Rocking chair blogging

The baby's sleep has been less than stellar lately.  He is a super light sleeper.  Unlike with my other kids, I can't just bring him back to our bed (or the extra bed in his room) to nurse and to sleep/cuddle together.  The second I move cough  budge  breathe he wakes up.  I have to haul my behind out of bed and nurse him, then put him back as soon as he is sleeping (then tiptoe quietly while praying the floor doesn't creak and wake the sleeping beast  baby.)  Because of those things combined, I spend a lot of time in the rocking chair.

****Aside****If there was ever a baby item I wish we would've spent more money on, it would be the rocking chair.  The $80 we spent on that rocking chair mocks me at 3am.   It mocks me with my sore behind, my aching back, and Zeke's bruised head (from banging the side where his head is when he kicks the opposite side.)

Anyway, I digress.  I spend a lot of time praying and thinking in that chair in the middle of the night.  Its also in this chair that I come up with all kinds of blog posts.  In fact, its where I think I've come up with some of my best ideas for blogging. 

In that chair I am witty.  I am funny.  I am eloquent.  In that chair I am interesting, fun, and full of life. 

Unfortunately, the lack of sleep seems to blur my memory.  By morning, the words are jumbled, and I can't remember what titles I came up with or what ideas I wanted to get across.  I forget my clever satire and my witty sarcasm.  If I happen to remember my idea past 6am, we are bound to miss the bus, (and thus missing my morning internet time) spill coffee on my keyboard, or the internet will be down.

So, even though my "official" blog post was days ago, rest assured that I've been a very busy blogger. I have lots of interesting material waiting to be read.  Lots of witty comments and exciting material to liven your day. 

Just meet me at the rocking chair at 3a.m., and you'll see what I mean.

fearless

I have three children, all with very different personalities.  One child, my oldest, is very cautious.  She's been this was since she was a baby.  She was capable of walking well before she took her first steps.  She was so scared of falling down that she made sure that she could "do it right" before attempting to do it at all.

Our littlest hasn't shown us what his walking style will be, but he seems to be content in every situation. He's our "go with the flow" kid.

My second child, well, he's a wild man.  He acts first, thinks later.  I always joke if the eldest was capable of walking long before she did, our second child was walking well before he was capable.  He fell like crazy when he first started running  walking. (of course, this complete lack of fear can be trouble sometimes, too.)

Here is A on the first day of swim lessons. Jumping off the diving board, no one with extended arms to catch him.  He has no reservations.  He just jumps.  Totally confident that he can swim to the side.  Totally confident that if he can't, someone will help him.

 We missed the bus today so I had to take her in car line. I have never used the car line before (neither has she) and I started to get nervous about what I was doing, where I was going, etc. Then, O said "mommy, I'm a little scared about car line." I realized that I needed to fake it in that moment. Pretend like I was confident. (and, yes, I realize that its a silly little thing to be anxious over.  but, that's just my style.) 

When it comes down to it, I realize I'm definitely more like my daughter. Afraid of falling down. Not taking risks. Afraid of the unknown.


For her benefit, I'm working towards being more bold. More willing to go out of my comfort zone. More fearless.  I can do it.  I will swim boldly.  After all, God is there to help me when I can't make it to the side.

a little sleep deprived

Its been a while since I blogged.  We've been a busy bunch here lately.  E was out of town from Sunday to Thursday night.  We had two children in swim lessons this week, at different times.  Of course, there was school mixed in there, too.  My parents came on Thursday.  We've been busy, busy,busy.

I'm starting to think that "busy" may be a relative term.  I realize that our busy schedule doesn't sound nearly as busy as others.  But, if there's anything I realized this week its that I don't want our schedule to look as busy as others.  I'm tired.  I'm worn out.  I'm sick of driving kids, rushing about, waking up the baby to take him along. 

 Unfortunately (or fortunately.  whatever your view is on this subject) I don't see a slew of after school activities in our future.  Picking up O at the bus, then running in and getting bathing suits on, jumping in the car, rushing to swim lessons, then coming home and starting dinner.  Not only was O exhausted, I felt stressed.  I don't really handle stress super well.

So soccer, girl scouts, ballet? nope. Gymnastics, tap, swimming? Nada.  Cheerleading, Jazz, basketball?  no thanks.

I think Mommy needs an adjustment period to school, just like O.  Maybe after a while I'll get the hang of it and start to feel okay with afternoon activities.  Maybe something non-threatening with little time commitment, like choir.  At least its church, right? 

A week has come and gone

Kindergarten is going well for the sweet girl.  However, mommy is feeling a bit of pressure from all sides of life right now.  (Leaving very little time for blogging.) 

The baby is just as sweet as he can be.  Isaac is very mellow.  He doesn't laugh much, but he doesn't cry much, either.  But when he gets laughing, he really gets laughing.  (He cracks me up at the stuff he thinks is funny.)

Don't mind my outfit/lack of make-up or the video quality.  We were headed to A's swim lessons, (and the videographer is a little under-trained).

The first day, in pictures

    

    

Twas the night before kindergarten

Twas the night before kindergarten, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even  except momma and her (keyboard and) mouse.

I'm generally an anxious mess when it comes to going to new places, starting new things, meeting new people pretty much anything out of my comfort zone.  so, with E gone, its easy to let my mind wander to things that get me anxious. Especially things like sending my baby girl off to complete, total, and utter strangers  kindergarten tomorrow.

