punky skunk, mister moo, and sugar love

I Moved!!!

2009-09-22T18:42:00.003-04:00

I moved!!! Go to http://allthosemillers.xanga.com. Don't forget to "Go to Next 5" link at the bottom of the posts on the first page to read the rest of my catch-up posting!!! :)

10 Months

2009-08-12T19:29:00.006-04:00

* Will pull up to standing and then let go, or remaining standing by himself when you place him on the floor for 5-10 seconds before sitting down.

*Usually wakes once a night to eat

*Takes two naps, one longer, one shorter

*Generally only sucks his thumb when he is going to sleep. Also likes to hold a blanket against his cheek while he is sucking his thumb. Cuteness pie.

*Really playing a lot with Israel. Israel really enjoys him, and it's sort of intriguing how much they can already play. Zion just LOVES to play.

*Is very content generally when he is with me. That makes him pretty easy to take to the beach; he just plays right around me, or climbs around on me, or pats my leg, or pulls up on my shirt, and doesn't try to hightail it off to far away places.

Mommy neeeeeeeed...

*Is very playful. Just a little bit ago, I was sitting with him on the floor, and he took off on a bee-line straight to where the electrical cords are for the computer. About halfway there, he hurriedly sat down and turned around to look at me with a completely mischevious look on his face, gave me a big grin, and then resumed his speedy crawl. After a few more crawls, he sat down again, looked at me grinnily, and when I warned him, he crowed with glee and turned around. He just thought that was great. Skunk.

*Has started in the past few days to use his arm to point, with his hand outstretched.

*He's a leaner. He will lean his forehead into your head, or lean his body into you when he wants some cuddles or kisses.

*Still has four teeth, with another trying to come through.

Still making his cheese faces... :)

*Still in size 4 diapers and is in 9-12 and 12 month clothes.

*Has been going to the nursery at church during the worship service for about two months now. He was getting too squwerky in the service.

*Likes to chew on straws and chewy sippy cup lids.

*Likes to drink water out of a sippy cup.

*Really likes his fruit and oatmeal in the morning. He likes fruit a lot; not always so big on other things. Still breastfeeding.

*Has a happy crow/shriek.

*LOVES to get into the dog food and water bowl, which is HIGHLY annoying to his mommy. He will hustle up to the water bowl, put it into a hasty park, scritch happily around in the bowl with his fingers, and lurch back to give me a wide-eyed "Who, me?"look.

*His hair is FINALLY starting to grow in, and is blond with maybe some red in it, and curls in the back.

*Gets a lot of comments on how mild and content he is.

Home Sweet Virginia

2009-08-09T16:04:00.009-04:00

The day after Tim's parents returned to IN, we clambered into our sleek 'n speedy new minvan and sped off for other places. Tim was going to a conference in Iowa, and I felt a little dubious of my desire to stay home alone with the kiddos for a week, so Mom picked us up in Maryland and took us home to Virginia.

This was of course a great delight all around, as Israel firmly states his desire to go to "Gamma's house" at least once a day. He believes every ride in the minivan should end at Grandma's.

Zion was a little suspicious of all being well with the world when we got there - he was a little clingy and not so sure about things. Including not wanting to go to sleep very easily at night, a pattern that continued throughout the week.

There were many golf-cart rides all around...

riding of the tricycles...

and the cars...

busy and important things to help Granddaddy with...

cuddling of the grandbaby...

garden tasks to accomplish...

more cuddling of the grandbaby...

Grandma bathing of the long haired hooligans...

football playing with the Grandma and Granddaddy...

close observation by the oh-so-helpful Maddie dog...

digging of the Grandma's flower beds by aspiring landscapers...

and good times on the swing.

Like to make a boy tuckered out.

Or at least lay down for a nap with Grandma. Under your cozy blanket. On the coffee table...

Virginia is just GORGEOUS in the summertime!!!

This field was covered with Queen Anne's Lace flowers. Beautiful!!

I also got to spend some time with my friend, Sylvia,

and her two adorable munckins while I was home. Vincent wasn't too sure about the whole concept of being set down... :)

A few more pictures...since I don't have enough or anything... ;)

Israel cheesing by his Uncle Quentin's play barn.

Snack time before bed...

I totally appreciated all the help, and not having to spend the week alone in the trenches!!! Thanks so much, Mom and Dad, for everything!

2009-08-03T23:32:00.000-04:00

I thought this was an EXCELLENT article.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/august/16.22.html

While I Was Gone...

2009-08-02T01:01:00.001-04:00

1. Zion turned 9 months old.

He is such a grinny little cheesy scrunch face cheeseball. I love him to PIECES!!!!

He has been pulling up to standing since about 8 months 2 1/2 weeks.
Has four teeth.
The boy can GET AROUND. He books it all over the place, following Israel pushing a toy, or going to check on who is in the bathtub. (please excuse my unfinished cabinet door...)

He LOVES to be in on the action, whether it's the boys wrestling with their daddy, and he piles in, toppling over Tim's leg, giggling all the way, or watching Gabe and Israel get their bath, banging his hands on the side of the tub and messing with the water, or happily standing by Gabe's bed watching his two brothers play bouncing Super Heroes. :)
He really enjoys baths.
Still breastfeeding, but also does really well with ground up table food, crackers, Cheerios... He loves to eat strawberries, and I will put a whole one on his tray and he'll just gnaw away until his sweet little red-stained face eagerly looks around for more. :)
Makes a bee-line for electronic objects. Really enjoys banging on a drum. Also loves to chew a rubber duck. Pushes cars as he crawls.
"Talks" mostly when unhappy, "Da da da da nah nah nah na." or particularly happy.
Has a toothy grin.
He is a very happy boy who just loves his brothers.
He takes a nap in the morning and a nap in the afternoon, of varying lengths. I am way more laid back this third time around, and really could not tell you the average nap length. He does well even if he has to miss a nap.
Still usually wakes up a least once during the night to eat.
Has had a BEAR of a time cutting those top two teeth. Phew. Lots of night wakings, screamings and flailing and refusing to go back to his crib, so I would tiredly march him around the house until he calmed down and the Tylenol kicked in. Only 16 more teeth to go. Wide wide Mommy eyes.
He has been the WORST twisty-turny boy for getting his diaper change of the three. He is a MESS!!!
Loves to be turned upside down.
So I was trying to do his 9 month pictures, and he kept not looking at the camera, and falling over in the laundry basket, and was NOT into leaving his hat on, and it was so hot outside, and then he threw up on his hat, his outfit and the sheepskin I had. Sigh. Such are the life and times of a mommy just trying to get a picture before the kid up and turns ten months. Here he is pulling off that bothersome hat...

Phew! :)

2. Had Vacation Bible School. Gabe just LOOOOOOOOOVVVESSS things like this. LOVES them. He is such a social guy. From all reports, he was very interactive and did well at answering questions. The theme was "Boot Camp", and sparked a lot of following discussion about that all intriguing "sword of the Spirit". There has been a lot of sword action around here ever since. Also talk about how "God is going to beat the debil (devil)." He does an excellent job still reciting his verses that he learned. Such a good job that I'm going to try to work on more memorization with him.

Israel followed his Mommy around in the kitchen, since he decided he didn't want to be left in the nursery. He had a great time playing with Amber, who was also following her mommy around, and eating snacks. :)

Zion stayed in the nursery most of the time.

It was a good week, but really felt kind of long, since we were still neck deep in boxes at home and Bible School was from 6-9 PM. Phew.

3. A Roseola Outbreak.

All three boys came down with roseola the week after Bible School. That Saturday, Israel had a fever of about 102, and Zion had a low grade one. The next day it disappeared, but showed up again on Monday, again 101-103 for both of them. Zion was starting to break out in red spots by that night, and the next day his fever was gone and as the day progressed he got more and more spotty. :)

Israel got his rash the day after that, I think, and Gabe didn't get sick until Saturday. His was the mildest case. He had a lower fever and fewest spots. Zion was F.U.S.S.Y. Oh my. SO fussy. Really for most of the week, but especially the first few days until his fever was gone. He wouldn't really let me put him down, and had a really hard time going to sleep. He was up until midnight or after for several nights. I thought maybe part of it was those teeth that he was working on.

4. Gabe went to see his Grandma and Grandaddy in VA. We had some friends that were traveling to VA for a wedding, and were actually staying with Mom and Dad, and so Gabe hitched a ride to have some Grandparent time. He did such a great job. I missed him SO MUCH!!! I missed him before he even left!!! The house felt only 2D without him, lacking that 3D dynamic. It was a lot quieter. Israel missed him, too, and asked about him hopefully every morning and during the day. He was gone 5 days and 4 nights, from Wednesday to Sunday. He had a great time, but said several times while he was there, "I wish Israel could be here." Before he left he said, "Mommy, will you miss me?" I said, "YES!!!" and he said, "I will miss you too!! And I will miss Zion and I will miss Israel!!"

5. We have been taking full advantage of our new surroundings. We have booked more miles on our stroller in the past month than were on them in entirety from before, I think! We have two playgrounds about a 10 minute walk away, we have tennis courts right down the road from our house that Gabe and Tim love to play on, and a track that we have been to twice. I pushed the boys to the library the other week, and we stopped at the bagel cafe on the way home for some tasty sustenance. :) We have walked around the neighborhood, and walked twice to Nanticoke River Festival that was in town last weekend, for food, rides, and some more food. :) I am SO loving our location.

6. Also, my friend Emily came to visit, which is always a favorite event of ours.

Zion working his nose grabbing magic on Emily.

And the boys and I trekked to the beach with some other friends for some sun and sand.

7. WE HAVE A NEW MINIVAN!!!!!!!!! Love LOVE our new wheels!!! We were GIVEN a van, from Harvey and Grace Mast. It is a 2004. So we went from a 1995 Dodge Caravan with over 250,000 miles on it, no airconditioner, no rear view mirror, and a short in the electrical system that meant that I generally had to jump the battery before going anywhere, to this one with air conditioner, a rear view mirror, doors on each side, extended for more room - and it does that amazing thing of just starting right up when you turn the key!!!...I am just so in love with it. My pupils were dilated from sheer van-love for the first few days and I had to keep going places just to try out my new possession. I feel so incredibly blessed right now, in so many ways. We have a house we love, a minivan that works great, and friends that are such a blessing in so many ways. Thank you so much, Harvey and Grace, and thank you too, Mom and Dad for Ol' Blue that we wore to a frazzle. She was a good ol' girl. We sure loved her when she arrived!!

8. Nana Carol and Grandpa Norm buzzed in from Saturday evening to Monday lunch. We really enjoyed having them around. Unfortunately, my camera battery recharger was safely hidden from my searching eyes, and I couldn't find it until Monday. So here's just a few pictures - I'll do better next time!!

Gabe was very busy with his shoot-gun. Too busy, in fact, to adequately participate in the picture. Somehow all sorts of shooting arrived on the scene, who knows where from. There are many many many things that need to be shooted. Like bears, birds, trees, bad guys ("No, Gabriel, you may not pretend to shoot people. Pretend to shoot a bird." Pause. Shot of the "gun". "I just shooted a bird off of the bad guys head.").

Tim and Norm standing proudly next to their grill patio creation.

Here's a silly dude Israel.

Nana Carol with the boysies.

9. And finally, a few random pictures from the month-ish.

Boys happily helping their daddy.

Here was the helper in the stroller.
Mommy is a big fan of all three boys helping their daddy at one time. That way she can sit on her butt on the steps and be lazy.

When it rains, all boys except the baby must retreat huriedly to the tool shed, so they can hear the rain on the roof.

Mommy with her roseola-ed child.

One of Gabriel's favorite activities is being a "monkey" in the "monkey tree" in our front yard.

One of Israel's favorite activities is standing on his toddler bed, watching the world go by.

Grinny Gus. :)

Back When...

2009-07-29T22:05:00.004-04:00

Today I was looking at a Facebook page of someone who just had a first baby, and I came to the "leaving the hospital picture", and suddenly I could totally feel how I felt with the newness of baby Gabriel, the first. When the blue blankets were just waiting to be used, all the clothes were new, the room was waiting, all with that sparkle-shine smell of newness...that thrill of anticipation to see this baby, the looooonnngg last week or two, just waiting, waiting. Back when the house was quiet. That pioneerdom of motherhood, waiting to see all the milestones, the first food, the first tooth. They seemed to take a lot longer, then. Now it feels like they whiz up. Suddenly the baby has four teeth and is starting to stand by himself, and that very first little baby Gabriel is almost five, with arms and legs that seem to lengthen startlingly quickly, a torso getting broader. And there is a shrieking, hurtling, bright-eyed two-almost-three year old between the two of them. Now the blankets are well used and there are many, and I have to pick up some new used clothes from Goodwill now and then to even out different sizes at different times. And time does fly.

Here's to remembering. I hope I always can.

Say What??

2009-07-29T12:01:00.001-04:00

"God can make us into a squirrel! He can make me into a squirrel, he can make anybody into a squirrel!"

Gabe quote of the day out of the blue while munching happily on raw almonds, ie. squirrel food.

Life As It Is and Friends Indeed

2009-06-11T21:11:00.009-04:00

Well...it's been going. :) Sometimes well, sometimes not so well, but all that aside...we love our new house and will love it even more...when the unpacking is done...in a few years...maybe. Sigh. I was lamenting to Mom the other day that the problem with unpacking a house with three young children is that 5 people in the house need to eat three meals every day and continue to need clean clothes and continue to do things like cut paper into tiny pieces and play with toys and leave messes around. Things that I can spend all day chasing down anyways. So my solution to making the most time for me has been "supper from a box". :) Heh heh heh. I bought, like, 5 frozen pizzas from Walmart the other day and two or three non-nasty looking frozen meals. Things that don't require much cleanup or any prep time.

On top of everything, we have vacation bible school at church this week, which this year goes from 6 PM to 9 PM, and which Tim and I are both involved in. So we get home late, and the kids are getting CRRAAAANNNKKKYYYYYY. Arrrrrrrrrrgh. And Mommy is getting CRAAAAAAANNNNNKKKYYYYY. Mommy is very tired of wailing children. Mommy wants wailing children to pad quietly and peaceably to their beds and take long significant naps when they feel tired, instead of standing in the kitchen diaperless for the third time in 30 minutes wailing at the top of their lungs for sundry reasons, involving things like the fact that Mommy wants to put a diaper back on them, or that diapers exist in the first place or that Mommy won't carry your bare butt to bed, but tells you that you have to walk yourself if you don't have a diaper on. And then said child will lay on the floor while being diapered wailing about how he needs powder. And then wailing to be carried to bed. For the third time that morning. And then, when he is in bed, wailing with maximum distress about something that you cannot for the life of you understand. Just that it is causing great hiccuping sobs and many many many tears. And then there is Gabe, miserably sniffling because he can't have a cookie until he eats his lunch, of which he has first said is too spicy, (which it is not) and then when given a choice between that and a tuna sandwich decides to eat the tuna sandwich and then bursts into tears because there is lettuce on it and says he can't get it off by himself, then decides he doesn't like the tuna sandwich, so it is back to his initial meal, and he pokes and whines and carries on and asks me to feed him and then drops it out of his mouth and then decides, well, he doesn't want a cookie, after asking me to make them about every 7 seconds during the morning until I told him that if he kept asking me I wasn't going to make them (these were from premade cookie dough, in case you were impressed at my baking diligence), and then when I get hungry for them myself and make them, we go through the whole same tearful rigamarole and finally he takes his blanket and falls asleep. Phhheeewww. And then there is Little Squerk, who was busy and slightly cranky and busy busy busy. I sat at the computer with everyone sleeping one hour before we needed to leave with sort of a wild gaze and all nerves at maximum fray.

In other, less stressful news, Zion is (has been for a bit :)) 8 months old now. He hit the 8th month mark during our move and has been tackling new developmental phases like crazy. In a span of about two weeks, he switched from mostly breastfed to a lot of table food and baby snacks (still breastfed, too) basically at his initiative. He started crawling, and he is speedy!!
He also is sitting up very well, and can push himself from a crawling to a sitting position. He also gets up on his knees a lot. He just got his second bottom tooth and is working on his top two front teeth. He can feed himself baby snacks on his highchair tray. He started saying "Da da da da da" and "Na na na na na". He is so observant and cognisant. He will chortle and grin and loves to laugh at you and be laughed back at. He seems like he gets more agitated since he can get around now, because he sees things he has to go GET!!! and he wiggles and squirms to be put down. He has started putting his feet down flat on the ground when held in a standing position, instead of up on his toes. He will play very happily for long periods of time by himself or with the boys around. He is a very good natured baby and has lots of happy grins. He is still in 6-9 month clothing and size 4 diapers.

Here's some pictures from life of late.

The Move

The Wisseman's install a gate in the chain-link fence.
Gabe had to get a blanket and watch.
Then the boys even got to take a ride. Tom was the man of the hour.
Some beautiful fresh-picked strawberries Al Adams brought us when he came to help paint.
Anita Martin and Becky Wright help paint in the bathroom.
Gabe and his buddies that came along to help. :)
Our first morning in our new house (before our stuff was moved over). We celebrated with a breakfast from Dunkin Donuts, which we can walk to. :) Smile of happiness.
The Snooch was present, too, just to make sure that everything looked okay with breakfast.She's a good girl. Wouldn't want anyone to die of donut overload, or anything.
Kind of makes a doggie yawn hungrily.
Der Poor Hungry Snitchity Snooch
Spring Festival

Last weekend we had the Spring Festival at Greenwood Mennonite School. I looove stuff like that and spent plenty of time marching around happily buying food. :) Fresh homemade donuts, whoopie pies, pulled pork sandwiches, iced vanilla lattes with whipped cream, sweet tea...mmmmm.

The boys loved it too, but for different reasons. Gabe made a beeline for the inflated Clifford the Big Red Dog jumping thingie, but as soon as he caught sight of the water slide, his day was decided. He spent hours on it, with no break, while Israel chortled over the chicks (with help from Aileen Crossgrove),cuddled the kitties, babied the bunnies,and oh-so-delightedly rode around in a little barrel car.I finally fished a drenched Gabe off the slide with the lure of a two hour late lunch.He informed me that he wanted a hot dog, a sandwich, and BBQ chicken. I told him we would start with the hot dog and see where we went from there. He made it through that and the sandwich. While wearing his new dry clothes. :)
Hey, you go with what works. We sat tiredly under the tent, sunned and well-fed,and listened to the worship team from Hickory Ridge, led by Chad Sterling who I went to Rosedale and Cedarville with.Zion worked busily on his own snacks.And finally, here's the boysies. It was just beautiful the other day and we settled out on the lawn in the shade for a pretzel picnic. It was a good day. With many more to come. We have had so many wonderful people show us so much love and help as we have transferred houses. Thank you all so much and we love you so much!!!

And So It Begins...

2009-05-25T22:26:00.008-04:00

We (horraaaay!!!) closed on our new house at 3 PM on Wednesday, May 20 and have been feverishly working in it ever since. We have had WONDERFUL helpers come to help us out. My parents and brother were here till Saturday and we have had lots and lots of people from church come in to give us a hand or knock down a shed or PUT UP a shed or pull out a bathtub or slave away over kitchen cabinet doors. Thanks SO MUCH to everyone so far!!!

