Snow

Fiona's snow baby

Willing victim

Feeding a snow bottle to the snow baby

After Lula refused to wear her mittens, she fell in the snow

Ian's snow Glom

Home Sweet Home

That's a Big TV!

I made a special trip out to my sister's house last night to pick up a new (to us) TV.  They bought a nicer one for the Superbowl.

Lula helps Mark haul the old, dust covered entertainment center to make room for...

That is one BIG TV!  Good thing our living room is so big!

Jack, camouflaged

Even though we have a few inches of snow, and it is probably the only snow we will see this year, the kids would rather sit by the fire and watch...

If you look closely, you can see four blond heads on the blanket-covered couch

 ...SpongeBob

But tonight, we celebrate Grandad's birthday in style with a viewing of Jurassic Park.  Oh, my, was it fantastic! I felt like I was back in 1993 in the movie theater, that is how awesome and huge the TV is.  The dinosaurs seemed to walk right through the living room.  Lula was scared; she would squeak and press up against me when T-Rex walked by, but she wouldn't let me cover her eyes because she wanted to keep eating popcorn.  Daniel's classic question was, "Is that part of a human's arm?"  The hardest part of owning this TV is choosing what to watch next...

Microclimates

Oh, it's so cold!  The last couple of days have been below freezing and we have kept our wood stove running and running and running... and even with the wood stove, the temperature in my knitting basket next to my chair is:

That is not a joke.  This is the SAME room as the wood stove, just in the little triangle of space between my chair, the couch, and the window that I affectionately call my Knit Pit.  Brrr!  Just on the other side, at the foot of my chair, Heidi sleeps in her car seat.  She is nice and toasty in a blanket:

I have completely given up on sleeping in my room or having Daniel and Lula sleep in their room.  Lula sleeps on the couch downstairs with Heidi and I and Daniel sleeps with Mark.  This is how cold Heidi's bed in the nursery is, even with the door open to let heat in:

It is even colder when we keep the door closed to conserve heat.  The master bathroom is even colder still.  Brrrrrr!

I'm Down With ODD

As if colic and a defiant three year old weren't enough, Lula had to hit the "terrible twos" right at the age where my kids usually hit it...

Lula discovers the Temper Tantrum.  I wouldn't let her drink Heidi's bottle.  See how red her face is?

I don't need this right now.  Cutting out dairy and the Zantac don't seem to be working on my colicky baby (she has been crying all. DAY. LONG!) and I don't need an extra 45 minutes of crying every night from another kid.  Something has to go.  I choose...the defiant three year old.

My current library stack.

I'm glad I started reading the library books listed under the subject heading of "difficult children."  I can tell that it would be very very easy to have Daniel diagnosed with Oppositional Defiance Disorder.  VERY easy.  He bombed the How Often Does Your Child... test.  But since he is only three years old, he is on the young end for an official diagnosis.  And a label really wouldn't do anything for him because he isn't going to public school and he doesn't need professional help...yet.  My hope is to "reprogram" Daniel's wiring before his opposition and defiance become a chronic problem.  Unless it already is.  He has been oppositional since he could string two words together.  What was cute at 2 1/2 years, isn't so cute now at 3 1/2 years.  His behavior is quickly driving a wedge between him and his siblings and causing me distress.

I'm happy to glean wisdom and techniques to help Daniel overcome himself using these books.  So far, the book on the left has been very helpful; the rest I haven't started yet.  One example the book gave was when a child refuses to come out of a time out because they want to establish the control.  How did they know that Daniel does that any time he is given a time out?  In the past I just let him keep sitting there; he was quiet a little longer and gave us all a bit of a break.  The only person he was punishing was himself because he was choosing to miss out on fun.  Now I know I need to punish him with a second time out if he refuses to leave time out.  Strange, but it works.  He says, "I'm never getting off time out AGAIN!" and I say, "Because you are not obeying me, you will have another time out."  NOOOOO! After the second time out he meekly gets up when I tell him to, followed by my praise for listening and obeying.

