Germs and giggles

For those of you who don't know, Maya was put in to the hospital this past week with RSV. It was a four day stay that totally messed up her days and nights since they kept waking her up while she was sleeping at night. BEFORE the hospital, she was sleeping in about 5 or 6 hour segments through the night - which I was VERY HAPPY with. Friday and Saturday, she slept all day despite our attempts to rouse her and she was awake and screaming all night. Today seems to be a little better, although she still has slept more than normal. I'm not sure how much of that is that she's getting over RSV and you sleep more when you are tired and how much of it is that she's still mixing up her days and nights. Either way, I'm sure it won't be long with the loud family get togethers and the jostling of who will hold her next before she is back to sleeping well through the night. The RSV is sounding good. The doctor was very pleased with her progress at her follow up appointment on Friday.

Through this whole ordeal, she has started really coo-ing, giggling, and SMILING!! I managed to get a few of the smiles captured by camera. So, for those of you jonesing for some Maya pics, enjoy this post! Love to all! Merry CHRISTmas!!

THIS is what RSV looks like! HA! Poor girl....when she wasn't sleeping, this is what we saw for a few days.


Maya 12-21-08 with Luke. I am not sure who adores who more. Luke or Maya.


This is Maya in her Christmas dress this morning.






I l-o-v-e this picture for some reason. Maybe it's who is IN the picture.... :)


One of her first smiles on camera...from a hospital bed, no less!


Heard of the Linus project? They made her this blanket. Great idea!


The bunny is also from the people with Linus.


At church this morning.


What a great smile!! How could I not be in love!?!?!


Luke playing his XBox...had to pause for the pic!


Evan pretending to be the villian, Venom, from Spiderman


Drew being Drew.


Gabe and Maya tonight after baths


Mommy and Maya



Gabriel and Maya tonight

A day in the life...

Ok. If I could fast forward through one day, today would be a good candidate.

Within 15 minutes all of this happened today:
We were finishing up lunch, and Gabriel did the traditional "How many bites do I have to eat to get up?" My answer was 5. The baby started crying, so I went to get her when I heard this noise from the kitchen. I didn't place it at first probably because it was muffled by the infant cries in my ear. Then it hit me. Gabriel was throwing up. He had put the five bites in his mouth one after another without chewing and without swallowing. There was simply no room, so he was gagging and throwing it up. I was trying to get him to the trash can while holding Maya. We made it but not before half of it was on the floor. I managed to avoid getting splatterred...but he didn't. So I instructed him to change his clothes while I changed Maya. The odor coming from her diaper, I had gathered through all of this, was the reason for her dismay.

Satisfied that he was done gagging and knew what to do, I handed him a paper towel to wipe off his face and proceeded to the changing table in Maya's room. As I walked through the house, with her in my arms, I couldn't see the floor. I stepped in something cold and slimy. I looked down to see the cat had been sick...and it was squished between my toes and up my pants leg. Ok. Take a deep breath. Hop (with Maya in your arms) on one foot to her room to set her down so you can use baby wipes to get the worst off your feet before you boil them in hot water to get that off!!!! I managed to get her sat down, and I wiped my feet off, rolled up my pants so that if there was any on the cuff, it wouldn't smear on to the carpet. I changed my daughter, and she was poopy. Got her cleaned up, put her in her seat in the living room, changed my clothes, and got the carpet cleaner.

I finished cleaning up the carpet, and by that time, Maya was fussing again, so I picked her up and sat down in the recliner. I held her up in front of me...and she spit up all over my shirt! At least it wasn't all over her.

So I THOUGHT the worst was behind me, but when the boys got home from school, the fun began! They were so wound up that I finally banned them from talking until their chores were done. This was great for about 15 minutes. Next thing I know, Luke is running up to me with his lips pinched shut, since he was not allowed to speak per my decree, and he's pointing hysterically while MMM MMM MMMMMM-ing to avoid talking and get me some kind of message. From his urgency, I knew he had to talk, so I said he could. He frantically started to tell me that someone (NOT HIM, of course) had been in the bathroom and put tooooooo much toilet paper in it, and there was water on the floor. I ran in there to find about an inch of water all over the floor and the toilet still overflowing. He was right. Gabriel had put an entire box of kleenex in the toilet for some reason. Gabriel went running to his room yelling repeatedly, "I'm sorry!!!" I started giving directions for towels. My attempts to turn off the valve were not working, so I lifted the lid to see the mess in the toilet bowl. I knew there was only one thing I could do. I had Evan go get me some Walmart bags. He came running back, and I dove in with my hands to get the mess out. As soon as I did, the water went right down. The boys started mopping up with towels...and I had to change my entire outfit (AGAIN) because my pants were wet around the ankles and my sleeves were wet up to the elbows.

I love being a mommy!

TIME

It's amazing that I can still remember my first month with Luke, and here it is - 8 years and 4 more children later and I can't believe Maya Hope is over a month old.



She is amazing. She looks at me, and I can just feel that she loves me...and she trusts me...I can't explain it. There's something in her eyes. I don't know if it is because I know she's the last one I'll ever have and I'm trying to soak it all in or if it's because she's a girl or what. There is a connection I have never felt before. Don't get me wrong, my boys and I are very close, and they all love their mommy as I do them. I would not trade any of them for the world (although I'm willing to negotiate an over-nighter if you're interested).

I just can't say enough how blessed I feel to have Maya.

