This past August and October both my oldest girls turned one year older. Sniff!!!

Madelyn turned 4 and Katelyn turned 6. I never wrote any kind of special posts dedicated to them so here’s my attempt to fix that.

We had a BBQ birthday party for Maddy ( the poor thing is probably always going to get that type of birthday since her birthday is a Summer birthday in New England)

The birthday girl

True to Maddy’s nature, she mostly hung out with her Papa the whole time. She wasn’t much for joining in the group games.

She did, however, choose to participate in playing with water balloons.

Story behind this cake: Tried to make her cake, it crumbled upon trying to remove it from the pan.FRUSTRATED. Bought one from Sam’s. Yummy cake.

Maddy has grown so much in the past year! She still continues to be my shy, quiet, loner cuddle bug. She’s content hanging out at home playing with her toys. We’ve tried to push her a bit by signing her up for soccer and AWANA. She’s hates the first and tolerates the second. We love her so much and wouldn’t have her any other way! God blessed us with our little blondie!

Since Katelyn’s birthday is in October, we’re never quite sure what the weather will be here in New England. In the past, it’s been cold and I just don’t have the room to host a whole party in my house at this point. So, we held her party at a dairy farm super close to our house. We’re so glad we found out that they did parties. It was so cute!

They provided the decorations. A cute cow theme.

We started off the party with a tractor ride to the barn.

The children then got to have a “tour” of the barn and learn how the dairy farm is run. It was pretty stinky in there as you can see by the children holding their noses!

Then it was back to their farm store for make-your-own-sundaes with their delicious ice cream! (Katelyn hadn’t started making her sundae yet in this picture)

After the sundaes the kids did colorful sand art in milk bottles. So cute!

The kids holding up their finished art.

Then it was time for the last activity of the day. Milking “Hazel The Holstein”.

Katelyn continues to be our adventurous go getter. She’s doing so well with her homeschooling and reads like champ! She is sweet, funny and loves to talk shop with the adults. She’s also doing soccer and AWANA and started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a couple of months ago.  We are so thankful for our first born, big girl!

I love my two oldest and can’t imagine my life without them. God has truly given  us great gifts in our children. I know that God has great things planned for their lives.

]]> http://www.simplymelsblog.com/four-and-six/feed/ 0 http://www.simplymelsblog.com/black-hole-sunday/ http://www.simplymelsblog.com/black-hole-sunday/#comments Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:22:10 +0000 SimplyMel http://www.simplymelsblog.com/?p=2667 I have to give kudos to bloggers who can consistently keep up with interesting blogging even during the busiest times of the year. I’m not at that level yet. Maybe that’s why I don’t get paid to blog!

Yesterday feels like a black hole of time to me. From about 1:30 am Sunday morning Madelyn started vomiting every hour and half to two hours.  Seems she caught the stomach virus that’s been going around. She went through all of her clean sheets and several pairs of  pajamas. I thought an explosively puking child was bad. Turns out an explosively puking child in the middle of the night is worse. She couldn’t sleep because she was miserable and every time she did go to sleep, starting to throw up would wake  her. That is not a pleasant way to wake up. Since the girls share a room Katelyn woke up every time Madelyn threw up and started crying.

None of us got much sleep that night. Finally by 6 am Madelyn came crying into my room and asked if she could get in bed with us. I’m usually very strict about not letting my children sleep in my bed but the poor thing was miserable so I let her snuggle in. Of course, I was worried about her throwing up in my bed too, but I figured I have many more sets of sheets than she does and it was 6 am already. Almost time to get up. A few minutes later I heard the pitter patter of little feet and Katelyn asked if she could get in bed with us too.

The more the merrier!!

Madelyn did throw up twice more but thankfully I had a large bowl for one of the explosions. The other time I wasn’t so lucky.

We all got up after that and decided none of us would be going to church yesterday. Mike started feeling a little sick himself. Thankfully he didn’t get much worse than that.

We rested the rest of the day and Madelyn threw up many more times. Finally by the afternoon she was able to sleep restfully in Mike’s lap on the couch. She was exhausted and pitiful.