So, to fill the time between now and sleep, I'm baking muffins, rocking babies, and typing updates on my blog. :)  (You all get to benefit from that last one.)

With out further a-do, here's the update!

Isaac's Kidney Reflux Update (I know, super exciting, right??)

We went in for I's kidney reflux testing about 2 weeks ago.  When I talked to the nurse on the phone, she mentioned that we were going to fore go the ultrasound and skip to the more invasive VCUG.  Turns out, the urologist changed his mind again.  When I got there, we only ended up doing the renal ultrasound and skipped the VCUG, (and here I thought surprises at the doctor were almost never good!)

Zeke did wonderful during the ultrasound.  He wiggled a lot  bit, but the technician was able to get what she needed.  With the results in hand, we headed to Dr. H's office (this, thankfully, is not the same Dr. H that is mentioned in previous posts!  That Dr. H was/is my RE.  This one is the kids' pediatric urologist.) 

Since Dr. H is the ONLY pediatric urologist in town, they have a nice waiting room for kids. The older kids love the big fish tank right at floor level.  It turns out, baby I likes it, too.

  Naturally, I had to snap a picture with my cell phone.  I mean, how adorable is that?  His little face pressed up against the glass?  *swoon*  I just love him to pieces.

So, I'm a bit off track.  Where was I?  Updating?  Right.  Back to the results.  The good news is that I's kidney's look healthy.  No evidence of previous infection, and they were the same approximate size.  yay!  He still has the 33% chance that he has kidney reflux.  But, since he shows no sign of prior infection, we don't have to do any further testing unless something comes up down the road.  We do have to be more cautious when it comes to fevers.  Any fever with out an apparent cause warrants an immediate urine culture.  But, we are pretty sensitive to that kind of stuff from O anyway, so it shouldn't be a huge change.

Great news.  Its good to get that testing out of the way.  To get over that hump of anxiety and get to the other side: relief.

Now, if I could only feel that way about kindergarten starting tomorrow...

The View

 

  

The Kindergarten Send Off trip

A few months ago, E was talking to a co-worker of his who has 3 children.  The oldest is in 3rd grade or so, the middle child is about to start kkindergarten, and the youngest child is 4.  This co-worker was telling E that their family has started a tradition of taking the child starting kkindergarten on a special trip.  Just Mommy, Daddy, and the soon-to-be kindergartner.  They go somewhere fun over night and make it a big "wow, look how big and special you are" kind of trip.

E and I thought this was a wonderful idea.  We contemplating doing the exact same thing with our kids.  However, we have this one little issue that E's co-worker does not.  We have a seven month old baby boy.  One who really doesn't like leaving his momma, and really REALLY doesn't like eating from anything other than momma.

With that in mind, we came up with a revised plan.  We'd make a family trip a few weekends before school starts as our "Kindergarten Send Off Trip".  This year for O and next year for A.

We went on that trip this past weekend.  We spent all day Saturday and Sunday in Chattanooga, TN.  We went to the Discovery Children's museum, hung out in the water features (we spent a great deal of our time there Saturday and Sunday.  very nice and very free. ) and went to the zoo, more water features, and a train hotel to look around. 

We had a wonderful weekend, full of fun and of memories.  We also learned a few things.  Among the things we learned:

I still hates the car.  Probably loathes the car.  He cried the last 40 minutes of the way there and the last 45 minutes on the way home.  We may start re-thinking our October trip to Michigan with the entire family.

O falls asleep super fast.  We've always known this, but its still amazing to watch.  She was sleeping in a matter of 3 minutes when we got back to the hotel on Saturday night.  How I wish I possessed this gift!

A sleeps hard and deep.  We've known this, too.  Mainly because of his nightly peeing incidents (he's still in a pull-up at night with out an end in sight.  He hasn't stayed dry at night.  Ever.)  He woke up on Sunday with a mystery boo-boo.  He had some sort of rug burn near his eye that he didn't have when he went to sleep the night before.  He must have either fallen out of bed or something of that nature.  (We asked.  He didn't remember.)  A also slept through all of I's crying on the way home, which was seriously loud.

I is a super light sleeper.  Any little tiny noise and he pops up to a standing position.  He didn't sleep well in the crib from the hotel.  He ended up sleeping on my chest most of the night. 

The kids are interested in very different things.  O loved the art section of the children's museum.  Austin loved the Dinosaur part.  O loved the flowers gift shop of the hotel we went to visit and A loved the trains (the reason we went to look and hang out at that hotel)

We've outgrown the use of a double stroller.  We borrowed a Sit-and-Stand Deluxe from a friend.  We used it once during our trip and decided it was too big.  Plus, Zeke only sat in it for a total of 10 minutes before wanting to be held.  I am glad that we borrowed it, though, since that particular stroller has been on my want-list for a while now.  I guess I can cross that off.

Baby carriers are lifesavers.  I probably don't need to go into detail here. 

Our big kids are going to miss each other when O starts school.  Sometimes they fight non-stop.  Other times they are best friends.  This past weekend was the latter.  They played so well together. 

We learned lots of other things as well, but I'm out of time.  The baby is calling my name.  Here are some more pictures from our trip before I go.