A Little Bit of Everything

That's what this past week seemed to hold for us. Started off with a few of us a bit under the weather and ended with a different few of us under the weather. Yesterday was a series of mishaps - nothing seemed to go the way it was planned, but everyone survived. Today Steven stayed home - a little stomach bug had bit him. I went to work with Lillie and got quite a bit done. I came home late afternoon to learn that Avery was coughing more and not feeling good.

Wednesday night Avery got something in his eye - what it was, we didn't know because the booger wouldn't let us look at it. He calmed down though so we thought it must have worked itself out. Well Thursday he was sitting next to me and I noticed that there was something stuck in the corner of his eye and it was irritating it to the point that his eye was getting red. I called dad - that's who we call around here when anything medical arises. Dad came to try to take a look at it and Avery fought him off too. Dad mentioned to just keep an eye on it (funny aye) and if he's not complaining about it it will probably work itself out.

Well when I came home from work, Avery was napping. When he woke up he came over to see me and I noticed that now he had a slightly goopy eye, the red irritated look was increasing, and his eye was watering. Called his dr at 4:30pm and they suggested to take him to the ER. Well, we took him to the "urgent care" which is a step down from ER in the realm of emergencies. Amazingly the line was very short and we were seen very quickly. The nurse took us back and Avery pitched such a fit at simply getting his temperature taken that his tears finally worked the "object" out right there in the drs office. A couple of his upper eyelashes had been tucked under his lower lid right in the corner of his eye - how in the world does that happen, I don't know, but at least we didn't have to go through the experience of holding the child down to remove something from his eye which is what I feared was going to happen. Avery has become very anti-medical personnel ever since his yucky sick stuff that hit him this winter. Doesn't want his ears touched or really much of anything else. I am just hoping he stays healthy for quite a long time - enough time to forget about past experiences before new situations arise.

So the tally for this week went like this: 3 kids sick at various times with various things, a head cold that tried to come but was nipped in the bud, Isaiah keeps coming up with mystery bug bites the last couple of days after playing outside - his brothers are not getting them, Steven with the stomach stuff, Avery injuring his eye with his own eyelashes, lots of getting up at night with both Lillie and Avery, Huston had a birthday, made treats for his preschool class on Wed, planning his birthday party for tomorrow (for which we will have poopy winter-like weather), helping to plan brother and sister-in-laws wedding reception for next weekend and getting things together for church on Sunday. That's been enough for my plate thank you. I feel like I could go crawl in a hole and sleep for a week solid - but I won't dwell on that, just gotta keep moving instead - otherwise things might just all fall apart completely! :-) So if this whole long post doesn't read very smoothly and makes no sense at all, you will understand now won't you.

Some Irony...

I don't know if this first subject is technically ironic, but I bought myself some flowers yesterday - I went to the store to get a few things for Huston's birthday goodies and saw these...













I couldn't resist them, they are so pretty and bright and shouted springtime to me so I bought them for myself - which is really one of the few ways I would ever receive flowers. Steven never buys them for me, Steven never buys anything for me - he doesn't believe in gift giving...sometimes that's more of an issue for me than other times, depends on my hormone level probably. He might buy me flowers for my funeral, but then again I can totally picture myself on my death bed making a call to the florist to order a nice arrangement for myself. Who knows. The only time I get flowers is on special occasions, like mothers day, giving birth and my birthday - and 9 out of the 10 whole times I've gotten them ;-) they have come from my mother-in-law! Isn't that funny, the member of the family that society says I'm supposed to have a troubled relationship with is the one that buys me flowers.

