Cousins everywhere!

Its been a very busy few days! I am up late, I don't really feel like typing anything out, but I know I'll regret it if I don't, so I'm going to be brief and try remember what I can, because it all feels like a blur. Dave and Josh left to go hunting with their dad, Ted, in the UP on Thursday. They will be gone until Wednesday. Carrie decided to come out here and spend the time with me because we knew we'd both be really bored and the time would go really slowly if we didn't get together (especially over a weekend!). She drove out here on Friday by herself with Austin and Renee. She said the trip was a little crazy. My mom also came to spend Friday with us so all of us had dinner together (I made chicken enchiladas) and then my mom left. Saturday was an ambitious day! We took all 4 kids to Old Navy to get a little shopping done to use a 30% off coupon Carrie brought along. She had Austin and Renee in the double stroller. I had Violet in a small umbrella stroller, and Calvin in the Baby Bjorn carrier. I ended up getting Violet a pair of 3T comfy pajamas for winter because she only had 1 pair. We let the kids run around the play place at the mall for a half hour and go on the "horsies!" (the carousel). We got pretzel bites to munch on in the car and then drove back. The kids all took naps at home after lunch, and later that evening, we gave the kids baths and got them all warm in their jammies and then we got in the car and drove over to the flooded river house. Carrie just wanted to see it....so the kids just stayed in the car and we walked around the house with a flashlight (the power has been cut). She said it looked very scarey and very sad in the dark loomy state it was in. Sunday was a great day too! We got up early enough to get the kids all ready for church and we made it through the morning. The kids were all mostly behaved during remembrance meeting (Calvin screamed through most of it, he didn't nap at all), but other than that, they colored and played quietly. Renee sat in the little seat strapped to the chair. Austin attempted to be in Violet's SS class, but I ended up staying with him while he cried for his mom for 15 minutes. He ended up calming down and playing nicely until it was over. I guess Renee did well in the nursery - just a pinched finger. We decided to get McDonalds for lunch, so we drove to the nearest one on University and Main. The kids were excited to get Madagascar toys in their happy meals. Austin and Violet didn't eat much because they were too busy walking up and down the benches. Why do kids get so wound up before nap time!? Carrie mentioned after we got done eating that she had some Culver's kids' custard coupons for free ice cream - so we decided to make a Sunday drive out of it and get ice cream at the drive-thru in Waterloo. We indulged pumpkin shakes on the way home. Yum! They tasted like creamy pumpkin pies in a straw. We were fortunate to get all the kids sleeping right after we got home rather quickly. In fact, all thru the weekend, they all napped well, and for at least 2 hours during the days so we got some breaks. We just realized that we have kids ages 0, 1, 2, and 3. (Calvin is 10 months, Renee 20 months old, Violet is about 2 1/2, and Austin is 3 1/2). Sunday afternoon we relaxed, and then Sunday evening we got the kids fed, let them play a lot. Their favorite game to play with us is hide and seek. They always pick the same hiding spots, and don't really get the concept of the game. Closing their eyes to "not" find out where the other is hiding is just not clicking with them. They'll count but look, and then hide and scream "i'm over here!" not realizing that someone else is supposed to find them. LOL! Violet and Austin crack us up - they laugh a lot together, and always start the little word game "That's MY baby Calvin. No, that is MY baby Calvin!" and so on and so forth. The game ends whenever someone just gives up...but it always seems to start over again. ha! They also loved running from one end of the house to the other....saying "ready, set, GO!" and taking off. Renee even jumped in and was running back and forth with V and A. I told them to take their socks off so they wouldn't be slipping all over the place...and that concept seemed to make sense to Violet. Now if I try to get her to wear socks, she whines about them being too slippery. Austin is very gentle with Calvin. He likes to play with him and help him figure out toys. There were times he would get frustrated and scream, but that is just Austin and part of his personality. Violet is really affected when other kids get in trouble. For example, if Carrie tells one of her kids to not do something, and they go ahead and do it anyway, Violet will freak out AS they are in the act of disobeying. She cries and tries to prevent them from doing what they're doing because she knows they'll get disciplined for it. Such a little sensitive. We had all four kids in the big hot tub tonight...it was so cute. They were all playing independently until Austin pushed the button that turned on the jets. Violet then FREAKED out and wanted to get out right away. That was fine though...we got her PJs on and she just observed the rest of bath time. So now we're up late...Carrie took a bath in the hot tub and I tried journaling what we all did...so we could tell them how cute they used to be and how well they played together when they were just little squirts.

I want to remember

my little nursing boy. This morning while I nursed him when he woke up we started playing the copy cat game. He would go "Mmm. Mmm." and I would repeat it. He noticed I copied him, so he let out a little gruntled laugh while trying to suck, and repeated "Mmm. Mmm." I can only assume to try get me to do it again. So I repeated it back to him, and he gruntled laughed even harder. He is so funny. We did that back and forth for awhile. The whole time his both arms are pressing SO hard against me, like he's done since birth, almost as if he's ready to fight the whole time. One arm under my armpit and one arm over my chest. Sometimes he rolls my skin between his fingers, and that hurts so bad. I have to unlatch his pinch so he can let go. He's so ticklish in the morning too. One little gentle rub on his belly and he's cackling. Its so stinkin' cute. He stood up unassisted yesterday. I think he forgot that he did it though, because he's never done it again. Old habits die hard even when you're just 10 months old, I guess. He always crawls to the wall, pulls up to start walking again, then falls down, and crawls back to a wall to pull up again. He even ate a huge piece of lasagna today for lunch. He almost polished off a serving size I might serve up for myself. Man...this kid is going to eat me out of house and home before I get to the store next. Its too easy (but probably unfair of me) to compare my kids' at the same age. When Violet was 10 months, she could stand alone, but just take 2 steps. She also didn't ever figure out how to use a sippy cup and properly tip it up enough to get a drink. She went straight to straw cups and always used those. Calvin can grab a sippy and hold it up to take a drink perfectly as if he has known how to do that his whole life. Weird how different two kids can be.

weird bedtime

Calvin was sleeping by 7:15 pm. I got Violet in bed by 7:30 tonight. She was a ball of energy too, jumping on her bed like a monkey with springs. She got up 4 different times with in the hour between 7:30 and 8:30. Each time she "HAD to go pee". 2 of those times, she pooped, and 2 of those times, she peed. I guess she really DID have to go, but why split it all up between 4 potty breaks?? Ugh! I'm going to start putting her to bed earlier because she lately has a habit of getting out of bed to take care of business for a long time. She is motivated to stay dry at night by a piece "of white gum" she says - which means the minty Orbit I keep in my purse. She is never dry in the morning though. *sigh* I wonder what it'll take. I let her go to sleep in undies a couple nights last week, but woke up wet both mornings and it doesn't seem to phase her that she's soaking wet. I got sick of the laundry, and went back to pull ups. I guess I'm sending her mixed signals, but right now I'm just leaving the issue alone.

Sold some stuff

I listed a bunch of stuff on craigslist and Ebay yesterday. I've gotten a lot of responses on some things, and 2 things have sold. Someone wanted that white bathroom vanity mirror that used to be in the bathroom at the river house. She took it for $20. Then another lady bought our dog care items from when Abby was alive. A few brushes, shedding undercoat rake, spike collar, leash, leftover Heartgard medicine, and a dog bowl. They bought all of it for $30. I'm putting the money into our 2nd checking account that we used to use for renting out our houses, but since we sold the townhouse, I've just used it to verify my paypal account. I'm saving up for Christmas, I guess. We haven't really factored that all into our budget yet, and if we're going to end up hosting all of Dave's family, we'll need the money. I also listed the old maroon recliner, hammock frame, a lamp, etc...just "stuff" we don't want but is still of value. We'll see how much momentum I keep up with trying to sell stuff. I might hold off until spring time for garage sale season. I'm a little surprised that none of our new neighbors (with the exception of one) have come to say hi. The two girls next door are ages 11 and 8. I had to laugh when the 8 yr old pulled me aside to ask me in a whispered and hushed tone "Can I tutor Violet when she is older?" I guess she's super enthusiastic about tutoring in school right now, LOL. The 11 yr old just rolled her eyes. They seem like nice people. Supposedly the other neighbor on the other side is the athletic director for UNI. We met some people while we were trick or treating 2 weeks ago, but nobody really knew who we were, so it was just a "hi and bye" type of thing.

