Solo plus

Today I one-upped yesterday. I was still solo with the kids, plus one husband to take care of, too. Nate woke up in the night throwing up, so he stayed home from work and stayed in bed almost the whole day. He wasn't really a demanding patient, though.

During Meagan's naptime, Bethany and Sean and I went for a walk. It was cloudy, but not that cold. Bethany was on a dandelion hunt. She'd seen a couple from the front window, and wouldn't rest until she got to go outside to pick them. She always shreds them after she picks them. That's not so bad, except when they're all white and she's more or less scattering the seeds all over the lawn. We never got the weed-n-feed down last fall, so we're bound to have lots of dandelions for her to play with this year.

Going solo

So, today was my first solo day with three kids, since Nate had to go back to work today. It's been incredibly helpful, having him around these past several days. I was able to focus on Sean, and he more or less took care of the girls. It was a good transition.


It hasn't been that bad, going solo--at least, so far. I was up a good hour before the girls today, thanks to Sean, but that gave me time to shower and kind of get ready for the day before they woke up. Usually Meagan is up first, and wakes Bethany up in the process, but not today. Bethany will wake up and shriek until someone comes and gets her down from her bed. I really hate that habit, and I'm trying to break her of it, but no luck yet. Anyway, she started bellowing this morning, and when I went in their room, Meagan was still lying in bed. She said she was tired and wanted to take a nap. Ok. So, I left her there, and a few minutes later she was out.


Later as I was changing Sean--he hates having his diaper changed--he started crying, so Meagan came running in. She watched for a minute, then left and came back with her favorite pink blanket. She said, "The baby's crying--he needs a blankie." I thought it was so cute that she wanted to share, especially that blanket--she's kind of protective of it.


Sean also had his longest wakeful period to date this morning. He ate about 11:00, and dozed off as usual, but only slept for about 10 minutes, then woke up. He actually stayed awake for almost two hours before he ate and went to sleep again. He was tired enough that he actually slept in his bassinet. He hasn't done so well with that the past couple of nights, so I might try keeping him awake for a bit before he goes to bed, to see if that will help. Last night, I tried to put him in the bassinet but he only stayed there for about five minutes before he woke up and started to fuss. I really didn't want to sleep with him on the couch again, so I gave in and brought him to bed with me. He slept just fine right next to me. I know, you're not supposed to do that, but I was tired enough that I did it anyway. Maybe I'll be good tonight and think of something else.

New Math

1 Newborn + refusal to burp=1 gassy baby
1 gassy baby + 1 newborn eating every 2 hours + screaming toddler=1 looong, sleepless night
1 looong, sleepless night + 1 already tired mom=1 really ornery, easily irritated mom
1 really ornery, easily irritated mom + company=1 mom hiding in her room

Mom did emerge from her room to interact somewhat with the company (sister-in-law Tanya and family). It's too bad I got so little sleep last night, though, because this was Tanya's last Sunday here. They've been packing up their house and on Thursday, they're packing up the truck and heading out to their new house in Portsmouth, OH on Friday. We're really going to miss having them just down the street. It's been really great to have them so close this past year. Fortunately, Portsmouth is only two hours away, so they'll still be the closest family to us, and two hours is a very easy drive, so we'll still see each other. It just won't be the same, though.

Sean Terry

I was informed that previous pictures of Sean were "woefully inadequate", so here goes:

A quick note on this one--It's hard to see, but there are blue paw prints all over the front of his pajamas. Meagan came over to look at Sean, and when she saw his outfit, she started saying, "A clue, a clue!" (from Blue's clues)

Funny Bethany responses to Sean

Here are a few of the funny things Bethany has said about Sean in the past couple of days:

"He needs to go back to the doctor." (I.e., take him back to the hospital, please.)

"Why do babies cry so much?"

"He needs to go to bed. He needs to stop eating." (He interrupted a game of catch we were playing.)

"Mommy, your baby is crying all the time."

"His name is Sean. He's my brother and Meagan's brother and Daddy's brother and your brother..."

Introducing...Sean Patrick Terry

Well, I got my wish. The contractions definitely got stronger. I waited and waited to make sure that it wasn't just false labor that was going to go away again. Finally, around 1:00am, I told Nate that we needed to go to the hospital. By the time he got up, got dressed, called Tanya and carried the girls one at a time down to her house, then drove to the hospital, it was 2:00am. Sean was born just a little over an hour later. I'd planned to have an epidural, but the anaesthesiologist was busy with someone else when we got there, and there wasn't really time to call the backup guy in. So I got to experience labor au natural. It was not fun. I'll just leave it at that. I can't understand why some women actually want to do it that way. It boggles the mind. It was my fault for delaying so long, but in my defense, I'd only really experienced labor like that once before (with Bethany, Meagan was induced), and when I thought it was bad enough to go to the hospital, they said it wasn't bad enough and sent me away to walk for an hour. So that on top of the false labor from the day before made me wait almost too long. At least the time in the hospital was short, even if it didn't feel like it at the time.


So anyway, Sean was born at 3:04am, weighing in at 7lbs 15.6ozs, and 20 1/2 inches long. He's my biggest baby. He's been a little angel, too. In the hospital, he mostly slept. In fact he went for several long stretches without eating, like seven hours at a time. The staff kept trying to get me to wake him up to eat, but he just wanted to sleep. Bethany did the same thing. I tried everything they suggested to get her to wake up to eat, even undressing her and putting a cold washcloth on her, but nothing really worked. They freaked me out, worrying that she was going to starve or something in the first couple of days, but really, she was just tired. Once I got her home, she was just fine. Sean, too. The night we came home, he suddenly woke up, and has been eating fine ever since.