A whole TROOP of guys came in to knock down our shed and haul it away.
While they were there, they also helped steam off wallpaper, and pull out a 300+ pound blue cast iron bathtub that I waved a very very cheery goodbye to.
By the end of the evening I was gazing delightedly upon this glorious sight.
It did my heart good. Andy and Courtney came the next day to further disassemble the atrocity known as the hall bath and replace it with much better things.
Can you tell I harbored great hatred towards this bathroom? I'm pretty sure it was one of the ugliest I have seen. Old blue tub with matching blue toilet and blue sinks, wallpaper of grey weathered paneling (I mean, who WOULD'NT want that in their bathroom, pray tell?), a grey marbled tub surround stretching all the way to the ceiling, a red board at chair rail height to give it a nautical feel, a shuttered medicine cabinet, nasty old old gold and white lineoleum, and a ceiling with sponged blue paint. As our house inspector had put it - "there's a little of everything going on in here." My heart seriously smiles everytime I pass that bathroom and see how it looks nothing like it used to. Andy came by on Saturday and put in white tile for us. Sigh of happiness.

Anywho. One of the main jobs we are doing is painting EVERYTHING. Walls, ceilings, woodwork, cabinets. Anything formerly known as brown is now white. Or will soon be.
This is Marti Miller and Alan Peterson hard at work.

And Alan again and Tim.
Goodbye dark paneled walls. Goodbye red carpet. Goodbye the brownness of the door. Goodbye brown shutters. Goodbye brown toilet with mold in it. Goodbye brown trim. Goodbye brown window frame. Smile of bliss.

The boys are also, OF COURSE, VEEERRY helpful on the painting front, as you can well imagine.
Here is Painter Gabe. Incidentally, today someone asked him how old he was and he said he was four. They told him that they had a 14-year old grandson. Gabe responded by informing him that he (Gabe) is also a superhero.

We got a video from the church library the other day called BIBLEMAN. (I'm sure you all have seen it. How could anyone miss such a blockbuster?) Gabe's eyes were HUGE during the whole thing. He told me that Bibleman was his FAVORITE!!! :) :)

Today Tim overheard him telling one of his babysitters that he was a superhero, but then he asked her if she knew who the greatest superhero of all was, and she said, "No, who?" and he said "God!" :) That's right, buddy.

Here's another MASSIVE project.
Tom and Wanda and Ronnie Wisseman have singlehandly constructed this ridiculously confusing puzzle of a backyard shed over several days. It is now all finished and I am ridiculously happy about our new shed. :)

Dad and I pulled up from a lengthy, arduous, and very productive Lowes trip where I earned lots of money back on my 10% moving discount :) to find these cheery greeters on our front stoop.
The boys really are enjoying themselves. Lots of people to see and play with, boxes around to make into "cars" to drive on the couch,
storage boxes to take a bath in (cause, hey, why not?? :)),
calculators to lick,
(ok, so fine, that doesn't really relate, but I just had to get a picture of that silly little tongue. :)),
front stoops to watch the world from,
flowers to smell,
cuddles to receive, and giggles to giggle...
...it all just makes a body tuckered out.
Zion has thankfully napped very well at the house. That is a huge help!

I just can't say thank you enough to everyone that has been so helpful. We have also had meals brought in, which are a HUGE help. (I'm pretty sure my husband is going to look at me askance in regards to all my capitalizations in this post, but I can't HELP IT!!! ;))

We have to be out of this house by next Monday. So...adios from my happy state of new house! :)

Mess Mouses

2009-05-14T22:28:00.005-04:00

"Someone" wandered out of our bedroom the other day, where he had been hard at work carving a niche in his hair-cutting history. His scissors were still raised to the task when his daddy caught sight of him.

"GABRIEL!!!"

Gabriel jumped about a mile and then scurried to his mama's side with a very abashed expression on his face. He popped two fingers in his mouth that remained while his hair was thoughtfully examined by his mommy and daddy. :)
Tim gave him a haircut with the shortest guard on his clippers, but Gabe's "artwork" is still visible. Gabe checked the box for this "every kid" activity. Goose.

The other week he went along with Tim while our friend Chuck worked on our minivan. Gabe had a SPLENDID time and kept very very very busy the entire time. This is what he looked like when he got back.
He was FILTHY!!! He looked like a little chimney-sweep.

Speaking of another mess mouse, there was one busily painting on the deck the other afternoon.
Painting himself, I mean.
Dude. This child right now... Place weary head in weary hands and utter weary sigh. After a wooonderful loooong break from any colds, this child is back to work hacking and coughing and snotting. And wailing and having VERY. LOUD. breakdowns. The kid is the loudest thing in the world. I hate colds.

And for the final mess mouse...
Dis wittle snoogum woogum is very busily growing right now. He is still cutting his two bottom teeth at the same time, which, along with his own cold, is wreaking havoc on our sleep schedules. Dooby.

His red Clifford ball is one of his gnawing objects of choice right now.
He is also, for the second day, rocking on his hands and knees.
I just cannot hardly believe he is old enough to crawl!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

2009-05-10T22:00:00.006-04:00

I view motherhood as a refining fire. It is a constant marathon of testing, of trying, of options to lay down my own desires, of observation of my failings, of opportunity to find my strength in the power above and beyond me in Jesus who can give me strength, and to see his strength made perfect in my weakness. It it is a 24/7 opportunity to joyfully lay down my will. :)

Do not allow the above paragraph to lead you to believe that I am successful in all of those things. :) For I most assuredly am not. I struggle against speaking harshly and impatiently to my children, with not wanting to put down my activity of choice to get them a drink/find them some clothes/break up a squabble/read a book/etc., with keeping my house cleaner rather than messier, with prioritizing what I should rather than what I would prefer. I am inherently selfish, self-centered. Children are a constant opportunity to break that cycle. :)

So a part of me relishes the struggle. The same part that enjoyed seeing myself push myself in running - how fast, how hard I could go. Or watching myself make it through labor without pain meds. Sometimes when I am up at night for the billionth time, thinking in wonderment about how I will get up for good in a very few hours, I'm feeling the "burn" of the emotional endurance muscles, and seeing how much I can take. Or when I catch myself before I snap impatiently at a whining Gabriel, and I gentle my tone, it's a high five I can give myself as I run past.

"Running my race" is a pursuit of excellence that I am passionate about. I have a large pile of books that I am reading all at one time covering subjects of how to do the most that I can do to build a relationship with my kids that will most effectively (but still with no guarantees) communicate the truth of a life-changing, life-saving relationship with the One that life is all about, of how to make my house into a home, of how to mange my time and my resources to the maximum, of how to discipline my children in a redemptive way. I really enjoy the trying and the thinking and the implementing of new ideas. I am finding a lot of encouragement and affirmation in my spirit right now of truths that remind me that there is strength in God for the asking. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) Motherhood finds me so needy. I don't have enough resources, knowledge, patience, or character.

This Mother's Day (like the last, somewhat ironically) has been a thorough exercise in all of those things. Two fussy, feverish kids, with Israel coughing/hacking this dry, irritated, CONSTANT cough about 742,673,583 times in one day. Wide staring eyes of enduring. ARRRRGGGHHH. Then tonight, after he went to bed, he coughed hard enough that he puked, and then it was the whole mess of changing clothes and bedsheets and scrubbing the carpet and scolding Gabe for walking in the vomit. Sigh. And speaking of Gabe, dealing with his hyper, silly, giggling, chortling, in-the-baby's-face self that you get reeeeeaalll ready to have in bed by the end of the day. At least he wasn't sick too.

So on this Mother's Day, I find myself thoroughly grateful for my husband. For the Daddy. Who scrubs the puke off the carpet so I don't have to, who holds the baby so I can get something done, who distracts the kids WHEN I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!! When I want a break from refinement and want to go read a book in the bathtub. :) I just think that a woman who has to raise her children by herself, and do ALL of the work alone, and come out ahead has to be the STRONGEST woman on earth.

AND, I am also thoroughly grateful for two women who I'm pretty sure both have most of all of "it" down, whatever "it" is. :) Mom, you have been a great mom, and are one of my very best friends. I am constantly referencing back in my head to "how Mom did it". And calling you for maybe a third time in the day if I can't remember. :) Carol, you raised a great son, and I can't thank you enough. You are a great mother-in-law, and so supportive of me and easy to talk to. We all love you both soooooo much!! :) :) :)

At Least...

2009-05-10T04:50:00.000-04:00

What would totally make it fine to be up with the baby at 4:46 AM was if I were getting paid for it. By, like, the minute. Which I totally think I am, from my understanding. I mean, I haven't gotten my check in the mail from the last time yet, but I'm pretty sure...

What would also make it fine was if I knew I was getting a sizeable nap in a silent house later. Which I'm not so sure is going to happen, but, hey, that's why I get paid, right??

Another thing that would justify this whole bit were if I got to change a poopy diaper while I was awake. Which I did, so, that totally rocks.

And it would be equally cool if this were, like, the sixth or seventh time I was up anyways this night with two feverish boys and a little guy who WANTS A DRINK!!!!

That's three for four!! Stellar.

At least this little pooper is a cutie patootie.
And at least I never have to worry about insomnia at this point in my life.

Toofs

2009-05-08T02:28:00.004-04:00

It is 2:28 AM. Do you know where your children are??

That would be an affirmative, yes, over and out from the Miller residence. Mine two eldest are sleeping all snug in their beds while visions of sugary doughnuts dance in their heads, while mine youngest has just completed a merry solo game of Whack A Mole and is now cheerfully playing with an empty container and my hairband. Kerchiefs and nightcaps notwithstanding, I am a yawning heap of tiredness that yearns to settle down for my long spring nap.

With nary a herald of snot, drool, or fever, my child is cutting his first tooth - the bottom left one. It seems to grow mainly in the dead of night. Two nights ago we rose and shone, the two of us, at 4 AM. Then we went back to bed and slept like logs, as I am hoping to do after a bit tonight once the Tylenol kicks in.

This would, unfortunately, have HAD to be the week that I have decided to cram my retainers back into my tooth-shifted mouth after wearing them only sporadically over the past 8 years. My plan had been to wear them during the night so I could sleep through the ridiculous discomfort I had caused myself. Hah. Instead I have enjoyed a good portion of my tooth rearrangement in all it's fairly miserable glory. Maybe I should take my own swig from that dropper of acetominophen.

It was just this evening, though, that I carted the warm little weight of this little dude down the hall in his soft stripey PJ's, as he laid his soft head in my neck and sucked his thumb sleepily, and I thought, oh, this babyness goes so fast. So fast. So tonight, we will smile at each other, and I will kiss some chubby cheeks, and squeeze some soft, chubby, squeezy-fold legs, and rub some soft smooth belly skin, and pat that little diapered bottom, and love the goodness of a little baby. And I'll get some sleep later. I hope.

Travels

2009-05-05T22:44:00.007-04:00

We made a short, two-night trip to VA last week. It was so gorgeous and springy and green there.
Hear the cows. Smell the flowers. Breathe the warm Virginia air. See the lush green grass. Pat the Maddie dog. Wonder at five people crammed into the ol' Saturn for a return journey. Ahhhh.
We had just enough time to cram in a tasty meal at Great Grandma Lou's house, for the boys to go on an adventure trip to the store for farm boys,
and for some cuddles from one of Israel's beloved "Gamma"'s.
He sure does love his "Gamma"'s. He is a sweet, physically affectionate, little cuddle-boy. Here he is blowing kisses and joyfully clutching his hollow chocolate Easter bunny as we pulled away from the farewell goody-dispenser Gamma.
The boys dug into their Grandma-goodie-gift-bags with a rabid frenzy known only to starving animals and children who have not just completed a tasty breakfast of warm blueberry muffins, eggs, cantelope, rhubarb, OJ, and warm tea. Makes one clutch one's front-seat chocolate a little protectively.

The actual trip itself was....well, it was...long enough, lets put it that way. The boys did ok, though. We had the "Mommy, can I hold the DVD player?" guy,
the guy who cranks and pulls at his seat belt and squirms and demands to get out of his seat...and finally falls blissfully fast asleep (phew),
and then the little mostly bald guy with the bobbing, craning, curious head and the cute feet. Who actually did really well with a distracting brother on either side of him.
Tim gets lost in MP3 land.
And then there is me.
On trips, I am the toy getter, the DVD player mediator, the snack finding, the toll retriever, the direction reminder, the shirt-taker-off-er (not my own) after spilled juice, the book reader, the singer, the shusher, the squabble buster, the baby soother, the foot whacker when random feet are noted to be located about .76 mm from the baby's head, the nose wiper, the Cheezit hander-outer, the slightly nauseated/headached one from all the spinning around in my seat, and one of two marveling at how looooong four hours in a car can be. Phew.

We took one of our breaks at a BEAUTIFUL Catholic church that we pass in DE.
We strolled around and enjoyed the sunshine. Gabe went for a run midst the tombstones. :)
He's my little running buddy. As in, he runs while I watch and smile. And reminisce on the days whence I also had leg muscles.

We made it back safe and sound and hoping we don't have to drive anywhere too far very soon. :)

Shiny New Toys

2009-05-02T20:50:00.002-04:00

Something arrived in the mail today that I was eagerly anticipating. My brand new blue-with-embroidery Ergo Baby Carrier!!! I just love it to pieces.
Zion has been extra fussy lately, and I had tried using the front carriers that I have on my back, but neither of them were comfortable, and felt too precarious. I had tried the Ergo when Israel was a baby but had returned it when it was not the answer to his colicky self. However, it is an awesome back carrier, and is amazingly comfortable and Zion thinks it is just GREAT!! :) I think having two arms free while still having a happy baby is GREAT!!!
I do believe that I am turning into a very Crunchy Granola mom. Attachment parenting baby carrier - check. Long wavy-ish frizzy-ish hair that really needs to be cut since it's been a year next month since my last haircut hello what in the world?? - check. :) Buying organic foods when I can/eating a largely vegan diet - check. (Never thought I'd be saying that one in my life!!) Cloth diapers...oh yes, my friends, that is now officially a check. They are my second featured shiny new toy of the day.
After crabbily shelling out money month after month to pay for Israel's diapers, towards the very end of my pregnancy with Zion, I had an idea. Maybe I (er...my Mom) could MAKE those cool all-in-one cloth diapers way cheaper than I could buy them! So I bought all the necessities, and my beloved mother has been sewing busily away ever since while I used up aaallll of my gift diapers that have lasted me up to this point. THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM!!! I picked the completed project up last week when we were in VA and I am soooooo thrilled. The main plus for me is the money saving one. "We" ;) used the Bum Genius All-In-One diapers as a model, so that "we" wouldn't have to keeping making new ones, but would have ones that lasted the whole time. I am still using disposables at night, since they will go all night without leaks, and I don't think these will, but I am just loving them so far!!! Mom made about 20-ish?? I think, with microfiber inserts. They are just so cute...

And my last shiny new toy that I have for show and tell is....
a new house!! :) Yippee!! :) We are closing on May 20. This house is in Seaford, DE, and has 1783 square feet, 3-4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a nice sized kitchen, a big master bedroom with a nice walk in closet, a big master bath, a fenced in back-yard, a screened porch, and it is within walking distance of two playgrounds, the community pool, and lots of other fun things. I am very happy and excited about it. We will move sometime between May 20 and June 1.

And, to leave you with, a little somethin' that is sweet as sugar and still kind of new himself...

Random Nuggets of Late

2009-05-01T14:16:00.002-04:00

* Zion slept through the night all night last night without waking to eat from around 9:45 PM to 7 AM.

* Gabe has not talked about his imaginary friends Maddie and Bridget for several months now.

*Israel is just so endearing. He has these earnest little expressions when he asks hopeful questions, and an adorable little "aw shucks" grin. He still is without guile. Tim described him as "transparent with his emotions". If he is happy, he is pure Delight. If he is distressed, life simply could not be more miserable. :)

* Gabe had his first (to my memory) bee sting the other day. He was playing on the front steps and accidentally SAT on a bee. Oooowwwww. Wince of sympathy. He screamed/cried his head off for a few minutes, but soon calmed down and claimed that it had quit hurting. Poor guy!!

* I had a spot on my shoulder removed the other day that turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma (ie. skin cancer). The treatment was exactly what I had done, so they just referred me to a dermatologist to get a full body scan and follow up yearly with that. So no big deal. The spot was not even a mole, but more of a slightly raised area that I had thought maybe was a small wart that sometimes hurt and sometimes bled. I saw a picture of something similar in one of my magazines that made me think I better have it checked. So watch yer spotties, mates.

* Sometimes I feel that life at this stage of child-rearing is an endless progression of tasks that are constantly renewing. The laundry never ends. There are always more dishes to wash and meals to plan and toys to pick up and grocery shopping to do and trash to empty and diapers to change and boys to clothe. Phew.

7 Months

2009-04-28T16:05:00.003-04:00

- Pushes himself straight up on his arms.
-Rolls from back to front and front to back
- Holding himself more uprightly when sitting on my lap, like he will be sitting on his own before too long
- Eats some food, but still mostly breast-fed. He seems less interested in food since he tried it. :)
- Sleeps well. Usually goes to sleep around 8:30 PM, and wakes once around 3 AM or so to eat, then wakes up around 7-ish AM.
- I usually lay him down awake for his naps, laying on his back. He always turns his head to the left and puts his thumb in his mouth and I lay a blanket over him that also covers that cheek that he nuzzles into. It is quite precious. :) At night I nurse him to sleep.
- Still sucks his thumb.
- Has a very friendly, happy, laid-back personality. People comment on how happy he is.
- His hair is very slowly coming in; it is, of course, blond.
- Is very insistent on flipping over when in the tub so that he can pat the water with gusto and drool excitedly over the tub stopper.
- Loves it when his brothers amuse him. He is generally very tolerant of their affection, and enjoys it.
- In size 4 diapers, and in 6-9 month clothes.
- Everyone says that he looks like Gabe and Tim. I think he looks like Gabe when facing you, but his profile really looks like Tim.
- Full of giggles and so scrumptious you just have to kiss him and kiss him and kiss him. :) Heeehhhhhh. Happy sigh. :) :)

Sun, Sand, and A Weird Mommy

2009-04-27T16:44:00.007-04:00

This morning I lay snuggled in my pillows, eyes half open, feeling the warm breeze from the window blow over me. The house was quiet, the fan hummed, I was alone in the bed, the sun was shining, and - and - it sort of felt like I was on vacation. :) I pretended I was. Let's see. I would lie here a little longer, and then get up when I felt like it, and after I got dressed, I would go to the hotel restaurant, and maybe have some sort of pancakes with fruit on them. Or crepes or something. And then I would walk to where all the shops were and browse through them, enjoying the mountain air. Or I would go to the beach and lounge about. I wasn't quite sure which vacation I preferred to be on, while I was having the option. Actually, I might go for a massage after breakfast, and then off to my activities. I nodded decisively in my mind, as I was not about to expend such energy in real life, sprawled lazily in my comfy hotel bed, summer air blowing the curtains. (Yes, I am weird, thank you very much, but I can't help it. And at least my vacations are free... :))

Mondays are Tim's day off, since Saturdays are often busy with sermon prep, and Sunday's are super busy for him. This morning the house was quiet because he had gotten up with The Dude who had decided to rise and shine before 6 AM, after I got cranky enough about being up with him. :) One boy was already outside, the other was playing the newly discovered and vastly beloved Nintendo 64. We had already decided to go to the beach today, so after I peeled myself off the bed, I also demanded that we breakfast at IHOP to prolong my full vacation experience.