She's been a difficult one lately

I can't count on Violet actually taking a nap these days. She always gets up to do something she considers very important. "I was just washing my hands, mom!" or "I needed to go pee, mom!" The other day after her nap, she emerged from her room wearing a completely different pair of clothes (pajamas, actually), and when I got to her room later, there were books covering every surface of her bed. *eye roll* So who knows. At least she's quiet and not bothering me. She'll either take a short messed up nap, or a long one for 4 hours. Its so weird. She's also been uncharacteristically defiant lately. I guess every "almost 3" yr old goes through it...but since I'm just parting the waters of this new stage of toddlerhood, I have nothing to compare her to. She pushed one of her friends over last week at Puggles and threw a toy at another. Dave made her say "i'm sorry" to each friend....and she talks about saying sorry to those two friends all the time, especially during prayer time before nap and before bedtime. She always prays and says thank you for her saying sorry to her friends and she prays that she will be a nicer friend. Today Dave told her not to touch a bowl on the table. He got up and walked away, and what does she do? Looks at him (I was looking at her and she didn't know it) and puts her hand on the bowl while his back is turned. I alerted him to what she did and he immediately turned around, said "I know you touched that bowl. You need to listen to me and obey EVEN IF I'M NOT LOOKING" in a very serious tone. She got a spanking for being disobedient, cried on the couch for a couple minutes, then he talked to her. He said "Why did I spank you?" She said "because I disobeyed daddy and I lied." I don't know what the lying thing is about, but she directly said that she disobeyed daddy. This discipline thing is so hard. The beginning of the morning is always her first lie. We ask her if her pull up is wet, and she says "no, I'm dry" but its wet. I feel like we've been all over her and on her case all the time, but I guess if this is what it takes, we'll do it. She got so many spankings today. And she cried hard for each one, then we hugged and talk about it each time as to why she got each spank. On a completely different subject, we're feeling a little more settled into this house. We moved some furniture that we want to keep for later on to the basement from the garage. That cleared up a lot of space in the garage while we still have both vehicles in there together for a couple more weeks. I took a ton of pictures of things I want to sell and put them on Craiglist and Ebay today. Probably...15 different things, from lamps to dog clippers, to the hammock frame...just "stuff" that is good, but not useful to us any more. I've already got lots of emails from people asking if things are still available. Dave is going to be in California tomorrow through Tuesday night. He's going out to what they call the User Group Conference. I think that just means its a big conference that lots of their customers go to, and he's going to be a part of it. I was supposed to go out there with him for this weekend, but financially it didn't happen to bring me and the kids along. Maybe next time. I'd rather take a family trip without involving Dave's work anyway. Then he's going to be home for a day and a half, leaving again on Thursday to go to Chicago first to stay at Josh's house, then Josh and him are going up to the UP to hunt for a couple days with their dad. Its always been a "life long dream" for their dad to take his sons hunting, so I'm sure he'll overjoyed and happy to find out that Dave is joining Josh on this hunting adventure. (he doesn't know Dave is going yet, he thinks Josh is just bringing a friend)

Its been a week

and I feel like I have nothing to write about. Sure, there were funny things that the kids did, but I can't remember anything right now. Dave and Violet just left to go to Awana/Puggles and its just me and Calvin. I got him distracted by a few toys in the other room so I could sit down. We got a van yesterday. The lease on our current vehicle expires in 3 weeks, so we knew we had to act fast. As the time got closer and closer, I was starting to feel more and more claustrophic in that litte car - the car seats are so huge and bulky, nearly touching together in the middle even though they were both installed one each outboard seat. In our searching and reading consumer reports' reviews, we knew we wanted a Toyota or a Honda van, but they are really hard to come by in a decent price range. On Friday, Dave was searching through autotrader.com and found a new listing for a 2000 Honda Odyssey listed for $4900 in Cedar Rapids. Supposedly it was listed for 2 months at $7900, but it didn't sell, so they dropped the price to $5900, and just recently lowered the price to $4900. We knew it wouldn't last long at that price, so we made plans to go look at it yesterday. We were able to negotiate the price down to $4700 out the door, which means that includes tax, title, and license registration fees. That brought the price of the van down to $4300 plus all that extra stuff. Dave Ramsey would be proud that we got a deal and paid cash! No car payment any more!!! I'm so happy about that! I'm so glad Jay lives in Cedar Rapids. We left right after breakfast and Calvin took a nap in the car. We dropped our kids off at Jay's apartment and he watched them for 2 hours while we took the van for a test drive and decided whether or not to buy it. We were extremely impressed by the condition it is in considering how many miles it has on it. It has a lot of features we didn't expect a van that old to have, a CD player, auto climate control, remote-control operating doors, fold down and stow away rear seat, and spots for ALL five rear seating positions to have top tether attachments for car seats. I was particular about this, since I'm a little picky about how my kids' car seats are installed. The two captain's chairs in the 2nd row have attachment hooks underneath the seats, and the back 3rd row has 3 screw-in anchor bolt holes, and the bolt parts can be ordered and they hook onto the back of the cargo area. If we have any more kids, a car seat would have to go back there and I'd need that attachment point. Go Honda! We are both glad to have it. The finish feels nice, the doors open and shut nicely, they don't feel sluggish, and it smells clean - no smoking, yay! Dave went to the hardware store today to buy a power washer. So many things need to be cleaned. I swear, this crap from the flooding is haunting us. There is dirty flooded machinery all in the work shop area of the garage which Dave plans to get cleaned up, fixed up, working again, and try to sell. *sigh* I wish he would just scrap it all. There is also a huuuuge pile of cardboard boxes that I want to get rid of. I'm going to put them on the swap sheet or craigslist or something for free and see if we get any bites. If not, they're all going down the recycling tube at the recycling center. Speaking of recycling, we need to start recycling again. We had a whole system of bins at the river house - now we don't have that all set up. It would cut down big time on the garbage we are producing. Someday, I guess. Priorities. There is still so much to do. My tendency is just to plow through it and get it done but Dave wants to take it slower and do it right. I guess we balance each other out in that way. A totally separate topic, but it just came to my mind. It seems to have finally clicked with Violet to hold her pee at night and go in the toilet if she has to go. She's always woken up with a wet pull up every single morning for the last 5 months. Last night we put her to bed around 8 pm, and she was up clunking around the bathroom at 9:30. We are NOT used to her getting up after we put her to bed. Usually that is the end of seeing her until morning. But she had gotten up and went to the bathroom on her own, and was very proud to announce that she held her pee and went to the potty. She even woke up dry this morning - and went on the toilet as soon as she got up. I am so proud of her! Who knows if it'll stay this way, but I'm going to keep praising her and encouraging her to keep it up. She was immediately rewarded with gum...her favorite prize of choice. Calvin my little man is all over the place. He can't stand up in the middle of the room on his own yet, but he eagerly crawls over to anything to help him stand up, and he's a walking toddler. He can walk the entire length of the house, and even turn corners without help. Last night in the bathtub (I had both kids in there at the same time), I can only explain how he was with one word: a torpedo. He was splashing all over the place, nonstop crawling from one end of the tub to the other, tossing toys out of the tub, standing up and looking at them, so I'd throw them back in and he'd do it all over again. I just can't believe how active and secure he is in the tub. Violet was so annoyed with him. She is so sensitive and cautious - she HATES water in her eyes. She always screams "Eyes! Eyes! Towel! I need a towel!!" if she gets even a drop on her eyelashes. It is so hard to wash her hair and rinse it out without a screaming 2 yr old on my hands. She is in the habit of crying like mad after getting because she's cold, too. I dry her off as fast as I can and wrap her up in her bathrobe quickly, but she still loves to cry and complain. Not much else I can do to help that situation. Calvin is now sleeping comfortably in a crib. A friend of mine, Amy Knox, who I know from MOPS, said to me last week that her kids' crib was in their basement (her kids are 3 and 5) and I could use it if I wanted. She wants it back since her husband built it, but she said I was more than welcome to borrow it for as long as I wanted. I was like "yes! thank you!" so she came over last week and set it up for me. We got a mattress that very night so he could sleep in it. I am so happy for him!! He has been sleeping in a hard pack and play for the last 5 months and now I feel better that he is more comfortable. We put a soft flannel sheet on the mattress, and the first night he got in it, he was so happy. I don't know if he was happy about the mattress, but he was giggling and bouncing all over the place, and lately, he always happily goes to sleep. One slight view of that bed if he's tired, and he's reaching down to get in for a paci so he can konk out. Awww. I just got up to do something. And the whole time I've been typing this, he's been happily playing with random toys. I just walked past him and he caught one glance of me, and immediately started crying and hysterically crawling over to me. Nobody can comfort him but me! He is up against the glass on the french door screaming. Ughhhh. I think he's tired though. Its 6:30 right now, but 7:30 prior to the time change last night, and he sometime goes to bed at 7:30. I'll keep him up for another 1/2 hour or so. I hope he latches on to his daddy one of these days so I can get a little break. If I hadn't gotten up and interrupted his concentrated play time, I'm sure he wouldn't have started crying. I am working with him and some sign language. I've only concentrated on "more" which is hands together, but he responds with putting his hands together when I say "do you want more?" when I'm feeding him. He proudly claps! I need to try other ones.

