Spelling test

I noticed a spelling mistake in the title of one of the blog posts "Annie Surives Bleach in the Face" should read "Annie Survives Bleach in the Face." Spelling mistakes are one of those things that, when I notice them, they really annoy me. Yet there are so many little blips and omissions that my brain glosses over or fills in the right letters so that I don't really see it, even though it's right there, just daring me to notice.

Our Morning Prayer

Lord God, Please give
Daddy a wise heart,
Mommy a patient heart,
Annie an obedient heart,
and Betta a joyful heart.
Amen.

The husband and I just finished reading Fr. Thomas Dubay's A Prayer Primer for our Teams of our Lady. In trying to make sure prayer is part of our daily life, I was trying to say morning prayer from the Office of the Hours. The girls must have had some innate sense that Mommy was trying to do something really important, and they would always get upset, fight, or cry. I knew I wanted to pray, I knew I needed to pray. I also had to make it something the girls would enjoy, so we made our own prayer.

I stumbled upon this prayer almost by accident. I was trying to get Annie to off the stairwell so I could put the baby gate up to keep Betta from climbing the stairs (yes, she is old enough to climb the stairs but not yet old enough to climb back down!). I realized I was grumpy and growing impatient.

I said to Annie, "Let's ask God to give Annie an obedient heart and give Mommy a patient heart?"

Annie immediately hopped off the stairs and said, "Here you go. Heart, Mama" and pretended to hand me a heart. I thought this kind of prayer could work on a daily basis. We've only been saying it for a couple days, but she seems to like it, and I certainly enjoy the grace and blessings of being able to pray .

Annie Survives Bleach in the Face

Annie survived licking tylenol, she survived a bout of rotavirus, and now she's survived spraying a bleach cleaner into her face.

Fortunately I was right there when it happened and I immediately put her in the bath and started pouring water over her head until she stopped crying about her eye stinging and started complaining about so much water.

I then called the doctor. They told me to put her in the bath again, then bring her over immediately. They would work her in.

The doctor can tell if there has been any damage to the eye by putting in eye drops that glow under a black light. If the dye is anywhere in the eye, it indicates that there is damage. An intact eye won't keep the dye on it. Annie had the eye drops put in and the black light was turned on. It looked like someone had put a flourescent eyeliner on her, but her eye looked fine. She was well. Fortunately the doctor's visit took all of 30 minutes.

Since our girl narrowly escaped injury, we asked her what she'd like to eat for dinner.

"Pizza!"

Husband is Brilliant

We have a television. We keep it downstairs in the basement. Our basement is the family room, and computer area, and the laundry area. We switched things around to make it more family friendly, and that meant the cable was no longer hooked up to the TV. Husband said he could get it working, but he'd need to find the right length of cable.

For about three months, the only thing I've seen on the television are Elmo DVDs and Barbie's The Princess and the Pauper. No news, no soap operas. No "Dancing with the Stars." I forgot about programs geared toward adults. I forgot that Bravo will run all the episodes of a season of" Blowout" in a single day. I didn't miss it. The television was for the benefit of the children.
Husband hooked up the cable last night. I didn't realize how isolated from the world I'd become. A news program was on.

"Ooh, look. There's a hurricane?"
"Yeah, it's about to hit the coast of Nicaragua."
"Have there been a lot of hurricanes this year?"

Stay at Home Mom

My husband and I were discussing the future a bit...where we see ourselves, what we'd like to do, how we would get from here to there...and we started talking about after we raised our kids (with the plan being for me to stay at home until the youngest no longer needed me at home be it kindergarden age or college age). I just assumed I'd re-enter the workforce since it would help financially, when I mentioned this, I found out that my husband and I were thinking different things.

My husband said, "Your job is raising the kids. That will take years. After you are done, you can do anything you want. Work or not work. Take a class. Babysit grandkids. Please consider keeping up the work of taking care of me. But I consider it my responsibility, my gift to you to let you do anything you want to do after you've raised the kids."

What a generous gift.

Little Women

"Mommy's Makeup. Ooooh, I'm so pretty. Oooohhh, Annie's a cutie pie. Betta No!"

Beauty Redefined

http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/69556

Check it out. Wow.

Consumer Report's Opinion on Buying Organic

I quote:

DO buy organic!
It pays to buy organic produce like apples, bell peppers, strawberries, and spinach, but if cost is an issue, you can save money buy not buying organic bananas, asparagus, onions and sweet peas because tests show they rarely have pesticide residue.

Happy Birthday Annie?

Today is Annie's Birthday. Her family party is this weekend, but I wanted to make the day special today. I figured I'd make today a 'yes' day. To let her do things she'd like to do (that weren't utterly dangerous like drown her baby sister Elizabeth in the tub) to try and celebrate.

