Do You Love Your Children Even?

This was the random question of the day, asked so nonchalantly of her father by our Princess Izzy G. E looked at her with amusement and just as nonchalantly answered, "Of course I do...Do you love your parents?" Izzy looked at him blankly, batted her eyes, and asked, "What are those? I don't even know what they are." E begin explaining, "Dad is your parent, Mom is your parent..." "..and Molly is too?" she asked.

Apparently her big sister is in the same ranks as her other parents! :)

As I came in the house after karate last night, Izzy was waiting for me. "Mom, while you were gone I was sad and I had tears and blurry eyes....(and when I had no immediate response)...Do you want to know why I was sad and had tears and blurry eyes?" I said, "Yeah, tell me why you were sad!" She said, "I was sad 'cause Hillukka Dorothy died and I missed her and wanted her to come to our house again and 'cause the marks wouldn't come off (gesturing to marks all over her arms from markers).." Wondering why she had said she wanted "Hillukka Dorothy", to come to our house again, when she hadn't ever been here before, I asked her, "Have you seen her here before at our house (thinking maybe she was mixing her up with someone else)?" She said, "No. And neither have you. Right? 'Cause she's never been here before." *Just in case someone reading this doesn't know, she's referring to my mom, who died when I was 8 years old...I'm not sure why she refers to her "Hillukka Dorothy"...I've never heard anyone else call her that before.*

Last night: Izzy started writing her name and as she wrote each letter, they got bigger and bigger...Finally, she just sighed with a big huff to Molly and said, "Molly, I just HATE this pencil! It won't let me write small!"

The other day: Izzy and Molly again...Izzy, writing with a pencil in her workbook, "Molly, I don't like this pencil! It keeps dryin' out!" (the lead was really dull and wouldn't write on one side) Molly, "Go show Mom!" Izzy, "Can she fix it?" Molly, "Go ask her!" She came running downstairs and said, "Mom! I need you to fix this! It keeps dryin' out!" I just grabbed her a new pencil and said, "Here, try this one!" She ran back upstairs and Molly asked her, "Did Mom fix it?" Izzy, "She gave me a new one, with flowers on it!"

Today, drawing pictures in her notebook: "Mom...do you want to know what I'm drawing?" I said, "Yup!" She said, "See? Here's a picture of me in a photocopy with a dress on, with a lollipop and an ice cream cone and really cute hair...." (not sure what a photocopy is in her mind) :)

Testing, Testing, 1-2-3

I haven't blogged for so long, I have to check if I still know how!

I've had an eventful while now. In the beginning of May I signed up for this twice/week boot camp with a friend, Kathy, to whip myself back into shape since I hadn't so much as taken a walk since my baby had been born. There are 8 classes per month. I made it faithfully to the first 5 in May, then for some reason or another, missed the last 3. I was SO bummed!

Well, I decided in June I'll make another go at it and combining this class with Weight Watchers, I will be sure to have a good start to a very sound and healthy life...I made it to the first 2 classes, then my baby got very sick for a week straight. She had very high fevers that kept me up day and night....not straight but I was up so often at night I hardly felt like I slept. During the course of that week, I noticed that I started to have plugged milk ducts on the right side but was able to unplug them here and there with hot packing nursing. Soon I had some red streaking but that would nearly go away when the ducts would unplug. Finally, on Sunday, I realized that the severe aches and pains I had been feeling for awhile were the signs of an impending infection. That night I began burning with fevers and the next morning I called an OB doc to get started on antibiotics.

Long story short: the fevers kept up in the 103's mostly, up to 104, despite the fact I kept myself continuously medicated with Advil and Tylenol round the clock. Finally, Tuesday night I became severely nauseated and began the slow road to dehydration and starvation (or so it felt like) due to the inability to eat or drink anything. By Wednesday, I called the doc and they said it's time to be seen...I, from there, got sent to the hospital and stayed in there through the following Sunday. I didn't respond to IV Vancomycin, which is very strong. So, the oral antibiotic failed, the first IV antibiotic failed....I didn't have an elevated white count, the right side wasn't even warmer than the left, although it was flaming red, swollen, etc. It got the OB doc in the hospital thinking it could be breast cancer. She got a breast surgeon involved, who also said that breast cancer can present in a way similar to breast infection. I had a breast biopsy Saturday morning, which was negative for cancer *whew*.

So, needless to say, I haven't been able to participate in my boot camp all month after the first two classes. I have been so bummed but what do you do? I've lost weight but also muscle mass and such. I'll have to just focus on keeping my nutrition where it should be and when my strength is back, I'll begin working out again!

A Royal Update: The Princess...

The other day at the park:





Dad: (as Izzy is struggling with the button on her sweater) Here, let me help you with that.





Izzy: No. I can do it myself.





Dad: Just let me help you.





Izzy: No. I can do it myself.





Dad: Come on. Just let me help you with that. I can button that for you.





Izzy: *Sigh* Oh-kay. Why do you like me so much?





Dad: 'Cause you're my daughter!





Izzy: *nose wrinkled* I'm not a daughter! I'm a Princess!





