Quite Ellyquent, Part 20

Dan gave Eden 2 Flintstone vitamins and Elly 1 Flintstone vitamin. (this is starting to sound like a word problem from 4th grade math) They both looked down at their hands and Eden said, "I have Pebbles and Dino!" Elly piped up, "I have eczema and Dino!"

The other day, Elly was on my lap. Scratch that, every day Elly is on my lap. This particular day she was kissing me and kissing me and kissing me. I said, "Wow, you're a kisser today" or something like that, and she said, "Yeah, I'm the Bachelor."

Rub a Dub Dub

My sweet sudsy babes! Zi Zi loves his bath sooo much. The girls get a little rowdy in there but he thinks it's hilarious. This day they used some foam soap spray and it scared him to death! He realized it was ok and felt better but Dan said it was so funny to see him try to get away from the soap foam!

Nia's B'day

We celebrated Nia's b'day, Marcus' b'day makeup and a little bit of
Christmas when my parents visited this past weekend. It was fun,
though more presents in the house was not as welcomed by the parents
as it was by the kids :)

Esias' Dedication

Last Sunday, we dedicated Esias Tesfaye to the Lord. We read Isaiah 12:2 and 58:11 and the Children's Pastor, Dave Foster, prayed for him. Dan shared a little of our story and how Esias' birthname meant "sorrow" and "hope" and how poignant that was at the time of his referral to our family. He choked up a little while talking and I think he touched many people in the audience. Come to find out that another family was an adoptive family as well. Our church is very large so we don't always know everyone there! It was a nice ceremony and the kids behaved themselves on stage :)

Last Week

Last week at the Grimes' home, Zi Zi learned to drink out of his dysphagia cup!

We got TONS of ice. You can't really see it in the pic, but the tree branches were just coated in ice.

The kids got clean.

And we enjoyed a playday with our friends the Ramsey kids!

Sick of Being Sick.

We have passed around a cold here at our house and I am tired of it already. Our once peaceful-all-night sleeper (Esias) has been up at all hours and fights going down to begin with. Eden (who does not have a cold) has been in our bed lately and oddly enough, Elly, has NOT been in our bed! She's on antibiotics for a double ear infection and I love amoxicillon because it makes her sleep so well. She's stayed in her own bed for two nights in a row, which is an accomplishment for her!

Last night I started coughing and now I can't stop. Not to mention my sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes...Ok, I'll stop, I'm starting to sound like a whiney Nyquil commercial.

Next week we go back to GI to have the docs evaluate Esias' peg tube and set up a time for the mic-key button to be placed. I hope we like that new button. This peg tube has been great so far. The only drawback is that some crusty stuff can build up around it and it's hard to get clean but otherwise he has done great with it and does not mess with it very often. We've only caught it on things twice and both times, I think we cried more than he did.

Haiti

Our hearts over here are a mess over Haiti. I have neglected to post anything because I just can't verbalize what's going on in there. I am just sad. I just keeping looking at those little faces covered in debris dust and thinking, what if that were Esias? If something like that happened in Ethiopia, it would be devastating. We witnessed the construction there, it was like sticks and bricks. I just keep looking at the children in Haiti...breaks my heart. God, comfort the people of Haiti. We know you LOVE them because you CREATED them and you know their suffering.

Please donate to the relief effort. Our favorites are Samaritan's Purse and the Red Cross.

Sibling Fun

This might be sort of long and uninteresting for the casual blog reader...though there are some cute moments. To borrow from my friend Rachel, this video is of Grandparent Level Interest. Let's just call it a GLI. Esias and Elly and playing a fun game-- he brings her some Tupperware lids and she screams or something. At the end, Elly sings a little Owl City for your listening enjoyment.
Don't mind the crummy cinematography...I was trying to act like the video was not on so they wouldn't stop doing it!

Esias is starting to communicate with us more and more. One source of great pleasure for him is watching YouTube videos of horses! This was taken about a week ago just when he was beginning to make sounds for us. Since then he's progressed even more! I thought Papa the horse guy might want to see his grandson's enthusiasm for equine!

Watch Out Mom.