cleaning day

What a crazy day. Dave got up and early to meet with Dennis for coffee. When he got back, I had both kids in bed with me because they woke up while he was gone. Violet always gets to me before I wake up, and when Calvin wakes up, all he wants to do is lay in bed with me and nurse. Sooo...it was a typical morning in that way. Dave got home, decided to take the kids downstairs for me so I could shower, and he made eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast. Yum! He used the grilling thing on our stove to make the bacon. It tasted alright - a little weird to have grilled bacon. Anyway...then after we cleaned up breakfast, he got out the cleaning stuff and said "I think I'll clean the toilets in the house." So...he went to town cleaning stuff. He did all 4 toilets, then he got himself on some crazy cleaning spree, and decided to tackle all the bathrooms, every surface. I helped him some. But the tubs, showers, toilets, walls, mirrors, counter tops, even light bulbs all got a scrubbing. He took down the ugly gold light fixtures in the kitchen and eating area and cleaned them, and even late tonight, he went outside and is cleaning the house sconce lights by the garage. Earlier he got the riding lawn mower out to try it and mowed a couple strips of the lawn, then noticed me and the kids were outside in the gazebo watching him. He turned off the mower to greet us, and then somehow couldn't get it started again...which made him frustrated. He determined it needed a new battery, so he and Violet went to Walmart to get a new battery for it. Its too dark now to work on it, but that threw a little wrench in his lawn mowing plans. I got some great pics of the kids outside today in the leaves Dave raked.

sad moment

Dave and I were just working on the couch together. Well, not really working together, but sort of. I was folding laundry, and he was sitting on the couch wrapped up with something with work on his computer playing 80s music. We have been casually talking off and on, nothing really continuous or connected. I mentioned to him "I'd like to put a little bench for the kids to sit on and put their shoes on over there by the laundry room door." He said "Yeah, that would be nice to have." and then my thoughts wandered and I said "yeah, because Violet used to have that little folding chair in the entry way of our old house...whatever happened to that, by the way? Did it get flooded?" He stopped for a moment and thought. "Yeah, it did." And then there was silence. I just nodded, and kept folding. My thoughts wandered off about the flood, thinking about the house, what it used to be like to trudge up the basement stairs, and the routine of Violet being excited to sit in her little folding chair to take off her coat and shoes before entering the house. I can replay it in my mind like reality. Dave's words then interrupted my thoughts and said "I just had a sad moment. I just keep having reoccuring moments like this about the flooded house. Like that mention of Violet's chair. I can just think about it and get very, very sad." I said "Yes, I know, I was just thinking that. I had a sad moment too. I mean, it was Violet's little chair! She loved that squeaky little thing." *sigh*

silly V

I have been unpacking and organizing all morning. Violet even said to me "Mama, I drive you nuts." and then I responded by saying "Well, yeah, but I love you too!" so that's been our exchange all morning. I'll say, "Violet, you drive me nuts!" and she'll say back "But you love me too!" and another: I was explaining to Violet earlier tonight that the water had to bubble before we put in the noodles (I was making her some mac and cheese), and after I told her the water was bubbling, she excitedly ran over to me because I told her she could pour the noodles in. She poured the noodles in, took another look at the boiling pot of soon-to-be-cooked noodles, and said "Mama, don't bubble me. Its too hot."

my little escape artist

Calvin is my little escape artist. He somehow got past the 2 baby gates we have in this house and got to the top of the stairs yesterday w/o me even realizing it. When I discovered he was missing, I ran to the stairs as soon as I could, and found him at the top step, excited as can be! He was smiling and flapping his arms - obviously very proud of himself! I was so glad he didn't fall though. He can walk now! He's just 9 1/2 months, and can take 15-20 steps. Usually his attempts get him 5 or 6 steps but his longest was 15 or something like that. Violet fell down on the tile floor off the kitchen table chair the 2nd day we lived in this house. We winces in pain every time we pick her up from under the arms, we we have to avoid doing that. I even took her to the doctor because she seemed like it was bothering her so much, but it doesn't seem like anything is broken - he suspects a muscle spasm or a strain. Its a week later and it still hurts her.

I have these things written on a piece of scrap paper

and I want to keep them recorded here so I don't lose it. Violet was eating breakfast the other day and she said this: "Mommy, when I'm done with my oatmeal I will lay down on the couch and rest for awhile, OK?" and as she noticed I was writing on this scrap of paper, she said "Mom? What you do? Are you coloring? Or writing? For Uncle Jay or for Molly? or for Daddy or Mommy or Violet or Calvin?" Me: "Violet, you're silly." Violet: "No, I'm a cowboy. I'm a cowGIRL. I will show daddy - I will tell daddy i'm a cowboy, OK?" "I got my last bite!" "Mommy, my tummy is full" Her speech is amazing. I can't believe how much she's changed in the last 4 months. Just 4 months ago she was annoyingly repeating everything I would say to her, but now she's easily conversing with me, coming up with her own ideas and thoughts, and clearly communicating them.

just because we're finally here

Doesn't mean the pain goes away. I was looking at old photos today and really missing the water. I love the water. The beautiful sparkley river that was constantly changing. This house is amazing, don't get me wrong, or think I'm not thankful or that God isn't taking care of me and my family, but gosh, this is still incredibly hard. The flood is going to be our life story for the REST of our lives. We just want it to be over. But it won't ever be. People will always ask us ... so how did you end up in this house? And that will be the forever story. The flood. It will never go away! We are going through cruddy flooded crap every moment we get once the kids go to bed at night. We have thrown so much stuff away, and lots of clean things we have set aside for a garage sale in the spring. I can't wait to get organized!!!!! I'm afraid to put anything away, for fear that it won't be organized or I'll never get to it again. I have a desire to do everything right this time, after living in 5 different houses in the last 5 years (whoa), to ONLY KEEP THINGS that we use on a regular basis, and continually sift out junk we don't want or need.

We're finally at "home"

We moved on Saturday. What a day it was. I can't really explain it other than absolute craziness! I couldn't help move much because I was chasing after Violet to keep her out of people's way and holding Calvin on my hip the whole day. He weighs almost 21 lbs now so he was a big lug to haul around. We had tons of people come help. It was a BIG effort too. First we loaded up a 26" truck at the rental house and unloaded at the Briarwood house, then the crew ate lunch so graciously provided by Barb Anderson, then loaded up the river house and unloaded it at the Briarwood house in the garage. The garage was so full, that we didn't even have space to park our car in it! 4 stalls, and its chock full of stuff!! I feel a huge burden to get rid of stuff, big time. I just feel like we have way too much stuff. Dave feels the same way, so I'm glad we're on the same page. We have a different philosophy of getting rid of stuff, though. He prefers to keep stuff that may be useful or of value, and I'm like "just throw it out" or "put it in the garage sale pile already!" I want to do things right this time - now that we feel a great sense of permanency. I want to organize well, store things well, and just keep what we need and want, not extra stuff we don't use or don't like. Teresa Smith helped me set up the kitchen for a few hours the day we moved. That was a big help! I have slowly spent the next few days putting things away and organizing. I spent 4 hours working on our upstairs bathroom - I think I threw away a whole garbage bag of stuff that we had collected over time. Expired meds, hair things I never use, hair products I haven't touched in ages, etc. It felt SO good to get rid of it. When Dave and I were putting clothes away, we both got rid of a big box full of clothes we don't like anymore or don't fit. (sad to say that was the case for many of my things!) My mom was here Sunday helping put the kids' stuff in their rooms. So....I feel the basics are covered. We do have a lot of unpacking and organizing to do in the garage yet, but that will come with time as we have spare time. I'm just ecstatic to finally be here. I can't wait to be all done and organized. The river house is still our property and we are waiting for a possible city buy-out in the spring.

A sweet morning

I had a precious moment this morning. Violet walked silently into my room at 7 am loaded up with Elmo and 3 of her favorite blankets and her special yellow pillow, snuck into the side of the bed where daddy was missing (he's on a work trip right now), and whispered to me "Mama, I will go to feep in your bed, otay?" I mumbled "Ok baby" and she laid her head down and fell asleep for another 1/2 an hour with me. Awww....The sweet quiet moment came to an abrupt halt when she sprung up and said "mama! I'm hungy!!" Calvin even slept in til 8 am, and when I went down to his room in the basement, he was smiling and started jumping up and down when he saw me. What fun! I am so glad he wasn't screaming like usual.