Ironic story #2 - Tonight Huston wanted to watch me give Lillie a bath - he wanted to watch her get a bath the last time I gave her one too. Why is this ironic? Cause the whole time I am giving her the bath, she of course is screaming her head off like all newborns do - and what is Huston doing? He is saying, "It's ok, Lillie. It's just a little bath, you'll be alright." These words are coming from the other child in the family who hates baths. On bath nights, you will usually find Huston standing in the tub screaming his head off. (Yes, he is the one that turned 4 yesterday) He hates to see dirt floating in the water, so to avoid this issue we have him stand and just run the faucet and do a quick wash and rinse, cause the shower brings out even more terror. You would think that this might solve the phobia, but he also hates to have water poured on him in any shape or form. This cannot be avoided unless they invent dry cleaning for children. He hasn't always been this way, it's a recent phase. But how ironic that it is he that is the one who chooses to comfort Lillie during her bath time. He must feel a strong bond with this little gal who hates her bath as much as he hates his.

Happy Birthday Huston!!

Look who is 4 years old today....

Quite a Weekend

Lillie and I were quite the jet-setters this weekend. On Friday we went out to eat and shopping with Grandma Spellman until almost past Lillie's bedtime (which really isn't that late considering she is only 2 weeks old). We were preparing for the big party we are going to have to celebrate her Uncle Daniel getting married. It will be in a couple of weeks - and my, Lillie will sure meet her share of new faces at that party. All of Grandma Spellman's family from Iowa will come that weekend and there will be lots to celebrate - Daniel getting married, introducing Lillie, and a belated birthday celebration for Huston will probably be tucked in there somewhere. Lillie will be exactly one month old on the day of the wedding reception. Hard to believe that little milestone is just around the corner already.

On Saturday Lillie and I loaded up in Gran Howell's car right after breakfast and we drove to the south county St. Louis area to get our hair done. Now I know what your thinking - our town doesn't have any hair salons? But that really was not the primary reason for the trip - although with it being over a month and a half since my bushy short do had been cut, it was almost the primary reason! Really we go to St. Louis to get our hair done more for the conversation than for the cut - although we are always very satisfied with our cut! My cousin Jennifer - my mom's niece is our stylist and so we go to see that side of the family. Her mom and dad, my Uncle Herschel and Aunt Rosie came to meet us there and so did my brother Jason and his wife Brook. It was a small scale family reunion at her 3-chair shop. The little old ladies coming in for their weekly hair appointment were a bit worried that the salon had been overrun. Here are some pics...from left to right - Brook, Jason, Uncle Herschel, Aunt Rosie - then in the second pic mom and Lillie are added.

Here's the hair expert - cousin Jennifer, finally getting her chance to meet Lillie after all the cutting of hair...

I'm adding this second shot of everyone, it's a little more "head on" - and if you're wondering what everyone is looking at in the first picture, your answer in is the second picture.

Of course it was a pass the baby around afternoon...the St. Louis gang had not yet met her and my brother hadn't been able to see her yet either. Brook happened to be passing through town the weekend after Lillie was born so she had already met her. I think cousin Jennifer was her favorite - she knew she had to be nice to the gal that might be doing her hair in the future too. :-) By the end of the trip Lillie was totally done and by the time we made it home she was so tired she slept until the next morning, only waking up to get her little tummy filled, but no eyes were even trying to open for an awake time.

Sunday three out of the six of us woke up with the slight beginnings of a head cold. I didn't feel well - had a headache and just felt run down...Avery had been up coughing and had a yucky nose...Huston woke up complaining and grumpy - and his nose was a bit yucky too so we all stayed home from church and kept Lillie home too. Steven and Isaiah went on ahead to church and brought us lunch home afterward. Avery was back to bed by 9:00 that morning which is absolutely unheard of, Lillie was sleeping too, so Huston was banished to play in his room while I hit the bed for a nap as well.

