I have so many little matters to tell you of, that I cannot wait any longer before I begin to put them down.
Dec 11th, 2014 by ECM
The good news: the shop figured out that the car’s issue is subject of a recall. Less good news: the part needed to fix it is on backorder. Maybe good news: they promise me that as long as I lighten my keychain, it won’t happen again.
The bad news: Tommy fell asleep on the couch this afternoon, woke up and made it to the girls’ bunk before throwing up all over the place. Because all I needed this week was the stomach flu!!!
The van died at the top of a mountain today (fortunately though the power steering was gone, I was able to force us off onto an exit and roll to a stop at the end of the ramp). Yes, I’ve been in a rollover car accident while pregnant with two kids in the backseat that totaled the car and sent me to the ER in an ambulance. This was much scarier, because I had the time to think that if I couldn’t get the steering wheel to turn or stomp hard enough on the brakes to slow down, we were going to careen down the mountain and kill ourselves and possibly others. My whole body was shaking so hard that it was hard to control the wheel or brake pedal. It’s been 7 hours, and I am still shivering just thinking about it. Fortunately, the kids didn’t know what was happening this time–they just heard me panting, “Please help, Jesus! Please help, Jesus!” until we got down off the road. I didn’t burst into tears in front of them, either. My dad asked if I’d thought to push the emergency brake. Nope, didn’t occur to me. I will do that if we run into any more issues on our way to the shop tomorrow. And I’m taking surface streets, not the hilly highway route. I’d rather crash into a light pole at 30 mph than careen off a hill at 65 mph. But let’s just all pray that the car doesn’t shut down again before we get to the shop, shall we?
And Derek is flying to the US Virgin Islands right now. He’ll be gone for three days. I haven’t burst into tears yet, though it’s just a matter of time.
Fortunately, Sarah did my grocery shopping for me today, Christina is taking T and E to CBS so I don’t have to lug everyone to the car dealership tomorrow, and we don’t actually have any other plans if our car is stuck there the rest of the week… A few days without a car could be a fun adventure, right?!
Dec 8th, 2014 by ECM
Our three do!
Dec 5th, 2014 by ECM
It’s no secret that the biggest struggle in my life right now is convincing Susie to eat anything. It is a trial day in, day out, every single day. When she doesn’t eat protein, she melts down, whines, and acts out. When she just eats fruit and veggies, her diapers are so bad, she cries when I change her, and I get even more mad at her for not deciding to be potty trained. When she does eat a filling meal, she’s happy, well behaved, and a pleasure to be around. I rarely go more than an hour without pondering the state of her tummy. Her pediatrician and I discuss her diet in great detail every check-up, brainstorming low-fiber sources of energy for our most energetic child. We’ve tried anything and everything. I feel like it is a Sisyphean task keeping her properly nourished. Derek has discovered, however, that if she makes her own scrambled eggs, she’ll often eat them all up! We have a cheerful little Q this morning…
Dec 4th, 2014 by ECM
The girls “sing” Away in a Manger:
Tommy yawns, swallows, and occasionally joins in on The Little Drummer Boy:
Elizabeth scolds her friend Charlotte for singing the verses and not just the chorus of “Go Tell It On the Mountain”, and Susie really gets into “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”!:
Dec 2nd, 2014 by ECM
That’s newsworthy here! We showed at for church on Sunday in our normal SoCal garb–sleeveless dresses and sandals, polo and shorts–and several people told us we had underdressed the children because it was a chilly 60 degrees. It rained during the service (though fortunately not when we had to go to four different buildings to collect the kids from children’s church), and yesterday, it rained in the morning and stayed overcast all day. I actually had to run and turn off our sprinklers, prompting Elizabeth to ask if the drought was over. This morning it’s raining again, steadily! What to do with ourselves? Why snuggle up on the couch, of course. The novelty of inclement weather has yet to lose its charm.
Nov 28th, 2014 by ECM
As usual, we went down the street to cut our Christmas tree. The 80+ degree weather put Susie in a horrible mood.
The kids love decorating the tree so much–the joy of pulling out ornaments just increases each year as they recognize them again. It’s totally worth it even though we’ll be leaving in less than three weeks.
We did all the decorating while Janie napped. When she woke up, she was in awe–dancing, pointing to all the “babies” (CBS makes ornaments with the kids’ faces every year, so we have a lot of them by now!), exclaiming, “Tee! Tee!” Then she saw there was a mini tree in the corner. Life just couldn’t get better. “Two tee! Two tee!” She still can’t get over how wonderful it all is.
Nov 27th, 2014 by ECM
Nov 24th, 2014 by ECM
The kids had a lot of fun, but I’m just not cut out to be a soccer mom. All those Saturday mornings! Ugh! Fortunately, both kids won their last games of the season.
Derek says it’s a toss-up as to who are the best listeners: his law students, last year’s team of 6 year old boys, or this year’s team of 5 year old girls.
Sometimes Elizabeth is paying attention to the ball, and sometimes she is just dancing around the field. Other girls will occasionally do cartwheels or jump twirls.
It was a really sweet group of girls, and that was really the best part of it for her.
Finally remembered to take a picture with the sign!
Nov 21st, 2014 by ECM
Janie woke up with a DRY diaper. Derek immediately put her on the potty, and she went a ton! My heart was so full of happiness I couldn’t stop beaming.
With all the praise we were heaping on Janie, Susie (who woke up with a full, wet diaper) decided to go potty on her own this morning, too.
It’s too early to tell if this is a real shift, but it sure was a great way to start the morning!!! (And as a side note, Derek staying home ’til 7:30 in the mornings so I can go to the gym or grocery shop is also amazing!)