Happy Birthday to Brian

Today is Brian's birthday and he kindly took the day off of work to spend with us.  Thursdays are so busy in the evening so it was nice to get to celebrate in the daytime.  I don't have many pictures but we did butter his nose and serve his favorite pizza (Godfather's) and have cake and presents.  I was proud because I tried a frosting recipe and it turned out!!  It was a lot of fun!  The kids all picked out a seed packet for him as a gift (he enjoys gardening).  I thought it was funny that Hunter and Lily picked the same thing but no one else seemed to think it was that funny.  Maybe you had to be there.  :)  Anyway, I hope he had a great day and feels loved on his birthday.  He is starting feel a bit old but 35 is still young, right??  Although I did ask him today, "Is this what getting old feels like?" because it seems like we are complaining of aches and pains recently.  Ha!

NIAW

I just read on a blog that it is National Infertility Awareness Week.  Reading that post linked me to another blog that had a wonderful post on her journey (she has the same MTHFR mutation as me but has suffered much worse because of it).  Was it really over 6 years ago that I feared I might never be pregnant?  Here I am, 5 pregnancies, 3 deliveries and 4 children later.  The 1st blog I read talked about what your testimony would be so here's mine.  Going through infertility taught me so much that God is good, to surrender my plans and to believe BIG.  Going through miscarriages taught me that my hope is in HIM, not in the hoped-for outcome of circumstances.  Being a parent is harder than I could have imagined it to be but maybe one thing I can know because of all the hardship getting here is that my kids are the perfect kids for me and I am the perfect mom for them, even if none of us are perfect at all.  :)

4 Months Old

Today is Nathan's 4-month birthday and Brian's 35th birthday.  More about Brian later...  Here are some birthday pics of Nathan.  The 2nd picture is his reaction when he sees his Dad.  :)  Nathan did try more cereal this morning and did a lot better with it. 

Trying Cereal

Look at my helpers holding Nathan's hands down for his 1st cereal.  Lily was present but didn't feel the need to chip in.  :)  So, yes, I decided to try out cereal with Nathan.  His 4 month birthday is in a couple of days so I felt it was okay timing.  This is earlier than I started the other kids but I remember I started Samuel earlier than the twins because he was bigger.  Nathan is way bigger than any of them so I thought maybe he'd take to it but no.  I mean, I don't expect him to just love it right away (though Samuel did!) but he really was annoyed.  I said in the last post that he's been a little cranky this week so maybe that's part of the issue.  Who knows?!  I won't give up but maybe I will wait until he is over this grumpy phase.  :)

Meeting Great-Grandma

Nathan got to meet my Grandma for the 1st time.  She was staying with my parents in December so we had hoped I would have the baby before she left but she ended up going home the day before Nathan was born.  It was such a bummer!!  Now he's about bigger than her but she got to hold him for a bit.  He hasn't been his usual angelic self this week, though, so it didn't last long.

No Pictures

I have no pictures of my busy, fun weekend but here's what I did:

*Round of lice-killing shampoo in Lily's head (okay, not everything was fun...yuck!)
* Went to Beth Moore's simulcast with my friend, Stephanie, on Saturday.  Sooooo good!!!  I love Beth Moore and this was a great message on insecurity.  I had a lot of fun.
* We went to my niece's 1st birthday party Saturday afternoon and that was fun.  I missed her cake fun but she seemed to like our fake cake we gave her as a gift.  :)
* Nathan has been sleeping until 8am and waking up happy as a clam.  That's been fun but I have felt really tired this weekend so I think my body is confused.  I napped for 1.5 hours today.  :)
* I won a give-away on a blog!  I was so excited.  It was for a Seeds Family Worship CD--I got the CD with verses set to music on the power of encouragement.  I think the kids will love it.

I need to take more pictures, I know.  I am sure I will this week since Brian's birthday is right around the corner...

Heard In My House

H: I still don't understand how we came out of your stomach.
****************************************************************************
L: Mom, I want to go to day care!
Me: You do?
L: Yeah.  I want to go to gymnastics and after school care.
S: I want to go to the beach!
Me: (sigh)
****************************************************************************** 

Spring Concert

Last night was the K-5, plus band, concert for INCA.  Long story short: Hunter did not participate but enjoyed watching from the audience.  He got plenty of attention from his classmates during the actual concert so I think he enjoyed that.  Ha!  I hope he enjoyed the break because the next big event will be kindergarten graduation and he will be participating in that!!!  :)

 It was a great excuse to wear Easter outfits again!

 Lily did a great job in the concert--concentrated and was all about the actions to the songs.  :)  There were times that each class had to sit and wait for their turn to sing.  During those times, Lily was obsessed with her loose tooth and insisted on showing everyone around her repeatedly.  It was too funny!  The little girl on the left is Lily's friend, Laura, and they were funny sitting next to each other--tickling, giggling, etc. 

Weekend Pictures

Here's the proof that Nathan does roll over.  He has not done it in the daytime so I have no pictures.  Usually, when he does it at night, he wakes up crying so this was nice to see this morning--him on his tummy, sleeping peacefully.  I do think it would be hard to be swaddled on your tummy so I don't really blame him for waking up and crying.  We will have to work on that...

