What we got for Christmas

We got some really great gifts for Christmas this year.  However, that's not what I'm referring to.  Some of the things were great, some not so great.  Here they are...

On Christmas Eve we got antibiotics.  All the kids seemed to be feeling better when Reese developed a double ear infection.  I took him in on Christmas Eve and one ear was really bad.  So, we got some antibiotics and went on our way.  He felt better quickly and all was well.

We got crabby kids.  For the most part they were really fantastic.  They were well behaved and did well without much of a nap a couple of days.  Then it was over and the crabiness hit like a tidal wave.  Holidays are so much fun and I love them so very much.  The days after are some cruel form of torture.

Now for the great things...

There was no work for Nate last week.  That meant he was home all week.  It was nothing short of fabulous.  I could leave the house without waiting for someone to come help me or watch the kids.  We took the kids places.  We went to the "farm", which was actually a butcher, to buy some fresh meat.  Thankfully they don't really understand what kind of "farm" it was.  It was really nice to spend the week all together.

We got a baby who has slept through the night for 3 nights in a row now.  Praise the Lord!!!!  I started feeding her oatmeal on Saturday and every since then she is full enough to sleep through the night.  I would have done it much sooner, but I want desparately to avoid another child with food allergies.  It's recommended to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months.  I did.  It wasn't always easy (I can't eat dairy, she was hungry at night, etc..), but I feel like it was worth it.  It's hard to read all the things that people think are causing food allergies, because it often blames the "lifestyle".  I have questioned many choices and wondered if they have caused Noah's food allergies.  The truth is there is no clear answer on what causes it.  I refuse to believe what people are writing.  They don't know.  I do what I can and if Devyn ends up with a food allergy I'll know I did what I could to prevent it.  I carry enough guilt (what mom doesn't). 

I will work on getting some pictures up of our Christmas very soon.  Right now I'm just enjoying the fact that I am well rested from a FULL nights sleep!!

Sick babies

Having sick babies stinks.  Okay.   I know the boys are 2 and not really babies anymore, but they will always be my babies. 

Devyn started coughing last week so I took her in Friday.  Her lungs sounded clear, so there wasn't much to do but give her lots of love.  She had a fever Friday night.  Then it was a low-grade fever on and off until Tuesday.  I called the dr again and she said that if she didn't get better in a couple of days we needed to come back.  Well, she passed this illness on to the boys.  That means lots of coughing, fevers, medicine and Noah coughing so hard he throws up (which always happens in bed) because of his asthma.  Devyn is fever free, but still coughing. 

That being said I'm choosing to see this in a positive light.  Having sick kids means many things.  It means I have kids.  I have little people that love me and need me.  People who want me to hold them in the middle of the night when they have a fever.  People who want me to tuck them back in.  People who want to snuggle me on the cough.  I am constantly trying to make them snuggle with me.  They usually say, "No, Mom!  Stop!  I go play.".  When they are sick suddenly everyone wants to snuggle.

I'm also incredibly thankful that we have Tylenol to help keep fevers down, a nebulizer to help with breathing and a warm house to keep them comfortable.  Not everyone has what they need to help their kids get better.  We do. 

I'm not sick.  Okay, this is going to sound strange.  I would rather have sick kids than be sick myself.  Of course when it is something major, like Reese having surgery or Noah's peanut allergy I would trade with them in a heartbeat.  When they have a cold or fever it's way easier to have them be the ones that are sick. When I'm sick it's awfully hard to take care of everyone, let alone myself.

I stay home and don't have to take days off.  I can't even begin to imagine how hard it is to be a working mom and have to decide whether to take days off or have leave you kids with someone else when they are sick.  I give a lot of credit to those moms.  Such tough decisions can't be easy.

All in all, we'll survive.  The fevers and coughs will pass.  I'm really hoping the fevers are gone quickly.  We start celebrating Christmas on Sunday with my family.  I really don't want to miss it.  I'm hopeful that since the fevers started yesterday they'll be done by tomorrow.  Say a prayer for us.  A prayer that everyone gets better and a prayer of thanks that we're so richly blessed.

