Cooking lessons?

Does anyone need a cooking lesson on how to operate the microwave? If so, don't ask Nathan! I mentioned in an earlier post that his gums are inflamed. Therefore he did not eat much this past weekend which leads into the story.

Saturday for lunch we just had hamburgers, hot dogs and mac-n-cheese. Nathan does not like mac-n-cheese, so he just had a hot dog. He poured what seemed like half a bottle of ketchup on his hot dog and bun and takes one bite. He then claims that his mouth hurts and does not eat the rest of his hot dog. Bruce and I are tired of both boys only taking a bite or two of food and then deciding that they no longer want it, so we put his plate in the microwave for him to eat later when he got hungry.

Sure enough, about 3:00 Nathan says he is hungry and wants a popsicle. We tell him that he has to eat his hot dog before he can get a popsicle. He goes into the kitchen and feels his hot dog and says that he wants to warm it up. He asks me how long he should put it in the microwave. (I should mention that I am feeding Justin at this time, and Nathan has used the microwave a couple of times with no problem.) I tell him to put the plastic lid over his hot dog because I don't want ketchup splattering all over the microwave and that he should put it in for 15 seconds to start. A few minutes pass, and I can smell hot dog in the living room. I assume that he is sitting in the kitchen eating his hot dog. Then Nathan sticks his head in the living room and asks if I can come into the kitchen for a minute.

I can smell it before I can see it. (Bruce followed me into the kitchen, but I am not sure if he sensed something was wrong, if he was looking for a snack or if he could smell what happened.) Nathan tells me to look in the microwave and his hot dog and bun are black and charbroiled. The square plastic plate has a "golden" look to it and the microwave cover is also golden. We take the plate and cover outside so that it doesn't stink up the house even more. I asked Nathan how long he put his hot dog in the microwave for. He said one-one-one. I told him that he was lying and asked him again how long he put it in the microwave. This time he said one-one-one-five. When he must have realized that something was wrong he opened the microwave and the time on the screen then read 6:08. He had his hot dog in there for over five minutes!

I kept my calm and tried not to breath to deeply as it really stunk! I clean up the mess the best I can and put a bowl of baking soda in the microwave to try and absorb the smell. Nathan never did get anything to eat that afternoon.....

Matching outfits

"Let's both wear jeans tomorrow." I remember saying something along those lines to my friend Gail when I was Nathan's age. We would tell each other that the next time we were to see each other that we would wear our jean skirts, with knee socks and a headband. Or some variation of that outfit depending on the weather. I thought that only girls did that kind of planning, but apparently not.

Nathan told me last night that he has to wear his jeans, stripped shirt, belt and cowboy boots tomorrow to daycare because that is what Derek said he was going to wear. I was hoping that he would forget about saying that, but this morning he had his jeans on and his shirt out before I could even think about it.

We were running late this morning for daycare, and Derek was arriving as I was leaving. He had on his jeans, a sweatshirt (so I am not sure what kind of shirt he was wearing) but no boots. Chrissy said that his boots don't fit anymore, and you can tell that they both battled over it this morning.

Random thoughts

Thankfully over the weekend, Justin's cough has gotten much better. He still coughs a little, but it is not nearly as frequent or as violent as it was. As long as he doesn't regress on his cold like I have been, we can say that he is on the mend. For the past three weeks, I have gotten a sore throat and then it goes away. I get all congested and it goes away. As soon as I think I am doing better, I get another symptom.

We had our Sunday family dinner yesterday. We have now been doing this for a year. I can't speak for any of my other siblings, but I think that this has definitely been a good thing. Darren loves to play with his "buddy" Jenna, and they probably get along the best of all the cousins. I have gotten to know Julia better, and she doesn't get scared when we talk to her anymore. That has been a combination of seeing her more frequently and her coming out of her shell.

We also drew gift exchange names yesterday for Christmas! At first I thought that was awfully early, but then I remembered that I will get my Christmas Club money in about two weeks, so I guess it isn't too early! I think the boys, at least the older two, are going to be getting big ticket items so there won't be much else for them when it comes time to open gifts.

Nathan's gums have been inflamed. His appetite has also been off. Not sure what is going on with him. I will just have to keep an eye on him.

Darren came into our room this morning as I was getting in the shower. I could hear Justin fussing over the monitor and I imagine that is what woke Darren up. Instead of going back to sleep, he was up and helping me get ready this morning. He is so helpful that it takes twice as long to get ready in the morning.

Two month checkup

With the Open House we had at work last night, I have been super busy and am just now getting around to making an entry about Justin's two month checkup on Wednesday.

