It's So...Quiet

We are down to two kids for a few days. Meyson and Brianna have gone to visit their mother and Cody left for her dad's house. It's just really quiet here.

In some ways quiet is nice. It's a change anyway. But beneath all the quietness lies a layer of worry. When your children aren't with you it's a little disconcerting.

Cody almost didn't get to go. She spent Wednesday night throwing up every hour and dealing with fever and then she slept all day Thursday. The fever lasted all day but by Friday morning it had miraculously disappeared. Or should I say, Cody willed it away. She seemed fine on Friday and so when her departure time came I reluctantly let her go. Of course the pressure of the plane taking off proved to be too much and she apparently threw up again and her fever had returned by the time she reached her father's house.

I don't know how she held her sickness in all day, but it returned full force. And now she's five hundred miles away where I have no way of helping her. Talk about feeling helpless.

We are trying to enjoy the quiet, knowing that it won't last long. I'm kind of surprised that I'm even thinking this, but I can't wait until things are back to normal.

Dryer Woe

Memphis has four blankets that he sleeps with. He also likes to haul them around the house or wherever it is we happen to be going. Three of these blankets are chenille and they attract everything: dirt, dog hair, rotovirus, conjunctivitis...ok, to be fair I don't think they are actually harboring illnesses, but who knows? After a few days they really start looking bad. I usually pick a time in the morning on a good day (Memphis has bad days, some of you know first hand) to throw them all in the washer when I think he won't miss them for a couple of hours.

Why don't I just wash a couple at a time and let him hold on to the rest and wash them the next day? Because the presence of two blankets is unacceptable without the other two blankets. They are a set and don't you dare try to separate the set. They might miss each other and be forced into a deep depression. With all four gone, he may go searching for them for a little while but is usually easily distracted by "Cars" and will forget about them again.

Memphis just happened to walk into the laundry room the other day while I was transferring from the washer to the dryer and he of course spotted his wet blankets sitting in the dryer and began to pull them out. I let him feel that they were wet and told him they had to dry and I put them back in the dryer, shut the door, and turned it on.

What came next caused an earthquake that was felt by people three hundred miles away.

So when the fit finally came to an end, he picked himself up off of the ground and began searching for a way into the dryer. He tried opening the door, feeling around for any seam he could stick his hand into to pull the whole thing apart and rescue his friends. This went on for about half and hour when he finally gave up and came to let me know just how angry he was.

When he found me, he immediately turned his back on me and did his best to let me know that he was ignoring me. It was all very dramatic for an 18 month old to pull off, but he did it.

The reunion that happened when the dryer was done was like watching the fireworks display at Disneyland. He ran around clutching his hot blankets like he thought they were never coming back from the land beyond the dryer. We have nick-named him Linus and have come to terms with the fact that in seventeen years we may be packing these blankets to send to college with him.

Mediocre Sentiment

"Coooodddyyyy, I found your Barbie shooooe!"

"Oh Carson, you are AMAZING!! You are the most wonderful, terrific sister I ever had so far!"

Junah

Junah is our dog. We walked into a pet store in September to see a friend who volunteers there and we all fell in love with this very sweet and shy little dog waiting to be adopted. She had those sad eyes that let us know that in her short life she had been abused or neglected, maybe both. She wanted to trust us, but was very cautious. We decided we wanted to take her home (we did NOT go in there wanting a dog, in fact we had made it clear to the children that we could not have one), but they could not give her to us then because she had not been spayed yet. We went through a whole month of waiting for her.

First, she developed a cough that they thought might be distemper and did not want us to take her home and get attached just to have her die. Then, she got out of her foster home's yard through a hole in the fence. It just kept getting postponed. Finally we brought her home on October 6th.

She had been passed around so much that she must have thought we were just another temporary home for her but, after a week or so, she knew she was home and her true nature began to reveal itself.

To date she has chewed up 5 or 6 pairs of shoes, several stuffed animals, an entire sippy cup, many barbie hands and feet and countless IKEA bowls and cups. There are many other things that I have stopped her from chewing up just in time.

There are two big dogs in the yard next door and she thinks she can dig under the fence and go play with them. She's not exactly a small dog (about 45 pounds), but those dogs would eat her for lunch.

