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!!!