Noah's stiches and being alone

Nothing like a middle of  the day medical emergency to make you realize you are truly all alone.  The girls were both in the bath and the boys were running around like crazy people downstairs (have I mentioned they do that?) and I was doing my hair.  I hear a scream and then crying - but oddly enough no thud.  It is Noah.  I am quick to roll my eyes and ignore it.  A few minutes later he appears in my bathroom with a hand and face full of blood.  Jason always says I don't handle emergencies well - but on this day I proved him wrong.  I handled it like a champ.  I gave no reaction - I was calm as a cucumber.  Once I got the blood cleaned up I saw that his skin had split open and curled itself around his eye bone.  This was going to need stiches. 

 

Our morning had been s.l.o.w.  It was 11:00 and we were all in pj's (it was fall break), breakfast was still all over the kitchen, the house was a mess, I mentioned the girls were in the bath (getting them washed and out and dressed is like a good 45 minute battle with tears and all), and Noah is still bleeding and screaming.  First reaction:  call my mom, tell her to come over, in the mean time call Natalie and have her come over until my mom gets there.  Hmmm... what is plan B?  I don't really have one.  I haven't had anyone babysit my kids yet or watched anyone else's.  I am... alone.  I called Jason about 6 times to ask him his advice but he didn't answer.  I called my pediatrician and they don't do stiches - I was going to have to take him to the ER.  Realization sank in that I might be spending the next SEVERAL hours in the ER with all 4 of my kids in pj's - hungry and tired.  Just the thought of it... gave me great anxiety.  At this point I had 3 women in the ward that I felt like I could call - it would be awkward ("hi, please take my 3 very young children who you hear all screaming in the background and have them potentially all day, oh and could you feed and nap them... thanks, by the way my name is Jamie") - but I COULD call. (They were our RS President that had come and visited me once, the relator of the house we bought, and another young mother who had us over for dessert on our very first Sunday here)  None of them answered.  I started preparing to go to the hospital.  I just grabbed the girls out of the bath - partial wet hair and all - stuck them back in their footie jammies and didn't even TRY to do anything with their hair.  Noah was still bleeding and screaming.  The girls were whining about being cold and wanting to watch Daniel Tiger (something they do after every bath while I comb out their hair).  I had a good pep talk with Brock about stepping up and being a big helper to me.  One last desperate call to a friend in the ward and... she answered - said I could bring the kids over to her house - she would even feed them lunch and nap them - oh bless-ed woman, I will love you forever.  She was the one that had us over for dessert our very first Sunday we moved in.

 

2 hours later (fastest ER time in the world!) - we were back home with 5 stiches.  I actually had a blast with Noah.  He is so curious about everything and asked me and the nurse and the doctor a million questions the whole time. 

Play time

This is a weird post because it has like a million pictures - for something so simple as our marble game.  I just had my camera with me at the time (I do not have a smart phone - I still use a camera!) so  I just kept taking pictures.  To be honest there is not a tone of stuff that all 4 of my children play with together.  Their interests and developmental levels are so varied right now that anything other than tag or wrestling, or just general running around like wild banchies - they don't often all play together.  I got our marble game out for Madison and one by one they all got involved.  They all love the marble game and actually keeps them entertained for a good hour or so.

I included so many pictures because I love the facial expressions of my children. I love their "focused" looks - like the one of Maddie above - basically Brock's same focus face.

Noah thinking hard.

 

These  pictures show the other kids involving themselves in Madison's game - in the above picture she is saying "hey" to Noah and is pushing him away.  It didn't work and you get this CLASSIC face in the below picture.

 

Then they all just stat playing together.  Although check out Noah's face in the one below - Brock was trying something new - I guess Noah was really concerned about it.

Snow

We have woke up to snow on like the second week of September.  We have been told that in Denver the snow doesn't last long - and so far that has been true.  Always gone by noon. 

 

But the kids still wanted their coats on at 7:30 in the morning to check out the first snow of the season.

Farm

Moving to a new city for me means finding things to do with my kids.  I immediately staring compiling lists of day-time babysitters, mother's who I can do trades with, play dates for my kids, night-time/weekend babysitters, and fun places to take my kids. 

 

This actually isn't a good year of "outings" because of Kindergarten - especially since we don't have year round, which is when we did all of our outings when Brock was in Kindergarten.  We have to pick Noah up at 11:30 - then we have to eat lunch and get the girls down to nap by 12:30 - they nap until 3:30 or 4:00 - by then Brock is home and we have homework/dinner prep/soccer/scouts(my calling)/young mens(Jason's calling)/eating dinner/anything else.  The girls and I sometimes get a quick outing in before kindergarten pick-up and most days of the week we do library or park after we get Noah and then do a picnic lunch.  But other than that I have a list of fun places like the Children's Museum - but just haven't had time to go yet.  Next year will be perfect - my only year with no Kindergarten!

