In Lieu of a Party

A whole year ago, we visited The Great Wolf Lodge for the first time. We had a BLAST! Ever since then, both Boys have been begging to go back. In fact, last February they agreed that instead of either one of them having a birthday party, they wanted to spend the night at Great Wolf. Jeremy and I thought surely they would waver once their birthdays actually rolled around. Nope! They stuck to their plan. Thus, we enjoyed a wonderful night at The Great Wolf Lodge once again. Gramps and Yaya tagged along for the fun...and to lend a hand with Baby Jones. We couldn't have done it without them!

So Happy Birthday, O and Nosy!

A treasured memory from our first visit to Great Wolf was jumping on the beds in Gramps and Yaya's room, something they are not allowed to do at home. When we talked about what we most looked forward to about our up-coming visit, jumping on the beds was way up there on the list! These stripey guys jumped and jumped and jumped.

Yaya and her Little Buddy. Jonah did really well considering that the separation anxiety phase of life has set in!

My Dad at the end of a ride

A funny story:

Somehow Gramps always ended up coming down the slides completely backwards! Whether we were all riding in a round raft or he was going down alone, somehow he would get turned around and come out of the slide the wrong way. It didn't stop him from having a great time though!

Cold, cold, cold! They just do not keep it quite warm enough. That is my only complaint about Great Wolf. At least they have a hot tub to thaw out in every once in awhile!

This trip, we discovered the Cub Club. They have free crafts and stories and games to play. A definite highlight of the trip for the Boys! At home, they have now created their own Cub Club with Owen as the director. So funny!

We ate a lot of ice cream. Hey, it's vacation!

When we got home, O wrote his pen pal all about his Great Wolf adventure.

We had so much fun! I hope this is something we can do as a family every year.

Chemistry Saturday

Saturday morning we were up far earlier than anyone should be on a Saturday. I decided it was the perfect opportunity to dig out our chemistry set and give it a whirl. We had so much fun! Chemistry is one of my favorite subjects, and I love sharing it with my kids. Prepare yourselves for an insane number of pictures of my future chemists:

Reason #527 that I Love Homeschooling

Holding class on the top bunk while still in pajamies on a rainy Thursday.

We hauled all of our books up there and had a great time studying together.

Handy Helpers

I am so proud of these two! There were jobs to be done...many household cleaning, not very fun jobs. And these Guys pitched right in! We turned the praise music up a notch, grabbed our cleaning supplies and set to work. We dusted and swept and mopped and scrubbed the entire morning until our house sparkled. And as a reward, we grabbed Daddy and Jones and headed to McDonald's for some family fun.

Over-Protective

The Boys don't quite trust Jonesy's ability to sit up. They ensure that he does not bonk his head by thoroughly padding the area around him at all times. Such sweet Brothers.

More Valentine Yummies

These Boys are scrumptious!

Valentine Yummy

You know how we love to bake around here! Mom gave me a wonderful heart shaped dish for Valentine's Day that was begging to be baked in. The Boys and I whipped up a vanilla cake and smothered it with chocolate icing. The kids picked out the perfect sprinkles and got down to the business of decorating our delicious dessert. Sadly, sprinkles don't always cooperate and we ended up with a huge mound of pink and red and white goodness. The kids tried to more evenly distribute them, but to no avail. I think it turned out just perfect! Both boys devoured a beautiful piece of cake, cut right out of the middle, completely covered with Valentine sprinkles. We could not have been happier!

My Funny Valentines

Frozen Fun

It has been too freakishly cold around these parts. We haven't been able to play outside or even leave the house for days (partly because of sickness). We finally decided to stop whining about the ridiculous cold and start taking advantage of it. So in school today, we did a couple of frozen fun experiments to learn about the properties of water.

First, since the temperature was all of 17 degrees outside, we decided to try to make our very own ice cubes. Each kiddo had a tupperware of water. They put many drops of many assorted colors of food coloring in their water to make scrumptious colors. This involved a lot of stirring and splashing (and mopping up). Next, each Guy chose a few tiny toys to put in their water. We were able to talk about items that sink and float. Once our tupperwares were just perfect, we set them out on the back porch to start the freezing process.

I think one boy or the other peeked at the tupperwares every 30 minutes all day long. They were very diligent ice cube watchers! It really was fascinating to watch the ice crystals form, and eventually both tupperwares had a thin layer of ice covering the top. We left them outside all day long.

