Lucky and Blessed!

As I paid for our many groceries, the kids were all standing next to me and chatting with the lady who was checking us out. As they told her their ages, she replied, “Your mommy has her hands full!” This statement is true and I hear it often. It always makes me smile because I am so thankful to have such full hands. I hope they get more full every year!

“AND,” Joshua added, still speaking to the checker and acting as if he was dropping the punch line of a great joke. “There is another baby in my mommy’s tummy too!”

The checker’s eyes widened for a moment, but she recovered quickly and said, “Well, you are very lucky.” She sounded a bit stunned, but still very sincere.

Having paid for everything, I thanked her and we began to walk away. Joshua walked next to me and he instantly looked up at me with those bright blue eyes sparkling.

“We ARE lucky, aren’t we, Mommy?!” he said with a grin as he slipped his hand into the crook of my elbow. It wasn’t a question. It was a statement of fact. I loved how sincere, excited, and thankful Joshua seemed as he said it. It was obvious that he felt like the luckiest boy in all the world because he had soon-be-be five siblings to love. His entire face was full of gratitude and delight.

I hugged him to me and told him that we ARE very lucky indeed. I added that we are blessed also because ALL of the lucky things we have are blessings sent to us by Heavenly Father. Joshua agreed and we left the store with big smiles on our faces.

I can still hear his little voice in my mind, so full of joy and gratitude and excitement and innocence. “We ARE lucky, aren’t we, Mommy!”

A Sweet Compliment

I finished a lot of chores this morning and then loaded up my kids to go grocery shopping and run errands. I’d planned to go yesterday, but between gymnastics and football and my “to do” list at home, I never found the time. We went today instead.

We spent 3.5 hours shopping and went to 3 different stores, including Walmart which was a major “2-cart” shopping trip. I am always quite the sight with five small children and two full carts! It was a long, hot day, but the kids were good and we got everything we needed. And I stayed within my budget as well.

After Walmart- our final stop- the kids were in the van and I was loading groceries into the back, ready to finally head home after a long afternoon. A woman in a van pulled up behind me. I was startled for a moment and assumed I’d dropped something from my cart.

“I just have to tell you,” the woman said, leaning out her window. “I have never seen a mom as patient as you are! I was watching you in the store and I was so inspired. That’s how I want to be.”

I was a little taken aback and I probably blushed at her kind words. I was very flattered and it felt good to be paid such a sweet, sincere compliment! I thanked her and smiled.

Enormous

I don’t care what anyone says- I feel enormous! Even though this baby is measuring very small, I feel much larger than I did with my other kids at 6 months pregnant! Maybe he’s had a growth spurt! I know I am not too big because I am still wearing regular clothes and still sleeping comfortably on my tummy at night (which my OB said I could do as long as I was able to). Strangers still don’t believe that I am pregnant at all. BUT I STILL FEEL ENORMOUS. And that makes all the difference!

Early Riser

All five of my kids were up until nearly 11pm last night, which is 3+ hours past their usual bedtime. But Asher, my cute little alarm clock, was STILL up by 6am this morning. Crazy!

I don’t mind though. I like to be up before my kids and it’s easier to get up with a baby than with a real alarm clock. I usually get up with Asher around 6 or 6:30. I take some time to update my blog and read my scriptures and get dressed and play with just Ash. I wake the older kids around 7am so that we can start chores and school. After such a late night though, I think I will let them sleep in today.

Football Begins

Rick and I both feel that activities and sports are great for kids. I think it’s good for their physical, emotional, and social well-being. I think it develops great personality traits like sportsmanship, self confidence, and determination. It’s good for kids to be active and learn to live a healthy, active lifestyle, and they have a blast as well. We never push our kids into activities. I think forcing a child to participate in something they don’t want to do would have negative effects rather than positive ones. But when our children have the desire (and when finances, time, and family needs allow) we always do what we can to help.

Joshua loves football. Last year he played flag football and had a blast, especially with Rick as his coach. But this year when I mentioned signing him up for flag football again, he gasped, “Flag? But I really want to play tackle!”

So I looked into tackle football. I found an awesome league. It’s more money than flag football was and it’s a much bigger time commitment, but I knew Josh would love it. I talked it over with Rick first. Football was his love all during childhood and up through high school. He was excited to have Josh involved in such a great league, and he was all for signing him up.

I got in touch with a coach. Even though the registration deadline had passed, there were a few first grade spots left. The coach was excited when he learned that Joshua is a state champion wrestler because he surmised that Josh was probably athletic and not afraid of physical contact. He was even more excited when I told him that Joshua was homeschooled. Rather than conforming to elementary school boundaries, Joshua could join any team and this particular coach wanted him on his team. I was glad because practices for this team are held just a few minutes from our house.

I talked with Rick one more time, making sure that this was a time, money, and family commitment that we were willing to make. Then we talked with Joshua. He was so excited, just as we knew he would be. We explained that it would be a bigger commitment than last year and that it might overlap a little with wrestling at the end of the season.

