Daniel Speaks

So Daniel has been making sounds that sound a lot like words recently.  A couple of weeks ago, he got a-hold of my phone and began pressing buttons.  I heard him, or rather the phone,  from the kitchen and called out, “Daniel, are you calling China?” to which he replied, “Yeah, Mama!”  It was a bit growly, and he probably wasn’t assigning meaning to the words, but that’s how it came out nevertheless.  I thought Michael was going to bust a gut laughing when he heard him.

Later that same week, Thomas offered him a carrot at the dinner table by saying, “Daniel, do you want a carrot?”  And Daniel said, “Carrot.”  Plain as day.  We haven’t heard it since.

This morning though was the sweetest.  All 3 kiddos and myself were snuggling, wiggling, and playing in the bed.  Daniel laid his head down on the bed next to me so I started talking to him.  We’ve been playing a game where I say, “Bye-bye” and wave his hand for him.  It makes him giggle for some reason.  This morning I just waved my own hand and said “Bye-bye” a few times since he was laying on his hands.  He watched me for a bit, then sat himself up, raised his right hand, and clearly said “bye-bye” in a sweet little voice while waving and grinning.  Then he crawled off to play.  It was so obviously on purpose and not an accident.  And it was soooo sweet to see that little hand waving.  He looked right proud of himself, too.

Hopefully, he will get better soon so that he will stop the constant screaming.  He is such an intense little guy that when he wants something he screams at the top of his lungs to get it.  We are working on being quieter at the dinner table, but when he runs out of food on his tray or sees something on the table he wants, he screams until he gets it.  If I look at him and speak softly, he calms down for a few seconds.  I’m trying to encourage him to make a softer sound before I give him what he’s screaming for.  I’m sure he’ll get it eventually.  He’s already gotten better about biting Gloria.  (Poor girl has little bruises where he’s bitten her.)  Now if I see him thinking about it and tell him no, he stops.  Gloria tells him, “Daniel, don’t bite me.”  He backs off then, too.  And for the record, his biting happens when he wants to love on her the way he loves and squishes on his favorite stuffed toys.  He’s not trying to be mean.  He’s just caught up in the intense snuggling so he bites her.

The little guy is just INTENSE!

After she spent all that time sewing…

Daniel spent some time destroying the playroom and then:

He took a nap. 

Today’s Project: Bib Pants and Scaling the Stairs

  So the laundry’s not done and the floor still needs mopping, but I made DANIEL something today.  Gloria always gets cute little dresses and the like while I cringe at the thought of all the pieces to make a boy’s outfit.  I pulled out my Kwik Sew: Sewing For Toddlers book and got seriously busy with some fabric I had on hand.  It wasn’t quite as difficult as I had feared.  I may even attempt button holes tomorrow.

You’ll have to look past the giant diaper pins I used to secure it to him.  I felt the need to check the size on him before I went to the trouble of buttons or snaps.

First a sweet picture.

This one shows the outfit pretty well.

This one shows it even better, but Daniel doesn’t look too thrilled about modeling it. 

This one is not so much about the outfit though.

This next one made me remember another picture I once took.

The one on the left is Daniel.  The one on the right is Gloria!

Then Daniel decided to scale the stairs for the first time.  All of them!

A quick break at the top and then he was off again!

My babies are just growing up so fast!  I’d better cut out that pattern in the next size up.

Happy Birthday!

On Friday Gloria turned 2.  On Sunday Thomas turned 7.  So on Saturday we had a family celebration where we celebrated BOTH birthdays, but mostly Gloria’s since Thomas will have his Indiana Jones birthday party with his friends NEXT Saturday.  Here are some pictures I managed to catch.  There were other cameras present, so I may come back and add more.

First, “the cake.”  I did the baking and frosting, Mom did most of the decorating, and Michael artistically placed the fairies and candles.

The princess was NOT happy about us singing “Happy Birthday” to her-at all.

But she did like blowing out her candles!

And EATING the cake

And playing with her brother

Then Daniel got really, really tired…and passed out on Cousin Gilah.

The expression on Gilah’s face is just priceless here.  And I love how all the colors (hair and skin tone) all just go together.

Then the gift opening began!  Gloria actually got the idea this time.

Hmmmm…What’s this?

It’s Dora!

A camera!

Dishes?  Gee, thanks, Mommy.

Another camera.  This one says “You’re beautiful!”

“Big Tinkerbell!”

“Open it, Daddy!  Open it right now!”

An absolutely gorgeous smile from Daddy.  (That’s the smile I see a lot, but can’t get on camera!)

Daddy demonstrates how to love on a doll.

But Gloria wanted to look at her instead.  “No hug Tinkerbell.”