Dear winter...

We are not friends.  Sure, you're pretty when there is snow on the ground and you have some great holidays, but that's it.

It's only December 11 and I couldn't be more sick of being stuck inside.  As I type this the boys have been in bed since they finished eating lunch lunch and no one has napped longer than 15 minutes (Aiden was the only one to fall asleep at any point).  I haven't let them get up yet because Devyn finally fell asleep...on the floor.  She wouldn't nap this morning, so now she's passed out on the floor.  I won't move her unless the house is on fire.  Sorry, boys.  You're stuck in bed.  I also won't get them up because they were horrible this morning and these couple of hours are necessary separation so that I don't run away from home. 

They need so badly to run around and get their energy out.  It's just too cold to take them out though.  I got them bundled up on Monday to go outside and shovel.  Nate came home halfway through dressing them and helped me.  By the time everyone was in snowpants, coats, boots, hats and gloves I was sweating and they were falling over because of all the heavy clothing.  Honestly.  I'm not even sure it was worth it.  We were outside for maybe 20 minutes or half an hour.  Then it was too cold to be out any longer and we took them inside.  Once inside we spent 10 minutes getting the wet clothing off and into the basement, Noah fell down the stairs trying to walk down in all of his clothing and they were crying because they didn't want to come in.  Not to mention Noah has asthma so that small amount of time outside caused him to cough like crazy.  Fantastic.

Last winter we dealt with a million illnesses.  This year we'll deal with cabin fever.  I have it.  Bad. 

This could prove to be a challenging winter.  Hopefully all the time stuck indoors will help get everyone potty trained.  Aiden only wears a pull-up at naptime and a diaper at night.  Noah will pee on the potty if left naked all day.  He hasn't mastered wearing undies yet.  Reese isn't really interested yet. 

So, winter.  I'll be glad to see you go.  In 3 months or what will feel like 10 years.

The things they say....

We have laughed an awful lot lately about the things the boys say.  Emerging language is a beautiful thing and leads to some rather hilarious mispronunciations and sayings.  I have been writing some down and thought I would share some of my favorites with you. 

Reese is most famous for mispronunciations.  He works really hard to say words the right way, it just doesn't always work out.  For example if you ask Reese what he is when he's yelling, "roar!", he'll tell you that he is a 'daddysaur'.  He will play in the play kitchen for hours and when I ask him what he's doing he'll tell me, "I cut nice.".  The first few times he said it I thought he was telling me that he was playing nice.  I later realized that nice is actually knife.  He's also a real big fan of the 'quackuum'.  That, my friends, would be the vacuum.  :)  He will also hand me his cup when I'm cleaning up from a meal and ask me to put it in the 'washdisher'.  His sentence strucuture also makes him sounds a bit like a caveman.  If I'm sitting on the couch he'll tell me, "Mom, I climb up.  I sit by Mom."  My favorite was one day when he told Noah or Aiden to stop doing something.  They didn't stop.  He sternly said, "3, 4, 5..time out".  I normally tell them to do something or stop doing something and when they don't comply I count to 3 and then they go to time out.  I guess 3, 4, 5 does the same thing.

Noah has probably the best language skills.  Probably because he talks all. day. long.  He's most famous for telling us it's his hungry turn or his hungry time.  That means it's his turn to eat.  I don't have any idea how he came up with that.  One morning he was in the bathroom with me (more like every morning) and I took out my hair dryer.  He asked me if I was going to "drive hair".  :)  Noah likes to be the big brother and will help me with Devyn often. He'll talk to her and call her "Dev".  It cracks me up.

