Individuals

Numerous reasons led me to schedule Ally's surgery a few days before Christmas. One of the most influential was my memories of Jacob after he had the same surgery at around the same age. He bounced back quickly. Obviously it took a while for him to be himself 100 percent, however I have no memories of misery.
Unfortunately I forgot a single important fact...Ally is not Jacob and Jacob is not Ally. Her recovery has been completely different.
This morning my Ally was miserable. She couldn't keep anything down and she was just so unresponsive. I was getting upset...the last thing I wanted was to have my daughter be so sad on Christmas Eve.
I will say that she really improved through the day. After I put her to bed tonight, she came back out to ask for a vitamin. (I was happy to hear her thinking about something so simple).
I really hope she will wake up refreshed and enjoy Christmas morning. But this has definitely been a good reminder for me about treating my kids as individuals. I cannot base the decisions I make upon what would work for the other kids. Each of my kids has individual, different needs.
Merry Christmas to everyone!

Recovering

Ally's surgery went well yesterday morning. She was the first patient of the day so we arrived at 6:30 and she was wheeled back to the OR around 7:30. Around 8:30, Dr. Benton came out and said all went well. He did tell me that her tonsils and adenoids were huge and we should see a "night and day" difference. I am excited to see the difference. Ally and I were headed home by 9:30. It's pretty amazing to think this is a surgery for which they used to need people to stay the night in the hospital, and now Ally was able to head home in around 3 hours.
Yesterday Ally was not herself. She was given a lot of medications during the surgery and I think she spent most of the day allowing them to wear off. I had expected her to complain about pain but instead she was pretty calm and wouldn't really try to communicate.
I was finally able to get her to eat some bites of a milkshake for dinner, but I could tell she wasn't really up for it yet. After I put Logan to bed last night, I fixed hot cocoa for Jacob and me. When I saw that Ally was awake, I squatted in front of her and asked if I could get her anything. She looked at me and pointed, and simply said "Cheese." I almost busted up laughing. But I worked hard to hold it in. I told her she couldn't have cheese. I offered pudding, yogurt or popsicles. But all she would say was cheese. I couldn't help but laugh.
Ally was up for a short time during the night and I think she seemed more like Ally. So here's hoping today is a good day for her.

The Snow Grinch

Spending most of my life in the Willamette Valley, snow is not a major part of my life. I have to admit this does not bother me at all. I lived in Ohio for 1 winter and that was 1 winter too many. I don't like the snow. It's too cold and it makes my life more difficult. This is not a popular attitude. It kind of makes me the grinch. Most people around me squeal with delight when they see the white flakes falling. I try my hardest to keep my bad snow attitude to myself.
But this week it was too hard. Last Sunday the snow began falling and I bundled up my kids to go play in it. My thoughts were better on the weekend when I don't have to be at work. However the snow didn't stop. This is really odd for this area. Our snow usually lasts for a day or two. Monday morning the valley was what most would refer to as a Winter Wonderland. For me, it felt like a giant nuisance.
A lot of people just didn't come to work, but for me I just left an hour early for work. Yuck! This week it was like the snow was never going to go away. Jacob only had school on Thursday this week and now he's on vacation. Lucky kids! But I bet they won't feel lucky when they are making up the missed days later.
But now I'm on vacation too! I took next week off for Ally's surgery. I feel bad for what she has to go through, but I am excited to not have to worry about work for a whole week. It seems like a long time since I have taken time off around the holidays.
So I guess that is enough rambling. I looked outside this morning and I see melting snow. It makes my heart rejoice to see this (I really am a Grinch about this). They are predicting another storm today but I am happy to say it is 34 degrees now.
The kids and I are going to spend time this weekend baking and getting ready for the holiday. Hope everyone else has a great weekend. And I apologize for my unpopular attitude toward the snow.

Early Christmas Surprise

Today I called my grandmother to tell her that my mom had received a package from her. My grandmother's reponse was, that's not possible, I just mailed it. After awhile Grandmother called me back and remembered that she had ordered Oregon State t-shirts for my mom and her husband and that was what the package was. She said she knew the shirts didn't come wrapped and so she didn't care that they would see them right away. Fun idea, I thought. We always love more Beaver apparel in these parts.
This evening when I got home, there was a UPS note. I somewhat expected this as Grandmother told me she had sent some packages to us. There was also a small package between the door and the screen. This looked like it had clothing in it and I assumed it was some pajamas that I have ordered for the kids, so I put it aside, so they wouldn't notice.
Fast forward to after the kids are in bed, so I decided to check on the pajamas and make sure I got everything that I ordered. My first thought when I opened it was that there was not enough there. I was trying to figure out which children I had actually received pajamas for, when I realized these weren't pajamas. It was Beaver shirts for me and Jacob. What a fun surprise!

