Tubby Turns Two!

Saturday, March 21 Two years ago today, the most perfect little baby in the world was born. As I was wheeled into my hospital room after more than two hours of recovery, I saw my baby for the first time, held lovingly in the arms of my husband. It was one of the most precious and beautiful sights etched into my mind that shall never be erased.

Thomas was perfect from day one...perfectly formed, perfectly beautiful, perfect little cry, perfect little boy. He has remained as such (minus a few "toddler moments" lately) throughout his little two years. I feel so blessed to have been awarded the opportunity to focus on nearly every moment of his babyhood and enjoy this fleeting season in time. From his little baby cries, to smiles and giggles, moving and grooving to the beat, running and climbing, talking and thinking, each little step has been cherished.

It was fun to celebrate this little boy's birthday. He has been so much enjoyed by everyone in this family, so excitement surrounding this day has been high. Everyday is special with Tubby around...today was EXTRA special.

We had beautiful weather to celebrate his special day with. Allowing for outside play, as well as lots of plasma cars, kitchen, and rice table play in the basement, there were lots of things for all of the little kids to do. Along with grandparents, aunts and uncles, twin cousins, and siblings, we had the other twin friend Thomas and his family here too! The two Thomases were born only 22 hours apart, and they even have the same middle name! Even funnier, is that they are both now going to be big brothers to little sisters who are due to be born in June only three days apart.

Tubby was pretty oblivious to all the fuss given him today. He even was content to let everyone else help open his presents, and seemed to enjoy having all those little people surrounding him. He did a fabulous job blowing out his two candles on his Firetruck cake....with, or course, two Dalmatian "woof-woofs" positioned on the seat of the truck.

Tubby chose Grandpa as his special playmate throughout much of the afternoon. Grandpa was a good sport as he followed Tubby onto the deck, and even crawled into the Barbie playhouse for a cup of afternoon tea. After most of the festivities and pizza feast were over, Tubby snuggled with Grandpa on the rocking chair as he drifted off to sleep with happy birthday dreams, no doubt.

(photo courtesy of Alison)

The main round of visitors exited during Tubby's late evening nap, while a new round arrived. Tubby spent the rest of the evening playing with his new toys, while the adults and older kids played a riveting game of poker. So many cars and toys, Tubby was in new toy heaven. Wearing his brand new CARS pjs, he perfected his golfing skills, mastered the art of remote control driving, and began to figure out exactly what Wedgits are (incidentally, this is our new classic favorite that we will be giving to everyone we know in the future).

Wow, what a day! Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!!!!

Baa, Baa Little Lambs

Friday, March 13

Finally! A beautiful spring-like day! The younger kids had the day off of school due to conferences. I had some fairly early time slots (8:20am and 9), so that left the rest of this day free. We decided to take advantage of this opportunity to go down to Grandma and Lyle's farm to visit the baby lambs. They have had several already, and goodness knows they do not stay little for very long.

The kids had a great time. Melissa and Crispy fed the baby lambs bottles of special lamb formula. Tubby and Laura cried most of the time we were in the barn. No surprise with Laura, but Tubby caught me off guard....he usually LOVES animals! I sat with them on a hay bale in the middle of the room where it was impossible for any sheep of lamb to touch us over the pens. The neighbor girl enjoyed herself too, but shied away from bottle feeding at the last minute. She focused her attention instead on feeding the momma sheep some fresh hay. This gave the other kids a bit of courage to try the same, and soon all the adult sheep were just as well fed as those little babies.

We had some lunch back at the house, and spent a few hours just hanging out with Grandma. The kids like the change of scenery though they pretty much just play with the same toys that they play with at home. Though it was sad to see Grandma move from Waconia, it has been a great joy for the kids to visit her on the farm.

One of the Boys

Before I get to Tubby's 2nd birthday (I need to find my camera first, as it has been missing since the hockey banquet on Sunday evening, and I am beginning to get worried....all of his birthday pictures are still on there!), here's just a quick recap of some of his preferences as of recently....

Thomas has always been all boy, and continues to be as such. It is actually funny, because he spends most of his time playing with Laura, who is all girl, so where these boy ideas came from can only be traced back to genetics and natural gender alone.

He still loves hockey, and has really developed a wicked shot which he can aim and get to go anywhere he desires it to go. He has good form, and has a natural talent for this. He is especially cute as he shoots, then lifts his stick up and yells "Goh!" (for goal).