Sunday afternoon I had a meeting at church so mom watched Lillie and Isaiah for Steven and Steven stayed home with the other puny ones. When we all returned home my goal was an early bedtime for me at least - and hopefully all the kids too. I want you to know, I think there are nights when all the kids have a meeting and plot against me - last night was one of those nights. I laid Lillie in bed at 7:30pm and went to get myself ready to do the same. At 8:00pm Lillie woke up telling me she was hungry. It was a little earlier than usual, but we got the bottle and she ate pretty good but she was beginning to sound rattly. She fussed for quite awhile, threw up 1/2 her bottle, then finally settled down around 10. I went to bed too - Avery got up at 12...and he decided to continue to mess around until 3:30am - he would stay in his room but he would call for me and he would tear his sheets and pillow off his bed and finally by the third intervention from me he went back to sleep...Lillie woke up at 4:30 to eat and I thought by that time I was free and clear to enjoy a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep - at 5:00ish Huston woke me up to inform me he had wet the bed. Luckily Isaiah must have missed the meeting - he slept fine.

By this morning it is clear that Lillie is fighting a cold too...just yucky stuff in the back of her throat at this time. She is eating and sleeping well so hopefully she will conquer it quickly. Avery and Huston seem better and I am hanging in there - hopeful for an early bedtime tonight!

The First Fall-Apart Day

That was Thursday...I went into the day feeling confident but realized I was susceptible to frustration and irritability because I didn't get much sleep the night before - it wasn't Lillie necessarily, although she of course still needs my attention at least once in the night. No, this time it was Avery - he is just having a rough time of it in the area of sleeping peacefully through the night. I am now at the point of suspecting an illness is coming upon him.

So anyway, Avery awoke early that morning (like usual) after a restless night of sleep (how and why do they do that?) and simply crawled into bed with me. We eventually heard "baby sister" start to fuss for food and so we went downstairs. I got a movie started for Avery, fixed Lillie her bottle, got a waffle and a cup of juice prepared for Avery to consume in front of the movie (no syrup on the waffle by the way - he eats it like a piece of toast) and I sat on the couch and started to feed Lillie her bottle - pretty smooth, but it had only been 15 minutes. I was hopeful once again because the older two were sleeping later than usual. They would be rested - we could make it through the day just fine.

I knew I was in trouble when Huston awoke. The boy was whiny from the word go. It was going to be a long day. No one could play with the other without tears in the end - it was usually Avery and Huston that continued to clash. Avery was beginning to feed off of Huston's ill humor and become high-maintenance as well. I put him to bed at noon. I bundled the older two up and sent them into the cold, cloudy, and wet outside to hopefully run off some of the grumpiness in regards to Huston and some of the high energy in regards to Isaiah. They came in just before the freakish rain/hailstorm that dropped at least 1-2 inches of pea to marble sized hail. Oh, did I mention that throughout this same morning Lillie had some wicked tummy ache or something cause she pretty much fussed on and off - which is totally unlike her.

On top of all of this the phone rang continually (another rarity). So by noon, I was done. Avery and Lillie finally were napping. Isaiah and Huston had applesauce and cereal for lunch and started in with a movie - all of which was done by Isaiah while I tended to Lillie. Once everyone was settled, I turned off all the phones and crashed with the younger ones for about an hour. I again was hopeful that we would start afresh after rest.

Avery's nap was oh so short - I looked at the 1:30pm clock and the evening looked so far away. Then I discovered that I had 4 messages on my phone and cell phone - the one time I decide to turn of the phones, I am needed for something - really it turns out my boys were needed. A couple of the ministers at church wanted to film a clip of 2 of my boys doing something for some video they needed for Sunday. Sure, why not - come join the fun, but I guess that meant I had to get out of my pajamas. So they came and filmed.

By the evening 3 out of the 4 were crying. At 4:00 I called Steven - I rarely do this, I want the urgency of these calls to be felt, so it is always my last ditch effort. I got his voice mail...poop. Isaiah comes in the room after I left my message for Steven, pleading for him to try to make it home early and Isaiah says to me, "Let me take one of them for you mom, I can help one of them." I told him how sweet it was for him to offer, but if mommy can't fix it I didn't think that he could either.