I dozed on and off the recliner in between bouts of  Maddy’s vomiting and having to get Mike and Madelyn stuff they needed. ( As Madelyn would not get out of Mike’s lap). Let’s just say I couldn’t wait for the girls to go to bed that night so I could go to bed!

During this whole ordeal yesterday Katelyn was having a hard time with all of the attention Madelyn was getting. She was getting into trouble left and right. Wouldn’t leave Madelyn alone. She kept wishing she was sick too. Was pestering us, complaining and misbehaving.  Mike finally sent her to her room. She went stomping up the stairs, making quite a nasty face.

After a while we noticed we hadn’t heard any noise from upstairs. Since I had to go the bathroom (again!!) I went up to check on her. This is what I saw when I rounded the corner….

“What the …??”  I thought. Katelyn had decided to put her pillow in the hallway and lay on the floor. She fell asleep this way. She did not want to be removed from us in her room so she thought the next best thing was laying in the hallway!

That kid….

She is definitely a piece of work sometimes!

Thankfully, Madelyn is feeling better today. And Katelyn is ….well….being Katelyn!

She baby wears:

And co sleeps:

She asked to use one of my wraps the other day after seeing a couple of friends carrying their babies around in a baby carrier. And she sleeps with her Bitsy Baby every night. She carefully dresses her baby in jammies at night and then dresses her a different outfit in the morning. I’m impressed with the care she gives her baby!

Yet…somehow I’m afraid she’ll smother poor Jocelyn when she arrives! I think we’re going to have a lot of conversations about how I’m the mommy and not her. And no, she can’t change Jocy’s diaper. And no, she can’t carry Jocy around.

This should be interesting!

It’s cliche but I CANNOT BELIEVE that you are FIVE today. Seriously. We prayed for almost two years to have you and now…..you’re five! You are one special little girl. We love you so much! We are so proud of all your accomplishments and I’m so happy to have the honor of being your mommy.

You have changed so much over the past few years….

Making faces with daddy at about 13 months old.

Making cookies with mommy at two years old. You still love to help!

Easter 2007. You still love to dress up and play with baby dolls.

You loved being a big sister….

………………………………….And still do!!

You were so brave at your first dentist appointment, although you were scared. (You ended up loving it!)

You are my soccer star this year!

You’re my big, smart and loving girl!

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!

Are you purposeful in your parenting?

I’ve come to find out that I’m really not! As both my girls get older I’m finding that I can’t just “wing it” anymore. I can’t just send them on their way with a few answers and a snack. They were happy playing with their play-doh, coloring and watching t.v. There for a while they were too young to notice much and easily distracted with pat answers.I could tell them to “do as I say” and hope they didn’t “do as I do”.

I used to spend a good amount of time working on letters and numbers with Katelyn. She knew a lot more at almost three years old than Madelyn does at almost three. Madelyn is my laid back, easily pleased and content child. She will play with literally anything. Rocks, her fingers, bird feathers…..anything. She hardly ever asks for anything so when she does I’m happy to oblige her.  She  is happiest playing by herself, in her own little world. So, I think “Why disturb her to work on letters, crafts, spelling her name or numbers??” Madelyn is my “easy” child. So easy, in fact, that I can easily be unpurposeful in my parenting with her!

Katelyn constantly needs attention.

Ahhh…Katelyn. My precocious, impatient, stubborn, silly, inquisitive, strong-willed, beautiful almost-five-year-old. Let’s  just say she’s my “challenging” child. I don’t know how it happened but we seem to have raised a 4 year old little  demanding Diva. I’ve found myself butting heads A LOT with her and also getting very frustrated. I find myself constantly saying “no” to her and getting on to her. I want to say “yes” but her behavior here lately is pushing me to say ” no” all the time. She is really pushing the boundaries of the knowledge I thought I had on parenting. Some days she completely wears me down mentally, emotionally and physically. I’ve found those days to be a complete parenting FAIL. I’ve yelled too much. I’ve not been consistent enough. I’ve taken the easy way out. I’ve been short and irritable with her. I have been a terrible example.