Mama Ruth is 111 yrs old - our trip to Oklahoma and Arkansas

The timing of the trip was a little poor, considering we were just in Chicago 2 weekends ago, then Minnesota 1 weekend ago. We just can't seem to stay home long enough to get packed!! We made the yearly trip to Little Rock, AR to celebrate (what I think will be) Mama Ruth's last birthday. I could be 100% wrong....but she really said she is weaker and thinks this is her last year. The trip taking both kids on the airplanes was actually better than I expected. We bought a ticket for each child, so we could take them both on the airplane and use their car seats. That was the best decision ever. Its so nice to have them buckled in (and safer too!) on the airplane so they could sleep. Our first flight was Thursday (Oct 2nd) from Waterloo to Minneapolis. It was loud and quick. Calvin was pretty fussy. He did NOT like me putting earplugs in his ears. He seemed to be calmed by the paci most of the first flight. The 2nd flight was from Minneapolis to Oklahoma City, where we made a point to stop overnight at Rachel's apartment and see whats going on with her. The 2nd flight went EXTREMELY well. Both kids fell asleep for the entirety of the 2 hours we were up in the air. That was SO nice. Rachel met us at baggage claim in her blue scrubs fresh from school. We got settled into the rental car (Chevy Tahoe w/ 3rd row seat) and Rachel guided us back to the school, gave us a tour, and then we went back to her apartment for a chicken parmesan dinner she cooked. Yum! Her friend (well, boyfriend, I guess) Paul hung out with us too. The kids slept in Rachel's room (Calvin in a pack and play borrowed from Justin, one of Rachel's ortho friends) and Violet in a sleeping bag (which she ended up sleeping ON TOP of the whole night, lol). They slept alright. That night Calvin decided to wake up at 5:15 am like a crazy happy man, and I managed to stay awake and let him crawl around to burn off some energy. He eventually got tired and fell asleep from 6:30-7:30 am so I could get a little more sleep. Rachel, Dave and I all camped out on Rachel's living room couch, air mattres, and used her mattress from her bed on the floor. So funny! Good thing nobody snores. We drove to Little Rock together on Friday the 3rd. We had plans to make it by 4 pm to watch Mama Ruth go up in a helicopter ride. We BARELY made it. We pulled into the parking lot at Parkway Village almost at the same time the chopper blades started spinning and lifted off the ground. Everybody was there, and we all enjoyed ice cream cones and ice cream cookie sandwiches. Violet loved seeing everybody and easily went to other people she was familiar with - Great Grandma Rowena and Great Grandpa Loren, for example. We ate ice cream and waited for the helicopter to land. We settled into our guest room at Parkway for the night and quickly changed clothes to get ready for dinner that night at some asian restaurant...dinsome thensome or whatever. I was SO tired from all the travel and the long drive. The kids were also tired, whiney and melting down. I barely remember the conversations I had that night ~ my eyes felt glazed over. We were so anxious to get the kids to bed, so we left as soon as we could. The next day (Saturday, Oct 4th) was the regular luncheon at the country club. We sat at a table with Ruth and Michael, Sara Lincoln, Rachel, Jay and Molly. Grandma Rowena tried to get Violet to sit over at the kids' table with all the other kids, but Violet was too scared and nervous, so she sat with us. She ate lots of chicken and fries ~ in fact, I think she lived off fried chicken that weekend. Every kid menu we ordered from ~ that was the only thing she would have eaten. Calvin was OK - he was happy with little bits of food here and there sitting in his high chair playing with a floating balloon tied to his high chair. The country club had a nice cake, but it wasn't the traditional carrot/spice cake as in previous years. I found that disappointing, lol! I was lookin' forward to that cake! We took the kids back to Patty and Jim's house so we could put them down for naps. Dave volunteered to stay at their house while I joined the rest of the family on a walk across the bridge over the Arkansas River. I drove the big Tahoe with Grandpa Loren, Rachel, Jay and Molly in it successfully downtown with almost no wrong turns (I screwed up in the parking lot, but oh well). Dinner that night was a continuation of just conversation, talking, and socializing at Patty and Jim's. Danny Deislinger had a big catfish fry organized, so we enjoyed eating lots of food that night too. Sunday morning was a little crazy, but it went pretty well. Great Grandma Ruth was SO excited that almost everyone joined her at church. The kids did alright. Calvin was happy being passed from person to person and didn't make too much of a fuss. Violet was happy sitting with daddy most of the time, eating random snacks from whatever she could find in the diaper bag. People were generally impressed with our kids' behavior and said they enjoyed her presence. That was nice to hear! I specifically remember being at the dinsome thensome restaurant on Friday night ~ I asked Violet to go get her flip flops and put them on her feet. She said "ok!" and ran off. Ashley Abraham said "oh wow! She'll actually go do it!?" as though she didn't expect Violet to obey as well as she did. Violet got a big kick out of going on the airplane. I know she didn't really "get it" that the airplane was going really fast and really high ~ but she liked knowing she was going on an airplane and that she got to ride in her car seat. She especially loves to do EVERYTHING herself...including climbing up into her seat by herself, and doing the buckles. Sometimes she can get the whole thing, sometimes the straps are a little too tight and she can't quite get it done. She was a bit of a challenge to get her to stay close to us as we walked through the airport going from place to place, but I usually could steer her to stay close to me by asking if she could help me push Calvin's stroller. She absolutely loves to help with that kind of stuff. Also, she would get VERY excited at the moving sidewalks in the airport terminals, being able to get on and off them by herself, and anticipating another moving sidewalk, one right after another. She squealed in delight when she would notice another one coming up! She always "helped" us by pushing the elevator buttons and the buttons for handicapped people so the doors would open automatically, almost everywhere we went. She was pretty social, randomly waving to people and saying "hi!" She is so cute, growing up so fast, and I am just amazed by her!

Violet's first hair cut was today!

We went to Jiva SalonSpa this morning at 9:30 am. She did so good! Well, after a 2 second bout of crying when I tried to put her in the chair at first. She screamed, then calmed down when the ladies gave her a sucker and I sat with her in the chair at first. She seemed perfectly content with her sucker, so I got to set her down on the chair with a big booster seat on it. She lady's name was Diana, and Violet pronounced it "Dee-anna". She got a short bob just like my hair, with her hair slightly shorter in the back. I was sad to see her little curls go, but they were just looking so scraggly and weird - so Dave and I knew it was time for a new look. By the end when she was done, she was proudly announcing "I got a hair cut!" to everyone she saw! So cute!!

poop

I just was in the kitchen mixing up a bowl of batter to make chocolate chunk bars ~ and Violet ways "I wanna see whats in that bowl." I say "Ok, here it is" lowering the bowl so she can see. She says "momma? Is that pooop?" what a disgusted look on her face. haha!

funny

I had a funny moment today after I put Violet down for a nap. We're still living in this little rental house on Robin Rd in Waterloo. The bathroom door is at the end of the hallway, so is our bedroom door and Violet's bedroom door with in 2 feet of each other. Well..I finally took a nap when both kids were sleeping. 15 minutes after I put her to bed, I had already taken a shower, changed into my clothes for the day, and started to blow-dry my hair. I thought she was well asleep by now, but she wasn't! The blow-dryer always puts me into kind of a trance...falsely making me think everything else going on around me is A-OK. Well...the door was cracked open as I was using the hair dryer, and I see a brightly colored thing go flying past the door. I was like HUH? I shut off the dryer and open the door to see Violet running back into her room and slamming the door shut as fast as she could. I went into her room and she had tried to hop back into bed without me knowing was was going on, apparently. I asked her "what are you doing?" She said "I don't want that toy in my room. I was just putting it outside. That toy. I don't like it." while shaking her head and flopping her arms. It was that ride-on toy that converts to a little infant push-walker. I guess it freaked her out! I just laughed and told her to go to sleep. She flopped her head back on the pillow and turned over without a single word or protest. My little girl is turning into such a little GIRL already!! Also, I can't remember if I recorded this or not, but I'll do it again just in case. A few weeks ago Dave was in California, and Violet knew that he flew away to California to work, so mid-week, I hear her start singing this song in the morning right after she woke up (to the tune of "where is thumpkin"): "Where is Mommy? Where is Mommy? She's right here, she's right here Where is mommy? where is mommy? She's right here, she's right here. Where is daddy? Where is daddy? He flew away, he flew away! Where is daddy? where is daddy? He flew away, he flew away!"

