Birthday Aftermath

Favorite dance party music: Trolls

Thora has become obsessed with dancing in front of the fireplace glass.

Sam...just fingers in the mouth.

Such a happy way for this boy to start the morning: finding Mom and Dad's leftover popcorn on the table. "This is soooo good, Mom!"

I started potty training Sam in early March. He had been there every step of the way with me potty training Thora: "Good job, Fowa, you did it!" "Wow, dat's a huge poop! Let's dump it! Now wash yow hands." "Mom, Fowa's calling you! Run! She needs help!" "Yay! Let's get Skittles!" My mom said she trained both of my brothers at the same time and that two wasn't much different than one. So I gave it a try. He mastered pee in a day. Became comfortable sitting on the potty seat, sitting on the toilet with the insert seat, standing to pee like Dad, and letting me hold him up to pee in a public toilet. But the poop readiness never came. I knew he'd have his poops in the morning and I'd have him sit repeatedly and try pushing, only to have to clean his underwear or the floor five minutes later. People suggested just putting a diaper or pullup on him to go out in public so I wouldn't have to worry about accidents, but then he'd pee in those and be confused later as to whether he was wearing underwear or a diaper and I'd have two or three accidents a day to clean up. I tried taking a break, but then he'd be upset at not getting to wear his underwear, or I'd forget that he was wearing a diaper and it'd get so full and fall off him and then I'd still walk out of the library with an accident. But finally, after a long stressful headache of a struggle, I succeeded in getting us backed out of potty training and on a break for the summer. We'll resume in the fall unless Sam suddenly expresses interest in pooping in the toilet. He still loves to pee in the toilet from time to time, so that's nice for me that I won't have to completely start all over.

Sometimes I walk into a room and hear voices but don't see humans. And then they back themselves out from under the bed.

{Sam and Dancy}

This is the face of one who is happy to be sitting on his toilet and has just eaten blueberry pie.

Tommy reading to Samson...

...and Samson reading to Tommy.

Shad sent me out for a break one night, so I got my hair cut, then went to Mimi's Café to eat crème brulee while reading War and Peace, which I started before Sam's birthday and am still only some 86 pages in on May 12. The rest of my family set up awesome car ramps while I was gone.

{Katie, Thora, Dancy, Samson}

{Samson, Dancy, Thora, Tommy, Katie}

{Tommy, Katie, Thora, Samson}

March 14 is Pi Day, and we celebrated by eating circular foods and learning what Pi means. Retention levels may be low at this age, but I think they at least remember why March 14 is Pi Day. Bagels for breakfast, pizza for lunch. I don't remember what they had for dinner because I had to go to Canon City for a work event and to meet my exchange student I'm supervising. Cucumbers were probably involved, though.

Thora with her bagel

Sam with his

There were times when he would actually poop in the toilet, but I can only count 3 times in a month and a half. And we'd praise and celebrate the heck out of it, load him up with treats to eat, clap and cheer, take pictures to send to Grandma, let him call Grandma, and still he wouldn't care to do it again. Ugh!

I read Everyone Poops countless times trying to get this boy to make a movement, and still I got no reward. Except for the very first time I read the book and got to this page and read, "What does whale poop look like?" Without missing a beat, he answered, "A turtle!" So now you know. You're welcome.

During the cold evening months, we started doing movie marathons with the kids. Harry Potter, Christmas movies, Pirates of the Caribbean, then Star Wars. The kids actually understood some of these references on this car. Thora talks a lot about Obi Wan Kenklobi.

Hibernating January

In December, Thora suddenly had interest in potty training, thanks to Dancy getting her excited about pretty underwear. So I did what little I was willing to do before Christmas: I got excited with her, we picked out her treat (biggest purple bag of Skittles possible!), and discussed that we would start after New Year. While happy to finally be ready to potty train this three-year-old, I savored the little freedom I had left.

Momma got contacts and Samson got a haircut! Shad did the cut while I was at my appointment, so it was a surprise for both of us when I came home. Samson was the first to notice I wasn't wearing glasses.

This is Thora being Princess Sofia talking on the phone to her sister, Princess Amber.

Hooray! She peed! Lori got many of these pictures, and some of poop when that finally happened. Aren't you glad you aren't Lori?