I swear she is hitting puberty already. Her mood swings are unbelievable!  She is CONSTANTLY wanting, asking, wishing for or demanding something she can’t have at the moment. Or ever, for that matter. “No” ,”wait” , “later” and”not now” are not acceptable answers in her mind. She pushes,begs and argues with me to my pulling-my-hair-out screaming limit. We’ve really had to put our foot down and discipline her EVERY time she asks for something more than once. Whether we say “yes” or “no”. That’s one thing that drives Mike nuts as well. She repeats herself and argues all the time. (Maybe she’ll be a lawyer???)

Here’s an example of a typical conversation that goes on 50 times a day.

Katelyn: Mom, can I have juice? (have ice cream, have cookies, can you buy me a  toy on t.v, have snack right after lunch, have a sleep over, go to McDonald’s, go to Nana and Papa’s etc etc)

Me: Wait a minute. Let me finish (insert task)

Katelyn: (2 minutes later) Can I have juice? Mama CAN I HAVE JUICE??

Me: When. I’m. done. here.

Katelyn: (another 2 minutes later)  Can I have juice now? Mom, can I HAVE some JUICE?

Me: I SAID when I’m done! I will let you know when I’m done.

Katelyn: But, mom! I want juice RIGHT NOW.

Me: What have I already said????????!!!

Katelyn: (pouting) When you’re done…..

Me: Exactly. Go play.

Katelyn: ( 2 minutes later) Mooom, can I have juice now? Are you done now? You’re taking too looong!

Me: I SAID WAIT!!!!! WALK AWAY!

Katelyn: But mom…!!

Me: That’s it! No juice for you. You can have some water when I’m DONE HERE but no juice. I told you that I would GET YOUR JUICE AS SOON AS I WAS DONE HERE BUT YOU KEEP INTERRUPTING ME and you’re not listening. You need to learn to WAIT!!! Go  sit on the couch!

Katelyn: (Burst into tears) Mooom!!! That’s not fair. Waaahhhh

(Commence me feeling extremely bad and guilty)

These types of conversations go on all day long. Sometimes they are reasonable requests that just require her to wait a minute. Sometimes they are outrageous requests that she doesn’t understand why she can’t do or have.  And usually when I do give her something it’s never what she actually wants. She always wants something different that what she’s getting. She’s never happy the first time around. S the is in an extremely ungrateful stage right now.

I get so frustrated and think ” Oh my word! Why can’t this child just be happy with what I gave her? Why doesn’t she just give up??”

Then it hits me. That’s how I am with God. Constantly asking for stuff. Constantly being ungrateful for what he’s given me. Some days I think that the reason God isn’t giving me another child is that I’m not doing very good with the two that I have!

The Bible says to “train up a child in the way he should go” and that children are ” a gift” from the Lord. I have to start taking this parenting thing more seriously! I can’t parent each day absentmindedly, correcting and punishing haphazardly. I have to remember that these children don’t just know the correct behavior that is expected of them. I have to model and teach it to them. I can’t get angry and frustrated with their behavior if I haven’t taught and modeled the correct ones! If I’m short, irritable and impatient they will learn to be short, irritable and impatient. If I model discontentment they will learn discontentment.

I do need to take some extra time with Madelyn to teach her some basic, pre-school concepts. I need to make sure they are learning Scripture  consistently at home.  That I’m teaching them Biblical principles myself. Not just depending on Sunday School to teach them what they need to know about the Lord. The Lord has gifted me with these children and I HAVE to start being a better example and truly  “training” them in the values, principles and behaviors I want them to have as adults. God has entrusted Mike and me with their minds and hearts and we need to to be more purposeful about how we guide them. We only have a short period of time to lay these important foundations.

I think part of the problem is that I have been angry and discontent for a long time myself. As many of you know part of my problem is that I don’t want to be here in New England. I want to be in Texas. I don’t like New England. Plain and simple! That has been a source of discontentment with me. The other one is my desire and struggle to have another child. There are several other issues I’m working on but those are for my journal. I haven’t liked myself very much for a long while. And I’m not saying I have poor self esteem or hate my looks. What I haven’t liked is my attitude!!  I haven’t liked who I’ve become as a person. I feel as if I haven’t been truly living. I’ve been stuck in the if-onlys. I’ve had unrealistic expectation from people in my life. I haven’t accepted the way things are. I want to start living. Accepting how God wants my life right now. I want to start parenting purposefully and focusing on the children I have now.