This is where the story turns tragic. After supper, we brought the dishes inside to study them more thoroughly. The tiny toys were frozen in place. The ice was thick. We assumed they were frozen all the way through. Owen was intrigued with smelling his ice, funny kid that he is. He thought the food coloring smelled absolutely delicious. He was inhaling deep whiffs. Then, he tipped his tupperware up to his face so he could smell it all the better. Sadly, we found out the hard way that his water had not frozen completely. Icy cold water flooded Owen's face and soaked his clothes when the ice broke and the unfrozen water poured everywhere. Poor guy. He cried and cried as we peeled his freezing cold clothes off and hustled him to the bath tub.

Next up:

Snow painting!

We mixed up some water colored with food coloring, grabbed our paintbrushes and headed outside to our snow-covered porch.

We had a great (very cold!) time decorating our porch and driveway with beautiful pictures and bright colors. It worked surprisingly well!

We didn't last too long out in the cold though. Before long we hustled in to warm up with our cozy blankets!

8 Months: My Sidekick

Eight whole months old, Jones. Where does the time go? As excited as I am to spend every day with you and as thrilled as I am about each new milestone, the time is going by way too fast. I can't help but pick you up and squish you to me as tightly as possible, trying to soak you in just as you are right now. Thankfully, you like tight squeezes (since they happen very often!), and you sweetly press your chubby little cheek close to mine. I hold you like that as long as possible. You are so tolerant of your sentimental Mama!

You were 17 pounds, 11 ounces when at the doctor for a super bad ear infection (right ear drum ruptured) and case of the flu this week. You were one sick cookie and didn't smile or laugh for almost a week. Broke my heart. I enjoyed a whole lot of rocking and snuggle time with you when you were so sick.

This is the adoring, tiny face I see as I cook supper or school the big boys. Except usually you are grinning or jabbering or blowing raspberries. You are so absolutely, incredibly, darlingly, adorable, but as soon as you see my camera, the smiles and coos vanish. I am constantly frustrated and sad that I can't seem to capture your essence on film.

Ah...there's a tiny grin. Not a great picture, but you can see the two tiny bottom teeth you sprouted this month.


You are sitting so steadily now. You are happy to sit in the middle of the living room with a toy or two and observe the action going on around you. And with those big brothers of yours, there is always a lot of action to watch! You are such a content, happy, laid back guy. Of course you are happiest when plopped right beside me. I'll let you in on something: That's how I'm happiest too, with you right next to me. You are my tiny sidekick. We go together, you and I.

My little opera singer.

You gesture so enthusiastically!

One of my very favorite things you do:

You reach up and touch my face as you nurse. You love to have me kiss your tiny fingers and you stroke my cheek. You are the sweetest. I treasure those moments.

This is the face I usually get when taking your picture.

But there is something (or someone) that can get a smile out of you every, single time.

You just spied Owen. Just look at that happy face. You adore him. You grin at him all day long. You two are going to be very special friends.

I love you, love you, love you, Jonah Cody. You bring immeasurable joy to this family. We thank God for the blessing that you are.

Matters of the Heart

These two (sporting awesome new craft aprons from my Cousin Katy) are as different as different can be.

I had this conversation with my Guys a few weeks ago. It is worth remembering.

Owen: "Mommy, I have music in my heart. It needs to come out!"

Noah: "I have football in my heart."

And that pretty much sums them up. What a joy it is to raise two kids that are such opposites!

Arithmetic

My son and his "mathy" brain intrigue me. Each day he has a 1 minute race page of 25 addition problems. His goal is to answer as many as he can in 1 minute. He knows all the answers. However, he can never get more than 20 (usually it's closer to 15) done in the time allotted. Don't get me wrong. I am happy with 15 (After all, it's second grade math and even the teacher's manual says 15 is very good.), but O is not. So we have been working on speed in addition. After a little investigation, I now see why it takes him a little longer to answer his math problems. He takes the most circuitous route to the answer possible.

Example:

Problem 6+8=?

Owen's thought process, in his words:

"4+4=8

8+8=16

6=8-2

16-2=14

Therefore, 6+8=14

14!"

And this one:

Problem 9+3=?

"Well, 3+3+3=9

3x3=9

3x4=12

So 9+3=12."

See what I mean??

Love him.

I Love My Sink

It's just right for bathing babies.

Cutie Pie.

Our Weekend

We whiled away the days fighting fevers, wiping noses, and playing lots of R2D2 Trouble on Mommy and Daddy's bed. Good times. Good times.

Oh, and this Guy was busy cutting Tooth #1, which finally made its appearance Sunday morning. Bottom left. Jones is by far my earliest teether! I think O was 13 months and Nosy 10 months before getting any teeth. My Baby is growing up.

