It's happening again!

Ethan is very sick! It happened suddenly last night. His oxygen level was back down in the 80's this morning and I'm certain there is no way to avoid a hospital stay this time. I will post an update as soon as I can.

Homemade Soup

So we are freezing to death right now in Alabama. Okay, maybe not to death, but it is cold outside. I decided that a nice pot of soup would be a great dinner last night. I am standing at the stove, slaving over my meal for my family, when my son walks up and asks..."Mommy, is that homemade soup?" My answer was that, yes, it was homemade soup. Ethan said, "then why do you have those cans open on the stove?" I just stood there, mid-stir, and looked at him. I guess canned tomatoes and canned corn are not allowed in soup for it to be considered "homemade".

Now that the holidays are over, we are starting to get the Accelerated Reading program underway at their school. I have volunteered to be the one to work with the kindergartners on the program. They haven't had anybody for the kindergartners all year and so there was a delay on getting started. I am just happy that it is underway now. Emily has now started earning her AR points and Ethan will start earning his soon, too.

Jasper (our new kitten) is really fitting in well at our house. He is a lot of fun and the kids love playing with him. We call him our little capuchin monkey, though, because of the way he hops from one thing to the next. He can be quite ornery, too, but just as sweet as can be when he is ready to snuggle. Jasper and Holly (our dog) love playing together, too. Callie, our very old cat, is slightly more tolerant of him, but still doesn't want him near her.

We went to two different birthday parties last weekend and the kids had do much fun. Their friends Kate and Sarah turned six and had a Hair, Make-Up, Nails, and Jewelry party. Yes, Ethan went, but wasn't the only boy. There was one other boy there named Isaac. The two boys had a different activity to do just for them. They got to make key chains and they had fun, too. :) After that we went to DJ's party, who also turned six. The kids had fun there and got to try out a Nintendo Wii for the first time. They have never played on one of those before and they had so much fun. They did some type of Hula Hoop game. Ethan was doing a pretty good job and got the hang of it quickly. Poor Emily was getting so frustrated. Her coordination just wasn't like Ethan's and she quickly got frustrated, but they both had fun.

Here are a couple videos of them playing the Wii.

And I just had to add a couple more pictures from this past weekend. Ethan and his daddy worked on building him a mailbox for his bedroom. He was so proud of it.

Also, Avery spent the night with the kids this weekend and she and Emily had fun playing with Ethan's workbench. Ethan wasn't too happy to find out that they used every single piece of scrap wood he had, though. This is what happens when the girls get into your stuff without asking.

God and the Solar System

Most of our really deep conversations always seem to take place in the car. We were driving to a birthday party yesterday party and it was raining outside. We had about a 30-40 minute drive and so it gave us a while to talk. The kids were talking about how they didn't like rain and how they wished that it never rained. I told them that even though we didn't like rain, it was very important for the Earth. This started a pretty long conversation about rivers and lakes, water that we drink, and also how everything we consume depends on water. They were really getting into the conversation, too.

Well, this topic then led to the topic of God creating the Earth. Ethan, who has always been my solar system guru, asked me if God created the solar system. I started kind of finding myself now getting a little nervous about where these questions could lead because I might get in over my head here. I did not want a debate now of science versus church. Well, thankfully Emily had the answer that Ethan needed. She said, "Ethan, of course God created the solar system. Don't you remember? The Bible that God created the Heavens and the Earth and that God created light. That light has to be the sun, and the sun is the center of our solar system." Ethan said, "You're right, Emily, God DID create our solar system!"

Phew! Thank goodness Emily took care of that one. I guess I need to get back to Sunday School myself so I can be prepared to answer more questions. Either that, or I need to start avoiding long car rides. :)

I also want to take a moment to ask for some much needed prayers for Rob's grandfather who is battling cancer. He is in the hospital right now. I sat the kids down the other day and told them that he was in the hospital. Emily, who is so intuitive about things, asked me if she and Ethan made him sick while they were with him on Thanksgiving. The look that was in her eye broke my heart. I think she must have overheard a conversation between Rob and his grandmother talking about while his grandpa is undergoing chemo, he'll have to be careful being exposed to germs and being around all the grandkids (who bring home everything from school). Well, Emily must have heard this at some point and then thought that she and Ethan made Grandpa sick while they were with him at Thanksgiving. I explained to Emily that there was no way that she and Ethan could have made him sick. The kind of sickness he has isn't something the caught from somebody else. He's in the hospital right now because his body isn't working right. After this conversation, Rob and I decided that evening to let the kids know that Grandpa was sick BEFORE we went over there for Thanksgiving just so they don't ever think it was because of them. We explained that the reason we made those last minute plans to go to Texas then was because we found out that he was sick and was about to start treatments to try to make him better. I suggested that maybe since he is in the hospital right now we could make some cards to send to him. Ethan jumped up and said that he was going to make a big heart with a smiley face in the middle and he was going to write "I love you, Grandpa" on it. Right now, Grandpa could use all the smiley faces he could get along with lots of prayers.