Potty training Thora took the. whole. month. She picked up peeing on the toilet pretty quickly, then I gave her underwear and accidents were all over the place. So we spent a couple days keeping the underwear clean. Then I gave her pants and the accidents were all over the place. So we spent a couple days keeping the pants clean. Then we ventured out in public. And had those accidents. And then there was the week when she pooped in her underwear DAILY. Seven or eight days straight. It was rough. I definitely had moments of crying like the mom in this video:

And then finally, FINALLY things clicked and I declared her to have become a big girl, sent Lori LOTS of poop emojis, and earned her reward: a date with Lori to get her ears pierced and have ice cream. I think that was achieved in February though. Text records show February 9th to be the date. One month and one week to potty train. Thora did voluntarily give up naptime diapers, which was more than any other kid did. So she's at a one-a-day for bedtime status and I'm happy to stay there for a while now that I'm back in the thick of potty training again with Samson.

Here's a fun story: I mostly stayed home as much as I could while potty training Thora. But there was that one time that I had to go to Walmart to get new tires on the van...and was there for nearly 2 hours while they changed the tires and oil...and Thora was wearing underwear (which she did keep clean and even peed on the toilet, but was still stressful for me), Katie threw up twice, and Sam's nose was running constantly. I was so glad when they paged me to pick up my van! Oh, icing on the cake: the cleaning lady at Walmart never got to the vomit the whole time I was there. Don't know what she was doing, but they were definitely paging her for over an hour.

Back to pictures...

Samson just got it into his head one day that he needed to have tape on his hands. Kept it up for a couple days.

Maaaany months ago back in Kansas we found this huge Lego Friends amusement park set on clearance. Shad and I kept it hidden in our closet until Christmas and gave it to the kids as a group gift. We all participated in building it.

Mom made a chocolate smoothie for breakfast! Yay for sneaky spinach!

Art class. Always colorful.

Adorable

Sometimes they exasperate me.

Milk in the hair.

From milk in the hair to falling asleep on the couch reading books. Parenting is a roller coaster.

And then cuddling on me while sleeping. This almost never happens anymore!

Because we live in Colorado where it's dry as heck and I humidify like crazy. And we order a lot from Amazon. Tommy's art.

I'm trying to remember, but I'm thinking this was the first snow that stayed for more than 12 hours. Or maybe I woke up and surprise! This was there. Dunno. But I still love this window view.

Frozen flakes on the roof.

Got a new fridge! That was an exhausting day. The fridge that was already in the house had a bad leaking problem. As in, I had to always keep a cup to catch the drips and if the cup got bumped or pushed out of place, water everywhere. So we managed that for a while, but the deal breaker was the day I suddenly heard the water pouring into the cup. Found this fridge on facebook for $125 and the guy delivered it. Missionaries helped install it while Shad was at work. 

Dancy built this.

Snow day! I figured out a good system for managing the kids playing in the snow and still keeping the carpet at the entry clean and dry: double layers of towels and processing one kid at a time. I'd sit them down and pull off all the wet clothes, then take them over to the fireplace to dry in front of the fire. Kids took to the couches with blankets to watch Netflix and warm up.

So that system worked well until Tommy's coat was too close to the fireplace and was actually touching the glass and the zipper melted.

And thus, January ended.

Samson in Videos

These videos range in time from about January to present.

Samson is always a bundle of excitement when he swings!

This boy loves music and dancing! Barely stable on his feet and look at him go!

When he finally learned to walk at 13 months, the park suddenly had all new meaning to him!

Testing out his new shoes.

Here is a small example of baby sign language, but I'll try to catch a video with Samson's full sign vocabulary.

Tommy took this video to catch Samson woofing.

...And while he had the camera out, he decided to go ahead with this little piece.

My little man-cub, my Pan-child!

Sometimes I'll say something like, "yo!" in a deep voice to get his attention or distract him from crying. And then it becomes a lifelong game that he asks me to play. Same thing with fake sneezing.

Now that he's more stable on his feet, he can dance a bit better!

A week ago I noticed Samson saying, "roar," in a very specific rhythmic pattern. I realized that he was singing Katy Perry's "Roar," aka, "I Got the Eye of the Tiger," that Thora and Dancy sing all the time! And he even knows the song by name and will sing it upon request. I love this kid!

January

Okay, so maybe it's not such a bad thing that I'm retro-blogging 5 months behind. It's fun for me to relive these pictures!

Katie, with her Poppy headband and Hug Time bracelet from the movie Trolls, hugging her beloved baby brother.

