So Many Words

Mads is really talking. I am not sure that the boys talked so well so early, but she tries to repeat everything. Her vocabulary builds daily! Here are some of the things she says regularly:

momma
daddy
Gingee (Ginger...her bunny that Daddy made her on Valentines Day at Build a Bear)
bye bye (as she waves)
uh-oh
no
Baboo (Andrew....not to be confused with a baboon)
Cabub (Caleb)
Icee (Isaac)
ByBy (Bryce)
deek do (peek-a-boo)
Beaux (all dogs are Beaux)
tank-du (thank you)
bu-deeee (baby)

Now, here is my least favorite:
Bu (bugs))she LOVES chasing them! She spent quite a while the other night chasing a butterfly. By the time I thought to go in and get the camera the butterfly was gone :(

But that is okay, because the same day she was running around outside saying bugs and chasing them, she also started saying:

boooo: shoes
pu-ssssss: purse

That is right, she is already saying purse and shoes. Momma is so proud!! She has also been picking out her clothes for quite a while now. I will either pick her up in her closet and she will look and pick something or I will get three or four outfits out and she will study them and pick one.

When she gets mad or irritated with her brothers she just screams at the top of her lungs. Not a crying scream, a get-away-from-me-now-before-major-girl-drama-begins type of squealy scream! It works too! The boys are still so used to the brother they are annoying just hauling off and hitting them when they have had enough, that the squealy scream still startles them and they back off! Therefore, I only see this getting worse before it gets better.

Another thing (not related to her talking), I get comments a lot about the fact that she will walk up to an older boy and get right in front of him like she is having a stand off. People are amazed that she is so bold around boys. Until, they learn that she has four brothers! We were playing with a little girl the other day, a few months older than Mads, and she was taking everything the girl had, pulling her bow out of her hair, etc. She needs some girlfriends....NOW!!!

Oh yeah, I forgot.....she doesn't say milk, but if you tell her to go get her milk, she will find her cup, bring it to you and say "tank du" (which is the hint that she NEEDS a drink!!)

Daddy Out of Town

Daddy went out of town today and won't be home until Thursday. This is the first time he has been out of town since she become aware of things like that. She was asleep when we dropped him off at the airport and slept for several hours. When she got up, she walked around the house looking for Dada. She finally got side-tracked with something else and quit searching.

Everytime an outside door opens or a dog barks, she goes running to the door yelling DADA!! Of course, there is no Dada. So, she has been disappointed many times today :)

I texted Daddy this evening after he got checked in to his hotel and told him what she was doing. He said it was sad, but made him smile! He said he would call when he was done with dinner and talk to her. She has never talked on the phone (and I am now thinking it is not something she should do often).

When he called I put the phone on speaker phone. Between hearing his voice and seeing his picture on the phone she had the BIGGEST smile on her face and kept pointing at the phone. She was very excited! She kept putting her hand over her ear while she talked (like she was holding a phone).

THey had a good conversation, kinda one-sided with the talking, but there was continual babbling (although quiet and hard for him to hear some of it) and a LOT of giggling on this end! When it was time to hang up and Daddy told her night night, she kept kissing his picture on the phone and waving while saying bye bye.

I am guessing there will be many phone calls this week. They both need to hear each other I think!

My Water Baby

Andrew never really (and still doesn't much) care for sprinklers or rain or showers of any sort. Mady can't get enough of them. When we are on our nightly walks she tries to get in to EVERY sprinkler that is on down our street. Put, her love doesn't stop at the sprinkler. She will take water of any sort.

In a pool:


Puddles:




Sprinklers:






the pictures with her face down at the water...she likes to drink out of the hose. I have no idea where she learned that, but she has done it since the first time she was around water coming out of a hose.

or rain:






She could also spend forever in the tub. She likes to just sit in the water and play with her toys. She, however, is not fond of the getting out part.

