Baby Steps

Well, I have a LOT of catching up to do, but for now I'm starting small.

We dont have soda very often around here, but the girls came up with their own word to describe the feeling of drinking it. It's "frizzabee". I love it.

Divided

I was planning on documenting our sweet girls' third birthday celebrations long ago, but I have gone silent.  I am silent because there is too much to write about.  (Therefore I may never catch up.)  I am silent because many of the things to write about are stressful.  And because I am spending my days between two homes, not really keeping up with all of the "normal" things.

Some months ago, we put Lana's name on a waiting list for inpatient therapy.  At the time, we didn't know if we'd actually go through with it, but the list was months long.  We wanted to have a spot just in case.  Last month her name came up.  After agonizing over the decision, we decided to put her in the program.  She went in on March 30th.

Our family has been divided for 11 days, and it is one of the hardest things I have ever done.  We would love to have your prayers for Lana and the rest of us.

 

I will write more later.  For now, here's a happy thought.  My brother Jordan plays the ocarina, and has posted a few videos on YouTube.   He taught himself, and really does some amazing things with the ocarina (like harmony).  You can watch here and here.

Imagination

One of my kids very favorite games right now is "doggies".  Everett is the only one who is not a dog.  He is in charge, and the three "doggies" follow him around and do what he tells them to do.  I love watching the things they come up with.  Yesterday Everett even made them a little dog house.  It's nice to have an older sibling to be the leader sometimes.  (As long as he's leading the girls to do good things--or at least not BAD or destructive things.)

Some more things kids say

As Lana's linguistic skills improve and develop, I have gotten some cute insights into how her little brain works.  Here are a couple from this week:

We had another plumbing problem.  (Poor Cary is learning a lot about plumbing this year.)  He once again removed a toilet.  He had been working in the upstairs bathroom when I took the kids up to get ready for bed.  I tucked Maddie and Gwyn in, and Lana and I started downstairs for her last feeding.  Lana looked into the bathroom, saw the hole in the floor, and said "Dada all gone!  Dada all gone!"  I reassured her that Dada was downstairs, and all was well.

Today we were having a snack.  Lana was a little slow eating her cheese puffs, so Gwyn asked if she could eat them.  I asked Lana if she wanted to give them to her sisters.  She said something like "No--two Gwyns can't have them."  Wow.  I think that's pretty creative.  I wondered how she thought of her sisters.

Maddie and Gwyn can obviously easily tell each other apart.  Everett sometimes asks them who they are or "Which one is Maddie?"  I think that he sometimes knows which one is which (perhaps by where they are sitting), but really can't tell them apart yet either.  I can often tell who is who just by their personalities, but if they are wearing identical clothing, I sometimes can't tell just by looking at them unless I find the freckle on Gwyn's cheek!  (So now you all don't feel so bad, right?)

Things kids say

Sometimes to help Lana eat, we pretend that the bite is an animal or vehicle of some sort. Today at lunch, Gwyn decided that one of her bites was a shark. She started in with the "Jaws Theme", but then decided that it was a little shark and repeated the theme in a higher register. I don't know if you've ever heard a baby shark before, but I sure wish I had a recording! Priceless.

Everett was putting forks on the table for everyone at dinner one night. He brought one over for me, and explained that it was the perfect fork for a "broken pancreas girl".