We had our first homeschool science day today. We did states of matter. In good form for our family, the subject came from the choice of treat and not the other way around. Homemade ice cream was the snack, and the first concept that came to mind was freezing and melting, ergo, States of Matter. Well, not really, but it’s fun to pretend.

We had an object activity lesson once the table demonstrations were over. I won’t tell you exactly what we did, rather invite you to watch this movie of Christopher, Moira, and our friend Toria demonstrating what they learned.

Do you want to know what cracks me up? When I have some form to fill out medical info for Bennett and it asks, “Did your child have any health problems at birth?” with a half inch long line to give details. Or “Has your child had any health issues?” “Has your child ever been hospitalized, besides birth?” “Has your child had any surgeries?”

Really, what am I supposed to say? One friend suggested that when it asks, “Did your child have health issues?” that I just write, “Yes.” Or “Please see attached” and staple his billion page discharge summary to it… or maybe I should get a copy of his seven inch thick medical record and dump that on them. “Here, please feel free to skim this and let me know if you have any questions.”

I just had one of these forms and in that teeny, tiny space (health problems at birth?) I wrote “Born @23 weeks gestation, 1lb 6ozs, 109 days in NICU.” That about sums it up, right? And for surgeries, I wrote, “PDA, ROP, hernia” and for hospitalizations I wrote, “109 NICU, 13 PICU w/RSV, hernia repair.” I’m learning to be concise.

In celebration of Bennett’s “Let’s make the 4th of July really exciting and pretend to die” anniversary, he’s developed a nasty cough. And hid his glasses. And broke his other pair. So he’s stumbling around hacking. A commemoration cough. Emy’s not coughing (she has lungs, after all) but she’s running a fever and stuffed up. I suspect this wet weather that triggered their horrible allergy attacks has led to sinus infections. Lovely.

But hey, it’s not RSV and no one is going to die this 4th of July - WOO-HOO!! And let me tell you, so long as there are no ambulance rides involved this year, I’m happy.

Bennett has taken to hiding his glasses. I don’t know why, but I’ve seen him throw them oh-so-casually under the kitchen sink, behind the couch, shove them in the desk under the computer tower, etc. He’s also started popping out the lenses and biting them. I have no idea what he’s trying to accomplish, but he’s quite happy to play without the glasses and that’s just not an option. He broke two pairs yesterday (regulars and back-up) AFTER the eye shop closed so he spent an evening and morning without glasses. Didn’t seem to slow him down.

Last night on a glasses search (he hid one pair after breaking the other pair) I was digging under our bed and came across Bennett’s medical equipment stash. Pulse ox machine (what we hooked him up to so we could monitor his oxygen levels) and the nebulizer (for when he was sick and needed meds) and a bag of meds - xopanex, albuterol, flovent, the chamber to give his meds (that he got twice a day for months and months, sometimes more often when he was sick.) Plus spare tender grips (the stickers to hold his oxygen tubing on) and spare cannula for his oxygen. I threw away all the meds, a couple hundred dollars worth. They were all expired and he won’t need them again (I’m scared to type that, as if I’m tempting fate) and it was such a strange sensation. I remember needing these things, but I’m forgetting, too. What it felt like to hold down a squirmy baby to do breathing treatments, trying to gently remove sticky tender grips from his little cheeks, switching out cannula. Trying to get out of the house with oxygen tanks and monitors. Wow. Was that really our life? The biggest challenge now in getting out of the house is steering Bennett towards the van with Emy in her carseat on my arm when he really wants to race into the neighbors’ yard to play. And he’s fast.

Emy is taking after her older siblings - the front door is open and she tries to escape. Today I got her inside from the car, set her in the living room near some toys and went back for Bennett. By the time I got him unbuckled and to the door Emy had already made it across the living room & foyer and was heading out the front door. So I set Bennett down and ran back to grab Emy (now on the front step) and when she saw me coming she did this startle and turned to try and race away but slipped and did a face plant on the concrete, scuffing up her nose and lip. She was covered in gravel and dirt and bleeding a bit but nothing some gentle cleaning, Neosporin and some nursing couldn’t fix. Now her nose just looks sunburnt.

