...... but my apparently aging back again went out and I spent the last week laying flat on my back. Very pathetic, although I enjoyed having the time to read a few good books. And found out that Chris makes a pretty good Mr. Mom!
In other news: Beth had a fever last weekend, and now Abbie seems to have it. Because of her central line, she can't have tylenol or anything, and we have to take her in to have bloodwork done. In these circumstances (where we are almost certain that she just picked up Beth's mild bug) it's looking like they will just give us some antibiotics and send us home. We'll find out for sure tomorrow, though, when I take her in.
If you have a spare prayer, we'll take it. :)
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
More quotes
Beth: Ow, my arm! My capable arm!
Abbie, with a laugh: Mommy! I just made a poopie noise!
Abbie, with a laugh: Mommy! I just made a poopie noise!
Friday, September 15, 2006
Awesome prayer, courtesy of Beth
Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, about a strawberry, world without end. Amen!
Tidbits from today
Chris: Katie, I don't want to see you get so upset when you get an answer wrong. That is what homework is for -- practice! Nobody can be perfect all the time.
Katie: You mean like how you aren't perfect in running?
*************************************************************************Beth: Sometimes I don't feel loved. I know you love me, I know you do. But sometimes I just don't feel loved.
**************************************************************************
Chris(about to lay his head on Beth's pillow): There aren't any boogers on here, are there?
Beth: There aren't any boogers on my pillow. But there are a lot of tears.
****************************************************************************
Abbie and Beth are harder to quote, because the funniest part of most of what they say is the voice they say it in. But here's a try.
Me: Abbie, do you want me to hold your bottle?
Abbie: Yes please. But be careful! Don't spill it!
*****************************************************************************
Claire: Sometimes, at night? I think that there are spiders crawling all over inside my body. Spiders all over inside my body! (It would almost be more reassuring if we could blame this on on acid flashbacks....)
*****************************************************************************
Katie: Ew! Abbie is so dirty! I'm glad I'm not a baby because they always get so disgusting when they eat.
Claire: I love getting dirty!
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
links...
I just figured out how to use the link section, so if you'd like me to link to you just let me know!!!
Fr. Andy, I took the liberty of linking to your blog already, just because I still think it's so cool that you are actually a priest now. I'm tempted to tell some stories about you (um, Prague???) but I'll refrain out of respect. :) I hope you don't mind being linked by a decidedly non-heady blog!
Any other takers?
Fr. Andy, I took the liberty of linking to your blog already, just because I still think it's so cool that you are actually a priest now. I'm tempted to tell some stories about you (um, Prague???) but I'll refrain out of respect. :) I hope you don't mind being linked by a decidedly non-heady blog!
Any other takers?
see ya, sucker!
Actually, Abbie's Occupational Therapist is a wonderful woman, and she has been great with Abbie. I'll actually miss her. But she's outta here!
Yup, Abbie is doing well enough that she was discharged from OT yesterday. We'll still probably see a PT/OT through the state about twice a week, but Abbie's last evaluation has her just a month or two behind where she should be.
This is such a happy moment for us. Chris and I were talking last night about our friends' daughter, who is a year younger than Abbie, and who has recently begun to crawl. I remember when they came to visit right after Abbie's first surgery, and I realized that Ella was stronger and more mobile at 3 months than Abbie was at 17 months. It made me so sad, and it really drove home just how much the surgery had affected her.
But here we are, a mere four months later, and Abbie is back to crawling up and down the stairs and running around the house. She can totally dust Ella if she wants to!
It's crazy how resiliant she is. The OT told me yesterday that Abbie is really doing everything, naturally, that she needs to do in order to improve. I know that she is really too young to feel sorry for herself, but it is still amazing to me that she just keeps chugging away despite all of the trauma she has gone through. And she keeps smiling, and laughing, and teasing everybody with that sweet little way that babies have.
Holy cow, I love this kid.
Yup, Abbie is doing well enough that she was discharged from OT yesterday. We'll still probably see a PT/OT through the state about twice a week, but Abbie's last evaluation has her just a month or two behind where she should be.
