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Today we went to see our new niece/cousin and I must say - she’s really cute! My daughters came out looking like prizefighters and Bennett - I love him, but he was NOT cute when he came out. Christopher was cute, but not like this. This little girl is beautiful. And I forgot to get pictures, but those will come. I got to cuddle her today and she made me baby hungry, even with my four little ones running wild. So sweet and tiny… tiny, but over 7lbs. Not Bennett tiny. But squishy and curled up and making those newborn squeaks. Sigh…

I called Bennett’s doctors, realizing we won’t be seeing them until January for his 3 year well check. Since we’re fast approaching RSV season I wanted to know what the protocal was for this year. First year it was “NOTHING, do not leave the house except for doctor visits and keep him covered and no one BREATHES near this child.” Second year was “He can go to church and family gatherings, NOTHING else and no nursery and no large groups.” This year I was really curious to hear what they would say especially since he got Synagis the last two years (the RSV shot to help ease the symptoms if he catches it again) and this year he doesn’t get it. And what did they say? You won’t believe it. “Treat him like the other kids.” Hold on, rewind - WHAT? Like “normal” - what does THAT mean anymore?? Normal - like the new normal in which we never leave the house without hand sanitizer and anytime we shop we slather them all down when we leave and if anyone has sniffles we cancel? That normal? Or do you mean “normal” like pretend RSV isn’t a deadly virus hunting down our preemie with the terrible lungs? Normal like let him be around kids with runny noses? We can’t go back to that place. You can’t tell me that RSV can live on hard services for 4 to 6 hours and then expect me to NOT try and protect him? Did you know RSV can be found in epithelial cells for up to 21 days after RSV hits? (I didn’t even know what epithelial cells were, I had to look it up) but in english that means if anyone HAD cold like symptoms and was around Bennett then he could still catch it, right? My cousin’s daughter, NOT a preemie, was hospitalized with RSV when she was three. Bennett’s two. If RSV can land an otherwise healthy term kid in the ICU in March, am I really suppose to feel “safe” in treating Bennett like a normal kid? Normal is gone. We lost normal three years ago.

Anyhoo, we can at least leave Bennett in nursery at church since he’s loving it (though we stipulated that we were to be informed if there were ANY runny noses so we could pull him) and we’ll let him attend parties this year. But we now live with a hyperawareness of bugs and I doubt that’s going to go away.

Speaking of bugs - Bennett just ate a rolly polly and I’m trying to NOT think about that. The older three were outside playing and Christopher and Moira started yelling at me that Bennett ate a “Rolly Polly Olly Bug!” and when I said stop him, they said it was already in his tummy. Yuck.

Tucking Bennett into bed we were talking. Odd to think we were conversing, but mostly it was him naming facial features and pointing to mine or his. I said, “Can you say ‘Mommy’? I’m Mommy.” He smiles and says, “I’m Mommy,” and I laugh and say, “No, you’re Bennett,” and he says Bennett. Which starts the game of me naming everyone in our family and he says their names (Daddy, Mommy, Cri-cri, Mo-hah, Benneh, Emy) and since he was doing so well we moved onto my family (he says Allegria VERY well, Bo-bee-uh for Sophia, Eye-bee for Ivy, Dol-din for Colton, Nick, etc. I wish I could capture all the cute ways he pronounced them.) I was very impressed! So after he named the 30 people from my side of the family he named the 10 from Kit’s side! Derry, Nana, Bee-boh Deral, Doo-dahn, Deh-bih-nee. He named all 40 people in his family! Wow. And then I said, “Bennett, I love you. Can you say ‘I love you?’” and he DID. Totally solicited but Bennett said I love you. SO I squealed and kissed him all over his face and hugged him and that really didn’t get him to go to sleep. But I didn’t care. My little monkey loves me. I remember when Christopher & Moira both learned to say that and it makes my heart swell with gratitude.