After enjoying my strawberry-banana pancakes with whipped cream, OJ, and coffee (drool of remembrance), we jetted off. It was a gorgeous day, the water was cold, and the beach was mostly deserted. Gabe was in his element. Israel, on the other hand...
The beach is mostly distressing to Israel. He does not like his beloved family members to be so close to all that big scary water. He has no desire to go splash in the big scary water himself, unless he is tightly held by Mommy or Daddy. Then there is the pesky matter of that wind, that blows stuff away, like the umbrella fabric (which he considers his kite), and leads to more screams of distress.

There was a helpfully distracting and friendly dog available to help out.
And Israel was also busied with digging, which was mostly all he did while we were there.
This was Zion's first taste of the beach. He liked it all.
He finally fell asleep on our blanket that we moved into the shade, a cinnamon-sugar doughnut of a boy, covered with sunscreen and sand. :)
Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. What a great vacation day. Hopefully we can repeat it before too long. I gotta say - I like this beach proximity mucho.

Alrighty. Now I am going to go shopping by myself for several hours in the beach outlet shops located directly outside my hotel, with the many extra hundreds of dollars I have available to spend in my altered mental state. Ha. Maybe I better go get another massage while I'm at it, since I'm so worn out from all this thinking. I would nod decisively, but I'm awfully busy watching cable TV. Till later...

Field Work

2009-04-26T19:25:00.008-04:00

The farmers have been busy in the fields around here.
The other day a tractor came by and fertilized, plowed, and planted the field directly behind our house. The boys had a great time watching him, as usual. Gabe came in from one of his stare-fests out on the deck and said "The farmer LOOKED at me!!! I couldn't be-YEAVE it!! I was standing there and he LOOKED at me!!!"

Anywho, this morning Israel was up and out in the field by about 7:45 AM. Get out of bed, exit house, drive small toy combine busily.
The entirety of the farm crew was hard at work by 8:15 AM. Got a lot to get done before "chuch".
It has been one of those GORGEOUS days around here, especially in the morning and the evening, where the weather is juuuust right and we can leave our windows open all night and have the fan on and it's not too humid yet but just perfect. Sigh of bliss. Sitting out on the steps holding Zion, watching the boys play and play and play as they help their daddy gives me a huge swell of contentment in my heart. I love these days.

This is a phase in the boy's lives that I particulary enjoy because they play so well together (or at least 2/3's of the time, which is plenty good enough for me) for extended periods of time. They are outside a lot since the days are warmer and ride tricycles and play in the sand and play with a ball, or draw with chalk on the concrete.
Another one of their favorite past-times is helping Daddy mow. Israel loves to ride in the wagon behind the mower, or ride in Tim's lap. LOOOVES it.
Yesterday he was giving me the HUGEST, most heart delighted smiles in the world from his perch on Tim's lap. Gabe prefers to chase the mower. That boy just runs and runs and runs and runs.
Gabe is often busy outside with other "boy work". The other day I found him like this:
His binoculars were being used to look for "holes that animals had made", so that Daddy wouldn't run over them with his lawnmower. The plastic golf club was in hand to whack any racoons he may come across, and his Cars bookbag contained an imaginary pickle in case he happened to run into a skunk. I see. Alrighty then. :)

The boys also have a good time playing inside. They like to drive their cars on the footboard at the bottom of our bed, and this is what we found last night when we were getting ready for bed. :)It appears that some boys must reside at this address...

My Spa Haven Home

2009-04-17T15:20:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, after I got off the phone that I had held between my shoulder and my ear, I had a major crick in my neck that really hurt!!! So this afternoon after lunch I had a hot stone massage on the lustrous hallway carpeting between the kitchen and the dining room. Except by "lustrous" I mean, "at least it was vacuumed". As for the hot stones, they were more like 98.6 degrees, and by stones I am meaning small child bodies. And by massage I am meaning "sat upon". :) Gabe sat on the small of my back and gave me little shoulder rubs, and Israel sat on my legs and busily whacked my butt, then lay back and gave me some good kicks as Zion vigorously jumped in the over-the-door jumper yearning with his entire being to grab one of our shirts and stuff them into his mouth. :) I almost forgot that I wasn't in the local spa. Maybe I should have opened a pack of wipes and sat them next to my head for some aromatherapy.

Ahhh. The luxuries of child rearing.

The nice thing is, it helped! I figured it would. Something about the weight on my back pulling things back into place.

Gabe: several thousand dollars (so far) for childbirth and upbringing
Israel: several thousand dollars (so far) for childbirth and upbringing
Free chiropractic adjustment from a total 70+ pounds of warm bodies: Priceless.

Misc.

2009-03-24T22:20:00.004-04:00

Sigh. Today was "one of THOSE days" with Israel. The powder, the babywash, the cologne, the scissors, the nakedness of the Israel butt. The powder again. The screaming for "Boos Coos!!!" (Blues Clues). The louder screaming when Mommy says 'No'. Yawn. Wears a mommy OUT!!

So let's see. What has been going on. The event at the top of my list is the rearrangement of sleeping quarters around here. Zion is now in his crib back in the room where Israel used to sleep, and Israel is in his toddler bed in Gabe's room, and we once again have one half of the house child free. :) The other nice thing is that I had HAD it with the screwy sleeping schedule that little skunk was keeping, so I started turning every light in the bedroom out before I went to feed him when he woke up after sleeping an hour between 9 and 10 PM (before there would be a dim light in the bathroom, or the light from the computer screen) - and discovered that it did the trick. Instead of his little eyes just getting brighter and brighter and him grinning cheerily at me at 10:27 PM, he snuffled himself right back into sweet slumber, and has every night since then, as long as we are home in the evenings. Going away throws him off a bit, but I can often lay him down with his thumb after a while and he will go to sleep. So all of that is VONDERVUL!!! (Just throwing in a little German accent to keep you on your toes.) I have found the whole "baby up all evening" thing the most stressful thing in the third baby thing so far, so to have that basically figured out is a big sigh of relief.

Gabe and Israel haven't done too bad in their room together. If it gets too yell-y in there, we just put Gabe in our bed for a while.

Oh yes. The other thing is that I have finally started feeding the little dude some real food. (5 months, 3 weeks, 2 days) I had been planning to wait till the six month mark, since that is supposed to be better, and because it's way easier to not start with the food thing anyways until you have to. Tim had made some bread the other night that the boys were having for a bedtime snack, and Zion had HAD it!!! He started crying angrily and kicking and flailing. HE! WANTED! FOOD! TOO!!!! :) So I mashed up some bananas for him in a hurry and shoveled them in, to his sheer lip smacking delight. The green beans the next day he was not so big on, but sweet potatoes are a go, and so are bananas mixed with rice cereal. It seems that with every child I have been less and less eager to start the whole food thing, what with all the mashing and the grinding and the bibs and the highchairs and the food smeared everywhere...wow, even this sentence makes me sort of want to return to the easy days of just breastfeeding. But I guess it was time. :) Man. You finally get rid of one large kid item (ie. high chair) and then it suddenly has to reappear in all it's largesse.

We are enjoying a season of good health. Only an occasional wiping of snotty noses here and there. A scattered cough now and then. But that's about it. You sure don't take it for granted when you've experienced too many colds back to back. Phew.

28 Months

2009-03-05T12:33:00.005-05:00

Israel is the happy-go-lucky member of our family. He just bee-bops around the house happily doing his thing. He loves to mimic - he copies EVERYTHING that Gabe does. If Gabe hops down from his chair at lunch to come and say something to me in the kitchen and then goes back to his seat, Israel watches avidly, then hops down from his chair, comes and makes talking noises at me while using appropriate hand gestures, then returns to his seat with quite the satisfied expression on his face.

He loves Gabe and loves playing with him, but sometimes seems to think he needs to protect his turf against Zion somewhat. Especially because Zion seems to hog Mommy's lap, which apparently is prime property these days. Overall, he has been pretty neutral towards Zion, and lately has been increasingly more affectionate - although sometimes I need to protect Zion from all his good intentions. :)
Israel has transitioned really well into sleeping in the toddler bed. He still takes naps most days. He often falls asleep on the sheep rug on his floor, or half in, half out of bed.
Right now everyone falls into one of two classifications for Israel - a Mom-Mom or a Dat. Males are Dat's, females are Mom-Mom's. :)

He LOVES books. LOVES them. If anyone comes to visit, he makes a beeline for them with a pile of books. He also likes to color a lot. Makes no difference whether it is coloring book, skin, or wall, for that matter.
He isn't potty trained yet, but often requests to have his diaper taken off to go pee in the potty. He has only pooped in there one time, though. That's always the clincher.

He is more expressive than Gabe. When he is distraught, he certainly can yell. Lots of big tears. No hiding any emotions in this kid. And looooouuudd. Phew. He is just loud all around. He has this heavy little loud tromp around the house - thud thud thud thud.
He is also very affectionate. He loves to give kisses, and it is just the cutest thing to see that little pucker coming your way. He also enjoys being held - the only problem is that he weighs about as much as a truck. Ok, fine, maybe not, but he is heavier than Gabe, although only by a few ounces. I think he is currently 35-ish pounds.
The Painted Warrior slumbers...still a baby.

5 Months

2009-03-04T19:16:00.004-05:00

- Rolls from back to stomach (5 months 6 days)
- Seems to suddenly have grown!! His legs are getting round and squeezy.
- Generally a laid back, happy baby.
- Loves to play with baby toys and crackly plastic.
- VERY interested in the sight and smell of food. Gets very cranky and insistent on "more TASTES!!" when I let him "taste" something I'm eating, but...he can wait another month, says Mom.
- Still sucking his thumb. Cuteness pot.
- In size 3 diapers

Well Then.

2009-03-04T14:58:00.003-05:00

Reason Number 68 for needing to get out of bed after being placed there for the night: "But Mommy, I don't know what my EYEBROWS look like!!!"

Miscellaneous Catch-Up

2009-03-01T22:15:00.001-05:00

Fun times with Daddy in front of the heater. That Gabe. He strips off clothes faster than you can blink, mostly so he can properly enjoy the cozy warmth of the heater.
Lovey-Bug
Happy Valentine's Day from my mother-in-law. Thanks, Carol! :)
Doogle Schnoops.
Boy time in the kitchen.
Mommy's helpers. Don't worry - Zion's in no danger of falling - he's in his handy dandy Bumbo seat.
Enjoying a snow day. Whooo-hooooo!! :)
Sugar boy in a hat specially made for him by his far away Aunt Melody.
Me, age 31, with my three babes.
Squeeze 'im.

To Complain A Little...

2009-02-17T21:34:00.007-05:00

So. If I could complain a little?

Keeping the house clean around here is a little - no, wait - AWFULLY MUCH LIKE vacuuming the carpet while someone follows me around with a container and carefully pours sand in my freshly vacuumed wake. It's the crumbs all over the floor I just swept. It's the dumping out of the cars after I just picked them all up. Or the animal basket. Or the marbles. Or pulling books off of the shelves. Or dumping the markers out of their box. Or the crayons. ARRRRGGHH!!!

Gabe is old enough now that he has to endure the steely glint of Mommy's eye as she watches him pick up what he has gleefully kicked around the carpet. But Israel...sigh.

Israel is the child who will manage to spill the last teensy millimeter of grape juice I gave him to swig out of my cup thinking that there was no possible way he could get it on the floor. Hah. Israel manages to make a mess out of anything and everything. Israel loves strewing the dog food around the house and pouring that and the dog water "carefully" from formerly clean container to formerly clean container. Bury head in hands.
Israel needs his own personal man-servant to follow him around and wipe his face every 0.3 seconds. Chocolate, crumbs, snot, marker, suspicious substance, varied forms of slime - it's smeared. Shake of head.

And another thing. My children have this UNCANNY ability to sense the last few seconds that Zion is awake and barge noisily in as his eyes drift shut. Seriously, every morning, 9 times out of 10, as I'm nursing Zion back to sleep, almost the SECOND his eyes close, in comes one of the boys. And then we're all up. Again. Or if I'm nursing him in the chair in the living room, just as he has finally fallen asleep, Israel makes the noisest beeline ever in the whole entire world straight for us, attempts to climb into my lap as I whisper furiously at him, and then procedes to unleash the loudest bellow of protest you have ever heard. And then Zion is awake again. It really is quite maddening.

That Israel child is one of the more louder creations on God's green earth. Lots of loud screams, lots of loud tromping.

Ok. Back to blissful life of unhurried blissfulness...where the windows are always clean and where my children read at a sixth grade level by age three from all the quality time I spend with them after all the crafts we make together and the outdoor hikes we go on. While my self-laundering, self-cleaning, supper-cooking house does it all for me. And where we're all staggeringly healthy at all times. It's just great. Around here.

Super Heroes and the Like

2009-02-10T15:42:00.010-05:00

Tim: (telling Gabe the story of Adam and Eve) "...but Adam was very lonely, because he didn't have anybody to talk to, just all those animals."

Gabe: (pause) Except for the parrots!!

Tim: (startled) Ah - well, yes, I guess you're probably right about the parrots.
---------
Zion has started intermittently sucking his thumb (4 months 2 weeks). It's so stinkin' cute I can't hardly keep from melting into a huge puddle of Mommy Mush when he does it. With each day that's gone past this week he's sucked it more, and today he put himself to sleep in his bed twice with his thumb. I feel sort of guilty for letting him suck it, since I know it can be hard to break later, but it is so handy (no pun intended ;)) and so. adorable. that maybe I'll just worry about all those things later. :)---------

Gabe FINALLY knows his ABC song and can count a good ways. He's only done those things patchily up to this point.

--------

Gabe: (mid-chew while gazing out the window in the dining room. Declared brightly.) "Super-Gabe will take care of that later!" (goes back to eating as if nothing had happened)

Mommy: (looking from the outdoors to Gabe, and really, really, really, struggling with a smile) "What will Super Gabe take care of?"

Gabe: "Oh! That bag that is blowing in the wind! (Mommy looks and indeed sees a plastic bag gusting along the yard.) Super-Gabe will go get that bag later!" (resumes his busy chewing.)

LOL.

Super Hero has been the game of choice lately (when Gabe is not "shooting" animals with his "gun"). I think it's a take-off of the Super Reader show on PBS. Mainly, it involve scrounging clothes off of one's shelf, out of one's drawer, or off of Mommy's shelf (sigh), placing them on one's head to form a sort of hat/swirly cape, and tearing down the hall with giggling younger brother hot on one's heels. It's pretty funny, actually, aside from the vastly annoying task of gathering loose clothes from hither and yon and restoring them yet again to their original places.

Today he said, "Mommy, I'm a he-whoa."

"A hero?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm a he-whoa. And if anybody tries to, tries to push a button on the world, I will smack my heart, and it will put my clothes on." :) :) :)

Here are the two resident Super Heroes, hard at work.
That would be a shirt of mine on Gabe's head, spirited away for the vastly important activity of world saving, and a skirt of mine on Israel's head, because, hey, that just looks like a good idea.
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...it's...a four year old with Blue's Clues underwear and a shirt on his head.
Super heroes need to brush their teeth too. And a denim skirt around your neck while you brush can only aid the process.
---------

The other day I was working in the kitchen and Gabe wandered out requesting juice. I informed him that he had to wait, because I was busy. He went and quietly deposited himself in the baby's purple Bumpo seat and sat there quietly. After a bit, I fixed his juice and took it to him. He accepted it with a quivering lip. My child can be a mite melodramatic, I have noticed. So, I tucked my smile inside, and asked him twice what was wrong. Finally he said, quite pitifully and with lip aquiver, "It's...it's...it's just that nothing in my life makes me sad!!!"

"Do you mean that everything in your life makes you sad?" I asked.

Nod. Pitiful sniff. "Everything in my life makes me sad!"

The poor, poor child. When chocolate doesn't come on demand, Mom makes you stop jumping off of the couch, and the juice is delayed...there's not much farther down to go. Apparently.

:)

--------

People often comment how alert and responsive Zion is. I hear more that he looks like Gabe right now than that he looks like Tim, which is what people really said at first.
--------

Israel calls me "Mom-Mom" or "Mom-Ma-Mom". I took him for what I thought was a speech evaluation but turned out only to be a hearing evaluation (sigh) which showed he had no hearing difficulties. He seems to have hit one of those verbal peaks again these past two weeks, where he is saying more.

Four Months Old

2009-02-05T12:27:00.007-05:00

-chews on his hands a lot
-really enjoys his over-the-door jumper
-very interactive; smiles, talks, laughs
-currently has a ratty sleep schedule where he usually doesn't fall asleep until 1 AM
-weighs 14.8 pounds
-still not very much hair
-grabs at Mommy's bowl on the table
-the sight of meals on the table makes him agitated and whirly-limbed, but Mommy is not feeding him any table-food other than occasional tastes or pacifier dunks
-a happy, mild tempered baby who loves to laugh and grin and talk
-mostly over his "tummy woes"
-brightens up at the sight of Gabe
-has good head and neck control
-can roll from back to side
-really likes his bath and splashes and splashes in it
-likes to look at his baby toys
-in size 2 diapers
-tries to sit up in his bouncer

Life

2009-01-29T10:49:00.012-05:00

We moved Israel out of the crib into the toddler bed, and moved the crib into our room for Zion, since he kept bumping his head on the sides of the cradle and waking himself up. Israel had absolutely no problem switching - he crawled right into bed for the night and started sucking his finger. Naps are not quite so easy - it's hard to stay in bed when you can get back up so easily! :)
I have felt sooooo much more on top of things since last week. It is such a great feeling.

Zion has been falling asleep every night around 9 PM, sleeping about one hour, waking up at 10 PM and staying awake until 12 or 1 AM. TIREDNESS. LACK OF EVENINGNESS.

He has been very chew-y lately, and chews on his hands a lot. I don't remember the other boys doing that as much.

He has also gotten very grabby lately, and very interested in my food, which leads to almost pulling my suppers onto my lap. (He usually sits in my lap for meals if he is awake.)

He does not like to be carried on my hip, but only settles for the crook of my arm. Then he settles down happily for the oh-so-interesting ride.

(please enjoy this most-awesome-of-me-picture-ever. You're welcome.)

The other night we had one of those not-so-infrequent episodes where all of a sudden Israel is crying and Gabe has fled under the table or behind a chair, etc. When questioned about what happened, Gabe steadfastly denies any wrongdoing, as his gaze flits all over the place, and he looks really guilty when he looks in your eyes. Despite a 98% certainty that you are speaking with the guilty party, when you don't actually see what happened, and when you know that Israel sometimes will yell his head off when he is tired anyways, it's sometimes a little hard to know the best way to handle it. Gabe asked if he would be punished if he said that he had hurt Israel. I told him that he would be. So he was not interested in 'fessing up. On his way back to brush his teeth, I sat him down in the hall and had a very serious conversation with him about lying, and about how we often get a yucky feeling in our hearts after we do something bad like lie, and that is one way that God talks to us, and lets us know what we need to do, and how when we feel that yucky feeling, we can ask God to forgive us, and then we can go ask the person we lied to to forgive us too, even if it means we might get into trouble for it. I also talked to him about trust, and how if I know that he does not lie to me, then I know that I can trust him when he tells me something. He listened very seriously and closely.