Steven did make it home 10 minutes earlier than usual, big deal huh, but he did get dinner together for me and that is a big deal...Huston was in bed by 6:30 that evening...Avery got some cold medicine and went to bed at 7...and Isaiah got to run to Hobby Lobby with me to pick out some paint to use on a project we are doing. So the day ended pretty good after all. Lillie was eating and sleeping like crazy today, Huston slept until almost 8:00 this morning and was in a better humor. Avery is still acting like he is under the weather, but nothing major has developed yet and Isaiah continues to be my number one helper. So the bump in the road was just that, but I expect there will be more in the future of course. I am realistic...but I am hopeful.

Lovely Baby Feet

The Last Few Days

We are slowly getting back into our routines and things so far have gone pretty smoothly. The boys and Lillie have made this new adjustment in our family so easy on us. It's like the boys always knew that Lillie was to join them and it's like Lillie was born knowing exactly how to do this baby stuff.

So Lillie and I started back to work on Monday. The ladies in the church office all get their baby fix (the men folk pretty much keep their distance) - and my schedule and responsibilities are so flexible I can do whatever whenever as long as I get the job done. So here is what Lillie thought of working with mommy...

Seems pretty impressed with everything, doesn't she.

Tuesday marked the beginning of week number two of being a mom to four with all of them at home for me to manage, entertain, and keep out of trouble. We have our rough spots, but all in all everyone is pretty helpful towards each other and things go on as they did before baby for the most part. It does help that at this point Lillie still sleeps a majority of the time. It's nice that God eases you into these situations. Really the hardest part has been the weather. I can't remember the last time we had a good string of sunny days. So the wet and the cold and cloudy has not helped in the area of running off some of that energy. Spring, where are you, and you don't have to bring your friend Rain along so often?! So the older boys have been a little antsy.

Speaking of ants - here's a sure sign of spring - the rains come down and the ants come in. We've spotted the first ones of the season in our dining room. It seems that they enjoy all the little pieces of food that seem to miss my children's mouths. Not to worry though - we have Avery. He is just going to have to grow up in some sort of field of conservation or ecology. Here he is following, studying, and trapping the ants he found - but he calls them ladybugs, for some reason all bugs are ladybugs to him...










In this next picture it shows how he decided this empty ice cream bucket made a pretty good ant jail...Looks pretty proud of himself, huh.

Well, Tuesday turned out to be a marathon day - Steven had meetings and stuff after work so I attempted a bath night solo. Truthfully I can't remember the last time I gave these boys a bath - the last few weeks have been such a blur. So what do you do with a wide awake newborn while you need to attend to the older siblings? Make one of them babysit of course...












See, I told you everyone was being helpful. This morning Huston will have his preschool class in the morning...I called my grandma to see if she would take the other two boys for the morning, and Lillie and I will head to the store to get a few things - or maybe we'll just go home and take a nap....

Ms. Phyl

"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." James 4:17

It is embarrassing to admit how often I have known the things that I should do for people and think of ways to help and bless others and never follow through. I can blame the fact that I have little ones still at home, I can blame the obligations of work and home, but in reality most of the time, the things I think of are doable - its just getting out there to do them - carving out time in my day to think of the people around me.

Case in point, this weekend my husband received a call from an elderly lady from our church (I won't tell you how old she is yet) - he helps her with odd jobs and does her yard work when called upon. She needed some leaves raked up on Saturday and asked Steven if he was available for the job. Well, Ms. Phyl (her given name is Phillie) had not yet heard that Miss Lillie had arrived and so Steven filled her in on the details. After getting off the phone with her, he called me at my folks house - I had just returned from running errands and mom was watching Lillie for me - he told me he was heading to Phyl's and he suggested that I swing by for a visit and let Phyl meet Lillie. So many times I think of going to visit Phyl or even to just call her and check on her and I hardly ever follow through with the plan. Mom decided to come with us on the visit and here are a few shots of the two ladies together...



