5 Month Old C

My little man is 5 months old! It is amazing how quickly time flies. This month has been especially busy with Jut's dad passing away on March 1 and being gone for a week and then trying to catch up upon returning home, but I think we are getting back into the routine of life.

C dropped his evening nap (mostly) this month. He generally only takes two naps per day now unless we are gone in the evening and he can't manage to stay awake any longer. He is still massively fighting going to sleep most days but I'm working on it. Night sleeping is going better. He generally gets up at midnight, 3ish and around 6. It is still tiring but not nearly as bad as last month.

Mobility has been acquired! C can roll across the floor. I will leave him on a blanket and go do something and when I return, he is on the other side of the room. He can rotate himself also...so he changes direction on me too.

Grasping objects is another new skill for the month. He can pick things up! He loves to chew on his hands but he also can now pick up some objects and sometimes find the way to his mouth. Chew, chew, chew...that is what he likes to do!

C loves blowing raspberries! When he is happy, he is always making bubbles. Even if he's not having an excessively drooly day, he still needs to wear a bib because of all the slobber from his bubbles. E does not like all his 'baby slobber'.

C is talking more and making more noises. He is beginng to 'converse' with me more and more. He'll say something and I'll reply and then he'll answer and so on. It is great. He loves X and will laugh and laugh at him. Baby laughter is so precious. I love hearing it! He's also ticklish in his ribs and neck and we can usually really get him going if we tickle him.

C got to meet lots of new relatives this month. He met some that I was meeting for the first time at Mike's funeral. He also met the extended Flegel family at G'pa Flegel's 97th birthday party. There were lots of new faces for him to quickly forget this month. :)

The Snow Train

We built our snow train back on February 24th, but with all the craziness of the past month I'm just now getting our creation's story up here.  We enjoyed the 'summer' temperatures last week and the kids are complaining this week that its too cold.  They think they don't need hats and mittens even though 'normal' March weather is back.  But, back in February, they had a great time enjoying the 'warm' weather and playing in the snow.


We had two snows in February.  Neither of them was significant but both were really wet, heavy snow when it arrived.  E was so excited to make a snowman. 

Well, by the time we got outside both times, the wind had dried the top layer of snow and so it wouldn't roll and make nice big snowballs.  Consequently, I got creative.

For the second snow, the snow still packed really well.  It just wouldn't roll up.  So, we decided to make a snow train.  The kids and I piled and piled and piled up the snow.  They sat on it to pack it and I shaped it.  It was fun.  They were so excited to be the 'conductor' and 'engineer'. E wanted to make another car for the train but we kind of ran out of 'good' snow to use.  Oh well.  I was tired by the end from hauling snow!

It wasn't anything fancy...nor would it win any prizes, but a good time was had by all...and that is all that mattered!

Brothers...

I don't much about brothers...as I've only ever had a sister.  I know even less about brother relationships as I'm not a boy...but I do know that I love watching these two interact.  It gives me warm fuzzies to watch them (and I'll enjoy this stage as long as it lasts and they aren't pounding each other yet!).  C loves to watch X and chatter at X.  X can make him laugh by talking to him.  X loves to 'play with' C...he gives him toys, squeezes Sofie in his face to entertain him, sticks his fingers in C's mouth to give C something to suck on so that he'll stop crying and so on.  They are sweet to watch and watching them interact on the activity blanket made me smile...so I thought I'd share!  :)

Ready, Set, SWING!

Does anything beat flying for the first time in the summer?  The look on their faces in priceless.  Mutual adoration of flying!  They had so much fun soaring through the air!  X loved being able to ride the 'big kid' swing.  He held on very tight and did great!  He likes to start swinging slow and gradually get higher.  He wasn't up for swinging as high as E yet, but he did great for his second time in the 'real' swing.


Doesn't he look like he's having the best time of his life?







C even got in on the swing action.  He laid on the blanket and watched for a long time until he thought that he needed a go at the swing.  He was unsure at first...but that may have had more to do with it being almost bedtime than anything, but he didn't mind the new experience. 

We love spring

...and swings!

And crazy flying hair!

and adorable babies!

And crazy faces!

And Cheshire grins!

Spring (or summer...as the temps have it) is here and we love it!

 

Even the dirt feet!

Grandpa Daron

Mike and Joye at E's 4th b'day

Last Thursday I realized that I have a blessing that my children will never remember experiencing.  It is a blessing that I've taken for granted for the last 35 years.  My children, ages 4, 2 and 4 months, won't ever have the privilege that I do.  Both of my grandfathers are still living and doing relatively well.  One will be 97 in a week and the other will be 95 (I think) this July.  Isn't that amazing?!   I've grown up with them both living close by and a part of my life.  I am so blessed.

