Daley Ponderings

From an email written to my mom on April 4, 2015 at 7pm.

Just after noon, Noah came screaming in from outside.  He was holding one hand with the other and blood was dripping.  I took him straight to the sink to wash off.  He couldn't tell me what had happened and there was blood all over both hands and even his mouth.  I pretty quickly determined that it was only on one hand (he had put his thumb in his mouth as anyone might at first and that's where that blood came from.)  I grabbed some paper towels to press on the thumb to stop the bleeding and then saw that his index finger was bleeding, too.  So I grabbed more towels for that. He still was crying uncontrollably.

I took him over to the couch so he could lie down.  Carefully, I took away the towel from the index finger and found that it was minor.  I sent Jonathan to get a bandaid for that and then it was time to investigate the thumb.  A nice sized slash across the top, perpendicular to the nail.  I had Jonathan get the bandaid box and some tylenol.  I put a butterfly closure on it and then a regular bandaid on top of that for a bit more protection.  Noah was still in such pain that he could not tell me what happened.  But Jonathan made a guess and he was right - Noah was stripping the bark off of a maple sapling with his Swiss Army knife and slipped.  (More)

3/2 - I told Jeremiah I'd clean up the (play) food because he was still playing with the cars.  He came up to me, gave me a big hug, and said, "Thank you" (sounds like Duh-doo).  So sweet!

3/2 - Faith offered to ask Dad-o to walk them to Joyful Noise, "'Cause...I want you to have enough rest, Mommy."

Jeremiah calls Faith's headbands "crowns".

4/6 - Joy was counting, Jeremiah repeating after her.  After she got to twelve, he repeated twelve and then said thirteen on his own before she did!

4/8 - Pinewood Derby.  Noah won 2nd place in the kids' division. Jonathan got 5th.  Jon got 3rd in the adult division.

4/17 - Faith went to ride her bike at St.Mary's parking lot all by herself.

4/22 - Dropping Jon off at airport, trying to get gas, turning wrong way on Brown Ave, all the way down to Hudson.  Dunkin Donuts, directions even further south, then finally back up and at Lowe's with only Jeremiah and Nathaniel, lady at checkout "you have your hands full!"

4/23 - JPD can plug in toaster. "pug"  Also, "ow-coke" = artichoke

4/24 - Noah, "I was racing myself around the car.  We tied."

4/24 - Joy, about Nathaniel, "Oh!  He smiled so much, I think he loves me!"

April - Jonathan makes placebo potions.  The first one was for when someone gets mildly hurt outside - a poultice to rub on the hurt part to feel better quickly so you don't have to go inside to Mom.  Then he made drinkable ones - water with xylitol, almond and vanilla extracts, food coloring.  But then they sat around in jars too long and that phase was over.  They still do the outside one, though, because it's easy to make from grass and twigs and dirt. (:

Once again, we were blessed to have Grandma and Dad-o with us for a birth. Jeremiah was still too clingy on Mommy for us to be comfortable having him at the birth.  He did well completely away from me, but had trouble when nearby and I was unavailable.  That is exactly the situation a birth would be, so we decided that he should stay home with Dad-o when the rest of us headed to the birth center.

Once that was decided, we thought we should give the other sibliongs a choice. Do you want to watch the birth, or would you rather stay home? Faith chose to stay home.  She said her favorite part is holding the babay, and she could hold him when we got home.  She is a sensitive one and it was wise of her to want to avoid seeing her Mommy in pain.  The rest of the kids wanted to come.

Friday night, February 13, I had some mildy crampy contractions.  I drank some extra water and they stopped.  In the morning, we went to church (switched to Saturday because of impending storm Saturday evening into Sunday morning.)  In the bathroom, I discovered that those contractions in the night had done something.  This evidence was present throughout the day.

Sunday, February 15, contractions at 1:45am, 2:45am, 3:00am.  At that point, Jon went out to shovel the driveway which had 12" of snow already and it was continuing to fall fast.  We got ready to head into Concord in the snowstorm.  Normally, we wouldn't have gone so early, but Jon knew it would take much longer in the storm and we didn't want to take any chances.  We left our house at 4am.  The roads were "surprisingly driveable" - Jon's words.  The snow was all powdery and not slippery.  But it was hard to see the lanes.

I was quite aware for the trip, and had some mild contractions that started coming 5 minutes apart.  We arrived at 4:47 to an unplowed parking lot, but Jon drove in Beth's tracks and it was fine.

Once we arrived at the birth center, my contractions slowed down.  We were all able to get some sleep, except maybe Grandma and Joy because Joy was keyed up.  When I woke up in the morning, we tried to get labor going again.  I got into the birthing tub and Joy joined me.  That was a fun little special time with her.  Then we got out and dried off and tried walking up and down the stairs and around the center.

By 11:30am, it was apparent that my labor had paused.  So we headed home on cleared roads on a bright sunny, very windy day.

I decided to act just like normal for as long as it took for labor to get going again, but really hoping that it would be less than a week.

So we did regular restful Sunday activities, like take a nap and read books to the kids, go to bed on time.  (More)

1/25 - Joy, about ready to dance, "Mommy, if you don't see this show, you won't see it again, EVER!"

A good reminder to be present in the moment!  I turned away from the  computer and gave her my attention and I watched her beautiful solo dance show.

1/29 - Reading with Noah about archaeology and the Stone and Iron Ages. Then he asks, "So... People who lived in the ice age used tools made of ice?"

2/1 - Jeremiah can say the names of his siblings: Jza-nee, No-ee, Thay, Jzoe. I'm not quite sure how to spell the "j" sound.  It's a soft one, without the "d" at the beginning.

2/3 - Jon was writing the alphabet for Jeremiah, having him repeat each letter name.  After each of J, K, and L, Jeremiah said, "LMNOP!"

2/20 - Jeremiah calls Nathaniel "Nan-el"  By 2/22 it becomes "Naniel".  (and then later goes back to Nan-el, and still is January 2016)

~2/18 - Joy was playing with her animals by herself.  We overheard her telling one, "Don't keep crying, or Daddy will have to come talk to you..."

2/23 - Jeremiah got out three socks from his drawer.  I said, "How many feet do you have?"  He looked down, and said, "Uh, Uh, Ee!" (That is, one, two, three!) Well, then, I guess he needed three socks after all!

2/27 - Jeremiah put on his shirt, sweater, and pants all by himself.

I am the kind of person who enjoys writing.  I process my thoughts well by writing, and I like recording my thoughts and my family's life.

This year, I will be posting more.  At first, most will be catch-up posts.  I have a whole year of pocket notes to enter, not to mention Nathaniel's birth announcement and story!!

And even if the only readers are my mother and my future self, that's ok! I'm doing it for myself.

Happy Epiphany!