Izzy, sitting on the toilet: chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter **toot** " 'scuse me.." chatter, chatter, chatter *toot...tooooot* " 'scuse me. 'scuse me." chatter *toot* " 'scuse me. Um. That's okay if I fart on the toilet, right? 'Cause I say, ' 'Scuse me' ".





Me, almost snorting with laughter: "Um. Yes. It's perfectly fine to fart on the toilet. Even if you don't say, ' 'Scuse me.' 'Cause that's just what you do on the toilet. But that's very polite of you to excuse yourself on the toilet. Those kind manners show me that you really are a princess!" *still stifling a snort*





This morning in church:

Me, trying to distract a very tired and ornery little Izzy: Hey. I have to tell you a little story. That is, if you want to hear one.

Izzy: struggle, struggle....struggle...then still

Me: K, ready? See Pete sitting right there? You know, your uncle Pete...Katie's Pete?

Izzy: looking in Pete's direction, nodding very slightly

Me: Did you remember that your uncle Pete is my brother? Kinda like Jo-di is your brother? As a matter of fact, Pete is about a year younger than me, kinda like Jo-di is about a year younger than you. And you know what? Pete got bigger than me when we were still pretty young, just a little older than you and Jo-di are now....just like I tell you that your little brother soon may be bigger than you. And you know what? Pete and I were friends. We did fight sometimes, like you and your brother do, but mostly we were just friends. And guess what! Since we were friends when we were little, and since I was nice to him when we were little, he was so nice to me when we were older. Just like I tell you that Jo-di will be nice to you when you are older if you are nice to him now. Pete would fix my bike if I needed him to, he would help me if someone was mean to me...
..AND, guess what! Pete is still my brother. And, he is still my friend...

Izzy: ...and he still fixes your bike?

Me: again, stifling a laugh: Uh..well, he would still fix my bike if I needed him to. I mean, now your dad fixes my bike but I know Pete would still fix my bike if I needed him to!

Midnight Madness!

Last night I had to bring one of the girls to Target, then Walmart, to get a couple of items for a field trip she is going on from tomorrow until Friday. I also had to get a couple things for Baby that I've been putting off getting 'cause it's so hard to take her out still. So off we went with Baby and a couple others along as well. First stop: Target!

When we left Target, I suddenly got hit by a severe stomach ache. The kind that feels like you are going to throw up any minute. I think I was suffering Chocolate Toxicity 'cause I had eaten an excessive amount of chocolate that had been kindly left in my basket from the Easter Bunny. Well, we trotted off to Walmart and then on to home. It was already nearly midnight and I still had Baby's diaper to change, a few night diapers to get on, or have someone else do, a neb to give to my baby, nurse her, get myself ready, and such...

Well, after finishing most of my duties and on my way over to throw a blanket over one of the younger kids, who had fallen asleep on the couch while I was gone, I noticed she didn't have a night diaper on yet. At the same time, I was struck by a sudden, severe cramping in my stomach and knew I had to get to the bathroom. I threw the blankets on the sleeping one on the couch, crossed my fingers she wouldn't pee while I was in the bathroom, and ran. I finished up pretty quickly, grabbed a diaper, went out to put it on her and saw a fresh, huge wet puddle on the couch. I just cringed and woke her up to strip down while I began to remove blankets, start washing up the couch and send her in another direction to sleep so I could let the couch dry overnight.

I washed my hands again, got fresh blankets, threw wet ones in the tub to wash in the morning, and tucked in....only to see Baby's oxygen saturation level drop from the lowest they want her to be, at 90%, to the upper 80's. I was SO exhausted and felt SO sick that I tried first to just get her to shift around, which would hopefully make her wake up enough to draw deeper breaths and get her sats up again. For the next hour, from 12:45 a.m. to 1:45 a.m., I would drop to sleep, only to be harshly awoken to the alarm of her desat'ing...push "silence" button, wiggle her, fall asleep, and jolt awake again to the "beep-beep-beep-beep!!!" of the alarm!!!

I finally realized her sats were just sitting at 89% without going up and when it would drop, it was going down to 84% or so. I got up, got her oxygen tank set up (switching the gauge from an empty tank to full one, checking the level, get tubing on it), got her little cheek patches ready on the nasal cannula, and then had to get them set up on her without her whipping her head around and rubbing them off kilter with her fists (she hates wearing them). I managed all this, got her oxygen started and to a flow that brought her back to mid-90's, and tucked back in...only to be hit again by horrible stomach cramping.

Back to the bathroom...then on to get a cup from the kitchen for use for stomach content...back to bed....back up again seconds later, puking. Finally, some relief from the stomach ache!!!

Back to bed finally after being up about an hour....only to hear our young son wake up screaming, then his pounding feet coming down the hallway to find me. I pulled him into bed with me, got tucked in again, only to have him spy my puke cup and insist on having a drink of water. I hustled back out to the kitchen and got him some water and Cheez-Its, since I figured he was probably a bit hungry too (I knew he probably fell asleep without anyone that was at home with him making sure he got a snack before sleeping). He finally settled in about 10 minutes later.

