Almost back to normal

This weekend was deemed 'recovery weekend' after our hospital stay last week.  Just today I finally unpacked my bag, organized the laundry, sanitized the toys that we brought to the hospital, etc. I think we're about back to normal around here, except that I need to still give the Little Mister nebulizer treatments ever 4-5 hours around the clock (yup, that includes the wee hours of the morning when the rest of the clan is asleep).  He'll see his pediatric pulmonologist (aka Super Doctor) on Tuesday morning and hopefully that wee hour of the morning part will be over.

In the meantime, just in case I felt bored at any time of the day, I started making this for the Munchkin...



I've been wanting to get matching Christmas stockings for the whole clan for awhile but have always been worried that they'd be discontinued and the last child (be it the Little Mister if we---please, Lord, please---get to adopt him) wouldn't match the rest of us.  A couple of years ago I discovered these Bucilla stockings. It comes as a kit and you sew it yourself. I really do enjoy sewing (my grandma would be SO proud), but oh. my. word.  I don't know if you can tell, but every sequin, every leaf, every single piece on here is embroidered and appliqued.  I don't think I'll finish for Christmas. Maybe I should have gone with the Pottery Barn ones...that would have been easier. But in 5 years, when I've made stockings for everyone, I think I'll be glad I did. I know I will.

This is the one I have for the Handsome Man...

And this is the Princess's


I already have a baby themed one for the Little Mister, and Ben and I have our own. Eventually, I'll get Bucilla ones for us and for him, but not this year. Maybe next year. Maybe.

If I'm not posting much, you'll know where I am...sewing little ballerina bears. :)

Going home!

Thank you so much for all your prayers, support, and words of encouragement. We just got the okay to take the Little Mister home. I'm off to get him ready to go! Thank you, Lord!

Lookin' good

The pediatrician came in this morning and thinks the Little Mister can go home today. He wants the pulmonologist to see him as well. Then the two doctors will have a little chat and make sure they agree that he's good to go. The nurse took his IV out a little bit ago so hopefully he'll drink more of his bottle. He only drank 1 ounce at 8:30 this morning (and 2 ounces at 5:30...bless the nurse who decided to feed him while I slept).  They turned off his oxygen last night and he did great without it.

The Little Mister is asleep in his hospital crib right now. I think he's ready to go back to normal naptimes, regular playtimes and just be at home.  He's been such a trooper here. I brought some toys but his favorite thing to play with is his IV tube. :) It'll be nice to be home. It's been nice and quiet here but I'm missing  the usually loudness of home.

Super Doctor

(If you just starting reading this blog, you'll notice that I don't use any of our children's names in it. See this post that explains the nicknames, and please don't use their real names if you post a comment. Thank you for helping protect their privacy.)

One of my most favorite doctors ever just came by our hospital room. She is his pediatric pulmonologist. We had a 1:00PM appointment with her yesterday because of the Little Mister's cold and high fever. When we were in her office, his temperature had gone up to 105.1. She wanted him to go to the ER suspecting pneumonia. Of course, I had all four kids in tow. So Super Doctor she is--I kid you not, Super Doctor (without asking or hesitating) not only personally escorted me to Pediatric Emergency Room, but she drove my double stroller all the way there. Then she stayed with us in the ER until we were able to get into a room. (The ER was filled to capacity and we had to wait for a room.) She talked to the Munchkin and Handsome Man about school, walked them to the waiting room to see if there was a movie playing, picked the Princess's toys up off the floor that she tossed out of the stroller, and stayed to make sure that we were settled into our room. I love this doctor.

Back to the update...Super Doctor said that the Little Mister is looking a lot better and might be able to go home tomorrow.  He needs to drink more of his bottle. His last bottle, he only wanted one ounce. It's almost 4PM and his total is 6 ounces for the day. She thinks that when they slow down his IV fluids, he'll drink more. And he needs to keep his oxygen levels up (over 95 or 96% I think) . He's doing great right now which is much better than this morning when his machine kept beeping.  She also said that it depends on how his night goes. His pediatrician and another pulmonoligist from the practice will be in to see him in the morning and decide if he can go home then.

