Mass With Little Ones

The past two weeks Katie has been getting up early and asking if she can come to Mass with me and Anthony.  Usually when I take both of them to daily Mass it's a recipe for disaster because they fight over my lap and it usually results in Anthony crying loudly or screaming.  But since she's been asking to go things have been surprisingly calm.  The kids are getting along and they've both been very quiet.

I find that what works best with keeping them happy is giving each of them a notebook and some crayons so they can just color and draw. But while Anthony spends a lot of time playing at my feet or just exploring the pew, he does also pay attention.  Some days he watches intently and imitates what the priest is doing as he says Mass.  There have even been times where I've heard him trying to say what the priest is saying.  I think he thinks he's helping them out.  He typically only does it when it's one of the two priests he knows best, his godfather and his "favorite priest." (Father has insisted since he was very small that he's Anthony's favorite.)

So today while in line to receive communion Anthony was having a great time singing on the way up.  Katie, soaking in her surroundings was happily waving her latest drawings, until she got very serious before bowing before the eucharist just before getting a blessing.  And then I notice Father motioning for me to look at Anthony who was in my arms.  He was really hoping to receive communion.  He had his tongue out and had this "I'm waiting" sort of expression on his face.  He was visibly disappointed that he got denied.  He has plenty of people who attend daily Mass who all think he already has a good understanding of what goes on at Mass.  Perhaps they're right.  I'm curious to see how he reacts going forward.  Today was the first time I've ever noticed him hoping to receive.

It amazes me how much little ones pick up when they attend Mass frequently.

On Vomit and Confession

My past week has really been something.  It's the kind of something that I'd choose never to experience again if I were in control of such things and I'd certainly go back and delete it if that were even a possibility.

Last Friday afternoon Anthony started spitting up huge amounts.  So much that I started to question whether there might have been oatmeal in his new box of rice cereal since he was reacting the way he does when he has oatmeal.  The spitting up, which we later realized was vomit, kept happening, and it wasn't until he vomited about two ounces of baby food that I was still in the process of feeding him for dinner that we realized there was something other than just regular spit up going on.  Almost immediately after the disturbing dinnertime display he began vomiting a lot and his color quickly turned very sickly looking.  He was starting to remind us of how Katie looked when she dehydrated from her bout with pneumonia so Bryan ran out and got him pedialyte and we began hydrating him every ten minutes with a few MLs of pedialyte.  After an hour or two he was seeming a bit better, but it was obvious that he wasn't feeling well.

Neither of us was comfortable with the idea of putting him to be in his room, so we set up a playpen in the family room and decided he would stay down there with us until we were certain the vomiting had passed and he was hydrated.  I had kept telling Bryan that I thought I felt sick, too, but he kept telling me that I was just worried about the baby and his impending business trip to Denver.  I figured he was right since I do stress out to the point of feeling ill when he goes away and I was also stressing out about the baby.

Around ten or eleven at night I started getting sick.  By midnight I was vomiting all over the bathroom floor because I had no other choice.  Within minutes Bryan was also sick and once the next wave of feeling sick came around Bryan and I were practically doing synchronized vomiting.  Then Anthony got in on the action and woke up wanting of all things, to be fed and held and neither Bryan and I were in a position to tend to him.  Nursing a baby while succumbing to a nasty stomach virus just isn't possible.

We ended up having to wake Madeline at 1AM and have her come down to take care of the baby and help us as we tried to clean up two bathrooms that were covered in vomit.  An hour or so later Katie woke up and had vomited all over her bed, herself and her carpet.  So Madeline had a new patient.  I tried as best I could to help clean up the mess, but that's not easy when you're also throwing up and running to the bathroom every few minutes.  We got Katie settled and an hour or two later Ellie fell victim to the same horrid fate as the rest of us [except Madeline].

I don't think Madeline got much sleep the rest of the night as she helped her younger siblings and did her best to get the loads and loads of vomit laundry through the washer.  She came through for us in a huge way.  I'm not sure if we would have survived without her.  She kept the baby hydrated, made sure Bryan, the girls and I had drinks, saltines and orange slices.

I'm amazed that the didn't get hit with the stomach bug, too, but we think she may have had it last month.  The day after Christmas she was sick and had very similar symptoms to the rest of us.  She was the only one to get sick with it then.

The timing for this virus was not ideal.  Bryan was getting ready to leave for a business trip and I had loosely planned out my Saturday.  Once I had gotten sick I realized that heading to Mass for the feast day of St. Francis de Sales who has become one of my favorite saints over the past year or two was out.  And going to confession was also out.  Soon enough I realized that there was no way I was able to teach my CCD class on Sunday and there was no way we could go to Mass and share our grotesque stomach bug with everyone else.  Even though we all stopped vomiting by early Saturday morning the fun of horrible body aches, fevers and dizziness were just getting warmed up for their two day stay.  I laid on the couch thinking to myself that labor, strep throat, ear infections, and possibly hand foot and mouth disease were all less miserable.  Of course, that last one is a misery in itself and I'd rather have the stomach bug for a few days than relive a day of hand, foot and mouth disease.

We were mostly all on the mend by very late Sunday night or Monday morning.  Katie and Ellie had some lingering effects for a day or two after, but were doing much better by today.  Anthony, on the other hand, will seem like he's doing just fine and out of nowhere have an explosive diaper.  That I could handle.  But this evening I fed him dinner and then loaded the kids into the car so we could go to confession.  All was going well.  We were there right at 6:00 when confessions begin and I was hopeful that we might not be at the end of a long line since the parking lot hardly had any cars in it.  Then I opened the door to get Anthony and was met with a baby sitting in a puddle of vomit that consisted of all the freshly pureed peas I had just fed him.

I thought maybe the spit up wasn't as bad as I thought but a quick attempt to clean him up with a burp cloth revealed that there was no way I was getting this child out of his seat and standing in a line for confession.  We would have had a slimy green trail following us.  It was that bad.  It was so bad that I took pictures when we got home so I could show Bryan.

As I stood in the cold parking lot completely defeated, I told the girls to get back in the car.  They were more than happy to comply.  I was just left with the feeling that if I didn't need to go to confession when I pulled into the church parking lot, I certainly needed to go now.  Patience had officially left the building.  Inside my head I raised my little white flag of surrender to God, all the while grumbling that I now had a phenomenally bad mess to clean.

