Notes and Tomatoes

Oh the trouble those kids got into last night.  It was not a good evening, but I'll get to the no fun part later. 

 First, not long after I got home from work yesterday afternoon Eva came and passed me a note: 

Faith is here?  "Yes, Eva.  I know Faith is here."  I wasn't sure what that "G" was about, but whatever.  I didn't think too much of it.  A few minutes later, Faith came and asked me if Eva gave me the note, because she is *hungry.*  Oh!  "Faith is HGRE"  Hungry.  I totally see it now, although I believe we may need to work on her spelling and also the concept of keeping a whole word on a single line.

And another.  I'll just tell you while it actually reads, "Let th cats aut," this one is supposed to say, "Let the cats out."  Yes, DJ still makes the cats live in the basement and yes, the kids and I still let them out when he's not around.  :)

Faith's pre-kindergarten photo this morning for day 29.  Yes, I still take her picture (twice!) every single day before I send her off to school.  I will continue to do so until she makes it impossible.  My very unrealistic goal is to have a picture of each of the three kids, on the front porch, every morning before school, every day kindergarten through high school.  The last picture will be cap and gown just before we drive off to graduation.   I'm trying.  29 days in, and I'm still doing well.  Why?  . . . I have a project I'm working on.  That's all I'm saying.  You'll see the first installment at the end of her kindergarten year. 

 Oh, look.  I started letting Faith ride the bus again!  She's been begging me.  However, if she's going to ride the bus, I make her take a Target sack with her.  You know, so she can puke in it.  Miss Kelly didn't look very excited to see her on the bus again a few mornings ago.

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Would you like to know why we had a bad night last night?  Lots of reasons, really.  The kids *screamed* at me for about three or four hours, straight.  I do very well with constant demands, questions, "I need this, I want that," but when three kids start screaming for hours on end, I don't hold up so well.  Anyway, I was at my wits end by dinnertime, which of course, made the following even more unbearable.

DJ had a client give him a few of the season's last tomatoes yesterday.  You know, the little, golf-ball sized tomatoes, bright red and extra delicious?  Faith and Cawood both LOVE tomatoes, so I wasn't surprised when that little boy of mine asked for one.  And another.  And a few minutes later, another. 

All three tomatoes I rinsed in the sink, but with the third tomato, Cawood yelled at me, "No rinse it!  I wash in toilet!" 

Gross Cawood!  Faith and I both scolded him and told him it's yucky to wash your food in the toilet.  Of course by this time I'm worried it's too late and he's already eaten two tomatoes that he's washed in the toilet. 

I busied myself with something and the next thing you know, it's bath time.  I took the kids upstairs and found a tomato in the kids toilet.  Yuck.  I fished it out, threw it away, grabbed some toilet paper to wipe the water I'd dripped on the seat and went to flush it away.  The toilet filled to the brim, but did not overflow.  With a few minutes, the water level receded. 

I did the plunger thing.  Nope.  Still clogged.  I asked Cawood (although I already knew the answer,) "What's in the toilet?"  He answered, "Three tomatoes."  Well, I'd already fished one of them out, so really just two.  We don't have a snake, so we'll have to work out how to fix it later (maybe, buy a snake?)  Anyway, I told the kids not to use the toilet. 

An hour later, I was in the bathroom and saw that Faith had pooped in there.  Faith very rarely flushes, which was a good thing in this situation, so it was just floating along.  "FAITH!!!!  Why would you use that toilet!?!?!? Do not touch it!  Do not go into that bathroom." 

So what did she do?  She waited the 30 seconds for me to walk away and tuck Cawood into his bed.  She went into the bathroom to flush away her poop. . . and she overflowed poop water all over the bathroom floor. 

So a toilet clogged with two tomatoes ended up with poop overflowing all over the bathroom floor, DJ mopping with bleach water and (finally!) someone (DJ) thought to turn off the water to that toilet.  Problem officially on hold. 

There he is.  Guilty as charged, giving hugs and kisses as I walked out the door this morning for work.  It doesn't matter how much mischief they manage the night before, they're still pretty cute and fun the morning after.  Oh!  But there is a bright side to all this: those tomatoes I thought he was washing in the toilet and then eating?  He totally didn't eat them.