A short while later, Izzy woke up crying and came to find me. I got her tucked in by me too and finally got to sleep about 3:45 a.m., in time to hear my hubby's alarm clock starting to beep. I passed out...only to be woken up by E about 4:15 a.m., letting me know he was leaving to work, then on a trip for the week.

Next wake-up call came at about 6 a.m. or so from my baby, needing to eat. I got her settled back in again about 20 minutes before having to start getting my school girls up!

Needless to say, I pretty much got nothing done today until this evening...now I'm finally getting some cleaning done with some of my middle girls.

Whew! Sometimes you have to wonder if you'll ever make it through all this!!! :P

But, I'm actually pretty surprised how good I feel finally...no hint of stomach flu or anything...only a trace of a headache left. Now, only hoping that my kids will go to bed early tonight!

Morning Izzies...

Morning started out with me peeling my eyes open to Izzy pounding Yodi on top of his head. I scolded her severely as he howled. She left with a royal frown, not to be seen again. Yodi and I ate breakfast and then went wandering down to the bedrooms to start stirring the household up a little. Izzy was just on her bed looking at a book, so as we were leaving the bedroom, she came cruising after us. Yodi did a little fast trot to get out of her way. I'm sure she was thinking he was afraid of another pounding so she quickly assured him, "I'm just going to the bathroom and then I'm going to get my Morning Dress on!" Sure enough, she went bathroom, went down to retrieve her Snow White princess dress, came up with it on a hanger, stared it up and down, and declared, "I don't like this dress, Mama!" I looked up and said, "Oh. Should I put the collar back on? Then will it be better?" She scowled and said, "No. I still won't like it. Even with the collar on." She stomped back downstairs and found another beautiful dress and came back up again, "Should I just wear this one again, Mama?" It was one she had taken off yesterday. She is just a princess, through and through, just like all little girls her age, I'm sure!

Baby has finally been baptized!

Well, Baby is six months old and FINALLY is baptised! We were supposed to have a joint baptism with E's sister's and her husband's new baby but our little lady ran a low-grade temp yesterday and, that, combined with the fact we had two other kids run temps earlier in the week, we thought that it was probably best not to take a chance and get her baby sick.

Some funnies this week: Izzy tells me, as I was lying next to her on the couch, hoping she would fall asleep so I could keep cleaning the basement: (as she was rubbing my eyes lightly) "That's okay if you fall asleep...'cause you're the Queen!!!" Yes, my dear dolly. I like that mentality! Now if any of the other kids ever question any of my commands in the future, instead of saying, "Because I'm the Mom, that's why!" I will say, "Because I'm The Queen, that's why!"

Last weekend, after we came home from the homeschool conference we attended a few hours away, and picked up kids from various places, our Princess Izzy flounced out of the van, pigtails swinging, and announced, "I feel like I'm never gonna cry again!" What a cute way of saying she is just that happy! We know we weren't the only ones who had a marvelous weekend! She and her cousins are Princesses and they had a royal blast together for the weekend! :)

And, the other night while we were celebrating our little guy's second birthday, Izzy announced to anyone who was interested, "Hey! Hey, I'm not three anymore! Hey, you guys. I'm not three anymore, it's not my birthday! I'm not three anymore 'cause it's someone else's birthday now!"

My Life...

I keep trying to wait until I have a minute or 30 to sit down and post a right proper post, one that has a title, a purpose, a direction. Now, I don't consciously think of it that way but I know myself well enough to know that is basically what I am waiting for. Well, if I wait for all that to happen, I might as well never plan to blog again. So here it is, quick, to the point, and with no real sense of direction whatsoever. Last night: Rocked baby to sleep in the bedroom, came out about 9:30pm to start chasing the rest of the little urchins to bed, only to find my sweet little Princess Belle (3 y.o.) standing there looking at me and explaining, "Um, Mom. I peed AND I spilled my milk." I look beyond her to see a puddle the size of Lake Superior of pee and another the size of Lake Michigan of milk. I veered straight into the bathroom for papertowel and straight back out to wipe up the mess, only to see my 2 y.o. boy running through the puddles on his way back from running through it a millisecond before. In other words, I saw two sets of his tracks going through all this wetness! This morning, after 2 poopy diaper changes of my young son's and hearing my infant daughter loading her second diaper of the morning, I hear my Sweet Princess Belle squealing in distress. I turn to see a few hard balls of poop hit the floor, following closely by diarrhea. The beauty: we have no carpet, so it landed on linoleum and hardwood. The unbeauty: the liquidy stuff also landed on the small, 1" gap between the linoleum and hardwood of subflooring...yeah, that stuff that isn't exactly non-porous. Yeah. So, I grabbed her very quickly, after depositing Infant Daughter into a (now feverish) daughter's arms (then I didn't realize she was sick...and, mmmm, Infant Daughter really shouldn't be getting sick for fear of hospitalization...oh, I never blogged about that but she's been hospitalized 3 times since beginning of Feb.), ran her to the toilet, ran back out to Young Son running through the diarrhea! That's my life. Oh, and as I'm blogging about it all, I still children up. At 12:45 am. Why? I don't know. I would ask them but I don't think they would know either. So, I will just sign off and go to bed. =)