Tattooed Smurf

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

(I wish I had actually videoed her seeing herself in the mirror. It was hysterical!)

A little more…

Five Words

Today I read two blog posts. One was from Camela who does a thing called BYOC (bring your own crazy) every Friday and the questions are always different. One of them today was to have several people (friends, family, etc.) describe you in 5 words.

And then another was a link Camela sent me to a post challenging a person to come up with 5 things you like about yourself.

I knew I’d have a hard time with that but having my friends say nice things to me was a lovely thing to have happen today as I’m mentally not in the best place in the world. Getting used to having Fibromyalgia – it’s a toss up whether that’s harder physically or mentally…

Anyway – this was great fun and I highly recommend it if you need a mental boost. And then ABSOLUTELY go write five nice things about yourself! Above all we should like ourselves!

Drew
I totally told him he had to add more to replace clean because… LAME.

1. Clean (gee. isn’t he romantic?)
2. Motivated (huh?)
3. Sensitive
4. Perfectionist (who is he talking about?)
5. Sexy (awww)
6. Sensual
7. Committed

Leah
(she was so extremely shy about this. It was so sweet!)

1. good cook
2. nice
3. gives lots of kisses (then we had a little talk about what the word affectionate means)

Hannah

Me: Can you describe mommy?
Hannah: Yes.
Me: Well?
Hannah: FUNNY! (with all the glee in the world. I love that girl)

Renee

1. smart
2. funny
3. awesome
4. compassionate
5. honest

Kathy

1. empathetic
2. creative
3. loving
4. patient
5. strong

Leah (my sister)

1. compassionate
2. nurturing
3. intelligent
4. talented
5. sensitive

Camela
who wouldn’t stop at 5 and when I pointed that out said she was doing a 2nd set of 5. She’s a rebel.

1. real
2. loyal
3. trustworthy
4. fun
5. a little crazy
6. intense
7. mother
8. friend
9. creative
10. smart

Jeff

1. Genuine
2. Irreplaceable
3. Witty
4. Vulnerable
5. Loyal

Ann Marie

1. Amazing
2. Brave
3. Fierce Dancer (I've not seen it, but I can imagine)
4. Cool Mom
5. Awesome Friend

Ann Marie said these things to me on FB and then we had the following exchange:

Me: Thanks!! And LOL at Fierce Dancer - In my own mind I am. That's the same thing, right??

Her: I believe that is the DEFINITION of being a fierce dancer. :D

(that made me laugh. hard.)

Jen

1. thoughtful
2. great listener
3. compassionate
4. strong
5. persevering

Becky

1. generous
2. selfless
3. Google-queen
4. genius
5. mathematician

My Mom/Cathy

1. brilliant
2. forgiving
3. absolutely fabulous friend
4. intuitive mother
5. such.a.wonderful.daughter.
6. thoughtful

Me

1. I’m a loyal friend
2. I’m a good mother
3. I am sensitive, emotional AND emotionally strong. (These things can coexist. I think people seem to often not know that.)
4. I am loving and affectionate.
5. I am generous.

That list I made myself took me forever! Sweet glory. I don’t know what that says about me but I don’t feel like analyzing it!

Now go forth and do this exercise. It’s good for you!

Sisterly Love

Leah’s Allergies

I feel like I just typed a post just like this.

Oh wait… I did: Hannah’s Allergies

At Hannah’s appointment when he was asking me allergy questions about her I kept thinking – that sounds a lot more like Leah than it does Hannah…

When Leah was about 11 months old she had her first allergy attack. Her eyes would not stop running for a day or so. Just constantly streaming. That was the first time I gave her Benadryl (which is only recommended for 1 year and up. I went online I researched and found a “by weight” chart for dosages). It instantly dried up her eyes but holy moly. She went BIZERK. She was very literally bouncing off the walls. As in she was running AT the walls and bouncing off of them.

Leah was allergic to red dye.

Thank heaven they make dye free Benadryl. That always worked.

In later years as Leah would have accidental exposure to red dye (it’s freaking everywhere). She would have night terrors that night. It was hideous.

Most children out grow dye allergies and Leah can now have all the red dye she wants with no reaction. Whew.

