I'm Baaaack!

I'm still really busy trying to get things back in order after our trip, but I wanted to let you know I was home again. Yes, we really were gone from last Friday up through yesterday. Ugh. I was ready to come home Sunday morning. When I have time I'll write the whole ugly story. For now I have to go do more laundry.

Christmas Plans

Chris emailed me today finally with a plan for Christmas. He wants to take the boys shopping on Thursday and then go down to his parents' on Friday. He says we will stay overnight at least, and then for as long as he can stand it. I say that's a good plan. We are planning to leave most of the bulky gifts there rather than bring them home just so we can pack them, so it shouldn't take us too long to get out when the time comes.

I finally got the last 3 haircuts done so I can get pictures done next week. I decided to just send cards out late and do the pictures after the rush. They should be cheaper too. I still have to make all my cookies. Last year I didn't do any, and it was nice to take the break. This year I really planned to do them; but as yet they are not done. Oops. With Chris doing all the work on the house at night after work, I haven't had any time to get in the kitchen and do them, because I'm making dinner and watching Levi. Hopefully now Chris can give me a hand.

I don't know how much time Chris is actually taking off for the holidays. He usually takes the week between Christmas and New Year's off, but it looks like he's taking off Thursday and Friday this week, so I don't know if that means he'll work 2 days next week. I have to ask him.

Levi decided to celebrate the first day of winter with his second tooth. He was very cranky yesterday and this morning. I hope that's why. I always worry about ear infections, because how can you know? He hasn't had a cold yet, and I haven't had a real one, but I have been stuffy a few times. You just never know when a baby is going to get one, and they can't tell you when they have it. Ugh. I hope he'll be ok.

Ok, checked with Chris, and yes, he has Thursday and Friday off, plus all of next week. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be pretty warm, as opposed to the frigid temps we had yesterday and will have again on Christmas Day, so I might take the boys out tomorrow too. Today I officially got some Christmas chores done: I mailed a card to my Dad and to my Grandma in Florida, and I baked one batch of cookies. So pitiful, really, LOL. But at least I can say I started!

Friends and Parties

Last Friday Chris and I went to his company's holiday dinner party. His boss has it at his house. Brave man, I would never invited 22 adults here! Well, when we got there I could see why he was willing to do it. His wife has the house decorated so beautifully it was incredible. Every single room was packed with Christmas decorations, plus the outside was done up too. And it was all tasteful and done very well. Chris got a little nervous after we were there a while, thinking this was raising the bar for our own house shopping, LOL. The party was fun, his coworkers and boss are very nice. It was casual, so I didn't have to worry about not having anything fancy enough to wear, and I made an apple crisp, since everyone was asked to bring a dessert. We had our friend from church come over and watch the boys for us, and while Chris was going to try to take Levi with us, I just didn't think his coworkers were really in the mood to have a baby there, so I asked if it would be ok to leave him at home too. Our friend is very good with babies, and it was only going to be a few hours, so I was pretty sure it would be ok. She is magic with getting them to sleep so I figured if I fed him right before I left and was gone only 3 hours, he wouldn't starve and if he got grumpy she could just get him to sleep. As it turned out I was right. We were gone from 5:30 to 9:30, and he was just starting to get grumpy when we got back. He had slept a while and just woken up. So our timing was perfect.

On Sunday we had friends come over to visit that we haven't seen in almost 2 years. They used to live here, but moved out of state a few years ago. Their family lives up here, so when they come home on holidays they try to get out our way to say hi. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. It is always so good to see them. When they were here, and before any of us had kids, we did so much together, we were always doing something. Kids and lives have gotten in the way, and it is sad now that we don't see each other more. But getting together is always a lot of fun.

I made pizza and we watched Spiderman 2, which Chris had just gotten as a Christmas gift from his Sabbath School class at church. After we got the kids to bed, they put on Return of the King, which they had brought with them. We only watched selected scenes, because we didn't want to be up very late. They left this morning before 9 because they wanted to try to see some other friends up here before heading home. Chris waited until they left before going in to work, so he'll be working late tonight to make up for lost time. He also has to make up for the 2 hours he missed on Friday. Oh, did I not tell you about what happened on Friday? Well.....