She does a great job of entertaining herself when we are outside. She would prefer to live outside, I think. If she hears a door open, she RUNS to the door. If she doesn't make it before the door closes, she will scream until someone lets her out. But, once she is out, you don't really have to do much with her (especially if we are in the fenced in area). We had some friends over last night and spent a couple of hours outside with the sprinkler on and sandbox open. She was content to do her own thing the entire time.

The Dirt Princess

Yesterday morning I was painting my fingernails and Mads walked up. She got SOOO excited when she saw the fingernail polish and started putting her fingers and feet up at my hands all the while just a SQUEALING!!! Of course, it very much excited this mom of four boys to see her little girl so excited about nail polish already. She has always done good at sitting still and letting me paint her toenails letting them dry, but she has never "asked" (or demanded) to have hers done.

So, I painted her toenails and then for the first time did her fingernails since she was so excited (getting her to sit still for twenty nails and then drying was a bit of a stretch). She looked so cute in her girly, ruffly outfit, her earrings and her pink toes and fingers.

THEN, she went outside with her brothers. Well, let's just say the girl knows how to get as dirty as they do. Although, I do believe that when she came in she was in a close second for dirtiest (right behind Andrew). She IMMEDIATELY found a planter that was full of potting soil (but no plants). She decided to see how potting soil tasted.


Daddy was drinking a bottle of water, so of course Mads wanted some. After he shared with the dirt princess, Daddy decided he was no longer thirsty and gave her the bottle. She started off with the lid on:



Then he decided "what the heck" and opened it for her:



So much for the cute ruffly girly outfit (as water dripped out of her mouth and all over her)! :) But, she knows how to work a crowd, she starts blowing kisses:



Then she decides to see what happens when you turn an open bottle upside down:


Then she thought she would have a seat and turn it upside down:
She quickly learned that water from the refrigerator is
C-O-L-D!!

The conclusion we came to at the end is that we have the CUTEST wet, DIRT PRINCESS that ever toddled the land:

(she was kissing the whole time I was taking pictures - that is why her lips are puckered in a lot of the pictures)


On another note: she has enough hair (barely) for a clip with no headband :)

Appreciation

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Yesterday was an exceptionally bad day! Sometimes the monotony of life as a stay-at-home mom gets the best of you. While I LOVE my job, it is hard to spend every day cleaning and doing, yet have it look like you haven't done anything. Add on top of that the fact that I had made some curtains for one of the boys rooms (that they had been nagging me about), and they got pulled down within a couple of days of being put up. So, I was feeling a little under-appreciated as well.

I did not handle it well. I did not want the one day of "fake" over-appreciation that they wanted to give. I was very un-accepting. But, after everyone went to bed last night I was thinking of the way I behaved. I was being very self-absorbed and feeling sorry for myself.

See, children - probably especially boys - show appreciation in a different way. It isn't always a "I-really-appreciate-everything-you-do-for-me obvious appreciation. With boys you have to take what you can get. Sometimes, it is Caleb asking if I need any help with anything. Or, Isaac giving hundreds of hugs. Maybe it is Bryce asking if he can be my foot rest as he crawls under my legs (and he will sit their for as long as I want him to), or giving me a hand massage. Andrew is continuously giving hugs and kisses and telling me "I wuv you Mommy"!

As a mom, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I have to LOOK for the different ways I am shown appreciation. Beyond LOOKING for signs of appreciation, I have to ACCEPT the way the boys show the appreciation as if they WERE saying the words out loud to me.

Part of my job as a Mom is to do what I need to do whether I feel appreciated or not. It isn't always easy and it isn't always fun. It might be one of the hardest things about being a mother. But, I love that I have been blessed with a hard working and dedicated husband that does what he has to do so I have been able to stay home for the last 8 1/2 years and raise my children.

Boys are strange little creatures and they have their own way of doing EVERYTHING! No matter how hard I try to teach them to make their emotions a little more transparent, they apparently just are not built that way. So, instead of feeling sorry for myself and expecting something that I know I am not going to get (and then getting disappointed) I need to accept what I am given and appreciate that I am given it!