She has eaten more dirty diapers than I can count which makes me want to vomit. Yes, I pick them up. Yes, I put them in the big trash barrel outside. She still manages to find one now and then. No, I will not consider using an indoor diaper pail.

Junah loves the kids, but plays with them like she weighs 10 pounds. Memphis and Carson are constantly picking themselves up off the ground after she pounces on them. Memphis just looks around like, "What the heck was that?!," but Carson takes it personally and goes into all out wailing mode.

She is very sweet sometimes. We like calm Junah better than rambunctious Junah and we are hoping that she will grow out of her wildness. She is the perfect addition to this family as she blends right in, adding to the chaos and all.

Relief

Brad comes home tonight. His arrival is anticipated by everyone in the house, even the dog. Oh, about that, we got a dog in October. Can't believe I neglected to introduce her. I'll do that tomorrow. For now, we just couldn't be more relieved that this three week period in our lives is over.

He missed a lot while he was basking in the sunshine of a tropical island. Oh yes, he wasn't just out of town, but out of the country. But he wasn't really basking in anything, it was a work trip and they worked hard almost everyday that he was there.

I know that I really shouldn't complain about temporarily being here alone with 5 kids. After all, before August I was alone with 1, then 2, then 3 kids for 6 years. None of that prepared me for being alone with 2 teenagers (close enough), 2 preschoolers, and a 6 year old drama queen. I can handle solitude (my mom is thinking, "Oh yeah? Is that why you talked my ear off everyday?"), the problem did not lie in keeping myself occupied. It was more about the things that occurred in the following list. Now not all of these things were negative, but all of them took time and energy. So Brad, here's what you missed:

a broken foot
3 kids grounded
an ultrasound
one HUGE fight and several smaller ones
tears, wailing, and thrashing (I think almost everyday)
Christmas light looking
many conversations involving 40 questions at a time
broken washing machine
dog throw up
several ex-spouse encounters
Nutcracker tea
Nutcracker rehearsal
Nutcracker Friday
Nutcracker Sunday
last minute choir concert with an escapee
room switching
baby moving
chasing down a Christmas gift that was accidentally donated
Roomba broke (oh the injustice of it all!!)
many, many, many, many viewings of "Cars"
backlash from those who are sick of "Cars"
Memphis' second haircut
Memphis' major appointment that included lab work
many "I miss Daddy/Brad" conversations
one migraine
my thrilling victories in both Sorry and Clue
Christmas cookies
lots and lots of goodnight hugs

Fortunately, my mom and Brad's mom were able to help a lot or this list would've been much longer. They did most of the taxi driving for Brianna and Meyson. And I definitely wouldn't have made it without the help of Zofran, the best drug in the whole world.

My husband is coming home tonight. I just can't wait.

Almost A Really Embarrassing Moment

Brianna had a choir concert last night and we really try to encourage the kids to support each other in their extra-curricular activities, so I packed up all of the kiddos and headed to the school. I should mention that Brad has been out of town for two and a half weeks and doesn't return until early next week. I didn't mention it before in case there is some crazy psycho out there just waiting for me to post that my husband is out of town so he can come to my house and paint my fence orange or something. So crazy psycho man, don't even think about it, I have a bazooka and I know how to use it. Wow, it didn't take me long to get off track.

Anyway, Brad's mom and step-dad met me there so I did have some help. The program was very entertaining and Brianna did great. I think she may have been a little bummed out because she was the only one on crutches. She fractured her foot in a horrible backpack accident last week and she has to use them for one more week. Kind of impedes the motions to "Let It Snow," ya know? Regardless, she did really well and was recognized for being accepted into the national childrens choir that will be in Denver this Spring.