And here was our weekend visitor, my Uncle Danny.  We don't see him much the kids weren't too shy around him.  He called Lily "Aunt Andrea" just for their similar chatterbox ways but they are actually similar in their "accident-prone", if I may put it delicately, ways, too!  :)

Nathan's Heart

On Tuesday, Nathan had a chest x-ray in a horrible torture apparatus that was necessary for his appointment today.  We met with Dr. Mark today who is a pediatric cardiologist.  It's all kind of confusing and I know Travis might read this so she can correct anything.  I will explain what I can... 

The murmur that was the cause of everything is soft and benign.  However, since they did the echo, they saw that Nathan has a PFO (patent foramen ovale), which means a flap in his heart did not close at birth.  Apparently, this is somewhat common as 20% of the population has this, as well.  The concern is that the blood is squirting back into the heart and the heart may have to work extra hard.  If the right side of the heart enlarges and the hole seems to be big in relation to the heart size, apparently it will then be called an atrial septal defect.  Following me?

At this point, Nathan is growing well (whopping 16 lbs, 11 oz!!), his EKG looked fine, his x-ray looked fine so there is no concern.  He will go back for an echo and appointment in 1 year to recheck.  If he has problems like above (hole too big, heart enlarged, etc.), then they will close the hole--usually at around 4-5 years old, I guess.  It's an outpatient procedure and low-risk.  Otherwise, they will follow him until 4-5 years old, if needed, and then just release him.  Meantime, Nathan is just a healthy boy who happens to have a structural defect.  Dr. Mark said he is guessing he won't have any problems because he seems to be doing so well. 

Funny side note: the doctor and the nurse both have twins!!  They are everywhere!!  The doctor said that they know what we are going through.  Ha!  Anyway, I guess no one likes to hear something is wrong with their child--especially with the heart--but the doctor did everything he could to be reassuring so we are feeling calm.

Nathan after his EKG.  Such a good baby today--a little squirmy but happy!

Supernanny

Tonight I got to go see Jo Frost, Supernanny, and hear her speak for about an hour.  I then waited in line for 1 hour and 10 minutes to get an autograph and a picture.  It was exhausting but fun!  I actually went by myself because it "sold out" (it was free but the seats were all taken) before I could get anyone to register to go with me.  I think Jo is hilarious, has some great practical how-to tips as well as just reminding parents to enjoy their kids and be positive.  I am glad I went (thanks Andrea for making me follow through--I wasn't sure I wanted to go by myself but it ended up being a great people-watching/eavesdropping opportunity--ha!). 

Happy Easter!

I think this is our 1st picture of all 4 kids together! Kid quote of the day: Lily was fixing up her Tiana doll and said the doll looked beautiful.  Hunter said: "Not as beautiful as you, Lily.".  Awwww!!!!  Lily just perked right up and fixed her dress and smiled so sweetly.  So sweet.

 

Lily took this for Brian and I.  We had to kneel down after a few attempts without our full heads in the picture.  :)  She did a great job on this one!

Chocolate face!

Into the Wii game he got in his Easter basket.  Ignore the mass amount of eggs in the background.  :)

Ornery.  He really got into finding eggs and eating candy today.  He also had fun at church whereas the twins said it was "boring" because K-6th gathered together to watch a movie today.  :)

And one more, unrelated to Easter.  Finally got a picture of Nathan's favorite activity--sucking on his fingers!!

Easter eggs

We got our Easter eggs done!  I had a hard time deciding how many eggs to dye--too many kids to divide eggs between.  We decided to let each kid (old enough to participate) do 6 eggs.  Plenty of eggs, for sure.  No spills this year--that was the main joy! (yes, the 2 oldest are still in pajamas for this activity--I won't admit that we did this at 3 in the afternoon...)

 Hunter went with the rainbow method--multiple colors on each egg.  

 Lily wanted to do one egg in each color--although she had to have some repeats.

 You can see what Samuel chose--guess what his favorite color is??  Yellow was one of his first words and I remember his speech teacher thinking it was a funny choice.  :)

 Nathan hung out in the swing while the other kids colored eggs.  He did roll over the other day but it was while he was sleeping and woke up screaming with his head bobbing all about.  :)  He hasn't done it awake yet.

*My Mom, Brian and I took Hunter, Lily and Samuel to see "How To Train A Dragon" on Friday.  I think we all liked it--Samuel says he didn't but it's hard to know whether to believe him.  :)  Anyway, they had boy/girl twins in the movie--so right on w/the characters.  Very competitive and always wrestling.  It was hilarious.*

*2 funny comments recently: I was at the kindergarten walk-a-thon and Lily and her partner told me that they were not going to play at recess.  Instead, they were going to discuss the "sin in our hearts".  Ha!  I just said okay--although, later, Lily told me she did play.  :)  Later that same day, we were at my parents' house and the kids were outside playing.  Hunter came in and my Dad asked him what he was doing outside.  He said, "Nothing.  Just sitting.  Like Jesus in the Garden--praying to God.".  Too cute!*

Happy Easter!