Feeling Nostalgic

Ethan and Emily both go to sleep listening to music each night. Ethan decided that he wanted to change out his CD tonight and he went digging through some of his old ones. He picked out an old Kindermusik CD that was back from when he and Emily used to go to Kindermusik classes when they were very little.

As we do each night, I was laying with Ethan on his bed and we were talking about his day and the music was playing in the background. He started listening to the music and asking me questions about it and about when he and Emily used to go to music class. That is when it hit me, and it hit me really hard! Ethan doesn't (and maybe Emily doesn't either) remember a single moment of those years in music class while I remember it like it was yesterday. Oh how I wish they could still have memories of those wonderful times we shared together. We started Kindermusik when they were around six months old and did it until they were three years old. Their therapists from Early Intervention even met us there and often did their therapy at music class.

So, Ethan and I listened to his CD and he asked me questions and I told him stories about what kinds of things we used to do during each song. He and I both just laughed, and I just wanted to cry. Oh how I miss those days sometimes. The years have gone by so fast. I'm afraid to blink because I know they will grow up just that much more. Even though it has gone by fast, there is one thing that I can say with absolute certainty. I have never taken a moment for granted. After struggling with over 8 years of infertility just to get these kids, and then to have them fighting for their lives because of being born too soon... I have never let a moment go by that I didn't appreciate. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that it is still going by too fast. Too bad I can't just decide to have another one, darn that infertility. :) But then again, would I really want more backtalking in the house????

Realization

I had a big realization today. I have become THAT mom. You know the one. It's the one that sends her son to school with highwater pants on because they still fit him in the waist and she can't help it that he is eating her out of house and home and growing taller faster than he is wide. And she is also the practical mom that looks at those pants and still sees a lot of life left in them and thinks that he can still get some good wear out of them. Yes, that is me.

I remember back when I was in school and I used to look at all of those boys in my class that came to school wearing those highwaters. I used to think how funny it looked and I used to wonder how his mother would let him walk out the door looking like that. Well, now I know. She no longer cares that those pants are an inch or two above the shoe line. Let's face it, she is probably just grateful that he even got dressed for school without complaint in the first place. And worrying about the pants becoming too short is a lost cause because he is growing at a rate faster than a giraffe. The kid has two hollow legs. So, I am here to admit it for all to see. My son wears highwaters and there isn't anything I plan to do about it as long as the waist still fits!!!!!!

And she's only six...

I was drinking a cup of coffee this morning and watching the news when Ethan walked in and quietly told me that Emily had just told him that she just tricked me. I told him to just go in and tell Emily to come see me. He walks in Emily's room and says, "Hey Emily, Mommy wants to see you." Her reply was, "Why? Is she gonna spank me?"

Up until this moment, I didn't even know how I was tricked. I couldn't even think of anything bad that had happened this morning. So Emily slowly peeked her head around the corner of the room and said, "What do you want?" I told her to come in and see me. I told her that I heard her tell her brother that she thought I was going to spank her and I wondered why she would think that and if she did something that deserved a spanking. She just looked at me for a minute trying to figure out the correct response. She said, "Yes." I asked her what she did, and she just told me that she didn't want to tell me. After explaining to her that she would get in worse trouble for NOT telling me, she finally did tell me. She said, "I lied to you when I got a cereal straw."

You see, not long before all of this happened, Emily came into my room and told me that she got sidetracked earlier and never got her cereal straw and asked if she could get it now. I said that she could and she ran off. I never gave it a thought. Apparently, that was a whole made up story because she did get one then and was lying to me about getting sidetracked.

So, when I asked her why she lied to me and why she thought it was okay, she said, "I wanted a second cereal straw." "Why did you think it was okay to lie, Emily, when you know that lying is wrong?" "Because I thought it was funny."

Well, that answer was NOT the answer I wanted and just about summed up her punishment. Had she shown some remorse for the lying, then I probably would have just told her not to let it happen again and that would have been it, but the girl needs to learn to come up with some better answers than that. I calmly explained to her that it's a shame that she lied because I would have allowed her to have the second cereal straw if she had just asked for it, and since she lied and thought it was okay to do it, she would be spending some time this morning sitting on her bed thinking about what she did.

And I should probably add that the child earned her some extra time added on because she lied again to me to try to get off of her bed by telling me how bad she needed to go to the bathroom. I looked at her and told her that she could get up and go, but that she better hope that she really does need to go. She just gave me this deer in the headlights look and then went into the bathroom. She sat there for a while, then looked at me and said, "How much more time will I have to sit on my bed?" Oh, this girl is making me go gray...

Nothing much

I can actually say that I don't have a lot to say. :) Ethan and Emily have enjoyed spending the weekend with their cousins, Kaz and Chase. I think Kaz (who is 19) has liked being able to be a little kid again and has played with Emily in her playhouse, listened to her read books to him, played games with the kids, and even made a Pixos design to take home with him. And of course Ethan and Emily always love having Chase spend the night.

Ethan and Emily will be going back to school on Tuesday after the Christmas break. I think they are ready. Well, Ethan is ready. Emily...not so much. It is exciting, though, because they will be moving into their new building soon. Their new school should be finished in the next couple of weeks and the official move-in date is sometime later in January. We all can't wait to see the new building and especially their new classroom!