Aiden is probably the easiest to understand.  He he less words that he mispronounces, but among my favorites is bayband (bandaid).  He also refers to the microwave as the beep beep.  Actually they all do.  Aiden repeats everything.  We have to be especially careful what we say around him because he will repeat it.  He always likes to remind the other 2, "not boss".  They are constantly telling each other what to do.  Never  mind they are also being naughty as they boss someone else around.  I tell them that they are not the boss, which Aiden just loves to remind them.

We've decided that this is our favorite age thus far.  We would love to just press pause and keep them at this age forever.  It certainly comes with challenges, but they are learning so much all the time and are so much fun.  We were having a "dance party" the other night after supper.  A slow song came on (we had Pandora on) and they were slow dancing with me and Nate was holding up Devyn so they could slow dance with her.  My eyes filled with tears because I know that a minute will pass and I'll be seeing this same scene, except at their weddings.  It nearly shattered my heart.  Can't they just stay little forever?

Tough decisions

I think one of the hardest parts of being a parent is making decisions.  It starts before your kids are even born.  There are the big decisions, the small decisions and everything in between.  I remember wishing the boys would just come out with a name so that we woulnd't have to decide.  After all they have to live with their name for the rest of their life.  Then there were the decisions like car seats, cribs, what van to buy and so many other decisions. 

The thing that makes the decisions the hardest is that every person you meet has an opinion about what you decide.  You chose that car seat?  That's not the safest.  You let them cry at night?  They'll develop psychological issues.  It goes on and on.  From what you feed them to vaccines and even how you discipline.  Don't get me wrong.  I often ask for people's opinions and I'm glad to hear them.  I just don't really want to be bombarded with opinions every time I log on to facebook or venture out to a store.  The truth is that being a parent is hard and we need to support each other, not put each other down.  I see far too much of that and quite frankly I'm tired of it.  I find myself judging people's decisions about parenting too and I'm trying to control that.  Unless someone asks for my opinion on their parenting decision I try keep my mouth shut. 

That being said I feel like we've been making some tough decisions lately that are sure to cause people to give me their opinion.  We've decided that Devyn won't get any solids until 6 months.  Our dr always gives us information on what current research suggests and then leaves it up to us.  Nate pretty much left this decision in my hands because I'm the one who has to feed her and get up with her at night.  I feel strongly that if I can do anything to avoid or lessen her chance of food allergies I'll do it.  Having one child with food allergies is hard enough.

On that same note we are constantly making decisions on what we can and can't do with Noah.  People sometimes think we are overreacting when we don't go places, but his safety is more important than going out.  We went out to eat Saturday night and he has some hives on his face.  We knew that we ordered him something "safe", but the risk for cross-contamination always exists.  Our allergist always stresses that any time we go out we take a risk.  I was in a panic and asked Nate to watch him (he's much more calm and won't overreact about it).  He was fine, but it was a good reminder that we have to be incredibly careful with him.  No matter where we go the risk of him touching something that has been contaminated with peanuts or tree nuts exists.

Parenting is hard.  I don't care if you have 1 child, 4 children or 10 children.  It's hard.  You are constantly making decisions that will affect your little people.  Some of those decisions, like discipline, will shape them into the individuals they will grow up to be.  Some of those decisions, like whether or not to give them a piece of candy, will have less of an impact.  Whether big or small the decisions are hard.  So, please support each other.  Use your words to encourage another parent on the difficult journey that they are on. 

A new age

We seemed to have moved into a "new age" yet again.  The boys suddenly seem to be growing up. 

For one we have reached that dreaded age where often when we tell Reese to do something or ask him something his response is, "Why?".  The first time he said it we just looked at each other in shock.  How did our sweet little babies turn into boys who ask, "why", all the time.  It's not so bad having just Reese ask why sometimes, but I know that when they all start asking all the time it's going to get old really fast.  I'm thankful that they want to grow and learn, but I'm bracing myself for the constant questioning that is coming our way.