We’ve been talking with our landlord/possible builder and we vetoed the two options he had right now but he’s been looking for lots in this school district. After talking with our various therapists and finding the university option for speech, we told him we were comfortable looking at lots in other locations. I emailed him a map of where Kit works and said we would like something close to there (there’s a lot of acreage near his office) and asked if that would make a significant price difference. We also let him know specifics - he asked for a list since we said we don’t want a fireplace, don’t want carpeting (tile or brushed concrete and we’ll do rugs for now and later add wood floors over the concrete) so things like that. Asked how much of a price difference it makes since he knows what we were approved for and he told us what the other four bedroom sold for so we’ve got to find a way to get closer to our budget. He just wrote back and said those things will make a sizeable difference in price and he’s having his realtor start looking for lots near Kit’s work. WOO-HOO! After telling him our budget I asked if it was even feasible for us to build a four bedroom near there and if it wasn’t, I didn’t want to waste his time. But he said he thinks we can do it and he’s been great about researching this for us. I’M SO EXCITED.

We’ve heard building a home is an enormous stressor on marriages, several friends mentioned that. Kit laughed and said, “Okay, if we handled the NICU then we can handle this.” Plus a lot of things won’t be a factor for us - we don’t have to sell a home, we already know we got approved and for how much, the builder is also our landlord so we don’t have to worry about getting out of this place and finding somewhere else when one lease ends and the house isn’t done, no issue of double payments since as soon as it’s done he lets us out of our lease. And we both feel really good about this guy, we have friends that bought a home he built so we checked it out and he’s friends with friends from our church and everyone speaks very highly of him. We’ve talked about what materials he uses compared to if we built in a subdivison with a large builder and he’s happy to let us go pick out what we want… hmmm, IKEA kitchen??

Anyway, I have no idea if this will work out or not but it’s so exciting to think that we could be building a home and a home that we know will be customized for us and with room to grow as the kids get bigger… this has been our dream, to pick a lot and build. We just didn’t imagine we could pull it off for several more years down the road, we assumed we would have to buy a starter home and build some equity and then someday build. So it’s fun to daydream.

This is the floorplan he’s pricing out for us:

Okay, I love you guys - I really do. But sometimes you make me INSANE:

Bennett cannot find a writing implement of any sort (and he can find them anywhere!) without immediately drawing on himself, furniture, walls, paper, books, siblings, etc.

Bennett cannot find a cup of water or any liquid with any amount without immediately POURING IT ALL OVER THE FLOOR. WHY, Bennett, WHY??? He then grabs a towel and cleans up but what sort of bizarre scientific finding is he trying to uncover? (Okay, if he later wins some Nobel Prize for an amazing discovery that somehow involves dumping out water cups then I’ll feel silly but until then…)

Moira is completely capable of turning on the bathroom light, we have not one but two stools in there for that very purpose. Yet she stands there frantically dancing and clutching herself screaming for someone else to turn it on until she can no longer hold it and she PEES ALL OVER THE FLOOR. So if I’m nursing or doing anything else and can’t go help or if I’m simply yelling, “Moira, you can do it, turn the light on yourself,” then I end up cleaning up pee from the floor because it’s not like she’s skilled enough to clean it all up by herself. And since Moira is a camel and holds it until the last possible second, this is not just a little trickle - this is a FLOOD OF PEE!

And Moira, you never colored on the walls as a toddler. What in the world is possessing you to take a marker to the wall now?? Okay, she only did that twice but still…

Bennett, trimming your nails is NOT TORTURE and I am exhausted by trying to trap you between my legs to hold you still long enough to trim those nails. Not that I want you to start biting your nails but please - it’s not torture, hold still for a minute and it will all be over.

Nail biting. WHY must my older two so obsessively bite their nails?? And Mo, quit biting your dolls’ fingers! Do you know how many toxic chemicals are in that type of plastic?? Is life as a four year old so amazingly stressful that you have to chew, chew, chew your nails down to little nubs?? Christopher, my mostly rational and reasonable child - STOP BITING YOUR NAILS!

And Christopher, I love you, but you are NOT ALLOWED TO CARRY EMY AROUND THE HOUSE. She’s a baby, I know she’s cute and all, but you are not allowed to pick her up and run around the house. If you trip and fall it would get really ugly and please, just stop.

And all of you, quit leaving the backdoor open! Emy races out there without shoes on and if she gets covered in fire ants I’m going to be really ticked off. But DON’T notice you left it open and race back and try to slam the door on her fingers because that’s going to tick me off, too! CLOSE THE DOOR! And if you forget, ask me for help and DON’T try to pick Emy up and shove her back inside yourself!

