The Blessings of Friendship

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was blessed with a Bible study with other MOMS called The Blessings of Friendship.  Some of those mom friends still bless me today.  Click on this LINK to see what I mean!  The blessings aren't just limited to my old friends.  My new friends are continuing to bless me with their attentive care during my postpartum time.  God is good.

Grumpy Face strikes again!

She was starving, so a bottle came to her rescue!

Passed out again

The Elusive Sleep Grin

Favorite Sleeping Position

She stayed sleeping in this position on the couch for at least another hour.  At almost three weeks of age (tomorrow!), she is still so mellow and easy.  She has few needs: feed her, burp her, change her, and put her down for another nap.  When she is awake she is happy just to sit in her chair and look around.  She is right on the edge of smiles!  She gazes at our faces in her quiet alert stage and she starts to smile...but sometimes it turns into a yawn and she drifts off to sleep...

When Homeschooling Goes Terribly, Terribly Wrong

Way back when IJ was five years old and we started homeschooling, we used Sonlight, a literature-rich curriculum.  We purchased the Kindergarten level, which included lots of great books.  Some of the books were above a kindergartener's level, in my opinion, but we waded through them based on the advice that it was good practice to do hard things.  "You would be amazed at what they remember," one person gushed in the online forums.  One of those difficult books was The Apple and the Arrow.  This book was so hard that I didn't even bother reading it to S...or E when she hit kindergarten level.  I will read it again next year when we do medieval times again.  I guess a lot of people complained because Sonlight no longer includes it in their kindergarten package.

One question new homeschoolers first ask when starting down the literature-based curriculum homeschool style is, "How do I know my children are actually learning?"  There are many answers to this, but generally, if you observe your child internalizing the lesson and see details of the lesson in play or conversation or later discussions, you can tell they are learning.  Here is a perfect example of what I mean: 

Hey, [S], remember that book that mom read to us a long time ago? The Apple and the Arrow? (No)  Well, this is what happens in the story.  There is a little boy and he has to survive a test where they put an apple on his head.  His dad has to shoot it off with an arrow!  Here is a picture of what happened!  

His dad actually missed the apple and shot him in the head! (Giggle, giggle)  See? (Giggle, giggle)

Can you see the stick figure with the arrow sticking out of his head?  I interrupted their silly conversation to ask, "[IJ], have you read that book since I read it to you?"  And he hadn't.  He said to me, "No, it's been about five years since I heard the story."  Yep, five years-half his life-and he remembers the hardest, most boring story a five year old ever sat through.  And he does remember how it actually ends, he was just being silly.  Too bad S didn't get it.  I did and I have to say I laughed so hard I cried.  Twice.

The homeschool never takes a real summer vacation, does it?

Beach Dogs

 M is the kind of guy who loves to take his dogs and his kids to the beach.  We have many pictures of M and the older girls with dogs from their childhood at the beach, but they are all the "old" kind of pictures that need to be scanned before they can be posted.  Some day.  Until then, we have the above pictures of M, baby IJ, and Taz on our favorite Whatcom County beach in February 2003.  This morning, M took IJ and S, Pathetic Doberman, and the Pirate to our favorite local beach.

On your marks, get set...

GO!

And they're gone!

IJ looks like his dad in this picture.

Some like swimming

Some don't!

The Pirate learned you can't sniff things under water

The boys were matched with the perfect dogs.  IJ and the Pirate love to get wet and cold.  S and the Pathetic Doberman don't.  The trip was a perfect time to give IJ some practice handling his dog in public.  He knows now that you can't just take a dog to a park and let him run around!

The D Zoo Visits the PD Zoo

Today is M's last day of "vacation."  When I say "vacation," I mean M spends the first half of the day working for the state while he uses vacation time.  I spent the morning harassing him about how he is going to spend the second half of his last day of "vacation."  I mean, seriously, it will probably be the last day he takes off this summer and the last time we could do something fun and LJ will sleep the whole time.  But one huge problem we had was...the charger for the camera's battery was missing.  That is why we have had no posts.  The battery is dead and we can't charge it.  After my morning grumpy sulk, M moved mountains (got the kids ready and got lunch packed), found a car charger for the camera battery at Office Depot, and we were on our way to the Point Defiance Zoo!  We didn't get much of a charge on the battery between Gig Harbor and the Zoo, especially since the battery was in the charger backwards, but we got a few hilarious pictures.  The pictures accurately represent a large family of personalities visiting the zoo.

The elephants did not disappoint today!  They usually stand waaay back and keep their rumps facing the viewing area.  Today, they were close, smiling, and tossing dust around.  The elephants always remind me of my grandma.  She loves them.

