First lose tooth!

Clair has been asking when her teeth will finally fall out for at least a year. Ever since kids in kindergarten started losing teeth Claire wanted to lose some too. Every few weeks you asked me when it will start. She’s anticipating it greatly. Two days ago she started complaining about a sore in her mouth. At first we washed with salt water. When she told me it was getting worse and not better I looked at it and realized it was her first loose tooth. This girl was so excited she got the biggest smile on her face. She nearly had tears in her eyes. She grabbed me and hugged me and started rejoicing!

 She spent most of the day excited about the situation and trying to turn it into reasons to celebrate. She is marked it on the calendar and has proclaimed it a day we should celebrate your early as the day of her first loose tooth. She even convinced me to make her macaroni and cheese for dinner. 

Notes everywhere

This girl write me notes telling me how much she loves me all the time. She gives me so much paper that I’m sure, she thinks I don’t appreciate it. I do. I just don’t know what to do with it. I have to eventually threw them away and I feel a little less guilty when I take a picture and save them here for my own memories. Love this girl!

Halloween 2019

This year we had another successful Halloween in the neighborhood. The forecast was for a lot of rain and storms, and people talked about canceling it. But we persevered under a very warm evening with gorgeous Halloween skies. The kids enjoyed  trick or treating and hanging out with the neighbors afterwards. Clair stuck with the big girls mostly. I find it hard because I don’t want anyone going off without one of their parents.

 The boys hung out together as always. Max his Halloween dreams came true. He had been worried earlier in the week he wouldn’t get to spend the evening with Henry. I’m glad it worked out for everybody. 

 I also had the pleasure of visiting both Max and Clair‘s classes in school for the parties today. I’m glad they still wanted me to attend. 

Why Ellie should get the costume she wants

 Ellie and I tend to have a lot of different opinions these days. I know this is the start of the teenage years. One of the things we haven’t really agreed on the past few years is her Halloween costume. She wants to be a lot creepier than I would like her to be. I prefer my little princess returned. This year, she wanted her creepy outfits that look very similar to what she was last year and I didn’t want to spend my money on it. So, she wrote an essay to convince me to let her get what she wanted. Though I didn’t feel the essay was very convincing, the effort was and she got what she wanted.

Clair’s first book

This book has been a work in progress for about six months. Well, she started it one day six months ago, and decided to finish it one day last week. But this time we printed it and she illustrated it as well. The best part for Clair was when she took it to school and showed it to her teachers and her classmate. She got such amazing reception and interest from everyone. I’m so happy about that! She came out of school so excited that day and pronounced that it was the best day ever because everybody loved her book and she was going to publish it. 

Along with her 11 other jobs she now wants to be an author as well. 

 Here is a copy of her first book for posterity. The odds of keeping track of all the paper this child creates are slim to none.  I love her creativity and her energy. 

Round and round the calendar goes

And just like that, what they called a long summer is over. The kids are back to school. It’s hard to believe how quickly the months passed. 

Monday night we were sitting at dinner and Claire asked if we could have just one more week of summer. We laughed and told her that they were probably a lot of other kids asking for the same gift at the same time around the state. But, none the less, tomorrow morning, everyone would be heading back to school.

This year we have a big twist in the schedule. We have a middle Schooler! This means early mornings for Ellie and at least one parent to support her. None of us are morning people. This is a big adjustment, but after two days so far so good.

The first day was a little nerve-racking for everyone. Ellie asked me if I would walk her to school, instead of walking with her friend. She would walk with her friend tomorrow. I was honored and definitely willing to take the time to walk her to school. I’m grateful she still wants me around. I know this time is fighting in our life. That being, despite the fact she said she’ll always want me around and always want to live with me. 

For Ellie, the first day was all right. Lunch was a little bit hard because she didn’t feel anyone talk to her at lunch despite sitting with a big group of girls. That made me sad. Middle school is hard. Friendship is hard. Adolescence is hard. I am Hoping today is better. I am praying God gives you a grace and skills to help her through these years somehow. She does like most of her teachers.

