windows to let the sick house air out. I sprayed every surface I could see with lysol disinfectant. I washed clothes, I washed kids, I'm bathing in Purell. Hopefully we can pull ourselves together for church on Sunday. Hannah is scheduled to be dedicated.
I pray the stomach bug keeps far away from you and your family!
July 27, 2007
Pass the bucket
July 25, 2007
Hannah's visit at Hershey
"he sees God's face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state"
Job 33:26
Thank you Jesus!
Hannah's Dr appt went very well. The Dr was very nice and asked a lot of questions. She wound up not having to get an MRI! He measured all of our heads and decided big heads are something we are passing on to our kids! He explained some things to us and then looked at the ultra-sound images we had brought along. He had an idea of what was going on before he even looked at the pictures. As he breezed through the dozen or so ultra-sound images he nodded his head and occasionaly paused and said "yeah, theres some extra fluid" When he was done he explained that her extra fluid is on the outside of her brain...this is a good thing in the realm of extra fluid. There is nothing we can do about it, she will most likely "grow out of it" He said chances are Roger and/or I had this same thing when we were younger...due to our large heads. It tends to "peak" at 12-18 months... so her head might continue to grow "larger than normal" for the next few months. At the 12-18 month mark the growth will level out or even drop (I don' mean her head will shrink, I mean percentile wise she could go from 104% at 18 months to 99% at 20 months) She is scheduled to go back to Hershey in October for a check up and will probably go again 3 months after that. We need to be careful about rough games where her head is jarred around. Thats do-able! :) So overall we have a healthy happy baby girl! She will be fine, no MRI, no surgery, no overnight stays at hospitals! God is so good!
July 24, 2007
The Missing Keys
Well, it seems that after our trip to the grocery store last night one of the boys got a hold of my keys. I vaguely remember them arguing over who gets to play with them. So here we are, trying to get the day going... but we are stuck IN our house. Our back door uses a skeleton key so there is no opening that and our front door - though it can open - it would have to remain open. I don't like leaving my house unlocked... so here we are stuck inside. Hannah is sick. She threw up 5 times by noon. My thermometer is also MIA. We were going to walk to town for some medicine and a new thermometer but instead we are ripping the house apart for a set of keys. I want to scream. REALLY loud... no screaming in the house though. If only I could figure out how to get outside!
Any brilliant ideas as to where a set of keys might be hiding?
July 20, 2007
Joseph the Superhero
I was talking to Joseph the other day about Hannah. I was explaining why we need to be praying for her, and I asked him if he would like to pray. He said sure and said a very sweet prayer for his baby sister. After his "amen" he said "I prayed a long day ago for powers but God never gave me any" Stuck in praying mode (thank you Lord!) I responded "Sure he did! He gave you the power of prayer. That is the best power there is!" Well, if you have never seen a child's face light up let me tell you it's brighter than any 100watt bulb! For the rest of the day he was saying "I'm a superhero! I have the power of prayer!" amen :)
Hannah's Happy Scream
if you have sleeping kids you might not want to watch this right now. She is loud :)
Update on Hannah
Hannah is scheduled to go into Hershey Wednesday July 25th at 10:00am. She will have an MRI done, and she will have to be sedated for it. That is all we know at this point. Please continue to pray
- For the extra fluid on her brain to simply go away
- for whatever caused the build up of fluid in the first place to be repaired
- That I will be ok with her being sedated! (and her too!!)
Where's Hannah?
Ok, there is no hiding it. We NEED to fold laundry! I was digging through our pile of clean clothes to find stuff for the boys and Hannah dove from my arms into the pile. Couldn't resist a picture. This was one of Joseph's favorite games when he was little. We have many pictures of him lost in a heap of laundry. I guess we've never been good at folding laundry! :)
Our 10 month old beauty
Wow! Hannah is 10 months old! Where has the time gone?