When we got home I made the unhappy discovery that Anthony needed bath number two in four hours. The kid was covered in green pea vomit.  Can I shock all of you and tell you that I've bathed Anthony three times in the past two days which is more times than I've bathed him in the past month.  Bryan is much better at washing babies than I am, so I usually propose to him that I'll dry and dress the baby if he washes.  So yes, he's cleaned regularly, just not by me.  I will say that I'm feeling more confident washing him after the last two baths I gave him today.

Once he was cleaned I set about getting his clothes sent down to the laundry room only to discover that the dog decided to try washing them.  Arrgh!  Why are dogs so gross?

The real fun began when I had to pull the carseat out of the van.  That cute cover that can be pulled off for washing so you don't have to remove the harness is a load of crap for people who don't live in reality land.  When junior pukes all over the harness and there's so much vomit that it dribbles out of the car seat and onto the car upholstery, the easy remove seat pad is worthless.  I had lots of choice words and thoughts about the engineers and designers of the Britax Marathon 70-G3.  Ignore my 5 star review of it on Amazon.  I obviously didn't have real world baby disaster experience with the seat when I wrote the review.  My recurring thought was "What genius makes a car seat where the *@&%@*$ harness cannot be removed?!"  It's covered in green pea sludge and the omnipotent owners manual is telling me to "sponge clean" the harness if it needs to be cleaned.  Ok, Britax manual writer....you're drunk, you probably don't have any children and have never had to clean up green vomit; it's time to pack it up and go home.

So picture me dear readers at the kitchen sink with a giant car seat sitting on the counter top with the harness, dripping with green oozy grossness hanging out of the bottom of the seat and into the sink so I can wash it with mild soap.  The seat and the fantastic design that does not allow the harness to come out is an occasion of sin, my friends.  Plain and simple.  On the bright side, I kept all the expletives that I had regarding the seat, and it's designers in my head so the kids were at least spared that nice little show.

Madeline had very kindly offered to clean the puddle of green slime off the car upholstery, so that was a huge help.  I was really impressed to see that the got it all up.  I guess she gained some practical life experience this past weekend.

I was going to attempt to put the carseat cover back on the seat tonight and get it back out in the van, but it's not dry.  I hope it will dry sometime this evening so I can get everything back where it belongs.  I'd really like to get to Mass tomorrow morning.  This is one of those times where I wish I didn't keep our spare carseat in Bryan's car.  Since he's out in Denver until tomorrow, my spare seat is sitting over in the Philly airport parking lot.  Some days it just seems like nothing can be easy.  Too bad this happens to be one of those days, right?

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.  Bryan will be back and I don't know about you, but I'm confident that it's going to be a vomit free day.  If it's not, I'm going to go and eat a lot of chocolate and have a glass of cranberry wine.

If you made it to the end, thanks for sticking with me.  I promise not to talk so much about vomit next time.  Maybe I'll talk about the upcoming name change for the blog.  Oh and how happy are you that I didn't share any pictures with this story?  I almost did.  Sure they aren't something anyone really wants to see, but the watermark on the picture would have revealed the new name for my blog.

Quick Takes: On My Mind

~1~

I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do.  I really wish I could blog a bit more since this space is pretty much where I record milestones the kids hit and things of that nature.  I feel like I'm totally dropping the ball with recording what has been going on with Anthony.  Can you believe he's already five months old?

~2~

We have the first quarter of the school year behind us.  This week we began the second quarter.  I'm waiting on some grades for Madeline but all of Ellie's grades have come back and she's done incredibly well with everything.  Her lowest grade for the marking period was an A- and she's very proud of herself.

~3~

About a month ago we looked into getting Katie evaluated to see if she could benefit from speech therapy since she doesn't talk a lot.  I took a week and a half for the place we called to let me know that there is about a four month wait to get an appointment.  The whole thing has me feeling frustrated.  I am noticing that she's speaking more but it seems like she has some days where she picks up a lot of words and then we hit a dry patch where she seems to prefer not using those words.  I am finding that she's talking more now than she did two months ago, but I still feel like she's behind.  The most frustrating part is knowing that she can talk but pretty much chooses not to.  

~4~

Anthony is an active little guy.  He log rolls when he wants to get to one of us or a toy.  Last Saturday he was in the family room playing on a quilt with some toys and he rolled into the kitchen where Bryan and the girls were doing something.   He will even just roll around the perimeter of a room to play with different toys.  He certainly likes to explore!

~5~

Madeline and Ellie have soccer tournaments this weekend so they'll be busying playing lots of games.  I started feeling a bit under the weather last night so I think the little ones and I will probably stay home.  I'm not sure if it's my allergies that are bothering me or if I'm coming down with a cold or something.

~6~

For the past month we've been trying to get Anthony to eat baby food and he's not the least bit interested.  The first few times we tried giving him food he ate a little bit of it.  We had one night where he ate a decent amount and then about an hour and a half later when I was nursing him he had a very scary spitting up incident where he projectile vomited for what seemed like several seconds with garden hose velocity.  He actually seemed limp towards the end of the episode.  It ranks as one of the scariest parenting moments I've had.  He seemed very shaken up about it and I certainly was, too.  Ever since then he pretty much refuses to even swallow anything I give him on a spoon.  If I put it in his mouth he pushes it out and won't open his mouth.  I'm hoping that he'll be willing to try food sometime in the near future.  I think he might associate baby food with the scary vomiting incident.  Can a five month old make a connection like that?  It's the only thing that seems to make sense.

~7~

Katie will turn three next week.  It's so hard to believe that she's already that old.  It seems like the older I get the faster time seems to fly.

Busy, busy, busy!

It seems like there's always something going on around here.  It's like there's never time to sit down and just write a blog post, or I start to write one and suddenly there's a queue of kids asking me what feels like a thousand questions.

Last week I had the hardest time sleeping for a couple of days and after two nights of only four hours of sleep each night I was completely exhausted.  Despite feeling incredibly tired I then found that I just couldn't sleep.  It wasn't until Friday that I started to be able to catch up on sleep.  I'm just now starting to feel like I've had enough sleep to function properly.