September 23, 2011

I'm actually a little embarassed to admit it, but September 23, 2011 passed like any other day.  I've been thinking about this day for the past 2 1/2 years and the few days before I kept telling myself, "It's almost here.  Almost.  Five more days!  Three more days!  . . . and then I forgot.  Boo. 

Anyway, on September 23, 2011 Eva and Cawood were two years, seven months and three days old.  Why is that important?  Because when Faith was two years, seven months and three days old, she became a big sister.  February 20, 2009 was one of the most important days of young Faith's life but for Eva and Cawood, September 23, 2011 passed as uneventfully as any other.  Forgotten, even. 

I don't even know how to explain this.  Eva and Cawood have always 'beat the charts' on smarts.  They've always reached physical and intellectual milestones significantly ahead of schedule.  I've never worried they would have any trouble whatsoever in this world, but I have always noticed that while they were 'ahead' of where their pediatricians thought they should be, ahead of where the "average" kids were, they were also always behind Faith at that stage of her life. 

One thing I have noticed these past few weeks is that Eva and Cawood are starting to 'catch up' to where I remember Faith being.  Right now I feel like Eva and Cawood are exactly where Faith was on February 20, 2009.  I have that date stamped in my mind: I remember Faith on that day as vividly as if it were this morning (actually, I don't because I don't remember her coming to visit me that day, but you know what I mean.) 

Eva and Cawood are on par with Faith, which is great because I never thought they were quite as talkative, quite as quick at putting things together, quite as aware . . . but now I do.  Excuses abound, but when it all boils down: September 23, 2011 really was an important general time for Eva and Cawood.  You know how when you adopt a puppy and you don't know his real birthday so you just arbitrarily give him one?  That's what I'm doing here.  I don't know exactly the date that Eva and Cawood 'caught' Faith so I'm declaring it September 23, 2011.  Eva and Cawood at 2 1/2 are as smart as Faith was at 2 1/2.  It took them longer to show me because I had more than one kid to focus on and because they were preemies and because of every excuse I can come up with for them.  They've always been "beat the charts smart," but just now I have realized they are every bit as quick as Faith.  It just took them a little longer to show me. 

One Sick Boy

Cawood boy has learned to sneak into my bed in the middle of the night just like his big sister. Most mornings DJ and I wake to find both Cawood and Faith asleep between us. (As a side note: when DJ was in Vegas I tried to get Eva to sleep with me. She said, "No Mommy! I sleep Eva's bed." Don't worry about Eva: she's not feeling unloved because of the family bed situation.)

Anyway, thankfully last night Faith slept on the couch all night. That rarely happens, but we'll count our blessings.

At one am Cawood started coughing, sat half-up, leaned to the side and puked in the space between himself and DJ, on his PJ's, and on my pillow. It was an explosion of vomit.

Poor kid! DJ and I changed the sheets, DJ politely excused himself to go sleep in Faith's room, and Cawood and I went back to sleep in my bed.

Thankfully I had laid down some "just in case" towels because poor Cawood spent the entire night against my left side puking onto the towel to his left. That's some pretty good control for a two-year-old while sleeping. But he did it well. He'd sit up, puke to his left, I'd swap out towels and he'd go back to sleep. By morning we had no clean towels left in the downstairs but I also had a happy and healthy boy. Whatever it was, it was wicked, but short lived: only about six hours duration. I'd choose six hours of a wicked flu bug over a two week cold any day.

Parenthood: even these moments I love. Really. I love that he wanted me close when he felt so crummy. Love him.

Figuring Things Out

I think I mentioned that Faith's doctor suggested we put her on melatonin for her inability to fall asleep at night.  It's been nothing short of miraculous!  That little girl has been asleep no later than 8:30 since we started (and that night I was fighting her to stay up to 8:30 - I had my reasons,) and most nights it's 8.  One night: 7:30!

Anyway, she made me chuckle last night.  I mixed up her juice slurry of melatonin, miralax and apple juice as always.  I've never once told her about the melatonin - just the miralax.  Anyway, last night she asked me, "Is this medicine to help me poop or to help me sleep?"

My answer?  "Both." 

I was impressed she figured that out.  I shouldn't have been, she's an observant little five-year-old.  She knows she couldn't sleep, now she can, and she put it all together.  Kids.  They're fun.