God and I are having some words but God is truly working on and in me. I’m blessed right now and in the present.

And if you’ve read this far I thank you!! Thank you for letting me share what God is doing in my life right now.

I’m totally killing two birds with this Top Ten Tuesday. My daughter’s first dance recital was this past  Saturday. It was so cute and she did so great. It was very long. Three hours long! I’m being told that that is normal time frame. I had no idea!  My two year old cried through half of it which took away the fun a little bit. However, I did get some great pictures. So, in honor of that, my Top Ten today is my favorite 10 pictures from her dance recital and a small recap.

These were taken before we left for the recital.

Madelyn had to copy her big sister

This move is called “twinkling” which I think is so cute!

Sadly, our dance studio allows picture taking only during rehearsal. So these are from the rehearsal.

All of us moms were holding our breath during this move since the girl to the far left had to slowly walk backward into Katelyn’s arms and then both of them were to walk back into the third girls arms and so on down the line of dancers until they were in a little “train” line. We were all waiting for the domino affect to happen but it never did!

These were taken after the recital. Katelyn thought getting flowers was so special. Her nana and papa got her some pretty pink roses and we got her a mixed bouquet. She loved the pink roses but I could tell was somewhat underwhelmed by the mixed bouquet!  Since we’ve been really working with Katelyn to be tactful in what she says to others she says to me ” Mom, since I don’t want to hurt your feelings I’m going to tell you that I like your flowers.” Yep, still needs a little more work!

The dancing queen with mommy, daddy and sister.

Me with my dancer

As you can see, Top Ten Tuesday is pretty easy, fun and flexible. Join in at Oh Amanda!

Bedroom Before:

Bedroom After

Dining Room Before (with floor already sanded. It looked a lot like the Bedroom Before)

Dining Room After

Play Room Before (Again think Bedroom Before in terms of what it looked like before it was sanded)

Playroom After

Girls Bedroom After (I think I deleted the ‘before’ picture but I know I already showed you that one on an older post)

Don’t the floors look great? Those who have been to my house will especially appreciate how different and new they look. The only room that needs to be done now is the living room. We’ll actually have to stay somewhere else for about three days since we won’t be able to use our house at all while the living room is being refinished. It’s the hubbub of our house and you can’t “get there from here” without walking through the living room.

We’re slowly taking the packed boxes in the garage from our almost move in January and unpacking them. The girls are especially excited for us to find their Zhu Zhu Pets we had packed away after Christmas. It’s kind of sad for me to unpack the stuff that I had excitedly packed away thinking we were moving into a bigger house. I had thought that I wouldn’t be using that stuff again until I was UNpacking it in a new home.

*SIGH*

In unpacking these boxes we’re also taking stock of what we really need and what actually fits in this house. If the item doesn’t fit that category going to our yard sale at the end of May/ beginning of June.

I had planned another part to this post to be about the Before And After of how God has been working in me lately. Especially after the miscarriage. I realized that’s going to need a post  of it’s own.

So be waiting for it!

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Katelyn update:

We’ve had several more mini bug episodes since last Wednesday. Nothing like the original one, however. She’s slept through the night a couple of times but has also gotten up several times needing reassurance that there were no bugs in the room and that they were only in her mind.

The direction and steps I’ve taken with her that are working are:

~Praying with her. Reminding her that Jesus is protecting her and He won’t allow any harm to come to her.

~Reminding her that seeing bugs or NOT seeing bugs are in her control. She chooses what she sees and she’s the boss of her bugs. If she’s seeing bugs it’s because she’s choosing to.

~Reminding her that spending the day at the doctor’s was not fun. If she continues to see bugs it means she’s sick. If she has to go to the doctor she misses out on playing with her friends. Is that what she really wants?

~ As  a last resort we have also put her in the shower ( at midnight!!! Aye!!) to calm her down and soothe her and then I’ve rubbed my Neutrogena Sesame Body oil on her and told her that would help her skin feel better and smell nice. That has worked wonders. But, I’d prefer not to have to do that in the middle of the night a lot!

~Keeping more lights on.

~She’s woken up coughing which has triggered her to wake up in the middle of the night. I’ve been  giving her some honey before bed and kept her humidifier going. That has also made for more restful sleep.

