Our Last Ski Day

I had to give up skiing last month, as my belly grew. But I wanted the kids to get in one more ski day, and it actually was Myann's only ski day this season.

No photos of Myann, because we could not find them on the slopes, but the instructor said she did great. He said she is not ready for the lift, but she is learning to turn and stop on her own. Shane is doing great and continues to rock the slopes. I can not wait to ski with him next year.

Anders' Houston trip

Brilliant Grandma Jo suggested last year that when Brian went to Houston for work trips, he should bring a kid with him. Since Shane is in school, that leaves Myann and Anders. Myann went last fall, so now it was Anders' turn. I had a bit of a hard time parting with him since he is still such my baby, but I knew he would love and deserved some one on one time. Anders does not know a world without two older siblings always around, so I am curious to hear how he handled it. So far I know they have kept him busy with some fun activities. We skyped for a while last night and he seemed to be enjoying himself. In fairness to me, Brian said he does miss his mommy. The first night there he kept asking to talk to me.
For some add reason he keeps telling everyone, "Mommy told me no candy. She won't give me candy." Later he said, "I need to call mommy." Brian asked why and Anders said, "Because I need to tell her something!"

I took these off Aunt Sunny's facebook page:
We took Anders (2 1/2 yrs. old) to the Oil Ranch in Houston. While there, I pointed out a Peacock. Later, I asked Anders: What did we see yesterday? Anders response: We saw cows and baby goats and a "cock pee". ME: We saw WHAT? Anders: We saw a cock pee! ....What have I taught my nephew?!!!! I am slightly concerned that if he repeats this at school, CPS may show up at my door. :)

My nephew asks me, "Aunt Sunny, you love me?" I answer, "Of course, Anders, I love you more than I could love anything." Anders: "Why, Aunt Sunny?" Me: "I love you, Braxton, Shane, and Myann because you are my nephews and niece and you make me so incredibly happy!" Anders: "Ohhhh? Because we are so cute?" :)....If I loved them any more, my heart could possibly explode.

My sweet Anders

I promise pictures are coming, but lately I have been too busy, too tired, or too sick to go downstairs and upload photos. So for now you are just stuck with my writing.

Anders' phrase of the week, "Mommy, please play with me." I think he knows he is about to leave me for a week and my heart can not handle it, so every time he asks, I have to oblige.

Also, I went to bed last night thinking how lucky we are to have Anders. He is my sweetie and my compassionate one. He frequently walks up to me and says, "Mom, you need a hug?" and then opens his arms and comes in for a hug. It is about the greatest feeling in the world to get an Anders hug. His hugs are filled with a world of love. He also needs hugs a lot when he gets in trouble, that is so me. If I scold Anders, his immediate response is, "Mom, can I have a hug?" with the most pathetic face you have ever seen. I did that as a child, as my mom and dad will confirm. He has a smile on his face 95% of the, and the other 5% is usually his pretend frown of which is immediately followed with a smile.

Roller skating

We had our first rollerskating birthday party for the kids' friend Claire. I was pretty excited since I have not roller skated in maybe 20 years. The kids were excited until we actually put on the roller skates. Shane and Myann have never roller skated. Shane gave it a weak attempt, but the video games were too much of a distraction. Myann was more optimistic, but after one go around the rink, she was done and off to the bounce house.

Last day of stitches

Myann's stitches could not come out soon enough. So on day 10, we were knocking on the door of urgent care. Here is Myann before the bandage removal.


The actual process of removing the stitches proved to be almost as traumatic as having them put in. She screamed and had to be restrained. The doctor and nurse were not impressed. But they were out and after a day of limping, Myann seems to be back to normal.

6 month dental check up

Last time Anders was not cooperative, but this time he did really well. Such a relief. But since nothing can go perfect, Myann chose not to cooperate. The poor hygienist had to try four different flavors of fluoride and Myann was still not happy. So then we did the paint-on kind and I ended up wearing most of it as Myann wiped it off her teeth and still on to my clothes. The dentist decided to be my cheerleader and repeatedly tell me how great a mom I was because none of my kids had cavities and their teeth looked great. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing my kids' teeth are healthy, but I hardly think that wins me mother of the year.




And of course my kids love this bear, so here is our regular dentist photo op.

Tuesday funnies

My kids never cease to crack me up.