This is such a happy moment for us. Chris and I were talking last night about our friends' daughter, who is a year younger than Abbie, and who has recently begun to crawl. I remember when they came to visit right after Abbie's first surgery, and I realized that Ella was stronger and more mobile at 3 months than Abbie was at 17 months. It made me so sad, and it really drove home just how much the surgery had affected her.
But here we are, a mere four months later, and Abbie is back to crawling up and down the stairs and running around the house. She can totally dust Ella if she wants to!
It's crazy how resiliant she is. The OT told me yesterday that Abbie is really doing everything, naturally, that she needs to do in order to improve. I know that she is really too young to feel sorry for herself, but it is still amazing to me that she just keeps chugging away despite all of the trauma she has gone through. And she keeps smiling, and laughing, and teasing everybody with that sweet little way that babies have.
Holy cow, I love this kid.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Tricky
Today is the first Football Sunday of the season! All must now bow down to the big-screen tv, and the large men running around on it.
This is an important time for Chris. He bought all of the girls brand-new Ravens shirts, and then he hunkered down in the basement to revel in the first full day of football since last year. It's been a long, sad off-season for him.
The girls were really great today, spending some time watching the game with him downstairs but mainly playing either upstairs or outside.
And then, about an hour before bedtime, Katie revolted.
She did it subtly. It could not have been more smooth had she been a criminal mastermind who had spent months planning it with a crack team of other criminal masterminds.
I was working on assembling a bookcase in the living room, and Katie quietly slipped away and went downstairs. Where she told Chris that she thought I needed his help. And then casually mentioned that she might flip the channel - just for a minute - while he was away.
I didn't need help. Chris came upstairs just long enough to ascertain this, and then he immediately realized that he had been snookered.
Maybe she really did think that I needed help. I was using tools and stuff, and maybe that seemed like the sort of thing a pregnant woman shouldn't be messing with alone. Or maybe she just wanted to catch up on a few minutes of Animal Planet. It was probably a mixture of both. But the fact is, no-one could have read the situation better and then turned it to her own advantage better than Katie did. Except Chris.
This may seem like I am bragging about my child being sneaky, but that's really not the case. I know she sincerely thought I needed help. But when she acted on her assumptiom, she knew it was only an assumption and she knew it would buy her a few minutes with the t.v. And it makes me laugh, because that is pure Chris. She may not look just like him, but she more than any of the girls is her father's daughter. Chris writ small, and female, and way too smart.
This is an important time for Chris. He bought all of the girls brand-new Ravens shirts, and then he hunkered down in the basement to revel in the first full day of football since last year. It's been a long, sad off-season for him.
The girls were really great today, spending some time watching the game with him downstairs but mainly playing either upstairs or outside.
And then, about an hour before bedtime, Katie revolted.
She did it subtly. It could not have been more smooth had she been a criminal mastermind who had spent months planning it with a crack team of other criminal masterminds.
I was working on assembling a bookcase in the living room, and Katie quietly slipped away and went downstairs. Where she told Chris that she thought I needed his help. And then casually mentioned that she might flip the channel - just for a minute - while he was away.
I didn't need help. Chris came upstairs just long enough to ascertain this, and then he immediately realized that he had been snookered.
Maybe she really did think that I needed help. I was using tools and stuff, and maybe that seemed like the sort of thing a pregnant woman shouldn't be messing with alone. Or maybe she just wanted to catch up on a few minutes of Animal Planet. It was probably a mixture of both. But the fact is, no-one could have read the situation better and then turned it to her own advantage better than Katie did. Except Chris.
This may seem like I am bragging about my child being sneaky, but that's really not the case. I know she sincerely thought I needed help. But when she acted on her assumptiom, she knew it was only an assumption and she knew it would buy her a few minutes with the t.v. And it makes me laugh, because that is pure Chris. She may not look just like him, but she more than any of the girls is her father's daughter. Chris writ small, and female, and way too smart.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Microcosm
Chris: All I want is to get a little bit of peace in this world.