 

Well, one day the boys didn't have school so I set off to find the Denver equivalent of Wheeler Farm.  I found it about 12 minutes away from our house in Littleton!  It is a full working farm that has historical roots back to the 1880's and it is free - the only thing it is lacking is a river, which to be fair was our FAVORITE part of Wheeler Farm - but we will take what we can get.

 

The kids loved it and I loved it too.  We will be here often.

Halloween cookies

As mentioned on Facebook I did my Halloween sugar cookie decorating in shifts this year.  The  fact is I DO have too many young children to make some things possible.  For example: for about a year and a half I could not take them all swimming by myself - it just wasn't possible (also it was against the rules - they actually said to me "we have never had an issue with that rule - who has more than 3 children under the age of 5?").  Another thing I STILL can't do alone - cut out and decorate sugar cookies - it is too chaotic and the dough just gets destroyed and no one gets the help they need and it turn out awful.  Well, the week of Halloween Jason was working late every night but I promised  the kids we would make sugar cookies.  I thought about having a YW over to help - but ended up deciding to just do it in shifts. 

 

The boys did theirs right after school when the girls were still napping.  They did a great job this year.  I let them do it almost completely by themselves.  Flouring the table and rolling pin, rolling it out, frosting, and sprinkling.  Next year I bet I will be able to do all four at once.  Their attention span was a lot longer too.  Usually they only do like 3 cookies, but they kept working until we were all done - about 30 cookies! (And in case you are new to my blog - I do hide all 30 cookies and eat them all myself over the course of the next 2 days - I may or may not have had 8 cookies for breakfast that next morning... I am NOT exaggerating.)

 

I did the girls at 8:30 in the morning!  Right after the boys went to school and right before bath time - of course.  They did a great job and were much more into it than the boys were at this age.  They each did about 3 cookies and were done.

Fast sunday

I love traditions.  My family is heavy into traditions and I love that.  We have sevral for our little family - but nothing makes you think more about traditions than moving away from all your family.

 

Since I have been pregnant and breast feeding for the last 5/6 years Fast Sunday has not really been a thing in our home.  I DO know that is a lame excuse - but it is also truthful.  I have been trying to deicde how to make fast sunday more meaningful in our family with such young children.  Jason came up with a tradition that a family from his childhood did - and I loved it.  We eat a big breakfast for dinner every fast Sunday.  The kids eat all day (Brock and Noah have decided they want to try fasting next month) - but in the morning we remind them mom and dad aren't eating because it is Fast Sunday and that we are going to have breakfast for dinner tonight.  It has really brought the spirit into our home.  They are excited all week for Fast Sunday and are very aware of it.  We talk about how it is Fast Sunday and why and what we do and what we are fasting for all day long.  It has been so wonderful.

For our fist Break-the-Fast breakfast we had blueberry buttermilk pancakes, real hash browns, bacon, scrambled eggs, and banana's.  When the sign up's for having the missionaries over for dinner came by at church I signed them up for a Fast Sunday - I thought the breakfast thing would be a fun tradition to share with them - boy was I right.  Apparently they love breakfast foods.  We went BIG -buttermilk waffles, real hash browns, bacon, sausage, real whipped cream, fresh strawberries, fruit salad, scrambled eggs, orange juice.  We all ate and ate and ate.  They asked if they could come back every fast Sunday.  If you are looking for a good tradition I highly recommend this - I have visions of our teenagers inviting their friends and their families over for brake-the-fast breakfast.  It's goona be great!

Visitors

We had both of our grandparents come out to visit us in the month of October.  Actually we got them both on the same week - overlapping for two days - so it was quite a treat.

 

We had a lot of fun with my mom.  It was just perfect having her here.  I had a lot of appointments with the kids I had to go to - so she was able to watch my other kids while I checked a bunch of annoying things off my list.  One hard thing about moving to a new place is the lack of babysitters - ESPECIALLY day time babysitters, so having her their I just stacked my appointments and it was perfect.  She also had a lot of fun with us - we went to Chuck E Cheese, parks, and she took ALL of us out to dinner - which was fun and scary because we haven't even taken all of our kids out to dinner yet.  Plus we would make really yummy lunches (chicken salad, tortilla soup, etc) and enjoyed them while watching our favorite TV shows during nap times - which is exactly what I wanted to do.  Then in the evenings when the kids went to bed we went shopping and she bought me some cute new things for my house!  We also went to the temple together one night.  It was just wonderful.  I think I might like living away since now when my mom comes I get her all to myself.  I can't wait for her to come back - and neither can the kids.

