Sonograms and Babies

On Tuesday I had my first sonogram for this pregnancy. The pictures seem to get better and better with each baby as the machines are newer and clearer and more advanced.

This baby is only 13 weeks along and it is already sucking its thumb, grabbing its ear, crossing its legs, and waving. 

It baffles my mind that people can look at that sonogram and feel okay about ending that precious little life. How are they going to feel when they meet that spirit in heaven and realize what they have done?

I am happy to report that I am feeling better each day as the nausea and vomiting diminish. Good thing too, because school starts in one week and I'm homeschooling the kids this year! I may be crazy, but we're going to try it. Wish me luck!

Full Days

Yesterday started when Luke woke up with a swollen, red, itching groin. He was having trouble walking, so I took him to see the doctor. The doctor thinks he got some chigger bites and had a pretty strong allergic reaction to them. So he put him on a steroid and an antibiotic. Poor Luke always gets weird things like this! I tried to pick up the prescription on the way home, but the doctor's office hadn't called it in yet. Annoying.

 We came home and got ready to go swimming with some friends from church. (Luke stayed home and watched movies.) When I took Peter's diaper off to put on his swim stuff, he decided that it would be a good time to poop on the floor :). We had fun at the pool catching up with friends.

Ivy is doing music camp this week at another church friend's house. She goes for 2.5 hours each day. So after the pool and lunch, I dropped her and her friend off (the friend's mom just had a baby so I'm helping out with rides). Then I went to CVS again to get the prescription. They were out of one of them so I had to drive to two CVS locations. It was okay though because Peter was home napping and Luke and Violet were both at home too. So it was just me. But I do feel a little nervous leaving them for that long (like an hour). I actually have plenty of confidence in Violet being able to watch Peter, but I don't want the neighbors to see them home and me gone and then call CPS on me.

Anyway, I came home and tried to get Luke to take his meds. He has the biggest problem with that. He nearly gagged and threw up (something that happens about 30% of the time he has to take any) but it made it down. Good thing too because there were only two pills. One for yesterday and one for today.

Peter woke up from his nap and was running around playing while I tried to clean the kitchen. He pooped again but decided he needed to take his diaper off (first time he's done that). He did this in the living room where I couldn't see from the kitchen. Then he proceeded to sit on my couch with a nasty poop-covered bum. And it was blueberry poop too so it was all black. Yuck! That little stinker. Threw him in the bath and then wiped the cushion down with some sanitizing wipes and I just hope that there wasn't somewhere else he sat that I haven't discovered yet.

Then I picked up Ivy and her friend and brought them here to play. A neighbor girl came over to play too when she saw our fun crew of children. In between all these comings and goings I tried to practice with the older kids. Violet had a huge fit during piano practice and ended up having to sit at the piano bench for over an hour. (I told her she couldn't leave until she counted the rhythm of Liebestraum out loud for me. Meanest Mom ever!)

Fixed some potatoes, bruschetta, and cucumbers from our garden for dinner. Dan came home late so bedtime was late too. The routine always takes so long because we like the kids to help with the dishes after dinner, then scriptures, song, and prayer. And we have been reading The BFG with our kids before bedtime this week so we can go see the movie together in July. It is hilarious! I haven't read it since I was probably 9, so I don't remember much. Dan and I finally got the kids to bed and watched one episode of SHIELD together.

I still haven't finished unpacking from our trip and the house is a mess, as usual. Speaking of messy houses, Ivy's friend said to her, "My house is prettier than yours because yours has lots of junk on the floor." I'm trying not to be annoyed at her. And trying to get all the junk off my floor.

2015 Year in Pictures

I finally finished my 2015 video! Only 5 months late! :)

Snippity

1. Luke is currently singing "Video Killed the Radio Star" at the top of his lungs. He got tested for environmental allergies last week and has NONE. The stuffy nose he's had for 6 months is probably just swollen adenoids, the Dr. said anyway. Going to try Flonase to shrink them. Hopefully we can get rid of that stuffy nose soon! Poor kid.

2. This week Violet was frustrated with one of her Warrior Kitty books and exclaimed, "Grayclaw won't make Thunderpaw a di-POOTY!" It took me a few seconds to realize she was saying deputy.

3. Peter at 16 months old has his first chore. He gets the scriptures out of the shelf and gives one to everybody when it is time for family scripture study. He is always so excited to do it and it puts a smile on everyone's face to watch his exuberance as he runs back and forth from the shelf to the couch, grinning from ear to ear all the while--the perfect way to start scripture study!

4. Whenever Ivy has gas she will announce loudly for all to hear, "I'm stinkering." Also, she has really enjoyed coloring on the walls lately:

I took a load of stuff to Goodwill this week. That always feels great! Also went to the temple with some friends.

