January 29, 2012

• A Progression of Days

  One of my prayers and deep desires for my boys is that they grow up to be great friends.  And then, of course, come the inevitable squabbles, etc. – at this stage, especially in relation to Zion, as both boys get frustrated with him or he gets frustrated with them.  I thought it was so sweet the other day when Gabe said, “I think Israel should get an extra reward, because he is so nice to everybody.”  

  Israel is nice.  I sure do like him.  He has a tender spirit.  

  Tonight the boys were carrying blankets they had taken into the living room back into their bedroom, and Israel said, “Gabe went and got my blanket for me today.”  ”That was nice of him!” I responded.  ”Yes,” Israel said, “He does lots of nice things for me.”  It’s just nice to see them appreciating each other like that.  Warms a mommy’s heart.  

  It will be interesting to see how Zion relates to them as he gets a little older, and if he will be closer to them or to Layla.  I love that they all have each other.  

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  As I was zooming my speedy little cart around Walmart the other day my eye fell on these items on clearance and I simply. couldn’t. resist.  

  

  Don’t they just look like just the things that a boy and his brothers need to work out some excess energy during the winter months?

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  Zion is such a cuddly little tousle-haired destroyer of all things clean who also lets loose with ear piercing screeching insistence and tears when things are not pleasing.  He initially automatically votes “no” to any option presented him.  This is something that is so typical of him:  This morning he was sitting on Tim’s lap on the couch, and Tim said to me, “Mom loves her Kindle Fire.”  And Zion instantly said, quietly and distractedly as he examined his blanket corners, “No, she does not love her Kindle Fire.”

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  “Can I have these how much balls?” asks Zion, heading toward the door with an armload of whiffle balls.

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  Layla is 9 months old.  

  

  She is 21.5 lbs.  

  When I catch sight of her in the mirror while I’m carrying her, she really seems like she is getting big.

  

  When not sick, she will sleep from about 9 PM to 9 AM, waking once or twice to eat.  Lately she has been sick or teething more than not, however, and she seems to not sleep much when she is either of those.  

  

  She nurses to sleep.  For about a month, she has often fallen asleep while gently clutching her exposed ear.  She also has this habit lately of vigorously smacking herself in the head as she is falling asleep.  Or stabbing herself in the head with her thumb while her fingers are spread open.  Smack, smack, smack.  Stab, stab, stab.  Roll of the mommy’s eyes.  She will sit and play happily for a long while, and really maneuvers herself around while sitting or laying.  

  

  She is a very sturdy sitter.  She can go from laying to sitting, but still only does this on the floor and not in her crib.  Still not crawling, but still close.  She will get on her knees with one leg folded inwards…and then sprawl on her stomach.  

  

  She is a happy, friendly girl.

  

   Her top two teeth are finally through the gums and slowly coming all the way in.  She is eating baby food, and can put items into her mouth.  She is the first one of my children to put items from the floor into her mouth that she finds.  She can be very busy finding things.  

  

  Goose.  Her hair is slowly coming in and is fluffy and curls a lot in the back.

  

   I love her so very very very very much.  We all do.  :)

  

  

  

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  To follow up on my last post, the same week that I wrote about a month of sickness and exhaustion, I got really sick.  Chills and achiness and totally fatigued and drenching night sweats.  And right sided pleurisy in addition to the left sided pleurisy I already had.  And continued to cough and cough and cough.  I called the doctor back after antibiotics hadn’t done anything, and she sent me for a chest x-ray.  The night after I got my x-ray, after getting up to feed Layla during the night, I almost passed out when I came back into our room; I felt TERRIBLE for about 5-10 minutes, and then felt really weak.  Tim was totally afraid that I had some kind of infection that was going septic, and he wanted me to go to the ER.  I went; they basically said – looks like you have an infection somewhere, we just don’t know where.  The chest x-ray was negative for pneumonia.  I came home and started on the new antibiotic my doctor had prescribed, and slowly improved over the next week.  It is SO. GOOD. to have energy again.  I still have some cough, and some lingering pleurisy, but just feel SOOOOO much better than I had.  But here’s the good part.  

