November, Generalized

November was a tumultuous month, but I survived. While I got Dancy stabilized into bottle feeding and gaining weight (she's gained 3 lbs in 2 months now, putting her just over 13 lbs), I also had to deal with the hormones and PMS of quitting breastfeeding. That might sound like too much information, but given that I've been pregnant or breastfeeding or both for the last 4 years, that was a lot of turmoil for me to suddenly be done. I was getting my house ready for 11 Thanksgiving house guests, and coordinating a photo shoot over the holiday. At the same time, I was also getting 4-5 emails a day for a week from my mom's family trying to coordinate their family reunion next summer and book a lodge big enough for the group. It was a pretty urgent matter as accommodations were filling up fast. To complicate life more, my British pen pal offered to fly us out to Southern France to finally meet him and spend time with our mutual Chinese friend who is studying at university there. So I rushed out and applied for passports for the kids. Remarkably, they arrived back in exactly 2 weeks! Unfortunately, scheduling didn't work out, so we'll try again later. We've been trying to get things to work out for 5 years. We'll get it right some day:) We celebrated Shad's birthday. I canned 7 quarts each of Chicken Soup, Harvest Chicken Chowder, Split Pea Soup, and Manhattan Salmon Chowder, and 9 pints of enchilada sauce, and vegetable broth made from scraps I've stored up in my freezer.

So while I was otherwise busy taking care of everything, Tom and Katie had quality cuddle time with each other and their DVD player.

 

Note Katie's leg warmers. She's always wearing a pair, if at all possible.

 

Katie loves to help feed Dancy Cheerios.

 

 

We had lots of hot chocolate treats, and the kids were quick to open up my baking cabinet to find marshmallows and sprinkles that they could throw in.

 

 

And Katie had loads of fun playing with all the dress up clothes she got for her birthday. She plays dress up 24/7. Seriously, she'll dress up before going to bed. She loves to be Batman.

 

 

Oh, and our furnace pilot light went out, and our water softener broke, filling our water lines with sediment, both just a week before Thanksgiving. Shad got to scoop it out of our toilet tank.

 

 

Luckily, we got all that fixed before guests arrived. Cherean and David arrived Tuesday night before Thanksgiving with their son John, who is 2 months older than Tommy, and Hyrum, who is one. Vern, Pris and Levi, and Dan and Ryan arrived the next afternoon. Jimmy and Kerry came up in the evening, but didn't spend the night. Shad gave Cherean, David, Dan, Levi and I a tour of Natoma that afternoon after work while Vern and Pris watched their grandkids. We all left the kids with Vern and Pris again after dinner and went to the theater to see Catching Fire. Shad and I got in for free because we had worked at the theater the previous Friday for opening weekend, but then the theater was full, so we couldn't get in.

 

Believe it or not, I didn't take any pictures over Thanksgiving, and the few Shad took on his phone are all blurry movements of kids. The kids had fun playing and watching movies, the adults had fun chatting, playing games, Frisbee golf and ping pong. I taught Hyrum how to go down the stairs, and he had so much fun playing on them.

Baby Trouble

No, that's not a pregnancy announcement, though I do get asked almost weekly.

The past two months have been really stressful and mostly miserable. I noticed my milk supply decreasing when Dancy was about 3.5 months old. I drank over a gallon a day and it still was never enough for her. I stopped exercising so that what I did have might have more calories. I started feeding her Cheerios to supplement just before she was 4 months old. My friend Mallory told me that Dancy is lip-tied, meaning that her top lip is attached to her gums by a bit of tissue. Being lip-tied or tongue-tied makes it so that the baby cannot suck properly and therefore decreases the mother's milk supply, despite any efforts she may make to increase her supply. Well, that made me feel better to know it wasn't my fault. So I took Dancy to the doctor.

I pointed out the lip-tie and expressed my concerns that it was making my milk supply decrease. I asked if we could get it cut. Two doctors told me, "You've breastfed her long enough. Just keep feeding her what you can and start feeding her food and formula if you need to." You know what upsets me? If the stinking medical world touts that "breast is best," why did I get brushed aside when I asked for help? Why is 3 months of breastfeeding enough? I can't afford formula, nor do I want to if something easy like snipping the tie would allow me to continue feeding my daughter breast milk. One of Mallory's daughters tore her lip-tie while playing (at age 3). Dancy and I had both been frustrated with the situation for a few weeks before we went to the doctor, and nobody seemed to care. Obviously I'm still getting over some bitterness. That was the beginning of October, and her weigh-in was 10 lbs. 9 oz. (almost 4 lbs. over birth weight).

