New number

I'm bummed but we've had to change our phone number. We've been getting a lot of calls for a health care transportation service. The kind of service where you can call and arrange for someone to get you to and from doctor's offices or hospitals. The literature for this company says to call toll-free 866-642-9xxx but neglects to mention that you have to dial a "1" first. So, when people living in the local area call for transportation and don't dial a "1" first, they get me, not the transportation line. Wasn't too much of a hassle until last week. I went from getting 5 or 6 a day to getting more than 20 in one day, not to mention the 6 or so we got one night at 11:30 from someone saying they were being discharged from the hospital (at that hour?!?!). Anyway, if you would like our new number, then email either Jonathan or myself and we'll give you the new number.

Hope you're having a great Monday! Felt weird not getting up for VBS this morning. Quickly got over that, though! :)

Elizabeth update and other stuff

I'm sure you're all just holding your breath (ha ha) but here's an update on Elizabeth: I feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone. A child who had never, ever gone to the potty -- not once -- as of last week is now nearly potty-trained. She's in what she calls "underwearS" during the day and a diaper at nap and bed. Yes, she still naps (sort of) and no, I'm not that brave yet. For the most part, she takes herself something Caleb didn't do until just last summer right before he turned 5 so that's a nice switch. We still remind her about every half hour. Lots of accidents but -- hey -- she's going and that's enough for me! I do hope we're done with her by our trip in September (provided gas prices don't get so high we can't go!). John isn't interested right now, even with all the stickers and uh, "other rewards" we're giving Elizabeth.



I'm home from church today with 3 kids somewhere in the spectrum of a cold. Timothy is getting over the runny nose part but still hanging on to the cough. John is in the midst of the bad runny nose and the bad cough. And Elizabeth sounds a little stuffy although I kept her home mostly because of the potty thing. I hate to burden other people and I'm sure Sunday School/Children's Church teachers/workers have better things to do than take my daughter to the potty every 30 minutes or so. As soon as everyone is well, we'll go back to church and see how it goes. Anyway, I know this may sound just awful but I'm not that sad about being home. Last week was VBS, as I've already said, and then Friday night was the closing program. Can I just say that I hate slow computers? Messed up my presentation more than once and I'm sure it seemed like an ameteur put it together. But, no, it truly wasn't my fault -- the laptop just couldn't handle my presentation and the pictures for the slide show at the end. And then, after all that, I had a day-retreat yesterday to go to in Union City, right at the Indiana border. It was a follow-up from the one I attended in May. We're still not through all the material! Too much talking! :) Seriously, it was great but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and a little tired. My kids might be grateful for the clean clothes, too, now that I've had a morning at home to get somewhat caught up on the laundry. It's always a joy to have just 1 or 2 kids at home by themselves. You really get to see their unique personalities come out of them.

Here's 2 pictures to share.

Doesn't Timothy look happy?

John's black eye (sort of). Rumor has it, Caleb hit him with a stick. Someone hit him with a stick and I've heard that it was Caleb and then I've heard that he did it to himself. Anyway, trip to the Urgent Care revealed no scratches to his eye which we were concerned about.

No, No, No!!!!!

I DETEST facial hair...seriously, can't stand it. I don't think it looks good on most men and, where my Dad and husband are concerned, it certainly doesn't feel good. I remember my Dad growing beards during hunting season. It was torture getting close enough to him to hug him or kiss him. Jonathan has never had facial hair since I've known him although I've seen pictures. Anyway....Now don't get me wrong -- there are some men who I wouldn't recognize without their facial hair -- like they wouldn't be themselves without it (Hi, Gary!). But this picture just makes me sad! Do you know who this is?

We might be on to something....

Yesterday (we're hip deep in Vacation Bible School, btw), one of Elizabeth's VBS teachers brought her to me in the sanctuary/music room and told me that her and John both went to the potty during potty time. I can believe it about John -- he goes "on command" basically but has never told me he had to go or told me when he's wet/dirty. Anyway, when they told me Elizabeth had gone, I said "Are you sure?" and she said she was pretty sure. Today, the other teacher told me that Elizabeth had definitely gone. "Okay," I thought, "that's certainly interesting seeing as how she's NEVER gone for me.". This afternoon, my sister-in-law had agreed to take Nathan and Caleb for a few hours so they could play with my nephew. When she got to church after VBS to pick them up, she decided to take Elizabeth, too. (I'm telling you -- this woman is Superwoman! She worked all weekend -- graveyard shift, nonetheless -- went with me and her mom and grandmother to a bridal shower on Sunday and then to church which meant no sleep to recover from the weekend and then worked Monday and yesterday -- today was her only day off this week and she takes 3 of my 5 kids for 4 hours....amazing. If I were her, the only thing I would have done today is napped!) She overheard the teacher telling me today that Elizabeth had definitely gone potty today and decided to put Elizabeth in some "big girl pants" (we have a niece just about a year older than Elizabeth) to see what might happen. She wet through 2 pairs and a pull-up so my SIL calls me on my way to pick everyone up and tells me to bring a diaper. When I got there, Elizabeth was in big girl pants still and was dry so I told her to try and go potty before I put her diaper on and we came home. Much to my surprise, ELIZABETH WENT POTTY before we left and I'm not talking about a little drip, either, if you catch my drift! I'm still in shock and awe, dazed and confused. We've called all 4 grandparents and Daddy on his way home from work to spread the good news. I can't really work with her until next week as we finish up VBS and I have a ladies day retreat on Saturday but, Lord willing, I beginning to think I might just get this silly little girl potty trained before the summer's out! Yes, I'll try John at the same time 'cause I think if we could get him to learn what it feels like to have to go, he might just be easy to train (hear me knocking on wood?). Maybe I'll get a break before Timothy turns 2 'cause I feel like I've been potty training for 2 straight years after what we went through with Caleb. Being pregnant with Elizabeth and then John and now this potty-training time have been the only times where I kinda wished they weren't born so close together. But, I choose to believe God has something special in store for these little ones. Don't stop praying, though! 'Cause after potty training for Timothy, you know what's next? Puberty. Nathan will be turning 10 after Timothy turns 2....I think that's enough said. :)