I have heard elements of that conversation come out over the next several days. The next day, he told me that he was going to have to tell some people that he lied to them (although this hasn't happened yet :)) and asked if I would pray for him about it. He also admitted to being the culprit in another Israel crying bout the other day. About a week ago, I moved the "kid table" in his room out into the living room where I had had the Christmas tree. Two nights ago I was tucking him in bed and he got a very grouchy look on his face and said, "Mommy, when you took my table away, you got a yucky feeling in your heart!!" :) LOL. I said, "Gabe, you weren't even using your table in here! Now you are using it!" He said, still very grouchy "No! I was using it to do my work!"

Speaking of praying, Gabe has really talked about praying more the past few weeks. He informs me regularly that he prays in the bathroom that Jesus would help his pee come quickly. :)

Kindness

2009-01-22T23:02:00.003-05:00

Kindness blew in my door the other day
bringing a chicken pot-pie and cookies
wrapping holding arms around the baby
washing my dishes
vacuuming my floors
whisking my children away for the afternoon/evening
peppering my house with happy conversation.

What friends have I found!!

Thank you, Donna
Thank you, Sydney
Thank you, Faith
Thank you, Dorothy

You made my day.

Little Sweet Man

2009-01-20T14:35:00.005-05:00

Sleep tight my man, my little sweet man
Resting upon my arm
Head lolling back, eyes mostly closed
Oozing your babily charm

Nestle in close, my little sweet man
You are your mama's joy
Your squeezy legs, your chubby chin
Your soft skin, you sweet baby boy.

Now see here my man, my little sweet man
Mama loves you but God loves you more
He sent his Son, your Hope and your Light
Follow Him and make your way sure.

So rest now my man, my little sweet man
I'll sing you a sweet lullaby
Soon you will laugh, soon you will run
And far from these arms you will fly

And then there was Christmas...

2009-01-17T23:47:00.005-05:00

We had a great time over Christmas. Not that you could tell, since I haven't posted any pictures this many days later, but that's a whole project still patiently simmering on the long neglected back burner. Anywho, so yes, Christmas was great, but...since we've come back, I have felt like I have entered one of the most stressful phases of my life. I have had that stressed-out feeling in my stomach where it feels all knotted up and achy several times a day almost every day. It just feels impossible to catch up. It feels like the boys have been fighting one virus or another the entire time since we've been back, although that's probably not true. They are still recovering their original vastly-preferred-by-Mommy sleep schedules of sleeping all night without crying out (Israel) or coming to find me (Gabe). Zion is still having a hard time getting to sleep at night, and I usually end up taking him to bed with me to put him to sleep, since he somehow seems to think that he needs to stay up with Mommy and Daddy, literally erasing any semblance of a peaceful evening. The past week has held croupy coughs for both Gabe and Israel, leading to a horrible cold with the most terrible sounding cough and a runny nose. Then Israel perked back up, to promptly have a few more episodes of diarrhea...then Gabe was out of it for a day or two, and after getting me up about three or four times during the night aside from the three or so times I was up with Zion, and spent the following day not moving from his spot on the couch, but slumped against the pillows drifting in and out of sleep, and not eating or drinking hardly anything for two days, I took him to the doctor where he was diagnosed with his first ever ear infection. Then, that night, Zion started with the Cough of Horribleness, and then at 10:45 that night, he got croupy.

Croup has first hit both Gabe and Israel at this exact same age, and we have had to make trips to the ER with their first episode, and it is a very scary thing. This time, Mommy of the Croup Boys whipped out her handy dandy prednisolone, whirred into research dosage mode, and promptly dispensed an appropriate dose of corticosteroid. With the way he sounded, there was little doubt in my mind that unless it was treated, we would be heading to the ER that night, whereupon they would give him a steroid shot, give him a breathing treatment, and then send us home with the aforementioned prednisolone. Can you tell I've been through this before? :) And then we PRAYED. Croup scares Tim so much. He cannot handle it when they sound even mildly croupy. Our first episode with Israel I think has been the scariest for me, where I was literally afraid he was going to stop breathing. So I prayed that God would protect Zion, that we wouldn't even have to have an episode where we had to decide whether or not to take him in, and that the other boys would sleep through the night, and not wake him up while coming into our room to find me, since I have been up several times a night with Gabe and/or Israel since we came home from VA. I slept on our bed with him, and Tim slept in Israel's room. And what do you know.

Zion slept great, waking only once or twice to eat. He had a phlegmy cough, but no croup episodes at all. And for the first time since Christmas (as far as I can remember), Gabe and Israel slept all night and I did not have to tend to them. Thank You, Jesus!!! What an answer to prayer!! Zion woke cheery and grinny. Mommy was a bit more on the bleary-eyed side...but did not care, as long as Zion was fine!!

All of the above was written Saturday. Sunday I had a WONDERFULLY therapeutic day, with lots of social interaction, sympathetic ears, and people to help with the kids. Our church...I can not say enough good things about them. I love them so much. People are so supportive of our family and help so much with our children and that is such a huge burden lifted. It is SUCH a huge help. Then we went over to one of our friend's houses at night, and ate homemade doughnuts (and hey, how can anything seem bad after such a glorious thing as homemade doughnuts, for sure...), and I got to talk more girl talk...and by the end of the day, I felt like life was just so much better.

Today, was one of the first actual normalish feeling days since Christmas, even though I did have to take Zion to the doctor just to make sure his horrible cough was OK. Which it was. Tonight he fell asleep around 10 PM for about the first time since we came home from VA - and stayed sleeping. This was my number one prayer request I gave everyone who asked about us. Thank you friends. Thank you Jesus. Amen and amen and amen.

Sorry this was such a stressful post. :) I'll try to be done with such things soon. :) I hope.

Toast and Lellow Yips

2009-01-14T22:01:00.008-05:00

Tonight I was taking a picture of Israel on the couch when Gabe, who was laying there beside him, asked "Mommy, do you have a little baby in your tummy?"

"What did you say?" I asked absent-mindedly.

"Do you have a baby in your tummy?"

I laughed out loud. "Why, does it look like I do?"

He squinted at me blearily, and sniffled his cold-sick nose. "Yeah. Do you?"

"No, I do not have a baby in my tummy," I said with amused certainty.

"Maybe if you go eat some toast you can get one in your tummy." Gabe suggested.

"I don't think it works quite that way," I said.

"But I want a sister!" he cried.

LOL. Give me a bit, child. Good gracious. I think I'm holding off on the toast for right now, thanks...

--------------------

Tonight as I was tucking him into bed we had another wife conversation. It went like this:

"Mom, I don't want to die when I grow up."

"Gabe, everything dies. That's how God made it. Plants die, animals die - everything dies."

"Like my teeth would die."

"Yes, your teeth could die. That's why we brush them."

"Yeah, my teeth could de-cay and fall out."

"That's right."

"Hey Mom! I figured out my wife!"

"Oh you did, huh?"

"Yeah. It's going to have hair down." He touched his shoulder.

"Hair down, huh?"

"Yeah, and it's going to have yips (lips) - " he paused. "I didn't figure out her yips. I better figure it out." He thinks. "And she's going to be seven, eight, ten, seven pounds tall." He gazes up at me.

I fight to keep a smile off of my mouth. "Mmmm."

"Yeah, and all our kids are going to go to heaven with us."

I nod. "Yes, they will if they love Jesus."

He nods. "Yeah. And - oh - yeah - she's going to have lellow yips."

"Yellow lips?"

"Yes, and they're going to be really bwight lellow yips."

"Really bright, huh?"

He nods. It's time for his Daddy to come in, so I go off and have my grin.

Scooter.

For the Record

2009-01-14T14:18:00.004-05:00

For the record, let it be known, that I am freakin' TIRED of phlegm. TIRED OF IT!!!! Tired of thick streams of snot running down a freshly wiped face, tired of dried snot on kid's noses, tired of loose, phlegmy coughs, tired of hacking, dry coughs, tired of coughs that make kids gag and vomit, tired of mucus in all forms, including drool. And while I'm at it...I'm tired of messy faces, I'm tired of silliness that I just want to send to his room, I'm tired of never feeling on top of anything, I'm tired of every single simple task having 4,000 interruptions. I'm tired of never getting to work on the massive pile of pictures on my computer. I'm tired of the baby being cranky cranky cranky and screaming his head off every single time I (gasp!! the nerve of me!!) sit him down to try to get something done, which I understand is a totally unreasonable luxury. I'm tired of him suddenly changing things, like not wanting his pacifier any more, and not wanting to be put to sleep in ways that used to work that included his pacifier. I'm so tired of him going to sleep at 9:30 PM and waking up at 10:30 PM to stay awake until 1 AM. I'm so tired of his crankiness and not being able to figure out what on earth caused it beside the known things that I DID NOT EAT. I miss caffeine. I miss black tea. I miss mint tea. I miss coffee. I miss having time in the evening that does not involve trying arduously to get the baby back to sleep.

Last night when Tim walked out the door at 7 PM to go to a meeting and Zion was screaming and Israel was flailing around with wailing and tears and snot of great proportions because Daddy was leaving, only stopping to hack sicklyish and Gabe was jumping hyperly around sans pants as is typical stopping only to hack sicklyish - I felt myself droop as it felt like 3/4 of my energy left with Tim. There is much to be said for moral support. So I called my friend Emily and let Zion bellow in her ear for a while. :) Heh heh heh heh.

I love my children. I love staying home with them. I would not trade it for anything. I don't think I have it any harder than any other mommy out there, and know I have it easier than some. This is just my written equivalent of screaming into my pillow.

Off to kiss a a soft baby head and stare mutely at the laundry pile...

The Life and Times of the Millers

2009-01-10T22:15:00.004-05:00

I've been "in absentia" due to the busy-ness of life, the presence of my photo-editing software in the same room Zion sleeps in, and the MASSIVE amounts of pictures I took over Christmas that I am wading ever so slowly through. Sigh upon sigh. But I have to put a few additions in my "digital scrapbook" quick while I'm remembering them.

Zion is such a "talkative" baby. From two months on, he has talked and talked and talked, for long minutes. More than my other kids were, for sure. "Geeee"'s and gurgles, and "guuuuuu"'s. From two months on, people have commented about how alert and responsive he is. He is very smiley, too, on interaction. The past week or two he has gotten pretty drooley and has been sucking on his hand a lot. Sigh. I could do with a good year or two without any drool or snot. Or poop that requires cleaning up, for that matter, while I'm living in Pretend Land.

Israel still doesn't talk a whole lot. Or rather, he talks in one word statements or extended noises that you can't understand a single word of, and you're not quite sure that he is actually saying anything, really, just imitating the sound of conversation around him. "Ca" is chocolate. (I hear a lot of this one! :)) "Ca-ca" is tractor. "Dooose!" is juice. "Nigh-ni" is nightey-night. "Don" is down or done. "NEOW!" is cat. "Woo!" is dog. I noticed he "talked" more than he usually does those few days in November when Tim and Gabe were gone. I think Gabe just talks enough that he doesn't really feel much of a need to. He is still napping, up to three hours in the afternoon. I usually wake him up early so that he can go to bed when I want him to.

He LOVES to mimic. He copies EVERYTHING Gabe does - sitting like Gabe does, scolding the dog like Gabe does, laughs when Gabe laughs, with great hilarity and animation. He is usually very cheerful and happy-go-lucky - except when the world goes wrong, and then he is down on the ground wailing his heart out. :) He gets a lot of colds. I'm currently on the search for how to boost his immunity.

Gabe is at a really fun age right now. He can articulate his thoughts, he can understand instruction, and is developing a sense of humor. He loves knock-knock jokes or puns. He also loves to laugh just to laugh, which honestly gets old after about 30 seconds of contrived laughter. :) He still is just crazy about Zion, yet could do without Israel a lot of the time. "DON'T TOUCH ME!! THIS IS MY SIDE!! YOU CAN'T HAVE THAT!!" Gabe is a good boy who wants to please, but gets a little squirrelly-distracted on his way to obey. :)

I feel really busy at this stage. Taking care of three baby-kids is a lot of work!! :) I literally feel like each baby ages me about three years more than I would be - because I'm often tired and have to keep going anyways! Zion is still mostly consta-need. Then, Israel still needs his Mommy sometimes and sometimes both of them are wailing and I just can't baby Israel like I wish I could because I have to tend to Zion. I'm trying to give Israel extra special time when I am able to. I really just have to make those times for him. Gabe and I have afternoons. I've been working with him to try to teach him to read using "How To Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons". It is actually SO rewarding for me to see him learn - a lot more rewarding than I thought. I REALLY want to impart my love of reading if I can at all.

Alrighty then. Digital scrapbook updated. Over and out for the Millers.

Winter 2008

2009-01-05T23:48:00.002-05:00

A white moon suspended in the chill night air
The darkness is silent save for the wind
I lay in my bed on the warm side of the window
And stretch along the warmth of him

The house slumbers in peace around us
Our breaths mingle, toothpastey and sweet
I feel his heartbeat, I feel his living skin
Warm and elastic, stretched over his bones

My shoulders are smooth, my face barely lined
My children are four, two, and small
The days are full of raucous boyishness
The evenings are my respite

My senses take in my life days
Delight in knock-knocks, joy in the simple act of laughing, brother-loving
Mimic-ing cherub, tousle-headed squirt faces
Sweet soft baby head, ready smiles, roll-ey kicking legs and belly laughs
Barking dog, ringing doorbell
electric guitars and radio
Toy cars under my feet, legos in my bed
Smell of shampoo and lotion
Nuzzle of baby necks
Wails of distraught small child
taste of hurried suppers
chocolate smeared faces
a laughing kiss
a hug of rightness
my love is my husband

My face stretches into a yawn
Disrupted sleep and napless days are aging me
Into a grey haired mommy

Let me savor the goodness of these days
And use them for what they may be
foundations of truth, mortar of love

The night wind chills in an icy circle around my nest of sleeping family
I curl my back into his warmth
And sleep

Of Wives And Theology...

2008-12-19T11:53:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Gabe was wondering about dying. He wondered when he was going to die. I told him it would probably not be for a very long time. He still seemed a little worried about it - for after all, when you are four, "a long time" can be till the end of the day, or a week, or another month. He told me that he doesn't want to die because he doesn't "want to not go to CannonMennoniteChurch" (he says the name of the church like it is one word. It is very cute, I must say. He has talked a few times recently about how much he likes our church.)

Our conversation about dying led to a conversation about heaven, and how if we love Jesus and have a relationship we will go to heaven to be with Jesus. He wasn't too sure that he wanted to go there right now. He asked if his "wife" (a common topic of late) would go to heaven with him. I said that, yes, she would if she loves Jesus. Then he said "OH!! I FORGOT!! I have to think of my wife's name! I can't beh-yeeve (believe) I didn't remember to think of her name!" LOL. I smothered a smile and told him that he probably has a good twenty years or so to think of it. He soon told me that his wife's name was Maddie. I asked him if that is the Maddie who is his imaginary friend or his friend Maddie at church, but he didn't say.

This morning again he told me that he was going to think of his wife's name, "the wife that is going to go up to heaven with me". He gave me some weird nonsense name, and then told me that he was going to think of the names of his children, of which there would be twelve.

LOL. Too hilarious.

Growing

2008-12-15T20:09:00.002-05:00

I moved Zion into 3-6 month clothes. (2 months 2 weeks) He is very interactive, with lots of eye contact and smiles and "talking". He sleeps soooooo good. Last night he slept from 10:30 PM-ish to about 8:30 AM-ish. This convinces me that there is no miracle baby sleep solution, but that some kids do and some kids don't. Sleep well and easily, that is.

Gabe moved up into a new Sunday School class for the 4-6 year old kids. He likes it a lot. I knew he would. He is one of those kids that I know will love school just for the social aspect.

Israel is in a tantrum stage. He gets SO FRUSTRATED when we can't understand what he is trying to communicate, and bursts into wails and tears and throwing himself down on the floor and kicking his feet. And they can be pretty prolonged. After several of those in a day, you get really sort of in the mood to ignore him when he is doing it. If he was doing it to be manipulative, I would think that's ok, but I have to remember that I would get really frustrated too if no one ever understood what I was trying to communicate something that I really wanted. But it's still honestly really annoying. :) He has also grown recently and looks more "small boy"-ish. I will really miss his babyness when he is all grown out of it. He has been such a happy little chipmunk baby.

Lately

2008-12-09T19:34:00.005-05:00

Picture catch-up. Zion has been napping in the same room as the computer with our pictures. Sigh. This means I feel like I never get around to doing my pictures. Sigh. Which means it takes forever when I finally get around to doing them. Tim sighing. :) But anywho, here's life of late.

Mommy and the boys cooking some egg sandwiches, while Daddy prepares to leave for the evening.

Zion helping Mommy hang up some clothes. :)

Mommy's little helper elves.

Mommy and baby.

A Zion collage.

Riding tricycles on a sunny day.

The CUTEST little cuddly buddy ever.

Daddy and boy catching some morning snoozes.
Fireman Bob gets distracted by a cool little toy.

Bounce bounce bounce. Zion is only semi-tolerant of this handy little jumper at this point.

The fall that has disappeared into winter brown/grey.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-09T19:28:00.008-05:00

We spent Thanksgiving Day here in DE - Tim spoke at a combined church service, and then we went to Larry and Eileen Crossgrove's house and had a very enjoyable time with them and Weston and Stephanie Yutzy and their two boys, Carson and Nevin, and...ummm....Erika and...I forget her husband's name. Sorry, Erika's husband. :) The next day, we left for Virginia, where we had a Beery Thankgiving/Christmas (to which I forgot to bring my camera), and then a Heatwole Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's house.

Mom and Dad had gotten some new stools for the boys to sit on. Gabe was very concerned that he be the one to sit on his stool, which was pushed up to the big table, and no one else. He perched on his stool during the afternoon
and after everyone had arrived and was milling around after the prayer, Mom went to find Gabe and found him staking his claim. :)

Zion was sort of cranky throughout the meal, so I just got some pictures of the after dinner activity.

The boy cousins.

Another exciting thing about our visit this time was getting to see all of Grandaddy's new calves.

They are little baby calves who need a bottle, and Gabriel got to help.
Israel checked out the action, but was too dubious of the Maddie factor (Dad's Laborador dog) to really enjoy his time on the ground.

We also enjoyed some time to do some shopping, fix tires, and replace van belts. I really enjoyed those last two, oh man.

Gabe and Israel pattered happily and busily around, getting all their "work" done.

Israel and his baby doll. Like his hair? :) :) :)
Israel loves to ride this horse. Mostly I was just capturing the Dennis the Menace hair at another angle, though. :) Love it.

I also got to see my friend Angela Zehr Heatwole that I had not seen for a long time!
We got to chat over some chow at O'Charley's. It was a very good time. It wad great to see you, Angelina!! :)

As we were packing up to go, the dogs were both a real help.
Maddie offered to drive us home, but we didn't take her up on it. So she just settled her injured feelings by sitting on the gas pedal, revving the engine, and thoroughly startling herself.

Thanks Mom and Dad for everything! We missed you Norm and Carol!

The Miller's

2008-12-08T16:34:00.003-05:00

How go the results-of-fruitfully-multiplying? Mine have been sort of busy of late...

Israel has some virus that makes him very cry-at-the-top-of-his-lungs-and-not-tell-you-what-is-the-current-disaster, such as, the lego basket not being over by his truck or something...something...something unknown and mysterious and impossible to figure out about his cup. Lots of wailing, my friends. Mucho the wailing.

