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Powered by LifeTypeScreenshot of a video call on Thursday:
Friday's procedures went well. They got plenty of marrow for their tests. The endoscopy showed the esophagus healthy. The sigmoidoscopy showed her colon quite inflamed. The surgeon could not tell the cause, but was confident that the pathologist would be able to. She woke up fine, though with some cardiac irregularities that settled themselves.
A dear friend visited all day Saturday, and this is what Grace looked like on a video call that evening:
She was eating a bagel, laughing at her brothers, talking, playing.
They are now just waiting for the colon biopsy results. There's some conflict of advice between GI and nutrition. Hopefully, with results there will be a clear path for what to do with her diet.
The rest of us went to an On Belay family activity day on Saturday, which was nice. It's been a good program for the kids these last several months. www.on-belay.org
However, Faith was in pain by lunch and could not participate in the high-climbing activities. She was really bummed about that.
Sorry about the orientation, I can't fix it on my phone.
Today is our 23rd wedding anniversary. Plenty of ups and downs for our family in those years!
6/17 - Nathaniel gets three molars at once. upper left, lower left, lower right. The upper right made its appearance 6/22.
6/21 - Haircut day for some. (It's pretty hard to get everyone in one day.) I cut Noah's hair, and some of Jeremiah's (he got impatient and I decided it was better to stop than to get myself impatient.) Faith asked if she could help me with Joy's hair. She did a very careful job. I had her start on the bangs conservatively and when it was a nice, even job, I let her do the next centimeter. After that, she trimmed the rest of Joy's hair - to that perfect length that really sets off Joy's adorable face - right above shoulder length. I really only had minimal fixing up to do. So then she asked if she could to mine! This one was one hundred percent Faith, nobody needed to do any fixing up. I had not had a haircut since just before Joy was born (that makes it five and a half years!). I love my new haircut! It is much more manageable, but still long, just about 4-6 inches shorter.
6/24 - Jeremiah and Joy came upstairs with tape all over their faces and fingers. Jeremiah explained, "Armor! We goin' battling!"
Highlights from my Mother's Day, in addition to playing handbells:
Nathaniel went in to the bid kids' room to give Jeremiah a morning hug and "hewwo!"
Nathaniel belly laughs.
Jonathan sang all the verses of Fairest Lord Jesus while washing dishes.
4/3 - I said to Jeremiah, "Your shoes are on the wrong feet, sweetie." He replied, "I not 'sweetie'. Joy is 'sweetie'."
4/10 - Joy and I spent a grueling but satisfactory three hours earning our yellow and orange belts, respectively.
4/14 - Jeremiah, "It will be so so so fun if I get lots of drums toys for Christmas." [Note from Mom: maybe not so fun for me.]
4/15 - Noah, "I am King Excalibur, and my sword is Arthur!"
4/15 - We were just about to leave to go to some friends' house for dinner when Faith came runnung inside, "Mom! Nathaniel's bleeding!" I grabbed a kleenex and ran down the side porch stairs. There is blood all over his shirt, pants, shoes, and the sidewalk. After a quick check from toes on up, I discovered that the cut is in between his eyes (a little higher and to his left than Jeremiah's similar cut.) I clamped on the kleenex, scooped him up and brought him to the kitchen sink. By that time, Daddy had been alerted also and he came to the kitchen to check it out. When I took the kleenex off, it had already stopped bleeding, and we could tell that, though significant, it was not as bad as Jeremiah's had been and we figured it probably did not need stitches. After we took off his clothes and cleaned up the blood, Jon applied a butterfly closure with a couple of regular bandaids on top. Nathaniel was really good about the whole thing. Only 15 minutes later than we meant to be, we went to our friends' house for dinner. The wound did ooze blood that evening, but it was fine in the morning. He has amazingly not been picking at it. I hope that continues even as it starts to itch. We don't even know exactly how it happened. The kids were playing in the driveway and no one actually saw him fall, or what he fell on.
4/16 - Jeremiah counted to seven correctly on his own.
