What a week!

JD headed to London last Monday and I was facing a week alone with the kids. The week started out well, and I was looking forward to a MOPS planning meeting and our couples Bible study on Tuesday as well as a new Bible study at church on Wednesday morning. Then, I started paying attention to the weather forecast and knew that I would probably have a day or two at home with all the kids as snow was on the horizon. On Tuesday, JD and I discussed changing his flight home on Thursday because of the weather forecast and flight schedules available. We were concerned that the plane he was taking home from London on Thurs. afternoon wouldn't be able to take off the afternoon before from here due to the pending snow. I'm SO glad we were on top of that. He was able to change his flight and get home on time. The flight he was originally scheduled for ended up getting canceled because the airplane couldn't take off from Dulles on Wed. night.

We woke up on Wed. morning with a wintry mix and school was canceled, so we read some books, solved some puzzles, and watched a little TV. It was really a yucky day outside.


Around 4:00 that afternoon the rain/freezing rain changed to snow. It started coming down fast and the flakes were huge.


I had a feeling we would lose power because the snow was so heavy. I called JD and had him talk me through working the fireplace; I gathered up the flashlights; I brought up sleeping bags from the basement. At around 6:15, we saw a green flash, heard a loud pop, and the house went dark. Every 10 minutes or so, we would hear another pop and see another green flash as tree limbs crashed into power lines, blowing transformers all around us. It was a little creepy, and I was a bit intimidated without JD being at home. Thankfully, my cell phone was fully charged, so I had some contact with the outside world. It took me a while to get the fire going because the wood was damp from the snow. Isabel was also very interested in the fire, and I had to give Madelyn the job of keeping Isabel away from the fireplace. I decided I would try to make an adventure of it and have a sleep over/camp out around the fireplace. Madelyn and Pierce were really into that but Isabel was not interested at all. I finally felt confident that the fire was going to burn, and by this point, Isabel had dozed, woken up and decided that she was all done with the camp out.

So, I bundled her up in two pairs of footed pajamas and her snow bibs, covered her up in a fleece blanket, and put her upstairs in her crib. In the meantime, the touchpad of my cell phone froze, so I could receive calls and make and receive texts, but I could not call out. I was a little nervous about this but notified my sister-in-law and a friend and asked them to call and check in at different points and to also check for text messages from time to time. I think I slept a total of about 2 hours the entire night as I kept seeing the flashing lights of transformers and hearing the scraping of snow plows, and making sure the fire was going, and making sure the kids weren't freezing and were in their sleeping bags. At three, I turned my cell phone on and nearly cried with relief when I saw a text from JD saying that he was on the plane and it was leaving as scheduled and that his original flight had been canceled.

At seven the older kids were awake, and I went outside to start shoveling the driveway. Madelyn was in charge of watching the fire and Pierce was in charge of listening for Isabel. I was able to shovel the entire driveway before Isabel woke up. After breakfast, I got the kids all bundled up and we went outside to play and finish shoveling.





I took Isabel over to our dear neighbors' house, and they were excited to watch her while I shoveled and helped the other two kids make a snowman. JD walked in the door at 12:57. We were all so happy and relieved. We were also excited when he told us that the power company was in the neighborhood. The power came on at 12:59.

She's got some work to do.

Ice Day

Last Tuesday, we woke up to this:



So, we just hung around the house.

Loose teeth

Madelyn would like to show you her very loose teeth. The bottom middle teeth are both very loose, and if she wanted we could probably yank them out pretty easily. Right now, she seems content to let them wiggle.

Foam Curlers

For several months before Christmas, Madelyn had asked about having curly hair. There is a little girl in her class with blonde, curly hair, and I think it made Madelyn curious. We bought her some foam curlers for Christmas and to say that she was less than thrilled is an understatement. She has a very low tolerance for anything she deems uncomfortable or anything she thinks might be uncomfortable. She took one look at the curlers and decided they wouldn't feel "controuble" and tossed them to the side. This was a low point of Christmas and we had to reassess the "reason for the season." Anyway, she decided that she was ready to try them yesterday.

Curlers in :




Curlers out:



She was very pleased with the results and wants to use them again tomorrow so that she'll have curly hair for school on Tuesday. (Tomorrow is a holiday so the current curls will probably be gone before she goes back to school.)

Isabel's 15 month check up and other randoms

As you may have read below, we went in for Isabel's 15 month check up a couple of weeks ago. She's still in the "less than 5th percentile" category for weight at 18 lbs, 3 oz. She was in the 55th percentile for height and 99th percentile for head circumference. In other words, she looks like a balloon. The appointment was pretty uneventful except for the interesting conversation with the doctor (see below) and Isabel's vaccinations.

There has been a change in vaccinations since Pierce got his shots at 15-18 months. There used to be three separate injections for DTaP, IPV (polio), and Hib(bacterial infection prevention). Now, there is just one, Pentacel. It's great that the kids don't have to get three separate injections; however, they have to inject more fluid because of the "three vaccines in one" concept. The nurse warned me before she gave Isabel the shot that reactions to this vaccine could be more intense and cause more fussiness and discomfort. For some reason, the 4th dose (given at 15 months) and 5th dose (given at 4-5 years) tend to give kids more trouble than previous doses. This is probably because many kids are walking at 15 months and notice muscle soreness in their legs. "Okay, okay, got it." was my thought, though, and basically dismissed the warning. Our kids have never really had trouble with vaccinations.

