Saturday, July 23, 2011

What's With Isaak's Eye?

Isaak's eye got like this so fast. He woke up from his nap, we went to our family gathering and his eye was like this during dinner.



One eye is sluggish. It's not really puffy, it's just sluggish looking. I have no clue what's up with it. I called the doctor's office and talked to an on call nurse. She said that the most common thing with kids this age is a mosquito bite. But it's not puffy! How do you describe an eye that is small or sluggish then the other over the phone? I felt like telling her, "I'll post a picture and you can look it up on your end to see what I'm talking about."

The nurse listed off things that would make the situation worse: Fever, other areas on his face sluggish, and him overall uncomfortable. He has no other symptoms.

She told us to put a cold washcloth on his face for 20 min. and give him some Benadryl. If it doesn't get better in 24 hours, we're supposed to take him in. If it gets worse we're supposed to take him in.


Emerson's First Outing

Emerson and Aunt Terra have been home for 4 weeks. This was their first outing. Terra mentioned that she couldn't remember the last time she wore shoes.

Cousin's Evan and Elijah stayed a little later to have fun, Grandma and Grandpa Spiehs took them home.




Great Grandpa Kent's Birthday Bash

We celebrated Great Grandpa Kent's birthday tonight. The event was at Great Aunt Marsha's house. Our family is smaller then most, so we get together with Great Aunts, Great Uncles, Great Grandparents, 2nd Cousins and cousins for special events.

Mommy has 6 cousin's total. Mica and Isaak have 6 cousin's total. Other people I know have too many to count.

I brought seedless grapes and Couscous Salad.

Here's the birthday boy: 


As far as small kiddo's go, we have 7 1/2 boy's and 1 girl. It goes Ethan (which is the oldest. I'm not sure if he counts as a small kiddo. He's almost old enough to babysit. That's where I got the 1/2. He's 1/2 big boy, 1/2 small kiddo.), Evan 6 years, Mica almost 6 years, Colton 3 years, Elijah 3 years, Isaak 3 years, Kensley 2 years, Alex 4 months and Emerson 4 weeks. Here are the kids I don't normally feature (all were given the ok to post by their mommy's).

Colton is 3 years old. He's older then Isaak. He is my cousin Brad's son. I didn't get a photo of him because of Isaak's eye (a few post's above this one). I got this photo from Facebook.

Kensley is 2 years old. Almost 3. This is Colton's sister, my cousin Brad's daughter. The only girl we've had in the family since my cousin Megan who is now in high school.

Kensley with a blue tongue.

This is Alexander AKA Alex, who is 4 months. He's fun to play with. He is my cousin Stacy's son.

Transformer

Mica's been pretending to be a transformer. He's been really into them for a week. It's nosy play let me tell you! LOL


Drawings

Mica drew this for me yesterday:

Truth be told: Mommy doesn't really like Batman. It is a super good drawing for age 5 though!

The "M" stands for "Mica". He's been kind of lazy, and has been putting just an "M" for his name. I'll have to push him to write out his name because school will want him to. I do love him using his individuality though!

Mica's never seen Batman, so I wonder how he got into it? He likes all superhero's right now though.

Here is Whistlefritz:


This drawing has been hanging on our fridge for about a month. There is something we like about it. I like that it doesn't look a lot like the original and is interpretive. Usually Mica gets so hung up on his drawings looking similar to the real thing. Mica colored him blue because we didn't have a grey marker. Whistlefritz is a Spanish cartoon that we won. It surprisingly holds the boy's attention.

Here's the original Whistlefritz:



Friday, July 22, 2011

Melt Down


Everybody has a melt down once in awhile. Today Isaak had one. 

I asked if he'd help me make blueberry muffins? He seemed ok with the idea, but disappeared into his room.

Daddy got home and went to water something. Isaak wanted to go outside. I said, "Ok! As long as you get your shorts and shoes on. Go get them and I will help you put them on." He disappeared into his room once again. He came into the kitchen right as Daddy came in. Isaak cried.

Then Isaak went back into his room to play. Daddy went back outside with Mica. Isaak kept calling for Mica. I told him that he was probably hiding. I didn't want him getting upset that they went outside. Isaak said, "I think they outside Mommy. I want to go outside." I said, "Ok bring me your shorts and shoes." He never did. Daddy and Mica came in the house and Isaak had a melt down.

Notice his eyebrows! His eyebrows have slanted up like that since he was an infant. Tears lead to eyebrow's slanting for Isaak.

