There are a lot of things I could be doing this morning: folding and putting away laundry, cleaning off my desk, cleaning up after breakfast, getting children dressed, making my bed and cleaning my room. But instead I am choosing to blog :) I haven’t been very good about keeping up on my blog (I know, I keep saying that and thinking that). I really want to keep up on this because I think it will be a ton of fun to look back on a year or two down the road or maybe even 10 or 20. It’s a great way to remember the little things that make life so meaningful during these sweet years. So, I am CHOOSING to blog. Or to use a phrase I’ve been hearing a lot of lately, being intentional.
I don’t know where to start since I’m so far behind so please forgive me if this post is all over the board.
Titus…I’ll start with him because his changes are so obvious and easy. He is our mini moose. He is getting so big and strong. I don’t doubt that it soon he will be passing up Jubilee in weight and perhaps height. He weighed 18 pounds 5 ounces when I took him in to the doctor last week. I don’t take my children to the doctor too often. I don’t subscribe to the “need” for well baby checks. If my child is well why would I take them to the doctor? So, why exactly was Titus in the doctor’s office? Well, it all started when he was tiny. He was maybe six weeks old and we noticed he was having tremors in his legs. I took him in and the doctor said not to worry about it even though the doctor never saw him do it. Well, fast forward to about a month ago and we noticed his hands would sometimes shake in unison. Long story short we think he is having seizures. I took him to Children’s and they can’t decide if he is having them or not. Their general take on things is that we should wait ‘til it happens again and then pinch him. If he reacts to our pinch it’s not a seizure but if he doesn’t then we will need to further investigate to find out what is going on with him.
Titus is also crawling! He just started crawling last Sunday so he’s not quite all over the place but he’s going further and faster each day. Yesterday he was able to get from the desk to the dog bowl three times. It was hilarious to watch. His technique to the dog bowl more resembled him doing the worm than crawling but it worked!
I am posting the only picture of Titus on the disk that I am using. It is not a picture of him crawling though. He needs sleep to be able to do all that crawling stuff so sleep it is! As you also may be able to tell from this picture he is dealing with a little bit of exema on his cheek and chin. We are in the process of trying to figure out what is causing it. Usually it’s not too bad but in this picture it looks like he was having one of his bad days.
Beth, or Elizabeth, as she currently says she prefers to be called had oral surgery on Wednesday. We had taken her to a dentist who said she needed to be put under to repair her teeth but would have to refer us out for the sedation. Then I took her to the dentist we had been seeing but wasn’t terribly happy with because I knew they could sedate her. They said she had a couple of small cavities that could wait six months to be repaired. We took her to a third place and ended up using them to fix her teeth.
We woke up at 4 am to start getting things ready to go. Beth woke up about 4:30 and asked if it was morning (she does this regularly). I told her she could go back to sleep but I guess she decided since I was up she would get up too. I was hoping she would sleep longer because she wasn’t allowed to have any food or drink prior to her surgery and I didn’t want to disappoint her. She never did ask to eat or drink which was a huge blessing! About 4:45 we got everything in the car and put Beth, Titus, Mike and I in too. The drive took us about 45 minutes. The morning was sort of drizzly and seemed to match the mood of the day.
The nurses at the hospital were super nice even though Beth was less than corporative. She didn’t want them putting the blood pressure cuff on her, the pulse ox. or even taking her temperature. The surgery lasted for two hours. When everything was done the hospital volunteer came to get us and take us back to the recovery area. Half way down the hall I heard a noise. After just a second of listening I realized it was Beth screaming. We needed to get back to her! Of course, if you know Beth, you wouldn’t expect anything less. The nurse said as soon as Beth was awake she ripped the breathing tube out of her nose. By the time we got back there she was attempting to rip the IV. The nurse had to move pretty quick to get the IV out for us but fortunately that was after she gave her some pain medicine.
Now Beth has new princess teeth. Her front teeth look so perfect! She got the front, top four capped with tooth colored caps. She got two bottom molars on each side crowned with silver crowns and then I think she had a couple of cavities on her top molars filled in with tooth colored fillings.
Jubilee can talk! Yes, I know you are all thinking that every just turned two year old should be able to babble out a few words and phrases but this girl can talk! I think she’s practicing for a career as a Mother of Many :) This morning she came to me singing “I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck!” She just chatters away all day, there isn’t anything she can’t say.
(She was eating her breakfast in these pictures so please excuse the messy face :))
Jubilee is also one of our best potty trainers. I know, that’s almost TMI but when you are a Mother of Many it’s important! The two things outside of Biblical truth that I find are most important to teach my child are potty training and learning to read. I figure if I can get those two things the rest is downhill. Jubilee readily climbs herself up on the toilette in the most unusual fashion. I wish that I could video take it and post it for you all to see but there are just some things that aren’t suitable for a blog. It also cracks me up that both she and Beth do not like their panties or tights up over their belly buttons, clearly they both belong to Mike.
Hosanna is going to the eye doctor today. They keep saying she needs glasses but then want to wait another six months ‘til they give them to her. So, we shall see if today is the day. She is very excited about the prospect of getting glasses and I think she’d look so cute with them!
We were gifted with a second guitar last weekend. A totally unsuspected blessing but SO appreciated! Gabe has been wanting me to teach him how to play the guitar for about six months now and I had kind of been putting it off. The new guitar was just the kick start that I needed. He’s really been enjoying himself as are Elisha and Isaiah. He was telling me just this morning how his callous are starting to form, definitely a good sign!
Isaiah has found another instrument to purchase. He seems to have a natural affinity for music so I was glad to help him buy a third instrument (plus the other children will be able to use it). Today’s purchase will be a clarinet. He also plays the saxophone and the trombone as well as the penny whistle. He will have to limit himself to playing only two of his instruments in band this fall and I have no idea how he will choose.
I will be done blogging for today but my head has many more things stored up in it to blog so stay tuned!