Why on EARTH are toys like this still being made? Seriously, can't anyone figure out a different place to put the buttons or the blow up valves?

Shad's parents, Vern and Pris, gave us their duplos when they moved to Colorado in September, and we saved them til Christmas to give to the kids. Everyone loves playing with the big Legos!

{Shad, Thora, Samson, Tommy, Dancy, Katie}

I never get tired of after-bath cuddles.

{Samson}

When Thora pouts, it's always easy to perk her up with some selfies! Little Miss Diva.

Samson is such a rascal with this spare pack-n-play that he folds up the bottom board and then sits on the fabric. It finally reached my tolerance limits this month and I shuffled around bed assignments.

Tom and Katie are so excited to be eating functionally with chopsticks!

Sometimes we take pictures of ordinary life for my best friend and pen pal in England. This one is of me walking home at 11 pm from working at the movie theater, popcorn bucket in hand, with a fine mist in the air and just a hint of the pink theater neons in the background. Haydn loved the artistic look of it!

I finally got Katie to the point of letting me teach her to read, even though she still doesn't know all her letters yet. She's been very stubborn and frustrating in that department. But we started reading!

Samson's Allergies

My milk supply dried up early with Dancy and Thora, so I wasn't surprised when it did the same with Samson. I started supplementing with formula in July, and quit breastfeeding in August. Since then, I've struggled to keep up with his eczema. It started on his legs, then spread to his lower back, face, arms, hands, upper back, belly and chest. In that order of progression. 

I've been through every can of formula on the shelf...Similac advance, infant, gentle, sensitive, soy; cow's milk, soymilk, almond milk, coconut milk. Our doctor recognized that it was an allergy, but kept telling me to just keep trying different things and use a steroid cream. Okay, well I didn't use the cream because I didn't want to just hide the problem, I wanted to find the problem and eliminate it. I finally demanded a referral to an allergist.

This was Samson on Saturday. I had worked so hard, reading labels of everything, going to the grocery store just to read labels to find things that were soy and milk free (which means no crackers or bread. Homemade, all the time). His chest and arms were clear, his legs were almost clear, his face still a mess due to teething drool.

And then he broke out from the soap. Dang it.

We went to the allergist in Hays yesterday and I had a babysitter lined up for the other 4 kids. Samson and I enjoyed our date (1.5 hrs of driving one way). He did not enjoy the stethoscope or the blood draw (back at the Norton clinic because Hays won't draw on kids younger than 2). After the blood draw, he was given a bright orange little bear. He promptly stopped crying and waved the bear at the phlebotomists, growling, and then woofing. Anyway, I think I have a little love-hate relationship with the allergist. She was great at helping, but seems to be the kind of doctor who doesn't like anything outside of mainstream Western medicine and pharmacies. She didn't like my use of homemade coconut oil lotion, or essential oils. *pursed lips* One day I'll have a witch doctor holistic doctor.

ANYWAY, we got the blood draw done and should have results in a week. In the meantime and until further notice, I am supposed to:

*give Samson half a vitamin and half a probiotic daily

*give him 2 prescription medications that I don't know what they do

*give Samson Alimentum, a $25-40 12 oz can of formula that tastes bitter nasty

*feed Samson only fruits, veggies (no tomato), rice, oats, chicken and turkey. Salt is allowed, seasonings are not

*use only Cetaphil soap and Aveeno lotion

*try not to go completely insane

Cheers to Spontaneity

I used to be spontaneous all the time. Shad and I used to be spontaneous all the time. We even maintained that for a while with kids, but then had too many to keep it up.

This afternoon I got a package of earrings. I wanted to try stainless steel now that I've finally found a metal I'm not allergic to. Dancy sighed at me and said, "Mom, can I get my ears pierced now?" This is something she's been discussing for a month since I have been with Katie. But this time she wasn't just asking me if she could do it, or "someday when my ears are pierced," this was in my face for half an hour begging me to take her now.

\

Then she tried giving me her 'mad face.' 

No one is going to take her seriously in life if she keeps this up as her mad face. Hufflepuff.

I waited until Shad got home, then turned Dancy to pester him. She and I convinced him it was okay and ran off to the jewelry store, minutes before closing time.

Dancy was stoic for the first ear, but then the anticipation of the second led to tears upon piercing. She got over it when she was given a purple Mardi Gras necklace and a candy cane. She left skipping to the van!

The Dancy pose. Pretty much her Blue Steel.

I love this face!