Wordless Wednesday

(Summer wedding! Congrats, Erik and Amber!)

Home Again

Thank you all for your comments and prayers during Nathan's hospital stay. We are HOME! And he is doing very well. We are still adjusting into a new routine of weighing him daily, checking his blood pressure, and giving him (only one!) medication twice a day, as well as needing to go to regular pediatrician and monthly kidney specialist visits. His wonderful pediatric kidney specialist has repeatedly assured us that he is extremely happy with Nathan's progress, that he thinks that he will have no lasting damage, and that he is recovering quickly.  We are going to have to have his peritoneal dialysis tube removal surgery in a few weeks, and then I know that I will feel like we're getting back to normal.


 Nathan is understandably a bit emotional, and swings quickly from extremely happy and giggly to tears.  This is not normal for our even keeled, cheerful boy, but obviously a small child who has been very sick, stuck with countless needles, catheterized (with two failed attempts by the PICU nurses before they called the stat nurse), gone through minor surgery, and gone through temporary cold turkey weaning is going to be scared and confused and feel less secure for a while.


But he is still generally a happy little guy, and is getting his energy and strength back very quickly.  He is blossoming verbally in the last few weeks, labeling everything by color (usually correctly!), spontaneously reciting animal noises-

"Cow say MOOOO. Pig say *snort snort*.  Chicken say BUK BUK BUK."

- and greeting us all by name in the middle of dinner ("Hi, Miriam.  Hi, Mama.  Hi, Daddy.").  He is also enjoying some new books he was given, including a new favorite, Fifteen Animals!, and an old favorite that I remembered reading to my brothers but that we didn't have, Guess How Much I Love You.



Also home is Monkey, who was given to Nathan by some kind friends who visited us in the hospital.  Monkey was 'listened to' by countless nurses, bravely took tylenol first to show Nathan it tasted good, donned a face mask along with Nathan whenever the dialysis nurses needed to change his dressing or hook or unhook his tube from the machine, and even wore a blue cap and accompanied him into surgery.  Monkey's given name on his tag was Bongo, but Nathan told every nurse who asked that his name was Monkey, so we're going with that.  ;)

We are all soaking in the summer with renewed enthusiasm... eating popsicles with all four of us piled in the hammock we bought on our honeymoon (and hung this week... why did we wait so long?!), wearing our "flips flops", as Nathan says, drinking pink lemon aid, and generally reveling in being home and being together.  God is good and has been gracious, and we are full of joy.

Around the house...

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3

3 years.

honeymooning

2 children.

1 marriage.
 

Blessed.

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Tick Tock, Chickenpox

Sometimes I just need to lose the household clock.  Some days I scale back the 'to do list' to include

- change diapers
- feed everyone
- make dinner

... and "nothing" else.  "Nothing", of course, opens hours quickly filled.  Filled not with catching up on laundry or cleaning out the fridge (worthwhile tasks, of course, and in dire need of happening), but with snuggles, one on one, and good stories.

And also, in our particular circumstances at the moment, calamine lotion, oatmeal baths, and lots of diaper free time, since the chickenpox seem to have hit his lower back particularly badly and I think the diaper makes it worse.

But his fever is gone, and his spots are scabbing over, and I know that soon, soon, we'll be back to our usual activities...

... and that beautiful soft smooth skin will be back, too!

Milestones

Someone had a birthday. 

He is now two.

There were bubbles involved.  And cake.  And a hair cut... those curls peeking out in the photo above are now no more... and my baby boy now looks like the big boy that he is!  We gave him a big set of thrifted mega blocks, too - which, by the way, I washed in the washer.  They had a distinctly funky smell, but there were SO many that I quailed a bit at washing them by hand, so I dumped them all in and I put them through a series of rinse cycles with just water, then bleach, then  just water, then vinegar.  A few of them, I've noticed, still have a bit of a musty smell, but I know for a fact that they are CLEAN, so I'm ignoring it. ;)

Some milestones he's reached recently include showing an interest in coloring (versus eating the crayons), blowing bubbles, stacking blocks well, saying thank you (instead of just signing it), saying lots of new words, including plane, train, eat, food, hurt, done, wagon, stinky, shirt ("sooot"), pants, jeans, yum, and on and on. 

And then we had Easter... you can't see much of Miss M's adorable outfit, but you can enjoy the boyish, fresh look Nathan sported. 

Speaking of Miss M, she is walking well and steadily and everywhere, saying Mama, Dadda, uh-oh, touch, and tree, waving bye-bye to people, trying to climb things, following her brother everywhere... and generally being achingly, amazingly cute...

It has been so fun watching them both have verbal explosions in the past few months!  I'm sure that they'll really be talking by the end of the summer...

Spring flower...

Our daffodils are up and blooming!  :)

Spring IS on the way!

It was warm enough last week to take the kiddos outside without spending hours bundling everyone up to go out and freeze for ten minutes, so we went out and enjoyed the sunshine!