Emy, we’ve got to find some compromise with the nursing. It’s still adorable when you chase me around yelling, “Nuh, eeeeettthhhh!” but it’s not so cute anymore at 2 and 3 and 4am. You’re not hungry, and I know you’re in pain from teething but I’m not feeling warm and fuzzy about nursing you anymore and we need to find you some alternate way of soothing. That doesn’t involve me and my boobs.

And on the topic of teething, the wooden arm of the couch is NOT a teething toy! You’re leaving teeth marks in furniture, Emiline! My leg is not a teething toy, either, nor are your siblings’ fingers even if they are silly enough to stick them in your mouth. And biting me while nursing will get you very unceremoniously dumped out of my lap. We have actual teething toys for you, teething biscuits, you have options so quit biting me!

Bennett and Emy - STOP THE HEAD BANGING! Ben, you’re making great progress in stopping but when we say no and you’re angry, running full speed at the front door and smashing your head is NOT going to change our answer. It’s just going to give you a huge knot and make you cranky. Emy, stop it, too! Bright little cookies that you are, destroying brain cells by head banging is not going to get you far in this world. QUIT IT.

I am so very grateful for how easily you are all going to bed at night. No yelling and whining and fussing, you just give hugs and kisses and drift off. I love it. Christopher & Moira, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART for sleeping through the night. Thank you, thank you. Bennett - I won’t complain because your poor dad gets up with you but quit it. GO TO SLEEP. You do not need to be playing at 3am! And the tv is off limits at 6:30am, I don’t care what show is on, GO BACK TO BED! Mommy is a much nicer person if you let her sleep until 7am.

Okay, I feel better. Whine over.

Pictures

Spoke with the speech clinic at the university, they have a supervised graduate student program that works on sliding scale fee (and since we’re a family of 6 on one income I’m finding those sliding scales can be nice - guess four kids is not that common??) and they do an evaluation then recommend therapy frequency (they said some kids are in 4x a week!) I went ahead and scheduled Mo and we’ll see what they think. I don’t know if we’ll do it now in addition to school or wait and start next summer when she loses services (they only do speech in school year, so mid-September through mid-December, then mid-January through mid-May. She’s only getting 7 months of speech a year… not much.) We’re also considering the afternoon PPCD program, now that she’s in the older group we’re willing to check it out. We sat in on several classes (like, 6 or 7) and were NOT favorably impressed with the screaming, hitting, spitting, tantrum throwing kids. But who knows, maybe the 4 year olds are more rational than the 3 year olds we saw? We both felt that was NOT the right environment for Miss Mo but we’re open to the possibility that an older class would be okay. The hope is that if we did more intensive therapy now we decrease the need for it down the road. Right now she’s getting 2 hours a week… of just speech. Add horses, play, OT, MORE speech?

This also is a resource we wanted to explore so that we can consider other housing/lot options. If we are happy with the UNT clinic then less pressure to stay in this school district just for services. Now we need to figure out something for Bennett’s vision.

So, I’m blogging again. That week of mental break was good, we talked a lot and made some plans and sorted some things out. Heidi feels less crazy. I’m standing at the kitchen counter watching the kids through the window, I was doing dishes while they fill up the pool. Emy (still hating water) is staying on the patio with her kid size broom, sweeping leaves. And I felt like, “I can do this. I’m doing this. We’re all okay.” Sometimes four feels overwhelming, like I’m doing the bare minimum to survive. And this last month I’ve been drowning under the weight of the various therapies and child struggles and finding Mo help and so on…

We have a new, lighter schedule. New school plans. We’ve done some pruning of our lives in various areas. Made some big and little plans, looked at lots (pool full, gotta write from patio now)

and building plans and one lake house our landlord/possible builder offered us. But the yard is the size of our yard now (which is great) but instead of a fence at the edge of the yard it has a lake. And with our kids? That just wouldn’t work. So he’s looking at other lots but that brought up a huge discussion of the kids’ therapies - if we leave this school district they lose all school services. Our ISD will work with homeschoolers, Denton will not. So do we leave the school area and pursue private therapy? Do we hope in another couple years the kids won’t need it? Or do we look at more limited and possibly expensive options here by the lake so we can stay with the therapists? What if Bennett’s vision becomes worse, what do we do about equipment and services (currently provided by therapy) or do we assume he’ll be okay? What about Mo’s speech?