Nate brought Bethany and Meagan to visit us later on Wednesday. Bethany brought her backpack from school to show me what she'd done that day. She was really cute about Sean. She loved holding him and every time he made a squeak, she got excited that he was talking to her. Meagan just went around saying, "The baby is Sean. He's my brother." She liked to hold him, too, but not as much as Bethany did. Bethany also got a big kick out of taking pictures. I got the camera out to get some of them all together, and then she insisted on having her turn. Some of the ones she took were pretty good (not including the ceiling and all the nasty pictures of me that I deleted). Here are a few of them.









The bad part about the visit was when it was time to leave. Bethany really, really didn't want me to stay there. She said, "You can't stay here forever. You need to come home." Not much I said helped, even though I promised her I'd be home on Friday. I eventually ended up coming home on Thursday evening instead of Friday. When I was offered the chance to go home, I took it mostly to make Bethany happy. I felt pretty good, anyway, and it was a bit boring sitting around in the hospital. And the sooner I could get out of those lovely hospital gowns, the better, too. Of course, as soon as I got home, I was little sorry I'd come back so early. The house didn't exactly look like a tornado had hit, but it was close. At least the kitchen was fairly clean. I'm not sure if Nate even fed them much at home the entire time I was gone, or not. I know he took them out to eat at least twice, and Thursday morning he said Meagan got up and made her own breakfast. She got a piece of bread, broke it in little pieces in a bowl, and was eating it with a spoon. So, there weren't many dirty dishes.

It got even worse later. By the time I got things unpacked, and Sean settled and fed, it was almost 1:00am. I was looking forward to a nice shower, and then some sleep. Just as I was getting ready to get in the shower, I heard Bethany crying. I went in her room to find that she was rolling in puke. Of course, it had dripped down from her bed onto Meagan's, so cleaning everything up was a big production. None of us got back to bed anytime soon. Welcome home, Mom.

Bethany was still sick the next day. She threw up a couple more times, so she spent most of the day sitting around on the couch watching TV. Later in the day, I had gotten a new thermometer, and I wanted to see how well it worked, so I tried it out on the kids. I was shocked to find that Meagan had a fever. She wasn't acting sick at all. At most, she had a little runny nose. So, now I had two sick kids, sick with different things, even, and a newborn in the house, and I had to somehow take care of the sickies without getting the newborn sick. It was very stressful.

Now it's Saturday, and we're settled a little more. Sean was really gassy last night, and didn't sleep well, so I ended up on the couch holding him for a good chunk of the night. I did get some sleep in there, so it wasn't so bad. He's still been a bit fussy today, too, but at least he's sleeping a little better. The main problem, I think, is that he doesn't burp very well after he eats. We'll figure it all out eventually. Bethany is better, Meagan is not. I guess this means that Meagan is staying home from church with me tomorrow, unless she miraculously improves tonight. But, we're all slowly getting into a new routine, and adjusting to life with Sean around.

The baby's coming...update

So, I went most of the afternoon without any more contractions. I had one or two in the little while before dinnertime, but that was it. After dinner, I sent the kids downstairs to play, and more or less collapsed on the couch. Now they're back again. It's similar to what it was like last night--frequent and painful, but not as intense as they would be if I were in true labor. I just hope it develops into something real this time. I've never had false labor like this before--it's a new experience for me, and one that I can't say I relish. As painful as it is, though, I can't help sitting here thinking how masochistic it is to want it to get worse. Sigh.

About a half hour before the kids' bedtime, I went downstairs to get them in pajamas, to find a very unpleasant smell and sight. Meagan's diaper was dirty, and instead of coming up and telling me, she just took it off, and sat back down on the couch. There was poop smeared all over the couch. Fortunately, the couch is made of a fabric that cleans easily, but still. I was rather angry with her, but didn't want to spank her. Who wants to spank a bare, poopy bum? So I got to clean her and the couch up, all the while enjoying these crazy contractions.

It's now just past 8:30, and the kids are in bed, finally. Bethany started complaining that she was hungry about two seconds after we finished brushing her teeth. Sheesh. Then we had fights over the bedtime story, who got to pick the scripture story, the song we sang...the only thing that went fairly smoothly was the prayer. Then once Bethany was in bed, she started crying because she noticed some of her blankets were gone. I'd washed them earlier, and they were in the dryer. I'd hoped she wouldn't notice, but no such luck. So I went downstairs, and fortunately, they were dry. But then she didn't like it because her blanket was too hot. Can we say, overtired? In her state, I don't think she'd have been happy with anything. Of course, as soon as I turned off the light, and started to leave, she said she had to go to the bathroom, then Meagan had to have a turn, too. I finally got them back in bed, and I escaped out of the room. It took forever, but they're there. I'm just happy they're in bed before the contractions picked up, if they do at all tonight. At least now if the baby comes, the kid's'll never know I was gone, so I won't have to worry about them freaking out, unless they wake up to someone else besides me or Nate.

The baby's coming...oh wait, just kidding!

I think the fates are laughing at me somewhere, after getting my hopes up last night and this morning. The second half of the night was pretty miserable--I didn't really sleep well because I was getting real contractions fairly steadily. Not regularly enough to get up and go to the hospital, but I figured it was just a matter of time. I even considered telling Nate not to go to work, since he'd just have to turn around and come back, but it's just as well that I didnt. The contractions continued through the morning, until they were very frequent, sometimes more than three times in the five minute period, but they weren't long enough or as intense as I thought they should be (although they were still painful enough, thank you very much). I didn't try to spare myself, so I could keep things going. I did some laundry, gave the kids a bath and did some work in the kitchen. The one thing I did do was bow out of my primary meeting this morning. I just couldn't face hauling the kids all the way to the church and sitting through a meeting with contractions, just to haul them back home again when it was time to go to the hospital. I really thought I would've been there by midmorning at the latest. But no such luck. I was finally so exhausted that I had to lie down on the couch. That's when they stopped. I was so frustrated--all that pain for nothing. At least I got to take a nap without contractions. I didn't say disruptions, mind you, the kids still did that, but when they left me alone I was able to sleep a bit. Since I got up, I've had a few random contractions, but nothing like the regular ones from this morning. Sigh.

