King Isaac

Last Thursday, Isaac turned 2 yrs old, officially. As has become their tradition, the boys crowned Isaac "King For the Day".

Jarod supplied King Isaac with entertainment as his own personal court jester.

 

His Majesty the King did NOT want to take his birthday nap.

In the evening, we had a small family celebration (as opposed to the BIG family party we had a few days earlier). King Isaac's brothers gave him some of their favorite stuffed animals, wrapped in pretty plastic bags. He got more Elmo toys from his mama & daddy as well.

                         The little WalMart cake wasn't as cute as Aunt Emmy's lion cake, but it sufficed. (Toby was hoping for a piece of cake too.)


 
 Isaac is using his fork like an old pro now, except when he has to supplement his feedings with the finger-stuffing method. (I find that to be a resourceful method myself at times......)

 I am just sitting here, in dumb shock, as it feels like he was just born last week.

 How on EARTH did we go from THIS........

 ........and from THIS......

 ..................and THIS........................

 ................and THIS..............


 .............................to THIS.....................

 .............................and THIS...........................

 .................................and THIS............................

 ...............................and to THIS??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's not a baby anymore. He's just one of the boys now. Before I know it, he's going to grow up, take off & fly away from me to live his life. And I will have no more babies to snuggle when I feel sad about that. But I'm so happy he's mine for now. I love you, Isaac Joel. Happy Birthday.

Pterodactyls, Birthdays, Crazy Hats, etc

                   These past few days have been filled with.........many things. To start with, more pink eye. And sniffles. And ear aches. And faithful kitty cats.                   
 Good-hearted, hard-working teenagers with occasional bad attitudes.

 
 Boys studying.....comfortably.

 Cute-girl-cousin-sleep-overs, story times, snuggling Uncle Justin, bad hair days & more pink eye.

 More snuggling.

 More birthday. Isaac's birthday is in a week so this week we had a combo-Gideon-Isaac-big-family-party, with my in-laws. Grandma Colleen spoiled the boys as usual (& ME, by bringing dinner, so I didn't have to cook) with lots of cool presents. Auntie Emily & Rara made a cute & yummy little lion/chocolate cake.

 We've been cleaning house. (Maybe a little TOO thoroughly?) Wow. This pic is WAY out of order. Back to the birthdays.

 I can't believe Gideon is already 6 & Isaac is almost 2. It's time for me to get pregnant again. I'm seriously having that "baby-ache". Every time I hear a newborn cry, I want to steal it from it's mother. But, alas..... there are no new babies (of my own) in my future. I am entering a new phase of life. Feeling a little sad about it. But relieved as well. Excited and blessed. Very blessed. But......still.....a little sad.

 Isaac LOVED the Elmo stuff he got from Grandma, as well as his chocolate lion cake & dinosaurs.  

 Gideon got this creepy little pterodactyl from Grandma. It's like a little, evil, scary jack-in-the-box.....except it's not a box. Or a jack. And there's no music. Only noises. Kind of scary noises. The wings open up repeatedly, in a jerky, robotic manner, while the creature makes distracting, yet oddly hideous, noises. Then, suddenly, unexpectedly........ the mouth ejects this green, slimy, projectile-dart-thingie right at you, making you jump out of your skin. It scared Auntie Deborah something fierce. Her scream was a delight & a joy to  her nephews. They were also delighted to discover that it scares our cat, Jerry, as well. But, to the boys' great disappointment, it doesn't bother Tom a bit. He patiently tolerates what his torturers dish out. Albeit, not without rolling his eyes a little.

                                           "Oh. I'm terrified. Really."

 Last night was Crazy Hat Night at Celebrate Recovery. The boys proudly wore their "hats" on their heads ALL evening long. Jarod wore Justin's old dress blue's cover from his days in the Marine Corps. Justin wore a fatigue cover. I wore my original wedding veil. It still fits!!! ;)    (My wedding dress? Well.......I don't wanna talk about it.)

In other news, I have a beautiful brand new nephew, born to my brother-in-law, Michael & sister-in-law, Jubilee on January 30th. Welcome, little Aiden!!! We can't wait to get to know you!

Gideon's Birthday Adventures & Mommy Drain Bamage

Yesterday was Gideon's (boy #4) birthday. The first part of the day, all the boys were playing legos together at the dining room table. Seth is 14. This doesn't happen very often any more, so I had to capture the moment. I love when they all play together; it warms my mama-heart.

