Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Evidence
I went to the archives for some photographic evidence of the post that follows this one. The evidence wasn't difficult to find, only difficult to narrow down to just a few photos. (I also successfully reminded myself of how awesomly wonderful my crazy boys are.)
Climbing Mt. Everest
Eli and Evan are extremely energetic at this stage in life. I'll just say that I get so tired of the noise and high energy level in this home. I know they are not always loud and running- Eli can spend large portions of time with his nose in a book and give Evan a game or a project and he is quietly working for a long time. But these quiet times seem few and far between. I've come to realize that it's the combination of 2 kids that cranks up the action level.
Put them in the same house and they are (mostly happy) little Magnets. They are constantly in physical contact with each other. I love this about them. I really do. But sometimes I want them to stop touching each other so the action and noise go down a level or 10! When they're constantly touching, they're wrestling and yelling or running and crashing and sometimes eventually kicking and hitting and angry. One can hardly walk past the other without an arm or a foot reaching out for a little touch or kick or whack. But sometimes they're reading or watching TV all cuddled up. Or just standing beside each other with unconscious arms wrapped around each other.
Last night Kendall had enough of the contact-induced noise and action. "Okay!" he said, "No touching for 5 minutes!" Well, this was almost too much for them. But we physically separated them and things calmed down to a sane level. Within minutes, though, and without even being aware of having moved toward each other, the 2 Magnetic Boys were sitting on the floor squished together sharing a blanket. They. Are. Magnets.
I promise this magnetic attraction is one of my favorite things about Eli and Evan. It's also currently one of the most challenging and grating. Sometimes I just want Peace and Quiet! I find myself feeling so frustrated and harried with the action. So this leads me straight to guilt for getting so annoyed about one of the very best characteristics of the brother relationship my kids share. I feel frustrated with myself for not enjoying my boys more. What is my problem?!
I have a feeling that I'm not the only parent who has ever felt this way. I know that years down the road, I will look back at my kids at this stage and feel nostalgic. I'll probably wish I had enjoyed them more. That's what you always hear. And I believe it.
But I'm not perfect and life's not perfect.
I know I have work to do in really enjoying my beautiful children- that's what I really want and what I'm striving for, but sometimes it's just harder than it seems it should be. A friend recommended a very interesting article that helps me think about not carrying a load of guilt for not savoring every single moment.
Click on the link to read it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glennon-melton/dont-carpe-diem_b_1206346.html
And I'd love to hear your thoughts...
Put them in the same house and they are (mostly happy) little Magnets. They are constantly in physical contact with each other. I love this about them. I really do. But sometimes I want them to stop touching each other so the action and noise go down a level or 10! When they're constantly touching, they're wrestling and yelling or running and crashing and sometimes eventually kicking and hitting and angry. One can hardly walk past the other without an arm or a foot reaching out for a little touch or kick or whack. But sometimes they're reading or watching TV all cuddled up. Or just standing beside each other with unconscious arms wrapped around each other.
Last night Kendall had enough of the contact-induced noise and action. "Okay!" he said, "No touching for 5 minutes!" Well, this was almost too much for them. But we physically separated them and things calmed down to a sane level. Within minutes, though, and without even being aware of having moved toward each other, the 2 Magnetic Boys were sitting on the floor squished together sharing a blanket. They. Are. Magnets.
I promise this magnetic attraction is one of my favorite things about Eli and Evan. It's also currently one of the most challenging and grating. Sometimes I just want Peace and Quiet! I find myself feeling so frustrated and harried with the action. So this leads me straight to guilt for getting so annoyed about one of the very best characteristics of the brother relationship my kids share. I feel frustrated with myself for not enjoying my boys more. What is my problem?!
I have a feeling that I'm not the only parent who has ever felt this way. I know that years down the road, I will look back at my kids at this stage and feel nostalgic. I'll probably wish I had enjoyed them more. That's what you always hear. And I believe it.
But I'm not perfect and life's not perfect.