  The morning that I returned home from the ER, Tim kept getting persistent texts from our friend, Sydney, asking if a group of women could come over to help.  I finally agreed (which was harder than you may think, because I would much rather be prepared for people to come over than for everything to be way behind and need help), but a group of lovely wonderful amazing friends swarmed in late that morning and went to work, cleaning, and taking my laundry away and taking the boys away for the afternoon and bringing food and holding Layla and basically making us feel like we were “attended by angels”.  I shuffled around when I could, and sometimes just sat exhaustedly with my eyes closed while people worked around me, and then more people came in the evening to pray for us and bring more food, and then more people came back the next day to finish things up and to bring back laundry and brought more food, and two people came the day after that, one to iron and one to help me get clean laundry put away…I’m telling you, it was amazing.   My house was clean basically from head to toe, all viruses had been Lysol-ed away, my laundry was clean and folded – and I wasn’t in a total wiped out state getting it all done, but was able to rest and heal.  

  A few weeks into my sickness, someone had prayed for me at church and had said that something good was going to come out of this sickness, and Tim and I have just so humbled and blessed by the OUTPOURING of love and care we experienced.  I just pray for each of those people an outpouring of spiritual blessing, where they know the love and presence of God in a way they have never experienced; for an outpouring of financial blessing that goes beyond their needs and allows for provision for wants and for generosity; for an outpouring of closeness and blessing in their family lives – for reconciliations and deepened relationships in the closest relationships of their lives.  I just simply cannot say thank you enough to you all.  We love you so very much and are humbled by your care for us.  

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  Tim went away for about 5 days last week for a conference out of state.  He was gone from Saturday to Thursday.  This was (sort of) ok…until Gabe got sick.  Poor dude had strep, which had been making the rounds in his classroom.  He had a headache, sore throat, no appetite, and an itchy rash that covered him from head to foot.  Even the bottoms of his feet were covered in the rash and itchy.

  

  Tuesday found all five of us waiting in the doctor’s office to be seen, which is an experience in and of itself, if you’ve ever taken multiple young children to wait in a doctor’s office.  Then, the mommy took all four children into Walmart to pick up Gabe’s antibiotic, and to get some things for a Valentine’s Day party.  Gabe had burst into tears when he realized that he had to miss the Valentine’s Day party at school and his mommy felt very badly for him and had promised that we would have a Valentine’s Day party at home.  So, at Walmart, I had Layla, Gabe, and Zion in one cart, and was pushing that with one hand while pulling another cart to get groceries/medicine/party items.  This, my friends, was just yet another experience for the week.  

  Gabe was grouchy and sick and kept yelling at Zion who would touch him with his feet.  Layla tilted too far and whacked her head on the side of the cart, so then I was holding her in one arm, and alternately pushing one cart a few steps and going back to retrieve the other cart for a few steps, as Israel got teary and intimidated about pushing the grocery cart for me.  Finally I put Layla back in, and right toward the end of our shopping, she fell fast asleep and stayed that way until I lifted her out of the cart to put her back in her seat out in the minivan.  

  

  Can I just say – that was probably one of the most exhausting Walmart trips I have ever experienced.  

  When we came home, my party energy was hanging on by a fragile pink thread…I had promised to make cupcakes and had agreed to make both chocolate and strawberry…and then I was pretty much done.  The boys seemed to roundly enjoy their supper of cupcakes and raspberry sherbet punch and cheese curls and other similar goodies.  Nothing like good nutrition during illness……but it would just have to do.  

  

  Man, was I tired at the end of that day.  Phew.   

  So anywho, we celebrated Valentine’s Day with a healthy dose of scarlet fever.  (I think scarlet fever sounds just so much more exciting that “strep with a rash”.  Do you not agree??)  An illness with a colorful name befitting the holiday, eh??  

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  In the days it has taken to complete this post, Layla has started to crawl, at about 9 months 2 1/2 weeks.  She has been the slowest of my children to crawl by one week, I think.  Since then, she has found herself a busy busy girl.  Head straight to the wood pellet stove to try to grab those pretty orange flames…check.  Dump out the trashcan(s)…check.  Empty dog waterbowl and/or food bowl…check.  Attempt to obtain silverware out of the dishwasher basket…check.  

  Hmmmmmmmm.  Between Layla and Zion, I shouldn’t be bored.  Or in any want of things to clean up.

  

  What a Cheezer Mcfreezer. 

  • 10:34 pm
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