His latest obsession (and it is truly an obsession) is cars. He is no longer satisfied to have a small selection of cars at his disposal. He needs to have every single car in the house. What started off as a handful of cars in his Cars backpack that we would bring with us places, is now a bursting backpack full of cars weighing much more than himself. And he insists on taking this EVERYWHERE with him.....even though he can scarcely lift and/or move the thing. He even needs to bring it to bed with him. It's crazy.

He is loving the nicer weather and the chance to play outside with the other kids. He rides his cars (of course) around on the driveway, and is even cooperative enough to wear a helmet while playing on the ride-ons like the other kids. Probably because of his extreme stuffiness, he is rather unbalanced these days. Here is suggestion that helmet wear for Tubby may be recommended for any type of outdoor play:

I am trying hard to get him to latch onto his puppies and woof-woofs at bedtime. They are a much softer and lighter option for bedtime. And they don't hurt when they get thrown in my face in the middle of the night.

While his Thomas the Train bed beautifully awaits him upstairs, he still has yet to sleep in it. With his constant barrage of colds attacking his poor little body, and coughing so hard at night that he pukes, timing for sleeping in his own bed does not seem to be on our side. He's got to go though, before the new baby arrives....I do not want him feeling bad that the new baby is more important than he is. He's always going to be my sweet little baby boy!

Purple Butterflies

OK....this is going to be SUPER FUN for me, but anyone who has an aversion to cutesy things had better not look at this post. Seriously. It is way over the top.

I like to do little projects around the house. When I get creative ideas. When I have money to accomplish those ideas. When I have time. My favorite project thus far is my Moo-Loo.....the bathroom near the mudroom that I painted white with large black cow spots all over the walls. I love it! It turned out so well!

This next one turned out well, also. It has been in the works for at least two years.....not because it was a difficult task. Not because it was too expensive. In fact, I have had all the materials necessary for the past two years, up in a corner of my bedroom. As with most other things, I simply did not have the time.

As a birthday present to me, Pam and Lyle solved that problem by becoming my worker bees. They painted the walls......a gorgeous shade of lilac. I added decorative touches. Lyle cut the fencing and applied it to the walls along with the wire flowers. I hung towel rings, put together an adorable step stool, and added just a few butterflies. What once began as the "Butterfly Bathroom", coined by my kids 5 years ago because there was ONE butterfly on the small garbage can......has now become a "Butterfly Bathroom" quite deserving of it's name!!! Thank you Lyle and Pam....I LOVE IT!!!

Miracle Girl's 5th Birthday

FEBRURARY 12,2009.....

Laura's story is one that will never be forgotten. It was wrought with uncertainty from the very beginning, which continued throughout 32 incredible and trying weeks of pregnancy, a birth surrounded in emergency and fear, and a little itty bitty baby who had been previously given only a 1% chance of survival in utero, upon entering the world, appeared to most certainly not able to make it through the night.

"The Whole Story"...taken by Chris M.

Our Little Peanut 2 days later!

In what could only be described by the Neonatal team of doctors as a miracle, Laura was off of the breathing machines and doing her own breathing without the assistance of even oxygen 4 days later. She was a stubborn little girl who from day one, was not going to let ANYONE tell her what she could and could not do. Her stubbornness is one of the persistent traits that makes up her delightful personality today as a spunky, funny, smart, helpful, kind, and creative 5 year old HEALTHY and NORMAL girl!

She was only the size of her still beloved (and now very dirty!) "Baby Bear"

Perhaps it is because of the upcoming baby in June, but Laura was very curious about her own birth-day story this year. We have talked of it in bits and pieces over the years as various kids have asked questions about it, but this was the first time Laura actually listened and comprehended the incredible story that led to her existence. She wanted to see pictures and hear her story over and over. I think that she was mentally holding it together better than I. I have not looked at those pictures in the scrapbook I began for her years ago until now....and it brought back many memories, good and bad, of the extremeness of the whole ordeal. The constant wondering how things would turn out, complete bed rest for 4 months and the decay of my body as I prayed to save hers, being away from my family for 2 months and the challenges we all endured because of it (including the Grandmas and all others who so tirelessly helped us all), and not having the faintest idea when it would come to an end and what would occur at that finish line.

Through it all, the biggest piece I will carry with me forever is the encompassing peace I was enveloped in by abandoning all those fears and worries and trusting in God alone. It really did not matter what the doctors or nurses said, what statistics were given, how things appeared today or yesterday, or what was expected out of tomorrow. What mattered was the resounding words the Lord spoke to my heart..."It will be OK". So simple. So comforting. So very true. No matter what happened in the end. It was NOT a promise that my baby would survive and everyone would live happily ever after. It was the promise that NO MATTER WHAT occurred, He would be with us to help us get through it all. It WOULD CERTAINLY be OK.