 

Nathan started out holding my hand and walking sedately.

Then the wild grassy spaces intoxicated his boyish soul,

and he was off, trotting in erratic circles in the still brown grass,

 

exploring the daffodils that are peeking out.

 

And Miriam and I traipsed along behind, 

(she is in the new podaegi I made, which I love)

(post planned on that on Friday)

enjoying the sunshine and fresh air 

and chasing the small explorer with camera in hand.

 

  

My caption for this one-

"Mama, haven't you taken enough pictures?"

 

"I have to go explore tree bark, and sticks, and fallen walnuts, 

and then I have to throw them for the dog, and throw them at the tree, 

and wave and say 'bye!' to every truck or car that goes by on the road..."

Some Favorite Children's Books

 Scuffy the Tugboat and His Adventures Down the River

I LOVE Scuffy. It has been one of my favorite read aloud books for many, many years... our copy is one I gave to one of my brothers many Christmases ago, and he passed it on to our little ones so it could give more enjoyment.  I love the storyline -  Scuffy is discontent where he is, so he sails off to find adventure, and then realizes that he really does need the man with the polka dot tie and his son, and wishes that he were back with them... and just as he is entering the ocean, which has no beginning or end, the man and his son scoop him up and he is safe again.

 

                                  One of our board book favorites is Barnyard Dance!  It was a gift to Nathan when he was born, and we've loved it ever since. It has a fun rhythm and shows all the different farm animals dancing.  It has a lot of "moo" and other animal noises, which makes it a toddler favorite, and the fun pictures also make it a good book to entertain the baby during church.

 "Bounce with the bunny.  Strut with the duck.  Spin with the chickens now- CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!"


We also have another board book by Sandra Boynton called The Going-To-Bed Book- it is fun and is our current diaper bag book, for distracting and calming a wiggly little one in church or elsewhere. :)


It has a really fun cadence to it as well...

"And down once more, but not so fast, they're on their way to bed at last.
The day is done.  They say good night, and somebody turns off the light."


And of course, we love the classic kid books...
- Green Eggs and Ham,  Bears On Wheels, Make Way for Ducklings, The Little Engine That Could, Corduroy



As you can see, we're bookworms, and it seems to be passing on to the next generation!  I think we better get some more bookcases soon, because these are all  full already...  are any of these your favorite stories too?  Have any others we should put on our library/wish list? :)

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Introducing Fred

Meet Fred.

Doesn't he just look so angelic?

Well, he is a pretty good dog (except for his love of chewing anything).  But you can get a better idea of his true nature here as he chases Wilma, the cat...

Welcome, Fall!

It is officially fall!  Well, it actually has been fall for ten days, but now that it is October it feels much more like fall.  And the weather seems to be in fall mode as well, we're having a nice blustery grey day today. I love days like this!  They make me want to put the kettle on, light a candle, and sit down with some knitting or a good book...

I love so many things about fall...the crunchy leaves, the beautiful colors, the crispness in the air, the excuse to wear hats and scarves and gloves, or to curl up in a soft blanket inside.

Rachel over at One Pretty Thing put together a great collection of fall DIY ideas, and I drooled over loved this fall makeover for a mantlepiece.  I was grieving over my lack of a mantle, which has really cramped my garland making desires, when it hit me.  The odd wide trim over the window over the sink!  Viola!  For some odd reason there are three nails already in the board, left behind by the previous owner, so I was saved the laborious task of trying to remember where I last put the hammer.  And where the bigger nails are, since I can only find the teeny tiny ones that are a step up from a pin.  But I digress (isn't that what blogs are for, though?!)... anyway... I think it needs some bulking up, but here is the basic garland:

Are you doing anything fun to welcome fall? :)

Marrying Young

I've been reading this post from Nancy Wilson on marrying young (not teen, but not waiting till 35 either.) Love it, and especially enjoyed the comments, lots from of women who married young and don't regret it. Yeah, financially it is probably tougher to marry young instead of waiting until you have lots of savings, a very good job, etc. But this quote from Brandy's comment just hits the nail on the head for me- "some parents would rather their child struggle with sexual temptation than have any financial struggles."

Is it better to have young Christians struggling with sexual temptations while getting all their financial ducks in a row, or to encourage getting married younger and provide support for that?

When we got married, we were overwhelmed with the generosity of our church family- from a shower that mostly equipped the kitchen, to the people who asked us if we could use the furniture they were getting rid of (yes! yes! yes!), to the huge generosity of our families (who gave liberally in working on our house, as well as in helping us to equip it).

We don't drive fancy cars, have the latest gadgets, or vacation anywhere exotic. But we're getting to share these years, and I wouldn't trade this for the world.

Us, dancing at our reception and being madly in love. :) Photo taken by Sarie, I think... all I know is I stole it off Facebook and I love it!