Ebby buddy dancing!

"Audie like dancing..."

one at a time she picks up nearby "friends"

"bunny you wanna dance?

...baby you wanna dance?

...dis baby dancing too?

...come on Millie, we dance toget-her."

proudly holding all of her friends in her arms...

"Ebby buddy dancing!!!!" :)

on an adorable side note..........

I wanted to put it on record that my husband, Aaron, the ultra masculine, man's man who, on occasion dresses in full on camo, coming home with leftover war paint smeared across his face & carrying more ammo & guns than most people would be aware of...

elite member of the Oregon State Swat team...

by request of his oldest precious daughter, put

pigtails in her hair today.

I won't mention this to the guys................Many more to come, sweetheart :) I meant pigtail requests...not girls... although we ARE on track with the Silva 4 ;)
Also on record....he did a GREAT job with her hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gold coins in my shoes!!!!!

This post is for my Mom, as she might be the only one (besides my family), who would understand what I'm talking about...

So the other night at around 3am, I sleepily stumbled out of our room & into the kitchen to refill my water cup. On my way, I glanced over into our dark mess-of-a-living-room, toys sprung everywhere, blankets, animals and random socks laying about. Some (okay most..) nights I decide to go to bed rather than pick up what will inevitably return to the same state, this was one of those nights. As regular of a sight it may be, something caught my eye. My shoes were laying right in the middle of the floor, obviously for me to find...or so I thought. Since I was:

a) Sleepy

b) Couldn't place what the date was, or let alone the month at 3am..

c) Wasn't wearing my glasses, therefore could BARELY see my own hand in front of me (I'm blind)

I immediately thought my Mom -must have- snuck into our house to fill my shoes for St. Nicholas Day!!! The shoes were clearly placed so that I could not avoid them, and they seemed to be carefully filled up with little gifts.

How did she get in with out us hearing??

I couldn't believe it was already St. Nicholas Day!!

Oh boy, what kind of little gifts did I get this year??

What day WAS it........... Isn't St. Nick day in December?..??

My mind was racing...with excitement!!

However....at a closer look there weren't any candies, chap sticks or even the traditional chocolate gold coins in my shoes.. As I got within inches (I'm blind remember) of my shoes, I began to laugh out loud at myself....

My shoes were carefully lined with little plastic animals. These were not the "gifts" I had hoped for at 3am, but it definitely gave me a good sleepy laugh. :)

Tiny Baby

We don't quite know where she picked up the term, since we usually use "little" or "small" as terms to describe something of a certain size...But somehow, with out being prompted, Audrey took one look at her new little baby sister in the hospital and made a very accurate description calling her

"Tiny Baby"

You hope your older child would have an easy adjustment to this new little being taking up a good part of the attention they've been getting...but you never truly know until the baby arrives...

She loves to help change diapers by handing us wipes.

She loves to try to tuck her in....while being closely supervised. (The phrase: "Not her face, just her body" is something Audrey now repeats when tucking in her animals since she hears it so much...)

Without fail, first thing in the morning or after a nap, she asks "Where Ellie Lu go?" wanting to see her baby sister.

She loves to lean in real close and look at her face-to-face.

She loves to "hold" her...

(Mommy holds her, just places her onto Audrey's lap)

She loves to help Mommy pat her back gently after a feeding.

She loves to collect baby socks from around the house to put them on her "tiny toesies"

She loves to soothe the crying baby by similar terms Mommy uses: "Baby, why you so sad? It's okay Ellie Lu. I pick you up. Come-mere..."

She loves her "Tiny Baby", and we love that she loves her.

See you in the Spring!!

Well....after another long overnight stay in the hospital this past weekend, we've once again decided never to let Audrey leave the house. This time we mean it. What starts as a little cold that the average toddler would get over after a few days turns into pneumonia/respiratory problems/dehydration...There really is nothing we can do to prevent this from happening again. Last October is when Audrey was first hospitalized for pneumonia, then two months later had some respiratory issues combined with ear infection combined with stubbornness to eat & drink thus making her once again totally dehydrating & needing an IV.....Well it's October folks, which means here we are again at the start of the cold sick season....