The kids have been pretty good today, though. They slept a bit late--until 8:00. Of course they got up and started demanding some attention just as I was getting into the shower. I think Bethany would've slept longer if she hadn't been woken up by Meagan getting up. I don't think she was really ready to get up yet. When I got out of the shower, I found her like this in the living room.

I asked her what she was doing, and she said, "Sleeping." I guess if you don't have a blanket, you can just make your own.

Bizarre dreams

I guess I was thinking about labor and the baby a lot last night before I went to bed, because I had some really bizarre dreams. The baby was born three different times. In at least two of them, Meagan told me what I had to do to get labor going, he was born breach once, one of of the times he just popped out while I was walking along, and once he turned into a cat after he was born. It was all very strange.

I had another doctor's appointment today. I've progressed more, and the doctor thinks the baby will come before my next weekly appointment. I try not to let that opinion influence me too much, though, because I was told "any day now" for about three weeks before Bethany was born. However, if the baby's not born by next week, then the doctor will set up an induction.

I had a funny conversation with Bethany yesterday about the baby. The gist of it was that she wanted me to have a big tummy, and didn't want the baby to come out. She likes to walk up to me and poke my tummy and say, "I poked your baby." I've been talking to them for a while about having a baby at our house, but I'm not sure they get it. When I set up the crib, I told Meagan it was for the baby, and she started calling it 'Mari's bed.' (Mari is her almost-two-year-old cousin). They also get confused with Clark, another cousin who is 7 months old. "Mari" and "Clark" are their main suggestions when I ask them what the baby's name should be. It will be interesting to see what their reactions to the real thing will be.

I take it all back!

Okay, I now have a reason to want the baby to come, and my desire to bring on labor increased a lot today. I was talking with Tanya, my sister-in-law, today. She's the one who will principally watch the kids while we're at the hospital. There are a couple of other sisters in the ward who have offered to help out, one of whom lives around the corner and was Bethany's Sunbeam teacher last year, so I do have some backups, but the kids get anxious enough when we leave them that it's a lot easier on my peace of mind when I know that they're somewhere familiar and comfortable and happy. They'll be perfectly fine with Tanya and have fun playing with their cousins. The worry over what to do with Bethany was probably the worst part of facing labor with Meagan. At that stage, she was incredibly clingy, and would cry until she threw up every time we left her with a babysitter. I worried and worried about her. I had a few people lined up to watch her, but I knew it would still be hard on her. Then I went in for a normal checkup a few days before my due date, and my blood pressure had spiked, so I was induced right away. The good thing was that there was time for Nate to go home and call my sister Brenda, who packed up her kids and drove three hours, just to come take care of Bethany for me. Brenda is the only one that Bethany really responded to at that age, besides me or Nate. I'll be forever grateful to Brenda for that. It took such a load off my mind to know that she was taken care of.

Anyway, Bethany's not nearly as bad now as she was then, and Meagan's better than she used to be, but I fully expect them both to cry, especially at bedtime, when I go into labor and we're not there. That's why having Tanya take care of them will really be helpful. So, here's my reason for wanting the baby to come now. We've all known for quite some time that Tanya was moving, because Brandon (her husband) is finishing medical school and starting a residency. They found a house, and had the closing set for May, but for various reasons have now had it moved up to April. So now they are planning on packing up their house here and loading the moving truck on April 2nd, just a little over a week after my due date. When I realized that today, I started to stress out about my kids again. I'd also planned on helping Tanya move, at least watching kids or whatever, and now I don't know how well I'll be able to do that, either. The timing on all this just isn't working. So, the sooner the baby comes, the better for all involved. I even looked at different ways to induce labor, to see if there was anything I could do to sort of move things along. I don't really believe in most of the old wives tales I've heard about, but one or two do seem to be valid, so there are one or two things I might try out. I just hope something happens soon.

Que sera sera

Well, my due date is fast approaching (five days!), but I'm not really feeling like anything's going to happen anytime soon. At my last doctor's appointment, last Monday, I found that I'd progressed slightly, but not much. Not that that always means anything, but it wasn't particulary encouraging. Actually, though, I'm okay with it all. I haven't really felt the urge to try to do anything to bring on labor, or have even been very anxious for the baby to come. I was much more anxious a couple of months ago than I am now. I think it was because I was very uncomfortable at the time, and I was just plain tired of being pregnant. Then the baby dropped (I'm pretty sure), or something, because I suddenly found myself able to breathe and eat better. The constant heartburn mostly went away, and just felt better all around. I wouldn't exactly say that I'm comfortable, or enjoy where I'm at, but at least it is much more manageable.

And the closer I get to actually having the baby here, the less excited I am in some ways. I know that sounds awful, but I am actually having fears and concerns about this baby that I didn't have with Bethany and Meagan. Bethany was exciting just because I'd waited so long to start having kids, and was really ready for her. Meagan had her own set of worries, because we knew in advance that she had a cleft, but I had a really good support for that, which helped me out a lot. This baby, though, I think what's giving me pause is the fact that he's a boy. I'm not sure I know what to do with a boy. I grew up mostly with girls (I didn't interact with my older brother much as a kid, and my two little brothers were really little when I moved out of the house), and now I have two girls. Bethany is a bit of a tomboy, but it's not the same as having a boy. Most little boys are much more active than girls, or so I've heard (and in some cases, seen), and are louder and get into stuff more, etc, etc. I guess I just worry about being able to keep up. It's probably silly, because I have no idea really what his personality will be like. He could be the best behaved of all my children, but how likely is that really? Sigh. I'm sure my worries are silly, but at the same time, it makes the waiting much more tolerable. (That and who in their right mind really looks forward to labor, anyway?)