I think were now a laundry generating machine.  Anthony spits up so much that I think he creates a load of wash a day all on his own.  He's on Zantac, but it's not helping with the spit up as much as I would like.  This morning at Mass he had such a massive spit up during the Our Father right as we said "Thy will be done" that there was an audible splash and enough dripping off my arm that our friends about seven pews back commented on the dripping spit up after Mass.   Lovely.

That Mass was just a fun-filled 45 minutes of mortification.  Between Katie acting like a two year old, which she is, but she really ramped it up this morning, and Ellie grabbing Katie by the head during a novena to move her out of the way, along with Anthony's excessive spitting up, I was ready to go crawl into a hole and stay there for the rest of the day.

Later in the day the dog decided to get stuck under the shed.  If it were left to me, I would have just let him try to figure out how to get unstuck on his own, but Bryan and the girls are much nicer to him than I am.  It took Bryan a little while but he rescued the dog who then tried to go right back under the shed again.  I imagine there must be something under there that has him very interested.

This Friday the girls will wrap up their third week of school.  We're 1/12 of the way through the school year!  So far it's going well.  They're getting everything done for the most part.  I decided to just have the girls work off the lesson plans that Seton sent us rather than copy them into an excel spreadsheet for the week.  I like it better this way, but Madeline doesn't.  This way makes it harder for her to ignore the details that don't fit on the spreadsheet.

Soccer has one again taken over.  Two nights a week the girls and Bryan go off to soccer practice while I stay home with Katie and Anthony.  Being alone with the two little ones at the end of a long day can be exhausting.  I've seen more Sofia the First, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Cinderella than I care to remember.  I've also read Katie's favorite Tomie DePaola books to the point that even the newer ones we're recently added are almost memorized by me.  I have quite the collection of children's books memorized.  Too bad I can't use that awesome mom skill to remember what we need to buy at Target or the grocery store!

I think it's possible that me eating dairy foods may be making Anthony's reflux worse.  I've been noticing that when I eat a lot of dairy that he spits up a lot more than on the days when I haven't, particularly a day or two after not having much or any diary.  So, of course, after noticing this yesterday I sat down and had Tostitos and sour cream--a lot of sour cream.  Today I spent all day wiping up copious amounts of cheesy spit up.  So I'm going to try going dairy free for a few days to see if there's a change.  I really don't want to have to possibly eliminate dairy, but I'd like him to not be spitting up all the time.  So if I must, I'll stop eating it.  I'll just have to figure out what to eat instead if diary does turn out to be the culprit.

Is it bad that Anthony will be four months old in eleven days and I still haven't ordered birth announcements?  I sent them out for the girls but just never got around to doing them for Anthony.  I feel like it might be silly to send them out now, but at the same time I hate to not have a birth announcement for him when I had one for each of his sisters.

That's pretty much the nickel tour of what's been going on around here.  Nothing spectacular, just regular everyday craziness.

Quick Takes Baby Cuteness and Soccer

~1~

Last week at his 2 month well visit my adorable little fat man weighed in at 12lbs 11oz.  I think most of that weight is situated in those squishy chubby cheeks and his little second chin.

~2~

Seriously, look at how big those cheeks are!  They're so big they wound up taking over another quick take!

~3~

I'm hardly ever in any pictures with any of the kids so I had Bryan take a few of me with Anthony the other day.  Of the ones he took I liked this one the best.  Since my kids like to steal my blog photos all of the time (they don't care when I point out the copyright notice on the sidebar of the blog) this is one they can use when I die and they're putting together one of those photo memory boards.  Got it Madeline?

~4~

Anthony's been exhibiting some pretty good head control lately and is getting a bit tired of his swing, playmat, bouncy seat and boppy pillow.  So we added a little variety and put together the bouncy entertainer thing I got as a review product a while back.  He can't bounce and jump in it yet or even reach the toys but he seems to like just sitting there and taking in the sights.

~5~

My older girls are at a Team First Soccer Academy this week so I had a rare 45 minutes of quiet yesterday while Katie and Anthony napped at the same time (Woot!).  I took advantage of that time and finished up reading a advance copy of Fearless, which I really enjoyed.  With two pages left of the book I heard Anthony stirring and decided that since he wasn't crying I had time to finish reading.  Umm, yeah.  See how he's on his belly in the above picture?  That's not how he was sleeping.  So while I finished reading about St. Katharine Drexel, this little guy decided to roll from back to front and rotate his body 90 degrees when I wasn't watching.  Arrgh!  Little Man, don't you know that you aren't supposed to hit milestones when Mommy isn't watching?!

~6~

Today was picture day at Team First Soccer Academy.  The ladies in the red shirts are soccer legends Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and Tish Hoch.  The girls are having a great time at the camp and so is Bryan who is one of the volunteer coaches.

~7~

Katie's too little for this soccer camp, but she really wanted to be in a picture.  Who knows, maybe when she's older our soccer club will host this camp again.

Tea for Two

I've been going through pictures from the past two months these past few days and I'm coming across some here and there that I can't help but share.  When Anthony was just shy of two weeks old Katie was warming up to the idea of having a new baby in the house, but she really wanted to be able to play with him.  Not content to wait for Anthony to grow up a little bit she decided that she would help him play.  So she set up her little tea set and had a tea party with Anthony.  She even helped him drink a pretend cup of tea.  I'm so glad I grabbed my camera to document his first tea party.

Four Kids Will Keep You Busy!

I can't believe that I've only blogged two or three times since Anthony was born on May 1st.  I feel like my blog has been set on the back burner for the longest time.  All I can say is the past eleven months have felt like some of the busiest months of my life.

Things are going well here and I'm continually amazed at how sweet this new little love of mine is.  I can't believe I spent so much time worried that I wouldn't adore this little man as much as I do my girls. I really didn't think I'd have any clue what to do with a little boy but I have to say having a boy baby isn't too different from having a girl other than the obvious differences and the overall absence of whining and crying.  How come nobody told me boys were so easy going?  Anthony is so laid back that I'd be prefectly content to have more just like him.

I have so much I want to blog about so I will hopefully be able to find some time in the next few weeks to fill you in on what we've been up to.  Here are are few highlights.

Madeline completed her first year of homeschooling and she managed to finish up the year a full three weeks before the kids in public school finished.