While having the Little Mister sick and in the hospital isn't easy, we are so aware of God's grace. He is getting better. He will most likely go home this week. A lot little ones here won't be going home so soon. We are thankful that he is improving so quickly. Thank you to those that are praying him.

High -- Low

Every night at dinner, our family does "High -- Low". It originated in Ben's classroom, and he brought it home to the dinner table one night. The big kids love it and usually never forget to start High--Low during dinner. Our rule is that even if you're finished with dinner, you can't be excused from the table until everyone's given their "high" point of the day and their "low" point of the day. (That's our sneaky way of trying to get them to sit at the dinner table longer.)  So here are my high--lows from the weekend...

Highs

• We were home most of the weekend. It was nice to have some days just to be home.
• Ben's hiking trip with his students was canceled on Saturday AM. So nice to have him home too!
• The Princess and Handsome had a bit of a cold but are getting better. And, they're sleeping through the night again!
• We finally ordered our Christmas cards. Can't wait for them to arrive. I have an almost silly love for Christmas cards. :)

Lows

• The Little Mister was pretty sick. Sick enough that by Monday we were at the doctor, then the ER and now the children's hospital. He's doing better but is recovering from RSV, pneumonia and bronchilits. Poor Little Mister. He's doing better but we're here for a day or two more. I'll post more later if possible now that I have my computer here.

Thanksgiving and then some

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year. We're used to being with a lot of extended family for holidays, but this year it didn't work out that way. And, I just love when God shows us why in the end. 

First, we'll back up to Wednesday. Handsome Man had an adorable program in his preschool classroom. He was a very handsome pilgrim. The kids and I had a great time watching him sing and enjoying his classroom 'feast'.

Our Handsome Pilgrim singing.

Then came Thursday, Thanksgiving. It was just our family (which is up to 6 total) and my parents. Mom and I planned the menu (and may I just add that I love to be the one in the kitchen because I get to help chose the food. Yum.) We tried to stay simple (and actually, we did hold back on the food) but we ended up with a few courses anyway...
,

1. Butternut squash soup...made in the crock pot. Sooooo good.
2. The Thanksgiving stuff...turkey, stuffing, sweet potato souffle, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, bread
3. Salad...sort of course in itself because we all like to eat it at the end of the meal.
4. Nuts and fruit...just almonds and clementines. Keeping it simple.
5. Artichokes...a surprise addition that my mom couldn't resist bringing.
6. Dessert

My man carving the bird.

Learning to crack nuts.

Yum, right? We started eating at 2:30PM and didn't finish dessert until 6:00PM. (We don't sit the whole time but do spend a good bit of time hanging out at the table.) It was a nice night.  Quiet...but that's for good reason. Read on.

Here is why God was so gracious to keep our Thanksgiving small and at our home. My mom ended up in the ER on Monday. She came home early, early Tuesday morning but was on antibiotics and not feeling great. (I was somewhat successful in getting her to sit most of the day.) My dad was also on antibiotics and not feeling super. The babies napped for numerous hours on Thanksgiving. (Did I just hear an Amen from other moms of babies out there?) Then, the Munchkin woke up Thursday night, after Thanksgiving dinner vomiting. That continued for 36 awful hours. I was so thankful that we didn't expose lots of people to our germs.

Friday...Black Friday...is one of my favorite days of the year. You'd think for the shopping? Nope...for the holiday decorating. (We did get some good deals that day though.) We got our tree up, the kids opened their Christmas ornaments from their great Aunt Polly and Uncle Dirk and we decorated the tree and put up my beloved Nativity scene that Ben's parents got me.

The Munchkin opening her ornament from the couch. She was sick all weekend.

The Little Mister opening his first Christmas ornament ever.

Yay for new ornaments.

The Nativity scene set up.