4/16 - I have been doing knee pushups ever since starting karate. This year, I made a goal of doing ten pushups every day in February as a kickstart to the habit of daily pushups. After my karate test, I figured I could up the count to 20 a day. But, partly due to Jon's encouragement, I gave full pushups a try. On Friday, I did it! Ten full pushups! And again yesterday, and I'll do it again today. Very exciting and motivating. Proof that a little can grow with consistent work!
Joy can tie her shoes! She got some sparkly Hello Kitty shoes on her birthday shopping trip with Grammy, and it only took a couple of weeks for her to get it consistently. She's still slower than the rest of us, but she no longer needs help.
3/4 - "It's like somebody chewing on a guitar string lengthwise." Jonathan was commenting on a squeaky artichoke.
3/11 - Faith lost lower left 2nd incisor. (R one was a couple of days earlier)
3/12 - Nathaniel was interested in the potty and went a couple of times. I have not been consistent helping him be on it, though.
Jeremiah sings "Butterfly Amazing Grace" and asks me to, also. I didn't know what he meant when he first asked me, so I just sang "butterfly amazing grace" to the tune of amazing grace, over and over, and he liked it.
3/13 - NPD "here ya go" giving Jeremiah a piece of paper. (sounds like hah-ya-doh)
3/15 - Joy can wink both eyes.
3/22 - Jeremiah asked for "some of those green berries." He meant grapes.
3/22 - We were talking about how pencils keep disappearing from our house. Noah said, "The Greeks would say the pencil gods were mad at us."
3/23 - Nathaniel can run.
3/30 - Overheard, Joy explaining to Jeremiah, "'Obstacles' means 'stuff in your way'."
3/31 - Nathaniel pointed to a raisin and said, "Ray-rih". Jonathan asked, to be sure he heard right, "You want raisins?" Nathaniel replied, "Yeah." And he also said "more" later.
April 4, it snowed six inches. The next day, I wrote this:
Today the snow is still there and the sun is out and the sky is bright blue. It feels like a gorgeous February day! But since it is April, Nathaniel is just that much more developed that he can enjoy this snow day to the max! He can walk with his snow boots on, and he walked the farthest outside he has yet in his life. He loved it so much! He swished through the snow just like the big kids; he patted it (his arms are still short enough that he didn't need mittens, but just kept his hands inside the sleeves of his snowsuit); he rolled in it. He was so happy, it was such a joy to watch him. By the time we came back inside, his cheeks and nose were bright red, but there was still a smile on his face. Such a blessing for a late snow!
2/2 - Noah and I walked past the food pantry on distribution day, and saw a friend of ours heading there. He asked if she was donating food and I explained that she was receiving food. He wondered why she needed to get food from the food pantry, and we had a good discussion about the various reasons someone may need it. Our friend is an older single lady on a fixed income. I also brought up the idea that sometimes people make poor spending choices and that's why they don't have money for food. He picked right up on that, talking about people buying cigarettes instead of food. I also emphasized that it's good to have compassion for people even when they don't make the same choices we do, and try to help them make good choices if they're willing. And also how it's good to make sure kids get enough food even if their parents are irresponsible with money. It was a good discussion.
2/2 – Nathaniel came downstairs with help. He sat down facing forward and carefully scooted himself down each step.
2/3 – Nathaniel did the first four steps down holding my hand, all the rest all by himself. He was cautious careful and kind of wobbly. He was very proud and satisfied! That same evening he did the whole stairs all by himself!
2/3 - Noah came in holding a very small piece of fuzz and exclaimed, "With my microscope, I can see tons of colors in this piece of stuff!" He then examined lots of other things with the microscope.
2/6 - Jeremiah, eating a hard-boiled egg, "Look, Mom! A sun!" Me, "Yes! That's called the yolk." Jeremiah, "You call it 'yolk', I call it 'sun'."
2/10 – Nathaniel wiped my nose with Kleenex.
2/11 - Nathaniel can open the microwave door. He'll be playing somewhere in the kitchen, hear the beep and jump up and run to the microwave and open the door. So now we have to be on top of that, because usually the stuff inside is very hot! He also likes to open the door before it's done.