When I said earlier that our pictures represent "personalities" I meant that we are not a well-behaved group of obedient drones.  We try, we even try wearing matching shirts so it's easier to count us, but some days we just don't make it.  The kids can't smile (unless they are doing bunny ears on their siblings), they are looking the wrong way, or they are crying.  Or I take the picture when Dad is telling a kid to "knock it off."

The clouded leopard mama looked hungrily at the crowd of small children.  She was separated from her cubs and didn't look as though she enjoyed her "me time."

The clouded leopard cubs were very cute and curious.  This cub was wondering where the body was of the floating head on the other side of the glass.  (Sorry, that was a bad joke.  S is wearing a camouflage shirt, so I like to pretend you can't see the body that is camouflaged)

F is a tiger (you can see the tiger trying to hide from the zoo visitors in the background).  The tiger is one of the animals that always seems to be hiding.  You drive all the way to the zoo and all you get to see is a bunch of plants!  The polar bear is like that.

Me and my Six Personalities

I sometimes think there is no polar bear at all at the zoo.  I've been trying to see it for thirty years and I don't remember ever seeing it.  I can't believe I've been going to this same zoo for thirty years.

We love sharks!  I almost got someone other kid in the picture.  He looked like he could have fit in with our family.  His clothes didn't match and he had a bit of the devil in him.  He was standing in that empty spot in the picture...and D is trying to follow him.

"Look! Raccoons!" one of my children said.  I won't tell you who shouted that out, but I'll tell you his name starts with S.  If you go back and look at the pictures of him, you will see a big bandage on his knee.  Just hours after D had his accident, S went over a jump on his bike and slid on loose gravel.  Wearing shorts.  I was watching.  It was terrible.  He ripped a huge hole in his knee.  I was hoping he just ripped an old scar off (from slipping on ice while wearing shorts), but this one is about an inch above it.  S will have one ugly knee when this one heals.

If you have one cute girl pose with the pretend lemurs, you have to have two!

We did the whole zoo and ended up in the play area where M and I "rested" and the kids kept going.  D has a thing about spiders.  He talks about them as he goes to sleep and he looks for them in every dark corner of the house.  He likes to pretend his hand is a spider and it is going to "bite you Mama!"  When he saw the climb-on spider web, he crawled right on and said, "Look Mama! I'm a spider! I'm gonna bite you Mama!"  He then harassed the honey bees in the lavender until I actually used ice cream to bribe him away.  "Come on, D. Do you want ice cream?"  "NO! Want bees!"  Grrrr. Ice cream won out in the end and we had another fun family trip... and yes, the baby slept the entire time.

Bubbles and Blows

In one of my random walks through the blogger-sphere, I came across a blog that told a tragic story.  A two year old boy had been jumping on the bed as his mom was trying to nurse the new baby to sleep.  She got frustrated and sent him out of the room.  I know exactly how she felt at that moment.  After he left, the two year old went downstairs to the basement and decided to climb a dresser.  The dresser tipped and he fell backward, hitting the back of his head on the concrete floor.  His skull was broken and he died in the hospital.  The mom wrote how much she wished that she could go back in time and just let him jump on the bed to his heart's content.  I cried my eyes out reading her story and the fear of one of my children hitting their heads on concrete stayed with me...  

 We have one small patch of patio left from the job flattening the backyard.  The picnic table fits perfectly on this patch, but I hate it because I'm scared one of my kids will fall and hit their heads.  I want it on the grass, but then it gets in the way of mowing-and we mow more than we picnic.  Today I have the kids outside blowing bubbles.  We are a little stir crazy being home for so long.  Bubbles were a nice distraction, especially for my two year old.  Until D slipped off the bench of the picnic table and smacked the back of his head on the concrete below.  Talk about my worst fear (one of them).

I scooped my baby up and tried not to panic.  He was crying, "I HATE owies! I HATE owies!"  At least he was coherent.  I tried not to panic as I started barking orders to my other children to bring me this, that, and the other.  Long story short, D is doing fine and his "owie" isn't big enough to warrant a trip into the emergency room for stitches.  He was mostly mad that F and S were blowing bubbles without him as I tried to mop up blood and clean dirt out of his wound.

Praise the Lord for guardian angels that work overtime!

And now all three of my boys have scalp scars, just like their dad.  

IJ's Jumping-off-the-couch staples

S's leap-off-the-front-stairs wound

None of the girls have scalp scars, just like their mom.

My Hero

M goes back to work tomorrow.  He is needing to get things set up for his upcoming survey of Lake Cushman.  He'll be working here in the house, but he will be working and will not be at my beck and call like he has for the last two weeks.

If you can't smoke a cigar after the birth of your 8th child, when can you?

M has been awesome these past two weeks.  He has taken care of all the cooking, dishes, and child entertainment, as well as D's diaper changes.