Our tree. Full of beautiful kid-made ornaments. A new star is hopefully coming this year to top the tree.

The Munchkin has made a full recovery. Thank you, Lord. And no one else has yet to get the horrible virus  in our house. Thank you, thank you, dear Lord. When she was all better on Sunday, Ben set up the Snow Village in the front window.  Let the holiday season begin!

My Little Daisy

The Munchkin became an official Girl Scout this week....a Daisy. She had to say 2 words in front of all the parents, and I wasn't sure she was going to make it. She gets really nervous in front of groups, but she did it! I was so proud of her. And, she was so relieved when it was over.  Here she is with one of her Daisy leaders... :)

The Princess is One

I can't believe it. A year ago, I had just come home from the hospital with a new baby girl. Our 3rd child. She was (and still is) such a sweet addition to our family. She laughs, wrestles, climbs and does just about whatever she can to keep up with her older siblings.  We love you, little lady. Here she is declaring her one-ness in all her caked-glory.

The week's happenings....

It's been a fairly normal week around here without much new to report. Here's a quick recap of what's been going on lately:

• Last weekend we got to see our nephew and his super parents. It was so much fun--even if both our babies preferred not to sleep much at night. :)
• The Little Mister had a couple of doctor appointments so we weren't home too much this week. He also has more visits now so he's gone a lot when we are home. The judge ruled he must see his biological parents 4 hours a week (it used to be 1). It's a lot for him and we're praying that the judge will change that.
• We had the final inspections on the new bathroom and passed everything. Ben did such a great job!
• I went shopping on Friday before one the doctor appointments. I decided to stop by Gap and try to spend some of my birthday money.  I haven't bought new clothes since before I was pregnant with The Princess. I very much dislike buying clothes that are not my 'regular' size but I thought I'd give it a try.  I mean, she's almost a YEAR old. And, sure enough, a pair of pre-preggers size of jeans fit. Glory, glory!!! I bought them without trying on another thing and ran out of the store.
• Today our small group from church was doing a service project by painting a new pregnancy resource center. I'm not much of a painter--in fact, Ben has banned me from any such activity in our home. And, he (the very proficient painter) has graduate school all weekend. So I volunteered to watch everyone else's kids while the rest of the group painted.  I'm much better at changing diapers and doling out pretzels than painting walls. We all have our gifts, right?

Under Construction

If you check this blog from time to time, I apologize if I'm driving you nuts. I'm searching for a background that I like. There are so many out there. It's like shoe shopping--I just can't decide. I've been changing everything around a lot until I find one I'd like to stick with. Bear with me as I try to figure this all out. Thanks for your patience!

The Name Thing

So far I haven't posted any of our kids names on this blog. I'm conflicted about it. On one hand, I'm nervous about weirdos out there in cyberspace. On the other hand, I totally believe in God's grace and protection over us. So while I'm debating this in my head, I'll refer to the kids with one of their nicknames.

• The Munckin is our firstborn. A girl. Who likes to be in charge. (Don't all firstborns? I can say that because I am one AND I'm married to one.) 5 years old. Sorry, 5 1/2.
• Handsome Man is our first son. Lots of energy. 4 years old. Sorry, again, 4 1/2.
• The Princess. Almost 1 year. Gets what she wants by screaming until someone gives in. Someone usually gives in because she's so cute (and loud).
• The Little Mister. 4 months old. He's ours for now but maybe not forever. But we hope so. We've been his foster parents since he was almost 4 weeks old.

What's your opinion about names of children or people in general on blogs? Maybe I'm making a big deal over nothing, or atleast very little.

Weekend Highlights

It's only Saturday night, but I'm ready to highlight the weekend because it's been pretty exciting around here. Well, exciting for my life, that is. Here's what I mean:

-On Friday, the kids were officially declared healthy! No more nebulizer. No more antibiotics. Hallelujah!

-Friday evening, my dryer was finally fixed. It'd been broken for 2 weeks. I really tried the clothes-line-thing, but it's not easy to do when it rains every day.

