baby dolls

Our little darling is not so little anymore. She had her 2 month doctor appointment, got 3 shots, one of which is a triple wammy of diseases and a vaccination by mouth. It was pretty hilarious when she glared at the nurse, after her first taste of the stuff. She is cooing and laughed at me this morning during our little chat. She likes to "talk" and smile. She smiles at her siblings too, which they think is pretty cool. She is now 12.15lbs and 23 1/2" long.

Ivan continues to come up with cutsie and not so cutsie terms of endearment for his littlest sister. Tonight he asked how his "little cheesly dumpling" was doing.

Some children name their dolls sweet girl names like Suzie and Mary. Not my Dominique. She has many dolls, but their names are more descriptive. There is "buck naked baby"- the doll who is always naked because Dominique won't let her wear clothes. Then there's "pink baby". This doll's pink clothes are sewed to the doll and can not be removed- so she's "pink baby". Another one is "white baby". Her clothes have also been removed, but her body is made of stuffed white cloth, thus the name "white baby". I guess since Dominique is not allowed to be naked all day, she has started her own little nudist colony of babies who are free to be clotheless without a mean parent impeding on their innocent freedom. Tonight she did want me to put a diaper on buck naked baby though- because she didn't want her to "poop in the bed" (that's what she told me). She's a smart kid, our Dominique.

Hope you enjoyed our tire swing photo shoot. I love the way Dominique's eyes are accentuated with the blue. Emora's eyes are still blue, but they are a darker color than Dominique's so we'll see if she keeps them or not.

super sweet

Emora with our budding and flowering peach tree. A sure sign of spring.





Ivan and Dominique painting helmet/masks we made together.





Dominique's hair made these cute pigtails after swimming in the pool one day.


The kids are different with Emora. Dominique's favorite thing is to hold or play with her sister. Ivan loves to talk sweet to her. Nana has this singsong voice she uses with him when he wakes up in the morning while she says things like: "how's my sweet little pumpkin?" Ivan can imitate her perfectly and often says these sweet little somethings to Emora. This morning he asked her: "how is my sweet little sunshine doing?"

Ivan's dance video:

First fall

Yesterday was a bit rough. The worst of it was when Emora fell off the day bed! Yep, you read right. I was working on the computer getting a craft ready for the kids and the siblings weren't even messing with her when I heard a thump and cry and looked to her where she was suddenly on the floor. I am so thankful that she is OK. It appears as though she did a break fall, landing on her back, on the carpet. She could have fallen head first, or landed on her face, but it's like angels softened her blow by having her land just right. She screamed like crazy and finally finished with those hiccupy sobs, after quite a while. I watched her all day and she was smiling, playing, nursing as usual, so now I just know not to prop her up anymore. I don't know if she is getting to the start of learning to roll or if she was tilted on the pillows, or if her jerky movements gave her the momentum to topple over, but it was not a good thing, especially with her being so young.

To her advantage is the fact that she is so huge. I had a baby party for the ladies who gave birth in our last water aerobics class. Emora was by far the youngest at not quite 2 months. The others were twice or triple her age, but she didn't look all that much smaller comparatively. She is the one with her arms up.

And of course, we have a house full of Doctors. Ivan and Dominique have moved on from doctoring the dolls to Emora as their favorite patient. Of course she plays right along, opens her mouth for anything and everything.



The other rough part of yesterday was that Ivan and Dominique have discovered the joys of sibling rivalry. All day, Ivan was taking something that Dominique wanted or that she had deemed as "hers" and running away while she screamed and cried uncontrolably, chasing him as he egged her on. It wasn't all him though. At one point, she borrowed his sandals, but when he put hers on, she cried, yelled, screamed and the chase was on once again.

I guess that's just a part of being siblings... you love each other and you love getting the other all riled up. As I was praying that night for them to have peace and treat each other with love, Dominique kicked Ivan in the face and he slapped her across the face, so I said enough with that, get in bed, tomorrow is a new day.

Would you believe that today they have been getting along and decided they wanted to take wipes and clean the house? They spent a good 30 minutes wiping doors, window sills and entry ways while I nursed Emora. Now they are "helping" daddy fix a baby swing that was given to us. I can hardly believe it is the same children.






Here's a video of swimming in Feb. It was actually hotter the next day, but we stayed in the cool house then.

Family antique

Emora nearly didn't fit into this outfit that mom had saved over the last 29 years. It still looks beautiful though.

If you click on the second picture, it will blow up and you can clearly see her sticking out her tongue!