Justin had his two month checkup on Wednesday (even though he was ten weeks old yesterday) and everything was good. I may have my percentages mixed up, but I believe he was in the 90th percentile for weight and 85th percentile for length and head circumference. He weighed in at 13 lbs 1 oz and measured 24" long. He has gained three pounds since his two week checkup, or four pounds since birth.

I asked the doctor about all the coughing he has been doing lately and the fact that he sounds congested. The doctor tried to tell me that it was allergies. I pushed him a little bit, and I know I sounded dubious when I was questioning him, but he kept saying allergies. I think it is just a cold and that he has a mucus build-up, and coughs so hard to get rid of it. He coughs and coughs, and turns red and it is almost to much to bear watching a newborn cough like that. Justin and I both got a cold about the same time, and we are both suffering from symptoms of the cold. Neither one of us can shake it, and it has been going on for almost two weeks. If he doesn't get better over the weekend, we may take him to Urgent Care over the weekend or I will look for a different doctor to get another opinion.

Wet the bed

Nathan will be so embarrassed to know that I am telling this story, but it is something very unusual for him. Last night Bruce told Nathan to go to the bathroom before he fell asleep on the couch. Well, he was so comfortable that he didn't want to get up and we didn't push the issue. He was sleeping by 9:00 and Bruce went to bed soon after that. I stayed up to read my book for a while since I hadn't had a chance to read it all day. I went to bed about 10:00.

Not fifteen-twenty minutes later I hear something. I strain my ears to hear what it was. Eventually I realize that it is Nathan crying. I go into the living room where he was to see if he had a bad dream. I didn't turn any lights on because he is crying and I didn't want to blind either one of us. I meet Nathan just inside the dining room and ask what is wrong. Before he can say anything, I hear a sound that sounds like water dripping. I realize that he is peeing himself. He couldn't stop, and rather than leave a wet trail, I just let him finish peeing there on the hardwood floor. I run to get a few towels and some dry underwear. I clean everything up and send him back to bed. He returns to the couch.

This morning he is laying on the other end of the couch. Sure enough, he is wet again. He didn't feel to wet, but I did not feel the couch to see how wet it was. I didn't have enough time this morning to deal with cleaning it up.

About forty-five minutes ago I get a call from daycare saying that Nathan doesn't want to eat and has a temperature of 101. I guess he wasn't lying last night when he said that his head hurt. It is very unusual for him to pee his pants, and even more unusual to do it twice in one night. Rarely does he come into our room to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. We have had a few instances where he was really dancing waiting for me to get in the bathroom with a flashlight, but he has never gotten me up and then wet himself.

Fall allergies

Poor Darren. I have Justin's two-month checkup on Wednesday and I am going to have to ask the doctor about Darren's allergies. His allergies seem to get worse in the fall.

Every night he has a runny nose, sneezes and has red eyes. The past few nights have been extremely bad. After dinner, his eyes are so red and there is so much matter forming in the corner of his eyes that you think he has pinkeye. You have to wipe the "eye burgers" every ten minutes or so, and they continue to mat. He says his eyes hurt and he is always rubbing them. He gets up the next morning and his eyes are fine and no more matter has accumulated.

I am sure having our windows open does not help his allergies. We will probably close them again for the next few days since it is supposed to be muggy, and we will see if that helps. We may just have to keep the air conditioner on in the fall despite the fact that it is cooler outside than it is in the house. Although Darren never complains.

Stuntman in the making?

A few weeks ago, I took the three boys for a walk. Nathan and Darren walked while Justin was in his stroller. Since Darren walked at a slower pace, I walked with Darren while Nathan pushed Justin in the stroller.

Nathan was lifting the strollers front wheels and "popping" a wheelie." I told Nathan to stop doing that as he could tip the stroller over to far. I reassured myself that if Nathan would dump Justin that Justin is strapped in so he should be okay.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am laid-back about darn near everything. The other thing that Nathan was doing to Justin in the stroller about gave me heart palpitations. He would walk with the stroller, give it a push a let go. He was doing this on the sidewalk where a car pulling out of the driveway could have hit the stroller, or the stroller hit a bump and veer onto the road.

I guess that technically Nathan would not be the stuntman since Justin was the one "performing" all the tricks, but apparently Nathan doesn't see anything wrong with what he was doing.

Why up so early?

This morning, via the monitor, I hear Justin in his crib fidgeting around about 3:30 am. I fall into a light sleep, and hear him off and on until about 5:00 when he starts crying. Because I have been spoiled by him and he has slept thru the night for over four weeks, I was cursing a little bit about having to get up. I get into his room and pick him up and realize why he was crying. Since he is a belly sleeper, his diaper had leaked and his entire front was soaking wet. I get him up, change his diaper and go ahead and put his clothes on him for the day. Then I figure that I may as well feed him his bottle.