Do we build a 3 bedroom and plan to move on or do we build a four bedroom? Do we build at all or look at homes already built? Do we buy smaller and build on (another option our landlord offered) or do we pinch pennies and buy large enough to grow into? And no matter what we choose, if we are seriously considering building/buying within this next year we’ve got to come up with several thousands of dollars for down & closing… can we do it? Plus Kit has an enormous deadline/project at work so he needs to be away from home more hours than usual which stresses the kids out (and mommy) and we’ve just ADDED more therapy to the schedule which messes up his schedule since I can’t take all the kids to therapy sessions.

Oh, and did I mention we homeschool? Right, so we’re working on books and lesson plans and reviewing materials and attending meetings and various groups and playdates and co-ops. Trimming a lot of that. Finding a system. That is actually going beautifully and I’m thrilled with the homeschooling. Now my closets? Not thrilled with those. Those need help.

And there’s wonderfully fun things that we’re juggling - my sister just had a baby and I’m going to try and help her a bit. Another sister is about to have a baby and asked me to attend and I’m so honored but I had to inform Emiline that she’s got to wean before her cousin comes or she’s going to have a rough couple days while I’m out of town at the delivery. But these are happy things, I’m excited to do these. I wish I could dump the other stuff and just do the fun things with my family.

And nursing is going great. Weaning? Not great. Between the allergies and molars cutting through, Emy wants to nurse more and more. I don’t blame her, but I’m feeling more stress because she is more clingy and needy. I’ve not been to the temple in months, I am leaving town for the birth in just over a month, I’m starting to feel these external pressures to wean and I feel guilty for wanting to push Emy off the breast when she’s clearly not ready but I am ready. And I could pump and try to keep up my milk while I’m gone but I don’t want to pump! And Emy won’t take a bottle anyway. She’s 13 months this week. And I realize how silly it is that a year ago I was desperate to get her to nurse and now I’m desperate to get her to stop.

I can’t even consider yet that we’re discussing building/buying a home in less than a year. Packing, moving. Yikes.

And Sundays, which should be our day of rest, are not feeling restful. My calling has been much less stressful than I anticipated especially since Ben now loves nursery - but when Kit’s teaching and I’m running around to various groups dropping binders and doing attendance and passing newsletters and answering questions and holding Emy (after attempting to keep her and Bennett quiet for the entire sacrament meeting which is just NOT going to happen in the next year) I feel like a chicken with its head cut off. Sundays are NOT easy.

We are spending a lot more time these days laying around reading, sitting on the swing, making and eating cookie dough, running (I love running), talking, laying around some more, playing silly games… trying to slow down enough to enjoy the moments with these wild rumpus kids.

I’m making lists. Checking them off. I’m juggling. I can do this. Simplify. Prioritize. Focus on what matters most, right? I can do this. Keep telling me that. Thank you for each of your kind words, comments, cards, emails… they meant a lot and really helped.

Bedtime update: The kids are running around before bedtime, literally running in circles around the living room laughing and squealing. Bennett got winded and started coughing, he went and sat down by the fireplace and you could hear him gasping, panting for air. Moira went and sat by him and they laughed a bit and he jumped back up to run some more. Got winded again and sat down and sounded like he was hyperventilating? Breathing fast and hard. It slowed down and he’s up again. But watching him worn out like that… maybe it was coughing? Moira gets worn out quickly and I see her smiling and catching her breath on the sidelines sometimes and it makes me a little sad that her muscles wear her out so quickly. Bennett, same thing - but if this wasn’t a preemie (Ben) or a kid with low tone and muscle issues (Mo) then would I think anything of it? Is this normal behavior I’m just noticing more because of their backgrounds? I don’t like hearing my preemie cough… I hate seeing him struggle for air.

Ending on a cute note - Ben took off his glasses during the wild rumpus and Emy snatched them up.

New pictures up in the gallery.

I just learned of another birth post with “Dr. Wonderful” (you can see the other birth I posted about here) and this mom used the portable electronic fetal monitoring - for those of you that had babies in a hospital, remember the belts you get hooked up to? Two straps around your belly for baby’s heart rate and your contractions? Did you know they have the technology to do that wirelessly so you can remain mobile? The hospitals don’t seem to care or carry it or want to use it (I’ve heard from a mother about the hospital telling moms the stuff was in use since it was a hassle for the nurses and they didn’t want to use it so they lied to the moms about it.) I have never heard of a friend being given this option. So here’s an example of a mother being able to use it and yet another beautiful picture of an OB and… I don’t even want to say patient because I don’t think that describes this doctor & mother’s relationship! I would never say I was a “patient” of my midwife - but here is a doctor and the laboring momma he’s supporting while she gives birth. How’s that? Better than saying “patient” right? Another story that inspires me. And I want to go buy a sarong!