Through most of the program Memphis did remarkably well. He drank some pediasure, played with the toys I brought for him, emptied my purse including my prescription medication...you know, the usual. Then...(can you feel the suspense building?) he was playing on the floor in front of my seat when I leaned over to tell Meyson not to let him by if he came that way. Memphis saw his opportunity and took off the other way and fast. I don't think I've ever seen him run that fast. His destination? You guessed it. The stage. Thank God he didn't actually try to climb the risers, but he did walk the entire length of the stage as I stood watching, horrified. I finally caught Meyson's eye and signaled to him to get to the other side and try to catch Memphis, who had stopped dead in his tracks about three quarters of the way across with a look on his face that said, "None of you people are my mother and I have lost her and I am about to start wailing." Thankfully, Meyson was able to get to him before that happened and, thankfully, Memphis is still short enough that I don't think very many people were aware of the situation. From now on he will be wearing his monkey backpack/leash thing all the time.



***Nicole has commented on her posts before about the funky suggestions that the spell checker for Blogger gives. I have noticed this, but never had one that made me laugh out loud before. I didn't put an apostrophe in "childrens" and it recommended that I replace it with Chiltons. Hahahahaha...I wish!

All is Well

It's official, there really is a baby in there. One baby. So those of you who were hypothesizing about there being two can stop torturing me. It has a head, a torso, a couple of legs...everything looks great so far.

Carson surprised me by freaking out just a little while my doctor was doing the ultrasound. She did not want "that thing" (probe) or "that stuff" (jelly) on my stomach. She just kept asking when he was going to stop putting that thing on me. She cared nothing of the fact that she could see her new sibling.

And for those who don't know, we are not finding out the sex of the baby. I know, I know. But we have made our decision and we are sticking to it.

My Little Nut

My Cody is dancing in the Nutcracker on Friday and Sunday. I am so proud of her. Nobody has ever paid to watch me perform anything, and here she is, at six years old. People are paying. With actual money.

She is a natural born performer although you wouldn't have known that about 18 months ago. That's when she stood perfectly still on stage while the rest of her preschool class sang and danced in their end of year program. I mean perfectly still. She could have been a statue.

This weekend she will be playing the part of a little doll in the party scene near the beginning of act one. She had a dress rehearsal last night and she was so cute in her costume! It was the only chance we'll have to take pictures as cameras aren't allowed in the auditorium during the performance. Of course the place where they let us take the pictures had incredibly bad lighting and a not so great background so, as a photographer, I was totally disgusted. But I guess beggers can't be choosers, huh?

On Pregnancy

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of pregnancy. I know some of you are thinking, "Wow, it's really hard to tell what with this being your 4th and all." It's to you that I say, "Hahaha...that was original." Is my grumpiness showing? Sorry. Well, not really.

Pregnancy for me is absolutely a means to an end. It is a necessary evil that I have to go through to attain one of my favorite things: a baby. While I was pregnant with Memphis, a girl in my Sunday school class described how much she had loved being pregnant. She said that it was so special to her to know that her son was growing right beneath her heart. At that moment I was saddened and ashamed that I did not have that same reaction and I decided to stop taking it for granted. After all, it is a miracle for sure.

That lasted about 3 days I think. It's not that I'm not grateful, I'm just miserable too. I know that everyone has heard countless tales of pregnancy symptoms and I do not intend to recount all of mine here. Let's just say that I usually have about a month and a half of feeling good while pregnant.

I torture myself because I so anticipate the birth that I make the pregnancy seem interminable. June still seems so far away to me, I wonder if it will ever come. The pregnancy will be over and I will have a brand new human being to care for. Brand new. New skin, new hair, new eyes. New little tiny baby sounds. I love that part.

There are quite a few people who I know read this blog who do not know me very well. It is for your benefit that I feel the need to say that I am not usually a needy, whiny, selfish person. I know that I am right now. And it's not that I feel entitled to be this way. I can't help it, even when I try really hard. Ask my best friends, they don't like me when I'm pregnant either.

Give me a year to get my hormones back on track. Then you can see how sunny, happy, jolly, fun and wonderful I really am. On second thought, strike sunny and jolly from that sentence. I don't think I've ever been those things.

All Digits Still Intact

This year's Christmas cookie experience was so much better than last year's. We cheated and used a mix and we stirred very slowly with spoons so as not to recreate the trauma from last time. And as an added bonus, the cookies were edible! I'd even go as far as to say they were great! We made a family Christmas memory that doesn't involve screaming or tears! Overall it was a great success.