10 years

Updates

Timothy's had 2 drs appointments this week. First up was his 6-month check-up with the pediatrician, whom we haven't seen in 2 months. That was kinda nice! Anyway, T weighed 19# 4 oz and was 26" long. Since I'm such a bad mother at keeping up with who weighed what and when, I thought "It's so nice I have a blog. I'll just go back through the posts and see what he weighed and how long he was after his 4-month check-up". Well, apparently, I'm a bad blogger, too, as I couldn't find that info anywhere! Other than that, the dr was very pleased with T overall, especially the fact that his breathing sounds so normal. Other than sickness, we won't have to see him again until September and no shots until December. That's always good news!

Second up yesterday was the surgical follow-up with the ear dr who put in his tubes. I wish I could report that this visit went as well as the first. It wasn't a "bad" visit -- don't get me wrong -- it just fell so short of what I was hoping for. Since T's breathing is normal, I was hoping that we wouldn't have to repeat the bronchoscopy again but while the dr was pleased at the lack of noise, he believes that the calcified section of his airway is definitely still there and since it can still stunt his airway growth overall, we still need to keep an eye on it meaning another bronch. Probably in October as we go back to see him in September and will schedule the bronch after that. Blow #1 although I was expecting this, I was hoping for a different answer. Blow #2 was totally unexpected. No one had mentioned to me that he would have a hearing test yesterday but I was totally excited about having one done. I just knew it would tell us he could hear normally. Wrong again. Strike #1 was the fact that his eardrum doesn't move as it's supposed to, in either ear, which is because of the tubes. They said that was normal so we moved on. Strike #2 was one test that was stopped before it even began. When they make an incision in the eardrum, which is how they put the tubes in, then the eardrum will seal or heal around the tube as healing progresses. That hasn't happened completely yet so there was a leakage of air around the tubes so whatever-the-test was they were trying to do couldn't be done. That test would have given us some concrete info. So, they decided to try something else. They put us in this soundproof booth and talked or played noises at different noise levels and on different sides from outside the booth. T likes the sound of his name and could definitely hear the sounds they were making at the medium and high levels but didn't appear to hear the low sounds. And, when he would hear a noise, he couldn't "locate" it. Meaning when he heard something, he would turn his head searching for the sound and, more often than not, didn't find it. That's called localization and he failed that test miserably. Overall, the conclusion was that, if we had to go on yesterdays tests alone, we'd say that he can hear but not very well. What does that mean exactly and how much hearing loss is there? We don't know right now. Can he continue to heal after the tubes and regain more of the hearing? There's no way to know other than to wait. We have to wait until September when those tests will be repeated. The one test that they couldn't do because of the leakage of air around the tube -- when they repeat that in September it will give us some sort of number from both ears. If the number is high enough and the same in both ears, then that's a "passed" hearing test and we're done. If, however, that shows either a low number in both ears or different numbers from each ear, then we have to have a hearing test done like he had done at 8 weeks. The only problem is that he has to be asleep for that test. Once babies start to get around a year old, they have to put them to sleep with anesthesia as opposed to letting them fall asleep on their own because that's so hard to predict when they'll fall asleep and if they'll stay asleep. You know how curious babies are! Anyway, if we find out in September that he has to have this done, he'll already be 9 months old. We'll then have a wait for an appointment to do that and then he'll be awfully close to that one year mark. I'm sure you can see where I'm heading with that....

So, to summarize, #1, pray for T's eardrums to continue to heal and make an affective seal around the tubes before September. #2, pray for continued improvement in his hearing. #3, continue to pray for his airway, that the break in stridor (the fancy word for noisy breathing) will be a permanent thing, that the stridor doens't come back, and that his airway grows proportionately as he grows over the coming months.

Oh, and in case anyone's curious -- no, nothing was said about an apnea monitor for while he sleeps. I'm very thankful for that!