At 5:30, my usual waking time, I lay him down in the boys bed (since they are both laying on my bedroom floor at this time) and jump in the shower. When I get the two older boys up to get ready, I ask them if they know where their brother is sleeping at. When I tell them that Justin is sleeping in their bed, they do not believe me. They were quite amazed to see that I was telling them the truth and they thought it was neat that their brother was in their bed.

Justin does not leak thru his diapers during the day, but since he is starting to leak at night, I will have to move him up a diaper size (at least at night).

"Rocking the Beer Gut"

Yesterday evening while I was making dinner, I turned the radio on. I have really been into country music lately and so that is the station we were listening to. The new song "Rocking the Beer Gut" comes on and I am dancing around acting silly for the two older boys. After the song was over Nathan asked me what does a beer gut mean. I explained to him that a beer gut was a big belly; like Dad and Grandpa Mark. Nathan takes a second to digest the information then says that I have a beer gut. Abashed I admit that I do, but that he shouldn't tell anybody. Then he starts singing, "Mom has a Beer Gut." Of course he is giggling and thinking that he is hilarious.

Meal time

Darren's appetite had been off for about ten days after his surgery, but it is back to normal or he may even eat more now than before. Last night Bruce was at Eldora for the big race so it was just me and the three boys for dinner. When we got home from daycare, Darren started eating cereal for a snack while I cleaned out the daycare diaper bag and tried to figure out what to make. After racking my brain, Darren takes the matter out of my hands and asks to have the remaining leftover spaghetti. I heat it up and the amount that is left is his normal serving size.

While Darren is eating I ask Nathan what he wants. I suggest all the easy things that we usually have for lunch. Pizza rolls, chicken nuggets, peanut butter & jelly, grilled cheese, soup, hot dogs, spaghetti-o's, mac-n-cheese, Ramen noodles and Hot Pockets. He didn't want any of the food I suggested. He said that he would have one grape for dinner. He was so anxious to get outside to play, but I told him that he couldn't go out to play until he ate and he had to eat something "good" for him. Finally he decided that he wanted a pretzel (the ones you bake in the oven). I love pretzels (the ones you bake in the oven & the snack food) so we usually always have some on hand. I baked myself and him some pretzels and he ate one. I said you need to eat more and he said he wasn't hungry. He asked if he could go out and play and I said yes but you aren't getting any snacks tonight because you need to eat more now. He told me again that he wasn't hungry.

At this time, Darren eats all of his spaghetti and requested pizza rolls. He must have thought that sounded good after hearing it suggested. So I microwave Darren five pizza rolls and he eats every one. Darren then had a some grapes. We decide to talk a walk then. As we are walking past Annie's house (she is a teacher at daycare who lives about four houses down) she is sitting outside talking to Nathan so we stop to talk. She offers the boys cookies and juice. She then fills a baggie with a dozen cookies for us to take home.

At 9:00 or so Nathan is begging for food. He claims that he is starving. I refuse to let him have any food, reminding him that he should have ate more for dinner. I let Darren have a snack which he didn't think was fair but I reminded him that Darren ate dinner. He then throws a temper tantrum and cries. He eventually cried himself to sleep in front of my chair where he threw his tantrum. Then he didn't want breakfast this morning even though I reminded him that he was starving last night.

I know that Nathan is anxious to get outside to play and that is why he never wants to eat at meal time. I hope that by not letting him have any snacks in the evening is the only way he will learn to eat at mealtime so we need to stick to our guns on this no matter how much he whines and cries. It is easier for me to tune out the crying than it is for Bruce, but it is going to have to be done.

Justin's personality

Justin is a mini-me! Sunday night we were invited to a cook-out at about 4:00 and it was going to start about 6:30. We went to the cookout, sat outside and talked and watched the kids play. I feed Justin about 9:30 that night and held him until he fell asleep in my arms. I then put him the car seat where he sat and slept until we went home about 11:00. I put him to bed and he did not get up until 9:30 the next morning!! He may not have even got up then if it wasn't for the two older boys yelling for their breakfast. I need to get him out in the fresh air more often because when he gets fresh air, he sleeps with no problems.

I know that I already mentioned that Justin smiles, but he is starting to smile when he feels like it instead of at random. If you talk to him in a sing-song voice or a happy, cheerful voice that will get you a smile. You can also rub his check or his nose and that will usually earn you a smile also. If you kiss him rapidly, he does a smile/laugh that I love. I will do any number of the above things repeatedly just to see him smile. I will get a smile and do it all over again for like five minutes just because I love to see him smile.