Another beautiful birth.

And another picture I love. Seriously, this doctor gives me hope. I’m thankful I have such wonderful care providers, I wish everyone else did…

This is what Heidi makes me do when I should be working. : ]

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I know, I said I wasn’t blogging. What did that last - four days? But something and then I’m back to lurking…

One of Christopher’s first questions to my sister as he admired her new baby was, “Was she a preemie?” Tonight while discussing another baby (he’s been asking lately for a couple more, another boy and girl so it’s fair) and he asked again, “Why did you guys let Bennett be a preemie?” Um, well I wouldn’t say we “let” him be… but he was asking about Bennett’s placenta and why it was “broken” and we tried to explain that it wasn’t working, it was falling off so Bennett couldn’t get enough oxygen or nutrients. Then the question I dreaded, he asked with concern, “Why didn’t that happen to me or Moira or Emy? Is that going to happen to our next baby?” We assured him that no - it will not happen again. And why am I so confident? Because if something like that happened again then chances are we would just miscarry again. Not that I don’t believe in miracles - I very much DO, but I think the countless miracles it took to keep Bennett in there until he was viable are not likely to repeat again. It’s just not going to happen again, not like that. We may miscarry again, we’ve discussed that (Kit and me, we didn’t discuss that with Christopher!) but IF we don’t miscarry then it’s not likely we’ll have another micropreemie, or preemie at all. We’re sort of all or nothing - our history is miscarriage, Christopher, Moira, miscarriage, Bennett (a late term miscarriage or “threatened miscarriage” as I’ve heard, he just happened to be barely viable when I finally miscarried him) then Emiline. So really we’re looking at 3 miscarriages and 3 full term babies. I don’t like those odds. BUT, we’re confident that if we can get through the first trimester that we can bring home a full term baby. I shouldn’t be cocky, we’re just desperately trying to be optimistic. And no, I’m not pregnant.

Anyhoo, so we’re trying to assure Christopher we will not have a preemie-repeat.

Driving to a friend’s birthday breakfast this last Friday we passed an ambulance on the interstate. No big deal, right? I see ambulances all the time, we’re near our little town’s firestation so at least once a day we hear/see an ambulance. But this time, it knocked the wind out of me! I felt like I got hit in the stomach with a kickball on the school playground! And I burst into tears. I had to look in the rearview mirror to watch Bennett dancing and yelling at Dora on the DVD screen to assure myself that he was okay. Took a few deep breaths, wiped away the tears, kept driving. I had just patted myself on the back for seeing the Dallas skyline and not freaking out about NICU memories but that flashback - hearing the sirens, seeing the ambulance speeding past as cars moved out of the way, remembering that eternal drive down to Children’s PICU while the paramedic tried to keep Bennett alive, staring at Bennett’s face and pleading with him, pleading for him to stay… wow, those memories can still knock me flat. But I can’t tell if this is just me because I’m an emotional basket case right now, or if this is a pretty typical reaction to extreme trauma - even if it’s 2 years later.

I’m excited to report that Bennett is now using 4 and 5 word phrases consistently, but he has no volume control (everything is LOUD!) and Emy’s racing to catch up literally and figuratively, using 2 word phrases and chattering up a storm.

Okay, got that off my chest and I’m back to lurking.

This is sort of a roundup post.

Heidi’s sister had her third baby yesterday. To mark the occasion, we took the kids down to visit their cousins while their mom was recuperating at the hospital (uneventful birth with a midwife at that hospital, by the way — everything turned out just fine). Bonus that grandma was also visiting to help out for the birth.

Christopher and Mo went with Heidi to go an visit, and I’m happy to report that, not only did they get to hold the new baby, they both did so perfectly with support for her little bum and head just like they’ve been taught. I suppose that makes sense, though: They’ve both had plenty of experience with new babies around here, haven’t they? I stayed behind at their home with the babies and had a lovely time of it.