2/11 - Nathaniel was kicking a bottle around the kitchen like a soccer player.
2/11 - Nathaniel said "hello" with a clear 'l' sound. He copied me several times that day but has not said it again since.
2/11 - Joy remarked to me, "You can't count by zeroes. Zero...zero...zero...zero..."
2/12 - I took the baby gate down because Nathaniel wouldn't come down without me, but just stood there at the top and yelled.
But, 2/14, he decided to just step down into thin air and fell down to the landing. So the gate went up again.
This is our major birthday month, Jon turning 39, Jeremiah 3, Nathaniel 1, and Joy 5. We had our traditional big party for Jon, and a record number of pizzas were consumed (8). Jeremiah and Nathaniel just had Grammy and Papa over for small family celebrations. But Joy had a girls-only party, which was overall fun, but I like whole family parties better.
Jonathan has started being mistaken on the phone for Jon. He is thrilled with this development.
2/16 - Joy, remarking about three people on a see-saw, "It's a three-saw, because, one here, one there, and one there."
2/17 - I picked up Nathaniel and hugged him and said, "Oh, my baby!" He answered, "Oh, my mom."
2/21 - Overheard, Noah to Jonathan, "I'm allergic to dizziness, so count me out."
2/21 - Jeremiah practices screwing in a knob on the microphone stand in the cry room at church.
2/22 - Noah can whistle!
2/24 - You know you're a mechanical engineer when your one year old slams his bowl into yours and even though it doesn't break, you can see in your mind's eye the microscopic stress lines forming.
2/28 - Nathaniel practices putting a cap on a pen.
1/4 - JPD, breaking off celery stalk, "Wow! Big whacker! Bad guy come in our house, me whack him!"
1/4 - NPD signing "more"
1/5 - Joy, holding necklace, "I made it symmetrical, with yellow in the middle."
1/7 - NPD said, "amen" after we did at dinner. This has happened a few times now.
Jeremiah says, "gacky bame" which means "exactly the same".
1/8 - JPD, "mine toes-es" (and nearly all other plurals end with -es also.)
1/11 - NPD signed "more" and said, "mo"
1/12 - NHD adding up prices quickly at Goodwill
1/13 - Noah called 1/12, "one dozenth"
1/14 - Faith progressing quickly in skiing. Her instructor said she should go to level 5 next lesson.
1/14 - NPD, wandering around, looking this way and that, "Where? Where? Where? ..."
1/15 - JPD, "2, 8, 9, 1, buckle my shoe!"
1/16 - This week, Nathaniel has started making this whine that sounds just like a power router digging into wood.
1/17 - Joy, "knock knock." "who's there?" "carrot" "carrot who?" "carrot you" "carrot who??" "carrot you and your mother!"
1/18 - JPD balance on one foot, spinning also
Also, knee...knee...knee...knee...knee...carrot...carrot you glad I didn't say knee again?"
1/20 - Jeremiah, "Does this one [points to his left nipple] have juice, Mommy?"
Jeremiah, "Sho yucky"
1/24 - NPD can stack two jars.
1/28 – Jeremiah, "I like it! Thank you, Mom, making dinner."
1/28 – Nathaniel said "ba" as he pointed to a ping-pong ball
1/30 – Nathaniel might be a lefty too. Still up in the air, though.
1/31 – Jeremiah, "Potty in your closet, Mom." Me, "What? There's a potty in my closet?" Jeremiah, "Yeah." Me, "No, there isn't." Jeremiah, grinning, "Me so goofy, Mommy!"
1/31 – Jeremiah knows how to get to the bank. We went on a very long walk. He directed where we would go. At the front door of the bank, I showed him the sign that said it was closed on Sunday. So then we went to the back door of the bank. Then we went to the Methodist Church. We checked to see if Mediterrano restaurant was open but it was also closed. We watched two cars getting washed at the gas station. We went down to the other gas station and then up and around the side roads and visited Papa at his house and then we walked home. Later that week, when we visited the bank again, Jeremiah pointed out the sign that said it was open.