Me: I think having five kids was the wrong way to go about that.
Me: I think having five kids was the wrong way to go about that.
Monday, September 04, 2006
This happened last week, but it still has me giggling
One good thing about the older girls going to school is that Claire and Abbie have suddenly become Big Buddies. Previously, they were really more Tolerant Rivals, so I'm glad to see the change.
My mom asked me the other day if I have to worry about Claire overpowering Abbie, but the truth is that, despite her sweet and gentle demeanor, if there is any bullying going on between the two of them I can almost be guaranteed that Abbie is not the victim.
For example:
Last week the two younger girls were playing in the living room while I was helping the two older ones with homework. At some point Claire decided to abandon the game, and she went to the basement door to go downstairs. Abbie was following right on her heels, though, and slammed the door shut before Claire could get through. So Claire opened the door again, and again Abbie slammed it shut. This happened three or four times before Chris, who was in the basement and thought that Claire was just playing with the door, yelled up to her to leave the door closed.
Claire moaned at how unfair it was, but the look on Abbie's face said it all. She knew she was the victor. Abbie very gently took Claire's hand, and in a tone that implied just accept it and be a good loser, said to Claire, "Come on, dear" and led her back to the living room.
And Claire went.
My mom asked me the other day if I have to worry about Claire overpowering Abbie, but the truth is that, despite her sweet and gentle demeanor, if there is any bullying going on between the two of them I can almost be guaranteed that Abbie is not the victim.
For example:
Last week the two younger girls were playing in the living room while I was helping the two older ones with homework. At some point Claire decided to abandon the game, and she went to the basement door to go downstairs. Abbie was following right on her heels, though, and slammed the door shut before Claire could get through. So Claire opened the door again, and again Abbie slammed it shut. This happened three or four times before Chris, who was in the basement and thought that Claire was just playing with the door, yelled up to her to leave the door closed.
Claire moaned at how unfair it was, but the look on Abbie's face said it all. She knew she was the victor. Abbie very gently took Claire's hand, and in a tone that implied just accept it and be a good loser, said to Claire, "Come on, dear" and led her back to the living room.
And Claire went.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Our family is beginning to cramp our style....
I just realized today that we really need to change our Sunday morning mass routine.
We have always been the types who sneak into the church mere seconds before the processional begins. (OK, in the interest of honesty-- sometimes it's during the processional.) We have a hard time gettting there early. I don't really even know why; it has always been like this, even before the advent of our children. Even before marriage -- I barely made it to mass on time back in the days when the only person I needed to concern myself with was me. I have some very fond memories of running through campus in high heels, trying to maintain modesty while still achieving maximum speed. (This differs from my weekday college memories, where I was still running, but in sweatpants and tennis shoes, and I had farther to go.)
So, we have this problem. But now, instead of slipping into a pew in the back, we are faced with a more complicated scenario; we have to find a pew that will fit ALL of us, and we have to somehow do it as unobtrusively as possible while herding four (and soon to be more) squirrely little girls through the quiet church.
It can't be done. Let's face it, it just can't.
We have to change. Get our act together. Organize our lives. Get on the ball and all that.
Darn it.
We have always been the types who sneak into the church mere seconds before the processional begins. (OK, in the interest of honesty-- sometimes it's during the processional.) We have a hard time gettting there early. I don't really even know why; it has always been like this, even before the advent of our children. Even before marriage -- I barely made it to mass on time back in the days when the only person I needed to concern myself with was me. I have some very fond memories of running through campus in high heels, trying to maintain modesty while still achieving maximum speed. (This differs from my weekday college memories, where I was still running, but in sweatpants and tennis shoes, and I had farther to go.)
So, we have this problem. But now, instead of slipping into a pew in the back, we are faced with a more complicated scenario; we have to find a pew that will fit ALL of us, and we have to somehow do it as unobtrusively as possible while herding four (and soon to be more) squirrely little girls through the quiet church.
It can't be done. Let's face it, it just can't.
We have to change. Get our act together. Organize our lives. Get on the ball and all that.
Darn it.
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