When everybody came back, we loaded up all the cousins (two minivans, natch) and headed out to the Tarrant Co. Duck Pond. Apparently this is THE duck pond. All others must be pale imitations. The kids had fun alternately throwing handfuls of bread and jellybeans at the ducks, and Bennett didn’t climb over the chains into the water once! Heidi was stressing this, as we didn’t pack a change of clothes, but I reminded her that we live in Texas and it’s summer. Strip the boy down and let him run around a diaper, if need be. That’s just fine around here. Between the ducks, minnows, grackles, squirrels, and a dreadnaught of a goose our meager helpings of bread found ample consideration.

Now, I haven’t posted pictures of the event. You would be right to ask why. We didn’t pack a camera. And the one professional photographer was in the hospital, and the other was taking pictures, but I’m not going to be able to get to her camera until Tuesday. I expect they’re cute, but the waiting is making me anxious.

Funny thing, though. While we were at the pond, an independent film crew was shooting a movie. One of the folks on the crew, taking a break, decided Bennett was cute and started snapping his picture. Here’s the weird part: She managed to take a picture of his face. No, really! In most of our pictures of Bennett, he’s running away or in the process of doing so, but apparently she got a few of him facing the camera, though still running, of course. We gave her our email address, and we’ll be seeing those images before too long, we hope.

I’m glad we went. Though it was only a trip to Fort Worth, it was kind of like a mini-vacation road trip for us. Nice way to break up what is normally a hard day of the week for me.

I’m remiss for not mentioning this before now, but the kids’ Nana came through in a big way for Emy’s birthday. Nancy, if you’re reading this, Emy loves her Nanny doll. See?

Thank you very much! I love that you gave it brown eyes. All the kids noticed that thoughtful detail.

And last thing. Heidi made up a batch of her cereal toffee concoction, and spread it out to cool on a sheet of parchment. It didn’t last long, however. She and I managed to eat most of it before bedtime. Much of it was gone before it was even cool. Couldn’t help notice that it looked like something in it’s mostly-gone state, however. Ah yes:

Ireland was delicious.

So I checked out a visitor’s blog yesterday and was really impressed. And I was introduced to a new word, Lactivism. Wikipedia has a good definition if you follow that link.

I understand not all women are able to breastfeed, but Heidi can and does, and I think it’s a beautiful thing. Let me show you.

This is one of the first pictures taken of us as parents. Critter’s latched on.

Here’s the first time she was able to nurse Bennett in the NICU. He was three months old by this time .

Emiline gets latched on at the birth center.

And Mo’s clearly comfortable with her acrobatic nursing.

And finally, here’s Mo (age 2), wanting to be like Mommy.

I love my family.

Oh, and Heidi has my blessing here. She picked out the pictures!

We made it to McKinney with plenty of time this morning. We were the first guests to arrive, in fact, and that was good. It gave Mo some much-needed transition time before the other kids arrived, not that the transition time did all that much good. She still required, if not physical contact from a parent at all times, no less than two feet in proximity to a parent at all times. Once the camera guy showed up, us dads took the kids across to the neighbor’s house.

First off, that was fun — hanging out with another home school dad. Second off, the dad is a creative director for his company, and I could relate to him on that level, too. (Random Kit fact: I was an Art director (or something like it) for a number of enterprises during the dot.com brouhaha.) The nice lady who opened up her yard to us had a daughter hanging out with her. I didn’t think much of it at first: The girl was about Christopher’s age. Then I saw her son who was about 8. Then her teenage daughter came out, and it clicked. Here was another homeschool family, and right across the street from our hosts for the morning. I mentioned to her that this was a nice change for us. Many people have been noting Christopher’s age and remarking how we must be getting ready to send him off to school. It’s about all I can do to not laugh in their faces. They never seem to know exactly how to react when they face the obvious contradiction of me telling them about our homeschooling. Here’s how it breaks down.

Kit’s a nice guy — really down to earth.
He just told me he’s homeschooling.
Christopher is a delightful, well-mannered child and not at all socially awkward.
They have four kids.

And right about then their heads explode, or at least their preconceptions about homeschooling. Awkward stammering with long pauses follow as if we just announced that we’re contagious or something. But we didn’t have to do that here. And more and more our little circle of friends is becoming densely populated by other homeschooling families. It’s a nice change.