I don't want to write about Christmas

I want to write about now. Because sometimes a blog is just perfect for venting, you know? I will write about our fun Christmas later.

These past few days we have had sick kid after sick kid after sick kid. It was like the never-ending story of the flu. Saturday night we had Luke throw up. All over my bathroom (but at least it was the one bathroom floor that we hadn't already mopped that day!) and then later all over his bed. That was super awesome because we actually had Dan's friend staying overnight with us (the "hope-you-don't-catch-it-too" apologies only go so far, but what can you do?). I stayed home from church with Luke and Peter the next day. Luke threw up a couple more times Sunday morning, but then he seemed fine. Then Peter threw up (and I was like But he's breastfeeding and is supposed to be immune to all barfing! and it diminished my lofty opinions of the imperviousness of breastfed babies to puking).

Monday came, and Peter seemed fine, and Luke seemed fine. But Ivy was really grouchy. We were all going to go to Sam's Club so Dan could get a membership. (Mine expired last November and I had waited for another Groupon deal to renew--but it had to be in Dan's name not mine because I had been a member too recently to qualify for any deals. I do weird things to save $20.) I decided to stay home with Ivy and Peter. Ivy promptly fell asleep on the floor for about an hour. Then she woke up and puked her guts out. We move her bed back out of Violet's room (she was in there so she wouldn't get as many throw up germs on her from Luke).

Meanwhile, the other half of the family was at Sam's. Dan, of course, is always way too nice and buys lots of not-on-the-list snack foods for the kids and so we end up spending like $40 extra at Sam's. Secretly I want to throw out all the bonus purchases (things like Sun Chips and Gogurts) because really my kids don't need any more junk food, but I'll try to restrain myself for the sake of harmony in the home. Luke starts being really grouchy too, especially once he's home, but we make him do all sorts of mean things like fold his own laundry. And participate in FHE. We even go so far as restraining him on our laps on the couch. He is struggling to get up and we're all like "YOU WILL SIT DOWN AND BE REVERENT FOR FAMILY HOME EVENING!" And poor Luke is like "BUT I NEED TO--" and then he throws up all over the floor. And me. My new Christmas jeans are covered in puke. Clearly we need a better system for communicating with our kids. We can't tell the difference between a typical grouchy attitude and a major bout with nausea. Luke gets sent to bed.

Tuesday early early morning Violet starts puking too. So she stays home from school. We read books and watch movies all day. I made the kids watch Pollyanna with me because it is one of my favorite movies and they'd never seen it. Of course, they hate anything I pick. But I still love it. And I cried like five times in it. Clearly I had caught something too. It manifested that night when I had my own vomiting episode. And then the fever and whole body aches. Now I really sympathized with my kids.

Wednesday I'm thinking we're finally on the up and up, but then Peter throws up again that night. Now I'm thinking everyone is going to get this darn thing twice. Indeed, Violet throws up Wednesday night too. And Thursday morning. I think. I was in bed. Luckily I only had the one vomiting instance, but wasn't feeling swell at all on Wednesday. Poor Dan has been up with at least 3 kids every night. Somehow he has managed to not get anything!

Thursday everyone finally starts feeling better. We even manage to do homeschool devotional, writing, and history. And Luke gets to go to his homeschool kids art class. And Ivy, Peter, and I hit up the discarded book sale at the library (where Peter managed to disrupt everyone trying to quietly browse by screaming every time I stopped him from touching books. It happened like 30 times. And he thought it was a game to push the books on the one side of the cart and watch the ones on the opposite side fall to the floor.). We also picked up Dan's shirts from the dry cleaners. I actually felt like this was a milestone for me because we've never once taken anything to the cleaners since we've been married until now. We definitely needed to, but somehow never got around to it. And now I have. And it is so easy. And I feel like a real grown-up.

Last night I finally escaped and even managed to make it to book club. And a weird Arbonne products party that I felt obligated to go to and then was the only one who showed up. I hate those darn party MLM things. I can't believe I got sucked into that jewelry one back when I was first married. I still never got my order from the dumb sales rep. She lost it. Lost my $30 too I guess.

Violet made her 24-hour window of no puking so was able to return to school today. I just need to finagle a doctor I know into getting her absences excused, because, you know, Texas. They are the lamest ever about attendance. I think I've ranted about this more than enough times, but the whole thing about how parents aren't qualified to excuse any absences just makes the blood boil and nostrils flare every time I think about it.

All this sickness has made me intensely grateful for a helpful husband who does not get grossed out or queasy in situations such as this. And who tirelessly rises night after night when kids wake up in need of his assistance. Even when they are crying for mommy he somehow manages everything perfectly and comforts them just as well as I ever could. (And I'm also grateful for his tough-as-steel immune system. We think it may be because he grew up on well-water, free from all that nasty chlorine in public water works. Or he is just blessed because he's so righteous.)