Thankful for the toilets...

Children are so observant. Many of us teach our children about Heavenly Father and about all he does for us. We keep it simple for their sake, as it is a lot for little ones to take in. We tell them how certain things are possible because Heavenly Father makes it possible and we should thank him for even the little things, like being able to play with your friends that day and having fun. We, as adults, sometimes take for granted the little things. For example: toilets. Heavenly Father didn't come and mold the toilet and hook it up for us, but he made it possible by blessing someone with the knowledge and ability to come up with something like that. So, it was really all his idea.

Yesterday, at church, I took Duncan to use the restroom. He is sitting there and says to me, "Heavenly Father made this toilet."

"Oh really?" I said.

"Yeah, he did. That's why I can use it."

He's right though. Heavenly Father did make it possible. That's why we can use toilets. And, by golly, I am thankful for toilets!! I don't like cleaning them, but I sure have to use them a lot. Sometimes 3 times a night. Thank you sweet child in my womb. Anyway, this just reminded me how we all need to take time and notice all the little things that our children are able to, and that we should be grateful even for the toilets.

I did not take this photo. This would be more of Liam's photography. Duncan seems cool with it. He has the pose down. I haven't quite come to fully understand Liam's "gift" yet. But I will embrace it and love him nonetheless. As long as he doesn't take pictures of me on the toilet.

Mommy, I need more bubbles...

I love Liam dearly. I don't understand him and he makes me crazy, but I do love him. Today we did bubbles. Super fun for them. They have these cool bubble holders that when you tip them, will not spill the bubbles. I filled up their bubble holders, they go out to blow bubbles. Maybe ten minutes later Liam comes in to ask for more bubbles. Already? That's awfully fast to blow bubbles, plus, they are not easy to spill.
Liam: "Mommy, I need more bubbles."
Mommy: "What? Already? You probably still have more."
Duncan: "No, Mommy! He drinked them!"
Mommy: "He drank them?!"
Duncan:"Yeah!"
Liam comes to me with his bubble holder. Sure enough, the dang kid "drinked" the bubbles. The holder was empty and Liam has bubbles on his mouth and down the front of his shirt. Hey, it's better than when he attempted to suck Lime Away out of the sprayer(which was closed) at 9 months old. Bubbles are non-toxic.

Oh, Happy Birthday Duncan!!...

Something I forgot in the my last post was that my brother, Jon-Michael and his wife, Heather had a little baby boy on the 21st. His name is Bryce Russell DeShazer and he weighed a hefty 9lbs. Congratulations to them! Too bad the kid couldn't wait a couple more days to be born on my birthday! Gosh!

Sunday was Duncan's 4th birthday. I don't understand kids on their birthdays, but they are either really sweet and loving to everyone, or really selfish and asking when they can open their presents all day. Duncan was really good for the first part of the day. He was under the notion that it wasn't actually his birthday until after church. He was very sweet. He came in our room and whispered to Mark, "Daddy, there are no more sleeps until my birthday!" Then after church he started getting anxious about the whole thing, haha. Constantly after us about wrapping his presents so that he could open them and not sharing anything with anyone.

We had my friend, Clarin, over and her boyfriend. They got him a really nice gift, a Fisher Price golf set. He got a couple of inexpensive computer games, a little fishing pole with some fish, Hungry Hungry Hippos, a new baby doll. But the crowning glory of the whole evening was...the Better Batter Baseball. At least that is what we decided to call it because that is what he wanted and he can't read yet. We went to Target a few weeks ago to check out how much it was. Yeah, it was $40. As much as I love my children, I don't see a reason to spend that much on one gift for a 4 year-old. We were smart and got a lesser version of it. I know, one day he will see the pictures and say, "Mother! You lied to me?!" But I feel good about the purchase because I saved $20.

Duncan goes to open his "Better Batter Baseball" and says, "I knew I could get this! This is great!" Then when we opened the box he picked up the "batter" and went to Gwendie and said, "Look at my batter, Gwendie! It's cheap!" Little does he know...

