More Christopher Logic

This post may be TMI for some people, but for others.... it may just remind them of a relative we have named Joseph Minich.... The Uncle Joseph, not the little Joey.

The other day Christopher pooped FIVE times in one day. And I bet most mothers will agree with me that that is just too much butt wiping to do in one day, especially considering you have two more kids whose butts you also wipe.

So I told him the next day as I was wiping him the first time he went, "Yesterday you pooped too many times, you've gone once today, so don't go anymore." I had told him this a million times.... just try to consolidate your poop! Get it all out at once, blah, blah, blah.

"Yes, Mommy." He responded.

The next day we were eating lunch and I offered him something else and he turned me down saying, "That might make me go poop." I told him that that was ok.

"But Mommy, you told me not to go anymore!"

"Chris! That is not what I meant! Of course you have to go poop..."

Oh my goodness. That child is so literal, just like Uncle Joe... whose similar story goes something like this: he was told by his mother not to use hot water at that time because it might burn him, and then a year or two later he came downstairs freezing after showering in the middle of winter... Because he truly thought she had told him never ever to use hot water again.

That story cracks me up every time I think about it. And apparently my Christopher thinks exactly the same way. We mommies better watch out!

Life lately

Please excuse any misspellings... My fingers don't love me today.

Looking back through my posts, I realize that I haven't posted in forever. So much has been going on over here that I haven't had time to do anything... even sleep is a rarity.

Ilse is still on the path to wellness. It might be a long path, especially considering they aren't sure what is wrong with her. They have ordered some specialized immune system tests, and maybe we will know what the results are in about a week. Hopefully it won't take longer than that. A week is already a long time. She did have a bacterial infection, and they had no idea where it was coming from. It could be her mic-KEY button, but we would have to pull it and culture it to know for sure. Unfortunately, we have to wait to do that because they put Ilse on a strong antibiotic, and again, unfortunately, it was obviously too strong for her since it set off a string of night screaming that the world has never seen before. At least my world! Finally we put two and two together and the doctor had us stop the antibiotic. Ilse slept pretty well last night, and so did I. Ahhh. However, I managed to wake up more tired that I had been the previous day when the night before I had barely gotten any sleep at all.

And it was good that yesterday I was more awake, because I didn't have time to even use the bathroom from the morning all the way until six or so. A lifetime of practice finally put to good use. Lol. Yesterday Ilse and I went to get her labs drawn for the aforementioned blood tests. The first lab, at which we had an appointment, told us after we had waited of course, that they couldn't do that test. We hightailed it down to medical city, and yes, I had to talk myself down just in order to park at that place.... and got her labs drawn there. She had two diarrheas while we were at the lab. That made three up to that point, and scattered through out the day where about four more. Needless to say, they are concerned about dehydration and c diff. for this baby. We won't know about the c diff. test for a week also. At the lab they determined that Ilse is too small to do all the tests they wanted, so we have to go back again on Friday to draw for the rest of the tests. One of the tests they did draw for measures how well the white blood cells fight infection. Because, I think it is clear by this point that Ilse has a bit of trouble with infections.

The concern for the immediate future is that her bacterial infection might reassert itself since we couldn't finish the antibiotic. If she gets a high fever or screams uncontrollably, we are to call the doctor ASAP, or, if it is night, we are to go to the emergency room.

Lord willing, Ilse got enough antibiotic to do the trick. Although, if it is the button causing this problem, it will likely reassert itself and we will be in a world of trouble, unless of course, we can have a different antibiotic, although at this point I am pretty wary of too much more medicine.

The rest of our busy day yesterday was spent at UT Southwestern medical center. Tim had his much awaited appointment with a wonderful hip doctor. He was wonderful, and not just because he looked exactly like Mark Ruffalo. He did tons of x-rays, and gave a much better description of the surgery, complete with hand gestures. Tim will plan on having the surgery late May, but first he needs an MRI to confirm what is going on and to see the exact state of his cartilage.

If everything looks good, or bad, whichever way you want to phrase it, he will have the surgery. It doesn't sound as bad as the first doctor made it sound, and regardless of how long the recovery is, having the surgery in state is an automatic bonus. The first doctor said we would have to go out of state, and that sounded atrocious, as you can imagine, since I am determined not to go anywhere without my kids.

The boys are doing really well. They learned about colloquialisms, paramedics, aerodynamics, and oh my goodness, earlier Chris said something so brilliant I wish I could remember what it was.

I finally got Ilse's nose suction machine figured out and in use. Hopefully it will help her. It is too bad that there is no way to decorate it like a squirrel or something. It isn't too cute.

Mom came over yesterday at the drop of a hat and stayed all day long to watch my boys. They mostly behaved. Now my laundry is all folded, my kitchen is clean, and my floors are vacuumed. Thanks, Mom!

I have lots more to write about. However, this post is so long that I had better give your eyes and my fingers a break.

