Spring/Easter/Birthday Mash-up. Or: Miss Banana Turns Three

In our family, birthdays and holidays seem to come together.  My birthday is New Year's Day.  T-Man's birthday is right around Labor Day.  Fearless was born right between the 4th of July and Pioneer Day. You might think that Dr. C didn't get he birthday/holiday memo, because he was born at the beginning of August, but it turns out his birthday is on National Lighthouse Day.  AND, lately, his birthday has fallen on the back-to-school sales-tax holiday, which might even be a better than National Lighthouse Day, don't you think? 

Maybe he got the memo after all.

And then there's Miss Banana, whose birthday is today, two days before Easter. 

Of all the birthday/holiday combos we have in our family; I think Miss B's is the most significant.  Her birthday is nestled in the midst of the Spring & Easter themes of everything new, fresh, clean, beautiful, growing, and reaching for more.  From watching the grass turn green, to the flowers that start to bloom, to the new baby birds chirping in the nest of a nearby tree, to thinking about our Savior, Jesus Christ, overcoming all and living again; Spring and Easter, to me, are about new life.  This time of year signifies the possibilities that we have inside of us if we let the sunshine in and allow ourselves to grow and become more than what we were before.

To me, Miss Banana being born during the time when the world was going through the Springtime renewal was not a coincidence.  During the dark, cold winter months when we received Miss B's diagnosis, I felt like life was against me.  The snow dumped down, the wind blew constantly, and my heart was devastated.

And then the ice began to melt and acceptance grew.  The daffodils in my front yard started to bloom.  The sun began to shine. And my little lady, with her wisdom and strength, was born. 

A new life. 

A perfect, beautiful, new life.

 

Having her join our family was like pulling back all the curtains, opening the windows and letting the sunshine and fresh air pour in.  It was like a big dose of spring cleaning in my heart.  The bleakness of winter was gone; the despair of the unknown replaced with hope and joy. 

 Life with Miss Banana has opened my eyes and allowed me to see more beauty in the world than I had known existed.  Because of her, I've grown, I've stretched, I've become something more than I ever was before.  Dr. C and I will often divide our life into two time periods: "Before Miss B" and "After Miss B".  Because having her in our family changed us forever. 

It was the beginning of a New Life.

 I thank my Heavenly Father for sending her to our family.  I am grateful for the Savior's example of overcoming all and for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that allows me to repent and be renewed.  I am eternally thankful that I have my little Miss B to teach me and help me grow.  I cherish this Spring/Easter/Birthday time and how it reminds me to celebrate the joy of Life.

 

Happy Birthday, my little lovey, I love you to the moon and back.

Avoidance Blogging. Alternate Title: The Moving Month

Some of you may have wondered what happened to your Midwest-girl-turning-Southern-belle over the past month. 

Well, I'll tell you.

I've gone back to being just a straight-up Midwest-girl. 

More on that in a bit.

In the meantime, I should let you know that I've been practicing a form of blogging that I like to call "Avoidance Blogging".  Let me explain.  Usually, blogging is some sort of therapeutic activity...a place to jot down thoughts,  record events, a platform to promote ideas and discussion. 

In Avoidance Blogging, you don't do any of that. Instead, you simply own a blog, and don't write on it.  Easy-peasy, huh?

I guess I should clarify though--Avoidance Blogging isn't simply forgetting to blog--it's much more involved than that.  In Avoidance Blogging, you think about your blog and you may even mentally compose several posts. And almost daily something happens that makes you think you really should be posting about this or that.

But, unfortunately, there are SO MANY of those things running through your head and so many different things occurring in your life, that you completely avoid your blog (hence the name) in hopes that things will settle themselves back into nice neat little happy posts with out any record of the chaos in between.

Avoidance Blogging.  If you haven't already tried it, you probably will.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that we are settling into some type of normalcy and the upheaval of our lives and emotions has finally subsided, I am leaving my stint as an Avoidance Blogger.   Instead, I will condense the past Moving Month into one, devoid-of-emotional-angst post--complete with an almost daily breakdown of what has been happening and a smattering of pictures.

Here we go.

The Moving Month:
Dec. 1--Our First home is officially back on the market.

Dec. 2--Our friends-that-are-family have a going away party for us.  During which, I fail to take any pictures because somehow it would have made the fact that we were leaving seem more real.

Dec. 3-17th--Dr. C leaves for Iowa, leaving me alone with our three-children and a house that has to be constantly kept "show-ready".  We have various showings during this time, but no offers.

Dec. 5th--Dr. C starts his new job.

Dec. 9th--Church Christmas party and sitting on Santa's lap.

Miss B was not a fan of the guy in the red suit.

Dec.17th--Dr. C flies back to Memphis.  The kids and I drive the 3 hours to pick him up.  After six hours in the car, when we return home, we spend 3 hours moving everything out of the attic down to the garage and bringing everything in our storage unit back to our house for the movers.  (P.S. A big thanks to our friends-that-are-family for watching the kiddos and helping us move all of our junk belongings.)

Dec. 14th, 15th, 19th--Miss B's last days with our Kids Therapy Spot/Early Intervention family.