Josh had his first football practice last night. Rick met us there after work, but because of our current car seat situation (no car seat in Rick’s car) the other kids and I had to stay the entire practice. Joshua did great and had a blast! He scored high in all he evaluation games they played. His coach is incredibly nice, the team is well run, and Josh just ate up all the football time. He’s the youngest on the team (if his birthday was one month later than it is, he wouldn’t have been able to play until next year) and he is the smallest by far. But he’s athletic, strong, and has no fear and he did great in spite of being young and small.

The evening was nice- sunny, but with a good breeze. The other kids and I stayed under the shade of some large trees nearby and were very comfortable during practice.

After practice we went to pick up Joshua’s pads and gear. The kids and I had to tag along again because of the car seats. We waited in the van for over and hour while Rick got Josh fitted with everything he needed. We played lots of rounds of 20 Questions and I Spy. Finally, after a long evening, we made it home around 10pm. We fed our kids dinner (they had only snacked before and during practice so they needed a real meal still) and then put them to bed. It was a late night for all of us.

Joshua has practice 4 nights a week for 1.5 hours each time. When school starts, it will cut back to 3 nights a week, and as the season progresses and the boys get better, it will be just twice a week. He’ll have 8 games, with the possibility of big championships at the end of the season if his team does well. T-ball, wrestling, and gymnastics are all ending this week so this is the only week that Josh will be busy with 4 activities at once. The folkstyle wrestling season will start in a few months so football season and wrestling will probably overlap in October. Josh is aware that he might have to pick one sport over the other during that time. If scheduling works out, he can do both until football season is over.

Joshua is super excited. He loves all his gear. He had such a great time at practice last night that he can hardly wait to go again. Rick is just as excited as Josh is and I love that the two of them have something else to bond over. Our other kids are excited about playing on the playground during practice (when Rick can’t take Josh, we will) and making new friends there. Personally, I am just excited to see my family happy.

So here’s to what I am sure will be a very busy football season! And between homeschool starting again in September (we are taking August off) and gymnastics and football and choir and dance and wrestling… well, I am sure it will be a very busy fall as well. Oh, and we’re having a new baby this fall too! I just realized that by the time Josh finishes up his football season, I will probably cheer at his last game with a bundled-up newborn in my arms! How exciting!

Asher’s Chin Ups

My incredibly strong 12-month-old can do chin ups. We have a chin up bar in our house and yesterday Asher grabbed it while Rick was holding him. He held on so tightly that Rick actually let him go- keeping his hands right there to catch him, of course- and let Asher support his own weight. We were amazed when he held his weight easily. Then I peeked over the top of the bar to play Peek-a-Boo with my boy. Asher was delighted and without much effort, he pulled himself all the way up so that he could grin at me over the TOP of the bar. He did it one more time after that- a complete chin up all on his own. Ah, baby’s first chin up. It’s such a milestone!

Boys Will Be Boys

The burn on Joshua’s foot was bandaged at the doctor’s office today. A nurse skillfully wrapped his foot in gauze and secured it with bandages (the sticky, stretchy kind used after a blood draw). His wound, which has continued to  split open and bleed all week, finally looked well-protected. I was sure we wouldn’t have any more problems with it.

But I forgot that old saying, “Boys will be boys.” Or, in this case,  “Josh will be Josh.”

Joshy was goofing off with his sisters tonight. They’d fashioned “orphan rag clothes” by cutting holes in garbage bags. They were wearing their “rags” and pretending to be orphans on some crazy adventure. Joshua was up to all his usual high-energy antics and was jumping and running and somersaulting like a little monkey.

It wasn’t long before Joshua came to me, with his bandage off. The burn on his foot was open again and it was pouring blood. In his rambunctious play, Joshua had somehow managed to not only accidentally loosen the secure bandage covering his burn, but he also tore off several more layers of skin and left his wound raw and bleeding once again.

I soaked his foot in soap and water as they’d done at the pediatrician’s office and Rick wrapped it up again using the supplies our nurse gave us. Hopefully it will stay in place this time. Josh sure has a tendency to keep us on our toes.

And so it begins…

Less than 30 minutes after I wrote my last post, which included a paragraph about Braden and his unexplained fever, the poor little guy projectile vomited all over the kitchen floor. In all my years of mommy duty and barf clean-up, I have never seen a child throw up like he did. It was literally like a fire hose. Rick was in the basement at the time and said he thought the kids were dumping buckets of water in the kitchen.

Rick was a sweetie and cleaned up the kitchen floor- which was quite a task as it was completely covered in vomit- so that his pregnant wife would be spared the nastiness of it. I took over with Braden. He’d projected so far out that he wasn’t dirty, but I gave him a bath anyway. I hoped it would lower his fever and help him feel a little better.

Braden’s fever is still raging and he is still quite listless. When I ask him where he hurts, he points to a spot between his tummy and chest.