And to have Luke. His sense of humor is really blossoming. I love his new laugh. I call it that because he's learned irony and every time he gets tickled at something ironic he has a new, unique laugh. It's high pitched and short, and he keeps right on going with his story without missing a beat. It's great seeing him develop into a young man.

And I love Drew. Drew is....well, he's Drew. He's a special little boy who loves everyone and says anything that comes to his head. And I mean anything. It makes him real and honest and open, and I love that. He is also just like me in some ways when I was a kid. He gets so attached to people on TV. It's emotional for him. I was and am still that way. I remember watching a mini series in an old house that had a "blue room" which is what we called it. The last night of the series was on Sunday, and I needed to go to bed for school in the morning. The series had Mickey Roonie in it and his character was Ben, who was a mentally handicapped person. Dad wanted me to go to bed and there was still about an hour left of the last show. I cried genuinely because I wanted to know what would happen to Ben. It honestly wasn't because I didn't want to go to bed. I remember feeling so distraught that I wouldn't be able to see it. Dad let me stay up when he realized it was genuine. Drew is the same way. He's emotionally involved with the "victims" of movies. I love seeing pieces of me in my kids, as silly as some of those pieces are.

And Evan is the most sensitive pleaser I know. He just wants you to love him and be proud of him. I guess that is true of all children, but Evan verbalizes it. He wants your approval for EVERYTHING, and he's not satisfied if you don't say it. He asks all the time, "Am I being good, Mommy?" He's also the most considerate. He gives away his stuff, he wants to buy presents for EVERYONE (even Santa - no joke), and he will do things for others just because he knows it's nice. It's endearing.

Gabriel is finding himself. I love who he has found. The shy little boy that never said a word for 3 years found language and clowning all at the same time in year 4! He'll do anything for a laugh. He is cute, and he knows it. His latest thing is overexaggerated laughter. It's not loud, it just goes on and on. You can tickle him and he'll make these huge movements and laughs...and when you stop, he's still moving and laughing with the same gusto.

Kids are great. It's true.

Drew and Evan lost teeth last week. Drew lost 2 on Thanksgiving Day within about 5 minutes of each other. Evan lost one the next day. Talk about breaking the Tooth Fairy's bank!!

I completely forgot that when you have a newborn...

...sometimes showering is a luxury...
...sometimes you don't even notice the spit up on your shirt...
...sometimes they make the weirdest noises...and usually those noises are followed by a screaming baby and an unpleasant odor coming from somewhere near you...
...sometimes the hiccups are your worst enemy...
...sometimes no matter how quiet you are, the startle reflex still happens...
...sometimes they just want the bottle in their mouth...they have no intention to eat anything...
...sometimes they actually don't cry during a bath and you wonder if they finally remember that just a little while ago they were swimming in fluid 24/7 so why should they cry during a bath?...
...sometimes they act like lotion feels like acid...
...sometimes your furniture gets spit up on too...
...sometimes you want to rip the phone right out of the wall for waking them up...
...sometimes they sleep through an entire army of noisy children or a crowded restaurant, but they can't seem to sleep through you walking in the room...

But I also forgot how completely wonderful it is to...
...hear them coo...
...watch their eyes learn to focus...
...see their first smile...
...hear a tiny giggle...
...watch their arms and legs circle in the air in jerky movements trying to work their muscles...
...smell their newly lotioned skin after a warm bath...
...snuggle with your little girl on your chest sweetly sleeping...

God IS good. All the time.

Good people

I am blessed by some really good people in my life. Here, I want to take a moment to tell you who and why.

1. My uncle and his wife. I just have to say that they have really come on as some good "grandparenting" role models. With the loss of my dad two summers ago, I was somewhat worried that my kids would lose my side of the family. I don't go to church where I grew up, which means they don't really know all of them from church. My brother moved to MD. My mom moved to MT. Sometimes I feel I'm the lone Nicholson - even though I know that is not true. But busy lives change what you are able to do for your kids, too, and so seeing my side of the family doesn't happen a whole lot. Anyway, I'm so glad to have Uncle P and Aunt K (who my kids cannot stop calling grandpa and grandma - even though we've tried to break the habit - and really, who cares if they call them that?) in my kids' lives. They are SO GOOD with them. They are patient with the boys and love them and they do as much as they can with them. I love it. It gives them someone from my side to connect to on a regular basis. Of course, they know and love my mom and Jon and Todd, Micah, and Grace, but at the same time the distance between them and us creates a barrier that P and K don't deal with. I'm very thankful for them. I love them and love that they love my children.

2. I'm blessed by Lynn H. I work with her, and she took the time to have her mentally handicapped students write thank you notes to me for coming back to school second semester. Their sentences spelled out how much they missed me. On a day when I can barely imagine leaving my little girl with the babysitter and am in tears over it, I got the letters from Kelcy and John and MicKinzie and others. My tears changed their origin. I'm blessed that Lynn would take the time to do that and that their loving little hearts thought through it all and wanted to tell me those things. I wrote them a note back, and I think I'll keep my letters from them as a reminder of why I teach.

3. I have wonderful children. They were so good tonight. They didn't argue with me when I gave them instructions. They are so loving. They just want me to be with them. When is the last time someone just truly wanted to be with me? For no other reason than that they love me....I have 5 little ones that do that for me every day. Forgive me God, when I fail to see them like You do.