We spent nearly an hour in the tub, met Daddy for lunch--late of course, because tub time extended itself 45 minutes--played on the play park in the mall (no outdoor activities because of the rain), napped, watched the Princess Movie (worthy of it's own post), had noodles for dinner, and went to have ice cream with the cousins to round out the day.

The pinnacle of the entire day was the Happy Birthday Well-wishes of family and loved ones.

Annie's Godmother Kate & her baby friend Simon spoke with Annie in the evening. Kate had been working on having Simon say "Happy Birthday Annie" most of the day. She was continuing to coach and encourage him to speak while on the phone.

Kate: [singing] Happy Birthday to you
Simon: silence
Kate: [singing] Happy Birthday to you
Simon: silence
Kate: [singing] Happy Birthday dear Annie
Simon: Ha Buu-day Lizabeth.

Yes, Happy Birthday Elizabeth.

Grieving

I've been getting sick a lot lately. A little bug here, a little bug there. I've been to the doctor's office a lot. The nurses love seeing Annie and Elizabeth. Annie gets stickers and the nurses hold Elizabeth and coo at her. Recently one of the doctors pointed out that I had been in several times recently. She asked if there had been any significant changes recently. "My mom died." After expressing her sympathies, she said, "Yep, that would make you ill." I guess this is part of the grieving process.

Another part of the grieving process is that I get so angry. Usually really big, strong emotions are difficult and exhausting to sustain, so they subside. Not this anger. It's big, strong, exhausting and ever present. The husband forgets to clear his dishes from the table and I seethe all day. Annie dumps her drink on the floor and I want to storm out of the house like a hormonal teenager. And while I'm feeling so irrationally angry, this small still-rational portion of my brain speaks to me and tells me that it's not a big deal. Annie is just being Annie. So I try so hard to maintain the positive discipline and not fly off the handle. Reigning in the anger seems more difficult than even feeling the anger. Acknowledging that I am feeling it helps diffuse it though. I wouldn't mind moving through this stage a bit more quickly.

Slowly Coming Back

My mom died and we held her funeral. I feel like so much more happened but that really does sum it up.

My brother and his wife have been brilliant throughout all of this. My brother was appointed medical power of attorney and was listed as an executor of the estate. He and his wife have kept things organized and moving and I appreciate them so much for doing that, because I must confess, I would probably let it sit and sit.

We'll Miss you, Mom

Mom Update

Mom not doing so well recently. She's in the hospital and in critical but stable condition. Amid other serious issues, she had an episode where she was not breathing on her own. Doctors are taking blood work, cultures, and administering other tests to try to form an official diagnosis and prognosis. Please pray for her.

I'm on Facebook!

I'm a loser. At my sister's request, I joined Facebook. How long has this thing been around? And I'm a new member? Someone should revoke my permission to access the internet.

See, Harvard Agrees With Me

Harvard University's research shows support for Attachment Parenting.

Ride the Horsey

The girls and I headed to Burke Lake Park today for a trip on the carousel. Annie had a blast.

Quotable Quotes

"Mama?"
"Yeah?"
"I like your nurses. I like 'em."
"Um, thanks."

When Daddy's Away The Girls Will Play

The Husband is away on another business trip. He left yesterday afternoon. Annie had a hard time settling to sleep with him gone and seemed at loose ends when she woke up. It seemed that a crucial fixture of her sleeping and waking routines was missing. Daddy was away at work.

We'd gotten too complacent with routine. We were allowing the man to keep us down! I decided a wild crazy week of baby party was in order. I scooped up the girls and took them to the supermarket for juice, milk, cookies,jarred food, diapers, and hot dogs. Freshly stocked for a wild week without the old man keeping us down we walked to Starbucks. I got coffee, prayed Morning Prayer, and Annie stood by my table pointing out various things.


Other plans for the week include a NINO meeting, playing with the cousins, a trip to Burke Lake Park, and maybe some other fun baby-friend time.

New Toy

Our camera broke. It stopped taking pictures. The digital screen went black. The Husband and I went camera shopping. We're such suckers for an up-sell. We went with the Canon Rebel XTi. We're going to cash in some credit card reward points to offset the cost of the camera--before you go thinking we're Richy Rich or anything.

The Husband was tring to get a feel for the settings the other evening. Even playing around, we managed to capture some lovely pictures. Take a look...

Annie is deciding to run head-long down the hill that is our front yard.



Annie telling Daddy that she does not want to smile for pictures, nor does she want to share her popcicle.



Betta peering intently out of the mei tai.

Independence Day

Family got together for the Forth Of July. My sister from Seattle flew in that morning. Here she is, holding Betta.


Unfortunately, I don't have pics because the camera battery died, but the girls loved the fireworks display done by friends' HOA. Annie stood on the street shouting, "Boom! Boom! Fire up der!" and clapping and jumping around. She was heard down the entire street. Happy 4th everybody.