Meanwhile, Thomas opens his OWN presents

Hmm.  This looks pretty cool.

A transformer!

Then Michael told Thomas he needed some help finding something outside.

He found it!

He was a little intimidated by the idea of the hills in our neighborhood, so Michael stuck right next to him to give him confidence.

He promised he wouldn’t let go, and he didn’t!

We had much fun.  NEXT week, we will have MORE!

Proof Daniel Smiles!

This is the face I see most often when I look at Daniel, but I have many pictures to share that prove he CAN and DOES smile!

Tell me if YOU have a favorite because I just can’t choose!

Aldridge Gardens

Since  the power was out, school was out, and Thomas asked, we went to Aldridge Gardens for a good old fashioned picnic complete with a quilt and the day after Easter egg and tuna sandwiches.  I brought along my camera and got busy taking pictures of the moving targets.  Here are some of the better ones.

Running around the picnic area:

On the bridge:

On a rock:

On some steps:

(Hey, they were both holding still and looking the same direction!)  

Then we got the idea to put them all on here:

The light was fading and my camera decided to flash, so the babies look whiter than they already are.  Even with them captive, we STILL couldn’t get them to all look the same direction at the same time, but as you can see, Daniel was having a blast.

Easter Photoganza

Happy Easter!  With the kids all dressed up, I took the opportunity to snap a few (dozen) pictures.  Here are just some of my favorites.

At home before church:

Thomas and Gloria

Thomas and Daniel

How’s this for a smile?

Mommy and her grinning boys

Michael and Thomas  (They really do love each other-just not holding still and smiling for the camera)

I made Gloria some bloomers to go with that dress LOL

At church, Gloria got to go on an Easter egg hunt with the other preschoolers:

Is there one under here?

I’ll put this one in my basket.

Why is this picture so sweet?

Can you tell she was thrilled about the house?

Mommy, open it!!!

Investigating Thomas’ findings on his egg hunt

Now how does this work, Daddy?

Daniel tries an egg

You see, son, you’re supposed to open it and eat the candy inside.

Who needs candy?  These eggs taste great!

Silly baby!

Relaxing in the nursery after church

Here we all are after church-still happy, pretty and only slightly sticky!