I have enjoyed so much getting to be there and watch my children grow up (much too fast I might add). They are the most precious gift I have ever been given and I don't want to miss any of it.

I love you Caleb, Isaac, Bryce, Andrew and Madeleine!!

Obsession

Mady's obsession for shoes took a new turn yesterday. There were no shoes around the house (my guess is she had already taken and hidden them all), so she decided to make her own. She took our newspaper and wadded it up and put it on her feet. She was quite proud of herself.

Kudos for the creativity! It is nice to know, if need be, she can make shoes from anything!

What's Up with Mads

For about the last month or so Mads has been trying to copy things she hears us saying. She trys to say her brothers names and although she says the same things everytime, they are nowhere near their names. One thing she HAS gotten is "thank you". She says it a lot and it just amazes people when they hear it! It is SO STINKIN CUTE!

She has become a Mama's girl lately. When she hears the dog bark in the evening she yells "Daddy" and goes to the kitchen. But when he walks in and smiles at her, she runs to me and hides behind my leg, smiling back. As soon as he goes and gets a snack though, she is his best friend (because best friends SHARE). I think she is going through a stage. When I am not in sight she is fine without me.

I cannot stand in the kitchen, fixing dinner or cleaning or anything, without her walking in wanting food. If I ignore her request, she screams and pulls at my legs! It makes cooking dinner interesting! This girl wants to eat ALL. THE. TIME! None of my boys were this bad! She is still tasting (and eating) anything she can get in her mouth too! Our little goat!

She is walking everywhere now - and getting into everything. She discovered that the world is much different when you get off your knees and use your feet. She had already learned what was in all of the low drawers, now she is learning the mid-drawers and has learned to open cabinet doors. If I leave her for just a second (to change out laundry, potty or whatever), she will have my kitchen floor covered in things that were once in drawers and cabinets. And, boy is she always proud of herself!!

Every night, her and I walk to the end of our road and back. It is a pretty long walk for her, but she usually does at least half of it. About every three steps she stops and does this:


makes for a long walk, and some funny faces, and even a few honks... I am not sure if she is smelling her feet, the sidewalk or just wanting an upside down view of the world!










Friday we went to an ENT (ear nose and throat) dr. Daddy finally agreed the weekend before that she should get her ears done, but only if she went to a dr to do it. So, we did. He seemed to be a great dr, and I was kind of glad we went since we have ENT issues with other kids! Now we know where to take them if we need to. She was mad before the dr came in because she wanted down, and we would not let her. She screamed when I held her face against my chest and the nurse held her hands, but that was it. As soon as we let go of her, she was happy. No, really. I mean happy. She looked at the dr, smiled and waved bye to him. We went to eat right after, here is her first pierced ear shot:



















She LOVES the water. When we are walking she always tries to walk through any sprinklers that are on. Daddy filled the little swimming pool and she enjoyed getting in and out of it. She kept trying to drink from the hose when Daddy would spray it. I don't know where she learned that - I haven't seen the boys do it.



















I went out Friday for a girls night out (which I haven't done in over 2 years). I got some new shoes before we went, but I wasn't sure I was going to get to wear them. Mady is a shoe hog!! If she sees shoes, she takes them. It doesn't who's shoes they are. She wants them ALL!!! When I was getting dressed Friday she was trying to put my shoes on her feet. I sure hope she has the same size foot I do, otherwise the two of us may break Daddy when she gets older!

Trip 2 to the ER (in one night)

I got home from the first trip to the ER and Daddy was not happy. I guess I was supposed to know that there was no radiation in an MRI. Then, I was telling him how the dr said he held open the wound while he was glueing, so that it would heal from the inside out. Made sense to me....but I don't have a medical degree!

