Book #2-So Long and Thanks For All the Fish

Witty, clever, and downright hilarious at times! Douglas Adams' So Long and Thanks For All the Fish just may be my favorite in The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I'm probably going to continue finishing The Guide. Only two more books to go. The next one is extremely short-I feel a little guilty even calling it a book. It's more like a short story...Young Zaphod Plays It Safe. This is followed by Mostly Harmless, which concludes The Guide.

And another potty training blooper...Isaac pooped in his pull-up this morning before he got out of bed. Which is fine as far as I'm concerned, at least he got it out. However, when I picked his pull-up up off of the floor to put it in the trash the poo-poo fell out onto the floor. Maggie (the dog) didn't miss a beat. She promptly went over to it and put it in her mouth to eat it. Luckily, I got her to drop it without difficulty.

Potty Training Bloopers

I taught Isaac a new trick. I threw a few Kix in the big toilet and encouraged him to pee on them. I didn't have any Cheerios, so Kix would have to do. He likes this trick, which is great. We've had a bit of a breakthrough in this respect.

The thing is he needs to pull his pants all the way down to his ankles when he stands up on the stool, or else a slight mess can result. Like yesterday, when I went to pull his pants down further, he ended up peeing on my sleeve. Lots of giggles. Then, as the stream slowed down, it began to dribble on the rim of the toilet and on his pants and underbuns. Isaac then says, "Oh no, that wasn't supposed to happen!"

Josiah counted to ten by himself yesterday too. He is amazing.

Elizabeth has been ridiculously smiley and chatty lately. She blows raspberries like a pro.

Dialogue

So one of the manifestations of Isaac's resistance to potty train is to hold his poop in. Naturally, this leads to some major flatulence.

The scene takes place on the couch in the family room. The Newsboys are playing in the background. Josiah is playing happily. Isaac is laying on his side, under his blanket on the couch, sort of propped up on the arm of the couch.

Isaac: "Mom! Come lay with me."

Me: "I'd love to Isaac."

I lay down on my side on the couch too, with my head laying on Isaac's legs.

Isaac lets a few rip, which causes both of us to giggle uncontrollably. I know I shouldn't, but I just couldn't help myself this time.

Isaac: "I passed of gas!"

Giggling escalates.

Me: "Isaac! No leaving stinkers on mommy's head!"

Isaac: "Oh, I forgot."

More giggling.

There are no typos in this dialogue. Whenever I tried to tell Keith and my mom this story, I couldn't stop laughing long enough to get the words out.

Update

Took all the kids to the dr yesterday. Isaac continues to need breathing treatments 3-4x per day. Josiah and Elizabeth were both wheezing, so I got them checked out. Both of their lungs were junky, so they both need breathing treatments as well now. Elizabeth has it worse, requiring them every 3 hours. Josiah, however, has an ear infection on top of everything else. And now, Isaac has officially constipated himself. He was screaming every 15 min or so throughout the night trying to hold it in. Lots of juice, water, fluids in general, and Miralax are in order today.

Naturally Keith isn't deal well with any of this, especially not with Isaac refusing to poop.

On a very happy note, Josiah is putting 2-3 words together to make little sentences like, "Thank you Isaac," and "Daddy at work." He can also sing Happy Birthday and is beginning to sing the ABC song. He's such a wonderful boy. He's starting to learn to drink from regular cups too, not sippies. He's been doing well with forks and spoons for a while.

Elizabeth has slept through the night, from about 9:30pm-8am, 4 nights in a row now in spite of how sick she is. She remains a very happy little baby, quite chatty and smiley!

Lastly, even though Isaac can't seem to let his poop out, he is learning his numbers fairly well. I'm using a clock, because he became very interested in telling time. Great way to learn 1-12. I also caught him talking to his bulldozer yesterday. He said, "You got Newsboys in there? Yeah? Aw, what happened to your truck? Did you hurt it? Aww." It was adorable. I also subscribed to this Highlights magazine for kids 1-5 called Highlights High Five. He loves it. We learned that on the highlightskids.com website Isaac can listen to stories online. Now he knows how to point and click with the mouse. It's adorable.

Something I never mentioned...while we were in Michigan for Christmas Wella gave me some little board books for Elizabeth, one of which was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Isaac proceeded to pick this book up and make up his own story to it, which he called "Going Away Star." He sat on the couch with Aunt M one morning and recited this story to her 3 times in a row. Never caught what he was saying but I thought if he would just say it one more time, I'd record it on my phone, type it out and frame it as his first composition. Do you think he'd ever do it again for me though? Nope! All I caught of the story was something about not wanting to go to bed, but it's time for bed, etc. Oh well.