So there we were, talking a little shop, when I see what must be the clumsiest hummingbird ever flailing around a tree, or a cicada finding a place to land. I get closer and it turns out to be the latter, and I point it out to the other homeschool dad. This starts to draw a crowd, and the nice lady’s son fetches a bug net and captures the cicada and suggests they feed it to their pet tortoise who lives in the bushes.

“Oh? You have a turtle?” I ask.

“A tortoise,” the youngest daughter politely corrects. Of course. Because this particular reptile is completely land-dwelling, and these homeschool kids know the difference. Before they feed the insect to the turtle tortoise, our hostess gathers the kids around for a brief lecture on turtles and tortoises, lets them hold the critter, has them wash their hands because of the sleight risk of salmonella — the whole spiel. Not only did they get a playdate, but they got a science lesson, too. I love this lifestyle!

Well, not everyone got the science lesson, because the nice lady fetched out a bubble table and a half dozen giant bubble wands. Bennett was merrily playing in the sudsy tub up to his elbows (and all over his shirt, hair, pants…) while Mo was spinning around making bubbles at a dizzying pace.

Let’s see, Christopher was introduced to tetherball, there were slides and swings, and that was just the older kids’ experience. From what Heidi tells me, Emy was a total charmer and will very likely be on TV again for this family’s blanket venture. If we see it, we’ll get it posted for you to coo over.

Incidentally, the camera guy is a homeschooler, too.

On the way home, we crashed Ikea for lunch and to grab a new dish set. We’re letting the kids start using the glassware now, and we anticipate fumbles, so we hit a sale and are now prepared with replacements. For lunch, Heidi and I sat near the kids’ section feeding Emy, and the three older kids all sat at a table, by themselves, ate their lunch, and didn’t dump anything out on the table or floor (not purposefully, anyway — C dumped his soda, but he also cleaned it up). I was so proud of them. We all went out to eat, and the kids were so well behaved, that I’m seriously considering trying such a thing again in the near future.

Heidi made a pie, Bennett dumped out a container of nutmeg… let’s see… what else?

Oh! Emy wanted in the dishwasher and couldn’t get it open so Bennett opened it for her. He also opens the fridge door for her so she can sit in there. They are now partners in crime.

We had another run-in with the fire ants and Bennett. He went to check out the mushrooms growing out of a root next to the house, and that happens to be a fire ant nest, too. He came in crying, plopped himself on Heidi’s lap, and it took us a moment to see what was going on. Once we saw the ants, Heidi realized they were crawling all over her by association, so I got Bennett into the kitchen as fast as I could, and Heidi ran to get the ants off of her pants, but it was already too late. One bit her hip. Two little bites. Bennett got at least 20 across his hands and legs, and they swelled up a bit, but that went away almost immediately. Heidi, on the other hand… Well, here are some pictures for comparison.

Bennett — little bit of mottled color, few spots. This is at least a dozen bites, poor guy.

Heidi — note the size of that one welt and the size of her finger. Two bites!

I gave them both some antihistamine and hydrocortisone cream to help with the reactions. Hoping Bennett won’t itch himself awake tonight, and Heidi has already konked out here at 9 from the drugs. But when she told me that she was really allergic to fire ants, I guess I didn’t fully realize just how bad she meant. I sat in a fire ant mound when I was three, and my reaction, while in the moment was filled with howls of pain, didn’t persist — much like Bennett’s. Heidi expects her swelling to last for at least a week. Small wonder she doesn’t like ants.

Last thing:

This may be the cutest minute of video you will ever see. At least today. Heidi ran for the camera as soon as she noticed Emy was saying, “shoes.” And we have Bennett on tape saying, “mama.” (finally) Then Ben and Emy fight over the little view-screen so they can watch themselves. And finally, Emy starts shooting the camera some seriously dirty looks for no reason whatsoever. Totally cute, and it clocks in at just over one minute. ~2MB.

How’s that? Rambling enough to keep you from missing Heidi too much?

Heidi adds - counted the bites on Bennett’s worse leg this morning. Swelling went down, easier to identify the red spots now. 47 on one leg. Then I quit counting… Also, camera explanation - our video camera has a screen that you can flip out and turn around so the kids can see themselves being taped. It’s to the left of the camera which is why they are knocking each other out of the way getting close - they were fighting to see themselves in the screen.