Decorating the Tree...

So Excited to Decorate the Tree

Logan Distracted by Toy Trains

My Very First Christmas Ball

Posing for Pictures

Our first kiss picture attempt...

2nd Attempt = Success

Mean Mommy...

I feel slightly mean. Today I met with the doctor and scheduled Ally to have her tonsils and adenoids removed on December 22nd. Yup...you read it right...3 days before Christmas.
I hope it will be a good present for her. I hope it goes as well as it did for her big brother when he had it done 2 years ago. And then I hope she will be able to breathe again.
This means that I get a week off for Christmas to take care of my little patient. Between insurance and being able to actually get time off from work, Christmas week was the perfect choice for us.
Ally's ready and likes seeing the doctor. Again...here's hoping that all goes smooth and maybe Ally will get to have ice cream and pudding for Christmas dinner.

All I Want for Christmas is My 2 Front Teeth...

Crazy Mommy

I truly believe being a mom has taken away some of my IQ points.
Today I was ready to begin washing bedding from all around my house. I emptied the dryer, because it is inevitable that there is always something in my washer. I open the washer to see a diaper on top. I was pretty impressed with Pampers, as this diaper had absorbed a lot of water. I picked it up and threw it away. Then I began taking clothes out, questioning how a diaper ended up in the washer, when I discovered the other diaper. This one had not done as well as the other. The insides of it were all over our clothes. If you have never seen what comes out of a diaper when it explodes, it is interesting. A lot of little crystally, foamy things come out. Not so interesting when they are all over your clothes and coming out of your washing machine.
My irritation level at this point was really high. I had tons of bedding sitting on the floor in front of my washer and now I had to clean all this up and re-wash the load of clothes that were in there. My head was searching for a way to blame one of my children for this, because surely I wouldn't have thrown diapers into my washing machine. Unfortunately, as I looked at the clothes, I remembered throwing the contents of a backpack into the washer. Of course, there were diapers in the backpack too.
Fast forward to bedtime. The kids and I are hunting for a book that we had just sat and read together. After looking downstairs and then upstairs, we were about to go back downstairs, when I find the book on the bookshelf.
I said you kids make me crazy. To which Ally responded, I love making you crazy!

Long Week...

For those people out there who read my blog, I am sorry for my lack of posting. This week just felt crazy. Work was busy and the kids managed to keep my evenings busy.
We did attend the local Christmas tree lighting. Santa rode in on a fire truck and passed out candy to all the kids. It was a fun evening. Logan just stared at Santa with wide eyes. I can't wait to take him to sit on Santa's lap. Jacob has been pushing me to get ready for Christmas. So this weekend we are pulling everything out and starting to decorate.
We have driven through the light display at the Pepsi company. My kids are at such fun ages for the holidays. Logan is beginning to talk non-stop. There aren't full sentences, but I usually understand what he is saying. When I drive, Logan spends the entire time pointing at the Christmas lights that he sees. And he says, Mama, I see, I see.
In other news, Jacob lost a tooth yesterday. This was the first one he has lost on top. This makes it much more visible than the others he has lost. I will get some pictures of him and post them soon.
I also hope to do some Christmas decorating and post some pics of how much the kids are loving this season. It always amazes me how fast time goes. Another week down...

The Joy of Reading

I have always loved reading. Within the past year, I have found that helping Jacob learn to read has brought me so much happiness. It is so wonderful to share the things that you love with your children. When I spoke with Jacob's teacher earlier in the year, I was full of questions about helping him with his reading. She explained that most kids really seem to catch on to reading around the holidays and she said to just keep working and being patient.
Tonight Jacob and I sat down with his assigned reading book and he just seems to have come so far. He went through so confidently. So then for a bedtime story, we chose one of Logan's books...

I decided this book probablly had a lot of words that Jacob knew, so he read the majority for me. It's so exciting to be able to have him pick up a book off the shelf and recognize over half the words within. Obviously friendly was a challenging word, but it doesn't phase him as long as we take our time and I am there to help. However the word fish was actually more of a challenge. First he said fishies, which didn't really bother me, but I did read the title back by saying 10 Friendly Fish. He responded with where is the "s," indicating the word fish. I explained there is no such word as fishes. But why, Jacob asked. I responded that it is like the word deer; there would be 10 deer, not 10 deeres. But why, Jacob asked. Um...just because. God bless the English language and all of the question that must be answered, just because.
I have spent time studying language, and I know our language makes very litte sense. Lucky for my kids, I love the language and I am a grammar freak and I will constantly tell them the rules. No matter how annoying I am or how many times I have to say, just because. :)
Well, speaking of reading...I have moved from the Twilight series to Stephanie Meyers' "grown up" book, The Host. And I am loving it. She does an awesome job of developing characters. So I am off to spend some time reading, before I go to sleep.