The rest of the day went fine, but Isabel woke up with a fever the next morning and was quite fussy. I gave her some ibuprofen, and within 20 minutes, the fever was basically gone and she was much more chipper. She played for a while and then took her morning nap. When she woke up from her nap, she was really fussy and wouldn't let me put her down. Finally, she decided to wiggle free and tried to stand up. She just sobbed and sobbed and could hardly stand. Then, she tried to walk and basically collapsed on the ground. I got scared at this point. Isabel was screaming, and the other kids were puzzled. She tried to walk again and took a couple of steps and fell down again. And started screaming again. I called JD thinking something was really wrong with Isabel. He talked me back off the ledge like he normally does and told me it was probably just the vaccine. I gave her some more ibuprofen, but I had to force it down her throat. She had no appetite and didn't want anything in her mouth. I left a message with the nurses at our doctor's office and just held Isabel in my lap. After about 15 minutes, Isabel decided to walk again, and she was in much better spirits. The ibuprofen kicked in and she was learning how to limp. It was still pretty pitiful looking but at least she was happy and somewhat mobile.

The nurse called back about 30 minutes later and confirmed what we had already figured out. Isabel was having a pretty intense reaction to her Pentacel vaccination. The extra fluid plus the fact that she's slim and doesn't have as much fat to put the fluid in plus that fact that tetanus shots hurt more than most other shots led to a lot of discomfort. Isabel did fine the rest of the day as long as she had ibuprofen. We had to keep the ibuprofen flowing the next day, too, as she still had a fever and leg pain. I love modern medicine and am so thankful for vaccinations from horrible diseases, but I wanted to throw this info. out there so that others might not be so concerned and surprised if their kids react to this vaccine.

As you can see, she's just fine now:

In other happenings, our water heater died this week. Of course, JD was out of town when it happened. One morning I wasn't able to get a hot shower, so I decided to investigate why. I'm not sure what I thought I'd do about it, but I'm glad I was inquisitive. When I went to the utility room in the basement, there was about a half inch of water standing in the back part of the room. Water was dripping from underneath the water heater. I got permission from the owners of our house to call a plumber and made an appointment for that afternoon. For the rest of the morning, I mopped and toweled water and pretended to try to at least stop the leak. To make this long story shorter, the plumber came and told me there was no hope for the water heater. I called the home owners and they gave the plumber permission to install a new water heater.

It snowed here yesterday morning. It wasn't a lot of snow but the kids had fun making and throwing snowballs, and the snow was gone by the afternoon. That is the perfect snow in my opinion.

Pierce went to bed last night complaining that his stomach hurt. I assumed he was trying to delay going to bed. Of course that assumption was aided by him asking for water, getting that water, us telling him that was all the water he was going to get; then he mentioned for the first time that his tummy hurt; then he told us that only more water would make his tummy feel better. He went to bed and seemed to have slept well. When he woke up, he said he needed water to make his tummy feel better. He drank water and then threw up every single drop he drank. Thus, Pierce and I are home from church. He's watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and has kept down dry Cheerios, water and a banana and seems to feel fine. He is grumpy, though, because I wouldn't let him have his chocolate milk. Pierce without chocolate milk in the morning is like me without coffee. You really don't want to see it. It isn't pretty.

I just took this picture, so hopefully his discomfort is short-lived:

Pierce and Santa Claus

We don't do Santa Claus in our family. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that we really want the kids to understand that we are celebrating the birth of our Savior not the mound of gifts under the tree. I don't dislike Santa; I don't judge families who do Santa; I grew up with Santa. Having said that, Santa does come up from time to time in our home around Christmas. The kids like to talk about him, and we always talk about the history of Santa and how St. Nicholas helped those children/families in need. However, Pierce has a very vivid imagination and likes to hold on to the idea that Santa might be real.

With that background, imagine all of us at the doctor's office a couple of weeks ago for Isabel's 15 month check up. The doctor was really friendly and was talking with the other kids after he had finished with Isabel.

Doctor: Did you have a good Christmas?
Madelyn: Yes, I got a doll and zhu zhu pets.
Pierce: Yes, I got trains and Buzz Lightyear.
Doctor: Did you get those from Santa?
Madelyn (looking a little sheepish): No.
Pierce: No. When Santa sees our house, he just flies on by.
Doctor (looks at me like I'm a nut): Oh, that's too bad.
Me: Uhhh...that's not what we really tell them. Umm...Pierce has quite an imagnination....Uhhh, we just choose to not do Santa. Uhh...
Doctor: Alright. You guys enjoy those toys.

A Masterpiece

Pierce really enjoys his train set and JD stalks Craigslist to find good deals on new trains and track accessories. Pierce received a lot of additional things for his trains this Christmas, and Saturday while I was at the store, JD and the kids went to work. JD was determined to use every piece of track we had. He didn't quite make it but came pretty close. It took up over half of the play room, and I took several pictures so that we can duplicate it one day. It had to be disassembled today, though, because a good cleaning of the play room is in order. It truly was a work of art, and we were all a little sad to let it go. Isabel would get stuck amidst the tracks and I would often hear her yell, "elp! elp!" so I do think I saw a look of relief when she came down after her nap to see most of the tracks put away. Thanks to all (Mom and Dad/Allen and Sarah) who made this creation possible.