Isaac is screaming his head off in the bathroom right now trying to poop.

When Keith comes home and asks what I did today, sometimes I simply tell him that I kept from going insane. If I can refrain from putting my fist through a wall, or throwing a chair through a window, then I've accomplished something great. Today is one such day. And it's only about 10am.

Words to the Wise

You need 1 humidifier per kid in the house, or per bedroom. 3 kids, each with their own bedroom =3 humidifiers.

All immunity benefits of breastmilk are completed cancelled out by having siblings.

I can't remember what else I was going to say and my Josiah is having the meltdown of a lifetime.

Isaac is currently in the process of constipating himself. Hasn't pooped since Monday.

I'm reading So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish by Douglas Adams. Book 4 or 5 in the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the GAlaxy.

1st Book of 2010

Finally finished my first book of 2010, even though I started it in 2009. Floods Upon the Dry Ground is a church history kind of book. The author traces movements of the Holy Spirit and "revivals" from Pentecost in 30 AD to today. Pretty good book if you're into that kind of thing.

Isaac's birthday party was Sunday. His actual birthday was yesterday. All along we've been practicing saying "bye-bye diapers, hello under-bunder-boos when you turn 3." Sure enough, yesterday he stayed clean and dry all day! He even stayed dry when I put a pull-up on him for nap time (even though he never slept). More importantly though, he pooped on the potty twice! Yay!

Birthday party went great-I should post pictures for our Michigan friends and family! Maybe I'll get around to that soon-hopefully!

What a Week

So Elizabeth started doing this new thing where she refuses to nurse on my left side. Only, I didn't figure that out until last week. I would just try to feed here and she would scream and cry. I didn't understand. Last Tuesday was such a day. I couldn't get her to eat all afternoon. Tension was high. Then Isaac was whining about wanting something, I can't remember what, but I started singing the Rolling Stones' song "You Can't Always Get What You Want." I really thought I was just singing it to myself to keep from going crazy. I didn't think he was listening. Then about 15 min later my mom and I were talking and what do we hear in the background? Isaac in the living room singing "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Talk about a tension reliever!

Wed night I started vomiting and continued to do so all night. I tried to nurse Elizabeth at 4am when she woke up, but almost fainted. So I called my mom to come over in the morning and thankfully she stayed all day to help me. I don't know how I would've done it, because I couldn't stay out of bed for more than an hour. Keith came home and took over for her. Except about an hour or two after my mom left, while Keith was getting ready to give the boys their dinner, Isaac did a somersault out of his booster chair, landed flat on his face, and knocked his two front teeth loose. Lots of screaming on everyone's part, even Keith's. Lots of blood and panic. My nausea left me instantly as I scrambled to call my mother back over to watch Josiah and Elizabeth while we took Isaac to the dentist. Thankfully our dentist is an emergency dentist so he was able to see Isaac right away. X-rays looked good, the teeth weren't broken. Dentist said they would probably tighten up in a couple days (which I didn't know teeth could do) and if there was any damage to the roots they would likely turn black within months or a year. If that does happen we could have them pulled or have some kind of coating put on them. Gave us a script for an antibiotic. Told us to give him Tylenol or Motrin as needed. Soft diet. Home we went. Oh yeah, all this was happening as a blizzard was moving through too.

Fri am Keith decided to work from home due to the previous night's drama and the bad weather. Again, I am thankful because Isaac then began vomiting at 6:45am. So not only did he have a sore mouth to cope with, but also my stomach bug. He couldn't keep anything down all day long. Poor little guy. My dad came over to take care of Isaac and Josiah while I took Elizabeth to her hip ultrasound and appointment with her orthopedic doctor.

More bad news. The harness she's wearing for her hip dysplasia isn't helping much so far. Her ultrasound revealed that her hip is still sitting rather high in the socket and the socket is only formed at a 43 degree angle. It needs to be about a 60 degree angle. The treatment is to persist with the harness for now, but she can only wear it until she's 6 months old. After that she's too big. If her hip is not formed properly by then, she will be anesthetized, a dye will be injected into her hip, and an x-ray will be done to see if there is anything in the socket (ligaments, fatty tissue, etc.) that's preventing the hip from sitting in it correctly. If something is found, she will have surgery, and then be placed in a body cast that will immobilize her. If nothing is found in the socket, she will still be placed in a body cast that will immobilize her. Neither of these are good options so we are earnestly praying for divine healing. If it comes to surgery Keith and I will likely get a second opinion.

