Crazy Life

I apologize in advance for all the spelling errors. To do spell check, I have to be on the 'big' computer...so it will get edited later. I wasn't going to publish it until I did that but I hit the wrong button accidentally and published it already. To quote X, "Oh Phooey!".



Jut and I look at each other sometimes and say, "Someday we are going to look back on this time and laugh and wonder how on earth we did it." It has been a crazy six months. It all began with Jut starting graduate school back at the end of August...now it isn't as intense as my sister's nurse anesthetist program that stole a couple years of her life...but it does give him many more hours of 'work' to do each week.

Just when he was getting into the routine of school, C was born. Newborns are wonderful but the outside world ceases to exist when one enters your home. It took until Christmas to come out of what I refer to as "newborn psychosis"...Jut managed to finish up his first semester of grad school and somehow most of our Christmas stuff got finished. Although...I will admit that with the exception of the Christmas tree, there weren't too many decorations around the house.

Then, the last week of December came and I feel like Jut's been running even faster ever since. The church is usually pretty slow the week between Christmas and New Years. But, a family in crisis, a family that lost its patriarch, and the death of one of our former youth sponsors...made it anything but a slow week.

Come January 1, Jut started as the official "lead minister" of the church. I don't remember exactly what happened that week, other than Sue's funeral, but I know it was a busy week. We visited Jut's folks for our Christmas that weekend. We learned that Jut's dad's cancer was progressing. We had a wonderful time with his family but things were looking bleak for Mike. He was significantly weaker and had lost substantial weight since we had last saw him in November.

The second week of January Mike had an appointment with his oncologist. The dr did not recommend continuing chemo. The cancer was growing and there weren't any other treatment options available. However Mike and Joye decided to continue with the first chemo that he tried that had worked very well...with the exception of the nerve damage to his extremities.

The rest of the month is kind of a blur...Jut's classes started back up again. He went down to his folks' two more times. He tried to help out with what he could. He tried to stay on top of his school work and his new position and responsibilities at church. What a busy, busy month.

This month, he had a week of class on campus at Rochester Hills. And then he's been home for two full weeks. It has been so nice. C has been difficult this month. He's not sleeping well at night and therefore neither are we, but it has been nice having Jut home every night.

On Saturday, Jut received a phone call explaining that our custodian from the church, Larry, had passed away unexpectedly in the night. His daughter in law, Sue, passed away less than two months ago. Our hearts ached for the family. We said our earthly goodbyes to Larry today. He loved our kids. His only daughter was named Elizabeth...and he loved to tell me how proud he was of his E and he only hoped that we could be as proud of our E someday. He'd watch X tool around and he'd say, "I never see that boy but that he's running somewhere!" and then he'd laugh. We will miss Larry very much. He was an ever present in our lives that we didn't think about too much because he was just always there. Now there is a hole where he should be.

Yesterday, Jut received another phone call. His dad was calling to tell him that he was being admitted to the hospital. He's gotten so weak that Joye can't get him out of bed anymore. We knew it was a matter of time before this happened. He's been losing strength weekly and Joye's had to call for help weekly for the past several weeks to get him in the house, car, etc. But, we are still disheartened for the actual news.

We've attended two funerals in the last two months for people that seemed to leave this world before it should have been their time. Both people were Christians and there was hope because it was just an earthly goodbye...but it still stinks to bid them farewell on this side of the veil. The looming reality is that soon it will be our turn to be the grieving family to bid Mike an earthly farewell. This stinks. Sudden deaths are hard and deaths that you know are coming are hard. It just stinks no matter how it happens.

Anyway, Jut's gone again. I'm home with the kids again. The nice thing is that we have a routine down. Really the kids do great when its time for single parenthood. If C would just sleep, life would be pretty easy. But there is a cloud looming and an ever present question of God's plan in all of this craziness.

I'm so glad that sometimes we don't know the future and can just enjoy the wonderful little things that happen in midst of the craziness...like C's adorable smiles and infectious belly laughs, X's fascination with all things trains and exploding vocabulary and sentence structure, and E's eagerness to learn and play.

Life is a bit crazy but its manageable. We just take it one day at a time and keep a stash of chocolate stocked above the fridge when things seem a bit out of control.

A Little Science Fun

When Jut is away for the week, we need to get a bit creative to keep things running smoothly at home.  Otherwise the days get long and everyone gets a bit crabby.  So the week Jut was gone this month, I did some thinking and planning to keep us busy.  E has been wanting a 'science' journal and to do science experiments.  So, I decided to let her start this week with some 'Gooey, gooey, glop'...aka cornstarch and water. 