Gabe, on the other hand, has the worst diarrhea I think I have ever seen. This is combined with a rampant case of let-me-pick-on-my-younger-brother. Let me nudge the edge of the little table he is eating on with my foot and spill his water. Let me accidentally-on-purpose bowl him over as I speed down the hall. This alternates with a rash of Zion-hoverings, Zion-kissings, and wake-Zion-up's-and-make-mommy-get-very-scary-mad-eyes. :)

Zion is as sweet as a bittle button. A wittle ol' smoochy smoochy bittle button. Seriously. The kid is irresistable. I can't figure out what his deal is the past several days, but I never get annoyed at him, because he is still so SWEET!!!! I can't give him just one kiss, but must instead give many many. He has started studiously batting at my face when I am holding him in the crook of my arm and looks rather satisfied when I capture his hand and hold it up for a kiss.

And in other updates...

Tim is busy as ever, but I must admit that I am madly in love with him.

Chloe is...is...annoyingly in existance.

I am existing in fuzzy warm clothes.

2008-12-06T18:07:00.003-05:00

I have to admit that this stage of life leaves me sometimes feeling trapped. Not trapped in my life or situation, because I like both of those things very much, but trapped geographically. It is so. much. work. to load the kids up and go anywhere and keep an eye on all of them at once that I usually just don't have the energy or motivation. I sometimes watch Tim come and go with narrowed envious eyes at his arms swinging freely, no legs propped on bouncers, off to work and a feeling of productivity. Some days, when Zion is fussy and demanding, the most frustrating thing is not being able to look at my day and see anything truly finished - the living room is only half picked up, there are still dishes in the sink waiting for someone, anyone, with two hands free; I still haven't worked on scrapbooking, I have more pictures to sort through, I still need to put candles up in the windows and find that sneaky hide-y tree skirt, I wanted to wash our sheets today and didn't get to it, I need to hang some more laundry on the line and put away the clean stuff on the table fuss fuss fuss fuss fuss goes the baby and I resume my bouncing, patting, pacing circle. Bounce bounce bounce eye the things on the floor that I LOOONG to pick up and put away so that I won't feel SO STRESSED OUT ABOUT ALL THE WORK I STILL HAVE TO GET DONE!!! And then the kids want food and then they're fighting and it's bath time and splash time and finding clothes and lotion and settling more squabbles and finding snacks and brushing teeth and so then the day is over and the kids are in bed - and I look around and see not a sight that makes me sigh happily over my productiveness, but instead - more work. Blech. Today Israel was sick on top of Zion's third or fourth day of fussiness, and threw several exhausted, prolonged, temper tantrums. I honestly just sometimes had to laugh, as two children bellowed while Gabe begged to play hide and seek. Sigh. Tim was also gone tonight...so friends, it was a long day. :)

They aren't all like that. Sometimes I can strut around proudly and shake my tail feathers and demand compliments on the meal/house/other productiveness I have busily whipped up for the day. Just not today.

I did have a good start though. I am currently in an obsessive research phase over whole foods/natural foods/organic foods stuff. I am devouring two cookbooks (I have never in my life done such a thing) on the topic and dreaming of buying another one that I really want that is like, 672 pages, called Nourishing Traditions. I have borrowed Mom's book, The China Study, which talks about diet and disease associations from a study of 170 villages in China, and am dreaming of somehow obtaining a flour grinder so I can grind my own wheat. I had to look at myself the other day and shake my head with amusement as my eyes lit up greedily when I came across a recommendation that I check my local natural foods store for ingredients. Local natural foods store (breathed in a wistful whisper). Dilated pupils, staring into space dreaming of sea vegetables and millet and all things organic. What a weirdo I am. But I can't help these random, irresistible, insatiable hunger-for-knowledge-of-my-current-fill-in-the-blank interest. I snarf up any relevant books I can get my hands on and research madly online till I am finally knowledged out. Then I move on. But this morning Zion and I made a happy little trip to our not-exactly-very-close closest natural foods store and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, rummaging among the arrowroot starch and xantham gum.

The truly ironic thing is that, as I'm scouring these cookbooks for exciting new information about what sea vegetable to use with beans to make them digestible and how to stay away from red meat, I often have a healthy little item tucked into my paw, like, say Mountain Dew, or say, a chocolate covered doughnut. Priorities are priorities, see.

Christmas Jobs

2008-12-05T11:59:00.002-05:00

Getting the Christmas tree stuff out of the attic whilst mumbling under one's breath about such a chore and the existence of an attic in the first place - Tim's Job

Putting up the Christmas tree and clambering back up into the attic to try to find the rest of the branches and lugging several more boxes down and finding the missing pieces and unraveling and wrapping lights around the tree and then discovering that one string of lights won't work and then trekking to Wal Mart and finishing the next day and then clamboring back up to the attic twice unsuccessfully searching for the tree skirt and starting to hang up ornaments and picking up all those scattered little green thingies and burning nice Christmas-y smelling candles - Carrie's Job

Carefully sorting through ornaments and attaching green hangers to them and asking if we can "wap pweasents" and if it is Christmas yet and exclaiming how pretty Nana Carol and Gwandpa Norm will think the tree is - Gabe's Job

Banging Christmas tree ornaments together and throwing those little green hanger thingies all over - Israel's Job

Being really tired and cranky and continually disrupting Mommy's many attempts to just get the tree done already - Zion's Job

Gabeisms

2008-11-22T22:39:00.003-05:00

"Gabe, did you see that those pants have pockets?"

Gabe looks down. "OH!! Yeah, dey do have pockets!! Dey have real-wy down pockets!"

"They have really down pockets?"

"Yeah, their pockets are real-wy down far on my negs (legs)! On my nittle negs (little legs)!"
___________________________

Gabe was just chattering away a mile a minute the other day. He said "Mom, Maddie (his imaginary friend) told me a naughty sec-wet about why poop dies into the toy-yet (toilet)."

Why poop dies into the toilet. Heh heh heh. This is like the honey living on the bread.

The sec-wet was entirely nonsensical, and made no sense with anything - sometimes his conversations are like a Free Association monologue.
___________________________

Said today as he sat shirtless at the supper table, "Sometimes I p'yay (play) hide and seek with my nipples!"

To which Daddy's response was to count to ten, and find them, which he thought was a great game. :)
__________________________

The other afternoon he said "When I guh-whoa (grow) up, I'm going to have a wife!"

"A wife?" I said interestedly. "You are?"

He nodded affirmatively. "Yeah." He then said something about me picking him out a wife or something, and I told him that when he grows up he will decide who he wants to marry, and that person will be his wife.

He thought that was a good idea, and then informed me that he needed some shoes so he could guh-whoa (grow). This is because he had new sneakers recently that made him taller, ie. guh-whoa. :)

Story Time...Or Not.

2008-11-19T11:12:00.004-05:00

Ever since we moved here to DE, I have been wanting to take the boys to Story Hour at the library. But every week I forget, or, on the rare ones I remember, we oversleep or something else happens. Today, finally, we were up and at 'em. I tracked down the many layers involved in getting two young children and an infant out the door, buckles were clicked and clacked and fastened fast, I scurried into my front seat, and turned the key...

..and...

the stupid van wouldn't start. Grrrrrrrr!!!!!! We piled back out of the van, and trudged back inside, dreams of libraries and educational stimulation and GoodWill and maybe even Walmart drifting away on the cold, clothes-piercing wind. I drearily unbuckled the baby and sat down with him, feeling very cranky indeed. Words cannot begin to describe my level of crankiness. The crankiness is abounding.

I suppose I could, say, pick up toys. That would be fun. Or, like, do some laundry. I'm dripping with gleeful delight over this prospect. Maybe I could write some more thank you notes for baby gifts. Or empty the trash. Or scrub the toilet. With a toothbrush.

There's just something about having plans to do something different, going to all the child-ready-ing work to do it - and then suddenly you can't. Makes one feel sort of grinch-like.

I think I'm going to go eat some chocolate and scowl at the dog.

It's Honey, Honey.

2008-11-19T08:49:00.003-05:00

This morning Gabe was inquiring about an unfamiliar substance in his cereal. "It's honey," I told him.

"Oh!" he said, and then he paused. "Honey cereal or honey that lives on bread?"

Honey that lives on bread. Heh heh heh.

Life

2008-11-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

I've been sort of too busy lately (for some reason) to blog very much, particularly when I have to edit photos. However (of course), life has continued to happen, so here is some catch-up over the past two months. These pictures unintentionally have a Gabe-theme, but I'll catch you up on Israel next.

Early in October, we went to Apple Scrapple in Bridgeville.
It was right up my Fall Festival alley, which has been sorely deprived over the past seven years as I seemed to have to work over almost every fall celebration in Kentucky. Zion was two weeks old, and he did fine. We didn't stay too long, but we did enjoy a scrapple sandwich, an apple dumpling, check out Cannon's pie selling booth, get the boys a dolphin balloon, and take them on a Ferris Wheel ride. Oh, and as we were walking out, we got to see a helicopter land. Very cool. :) I just adored the entire experience, while walking through a skillion people pushing one double stroller containing two young children and one regular stroller containing a very small infant was not on Tim's list of "Things I Love To Do On My Day Off". :) But me - I can't wait till next year!!!

I like this shot from a few weeks after Zion was born. Often Zion wakes up around 7 or 7:30 AM, and then I lay him beside me on the pillow and give him his pacifier and we doze together groggily for a while. On this morning, I had one dozy infant and two inquisitive brothers. :)
Here was a Zion picture on the baby quilt his Grandma Edith made for him.
Gabe hangs out with his beloved little brother.
Gabe's four year old picture.
All three boys got some much needed haircuts the other week. This was Israel's first "clippers" haircut, and he had a GREAT time getting to be like Daddy and Gabe. :)
Mom and Dad came to check on the grandchillin's again around the beginning of November. Here was the Granddaddy and the grandboy.
A late night shot of a Daddy and a sleeping boy.
This is a common activity of mine these days. BUT. Would someone please explain to me why one of the RARE pictures of me and Zion has to also contain a shoe?? And a Croc, none the less. Frown at husband, frown at husband. >:(
Speaking of husband, that good daddy has boys who LOVE to wrestle and play with him when he comes home. Gabe gets all hyper every single night when he comes home and does unwise things like bop his daddy on the head while he's sitting on the couch to try to get his attention. :) Tim is good at giving them some "boy time", and they just eat it up!!!
"Mommy, can I hold the baby and can you take my picture?"
Enjoying the Zion cuteness...
Silly boys.
The other day, Gabe and I were looking at a photo album from when he was a baby. "Oh!" says he "I was ado-wable!!" (like he says about Zion) :) "Yes you were!" I respond. I show him the picture of the baby shower where Grandma Edith gave Mommy a baby quilt she made for Gabe. He emits an excited gasp. I go get the quilt for him from the closet, and he exclaims excitedly over it. I show him the "cozy side". He immediately has to shuck off his pants so he can feel it on his legs. :) I cannot persuade him to put his pants back on, as he would rather "be cold" and feel the "cozy blanket". He had to sleep under it that night. Grin.
Zion, asleep on his Mommy's pillow. Can you find him? :)
And finally, here's my boys, busy being boys. Happy sigh.

The Zion Baby

2008-11-17T22:58:00.002-05:00

The Zion baby is growing and getting sweeter and sweeter every day. I LOOOVE it when he smiles - they are just adorable...melt melt melt sigh. One of my favorites is when he gets a little grin on his face when I lay him down on the bed and he happily stretches out his legs.

He is a generally happy baby - except when he's not. :) He calms down with a pacifier, eating, or a bouncing walk.
He loves to look over my shoulder.

He is starting to coo.

He spits up more than my other boys have.
I'm pretty sure he's going to be blond like Gabe. When he was born he had blond hair on top (that has since fallen out) and brown hair on the sides and back that is still there and looks like a nice receding hairline. :) Some of it is starting to rub off, though, and it looks to me like the "peach fuzz" blondness that was on the top of his head is starting to grow longer. His eyebrows and eyelashes are blond too.

He continues to eat well and fill out the wrinkles in his legs. :)

He will sleep usually from 10 PM to 7 AM, and wake once in between to eat. I moved his cradle into our closet about a week ago, and he seems to sleep better in there. (I don't know what we are going to do when we move to a house without a nice walk-in closet, as it has been so busy these past few months! :))
He has recently switched his "going to sleep" routine (as babies seem to do). Before, he would only go to sleep for the night when Tim carried him either over his shoulder or like this.
Now, he likes the Moby Wrap which I use for a carrier, and usually falls asleep in that.
He likes his Mommy - and I love it that he does. He calms when he comes to me, and seems to like my kisses and smooches and pats. I've noticed that when one of the boys climb up beside him, he seems to get a little agitated, wide-eyed and whirly-armed, and is only semi-tolerant of their generous heapings of loving pats and kisses. Gabe loves to just hover over him, and Zion is not so big on that idea.
Both boys still do really well with him and really love him. He often has little wet patches of hair from Israel's many kisses, and Gabe often exclaims over and over "He's just so ado-wable!!"

A Forgotten Update

2008-11-17T22:30:00.000-05:00

(This was a forgotten update from November 6.)

Life has gotten easier lately. Zion has a less sensitive tummy. He smiles more, which about bowls me over with surprised delight every time I see it, because his smiles are still so new and unexpected. He has also really switched into a better schedule, with more predictable naps and a bedtime of about 10 PM. This is truly thrilling, this bedtime. :) He also will go to sleep in the swing and the bouncer, which means I don't have to hold him the whole time he is awake, which is also a great help.

In other scrapbook-y news, it took him about a month and a week to finally not scream through his baths, and even vaguely enjoy them. I discovered along the way that he likes having a wet washcloth over his body as I wash him, and likes the water to be a little deeper than I had it at first, perhaps just to give him that "swim-my" feeling. Also, his first smile was at about 3 weeks, 5 days. Man, I love those smiles.

Israel is a doll-baby himself. He loves to give Zion kisses, leaving wet splotches on his baby hair. Then he will look up at me with a hopeful look, raise his hand questioningly in the air, and say "Nnn-tiss??" (Another kiss?) "Nnn-mo-tiss??" (One more kiss?) He loves to carry around his dolls and put them in the swing, put them in the cradle, in a basket that he pretends is a cradle, smear lotion on them, etc. Honestly, it is just so cute. :) :) :)
Gabe is really a good big brother. He just ADORES Zion, and says ALL the time, "He is just so adorwable! He is so adorwable! Isn't he, Mom?" in his high little voice. With Israel, he has moved into the "STOP LOOKING AT ME!!!" stage. Or the "DON'T TOUCH ME!!!" stage. Sigh. He is also big into the "exercising". All the time he talks about exercising. And "energy". It's so funny, and I don't know where he gets it, because we sure don't talk much about exercise. Playing video games also apparently quantifies as "exercise" and is done to "give him energy". Hmm. I'm not quite sure about that one.

Caught!

2008-11-17T11:18:00.006-05:00

This morning I came out of the bedroom after nursing Zion and having some cuddle-time with him and suddenly realized that I hadn't seen Israel for a few minutes. My eyes narrowed. There was a smell in the air...a smell... I couldn't quite figure out what it was, but was 99.999% sure it meant that Israel was into something that he shouldn't be.

"Oh. No." I said aloud, having figured it out, and took off at a speedy trot down the hall. "Israel!!"

Too late. There was the chair pushed up to the dresser that still had a few things of mine in the top drawer since I moved it into the boys room and hadn't figured out a place for the items.

There was the culprit, busily at work.

And there were his beautifully adorned feet.

Sighs. Many many many sighs.

So...does anyone know how to get fingernail polish out of carpet???

The Potential of Ring Bearing...

2008-11-14T16:53:00.002-05:00

I am currently "flying solo" for a few days. Tim and Gabe are in Cranberry, PA for Shawn Yoder's wedding, where Tim is doing the "talking" part :) and Gabe is the ring bearer.

I have been preparing Gabe for this trip for a while, since I knew I wouldn't be going (because of the distance and Zion), and since sometimes he can be a Mommy!Mommy! boy. I have talked to him about Shawn and Kaylene, and how they are getting married, and how he is going to drive a long way with Daddy to PA, and how they are going to stay in a hotel room with a TV (will they have racecars [on TV] he asks, and I nod and say probably so!) and how he will get all dressed up and carry the rings, and he has been quite excited for a while now, and also somewhat worried that he might have missed the big event. He has often asked about if "tonight is the meeting", or similar questions, and the other day he said "OH NO!!! We missed the 'meeting'!!!" (He keeps calling the wedding 'the meeting'.) But in fact he had not missed the meeting, and he woke up bright and early to go drive off to it this morning.

Israel, Zion, and I have actually had quite an enjoyable day. Two kids sure does feel less than three. Actually, two of my three equal a separate kid entirely - it's not just three kids, it's also dealing with the hyper COMBO of Gabe+Israel. :) So Israel really enjoyed his rule of his roost today, with no episodes of being tackled or having his toys taken away. :) We had a vacation day, where Mommy lazed about enjoying the relative peace and quiet and significant reduction of duties, and where we also went to gaze upon potential home buys and went to Wally World. Now THAT is my idea of a good day. :)

I did miss that other little kid of mine quite intensely tonight though. Tim said that Gabe is not so sure about the idea of being a ringbearer. It seems there were some tears and pillow throwing involved. Hmmm. :) Hopefully all will go well tomorrow. When I talked to them tonight, they were lazing upon a king sized bed watching the History Channel. :)

I sure do love you, Gabriel Timothy.

And you too, Timothy David.

Have fun!!

Weighty Issues

2008-11-06T21:51:00.007-05:00

So I still haven't lost all my pregnancy weight. This is vastly annoying to me for several reasons. First of all, I have gained about the exact same weight with each boy, yet this time, for some mysterious reason, the last 10-12 pounds wants to cling on for dear life and celebrate the holidays with me as a tenacious buddy. I blame it on being 30. Secondly, this means I can only cram myself into one straining, forgiving pair of pre-pregnancy jeans. Grump. And the third reason I find all this so irritating is because it means that I will likely have to EXERCISE. Myself, I intensely prefer the vigorous activity of NOT exercising.

So today I lamented all of this by donning the coolest-ever, circa-1980's, elastic-waisted pair of hot pink, aqua, and white striped shorts, and steadily eating everything in sight all day long. It was actually quite enjoyable. Although I still feel a bit stuffed.

Belch.

Off to find a stretchier waistband...

In cheerier news, check out this wittle pwecious wittle man.
Check out the chin chubs. That blends into the cheek chubs. :) Heh heh heh. SERIOUSLY. This kid is one of THE more adorable kiss-inspiring children alive in the world today. I just cannot quit kissing him. You gotta get right there in those neck folds and kiss away. Mmmm!!! So soft and sweet and sweet-smelling and snuffle-y and bright-eyed and whirly-armed....

Today this very nice lady came over and helped me TREMENDOUSLY as she does from time to time by holding Zion so I could busily scurry around the house and get things accomplished. A marvelously productive feeling.
It really is amazing how helpful it is just to have somebody else around to hold the baby. Happy sigh. Thank you, Grandma Dorothy. :) :) :)

And to close out the Miller weight-inspired news, Tim came out of the bathroom tonight after brushing Gabe's teeth and said, "And I quote: 'Dad, you're almost fat!"" This was followed by a fully startled exclamation from Tim - "WHAT?!?!"

LOL.