Bruce thinks that his nickname should be Squirrel, but I am not sold on it yet. He seems to think that he needs a nickname right away, but I keep saying to wait a while and see how his personality develops. Anyone have any ideas??

Another head injury

The other night rescue squad members were going around town trying to recruit new members. They are a volunteer organization, and membership is getting dangerously low. I appreciate what they do and thanked them for doing their job but it wasn't for me for several reasons. I told them that I would not, could not do it because I do not do well at the sight of blood and gore. A few nights later only proved what I told them....

We keep a pillow in front of Bruce's nightstand for the nights that Nathan comes into our room. Friday night Nathan was outside playing, Bruce was getting out of the shower, I was changing out of my work clothes, and Justin was laying on the bed. Darren comes into our room, sits down, and flops back onto the pillow. Unfortunately he must have been to far back because he hit his head on the nightstand. Bruce immediately picked him up and comforted him. Once the crying subsided a little, he laid Darren on our bed and told him that he was lucky that he got to lay on Dad's side of the bed. After a minute or two, he changed positions. It was then that I started to freak out. There was a big, wet blood stain on the bed. I am pretty laid back about everything with my kids, including injuries, but blood makes me flip out.

I was ready to load the kids in the van, drop Nathan and Justin off at Mom's, and take Darren to the hospital for stitches. Luckily once Bruce cleaned up the blood there was just a small cut (more like a hole) and not too deep. It stopped bleeding almost right away, so we decided that it did not need stitches. He does have a slight knot there with his scab. We figure that he caught the corner of the handle and that is what gave him his cut. Thank goodness one of us had a cool head.

Country vs. town

Over the long Holiday weekend, Nathan spent the entire time outside. On Saturday he kept begging me and asking if he could go over to one of the neighbors house. I asked him why he couldn't play by himself. He said it was more fun to play with other kids. Then I made a big mistake....

I told him that someday when we move out into the country there will not be other kids to play with and he better get used to playing by himself. He immediately started crying and saying that he doesn't want to move out into the country, that he wants to stay in this house forever! Bruce and I just looked at each other, chuckled and rolled our eyes.

The thing is that the kids he plays with now are about too big to play with him for much longer. Leslie will be seven next month and Brent just went into the fifth grade so that puts him about eleven. I guess he is so used to playing with other kids at daycare, that it is natural for him to want to play with other kids when he is at home.

Nathan's vacation

Recently while Darren was having his tonsils removed, Mom watched Nathan and Justin for me. Because of Darren's age, he had to spend the night at the hospital in the department called Almost Home. That is for kids who stay less than 24 hours so technically they don't stay the night. Mom got the boys from early Monday morning until early Tuesday morning.

She called the night before the surgery (Sunday) and suggested that Nathan spend the night on Tuesday so that Darren has a chance to rest without Nathan picking on him. We picked Justin up Tuesday morning and went home and enjoyed the quiet. Nathan's two nights of vacation turned into four nights. We didn't pick him up until Friday after dinner. Even then he didn't want to leave, but I think that Mom and Dad (not to mention Stacey and Bill) were ready for him to go.

When he is out there, he works as hard as any five year old can work. When he sees a chore on the farm for the first time, he remembers exactly how it was done. If someone varies slightly from how he seen it done the first time, he lets you know that you aren't doing it right. If he was a little bigger, he could do all the chores himself. He always has to be in the middle of what is going on at the farm. He will ask Bill and Grandpa what they are doing, and whoever is doing a more exciting job, is who Nathan will spend the day with.

I know that he is a smart kid, but he can aggravate me to no end. You ask him what he did on the farm and he "forgets," yet he can remember how to feed the pigs or everything you need to do to wean pigs. I guess he is a typical guy and has a selective memory.

I think he had a slight regression when Justin was born as he claims he couldn't remember his name for the first week, ten days. Again, it goes back to remembering what he wants to remember.

Darren's recovery

People keep asking me if Justin is keeping me up at night. They are shocked to learn Justin isn't the problem, it's Darren. Darren had his tonsils and adenoids out on August 24, ten days ago. He wakes up several times a night crying and saying that his throat hurts. He refuses medicine of any type. When we give him his antibiotics he spits it out and the same thing happens with the pain medicine. Bruce and I have to hold him down, hold his arms down and I have to pinch his nose closed so that he opens his mouth. Then when I put the medicine in, he ends up spitting most of it out. I have tried to put his pain medicine in with his beverage, but he always tastes it so he will quit drinking that.