This morning as we were driving down the street Myann said, "Wow, look at all the tree limbs and dead trees. Oh I know why, kids around here are using too many paper towels." It took me a second to understand, but the I realized what she meant. The night before there was a wind storm and rain so a bunch of limbs had been knocked out of trees to the ground. My kids are notorious for washing their hands and drying them with paper towels. I always say, don't use paper towels you are killing trees. Use the kitchen towel to dry clean hands. Myann took my statement literally. This poor child envisioned that every time she used a paper towel, some tree was dying in our neighborhood, rather than a tree had to die in order to make her paper towels. A good morning laugh.

At dinner, I was washing dishes as Shane finished eating. I heard him choking and he said, "Mom, aren't you proud of me? I did not throw up. I was gagging, but then I took three deep breaths and stopped gagging." My response, "Well why were you gagging?" Shane, "Mom, sometimes your cooking makes me gag." Brian and I exchanged glances and we both started cracking up. I should be offended, but sometimes I try new things and they do not turn out so well. I refuse to waste food, so the whole family has to eat it anyway. Last night was one of his favorites, so not sure why he was gagging.

Anders the Superhero

Anders tonight as he put on his pj's. "Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Anders" As sung to the Batman theme song but instead of saying Batman, he replaced it with Anders and put his hands in the air. We totally should have named him Thor, he was born to be a superhero. And I will choose to ignore the fact that he was actually putting on Superman pj's. That boy makes us smile at least a thousand times a day.

Silver Mountain Water park

Today we went to Kellogg, Idaho for a a couple of friends' birthday party at the water park at Silver Mountain. Myann's foot put a bit of a damper on the full weekend, since her stitches meant she could not go in the water. Brian volunteered to stay with her in the hotel room so I could still take the boys. We had prepared Myann since Wednesday that she could not go in the water and if we took her she could not throw a fit once there. Myann proved faithful to her promise to me and did not have a fit. She did tear up a little at the sight of all the kids having fun, but I promised her we would go again once her foot was better and she perked up. She and Daddy hung out in the room watching movies and eating popcorn. The boys and I made our rounds in the park, with the help of my friends, who swapped out watching a child periodically. Shane is a my daredevil who wanted to do all the slides, which of course needed an adult. So I broke the no waterslides when pregnant rule and joined him as many times as I could hike the stairs to the top. Anders did the slides with us he could, but he was quite happy to do the slides in the kiddie area too. He must have gone about 50 times. Anders and I did a few body slides together, but then I sent him down one time alone since I was done and it served its purpose, he was done too.

Myann being a good sport, even though she could not go in.


Boys playing

Anders grabbing a bite between playing.


Anders was done with the water, but found a poll to climb.


Shane then decided to try the body surfing ride. I expected a full on immediate wipe out, but that kid lasted about 8 seconds the first time and 20 to 30 seconds on his subsequent rides. He was such a midget in line with all the big kids, but then when he was done, I was surprised how grown up he seemed. Video to come when I am not too tired to get out the camera and download.

Shane waiting in line. He was the smallest.



Shane's first try


Shane's 2nd try

Ultrasound for Baby Quatro

At 19 weeks, we had our ultrasound. I thought it was a great idea to take all 3 kids because they have been so excited about seeing the baby. Ok, so 6 people, tech included, in a tiny room is probably not one of my better ideas. Considering the situation, they did well, but Anders was pretty hyper and kept messing with Shane. None of the kids really paid much attention to the ultrasound or seeing the baby. Anders' only comment was when we listened to the heart beat he said, "That's scary." Shane perked up a few times when he saw a body part he recognized, but that was about it. Poor Brian was so busy keeping them contained that he did not really get to watch or enjoy the ultrasound. Fortunately we have pictures and a video to watch. Baby was moving like crazy keeping the tech on her toes, which offered me some relief because I was convinced this baby never moved. Turns out, I have an anterior placenta, which cushions any of the baby's movement, so that explains why I have felt almost no baby movement. Here I just thought I was finally going to have a calmer child, no such luck. Otherwise, everything looked good.

The moment you have been waiting for, is it a boy or a girl? We have no idea because we have decided to not find out this time. We have no preference and obviously have everything we could need for a boy or a girl, so we decided to just wait and see on the big day. We want to see if there really is a difference between finding out at 19 weeks or 40 weeks. I do not think there is a difference, but my friends insist there is, so I am going to test it out for myself. For the official record, Brian and I and the kids all think it is a girl. Looking forward to finding out if we are right. Shane decided it is a girl, because we follow a pattern, boy girl boy and now girl. Myann insists it is a girl because there are too many boys in the house and we need another girl. Anders just repeats what they say. Brian and I both have thought this was a girl based on my normal pregnancy symptoms. With the boys I could not eat enough red meat, I wanted burgers, hot dogs, and steaks all the time. With Myann, I craved sandwiches, salads, and just food in general but not red meat. That is how this pregnancy is going, I eat salads daily. So looking forward to seeing if my pregnancy cravings are just coincidences or more likely linked to gender.