Friday morning I woke up (still on the couch as Chris had just put the last coat of paint up in our room) and nursed Levi, then fell back asleep with him tucked in next to me. The boys trickled downstairs to watch morning cartoons, and about 8:30 I figured it was time to get up. I felt cold, so I asked Noah to check the temperature on the thermostat; he read 55. Yikes! Oh man, I thought, Chris let the oil run out again. Ugh! So I went downstairs to check the oil level. Nope, we weren't out yet. Hmmm. I flipped the switch on the furnace, nothing. I checked the fuse. I checked the breaker. Nothing. I called Chris and told him to come home and fix it. He had me check a few more times and gave up and came home. He ended up getting all the way inside the furnace, checking all the connections, making sure there was power through it. He couldn't find the problem either. He gave up and told me I'd have to call a guy to come and look at it. I had the phone in my hand ready to dial when he called out to me "don't call!" I heard the heat come on and went to find out what he did. It turns out the 2 year old had climbed up and opened the door on the thermostat, flipped the switch from heat to cool, closed the door again, and pushed away the exersaucer he had used to climb up. He had done all this and left no trace of his presence, so it never occurred to me that someone had messed with it. If you ask me, I am going to be in trouble with this kid, LOL. So phew, no money spent to fix the furnace, but bummer, Chris wasted 2 hours of work to come home and turn it back on.

No More Painting!

Chris finished up the last room last week. He painted our bedroom. We slept in the living room all week, since not only did it smell, but all the furniture was piled up in the middle of the room and we couldn't get to the bed, lol. Levi also slept downstairs, because of the smell, and he wasn't very happy about that. He didn't sleep well at all. I picked a pale green color, but I bought recycled paint since it was half the price, so the tint came out a little greyer than I had wanted. I don't really care, since we're moving anyway, lol. And hey, anything looks better than faded peeling icky wallpaper, right? Here are the pics:

Our Bedroom Before

Our Bedroom After

The carpet in there is still golden yellow, but it actually doesn't clash too badly with the color of paint. I think with a tan or off white carpet it would look greener.

My Baby Is Still Perfect!

Levi had his 4 month check up on Friday. He weighs 15 lbs 2 oz, and is 25 1/4 inches long. It sounds big, but actually he is slightly smaller than most of his brothers were at 4 months. He was sooo good for the doctor. He even laughed and giggled when the dr examined him, instead of cry, like most babies might with a stranger. He is perfectly on track for development, which is better than the other boys were. He likes to stand if you hold him by his hands; he is grabbing at everything and bringing things to his mouth to chew. The doctor was suitably impressed by his tooth :-) He watches everything and plays with his hands and feet, and seems to respond to his name. It may be the way we say it, though, it definitely sounds different than his brothers' names, so he is probably reacting just to the difference in sound.

He got 4 shots again :-( but he did really well, of course. 10 minutes after they were done, he had already forgotten. I asked the nurse not to put bandaids on them this time; she only has regular kids' bandaids, not the little round ones, and last time it took 2 weeks before I could even pry them off his skin, and they still left a mark, I just didn't want to go through that again. She was surprised and wanted to know what I would do about the bleeding; I told her I'd just hold the gauze to them and put pressure on until the bleeding stopped. That's what I did, though she thought I was crazy, lol, and it was only maybe 5 minutes and he was fine. And no bandaid gunk! Definitely worth it in my opinion.

I really really really like that doctor and the office. It is so nice there, and once again I had barely any wait. I am so used to having to sit in the waiting room for 40 minutes or more, and then another half hour in the exam room before I even see the P.A. It took only 45 minutes from walking in the door to walking out. I am so sad I will have to leave!

I left Troyer and Noah to play in the waiting area this time, while I took the other 4 boys back. The rooms are so small, and last time they argued and it got so loud so quickly in that small space. I figured 8 and 10 are old enough to wait together. They did fine, and it was much better with 2 less kids whining about how there were no good toys in there, lol. Of course the 2 yo thought the rolling stool was the best toy in the room, lol.

The only other incident of note is that Micah pooped while we were in the exam room. Do you think I had any large size diapers in the diaper bag I brought? Of course NOT! lol They were in the other bag that I left in the van. This office keeps a nice basket full of diapers on the cart with the baby scale, so the nurse offered one to me, but the largest size they had was a 4, and Micah is between a 5 and a 6, so we had to just wait until we got back to the van. Ugh, it was a smelly one. I feel bad for the other people in the office, lol. They must think I am a bad mom for letting my kid stink, lol. I will be happy when Troyer is old enough to send back out to the van for the other bag. Although I guess when he is, I won't be needing to change diapers any more.