However.

She was still congested a lot. Still sick a lot. Still with the runny eyes. I tried Claritin for children – no luck. I tried Zyrtec – yay! That worked. In the winter… In the summer it just takes the edge off. She would be fine and then go outside to play, then come in and her eyes would be all swollen.

Oy.

So, I took Leah to get tested. I answered a lot, lot, lot of questions.

And then the took us to another room with a bed for her to lay on her tummy. She had been so brave up to this point and finally the fearful anticipation got the better of her and she wrapped herself around me and just cried. I finally coaxed her onto her stomach and we started the test. She realized quickly the poking was not  a big deal but as you’ll see with the pictures she started to itch and be uncomfortable right away.

She cried. I was sitting by her head and we were forehead to forehead, nose to nose and she had her arms wrapped around my neck. We just stayed like that until the poking was over and she could relax a little bit. She was still uncomfortable but not anticipating the poking anymore. (62 pokes in all. Poor baby.)

ONE minute in (this stuff is supposed to stay on for 15 minutes. The nurse stood back and said: oh man.)…

3 minutes:

5 minutes:

10 minutes:

At the 10 minute mark the nurse had, had enough. She started wiping each and writing down the results. She didn’t want Leah to have to wait 5 more minutes.

All wiped off and waiting for some cream:

At this point the nurse left to go talk to the doctor again. He wanted her to have 6 more tests. Each of which involved a shot into her arm to put a little of the allergen under her skin and see how she reacted.

This… was not fun. The also wanted to draw blood. I looked at the nurse kind of horrified and she said – we can put that one off. You can refuse to do it this time.

Excellent because Leah was going through quite enough for one day!

A minute or two after the shots:

10ish minutes after:

That’s cat, dog, mold, a couple of tree ones and the bottom right is grasses. She is wicked allergic to everything (except the mold. That’s not so bad. Seriously? So what! She’s gonna rub her face in mold? LOL!) but the grasses was the worst reaction of them all. That one kept swelling through the day. I gave her some Benadryl before we started the 120 mile drive home and it stopped swelling but it’s still swollen some today.

So. She’s allergic to most kinds of trees, grasses, weeds, pollens, cats, dogs. She also has a mild allergy to wheat (no that is not celiac or gluten intolerance. Wheat allergy is a histamine response to wheat. Celiac is a gut issue.)

And she has a mild allergy to peanuts. Oh and house dust/dust mites. Both more mild than Hannah’s but still there.

The peanut thing is relatively “easy” since we’ve already prepared for that for Hannah. Hannah can’t have things that say “processed in the same facility or same equipment” but Leah can. She just is not going to have straight peanuts, peanut butter, etc.

The wheat is another issue – it’s mild and she’s not going to have an anaphylactic reaction ever but I want to get her where she feels really great and then introduce things and see where her threshold is, etc.

So for now we go wheat free.

Clearly I can not do everything for all of us. We can’t all be corn free, peanut free, wheat free, diabetic friendly eaters. There will have to be some double prep going on some things but I’ll do as much common food as I can. Wheat free (and/or gluten free) foods are much more expensive so I don’t want to feed all 4 of us wheat free all the time.

I will, however, do everything in my power to make sure my 6 year old foodie in the making still enjoys her food. She has some wheat free toaster waffles today and we both decided they taste better than the ones she normally eats. So that was a happy find for her! (If only they weren’t 4 bucks for a box of 6… I’m going to make some from other flours and freeze them because GEEZ. She eats 3 in a sitting.)

Congrats to you if you made it to the bottom of this post. Sorry about my long windedness. It helps me process all this to write it down.

I was feeling very crazy and helpless until I went to the store. I know about allergy shopping from myself. I can do this for her. I have the cooking know-how so I’m not freaking about that. I just need the supplies and some time and I can make it all fantastic for her.

We’re gonna make pizza tonight or tomorrow with some wheat free dough! She’s really excited about that.

Whew!

I should write another blog post about my own health but I’m waiting for some test results. It can wait. And frankly, my brain can only take so much!