Due date is Aug. 5th, but I will have the c-section some time late July or early Aug.

Myann - she is one of a kind!

The contents of Myann's Backpack
cement stone
deer antlers
sunglasses
silly bands
at least 10 socks, unmatched pairs
her favorite tie dye shirt
books
keychain from last summer
paper
markers
More, but I am too lazy to go get it and do a full inventory
It is a full size back pack that is literally busting at the seams. We have begun affectionately calling her the bag lady. It started at Christmas when she would carry around her full backpack and use her new grabber to pick up things off the floor. She really looked like a bag lady from back in the day.

Myann is our accident prone child. Just last week I was thinking I should blog about the day in the life of Myann and how many minor injuries she incurs in one day. She falls constantly, walks into walls, trips over things, bumps her head, falls off stairs, catches her fingers in her car seat buckles, falls off her dining room chair, bites her tongue while eating, on and on. Then of course, last night, Myann was jumping from the chair to the couch. Given her history, we should probably not let her do such a thing, but we have learned to pick our battles and that is not one we have chosen to engage in. So she was jumping, fairly harmless, since all the kids do this nightly. Well, this one time, after about 10 times of jumping without injury, she jumped and her foot went down the back of the cushion. She immediately let out a piercing scream and became hysterical. Thankfully our wonderful babysitter had just gotten here and grabbed her and took her to the sink. I could see the pad of her foot wide open about half an inch and blood was gurgling out. I tried band aids and butterfly strips, but it just kept bleeding and I could not get it closed enough to make me comfortable, so I loaded her up for urgent care. I decided to check the couch for what caused the laceration. All I could find was a back scratcher that had gotten wedged in the couch and it was prong up. We are assuming that is the culprit and has since been thrown in the trash.

Poor Myann was hysterical most of the drive, but calmed down once we got to the urgent care. We only had to wait about 20 minutes before being seen. She was okay until they started cleaning the wound. Once they flushed the blood they found that she had also sliced open the back of her pinky toe. They used 3 stitches to reattach the flap to the back of her toe and two stitches to close the open gash in her foot pad. The process was excruciating for her and I. The poor girl was crying out for them to quit killing her. I felt bad, but the nurse and I were sadly laughing when she would moan out to please stop killing her. All in all she did well, but her and I were both exhausted when the ordeal was over. The doctor told us that she could not put any pressure on it for 10 to 14 days, meaning no walking, no getting it wet and cleaning it out and rewrapping it every night. My response was seriously, you want me to carry her while I am 5 months pregnant and have a 2 year old and 5 year old to also keep track of. Thankfully, we have adapted. Myann scoots around on her butt at home and has even learned how to get up and down stairs. I give her piggy back rides when we leave the house and she can do a little bit of walking on her heel. She is milking all the attention, but being pretty tough. The boys are handling it in their own way. Shane is being a great big brother and helping when he can. This morning he brought her toothbrush to the couch for her to brush and then brought her a bag to spit in. He has offered to sleep with her to help her during the night, but this is more of a selfish request. Anders, on the other hand, is not pleased with her extra attention. This morning he limped up to me and said that his toe was hurting and he needed to sit in my lap and get love. Too sweet, but funny that he even added a limp for dramatic affect.

Still thinking of Alex

Last night, I had the first dream of Alex, that I woke up remembering, where he was still alive. We were shopping in the mall, of course, where else would we be! Since he passed, my dreams have all been about life since he passed, but last night I could see him, touch him, and hear him. When I woke up I tried so hard to go back to sleep and capture those moments again, but they were gone. I look forward to more dreams of him. I have reached the point where I smile much more than I cry when I think of him.