Yesterday, when Shane gave Daniel a bowl of peaches and Daniel wouldn't say, "Thank you," I covered his bowl with my hand and said, "You can have your peaches after you say thank you to Shane."  Then I looked away and completely ignored him while he shouted "NO!" and "I already did!"  After about a minute, he squirmed in his chair like he was being stabbed with hot pokers and thanked Shane.  And then I praised him for obeying me and being so thoughtful and having such good manners.

Daniel cuts the cheese after he proves his knife skills on the carrots.  Terrifying.

Normally Daniel loves to do things on his own when it is his own idea.  He started making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a year ago.  He is perfectly capable at making and buttering his toast.  This morning, I asked him to butter his own toast.  Because I asked him to do it and it wasn't his idea, he said "NO! And I'm never eating toast AGAIN!"  I just shrugged, dropped his toast on the floor, and called the dog to come eat it.  You can bet your bottom dollar he was off his chair and buttering away before Mina could get her teeth in HIS toast. Again, I praised him for obeying me and making his toast.

Up until today, Daniel has refused to participate in his PE class at the YMCA.  Today I explained to his teacher that Daniel was ODD and had a hard time participating in things that weren't his idea.  I said that normal tricks don't work on him; I tried them.  Even sitting in the baby stroller walking in boring circles around the track was better than dodge ball!  Crazy kid.  I didn't care if Daniel participated or not, but I wasn't going to reward him by giving him extra attention, positive or negative, for his behavior; he could just sit by himself on the bench for all I cared.  The teacher was awesome (he is a homeschooling dad of many) and totally gets it.  He got right down to Daniel's level and asked him what game he liked to play.  Daniel says, "Soccer ball?" and the teacher said, "That's a great idea! Let's go play with the soccer balls!" Daniel ran off and participated the whole time! After class he ran right into my arms for a big hug (sigh) and I praised him for playing and rewarded him with a trip to the big toy room!  Lucky boy!

When he isn't defying me, I am praising him to the skies and back for all his good deeds.  I'm hoping that his brain re-wires to WANT the praise over the negative attention.  Wouldn't it be nice if he just climbed into my lap for a snuggle instead of head-butting his sister over and over so I will grab him and restrain him and refuse to let go until he can control himself (and then he refuses to get off my lap when I do let go-or he starts giggling and head butting again so he will get in trouble again)?  The hardest part is ignoring him when he is acting out.  His siblings just don't have the same stubborn reserves that I do.  It will come in time if they are anything like me (big grin).  After all, it is quite possible Daniel gets all this awfulness from me; my mom did pass down an old copy of The Strong-Willed Child to me... hmmm...why did she have it?  Is it possible that...I have ODD?  That sure would explain a lot...

A 12th Man is Born

Yesterday, we Downens invaded my parent's house to watch the Superbowl.  It's not very often I wish we had network television, but when your home team goes to the Superbowl, you really want to see it happen, win or lose.  Our complications include having lots of little kids, one of which is in Seek-and-Destroy mode and one loud cryer, so we aren't the best guest to invite to your Superbowl Party.  Lucky for my parents, they weren't home to witness our invasion.

Guess what? After I took that picture of Heidi above, she fell asleep and slept through the whole game.  No crying.

The girls were so excited to watch the game, they made posters cheering the Seahawks on.   They also made a special point to dress in blue and green.  Well, Evie did.  Fiona wouldn't wear her blue and green dress because it wasn't purple.

Busy, busy girl!

The very first thing I did when I got to my parent's house was Lula proof.  Glass things out of reach.  Couch moved across the doorway into the nice living room with white carpet.  Baby gates across the other opening.  Plants up.  Doors closed.  Broom available (we swept the floor three times. Now I know why we have carpet...and dogs).

The other awesome thing I did was bring a folder of football themed activities for the younger set of kids.  I knew they wouldn't sit quietly through the whole game and would quickly burn through the toys.  When they started running around and shouting and fighting over the yoga ball (which my kids call a birth ball-because their mom does more birthing than yoga), I was ready with Design Your Own Helmet coloring pages and and some other math and writing themed pages from a homeschool blog.  I originally imagined myself sitting with the kids and doing the puzzles and talking about geography, but Mark explained How Football Works to me on the way over and...well, lets just say I'm hooked.