Over the course of the month, Dancy went from being a happy, playful, slightly fussy baby to screaming all the time. I could never set her down without her screaming at me. She wouldn't play with anyone and screamed if we tried to play with her. She used to laugh when I bounced her, but all through October, she screamed. Stress levels went through the roof. She stressed me out; I stressed her out. I didn't count the number of times I wanted to hurt myself or her because I was past my limits. Or the number of times I cried at night because I was dreading another day with her. I was feeding her yogurt, Cheerios, oatmeal, mashed fruit, noodles, etc, in addition to her trying to get whatever milk she could from me. She was loving eating, but seemed to just scream every time after she ate. She started waking up in the night to eat once or twice, where she had been sleeping through the night before. I allowed it because I figured she could use all the extra food she could get.

Two weeks ago on Sunday I missed an hour of church trying to console a screaming Dancy. I couldn't take it any more. Monday was my limit and I couldn't take it anymore. After we visited Shad for lunch, I called the clinic to make an appointment that day to get Dancy checked out. I found refuge at Brandi Seamon's house until the appointment. Tom and Katie were so happy to play with Marcus and I was happy not to have to be alone with my baby. When we got in to the doctor, Dancy weighed in at 10 lbs. 3 oz. WITH HER CLOTHES ON. That meant that she'd lost 6 oz. in a month and was barely 3.5 lbs. over birth weight, at 5.5 months old. It's one thing to be a tiny baby, but no matter what your genetics are, babies aren't supposed to lose weight. This time I was told to start feeding her a special kind of formula (which we've been able to get via WIC).

Dancy quit taking bottles about 3 months ago. So Tuesday Dancy had bottle training. I took her to Mallory's house to get help giving her the first bottle. When she finally took it, it had been 5 hours since she last ate. Six hours later she consented to taking another bottle from Shad. I decided I had to completely drop breastfeeding, but pump what I could, so that she wouldn't refuse the bottle again. I found that in a 24 hour period, I could pump out 4 oz. and it took me almost an hour to do so. Four months ago I could pump 4 oz. in five minutes every three hours. No wonder I had a screaming baby! She was starving! I hadn't pumped in 3 months since she quit taking bottles, so I had no idea how much she was getting, I just knew I wasn't ever producing enough for her.

One week later she weighed in at 10 lbs. 9 oz. again. She takes 6-7 ounces every 3-4 hours, and will snack on solid food as well. She feels heavier and thicker. She happily plays on the floor; grabs me to smile, chat, giggle and play; is rolling front to back (she wasn't doing anything before when she wouldn't let me put her on the floor) and almost rolling back to front; flirts with store cashiers.

She cuddles with Tom and Katie.

 

It's so nice to be able to have family play time now.

 

http://youtu.be/zQ97BnqGkJA

 

 

Smiling! Yay!

 

I love baby sneezes:)

 

Moral of the story: now that I know about lip-ties and tongue-ties, I'll start checking every baby's mouth before we leave the hospital and get them clipped as soon as possible. Not gonna take "no" for an answer again.

Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Messy!

Our biggest fascination on Netflix is Magic School Bus. Ms. Frizzle reminds me of a middle school teacher I had. So funny to see that now, rewatching the show. But every episode, "The Frizz" encourages the kids to "Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" To learn by exploring and living. Reminds me of a Chinese quote I read in a book on homeschooling--"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I know." So I've been having the kids be more involved in their lives.

 

One Sunday while Tom was still napping, Katie made banana chocolate chip cookies with Shad.

 

 

Dough is always the best part.

 

When Colorado flooded in September, we got loads of rain too. It created mud for Katie.

 

Tom doesn't like to get messy like Katie does. She flecked a little mud on him and he freaked out.

 

But Katie played with it by the pail load. Got it all over our ready-for-the-curb couch (which has since gone), as well as most of their porch toys.

 

One evening we went for a walk to find puddles.  We had no trouble finding them.

 

Look at this boy's face! This is essence of Tom.

 

The kids had a warm bubble bath when we got home.

 

Peanut butter.

 

Delight.

 

In our mess making, we're learning about clean up, too.

 

Tom's an eager helper.