Tidbits

*These are all thoughts I had or things that happened between 5 am and 6 am in my bed this morning*

***

When Hannah tells you she wants to snuggle in bed – she means lay next to her. Not touching. I can rub her hair, sometimes hold her hand.

When Leah says she wants to snuggle in bed – she means fully body contact. Encircled in arms.

***

Leah: All four of us are in this bed and I don’t even feel squished!

(I certainly did.)

***

Hannah might ask for a duck to hold at 5 am. And she’ll mean the hard rubber ducks from her bath toys. Of course.

***

When you ask Hannah what an animal says – do not be fooled. She knows them all but she thinks it’s HYSTERICAL to say “meow” to every animal. Probably because it makes me laugh every time. She just gets this mischievous look on her face and I can’t help it.

****

Hannah:  one two thee four five!

Drew: WHAT did she just say!?!?

Me: She counted to 5. You know. Like every one year old does. One two three four five.

Hannah: six!

Me: That’s a new one. Seven!

Hannah: eight!

Me: Nine!

Hannah: Ten!

Me: Well okay. She counts to 10 like every one year old does…

***

Some things about this age are exhausting but really – life is so simple. They’re needs are pretty simple. They may not wake me up at 5 am to play with ducks in my bed later, but the worries are gonna get more intense. Today I will enjoy their simple needs.

*Happy Sigh*

Snuggling with Daddy before school

The Hideous Trip

We left Castle Rock, Colorado around noon. This trip - with smooth sailing and minimal stops from the short people in the back - takes about 4.5 hours. We stopped in Aurora to see Hannah's bmom, Amanda. We were gonna hang out but she was feeling crappy to say the least so we took her and Hannah's bdad some lunch and headed home.

As soon as we left her house and got back on the interstate we hit construction. Awesome. That lasted well over an hour just to go about 10 miles.

We had a normal drive to Cheyenne - albeit very windy around Cheyenne. We stopped to see Drew's mom, sister, and nieces. We visited for awhile, checked the road report and realized we need to get going. This was probably around 6? I forget. By the time we got to Laramie (45 miles from Cheyenne), the roads from Laramie to home were closed. Great. Drew has several brothers who live in Laramie. We headed to one their homes. They have a basement with this fantastic huge sectional sofa in it. Leah, Hannah, and I all slept on it and Drew slept on a twin mattress next to us. It was really comfy. Hannah thought we were insane - telling her to lay down and go to sleep on a couch but she handled it really well and then slept all night without any troubles. Yay for her!

(as a sidenote: Hannah has started calling us all with our last name involved. Leah Howe! Mommy Howe! Daddy Howe! So when she woke up Sunday morning her head was right next Leah's and she sits up and with total glee shouts: LOOK! Leah HOWE! - I'm ever so glad I was awake to witness that.)

We all get up. The roads are open. YAY! We pack up, leave, get the girls some breakfast (which before we left the house they both refused but then Leah was starving a few minutes later. I love kids. haha.) We get 20 miles down the road - we're so happy to be heading home. And boom. They reclose the roads. We are forced to turn around, drive the 20 miles back to Laramie to wait. We decided to hit Walmart. I needed things there but I hadn't wanted to go before because I wanted to be HOME.

Oh well. We spend 3 hours in Walmart. I get all the things I was after. The girls are losing it. I think maybe we should go back to his brother's house. So does Drew. Leah does not agree. That's backtracking. I see her point (no. she did not use the word backtracking) We were driving past the theater as we discussed this and see that "Puss in Boots" starts in 15 minutes (in 2D. THANK GOODNESS. I've had it with 3D movies.)

So off we go. We watch the movie and just towards the end I check on my phone and YAY - the roads are open.

We head out. Again. By now it's like 2:30/3 in the afternoon.

100 miles to go from Laramie to Rawlins.

20 miles. We pass the turn around mark. YAY.

30 miles. Dead Stop. Dead stop traffic in the middle of nowhere. Miles and miles of cars. Sometimes we'd get up to 4 mph.

SIX HOURS. 20 more miles. That's how long it took to go the next 20 miles. Six. Hours.

At one point I turned to Drew and said – the pioneers probably did this 20 miles in better time while pulling handcarts.