Ok so that was last Fri. Not much happened Saturday that I can remember. Sunday we went to church and were lucky enough to go out on a date. My mom, bless her heart, watched the kids for us again. We went to Taipei Tokyo for sushi, dumplings, and chinese chicken and vegetables. Yum. Oh yeah, on our way out the door Josiah fell down the steps. I'm tempted to say, "What else can go wrong?" but I know better. Things could always be much much worse. Josiah really only fell down a few steps and nothing was hurt but his pride. Keith was there to catch him before he fell to the bottom. Also, Josiah pretty much falls down steps on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

Here's to a better week!

OVERWHELMED!

Overwhelmed is the buzz word for the weekend. Woke up 3:30am Sat. Fed Elizabeth, put everyone in the van, and headed back for Pgh. Made it home by around 12:30. Unloaded the van, unpacked suitcases and toiletry bags. Tried to organize toys somewhat. Remember, we never had time to organize Christmas gifts from our house and my mom's house before we left for Michigan, so we still had all that to do.

The Christmas tree stunk-but that's another story. So we put all children in their beds/cribs for naps while we undecorated. That pretty much took up the entire afternoon and part of the evening. We vowed to do it differently next year as about 5 ornaments got broken this year, and I ended up undecorating the entire bottom half of the tree about 3 weeks ago because the boys just couldn't leave it alone. Again, that's another story.

Threw dinner together (rice and vegetables-yum) and took Isaac with me to the grocery store. Didn't leave for the store until 6:45pm, so I didn't get home until around 8:15pm. Put Isaac to bed, again tried to organize and put away Christmas gifts some more, fed Elizabeth, showered, made it into bed around 11pm.

Made it to church this am-hooray! Came home, fed the boys lunch, then began a vast purging of toys upstairs and down. I think we ended up with at least 3 garbage bags full of old, worn, or unpopular toys to donate to Goodwill, plus some went in the trash, plus some were simply handed down to Elizabeth. Naptime came and I actually put the Cars movie in for Isaac while I prepared dinner, which took longer than I planned. After dinner I finally took out all of the Christmas gifts we brought home from my parents' house for the boys. Got almost everything out of the packaging and sorted it all out. We decided we're going to purchase another 9-compartment storage shelving thingy from Lowe's for the family room to keep the toys in order. I also kept a couple of things in the packaging to pull out at a later date for sort of a surprise new toy. Wish I would've done that with more of their gifts. Have to remember that for next year.

I ended the evening with a frigid walk outside with Maggie. It had to be done, and now that's it's over I'm glad I did it.

Now it's time to feed Elizabeth for the final time tonight, then get my shower.

This was the year of the matchbox car and all things wheels-Isaac got a total of at least 20 matchbox cars plus 4-5 bigger things on wheels. Josiah received about 15 matchbox cars in all plus at least 4-5 bigger things on wheels. Favorites? For Isaac I would have to say it's this bulldozer thingy that revs up and makes sparks. For Josiah it would be this big semi-truck with a back-ho (sp?) on it. While we are totally overwhelmed with how much stuff our children have, we are grateful to have such wonderful families who love our kids and do nice things for them for Christmas.

I haven't even gotten to Elizabeth's things yet though! Thank goodness she's not old enough to care.

Hello 2010!

Keith and I were just discussing this morning what a big year it would be for each of our kids.

Elizabeth: by the end of this year she will likely be walking and talking, perhaps even imitating some of the things we do like talk on the phone. She will hopefully love books as much as her brothers do too. I kind of hope she'll still be nursing a little, but I bet she'll be onto sippy cups too.

Josiah: by the end of this year he will be 2 1/2, so he may or may not become interested in the potty. He will definitely be speaking in sentences and paragraphs, mimicking us even more. He will likely learn to sing songs like his big brother does now too, and will probably recognize at least some of his letters and numbers, should recognize his colors and shapes too.

Isaac: Keith and I pray earnestly that Isaac will be potty trained by the end of 2010! In fact, we're beginning anew when he turns 3 in a few weeks. We've been practicing saying, "Good-bye diapers, hello under-bunder-boos!" This morning Isaac put his pants on all by himself and it made me realize he may very well be dressing himself by the end of the year. I bet he'll become a master of letters and numbers, and may even recognize some words. He already recognizes his name, which is cool. Who knows what else? We plan on buying him a bike this summer. I bet he needs the training wheels for a while, but it will still be exciting to see him ride it!

How could I forget the biggest, most important, and perhaps the most challenging resolution of 2010...TO NOT GET PREGNANT! I always say over and over again how much I truly believe that children are a wonderful blessing and gift from God, and I'm so thankful for our fertility, but I sure could use a break! Keith and I look forward to a new phase in our marriage-the phase where I'm actually not pregnant!