He was crying, laying on the floor and kicking his feet. This was a true tantrum. I grabbed the camera and shot this photo. Isaak stopped crying, smiled and asked to see photo. Then he laughed at the photo of himself crying. The tantrum was over. Just like a snap of a finger.

I'm Steeling Pictures From Aunt Terra

I hope she doesn't mind. It's just when I see Emerson it's evening time. We are indoors, and Aunt Terra keeps it dark in her house. Pictures turn out not so great.

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." -Ralph Waldo Emerson


We had Emerson's 4th birthday party yesterday. He's 4 weeks old, not 4 years old.

I made chocolate chip cookies with Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil in replace of butter. The recipe can be found here. Except I made chocolate chip cookies instead of using cherry chips. I like it because it's healthier and it has a hint of coconut, but not the texture. I think a lot of people don't like the texture of coconut, but don't mind the flavor.

I also made this brownie red velvet cake! Yummy! I the recipe off of Two of a Kind Working on a Full House. It was sinful, but so good!

I gave everyone a small cookie and a small piece of cake. Some people wanted more.

Emerson update:

  • He's getting some chub. He's now 7 lbs. 13 ounces. Two pounds heavier then when he was born. Babies that have Trisomy 18 sometimes struggle with weight gain, so this is good news!
  • Emerson is awake for longer periods of time.
  • Terra can get around more of the house with his extending O2 tubing. They are trying to wean him of O2, but SLOWLY. Once and if he gets weaned, he'll  A) Be more portable. B) His little nose will be more comfortable. His little nostrils get red from the O2 parts in them. C) He'll have one less cord on his itty bitty face. They bought an O2 monitor to test his O2 levels.
  • Emerson will be going on his first outing tomorrow for Great Grandpa Kent's birthday party. Lets hope he doesn't get too much stimulation. When we all get together it can get kind of loud. Hopefully it's not too hot or rainy for the bigger boy's to go outside to play! They are the ones that make much of the noise.  In a few years they could probably start their own kick ball teams. There's enough boy's in our family for that!

Foot or Back Massage?

Grandpa Spiehs offers to give foot massage's with lotion.

We had a circle time last week, which is time where we sit in together just to talk. We gave each other foot massage's. I bought Daddy a professional massage cream awhile back. It is the best! The boy's thought it was funny to give each other a foot massage.




Isaak said last night, "Mommy can you give my feet a back massage?" I had to laugh.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Kid Play

We've been listening to the boy's play like this for a week:




A lot of sound effects!

Trip to the Zoo

Grandma and Grandpa Spiehs took the boys to the boys to the Henry Doorly Zoo today.

The main attraction was the Gorilla's Exhibit for them today.

Photo source here.

Grandma said that a baby gorilla was trying to play peek-a-boo with them. Then a teenage gorilla was tickling the baby's feet.

Later on they went to see the wild cat's and a few other spots.

In the car ride home this is Mica and Isaak's conversation:

Isaak: "I not supposed to bang into the doors when I see the cats."
Mica: "Ya because if you do cats will scratch the glass, get out and eat your face!"
Isaak: "Ya then Gamma (Grandma) will kiss my face to make it all better."
Mica: "She can't kiss your face; if you don't have one!"
Isaak: "Oh."

Cutting

With Mica we had a lot of problems with him being able to cut and write. His preschool teacher's, Daddy and I really thought there was something wrong with the muscles in his hand. Now Mica does both things just fine! In fact with drawing Mica is now ahead. Proves that time will tell. Kid's kind of learn at their own rate.

Isaak is now about to head into preschool. He wants to cut whenever I get out the scissors. I let him cut up newspaper. He on the other hand doesn't know his letter like Mica knew at age 2. They all learn so differently.


Cousin Emerson

Aunt Terra sent this to me. It's a photo of Emerson. I got him this gown before he was born. INKtastic gave it to me to review on my blog Milking the Issue. Thank you INKtastic for such a wonderful, meaningful gift!

"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I opened it up I started to cry. Isn't it crazy how emotions work? I'm at work around a bunch of guys; I start crying. I'm not a real cry baby girl, but this one made me cry.

Do you see Emerson's double chin? He's gaining weight and beating his odds. Tomorrow night we celebrate yet another birthday. This time he'll be 4 weeks old.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - Fire Truck

From left to right: Cousin Elijah 3 years, Cousin Evan 6 years, Mica almost 6 years and Isaak 3 years

Mica and Isaak
If you have the time, please enter my giveaway for Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut Butter it's amazing to cook with!