There were no accidents. It was windy. Very very windy. My sister heard them refer to it on the news as "hurricane force winds". We don't have hurricanes here. We just have wind. A lot of it. Sometimes it's stronger than others. But when you mix that with some dry-ish snow - there is no visibility. It's awful.

There was nothing to do but forge ahead. Did I mention that this 20 mile stretch has no cell phone service?

My poor children. They did so well. Leah never had a fit or freaked. Hannah had one little melt down at about the four hour mark. Seriously? She's one. That's impressive.

At that point (being the stellar law abiding mother that I am...) I let them up. We were staying between 0 mph and 2 mph. I let them get up and walk around the van. Hannah even sat on Drew's lap for awhile. Leah got in my seat and I went to the back of the van and cleaned it so I didn't go stir crazy. When we started to move faster I buckled them back in and they both fell asleep not long after.

Finally about the 60 mile mark traffic got normal. It was glorious. We were home in less than an hour from that point.

I actually cried when we got off the interstate. My babies were sound asleep. It was 10ish. We put them in bed, took a long hot shower, and I was asleep the moment I got in bed. Drew said he was all wound up and watched TV for awhile. He was amazing at the driving. He's so careful with all his girls in the vehicle with him. Gotta love that about him!

And I gotta love that just the day before he'd bought us 4 new tires. If we'd hit those roads on our old tires. Oy. That would not have been good.

There you have it. The hideous trip.

I don't want to leave town again for awhile, okay? Thanks.

For a little happy - Here are some pictures of the girls during our walmart trip. They were both in footie jammies.

Leah said: Let’s pretend to take a nap now…. I’m fooled. How ‘bout you?

My Leah

I’m feeling very emotional about her this evening. I doubt I can find the words for how wonderful I think she is. All the amazing parts of her, the ‘secret’ parts that only I get to see because she’s too reserved to show it to the world.

The parts everyone gets to see too. Her kindness. Her ability to draw in the other children around her and involve them all. It’s fascinating to watch.

She has such a tender heart. She makes me a better mother. “Don’t yell at me mommy!” I can reprimand her all I want but if I do it in a raised voice she doesn’t hear it at all. I’ll thank her for that someday – maybe when she becomes a mother.

She is having a phase about food I don’t adore all that much but we don’t have to go there today…

Here are some fun pictures of my 6 year old…

These are from last Friday. The things she wanted to do for her birthday were in Denver so we celebrated it on Friday when she didn’t have school.

Looking all embarrassed about us singing to her…

This is her favorite new outfit from her Grandma Howe. She chose it to wear to school for her birthday today. SO cute.

She wanted to take pumpkin cookies to school but we didn’t get home until very late last night (that’s a whole ‘nother blog post in the making. Tomorrow perhaps.) I offered to make them early this morning and bring them to school but she didn’t want me to do it (she’s so sweet!) and suggested running to the bakery to get them. So Drew & Leah did that and then took them to school. But I felt bad so I made pumpkin cookies today anyway and had them done when she got home from school. (The pumpkin cookie recipe will probably be another post. This was the first time I’ve done this particular recipe and I doubt I’ll ever even look for another one again. Yum.)

PS This morning while we’re getting ready for school Leah says to me:

I feel so old!

NaBloPoMo

It's that time of year again! Blogging every day this month. The good news is I've been in the mood to blog lately so this will get me going for real! Woot! ;)

*****

Of course now I've been sitting here staring blankly at the screen because I can't decide where to start! ha.

The prompt today is "What is your favorite part about writing?" Eh. It isn't so much that I love writing (especially since I don't think I'm particularly good at it) but what I love about blogging - or the blog world in general - is the sense of connectedness it gives people. And often this blog is a cathartic place for me to work out things that are going on in my head or something I'd like perspective on from other people.

And of course - a place to talk about my adorable children!

I posted these two pictures on Facebook yesterday. This is yesterday for Halloween:

That is my gorgeous Pumpkin Spice Girl at the end of the day. She was so exhausted and so happy. She declared it “The best Halloween EVER” and was still saying that this morning when she woke up exhausted and headed off to school .

And that is perhaps the cutest pumpkin ever to make a Halloween appearance!