Ellie will be joining us for school this year.  When I re-enrolled Madeline for 8th grade we also enrolled Ellie for 4th grade.  Can I tell you how excited I am that we're done with the public school?  I know Ellie is excited about homeschooling, too.  She seems to be telling everyone about it.

I think Katie has adjusted to having a little brother for the most part.  She still has moments here and there where she seems jealous but overall she seems content to have a real baby in the house.

Anthony was baptized on the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua.  I couldn't resist having him baptized on the feast day of his patron saint.

VBS took place last week.  How I managed to pull off coordinating VBS this year while pregnant/having just had a baby will remain a mystery.  All I can say is I have some amazing friends and family members who all helped me out tremendously.  Last week was great and I enjoyed seeing all of the kids having a great time.

Anthony had his 2 month well visit last week.  He's growing so fast.  He's 12 lbs 11oz and 23 1/4 inches long.  He's already outgrown some of his 0-3 month outfits and is on the verge of outgrowing the rest.  It's crazy!  Between 6 and 8 weeks old he went from looking like a newborn to looking more like a three month old.

As if having a new baby and running VBS wasn't enough, we also had a birthday party to plan for yesterday.  Ellie turned nine yesterday and we celebrated with a Frozen pool party.  I can't believe she's nine already.  It's amazing how quickly time passes.  It doesn't seem like that long ago that we had just moved into this house and celebrated her second birthday and already she's nine years old.

So I think this wraps up my little highlight tour of what we've been up to this past month and a half.   I hope to be able to put together a post about Anthony's baptism and Ellie's Frozen party later this week.  I have a lot of pictures to share and I was so pleased with how well Ellie's party came together that I need to tell you how easily everything came together and why I'm convinced that I must get a die cut machine. (Hint: Look at the snowflake decorations in the background of each of the birthday pictures.)

She's Speaking English!

I've mentioned here and there on the blog how Katie doesn't really talk much.  It's something that really bothers me.  I read blogs of people with children close in age to Katie and have had more than a few instances where I just felt so jealous after seeing how well these other babies her age are speaking.  Sure, I could tell myself that the mom could be exaggerating in some cases, but when you see a video of a toddler speaking clearly and in English there's really no denying it.  I have friends with similar aged children who are also talking up a storm.  So it's frustrating.  It's frustrating to stand there and try to figure out what it is that your child wants because the sounds she's making don't match anything that would qualify as being a word.  And even more frustrating is to see that she's upset that she can't effectively communicate.  She understands English perfectly.  We can talk to her and tell her to do things or ask her to show us something and she can.  But speaking it has been a slow going process.

At her two year old well visit I once again brought up my concerns about her limited speaking vocabulary.  Her older sisters were speaking in complete sentences by eighteen months so in comparision to them she was certainly behind.  I was told that the number of words she was able to say and the fact that she understood what we said to her showed that she was on the average.  That made me feel a bit better, but speaking would make me feel even better.

I just took this picture of her and she held this toy aloft and said "Coach!" 

We're now coming up on the two and a half year mark and still she isn't very chatty.  A week ago I was once again getting very worried about her still not speaking much.  Then I started listening to her as she played by herself or watched one of her favorite TV shows.  Slowly but surely she was picking up some words here and there.  She can say the names of Mickey and his friends and even some of the objects they use in a given show.  Over the past two days she's come out with more words, such as spontaneously saying "Thank you" or "girls" which makes me think that we're starting to make some progress here.

I've had a few people point out to me as I lament her slow grasp of English that while she isn't talking up a storm, she is developing other skills.  She potty trained in just a few days time.  She builds with blocks, which is something that has me impressed.  Her sisters struggled with putting blocks together until they were about four years old so a two year old that actually plays and builds with blocks amazes me.  So while speaking has not been her strong suit, she is developing other skills.

I think for me, one of the most frustrating things is knowing that she can talk and that she essentially chooses not to in most cases.  She has uttered phrases like "party in the back" after Bryan was teasing her about her toddler mullet several months ago which show us that she can, in fact, speak English.  I guess the bottom line is she talks when she wants to talk and only when she wants to talk.  I suppose she's a bit like Mr. Ed the talking horse or Michigan J. Frog.

Either way, I'm excited and grateful when I hear her coming out with more and more words.  She certainly does things on her own time line which really shouldn't surprise me since she's been like this since before she was born.

Celebrating the Feast of St. Therese

Today is a name day for Katie so it's the prefect excuse to celebrate with a yummy dessert.  I wanted something with roses but lack of proper prior planning left me with no fun "rose" dessert ideas that called for ingredients that I had on hand.  What to do what to do...

Well, this morning I decided to improvise when it came to dressing Katie.  She's outgrown most of her 12-18 months clothes so we're close to being fresh out of cute dresses with little flowers and roses.  Then I remembered that strawberries are part of the rose family so I broke out a dress that I figured we wouldn't be seeing until next spring that has little flowers and strawberries.  Score!

That still left me trying to come up with a dessert.  Then it hit me.  Why not rose colored biscotti!  It's yummy, everyone likes it and it's easy to make.

The pink rose biscotti was certainly a hit.  It was a delicious way to celebrate the feast day of one of my favorite saints and one of Katie's patrons.

Happy feast of St. Therese!

Oh What A Week!

This week really started off well.  I knew it was going to be a bit hectic, but I didn't think it was going to be anything I couldn't handle.  But, really who looks at their weekly planner and sees lots of blanks and thinks "Hey, this is going to be one of those weeks where I feel like I can't win!"  Not me.  I see a week that doesn't look over scheduled and I think I'm going to have a relatively enjoyable week.

Tuesday is when my week started to go south.  I'm the sort of person who seriously dislikes arriving late.  So I was annoyed when Elisabeth was jeopardizing my arriving to Mass on time.  Add to that that it was raining lightly, which makes me want to leave the house even earlier.  Once we pulled into the parking lot the rain started coming down a little harder and there was lightening.  Getting struck by lightening is NEVER on my to-do list.  But I still wasn’t deterred.