If you have never played with it before, it is a great example of a colloidal suspension.  It acts like a solid when force is applied to it, and yet it acts like a liquid without added pressure. However, we didn't talk too much about all that 'sciency' stuff...we just had fun making hypothesizes about the nature of the goo and then observations about the behavior of the goo.

The kids had fun observing it with the magnified glass.  Stirring it up with a spoon...trying to make hand prints, etc.  We tried to cut cookies out of it with our playdough accessories.  E thought that it was going to act like playdough but decided that it was even better than playdough! 

The kids did make a bit of a mess with it, but it was an easy clean up that E did most of the work.  She had a great time.

X got in on the fun too.  He liked running his trains through it and covering them up with the goo and then sending them over to the 'wash down' aka the sink.  E had a good time with that too.  I think my little guy can turn any activity into a Thom*as the Train playtime. 








His train habit did get a bit excessive, I think this picture has at least 3 engines that are 'stuck in the mud' waiting to be rescued and sent to the 'wash down'.












To end our experiment, E wrote all of her observations into her science journal.  She did a great job!

Since we finally started our 'science' journal, we've done a couple other experiments for fun.  I've got two great little scientists on my hands!

And so it begins...potty learning

About a month ago, X got really excited about using the potty.  He really, really, really wanted some Tho*mas the Train undies.  So, we loaded up in the car (I'm all about getting this little guy using the potty...two in diapers is going to drive me insane!) and searched Alma for some Tho*mas undies.  However, our local merchants let me down.  No one carried any such undies.  I hated to stifle his enthusiasm so I bought him some trainers at Penney's.  He was very excited initially to have some undies.  But, they weren't Thomas and so he really wasn't too keen on them.

A few weeks later, we headed up to Tar*get for a few things.  We struck gold.  I wasn't even thinking of looking there for undies but we happened to wander by and X notices all things Thomas...and he pointed them out.  So, now we are the proud owners of 7 pairs of Thomas undies.  Yippee!

Wearing Thomas undies is fun for about 5 minutes.  Then, he wants to go back into his diaper.  Oh well.  As much as I would love him to learn to use the toilet, I'm not going to push.  He'll do it on his own schedule...I'm just hoping it is sooner rather than later.  Washing diapers every day is going to break my hold on sanity.  We are having weekly successes.  He generally wakes up dry from his afternoon nap, and if I wake him up I and put him immediately on the potty, we almost always have a success. So, the signs are there that he's getting ready.  There is a light shining into the diaper tunnel...although it is still a fairly dim light.

 

As much as I'd like him to wear them on his bum, he is a boy...and thinks they make a great hat.  :)

Groundhog Day

Did the groundhog see its shadow?  I'm not sure about Punxsutawney Phil, but my groundhogs liked seeing their shadows and scurrying back to their 'burrow'.  We had lots of fun today with groundhog themed activities and we even learned a few things about groundhogs as well.

If you look closely, you can see Groundhog E with Baby Groundhog E emerging from the tunnel from the burrow.  X is anxiously waiting to see if they will see their shadow or not.  He didn't understand the whole shadow idea but he certainly had fun following E's lead.

My precious groundhogs checking for a shadow from their 'hole'.  They had a tunnel to connect to the 'burrow' where their 'nests' were located.  Its amazing how much fun a box, a tunnel and tent can be when they are turned into the groundhogs home.  The kids played for hours in the groundhog's home.

We even had a groundhog popping out of its hole for lunch...or aka hots baked inside biscuits.  They were surprisingly taste.

We rounded out our Groundhog Day by playing "Find the Groundhogs Shadow".  Jut cut a groundhog's 'shadow' from black paper and the kids spent the evening hunting and finding the shadow all over the house.  Who knew a black piece of paper could provide so much entertainment?!  I think sometimes we try too hard to find activities that they will enjoy...Seriously, today involved hotdogs, biscuits, a box, a tunnel, a tent and a black piece of paper.  Does it get much more simple?!

A side note:  We also celebrated the coming of spring by playing outside and riding bikes/trucks for a little bit before supper.  Punxsutawney Phil may say 6 more weeks of winter but it hasn't hardly felt like winter yet and we are enjoying it!

My Little House Girl Dressed Up

 E got "Laura" dress up clothes for Christmas.  The apron and bonnet she received on Christmas morning along with a tin cup, slate and paper doll set.  I never thought she'd love those paper dolls as much as she does but she plays with them almost every day.