Hiking with S and IJ

He has taken the boys out for long bike rides and hikes on the beach...

Biking with E

 ...and takes E on her very own bike rides too!  And just for fun, you can see E wearing that exact same shirt 3 1/2 years ago on her third birthday HERE

Holding LJ

 He's held the baby while I've run errands, showered, and talked on the phone...

Swinging D

...he's kept D out of trouble (most of the time) and takes over for me when D gets too crazy for me.  Like at nap and bedtime:

Creative Nap Time Solutions

Plus, he has managed to completely fill the woodshed with the firewood we need for next winter PLUS an addition cord of wood. 

Building Rockets with S and IJ

He spent a few days building and painting rockets for the annual Cub Scout rocket launch and BBQ.  And did I mention the biggest feat of all?  Taking all five of the older kids to the rocket launch? 

Do you have your exit buddy?

Oh, yes.  I think that was the biggest job of all.  I never thought he could handle the five kids in a crazy setting with explosive rockets and parking lots and hot barbeques.  But they all came home alive and unhurt.  M proved to me at that moment that he can indeed handle multiple kids in a public place...and now the secret is out!  I'm going to miss him next week.

I Went to Town

As of this morning, I haven't left my home since LJ was born.  I did take a walk to the mailbox with M yesterday, but that isn't the same as getting in a car and going somewhere.

(Doesn't she look like me? All grumpy?)

Today, M encouraged me to leave LJ home with him while I ran into town for milk and a library pick up.  I'll never make that mistake again! It was horrible!

(I definitely look like this!)

Oh everything was fine at home.  LJ had her bottle and spent some quiet alert time smiling at M.  And nothing happened at the store or library.  I just felt WRONG.  When I got home, and heard I missed her first smile because I was picking up junk that no longer mattered, I had to hold my baby for the rest of the day.

And when I wasn't holding her, I was taking pictures.  About 100 of them.  It will be a long time before I ever leave her again!

Baby Therapy is good.

One Week

Baby LJ is one week old today!  Time is just flying by.  I'm having my usual latch-on issues with nursing her.  I thought I might, so this time I was prepared and we won't have any nasty surprises when we go to the pediatrician next week.  I have to pump and bottle feed until she grows just a little bit more.

How has the rest of the family adjusted to her?  The older kids really haven't shown that a new baby has affected them negatively.  And why would it?  Babies multiply the love, not subtract from it.  They like to hold her, but then they are off playing Bionicles and Piano Wizard (stay tuned for a review on this!).  F is already trying to play peek-a-boo.  She thinks that she and Baby LJ are the cutest in the family.

 The two-year-old on the other hand...he's been very TWO.  His favorite word is NO.  He'll say it even when he means yes.  Every day he manages to sneak into the chicken coop on throw the eggs out the door.  Of course the eggs break.  So we've collected about four eggs this week. 

D doesn't want F to play with HIS baby.

And...the other day we sent D to throw his diaper in the garbage.  He came running out of the hallway crying-really crying!- about a monster!  He's never shown this kind of fear before, so M chased the monster out of the hallway.  The next day, D saw the monster again.  I had him hold my hand and show me the monster.

Um, yeah, that would scare me too.  A big scary grim reaper coming out of the baby's crib?  It's actually the birth pool, all wrapped up in a black garbage bag.  When I first saw it (the house was dark), it gave me the chills too!

Baby LJ had her first trip down to the pond yesterday along with her first visit from her grandparents.  She wasn't the only one who had a first pond trip.  The Pirate went on his first paddle board trip!  Yo, ho, ho!

This bad dog somehow got a vein in her ear ripped.  She came in while my friend was visiting and dripped blood from the front door, all the way to the downstairs living room.  My wonderful friend cleaned up all the blood splatter (it looked like a CSI crime scene). 

Because the rip was on a vein, M couldn't get the blood to stop until bedtime!  He had to use a paper clip over a big bandage to keep the vein closed enough for our second skin to dry.  Anytime she shook her head the bandage flew off and blood spattered all over the place.  And then M would have to go through the process of applying pressure, adding second skin and baby powder (to dry up the blood), and bandaging again.  We took turns sitting with our feet on her back (in a comforting manner-we weren't holding her down) so she would stay in one place and not try to follow us around the house in her usual manner.  Okay, enough about dogs.  We want baby pictures!

Sleeping in my cradle that my dad built when I was a baby.

And finally awake!  She sleeps so much.  I know that by the time school starts again I will wish she still slept this much!  But for now I'm enjoying doing things I couldn't do while nine months pregnant.  Like look under the couch for the remote control.  And getting clothes out of the dryer.  And looking for lost things in low cupboards.