"Just say no thanks!"

So why is it that kids listen well enough to you to parrot what you say back at you or at other kids, but never manage to incorporate the concepts into their own behaviour? Today Meagan and Bethany were downstairs playing, and Meagan decided to share a ball with Bethany. Bethany didn't want it, so she threw it across the room. Meagan started yelling at her, "Don't throw it, just say 'no thanks'!" That's what I always tell her when she starts throwing food across the table that she doesn't like, instead of just leaving it on her plate. I didn't think I was making an impact, but at least I know she's heard me now. What was even funnier, though, was what she said to Nate. She, Nate and Bethany were in the living room, and Nate was trying to get Bethany to do something, when Meagan piped up, "You're not the mommy!" Meagan's a little bossy, and always tries to tell Bethany what to do.

The dynamics between the two of them are very funny. Even though Meagan is 19 months younger, and considerably shorter at this point, Bethany seems content to follow her lead much of the time. Once, Bethany came crying to me because Meagan told her she couldn't play on the computer, and this was after I'd already told Bethany it was okay. It was hard to not just laugh at Bethany.

Strawberry jam in the making

I think the part of housekeeping that I hate the most is the continual messes I'm faced with--clutter messes like toys don't really count, those are easy to pick up--I'm talking about the spilled milk all over the floor, the peanut butter smeared all over the chairs, the root beer sprayed on the ceiling, the cat puke or diaper leak on the carpet. You know, the really sticky or nasty things. I swear, my kids are slobs, and if they weren't bad enough, I've got a cat with some kind of puking problem. I keep telling myself that the kids will eventually grow out of it, but when I'm dead tired, and all I want to do is go collapse somewhere, and I find something like that, I just want to quit.

The Mess for today wasn't so bad, I guess. I've had worse anyway. I was in the kitchen making strawberry jam when I heard noises from my bedroom. Meagan loves to play with lots of stuff in there, so I went to investigate. She was opening my jewelry box, but before she got there, she'd gotten some perfume and spilled the whole bottle all over the carpet. A little spritz here and there is plenty, but the whole bottle at once is really overpowering. I'm going to have to get the carpet cleaner out for this one. Sigh. It'll have to wait until I'm done with the jam, though, which is a sticky mess in and of itself. I like making jam, but crushing all those strawberries makes my arm tired. I bought sixteen pounds of strawberries. I was partly afraid that I'd go into labor and not get it done, and come home to sixteen pounds of rotten strawberries, but I managed to get it all done. I kept asking myself why I even wanted to take on this project right now, but there was a really good sale on the strawberries at Meijer, and I wanted to take advantage of it while I could. Nate loves strawberry jam, and we ran out last year and I had to buy strawberry jam. Storebought jam just isn't the same, especially since I discovered no-cook freezer jam. It tastes so fresh, and is actually quicker to make than the cooked kind. The last batch doesn't seem to be setting, so I may have a few jars of strawberry syrup. I'm pretty sure I added too much fruit--I lost count of the cups as I was adding. It's good to have it all done, though.

I had a primary presidency meeting this morning. Usually, I turn on a movie for Bethany and Meagan, and they just watch while we get the meeting done, but the last couple of times, they seem to have gotten a little bored with just watching TV. There's another little boy, there, Ryan, that Meagan knows from nursery, and they had great fun today chasing each other around, pushing their little chairs in front of them. Of course, they were crashing into each other all the time on purpose--it looked like bumper chairs. If ever I take Bethany to an amusement park with bumper cars, that will probably be one of her favorite rides. She thinks things that crash are funny. The way she likes to play in her room right now is to take each drawer from her toy chest and dump it out. I think she just likes the noise. The drawer of toy dishes and the drawer of bracelets and toy jewelry make the best noise. Yeah. I can't wait until her little brother is big enough for her to teach all these lovely tricks to. She's going to love having a brother, I think.

Bethany's also been really interested in my camera lately. Any time she sees it, she begs to take some pictures, too. Some are not half bad. Here's one she took of Meagan today. I got the camera out to take a picture of Meagan. She apparently wasn't done getting into my room yet. I had just finished cooking dinner, and I went to bring them to the kitchen, and found Meagan in my room once again. She had gotten into my jewelry, and then found a box of snacks I'd packed in my bag to take with me to the hospital. For some reason known only to her, she climbed into the baby bassinet set up in my room and emptied out the snacks and was having a grand little party. I guess I took too long to make dinner tonight.

Don't worry...I will share with you!

During Meagan's supposed naptime today, I went downstairs with Bethany to keep her company. Sometimes she just gets like that--she needs to have someone in the same room with her whether or not they are talking to her or doing anything with her. Anyway, I brought the laptop down and she played on the desktop computer. I also brought a small bag of candy down with me. It didn't take long before she realized that I was eating some candy and she came over to investigate. I gave her one and told her it was called a robin egg. She called them Robin Hood eggs, and kept trying to grab the bag out of my hands. She said, "Don't worry... I will share with you." It was very funny. When there were only a couple left, I did actually give her the bag, and she did try to share with me, so I guess she wasn't kidding.

Meagan never did take a nap today, though. I thought she was asleep when I went downstairs, but I had to come upstairs for something and found her naked except the diaper, just lying in the hall. I put her clothes back on, put her back in bed and went back downstairs. Ten minutes later I came back to check, and she was in my room, on the bed, playing with some of Nate's things from his dresser. At that point I gave up and let her get up. I didn't think she would go to sleep, and it was getting late in the day.