I know I have work to do in really enjoying my beautiful children- that's what I really want and what I'm striving for, but sometimes it's just harder than it seems it should be. A friend recommended a very interesting article that helps me think about not carrying a load of guilt for not savoring every single moment.
Click on the link to read it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glennon-melton/dont-carpe-diem_b_1206346.html
And I'd love to hear your thoughts...
Saturday, January 21, 2012
OB Appointment and Another Ultrasound
So last Tuesday I had a very frustrating and scary OB appointment. I've been seeing a nurse practitioner that I really like, but she wasn't available this week, so I saw a new doctor. He's looking at my chart and says, "Placenta previa?" What?! I have no idea what he's talking about, but I know that's really bad! He's confused and says, "Well, they're contradicting themselves. It says here that you have a low-lying placenta and it says that the tip is extending to the os." I have never heard of any of this. I ask him about what that means. "You're at risk for bleeding and other complications." What do you mean? "You could bleed out. The baby could bleed out." He just says it all so nonchanlantly and half-annoyed. I was getting angry. I couldn't get much out of him, except that often (ususally?) it corrects itself. Apparently it was something that was seen at an early ultrasound and never mentioned to me. By the time I left my appointment I was mad and scared and had decided that if this particular doctor walks into the delivery room in May, I'll walk (or crawl or whatever it takes) out. Not impressed.
Unfortunately, the next time an ultrasound tech is in town is mid-February. I told the doctor that I was going to Thunder Bay the end of the week and asked if he could try to get me an appointment for an ultrasound on Friday. (Now, for those of you not so familiar with my remote location situation, I will tell you that medical appointments don't always come easily up here. We travel 3 hours for an orthodontist appointment and 6.5 hours for an immigration appointment. It's no big deal to most people to travel 5 hours to Winnipeg for an ultrasound or other medical appointment with a specialist. But you often have to wait a long time for an appointment.) Somehow, though, they were able to get me an appointment for Friday morning. That was perfect, because Kendall and I already had to go to Thunder Bay for an immigration appointment Friday afternoon. (P.S. It also meant we got a medical travel grant, so our trip was paid for. Those of us living in the far north have to travel for medical care, so our travel/hotel/food gets paid for by Ontario's health insurance.)
Anyway, I will cut to the chase here by saying right away that everything is looking good in baby's cozy home! So grateful for that! The ultrasound showed the placenta to be in a good position. What a relief. We found out that if it would have been a severe case of placenta previa, we would have most likely been ordered to move to a bigger city very soon. In a case like that, they don't want you in Red Lake, where there is no surgery or neonatal unit.
So as the ultrasound tech was taking a look at the baby and its home, Kendall asked if it was a boy or a girl. We had heard at the first ultrasound that it was looking like a boy, though she wasn't sure. I had decided that it was a boy and was feeling more excitement about another cute boy toddling around our home. So, you can imagine my shock when the tech matter-of-factly stated, "It's a girl." "WHAT?!" I exclaimed! (I couldn't help my involuntary outburst. It just burst out of my mouth.) My exclamation scared the tech, who was slightly shocked by my shock. But yes, she was quite sure of Delmar's female status. I love my boys like crazy and would never trade them in for the female variety, but I have to admit that I came close to tears of joy at the thought of a girl in our family.
We left the ultrasound appointment so very thankful for a healthy placenta and still in happy shock at the foreign thought of a daughter. We drove straight to the store, where I picked out three girly little outfits. I've never thought of myself as super girly nor wanted a daughter to be super girly. But she'll just have to forgive me someday because I think it will take at least the first 6 months of her life for me to get the pink and purple worked out of my system. I can't help it. I'm surrounded by burps and farts and boogers. I need a little pink and purple!
Eli saw the pink outfits as soon as we picked him up Friday night. When we told him that yes, it's a girl, his response was a good-humored, "I'm not impressed." We think he will actually be very impressed once he gets used to the idea and especially once he meets her. He just wasn't sure a girl would fit so well into this family because "we're so violent." Awesome.