Here is Dominique in the same outfit.

funnies

Emora looks so huge when Dominique holds her like this. I had them lay down to compare sizes and had their feet all lined up, but Ivan kept scooting up to look taller and Emora wouldn't keep her legs straight.









Dominique took this picture all by herself.









This was for "Crazy Hair Day" at the library. They were my trio of rattle snakes. I braided pipe cleaner snakes into their hair and yes, Emora has enough hair to do that (sort of). They were so excited. Lots of kids and people were there. They read books about having crazy hair, did a craft, had a contest and prizes for everyone- candy, activity pages and a comb. It was a great family outing.

This is a special tribute to Uncle John... He doesn't appear often in our web cam visits and when he does, he usually only lets a voice or arm float in, so the kids have started to call him "mystery man". Jenn, John and Imogen are coming to see us for Easter and we are looking forward to seeing them, but right now, it appears that mystery man has stolen the show. Ivan told me just a few days ago: "I'm ready for mystery man to come, because Dominique and I are so excited about mystery man."

I see myself in Ivan at times, or maybe it is just that devious older sibling streak. We have tried to get the kids to play on their own if we are trying to sleep in. Through the door, from the hallway the other morning I heard Ivan WHISPERING very LOUDLY: "Dominique knock on the door... they won't spank you". I thought it was so funny that he was whispering so loudly and I hollered back at them "yes, we will". Then the hall was silent, but for some giggles.

reunion

Last week, or maybe it was the week before (time blurs for me), we had Caleb, Micah and their mom Meredith over. The kids all had such fun together. The most precious moments were when Ivan and Caleb first saw each other. Caleb came running in the door right into Ivan's arms where they hugged and Ivan kissed Caleb on the cheek and they said "I love you". Then the second most precious was Micah holding and kissing Emora. He didn't want to let her go. She wasn't so sure about the kissing part, as you can see.



























We did a craft and activities, played outside, did play dough, toys and lunch. It reminded me of this last year, only Caleb was much more subdued, Micah was so much bigger and using words and of course their mom was here, so that was a lot of help.


Emora is growing like crazy. I had a baby party and she was the youngest by at least two months, but she was about the same size as everyone else. I'll post pics. some day. I also moved her into 3 month clothes even though she is not yet 2 months. She was still fitting some of the 0-3 month clothes, but a bunch of them were too small, so it was getting crazy trying to figure out what fit and what didn't. Now some of the 3 month ones are a bit big, but others are just right! It'll be interesting to see how tall she is and how much she ways at her 2 month doctor appointment which is in a couple of weeks.

That mean bite!

Yesterday, Dominique was eating strawberries when she started crying. Her wailing resonated off the walls as rivers of tears cascaded down her cheeks. I rushed to her side and asked:

"where are you hurt?"
"my fingers"
"How did they get hurt?"
"my fingers got hurt on my bite"- she wailed
I asked while holding in my chuckle "on your bite?"
"yes, on my tongue...on my mouth... on my this" (pointing to her teeth), she paused in the ardent crying to catch my answer
"on your teeth?"
"yes- waaaaaaaaaah!!!!" ardent crying resumes.
Have I mentioned before that she is terribly clumsy?

Meanwhile, Ivan just pointed to the word the computer underlined in red (waaaaaaaaaah!) and told me "those are not words". Looks like I have an editor in the house. Dad you won't be insulted if a 4 year old manned with a computer takes over your job will you?

These pictures were from when I was gone to water aerobics class. When I walked in, Dominique was "feeding" Emora and Ivan excitedly told me that he had "breastfed" Emora. I told him I sure hoped he hadn't. He gave me a puzzled look. I'm learning more and more how complicated language is. We were on the web cam and Jenn said she got a shot of Imogen's back (picture with her camera). Well Ivan was all concerned about this and we explained about all the definitions of a shot- with a camera, with a gun, an arrow, a needle, or having a chance at something. What a delight... language and toddlers makes for all sorts of funny situations.

A couple of short weeks ago, we were at Tighe's house, where this picture was taken. Since then, their world has been upended again. Isaiah had his third recurrence of meningitis. He has also faced a deadly reaction to antibiotics and pneumonia. All of this has happened in a year and the doctors are now suspicious that something else is going on. They are having CAT scans and tests done. Isaiah was very sick today and their home nurse said it was an emergency, so they took him back to the ER. Please be praying for them, to find answers, a solution, strength and peace.