Today, though, if you have a minute, pray for my friend Amber Bowers who is having her third baby today. This is her second daughter, and could also be her second child with SLOS. One baby with SLOS is hard enough depending on how severely the child is affected. Two would be significantly more difficult, and yet, the Lord really does give us the ability to accomplish all that he asks of us. And He has given the Bowers family so much joy. They are truly a wonderful example to me. Each child is a blessing, no matter the way God makes it.

As I have said before, I don't know what I would do with a 'normal' baby-- I have gotten so used to Ilse.

I have another post to write soon, but now, I am going to call in the precious boys who just went out to play, and we are all going to lay down for a nap. It is practically a given though that Ilse will wake up the second I lay myself down.

Better hurry!

Hospital days

The Foster family et al has been having drama lately! My goodness. My parents went on a cruise for their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and while they were gone my sister Dee was in a wreck and ended up with surgery to repair a badly broken wrist. Now she is Borg because of the totally cool metal implant she possesses. Thursday and Friday were hard days dealing with that. It was so hard to see Dee hurting. Friday night I stayed with her at the hospital and when I got home Saturday around noon I saw Ilse barfing blood. I had known she was sick, and I had tried to prevent a weekend trip to the ER by taking her to the doctor on Thursday. They told me she was fine. I got the impression they thought I was overreacting. Apparently mommy intuition was right. Finally after nine hours at the ER, the bleeding stopped, and although Ilse still wasn't acting normal, they told us we could go home or admit her, but if we stayed the GI am wouldn't see her until the next day anyway. We left with instructions to come back if the bleeding started again. She did barf some more blood on the way home, but we didn't realize it until we got home. At that juncture we weren't about to head back down here just to be observed overnight. This morning, though, she began barfing blood again, so I brought her back down here to the ER. They might admit her this time, to figure it out. Possibly her stomach lining is irritated, although I don't know how that could have happened. We will see how today goes. Meanwhile, our Dee is still recovering. We are so thankful for her life.

Repost: You are so dumb! Fo real!

This post of my sister's completely cracked me up.  Tim and I both laughed.  Read and enjoy!

Christmas Day

I loved today. I loved watching our boys experience family, gifts, Luke 2, Bapaw crying at the same verse as every other year, Mamaw's good food, sweet aunties and uncles, wonderful cousins, Ya-Ya and Papau, warm baths and bed.

We opened our presents this morning at home, and the boys loved each one. We only filmed the first present each, and then we took pictures of the rest. We wanted to enjoy thoroughly this day that we've been waiting so long for, and I'm glad to say we did.


(I had a video to put here, but it would not load.)


After we finished here at home, we left for Mamaw and Bapaw's house, where we opened more presents, after dad read Luke 2.









Ivy gave the kids fireman raincoats... boy, do they love them!



And here is the part that made me cry: Mom and Dad included 'Precious Baby Minich' with a card and some money. So sweet!


After we ate a giant and a half lunch at my mom's and followed it up with dessert after we could stuff more in, we headed out to the Minichs were the boys got to see their Ya-Ya and Papau, the girls and Uncle Bob. The boys always enjoy going out there... they get so excited to go see Ya-Ya, and knowing they would likely get more presents made them even more excited.

I began falling apart soon after we got there. Pregnancy is kicking my butt lately, since I've been tired and a bit sick. (Today I actually had a good appetite and could eat some, but I still have not gained a pound. In fact, I'm lighter than I was at Thanksgiving. Surely that will change soon.) I nearly fell down twice just standing in Ya-Ya's living room. Time to head back to Mamaw's to see the Fasolinos, who always walk over. We also got to see Cabe and Kylah for a bit. It was Cabe's first time meeting our precious boys.

We stayed there only a little bit, and then we hightailed it home to get some sleep. Of course, I'm not in bed yet, but at least I'm resting.

Tomorrow will be another long day, since we are leaving church immediately to go see if the puppy we want is at the shelter. Maybe we can remember to use the word 'adopt' when talking to the shelter people instead of 'buy'. :)

I hope everyone of you had a very fabulous Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Today is a big day for our family. We've had a long standing tradition of going to Marc and Ivy's for Christmas Eve.... this must be the sixth time or something?

Ivy makes us a fabulous dinner, and secret of secrets, we indulge in a tad bit of.... humhum! Margaritas. I love making the top of the glass sugary and putting a citrus fruit on as a decoration. Lovely! Of course, this year I can only have a sip, but I'll enjoy it just the same. I wouldn't damage this baby for anything!

This year we're also going to a Christmas Eve service. We tried to go last year (or maybe the year before), but the one we chose was so scandalous we walked out. I know, but we couldn't help it.

This year we're going to a very reputable church's service; I'm sure we'll enjoy it very much.

However, before we can head to Ivy's (here in about four hours, hopefully) we have many things to do. We have to wash laundry, tidy the house, get salad fixings (I loath Walmart today so I'm heading to Tom Thumb), take presents to the car, make a lovely coffee cake for breakfast tomorrow, put together the boys' bikes, clean the kitchen, etc., etc., etc..

