Daley Ponderings

Waiting for results

joyful — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 06:41:55 -0400

Screenshot 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!

Pocket Notes

joyful — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:00:00 -0400

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

4/1 - JPD, "'I'm goin' back to my work, after watchin' Jonathan do that awesome trick,' said Popcorn Man."

4/1 - Nathaniel started saying "yes" clearly - so cute!!

4/3 - NPD do turtle puzzle, self w/ encouragement

Noah and Faith's first cruise with Grandma and Dad-o is in here, but will
get a separate post.

4/17 - Nathaniel started saying the /n/ sound instead of /d/, as in Noah, not Doah.

4/20 - Nathaniel "nair" = in there

4/22 - Nathaniel, "doo, one, see-woh, zjump!" (two, one, zero, jump)

4/22 - Joy watched me do the door lock code at the fire station. She then
commented, "I know the code! It's [lists digits], sharp!"

4/24 - Nathaniel said, "love you!" for the first time.

4/27 - Nathaniel got his first two year molar, lower left.

4/28 - Nathaniel slept eight hours straight!

Pocket Notes

joyful — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 00:00:00 -0400

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

2/1 - Jonathan, "Even Einstein didn't have a triple-digit IQ." Noah, "Isn't that the guy with screws in his ears?" Jonathan, "No, that's Frankenstein."

Noah is losing teeth all the time, I have trouble keeping track of them all.

Dropping elbow on frozen shredded cheese. [This is a karate move, and it really works to break up the frozen chunks.]

2/7 - Faith started to whistle!

2/12 - Nathaniel: "Say-too" = thank you

2/16 - Nathaniel, "Way-ma" = Grandma

2/16 - How old are you, Nathaniel? [holding up one index finger on each hand] "Doo!"

2/18 - JPD doing joyful noise "p-p-p, t-t-t" with Nathaniel

2/25 - Joy, "It's a happy day every day at Grandma's house!"

3/2 - 10:30pm - Noah stands up out of bed, looks around confusedly, "I forgot how to do it."
Me, "Do what?"
Noah, "Go to the moon."

3/5 - Jeremiah knows almost the whole alphabet.

3/5 - Jeremiah, to Nathaniel, "Good morning, sweet boy!"

3/7 - Joy lost her second tooth. Lower right 1st incisor.

3/26 - JPD write first name all by self

3/27 - JPD, "Mommy, that says 'NO'".
"How do you know?"
"I seed the 'O', and I seed the 'N', so I knew it said 'NO'."
[flips switch]
"And this says 'YES'."

Pocket Notes

joyful — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 00:00:00 -0500

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

1/4 - The whole family plays Cousin Memory. Nathaniel repeats incessantly, "I turn! I turn!"

January - Nathaniel knows where all the dishes go. He loves helping to unload the dishwasher and he is good at sorting silverware.

1/9 - Nathaniel, "Self!" (as in, "I want to do it myself!")

1/10 - Jeremiah saw a picture of a galaxy on the computer and exclaimed, "Look! The Milk Bottle Way!"

1/13 - Noah, while washing dishes, about the dish soap, "Mom, I think this is running out. It DEFINITELY didn't last Seven Generations."

1/15 - Jeremiah, "i'm not a little boy! I'm a big boy! But my SIZE is little."

1/18 - Nathaniel now jumps with both feet.

1/22 - Joy read hymn 366 (I Live) with only minimal help and is so proud and happy, she found it again in the hymnal at home and she is singing it
over and over again.

January - Nathaniel, learning to say people's names. "Doah" = Noah; "Djon" = Jonathan; "Sase" = Faith; 1/26 - "Sho-shuh" = Joseph; 1/27 - "Miah" = Jeremiah; 1/28 - "Joy", with the j sounding like the j in Dijon.

1/27 - Nathaniel pinworms. Only treated him.

Discussion of "thet" vs. "that" [added 6/6/2020: This is an intermittent discussion that is ongoing. Apparently, I say it sloppily, so that's how Jonathan learned, and now several others say it that way also.]