The Blog

So I've been on the busier side of busy this past week and I've been called out on slacking on the blog. . . rest assured we're all still here and alive, just kind of busy.

Which I suppose is a good thing as the radiator in my car cracked and we needed to spend some money we weren't expecting to spend.  For that reason alone I'm thankful to be busy enough I don't have time to blog. 

I promised to upload this video on the kidergarten blog, but I'm going to put it here instead.  I love this little song of Faith's.  Listen to the end.  She is my daughter, that is true.  :)

Faith, Doctor Pics

Pictures of Faith, getting her first ever X-ray!  Fun times, I tell you.  She was happy to have her picture taken and I'd already told her there would be blood draws and needles involved.  No blood, just radiographs. 

Here's a bit of Faith none of us have seen before!

Faith to the Doctor

Did I tell you I was taking Faith to the doctor because of the whole puking at school thing?  I get this blog and the kindergarten blog confused in my head.  I know I mentioned it somewhere.  Anyway, today I took Faith to the pediatrician.  I explained she throws up about weekly at school, she does not run a fever, comes home and torments the twins all day.  She's fine.  Tip top. 

Long story short: Faith had an X-ray today that showed she's a little full of poop.  The doctor put her on a small dose of Miralax and also (yay!) she listened to me about the lack of sleep thing.  I've never talked to this doctor about Faith's sleeping woes but she listened to my concerns and told me to try melatonin.  Why didn't I think of that?!?!  I've been fighting the battle every night for *five* years, with the past two years using benadryl on the really, really bad nights. . . Once every 10-14 nights I'd pop her with a dose.  That's too much, but when you have a kid that will not sleep. . . sometimes you do what you gotta do - especially if it's 11pm on a school night.  Melatonin.  Genius. 

Tonight I poured Faith's Miralax into a cup and crushed a 1/4 of a 3 mg tablet of melatonin along with.  4 oz of juice and I told Faith to drink it to help her poop.  I didn't tell her about the melatonin because I wanted her to drink it and I was afraid she wouldn't if she thought it was for sleep. 

An hour later, she was on the couch after her bath and she called up to me, "Mommy.  I'm so tired."  OK, sweet girl!  Off to bed.  That's the easiest bed time I've had in a looong time.  Let's pray the melatonin works long term. 

Oh, and the puking thing?  She hasn't done it in a week - I think I have it figured out.  Faith's sensible pediatrician wrote a note to the school nurse requesting she evaluate Faith after an episode of vomiting:  Has she vomited more than one time? Diarrhea?  Fever?  Headache?  Behavior? . . . If everything checks out the doctor requested the nurse use common sense approach.  Look at the kid.  Is she really sick?  If the answer is no, send her back to class.  If the nurse has a hunch that she's either sick or getting sick, send her home. 

Days of the Week

This is a duplicate post from Faith's blog, but it's one I wanted to share with the world.  This is the very first book authored by Faith and Faith alone.

She came to me tonight and asked me if I'd help her write a book.  I had no idea what she had in mind, but I went along with it. She collected some pieces of construction paper and asked me to write the following words, one day on each page. She glued the pages together, and she wrote her very first book, all by herself!



Days of the Week

Today is Sunday. We have CCD.

Today is Monday. We get to pick out a book at the library.
Today is Tuesday. We get to have Music class.
Today is Wednesday. We have gym.

Today is Thursday. Thursday we get to color at the library.

Today is Friday. On Friay we have fun.

Today is Saturday. On Saturday I have gymnastics.

Daddy

Cawood's not said a whole lot about DJ being gone. Not much at all, except for the bedtime story I told you the other day.

Last night in the bath that boy was playing like always when he suddenly stood up tall, naked and dripping wet in the tub. He said, "I miss Daddy so much."

Yeah buddy. We all do.

Late Summer Fun

I took the twins outside to water the rock-hard ground where I'm planning on digging out the first garden bed (garlic! It needs to go in the ground in the next 6-8 weeks.) Anyway, Cawood made some good fun of the sprinkler. At first I tried to fight it and keep him dry, but soon enough I just let that kid be a kid.

Faith Dreams

Faith fell asleep on the couch this afternoon. I saw her stirring so I walked over and asked her if she needed anything.