These items remain arranged on my bedside table as a visual reminder of God's steadfast love, faithfulness, and miraculous power. And how would I feel if the outcome would have been different? I imagine great sadness would have been experienced, along with some very difficult and bumpy days. But the promise would have remained the same, and I would have been OK. How do I know for certain? Well, because I believe it to be true. And though it needed not been tested, it WAS, two years later when we experienced 2 extremely sad and frightening miscarriages for no reason that we could humanly understand. But we gave that all up and trusted the promise that we would be taken care of, all for our own good. And we WERE.

Five years later, we are here with our not so little girl anymore. She has struggled with respiratory issues that have become increasing less difficult as she has aged, and she works hard to overcome some general large muscle weakness. She is full of life and constantly on the go (whether it be physical play, creative play, or simply talking up a storm). She is incredible and fun, likable and sweet, a great big sister to Tubby, and yes, still stubborn, but in a somehow more "polite" manner these days. She is our amazing little angel....forever our miracle girl.

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She LOVES all things girlie.....especially Tinkerbell and Fairies. Thus, the theme of this year's festivities.

She LOVES to play with her dolls....she was thrilled to get her first full-sized American Girl Doll, Emily!

She LOVES her new talking dollhouse...it was a huge hit! The kids will sit on the floor and literally play for hours...including Tubby! Funny thing, I was just taking my old dollhouse to the basement a few days before her birthday, because the girls NEVER played with it while it has been sitting in their room for the past 5 years. However, I didn't even make it past the living room because all three girls (the neighbor girl included) grabbed onto it and have been spending 75% of their free time playing with it! They have been ecstatic to have two full houses to play with now!

We also celebrated Lyle's, Michael's, Crispy's, and my birthday at the same family party for Laura, a few days after her official birthday. It was a great day!

Well, hello there......anyone still out there? What a pathetic blogger I have become! Somehow, since our computer crashed and burned (literally) in mid-January, and I have really no pictures to speak of (I have not learned the new tricks necessary to use our new computer), blogging just seems so sad without the visuals to accompany the words.

But, there is hope!! I am making it priority in this coming week to get some stuff up somehow! Though we have basically been ill since the beginning of the New Year with GI illness, Influenza, and countless bad colds, there HAVE been some fun things going on as well. So stay tuned for entries including Miracle Girl's 5th Birthday, Purple Butterflies, One of the Boys, Baa Baa Little Lambs, and Pretty in Pink for starters!

It's A B..

Today was the big day......the Level II ultrasound. We are currently at exactly 21 weeks today, and it seems like we have been waiting forever for this part of the journey. Every 3 weeks, I have had a little in-clinic ultrasound which has been very fun....a quick glance at my little baby. But this one today was very detailed and in depth, looking at every little baby body part, taking a gazillion measurements, and looking at the heart from seven different angles. Everything looks great, and baby is growing a few days ahead of schedule....just like all of our other boys did.

Here is the latest picture:

I love how the heart actually looks "heart-shaped" at this angle. So appropriate for Valentine's day tomorrow!

After about 20 minutes of the technician searching for whatever they search for, we finally found out the gender, which has been forefront on all of the kids' minds since we told them about the baby on Christmas Eve. And as was no surprise for many,

"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake,

baker's man.

Bake me a cake

as fast as you can.

Pat it, and roll it,

and mark it with a 'B',

and put it in the oven for

'Bethany' and me!"

Can you even believe it?!?!? We are all so very thrilled.....and the kids are just ecstatic about adding a little more pink to the house!

Sluggish Computer, Sluggish Posting

I apologize for not being able to post lately......though it seems to be the story of my life over the last several months, the reason now is due to computer issues. Our main computer sort of "blew up" right after my birthday. It literally popped and began smoking one night as I was replying to an email. Alex assures me that all of my un-backed up pictures from the last 3 years will be fine, but until we can figure out what all got destroyed in the computer's self-destruct mode, I will worry just a tiny bit. (ps. to Alison.....ours is a Dell)

I have been downgraded to my laptop which is wonderful for surfing the net, and shopping on Amazon, but downright painful as far as getting anything really productive done. The kids have mucked up my keyboard so that several letters rarely even work, making typing anything a nightmare, and have downloaded some annoying garbage that pops up on the screen anytime I try to go somewhere using the search engines. Accessing my own blog has been a maze of pop-ups to get through, checking email has only been successful on random occasions, and facebook pretty much crashes my system each time. *sigh*

So, what exactly has happened over the last few weeks? Nothing too exciting, but a few things noteworthy......