A while later I was downstairs with the kids, and Meagan told me to lie down and close my eyes and go to sleep. I did lie down, but didn't expect to sleep, with all the noise around me. Next thing I knew, Meagan was tucking her teddy bear under my chin and wrapping me in her pink blanket. It was really cute. I went back to sleep again for another twenty minutes or so. It felt good.

Hooray for warmer weather

Today has actually not been that bad. I was not expecting to have a good day when faced with the morning. Bethany had a rather bad night, and kept half-way waking up and crying. She talks a lot in her sleep, but it's hard to understand more than a few words. She must've been having bad dreams, because she kept saying things like, "No" and "I miss Mommy". Once she told me she was scared of the noise from the cars. Finally around 3:00am, I got tired of getting up every 15-30 minutes to soothe her back to sleep and just brought her to bed with us. That doesn't work as well as it used to. There just wasn't that much room, and I couldn't sleep anymore, so I gave up and slept on the couch. Nate told me later that she kept wiggling and kicking and talking the whole rest of the night, so he didn't get much sleep, either. Meagan woke up really early, crying, too, and made enough noise that everyone just woke up. I was so tired and afraid that I was going to be really irritable, but it worked out better than I thought it would. I got them some breakfast, then turned on a movie for them (breaking my rule, yes, I know, but I figured it was for a good cause). I stayed up with the kids for a bit, then went to take a nap. I got frustrated with Meagan at first because she kept coming in the room every ten minutes or so, until I took her downstairs and threatened the two of them. They left me alone then (which surprised me really) and let me get some sleep. At one point I did hear them running past my room, but since they didn't bother me, I went back to sleep. Turned out all they were doing was hauling all their blankets downstairs, so their beds are bare. The next thing I knew, it was almost 11:30. I dragged myself out of bed and got them some lunch and got Bethany ready for school. But I'd slept enough that I actually had the energy to get some things done.

After Bethany left for school, Meagan helped me make some gingerbread cake, then went down for a nap. She's fought her naptime lately, and I expected today to be the same, so I was going to bribe her to stay in bed with a shopping trip later. I asked her if she wanted to go to the store, and she said, "No, I take nap first." Shocked as I was, I still expected her to get up, but she didn't. In fact, she slept for two hours, and I had to wake her up to go get Bethany from school. She was not happy to get up. She sort of stumbled out of bed, came to the door, then said she was taking a nap and went back to bed. I don't remember ever seeing her do that. I went and put some socks on her, and she tried to just roll back over to go to sleep. I had to carry her out to the car, and finally she woke up.

We got Bethany from school, and Evelyn and Brie as well. Usually we just drop them off at home, but today they stayed with us because Brandon and Tanya had gone down to take care of business with the house they are in the process of buying in Portsmouth, about two hours away. I took all the girls with me to run some errands. I wasn't sure if that was going to be a good idea or not, but they were all really good. We went to Lowe's and got some play sand, then to Toys-R-Us and got some sand toys and a ball for the backyard. Then we came home and they had a great time playing in the sand and on the swingset. It was probably the best way I could've spent the afternoon with all of them, because they didn't get bored, and didn't trash the house. Even after I dragged them all back inside so I could make dinner, they were still good. The four of them lined up at the piano and "played" and "sang" for quite a while. They entertained themselves rather nicely while I made dinner. Now dinner's over, they are all in their pajamas and watching Backyardigans, so they've gotten a relatively small amount of TV today, which makes me happy. In a few minutes, I'll go turn it off and put them all to bed. They played hard enough outside today and chasing each other around the house later that I'm hoping they've worn themselves out and will sleep well. Here's hoping, anyway.

Extemporaneous speaking and oatmeal

Today we're having extemporaneous speaking lessons. I haven't been letting the kids watch TV or play the computer very much lately, so they're trying to find new ways to entertain themselves. They pretty much trashed their room this morning, and then were driving me nuts because they were bored. I was in the living room, trying to take care of some bills and other things, when Bethany had a new idea. They set up a stool in the doorway of the living room, and are taking turns standing on it. Bethany started out by saying, "Dear boys and girls, welcome to blah blah blah (she started making up nonsense words)." Meagan's contribution was to yell something, then demand, "What's going on here?!", or sometimes, "Are you lisk'ing (listening) me?" I kind of tuned them out for a bit, but I think I heard Bethany saying a prayer up there, even. After a few rounds of this, Bethany decided I needed to join in and go say something. She didn't seem to care what I said as long as I started with, "Dear boys and girls..." I wonder if it's something she picked up in preschool. Anyway, they were having lots of fun until I got out the camera to take a couple of pictures, then they wanted turns with the camera and it kind of devolved into a fight. Oh well. Now they're back to running around the living room roughhousing. One of them is sure to get hurt, but I can't seem to make them stop chasing each other, pushing, pulling and grabbing each other's clothes or even sitting on or stepping on each other. I suppose they'll learn eventually.

When I woke up this morning, the house was freezing. The temperatures have fluctuated a lot lately, and a few days ago it was so hot I couldn't stand it and turned on the air conditioner. I never turned the heat back on after it cooled down a bit, and it got really cold last night. I was glad I was covered in blankets. I kind of wish the temperature would stabilize a bit, but the warmer weather has been really nice. It makes me think spring really is coming. My crocuses are blooming and the lilies and tulips and daffodils are starting to poke out. I just hope we don't have another really cold spell, or even any more snow.