Pocket Notes

joyful — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 00:00:00 -0500

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

11/10 - Nathaniel was a messenger to me from Joy: "mum" [come], held my hand to bring me to her.

11/22 - Jeremiah singing while playing, "I love you God, 'cause you make me happy..."

12/4 - Joy pinworms

~12/10 - Joy can whistle!

12/10 - Nathaniel, at the firefighter kids' Christmas party, "More cheese ball!"

12/11 - Nathaniel put on both his mittens by himself.

12/13 - Nathaniel's first haircut. He stood still the whole time - the easiest first haircut I've ever done!

12/14 - Noah, about BIG Numbers, "It's so boring, but it's so NOT boring."

12/20 - Joy lost her first tooth! Lower left. Popped out when she was trying to unscrew the toothpaste cap with her teeth...

12/20 - A spoonerism from a tired Mommy tongue, but Noah liked it and wanted me to write it down, "definary dictionation"

12/27 - We had been getting lots of packages in anticipation of Christmas. The doorbell rings. Nathaniel exclaims, "Box!"

12/31 - Jeremiah, "Raindolph is not real, but Santa is real." He knows this because he actually sat on Santa's lap at the fire station.

Pocket Notes

joyful — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 00:00:00 -0400

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

9/3 - Referring to two years ago, Jeremiah said, "The other day of the
oott-her day (stretched out, and louder) we tipped over in the big boat."
He wanted to know if the motor boat was going to tip over or not. So he
was glad to hear that this boat wouldn't.

9/11 - Jonathan put an ant in a spider web.

9/11 - Jeremiah said, "I not like you, but you still my buddy."

10/2 - Me: "Steroids are drugs that make your muscles stronger." Noah,
striking muscle-man pose, "Like cheese!!"

10/4 - Joy dictated a story and Noah typed it up. Self-initiated

10/6 - Jeremiah, in reply to my request that he not scream, "I wasn't
screaming, I was shrieking."

10/8 - Jonathan, making cookies when he has a cold, "My olfactory organ is
severly disfunctioning. I can't smell the vanilla."

10/11 - Noah sees this giant two-window spread of freaky clown skeleton
skull in neighbor's window. Jeremiah goes over to look and says, "Hee
hee, he is a funny clown! [pause] Oh, he has angry eyes."

I suggested he tell the clown to take a deep breath and not be angry
anymore. So Jeremiah decided to write him a letter! [Added 6/6/2020: He
didn't actually bring the letter over to the neighbor. But that clown was
a trial until at least a week or two after Halloween when they finally
took it down. It scared Joy especially, and Jeremiah had a
scared/fascinated attraction to it. Glad they never put it up again!]

Ocotber: NPD, "I see" (usually when trying to see the kindle)

NPD gives kisses to help people feel better.

Pocket Notes

joyful — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 00:00:00 -0400

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

8/9 - JPD, "The last name of my yellow shirt is 'Egg'." (Full name is 'Scrambled Egg')

8/10 - JPD, "Joy is my buddy." (Joy gone with Grammy.)

8/12 - Talking with a townsperson. He said, "I met a family that was very
strange. Similar to yours..."

8/13 - both upper canines definitely in [Jeremiah, Nathaniel? Why didn't I
write who this was for?!]

8/14 - NPD "buh" buckle

8/25 - JPD, "I have a necklace made out of moon lace."

Other august words for Nathaniel: "mine"; "men" = pen; "boo" = screw

Nathaniel words

joyful — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 00:00:00 -0400

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

more (sign too) = "moh", also means "I want that"
Mom
ow
bang/bonk
yum
signs please
uh-oh
ball
door
oh
hot
come = "mum", usually repeated, with hand signal
whoa
no
hand
plug
broke(n) = "boke"
milk, with sign, sounds like Mom
out
up
down
bowl
get it / get that, as one word
I don't know, as one word, "eye-oh"
hi
hello
prune
outside/inside - "yie"
water - "wa"

Molars, Hair, Tape Armor

joyful — Sat, 25 Jun 2016 07:06:37 -0400

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!"

Mother's Day 2016

joyful — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 15:30:09 -0400

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.