Mike and kids at X's 2nd b'day/Caleb's arrival home from the hospital

However, my children will not experience that blessing.  They will never watch Jut and I agonize over 'what to do with Grandpa'...or any of the other 'fun' things that we watch my parents endure.  They won't be able to build memories of fun things they would get to do with Grandpa.  They won't remember bouncing on his knee or listening to him say a blessing over a meal.  His funny (and sometimes strange...remember the tirade of bear mauling stories at E's b'day party?!) stories won't resonate in their minds.  They won't  be able to say, 'remember when'...and finish a story that involves their grandpa.  They won't learn any family histories from their grandpa.  As of last Thursday, March 1st, E, X and C lost the ability to build their own memories with their Grandpa Daron.

Mike and C

We've been praying for Grandpa Daron for a 16 months, but 'Grandpa' Mikel Daron received a heavenly healing from his Stage 4 Colon cancer last week instead of an earthly healing.  We praise God that he's in heaven and out of pain and suffering and that we'll see him again, but it was not the answer we were praying/hoping for.  A dear soul from the church dropped of the book, Its a Party in Heaven, for the kids this week.  We've been reading it each day.  E is excited to go to heaven some day and get to see Grandpa again.  But, it still stinks that she won't know her earthly grandpa.  She may have a few hazy memories as she gets older of him but I'm sure that the boys won't.  It just makes me sad that a blessing that I've taken for granted for so long will not be granted to my children. 

Mike with X

Jut has been down this path before.  One of his grandfather's passed away before he was born.  He knows how to tell the stories and pass along the legacy.  We will do our best to help our kids remember their Daron legacy and the man that they called, "Grandpa".  We will make sure that they know he was a servant of God, a servant of his church and his country.  We'll tell of his stories...and tell stories of him...wearing his shoulder holster while making chili, helping set up the swing set at our house...probably even the one about the cane that got me so riled.  :)  We'll cherish our memories and pass them along to help our kids get to know the grandpa that they never really got a chance to know.

Mike with E

There's now a void in our family that will never be filled.  A blessing that my children will never understand.  A responsibility that now endures.  We'll do our best to make Grandpa Daron proud...bring the kids up to understand all that he held dear and believed.  We'll never forget and we'll pass it on.  And as we do so, we know that this world is not the end, but he's just hanging out in that great cloud of witnesses cheering us on in our mission on this world.  We'll meet him again on the other side of the veil.  We look forward to the party that we will have in heaven!

Christmas 2010

C at 4 Months

The little man is 4 months old.  He has made it a rough month for his mama.  Sleeping has NOT been going well.  I think he had a cold for about half the month, which impeded his sleeping and now we think he's teething, which isn't helping his night sleeping issues out.  He's not even getting one good long stretch of sleep in the late evening/night anymore.  From 4 AM to 7, he's up about each hour to hour and half.  Nights are extremely short anymore.  Daytime naps aren't going any smoother.  He sleeps for 20-40 minutes in the bassinet for naps.  Ugh.  I keep telling myself...this too shall pass.

He loves watching E and X.  He likes keeping track of all their activities.  He and I spend most of our 'together' time in the afternoons during rest time.  He sits and 'talks' to me for quite a while.  The rest of the day, he's enamored with watching the other two and doesn't spend much time socializing with me.

 

C can roll over from his back to his tummy now.  He doesn't do it all the time.  He gets frustrated when he gets there because he can't get back over but he can flip.  We have to be careful where we leave him.  He can also rotate 360 degrees from where he's left.  Mobility has started.

 We made our first ever trip to the ER this month.  C had been congested all week and hadn't slept much.  Jut had been gone for school for the entire week.  I was exhausted.  We were at Mom and Dad's for dinner on Friday night and C cried inconsolably for 2 hours.  Mom thought that he might have an ear infection and with his behavior, the diagnosis made sense.  She told us he needed to go the ER before his ear drum ruptured...b/c X had his rupture at 2 months.  Jut took him in at 10 on a Friday evening.  The diagnosis came back that he was teething.  Ummm, yeah.  Third child, first trip ever to ER for teething?!  Maybe not a stellar choice on our part...but at the time if it meant more sleep, I was all for it.

 

He's wearing all 9 month clothing now.  He's growing so fast.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll remember to weigh him and check to see how much he's grown.

Staring at his hand is one of his favorite past times right now.  He loves that fist...he loves staring at it and sucking on his fingers.  He's a little drooling king on the majority of days.

We look forward to seeing what this month brings...

  

***On 3-13 at his 4-month well baby check, C weighed in at 17 lbs 13 ozs and 28 inches long...his head might have been 17.5 inches but I might have wrote that down wrong. ****

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.