Then my in-laws came during Debby's fall break (she teaches middle school).  They came and saved my whole life.  These two are amazing.  Every problem I had with my house and yard they came and fixed.  Our back yard is so so small and useless and was really really overgrown.  We had been living there for almost a month before they came and neither I nor the kids had ever gone out there.  They came and worked - hard - for 3 days and got my backyard looking wonderful.  They cut trees and branches, tour out bushes and plants, moved grass, built us a sand box and a little climbing fort out of some extra wood.  On top of that they installed several new lighting fixtures (several of the rooms in our house did not have lights - only lamps - that is unacceptable to me), and changed our deck/stairs in our garage so our mini van could fit.  All in 3 days!  On top of that they had so much fun with the kids: going on bike rides, the book fair, buying them new toys at Target, and of course ice cream.  I promised them that every time they come out they don't have to work like that - but boy do I appreciate when they do!  Plus it is so fun to watch these two work together - they make a great team and it really shows what 35 plus years of marriage can do - they were an inspiration! 

Holy Moly

*I am supposed to be "catching up" and blogging about the first of September when we got here - but I needed to vent some feelings today.*

Holy Moly I am struggling.  Struggling with my kids and my mothering.  I remember when we had Madison I would say, "we just need to get through the first 2 years with all four of them being so young, and then after that it will be so easy."  I HOPE that every single mother with older children rolled their eyes at me when she walked a way thinking, "oh just you wait honey".  Granted, I knew that I probably had no clue what ages 2-6 brought, nor do I know what the  tween, or teenage years will really be like.  But each stage of parenting has its challenges and its rewards - and to get through each stage we have to tell ourselves that "this is just a stage, and it WILL get easier" and we HAVE to believe it (and it does not help when well meaning older mom's tell us we are wrong :).  But the truth is each mother is naturally better at some stages than others and I am much better with the baby/toddler stage.  Much.

These boys are driving me up the wall.  I don't think they even know that I exist because they for sure do not listen to one single word I say.  They are just silly and crazy all. day. long.  I am talking over laughing, yelling, and screaming all day.  Nothing stops it.  Not yelling, not threats, not rewards, nothing!!!!  It makes my blood boil.  I just want them to stop and be still and quiet for 5 minutes, five bloody minutes!  The ONLY thing that makes them quiet is watching a show.

What adds to the problem is that more often than not I take my frustrations out on the girls; and I hate it - because I still do love the stage the girls are in.  But I am so tired and exhausted from fighting with the boys all morning that as soon as I get them out the door I need a break - the demands of toddlerhood, that I usually love, are just too much after the emotional battle I have just fought with the boys.  Not to mention that the girls are actually harder/different then the boys were at this stage.  Megan is so emotional.  She screams and throws tantrums at the drop of the hat - throwing herself on the floor ever hour or so - the boys NEVER EVER did that.  I probably could have handled it with the boys - but there is no fight left in me - my natural instinct is to just give in and give her what she wants - but thankfully I am not THAT tired.  But I still am not handling it well or consistently - sometimes I ignore her, sometimes I discipline her, some times I freak out and yell at her. 

Then there's Maddie.  Stubborn, stubborn Maddie.  I don't blame her - she is just a two year old trying to keep up with everyone else.  She is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen - but truth is most days she drives me crazy.  She will do things her own way and doesn't really care what I have to say about it (and for anyone who truly knows me knows I can not handle that).  For the life of me I can not get her to eat her dinner.  Oh what I would pay for her to just flipping eat her dinner.  And she doesn't not eat it because she doesn't want it, or doesn't like it, or is not hungry, I am 100% convinced that she doesn't eat it just to make me mad.  Seriously, I honesty think that.  So the answer is: don't get mad, give her no reaction and she will eat it.  And on days where I can manage that she does eat it.  But a typical dinner the boys are being so crazy and silly that you can't think straight and Megan is screaming and kicking about something and Madison refuses to eat and I decide to focus on the one "stage" that I love and usually thrive in - I think "I will help the toddler - because I can succeed here" ha! a half hour later I am more angry and frustrated than before.  Two days ago I was having one of these dinners (Jason was still at work).  I knew I was getting angrier and angrier and my blood was literally boiling.  So I went up to my room and shut the door.  Not totally out of reasons for "wanting to get away" more because I could see that I was adding to the problem and thought maybe everyone would eat if I wasn't there.  Well I was right, they all ended up eating and even put their dishes in the sink.  They were LOUD and CRAZY the whole time - but they did it.

I just need to either A)find a way to get the boys to learn to be calm and quiet when it is a calm and quiet time and/or B)I DO need to learn to live in the craziness and not let it get to me - because honestly I truly know this is just the TIP of the iceberg.  My kids don't even tease each other yet.  And with two older brothers and two younger sisters - oh my - I KNOW what is in my future.  I just thought I could handle it - but it has become apparent that I can not!  Any tips for how to learn A or B?