At the normal time Clair and Banks got ready for more time at the elementary school. Their morning went very smoothly. It was a minor change in the drop off location of the school, but otherwise we sent to have the kids off. Max needed to help others friend to carry his supplies, due to his hernia. I had to strap clear supplies to her, literally, because there were so many. Apparently she made it to her teacher without falling down and she helped unload all her stuff. Both had good days, with a little bit of social disappointment about around lunch and recess. Here’s hoping today is better for them too. 

I hear of the stories of my kids feeling left out or feeling like nobody wanted to play with them or eat with them, it breaks my heart. I hope that when they see others that they notice are left out, but they are able to step in and offer to be a friend to them. No kid should be alone at lunch. No kid should be alone at recess. That is, unless they really want to for some reason. But I honestly believe people don’t want to be left alone in the situations so I think so just get used to it.

Friendships and social interactions can be so hard for some of us. I will keep trying to be better at it because I know my kids need to have a way of learning to navigate the world. 

Here are a few images from the day.

Not exactly the breakfast of champions, but she was really happy with it!

Mamma and her eldest. 

Grannie called to say good morning. 

Wakes right past the elementary school and into the middle! 

Gorgeous girl! 

Snuggles, always and forever. 

Off to 4th grade! 

What a great friend! 

She’s full! 

Max’s umbilical hernia repair

One of Max’s doctors Discovered the spring that he has an umbilical hernia left over from when he was born. This Friday, we finally had it repaired. Four days later Max is doing OK. He handled it like a champ. He is brave and patient.

The day of surgery he was scheduled to start at noon, but kept getting pushed back and pushed back, until 4 PM when they finally started. Max, David, and I spent a good five hours in a 8 x 8 hospital room with Max in preop. He was good for the first few hours watching TV while I did work and David did stuff on his phone. Eventually back got old. Things started to get silly. The boy hadn’t had any food for dinner the night before. We offered by this time he be well on his way to recovery. Find me when the doctors took him in he asked if he could walk to the operating room. The Anastasia Yala just was very kind to him, and told him that he could go however he wanted and that he had been very patient. So off walked about five doctors, my sweet nine-year-old little boy, and his daddy to the operating room. They said one of us could go back, and David is the one that can do these things without showing emotion. So I assume that’s what’s best for the kids at that point in time. Meanwhile, I headed to the waiting room alone, saying prayers for my boy.

David came out a few minutes later and said things have gone very well. The anesthesiologist were impressed with Max has one capacity. Apparently he has an excellent set of lungs and should either be a singer or professional screamer. We have seen the evidence of him being a professional screamer. 

The surgery lasted a little less than an hour. We got back to see Max after he had started to come to. He was very groggy and confused. His arms were moving about on his face. I kissed him and ripped his hair and asked if he was OK. He told me he needed coffee.

At that moment in time to nurses turned to me and said what did he just ask for? I said he asked for some coffee. He said does he drink coffee? I said nope, never. But I think he feels the way he thinks I feel each morning when he knows mommy needs her coffee. Everyone had a good laugh over this, and we encourage Max to go back to sleep because he didn’t need to wake up right now. 

But Max wanted some apple juice and some food and he wanted to wake up. No doubt he was confused because after the coffee, it came in a request for mommy to go have her hernia fixed now.

Recovery went well. He was able to keep down apple juice and goldfish and a popsicle before we left the hospital right around rush-hour. They don’t keep them long and postop care for outpatient surgery. I always wish that they would keep them longer.

Max did great on the ride home. By the time we were heading home he was asking what we were having for dinner and there were signs that he was moving in the right direction. I was pleased he never threw up.

When we got home his sisters had some presents for him. Gramma was also waiting to see how he was doing. He stayed on Tylenol and ibuprofen for less than 48 hours. The only thing left is to get him walking upright and not scared of using his abdominal muscles again. This part is still a work in progress.

I’m really proud of how he has handled this all. He goes with the flow, he is brave, and he keeps a good sense of humor at every turn. I’m so sorry he’s going through this, and I hope this journey of the surgeries over the next month will help us figure out how he can live a better quality of life.