We've already got a good start in spite of our sleeping in to a deliciously late hour. Christopher has just taken himself to the potty, gotten his own pants off, washed his own hands, and he'll put his own clothes back on too... all I'll have to do is snap it for him. (I take it back; I did have to go fill up the soap dispenser for him. He can't do that by himself yet.) So with him being completely potty trained except for nights (I don't bother with that part. Joey trained himself, I expect Bam-Bam will, too.) I'm freed up a bit today and we'll have more time to enjoy the day sans changing diapers. Yay!

Enjoying life with our family of 2.5 kids and a dog. I can't wait to see the boys' faces tomorrow at gift opening time. Joey gets so excited.

Thanksgiving

I haven't posted in a while, and it has probably been a good thing since I am having trouble putting coherent thoughts and sentences together.

I don't think I've ever been this exhausted. And you know what? I'm loving every minute of it.

Since I wrote last, I painted the boys' bunk beds mostly by myself. Marc and Ivy came over and helped us switch the two rooms so the boys would have more space to play. That was work, let me tell you. We consummated the boys' adoption last Saturday (and what a wonderful day it was!) and then prepared for our giant party AND thanksgiving all of the beginning of this week.

Today we celebrated our first Thanksgiving as bonafide parents; we have our two precious boys and the little baby who is 12 weeks on Sunday. I didn't take any pictures; I think other family members did, but I was so tired I only thought about pictures once. I did make sure to give each of my children the first bite on their plates and ask them if they loved it. Christopher ate seconds of the potatoes I made, while we had to make Joey finish his food. I don't know why he was acting so funny about eating; usually he is a human garbage disposal. :) At any rate, he was certainly hungry again by dessert time. I let him pick two kinds of pie. I had thought all day that I would do tiny slivers of each kind for him, but tiny slivers of 21 pies is STILL 21 pieces of pie. I was too tired to cut that much, so I gave up after two.

The boys played happily all day with their cousins, and one of these days I'll get a picture of the reading parties Mamaw always has on her giant king size bed. Will, Luke, Abby, and Joey sit quietly for many stories, while Bam-Bam runs back and forth from the bedroom to the living room. Sooner or later he'll learn to appreciate good books and time with his family. Right now he just needs action, I guess.

We managed not to have too many disasters today, although we thought we had one when Charlie got woken up because of an unfortunate incident, but with some hard work he went back to sleep. Someone brought dirt into the house, but the trusty dusty macmuum took care of that.

Nothing got broken, and we loved playing Foster-style poker. Then, I beat all the girls at Boggle, which is shocking because I have pregnancy brain going on. I think it was the word 'naked' that did it. That and 'better', 'butter', and 'butters'. Handy dandy words. I found 'luau', but Ivy did too. Kim was always announcing that she'd found her perfect word, but there was only one time that she was the only one who had it. Ellen was Queen of the Dictionary.

I am beat. The next two days will be spend getting ready for our party. There isn't two much to do, but a little bit seems like an ocean of work to me these days. I'm so thankful that the weather seems like it will be bounce house friendly!

God has blessed us unbelievably this year, beyond all that we asked or thought. I had stopped praying for a baby, but he gave us one anyway. I can't wait until next year when the boys can understand the concept of 'Thanksgiving' more. It will be so special to sit there and list things we're thankful for.

I know what I will be thankful for. 'Scalped' potatoes.

Yum!

Life Happenings Again

I would just like to say, that it is three weeks until court! Woohoo!!!

The boys, of course, are more excited about their party than court. I am more excited about court because I am ready for the state to move on! (This is not a plug for moveon.org. Goodness no.)

But on that topic, I hope all you U.S. citizens are going to vote tomorrow! I am going to take the boys for an adventure while I vote. Too bad we're saving tax money by not giving out the 'I voted' stickers. They would have loved 'em.

I have a lot of planning to do for the boys' party, and I need to start my Christmas shopping already, too. I've only bought ONE present so far, and last year I was done by this time..... for under $200! I was so proud of myself. This year is not going to be the same because we need to buy the boys some things. They need football helmets, jerseys with their names on the back, a play vacuum, a kitchen, and who knows what else. Maybe some books, too. I can't wait to cart all the presents over to Mamaw's and open them like we do every year. Last year I got my little niece a rug for her room. They are planning on going to Mexico as missionaries after the first of the year, and so this year I'm getting her something smaller and more transportable. Hopefully she'll be able to keep her lovely butterfly rug.

I can't express how happy it makes me to buy my family gifts. Oh, I like getting gifts, too, but even when people say "We're skipping Christmas this year" and believe me we've had a lot of those years over my life even though we never really skipped anything, I would still want to give gifts to my fam. Starting last year, I decided I really like picking the things out and figuring out how not to break the bank. Before last year it was really hard for me, but apparently I came into my own last year. :)

This year I've been so busy, though, and haven't done the planning I had meant to do all year.

However, I am planning to take a nap here in a bit, and I'm sure that will actually happen. :)