~ One thing I don’t want is to tell her is that certain things will keep the bugs away or any such thing. No showers to “wash the bugs off”,  “special lotion that keeps bugs off and keeps them away”, “sprays that will protect her room” or ” a special doll that wards off bugs”. I feel like that is just going to feed into her fear. I don’t want her depending on those things. Once that special lotion doesn’t “work” anymore  or the doll is protecting her anymore we’ll have to move on to some different, magical thing. I want her to face the reality that there are NO bugs to “keep away”. It’s all in her mind and that’s where she needs to fight them.

She got up three times last night. The first time she kept telling me ” No, mom, there’s reeeaallly bugs in my room this time. Really!” And kept looking under her pillow and her blankets and on her arms and legs. She screamed when I pulled the blanket away to show her there were no bugs. After  (irritably) reminding her that she was choosing to see bugs and that if she kept seeing them we’d end up at the doctor again (which she definitely doesn’t want) she settled down. Only to wake up two more times. Thankfully each episode lasted between ten and twenty minutes. I’d much rather be getting up in the middle of the night with a new infant! That’s what’s supposed to be happening. Not with my four and a half year old daughter who is hallucinating.

I called her pediatrician’s office to day for the result of her Strep test since they haven’t called me yet.

Not getting enough sleep is really messing up my daily routine. I’ve been sleeping in which throws off my Bible reading and exercising (meaning, non existent). It also sets a bad tone for the day because I’m irritable and out of sorts.

Here’s for a restful week and winning the battle of the bugs!

Have a great Monday!

Katelyn is sleeping soundly in her bed right now. Thank God! I”m about to go to bed myself! After a visit to her pediatrician we were sent to Boston’s Children’s Hospital for some tests. Her regular pedi was stumped as to why Katelyn had that huge episode. She was tested for strep and that came back negative. They did another throat culture where the results won’t come back for 48 hours. This test will show whether or not she has a strain of strep that causes hallucinations called PANDAS. She did have a red patch in the back of her throat.

The doctors at Children’s did a couple of minor tests, asked a bunch of questions and released her with a clean bill of health. They said they didn’t think there was anything really wrong with her and that it was just a freak episode! She had a couple of little freak outs at the hospital but nothing compared to the hysteria of earlier today.

We’re hoping for a peaceful night!

**************************************************************************************************************

It’s 7:30 am as I begin writing this post. We’ve all been up since 3:30 am. Is one of us sick?

Nope. Unless you count mentally.

Katelyn has been in her own, pardon my language, personal Hell since 3:30 am. I’m at a loss as to what to do right now. She woke up at 3:30 screaming that there were bugs on her and in her bed.  If only turning on the light and showing her there were no bugs had worked. Even with the lights on she was hysterical, hitting herself, trying to tear her pajamas off and screaming bloody murder. We thought maybe she was having night terrors or sleep walking. She was wide awake. Nothing could convince her that there were no bugs on her. She would calm down for a few minutes and then start screaming and hitting herself all over again. She would hit her hands, her feet and flail about, screaming.

Absolutely NOTHING was working. She wouldn’t walk on the floor without “skating” on a blanket because she was terrified the bugs would get on her feet. We had to change her pajamas and underwear because she swore there were ants in them and the were crawling up her butt.

And every few minutes she would start screaming hysterically that they were on her again and begin to hit herself.

It was awful to watch. I almost felt like she was demon possessed! I felt like I was watching something out of a nightmare. If she’d has something sharp she probably would have cut herself with it. I began to cry myself, at one point.

We sprayed Febreze all over her room and on her clothes telling her that it was bug repellent. She believed it for about thirty minutes and then started pointing out that I hadn’t sprayed her butt, her “noo-noo” her neck or the bottom of her feet and bugs were getting on those parts. She begged me to spray all of those parts. Which, of course I wasn’t about to do. She kept asking how long the spray lasted to keep the bugs out. All the while still feeling them crawling all over her. She was super jumpy and constantly freaking out and hitting herself and her clothes. She would scream ” Ack!!… WHAT”S THAT? There’s a bug RIGHT THEEEERRE!” And then we would point out that there was nothing there and she would go ” oooh…”. She saw them all over her bed and in her blankets. She would ask for us to hold parts of her shirt so the ants couldn’t get out. Then begin to tear at her clothes and scream and scream and scream.  Nothing could convince her that it was in her mind. If anything touched her whether it be the ruffle on her sleeve, our hand, the tag on her pants or her blanket she would start screaming all over again.