She answered, "Yes. I want the pirates." I asked, "You want pirates?" She nodded her head, wiped the slobber from her chin and rolled over to go back to sleep.

Vegas

So DJ's off in Vegas and I'm doing the single mom thing for the next few days.  Let me tell you, I did it a few times with Faith alone and it was a piece of cake.  One momma, one kid.  No worries.  One momma, three kids?  Holy cow!  This is a lot of work!! 

One thing we talked about before he left was Eva.  Whenever a person who is a constant in Eva's life disappears, within a few days she'll start asking, "Where's so-and-so?"  "Where's Jessy?. . . Grandma? . . . Grandpa? . . ."  You get the picture.  If it's been a few days, Eva will ask where her people are.  Last night I asked DJ, "How long do you think it will be before Eva starts asking where you went?"  He answered, "Monday."  Nope.  That girl gave him about six hours before she started asking for her daddy.  I've been telling you for almost two-and-a-half years now, that one is a daddy's girl.  Eva is DJ's.

Faith gets it, obviously.  She understands Daddy is gone for a few days.  Cawood, like Eva, not so much.  He didn't ask about daddy all day.  Our bedtime routine is for me to read stories to all three kids, tuck the twins in bed and Cawood always asks, "Say good night, daddy?"  DJ goes upstairs for just a few minutes and Cawood tells him what he did all day, "Fun park. . . fun slide. . . fun swings. . .fun museum. . . fun Diego. . .  " Whatever happened, Cawood talks about it with daddy. 

Anyway, when I tucked Cawood in bed tonight he asked, "Say good night, Daddy?"  I said, "No buddy, Daddy's away tonight, he'll be home in a few days."  Ohmygoodness, tear my heart out:  his face. You know that face people make when the pain is just too unbearable to control?   The face you make when something really, really bad has happened?  That's the face he made as he cried in the night for a daddy thousands of miles away. 

Anyway, DJ knew I was a little concerned with him flying this weekend so he's made sure to keep in close contact.  He sent me a text when he landed in Salt Lake City as he rushed to his flight to Vegas (short layover.)  Again, as soon as he was on the ground in Vegas, a message popped up on my phone, "Viva Las Vegas."  Safe.

Keep us in your prayers.  Eva especially is missing her daddy something awful and I'm missing my husband.  It's not as much fun when he's so very far away. 

Twin Fight: Trains

Driving down the road, Eva saw a train.

Eva: A train!
Cawood: Chugga chugga!
Eva: No, Cawood. A train says choo choo.
Cawood: No!! Chugga chugga!
Eva: Choo choo!
Cawood: Chugga chugga!
Eva: Choo choo!

Kindergarten: Day 17

Today's before school picture: 

Faith's on day 17 of kindergarten.  She's puked on the bus twice, one of those times the school sent her home.  The other time they took a chance on the motion sickness thing and let her stay. 

Last week, she was truly ill and missed one day of school.  She should have missed two days, but Thursday she wasn't running a fever, vomiting or otherwise giving me any hard reasons to keep her home.  I just thought she was sick.  Friday, yuppers.  102 degrees and I kept her close to my side.

Early this morning I received a call from the school nurse to let me know Faith threw up in the library.  Yes, really.  Again.  Sigh.  DJ rushed over to the school to pick her up and she spent another day at home. She was crying her little heart out because she wanted to stay, but rules are rules. 

Of course, Faith remembered they stretched the rules once for her so she thinks she can throw up at school and stay.  She's done it before.  Try explaining that to a five year old. 

Anyway, I popped home for lunch today to check on Faith.  She was perfectly, absolutely 100% completely fine.  When I asked her why she threw up, she said Mrs. Harvey wasn't in class this morning (she had a meeting) and someone else was helping out for just the very early morning.  This other person told the kids to hurry up and eat  fast as they needed to rush off to the library.  Faith said she ate her breakfast too fast and she had to throw it up.  I don't know if that's true or not, but it's a pretty good story for a five year old to come up with all by her lonesome. 

