Up hiking this afternoon, the kids, just having come from Primary, were loudly singing, "Follow the Prophet" while hiking in a row. On the way back down, my four year old son and my three year old niece were bickering about who got to be in front. Bailey triumphantly called, "I'm the Prophet! You have to follow me!" Isaac, without missing a beat responded, "Well, I'm Jesus. You're my Prophet. You follow me," and took his place at the front of the line. #trumpcard
April 17:
Publishers Clearing House just called to tell me I won $35 million dollars. Weird that the caller ID comes up as 'Anonymous' though . . . ;-)
April 16:
"Mom, I LOVE gluten free pears!"
It was so funny, he comes wandering upstairs with a pear and is all, "Mom, is this gluten free?" The funny thing about this, is Owen's never seemed to have any comprehension about all the gluten free stuff -- all the other kids remember the 'switch', and are conscientious of food others give them, and they double check if they can have it. Owen's only ever really known being fed the same kinds of foods, and everything at home is 'safe' pretty much. So, someone hands him goldfish crackers, he doesn't think twice and he'll eat them if we're not watching. But in the last week or so, it's like he's finally caught on that there are other foods out there that are off limits, and he's started asking more questions -- but this is the first time he actually asked me if something he wanted was 'gluten free' or not. Fortunately, it was a pear, so it was a safe food :-)
He is super proud of himself for flossing with a cast. I'm just proud he remembered to floss!
April 15:
Isaac had a little fall today -- no bruising, no swelling, but apparently he broke his wrist. Ooops :-) Fortunately, the Doctor said that it's pretty much one of the easiest breaks to deal with -- he only needs to wear a cast for three weeks, then they'll take it off and not even bother x-raying again -- so it sounds like we got off easy! Poor Owen was very, very sad he did not get a cast, and every time the Doctor walked in the room, Owen had hiked up a pant leg, or a sleeve, to show off some other old 'owie' that needed casting :-)
April 12:
Someone is 'helping' me try out a new chocolate donut recipe :-)
April 9:
My three year old dragged his potty chair to the doorway of the bathroom and my bedroom. Then after a minute, looked at me (as I was sitting on my bed reading to Isaac), "Mom, I would like you to give me my own privacy." Um, then go INSIDE the bathroom and shut the door!
Ha ha ha ha!! He just came out and asked for his privacy, while standing naked in front of me. Took a minute, but I just figure out 'privacy' actually means 'prize'. He wants his own PRIZE. That makes more sense, since he's essentially a nudist.
April 9:
Isaac, madly stomping and crazily ranting, "I have a NEW RULE! No more telling kids they have to take a bath. Yeah, no adult is allowed to tell a child to bath ever again!"
Mom has a new rule, "Fine then, four year old boys shouldn't be allowed to smell so shockingly bad!"
April 6:
That moment when I can't remember if my kids actually can't have a certain food because of their allergies, or if I'd just told them they couldn't eat it because I didn't want to share . . . . hmmm . . .
April 5:
"Mom!" Ellie came running into my room excitedly, "I just made my elbow fart!"
And then she walked back out. OK then.
April 5:
It is an Easter miracle -- after a long day of playing hard yesterday, the kids (and Greg and I) slept I until after 8:30AM! That is the latest any of us has slept in since at least 2006 :-)
The downside is we are over a full hour late to my in laws house for Easter breakfast! Oops!
March 31:
Three year olds are the best. (Except when it comes to potty training, then they suck).
This morning Owen dressed in full astronaut gear, from head to toe, dragged a cardboard box (aka: rocket ship) into the front room, and happily watched a space-related Magic School Bus episode from his ship.
Then he dressed up as a diaper clad batman (meaning, only a diaper and a batman mask) and kept jumping in front of and away from me as I vacuumed, giggling, "Missed me, missed me, now you have to kiss me!"
Then he hugged and cuddled on some baby chicks, which is like firing all cylinders of cute and precious. I'll keep him. Even if he refuses to potty train.
March 23:
Annie and I had a Mommy-Daughter date tonight. Sure, it was to InstaCare (for what turned out to be impetigo), but we also got to go out to Roxberry and get a smoothie while we were waiting, and then we went to the grocery store (to pick up a prescription for her.) While walking she said, "Yeah, the day after you left, Dad looked us and said, 'Maybe I shouldn't have tried painting the bedroom while Mom was gone . . .'" Ha! That was oddly validating :-)
St. Patricks Day:
March 16:
She is SO my kid:
March 10:
We chopped the curls {sniff, sniff} -- but we could NOT keep them tamed without wetting them down a lot each day and he hates that . . . so we chopped 'em off.
March 9:
Going back on track is hard. Dealing with Daylight Savings is hard. Having the two hit together was a nightmare of hellish proportions. I'm still kinda shocked everyone got off to school on time (or close to it). :-)
March 6:
Greg always tells me I'm not allowed to read the informational papers that come with the kids prescriptions. But I never listen and spend a day or two freaking out anytime they start a new one. I don't know if this newest one freaks me out or amuses me more. "Uses: This medication is used as a moisturizer to treat and prevent dry, rough, scaly, itchy skin and minor skin irritations (e.g. diaper rash, skin burns from radiation therapy.)"
This is what I'm having my kid SWALLOW.
Yet another fun side of having kids with diseases that don't actually have their own treatment, so they slap together effective treatments with a bunch of off-label prescription use :-)
He's insistent he's ready to go outside -- he is dressed in one glove after all :-)
March 5:
Mind blown and still reeling.
Ellie, watching "Curious George" this morning, "So, Mom, George isn't a monkey. He has to be an ape, he doesn't have a tail."
Google tells me that there are some macaque monkeys that are 'tail-less' (have short, stumpy tails), but that there is evidence that they Reys who originally wrote 'Curious George' referred to him as a chimpanzee.