crunch time

Things with us are going super fast and crazy. We are closing on the Briarwood house on October 10th. And we're leaving for every single weekend until then! We're nuts! Just last weekend we went to see Josh and Carrie for his 30th birthday. Then next weekend we're going to Gary Pace's wedding, and the weekend after that is the celebration in Arkansas for my great grandma Ruth's 111th birthday. I just can't believe how old she is!!!!! Violet did SO much better at Josh and Carrie's house this time than 5 months ago. She was a mess last time, freaking out and crying and whining if I wasn't with her. This time she was comfortable, played around as much as she wanted with Austin and would be in different rooms with out me, it was so nice to have that freedom. Calvin didn't sleep all that great. All of us were sleeping in the basement together (each kid in a pack n play and us on the futon) and Calvin woke up each night screaming a couple times, both of which I nursed him back to sleep. I'm just glad he didn't wake up V in the middle of the night. He doesn't get that special treatment at home. In fact, I thought he was sleeping through the night, but I learned that he isn't. We just don't hear him because of the loud fan in our room...but whatever...he always gets himself back to sleep anyway. He's used to it. Today I went downstairs to the basement bedroom to put C down for a nap, and the door was locked. I was SO frustrated. He was so tired, was already suckin' on his paci and I couldn't open the door. V had already gone down for a nap and Dave was hopping on an important conference call, so he couldn't help me. I snuck into V's room, grabbed C's swing, and temporarily set it up in our bedroom so he could swing in it and hopefully fall asleep. I hung up blankets, towels, and jeans up against the window so it would be darker. I noticed him falling asleep after a few minutes, so I asked Dave if I could run some errands while they slept. He said OK, so I left, and he ended up taking the pins of the door so he could get in that room. V has been into locking doors lately, so I'm 100% sure it was her turning the knob on that door and locking it. Dave put some duct tape over it for now so that won't happen again. I went running this morning. It was the hardest run ever. It was horrible. I ached. I got a stabbing side cramp early on that just intensified as I ran, so I stopped and walked a lot. I am really sore now, and have a tight muscle in my back. I hope it isn't always this hard. I might go once again this week. We'll see. We spent the evening over at the river house packing. Barb A came over to help us for an hour. She's such a servant. We got right to it and just filled boxes. We are very close to being almost done w/ that house. I'm trying to think about what Violet has been saying lately. She's speaking in full 100% sentences and is conversing perfectly like she's an almost 3 yr old. In some respects, its sooo nice that she can speak so well. She communicates things that she couldn't just a few months ago. But in some ways, she talks SO much it annoys me!! Agh! Her funny thing lately is to force a belly laugh. HA HA HA in a deep voice...its so hysterical. Calvin is just as goofy as ever. He loves 1 on 1 attention and craves to be with me 100% of the time. He'll be so happy in my lap, and if I put him on the floor to play, he will scream and cry. If Dave is holding him or playing with him and he catches a view of me, he screams and cries. Mama's boy. *eye roll* I love it though! He's still nursing 4 or 5 times a day and eating a lot of food. He would park himself in the high chair all day and just eat 24/7 if he could, I swear! I run out of ideas of what to feed him. He can't really do food chunks that well yet, he chokes.

funny conversation

Violet noticed I was in the bathroom takin' care of business, and she said "mama? whatchyou doin'?" I told her "Mama had to go pee." She said "Mama have to go poopie?" I said "Maybe." She said, "Mama, want a book?" I said "sure!" *she comes back running with a book* I say "thank you!!" She comes up to me, pushes on my back to make me lean over, and says "Mama, I need to wipe your butt."

nothing special really, just rambling

I made a fruit pizza for the Hemmers yesterday. Little Evan busted his tooth on a brick wall and he had to go to the doctor and get it removed. I felt so bad for him and Selena. She was a pregnant nervous emotional wreck! She took him in today to get it removed and she said she felt wrapped in prayer and got through the day. I took him a fruit pizza because I know how much that little guy likes fruit. He's so crazy and silly. Violet listens to every single word I say. I don't even realize it! I called Trisha this morning to see how things were going with her and she said she was having trouble with her breast pump working. I remember saying "oh no! Do you have those little white flaps on the valve inside the bottle?" or something like that. About an hour later after that conversation was long over, Violet picks up her little toy phone, puts it up to her ear, and says "oh no! Have white little faps?" and then went on to say something like "Whats wrong? yeah...otay...no...k....yeah....I will take your ban-naid off. Tank you. Otay." I was shocked she remembered! Good grief! Today was a hard day. We didn't leave the house. I think that was the problem. Dave is in California all week and I have the kids alone all week. I was majorly dreading this week because I am very prone to being short and snappy with Violet when I'm stressed. She knows how to push my buttons, too. I hate leaving the house with both kids because its so much work getting them both in and out of the car and going somewhere in that very short little window of time where neither of them are tired or hungry, so its just easier not to go anywhere. But when we get stuck in this little rental house all day we drive each other NUTS. The kids don't have anywhere to go but be around me 24/7. Violet is constantly demanding that I play with her, color with her, read with her. I do those things but get insanely bored and impatient. Horrible of me, I know...but I just need me time, me space to just relax. No such thing when you're a single parent for a week. She misses her daddy something fierce. She keeps asking about him, wondering when he's coming back. We were on the phone with Dave when she was going to bed. She was talking to him on the phone, and said to him "Daddy, can you hold on for a minute. I want to look at mommy's owie on her foot." LOL!! So she gave the phone to me and wanted to see how my foot was healing from the wart that was removed last month. Yes, its still healing. So then she got the phone back. She remembers that he flew away on a red airplane and that Dave is in California. She said "Californyyyyah"? She always points out the obvious to whoever she's on the phone with. "There's mommy, and here is Violet, and there is Calvin."

stuff

I took Violet and Calvin with me to Sam's Club and Fareway today. Violet was so excited to be my big helper. She enjoyed sitting in the shopping cart next to Calvin at Sam's. There they have those large carts with spots for 2 kids. Calvin was a pretty good guy the whole time. I had quite a list of things to get from each place, so I asked Violet if she could help me find each thing. First it was chicken, then it was cheese, then it was milk, then it was kleenex, then it was wipes, etc. She got down from the cart to walk with me a few times and was running everywhere she could go. She helped put the milk in the cart....straining to hold it because the gallon was so heavy. Our next trip was at Fareway, and most of the time she sat in the grocery cart section where all the groceries go since Calvin had the seat up front. He just wanted to grab my grocery list out of my hand the whole trip.

today

Calvin is such a crazy man. He LOVES the bath tub. His little arms just won't stop splashing! Its SO cute! He is crazy, I said it before and I'll say it again! He crawls all over Violet, falls in the water and pushes right up like nothing happened. He doesn't react to water on his face either. Violet gets slightly inspired by it too, lol! She dumps water on his head with the cup and says "mama, he didn't even cry!" and I think that makes her not want to cry either when I shampoo and rinse her hair out. She hates water in her eyes. She'll whine and say "eyes! eyes! eyes!" and want a towel right away. Violet has a strange fear of lions. She doesn't like to go downstairs in this rental house because it freaks her out. If she goes into her room, she shuts the door so she stays away from the lions. I don't really know where that all came from. Dave said she freaks out if she's downstairs and hears the floors squeaking from somebody walking on them. She "read" a couple books tonight. Goodnight Gorilla and Guess How Much I Love You. She narrates the books as best as she can, saying "he let the lion out of his cage....everybody's going to bed....its dark!....*yawns* like the lady in bed...and then everybody is going to bed". The movie Madagascar was on TV tonight, and she was glued. She watched the lion on it and kept wondering where it went if it wasn't on the screen.

she was watching the Olympics tonight

The event was synchro diving. She was excitedly watching the divers dive into the water. She was jumping around the house saying "I wanna go swimming! Where is my swim suit? I want to go diving. I will use my hands, and my butt, and my hands, and go into the water..." lol! Dave watched the kids for awhile when I went to take a meal to Suzanne after Leo's birth. When I got back, Calvin was upset but when he saw me, he said "mama!" Awww!

her reaction to no

If I tell her no to something, lately she has been tearing off into the other room and throwing herself on the floor. It is totally attention seeking behavior because she huffs really loudly and throws herself on the floor even harder if I don't pay an ounce of attention to her. I've been bathing Violet and Calvin together lately. Calvin LOVES it so much. He is so brave. He sits up in the water and splashes the water. He crawls in the water, stands up against the egde of the tub. The kid is fearless. He always laughs really hard when Violet jumps in the water catching him by surprise. Bath time with Violet lately is such an annoying chore. She FREAKS OUT if water gets in her eyes and demands a towel all the time.

today...

Today Violet randomly tore into the kitchen full speed and halted right infront of me. She said "Whew! It was the dinosaur!" and I said "where? where is the dinosaur?" she pointed to the basement and said "right there". So tonight she was terrified to go downstairs to her bedroom because she was convinced there was a lion down there. She made me leave her bedroom door open just in case.

the kiddos

Violet is 36 1/2" tall and weighs 32 lbs! Calvin is enjoying lots of baby food, cheerios, crackers, some bites of noodles, fresh ripe nectarines, and can take drinks out of a sippy cup. He is pulling up to stand on everything!! Barb Anderson calls him "the bionic baby" because he's SO mobile and capable for his age. Violet is a full conversationalist lately. She uses full sentences and uses more words than I thought she knew! She noticed a pair of pants I wore today that have bright colored flowers on them. She said "oh pretty!" and rubbed them. She's taking herself to the potty lately. Its kindof nice. Although she needs help wiping.

