Friday, February 27, 2009

Playtime with the Rodies

Due to a ridiculous amount of snow followed by mud (repeat cycle many times) this has become the favorite pastime of my children.

Sad, but true.
Meanwhile, Grandma Ellen and Papa Joe are making great progress in the basement. I wish I had the knowledge, or child-free moments, to help. But just look how marvelous these people are.
What a blessing family is.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

No Advil stinks

I've had a headache all day today. And being pregnant means no Advil. Tylenol is for the birds. So I've been self medicating with Girl Scout cookies. Peanut Butter patties to be exact. I would've had the Thin Mints, those are my favorites. But the kids were up and I do NOT share my Thin Mints.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Some Bullets from our Lives

  • As most of you have figured out, we are expecting our fourth child. It's a little unnerving considering my recent miscarriage, but seeing the heartbeat has done a lot to assuage my fears. The due date is Sept 23, but all that really means is that he or she is guaranteed not to be born on that day.
  • Jadon had his surgery on Tuesday. He's doing really well, a little fussy and a couple of fevers, but nothing that wasn't expected.
  • Kevin is in Florida with 2 brothers and a cousin and an Aunt, as well as their families. I'm jealous.
  • Our van is on its last leg. My husband informed me that he will drive it now until we find a suitable replacement, so I'm cramming 3 kids into our little crossover Saturn. If any of you know of someone just giving away minivans, why don't you just send 'em my way.
  • Mom2Mom is hosting a parenting conference with Dr Todd Cartmell at the church this weekend. This morning was a great workshop for Moms on sibling rivalry. Tonight will be dinner for Dads Only and a discussion of male role models. Tomorrow morning is for Moms and Dads and the workshop is focusing on raising respectful kids. Very exciting topics!
  • That's about all for us right now, although as I look over the list, I suppose it's been pretty busy around here. All I know is that I'm tired all the time and I will be very glad when I am through with the first trimester of this pregnancy. Maybe I'll be able to get something done without taking 2 or 3 naps a day.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Thanks

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for Jadon. His surgery was this morning and it went very well. After having yucky, full-feeling ears myself for the last week, I really feel for the guy having both ears infected for months at a time. Not fun. Hopefully, this will help him feel a lot better, although right now he's feeling pretty crabby.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Valentine's Day

Our church often invites a comedian for V-Day. This year was Tim Hawkins, so in honor of the day of love, here's a sample of our evening.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Let's play...

So I'd like to play a game. How about "Where's Waldo"


Can you find Waldo in this picture?


How about this one?

Now try this one...
Gotcha!

(I think I just displayed a little too much of my demented sense of humor.)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I love this girl!

I love homeschooling Chloe. Despite the fact that we have not been so great with the schedule lately, we're really having a great time together. It's so much fun to be such an integral part of her learning experience. Chloe's reading has been great ever since we started, but reading for fun has, for the most part, been only preschool books or reading to her little brothers, Jadon in particular. I do love that she enjoys spending that time with JJ, but I so want her to enjoy reading for pleasure. Compounding her lack of pleasure with reading has been the headaches she seems to get from reading for long periods of time. Over the last few weeks, she has learned to recognize the onset of the headaches before they get too bad, and that has definitely helped her a lot. Yesterday, we picked these up to help with the headaches too. Aren't they sweet! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I decided that maybe neither of us was really doing a good job of picking out fun chapter books for her to read. So I spent about 1 and a half hours online, trying to come up with a reading list for her, mostly from Sonlight. She started with Felicity, from the American Girl series, and loved it. Anyone who knows my girl, knows that a good horse story can get her into anything.
From there I gave her a "Little House" book, written as an early reader. She actually threw a fit. So I told her she was to think of it as schoolwork if she had to. Apparently, despite my great pick with Felicity, my book judgement was not to be trusted. So, during our drive to Jadon's ENT, she read the first two chapters as required and then asked to read a "Little Critter" book. I proceeded to agree, but first ask a few questions about the book. After a couple of minutes a question stumped her. She had not gotten that far in the book yet. I asked didn't she want to find out. "No," she says, and puts the book down. She had barely picked up the other book, when she said, "Or maybe yes." That was it. She was hooked.
She finished the planned readers so quickly, that we had not made it back to the library for more yet. I had only intended read-alouds remaining. What else is a girl to do but try those too? So she finished The Boxcar Children in about 3 days. Now she's onto the real "Little House" books. I may have created a monster, but I love to see it!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Another bout with ear infections

As most of you know, Jadon and Micah have both had tubes in their ears at one time or another. Jadon had his put in about 18 months ago. The idea is that some kids' Eustachian tubes are not long enough or have enough to drain properly. A surgeon puts tubes into their eardrums to allow fluid to drain and prevent pressure from building and perforating the eardrum as well as minimizing the ability of bacteria to grow in the ear canal. They typically fall out as the child grows sometime between one and two years after placement.

Some kids respond so well, they never have another ear infection. My boys have not done quite that well, but when they go from constant ear infections with no relief to occasional ear infections that respond well to antibiotics, who can complain? However, about two months ago, Jadon came down with a raging ear infection that was unresponsive to antibiotics. We saw his ENT physician on Monday, and she confirmed my fear. One tube is out completely and the other is only partially in the eardrum, rendering it completely ineffective. So Jadon is going to have 2 new tubes put in a couple weeks from now, as well as having his adenoids removed.

I'm so thankful for the doctors that we have right now. His ENT works closely with an audiologist who sees each child with ear infections before and after surgery. Jadon's hearing is poor right now, which is to be expected and hopefully will be rectified by the surgery. But the audiologist always does a baseline reading and explains it thoroughly. That way, if we have concerns about his hearing sometime in the future, we can have a better idea of the reason for any hearing difficulties as well as whether we should expect improvement.

As I write this, I'm reminded of how blessed we are to have a pediatrician who has taken our concerns so seriously. Jadon had his tubes put in after 4 infections, rather than 13 that Micah had. The last 6 weeks or so of not feeling well, Jadon has remained a pretty happy, loving little guy, despite the pain he has had to be in. He'll probably have the infection right up until surgery, when they'll clean everything out. I can't stop thinking of how God has protected his hearing by providing such excellent physicians. Many times, kids with repeated unresolved ear infections wind up with scar tissue in their ears and resulting in hearing loss. Thankfully, that has not been the case for my boys. Please keep us in your prayers as we wait for surgery. It's not anything new to us, but that doesn't keep it from been a little unnerving.

We'll keep you posted.
Mom to four beautiful blessings including a brand new little guy. Laugh and cry with me as I navigate the joys and perils of motherhood and homeschooling.