It’s Just Part of Life These Days

Being sick-that is.
Last Thursday Thomas was sent home from school with a fever and sore throat. (This was after he had just gotten over a bout of fifth disease.) We came home and I fixed him something to drink, gave him some ibuprofen, and went to the bathroom. I came out and couldn’t find him. After looking in the usual places, I went upstairs to find him already snuggled up in the bed and practically asleep. Poor little guy. Between him feeling so worn out and the impending stormy weather, we decided to take him in to the doctor Friday morning.
Friday morning they discovered that Thomas had strep throat. The doctor assured me that the babies weren’t likely to get it and prescribed amoxicillan for him. His fever was gone Friday and he just rested until his father came to pick him up that evening.
Sunday mornng little Gloria woke up with a fever so Michael stayed home from church with her and Daniel while I went to teach Sunday school. About 15 minutes after I got home, Valerie arrived for a visit and we went to eat brunch at “Wakhle House.” Gloria ate very well in spite of her illness and took a pretty good nap afterwards. She seemed pretty good as long as we kept ibuprofen in her. It was always very obvious when the medicine was wearing off.
Meanwhile, Thomas came home with an allergic reaction (rash) to his antibiotic. His fever had been gone since Friday and he had been off of his medicine since Saturday.
We all went to bed Sunday night and brought Gloria in to sleep with us so that she and Valerie didn’t disturb each other. Gloria slept in the crib until she woke up and demanded to sleep on TOP of her daddy. This method was very effective in helping her father determine exactly when she needed another dose of medicine.
Monday morning I sent Thomas off to school and I got busy on the phone calling the doctor about the allergic reaction and the sick toddler.
I must share with you that when we first started going to the practice, it was great. I could call in first thing in the morning on the way to school and if I wasn’t fast, the nurse would call me at home before I could get there. They would always have an appointment before 9 on that day. Now when I call them, it takes at least an hour for the nurse to get back to me and the earliest appointments for that day are after 11! The wait time has gone from 30 minutes (the combined time in the waiting room and exam room) to over an hour. I’m really considering switching practices as I see no reason to drive for 20 minutes just to wait for another hour or two and then drive back for 20 minutes. That takes up my entire morning or afternoon-with a SICK kid! But I digress…
After calling the doctor’s office for the second time, I got a return phone call where she took all of the information about both Thomas, Gloria, and a number for the pharmacy we use so that the doctor can call in an alternate prescription. I was informed that they would want to see Gloria and swab her throat for strep if we came in. I said no thank you and chose to wait it out. (She was fine by Tuesday morning!)
All morning long, Gloria sat on Valerie and snuggled. Every time it was time to get in or out of the car, she wanted her aunt to carry her and put her in and out. It was so sweet. I’m very happy that Gloria warmed up to Valerie so quickly. They were two peas in a pod. If Valerie suggested it, Gloria was more than willing.
On my way out the door to pick up Thomas I called the pharmacy to confirm that his new prescription was ready. No prescription had been called in! Here it was at 2:30 in the afternoon and I had STARTED trying to get it all straightened out before 8. Ugh! I called the nurse and she called me back on my cell phone to tell me that I needed to bring Thomas in so that the doctor could see his rash. Keep in mind that the last time he had had his antibiotics was 48 hours ago and he had had some benedryl since then as well so his rash was pretty nonexistant. But we went in anyway.
I have NEVER seen the waiting room so packed. Practically every chair was filled and it’s a pretty big area. We waited there for about 50 minutes and then went back to the exam room to wait for another 50. At one point in time Daniel got loud and fussy so I opened the door thinking I might walk the hall with him, but a nurse fussed at me to, “Please, keep the door closed.” I informed her that the baby had been there for an hour and a half and had taken about as much as he could take. Thankfully, Thomas kept himself busy with his homework and Gloria was enjoying Valerie’s company.
So after all that waiting, the doctor comes in, looks at Thomas and says that he can’t see the rash. Duh! We already explained to the nurse twice that he hadn’t had any amoxicillan since Saturday. But the doctor was reluctant to prescribe something else because he hadn’t seen firsthand the classic hives rash. His advice was to give him the amoxicillan again with a dose of benedryl. By this point I was getting seriously irritated at the way the entire situation was being handled, so I offered the doctor my cell phone and told him he needed to explain it to Thomas’ father who had some training as a nurse. The doctor’s response was, “You have him this week, don’t you?” as though I would completely dismiss his father’s concerns or outright lie to him about what was going on. The last thing I needed was to have something happen to Thomas and then have his dad all up in arms over it. After telling us that he was short on time and he had “jumped ahead just to get to us,” he wrote out a prescription for zythromax.
So we left and got home just in time for Valerie to load up to head back home and for me to eat dinner before zipping off to a girl scout meeting where I did a presentation on sewing and helped the girls make purses out of placemats and ribbon. On the way I dropped of the presciption thinking I would pick it up on the way home. I got back at five minutes to closing time only to be informed that his insurance coverage has expired.” What?!? I called Chris to find out that their prescription insurance had changed at the beginning of this year and got all of the information necessary for the pharmacist to fill it. Since it was so late, I told them I would come back the next morning to pick it up.
Tuesday morning (remember this all started Thursday!) I got everyone ready early, walked into the pharmacy and saw that it didn’t open until 9. I had misremembered and dragged the kids out early. I felt so bad. I decided to get them some muffins as a treat so that they wouldn’t feel like the entire trip was a waste.
Since Daniel was so off schedule that I was unable to get there during the school day, we went to pick up the prescription after I picked up Thomas. Finally! Yay! Nope. They hadn’t filled the prescription yet because after insurance, the balance was over $50 and wanted to make sure I still wanted it. At this point I had had enough and decided to take my chances and forget it. I was soooooooooo done with it by this time.
Everyone is healthy. No one is coughing, sniffing, aching, or running a fever.
I don’t mind taking the kids into the doctor if they need to go, but I really resent them moving very slowly as though it’s no big deal and then asking us to drop everything just to come hang out in their office for hours on end with other sick kids just to do something they should have done in the first place!
Feel free to tell me I am over-reacting, but I am seriously thinking of going to a different practice.

The Evidence…

As evidence that Marge was correct when she said that “She grew up to be a beautiful lady with many talents,” when she was talking about Melissa, I wanted to share some of the reasons that I agree:

Beautiful:

And here is just a small selection of her talents:

She makes beautiful babies:

She feeds our babies:

And does countless other things for us that are her way of showing us her love.  She is very smart, very caring, and just fun to be around.

She is perfect, in my not so humble opinion…

Grunt, Struggle, and He’s Up!

My youngest little stinker is pulling up. Yes. Daniel has been squirming over and pulling up on pretty low things like laundry baskets, the hearth, cardboard boxes, etc. Tonight he pulled up on the couch. The little turkey is not even crawling on all fours, but he’s pulling up! Once he pulled up on the couch he decided to go to the laundry basket next to it, he just forgot to use his legs so he fell over. He primarily uses his arms for locomotion and climbing, so his legs just follow along. He’s going to be my climber.