Later on Duncan and Clarin's boyfriend, Jake, are sitting at the computer, trying out his new games. Jake decides to start singing, "Sa-tur-day, i-in the park..." Then Dunc responded quite seriously by saying, "it's Sunday, Jake." That's right, don't try to fool a 4 year-old by singing about the wrong day of the week!

Recently our little girl has learned to do a "shake it" dance. This dance starts off by a shimmy of the shoulders with a wiggle of the hips to go along with it. Well, Gwendolyn was taking care of Dunc's new baby by feeding it, holding it and giving it lots of kisses. Then things went down hill. She chucked the baby off the couch onto the floor! I let her know this was not a good thing by saying, "Gwendie, that can cause a shaken baby death!" She responded by doing her "shake it" dance. I see now that she will be very easy to discipline in the years to come.

I know, it has been a while...

There have been a few things that have happened since I last posted. The first and most important was my birthday. I know, I know, it's okay, a lot of people forget to observe this special holiday. I think it's because, though it is a national holiday, a lot of businesses do not recognize it as such(it was on Monday). My husband had to work, probably for the reason previously mentioned. So I didn't give him much grief about it. But my friend and her boyfriend managed to drop by for a while to highlight the top chunk of my hair(yeah, she said she'd finish, and I am still waiting, haha). They also were kind enough to bring food for the kids and Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream for me(which oddly enough seemed to disappear the next day while they were babysitting and I was at an appointment, hmm). Mark came home with beautiful roses, which are still looking just as lovely as the first day. He mentioned they look fake, but that they are real. Are they really? My mom called to wish me a Happy Birthday. She happened to be the only family member to actually pick up a phone and dial my number to wish me happy birthday. Don't worry family, I still love you and won't hold it against you, as I am also very forgetful. If it happens again, I may not be so kind... She passed the phone to Andrea when she was done and we spoke for a bit while my highlights were turning white-like in color, hmm. I then showered while Mark got some din din(Arby's beef and cheddar). I ate dinner, made my cake and sat on my bum folding laundry and waited for the present opening. I received a beautiful fairy figurine holding a newborn baby(in light of future events, yes, this means I am a fairy), and a light thing that melts wax that smells good. I have no idea what it is called, but I like it.

The next day we went to the hospital for our ultrasound to check on the baby. We were hoping to get a better look at the baby's feet and also hoping that the baby had grown a bunch since we last saw her. When we got there we were told that they got a new ultrasound machine that they were learning how to use. I didn't realize this meant 3-D! You know that feeling you have when you peek at your presents for Christmas, the excited but guilty feeling? Well, maybe the rest of you are good at not peeking. I have gotten much better over the years. Anyway, yeah, that's what I got because you could actually tell what she looks like! Very trippy! We did get a very good look at her feet. They are normal feet, just turned in, but still full of cuteness.

I am one who always worries about my children being cute. I worry that I will be the one family member who gets the one ugly gene floating around the gene pool that no one alive knows about. So, this what a pleasant surprise for me. She was measuring 33 1/2 weeks in size, even though I was just barely 31 weeks. A very good thing!!

Now to get all sad on you...well, not too sad. My dad's chemo therapy did a lot for him and all his tests for that are looking good. Now to depress you all, he still has a really bad lung infection. He is still in the ICU, sedated and on a ventilator. The infection in his lungs is so bad that they cannot do a biopsy, too risky. So, they are going to find out what this infection is really all about by doing another procedure. The mortality rate for this infection is not good, if it was a grade on a test it would be a really bad F. But, we are all very hopeful and have faith that he will come through all this. We still have to celebrate Father's Day and his birthday for him, which he missed while he has been sedated. Plus, even though he doesn't live in the same state as I do, he still needs to celebrate my birthday, seeing as it's a national holiday and I am sure he will be off of work for a bit longer. That way he can celebrate it properly.