Our Quiet Weekend

My life has been somewhat out of sorts for the past week. I ended up on jury duty for 2 days last week. Combine this with the Thanksgiving holiday and I only worked 1 day last week. Tomorrow, it should be interesting to go back to the chaos of my regular work week.
We had a fun Thanksgiving at Grandma's house. I made the pies and my mom and her husband took care of the rest. My kids are fairly good eaters, so holiday meals have never really been much of an obstacle. However, in the past year or so, Jacob has developed ideas of what he cannot eat. He promptly informed me that he is "kind of" allergic to pie, so he would not be able to eat any. Whenever I asked how he knew he was allergic to pie, he responded that he was "kind of" allergic. I still haven't figured out the difference, but it just left more pie for everyone else.
Jacob also ran into problems with the green beans. These green beans were not even normal green beans; they were cooked with bacon and brown sugar. I tried to tell him that they tasted more like candy than vegetables. I told him he had to take 1 bite of them. His response did not surprise me; he has done it before when he decided that he is not going to eat something. He began to gag himself. He was determined to make himself throw up (which I might add, he can do). This is a Jacob habit that really gets to me. Of course it was somewhat comical, so grandma, grandpa and myself were stifling the laughs that come when a 6 year old is trying to make himself throw up. I became determined and told him to just swallow it and it would be out of his mouth. He continued the drama. I think grandma didn't want to experience the puke, so I hear her say, spit it on your plate. To which I responded, no, swallow it. Repeatedly over his forced gagging, I told him to swallow. My mom finally gave in and said, your mom said you have to swallow, so you have to.
And guess what, he swallowed. And he didn't throw up. The green bean did not make him ill. His head was making him ill.
This is a huge frustration of mine with Jacob. But unfortunately it can be quite comical as well. But I did have 1 small victory when he swallowed the green bean.

Disclaimer: Please don't think I am force feeding my children. I don't make them eat what they don't like. I am just trying to make Jacob see that he needs to taste it before he decides.

The other big event of our weekend was the Beaver game. I have pondered how to write about the disappointment of thinking our team was headed to the Rose Bowl, but I haven't decided the best way to convey what I think. I will just say I was truly disappointed yesterday. But instead of thinking about how ugly that game yesterday was, I should be thinking about how great the season has been.

Our Thanksgiving Meal

I was telling Jacob that this Thursday is Thanksgiving and we would get to eat a lot of good food. I began listing the things...

Me: We will have turkey

Jacob: But we don't have turkey.

Me: Well we are going to eat at grandma's house, and they will go to the store and get a turkey.

Jacob: So, we're not going to shoot the turkey?

Me: Nope, we buy it at the grocery store.

Jacob: Oh, they already shooted it for us.

Pictures from Ally's Birthday

Me and Ally loving on each other

Opening presents

"It's just what I wanted."

Homemade Dora Cake

Blowing out the candles (Can you see the spit?)

Twilight: The Movie

I think last night was the first time I actually waited in a line to get into a full theater and watch a movie. Luckily my mom and I got there early and we were pretty close to the front, because by the time they let us into the theater, this was the line and it was going all the way outside.

But after the long wait we were able to meet the Cullen family on the big screen...
So, was it worth it? Obviously, it wasn't the same as the book. Things had to be changed and hurried along more than in the book. It seems quite obvious that everyone had their own pictures of the characters. But I really enjoyed seeing this view of all the happenings of Twilight. And I have to admit, I fell a little more in love with Edward.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

I love this picture of Logan but I hope you don't mind the snot under his nose. Between colds and teething, the poor boy always has a runny nose.

Dear Ally...