-Today we got shrubs and plants for our front yard. We had majority of the yard professionally landscaped about 4 years ago. We (okay, Ben) was too frugal to pay someone else to install the shrubs when he was more that able to do it himself. Just too 4 years to get them in. :) They look great.

So a good doctor's appointment, a fixed dryer, and some plants have made this an amazing weekend. Tomorrow we'll meet a new little cousin (who we haven't met yet because we were all sick) at his christening. Hope you're all having a great weekend too!

Where we've been

September is generally a busy month for us. Ben goes back to his regular teaching schedule, the kids start school, fall activities begin, Bible studies start up...you know--the regular September rush. This year we got an extra dose of September germs. At one point, I was dispensing so much medication in our home that I thought I might need some kind of nursing degree for this to be legit. This is what we've been up to (cumulatively) and why I haven't blogged in a long time. I cannot tell you how thankful I am that we're all almost 100% better.

-2 cases of pink eye
-1 fever virus
-3 chest colds
-1 double ear infection
-3 weeks of nebulizer medications
-2 rounds of antibiotics
-2 flu shots down, 2 more to go

Off and running...

Our September routine is off to a good start. It's a lot of running to and from school. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we all load in the car to get off to Kindergarten. Then drive to the next town over to get to Pre-K (we're always late for that). Then back home so the babies can nap. In an hour, we repeat. Back in the car to go to Pre-K pick-up then back to Kindergarten and finally home again. The poor babies have to go in and out of the car so many times. They go in the stroller and we walk up to the door (K) or classroom (Pre-K) for each drop off and pick up. Guess they'll just get used to it...hopefully before I get used to running back and forth to school. Tuesday and Thursday is just a K drop-off so it takes 1/2 the time. Gotta run...almost time to get back in the car again!

The First Day of Kindergarten

Today was the first day of public school for our family. Our little munchkin was pretty excited but also really nervous too. We left early so that we'd have plenty of time to walk there and check out her new school.

She did great! A few tears (okay...a lot of tears) on her way in. But she said she stopped right away once she got into the school. It's just half day kindergarten (I'm so glad it is!) so we were on our way back to get her in just a couple of hours. Here she is coming out of her class wearing her "farmhand" hat she made.

One more week...

...until I officially have a kindergartner. I seriously can't believe my baby girl is 5.5 years old. And going to kindergarten. It seems like she was just a baby, sleeping and napping most of the day. Those were the days that I had a one kiddo, a clean house, some free time. :) But my house was so quiet and I longed for busier days with lots of little ones around. Guess I got my wish--with a not so clean house and not so much free time. I'd take the latter any day though. Here's to one more week of having a busy, noisy house alllllll day long.

Healthy again

We made it over to the healthy side. The fever bug went through all 4 kids the last week. The bug lasted 7 loooong days. I'm so thankful everyone is healthy again!

10 Years!

Wow--post #2. Not bad. Today was our 10 year anniversary. We were blessed to have both sets of grandparents offer to babysit. Ben's parents took the big kids down at their house for swimming and the babies stayed here with my parents. We were totally kid-less. A.ma.zing. We went to DSW for new shoes. Ben got me some super cute silver sandals. I put them on in the car and then we headed for P.F. Changs for a super yummy dinner. For dessert we had "The Great Wall of Chocolate" cake. IF I'd brought my camera, and IF I knew how to post a picture on here, it'd be worth one. So good. Thank you grandparents for the wonderful gift of an entire uninterrupted dinner conversation. It was priceless.

Giving this blog thing a try....

I'm not sure it'll last. I'm not even sure I'll get it going. But I'm going to give this blog thing a try. Maybe it's because my sister-in-laws are so good at it. Or maybe because I love reading theirs as well as others' blogs. It's surely not because I need another thing to do. That's for sure. :o) But I'm going to try. I hope it works out. However, I apologize in advance if I can't. Please be patient with me...this is going to take a while to figure out.