Motherboard

I went to turn my laptop on last night, and only got a white screen. I restarted only to get a white screen once again.

Moving forward in time- My co-worker that is great with computers can't even fix my damaged one. Two of my co-workers were really impressed that I wasn't freaking out. I told them that I let things build up and then blow. Not very healthy.

He thinks the Motherboard is out, which is bad! That means that all the school work I've done to prepare for my fall classes is bye bye. I back things up at midterm and finals time. I haven't had a chance to back up recently.

To make things worse, my boss is out of town for a week. We rummaged through his office to find my cloned laptop from spring.  

My computer crashing makes me feel like my life is crashing. It's just one more thing to top off my rocky (up and down) summer. I'm thinking I need another Staycation. That would be such a blessing bad idea! I would get nothing done then!

Update! Now they are thinking it's my hard drive. If this is the case, my work for the summer is for sure bye bye.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Balls!

This was at the Omaha Children's Museum.

I had fun watching Isaak figure out this ball blower. At first he had no idea what it did.






Digging for Bones

This was at the Omaha Children's Museum.

The boy's were digging. I missed cousin Evan. He was into digging before the rest of the kids got over to the sand.






Dinosaur's and Other Prehistoric Creatures

This is at the Omaha Children's Museum.

This cracked me up. Mica was roaring at this fake dinosaur.


Saber Tooth Tiger

Wooly Mammoth

A sloth trying to knock off a Saber Tooth Tiger

A dinosaur and it's nest of babies

Another dinosaur
Then they had this mechanical dinosaur that kids could move up and down, left and right.



Omaha Children's Museum Flicks

This was one of Mica's favorites!


I don't think they get how this toy is really supposed to be used.

On Friday We Went to the Children's Museum

Grandma and Grandpa Spiehs and I took Mica, Isaak, Cousins Evan and Elijah to the Omaha Children's Museum.

Mica on a camel. He was crazy like, playing with everything, bouncing from one station to the next. It was like he was on speed, but I assure you he wasn't.
Grandpa Spiehs with Isaak. Isaak was the crier in the group. He would go to play on something, get to the top and cry for me to get him. He kept asking for Mica to help him, but Mica was too busy to stop and see that his brother wanted him at his side.
Evan kept asking, "When can we go to the next room?" over and over again. Elijah messed his pants before we got there.



This proves that no kid is perfect! Whenever there's a negative, there's a positive. Well all had fun!

Sing Along CD Player

Sing-Along CD Player
I remember my sister's and I recording ourselves singing along to music when we were little.

Mommy Moment is giving away a Sing Along CD Player from Constructive Playthings.

Product Description: A sound choice for long-playing performance, this unit features 45-second antiskip protection, an LCD display, high output speaker, headphone jacks, built in pocket on the back to hold one CD and other child-friendly, standard features. There are even 2 microphones for sing-along fun. Size 9 ½" W. x 3 ½" D. x 10" H. Uses 4 "C" batteries (not incl.). See personalized CDs on page 29. Ages 3 yrs. +.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Hugs for Hits

I have a new strategy for my Isaak man. He's the youngest of the 3 boy's he hangs out with on regular basis. He was always left out and called, "The baby" of the family.

Now he turns from sweet and sensitive to mean and defending himself. If a child tries to take a toy from him, he'll wack them with it. He throws and hits.

I've watched all the boy's play; I really don't blame Isaak for being mean to the other kids. The boy's often yell out, "Isaak's the bad guy!" Then they all run from him laughing. Boys! My co-worker that has 7 children told me that the youngest is always the nicest and meanest at the same time. Now I know what he means!

I was giving Isaak lots of time-out. Many times we had two time-outs going; one for each kid. Then yesterday I thought of a new strategy. Isaak was about to clock Mica for taking a toy from him. I said, "Isaak come here!" Before he could hit, I made him give me a hug. He was happy to give me a hug. Then he forgot about the toy altogether. Most of the time it's a toy that is Mica's. A toy that isn't meant for age 3 and under. I'm not saying that it will be like that every time; forgetting about the toy someone grabbed from him. At least some of the time we can take negative attention and turn it it into being positive.

Daddy started something good as well. He whispers instead of yells. A whisper is sacred; they seem to listen to it. That is if they are not too worked up. Like if he's having a temper tantrum, he's not going to listen to a whisper. If I want to get him to do something, a whisper works great.

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