Obey

Tonight as we were tucking Violet into bed, Dave playfully slapped me on the rear end. Violet noticed and she said "Daddy! What you doing?" He said "I slapped mama on the butt." She said, "mama not obey?" We couldn't help but bust out laughing. She said "Oh, let me do it." and she slapped my butt. Calvin is crawling all over the place. He just wants to walk, often putting his feet under his body and straightening his legs. He is getting steadier (but he's still very wobbly) when he "stands" up and holds onto something. His 2 teeth are coming in more. He's enjoying more and more food. He likes baby food, any kind. Fruit, veggies, baby cereal. Today he dissolved some cheerios in his mouth and Dave gave him little bits of corn bread at Nathan's birthday party. He babbles "mama, mama, mama" over and over again. He also blows air out his lips all the time.

things to remember

Violet usually wakes up now and started yelling, "mama! mama! I'm awake now!! Mama! Marriiiiiaaa!" She still won't get out of bed on her own. I think she feels held captive by her bed and still calls for us to come get her out of bed. Somehow she learned "pretty please?" Not sure where that came from. The other morning she was cuddling for just a split second in bed when she sat up, looked at us in bed, turned her head to the side and crossed her arms and said "I want daddy get out of bed. I want daddy get Violet food!" haha!! She was a hungry girl! Calvin was a little smiler at his 6 month pictures today. He was grinning from ear to ear. I'm so happy! I got some great pictures. Jay came with me to get the pictures taken while Violet napped. Calvin is starting to be more and more responsible to adult interaction. While Jay and I were sitting at the mall eating lunch Calvin was sitting in the stroller next to us. He started wiggling his head side to side because I think the nylon stroller behind his head was fun to rub his head on. I noticed he was rubbing his head side to side and I smiled and mimicked him moving my own head side to side. He noticed I was doing that, smiled, and moved his head side to side in response. So cute! We did that back and forth a few times.

Homeless

This is Dave: Today is Maria's birthday. She turned 27. We went to lunch at Applebee's on University Avenue with Dennis/Selena/Ivy/Evan, Shawn/Kim and Jon/Joanne. It was a bit chaotic and a tad demanding to mediate between three segments of our social lives, but it was a nice time overall. Maria is a dear...a lovely woman. She's just full of light and life and I love her. We're still homeless and living at Dave and Karen Wilson's house. They will be coming home Tuesday, however, so things will change a bit. We're trying to figure out what to do next. Staying here long term probably isn't the best solution. We're looking for a house to rent, but then we'd have to furnish it to some degree, which would be a pain. So, we're not sure. I'm praying that God will give us a fully furnished place to live in until we have a home to go to. As far as the house goes, so far it looks like we aren't going to rebuild. Our damages are around 50% of the assessed value, which means it could go either way depending on how you do the math. We could write the numbers so the city would let us rebuild, or we could write them so the city won't let us rebuild. If we can't rebuild, then the SBA will give us a 2.687% 30/yr mortgage on a new house, which is an amazing deal. We then would put our insurance money towards our river house and hope for a buyout from the city in the near future. We'd probably have to roll the remaining mortgage from the river house into our new mortgage until (if) the city bought us out. We'll see. I'm praying that the insurance company will just total the house and give us the full policy limit amounts so we can just pay the mortgage off and buy another house. We still don't know yet, but moving seems like the best idea of all. Calvin has a tooth coming through. It's his bottom right side tooth. Amazing that he's growing so fast already. I sat him up and balanced him today...then let go. He managed to balance himself for at least a few minutes. It was quite impressive! Violet just wanted to knock him over...silly sister. He also got into a plant today and had ripped leaves into a number of pieces and was sucking on some of them before we discovered his mischief. He's so mouthy and grabby. Especially when you take his diaper off...he goes for the gonads with all his might and just yanks on those things. It's quite funny. Boys... Violet is just a doll. She can speak in such amazing sentences. She really seems to 'get' the language. I can't seem to love her enough...I always feel overwhelmed with love for her. I guess that's what daughter's do to their daddies! I love to lay down next to her and hug her when she climbs into bed. So sweet. Tomorrow night Ray and Dennis are planning to go to our house to cut the axle off the boat trailer so we can order a new one. They are also planning to pull our small boat out of the water, since we don't have a truck. It is a really big help!! People have been very generous, indeed! Tomorrow is another day. I'm going to sign off for now. I'll leave you with a neat Psalm I found that relates to our situation: Psalm 93 The Eternal Reign of the LORD 1 The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved. 2 Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting. 3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, The floods have lifted up their voice; The floods lift up their waves. 4 The LORD on high is mightier Than the noise of many waters, Than the mighty waves of the sea. 5 Your testimonies are very sure; Holiness adorns Your house, O LORD, forever. I praise God for His awesome mercy and faithfulness! Good night. - Dave

got flooded out of our house

June 2008 isn't a good month so far. Our house got 2 feet of water in it from the record flood that measured 102 ft. There is way too much to explain. A lot of it is in pictures. We lived with Gary and Barb Anderson for a few days, then we moved into Dave and Karen Wilson's house. Violet said "where did everybody go?" because this is the house where we have small group. Lots of people from the conference grounds came to help us gut the house and get the wet stuff out this week. Its amazing how much work got done. We don't know how/if we can rebuild or what because of the city's new code saying they won't issues rebuilding permits if the house sustained more than 50% damage of the house's assessed value. Who knows, we're still waiting on answers. Calvin is almost 6 months old. He started cutting a tooth through his gums yesterday. No wonder he's been so fussy!!! Tylenol seems to be helping a little bit. Violet is a little gem and a charming sweetheart (when she's not whining!). She said something SO funny this morning. She first said (after eating a huge bowl of oatmeal) while walking all goofy and holding her butt saying in a whiney pitiful voice, "Mamaaa, I need HAFTA go poopie" So I took her, and after she finished, she looked in the toilet and said in a really excited voice "wow! poopie! Looks kinda like worms!"She must have gotten that from the worms that we feed this family's turtle. hahahaa

stuff!

Some quotes from Violet this morning: "Hi Mama. Where daddy go? Where Calvin go?" "Want Calvin get out of bed!" "Huvry, daddy" "I'm blowing nose, mama" "Got a owie, mama" Last night Dave took a bath with her. She pointed to his penis and said "What dat, daddy?" He said, "Daddy's penis." She felt herself, and said "Violet no have penis!" She then put together the puzzle pieces and said "Calvin has penis, Daddy has penis, Violet no have penis, Mama no have penis!" LOL!! She can sing the whole song "Jesus loves me". A typical rendition (on pretty good tune) would sound like this: "Jesuh wuves me dis I know, for der Bible tell me ho, little one to him belong, dey are weak but he is tong. Yes, Jesuh wuve me, Yes, Jesuh wuve me, Yes, Jesuh wuve me, der Bible tell me ho." Its so darn cute! I started cloth diapering Calvin yesterday. I'm using the microfiber cotton inserts in the BumGenius 2.0 diaper. So far I love it!

updates on the kids

Calvin can roll both directions now! He wriggled his way onto the floor out of the little swing in the kitchen this morning without even fussing. Violet and Dave made me cupcakes for Mother's Day yesterday. She did such a great job!

April 2008 flood!

The river reached 94 feet on Saturday! Auughhh!! We got 2 feet in the basement. Thankfully...we knew it was coming and Dave got the basement prepared and everything up near the ceiling or on higher ground before it hit. We just got stuck in the house (we have no flood boat right now) for 5 days!! That's right...5 days...and we haven't left the house. Violet is bored out of her mind lately because of it. She's sick of all her toys! Good thing the water is finally going down. Just waiting on the basement to dry out.

She's all better

Now that she's a week out of the hospital, you'd never even know she was sick! You can still see the bruises on her arms where they drew the blood - and the little spot on her hand where the IV was in...but she's completely 100% back to normal. The doctor listened to her lungs on Friday and said she's clear. yay!!