And for an extra treat… Hannah wishing you a Happy Halloween!

and yes… she really does love chocolate just that much.

I'm Adorable.

First, look how I haven't blogged since December! Sad.

Second, I had this conversation with Leah. It's really stuck with me.

We're in the bathroom getting ready for something and I say to her (as I ask all the time)...

Me: Leah, do you know you're adorable?

Leah: Yes.

Me: HOW do you know?

Leah: (all patient with me in her tone) because I can see myself in the mirror.

At the time I just kissed her on the head but.... wow.

Oh that we all felt that way when we looked in the mirror!

You're obnoxious.

Me: Stop being obnoxious.

Leah (laughing): What does obnoxious even mean?

I proceed to give her an explanation. She says "but what does it mean?" I give her another... "but what does it MEAN?"

We do this about 10 times. I want to bop her on the head.

Me: You're being obnoxious right now by asking me over and over what obnoxious means!

Leah: oohhhh okay!

and she runs from the room.

Sheesh!

Draw a Picture

Drew has a BA in Psychology. I don't know if I've ever mentioned that on here. Just an FYI so this makes more sense...

The other day he says to me "Watch this."**

(Leah was in the middle of drawing pictures)

Drew: Hey Leah! Draw a picture of yourself for me, okay?

Leah: Okay, Daddy!

Leah proceeds to labor over a picture of herself. And the longer she labors over it the bigger Drew is grinning. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he looked so pleased with himself. He's just ever so odd. lol

It took her about 20 minutes or so and finally she says "Here ya go, Daddy!" and he praised her for the picture and she happily skipped from the room.

Then he tells me - When you ask a child to draw a picture of themselves like that, it's a measure of their self-esteem. The longer they spend drawing the picture the higher their self-esteem.

Who knew? Not me.

But it's good to know she thinks well of herself... especially since *I* think she hung the moon.

**as an aside - I hate this phrase. Leah says it 100 million times a day.

Happy Birthday, Leah!

Okay - her birthday is really tomorrow but we had planned on celebrating it today.

We're all still ridiculously sick but Leah really didn't want to put it off despite her misery. So we just had my two sets of parents over. (Drew's parents are 150 miles away) No aunts/uncles, great aunts/uncles, cousins, etc.

I didn't want to bring everyone into our den of sickness.

Anyway.... here is her with her cake.

I wanted Drew to order a 1/4 sheet cake. He got a 1/2 sheet. We have a. lot. of. cake. I usually make her cakes but with all the sickness I knew I didn't have it in me.

NyQuil Blogging

Drew & I each just took a dose of NyQuil.

Just as it's starting to set in I realize: Crap. I haven't blogged yet.

But now my brain is all fuzzy and every word has a typo.

It's so nice of blogger to underline them and let me know. Isn't that lovely? Only almost every word is underlined.

I'll fix it when I'm done.

When will that be?

Let's see. Leah's birthday party is supposed to be tomorrow. Hannah is sick. Leah is sick. Drew is sick. I am sick. We woke up this way this morning. Nice, right?

Leah's favorite cousin Elaina. Her mom called me a little bit ago to let me know that she and Elaina just tested positive for strep.

Crap.

Now she can't come tomorrow. And who wants to come to our dine of clearly contagious sickness anyway???

My poor child.

What do I do? Delay it? Have it with just a tiny bit of family? I have no idea. My poor baby.

These are my NyQuil thoughts. It's 7:20 pm and I'm going to bed now.

Yee.Haw.

Movie Fun

This morning I just randomly say to Drew (as he's getting ready for work) - I think I'll call your sister and see if she wants me to take her older 2 and I'll take all 4 girls to see that new cartoon movie.

Drew: Sure that sounds fun.... Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND?

The 4 girls are 5, almost 5, 3, and 7 months.

I might be crazy but it was great fun and it went really well!

Afterward the nieces came back home with us and they all played for awhile before my SIL came to retrieve them.

They're adorable! A couple of pictures I took today...

Friends

Leah: Mommy do you know how to play this game?

Me: Yes Leah
(It's the game of Life)

Leah: Do you want to play?

(I think to myself. This is starting already? It's 7:45 am. Heaven give me strength! But I say...)