We stopped putting her on the bus so now instead of Faith riding the bus for 40 minutes to school, I drive her for three minutes.  I stopped giving her breakfast in the morning so she's eating a little later in the morning, school food.  That may be a problem.  DJ's worried she's eating the equivalent of a sausage McMuffin with egg and it's too heavy.  He thinks I should start giving her breakfast at home again, something light.  So we'll try that.  I'm also going to try to get her to go to bed earlier so I can wake her up earlier.  I'm wondering if it's too much too fast in the morning.  Maybe if our mornings start earlier and go slower, she'll settle down.

Regardless, I may be over-reacting here but I set an appointment with her pediatrician next week for a checkup.  She just had her five-year checkup right before school started but we're going back with a specific complaint: Faith just can't quit throwing up at school. 

Anyway, look at the kid in that picture up top.  She totally wasn't sick.  Not at all.

Busy Weekend - Deck Down

 It must have been Thursday or Friday night when DJ went out back to grill, and he commented "for the last time" on our deck.  I hadn't thought of that.  I knew the 'boys' would be taking down the deck, but I just didn't realize how soon.  

Eva and Cawood joined Daddy for that last grill. 

Faith  told me on Saturday that she was sad we didn't take a picture of the deck.  She was afraid she would forget how it looked before the pool went in. . . no worries baby girl!  Momma has you covered. 

Before:

 Saturday it was HOT in central Indiana.  We're talking 100 degrees hot.  Mike came over and he and DJ had that deck down in 2 hours.  Two.  Hours.  We learned after the fact that it really wasn't built so well.  Obviously.

 Yesterday, in contrast, it was a 'chilly' 70 degrees.  DJ pulled out the last post and now we're just waiting for the pool guys to come dig their hole.

This was DJ's last weekend at home before the pool goes in.  He's traveling to Vegas with his employer on Saturday for a few days.  They were originally going to fly out on Sunday, but I really didn't like the idea of DJ flying on September 11, 2011.  Instead they are flying out on September 10, 2011, which truthfully makes me a little nervous too.  I think this is just not a good week to travel.  DJ says Vegas is too small a town for a terrorist attack, that he and Roger will be fine, and that I'm being a little silly.  I know, I know.  We can't 'live in fear.'  Still, I prefer to keep my people close.  Anyway, please pray for safe travels for Roger and DJ. 

Kindergarten: Day 14

I sent Mrs. Harvey an email yesterday morning to let her know I suspected Faith may be sick: she wasn't vomiting, didn't have diarrhea and her temperature was 98.2. She WAS complaining that her head and back hurt and she was sooo tired! That little girl went to bed rather easily on Wednesday night and simply did not want to wake on Thursday morning. Add in a few early morning tantrums, and this momma thought, "sick."

Either way, I sent her to school because I didn't have any solid reason to keep her home. In that email to Mrs. Harvey, I encouraged her to call me if Faith became truly sick so I could bring her home. At the end of the day, I hadn't heard a word so I hurried home to greet her off the bus. Usually that's Jessy's job, but I was worried.

Sure enough, at dropoff Miss Kelly waved me closer to the bus. She told me Faith fell asleep in the parking lot at school and slept the whole way home. Poor kid! I scooped her up and -there was the fever! 102.

I'm keeping her home today. She's still sleeping now and doesn't feel too hot, but she was 101.5 at 2am. Danville has a 12 hour rule, so even if she's through it, she can't go to school today.
Boo. We're in week three and she's missing her second day of school.

I should have seen this coming. Wednesday after school Faith told me that Camdyn and Lily both stayed home sick. These three little girls are peas in a pod; they are Faith's new best friends. Camdyn was back in class yesterday, but Lily still out. Either way, we're coming up on a long weekend so she should be ready for class again Tuesday.

Digging, Or Cleaning, Or Just Plain Rearranging

DJ is serious about the pool.  He went out yesterday evening and started moving things out of the way.  The pile of firewood was moved aside (and the mice and snake living in it as well - evicted.)  He's cleaning up.  

That tree?  He's not sure what to do with it.  He and Mike may tackle it's removal as a 'man-project,' or he might just hire in someone to do it safely. . . uh, professionally.

I can't remember if it was yesterday or the day before, but I was outside with all three kids and Popsicles.  As soon as DJ was home from work, in the garage and closing his car door, Cawood was at his side saying, "Pool?  Build pool?  Daddy build pool?"  

Yes, Cawood.  Daddy's building you a pool.