Paul starts looking online at the proper way to glue a wound (including Dermabonds website). EVERYTHING said to HOLD THE WOUND CLOSED AND GLUE. So Paul calls the nurse at his office who thinks it was supposed to be closed. She calls the dr who works for the office....HE says closed and should maybe have it checked by someone else. By now, it is after 10. After hour clinics are closed and it is a 30 minute drive to the next nearest hospital.

Paul called the pediatricians office to see what they suggest. The nurse has no idea why the dr would hold it open and glue and calls the dr. Dr has no idea and says it should probably be checked again.

Off we go for trip number 2 to the ER. This ER is nice in that it is seperated, adults and pediatrics. We did not have to sit with the middle-of-the-night-crazy-ER crowd!! In fact, we were the only ones in the waiting room for most of the time we were there.

None of the nurses that we saw before the dr came in understood why it was done the way it was and WHY ON EARTH it was done with his hair pulled up and back (this after the dr at the first ER made a point of saying his hair would stay how ever it was when the glue is put on...but I was not watching him glue and did not see the hairdo he gave my child!).

The dr came in. After we went through everything again with him I asked about an MRI. He said they would have to do a CT scan and the radiation for that is about 100 times more than the radiation from a chest xray. If the first dr had explained this instead of handling it the way he did, it would have been much better! But the pediatric dr did an exam - checked for any fractures around the wound, checked for fractures in his jaw (which he complained on the way to the hospital that it was "feeling funny"), did a neurological exam (much like a sobreity test) and a couple of other tests. Everything checked out fine.

He explained that he had no idea why it was glued the way it was and he had never see it done like that. BUT, it would be VERY painful to get the glue off and cleaned so they could either re-glue with it closed or stitch and that in the long run, it would not pull it much more closer together. He just did not want to put Caleb through the pain and not see much difference.

He said that he was sure there was a concussion, BUT HE told us what to watch for.

He WILL end up with a battle scar on his hairline. The dr showed Caleb his battlescar where his brother was wrestling with him and pushed him into a brick wall. The scar is at the same place Calebs will be and it is mostly in the hair

We got home about 1:30 this morning. The entire trip home was non-stop talk about the stars and what the real name of the moon was.....normal Caleb conversation. Which is probably good, because I was ready to go to sleep!!

I could not convince Caleb to stay home today because they had a field trip this morning.

He had a very hard head apparently, because this morning was the first time his head hurt and he said it was a small headache around the wound. He asked me if I would bandage his head (his entire head) so that noone could see where he split his head open and his crazy hair do.

I will try to take a picture of what it looks like after the ER when he gets home tonight....just didn't have the energy this morning!

The drs and nurses at both ERs were quite impressed that we have four boys and this was only our second (and third) ER visit - especially when they heard the boys ages!!
One asked if we made them live in a bubble - cuz that is the only way that was possible!

I DID NOT get the helmet lecture, although I did give it :)

Trip to the Emergency Room

at the ER....after we cleaned the blood off his head, but it was still bleeding.


Paul and I were sitting outside in the front with Mady while she toddled around (away from the rowdy boys playing in the back). Caleb was riding his bike on the sidewalks of our street. We were headed to chase Mady and I look down the sidewalk to see 3 people and a bike. As I focused in I noticed one of those three people was my son, and the bike was being pushed by someone else.

As they got closer I noticed my son was being held up and under the white and red paper towel on his head, he was COVERED in blood! I mean his face, clothes, legs. Mama ALMOST freaked out, but held it together.

"We were looking at a house for sale" the couple began, "and we saw him flip over his handle bars and hit the fire hydrant." That is right, folks. My son had a fight with a fire hydrant. And, I am sad to report, the fire hydrant won!

What is worse....he could not tell them our phone numbers!! So they gave him a paper towel (the poor woman apologized for not having anything more than a papertowel in her car) and WALKED him home!

So, we thank the lovely couple that will now NOT want to buy a house in this neighborhood, and took him in to clean him up, although we were certain we were headed for the ER. It looked bad, so off we went! (Just a side note....on the way to the ER, Caleb says "If that couple buys that house, I will tell them I will help them with their landscaping!")