*Alex will be applying for college acceptance in the coming two months. He has maintained beautiful grades during his first two years of high school, and has taken advanced placement courses wherever he could(these usually account for college course completion, but not for college credit). He is now eligible for taking college courses during his last two years of HS, and he plans to do this full time. Best news for us.....he gets two years of college paid for by the state. Grandma and Grandpa C, how do you feel about a potential "boarder" next year?

With this preparation for college next year, it has also meant looking into the colleges he desires to attend after HS. This is necessary to ensure that credits from wherever he goes now will transfer and apply to where he eventually ends up. He maintains a desire for Canada....he will be considered an international student there. Tuition looks like it will be the same there as it is for public education here. But for Canadians, they pay nearly nothing! Boy, do those Canadians have some good things going for them!

It has been odd searching college info for my son, while expecting another baby. Talk about opposite ends of the childhood spectrum. It has made me feel rather old and tired.

*Jonny pulled off another wonderful performance in the play, Godspell. He had a great part with an entertaining solo that melded into a rousing duet, complete with dancing with canes. It was great! We were very proud of him, and he has been very satisfied in finding his "inner actor". This is definitely the thing for him...he is so natural at it, and enjoys every part of it. I am thankful that he has had so many opportunities to explore this further. I think I will need to look into even bigger projects for him next......meaning of course, more driving. (Ugh.....I have been clocking between 1-3 hours of driving lately.) But really, what wouldn't I do for my kids?

*Crispy had a friend party this past weekend and it went surprisingly well. Last year was a bit out of control at the pool, and I was dreading this with all of my absent energy. With Bob and the kids pulling together and helping to clean the house, we managed to pull off a rather organized and fun party for the group of boys. My clean basement that I have been focused on organizing for the past two weeks was the perfect spot for the rowdy group to get their wiggles out. We had Star Wars games, lightsaber battles, plasma car races, and very chocolatey chocolate cupcakes(this was the first time ever I have NOT made a cake....but the boys didn't seem to mind). No one got hurt, nothing major got broken, and no one ever seemed bored. Best of all, Crispy felt very special and had a good time.

The next day, poor kiddo, he ended up with a horrible earache in the evening, just as we were to go to Cub Scouts, and no amount of medicine or drops seemed to help. When he woke up this morning, again in tears, he had a dried up river of blood and white snotty gunk flowing out of his ear. Poor boy had ruptured an eardrum. He still had some amount of pain, but greatly diminished now that the pressure cooker had been cracked. He was still pretty dizzy, and spent the day home laying on the couch curled up in a warm blankie.

Crispy is also Star of the Week at school, so he needs to get better and get back there to receive all the special treatment due to him!

*Melissa has finally had a few small "heart episodes" that she has recorded on the monitor. So far, all have been normal, but we would still like her to catch a big episode that comes with the chest pain she has described in the past. But at least so far, so good.

The neighbor girl stayed with us the entire weekend a few weekends back while Bob was up in Duluth with his dad, who was celebrating becoming the new president of the Marine Museum in Canal Park. It is funny how adding another kid at this point really doesn't matter. From early Friday to late Sunday, I was a single mom with eight kids. No biggie. And all the kids had a blast.

Last weekend, Melissa spent almost the whole weekend at HER best friend's house. These girls have been best buddies since the were 3, and are truly great friends for each other. The kind of friendship you hope will never dissolve. It was wonderful to see Melissa so happy for a few days!

Yesterday, she came home from school with two awards. She had received Musician of the Day in her music class for reading music well. But the big award was an all-school recognition as Citizen of the Month.....she received it under the category of Perseverance. That is so her....she works so hard at everything she does, but never gives up, even though most things are quite difficult for her. She received this award another time in Kindergarten....it is so nice to see her efforts recognized when so often she can easily get hidden behind the wall of "normal" kids. She was so very excited, and rightly so. Her award is already in a frame and up on the wall!

*Tubby and Laura are still as cute as ever, playing so nicely with each other during the long hours the other kids are away at school. They have been keeping me company as I have been overhauling the basement and the big bedroom upstairs. I have moved Tubby's Thomas the Tank bed to a more central location in the room, and I dragged the train table from the basement garage all the way up to the third floor hidden room. The kids have loved playing with this, and will spend hours making tracks and trails. The basement is finally ready for lots of winter fun. A playhouse, a bunch of foam mats, some old couches, a TV and VCR , and of course the plasma car race route have all made the basement almost livable. My newest addition was building a sand and water table that is currently holding about 20 pounds of rice in it. Way fun for the kids.....I need to get over the bit of mess that even just a few spilled rice kernels seem to make.