Mark held Heidi through three quarters of The Game

I just want to watch football now.  Now that the season is over and I still don't have network television.  I'm not the only newborn fan.  Shane caught the 12th Man bug too.  His favorite player is Russell Wilson.  Good choice!

P.S. Daniel still gets carsick.

"Hush, Little Baby..."

After an...interesting conversation with Daniel in the car about how to shoot a bird and how he is a man and can go duck hunting, I wrote this song during Heidi's colic time tonight.

Hush, little baby, don't say a word,

Daniel's gonna shoot you a mockingbird.

And since that mockingbird can't sing,

Fiona's gonna buy you a diamond ring.

But since Fiona has no money,

Evie's gonna tend you a hive with honey.

But since that hive with honey has no bees,

Daddy's gonna plant you some baby trees.

And while those baby trees grow taller,

Ian's gonna tie Jack a brand-new collar.

While he ties the day grows dark and then

Shane'll tell us all 'about the Mako Shark.

When that story makes you cry,

You'll turn and see that Lula drank your bottle dry.

If Mama sees the chaos and it makes her frown,

You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

Stink Bug gets Stitches

Lula's version of the well-baby visit shouldn't be ignored.  Our pediatrician is a nice, sweet, young, soft-spoken mother of one little guy about Lula's age.  She knows her medicine and knows what the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests.  That's two of the four things you need in a pediatrician.  The third is perspective and fourth is experience.  She'll get that with time.

The bath water still dripping, Lula tries to turn on the TV.

I had to fill out an autism screening form with a series of yes/no questions.  Some were obvious: Does your child make flapping motions with his/her hands?  Some not so: Does your child look to you for reassurance when faced with a new situation?

Caught peanut butter-handed!

Does Lula look like the kind of child that looks for reassurance when faced with new situations?

Better add some jelly to that peanut butter hand!

I failed that question, but at least I could explain my answer before Lula was sent for further testing.  I mean, did the pediatrician see that look Lula gave her when she walked in, catching Lula trying to hack into the medical computer system?  The cold stare/shoulder snub combo that she is so good at!

Caught trying to dig in the coffee!

Lula currently has a nasty cold, so she was not in the best of moods yesterday.  Thank goodness I had Shane with me.  He was my Lula-carrier, my Lula-retriever, and my Lula-dresser.  I only had one binky between the two babies.  They both did a lot of crying while

***This post has been interrupted by a Real Life Event***

I left this post so I could take Fiona to dance class yesterday afternoon thinking I would only be gone two hours.  I had no idea that my afternoon would quickly become a lesson in being prepared.  Because Mark was not working at home yesterday, I left Daniel at home with Ian and Shane and brought all four girls with me to the dance class.  Evie was going to be my Lula helper and I was going to go grocery shopping while Fiona danced.  I dropped Fiona off, no problem, and headed to the store.  When we were unloading the girls, Evie tripped over the curb next to the car holding Lula.  Both crashed down on the sidewalk and Lula split her chin open.  I could see that she definitely needed stitches.

I packed the girls back into their seats, all three crying, rushed back to Fiona's dance class to let her teacher know where I was headed, called Mark, called the boys at home, and then spent the rest of the evening at the ER.  My cell phone battery was dead.  My gas tank was empty.  I had only one bottle for Heidi.  And no extra clothing for either baby.  But I did have our health cards since I had left them in the car the day before.  Lula happened to be wearing a pair of pajamas because, for the first time in my life, I decided that the footie pajama/boot combo was the perfect out fit for my crazy-feeling life.  I've seen kids in public with this particular outfit before; I now understand its purpose.  Experience. Perspective. Yes. I'm getting there.

Evie was more traumatized by the events than Lula.  Lula needed to be sedated for her four stitches.  I was asked to wait in the waiting room because they needed a calm, quiet room to work in and Lula could have a bad reaction to the sedation if it was too chaotic.  This was code for, "Get that crying baby out of here!"  After Mark picked up Fiona from dance, brought her home, made dinner, left Fiona and Daniel with Shane, and dropped Ian off at Boy Scouts, he met me in the waiting room with extra bottles.  I informed him that he would be staying with Lula and I would take Evie and Heidi home-after I picked up Ian. It was a crazy night, I tell ya!