Let's look on the bright side, shall we?

At least it was only one night instead of two or three like the last visits...

At least Aaron was in town & was able to stay with me, switching off girls with whoever needed care/feeding...

At least Ellie was able to sleep in between feedings, thus giving us more time to care for Audrey...

At least Aaron isn't sick (all of us girls are now...)

At least it wasn't swine flu (they checked her for it..although that may have been easier to treat than getting pneumonia..)

At least she only needed to have 8 IV pokes attempting to get it in her tiny dehydrated veins this time (15 the first visit, 9 the second visit)

At least having worked in the ER gives you some benefits, like getting seen right away..having prompt care..having Ellie's congested nose checked out with out being checked-in (shhh...)

At least we've almost met our max limit for out of pocket expenses with hospital costs...

At least we're home now..

*

Audrey is doing much better, so we are very thankful for that. But we're getting awfully tired of going through these same motions. We continue to pray that her body will grow stronger and eventually be able to recover from simple colds on her own. We are thankful for modern medicine and the ability to heal her through antibiotics, and also for wonderful neighbors who care enough to, once home, bring us food each time we've had to go through this.

Aaron has since banned me from taking the girls to library "story time"...although her Doctor and I both think she got sick playing with all the toys in the waiting room of the doctor's office at Ellie's last visit--the day before she got sick. If the Dr is willing to admit she probably caught the cold there, you know those things never get washed. Eww.

So, we'll see you in the Spring when we shall remove the bubble from around Audrey we're about to put her in!!

Swiping, Wiping and Soothing makes you Super!

As this is the first week Aaron has gone back to work since being on Family Leave, we girls have decided to be busy little bees. To the Park, to the Dr. for Ellie's check-up, to Library "Story Time" one morning & to the Library for "Busy Hands & Feet" Music Time the next morning...going going going. It has been a lot of fun, and a lot less work than I imagined it would be. So far anyway....most likely due to the fact that I just strap Baby Ellie in my front pack and she sleeps the entire time we're anywhere...but still, even getting them both in & out of the car has been a fairly easy new adjustment.

However, our little sickie, Audrey Lynn (Who, Praise God, hasn't been sick in months!!!) can only handle so many new germs before her body decides to be sick again. Therefore, one of those visits outside of the home has given Audrey a little bug. No fever, which is great, but she has been a snotbucket for the past day and 1/2, but has been a very cheerful girl for the most part! (Again Praise God!!!!!!!!!!!) So yesterday when we were in need of some things from the grocery store, I fed Babycakes Ellie, stuffed my pockets full of kleenex and off we went.

It was a very successful trip, until we arrived at the check stand. My little trick when going grocery shopping with Audrey is to first stop somewhere and get her a small fry, we eat one or two on the way, but save the majority for when we are in the store.

When the fries are out, Mommy needs to be out of the store.

We arrived at the check stand and the fries were out.

Happiness quickly turned into frantic "Up on Mommy! Up on Mommy! Up on Mommy!" meaning the Big One was tired of patiently sitting in the shopping cart.

The Little One was beginning to wake up and was indicating she was hungry (as were my lactating "girls") with small little cries...increasing the more awake she became.

I felt like I had a fever all of a sudden, my pulse was racing, I started to feel anxious and hot.... I'm unloading groceries onto the belt, stealing grapes out of the bag at the demand of my toddler, I'm patting the tush of my tummy tag-a-long, Ellie in the front pack, swiping my debit card, wiping miss snotty nose with loads of kleenex falling out of each pocket, both dirty and clean (which were completely mixed up by that time) all while trying to make a pleasant small-talk conversation with the nice checker man about who knows what...

Then out of this chaotic fog he says:

"Wow, you're pretty much Super Mom!"

Thank you check stand man--I needed that.