I was trying to get some cute pictures of her with the flowers in the background. My little girl, although in a dress... not very girlie. :) She leans over and picks up a rock. At least she ignored lessons from big bro Nehemiah and she didn't try to eat the rock! She did taste the flowers though. :)
So this is what she's doing at 10 months:
She got 2 more teeth (for a total of 4) Her top left and her top right (not center). She's scooting around very efficiently. Walking is going to be in her very near future. Her brothers can make her smile with the least bit of effort. So can her Daddy. She says "hi" "bye" and "go" She is so much fun and I just love this age. I love how much they are learning and the curiosity... and the naps. :)
July 19, 2007
Our New Pet!
I had given it some thought and decided it could be a good idea to put a fish tank in the boys room. I thought putting one on top of the dresser would give Joseph something to look at while he's falling asleep. I thought it might just be cool enough to make him sleep in his own room. So I emailed Roger at work to let him know of my thoughts. I figured I'd give him a heads up. If he came home and we talked about it the boys would hear, and I didn't want to be suckered into buying fish. He thought it sounded ok so I looked online to see what walmart and the local fish store had... checked reviews...blah blah blah. For fun I checked ebay. You can buy anything on ebay. anything. a n y t h i n g . Anyway, something there caught my eye. It was larger than what I was thinking. WAY larger. I had to laugh as I was sending Roger an email to the ebay site. I get that from my mom. We dream BIG. :) (or shop big?) Before I knew it I was bidding on a fish tank. Ok... well I'll stop with the story now. Just look what we wound up with!
We love it!! Ok, so it doesn't fit on top of the dresser. Ok, so it's slightly larger than the dresser. It is so much fun. The price was amazing! That is the ONLY reason we have one so large. We have over $300 worth of stuff, from my research the tank alone was worth approx that. We paid a good bit less than $100!! The person we bought this from was SO nice. He gave us everything... down to the fish! They...um...didn't survive the trip. Roger and the boys had to drive to New Jersey to pick it up. Fish apparently don't like to travel. We bought new ones though. We currently have 2 fish, Bubba and Lady, and 2 snails, slippery and slow poke. The kids all love it. They are very proud pet owners.
We are too.
Say that again Say that again
I don't know exactly when it started but lately I feel like all I do is repeat myself. And not just the typical "It's time for bed" stuff. Everything from "Let's go outside and play" to "Time for dinner". I am making myself crazy repeating everything. So yesterday I decided enough is enough. I'll say what I need to say once. I had asked the kids to put toys away. No one responded. So I put all of the toys into a giant hamper and brought them into the basement. (I was wanting to take A LOT of toys out anyway, that just seemed like the right opportunity.... they don't need to know that thought) Joseph today was sitting and relaxing (it was as close to a timeout as you can get without actually being a timeout) while I was feeding Hannah. After a few minutes I told him that he could get up and look as some books. He didn't hear me... so he wound up sitting for like 10-15 minutes. Worked for me, the house was quiet! :)
How do you train your kids to hear your voice above all others? When I was teaching children's church a few years ago we had a guest speaker. He did a game with the kids. He taped a line on the floor in a zig zag pattern, then he blindfolded the first "contestant" The rules were this: follow my voice. Everyone else could be loud, shouting, calling directions... whatever. His voice would lead him down the zig zag path and to the end and the prize. It was a great game. The lesson was that we need to listen to God's voice. There will be noises and people trying to get us going the wrong way. If you are still, and listen, there will always be that familiar voice calling to you, telling you which way to go. Cool. Hmmm... maybe I answered my own question. Maybe we should go play that game. Where's the tape?
July 13, 2007
More of the Petting Zoo
Notice how far back Joseph is standing? He was having fun but a little unsure at the same time. How about Joseph with Nehemiah? Looks like a sweet big brother showing his little brother the animals... he was more using Nehemiah as a shield incase the goat decided to attack. :) Thats my Joseph, always on the safe side of fun.
I love these pictures if Nehemiah. His mouth wide open. He was so into it.
Horsin' around
The boys learned from a friend that the couch cushions can come off. Thanks Sara. Now on a regular basis they are throwing the cushions on the floor and bouncing around. Roger decided to turn it into a horse and take them for a ride. It's the simple things in life... :)
The other day I asked Joseph what he wanted for his birthday and he said "a box" :) I can do that.