I had a 3 hour presidency meeting today (our first, which is why it was so long) and I’m excited about the women I’ll be working with. I had all four kids and the older two were off playing and Bennett and Emy both FELL ASLEEP. WEIRD!! It was a blessing because we were able to focus and get a lot accomplished. I don’t expect it will ever happen again, that they’ll both nap like that. But I’m grateful. And presidency meetings will be much shorter from now on, we just needed to get set up.

Our backyard remains under water and there are thunderstorms in the forecast for the next 10 days. This is such bizarre weather. I’m grateful for the rain and cooler weather but it’s strange to spend the summer being soaked and though we’ve not been impacted, there’s a lot of flooding around here.

Have I mentioned how much I love my new IKEA shelf?

My family is heading into town, driving in from California & Kansas & Utah. They’ll be here for 10 days and we’ll have 25 of the 28 (plus two on the way) family members on my side all here (but not literally at my place!) Then we’re hoping, fingers crossed, to get a visit from the one sister that won’t be here and her little one while her husband is away on business for 3 weeks. We hope, because we haven’t met our new nephew and he’s a cutie. And it’s very convenient that they are all coming here because until our kids are older, road trips are out of the question.

OH, and earlier this week Emy only nursed ONCE during the night at 3:40 am and I went to bed at 11am so I got FOUR AND A HALF HOURS SLEEP IN A ROW which is a new record. Literally, I’ve not slept that long since 2001 and it felt so good. But I’m not going to get my hopes up, it’s not going to be a regular event. Bennett has started wandering in around 6am and doesn’t say anything but walks to my side of the bed and crawls on top of me and pulls the sheet up and lays there. On my chest. It’s cute, but not funny. Kit sleeps on the side of the bed closer to the door so he can intercept kids coming in but Bennett is so quiet that we don’t notice him until he’s on me. And all the storms have been waking Moira up, so she often ends up laying across the foot of our bed ON our feet. Christopher normally sleeps through the night!! How cool is that?? And doesn’t wake us up when he gets up. Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE the five year old thing? I’m falling more in love with Christopher every day, he’s a hoot. I LOVE five. So rational, so obedient, so funny and smart and sweet. LOVE it. Four is fun, but five is even more fun if that’s possible. Bennett is getting more rational, too. He’s talking more, communicating in other ways, sometimes he even listens and obeys us! If I say, “DON’T BREAK YOUR GLASSES!” he looks guilty and sometimes drops them. If I ask him to bring me something he often does. If I tell him to not run into the street he sometimes pauses before running away. That’s promising!

I sure love my kids today. They are all healthy. And funny. And being really cute and sweet and cooperative.

Bennett just broke his glasses again…. sigh…

Click to pop the movie in a new window. I love technology!

Woh-muh-in.

Can you guess what that is? Want some hints? We needed some, so we asked Moira what it starts with:

“W - Wuh,” she said.

“Ih ween ann wed.”

“Ih hah wa (short a sound) tees.”

I’ll post the answer tomorrow.

ANSWER: Watermelon. It’s green and red. It has black seeds.

I asked her to repeat each word so I could try to approximate the sound. This gives you a glimpse of what it’s like for us to try and communicate. Great progress, I’m so amazed by her determination and creativity. She’s so smart! Her hints were perfect, and we figured it out. But we spend all day trying to understand her and to someone that doesn’t know her, it’s a huge struggle. Sometimes now she’ll write the first letter of the word she’s trying to say so we can figure it out. One day she’s just going to start writing the whole word and on one hand that’s amazing - that she has such advanced comprehension & writing skills. But on the other hand it’s heartbreaking, to think she may have to write words because her speech is a struggle.

So, what is “woh-muh-in” - guesses? You can email me, hthaden at gmail dot com if you want the answer early. And new album up in gallery.

Our church encourages members to keep supplies in case of emergency - 72 hour kits, food & water storage, first aid stuff, financial reserves, toiletries & other home necessities, etc. You can check out this website, Provident Living if you want to learn more. It’s good for EVERYONE. There is a cannery owned by our church in the area that is open to the public and people can come can dry goods or bag them in mylar pouches. Our ward also has a bag sealer so on our way back from Baylor last week we stopped by the cannery to pick up mylar pouches, oxygen absorber packs, boxes to store it all in, lots of wheat, oats (it’s cheaper there) and such. We bought everything else at Sams - rice, sugar, flour, pasta, pinto beans. Then today we finally bagged! And it was crazy. We did it while Bennett was asleep but the other kids still really wanted to be involved.

