Monday, December 15, 2008
With our tree all decorated, it now really feels like the Christmas season. The kids so excited about Christmas and ask everyday when it will be here. We’re reading Chrismas stories, making cookies, and making decorations. All of us wish a wonderful Christmas or holiday to you all, and much joy, health and happiness in the new year.
Year end review:
2008 has been a year of growth as a family; working on health issues, and rebuilding our home. Finally after 10 months of the kids with health issues and recuperation from surgeries, their sunny dispositions have unfolded.
Jan-March 2008: lots of playing in snow, walks, organizing, playing with friends, family gatherings, sledding, girl’s night out, shopping, shoveling, visiting friends, visits to the library, taking down decorations (always sad) and recuperating from December. Lost of illness, colds and Jack having pneumonia twice.
March-May 2008:winding down of winter, organizing, Jack’s b-day party, cleaning attic; finishing little projects around house, hanging pictures, furniture shopping, St. Patricks day, Easter, egg hunts, egg decorating, cleaning yard, raking, etc. Luckily no sicknesses, picking up my mother who has been gone all winter; Easter; egg hunting, tearing down part or roof and replacing; renting cottage.
June-August: renting of cottage; kids getting tonsils and adnoids out (on same day); recuperation for two weeks and then over two months of complete body, personality, and attitude adjustments; my miscarriage; family visits from my siblings, my niece and nephew from Holland staying with us. Jack with pneumonia for the 4th time this year. Rainy July, lovely August.
Sept-December 2008: School for Bella, Harvest festival, Apple Squeeze, yard clean-up, organizing barn, barn lifting, our bedroom redone/repainted; school for Bella, projects, walks to park, birth of Roman (a family friend’s baby), cottage clean-up, sleepovers at the cottage, Isabelle’s eye surgery, Jack’s diagnosis of Asthma (cause of pneumonias); Thanksgiving gathering with Larrivee family, nephew and nieces sleeping over, Christmas decorating; carols; singing; art projects; etc.
WHAT THEY DO:
Isabelle: plays with baby dolls, loves cutting and crafting or any sort of art project; loves reading; painting; playing with ice and sand outside; any outdoor activity; helping mommy and daddy;
Jack: Is suddenly very intent with books and looks at them for a long time; loves puzzles; playing with cars; and kicking a ball; any outdoor activity; . He’s especially great at kicking a ball right on. The kid is just a powerhouse of energy. He can be so frustrating much of the time, but he makes us laugh constantly. His laughter is contagious.
JACK AND BELLA TOGETHER:
Together they are playmates. Most of the time they get along great, and they are together a lot. Everytime I take them out someone asks me if they are twins. They are roughly the same size and the way they interact, they are like twins. If they ever argue, it’s mostly Jack who starts the tangle-up. He usually invades her space or project, mostly because he wants to do what she is doing. The funniest is when she goes to sit on the potty, Jack follows her in and sits on the floor and looks/reads books as she does her business. Sometime she even ‘reads’ to him. It’s moments like these that we treasure. Best of all, Isabelle still calls him ‘babes’.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
The Christmas season is upon us already. Today we went to Chanticleer Farm and chopped down our tree. No snow, but frigid temperatures helped make it feel like the holidays. We’re decorating the tree today, and I look forward to sitting by it tonight. Isabelle is a the age of being very excited to decorate, make decorations, open packages, and understanding how to make a wish list of toys a mile long for Santa. Jack is excited because she is excited. He loves reading Christmas stories together.
FUNNY QUOTES/WORDS:
Jack:
Slumb = Thumb
Frank-i-lin = Franklin
Bass = Bath
Isabelle: The other day I picked Isabelle up from her rest-time (where she does quiet activities), and she had something lumpy under her shirt. Immediately she said she was nursing her baby. Sure enough, there under her shirt, in the proper position was her baby doll. Bella kept the doll under her shirt for another 20 minutes saying the baby was still hungry.
QUICK SNIPPETS of STUFF HAPPENING:
Harvest festival, Apple Squeeze, yard clean-up, organizing barn, moving plants and stuff out of barn, barn lifting. School for Bella, projects, walks to park, birth of Roman (a family friend’s baby), cottage clean-up, sleepovers at the cottage, Isabelle’s eye surgery, Thanksgiving gathering with Larrivee family, nephew and nieces sleeping over, Christmas decorating, carols, singing, art projects, etc.
BIG THINGS:
Isabelle’s eye surgery: In August Bella started developing a stye in her lower right eye lid. She had had several in the same eye, but not in that spot. The stye started to grow larger and larger. We took her to an eye doctor and he said only a compress would help. So with a compress the stye grew and grew to a large bubble. Finally we took her to another doctor and he said that she would need surgery ro remove/pop the stye, that the stye would not heal itself. So, we waited a month for an apointment and finally on Nov 15th she had the surgery at the Crane Center. She need anethesia and got put under for about 15 minutes. She was very brave, but remembered the surgery in June from the Tonsils so was very scared after. Poor thing. Aside from hating to wear the huge eye patch for the day and her one bout of stomach upset when we arrived home, she was back to her usual sunny self later that day. The doctor had never seen such a mass of stuff that he took out. Right now she looks so much better, BUT there is still a long red scar, which hopefully will eventually disappear. We do not know at this point.
Jack’s diagnosis of Asthma: After 4 bouts of pneumonia this past year resulting from a simple cold, the doctors have said that Jack as a form of cold induced asthma. For the winter he is on a daily steroid inhaler. They hope that with this form of asthma he will outgrow by age five. At the start of all this I had attempted a whole natural approach, witha diet change, but it wasn’t working quickly enough. I hope to go back to it once things are more settled around here.
Barn Raising: After much debate we finally decided to hire a company to come and raise our barn. Actual they came, raised our out of level by 14″ barn, that were off 11 of its 12 piers, they then cut the floor out, redug and repoured all the piers and built a new sill. Mike built a whole new floor and the barn is now lowered and entirely level. It looks fantastic. Mike is hoping to make a shop out of the place.
WHAT THEY DO:
Isabelle: plays with baby dolls, loves cutting and crafting or any sort of art project.
> Her special friends now are: Mr. Horse, Baba, and Duckie where she sucks her thumb with their strings.
Jack: In the past three weeks he has suddenly become more intent on whatever he is doing, especially in reading books. He looks at the pictures intently and listens carefully. He’ll sit for long periods of time either looks at books himself or listening to a long story. Jack also LOVEs puzzles, playing with cars, and kicking a ball. He’s especially great at kicking a ball right on.
> Jack’s special friend is Blankie (which he sucks the tags.)