The other day we were going through a box of clothes Danielle had sent that Austin had outgrown. By the way, I love hand-me-me-downs for my kids because it reminds me of how excited I used to get as a kid when I received my box of clothes in the mail from my Aunt Jeanie that my cousin Tiffany had outgrown. I vividly remember that excitement of going through the box and looking forward to when I could wear them. Anyway, back to Austin's box. Shane was pretty excited too, especially when everything was fitting perfectly. Hallelujah! I do not have to buy Shane any new pants for a while. The Alex moment came when I pulled out a pair of fancy designer jeans. Ok, they were Guess, not Versace, but still the nicest I ever buy are Gap. They had these cool pockets and just looked like something Alex would wear. Only Alex would buy fancy jeans for his son. I need to call Danielle, because there is a tiny chance she bought them, but am going to bet money that Alex bought them. By the way, they are pretty awesome and look very good on Shane. Brian and I got a good laugh out of it and it felt good to laugh about something that was so Alex. Which, not sure if I ever posted it on the blog before but I may be the only person in town who owns a 9 month Versace overalls and white tuxedo shirt. Yep, Alex bought that when Shane was born. They are super cute, but I used to put Shane in a one piece under it because I was so afraid to get poop on it. At that time, that outfit cost more than anything I owned. And it was dry clean only, which should be illegal for baby clothes. In Alex's defense, he worked at Versace, so he probably got it for pretty cheap by Versace prices.

Shane and Myann were sharing Alex stories the other day. Shane said he still remembers when Alex was watching them all one night in Dallas, while all us moms went out for dinner. There were crazy thunderstorms and tornado watches in the area. Alex was so afraid of the tornadoes and being in charge of all the kids that he took them into my mom's bathroom and piled them all in the bathtub and that was where they stayed until the tornado watch ended. I really wish there was a picture to capture that moment of Alex in the tub with 4 kids. They both have asked to keep the remembrance cards from Alex's funeral by their bedsides. Their love for him and desire to hold on to his memory just warms my heart.

Lent

Lent has been much discussed in this house this week. Our kids have had less than stellar behavior and I thought it was a good time to introduce the 40 sacrifice so that we experience just a little bit of the suffering that Jesus did for us. We still have some more discussing though, because Shane told me at dinner that he would hug my belly for 40 days for Lent. I explained that he loved hugging my belly and that was not a sacrifice. Then he asked if he could give up something that he was already grounded from. I see his point there, since he has been grounded from almost all electronic media on and off for 2 months.

As for me, I have decided to blog daily, something I have been terrible at, because it reminds me of my blessings. Also, I am going to reinstate what I did last year for Lent, and that is to give away something everyday. Mostly stuff to Goodwill, but some will be trash. This is huge for me, because I am a hoarder, not so packed inside your house that you can't move around, but I keep things because you just never know when you might need it. I am notoriously famous for hoarding boxes, just plain old shipping boxes, or boxes that figurines come in, or gift boxes, etc. My Aunt Cheryl helped purge my box of bags once because I had hundreds. In San Diego, I had an entire garage storage cabinet full of boxes. My thought process was I refused to buy a box for shipping, so I kept every shape size so I always had them on hand. I have since matured past that a little, since I order so much through the mail that we have new boxes coming every week. Plus the post office will give you flat rate shipping boxes for free. I still have my figurine boxes and the gift boxes that are too pretty to throw away. But I am down to a few shelves of boxes and not a whole cabinet. I have also since purged all my clothes from junior high and high school, this happened during Lent last year. Ok, so I still have one dress from high school, but that will go this week I am sure. Get the picture, I am bad and this is a perfect Lent sacrifice and when I clean out some of the clutter, it does allow more time and room for God in my life and that is the point of Lent.

While I was in Texas

Funny things the kids have said that we don't want to forget.

2/25
Shane: Where does celery come from:
Brian: discussed God and from the dirt
Shane: But what does it look like when it grows?
Brian: A stalk
Shane: So what is that?
Brian: I think like corn stalk.
Shane:So you don't know dad? I'll figure it out myself.

Shane: Dad, we have a problem.
Brian: What Shane?
Shane: We just finished the milk and mom is gone and you don't shop much.

For Brian's birthday:
4 pages taped together which said Happy Birthday Dad Love Shane and Myann - perfect spellings. Then with bags of strawberries and cereal.

Jan 16, 2011
Anders: Where is Mom?
Daddy: Texas
Anders: I miss my mom.


Oct 29, 2010

Anders: I sleep with my money. This happened after he got a piggy bank for his birthday. Our kids have an unnatural attention to their piggy banks.
Sept 2010
Other Anders conversations:

Daddy:
Anders, you want a tickle?
Anders: No, No way Daddy!