Miss B with her first boyfriend.

Miss B's Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist

Miss B's Speech Therapist

Miss B's Physical Therapist

Miss B's Service Coordinator



Dec. 18th--Our last Sunday with our church family in The South.

Dec. 19th--The movers arrive and start packing up all of our things.  Miss B's amazing school, The T.K. Martin Center, holds their annual Christmas party and Miss B attends for the first and last time.

Miss B's lovely teacher.

Dec. 20th--The movers finish packing up and all of our belongings and head back to the Midwest.

Dec. 21st--The boys have a half-day of school; their last day at Sudduth Elementary.  Some people come and look at our house while we are doing our final cleaning and loading up the van to overflowing.  We leave our Southern Home and head to St. Louis for Christmas.

Dec. 24th--Christmas Eve.  Complete with the annual Clam Chowder & bread sticks dinner.

T-Man making a funny face.

Dr. C wearing the crown from his popper thingy.

After dinner, we spend the evening by the fireside, and read the Christmas story.  A perfectly lovely Christmas Eve.

Dec. 25th--Christmas Day.  We wake up, open our stockings, stop, eat breakfast, go to church, come home, eat lunch, and don't even start opening presents until 4PM.  And my kids are okay with it.  Miss B had started feeling bad on Friday and by Sunday morning, she is looking pretty sickly.  She still perks up enough to open presents.

Miss B loves this FurReal cat thing.  The rest of us think it is a slightly possessed toy that really should have an on/off switch.  It is currently residing in a corner of the basement, facing the wall.  Please don't tell Miss B where it is.

T-Man, the Bounty Hunter

Miss B signing "help" as in "GET THIS DOLL OUT OF THE BOX FOR ME, NOW!"

Dec. 26th--Dr. C leaves St. Louis for Iowa to meet our moving truck.  He is unable to return until Thursday night.  Miss B wakes up feeling worse.  We go out to lunch with my very good friend E.Lee who I hadn't seen in over a year. 

That night, Miss B takes a turn for the worse, and a new adventure begins.  We start at the Urgent Care center, they give her a breathing treatment but think she is too sick for them to handle.  We are then sent to the ER.  The ER spends 5 hours giving her meds (which she promptly spits back out), lots of tests, 2 breathing treatments, and then decides she is too sick for them to handle.  After a lovely ambulance ride, we end up at St. Louis Children's Hospital and a definitive diagnosis of RSV and bronchiolitis.

We are there for a week.



Miss B staying with us is touch-and-go for a couple of days there.  She spends some time in the PICU and her IV faithfully pumps her little body full of fluids and steroids and eventually antibiotics.

(Have I ever mentioned how thankful I am for modern medicine???  My little lady would not be with us today without it.

On the flip side though--those high-tech monitors with all of their wavy lines and different beeps could very likely drive a parent insane.  Any parent who has spent some time in the hospital with a child knows what I'm talking about.

There's the beep.        beep.       beep.--the one that means something is up, but you just have to hit the silence button and keep an eye on it.

Then there's the higher-pitched, faster-- Beep! Beep! Beep!--which means it's time to call the nurse.

And then lastly, the panic-invoking, fear-inducing--BEEP!!!BEEP!!!BEEP!!!--that means it's time for you to run into the hallway and scream for someone to get there RIGHT NOW, #$&*  IT, AND TAKE CARE OF MY BABY!!!

I hate the beeps.

Just sayin'.)

Dec. 31st--Miss B's very nice doctor brings us a bottle of sparkling grape juice for the evening.  Dr. C and I toast the New Year with styrofoam cups at 8PM. Then Dr. C leaves and spends the rest of the evening at my parents' house with the boys so they would have at least one parent for the holiday celebration.  I spend the evening watching The Big Bang Theory marathon on some random channel. 

Most unusual New Year's Eve ever.

 Jan. 1st--Miss B finally busts out of the hospital on New Year's Day--my 30th birthday--and we load up the van and make the rest of the journey to our new home in Iowa.  Probably my most unusual birthday ever as well.

Jan. 2nd-Unpacking and settling in begins.

Jan. 3rd--Dr. C heads back to work; I get the boys registered for their new school.  That night, we head to our first Iowa caucus where we hand-write our ballots and turn them by placing them in a plastic sack.  Afterward, we check out the Mitt Romney Caucus Night party.

The press area--holy cow, there were a lot of cameras.  Not to mention all the wandering camera people.  Wowzas.

 The kids and I only stay for a few minutes (it wasn't exactly a kid-friendly event).  Dr. C takes us home and then goes back for the speech.  Definitely a unique experience.

Jan. 5th--T-Man and Fearless are supposed to start school, but pick up a nasty stomach bug instead.  I'm still not sure that it wasn't at least partly psychosomatic, but due to the fact that there was actual throwing up involved, the first day of new school is delayed.

Jan. 7th--In need of furniture for our new house that has a completely different floor plan from our old house; we drive the two hours to Omaha to the Nebraska Furniture Mart.  We returned victorious with a new sectional precariously tied to Dr. C's truck.