I'd like to take just a sec and mention a few other things:
*Pray for friends of ours who are dealing with a job loss; without a new job, income will stop end of June, insurance for them and their 2 children will stop in July.
*Pray for Nate, Tricia, and Gwenyth, who I've mentioned before. Tricia has cystic fibrosis and recently had a double-lung transplant. Less than a week after being back in their real home, which they left in late December while Tricia was still pregnant with Gwenyth, Tricia has been diagnosed with a form of lung cancer that is common in transplant patients.
*Saturday is the 21st...please remember Steven Curtis Chapman and family on the 1-month anniversary of Maria's death. They had a meeting today with the trauma team at the hospital who tried to save Maria that night. They wanted to say thank you (it was exactly 4 weeks ago today).
*Pray for yet another financial bump-in-the-road in our household (I'm sure many of you noticed that our vacation countdown disappeared; we cancelled the trip due to financial reasons but are hoping to make the trip in September)
*It might seem silly but please pray for potty training in our house. We just ran out of diapers for T from his baby gifts (can't believe they lasted 6 whole months -- that's so amazing!) so now we've got 3 in diapers, financially speaking. After VBS next week (pray for that, too!), I'm going to try a few things the pediatrician suggested to see if I can't get Elizabeth and/or John on the road to being diaper free. Our grocery budget needs a break!

Link of the week

This is Jonathan's idea (so if you don't like it, blame it on him!) :) He'll be the one picking out the links. Here's his first submission:

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with biologist and author Stewart Kauffman. Hear a scientist come to the conclusion that "things" are more then the sum of its parts but, this still isn't God, but probably something else. http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3699.html

Enjoy!

Never in my given days

...have I heard a child carry on in the car like John. It started several weeks ago. Everytime we were in the car, he would say "I wanna go that way" even though it was usually the opposite way that we needed to go. He'd start out kinda whimpering but now he's gotten himself to the point where if we don't turn his direction, it's an all-out tantrum. Yesterday was the worst. We went to go have lunch with Jonathan and were on the highway. Every, and I do mean EVERY, exit we passed, he'd cry and scream "I wanna go that way!". And I do mean SCREAM and kick, too. And, then it got worse -- a car would pass us and he started crying and screaming "Follow that car, Mommy, follow that car!"

Anyone had a kid like this? Anyone?

Timothy

Here I am! 6 months old today (I think my Mommy skipped my 5 month post but what's a boy to do?). I've had an interesting month. I had surgery on May 16th which wasn't too much fun but I did very, very well. Mommy even said so! I can't say for sure when it happened but sometime since surgery, I stopped sounding like a washing machine when I breathe. Mommy and Daddy just noticed last night that I wasn't making any loud noises while breathing. We're all anxious to see what my ear doctor thinks about that when I got for my post-op check-up on June 17th. I also go for my 6-month check-up with my regular doctor on the 16th. I might break the 20# mark by then! Hey, I'm a growing boy! Sure, 20# is supposed to be what I weigh when I turn 1 but I figured why not get a head start on that?!? I had cereal for the first time the other night (see the last picture). Can't say for sure if I like it, though. But, Mommy says I did very well with the spoon. She can't find her old baby spoons so she used my brother John's toddler-size spoon which was a little big for my little mouth but we got through it. I don't care for the high chair yet, though, 'cause I can't hold myself steady and I fall over constantly unless Mommy props me up with towels or blankies. Let's see....I think that's about it for now. We're all a little disappointed that our vacation was postponed to September but it doesn't matter much to me. We'll get there eventually. We're going to see my Grandma Faye and Papaw Thomas and go to the beach. By then, I'll be 9 months old. I should be sitting up by then -- won't that be neat? Maybe I'll get to sit in the sand! Okay, I've got to go now and help Mommy keep everyone else in line. Things sure are busy and loud around here....

This is me with my pal, Justin. He was born 2 days after me. Like our matching outfits? Mommy bought them before Justin and I were born. Isn't she silly?

This is me on baby dedication day (Mother's Day). I don't know why people keep asking me if my fingers taste good. Isn't it obvious?!?

And here's me with a cereal face. I don't look too happy, do I?

A few things to blog about

Let's see....

Memorial Day -- we went fishing. All of us, yes. I'll spare you some of the pictures and details but here's a few highlights. All the gang together with their poles. Even Timothy wanted in on the action!

Caleb's fish

Near-catastrophe -- While sitting at the computer last Wednesday, I hear a familiar rumbling and think "Oh, the kids are in the VHS tapes again" but before I can even finish that thought in my head, I turned around just in time to see this happen: Thank God, no one was hurt (did you see how close that was to Timothy?) but it did kill the entertainment center and our t.v.

And last but not least, Timothy's first time sitting in a high chair (no solids just yet). Our high chair (one of Nathan's first Christmas presents) had seen better days so we had to get a new one. This is a very plain high chair but I just couldn't see paying $70+ for a high chair, especially if Timothy ends up being the last baby. Paid $16 for this one at Once Upon A Child.