Dear Ally,
It seems impossible that it has been 4 years since the first time we officially met. You entered this world in the same manner that you use to approach everything in life: fast and furious. You came 2 weeks early and when you decided you wanted to meet us, you wasted no time.
In the past year, I have watched you grow up in many ways. You have turned into an amazingly beautiful young girl. You observe the world and take in as much information as possible. You have learned numbers and letters from Jacob. You have learned Spanish from Dora. And you have learned to be a big sister from Logan.
Not only are you the single girl amongst your 2 brothers, but there are also mostly boys at daycare with you. You may be girly-girl, but those boys are never going to mess with you. I admire the way you assert yourself and we never have to worry about you being the forgotten middle child. I know you would never allow that.
Your confidence is amazing. You love to look at yourself in the mirror. Sometimes you are subtle and other times you're not, but if there is a mirror in the room, I see you gravitate to it. You know you are beautiful and you are proud of it.
You tell me when you grow up you would like to be a doctor. I'm sure if that is what you put your mind to, you will do it. But I have to tell you I love watching you sing and dance. I think that you will do some performing at some point.
I love you Ally! Happy 4th Birthday! Thank you for being a part of my world!
Love, Mommy

Dora, Dora and Backwards Fingers

I haven't written much about Logan on here. He is just always so happy and doing the things that toddlers do. But I thought I would share with everyone his biggest obsession yet...Dora the Explorer. We have a lot of Dora toys around our house and he finds them and shows everyone "Dora, Dora." Angie, our babysitter, had told me that he will sit and just watch Dora for a long time. I had never really seen it until today. We were home early this afternoon and the kids asked to watch Dora, so I turned it on. Logan became frozen on the couch staring at his favorite explorer. Later this evening, I was watching a basketball game. When it went on commercial Logan came to me and said "Done." At first I didn't understand, but then he pointed at the tv and said "Done...Dora, Dora." I told hime we were not watching Dora which led to a bit of fit throwing. Well here's he is totally engulfed in his Dora, Dora...
I also had to share waht Ally showed me tonight. She came up and said I can make an O with my fingers. I wasn't paying close attention and I tried to mimic what she was doing and then I realized that what her fingers were doing would be quite painful for me. So I snapped a picture instead...

I Just Wanted to Take My Kids For Haircuts...

This morning I noticed my children were in need of haircuts. Considering my mom works at SuperCuts, we take care of shaggy hair pretty regularly. So I called my mom this afternoon and asked how busy the day had been. She said it had been pretty steady, but to bring the kids in tonight.
So after work I picked up the kids and we headed for SuperCuts. When we arrived there were a few people waiting in the lobby, but we were there, so I decided we would wait. We settled in for the wait. I try really hard to keep my kids calm in this little waiting area, so we don't annoy the other customers.
First the kids built with legos. Then they looked at books and magazines. At this point we were getting a bit restless. The 4 of us turned around on the bench to look out the window and we decided to play I Spy.
Ally had her turn, she spied our car. Then it was Jacob's turn. Before Jacob could spy anything, Logan was throwing up all over the windowsill and the bench. So I turn him to look at me and he throws up some more all over me. My natural mommy sense told me I had nothing else I could do but let it land on me. Better on me, then all over the SuperCuts lobby.
My mom and her co-worker realized at this point I needed help. They excused themselves from their customers and ran for towels. But it was too late; the damage was done. Not only were Logan and I both covered, but so was the back of the bench and the window.
My mom and her co-worker were super sweet helping me wipe things up, but this wasn't a little wipe up amount of puke. It was a pull out the bench and scrub and even vacuum kind of puke.
I told them to leave me towels and I would work on it.
I directed Ally and Jacob to another bench. They were instructed to continue I Spy and be good. And luckily a couple of young men decided to join in the I Spy game and did a great job entertaining my kids. Thank you boys, whoever you are.
I placed Logan on a step stool and told him to sit. He did not act sick at all. He was ready to keep playing. I scrubbed and vacuumed and cleaned up as well as I could. And I really hope that there is no lingering smell.
Logan and I hung out mostly in the car, while my older 2 kids played I Spy and got their haircuts. After all was done, Logan was acting fine and we still needed to eat. So I went through the Burger King drive thru and got Macaroni and Cheese for the kids. I figured the pasta would be okay for Logan's tummy. When we got home I got the kids all set with their food and went to start some laundry. About a minute later Jacob and Ally were shouting at me that Logan was throwing up again.
After this Logan's food was thrown away, he got his pajamas on and I took him to bed. I really hope a good night sleep will help his yucky tummy. I think I am going to go cut myself a piece of pumpkin cheesecake and try to relax.

A Few Things That I am Looking Forward To...

1. Next Saturday Jacob and I get to go to another Beaver game. They are playing against Cal and Oregon State finally got into the Top 25 this week. Our seats are right next to my friend from work, so it should be a good time!

2. Ally's 4th birthday is a week from tomorrow. Here's a picture from her birthday last year.

3. The movie Twilight premieres Friday, November 21st. I just finished the last book in the series and I already miss Edward and Bella.

4. After that comes Thanksgiving and the holiday season. As stressful as the holidays can be, there is still a part of me that is really excited for it to come.