There was no one at the ER, luckily. We were in and out in about an hour. Which is turning out to be not such a great thing. The dr came in and looked at his head and said he needed stitches. Caleb immediately says "What about that glue stuff. Can't you glue it? I want glue!"

I told the dr to do whatever was best to make is scar the least and heal the best. He said they would be about the same.

I asked if an MRI should be done (as we have flashes of stories where there is a head injury and injured looks fine, but the next day dies of a head injury). He told me no, he was sure he had a concussion but did not want to expose him to the radiation.

He did not give us anything to watch for, offered no pain meds, etc. Just sent us home.

I should add that two nurses came in to clean his head and to put numbing meds on it so they could figure out if they need to stitch or glue. They stand over him and one asks the other if they were stitching. She answers "no, I think he is stapling." Now, Caleb is already freaking out - their small talk was not helping.

Then, they take the towel off his head that was covering his eyes while they cleaned his wound. The other nurse was putting the numbing meds on his head. She had the meds in a HUGE needle, but was using the needle to put the meds on a cotton ball to numb. They were so busy with their small talk that they were not telling Caleb what was going on. So, they pull the towel off and when Caleb opened his eyes he was looking up at a HUGE needle and the nurses finger ready to push the syringe in.

Caleb starts flailing around, hit the nurses hand (almost made the needle go in her face), etc. I quickly try to calm him down saying the needle was NOT going in him. It was kind of hard to be mad at him though, they should have explained what was going on AND NOT had a needle over his head when they uncovered his eyes!

So, he got his head glued back together....but the dr said he was going to OPEN the wound and glue it so that it would heal from the inside out.

Happy 1st Birthday Madeleine!!

I cannot believe my beautiful baby girl is turning ONE today!! Most days, I still cannot believe I even have a little girl! Everyone has always said girls were so different than boys....and they were RIGHT!!! She is definitely much more dramatic and knows what she wants (and she wants it NOW!!). Everything is either the best of times or the worst of times, she rarely has an in-between!

She has her demanding or upset moments, but they are nicely and beautifully sprinkled with the most precious, heart-swelling sounds of squeals and squeaks of delightment when she sees her Daddy for the first time everyday or she sees her brothers when they get home from school or she sees the bouncy ball (or whatever) she wants. Yes, the bads in life are much more dramatic with a girl, but the GOODS are also much more dramatic!! And, the good dramatics SO outweigh the bad!!








The difference I like to see the most is the side of the boys she has brought out. They have a side of them that is gentle and sweet. That is hard to see in a house of loud, wrestling, fighting boys! They become big teddy bears when they get down on her level to say hello or play with her or comfort her. Every morning when Mady wakes up and I get her out of her room...you would think it was Christmas in this house. The boys pitch goes up about 10 octaves as they attempt to talk in a girly baby voice. There are many hugs and kisses and "Good Morning Princess Pooter Tooter" (which, of course, has ended up a favorite nickname for her from her brothers), or "Did you sleep well Sistee?" or "How is the Pretty girl this morning? Are you in a good mood this morning?"

That is right. She is spoiled already. She is RARELY called by her name! But, the names they do call her - they call with such affection that it is hard to do anything but smile! The funniest part is that it is her BROTHERS that spoil her the most (okay...Daddy is right up there with them!). They always want to be around her, playing with her, ANYTHING to make that little girl smile her big smile and show off her dimples!

As smitten as the boys are with her - it works both ways!! The guys in that little girls life ALL hung the moon in her eyes. She sees any of them and instantly lights up. Oh, how it melts this mamas heart!! She is a busy little girl that is always going, but she loves to crawl on the floor from boy to boy to boy to boy to Daddy and back to boy again!!









What a joyous ride the first year of having a girl has been! She can definitely challenge us, but the boys are REALLY good at that too! I am so blessed beyond words!!

Happy birthday Mads! We love you very much!

Scroll down for a post from her birthday party.