Photobucket Album

We found out Violet has pneumonia

Its been a whirlwind of a day. Yesterday morning, Violet woke up cranky and very thirsty. She wanted water. I gave her a big glass and she downed the whole thing. I took her temp and it was 102.9. I called the nurse to see if I should do anything. She said I could give her motrin every 6 hours to try bring down the fever. Throughout the day, she was OK, a little tired and whiney, but she ate half a bowl of oatmeal and wanted to watch Elmo, so I figured she was going to be better. Not so much. This morning after a broken night's sleep from coughing, she woke up thirsty and cranky again. Dave gave her water and she drank a lot. She seemed really tired, so we brought her into bed with us and she fell asleep immediately. Dave noticed she felt really hot. I decided to take Calvin with me to BBC because I wanted to see the baptism that was today. Dave agreed to stay home with Violet. Well...I got ready, got Calvin ready, and went. Only an hour had passed when I got a text message that said "Violet's temp is 105.5. What should I do?" I was sitting next to Selena and both of our eyes got huge when we read that. I texted back that he should call the nurse and get ready to go to the ER. Dave packed up some things and drove her to the hospital. I packed up Calvin and drove to the hospital to meet them. We got there at almost the same time. We checked Violet into the ER and they nurse took her temperature. It read 103.5. They knew something was wrong because she was still very lethargic, coughing, sleepy, and hot. They gave her a stronger dose of ibuprofen to help knock down the fever. We took off most of her clothes so she could cool down and they gave her some grape juice to drink. The doctor ordered some tests...so the next step was to take a blood sample. I was dreading all this - but knew it had to happen. I held down her legs while the nurses held her arms and got the blood sample and at the same time, started an IV. She screamed and cried the whole time and kept yelling "mama! mama!" It was so hard to see her like that. After they were done, I just held her and rocked. She said "all done poke! No more pokes!" and kept repeating that for awhile afterwards and all throughout the day. She seemed to be proud of herself for getting through it, but she definitely didn't forget she got poked. The doctor wanted to catheterize her to get a urine sample. I spoke up and said "well, she's potty trained, so why don't we just get her to pee in a cup?" The nurses and doctors didn't really want to wait or deal with that....but I insisted. I knew (and had first hand experience!) with catheters and they're NO fun. And scarey. The fluids they inserted in her IV started taking effect...soon she was saying "pee! pee!" so we THANKFULLY got a good sized urine sample in the bucket (they call it a hat) under the toilet seat. She was intrigued that her pee was in the bucket. She said "Vi peed in the bucket!" proudly. The nurse who collected the pee sample poured it into one of those sterile cups and took it away. She must have been carefully watching, because she said "Where Vi's pee go?" We had to smile. How cute. They did a RSV test also. They put some liquid in her nostrils and sucked it back up. They also took her for an X-Ray. After all those tests, we got to rest for a moment. It seemed like forever that we sat in the corner section on a little bed in the ER. We were waiting for test results. I went out into the waiting area to call some people...Rachel, Jay, my parents, Hannah Petersen from MOPS, etc. When I walked back to see Dave and Violet again (while holding a fussy Calvin), the doctor met me in the hallway and said "She's got pneumonia. the X-Ray showed it clearly in the upper part of her right lung. We need to keep her here for a couple days, run some antibiotics and get this little girl turned around." I immediately was concerned (obviously!) because the word pneumonia is a scarey one. But I was sortof grateful that the doctor had come up with a diagnosis quickly and already had an action plan. He told me that her white blood cell count was up to 23,000. The normal range is between 4,000 and 11,000. So we waited again. A nurse named Traci came down to gather up our stuff and Violet to take us up to her hospital room in the pediatric wing. Just so happened to be right down the hall from the birthing area where we had both babies. She enjoyed pushing the buttons in the elevator. Violet was so tired after that big ER ordeal. We were there a couple hours I think...taking turns comforting Violet and dealing with a tempermental Calvin. Talk about wearying. Dave and I were also starving. It was close to 3 pm and both of us were going on a measly breakfast. Dave ordered some chinese food for delivery. The doctor took another look at Violet (listened to her heart, lungs, took temp, felt tummy, checked ears, etc)...which she was of course, NOT a fan of. She didn't fight back. She just cried and whimpered and wanted either Dave and I to hold her hand at all times. She was so sweet. As the nurse explained everything (and asked us about 100 questions for procedure-purposes), Violet got comfy on the bed with her special yellow pillow and two blankets (the purple and pink ones) and fell asleep. The toe monitor that measured the oxygen in her blood and her heart rate showed 98% oxygen, sometimes 100% oxygen in the blood, which was a very good thing. She quickly fell into a deep exhausted sleep for about 2 hours while we ate our food. We then remembered that our dog was still in the cage at home. Ugh....that dog. We love her...but during these times, she's so annoying because we have to deal with her. I decided to take Calvin with me back home so I could let the dog out, take her to the vet for a couple days, and pack up some of Dave's things: his computer, notebooks, work-related items, and a change of clothes and overnight toiletries. As I'm writing this I'm trying to remember everything I did. I did the car-seat shuffle with moving Calvin's car seat base to the truck so I could take him with me. It was such a blessing that our neighbor Becky was home. I was able to leave Calvin with her for an hour while I packed up some things and drove the dog to the vet at 7 pm during their drop-off/pick-up time. Thankfully Calvin just fell asleep in her arms the whole time. I picked him back up (because the dog and Calvin wouldn't have fit in the truck at the same time) and drove back out towards the hospital, trying to think of a place to shop for books. The only way that Violet let me leave was because I told her I was going to get her some books to read. She was so bored and tired of that hospital room. While I was away, Dave stayed with her in the hospital and the took frequent walks up and down the hallway. I ended up going to the Dollar store and grabbed something close to 15 books, a toothbrush and toothpaste for V (I forgot to pack it from home) and some candy for Dave. I also forgot the camera...so hopefully I will remember it when I go back in the morning. She was excited to see me and to read some books. We spent the next couple hours taking random walks, reading lots of books, and laying in bed comforting her. Also, while I was gone, Dave ordered her some pancakes, oatmeal, and yogurt. She only ate a few bites of the pancakes and was all done. She said "the nurse pushed the button!" referring to the machine that dispenses her antibiotics through the IV. We told her she had an IV in her arm...emphasizing the V because she has a friend named Ivy and I wanted it to sound a little different than her "best" friend. She kept pointing to the tubing all taped to her arm and saying "IV! IV!" I told her when we go home we can take the IV out. Naturally, she repeated everything, so she came up with her own rendition (not sure I could repeat it with words) of "when we go home we can take out the IV". :) So...we took one last walk up and down the hall, peed on the potty, and tucked her into bed with her pillow and blankets. She asked us to pray with her and then I left with Calvin. On the way home, I was holding back the tears. I was almost home, then noticed flashing lights behind me. Oh no....I thought to myself. I must have been speeding. Good thing Calvin was sleeping in the car seat. The cop was a lady who was really, really nice. I got out my license, insurance, and registration and told her I was flustered because I just left the hospital where my daughter was who has pneumonia. I started crying and the cop was just like "I'm sorry hon, I'll be right back." It was a lady cop. She was quick....and thankfully, just gave me a warning. *whew* I drove home in tears. Calvin transferred well to his bed. Right now he's sleeping peacefully and I forced myself to sit down and type all this out so I wouldn't forget it in the morning. I always think I'll remember, but I don't...so here it is. In the morning, I plan on going out there to see her when Calvin wakes up, I get a shower and eat a little something. I'm just SO glad Dave is with her and can help comfort her. I know she has to get her vitals checked at midnight, 4 am, 8 am, and every 4 hours. They'll also do some type of physiotherapy to try knock the junk out of her lungs at midnight too. I don't think she's going to like that one bit. I just hope and pray that she goes right back to sleep and that the antibiotics will knock the infection right out of her lungs as soon as possible. I want her to come home! I am going to get some rest now. G'night.

random thoughts

Calvin is now 3 months old. He's a little smiler and grins all the time. He has moments of crying but there is usually something I can do about it. He kindof giggled for the first time today - I was tickling his neck. He's a pacifier baby. He needs to have it when he's sleeping. I hope this isn't going to be an annoying issue. I turned him to sleep on his tummy when he was about a month and a half old. He slept SO much better that way. He didn't really care much for swaddling. I would just guess he's around 16 lbs. He's wearing 6 month size clothes and moving up from a size 2 to size 3 diaper this week. Crazy. He already feels like a hefty strong child. Dave thinks he is going to be crawling before Violet. She crawled the day she turned 7 months old. We'll see. Violet ... what can I say. Her new phrases she says now are: "I need that" and "I want this...or that" and "do it again!" and "help me" (which means I want to help you but she gets her "you" and "me" mixed up) and "read a book". She's putting together lots of sentences. She says "mama's hair all wet" and "Mama get Calvin's pacifier". She either prefers "hold you" which she pronounces "holdjyou" on the toilet or the potty seat when she goes to the bathroom. Sometimes she resists going potty - but all we have to do is start reading one of books and she gets interested right away. The other day we were in the car and she saw some birds. She said "airplane!" and I said to her "no, actually, those are birds". She must have taken note. The next morning, she looked out a window and saw something in the air, and started mumbling something like "birds! no, its an airplane!" haha! She still eats a bowl of oatmeal every morning. She asks for it. "OBO!" enthusiastically. Her favorite thing lately is to watch her letter video. Elmo is becoming less of an obsession. The says "vetters!" - it is The Letter Factory by LeapFrog. She knows all the sounds all the letters make. She can say her entire alphabet through including the "now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me" part of the song. The LMNOP is more like "llalalalalalala...o...p" She also likes to show Calvin things. She says "oh, Calvin! look outside at the train!" more like "taw-wah, train! train go bye bye!" She's a very sensitive child. She neeeeds to know exactly where I am. If we're in a crowd or with other people in a house, I can't even go to the bathroom or change Calvin's diaper without her coming with me - the idea of me leaving her is devastating. I go to MOPS and the workout at Orchard Hill and leave her in the child care area - and she freaks out, demands to hold my hand, tells me she has to pee, ANYTHING to try to stay with me. Its so hard to leave her when she's screaming. The child care helpers tell me that she calms down quickly and starts to play with the other kids, which is good news. I just don't like creating that unsettling feeling in her. I think she's mostly "day-time" potty trained. She tells us when she has to pee and poop and goes on the potty all the time during the day. She still wets the bed during naps occasionally and always wakes up with a wet diaper. I hope time takes care of that. The other day, she told me in the bathroom "no pee in underwear - pee on the potty". And when we pray with her at nighttime, she "takes turns" with us praying and her prayer is this "help me pee and poopy - aaaamen!" She loves to look at pictures of family members. She recognizes Aunt Carrie, Uncle Josh, Austin, Nay-Nay (Renee), Uncle Tim, Aunt Debbie, Kala, some of Sean and April's kids, Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jon (mago and magon!) and Aunt Rachel (Aunt Eee-aww) and Uncle Jay and Molly. When Dave comes up from work during the day to take a short break or use the bathroom ... she says "daddy's all done!" but then Dave says "no, daddy is just taking a break." She says "taking a break!" And when he comes up, she enthusiasically runs to the door and excitedly says "Daddy ALL DONE!" I think she knows the difference between being all done and taking a break. Favorite foods: chicken strips dipped in ranch, broccoli, peas, cheese, bananas, fruit snacks (hoot-nacks!), pizza, peanut butter and jelly, rice, bread, and milk. She's 29.5 lbs.