The Good, the Bad, and the Boys

2008-11-03T15:31:00.007-05:00

Zion David
1 month, 1 week, and 2 days old
Things I like most about this stage:

- soft little bendy ears that fold in half on my arm and stick there, and then slowly unfurl and pop back into place

-whisper-soft hair and a soft little head that bumps against my jaw as he peers wide-eyed over my shoulder, his head bobbing and weaving, and making soft little breathy huffy noises as he checks out the wide new world
-the sweetest little soft smooth feet ever with toes that fan out as he stretches out his legs, and that absolutely MUST be kissed

-sweet soft mouth and sweet soft cheeks that also MUST be kissed

-his fleeting smiles
-the way he nuzzles into my neck, grunting and snuffling, his little arms hugging my neck and making me want to just squeeze him and squeeze him

-the little hand that grips the neck of my shirt tightly as he nurses

Things I like least about this stage:

-his wide-awake period from 11PM-1 AM

-his late night tummy aches

-his "nap snacks". He doesn't nap for very long for the first part of the day.

-feeling like I can never really put him down and get stuff done while he is awake

Israel Caleb
2 years, 2 weeks, and 5 days old

Things I like best about this stage:

-his baby cheeks and baby legs that make him just so very squeezeable

-his grins of glee

-his belly laughs

-his sweet smelling hair, his bright blue eyes and transparent expressions

-watching him mimic EVERYTHING Gabe does, INCLUDING peeing in the potty!!! (I'm trying not to get my hopes up :))

-how he still snuggles into me and needs his mommy

-how he likes hats

-his words and expressions

Things I like LEAST about this stage:

-he gets into EVERYTHING and dumps it out, empties it, pours it on the floor - basically any mess-making description you can think of

-he gets great joy hurling himself off of perfectly good furniture onto the floor

-he has a great desire to put his fingers INTO Zion's eyes as he discusses them

-the snot, oh the snot, oh the snot snot snot snot!!!!!

Gabriel Timothy
4 years, 1 month, 3 weeks, and 6 days old

Things I like most about this stage:

-the way his brain works, making conversations move in unusual directions.

-he can actually help me! :)

-he is not as into challenging boundaries as Israel is right now

-his love of hide and seek
(Gabe making "sunglasses" against the sunlight on his face." :) )

-his gentleness and soft touch with Zion

-his love of chocolate

-his delight of new things

Things I like least about this stage:

-his lack of gentleness and aforementioned soft touch with Israel. He is all the time tackling him or pushing him over. ARGGHHH!!

-dwaddling and forgetting to obey quickly

-having me "make [his] blanket flat" about 14 million times every evening after he goes to bed. One cannot apparently sleep without said blanket being just right.

-tired crankiness/"but I want MOMMY to do it!!!"

Odes

2008-10-30T13:40:00.002-04:00

Ode to the pacifier, ye of sucky endurance;
You provide many hours of nestling peace.

Ode to the swing, ye rocker of break-giving;
You give me many moments of blissful aloneness.

Ode to the vent fan over the stove, whirring away my child to dreamland.
You make me want to crawl inside the stove hood and fall asleep myself...yawn.

Ode to free-time - I'm sorry. Who are you?? I don't think I know you. Please leave my ode poem now.

Ode to my bathtub, full of blissfully hot bubbly water into which I can sink;
I love you I love you I love you.

Ode to my bed, ye of soft pillows and cozy sheets,
We do not spend enough time together of late.

Vroom

2008-10-25T22:58:00.000-04:00

Life of late feels like a lot of work. Not in a bad way - just a lot of tasks, a lot of cleanups, a lot of childcare. A lot of mega-multitasking. Patting the baby while picking up stuff off the living room floor with my toes. I had forgotten about the toe-ability I've honed with each munchkin. I feel like I work from when I wake up until right before I go to sleep, when I crawl into a heavenly heavenly hot bath and soak and don't have to take care of anyone. For a little while.

Tonight when I was making "big eyes" at the baby cranking and fussing and needing to be held again, I realized tonight that I "tend" - babies, children, husband, house from 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM. That's pretty much all day. I know lots of people do this - but I'm still getting used to the idea of non-stopped-ness. Give me a minute here, people.

I crawled under the desk tonight to plug the modem back into the wall after we had unplugged it because of lightning. While I was under there, Tim informed me that I sort of needed to take the baby back (he was holding Zion) so that he could finish his sermon. I informed him that I was sorry, but I was losing him, that I was in a tunnel and was pretty sure we were going to be disconnected. Then I just stayed there under the desk for a little while in the blessed aloneness, resting my head on my arms, surrounding by calm white cables who weren't asking for a blessed thing. I decided I felt more empathetic for the ostrich after I came out. When you hide your head and can't see anyone, it sort of does feel like you simply aren't there to deal with the current crisis.

Despite the fact that life may sound a mite stressful, it actually isn't unenjoyable. The post-pregnancy crankiness that lingered for about 3 weeks has finally mostly faded, and I feel like we are settling more into a routine where life is a bit more predictable and Zion isn't quite as fussy as he had been.

Tommorrow I'll try to post some pictures. Right now I'm going to go enjoy the fact that my children are sleeping and the house is quiet and I have nothing else to do right now but whatever I want.

Good-bye!

Israel's To-Do List

2008-10-13T21:28:00.002-04:00

1. Wake up at 7:20 AM (ie. "way too early for Mommy")
2. Trot noisily and with great gusto into Mommy's room where she looks at you very blearily and hastily hustles you out so that you don't wake up Zion.
3. Poke at baby in car seat while Mommy is taking a shower, causing Mommy to lunge out of shower repeatedly, making large water mess on floor that you can track your fresh clean socks in.
4. Rock baby's car seat energetically, causing repeat of the above.
5. Grab for all of Mommy's lotions and potions on the sink. Attempt to slather them on your face, too.
6. Empty good portion of baby wash onto hair, face, and body of cloth doll. Move on busily.
7. Screech with loud, loud protest when Mommy does not let you play with the toilet brush in the toilet.
8. Follow Mommy into her closet where you busily pull all of her tank-tops off the shelf as she is attempting to get dressed.
9. Take 4 pairs of Mommy's shoes and spread them randomly throughout the house.
10. Grab powder bottle and empty it onto Mommy's bed, into Zion's cradle, and in random powder piles throughout the bedroom while Mommy is out of bedroom.
11. Go into kitchen and stealthily open baking drawer and remove sugar. Scream bloody murder when Mommy catches you, administers appropriate discipline, and takes away your beloved measuring cups.
12. Take off diaper and go sit on Zion's fresh cradle sheet.
13. Crawl up beside Mommy while she is nursing Zion and administer energetic pats, pokes, kisses, and attempted body slams to beloved baby brother.
14. Be totally snotty at all times. And I do mean that in a literal sense.
15. Obtain bottle of saline drops used for Zion's stuffy nose and diligently spray them all over Mommy's bed.
16. Make suspicious water noises in the hall bathroom so that Mommy can investigate and find you sitting in the toilet bowl, having quite a good time.
17. Scream loudly when removed, as life is so, so hard.
18. Pour glass of water into bottom part of baby's cradle.
19. Grab knives off of counter and bring them into the hallway, causing Mommy to have a mini-heart attack.
20. Thoroughly enjoy the slowness with which Mommy reacts when she is trying to nurse the baby and you do something you know you're not supposed to and give Mommy a sly gaze, leading Mommy to decide if she should keep nursing the almost-asleep baby or put baby down, leading to baby bellows of protest, while she chases your speedy little butt down.
21. Fetch interesting items directly out of trash can.
22. Play the "fun" game of putting marbles in your mouth, leading to lots of intriging reactions from your Mommy and Daddy.
23. Throw self randomly and unpredictably onto ground and into your older brother, leading to lots of banging of the head and pain.
24. Bang Daddy very hard on the head with large flashlight and scream loudly and with great protest when appropriate discipline is administered and flashlight is removed from sweaty grasp.
25. Test any and all boundaries, way more than you were doing two weeks ago before there was a wee little baby in the house.
26. Drive Mama C.R.A.Z.Y.
27. Make Mama feel kind of bad that you are driving her so C.R.A.Z.Y., seeing as that you aren't even two years old until Wednesday.
28. Sleep sweetly while sucking your forefinger, hair tousled and limbs splayed, resting up for another busy day.

Zion

2008-10-10T21:07:00.004-04:00

Today I took Zion for his two week check-up. He was:

7 pounds 5.5 ounces
20 inches long

This means that he has gained more than an ounce a day.

He is still sleeping really well, and is a wittle pwecious sugar-wuggar. :) :) :) Smooch smooch smooch to that kid.

Gabey-Baby

2008-10-10T20:57:00.003-04:00

Tonight as we were eating supper, Gabe perched on his chair with a small stuffed bear tucked under his shirt. He soon informed me that he needed to go outside, because he was going to the hospital to have the baby. I told him he needed to have the baby back in one of the bedrooms, because I didn't want him to wake up Zion on his way in and out. After his bear baby was born, he "nursed" the baby, and then decided his baby needed a diaper change, so he carefully wiped off the bear bottom with wipes on the kitchen floor. He was going to flush the wipes, but Tim told him that "bear poop is very clean" and put them back into the wipes bag. :) Then the baby needed to sleep, so he tucked it in his little yellow toolbox, dragged his dinosaur blanket out into the hallway between the kitchen and the dining room, and informed me that he needed to sleep with the baby. He spread the blanket over himself and the "baby bear" in the toolbox, and then decided he needed to burp his baby, so carefully raised it to his shoulder and patted him gently. It was really cute.
_______________

Yesterday Gabe was "playing" Xbox football, when his controller wasn't working quite like it should. "Stupid contwolwer (controller)!!" he said. "This contwoler is making me drive crazy!!" :) :) (Is driving him crazy.)

Hmmm

2008-10-07T18:03:00.003-04:00

"Mom," Gabe said today, with a thoughtful frown on his face as he ate some chocolate I gave him after lunch, "After I'm done eating, if I poop....and I pee...and I vomit....can I have some more choc'yate?"

Such are the workings of a four year old mind.

This Week

2008-10-05T16:52:00.005-04:00

It's been a full week!! We brought Zion home last Sunday afternoon, and Mom left today, a week later. We have been so grateful for all of her help and "Grandma-love" that she could dole out this week.
Here's Granddaddy re-meeting his grandboy after a week.
I have been pretty exhausted and achy all week, catching up on sleep and feeling like I ran a marathon somewhere along the way in record time without even realizing it. :) I guess that's to be expected. I had a HEAVENLY nap on Friday, where I snoozed in the sun and felt 14 billion times better after I woke up. Zion slept busily beside me the entire time, doing what he does best. :)

Zion is actually a very happy baby, assuming I don't eat something that hurts his tummy. He sleeps the best of all three of my babies - I usually have to wake him up to feed him. I took him for his week check-up on Friday, and he was 6 pounds 10 1/2 ounces (declared an "amazing" weight gain by the doctor) and 19 1/2 inches long. He really is growing quickly, filling out, adding chins. :) He had a little bit of jaundice this week that has mostly faded.
This is Zion at 6 days old.

Friday night Cannon had a surprise baby shower for me!!! :) I felt very loved, and got a whole tableload of gifts for our new little one.
Here Gabe is enjoying the sheep from the cake Donna Yoder made for the shower.
Cheese with cake, anyone?? :)

Here's the other little guy bustling, jumping, hopping, skipping, and humming his happy little self around here.
The boys really are doing well with Zion.
It feels a little bit like "zone defense" around here, to use Gabe's beloved football lingo, in regards to baby protection. Gabe is always busy throwing footballs or tackling Israel, and Israel is just a happy little tornado of flailing limbs, kicking feet, and clumsy affection.

Anywho. Kids are fussing, baby is crying, and it's suppertime. Later!

Party Hardy or Why My Social Life Needs an Overhaul

2008-10-05T15:14:00.003-04:00

Saturday Night. Most people relax, socialize, have a good time. It is 9:35 PM and I am sitting on the couch a little grouchily, as every other single person in my household, my mom and dad and husband included, are all fast asleep. What on earth has this world come to? Me and the baby are awake, and we're only having a fair to middlin' time together, the two of us. I consider my options: feed baby, burp baby, change baby's diaper, give baby pacifier. Life is EXCITING tonight.

10:30 - Baby down for the night. I shuffle over to the computer and putter around.

11:00 - I put the dog out to pee, push the lawnmower into the garage and close the garage door (out of sympathy for my comatose husband, who fell asleep at 7:30 PM), and take a bath, where I sit and stare morosely at the tub. (I am such a pleasant combination of exhaustion and hormones these days...)

11:15 - I crankily settle myself down for the night, all Saturday night fun completed. Woo-hoo. Baby fed. Israel fussing - added socks and extra pair of pants.

1:30 AM - Baby awake. Baby fed. Gabe wakes up and comes out to find me, in tears because he needs water. I suggest that he go pee and help with his pants one handed. Water obtained, boy peed and back to bed. Baby back to bed.

2:30 AM - Baby awake. Baby has a tummy ache. Mommy greatly regretting the Buffalo Chicken Pizza she thoughtlessly ate for supper, as Baby is not going back to sleep anytime soon.

2:50 AM - Baby given Gripe water. Happier, but still wide awake.

3:15 AM - Baby chillin'. Gabe out to find Mommy again...I forget why, but it was important. Needs tended to.

4:15 AM - Baby finally back to sleep. Mommy creeps back into bed.

4:30 AM - Israel crying out in his sleep. Tim sent in to the rescue.

4:35 AM - Israel still crying out. Mommy goes in to rub his back and pat him.

4:40 AM - Back in for poor Israel. Thinking of Tim's alarm, which is due to go off in approximately 2 hours. Loudly.

5:00 - Snore.

6:30 AM - Israel awake. Tim up to get him milk and work on his sermon. Baby fed.

8:45 AM - Baby awake. Mommy awake. Everyone's awake.

My Saturday night revelry is finished. Until next weekend...

Us Five

2008-09-30T22:31:00.007-04:00

There's getting to be a lot of boys around here these days. :)

We are settling in nicely as a household of five (six, actually, since Mom is here for a week). The boys really enjoy their new baby brother. Gabe, in particular, loves to hold him and to "help". He talks about how nice it is to have a new brother, and informed me that he doesn't really have time to help with Israel now. :) He clambered right up into the hospital bed when Mom and Dad brought the boys in on Friday evening and very eagerly and proudly held Zion close. He calls him "Ryan" sometimes. When I corrected him the other day, he told me that it was the same thing as Zion. He just loves him, and talks about how cute he is.
I found Gabe padding out of our bedroom on our first full day home, and went in to find three very carefully and lovingly arranged pacifiers right where the baby could get to them if he so needed. :)
When Israel first saw Zion, his eyes were kind of big and he was just not quite sure about things. Somehow, someway, he could tell that there was a significance to his life in the fact that Mommy was holding a baby. He wanted to stay with Grandma at first, and didn't want to hold Zion - until a few minutes later when he was ready. He loves to climb up and watch when I change or feed Zion. He is a fascinated observer.
Here he is with a day of familiarity. I love this picture!
Mom is a huge help as usual. Here she is giving Zion his first bath at home.
He HATES baths. And diaper changes. Although a post-bath paci helps. :)
It's nice to have her around to help not only with the practical things, but also with the boys as a buffer to the change that is happening. There is someone else around to dispense TLC as needed. I think that both boys - but especially Gabe - are adjusting to Mommy having less time. Gabe is pretty Mommy-needy anyways...so this has led to more acting up. Sigh. But it's ok - it's just part of the adjustment.

Zion did not really go to sleep soundly until around 3 AM for the first two days, and then he slept for 3-4 hours. The past several days he has switched into more of a schedule, and I have had to wake him to feed him. That's a nice change!! He was been kind of fussy, until I rediscovered gripe water and changed up some things in my diet - like black tea :( :( :(. I will sorely miss it's absence. I feel pretty tired...but otherwise good.

Zion is already starting to fill out his baggy baby skin. :) That would be because he is a champion eater, that son of mine. He's doing great. He also (praise the Lord!!!) is taking a pacifier. I LOVE pacifiers!!! (Israel never would take one.) They are such a great soother. His umbilical cord fell off at 4 days - that is the fastest for any of my kids.

Here's two humorous Gabe observations to leave you with. When Mom and Dad had brought the boys into the hospital that first night to visit their new little brother, Gabe asked with furrowed brow - "Mommy, is this the baby that was in your tummy?"

"Yes, Gabe, it is that baby."

He gently touched my stomach. "Is there another little baby in there now?" :) Apparently I still look a "little" pregnant. Heh heh.

He is also very interested in how he could also nurse the baby. Today he was musing that perhaps if he drinks a whole lot of water that he would have milk for the baby. Such a downer for him when Mommy informs him that this is not possible. :) He is really sweet with Zion.

And here's a bunch more pictures of the "new new baby".

I Hatched

2008-09-26T21:01:00.003-04:00

Zion David Miller was born at 3:50 AM on Friday, September 26, 2008. He was 6 pounds 8 ounces, and 19 1/2 inches long. He was born 12 minutes after I entered the hospital. Heh heh. :)
I had had contractions 10 minutes apart for 2 days. I called the doctor's office after a sleepless night full of contractions on Sept. 25, but they told me not to come in until my contractions were 5 minutes apart for an hour. They had continued to strengthen as the days went on, but were not any closer together. On Thursday evening, I took an early bath and laid down, hoping that I could get some sleep, since I had only an hour of sleep from the night before. I quickly discovered that sleep was not going to be an option - my contractions were really painful laying down.

I had spent the entire day reading online about prolonged early labor...and how people would go days to a week before having their wee one, and be really exhausted because of all the sleepless nights, so I was basically prepared to be enduring this for several more days. I felt very uncertain as to what "real labor" looked like, since I was basically induced with both boys, where they broke my water and then I got an epidural.

I decided to make good use of our whirlpool tub and filled it up to weather the night. I soaked in the tub from 11:00 PM till 2:00 AM, during which my contractions went from 10 minutes to 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 5 minutes for about 5 contractions, then 10 minutes - followed by a REALLY strong contraction. I got out of the tub because I was hungry and I wanted to see if my contractions were closer together when I was walking around. A few minutes later I started to feel some contractions that seemed pretty close together, but really felt like my brain was fuzzy and I wanted Tim to get up and help me figure out if this was the real deal and give me some company because I was pretty uncomfortable.

I woke him up around 2:30 AM, and basically started having contractions every 2-3 minutes as he walked around groggily and a little confused as to what I was asking of him. After I started bawling my head off because he wasn't with me, Tim finally figured out that his wife was in actual, serious labor, and that we needed to call Elvida to come over to stay with the boys, Mom and Dad to come to DE, and put my stuff in the minivan. We left the house around 3:05 AM, heading toward Beebe Hospital in Lewes, which is about 35 minutes away from Bridgeville. My contractions continued at 2-3 minutes apart. I wondered a little worriedly if we were going to make it to Lewes, and considered going to Nanticoke instead, which was 10 minutes away, but rejected it because I wanted to have the option for an epidural. I was in the front passenger seat, facing backwards, leaning between the seats. It was pouring rain, and was a terrible night to have to hurry to the hospital.

I watched the clock tick by the minutes. I could make it another 17 minutes. I could make it another 13 minutes. I had a few worrisome observations - I was shivering, like you do in advanced labor, and seemed to feel more pressure. At the same time, I was wondering if we would get there and I would be 3 cm dilated. I just felt like I had nothing to compare anything to..