Compartmentalization

When things get crazy and the house has to be straightened and the boys just keep dragging out more stuff...

Compartmentalize your children. It works wonders.

(The Biggies actually crawled in this box with their Legos all on their own. I think they're camping out in there for the day. Next up: School in a Box!)

The God Who Sees Me

Disclaimer:

If you are not interested in a post mostly about diabetes, you might as well skip this post.

I have been struggling, struggling, struggling. Really struggling. Diabetes is over-taking my whole life. Noah is having such an awful time and no matter what we do, he is not improving. It breaks my heart, stresses me out, frustrates me immensely. I ache for Noah.

Let me back up a bit. Things with the Omnipod overall are improving. Although we still have many more malfunctions than the average person (at least one a week), Nosy is happy with having fewer shots. About a month ago, Noah announced, after weeks of crazy, full-blown fits whenever we had to change his pod, that he was no longer going to scream and cry. It did not help it hurt any less. And so now he doesn't. It was that easy. He decided and that was it. Now he just squeezes the tar out of my hand and squeezes his eyes shut really, really tight until it's over. My brave, brave, super mature Boy. Breaks. my. heart.

Anyway, the pod is going better, but Noah's sugars continue to be AWFUL!! They swing from super high to super low all day long. This weekend, we had 7 very low sugars in a 24 hour period followed by 18 hours of sugars in the high 300's. (Noah's ideal blood sugar is 160. His acceptable range is 100-200.) Jeremy and I organize all of his data in a spreadsheet and just stare at it, sick to our stomachs, for hours, trying to tweak this and inch that up or down, trying to keep Noah in range. It is not working. The hospital has said we are on our own. "Bring your data to the hospital every 3 months for his check-up. Otherwise only call in an emergency." And good luck with that! I've had two emergencies in that past 2 months and, not only did I not get to talk to a nurse right away, I did not get called back for over 3 hours each time. We are at our wit's end! We have gone from checking Nosy's sugars 6-7 times a day to now checking at least 9 times a day, usually at least 3 times in the middle of the night. I think about diabetes constantly. I can not look at sweet Nosy without analyzing his coloring, his activity level, his mood, wondering if he is too high or too low. It makes me nauseous.

And poor Noah. As he gets older, the swings are effecting him much more dramatically. When he is low, it is as if he is having a panic attack in the midst of a really severe temper tantrum. He gets unreasonable, screaming and crying and thrashing. He can not control himself. Thankfully, I have learned to check his sugar prior to disciplining him. The highs make Nosy crazy-hyper, uncontrollable, with absolutely no attention span. He can't sit still or concentrate at all.

So do you see why diabetes is all-consuming? It used to be bad, but not nearly this bad. And so I've been praying a lot about it. A lot.

This is what I have learned.

God is in charge of Noah.

God loves Noah more than Jeremy and I love Noah.

God holds precious Noah in the palm of His hand.

He has proven this to me over and over. I can not tell you how many times I startle awake in the middle of the night, thinking, Noah must be low (even though all rationality would say it would be impossible for him to be low based on earlier circumstances in the night). I try to shake it off and go back to sleep, but I can't. I get up, check Nosy and, sure enough, low. That is God taking care of Noah.

What a comfort!!

One time, I sat up in bed, wide awake, confident something was wrong with Nosy. I ran in to his room to hear the pod malfunction alarm ringing. He was under so many blankets that I couldn't hear the alarm on the baby monitor. I had already done my last blood sugar check for the night, so if God had not wakened me up, Noah would have gone for several hours without any insulin.

God is taking care of Noah always, especially when I can not.

I have been reading Genesis in my quiet time lately. I love how Hagar calls the LORD "The God who sees me" (Gen 16:13). God sees me. He sees me struggle. He sees me worry and fret and try to control things the best I can. He sees me try to keep it all together and be productive when all I really want to do is crawl in bed and bawl. He sees me. And He loves me. And He is with me very step of the way. And not only that. Those promises are true for Noah too. He is always watching over my Noah. I praise Him for these truths and how He has lived them out in my life. I can trust the God who sees me. And sees Noah. And loves us so. And that is all I need to do right now. Trust Him.

Baby in a Basket

This is Jones. In a laundry basket. We call it sit up training. Jonah is doing a great job sitting up, but he still topples over pretty easily. So we stick him in a basket with his favorite toys. Now he's safe while we bustle around or play near by. Of course, in true Jonah style, he was cracking up until I got the camera out. Then he'd barely crack a smile.