I made oatmeal for breakfast, because it seemed like a good cold weather food. It made me kind of nostalgic. My mom had a breakfast schedule: Sundays, cold cereal; Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, scrambled eggs and cold cereal; Tuesdays and Thursdays, hot cereal; Saturdays, whatever whoever got up first made. There were some variations, but that was pretty much it. We all hated the hot cereal days. I especially loathed cracked wheat, but oatmeal was bad enough. We typically had that at least once a week, because it was cheap. It's strange that I hated it so much then, but don't mind it now. My sister has a theory that it took so long to get everyone together to eat that the oatmeal was cold by the time we actually ate, so no one liked it. Cold oatmeal is rather nasty. I remember more than once refusing to eat it, and getting it again for lunch. Refridgerator cold oatmeal is exceptionally nasty. It occurs to me to wonder now why we didn't just microwave it. Whatever. At any rate, whatever reason we had to hate it so much as kids doesn't seem to apply to mine. They actually like oatmeal, as long as I don't serve it too often. It's rather refreshing to have them eat whatever I give them without complaint.

I had to post this picture as well. When I went in the kitchen to start breakfast, I found this stool with Meagan's doll on it. She's taken to putting her doll to sleep in odd places. The funny thing about this one though, is that the doll looks dead, not just asleep.

Doctors, promotions and restaurants

Meagan had her annual cleft review today. When she was younger, it was more frequent, but now she goes to the cleft clinic once a year. Each time she sees a range of doctors: a pediatrician, a plastic surgeon, a maxilofacial surgeon, an orthodontist, a speech therapist, an audiologist and a dietician. She gets her vitals taken, and then we sit in a room, and the doctors come around to us. The whole process takes two-three hours, but it's a lot more efficient than it would be if we had to go to each doctor's office separately. She experienced the blood pressure cuff for the first time today, which she wasn't really thrilled with, but then she cooperated really well on getting her height and weight. She's 27 pounds and exactly 36 inches high. She also cooperated well with the other doctors today. In the past, she's been unwilling to open her mouth for them to look in, but today she was really good about it. Most of the doctors were pleased with her status. The pediatrician asked if she's potty trained, and she's not, but it's my fault because I just haven't wanted to deal with it, but since she's not, the doctor said I should wait a few months because of the baby. Let things settle down, and then give it a try. Her weight's gone up from the 5% to the 25%, so that's good, too. Her favorite part of the day was the hearing test. She had little wires in her ears, and every time she heard a sound, she put a block in a bucket. She thought it was a great game, and then they gave her some stickers at the end. The plastic surgeon is now thinking that she only needs one more surgery instead of two. She needs a bone graft to fill the gap in her front gumline, and she was going to have a lip correction to make her lip a little smoother. That was going to be done at two different times, but now it may be done together. I say "may", because we won't be in this location anymore when it comes time, and a different surgeon may have a different opinion. We'll just see. She is going to start up speech therapy again, though. By the time she turned two, she maybe said one or two words, but mostly walked around the house saying, "Ooooh, oooh." It was kind of irritating. So she had therapy for a few months that really got her talking, until she refused to cooperate anymore. Now she speaks in sentences, and has a good vocabulary, but she also has some pronunciation quirks. She often puts a "k" sound in the middle of words like "glasskes" instead of "glasses", and she tends to drop the first sound of a lot of words, especially f, s, th, and sh. The other day, she was trying to tell me there was a fly on the window, but it came out "why" instead of "fly". I got her to make an "f" sound, but she couldn't put it together with the rest of the word. It came out "fff--why". The speech therapist had a name for what she's doing, and said it's really common to cleft kids, and can be trained out of them fairly easily, so we're going to give therapy another try. I hope she cooperates and doesn't get all stubborn again. At the end of the whole thing, she got to pick out a toy to take home, which she hasn't done before, but she picked a green beanie baby bear, and loved it and hugged it the whole way home. It was kind of cute.



Bethany spent the morning with her cousins Evelyn and Brie, and played with their dog Ares. She was ready for me to get her, though, because when I came to the door to pick her up, she was waiting right there for me. It's nice to have her so exicted to see me again, even if it's only been a few hours.



Tonight we went out to dinner to celebrate. Nate found out on Monday that he made major. He's not going to actually pin on for quite some time. His line number is 2080, and only 175 people get to pin on each month. Apparently, they haven't even finished promoting everyone from last year's board, so Nate figures he'll pin on sometime around next July. That is a long time, but at least we know he's guaranteed, and he doesn't have to go through the selection board again. The pay raise will come right about when we expect to be moving, which will kind of be good on the budget, since we'll only have to shake things up once.



Anyway, we decided to go somewhere new and fun, so we went to the Cheesecake Factory. It was pretty good, except for the kid's food. Both of them wanted macaroni and cheese, but when it came, it didn't look like macaroni and cheese. Bethany's response was, "That's not macaroni and cheese, that's pasta!" and refused to even touch it. Meagan wouldn't touch hers, either. I'm not sure what kind of pasta they used, but it wasn't even macaroni. We tried to share some our food with them, because they'd both been complaining that they were hungry on the way, but they didn't really want ours, either. When the waitress came by, I told her that kids refused to eat their food, because it wasn't macaroni, and she let us order something new for them and took the other off the bill, which I thought was really nice. So they got little hamburgers and strange looking chicken fingers (we mixed up two plates so they both had some of each) and fries. Bethany dove into the chicken, and Meagan only ate fries, but at least they had something to eat. Of course, though, as soon as we got in the car, Meagan said she wanted her hamburger, so I got her doggie bag/box out and she ate her hamburgers (just the patty) on the way home. She eats like a bird--a little bit at a time, but kind of frequently. Oh well, as long as she's getting the nutrition she needs.

Ewww...peas!