After dodging heavier rain and loads more lightening on our way back to the car after Mass, I did what every good Catholic does and I tried to get out of the parking lot as fast as I could.  Only my car wouldn’t start.  Sigh.  Lucky for me, Bryan was working from home that day so he was able to come and get us.  He wanted to jump the car, but getting struck by lightening is pretty high on his things not to-do list.  So after taking a quick look under the hood in the downpour, he got back in the car and informed me that I had a lot of corrosion on my battery.  Fun!  Four hours later my car started up without needing a jump, but it didn’t sound right.  This is where the week started to take a less than favorable turn.

Bryan didn’t want to leave me for three days with no working car, and we didn’t have the time to get my van repaired.  So we came to the decision that I would have to get up with him shortly after 5AM and drive him to the airport.  I’m telling you, my martyrdom crown is on it’s way.

In order to get myself together and out of the house by the ungodly time of 5:30AM, I had to shower the night before.  Showering when I came back from dropping him off wasn’t an option since I had to take the girls to Mass shortly after getting home so they could go to the youth group breakfast afterwards.  This is one of those instances where I can claim that my Mom of the Year award must be lost in the mail. (I’ve given up hope of getting any awards for my humility.)  So back to the shower.  It was cold at first and then polar bear ice cold.  Guess what?  The pilot went out on our hot water heater and since Bryan can’t smell, he couldn’t light it until I got out of the shower and confirmed that I didn’t smell gas.  Cold shower, car that broke down, getting up at 5AM.  Yep, I’m getting that martyrdom crown! 

Dropping Bryan off went well.  I was home before any of the girls woke up.  It was probably Madeline’s easiest babysitting job to date, and I’m sure our babysitter across the street was happy she didn’t get a call from Madeline.  I was convinced by around noon on Wednesday that everything was going to go well for the rest of the week.  I just knew that it would.

Of course, that wasn’t the case.  Madeline was scheduled to altar serve for the 4PM vigil Mass for the Assumption.  It didn’t hit me until around 2PM that I was taking Katie to Mass twice in one day.  Bound and determined to eliminate any chance of meltdowns, I made sure I had Cheerios for her as a last resort, pacifiers and a sippy cup since I knew she’d be thirsty after her nap.  Oh, and since Madeline had soccer camp starting at 6PM we needed to do some super quick turnaround to get her fed, dressed for soccer and out the door by 5:30.  So all that awesome planning to keep Katie calm had one pretty big flaw.  I left the all-important sippy cup on the kitchen table.  And since I didn’t have my car, I had no way of grabbing any sort of backup for her like a bottle of water.  Somehow we made it through Mass with no meltdowns.  I spent plenty of time praying that she wouldn’t lose it as she rummaged through my bag looking for her cup.

Once the girls were in bed I felt like I had made it through a marathon day.  Oscar and I crashed in the family room.  I put on a movie after taking to Bryan and woke up to find that it was nearly 3:30AM.  Ugh!

I was hopeful when I finally made it up to my bed that I’d get to stay there until at least 7 or 7:30.  We didn’t have to go to Mass this morning since we went the night before and we didn’t have anything on our schedule until 6PM.  What could go wrong?  Well, for starters, someone could put her alarm clock on for 6:30AM which in turn could wake up Katie.  I stayed in bed hoping she’d go back to sleep, which I thought she did.  Fifteen minutes later I heard the alarm again followed by the baby.  A few minutes later Madeline who went in to get Katie was yelling for me to come quick.  We had a poopy disaster complete with a poo covered pacifier.

To say that I had a royally crappy start to my day would be a huge understatement.  Katie’s bedding had to be stripped, her crib had to be cleaned and she needed a bath.  All this before 7AM.   On the bright side, I became very grateful that Madeline had to serve the 4PM Mass.  I don’t know that we would have made the 8AM Mass this morning with our less than stellar circumstances.

The day seemed like it was looking up when I was able to get my friend’s husband to drive the van over to the dealership for service.  Both Bryan and my father-in-law didn’t want me driving the van in case it was the alternator so I needed someone who would know what to do if the car died to drive it.  A few short hours later, the car was ready.  Thankfully it was just the battery and another part that needed to be replaced.  A friend was able to take me over to get the van while Madeline stayed home with a napping Katie with yet another neighbor on emergency stand-by.

I was feeling pretty good about things looking up when I got home.  That’s when Madeline started yelling for me.  Katie was up and it was another poo incident.  This one wasn’t as bad as the morning one but it was bad enough to warrant bath number two in 9 hours.  Sigh.

I figured by 4:30 things that we were close to the end of the day.  Just four and a half hours to go until the kids would all be in bed.  What could go wrong?  Have you noticed that I stupidly keep assuring myself that I must be in the clear?  Well, you know this isn’t going to end well, right? 

I sent Madeline out to snip a few basil leaves so I could get dinner started.  Then out of nowhere I hear Katie screaming and Ellie is frantically telling me that she’s hurt.  We have no idea what she touched, but she sliced off a thin layer of skin on two fingers.  One of them was bleeding a little but neither of them look great.  So I did my best to patch her up and amazingly, I didn’t freak out.  Calmly handling hurt children is not my forte.  Katie spent most of the evening fixating on her band aids.

At this point I’m spent.  I just need to make it through the next fifteen hours or so and God willing, Bryan will be home from his trip and our little world will hopefully go back to normal.

Silly Seat Stealer

Over the past few days Katie has developed a new habit of seat stealing.  She could be perfectly happy and content right where she's sitting but if Madeline or Ellie gets up from their seat on the couch to do something Katie will bolt to where her big sister was sitting and occupy the spot.  She's particularly funny because she gets this goofy little look on her face and tries to act like she has no idea why they're expecting her to move for them when they come back to the seat.  Then she starts smiling or laughing at them.  Of course, if they move her she freaks out on them and gets quite upset.  Apparently she's honing her annoying little sister skills.  I have to say that she's quite good at it.

I do think it's funny that she's going out of her way to be a pest.  Being a pesty younger sister myself, I know how much fun it can be to irritate your big siblings.  I am surprised that the irritating little sister antics start so early, though.  She certainly has a sense of humor though.

Theme Thursday: Black and White

Last Friday Madeline had a friend sleep over and the kids went swimming.  Katie decided that the pool wasn't for her.  Perhaps it was too cold for her.  I know I find 80 degree water to feel downright chilly.  Maybe she does, too.  Once she got out of the pool she had a lot of fun playing with the beach ball.  