I also had a doctor's appointment this week. Back in October my ob's office called to tell me my pap came back abnormal and I needed to come back in in December to have it redone. At the time I swear I was told that this is common for post partum paps, but when I went in the doctor said no, it is usually caused by an infection. Of course I was worrying some between the phone call and the appointment, but I figured the dr would reassure me at the visit, since I was told on the phone it was probably nothing to worry about; but he wasn't very reassuring at all. He didn't test for infection, which I thought was odd, since that is supposed to be the reason for the occasional odd cell. Anyway, now I have to wait 4 more weeks to see if this has resolved itself; I hope so, as it sounds like the next procedure for testing doesn't sound so fun.

I forgot to ask the dr about my prolapses, and if they could be the cause for the pain I've been having. I used to think it was tailbone pain that I got when my 4th baby was born, but lately it has been getting much worse and seems to be more muscular than bone. I'm sure that being so overweight is not helping, nor is spending so much time in this computer chair! lol Sometimes it even bothers me after laying down, which is counter-intuitive to the pressure-on-the-butt theory. Of course I can't help but wonder if the is some connection with the pap results. My crazy brain throws up visions of odd lumps growing in the wrong places. I'm sure I'm fine, but I'm one of those people who can't help worrying. Not quite to the level of hypochondriac, because then I'd be sure there was something dire wrong with me, but still wondering if there might be.

I should update you on how the work is going on the house. I don't have any new pictures, which is mostly why I didn't write anything last week. I like to be able to show the transformation. My sister came out to visit last weekend, officially to help with some work, but really because I wanted her to see how nice my house is starting to look. She came without her kids, to the boys' disappointment. We had piles of bags and boxes everywhere, and there was just no room for her kids,. We had such a nice time, though. She helped me take some bags to the Salvation Army, and then watched the boys so Chris and I could take a van load of stuff to the storage unit. She was going to help me go through some stuff to sort into pack/donate/toss, but we really only got through a small section in the basement. She helped me bring some stuff up onto the deck for another trip to storage. but the dumb place locks up at 1 pm on Sundays, so we weren't able to make a second trip there. It's been raining and drizzling since then; I hope the stuff on the deck is ok. We have them up on a pallet, so the rain isn't touching anything directly, but it is humid and I am just worried for the stuff. We would have taken it over this weekend, but it rained and snowed, so it is still sitting there.

This past weekend Chris started work on our bedroom. It is the last room he is going to paint. That leaves just 2 rooms he didn't do. I am sure this room where the computer is should get painted, but at least the other rooms look good. Our room is going to be a light green color. I hope it is pale enough. The boys' room turned out a bit darker than I had planned, and now I am worried that the green will be darker too. Well, maybe even dark it will still look good. We'll find out! Chris just finished the priming last night. We had to sleep in the living room because the Kilz stinks so bad. Poor Levi isn't sleeping well down there. He does so well upstairs in the bassinette, so I thought if I brought it down he would still sleep ok, but it didn't work. He hasn't slept in it at all. He slept in my lap and on my shoulder part of the night, but right now he's asleep on my shoulder while I type. Hmm, maybe I should say Poor me, lol, as I am the one who only got 3 hours of sleep.

I don't look forward to today; Mondays are always rough here, but today half of my stuff from my bedroom is out in the hallway while the room gets done; I am going to have to chase the boys out of the stuff all day. Ugh. And meanwhile get the laundry done. Double ugh, lol.

First Tooth!

This weekend Levi got his first tooth! I wondered if it would break through the gum before he turned 4 months old, that was when Troyer got his first tooth, but it did, so now he is our current record holder for earliest tooth! And for those who are wondering about nursing babies with teeth, he has stopped biting now that it is out; they bite more while they are teething and their gums are sore.

The Boys' Room is Done!

Chris finished up the boys' room this week. I can't believe how different it looks! Actually, he's not completely done; he is going to paint the closet doors and he missed the spot on the ceiling where the light is. But whew! Look how great it is!

Here is the pic of it before, so you can compare them next to each other:

Now to get some curtains.... lol