We've also reached the age where they want to know about colors and shapes.  Just before naptime today we were looking at a book with colors, shapes and categories (kitchen items, a page with clothing, etc) that we were given before they were born (Thanks, Nancy!!).  Reese was able to point out red, blue, green and black.  It's all because Aiden always has a blue cup, plate and silverware; Noah has green and Reese had red.  He knows black because our van is black and my mom and dad both drive black cars.  It made me want to cry.  Nothing makes a teacher/mom happier than hearing their child learning letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc.  They were able to identify so many things in the book it amazed me.  The only shape they know at this point is a triangle.  I'm trying to work on circle and square.  No luck yet.

They are also taking shorter naps both days.  Boo!!!  I love naptime.  It saves my sanity on the crazy days.  Ok. I guess that would be pretty much every day.  Yesterday they took a long nap, but today I hear them up already after just over an hour.  I guess I have to accept the fact that some day they won't nap.  I'm really planning on having them nap or rest until they go to school.  It does me good and them good to get away from each other for a while.  That's also when I eat lunch!

It's so fun to see them getting older.  They can bring their dishes to the kitchen, clean up their spot at the table, put their clothes in the laundry and do so much more.  I'm often asked if I miss the baby phase.  In short, no.  I sometimes wish I could go back and see them when they were little.  That's all though.  I enjoy the fact that they can do so much more now.  Playing with kids who can pretend is so much more fun than a baby who just kind of rolls around and screeches (sorry, Devyn).  Every age has it's hard parts and every age is fun.

4 month check-up

Yesterday Devyn had her 4 month check-up.  The past 4 months have flown by and felt really long all at the same time.  We go through a pattern of good nights, then bad nights.  It's usually about 3 or 4 decent nights followed by 2 or 3 not so good nights.  She had some rough nights last weekend.  She was up about every 2 hours on Sunday night.  Then she was only up twice in 12 hours Monday night and last night. She still has some tummy issues that wake her up and then keep her awake.  I have to be very careful what I eat if I want to sleep.

She weighed in at 13 lbs.  She has only gained 1 lb. since her 2 month check-up.  That puts her at the 36th percentile.  Her weight gain has slowed significantly.  The dr isn't really concerned, but said it is something to keep an eye on to make sure her weight gain stays steady.  She has chubby cheeks and rolls on her legs, so I think she's fine. :)  She's 25 in. now though, which puts her somewhere near the 80th percentile.  So she's tall and thin.  I guess she'll be like her dad!  The dr also said we can give her some oatmeal now that she's 4 months old and give her apple juice to help her poop.  Poor thing has such a hard time going sometimes.  I'm not sure I want to give her anything yet.  They keep changing the recommendation on when to feed to avoid food allergies.  It was exclusively nursing until 6 months and now she said they changed it to nursing plus cereal at 4 months.  I will do anything to avoid having another child with food allergies.  I also don't think she's ready for cereal.  She still thrusts her tongue out when we offer her a spoon.  It's so hard to be a mom and make decisions like this.  I just want to do the right thing!

Developmentally she is ahead of where she needs to be.  The boys were always just where they needed to be, so it's different having a baby ahead of where she needs to be.  She is so much fun to watch.  She learns so much all the time.  She started sucking her thumb again.  It is so stinking cute!  Her hands are getting a little chapped because of it, so I was told I should put mittens on her when we go out so they don't dry out too bad. 

The boys are also changing and growing a lot. Aiden is potty trained!!!  He still wears diapers to bed, but during the day he goes on the potty.  It's wonderful!  Now I'll move on to Noah.  I really depise potty training.  All day long I follow them around asking, "Do you need to go potty?  Do you need to go potty?".  They are having hilarious conversations and learning things faster than I can keep up.  We were eating pancakes one day and Reese help up a piece and said, "Look!  A trinagle!".  It was a triangle.  I wish I could take credit.  He learned it from Sesame Street.  That kid is something else.  2 is such a fun age.  Naughty, but fun.  Someday I'll sit down and write all the things that are awesome and difficult about the age of 2, but right now I have 3 hungry little boys who want lunch.