At 9 minutes to the hospital, my water broke. I was basically like - OH, NO. I remembered how intolerable contractions were in the past after my water broke, and by this time I was having a pretty. good. sense. that I was in some serious labor, and quite likely toward the end of it. I hung over the side of the seat, praying LOUDLY. I did NOT want to have to have the baby in the minivan at 3 AM on the side of a dark rainy road. And the contractions were doozies. Then I started to feel like I was going to vomit, which made me know that I was in transition, and TOTALLY almost there. Tim screeched into the ER drive at about 3:36 AM. My contraction had just ended and I stumbled into the ER door, where another one whacked me HARD, and I hung on Tim, moaning, almost falling to the floor. After it was over, Tim whisked me into a wheelchair as the Registration people peered at me and asked me what my name was. "Carrie Miller." I eeked out. And then "I'm in transition."

They looked at me uncertainly as I writhed through another contraction. "Maybe we should just go ahead and take her up," one lady suggested. One lady hurried me down the hall, while Tim had to go back out to get my insurance information. I wretched over the side of the wheelchair as we hurried to the elevator, and again as we hurried off. As she pushed me through the double doors of the labor and delivery suite, I was hit with another massive contraction that arched me back in my seat and totally left me speechless as the nurse asked "What's your name?"

I groaned wordlessly, as she impatiently repeated "What's your name?"

The aide pushing my wheelchair scolded me disapprovingly, "Honey, now listen to her and tell her your name!" I finally was able to whisper "Carrie Miller" as my contraction ended, and then "I'm in transition."

They looked at me bemusedly. "I think we should just go ahead and put her into a room," the nurse said. Then I said "I need to push."

That got an immediate reaction. "Oh, no you don't!!" the nurse stated very loudly and firmly. I shifted my position in the wheelchair to the edge of the seat, entirely not caring what she thought or desired. "NO YOU DON'T!!!" the nurse said, now in a high state of alarm. "You do NOT sit like that!! Sit back up!!"

"I have to push!!!" I said again, stoutly maintaining my position of imminent birth as someone hurriedly pushed my chair into the room.

"No, you are not pushing!! You are going to get into this bed and we are going to check to see how far along you are and call the doctor!! This is not the time to push!!" The nurse was very displeased as she folded back the blankets and slowly inched the bed down from it's higher position. Another contraction hit HARD and I prayed "Jesus!!! Help me do this!!! JESUS!!! Help me!!!" I could tell the nurses were swinging between irritation and moderate concern that this crazy lady was actually going to push this baby out.

"You need to get into this bed," the nurse instructed me as I went into another full transition contraction. I started to push. The nurses heaved me into the bed, turned me on my left side, and pulled my pajama pants off. I was groaning loudly.

"Can you sit my head up??" I panted, wanting a better angle than flat on my back.

"Nope!!" the nurse said stubbornly. "We're going to check to see how far along you are."

"Stop yelling if you're not having a contraction!" the nurse next to me said sternly. I puttered into a moan, totally confused as to whether I was supposed to NOT be feeling any contractions at this point, because I was pretty sure I was in constant contraction mode. I pushed again. "Oh - there's the head!!" the nurse said urgently to her co-workers.

"Stop pushing - blow like you're blowing out a candle!!" the lady beside me urged. I huffed a feeble candle breath.

"Can you please put my head up??" I asked again.

"NO! We need to check this baby's heartrate." I pushed again as I thought - you can check it in 3 seconds when it comes out, lady.

"He's having major decel's!!!" the nurse to my left declared. "We need to get this baby out NOW!!" (Of course he is having major decel's [decelerations - where the baby's heartrate is dropping with a contraction] , I thought irritably. He is almost out!! He's totally squeezed!)

"Push even if you don't have a contraction!!" the nurse at the foot of bed shouted at me. "This baby has to come out!!"

"Can I have my head up??"

"NO, you may not have your head up!!"

I pushed, then pushed again. I was entirely grumpy that I had to push this child out from flat on my back, but pretty much not able to do much of anything about it. I felt the infamous "ring of fire" burning as the baby crowned that I was always curious about. His head was out. Another pushpushpushpushpush and his body was out. The nurse were in a rushing tizzy. I felt like I was in mild shock. I could see the baby beside me as they clamped the cord. He wasn't crying yet, but he was a pretty good color. They rushed him over to the warmer, and he started crying on the way. Oh, good.

Tim burst into the room. He had had to miss the entire thing, because the ladies down in registration wouldn't let him come up until he gave them my insurance card. He cried when he heard the baby, because he was so sad about it. I felt bad for him, but was thinking as I was delivering that it was probably good Tim wasn't there because he would probably have been totally freaked out by all the urgency.
They decided the baby had been born around 3:50 AM, 12 minutes after we entered the hospital door, although Tim thought it might actually have been before that. The doctor arrived in a few minutes to deliver the placenta. I was totally stoned/out-of-it/run-over by-the-labor-truck feeling. Who woulda thunk it? I could not BELIEVE that I had just barely had that child in the hospital.

Laugh. Out. Loud. Oh. My. Word.

Don't feel too grumpy at the nurses. They did a great job - I just totally threw them for a loop, and they were acting in confused survival mode, wondering what in the world was the deal with this yelling crazy lady. I think my nurse was still mildly perturbed with me when she left that we had waited "so long" to come in - but, what can I say? I'll know better next time.
Having the baby "au naturel" was actually a lot more tolerable than I thought it might be. It was totally do-able. I think one thing that made it a lot better was that my water did not break until the end, because contractions are so much worse after that. Also the whirlpool tub helped a lot. Also probably the fact that I thought I was still in mild/moderate labor as opposed to "the real deal". I remember hearing people talk about feeling like they are going to die when they are in transition, like there is just no way they can do it. I did not feel that. I was simply very wide-eyed at the fact that I was going to HAVE to do it - and glad I could PRAY VERY LOUDLY as I was doing it, even with nurses staring at me bewilderedly.

Laugh out loud again. Oh my goodness.

I TOTALLY cannot believe I have a "birth story" like that in my repetoire. It does make for a great one, though.

We came home today, Saturday, September 27th. Zion is doing great, breastfeeding great, and so dear and sweet and precious and soft and tiny and kissable. I feel really good too, other than still catching up on my sleep. He was very fussy last night, and after swaying totally exhaustedly around at 2:30 AM on my third sleepless night in a row, the night nurse took him out to hold him and I got four utterly BLESS-ED hours of sleep. It was sheer heaven.

And that, my friends, is the story of how Zion David arrived.

Prodromal

2008-09-25T22:05:00.002-04:00

From all of my online looking, it appears that I am in a prolonged latent phase of labor, or prodromal labor. In other words, a longer-than-usual early stage of labor. I have had contractions about every 10 minutes for about 2 days now. Sometimes they go down to 20 minutes, sometimes up to 4-6 minutes. They have gotten stronger in intensity, and really HURT - but their length is generally about 30-40 seconds. I did not sleep at all last night until about 6:15 AM or so. It is totally impossible to sleep with them going on. Last night I thought for certain that I was going into full-fledged active labor, got up around 2 AM and did some stuff...my contractions were around every 4 minutes...went to take a shower before going into the hospital...and they slowly tapered off around 5-ish. Sigh.

Tonight again they are every 10 minutes, and painful. The night has been the most intense time of the day contraction-wise.

Bleary eyes.

Looking forward to another week of sleeplessness...

Waiting

2008-09-24T21:37:00.003-04:00

Thirty-eight weeks and six days. Plenty of contractions...but none regular and close. Last evening I was sure I was going into labor. I started having moderately strong contractions around 5:30 PM about 5-7 minutes apart...which drifted into 10 minutes apart...which drifted into 12 minutes apart...and then stopped around 10:30 PM. Stink.

+++++++++

The other day Gabe asked if he could go pee outside. Ok, says Mommy, but only if you go pee by the field. I look out and find him peeing by the steps. That doesn't look like the field to me, I scold out the door. A few minutes later I look and he's sitting on the deck steps. After a bit he gets up and comes toward the door to tell me that I need to set the microwave timer for his timeout so that he can get up when it beeps. Oooookkaay. I went and sat the timer, and he sat there in his self-assigned timeout until it beeped. I'm pretty sure that was a first. :)

+++++++++

When Quentin was here the other week, while we were eating lunch on Sunday, he got something caught in his throat and went out into the kitchen to cough. Israel observed avidly. When Quentin came back and sat down, Israel clambered out of his chair and hurried to the kitchen, where he proceeded to stomp his chubby little feet around and cough fakely and whole-body-ed-ly. :) When he finished, he trotted back to his chair and climbed back up. :) He is such a mimic.

Clothesline, My Clothesline

2008-09-24T21:28:00.003-04:00

I cannot express the deep love I hold in my heart for my clothesline.
As I looked at our white sheets happily flapping away today, my heart was full to bursting of clothesline enamouredness. Sigh of bliss. So I took a picture of it.

Actually I took, like, five pictures.

If you can't understand, you do not have a clothesline like mine. A good-drying, money-saving, stand-in-the-sunshine one like mine. Kiss kiss to clothesline.

I heart my clothesline.

Busyness

2008-09-23T15:42:00.002-04:00

One thing about managing a house with multiple small children in it that has not failed to amaze me is the multitude of "little" tasks that pepper themselves throughout your day. Last night, when I went to bed, the house was in pretty good shape. This morning, someone tracked large man-shoe-sized powder footprints throughout the house, Gabe couldn't make it to the potty and peed on the kitchen floor, the baby took off his poopy diaper in the bathroom and then went and sat on the living room rug, I found Gabriel behind the chair in our bedroom covertly dumping baby powder on the pile of clothes I had made to take to the hospital with me (he lost all kinds of privileges for the entire day because he knows very well and good he is not supposed to dump powder, which is exactly why he was being so quiet about it :)), the dog chewed up a green crayon on the bedroom floor, someone dumped out a basket of clothes to be put away, Gabriel found a box of foam packing popcorn that he shredded all over the bedroom rug (he is currently very unhappily assigned to the task of picking all of it up), and I'm pretty sure I just found a spot where the dog vomited on the carpet. This is ASIDE from all the normal tasks of laundry, food getting, child dressing, butt wiping, squabble monitoring, toy picking up, etc. that there are to do ANYWAYS.

Seriously, people. What in the world.

Me

2008-09-18T21:48:00.004-04:00

There's two flip feelings to being this pregnant. After you've been pregnant throughout almost the entirety of nine months, it seems, in a way, that you will always be pregnant. This is simply the new me, with a swollen belly that throws off my lifting abilities and waddles me around. I don't really feel all that different, aside from that. No utter exhaustion, no extreme discomfort, etc.

On the other hand, there is that suspense once you hit week 37-38, where you start to say - you know, I could have this baby any day. And it does sort of feel that way. I am having more Braxton-Hicks. The other night I was having contractions about every 6 minutes, but then they stopped. So it's 2 (to 4! erp!) weeks of anticipation. Maybe today. Maybe today. Maybe today.

I still don't have quite all my projects done, so I actually am quite fine waiting. But also sort of looking forward to that "vacation" where I get to lounge in my luxurious hospital bed (cough), eating luxurious hospital food (blink), and stare raptly at the face of my newborn (happy sigh) as someone else watches the other children at home (heh heh heh). Very vacation-y. Aside, from, say, the blood. And then there would be the pain. And the large child birthing itself.

Hmmm.

Well, Lewes (where the hospital is) is kind of on the ocean....(hopeful tone)...????

Projects left to do include -
1. Finding the suitcase to pack my stuff in.
2. Unpacking the 0-3 month clothes.

These both seem sort of relevant, so perhaps I might apply myself a little harder tommorrow.

Tim has been very helpful in letting me get other projects completed in the last several days. He let me have a "last hurrah", in which I drove to Salisbury and spent 6 hours in the company of me, myself, and I. I so thoroughly enjoyed myself...I went to Target, to Go Green Baby Co., to Babies R Us, to Walmart, and to the mall. And then to Ruby Tuesday. All without my precious little chattering whining giggling adorable needy effort-requiring rewarding bundles of joy. Sigh of bliss. I actually could also have taken myself out for a movie, but I figured that Tim was being nice enough as it was. :) Thanks, babe.

This night out allowed me to intensively research my latest OBSESSION - cloth diapers. My beloved mother has agreed to "help me" (I'm trying to figure out exactly my role in being helpful, as I'm not exactly much of a sewer...yet.) make pocket diapers in the style of Bum Genius for this new babe to help save some pennies. As with all projects-I-internalize/bees I get in my bonnet/etc., I cannot stop until I have madly researched every little last detail to find out how to make the best decision until finally, finally I am researched out and can come to the end and breathe a sigh of relief and walk my thoroughly educated self forward.

In the past, this like-white-on-rice research quality of mine has been applied to: babies with flat heads, house-buying, vaccinations, budgets, cameras - and probably a few more things. This time, my thoughts before I go to sleep and thoughts throughout the day and online research topics include diaper style, fabrics, diaper inserts, how to wash them, blah blah blah. I'm telling you, my dear friends and acquaintances, it's sort of exhausting and I am really quite ready to get it out of my system. Sigh. But I'm almost there. I have most of the fabrics ordered, most of the "other" items, and I am actually very excited about it.

Anywho. Man, is life thrilling around here or what?

Till next time, this is the 38 weeks preggo, signing off.

Uncle Quentin

2008-09-14T20:11:00.005-04:00

Uncle Quentin came this weekend for a visit. We all thoroughly enjoyed him. Gabe really enjoyed Uncle Quentin patiently teaching him how to play solitaire on his laptop. Gabe LOVES stuff like that.
He also enjoyed new toys that his beloved uncle thoughtfully brought along, such as an air-dart-popper-thingie, and a new yellow bouncy ball.

Baby Israel took time to read some of Quentin's books.
Gabe had to squeeze in one truck ride before he left.
Gabe bemoaned the fact that everyone has to leave when they come visit, and doesn't really seem to think the issue of work, and earning money for food and a place to live in is all that relevant. "But I want him to stay!! But I yike him!!" (Emily, he also mentioned the fact that he "yikes" Emily too, and wishes she didn't have to go home when she comes to visit. :))

Thanks for coming, Quentin. We really enjoyed it.

Breathe

2008-09-14T19:38:00.005-04:00

The air is soft.

It is warm and smells of green, and I lean
into its embrace, its enfolding warmth.
The sun is sinking.
Stripes of orange and aqua and grey stretch lazy fingers above a muted green field,
the moon hangs fuzzily in the opposite sky,
and I sit on the back steps and breathe the warmly humid air
and feel like I am breathing in the essence of living itself.
My boys tumble giggling in the grass, playing Yellow Bouncy Ball with their daddy.
My child hiccups within,
stirring restlessly,
ready to come smell the living for himself.
The summertime is melting away into orange popsicle stripes that paint the faces of my children, and color my skin warm.
Laughter carries on the breeze and swirls around me and I smile,
my eyes closed,
and just inhale.

These Days

2008-09-14T14:13:00.005-04:00

These days....

rolling over in bed requires a huge amount of effort.
the ground seems awfully far down there.
my belly keeps randomly lurching from side to side.
I'm finding WalMart a pleasant and comfortable temperature instead of joining the shivering shoppers beside me, and my air conditioner at home is set on 78 degrees, which normally leaves me running for more clothes
I do a lot of heaving of self and items and grunting. Uuuufff. Errrfff.
the kids are soooooo heavy to pick up!!
virtually all of my clothes are tight. Sigh.
I keep thoughtfully staring at watermelons and thinking how much my stomach resembles one.
the boys simply cannot hardly find a comfortable place on my lap.

Looking forward to seeing you soon, little baby.

And Good Morning To You!

2008-09-10T08:03:00.003-04:00

I don't really feel that I am the sort of person that is designed to watch the 5:30 AM news. Apparently, however, that is what was on the agenda for this morning. That was before I was busily frying eggs at 6 AM for the tousle-headed little munchkin that woke with a yelp and a chirp before any rationally minded person should.

5:30 was a mere hour after I had tucked his older brother back into bed, after he came into our bedroom in tears for the third night in a row, because I was not "checking" on him every 5-15 minutes all night long, as is the pattern BEFORE he goes to sleep. He just wails piteously when I groggily inform him that Mommy cannot check on him all night, that Mommy has to go to sleep, just like Daddy and Baby. Piteous wails are awfully loud at 4:30 AM.

So anywho. I know the sleepless nights are merely days ahead...I just thought I'd have a few more days than this before they started. And that they would contain a soft, sweet smelling little bundle that you could hold with your eyes closed, instead of a busily rampaging 1 year old, who emptied my bookshelves by the bed, dumped out my basket of hair clips and earrings, and dutifully called our realtor by 8 AM, whilst I lay dozily abed.

It's 8:11 AM, and he is wailing tiredly. If I go tuck him back into bed, he will wake up the Four Year Old Crank.

Wide yawn.

The day, it seems, is begun.

The Story of "Four"

2008-09-08T14:36:00.007-04:00

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who turned four years old.
He had eagerly anticipated his birthday for several months, particularly the "pweasant" aspect of celebration. So he was thrilled to receive his very own stack of pweasants....
but not so thrilled by Baby's excitement and desire to help.

There were tears...
That were only mollified by the joy of getting to peel the Walmart stickers off of big Brother's "pants wif stwipes".
Gabriel also busily opened a book about Winnie the Pooh, a Babe video...and then...
A FOOTBALL OUTFIT WITH HIS VEWY OWN JERSEY, PANTS, SHOULDER PADS, AND HELMET!!!!!! OH, MAN.
Could life really get much better than this???

(Actually, he informed me that it could, in fact be better, if perhaps he had a Rams helmet, or a Buccaneer's helmet. "But, Gabe," says Mommy, "You are always using the "tiger helmet" when you play [XBox] football."

"Yes," says Gabe, but I use the tiger and the Wam's [Rams] helmets!!"

At this point I informed him that it was the "tiger helmet" or no helmet. He decided the tiger one would do. :))

Then the little tiger was out the door.
Large helmet and all.
In fact, he was so busy that he could not be bothered by lunch. He ate later while perusing his new Babe video...
...in full regalia until he started to get hot. As football outfits can make a boy.

Babe was a mite advanced for the four year old, so then he "helped", per request, to make his birfday cake. The cake had been a highly anticipated aspect of "birfday" for quite some time. He was a very eager batter licker...
and specifically requested the following picture of him licking out the bowl. :)
All in a day's work, see.

After the other adorable little munchkin in residence woke up from his nap...
and Daddy came home, we headed off to the park. The football player was back in business, Graco car seat and all.
(He fell asleep before we got there.)

The four year old thoroughly enjoyed his picnic supper of turkey and cheese sandwiches, Doritos, carrots, apples, and strawberry Kool-Aid, although truthfully he could hardly get any food down because he was so busy running off hither and yon.
(If you think this sounds like a rather pitiful birthday supper, you may be correct, but I didn't really care...and he loved the fact that we had a picnic basket with plates and cups. His mommy spent more guilty-feeling time on the fact that none of his little fwiends were along, as all afternoon the four year old kept asking "who else" would be at the park. She had entertained some party plans...but...maybe next year??? Too much activity of late.)

But all activity and food was a prelude to...THE CAKE.
With CANDLES.
Little boy huffed and he puffed until he blew them all out, and then happily, finally, finally, finally gobbled down his very own piece of birfday cake.

Daddy and boys went to the slide and down to throw some rocks and sticks in the river...
and then it was time to go home. Little Four Year Old Boy rolled and tackled his way to the car.