Me: I do want to play with you but I need to clean up this mess.
(I've been sewing... the living room is trashed.)

Leah: Well then I'm gonna help you clean!

Me: (surprised) You are?

Leah: Yes because that's what friends do. They help each other.

Be still my heart.

PS We cleaned up the living room and she really did help. It's not finished but we're gonna play Life now. The details need finished but we're gonna play a game of Life now.

I’m cute too!

Leah: "Mommy? What do you know about me?"

Me: "I know everything about you."

Leah: "Do you know I'm brave?"

Me: "Yes. Brave and smart and beautiful."

Leah: "Don't forget cute! I'm cute too!"

Me: "Yes you are!"

Ordinary Day

There isn't really much going on here right now.

Today Leah is sick. She's had a fever since about 9:30 last night. She's very quiet today. Saturday is our day where she gets to pick several games we play and she wanted to do it in spite of the fact that she doesn't feel good. She got through three before she decided she just couldn't do it anymore and now she's on the couch. Sick kids are the saddest thing ever!

I have backlog of picture/recipe posts I need to do. I think I'll go through those today. Maybe

The Ordinary Day Experience:

I had this funny experience with Leah the other day while I was cooking. I got her an apron for Christmas and she likes to put it on and come cook with me in the kitchen.

Anyway, I was making fresh pasta (I'm on a roll with that lately) and she wanted to help. So she comes in the kitchen and we cooked for 4.5 hours. Just her & I. We made fettuccine, linguini, angel hair, and ravioli. The filling for the ravioli plus 3 different pasta sauces. We just cooked and cooked. And she hung in there and helped the entire time. Then we had them all ready at once, we put 3 forks in each dish and the three of us sat down and just ate fresh pasta dishes until we couldn't eat anymore!

It occurred to me several times to get the camera and take pictures but - I don't know. Some how it felt like it would ruin this moment we were having. It was such a precious happy day. I want to remember it forever but I guess not with pictures. We were all so relaxed. Drew came in and out as we cooked to chat.

Some moments just belong to your memory only.

And all I could think throughout the day was: I love my life.

I love my child. I love my husband. And I love to cook!

Leah can write.

Who knew?

She asked to write a letter to her cousin. Sat down next to me with a crayon and a piece of paper. I helped with the y and the g. It's all her own content. She asked me how some words were spelled...


PS She's royally ticked off at me for being out of envelopes. The nerve of me. She needs to mail this RIGHT. NOW.

Schooling

So we're still doing this book: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. And Leah still loves it! We are in the 50 somethings. I know it's working and I know she can do it but ya know... Sometimes you're doing all this homeschooling stuff and teaching her everything you think she can absorb and you wonder if this is all doing any good. If that makes sense. But then a few things happen and you learn two new things yourself.

1. You underestimate your child and what she "can absorb" or is ready to learn.

The other day I thought I would print out an addition worksheet (just +1 problems. ie 1+2, 4+1, etc) and just introduce her to the idea and the math vocabulary. (I'm tired of counting) And she got down with the whole worksheet in less than a couple minutes. Forget the vocabulary. I explained it to her and the idea just made sense and she did the problems. Here I was all prepared with M&Ms to introduce the concept. Forget that too. She was way ahead of me.

Now we're working on other things with Math 2+3, etc. Those she actually has to stop and count in her head. Or she'll use the M&Ms or hold up two fingers on one hand and three on the other and count them.

I think I'll show her some subtraction today. We'll see how that goes.

2. You have no idea how much she's retaining. It's probably more than you think.

And the reading. I know she rocks at the lessons and she does really well. She loves to walk around sounding out words to herself and rhyming everything she can think of.

But yesterday in the van. She wants us to look at her doodle pad while we’re driving and there was this:

OPRĀT – operate

If she were to see that in the reading lesson book it would look like this: operāte - with a line over the a to mark a long a sound. they make the letters you don't sound out smaller in the lesson. She spelled that exactly right given how she'd learned it.

And don't ask my why she chose operate. We weren't discussing that. I just have no idea. lol

Anyway - look! It's working. I'm ever so glad. Not bad for 4!