Just watch, now that I've stated all this need for some pink and purple in my life "publicly," we'll probably find out at our next ultrasound that it's actually a boy. I will say that I love having boys and that though I would love to have a daughter someday, I had decided that if God put a boy in there, then that's what it's supposed to be. And that still stands. We won't know for sure until he/she comes out. Of course Evan thinks it could still be tricky to tell at that point. Here's his quote on that: "What if it doesn't have any hair? You just tell by its privates?!"
Unfortunately, the next time an ultrasound tech is in town is mid-February. I told the doctor that I was going to Thunder Bay the end of the week and asked if he could try to get me an appointment for an ultrasound on Friday. (Now, for those of you not so familiar with my remote location situation, I will tell you that medical appointments don't always come easily up here. We travel 3 hours for an orthodontist appointment and 6.5 hours for an immigration appointment. It's no big deal to most people to travel 5 hours to Winnipeg for an ultrasound or other medical appointment with a specialist. But you often have to wait a long time for an appointment.) Somehow, though, they were able to get me an appointment for Friday morning. That was perfect, because Kendall and I already had to go to Thunder Bay for an immigration appointment Friday afternoon. (P.S. It also meant we got a medical travel grant, so our trip was paid for. Those of us living in the far north have to travel for medical care, so our travel/hotel/food gets paid for by Ontario's health insurance.)
Anyway, I will cut to the chase here by saying right away that everything is looking good in baby's cozy home! So grateful for that! The ultrasound showed the placenta to be in a good position. What a relief. We found out that if it would have been a severe case of placenta previa, we would have most likely been ordered to move to a bigger city very soon. In a case like that, they don't want you in Red Lake, where there is no surgery or neonatal unit.
So as the ultrasound tech was taking a look at the baby and its home, Kendall asked if it was a boy or a girl. We had heard at the first ultrasound that it was looking like a boy, though she wasn't sure. I had decided that it was a boy and was feeling more excitement about another cute boy toddling around our home. So, you can imagine my shock when the tech matter-of-factly stated, "It's a girl." "WHAT?!" I exclaimed! (I couldn't help my involuntary outburst. It just burst out of my mouth.) My exclamation scared the tech, who was slightly shocked by my shock. But yes, she was quite sure of Delmar's female status. I love my boys like crazy and would never trade them in for the female variety, but I have to admit that I came close to tears of joy at the thought of a girl in our family.
We left the ultrasound appointment so very thankful for a healthy placenta and still in happy shock at the foreign thought of a daughter. We drove straight to the store, where I picked out three girly little outfits. I've never thought of myself as super girly nor wanted a daughter to be super girly. But she'll just have to forgive me someday because I think it will take at least the first 6 months of her life for me to get the pink and purple worked out of my system. I can't help it. I'm surrounded by burps and farts and boogers. I need a little pink and purple!
Eli saw the pink outfits as soon as we picked him up Friday night. When we told him that yes, it's a girl, his response was a good-humored, "I'm not impressed." We think he will actually be very impressed once he gets used to the idea and especially once he meets her. He just wasn't sure a girl would fit so well into this family because "we're so violent." Awesome.
Just watch, now that I've stated all this need for some pink and purple in my life "publicly," we'll probably find out at our next ultrasound that it's actually a boy. I will say that I love having boys and that though I would love to have a daughter someday, I had decided that if God put a boy in there, then that's what it's supposed to be. And that still stands. We won't know for sure until he/she comes out. Of course Evan thinks it could still be tricky to tell at that point. Here's his quote on that: "What if it doesn't have any hair? You just tell by its privates?!"
Monday, January 16, 2012
Wolf! (?)
The boys just came bursting in the front door with the terrifying news that there was a wolf in the green shed! They were working on their snow fort near the shed when they heard noises inside and saw humongous, fresh wolf tracks leading in and not coming back out! It took me a bit in all the excitement to realize that they didn't actually see the giant wolf with their actual eyes, but only heard him and saw his tracks.