Visit Clan Donaldson for more Theme Thursday pictures.

The Spirit at Work

I wrote last week about why I bring my toddler to Mass as well as about a moving encounter I had with someone just before daily Mass.  In the couple of weeks that I have made it a point to go to Mass every weekday, I am amazed at how much the experience seems to be influencing Katie.

I don't take Katie with me to daily Mass every day.  There are lots of mornings where she stays at home with Bryan and watches playhouse Disney or whatever kiddie show Bryan decides to put on TV.  I know she loves it since she gets to watch TV which doesn't happen during the day for her very often.

I have noticed an amazing transformation in Katie's behavior in the few weeks that she's been coming with me to daily Mass two to three times a week.  She used to squirm around a lot and would often need me to pop a pacifier in her mouth to keep her happy.  She would also rummage through my purse and pull everything out when she wasn't fixated on trying to destroy my Magnificat.  Amid all of those toddler antics, she began holding her hands out in the orans posture during the Our Father simply by watching others around her doing it.

Sometime in the past two weeks she has become a lot less antsy at Mass.  She still moves around a lot, but now she doesn't rummage through my purse and can typically make it through the entire Mass with no toys or drink to occupy her.  The kneeler seems to be all she needs to be happy.  And she seems to be picking up more on how she should behave at Mass.  Saturday during Mass she insisted on standing on the kneeler during the consecration rather than letting me or Bryan hold her like we usually do.  I glanced over at her at one point and saw her staring at the altar with her little hands adorably folded.  It was the sweetest thing.  I couldn't help but nudge Bryan and motion for him to look.  The two Masses she's been to since Saturday have been more of the same.  Today she has begun trying to make the sign of the cross.  It's not perfect, but you can tell what she is trying to accomplish.  I can't help but think that the Holy Spirit is at work in this precious little child.

It's Soccer Try-Out Season

Last year we invested a lot of time in shuttling Madeline from one soccer club to the next doing try-outs to see what her options were.  In the end our soccer club made a few coaching changes and we were able to stay with the club.  Overall, we've been very happy with the arrangement.  This year we don't have to go from club to club since Madeline is sticking with her current team, but we still have to get through two weeks of soccer overload.

In a typical week Madeline has two practices and a game on Saturday.  Ellie has a practice, usually on one of the nights when Madeline has practice and a game on Sunday.  So four days a week have us working around soccer practices and games.  For the next two weeks we're looking at an additional night of try-outs for both girls.  I feel like we're up to our eyeballs in soccer.  This Sunday is going to be very busy.  Madeline has a make up game that was rained out a couple weeks ago that is causing some schedule issues.  This week I'll have to bring Katie and Ellie with me to teach my religious ed class which happens to be the week our class is putting on a show for the parents.

Last night both of the girls had practice.  Nights like that can be brutal when Katie goes on a cry rant.  She spent about three hours screaming and crying off and on while they were gone.  She doesn't like when her Daddy leaves the house.  She thinks he should be playing with her instead and I'm apparently not a good Daddy substitute.  I'm not looking forward to two more nights in a row of Katie crying for Bryan.  It's exhausting.  They're calling for warmer weather today so maybe tonight will be better if I'm able to take her outside for a walk.  It was too cold last night so we had to stay inside.

Did I mention that Ellie is going to try out for the U-9 travel team?  Bryan isn't sure what her chances are of making the team.  From what he tells me the present team looks pretty good.  He thinks she might have a shot if she goes out there and plays her best.  If she gets offered a spot on the team we'll then have to weigh out our options and see if it's the right decision for her.  Bryan has been coaching her the past three or four seasons, but he feels that she learn better from other coaches based on the progress she has made while going to some training sessions this winter.  In the event that she does get selected for the team and we go forward with it, we'll have a lot of schedule juggling to do on Saturdays beginning this fall.

Now I just need to make it through Katie's teething/evening Daddy withdrawal for the next few days.  I miss the really warm weather of last week.  She didn't miss Bryan and the girls at all last week since she was having too much fun playing outside and going for walks in her little red car.

Toddlers Are Exhausting

I have some days where I feel like no matter what I do Katie is fifteen steps ahead of me.  I suspect she is either teething [again] or she is just in one of those moods where all she wants to do is screech this ear piercing scream over and over.  My other girls never screamed like this for the sake of screaming.  Talk about a test of patience and sanity!

This morning Ellie's school had an academic and anti-bullying assembly.  Since Ellie and a few of her classmates were doing a skit during the assembly I had to go to the school.  I had already missed the first two academic assemblies that they had earlier in the year so I had to go to this one.  Katie was pretty good for the first half of the assembly but shortly after Ellie did her skit she started freaking out.  I didn't want to have her scream and cry over the other skits that the other classes were doing so we ended up leaving before it was over.  I was just happy that she held out long enough for me to see Ellie's skit.

In addition to the screaming she's been running around the house tearing it up.  She's a little taller now and that means she can easily reach up on the tables and some of the countertops.  So when the kids and other larger humans in the house leave things like their glasses, cups of juice/water/milk, coins, papers, books and other items that they do not want destroyed by the baby within striking distance Katie goes to work.  This evening she found Madeline's glasses and was happily bending and twisting them.  I'll know soon if they're destroyed or not.  I'm hopeful that they're ok since she has one of those flexible frames.

Once I got the glasses away from her she decided to bolt into the living room where she began pulling all of the freshly folded laundry apart.  She pretty much cut a path of destruction all over the main level of the house while I fielded soccer questions from my neighbor who called me by mistake thinking she dialed Bryan's cell phone.

After a pleasant drive over to the soccer complex to pick up Ellie, Katie once again picked up her mission to destroy.  This time she attacked the pages in one of her favorite books.  And then proceeded to run around making miscellaneous messes.

I'm still feeling worn out from the previous three weeks so these past couple of days where Katie is doing her best to try my patience are leaving me feeling frazzled.  One of the downsides to the screaming and chaos stressing me out is I keep grabbing the foods that I know I shouldn't be eating.  Apparently sugary foods are my version of comfort food.  I think I need an afternoon to myself so I can relax.