My mom has told me that when I was little, I hated peas. I would hide them under the edge of my plate, or "accidently" drop them on the floor. When I actually did put them in my mouth, I'd hold them there for half an hour, hating them the whole time. It seems very silly to me, I mean, why didn't I just swallow and end the misery? Whatever the reason, it seems that Bethany has inherited that. We had peas for dinner tonight, and I couldn't persuade her to even try them until I brought out the chocolate cake we had for dessert. Usually she's rather unbribable, even with desserts, but she really wanted that cake tonight. I made her eat one, just one, pea before she could have some cake. It took her at least five minutes, if not more, and never quite finished the one pea. She squished the insides out and slowly ate one miniscule chunk at a time, until she only had the shell left. That's where she drew the line. I tried to get her to just put it in her mouth, and she eventually did, but immediately started gagging. Finally she decided she'd rather eat a different pea rather than that gross shell. That makes at much sense as holding the peas in your mouth for half an hour. Nate told her he'd eat a pea at the same time, so he showed her how easy it was to just pop it in your mouth, chew and swallow. To her credit, she did try, but started gagging again. I quickly poured her some milk and told her to drink, and that would help. What a process! At least she tried the pea, and she got her chocolate cake in the end.

One other funny from dinner--the kids asked for some crackers, so I gave them each some. A few minutes later, Meagan started screaming that there was a bug on her cracker. Nate didn't believe her at first. I came around and looked, and there was actually a little, tiny bug on one of them. I threw it away, and she calmed down, but it was funny that she reacted so strongly to it.

I think Bethany would love to have a dog. We saw Ares as we were dropping Evelyn and Brie off after preschool. Bethany was just dying to play with her, so we walked back down to their house and borrowed Ares and went for a short walk down the street and back. Ares was so hyper she almost dragged me down the street. As it was, Bethany got knocked down when Ares made a circle around me. Of course, Bethany laughed the whole time. Unfortunately for Bethany, I'm not sure I'm cut out for dogs. I'm not always happy with the cats, and they're a lot smaller. I guess we'll just have to live close to Grams and her dogs, and when Bethany grows up, she can get her own dog.

Where's Daddy?

Lately Meagan has been asking lots of questions, and usually she'll get one in her head and ask it over..and over...and over again. It gets very tiring. So I've started turning the questions back at her. I used to think she just wasn't listening, but she usually can answer me when I do that, so now I'm not sure why she feels the need to ask the same thing over and over. One of her favorite questions is, "Where's Daddy?"

Here's a conversation from this morning:

Meagan: Where's Daddy? (We just watched him walk out the door not two minutes before.)
Me: Where do you think he is?
Meg: He's at work.
Bethany: No, he's at a meeting. (He mentioned this on his way out.)
Me: That's right. He's at a meeting at work.
Bethany: Oh, of course.
Meg: No, not of course! (she just has to be contrary)

Another early day

Last night wasn't as bad as the night before, thank goodness, but it was short enough. I got up two or three times on my own, and once for Bethany. She started yelling around 3:00. Nate got up to help her, but she refused his help--she just wanted mommy. I was going to ignore it, but then she started yelling again. I don't think she was really awake, because she wouldn't really even talk to me. I figured she was cold though, since it was a really cold night, and she'd kicked her blanket off. I told her she needed to keep it on, patted her back for a bit, and left. I guess that solved her problem, because she went back to sleep with no problem.

The kids woke up about 7:00. For the past month or so, Nate has been turning on a movie in the morning as soon as Meagan gets up (she's always the first), so they stay occupied and I get to sleep in. While it's been really nice to get some sleep, I've been feeling more and more guilty about the amount of time the TV and computer are on. It seems to just stay on once it's on. So today I decided it was enough. I thanked Nate for helping me out, but said that it was probably best if they didn't watch a movie in the morning anymore. So now when the kids get up, so do I. It wasn't so bad this morning, actually. I got dishes done, kids fed and dressed and laundry started all by 8:30 or 9:00. It felt pretty good to get so much done so early. Plus, the kids played together really well all morning. I sewed some more on the curtains, then we went out to run some errands and met Nate for lunch. Tuesday is his late night, because of mutual. He just doesn't come home until it's done, so there are some Tuesdays that he doesn't see the girls at all, if they happen to sleep past the time he leaves for work. So, it's nice when we can get together on those days. After lunch, we went to the "mall fun place". There's a place south of here that has a big indoor playground that we often take the kids to. They've dubbed it the "fun place". I don't like taking them there by myself now, since I can't really keep up with them, so I take them to the mall instead. There's a very small play area for kids there, and so it's become the "mall fun place". I don't like going there when it's crowded, or there are bigger kids, but today was great. It was about 1:30 when we got there, and there were hardly any other kids. All in all, it was a really pleasant afternoon. The girls were well-behaved and happy, and Bethany was even really good about holding my hand in the parking lot and not running away. Of course, she stopped right in the middle of the road, still clutching my hand, to watch an airplane fly over, and didn't want to move even though a car was coming, but hey, at least she stayed with me. I'll take what I can get.

It was really good that the outing was so nice, since I got to come home to cat puke to clean up. Joy oh joy. I wish she'd stop doing that, it's getting really old. She does it about once every ten days to two weeks. The vet doesn't know why. It doesn't seem like hairballs, since the puke isn't hairy. Maybe it's the food she's eating, I don't know. All I know is that I hate it.