it was a phase

Bedtime drama has become a phase. She's no longer screaming...but she's always reluctant to go to bed. She demands tons of kisses and hugs and crys sometimes, but not nearly as bad as before. Violet is nearly potty trained now! It seems ever since we started praying with her, thanking God for helping her pee and poop on the potty, she likes to use the toilet. She is in underwear most of the time now - and she nearly 100% of the time tells me she has to go. She had an accident today during her nap. I went down to her room when I heard her wake up and she said "uh oh! all wet!" Calvin is a little smiler. He's turning into a pretty pleasant baby. He definitely still has his screaming/fussing moments. He wakes up at night once or twice to eat and sometimes goes back to sleep in his basinette (higher part of the pack and play), but sometimes he needs to stay in bed with me. He sleeps next to me in bed for the last 1/2 of the night pretty well too. Violet is learning so many new concepts lately. Her favorites: 1 blanket, 2 blankets. Upside down Other side Other way Turn in a circle Jump! Bounce! Dance! the entire alphabet A says "ah", B says "Buh", etc. She can do lots of the letters. Identifying some letters (IOWA shirt, for example)

ugh, bedtime has become a nightmare

Like the flip of a switch, Violet is all of a sudden TERRIFIED to go to bed. She freaks out when I put her down for a nap and freaks out even more when its time for bed. She makes up a million excuses to not have to go to bed. She's always been my happy-to-go-to-sleep and sleep-through-the-night girl since birth, so this is scaring me a little. She demands me to lay down with her. She uses my first name! She says "Maria! lay down pillow!!!!" over and over and over and calms down the moment my head hits the pillow next to her. If I get up and leave before she completely falls asleep, she gets out of bed and screams bloody murder til I come back. I have to wait til she's completely asleep to leave the room. I can't keep doing this!!

embarassed!

Picture this scene. Violet isn't wearing any underwear or diapers because I'm getting her to pee on the toilet. I'm holding Calvin and nursing him standing up. We are both standing by the sliding glass patio doors watching the snow fall. The UPS guy walks up to deliver a package and sees me nursing Calvin and then sees Violet with just a t-shirt on. He quickly dropped the package by the door and walked away quickly. I wonder who was more embarassed!!!!???? Aghhh!!!

Violet's latest

I love how she says this: "Where is it? Oh, oh, here it is!" when she's looking for something. "Where is it ball? Oh, oh, here it is ball!" She's also got "me" and "you" mixed up. She says "hold you!" if she wants us to hold her and "help me" if she wants you to help her. :) Wonder when that will get straightened out?

She's doing quite well in her big girl bed!

She's officially out of her crib and into the queen size bed in her room. She's been sleeping great! Only the first few times did she get up and try get out of naptime, but we put her right back and she stays. She's sleeping well from 8 pm to 8 am (a general guideline...). Sometimes she'll sleep even longer.

She still sleeps with her little yellow pillow, the pink and purple blankets, another flowery blanket, green monkey, buddy bear (ba-bil-ow), and Elmo. The other day we caught her sleeping in her bed smashed in the corner against the wall.

At her 2 year checkup, she was 35" tall and 29 lbs.

Calvin's first smiles

Calvin is starting to smile now! He's 6 weeks old. I've been too busy to sit down and type anything. He's gaining weight fast and is sleepin *decent* at night. He'll go for a 4-5 (sometimes even a 6) hour stretch, feed, and sometimes go right back to sleep. He's a lot more gassy of a baby than Violet was! He burps and farts so much more. He also takes a paci - he loves to suck!

We finally got the kid's bedroom switched. Since Dave moved his office to the basement, we painted that room and made it Violet's. She's sleeping in the queen size bed. Calvin has new bedding and moved into her old room with the crib and the changing table.

Dave has a funny story from this morning that he told me about. Last night was Violet's first whole night sleeping in her big queen bed. I think she slept in it the whole night, I'm not sure. Dave came back in the house after having coffee with Eric this morning, and he walked into find Violet standing in the middle of the living room, clutching her blankets. She had woken up on her own, pulled the towel off the window in her room (don't have window coverings up yet!), and walked out into the house by herself. I was still sleeping through this! How funny. We're onto the next stage in her life when she can do almost everything by herself. Next stage of life is potty-training....oh my!

Hospital pictures of Calvin's birth (and my 41 week belly pic)

Calvin David LaMarche was born 12-28-07!

My blog to my friends/family - c/p'ed here so I could record it: Written on 12/28/07: Right now I'm sittin' in the hospital bed. I am incredibly tired - and very drugged. I feel like at any moment my head could fall over and I'd be drooling dead asleep. Ok...first of all....I'm so thankful for this c-section. This baby would NOT have fit if I did end up going into labor and attempting a VBAC. The midwife and doctors both said they're glad I didn't have to find out what would have happened. (9 lbs 13.6 oz). Calvin was not quite as big as Violet, but his head measured around even bigger than hers did at birth. Wowza! So we woke up this morning at 4 am. I didn't sleep much.....maybe 2 hours of good sleep, the rest I attempted was pretty much tossing and turning. We got to our room, I got the IV and catheter put in, and then just waited. When the time came, I walked down to the surgery room and they got my spinal put in. The anesthesiologist did a GREAT job. I felt a couple minor pinches than was completely warm and numb. They did the incision at 7:33 and got Calvin out by 7:44 am. I was out of the surgery room around 8:30. I nursed him as soon as he got to the room. He opened up wide and latched on like a pro. He nursed for a good 15 minutes and switched sides, and nursed for 15 min on the other side. What a great start!!! He's SO cute!! He looks so much like Violet when she was a newborn. So today, I've been resting a lot. I walked up and down the hall for about 10 minutes already. Lots of pressure and pain at the incision site as I expected. My sister brought Violet to see us after she ate breakfast. She did SOOOOO good!! She immediately said "baby! baby! baby!" when she first saw Calvin. She got to "hold" him and she kissed him, pointing out his eyes, his lips, his hat, etc. We were both enamored to tears.

random antics...

Violet is such a goon lately. She is starting to talk SO much more. Lately she has been going on and on on these random tangents of talking. She'll blab and blab as if she's telling a story with her arms waving, hands pointing, and facial expressions.

Today's the due date

No progress. I'm pretty disappointed. After last week's false labor episode on Sunday morning I had a little hope that maybe it would start up again. But today I'm due and nothing. The midwife said I am not dilated at all.

Cervical pain

I have been feeling so much pain in/on/near my cervix this pregnancy. I never experienced this when I was pregnant with Violet. I am HOPING that is it is a good sign that I'll efface and dilate - since I've been going to the chiropractor this pregnancy, maybe my muscles are looser? I don't know. Just wanted to document that. :) I'm 4 weeks away from meeting our next baby!!!

fush! fush! fush!

Violet is obsessed with flushing the toilet. When she poos on the potty - or if I go, or if Dave goes, or for that matter, if ANYBODY goes on the potty, she notices and insists on flushing. The first time she got to do it, she would have a royal meltdown with screaming and crying if she was unable to flush - but after a few days, she realized she wasn't going to be allowed to flush for every single person in the house. We're at Grandma Martha's house for Thanksgiving this year in Chicago. The big meal is at Uncle Roger and Aunt Mary's in Naperville tomorrow.

Hep mama! Hep mama!

Violet has really been obsessed with helping lately. She says "hep mama! Hep mama! Hep mama!" if I'm doing something in the kitchen...so we pull up a chair, she stands on it, and "helps" me measure out things, pour stuff into bowls, and basically plays in the drawer that has all the measuring cups/spoons in it. It really slows down my progress, but I don't mind unless I'm trying to MAKE progress baking for the shop or something. She isn't allowed in the kitchen when I'm bakin'. But this morning we made pancakes, and she helped measuring all the ingredients...the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, milk, oil, and even cracked the egg. She squeezed it with all her might and got her hands all eggy, but miraculously, no shell fell in! So, I went with it. She even ate 2 pancakes and got a kick out me flipping them from side to side.

Tonight she insisted on helping Dave assemble the casserole we planned for supper. She repeats everything he says! Its sooo cute!