He has lost most of his hair, due to the chemo and some of his facial hair. All of those who know my dad know about the facial hair and that the majority of his life he has had some form of it. So, that will be hard to see. But, the upside is this has probably been a great weight loss plan for him and he can look forward to some new pants when he gets out of the hospital! See, always see the positive. Plus, the other day his sedation was lowered enough for my mom and him to be able to communicate for a little bit. He told her he loved her(as best he could) and they discussed a couple other things. That was very touching to hear. I hope to post more soon, with more pictures and weird stories. Perhaps some future rants. You never know. Au revoir mes amis!!

Is Duncan blond?...

The other day Duncan was running around with his eyes rolled back in his head shouting, "I'm blond, I'm blond! I can't see!!" I thought to myself, "hmm, is he blond?" No, he's not blond, even if he acts like it from time to time, haha. He does seem blind sometimes, when I ask him to grab something for me or for one of his siblings. He is merely an almost 4 year-old, acting like one. Hopefully, I won't have to make that excuse for him in future years. That excuse only lasts so long. Actually he is a very smart little red head. He is very independent and helpful. One day he asked for a sandwich for lunch. Jokingly, Mark and I told him, "make it yourself." His response was, "Okay." He then pulled out what he needed to make his sandwich. He finished that task by cutting the sandwich in quarters(with a butter knife, I'm not that bad of a mom). Then sharing half of it with Liam. Now he insists on making his own sandwich and also makes them for his brother and sister. So, despite him being blond and not able to see, he is a very smart little guy.

Ah yes...

You wake up in the morning, there is a nice breeze outside, you're comfy, the kids are still quiet(quite possibly even sleeping still), no one has called to nag you about something, life just seems wonderful. Right? Wrong! This is because suddenly you have a screaming two year-old telling you to let him out. Are you going to let him out? You have to think about it because if you move from this spot, all this wonderful beauty of life might just disappear. You will realize there are toys and crumbs on your bedroom floor and laundry baskets full of laundry that need putting away. You will have to stand up and feel that growing baby in your womb squish your bladder until you can barely hold it. You will have you walk into that hallway...the hallway with the...DIAPER PAIL! You will probably nearly kill yourself on a toy that you swear to yourself was not there moments ago. Then you will open that door, that door where the two year old is screaming and where the 3 year old is telling you he needs to go "pee." When you open that door you will see why you were hearing a bump or 20 in the night as you were trying to sleep without an anxiety attack from hearing those strange noises(because deep down you knew what was really going on, no monster, a child!). You will open the door and see what he spent his bedtime doing...expanding the chaos that has already ensued in your home. You continue to lay there thinking, despite the beeping of the contruction vehicles outside, this moment is beautiful. You are untouchable, absolutely untouchable. No child is near you or can get near you, even your 1 year old, who thinks your bosoms are stairs that she can climb to a better place, is in her cage(crib) still. She is the quiet one. Perhaps the good child for now. She is patiently waiting for you to open her door. Yes, she is sweet and cute, but you are comfortable. Can you end this? Get your lazy pregnant self out of that bed and start your day? This day might not go well, especially since there is more chaos downstairs created by your loved ones. There is a chance it could go well, no, it won't. But the good thing is that you can look back to the moment you woke up and heard birds and a breeze(continue to ignore the planes, traffic, and construction you also heard) and think of how wonderful that was to wake up to. It could happen again, perhaps, perhaps not, but you can still think back on that time with fondness and remember all is not lost. You really do love this life. The one with the mess and the many children that seem to magically multiply everytime you blink. You love your children and your husband. You even love that they are so ridiculously close together in age that you have a 6-8 month time in between children when you are not pregmant. So you hardly even remember what being married and not pregnant is like. Life is still good. Just remember your morning of today. Everytime you feel stressed or anxious, go to that place in your mind, dwell upon that, feel it, you can always go there in your mind. Oh, and don't forget...the two year-old, yeah, he pooped, and so did the one year-old. So get out of bed, march to that door, after you've caught yourself from tripping over that toy, open that door saying to yourself, "I love you all. I love you all." And grab a couple diapers and wipes and begin your day!!