*Michael has been busy with hockey and revamping his thoughts on what makes a good friend. With high school approaching quickly, this is such an important step to get through now. Things will be changing much for him in the fall as he enters back into a world where he is interacting with his peers on a nearly continual basis during the day. He has about one month of hockey left during this regular district season, and then it will be up to us to find other things for him to do. That usually means a mish-mash of various hockey teams, clinics, and camps. We'll have to see what we can come up with this year.

Well, if we ever get our computer back, I will post some pictures......I am almost certain that my little laptop would cause me too much frustration with that task. I am very impressed it has let me work this long! We'll see if it can post successfully....

Another Birthday...

This one is mine. I have decided it is so much more fun to think about birthdays for the kids. I could go without birthdays for me. But so far this year, this pregnancy condition has had me much too tired to do anything special for my January birthday boys. I felt very guilty about having my own good and special day today.

My mom and dad came out his afternoon, bringing extremely good chicken curry from Big Bowl and wonderful egg rolls from the Lotus restaurant. Now that I can eat again, I am back to my old self, being all about good food. They stayed and played with the kids, and took turns holding a sick Tubby (he had not puked anymore, but since his episode last night, he has been running a very high fever and has been sad and lethargic). Pam also made appearances in and out between appointments in Waconia. So to the kids' delight on this stay-at-home day, they had a whole slew of grandparents to play with who actually gave them attention that their own mommy is always too tired to muster up.

For afternoon snack, we took out Crispy's birthday cake and finally let him blow out some candles. It was nice to have more people around today to help make him feel special. During the afternoon, we kept pumping poor Tubby up with Tylenol to try to get him to be a bit more cooler and comfortable. Poor, sad, kid.

At 6:30, the women and I went out to dinner at Lola's Lakehouse in Waconia. (I need to get the good pictures from Pam and my mom) I did not want to go far since the kids were home all alone as Daddy was working late and Michael had another hockey game (no rest in this sport!). Mary met us there with her little baby girl, and we had a very lovely and delicious meal next to the warm fire. It was such a nice, relaxing time, in such a calm and comfortable atmosphere. My lemon caper cream sauce pizza with artichokes, green onions, and chicken was very tasty, but I was so stuffed from the excellent appetizers, I could barely eat more than one slice. I look forward to it tomorrow for breakfast and lunch!

Upon arrival home, we found a "surprise party" erupting as we walked in the door. The kids (and the neighbor girl---she is pretty much considered part of the family)had spent the last two hours decorating the house with streamers, balloons, posters, cards, birthday banners, and showered us with confetti from the top floor as we walked in. Not only that, but they had baked me a birthday cookie (and a whole batch), complete with candle in the center, and sang me the Birthday Song. What nice kids! I was truly surprised, and felt very special! Thank you, kids!!After an hour of laying on the couch, and watching the kids entertain us with their version of "American Idol" (they were so funny at times that Laura kept falling on the floor laughing so hard), I was able to think of cake. My mom brought out the most wonderful cake in the world that she brings me each year....a Princess Marzipan raspberry cream layered cake from Woullet's bakery. There sincerely is no better cake than this, and I look forward to it every year. Thank you, so much, Mom! Bob and Michael came home just in time for cake, and the kids were up again until about 10pm. Boy, are we going to have a rough start tomorrow morning going back to school!

Little Hockey Dude

Tubby is just amazing with how much he loves hockey. He seems to love everything about it...and is surprisingly good at it. I can not remember another child being so gung-ho about something at such an early age.

A few days ago, he pulled out his hockey shirt and ice skates he got at Christmas, and insisted on wearing them both. He strutted around the carpet happily, trying to balance his wobbly ankles, and so proud to look so much like a real hockey player. Laura walked behind him as a helper, and made it through the session without losing any naked toes.

We try to remember to bring a hockey stick anywhere we go, because that is what keeps Tubby's attention the most. Seriously, this boy could hit things around with his sticks all day long without ever getting the slightest bit bored. Hockey games are the best for him, as the excitement is up in the air, and everything about the ice arena screams "hockey!" When he finally gets out on the ice in his new skates, he is going to think he is in Heaven!

Click on the PLAY button below to see Tubby in action!!!