The other day, Eden and Dan were looking through some of her Sunday School send-home sheets, and they were talking about the verse "Honor your father and your mother." He jokingly said, "Except for the father part, that doesn't apply." Eden replied, "Oh so we don't have to listen to Dad! Now all we have to do is get rid of mom!"

Elly said, "I'll never get rid of you mom! If you travel, I will travel with you! If I travel, I'll travel with you and Daddy!"

Your Questions Answered!

I had several questions on the comments section of the last couple of posts, so I thought I would answer them!

1. What's Esias eating in the video?
We are taking a few liberties in the feeding department...we were recommended to wait to feed anything other than yogurt-thick solids until we have another swallow study in about 4 months. But my instincts are telling me that that is too long to wait to introduce a child to self-feeding and chewing and the whole nine. So I experimented with some different textures and found that small pieces of regular bread are something he can pick up and get into his mouth, where he can work on chewing them and feeling the texture in his mouth. Now, if you look closely, you will notice that most of those bread pieces end up on his bib or in his high chair seat and not his mouth! But this is for practice and not for nutrition (that's what the tube is for) so it's ok! I have yet to ok this method with our Occupational Therapist...I just figured I am his momma, and I know him best.

2. Do you let Eden wear whatever she wants to school?
I let both the girls pick out their outfits for school (unless Elly asks me to do it, which she sometimes does) and I really don't care if it matches or looks ridiculous as long as it fits this criterion: it has to be appropriate- meaning temperature, size, or amount of body coverage! There are times an outfit gets the disapprove rating- usually it's because Eden comes out in shorts or a skirt when it's 20 below. Then we send her back in to try again. But most of the time, she does great. Her outfit creations are just part of how she expresses herself!

3. What do you do when Elly throws up at Fareway? :)
Well Andrea, here you go!
I had kept Elly home from preschool Monday because she has a chest cold and that paired with asthma just sounds terrible. She also has a tendency to throw up when she accumulates phlegm in her chest, so basically I knew it was a matter of time! We stayed home all day until we had to get Eden at school. At that point, with all three of my children already strapped in and bundled, I thought, I might as well go to Fareway and get just enough to get us through tonight and tomorrow. So off we went. I got as far as the produce and Elly started to cough- she said, "I think I am going to throw up..." as I am perusing the grape tomatoes. I tell her to hold it in, but she just can't...so I run around to the cart and grab one of Esias' diapers out of the bag and hold it up to catch the puke. In the meantime, Eden is pacing around us saying, "THIS IS EMBARRASSING!" Elly goes through two diapers and one snack baggy but we contain it all without really making much of a scene - in fact one guy on a cell phone didn't notice at all and kept sort of hovering like 'get outta my way, i gotta get some grape tomatoes'. Well, there ya go buddy :)

As soon as she was done, she feels fine. She started singing I think. I contemplated finishing the shopping trip or abandoning cart. I landed on buying what I already had in my cart-- bananas, salad mix, and those ever-important grape tomatoes! So we did, and I sent an email to Dan with the remainder of the list!

E-Man Can Say MORE!

We've been working hard to get some words out of this kid! It's no surprise that his first word is "more" as in FOOD!

Emerging from the Deep Freeze!

bbbbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Poor little dude is not used to these temps, but doesn't seem to mind unless he touches snow!




We've spent most of the last few days freezing in below 0 temps here in I-O-W-A. But an Orange Bowl victory warmed us up a little bit, and I wanted to kiss the weatherman today as he forecast temperatures over 25 degrees this week! Things are lookin' up!

Here is what we Grimey Grimeses were up to this past week.

Elly was sent home with her Preschool's "classroom pet." She named her Lisa.

Eden continued to inspire us with her outfits :)

And Elly threw up at Fareway. Yes, just a normal week here at the Grimes Home!

Love Little Man in a hat!




This is Esias with "his precious." He acts just like that nasty little scrawny guy on Lord of the Rings whenever you come near him with Yoplait Whips!

I Took This As a Compliment.

Today I made chicken and rice for supper and the kids were eating away and everyone was very quiet. Of course, before it was served there was some grumbling about what I was making...anyway, so I said, "Wow, Dan look at how quietly everyone is eating." Elly piped up, "Yeah, I'm going to have more after I'm done with this load!"