Dominique took these pictures of Brian and Emora. Dominique is enjoying the process of growing up. She talks up a storm and the other day, I was noticing how big she is. She was wearing jean shorts and a t-shirt all stretched out for a nap on the day bed, and I am serious, she looked like a pre-teenager!
Ivan has his own flare too of course and is also growing so fast. Today he told me that the dog licked his pencil and "I didn't appreciate that". I'm not kidding. He sounded so grown up. But then, he's heard that phrase quite a few times before.

I am back to the fit mom's water aerobics class that I facilitate and love it. I had 3 ladies tonight, but two of them came with their first pregnancies and are now on to their second child. It was so fun to chat and catch up with them. It's so exciting to share in their joy, yet to be over that stage myself. I have a miracle lady this time through also, and that is always extra fun. What I mean by miracle lady is that she is older and has had many barren years. I don't know all her story yet, but I've had several ladies who couldn't conceive, or were told they'd never have kids and then life changed dramatically for them ;) This weekend, I have a party for the last group that just gave birth. I have them over to my house and we hang out, swap stories, eat and see all those babies, the silent partners in our water aerobics classes. It is always so fun to see these little people that brought us together in the first place.

Also, some ladies form lasting friendships through the class, like Tighe and I! We met arbitrarily once or twice in town, then she came to class and we ended up hitting it off. You know there are just people you connect with? We have been mistaken for sisters, even her dad said that he could see how people would think we are sisters. That's my compliment, since she is gorgeous. So please keep praying for her and her family. Here's a couple of pictures she had sent out. Isaiah at the hospital last week and him with his dad, Greg and mom, Tighe.

more pics from nana's visit

Dominique is so funny. I never liked dresses much and to this day rarely wear one, but she loves them. She has a bunch of really fancy dresses right now and wants to wear them everyday. But they are so impractical. When Nana was here, I thought enough is enough, I'll let her wear one. I felt a little better when I found a marker stain on it (it came used from someone) and told her she'd have to change out of it to play in the yard. She was so pleased to wear it as we walked down to the library. She was definitely the fanciest looking girl at toddler reading time.




Weekends are so awesome! It is so much easier with daddy home to help with the kids. In fact, he doesn't even have to do a whole lot half the time because they just love to be around him. He's cleaning the cars right now and they are out there, messing with the water and "helping". Cleaning the house seems like such an insurmountable task in the week, but if Brian's home it seems so much easier to get done, especially when he helps.

Isaiah is doing well. He is home with a port where a nurse comes twice a day to give him antibiotics, but he is already acting much like his usual self. They will be traveling to have tests done, so the battle is not over, but we are all hoping this will bring answers and solutions that will help him get past all this sickness. Thanks for everyone's prayers and well wishes. I know it means a lot to them to have everyone's support in this.

Time off?

What should a Nana do if the doctor says she can't go to work? Come visit her grandkids of course! So she did. Nana had eye surgery and during her recovery she was not allowed to lift anything which disqualifies her from work, but not from driving to Abilene and seeing us- so long as she didn't lift the kids up. We had a wonderful time and were able to convince her to stay a whole extra day (normally she comes down, stays a day and leaves the next). We didn't do anything spectacular, but there were lots of fabulous moments none the less. The kids loved sitting in her lap and being read to, having Nana give them beauty treatments- (yes, that is make-up on them and I got it documented), going to the library together and eating out at our favorite restaurant. I have more pics I'll try to post this weekend. I had to include one of Emora smiling. Isn't she fabulous? She is recognizing us now and it's the most incredible feeling to see her focus on me then burst out in one of her gorgeous grins. I am so thankful for them and for who they are, who they are becoming and for their health. It seems that every blog I read of someone with a kid has sickness running through their homes. We've been recluses quite a bit since Emora's birth and I really think that has saved us from lots of stuff going around.

Big on my heart is our friend Isaiah. I know I've asked you all to pray for him before and I'm asking again. He got meningitis again. This is his 3rd bout with it this year and this pretty much confirms that the other two times were not fluke, something is wrong. The good news is that his parents have become pros at spotting it and they got him in right away. Plus all the medical personnel know his history and take it all very seriously. He already has a port and they are waiting to find out which kind of meningitis he got this time. There are plans to do tests to find out if and where a hole may be in his brain that is causing the repeated occurences and also see if something else is amiss. I can't imagine how draining this is on Tighe and Greg, not to mention little Isaiah. He is just 2 weeks younger than Dominique and has been through so much. Please pray for them, for healing and direction, for the doctors and personnel to know how best to help him and for a full recovery and even more promising future as some answers may be found through this.