 

But the fun had to end because I knew I would have to take THIS boy to the doctor. Titus too. Both had a pink-eye-thing, if you couldn't tell.

                               We had lunch first. Jarod made Gideon a special birthday sandwich.

Micah made Gideon a birthday crown & dubbed him King for the Day, which has become our birthday tradition over the past few years.

 I made about 1200 phone calls to doctors offices & our insurance company. Our family doctor couldn't see Isaac, so I had to get a visit to the walk-in pre-authorized. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the "walk-in" (which is supposed to be convenient), doesn't it? Annoying. But at least the walk-in had a neato fish tank which kept the boys entertained for a few minutes.

       Who knew the walk-in was also our little town's aquarium? It was an errand and a field trip. 

                                              Titus is always a very cooperative patient.

 Isaac has a serious doctor phobia & starts screaming if a doctor even looks in his general direction. However, this visit.......I told him to " kindly please stop crying".......and he DID. It was......weird. Guess he's turning into a big boy. He wasn't exactly sure about the finger thingie, but he didn't fight it. Having all his brothers around him was comforting.

Seth helped Isaac (and subsequently me) to endure the wait.

                                                  Bored boys. We had a pretty long wait. It was a small office. And there were a lot of energetic boys with me. Not exactly their idea of a good time.

 After the we left the doctor's office, we went to WalMart for eye medicine, cake-makin' stuff & birthday presents. I literally had to go through the pharmacy line 4 times, at approximately 10 min each wait. Stupid stuff with the insurance company: authorization issues or something. More annoying. GGgrrrrrr. But I knew I was out of time to start any cake. So I opted for doughnuts, which actually made the boys really happy. When I was in the check-out line, the lady tried to charge me for 12 dozen doughnuts instead of just 12 doughnuts. Then she tried to fix it & got stuck. The "speedy" checkout line took about 15 minutes. But the boys were amazingly well-behaved through all the lines we stood in & waiting that we did during the day. At least, I think they were good. I know at some point I stopped being able to think about anything except for getting home & was probably mentally tuning some things out. It's this great ability I have......to ignore some of the really annoying things the boys can do. It's a super power, really. But I think it has damaged my brain & caused memory loss issues. I go into the "zone" & I say 'yes' to things I have no recollection of saying 'yes' to. I don't often hear them before about the 4th or 5th "MOOOOMMYYYY!!!" It's not good. But, it does help me to stay somewhat sane. I'm pretty sure I took candy bars & gum-packs out of their grubby little hands, lifted a couple of them off of the conveyor belt & stopped a fist fight or two in the grocery line. I just have no memory of it. I'm probably better off that way. So are the children.

Somehow, Gideon didn't notice that the day was stressful.........he was just so happy it was his birthday. When Daddy got home we had our little family party for him. (We'll have a BIG family birthday with my in-laws in a couple weeks.) 

 

                          Seth helping Gideon put his lego ship together. He's a nice big brother.

     

 I can't believe my baby is 6 years old already. He brings such joy, happiness & humour into our lives. I can't imagine my life without him. I'm really glad he doesn't think that he is too old for my hugs & kisses. His brothers are always trying to tell him it's not "manly" to smooch me, so he gives me EXTRA smooches, just to spite them. When we were getting ready for the trip to the doctor, we had THIS conversation: 
                         Me: "Gideon put these jeans on." 
                       Gideon: "Awwwww!!! I wanted to wear my sweats!!!"
                        Me: "It's your birthday. You need to be handsome." 
                       Gideon (remembering):    "Oooohhhhhhh,YYEEAAAHH!!! Hey, Mom. Can I wear a tie?"
                        Me: "Not THAT handsome." 
                       Gideon (throwing his arms around my neck):"You're the best mommy in the world."
                        Me: "You're the best Gideon in the world." Followed by lots of smooches to my cheeks. Why? I don't know. Because he loves me. Of course, he also uses this method to get out of trouble. It sometimes works. He's cheesy & melodramatic & oh-so-silly & sweet. He makes me happy.

                              

Isaac's (& Titus') eyes were greatly improved by the end of the evening...........probably didn't even need to go to the doctor. Oh, well. At least we have enough drops for the next bought of pink eye. I should add that I am thankful for health care & for my ability to take care of my childrens' needs. I am thankful for convenient-type stores & for my neat IPhone (even though I hate talking on it to the insurance company & it takes bad pictures) & for a car to drive to the store & to the doctor in. But that doesn't mean I'm not brain damaged.