He was thrilled to receive, as we drove in the lane, two birthday cards, one with MONEY in it, from his Great Grandma Heatwole.
(He got MORE MONEY!!! the next day, in cards from his Great Grandpa and Grandma Yoder and Menno and Dorothy Chupp.)

After his bath, guess what he requested to wear to bed? Hmm? Yes indeedy. His football outfit went BACK ON, and he settled down with his helmet by his pillow. (Mommy drew the line at also allowing the football in his bedroom.) And guess what he wore the next day? Hmmm? Yes indeedy. Jersey and all. At the end of the day, Mommy informed him that it was time to wash the sweaty nasties. :)

Gabriel said that he had a good birthday, and that his favorite part was getting to blow out the candles.

What a sugar pot. I sure do love him!!!!

Happy Fourth Birthday, Gabriel Timothy!!!

Gabe:

-only occasionally naps, but still gets tired in the afternoon sometimes.
-loves to "play" XBox football.
-loves to play with his toy footballs, too.
-likes Winnie the Pooh at lot.
-usually sleeps from about 10 PM to 9 AM
-not much of an eater
-doesn't say his "l"'s, but substitutes with a "y"
-doesn't say his "th's", but substitutes with a "d"
-enjoys reading books
-loves the story of David and Goliath
-good with animals; is very gentle with them
- recently started to request food items of his own thinking (ie. mac and cheese)
-most effective items to take away to punish him are - candy, cookies, and football, in that order.
-very social, loves to play with other kids
-loves to go places, like to the store, or wherever else you might go
-loves presents

Us

2008-09-06T23:42:00.005-04:00

Ummmm, can you TELL that I've had some picture back-log here? Good gracious. Here's a few random snaps of late.

This is Gabe doing one of his very favorite activities. "Washing" the car. He can very busily wash for quite a while.
The other day Gabe discovered my basket of scarves, head wraps, etc., and was quite thrilled with his find.Heh heh.

This was Gabe the other day after he snuggled into bed beside me as I was resting one afternoon. Mind you, this is post-mid-afternoon-tired-bellowing-that-led-to-Mommy-turning-off-his-beloved-XBox-football-leading-to-more-tired-bellowing. Goodness. After he calmed down he wanted a snack, namely ham. So this is the little buddy eating his ham in Mama's bed.
Goof.

Speaking of eating meat, the other night Tim fixed some left over steak and those boys gobbled it down lickety-split. All of them are crazy steak nuts. The room gets silent as they voraciously gobble.
I find Israel camped out on the spare mini-van bench in the garage of late. It's a great place to settle down and investigate spare odds and ends. :)

Nana Carol and Grandpa Norm

2008-09-06T22:27:00.012-04:00

The weekend after Grandma and Granddaddy came to visit, Nana Carol and Grandpa Norm came to visit from Indiana. They were here from Friday, August 29 to Wednesday, Sept. 3. We had a third very nice weekend, and were so glad to have them here!

Saturday we went to the Salisbury Zoo. This was the first we had been there, and the boys really enjoyed it.

(photo by Norm Miller)

Sunday night we went to Sonic so the boys could play on the playground there. Norm and Carol got to see how the boys like to come out of their seats and "drive" up the driveway.
This is an activity that all depends on a driver's tolerance. Gabe's traditional space is in the middle front.

Monday after lunch Norm, Tim, and Gabe went to visit Johnny Mills' farm. Norm took along my Nikon on that visit, so you can thank him for this picture.
Heh heh.

Monday evening, we set off for the Boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach. This involved rides at Funland,

(photo by Carolyn Miller)

Can you tell that Israel LOOOOOVED the merry-go-round? He crowed and screeched with absolute glee.
He also loved the boats, and took two rides on them, steering with great busyness the entire time. :) Gabe was not too sure about the boats, and clamored to be taken out when he was put in. He, however, thoroughly enjoyed the shooting game.
We finished up with the Helicopter Ride.

(photos by Carolyn Miller)

Then we went for a walk on the beach.
Gabe ADORED the water. He and Tim ran in and out of it, getting thoroughly soaked and dirty in the process. Israel wasn't very interested in getting all that close. Grandpa's shoulders were just fine for him.Daddy and Son's footprints in the sand.
They washed up,
and then we went to track down some Grotto's Pizza.
Cutie patootie. He loves to "help" snap fingers.
Here Nana Carol patiently plays dominoes with Gabriel. She is a patient teacher at heart! I was working in the kitchen listening to her patiently explaining and helping Gabe. He really liked it.

Gabe got a radio/CD player to play 4 new Bible CD's on. He also really liked those, and knows how to work it himself.

Norm was checking out my Nikon while he was here to see if he wants to get a digital Nikon, so we got some good pictures of the Miller family in their natural habitat.

Tim, working on his sermon.

(photo by Norm Miller)

Carrie, being greatly with child. :)

(photo by Norm Miller)

The boys, busily chasing geese across the sky.

(photo by Norm Miller)

This really is the new activity of late, as lots of geese fly overhead. Tim was racing across the yard with them one evening, confusing the neighbor, who thought they were chasing a dog. Nope, just geese in the sky.

Israel, busy in his sandbox.

(photo by Norm Miller)

Story-time before bed.

(photo by Norm Miller)

Thanks for all your help, Norm and Carol, while you were here! We really enjoyed your visit!

Grandma and Granddaddy

2008-09-06T21:51:00.006-04:00

Grandma and Granddaddy came to visit the weekend after church camp. The boys were thrilled as always to see them. We got all kinds of projects done this time since Mommy has had renewed energy of late - hanging more pictures, sorting winter clothes, fixing doors, moving some furniture. Happy sigh. Gittin' this house baby-ready.

Here are Granddaddy and the boys - and the dog - working on the sliding door. Do those boys look helpful or what?
And, as always, there was plenty of reading time wif' Gwamma.
This time was extra special for Gabe because they came bearing BIRTHDAY PRESENTS for him, since they wouldn't be here for his birthday. He got a marble roller with marbles,
a Winnie the Pooh movie, a book about a boy chasing butterflies...and a BUTTERFLY NET. Wowsers. His eyes got so big when he saw that net. It was just what a boy like him needed.
A day or two later I looked outdoors and saw Gabe tearing around on the grass, in hot pursuit of a yellow butterfly. He didn't catch it, but man, did he have a good time in the chase.

Church Camp

2008-09-06T16:12:00.007-04:00

August 15-17 was our church camp at Denton Wesleyan Camp in Denton, MD. We got there Friday evening and left Sunday afternoon. We stayed in a little private cottage.
This was the downstairs. Upstairs we had two bedrooms and a bathroom.
We had a lot of fun - except for the first night when we were settling the two boys down for sleep. This was before they were used to sharing a room, and they would NOT hardly go to sleep. Israel was in a pack-and-play that he was unused to, and Gabe was on a bed, which he was unused to, and they kept each other awake. Finally Gabe zonked out, and Israel was still bouncing around yelling. Around 12:30 AM, we were talking about whether one of us should drive the half-hour back home with Israel and put him in his regular bed - but then he conked out. The next night was much better, as they were both pooped.
Gabe and Israel and their buddy Kaylan Yoder.

Gabe was so tired he fell asleep in this position after supper. He just cuddled up on the chair and was out.
The boys were loathe to leave. They had such a good time. Gabe has been talking about church camp ever since, and is hopeful we have it again soon. Next year, buddy. :)

36 Weeks

2008-09-04T22:45:00.000-04:00

My BP - 100/60
Weight gain - 24 pounds
Baby's Measurements - "You look small, but you are measuring right on!"

They forgot to listen to the baby's heart rate.

I start my every-week visits now.

Life Updates

2008-08-30T20:26:00.003-04:00

So. The main event of the past two weeks have been the aforementioned transition of Gabriel sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's walk-in closet, falling asleep either out by the computer on the floor or with Mommy laying down with him, to going to bed at the same time as Baby Israel, in Baby Israel's room, without Mommy laying down with him to put him to sleep. It took about 7-8 nights for the screeching to stop, and a lot of tears from Mommy, and figuring out what worked and what didn't, but now it is over and done and he is always asleep within 15 minutes after settling down. Israel, on the other hand, clatter-bangs around for a while before settling down. But the transition is complete, and we are ready for the new new baby to take up his new home in Mommy and Daddy's closet. Mommy and Daddy's closet is APPARENTLY a hoppin' joint.

He got a "robot dinosaur" as his requested reward for doing so well in the adjustment.

I decided it was time for boy updates, since I keep having new things to add.

Gabe -

Is now fully out of diapers. I had kept him in a diaper at night for a while after he was potty trained, because he would still pee during the night. But he has been in underwear for a few weeks now and we are saving even more diaper money! I still have not gotten over the marvel of him being potty-trained, even though he has been since March. I LOVE IT, and still tell him what a GOOD JOB!!!! he does going in the potty.

Today he used the word "slithered". We were at the Salisbury Zoo and he was talking about a snake. I was very impressed.

He still uses "y" sounds or "n" sounds for "l". Lips is "yips". Look is "yook". Like is "yike".

His lessons right now include not whining and asking nicely for things.

He really enjoys singing songs. I LOVE to hear his little voice piping out a ditty. :) It's just so cute.

He loves to listen to books and stories, or make up stories. He talks a lot about dinosaurs and lightening. He adores his dinosaur underwear.

He is still very social, and loves any event or occasion where he can see other children.

Israel -

Is using some sentences, but is generally hard to understand if you don't know him. His favorite words/phrases are: "Ahwandat!!" (I want that!!) "Ahwanchoos!!" (I want juice!!) "Ni-oh-no!" (I don't know!) This one is accompanied with shrugging shoulders and upraised hands.

He understands a lot of what you tell him, even though he can't communicate it all back.

He loves ducks and "KAK!!"'s very loudly and urgently whenever he sees a duckish object/picture until you acknowledge that, yes, there is a duck!! He is also the same with woo-woo's (dogs). Those are his two classifications of mammals - birds and animals, aside from the loud "NEOOOWW!!" he gives upon spotting a kitty-cat.

He has recently joined the tackle football games that Gabe plays, and can bring his older brother down, much to his older brother's delight.

Life is basically over and just a big, meaningless disaster every time I don't give him juice with chocolate syrup and/or strawberry syrup in it. He will lie on the ground and cry broken-heartedly each time. What on earth, child? I have, perhaps, once aquiesed and bemusedly put a drop of syrup in his diluted juice (blech!!), but have recently begun hiding the syrups and allowing one juice per day.

He still loves tromping around in shoes. He also enjoys hats. And rocking chairs and rocking horses.

He is a very happy-go-lucky boy who really enjoys doing anything and everything his brother is doing.

He is still so STURDY and can accidently deliver some serious wallops. The last time I laid down with him in his crib and he was agitating around, I felt like I was in there with a stampeding buffalo and was in real danger of being trampled upon and suffering serious injury. :)

His lessons currently include that "no!" means "no!"

Poopville

2008-08-21T22:40:00.003-04:00

The other day I found Gabe up on a step stool that I had been using in our closet, riffling through my shirts. I told him to stop, because I didn't want him to pull them off the hangars, as he has been known to do. He turned and told me matter-of-factly, "I'm just looking through your shirts and checking for turds, but I didn't find any. Next I'm going to look through your skirts and check to make sure they don't have any turds, too."

Oh.

Well, in that case...

Glad to know we now have a turd monitor in residence.

Speaking of turds...the boys have picked up some stomach something-or-other that entails diarrhea. LOTS of it. I've had to change Israel about 5 times a day for the past two days. Gabe went streaking to the bathroom yesterday and informed Tim that he "almost didn't make it." Today I found evidence on the deck that he in fact had NOT made it. Sigh. Today while I was at the library he didn't "make it" again, and Tim was left to clean up the bedroom floor, the bathroom floor, and the toilet. Man, was I ever bummed that I was gone for that fun job. I just know how to pick the right times to leave, it would appear. (Heh heh heh heh. :) :) )

In other happenings, for two days in a row, we have almost taken Israel to the Emergency Room. Yesterday he pinched his right forefinger in the pantry closet door that was swing backwards. It left a big dent and he was very fussy/crying for about 45 minutes afterwards, which is not normal for him. It was swollen somewhat, but he could bend it, but he seemed to favor that hand. I called the doctor's office, and while I was waiting for them to call back, I distracted him with Sesame Street, and gave him some Tylenol, and from then on he was fine.

Today (also while I was gone.. :)) he was walking along in our bedroom and randomly fell down and whacked the ridge above his eye on the knob on our armoire. It was a little swollen and left a gash and Tim was worried he cracked his skull. But the chocolate milk shake I had brought home from Dairy Queen did wonders.

Anywho. So basically, it's Hurt-Yourself-Days here in Poopville.

33 Weeks 4 days

2008-08-18T19:27:00.006-04:00

Baby's HR - 125
My BP - 100/60
Baby's Measurements - 33 weeks 5 days, 4 lbs 14 oz
Weight gain - 22 pounds

Today we had an ultrasound. Baby BOY (again confirmed) :) was right on target, measuring one day ahead. He was squirmy, and didn't want his picture taken. So we have a a head, and ear, a cheek, and an arm.
Tim came with me, as today was his birthday and it was just what he wanted to do to sit in a doctor's office. Heh heh heh heh. :) We drove to Rehoboth Beach afterwards and ate at a Fish & Chips place that made him happy. We had a babysitter for the little squirrels that live at our house. One of which was up in the middle of the night. Again. Sigh.

Gabriel wakes up and has to pee and is so out of it that he doesn't know that he has to pee and his mommy is so out of it that she doesn't think about that he has to pee and it's just all quite a noisy mess. At 4 AM. Routinely. Pull hair out of head.

I've decided that we have to move him to another room as there will be a third little squirrel moving in in a few weeks whose sleep his mommy will feel VERY cranky about being interrupted. We also need to restrict his before bed fluids. So I'm planning for a bumpy transition week coming up. Pray for easy transition for us if you think about it, because I want to get this sleep thing settled before the baby comes. I'm planning to put him in Israel's room so we have a spare room. I like the idea of them bunking together, plus I think that Gabe would find it comforting. He really likes to have companionship while he's going to sleep. I just hope that Israel doesn't have to wake up in the middle of the night with Gabe, since he is currently such a GREAT sleeper.

In other pregnancy news, they recently increased my thyroid medication by 12 mcg, and I feel like an ENTIRELY. NEW. PERSON. I have SOOOO much more energy, and I am so happy about it I can't quite get over it. I have been the happiest little buzzy bee on the east coast. I hadn't realized exactly how tired I was until I suddenly WASN'T anymore. Praise you JESUS!!! Seriously. Energy for the mom of young children is a very valuable resource, and one for which I would pay dearly if I had to.

Happy 30th Birthday, Babe

2008-08-18T00:01:00.003-04:00

The top 10 things I love about my freshly 30-year-ed old husband, Tim Miller. (In no particular order.)

1. He's hot. :)

2. He has one of my top four favorite singing voices, which also include the guy from Creed, the guy from Third Day, and Sting. :)

3. He genuinely seeks to actively love me, bear my burdens, listen when I need to talk, and will often be the first to apologize in an argument, not because he feels that he is "more" wrong than me, but to make his part of the relationship "right".

4. He makes me laugh until I cry.

5. He inspires me to know and follow Jesus, is great to process theological questions with, and actively seeks to allow Jesus to mold him into what He wants him to become. He also shows humility and character in his relationship with other people, where he actively listens to and considers the opinions of people who disagree with him, and is willing to change his stance if he is wrong.

6. He is a great Daddy who takes time to play with his boys, and to share the (at times) "burden" of taking care of young children, almost always giving them their bath in the evening.

7. When he gets in "Tim-Think-Land", his gaze goes all far away, and he starts pacing restlessly and swinging his arms and sort of waggling his fingers. It makes me laugh.

8. Tim is Tim is Tim. He is not someone of pretense, and is not a different person with different people.

9. He processes verbally. He can talk and I can listen, and I like it that way. It makes me feel connected to him. And he likes to hear what I have to say.

10. He rubs lotion on my feet almost every single night, per request of his dry-footed wifey. Now is that true love or what??

I love you so much, Tim Miller. You are one of the very best things of my life.

Vaccinations - Things to Think About

2008-08-17T19:38:00.002-04:00

http://lewrockwell.com/miller/miller15.html

August Life

2008-08-11T22:47:00.004-04:00

I have really been enjoying the weather of late - not so hot anymore right now. The other day the boys and I spent the morning at the park. The boys LOVED it. And I actually sort of enjoyed myself - especially after we ran back home for a blanket to sit on and a book. It was comfortable in the shade and really kind of peaceful to be so close to the water.
Cheesy boy.

The other night, for some reason, our electricity went off from about 8 PM-9:40 PM. Gabe has been talking about wanting to roast marshmallows, so I suggested we find something to burn in the backyard. Our large pile of cardboard boxes went up in hungry flames while Gabe raced in gleeful circles around them.
We tried roasting marshmallows...but they tasted awfully toxic. :) So we just ate some plain ones and watched the short-lived flames. The short break from electricity made me remember how much I appreciate it. I love my fan noises and my hot water. :)

Israel is back to his chipper, happy self. HUGE sigh of relief. He and Gabe enjoy each other so much - except for when they don't -you know how that goes. We were gone Wednesday and Thursday for supper invitations, Tim and I went out on Friday, then were gone for another supper invitation on Saturday, and finished up the week with a church supper picnic on Sunday. The boys crack me up in the back seat on the way home from all of those things. They laugh and laugh and giggle and are the biggest cheese balls ever.

Gabe is currently experimenting with "potty talk". As in "poo-poo head" (cackle of laughter), "pee pee butt" (wild giggles), "poopy bottom" (wiggle of glee). His daddy gets very stern with him, informing him that potty talk belongs in the bathroom. Israel chortles with joy because we're all having such a good time, and Mommy grins into her hand. She can't help it. She thinks it's funny. Snicker.

The other day I was instructing Gabe to "come here now" when he was outside, and he was being his normal self and being very dwaddle-y. He looked at me and said "Mommy, it's called patience!!" I hid a smile and told him that patience is very good indeed, but what he needed to practice at that point was obedience!! We were driving home the other night and attempting to distract Gabe from the thrill of "potty talk" by singing the ABC song, which thoroughly annoyed my son. He asked us to stop and then said "Daddy, it's called obedience!!!" :)

LOL.

Ah HAH!!

2008-08-06T21:28:00.003-04:00

Today, in sheer desperation, I marched mine youngest into the doctor's office. It turns out he has something called an "echo virus", which manifests itself with a fever (over and done with), a rash (now gone). diarrhea (still has), throat ulcerations (still has), and a headache. Ah HAH!!!! It should be resolved in a few days. I was so thankful to find that out. The nap has returned, but the fussiness has been almost unbearable.

I was just feeling like I was about to climb the walls around here. This morning Israel fussed constantly, as in angry screeching, or standing right in front of me to be lifted up, crying, or going limp and crying when I tried to set him down. And again with the angry screeching. If anything went wrong he was going into total meltdown mode. I was really starting to feel overwhelmed - like - is there something I'm doing wrong? Is this the Terrible Two's? Is this his personality? I CAN'T TAKE THIS!!!! It has been a very trying few days.

Now I feel much more sympathetic toward him. And the sigh of relief is HUGE knowing the happy little boy will like soon make his return. Wittle Buster. :)