Finally yesterday evening, we are starting to notice Darren acting more like himself. His appetite is almost back to normal, and he only woke us up once last night. The allergy report on the news yesterday said that there was a high weed(?) count, and since he has refused to take his allergy medicine, part of the reason he woke last night could be because of his allergies.

He always wants to play outside but he just can't be trusted. I have let him play in the sandbox by himself with stern warnings from me that he does not leave. I watch him from the kitchen window ready to run outside if he leaves the sandbox. Sure enough, he leaves the sandbox so I have to chase him. It is no different when Bruce and I sit on the front porch and he rides his bike. We tell him not to go past a certain brick post that is a boundary line, but he always rides past that post. We scoop him up and take him in the house so that he learns that he has to listen.

Update on Justin

Here are some random thoughts and memories about Justin:

Bruce thinks that his nickname should be Squirrel, but I don't think it works with Monkey and Skeeter. Maybe it will grow on me.

Although Justin was never up a lot at night time, he still got up once in the middle of the night to eat. When I was complaining to someone that he was four weeks old and still got up in the middle of the night they thought I was crazy. I was expecting a lot from him as the other two boys slept thru the night at two and three weeks. I decided to let him sleep on his belly for a night to see how he did, and he did great. He has been sleeping on his belly since. I would feed him about 9:30 and he would go to bed about 10:00 and then get up anywhere from 5:00-8:00. I thought that I could handle that when I go back to work. So far though, I have had to wake him up the past two mornings to get ready for daycare. Yeah!!

He is also starting to smile more frequently. When he smiles at me, it just about makes my heart melt.

So far, he has been a really good baby. A guy I work with also has three boys and he claims that the third one basically raises himself. I know that Justin is still too young, but he has been very easy going. Darren has stepped on him on more than one occasion and he has barely cried. He gets put in awkward positions when his brother holds him or when the neighbor girls hold him.

When I was in the hospital and had him, I did cry a little. Knowing that he was my last child, and that I would not have any more made me a little emotional. I never got that emotional with the other two other than being very happy/excited that they finally arrived and were healthy.

I think that Justin is going to be a mini-Nathan. Justin looks identical to Nathan's baby pictures, and he is built more like Nathan. He also has that same "bump" in the middle of his forehead. It's like in the middle/center of the forehead two bones meet and don't quite meet and lay even. When Nathan gets hot, it looks like he has a small goose-egg in the middle of his forehead.

First day of work

Yesterday was my first day of work following maternity leave. As always, I didn't have any problems leaving the baby at daycare. My problems were that it takes a lot longer to get everyone ready in the morning and get their bag packed. In the evening it is chaos in the house. I think that once we get in a routine, things will improve but until then I guess I will just have to feel overwhelmed.

I can completely see why people go to part-time once they have kids. I would still need to work because I really appreciate being with adults and being challenged, but to work a few hours less a day would be great. I may change my tune once we get in a routine, but I know that it would be great to be home early enough to have dinner ready by 6:00-6:30 instead of 7:00-7:30. When I was on maternity leave we would eat 6:00-6:30 and leave dinner dishes sit so that we could go outside, or do just anything else, and then I would do the dinner dishes the next morning. I don't see me going to part-time anytime soon with the job I currently have, but it is nice to dream.

Pied Piper

Last night when I got home from work, Bruce left for a few hours. That left me home alone, after my first day of work, with three kids. I have been home with three kids for several weeks, but I don't have a routine yet on how the evenings will go.

Anyway, Nathan was playing outside with the neighbor boy Brent, and Darren was whining and begging to go outside. Since it was such a nice evening, I put Justin in his car seat and we all went outside. Darren was playing and having fun when he decided he wanted to go for a wagon ride. Darren climbed in one side of the wagon and I set Justin's car seat on the other side. As soon as I started walking, two neighbor girls came over to ask if they could hold Justin. I told them as soon as we were done with the walk, they could hold him. We had to look funny walking down the sidewalk as I had two kids in a wagon and four kids walking behind me. I kept thinking that we had to look like the Pied Piper!

On a side note, listening to the two nine year old girls makes me very grateful I have all boys! Another girl about the same age came up to talk to them during the walk and she was basically ignored. When the two neighbor girls got to hold Justin finally the same girl comes up and hands them a note. I heard them read it out loud and it said that she hated those two girls with all her heart. I am sure that tonight when I get home all three of the girls will be playing with each other. Such drama.

I'm back....

Since I don't have a computer at home, it makes it really hard to make any type of posts. Whenever I did have access to a computer, my kids were running around screaming and so nothing could be accomplished then. You can now look forward to semi-regular posts since I am back to work and can get it done in a few minutes.