July 12, 2007
Another Day...Another Petting Zoo
We went to another petting zoo today. I never new that there was a season for petting zoo's but apparently there is. The kids LOVED it! Nehemiah really enjoyed feeding the animals. I kinda forced Joseph to feed a goat, knowing that once he did he would like it. I was right. He laughed and asked to feed him some more. Even though he liked it he still kept his distance. Nehemiah on the other hand tried to climb in the pen with the animals. He was enjoying himself SO much. He is really into animals. I wish we could get a dog, I think it could help him to open up and maybe even be more verbal. Not now though, no pets allowed. For so many reasons not renting related. :) For now we will just enjoy the season of petting zoo's.
I'll post more pictures of the zoo later... Hannah is begging for Mommy :)
July 10, 2007
Hannah's 9 month Dr visit
Wow... we have a big girl! Hannah weighed in at 20 lbs 14 oz and a whopping 29 inches tall! She is in the 95% for both - it's crazy. The Dr is a little concerned about her head size - it's 19in. It's off the charts for her. She has to go for an ultrasound to make sure it isn't anything serious. I'm not too worried - Roger has a big head. We would like you to pray for her though to make sure that it's just the "big head gene". Thanks :) The Dr said that she is otherwise doing great and was amazed at how happy she was. Thats our girl!
July 9, 2007
Hannah's new trick
Hannah's been scooting around for a little while now... but is more on purpose the past couple of days. She doesn't crawl, I think she's opposed to carpet on her knees. :) She is good as scooting though! If you leave one of the boys shoes out or a sippy cup she's going for it! She pulls herself up on anything that will stay still long enough for her to do so. She LOVES to walk around holding onto our hands. I try to get her to hold on to her push toy but apparently part of the fun of learning to walk is Mommy and Daddy throwing out their back. :) She is getting SO big. We realized that this is July (we are very smart people) :) and in Sept she will be 1!! WOW too much for my brain to handle.
Sorry that this video is so dark... it wasn't on my camera but it uploaded that way.
July 6, 2007
I don't want to die
We were getting the kids ready for bed tonight and out of nowhere Joseph said "I don't want to die." huh?! You are 4 honey, you're not going to die for a long time. "Yeah, but I don't want to die. Will I come back to life?" Um, no but you will live in Heaven and that is going to be great. The most fun you've ever had! "Yeah but I want to live here" ugh This is not going well. Buddy you are going to live to be older than Daddy and older than Papa Al. Thats old! (sorry Papa Al) "I know but I just wanna come back to life" With that Joseph burst into tears crying "I don't want to die!" Roger and I had to turn our heads and laugh (and the parent of the year award goes to.......!) It just seemed so unreal that this conversation was even happening. We discussed heaven and Jesus and all that 'good stuff' but nothing would calm him down. Finally I asked if he wanted to live forever. "yes" Ok Jesus will have you live forever then. He wiped his tears, gave a smile and said "really? ok" I'll have to explain later that I mean eternal life... um, in Heaven. :) For now, he is sleeping. Since when are 4 years olds obsessed with dying? I think this came from me (yes I know, I will NOT be the recipient of that award) My back has been hurting something terrible lately. I think Joseph heard me say "My back is killing me" Um, not the right thing to say with children around. I think next time I'll just grunt through the pain and head for the tylenol. ;)
I just want to clarify our laughter during the "I don't want to die" drama. We are not heartless parents... when he first stated that he didn't want to die he said it with a smirk on his face. When I asked him if he's joking around he laughed.... that is where our laughter came from.
July 5, 2007
Joseph's Mohawk!
I was cutting every one's hair the other day. When doing Roger's I happened to cut it that it looked like he had a mohawk (wasn't finished yet... his hair is "normal" now) . Joseph thought it was SO cool. So I cut his that way. He is so proud of it. I call it his "handle" and I chase him around the house and grab it. :) He calls it his "mohog" adorable. :) He's not going to keep it for long. I'll cut it this weekend probably. For now he's enjoying it and it's cute.
Oh, the 2nd picture here is Joseph on HIS computer. We found an old Mac on freecycle.org For those of you that never heard of it freecycle is like ebay but everything is free. There isn't much on the computer right now, just 1 game. He loves it though and calls it his laptop. :)