Emy was such a help, trying to shove pinto beans in her mouth and sticking her hands in the bucket of flour, then spreading it everywhere. We tried putting up the baby gate but she started climbing it (sound familiar?) so we put her in the high chair with cereal and that didn’t keep her happy for long. But we got it done, and now we feel more prepared.

Here’s some fun captured - notice the flour everywhere? All over Emy’s legs, on Mo’s bum? Then the kids made a huge pile and climbed on top of the 50 bags.

Kit snapped these shots of Emy taking a step towards me. Is she not so adorable? If we weren’t holding her all the time I wonder if she would have walked sooner?

Here she is looking all flirty while everyone cheers (see those hands!):

Reaching to take a step as Bennett races to beat her to my lap, plopping down to knock her out of the way:

And take II, Emy walking!!

Things I heard while reading Christopher his new magazine: “Here’s a thing about butterflies and caterpillars and chrysallises!” “When koala bears walk to a new tree they are prey!” (Run, little koala bears, run! Okay, that was my addition.)

Oh, and:
“Why do the boy peacocks spread out their feathers taller than me to make the girls want to marry them?”

I tried to explain that it attracts the females but Christopher didn’t understand why the girls would care if the feathers were tall and pretty. And why the boys want the girls to “marry them” all the time. And then I started laughing to myself because I didn’t feel like explaining that the peacocks aren’t exactly courting for marriage purposes, their motives were a little more frisky than that. But I’m too tired to explain animal mating patterns right now and why peacocks don’t get married.

Christopher and Moira get two magazines from some of their grandparents - National Geographic Little Kids from Beverly & Stormy and from Nana & Grandpa Gerald they get Highlights which they both love. The latter is wonderful for language and hidden pictures and rhymes & riddles and all sorts of fun stuff - I had it growing up and I’m sure it’s familiar to others! The former one is a new magazine and it’s for kids 3 to 6 and I’ve never seen a magazine in this format. Big font, small size for little hands, short stories that Christopher is starting to read. The kids get SO excited when their magazines come in the mail (and it’s good we get two now so they don’t fight over the one) and I am storing them all in a special magazine rack because the kids go back and read through them. What a perfect gift idea for kids - something new every month, fun AND educational, easily stored for future reads.

As you can see, it’s already brimming with boxes of stuff, books, my scrapbooking things, the kids’ toys, homeschool books, etc. I LOVE IT. The kids can easily get to their stuff, they leave my stuff alone, Bennett has not yet tried to climb it, it’s all right there so I don’t have to go room to room hunting for things for lessons. LOVE IT. Now I just have to keep all our stuff streamlined enough that we don’t outgrow this in another year, but it’s really helped me de-clutter other parts of the house by consolidating here. As the little two get older we’ll switch out some toy boxes for their lesson boxes (for now just Christopher & Moira have their bins, then we have bins for extra games & lesson related stuff.) In the middle you can see our scriptures, the books I want to read, the kids’ journals, etc. Right there so I can have the visual reminder to focus on that important stuff.

I set Emy down on her feet and she stood there long enough for me to walk around to face her and sit down - then she did this little bobby-bounce thing and walked towards me! She’s taken steps before but just one, so I didn’t count that. This was almost 3 steps! Then she tumbled onto me laughing. I wish I had snapped a picture of her standing but I didn’t want to lunge for the camera and scare her.

And ironically, this happened an hour after Kit left for the office. The poor man is gone only 4 hours a day and Emy manages to walk while he’s gone. But he was here for her first steps so it’s okay.

Emy is 9 months & 3 weeks and a couple days, so she is walking right when Christopher did (9 months & 3 weeks.) She takes her time with things though, she crawled a month before he did and I’m hoping she’ll take her sweet time with this walking thing. Christopher was RUNNING by 11 months and he’s been hard to keep up with since then.

Can you guess which little girl is which?