Jan. 8th--Our first Sunday in our new ward.  Everyone was perfectly welcoming--some new friends invited us to dinner that evening and we had a lovely time.

And finally--if you've made it this far--Jan. 9th--T-Man and Fearless started their new school.  T-Man loved it, Fearless is not sure yet.  I'm crossing my fingers that he will love it soon.

No, he didn't take the sword to school.

And that my friends, wraps up the recap of The Moving Month. 
Here's hoping I don't need to practice Avoidance Blogging again anytime soon.

Welcome October.

If January is the "New Beginnings" month, December is about Christmas, and November is about Gratitude, then October is the "Let's Just Start Celebrating Now" month.  It's like October knew that November and December had some major holidays in their favor, so October upped it's standing by being full of cooler weather, football games, General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Down Syndrome Awareness Month, beautiful leaves, yummy baking, sweatshirt-hoodie wearing and then caps it all off with the just-for-fun holiday of Halloween.  I think of October as the warm-fuzzy month to help kickoff the next two months of celebrating goodness.  I mean really, what's not to love about October?

Today and tomorrow my brain is focused on General Conference--one of my favorite weekends of the year when all around the world, members of LDS church gather together to listen to the prophet and apostles speak to us.  Our family watches from home--the kiddos work on Gospel related activities and get to eat treats every time a speaker says "faith" or "prayer" or "Jesus Christ"or "service", etc.  Dr. C and I lounge on the couch taking notes and getting answers to our questions. 

It always seems that at least one of the talks was meant just for me; today there were two that really hit home and I'm sure tomorrow there will be more.  If you want to listen or watch and hear some words meant for you, you can do that here.  I highly recommend it.

Also in October, to celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Month, I am going to try the 31 for 21 Challenge issued by Tricia from Unringing the Bell.  The goal is to blog DAILY in October (hence the 31) for Down syndrome or Trisomy 21...Miss B already has the 21 part covered--which just leaves the 31 part to me.  I'm not sure if I'll make it, but I'll give it a try. 

(In announcing the fact that I'm taking this challenge, please remember that I'm the girl with 432598672 craft projects that I was really enthusiastic about starting, but now sit half-finished in my craft room patiently waiting for days weeks years forever to be finished.  But, I'm also the girl that trains for and runs long distances...so we'll see which commitment-to-a-hobby side of me wins out this month!)



It's going to be a great month, folks.  Welcome October!

Easter Smatterings.

The thing I love about holidays is that each one has fun memories and activities associated with it.  And while some holidays (most notably Christmas and Easter) also have major significances that need to be prominently taught and explained to my little ones, we thoroughly enjoy the various "extras" that are involved in the holiday celebration.  And since these events were spread over the course of a week or so--this is a mish-mash post of our Easter "extras".

T-Man is at the age where he knows what's real and what isn't...but he's not quite ready to let go of the magic yet.  Thus the REAL Easter bunny visited our house, but THIS Easter bunny, was fake.

Miss Banana actually participated in the egg hunts this year.  During the first egg hunt, I had to show her what to do--and she caught on, but at that point, the rest of the eggs were gone.
Egg Hunt #1
Miss Banana's Score: 6

Being egg hunt veterans, T-Man and Fearless knew exactly what to do. 
T-Man's score: A full basket  
Fearless' score: A full basket

At Egg Hunt #2, Miss Banana knew what to do, but there were many more kids that had the whole steady walking/running advantage.  Miss B gave it her all, but when a bigger kid runs up and snatches an egg out from under your hand right when you are about to pick it up, it's a bit hard to up your numbers.

Miss Banana's Score: 6

Fearless' Score: A full basket that he shared with his brother and sister

T-Man's Score: 1 

T-Man had a flawed strategy in which he only looked for/wanted to pick up the "golden egg".  This means that he ran around like a wild man looking for the egg until he finally realized that it was already found...he scrambled and found one last egg. 

Sorry, little man.

At Egg Hunt #3 at home, Fearless wore his new pjs that he found in his Easter basket...apparently he loved them so much he needed to wear them starting at noon.  They must have been lucky new pajamas--he and T-Man found every single egg.

T-Man's score: More than a full basket
Fearless' score: More than a full basket

By Egg Hunt #3, Miss B discovered that there was chocolate inside each egg, so the whole searching-for-eggs-for-the-basket thing was pretty uninteresting.  Instead, waiting for Dr. C or her big brothers to bring the eggs to her so she could glut herself on chocolate was much more entertaining. 

FYI, don't ever get in between my little lady and her chocolate--bad things will happen, my friend. 

Consider yourself warned.

We rounded out the "extras" with an evening of egg coloring.  I must admit this is one of my favorite holiday traditions of all--watching my children patiently, carefully, and creatively color their eggs...admiring their handiwork...seeing the joy on their faces as a common white egg becomes their Easter masterpiece. 

My children love it and I love to watch them love it.

And just so we don't forget the true meaning of the Easter Holiday, the REAL reason we celebrate--here's a little Easter message for you.  I hope your Easter celebrations were wonderful and joy-filled.