The 'elves' didn't have time to finish her 'Laura' dress for Christmas morning.  They were late in getting started as they didn't think of the actual dress until 10 days before Christmas and had little time to work on it prior to the big day.  G'ma had to do the finishing touches the week following Christmas.  But, it was worth the wait and E LOVES her Laura dress.  On Sunday, she asked if she could wear it to church.  She's got big plans for wearing it this summer.  She so funny and excited about it.  I'm glad that she likes it so well.  I'm so thankful she's my Little House girl.

C at 3 months

Three months have flown by...but things are finally starting to get into a pattern.  C's on a very predictable 3-hour schedule of eat, play and then sleep.  Playing usually entails watching X and E run around, but he's getting much more interactive and fun.

C gives the best smiles.  He's such a happy guy when he's fed and not sleepy.  He's talking a bit more all the time but not tons yet.  He started drooling this month.  Last week I started putting a drooling bib on him occasionally to keep his clothes dry.  Its not a constant thing yet but I'm sure it will get to be, if he teethes anything like his older brother.

 

X and E love him to pieces.  He's not always such a fan of their affections.  They like to 'help' feed him a bottle and he has a squeaky giraffe that X loves to squeak constantly right in his face. 

 

He's getting so big.  He was 16.5 lbs last night when I weighed him.  He is almost outgrowing his bouncy seat.  The outfit in the above picture is a 9-month outfit.  I know he didn't start out small but I wasn't ready for him to grow this fast. 

 Sleeping issues are much better this month.  He likes being rocked to sleep.  He's actually sleeping in the bassinet during the day for an hour in the afternoon.  Morning naps are typically in the Moby Wrap, as we are out and about.  Night sleeping is sometimes wonderful with only one waking in the night...and sometimes it is horrible with wakings every two hours all night long.  However, I blame congestion and growth spurts on the wretched sleep and LOVE the peaceful nights.  Typically he's only up once or twice...with the second time being after 5:30.  So, he really is doing pretty good, I think.

I've figured out that dairy bothers his tummy and that was what lead to all the gastrointestinal distress in the previous months.  So, I've said 'bye-bye' to dairy for now...however, if I splurge occasionally it doesn't seem to bother him.  I'm hoping he outgrows it soon!

That's life at 3-months. The official 'newborn' stage is over.  In a way, I'm thankful.  It is a hard stage but in other ways it is bittersweet to see it pass so quickly.  He'll be a year before I know it.   Its amazing how quickly babies change.   

Things I love about age 2...

X is so fun right now!  I love the 'terrible twos'.  He's so curious and inquisitive. He says the cutest things as he tests his new vocabulary. He runs everywhere in that no-so-efficient toddler run. He sends himself to time out.  He makes messes without end.  He falls continually...smiles constantly...and loves every moment.

 X chases E all over the house and mimics everything she says and does.  When he's not repeating her, he's ordering her around...and she does what he demands.  They crack me up when they aren't exasperating me.

I don't remember E being obsessed with a particular toy like X is.  Everything is trains, trains, trains...Thomas the train in particular.  Today at Wal*Mart, he was looking up at the rafters in the ceiling and talking about them being 'train tracks'.  He always wants to go chasing trains when he hears their whistle coming through town...we did chase a steam engine earlier this fall and he hasn't forgotten it.

I love listening to 2-year olds master the English language.  X is always saying the cutest things.  He puts inflections at the funniest places.  He came up to me yesterday and said, "Mom, it disAPPeared!"  I don't remember what disappeared but he was very excited about something. 

Watching the 2 year old imagination grow is fun also.  I enjoy watching and listening to his imaginative play expand and evolve.  Since December, E and X have been playing with an imaginative giant M&M that lives in our house.  E has mainly lost her interest in the M&M but X still 'sees' him and plays with him.  X plays with his trains.  He started out just saying things like, "Hello, Thomas" when he was playing with Thomas.  Now, its evolved into exclamations like, "Oh no!  Stuck in the mud!!"  One engine will be off the track and the other engine will be standing by.  I don't always follow his conversations, but what I catch is interesting.

X is a wonderful older brother.  He gets very concerned about C when he cries.  The other morning, C was in his bassinet asleep when I jumped in the shower.  When I got out, X was on our bed 'comforting' C who was not happy to be in the bassinet.  He was squeezing his toy giraffe and sticking his fingers into C's mouth trying to get him to stop crying.  He said, "Momma, just feeding C...just feeding C" when he saw me.  He hears C starting to cry before I do...He's always saying, "Momma, C crying" and a few seconds later, I'll hear him.  He loves to give him toys and kisses. I think he spends more time with C than E does.  He's such a loving little guy.

 The age of 2 has its challenges...the 'no' phase starting...the boundary testing...the potty training...but there is so much fun that goes along with it.  It makes all the challenges able to be taken in stride.