They described the noises as sounding like a squirrel dying. Or a racoon. (Which we don't have up here.) Or something playing. But it was definitely a wolf as evidenced by the tracks.
I stood at the window and watched for the wolf to come back out of the shed. Eli and Evan desparately wanted me to wake up Kendall to go check. When I refused, they wanted me to go check. Well, I had my doubts about the vicous animal in the shed, but even so, I wasn't about to go check. When I refused that option, Evan said he would go check. He was ready to go out there with Eli's BB gun. That offer was also refused by Mom.
We discussed what to do while I kept my eyes trained on the shed's doorway. It's true that wolves are known to be in the area and we definately see tracks around, though the tracks that venture into our driveway are likely dog tracks. Just the other night I saw our cat arching it's back at an unseen predator just outside the patio door. Kendall looked, then freaked us out when he jumped up in surprise. Oh wait, just a husky from down the road. He thought for a second it was a wolf.
So the boys and I stood discussing our plan of action. I hated to have them leave their play outside, but I was reluctant to send them back out. Just in case. Then a movement caught my eye. Well, well, well. If it wasn't a sweet little cat happily wandering out of the shed. So much for the fierce giant wolf. I did keep watch and my heart did skip a small beat when Evan ran out to look in the shed. All he found was another happy little cat.
Whew. Close call.
They described the noises as sounding like a squirrel dying. Or a racoon. (Which we don't have up here.) Or something playing. But it was definitely a wolf as evidenced by the tracks.
I stood at the window and watched for the wolf to come back out of the shed. Eli and Evan desparately wanted me to wake up Kendall to go check. When I refused, they wanted me to go check. Well, I had my doubts about the vicous animal in the shed, but even so, I wasn't about to go check. When I refused that option, Evan said he would go check. He was ready to go out there with Eli's BB gun. That offer was also refused by Mom.
We discussed what to do while I kept my eyes trained on the shed's doorway. It's true that wolves are known to be in the area and we definately see tracks around, though the tracks that venture into our driveway are likely dog tracks. Just the other night I saw our cat arching it's back at an unseen predator just outside the patio door. Kendall looked, then freaked us out when he jumped up in surprise. Oh wait, just a husky from down the road. He thought for a second it was a wolf.
So the boys and I stood discussing our plan of action. I hated to have them leave their play outside, but I was reluctant to send them back out. Just in case. Then a movement caught my eye. Well, well, well. If it wasn't a sweet little cat happily wandering out of the shed. So much for the fierce giant wolf. I did keep watch and my heart did skip a small beat when Evan ran out to look in the shed. All he found was another happy little cat.
Whew. Close call.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Gigi: An Pivotal Biblical Character
The other night at bedtime I read to Evan from a devotional book for little boys. At first when he started hearing the familiar Bible story, Evan protested, saying he already knew that one. I told him that I've read the whole Bible and I still read things again.
A few paragraphs into what I was reading, the book said, "Have you heard of Gigi, God's little princess?" Now, I was completely baffled as to who Gigi was and why she was being mentioned in this book. As soon as the sentence came out of my mouth, I paused and said, "Huh?"
Evan caught on to that confusion and quickly jumped in: "Aha! So you didn't read the whole Bible!"
I guess maybe I haven't because somehow in its pages I missed Gigi, God's little princess. Or else she isn't in the Bible at all, but I had a hard time convincing Evan of that.
A few paragraphs into what I was reading, the book said, "Have you heard of Gigi, God's little princess?" Now, I was completely baffled as to who Gigi was and why she was being mentioned in this book. As soon as the sentence came out of my mouth, I paused and said, "Huh?"
Evan caught on to that confusion and quickly jumped in: "Aha! So you didn't read the whole Bible!"
I guess maybe I haven't because somehow in its pages I missed Gigi, God's little princess. Or else she isn't in the Bible at all, but I had a hard time convincing Evan of that.
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