Ms. Phyl held onto Lillie for well over an hour! She kept cradling her in her arms and looking down at her and just smiling and almost giggling over her. She couldn't get over how "dainty" Lillie was and cooed over her long fingers and dark hair and just totally ate her up. That little visit did wonders for all involved. Lillie was totally relaxed and just slept peacefully in Ms. Phyl's arms, Ms. Phyl thoroughly enjoyed the baby fix, and I left feeling like that I helped give a little bit of a lift to her day - it was mostly Lillie's company that accomplished that though...

Ok, now I will tell you how old our Ms. Phyl is - do you want to take a guess first? I'll give you a moment.......are you ready? She's 101 - she'll be 102 in late October. She doesn't look a day over 80 does she? :-)

What a Novel Idea!!

The other day Huston, Avery, Lillie and I were getting ourselves ready to go do some errands. I didn't have my biggest helper, Isaiah, around, but Huston was taking on the role of helper quite well. The morning had him helping to calm Lillie, playing "go-fer" for mommy, and trying to help keep track of Avery. But the ultimate help came when we were loading up in the van...I had sent Huston and Avery on ahead while I finished up packing a few things away and getting Lillie strapped into her car seat. I get to the van with Lillie to find that Huston had gotten Avery clicked into his seat belt and was in the process of getting himself strapped in too. I commented what a great big help this was and how he was such a great big brother. To which he responded with his trademark Huston enthusiasm..."Hey Mom, you know what I am going to start doing?" I answered him, "No Huston, what are you starting to do?" He then replied, "I am going to start listening to you." It took all I could to totally not laugh in his face at this information. I tell you what, that is certainly a novel idea!

Life with Baby - Week One

Lillie ready for her first outing - going to Easter services...

I can't believe a week has passed already...isn't it funny how time seems to stand still when you are anxiously awaiting an event and then once it is here and gone, time just slips away from you. Lillie is doing really well - the boys are doing really well, a bit emotional (Huston's whining and crying is about to do me in) but all in all everyone is adjusting smoothly. Lillie spent her one week birthday in the drs office for her one week check-up. She is already back to birth weight, and everything else checked out perfectly. The dr. asked if we were getting any sleep at our house and I told him that we really aren't doing too bad. I was up more with Avery last night than I was with Lillie - Avery has never been a good sleeper. Lillie had a bottle at 9:00 then slept until 2:00 and then until almost 7:00 this morning. Pretty good, I am certainly not complaining! She no longer wants to have awake time during the night - she is heading down the right roads.

The boys have been super. The other question the dr asked me yesterday was if the boys still liked her. I told him that even Avery seems to really be glad that the "baby sister" is around. He thought that was quite amazing. Isaiah is still the very protective and sometimes an "overwhelming" big brother. He absolutely loves her, he loves her outfits, he loves to nuzzle her and talk to her and help her in anyway he can - sometimes he's on the verge of overstimulating her, it took a good portion of the first half of the week to convince him that babies this young do not want to be constantly touched and loved on. Huston is not as demonstrative in his affections toward her, but shows no ill will toward her either. He enjoys helping me too and is very proud of himself when he plays the big brother role. He speaks of her sweetly, and wants to hold her once in awhile, but basically he just goes on with his day and gives her some space. Avery comes to sit next to me when I am holding Lillie quite often and gently puts his cheek up against hers and then pops up to say "baby sister hug" - yesterday as I was getting her into her car seat and packing some things away for the the dr. visit, Lillie started to fuss. Avery went over to her and gently rocked the car seat and then patted her head and said to her "it ok, no cry" - I was shocked. I was pleased too, he was the one that I was most concerned for, but he seems to be ok with his new role. I have been trying to make special efforts to give some focused time to each big brother, and the boys also do a good job of loving on and taking care of each other too.

Today the kids were watching a Veggie Tales about baby Moses and Miriam. The theme was about having compassion for the new baby in the family (we've had this dvd for quite awhile, the theme was just a coincidence). At one point in the show the Miriam character said that she wanted a dog, but she got a baby instead and that was pretty disappointing to her. Isaiah heard that and said, "Are you kidding, a baby is more fun than a dog!" I think that is pretty high praise coming from a six year old boy!