Bring On The Sand

We went to the beach last week! I was worried about taking all of the kids. I went with my friend Krysta and her two youngest. It turned out so wonderfully. Frank has no issues whatsoever with being covered in sand, and he ate his share of it. Harper loved it, Eden loved it, and the other children loved it. What's not to love?

At one point all of the children were standing where the water meets the sand. You know how sometimes you feel disoriented when the water goes back out to sea and you're not moving? Well Harper was obviously effected by that b/c he walked crooked and slanted and drunk for a good 15 feet and then fell flat on his face. Oh, that was funny :) He stayed away from the waves mostly after that.

It got cold near the end of our time and I had to convince Eden to get out of the water. She really loved it. I think we'll go back again soon.

We've been outside a lot lately. Today was muggy. I'm trying to get back into the habit of walking...I was doing SO well until Sophie got nailed. So now she's doing fine and I'm back to being lazy. Ick. I'll figure it out.

Sprinklers In March

I know some of you guys have snow on the ground, but it's hard for us to believe. It's been practically HOT here. I've been running fans and opening all the windows to try to cool us down. Just the other day we busted out the bathing suits and sprinklers. The kids had a blast! They each had one in our sad, dried out grass covered lawn. The running around, screaming, and jumping were the highlight of my day.

Frank has a tooth on top now, and the other top one is working it's way out. I would love for that process to speed up a bit. He's healthy and happy otherwise though. Lots of laughing and touching things he shouldn't.

My new favorite thing to do is new.familysearch.org. Finally, I have found a place to start family history. It's quite addicting and I'm already excited to log on after the kids are in bed. Thank you Cathy Noel! And this will fulfil a personal progress requirement for the young women project that I'm working on. Woo Hoo! It doesn't get much better than that!

Ghetto Earings and Home School

Eden and I do "home school" together. We were going to do Joy School. In fact, Eden was very excited about me dropping her off by herself for school. Since I feel that I can't handle that right now we compromised. So we've been spending nap time learning new things. Her favorite part is experimenting with colors and anything else she can get her hands on. We put milk in a bowl, then added three drops of food coloring (three colors) and then added one drop of dish soap. The dish soap doesn't mix w/ the milk so it just took the food coloring and swirled it all over. Cool!

Harper can't get enough of Eden. They play together well. She even puts lip gloss and "earings" on him. She has plenty more star stickers where that came from. He's also healing just fine from his surgery and doesn't miss an opportunity to knock himself out. He pretends to write letters along w/ Eden, sings various songs to anyone who will listen, and asks to poop in the toilet right after pooping in his diaper. Alas.



Frank is standing more often and sleeping better through the night. He is starting to show another tooth on top that hasn't popped through yet. And I'm having to dress him in 12 mo. clothes now b/c the others are mostly too short for him. Some of the pants are also too small around the waist. He weighs about 23 lbs. I think. He'll be 9 months old in another week or so.

Brad played w/ the kids a TON yesterday. He smeared Harper's face w/ frosting, taught the kids to play duck duck goose (while adding things like zebra and hippo to the mix). We had a wonderful Sunday! This morning I saw Harper touching his head and saying, "Duck. Duck. Zebra." Good Times!

New Hobby

Eden and I have found a new fun thing to do. We got our inspiration from a clip that our friend Heather made for Eden's b.day last year. Now, we have our own PILE of flower clips! I've been using my new glue gun that I got for Christmas. Love it! And Eden is getting good at squeezing the trigger. We've made about 20 so far. And she's been really good about coming up with color combinations too. I'm having a ball!

Harper's Procedure

Harper has only had one testicle since he was born. Now that he's two, we've been refered to a specialist to resolve the issue.

We went to the hospital this morning for Harper's procedure. He was so excited to go that he cried last night when we told him he would have to go to sleep first. So he woke up at 5:00 AM and didn't go back to sleep until they gassed him. He went through a check list of all the things we packed in his bag on our trip up there.

In the waiting room he played with blocks and trucks and all went well. They moved us into a family room around 7:15 AM. There we played and read some more until the Dr. was ready. Then they brought us something akin to Valium. He was grabbing for things in the book we were reading like it was popping out. At one point Harper wanted to sit on Brad's lap and not mine. I wanted so badly to send Harper walking to Brad so we could watch him stagger, but I didn't want to scare him. I carried him instead. After a while they came in, put him on the rolling bed, and out they went. Without me.

