Exhausted.

I am so tired. Maybe as tired as I've ever been and NOT had a newborn child. I've been watching kids for a month or so and we've hit our groove pretty well, we have a little schedule of sorts and we all know what to expect from each other. Despite this, I am sooooo tired at the end of the day! Five kids may not be my cup of tea :) Basically, the boys are twins. Almost-two-year-old twins. And then I have a three year old, a four year old, and a seven year old (after school, that is). Sigh. So tired.

I answer a lot of questions ("What if a polar bear got shot?" "Why do all of us have to die?" "What's for lunch?" "Can I have another pudding?")

I wipe a lot of noses.

I wipe some other places too.

We have been going on lots and lots of walks. Kate and Elly ride their bike/trike and I push the boys in the jogger round and round the block a million times. We all love it, but that might be why I am so pooped. Ok. Pity Party over. Aren't you glad you were invited?

Good News.

We saw the dermatologist today and she says the sore on Elly's finger is a wart with a lot of inflammation around it. So that is good news- I was beginning to wonder why such a young child would have something associated with Osteoarthritis (the first diagnosis)- and it was a little worrisome to me! So Elly was very brave while the doc used the scalpel to remove the top of the wart and apply some "beetle juice" as she called it (camphor) and now we wait and see it bubble up and hopefully go away soon. Elly did not freak out at all and I was shocked. She was so, so brave. Afterwards we said, "You can have any treat you want, what do you think?" She answered, "Watermelon." We couldn't find watermelon but ate some cantaloupe at the cafeteria in the hospital and she seemed not to know the difference :)

Milestons

Just wanted to report that my kids are amazing. Any questions?

Oh, right. You want to know why. Well here are a few answers...

1. Esias is cutting EIGHT teeth at the SAME TIME. Now that's cool. He figured out how to take a BITE of a fig newton and (sort of) chew it. He tongues it but it's getting better!

2. Elly can READ. Seriously, she just figured it out. I am so proud of her! She's four and a half and already reading. Way to go sister!

3. The last few days, Eden and I have had some amazing conversations where she is revealing to me just how grown up and mature she is. She just "gets" a lot of stuff. In one particular convo, she explained to my why it's important that I be her authority and not her friend. It's not something she's heard explained explicitly but we've tried to parent that way. I am glad she gets it and doesnt just think I'm mean! She is a smart cookie.

Quad Cities Vacay

We had a fun time in the Quad Cities over the weekend. We went to the John Deere Pavillion, Putnam Museum and IMAX and the Family Museum. It was a great weekend and the kids swam and swam at the hotel. Here are some pics from the weekend.

Ready to swim!

Catch! Esias was scared of the water for a while but then got comfy enough to play around a bit.

Bedtime stories...

Waking up with the bunny ears.

Milking a cow at the John Deere Pavillion

Please stay off my family!

Elly learned how to hula.

God is so good.

I found Molly Piper's blog several years ago but since losing Jaren, I have found it incredibly poignant. She is very real and truthful in her description of her grieving process after losing her daughter, Felicity, at full term. She has a son, Orison, about Elly's age, and one-ish year old boy named Morrow. She is also expecting. Of course, when you lose a child at full term, pregnancy is a scary time. Today, this was her post. Please read it. You will love it.

Spring Update!

Well, in another installment of "Weird Health Things that Happen to the Grimeses," Elly has an apparent mucous cyst on her knuckle- which apparently is very rare for children and is usually seen in elderly people with Osteoarthritis. Hmmm. It seems painful when we touch it and she guards in fiercely. We took her in last week and she was given Amox. to calm it down but that has not helped at all. So, it looks like we're off to the dermatologist soon. Luckily we just met a very nice one, who helped us over the phone the other night at 10pm! Thanks, Marta! (though I doubt she reads this!)


These two are sooo precious these days- Eden has been sleeping in Elly's bed with her and rubbing her hair at night- though she won't admit to it if you ask her.

And the boys- Luke is the boy I am watching- He and Esias are hilarious- one hits, one bites, the other hits, the other takes a toy away. Oh boys. They do like each other though!

Things I Know About My Kids.

It's a privilege being their mom...because I get to know all the details like these:

Esias is afraid of foaming soap and toilet flushing.

Elly loves 40 cent microwave bean burritos and when she has a fit she calls it her "mad ball" or "sad ball."

Eden calls her bottom-most shirt (like in her zillion layered outfits) the "background." Love it.

Questions!

Elly likes to ask questions. Lots of them. Here are just a few questions I get asked during the day:

Mom, what stains? (like list everything that stains)
What do whales eat?
Do sharks have ears?
Why is it called a Living Room?
What does vocabulary mean?


She also loves to play a game where we makes her guess which animal we are thinking of. We play this often while she waits for natural to run its course in the bathroom. She may be a future quiz show contestant...

M-I-C K-E-Y Tube is in his Tummy!

Here's E-man's brand new tube! It's suppose to be "low profile" but it sticks out a bit. What I like about it is that we can take off the long tail of tubing and only hook it on when we need to feed him. That makes it less likely to get caught on something and less noticeable to the general public. Not a big deal, but it helps. This one is good for longer term use which is nice. Every four months, Dan and I will change this ourselves at home. Yep that's right. We're quite talented :) There is a little balloon of water that holds it in place inside his tummy, so we just empty the water, pull out the tube, insert the new one, and fill it with water. Sounds easy enough...ask me in four months when I am gagging while poking this thing in his poor abdomen! We get another swallow study in June and we'll see then how long we'll have to feed him through this.