After a while Madelyn started to cry because Katelyn was scaring her.

Mike prayed with her and reminded her that Jesus was watching over her. We read a story. We had some water.We gave her a glow stick so she could look over her body with it.

We finally let her and Madelyn into bed with us. That didn’t help! She saw bugs in our bed too. She would start to kick and scream again. She then peed in our bed from all the crying and screaming. We let her stay naked for a bit because bugs were all over her clothes. She swore they were trying to get up her butt. She then decided to put her nightgown on but didn’t want her underwear. There were bugs in them. I had to throw them into her room before she would stop screaming about them.

This may sound funny but it wasn’t. It was a nightmare. Her tortured screaming was awful. There was nothing we could do!

We all tried settling down and going to sleep but we couldn’t. With Katelyn screaming, crying, flailing and kicking every few minutes no one got any sleep. She sat up curled in a ball moving the glow stick around herself so she could see if there were bugs near her. She laid next to me and asked me to keep my hand on her. But that didn’t help. The bugs were still there and the screaming continued. At one point I was laying on my back and she was laying completely on top 0f me so she wouldn’t be touching the bed.But somehow, the bugs reached her even when she was on top of me.

By this point it was 5 am. Mike had to get up to get ready for work. The girls and I stayed in bed. Every time I thought Katelyn was calming down and about to go to sleep she would start screaming. She started begging me to get the bugs off. Begging and begging. It broke my heart. If there had been anything I could do I would have!! I would pretend to get the ants off her and she would asked to see them. When there was nothing in my hand she would scream ” Nooo. You didn’t get it!! There’s nothing in your hand!!”

Nothing I said helped. Showing her over and over again there were no bugs ANYWHERE didn’t do anything to calm her terror.

We finally got up about 6:00 am and she begged to put on different underwear and get dressed. So we did and she went downstairs. I thought the daylight and being up would help.

It didn’t. She continued to scream, hit herself and tear at her clothes even wide awake, in morning light and in the living room. She came running up the stairs at one point, screaming, holding her sweat shirt out telling me to get the ants out. I had to pull her away from the top of the stairs because her hysteria was about to send her toppling down. We took off the sweat shirt and she was fine for a bit. Then she began to scream that they were in her underwear so off came the pants and undies.

She’s currently sitting on the couch, naked, wrapped in a blanket and watching t.v. Madelyn is completely asleep next to her. It’s been about thirty minutes and there’s been no screaming. It’s the longest period of quiet we’ve had since 3:30 am. I hope it continues.

She won’t be going to school today. I’m going to give them both a warm bath later this morning. That should help. I may put some of my lotion on her and tell her it’s “special”. I desperately need to go grocery shopping today and I can’t have her ripping her clothes off and screaming in the middle of the store.

I feel terrible for her and hope last night was a one time thing! I’m completely dumbfounded and at a loss as to how to handle this!

We’re all exhausted as well. I’m hoping we can all nap later today.

Please pray for Katelyn if you think about it today.

I got some really good shots this week of the girls playing with their umbrella outside. It was an overcast day and about to rain. While I was watching them play it hit me how God is our umbrella in life.

He shields us from the rains, big and small, of life.

We usually are happy to have God as our umbrella when life is sunny and there’s no rain.

Then life starts to get a little dirty..

And the rain starts to fall and the mud starts to fly

And God sometimes allows us to get a little wet and muddy.

Then we start to complain, worry and cry. Sometimes we lose faith and completely try to get away from His umbrella and do all our own protecting. But God wants the rain to draw us closer to Him. He wants us to gather even tighter under His holy, righteous hand.

No matter how strong the rain and how far away we stray from that perfect umbrella of His hand

He always welcomes us back.

Even if we’re still a little muddy!!

Psalm 84:11

¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

Psalm 37:23-24

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.

Pooped Out Unicorn Princess

Precious!