Life at Warp Speed

Ever have those days or weeks (months, even) that seem like they fly by at warp speed?  That's sort of how my last two weeks have been.  First it was a sick baby. Then it was a recovering baby and a husband on a business trip.  And to add some spice the week on Tuesday it was ER visit number two in seven days time with another child.  Since then I feel like the days are coming at me as fast as can be.

Katie is doing much better now.  We're finished the round of explosive poo diaper antibiotics.  If I tell you we had a crappy week I mean it in so many ways.  Caring for a child who is ill is draining and pretty stressful.  We had three days where we had to dropper feed Katie liquids because she refused to eat or drink.  I am so grateful that we were able to avoid repeat trips to the ER to hydrate her.  She would not have been happy to be hooked up to an IV again.  She's still pointing at the bruise she has from the IV.  If she spends too much time pondering it she'll hold out her hand and cry about it.

This past Friday Katie had her 18 month well visit with the pediatrician.  She weighed in at 19lbs 10oz.  I felt physically ill when I saw her weight on the scale.  She weighs less now than she did nine months ago.  The doctor reassured me that she will regain her appetite soon and her weight will go back up to where it should be.  Her legs are still chubby, but her face is thinner and her torso seems to have lost a lot of it's chub.  We can see her ribs and feel her spine now which bothers me so much.  I feel like I have an emaciated baby, but I know that's not actually the case.

I suppose you're probably wondering about the second ER visit, right?  On Tuesday we were having a great day.  Katie was doing so well the previous few days that I decided that we'd actually leave the house and run a few errands.  And the weather was gorgeous, too.  So we went for a walk around the neighborhood, ran to the store to buy sandals for Katie and then headed home and went in the yard to enjoy being outside and have a snack.  So as I'm having a great time with Katie and thinking how great it is that she's doing better and things are going well considering that Bryan is away and usually super stressful while he's gone and my cell phone starts ringing.  The caller ID says it's Ellie's school.  I answer the phone and it's the school nurse telling me that Ellie has had an accident on the playground and I need to come pick her up.  She collided with a pole and another child and had two small lacerations on her face (12 days before her First Holy Communion).  I am not one of those moms who handles emergencies well.  With Bryan in Denver there was no chance of him coming home and handling this situation.  So ten minutes before Katie's lunch (you know, my skinny child who lost 2 1/2 pounds the week before) I find myself en route to Ellie's school not knowing what I was going to do.  I was contemplating whether I should cry or scream.  Somehow I managed to do neither.  I called Bryan and asked him to call the pediatrician and find out whether I needed to take her to them or the ER and then I started to think of what I needed to do with Katie.

 Bryan had called back and said we needed to go to the ER.  Not knowing how long we might be there I needed to make arrangements for someone to take Katie for me.  I also needed to line up someone to pick Madeline up from band practice in case we weren't out of the ER by 4.  A good friend of mine was able to take Katie for me and was also able to pick up Madeline if we weren't back in time.  I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was to know I had two of my concerns covered.  Thank God for awesome friends!  I have plenty of them and feel so blessed to have them.

Once I got Ellie from the school I was happy to see that the cuts weren't huge and that they were nice and straight.  It gave me a lot of hope that they could be glued together instead of needing stitches.  Ellie was such a trooper.  She was upset but she didn't cry and was so calm about it.  After dropping Katie off at my friends we headed to the ER where I was certain we were going to sit for hours.  Color me shocked when Ellie was brought into triage before I could even finishing texting Bryan that we were now in the ER and waiting.  They were just as great this time around as they had been the week before.  I think we waited about 45 minutes to an hour from the time we made it through triage until she was treated.  They did a concussion test and then glued her back together with dermabond.  That stuff is AWESOME!  No stitches, no needles.

I was a bit surprised when they gave me discharge papers and I read the part about her having a mild head injury.  True to form, I had no idea that the cuts on her face were the lesser concern.  No one said anything about a head injury.  Not the nurse, not triage and not the nurse practitioner that treated her.  Bryan did ask if they checked her at the school for a concussion but it didn't register with me.  If it had, I probably would have been freaking out the entire time.  I tend not to pick up on the seriousness of medical ailments until after the fact.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.  So I wound up having to keep a close eye on Ellie for the first 24 hours.  That included having to wake her up a couple of times in the middle of the night.  Not an easy task when you're dealing with a child who sleeps as soundly as her daddy.

On Friday we brought Ellie in for a follow-up visit with the pediatrician.  She's fine and shows no signs of a head injury so no more worries there.  Now we just have to wait for the dermabond to flake off on it's own.  It's starting to come off on the edges.  I have no idea what it will look like on Saturday.

Thursday afternoon Bryan was back from Denver.  Even though we had plenty of excitement while he was gone, I'm glad this trip wasn't too hard on us.  Sometimes he goes away and everything seems to fall apart.

This weekend went pretty well.  Bryan and the older girls got some yard work taken care of while I stayed in the house with Katie and cleaned the windows and cleaned the family room furniture.  The house is getting to where it needs to be for Ellie's communion party this Saturday.  Madeline's soccer game on Saturday got cancelled due to field conditions from Friday's heavy rain.  That meant the girls and I were able to get to confession on Saturday afternoon.  I was trying to figure out when we were going to have time to get there before Ellie's First Holy Communion next Saturday.  Bryan had soccer duty over at the soccer complex today so he was gone most of the day.  He and Madeline went over there to set things up early in the morning and then they came back so I could go teach my class.  Once I came home he had to go back there until dinner time.  Katie didn't sleep much last night so Bryan and I were both going on about 2 1/2 hours of sleep.  I attribute this lack of sleep to a little snafu I had this morning over at CCD.  I was telling the DRE about a concern I had in my classroom and wasn't paying attention to my surroundings.  Add that to the list of things said without thinking.  It's a long list in case you were wondering.

I'm also trying to make some diet changes after making an interesting discovery last weekend.  I just downloaded a new NFP app from CCLI and spend a few hours last week putting all of my charts from the past year into the program.  After looking over the charts in the program I noticed something that I hadn't picked up on with the paper charts.  So after paging through Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition I'm trying to make a few changes to see if it makes a difference.  It's funny on some level because many of the things I'm cutting out are foods Bryan has been telling me to get rid of for years.  Namely, my beloved sugary junk foods.