Anyhoo, the surgery went great. We were there at 6:45am and home by 11:30am! Nice. That's the best hospital trip we've ever had!

New Tube

Esias gets his new tube tomorrow early early in the morning. It is the low profile tube called the Mic-Key. Read about it here.

I am nervous about changing because now we are so used to the Peg tube. Dan assures me that they would not recommend this new tube if it weren't better, so it's worth it. The Peg tube does stick out and get caught on things occasionally and tears his stoma in the process. But this new one actually can pull out of the stomach, which scares me a little! It is held secure in the stomach by a little balloon of water. We will be taught how to change the tube and change the water in the balloon. Oh new things for mom and dad to learn.

Baby Boy is sleeping peacefully now, he has been one crazy sleeping baby lately! Two nights ago, he slept from 6:15pm (after Eden's art reception) til 6am. Then last night he slept from 6:30pm til 7am. He's is one tired dude. Who apparently is awake now...I can hear him squawking in his bed. The girls' howling like dogs downstairs had nothing to do with it I'm sure :)

So if you think of it, pray for Esias and us tomorrow at 8am- he has to be put under...again...I think this makes 5 times in 9 months!

Thank Heavens, it's finally FORTY outside!

The end of this week finally brought 40 degree days to us! Yay! We have needed it. BAD.

While we were all frozen for 74 months, here is what we did to keep warm:

Horsin' around with dad...check out my chubberiffic baby.

Readin' some books at bedtime. Daddy's story voices are the best.

Got dry skin...nothing a little cocoa butter won't fix.

And during daycare hours, we wrestled, jumped, squirmed, and dogpiled on each other inside. You gotta do something to let the kids get some energy out!

It got a little wild around here!

Then today, we explored the Devonian Fossil Gorge. It was still snow covered, but the kids enjoyed looking for fossils. And Marcus didn't want to leave til he found a "teeny tiny dinosaur."

Ah, Bite Me.

My son is a biter.

The girls went through a phase at 15 months- 2 years where they would hit. Elly would occasionally nibble my knee cap as a baby. But I have never had a full-fledged biter, until now, Mr. Esias Tesfaye. We're lucky he's not in a daycare center because he would probably get kicked out! He has bit Luke (the boy I watch) 3 times and we've only watched him for 6 days! In Esias' defense, Luke is a bit of a hitter (as most kids this age are) but still. Biting hurts! The other day, poor Lukey had teeth marks on his finger. Esias has hardly ever gotten in trouble for anything and he is VERY sensitive if we reprimand him. But redirecting hardly seems appropriate in this situation...not sure what to do with this kid! Suggestions?

Miss Mommy's Giveaway!

Hey all, my friend Emily in Scotland is having a giveaway on her blog, The Adventures of Miss Mommy.

Click here to enter to win some really cool scripture memory CDs. I hope I win the Seeds of Faith CD. Sounds cool. If you do enter (by leaving a comment on her post) please mention my blog so she knows how you found her. Thanks!

Quite Ellyquent, Part 22

Dan: The sun is really bright out there, don't look directly at it.
Elly: I am looking at it!
Dan: Don't honey, it can hurt your eyes.
Elly: But I have to GET MY VITAMIN D!

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Elly on the toilet: DAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! Can you come in here and read to me about constipation?

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Elly at lunch: I know what a Christian is. It's someone who makes mistakes but has Jesus in their heart.

Big Day

Hey All, today was a big day at the Grimes house. We signed Elly up for kindergarten! I have struggled off and on about whether or not to send her this coming school year. She technically makes the cut-off (being 5 on or before 9/15/10) but only by two weeks. So that's one for the "con" column. BUT, to look at her and talk to her, I believe she is ready to go to school. She still doesn't sit still very well but I am not sure that will ever be her forte. Eden could by this age for sure. And she seems to be doing everything her kindergarten-bound classmates are doing. So I decided to sign her up this spring and just double check with her preschool teacher at school's end to make sure she thinks she is ready. I was going to keep her home next year and do a pre-K homeschool curriculum but I think she would be really bored with me. She LOVES the social aspect of school and especially the singing and art time. Obviously I can do art with her, but I think she enjoys interacting with others, adults and children alike. So we will wait to make the final determination, but as for now, she's on the list!

We also had Eden's second Tri conferences. She is doing great. Reading well above age level and doing awesome in science. They have started fractions and "places" (like tens place, etc) in Math which I know have thrown her for a bit of a loop, but her teacher reports she is doing great by the end of the unit. I hope she takes after her daddy on concepts like those because numbers to me might as well be a foreign language! Mrs. S. reports that Eden is a model student (oh boy!) but has let down a little now compared to last Tri when she was so "on" all the time she didn't relax and have fun! Who's that sound like? Oh, I didn't know there was a genetic code for uptightness :)

My third baby was sooo tired after his playday with Lukey yesterday and running around all morning he fell asleep in about .2 seconds! Sweet thing. He's snoring in there right now. I have the girls in "quiet time" in their room because they had droopy little eyelids as well. Ah, peace.

Recent pics of the kids...

Eden's annual snowperson. This year it seems to have a little puff hairstyle.

Fun in a laundry basket. We do what we can here in the long Iowa winters.

These two pics are not the same, I swear. Just too precious to choose.

Sweet boy likes his blankie.

Ok, here's where I ask for mom-advice. Has anyone else's son (or daughter) ever lined up their cars like this? I think he's making them into a train?

He is very proud of his fleet.

How 'bout dem Hawkeyes?