I finished the curtains for their room this afternoon, and put them up after Meagan finished her nap. They turned out fairly well, I thought, except the red really makes the walls seem a lot more yellow, and the walls seem a little empty now, too. I really don't want to paint, so we'll just live with the walls, but maybe I can think of something to put on the wall. I have a dragon quilt that I need to finish--it's a small wall hanging. I was going to put Meagan's name and birth information on it, but now I'm thinking it's more of a boy thing, so I may save it for the new baby, and do something else for Meagan. I did a cross stitch for Bethany, maybe I'll do another one for Meagan. Anyway, I hung the curtains up after Meagan's nap. Black Kitty was fascinated by the whole process. He watched me get out the drill (I put up new curtain rods, too) and other tools, and followed me around every time I left to get something. When I dropped a screw, he dove under the bed to check it out. It was kind of funny. Bethany didn't notice the curtains until bedtime, after she was in bed and I was about to turn out the light and walk out the door. I have no idea why, but she objected to them. I'm guessing it was just because it was something different. She really is a creature of habit. Nate's really happy to have curtains in there--not for any aesthetic reason, but because he could never get the blanket we'd been using to cover the window to hang right, and now he won't have to deal with that anymore.

Bethany and Meagan have both been saying some funny phrases lately. Bethany's is "what?", in a tone of utter disbelief. I'll tell her it's Tuesday. "What?" Or that it's time to get in the car. "What?" Meagan's phrase is equally applied to everything I tell her: "No way!" I told her that Gram's birthday is Thursday, and she said "No way Gram's birthday!" about twenty times in a row. Sometimes it's funny, but when I tell her to get her socks on to get in the car, and she says "No way!", it's not so funny. I wonder where they picked them up in the first place. When Bethany first started preschool, she picked up a few phrases like, "Cool!" and "Fantastic". Hearing her say things like that makes her seem more grown up, and not such a little girl anymore.

I should've stayed in bed

Being eight months plus pregnant, sleep is a rather precious commodity on the best of nights. Last night was certainly not one of them. Besides the normal waking up because I had to go to the bathroom, the girls woke me up at least three times. Meagan was cold (go figure) because she'd taken her clothes and diaper off, and kicked the blanket off; Bethany was yelling in her sleep, I think she'd had a nightmare. Besides which, it took forever to fall asleep in the first place. Nate has been snoring a lot lately. It's not loud, really, but enough to keep me from falling asleep. I'd even gone to bed early (for me) in an attempt to get some sleep, because I had an early doctor's appointment. To top it all off, Meagan woke up at 6:00 in the morning, got disoriented in her room, and stood in a corner crying. I don't know what possessed me to take her back to bed with me, I'm claiming it was fatigue, but I did, deluding myself that she would go back to sleep. All she did was continually kick me and wiggle, and keep me from going back to sleep myself. Sigh. Finally I gave up and got up and got her some breakfast.

I was seriously considering blowing off my doctor's appointment, putting on a movie for the kids, and going back to bed. But I forged on, and since I got up so early, I actually got out of the house at a good time, and got to my appointment ten minutes early. It was a miracle. Usually, I'm rushing (i.e. waddling) as quickly as I can, and since Meagan still insists on being carried outside near parking lots and streets, by the time I get up to the second floor of the hospital, I'm out of breath and my heart is pounding. Just in time to get my vitals read. Yea. But today, I got to walk slowly, and had time to sit and rest before my appointment. I was so pleased. But then I sat...and sat...and sat. This was unusual, to say the least, because I often only wait a few minutes before they take me back. The kids started getting restless. I had to keep yelling at Bethany to quit climbing all over the chairs. Even a time out didn't stop the behaviour. After thirty-five minutes of waiting, with no sign of the nurse coming to get me, I'd had enough and just left. Partly I was annoyed at the wait and the kids' rowdiness, and partly I was worried about time. I wanted to get the grocery shopping done, since I was already out, before I had to get home and feed Bethany lunch in time for preschool. I did manage to get the shopping done, because I'd just left, but it was irritating, too. Bethany and Meagan kept fighting with each other, so I gave them some little notebooks and pens to keep them happy. Bethany intentionally drew all over her pants. I was remembering more and more why I try to shop while Bethany is at school. So, yeah, I should've just stayed in bed.

Later in the afternoon, I started sewing some curtains for the girls' room. We've lived in this house over five and a half years, and most of the rooms still don't have curtains. I finally decided to make some for that room, mostly because I wanted to make the room darker for bedtimes and naptimes. (They've only been in that room for a few months). Anyway, I was sewing, and Meagan disappeared upstairs. I thought she was just going to get something and come back, but she never did. So I went upstairs to see what she was up to, and this is what I found:

When I walked in the kitchen, she was happily sticking the knife in the cream cheese and licking it off. All she said to me was, pointing to the milk, "It's too heavy me, it's too heavy me." Thank goodness it was a new gallon, and hadn't been opened yet, or I might've had a major mess to clean up. You can't see it in the picture, but off to the side is a bag of carrots that she got out, too. At least she's getting out healthy snacks to eat, I guess. The really funny thing about this picture is that Bethany did something almost identical to it. At least Bethany put her bagel on the table, but I have a picture of Bethany spooning cream cheese out of the container and eating it. Funny how neither of them got around to eating the bagel.

We did get Family Home Evening done at least. Bethany and Meagan really like it, actually. I suspect that's mostly because we play Simon Says almost every week, and it usually ends with, "Simon says, go to the kitchen and get a treat." That's definitely their favorite part. This week, Meagan helped me make the treat: muddy buddies. They're chocolate and peanut butter covered rice chex, that are then coated in powdered sugar. I'd never made them before, but the picture on the box looked really good, so I thought I'd try it out. Meagan had a blast helping me. I told her to smile for the camera, and she said, "I am 'miling." The treat turned out pretty well, but I think it needs to be mixed with something salty, like nuts, because it was a little too sweetby itself. Anyway, I decided it was time to create a family home evening chart. Then the kids can be assigned times to choose the activity (I'm getting tired of Simon Says) and what songs to sing, and it will be decided beforehand who will be doing the lesson. So I've given myself the assignment to make one by next week, and introduce during next week's FHE. I hope the kids get it. They're learning, slowly, to take turns for things, so I'm hoping it will make sense to them. Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to do it, and make time to do it...