 

Tom and Katie have been practicing flying lately.

 

We watched all of the British tv show Merlin over the summer. This time Katie fell asleep watching while eating pizza for dinner.

 

And she kept eating.

 

Still asleep.

 

Yes, she's still asleep.

 

She didn't finish her pizza, but she did make a good effort and we have to give her credit, considering she was ASLEEP!

Anniversary

Our anniversary was September 12th, and since we had already gone out to dinner in the name of it and it was awful beyond reason (Casa Bonita should be labeled: Not fit for consumption of self-respecting human beings), Shad told me at lunch that day not to cook what I had planned on cooking, because HE was going to cook for me.  Oh, my goodness! Did he ever!

 

Chicken and bacon (cooked together) on penne in a ranch-olive oil-parsley sauce, topped with shredded parmesan cheese

Ginger-honey glazed carrots

"Vegetarian Oysters" aka garden tomatoes he got at work that day

 

 

Oh, it was delightful!

 

And we got to share our meal with two of our favorite people.

 

I've been in love with these Swedish Dala horses ever since I read The Christmas Elves by Jan Brett in elementary school.  I love her books! These Dala horses are crazy expensive though! $18 for a 1 inch tall horse, $25 for a 3 inch one, and roughly $80 for the foot tall one pictured below. Guess how much Shad was able to MAKE that for? $2. Free wood, a can of clear spray paint, a bottle of orange poppy acrylic paint, and the rest we already had in stock.

 

I love seeing it on top of my piano all the time!

 

I made Shad a spooning sign.

 

 

And "I love us."

 

Halloween

This photo shoot is brought to you by Aqua, the 90s band, compliments of our recent snag of a guy's full 90s music collection during Trash Swap Weekend.

Dancy was ready for bed.

 

"Katie, show me how you dance!"

 

She's a big fan of swimsuits, and I had hidden them away for the season until yesterday when she found them while I was sick. Thankfully, she decided to wear it ON TOP of her clothes today instead of as is and then telling me she's cold.

 

Watching Tom put on his underwear because we discovered it was on backwards.

 

I told Tom that he was being a pirate for Halloween. He said, "No, I'm Captain Hook!" Alright, well, Captain Hook, Katie can be your wench. "No, she's Mr. Smee!" Shad said that's much better.

 

This boy's got moves.

 

She accessorized herself.

 

This kid is awesome.

 

So, Halloween last year was slightly sinful, in that we didn't watch Hocus Pocus OR The Nightmare Before Christmas. Who does that? We did, however, go trick-or-treating and to the Christian Church carnival. This year, Shad didn't really want to go to the carnival because Tom was overly crazy at it last year, and I didn't really want to go trick-or-treating because it took way to long last year, but I wanted to go to the carnival. I told Shad I didn't care if we participated in ANY of that Halloween stuff, so long as we watched those movies.

 

We kinda both won. We watched Hocus Pocus for Family Home Evening on Monday. We found out on Tuesday that the carnival would be on Wednesday instead of Thursday because of a sports game that would be taking away all of the high schoolers who run the carnival activities. Shad goes to Phillipsburg on Wednesday nights for youth activities, so I took the kids alone. By the way, HUGE POINTS to Sister Jones for coming up with the awesome Halloween service project of cleaning headstones in the cemetery and combining it with a scavenger hunt (points to the person who found the oldest grave). I'm SO jealous!

 

Shad helped me get the kids ready for the carnival, and then we left just a bit after he did. I explained to Tom and Katie that they were not allowed to run around and be crazy. They needed to stay by me, listen and obey me, and we'd all have lots of fun. But if they ran around being crazy, we'd have to go home. Oh, were they so good! I got compliments on my well-behaved kids. AND I got away only giving them each one chocolate coin and a mini cupcake. Score for that.

 

Our plan for Thursday was to have me go trick-or-treating with Tom and Katie, and Mallory, Haddie and Eden, while Shad and Paul stayed at our house handing out candy with Dancy and Micaiah. Remember how I was the one who didn't want to go trick-or-treating and Shad was? I still don't know how that ended up being our plan, but it was. Luckily, my digestive system decided to rebel against me Thursday morning, and so we called in sick with Halloween. We popped some popcorn and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, despite all of Tom's protests that he hates that movie. Psh! He's never seen it before, and was begging to watch it again tonight. Ah, the education of Little Tree in filmography...