March 3:
Isaac's awesome Allergist and I had another late night talk (that man works a lot of hours based on when he calls me back). After some concerning symptoms of Isaac's the last several weeks (starting back before the cruise), where he's complained about food getting stuck and not being able to swallow well, we're putting him back on steroids for awhile.
Deciding what to do next was such a tricky thing for me this time -- he's been on a steroid inhaler for Winter after a bad cough he couldn't kick back in December, so we haven't been doing any food trials, and weren't going to scope again until Summer, once we had 6-8 weeks off corn/wheat/dairy/nuts/soy/eggs, after being off steroids for a month. Then these new symptoms came up, and on one hand I was dying to do the scope, so we could SEE what's going on inside his little body and how much inflammation there is and if there's any furrowing in his esophagus. On the other hand, curiosity isn't the single best reason to put your kid under anesthesia yet again, and we decided to just go straight to medication and get the symptoms under control and then scope again after a food trial in Summer. Part of me wonders if it could be something else -- drainage or other issues that make food feel like it's getting caught, but as he gets older, it's more and more expected for swallowing/food sticking issues to be a more pronounced part of his disease when it's not in remission. (It's the main symptom in adults with EoE, but none of my kids have ever complained about it before, even when all four of them had undiagnosed EoE).
Here's hoping it's the right call. We're also switching from the swallowed Flovent we've successfully used in the past, to swallowed Budesonide (since Flovent isn't covered by our insurance anymore). Here's hoping it works well and there's not many side effects -- but anything beats him crying while he's eating because he feels like food is stuck in his throat.
March 2:
My little Buzz Lightyear, in his Spider-Man jacket, just found an Elsa hat (that he's wearing backwards) -- brought to you by successful marketing departments everywhere.
February 28:
February 22:
Me: "Isaac, how did you get to be so adorable?"
Isaac: "I don't know, it just happened naturally."
February 12:
Just spent the last 30 minutes tearing apart my desk, drawers, bedroom and hall looking for a gift card it turns out I stuck in my pocket an hour ago. D'oh! The good news is everything in my room is much cleaner now :-)
February 6:
Isaac asked me earlier if he and his friends could make videos and upload them to youtube. You're four years old, dude. How do you even know what 'upload' means? :-)
February 3:
Aunt Star took Isaac out on a "Star-Nephew Date Afternoon". (Not a date night, they left while it was still light outside -- Isaac was insistent this was a 'date afternoon'.)
They had the following conversation:
Isaac: "What if cop cars were yellow." Star: "With Black stripes". Isaac: "Yeah, then everyone would think they were bees on wheels." Star: "Giving everyone tickets." Isaac: "Star . . . I think you mean stickers."
Star thinks Isaac's experience with cops has always been much more pleasant then hers -- I think she doesn't spend enough time on parade routes smile emoticon Or at Preschool. Those two places are where Isaac has had 99% of his police interactions.
February 3:
Every meal now, Owen exclaims as soon as prayer is over, "I got a high!" We've been doing 'high-low' at dinner, where each kid tells about their high and their low from the day. It makes me laugh that Owen has one ready to go by breakfast :-)
I was thinking about it during lunch with the boys, as they were discussing the highs and lows of swim lessons and Costco -- my high was Annie excitedly bringing a book down to breakfast, just giddy at the awesome picture of Rasputin she found in her biography on Princess Anastasia. She couldn't wait to show all her friends at school. (I'm curious if they will be as excited as she was??) :-)
My low -- well, originally I thought it would be Owen crying and whining through most of his swimming lesson (the 'best' $33 I've ever spent, since he spends most of his time crying outside the water) -- but that was topped when I was pulling out of the parking lot at the Rec Center and I HIT ANOTHER CAR! Totally my own fault, I don't know how I didn't realize they were coming in that lane, but I banged up our van pretty badly, and scratched up the poor girl's car pretty bad. I felt just awful, and am feeling so bad that my mistake is going to cause stress and inconvenience in this poor girl's life as she has to go about repairing her car. Sigh.
February 2:
Isaac in a conversation with some neighbor kids, "That is what friendship is all about . . playing with and being friends. Am I right?" I don't know what started the conversation, but I never tire of hearing this boy's take on the world :-)
January 30:
Four year old Isaac: "Mom, what is a heating bill?"
I explained both bills, heating, and heating bills.
Isaac: "So, why would one be shocking?"
I explained bills being high and surprising if you're spending too much on heating or cooling.
Isaac: "So, why would you be able to fix the bill with duct tape and caulking?"
I explained energy saving tips and solutions.
Isaac: "Make sense. Have we done all that?"
Surprisingly effective ad campaign there, Questar . . .
January 29th:
I should've known better.
Two things.
1.) Yesterday I washed all of Owen's blankets, sheets, and pillows.
2.) He slept in this morning, and I was loving all the extra time after getting kids off to school to clean the kitchen and front room uninterrupted. It wasn't until about 9:30AM that I finally was like, 'Ummmm . . . the fact he's still asleep probably doesn't actually bode well for me . . .'
Yep, I headed upstairs to find a poor little boy lying there, in a pile of his own vomit. On his recently cleaned blankets and pillows.
January 14:
Owen was unhappy about getting out of the tub, which he expressed through a series of shrill shrieks that made my eardrums nearly bleed. Greg firmly said, "Owen, no yelling." To which Owen responded, "It's my choice!" Greg reiterated, "Dad is saying 'no more yelling'." Owen again, "It's my choice, Dad!" Greg explained that it was true that it was Owen's choice to yell, but he couldn't choose his consequences, and if he continued to scream, he'd have to go to bed.
He's in bed now. Screaming like a banshee. It was his choice.