Bed Sharing...*sigh*

Co-sleeping, bedsharing, pulling a little foot out of your crack at 3am...whatever you call it, it's controversial among doctors and parents to say the least. With Eden, we rarely co-slept, believing it to be the first step in our demise as parents. Surely she would grow up to be a mass murderer if we didn't get things under control by her 2 week birthday. We occasionally fell asleep together after an early morning feeding...thus this adorable picture above. Now I read this is not recommended due to an increased SIDS risk. Had I known that, I would have lain fearfully awake every second Eden was in my bed. I spent most of the time raising my first child in a state of panic and terror :)

Now, enter child numero dos. My precious Elly Lyn. She has always marched to the beat of a different, um, parade of sheep. You know the ones you're suppose to count to fall asleep. Ok, bad metaphor, but you get the idea.

Elly started sleeping through the night at 6 months, which we thought was a little late, but no biggie. She slept blissfully through the night, going to sleep on her own from the age of 6 months to 18 months. Then, she decided she was lonely. She began creeping out of her bed and into ours in the middle of the night and has been ever since. Now, this post is not a plea for help and advice, because we've tried different things (gate, rewards, threats, I mean, consequences) and to be honest, we're just not committed. And I know why. There is something sort of special about it. She wants to be near us (read: me). She is a light sleeper and hears everything going on in our small living space, so when someone moves or snores or breathes, she hears it and comes a-calling. We call her our "heat seeking missle" because she finds you wherever you may be. She is a toucher, a hugger, a lovey-type. She comes into our room and snuggles up to me as close as she can. Sometimes I notice (when her foot literally goes down my pants) and sometimes I don't (when I wake up and see her smiling face right there in mine). If I fall asleep on the couch, she finds me. When Dan is gone on business trips, she knows she will be welcomed into the bed even earlier than on a regular night. She loves sleeping with us.

There are many, many reasons why we shouldn't co-sleep with Elly...it doesn't teach her how to sleep alone, it interrupts our sleep, yadda yadda yadda. But this morning, I realized why we let it continue (and continue, and continue...). This morning, I was still sleeping rather hard and I rolled over and turned toward Elly, but with my eyes still closed. Elly said to me in the most adorable and sweet voice ever, "You look so beautiful!" I mean, seriously. Isn't that so worth it? Her childhood will be over in a blink. So I'm choosing my instincts over good sleep :)

BIG STEP

The last two days, we've noticed Esias watching our mouths more and trying to talk to us. Well, today I am officially calling his first word: more. He says it muh but we know what it means, and he uses it mainly for food! Way to go Buddy! Just two months into this tube feeding and we are 100% sure that this was the right decision as we've seen major breathing and communicating progress! Yay!

Back to normal!

It felt good (even at -3 degrees) to pack the kids up this morning and get Eden to school and Elly to preschool. Zi and I came home and cleaned up, put away scads of laundry (OH MY WORD) and then he took a nap! I am suppose to be exercising right now...oops. I guess I'm eating Reese's Pieces instead. How did that happen?

Darn you Kinsey Mazunik for leaving them here!

Sweep, sweep, sweep

Wearing his bathrobe and a feeding tube (and that's it) Esias decided it was just as good a time as any to help me with the chores. He is quite a sweeper!

Under the table...

under the dishwasher...

under daddy's feet...

He finally took a break from his hard work to give us some of his famous smiles.

Don't you love this Cars bathrobe I found him at the consignment store? It's super soft, he looks adorable in it, and now all the kids have warm robes to wear around the house. We bought Eden's new years ago, but Elly's we got at Goodwill for like $2 (nevermind it has the name Sophie embroidered on it) and Esias' was a couple of bucks at Stuff, Etc. Love it!

Post-Christmas Madness

The kids were so excited to be home after being gone for several days for Christmas. Esias and Eden had a hayday with the Busy Ball Popper we got for Esias. Wow, that toy is totally worth the 15 bucks! All ages love it, including thirty-somethings!

Esias' hair was SO long! We just got it cut finally.

And, finally, my three precious kiddos! They are adorable if I do say so myself.