So the unexplained fever now seems to have an explanation after all. It appears that Braden has some sort of tummy bug.  I just hope that Braden feels better soon and that this bug doesn’t get passed around for too long. No one wants to be sick in the summer!

TUESDAY UPDATE…

Braden is well! After a 104 degree fever raged inside his little body for 24 hours and after only one bout of horrible vomitting, Braden completely recovered. Today he is happy and eating and his fever is finally gone. He’s having some lingering diarrhea, but that is normal for him after a tummy bug. No one else seems to be sick so I am quite relieved. As far as nasty bugs go, this one was very easy!

Medical Babble

Joshua recently had severe tummy pain. It’s rare for Joshua to complain of any pain at all. He’s had strep throat, ear infections, concussions, and so on without ever complaining of pain. He just has a high pain tolerance. In fact, I can only remember ONE other time that he told me something hurt. So this abdominal pain has worried us. Once it was severe enough that he couldn’t even walk and we nearly made a trip to the ER. The rest of the time, it has been more mild, but constant and lingering. Joshua has also been severely constipated, in spite of a daily dose of Miralax. He has recently started having bowel movements that are nothing but liquid, which worried me as well. 

We found out today that Joshy has impacted bowels, and most likely a severe case. Poor guy! It isn’t extremely concerning right now, but it is something that needs to be taken care of promptly. We have one week to get things “back on track” with increased doses of Miralax and fiber. After that, there will be more testing and additional measures will be taken.  The poor little guy had a nasty hemeroid prior to this, but it has gotten much worse and several more have emerged thanks to all this.

While we were in the office, Joshua’s foot was also cleaned and properly dressed. The rope burns on his leg are healing nicely, but his foot is another story. It constantly opens up again and I’ve had the hardest time keeping it clean. The wound is constantly bleeding and oozing. Just when a scab begins to form, it opens again. The nurse dressed it for me and sent me home with all the supplies I need to really take care of it while it heals. We have special ointment, lots of sterile gauze, and that stretchy, sticky stuff that is used after a blood draw to hold everything in place.

I came home from an afternoon at the doctor’s office to find my three-year-old running a fever and completely listless. Braden told me this morning that he was feeling sick and now he obviously is. In the absence of flu symptoms, I am not sure what’s wrong. He has had a nasty cough for several weeks so it worries me that he’s now running a fever. He’s not wheezing or retracting though so that’s good. But, again, it leaves me confused. Poor baby.

So today has been full of “medical stuff.” And, of course, I am concerned about both of my boys. But I actually feel quite blessed that our children are as healthy as they are! I’ve been following several blogs lately that are about some very sick little children. Even though I worry about Joshua and Braden and the things they are dealing with, their issues are so mild compared to what I’ve been reading about. I am thankful for the good health of all six of my children (my unborn baby included because not every pregnancy goes as well as this one has!)

Growing Up

I’m experiencing more growing pains as I watch my itty bitty babies grow into big, mature, responsible children. Just last night, Brenna and Joshua both opted out of a group bath in favor of a shower instead. They washed themselves completely, hair included, and all I did was an ”inspection” to make sure they really were clean. I know that my days of bathing these two growing little ones are rapidly coming to an end. 

For 6 and 7 years respectively, I have crouched next to a bath tub, while Brenna and Joshua splashed away together. I have soaped up their slippery little tummies and washed their small, blond heads. I’ve laughed as they’ve splashed and reminded them not to stand up in the tub. I’ve wrapped them in towels and dried them off and snuggled them close and promised myself that I would always remember how sweet their heads smelled after a bath. Now, at least when it comes to Brenna and Joshy, all that is going to end soon. And it makes me a little sad.

Brenna and Joshua are growing up. The changes are obvious and frequent. They are taller and they’re legs are long and lean. They are losing baby teeth. They both can vacuum a floor, scrub a bathroom, and do a load of laundry. They both know how to “cook” a handful of meals on their own. They are excellent helpers with the younger children and wonderful examples to them. They spend 30 minutes each night reading chapter books, and they are both deep into the Book of Mormon. They’re lives are filled with friends and activities and socializing. Brenna often fixes her own hair and she loves her ipod. Joshua is passionate about sports and computer games. They have both come so far from the round, dimpled, wisy-haired babies they used to be. My heart can hardly handle the change.

It’s not that I don’t want my children to grow up. In fact, I actually really ENJOY the miracle of a child’s growth. But it happens so quickly and that is what sometimes makes me sad. Before I know it, my newborns have grown into babies, my babies have grown into toddlers, my toddlers into preschoolers, my preschoolers into big kids… It all happens in a moment. 

I am eager for this sweet new baby to arrive. His spirit is strong and I am excited to have him in our family. But I refuse to wish that time would pass faster. I refuse to wish even a moment of this pregnancy away. Before I know it, this unborn son of mine will be growing up just as rapidly as his five older brothers and sisters.

It’s funny how a child’s shower and the right mix of pregnancy hormones can lead to such nostalgia…