The week ahead looks like it will be every bit as busy as the last two weeks.  I have a lot to do to get ready for Ellie's First Holy Communion.  I'm so excited for her.  She's looking forward to her big day.  I'm praying that this week goes smoothly and doesn't have any surprises along the way.  I'd like very much to say that we didn't visit the ER this week.

What a week!

This week seems like it has gone by really fast but at the same time the days have all seemed really long.  On Monday Katie seemed like she was coming down a cough and was having a little tummy trouble.  By Tuesday her cough was becoming worse by the hour.  It was so bad that in the middle of our lunch at Bertucci's Bryan had me call the pediatrician to see if she could be seen that day.  Minutes later we were having our food packed up so we could go home.  The coughing had become that bad.

Bryan took her to the doctor's since Ellie had a friend over for a playdate that afternoon.  They suspected that she might have pneumonia based on the cough, the fever and this weird grunting sound she was making when she breathed, but they didn't hear any fluid in her lungs.  They tested her for the flu and it was negative, so they sent her for a chest x-ray.  The x-ray came back negative.  Bryan was told that we needed to watch her breathing to see if the grunting sound continued or worsened, and we also needed to watch the fever.  Tuesday night she wouldn't sleep unless one of us was holding her and even then she wasn't sleeping well.  The ibruprofen and tylenol weren't doing anything for the fever.

By Wednesday morning she had almost zero interest in eating or drinking.  She was lethargic and only wanted to sleep.  At one point I took her temperature and it said she was over 104 which I was certain had to be a mistake.  We called the pediatrician and they had us bring her in.  When we got there her fever (with ibuprofen) was 105.7  she was seen within minutes by a couple of nurses and the nurse practitioner.  We were sent to the ER where they quickly triaged her and had her in a bed.  They ran a bunch of tests on her and gave her some fluids via IV.  It wasn't until they did another chest x-ray that they diagnosed her with pneumonia, which had been suspected by the dr. who saw her the day before.  We left the ER shortly after they got a bag of antibiotics in her.  By the time we left she was looking a lot better thanks to the fluids.  Her fever had also dropped down to 101.

This morning I was hopeful that she was on the mend when she drank about 1/3 of a sippy cup with no prompting and then ate about half of an icee.  I didn't want to leave the house with her today, but I had to pick up her antibiotic and get juice and a few other things we needed for her, like Jell-O and batteries for the ear thermometer.  Of course, I get home and realize that I forgot to get her ice water and ice pops, so one of my awesome neighbors ran to the store and got them for her.  Things were going well until about noon.  At that point she was refusing to drink or eat anything.  Her breathing wasn't sounding too great and her eyes were glassy again.  Once I let Bryan know what was going on he rearranged his schedule so he could come home.  A few minutes later the pediatrician's office called to check on her and I was told we need to give her a syringe full of liquid every five minutes until she perks up.  It appears that she's on the verge of dehydrating.  She wouldn't take any of the liquids from me, but once Bryan came home he was able to get her to take them.  He also managed to get her to east some goldfish crackers.

Now we're just trying to keep her hydrated and keep her fever at bay.  It's been under 101 today so that's good. But her eyes are glassy and she's still not interested in taking fluids.  Fortunately Bryan is good at getting them in her.  Tomorrow we need to take her to the pediatrician again.  I'm praying that she will be doing better and that we will not have to go to the ER to get fluids in her.  I was already warned that it's possible that she may need another bag of IV fluids if we can't get enough in her.  It doesn't help that now that we have fluids going in that she keeps having diarrhea.  I feel like we are fighting a losing battle here.  I just want to see her on the mend.

Katie is just worn out, and Bryan and I are both pretty exhausted. Any prayers you can offer up for us are greatly appreciated.  We're hoping to get through this without needing to go back to the hospital.  I know Katie would very much like to avoid having to get hooked up to an IV again.

Taking Candy From a Baby

I'm sure we've all heard the "It's like taking candy from a baby." saying.  People say this when they want to convey that something is incredibly easy.  This morning I'm wondering if "they" have ever actually taken candy from a baby.  My guess is they haven't.

I had some errands to run this morning.  So I packed Katie up and we made our first stop at the parish office to drop off and pick up VBS related items.  Just before we leave Katie was given an unopened lollipop.  I didn't think anything of it until we got in the car.  Bryan does NOT like the kids having lollipops because he thinks they can come off the stick at anytime and become a choking hazard.  So knowing that Katie has the ability to get into anything and knowing that Bryan would not be happy with me if he knew that I let her play with a wrapped lollipop while I drove to Target, I reached back and took it from her.  The sippy cup I gave her in exchange didn't cut it.

For the next 45 horrifically long, loud minutes, my child screamed, kicked and wailed.  A minute after I took the lollipop I realized that I needed to get gas in the van if I didn't want to be stranded on the side of the road with a crabby baby.  Of course the gas station was packed and I got to wait as the slowest gas station attendant ever went from car to car at a most leisurely pace.  And let's not forget the person ahead of me who just wanted to hang out in her car for a few minutes while my child screeched inches away from my ears.  My prayers to God to make Katie stop went unheeded.  Perhaps this was another awesome lesson in patience.

I was so hopeful that she'd stop wailing once the car got moving but that was a mere fantasy.  The screaming was bad enough that I nearly got in an accident more than a few times.  Screaming babies are great if you are trying to disorient someone.

Surely, she'd be happy once we got out of the car and went into Target.  Wrong.  At this point I had such a massive headache that I wanted to find an aisle with soft bedding and just lay down.  But instead, I grabbed some candy for the egg hunt Katie and I are going to this afternoon at a friend's house.

The ride home was every bit as bad as the ride to the store.  At a light I texted Bryan and let him know what was going on.  He suggested that teeth might be partially to blame.  Ah, yes, I had forgotten that she woke up screaming around 4am this morning.  The ibuprofen had worn off and those top and bottom molars were once again making Katie, and me miserable.

As soon as we got home she had her medicine which made her a little happier.  Thanks be to God she is now napping.  Now if I could just get my headache to go away, I might not feel like I'm in desperate need of a morning nap.

If anyone uses that inane cliche that anything is "like taking candy from a baby" around me just know that I will have plenty to say about it.