They then gave him knock-out gas, and when he was "out" they put in his IV and felt around. They didn't have to use the scope in his belly button b/c they felt his testicle in his lower abdomen area. They cut (only about 1.5 inches) into him and removed the testicle. It was only the size of a small pea. So it was there, but undeveloped. They sent it off to be analyzed and we'll know the results of that when we go back for post-op in two weeks. His other testicle is perfectly fine and we are told that he'll not be affected by only having one. Hormones and the like are all in tact.

The Dr. came in and told us all of that and then told us that Harper would be awake in 15 mins and we'd see him soon. An hour later, Harper woke up :) Tired much? The nurse gave him a beany baby named "Rescue" and added juice to his cup of water. After a short time they took his IV out and sent us on our way.

The ride home was ok. I kept worrying that he was going to throw up his juice and fruit snacks. At one point, he sounded very upset and said he needed help. I asked him if he was going to throw up and he said no. Then I asked him, "What do you want me to do?" He replied, "Um, I want you to cuddle." How could I resist?

We got home and although he was supposed to keep it low key, he ended up running around and climbing on things anyway. Alas. Around 6:00 PM he fell asleep at the dinner table. It would have been in his soup if I hadn't moved the bowl.

Sunday Fun

So Brad likes to play around with the kids when he's home. Sometimes I get laughing so hard I can barely breathe!

Tonight we had some extra fun. Harper was in his room and Brad said, "Harper! Come here." In ran Harper. Brad looped his belt around him and captured him. Then he caught Eden along w/ Harper. Then the kids wanted him to keep trapping them so Brad said, "Put your hands up." They did. That was the easiest capture we've had I think.

Another time Eden was sitting on Brad's tummy and leaning up against his knees. Well, Brad opened his legs and Eden fell out backwards onto the floor with her legs and wootie in the air. Then Harper came and sat down where Eden used to be. Brad pushed him over on top of Eden. They were squirming, Eden was folded in half, and they both were saying, "Help. Help." So Eden says, "I'll help you Harper!" And pushes him up against the wall with her legs. Help much? Nope. He didn't seem to mind though.

Frank likes to join the fun occasionally too. Brad will grab him and lay down on his tummy. Since Eden and Harper help each other out, they feel very responsible for helping Frank even though he can't yet say, "Eden, Harper, Help me!" So Eden will grab an ankle or Harper will grab a wrist and just pull. Frank smiles all the while being dragged across the floor so an undisclosed location and suddenly abandoned for more exciting and wild daddy time. Cracks me UP!

I enjoyed being a mom especially tonight when my whole family was getting along and playing together without thinking twice. Good times.

Oh Yeah. Eden knows all about mohawks now. I put one on Frank and she immediatly started trying to do it with her own hair. She messed w/ it and said, "Can I get out and look in the mirror at my mohawk?" I helped her out a bit and gave her a mirror to use. She really hated to see that one go.

News

Frank is learning to sleep all by himself this week. it's been easy for me at night so far b/c i haven't been home to hear him cry much. it's much harder today when he has a slight fever and i want so badly to pick him up. i might still do that even though it might mess him up for tonight. it wouldn't be so bad except that he's now in the routine of waking up 15 mins after i put him down. i need him to stay asleep for both of our health!

Sophie's going to get her staples out of her rear-end tomorrow. two of the staples have been pulled out of one side though, so part of her wound is still not healed. sheesh.

Eden's going to the dentist tomorrow too! her first cleaning should be good. her biggest excitement is that she gets a "sticky hand" after it's all said and done. it won't last more than a few hours before it's in pieces, but at least she will have received it.

i'm working on cutting our extra large bougainvillia bushes into trees. i'm all scraped up and it reminds me of growing up and climbing trees. it seems i always had scrapes somewhere. in a silly way it's almost comforting to look down and see those scrapes again. good times.

Frank is winding down, so i'll go outside for a wihle and enjoy the breeze. sophie will most likely greet me with her toy. running and jumping even though she's only on three legs. i hope that soon she'll be on all four again. she's a good dog and i can't wait to start walking her again. especially b/c i've been lazy and haven't walked since she got hit. blugh.