Gimme A Break

Peter has had a lousy week. It culminated yesterday in him falling off the top (yes, the top) of the monkey bars at the park after school. I was sitting on a bench feeding Sophie when it happened, so I didn't see the fall itself. I looked up to see him on the ground, crying. He walked over to me, holding his left wrist with his right hand.

He said he thought it was broken. Based on how his fingers were moving, I thought he might be right. Unfortunately, we had walked to the park so we couldn't get it x-rayed immediately. We gathered Cooper and Phoebe and headed home with the plan to then go to urgent care.

But on the way he perked up. He stopped holding his arm as he walked. He got in the van when we arrived home and waited as I got the other kids put together enough to make it through a wait at the doctor. By the time we were ready to go Peter was cracking jokes and not acting like he was in pain.

After talking to Peter and consulting with Bryan we decided to ice his wrist and wait for a bit. If it still hurt, then Bryan would take him after work. Peter could move his wrist back and forth and wiggle his fingers and mostly make a fist. He couldn't rotate his hand though.

When I've heard of kids breaking a bone and waiting days to get it checked out, I've always been perplexed. How could the parent not know it was broken? Wouldn't it be obvious? Now I understand.

When Bryan got home he took Peter to urgent care. The doctor couldn't tell either at first. After the x-ray she determined that Peter had broken the tip of one of the bones in his arm, which is in his wrist. She called it a green break and said it was hard to diagnose without an x-ray.

So now Peter has a splint and a sling for a few days until the swelling goes down and a hard cast can be put on. He's in pretty good spirits, although he's sad that he won't be able to do PE and recess and play with his friend like normal. I feel bad that I didn't take him right to the doctor. I've never broken a bone, so this is new territory for me. I guess now I know for next time.

And I really hope there isn't a next time.

A Balanced Diet

I try to have some kind of fruit or vegetable available at every meal. Today during lunch I gave Phoebe a choice.

Me: Would you like an apple or a banana with your sandwich?

Phoebe: I don't want an apple or a banana.

Me: It's good to have fruit. Which one do you want?

Phoebe: No, I just want chocolate.

Me: Did you know that some people take an apple like this one (I held up an apple), put a stick in it, then they dip the apple in caramel (her eyes got big) and chocolate (even bigger eyes)?

Phoebe: (in hushed, reverent tones) Do you do that?

Me: No, I think it ruins the apple. I like my fruit to taste like fruit.

Phoebe: I like my fruit to taste like chocolate.

Sleep Deprivation

I should never write about good sleep habits from my children. As I wrote my recent post in praise of Sophie's awesome sleep abilities I had this little voice in my head say, "This will jinx it, stop writing." But I wrote anyway.

For the record, Sophie is still a dynamite sleeper. However her bedtime has been getting later and later. Recently I've been putting her down between 10 and 11 at night. Then I need to make sure the dishwasher is running, make sandwiches for tomorrow's lunches, brush my teeth and fall into bed. Oh, and post something here.

Sophie will get a good six hours of sleep before she wakes up to eat, but the big kids have been waking up around the time I put her back down to sleep. So I've been functioning on four to six hours of sleep each night for the last few weeks, depending on if I've ignored all that stuff I listed above and gone straight to bed or not.

A friend posted this picture to Facebook today.

Source

Yeah, that's how I feel, pretty much all the time.

The Best Medicine

Turn up your volume. Is it up? Good. Now watch. The action takes a bit to get going, but the payoff is worth it.

Everything Is Awesome, Birthday Edition

I've decided to embrace this whole Throwback Thursday (TBT) trend. I know, me following any kind of trend is shocking. It's a good excuse to finally whittle down my pile of stuff that I've wanted to write about, but either haven't made the time or haven't had the brain power. That said, I reserve the right to use TBT if and when I so desire. That means sometimes I'll write about past stuff, and sometimes I won't.

Last year when Cooper turned five, he had a birthday party. I mentioned it when I wrote about his actual birthday, but then never followed up. I do that sometimes. I have lots of pictures of elements of the party but only one picture from the party itself. Oh well.

He chose to have a Lego themed party. Not surprising given his love of the little blocks, eh?

We had blue cupcakes that looked like round Legos. 

We had the party at our neighborhood multipurpose building (which doubles as a church, this is the nursery) which meant I didn't have to cram a bunch of kids into my tiny house. We used primary colors to decorate and stuck print-offs of Legos around the room. We also had balloons.

We ate pizza and oranges and had juice boxes. Not really Lego specific, but the table looked cool.

Goody bags! We discovered Lego knock-offs at the dollar store and got a box for each child that came to the party. We also included candy dots and Lego stickers. The boys helped put these bags together.

We printed this birthday banner using the Lego font. So, not much in the way of decorations, but enough that Cooper felt like this was his special party.

Here's our only action shot. Cooper is right in the front, with his back to the camera.

The activities were simple. We brought our box of Duplo blocks from home and spent a lot of time just building. We briefly considered bringing Legos, but they're so small we thought they would probably get lost. The larger Duplos worked great. We also had an activity/coloring book for each child and we worked on those for a while. The kids each had a mask that made them look like a mini-figure and we played music while the kids danced around in funny ways with the masks on. That was a big hit. Then we ate and Cooper opened presents and we called it good.

Ladies Man

As Cooper was putting on his shoes for school the other day he looked at me with his twinkle-eyed smile and started the following conversation.

Cooper: I'm in love with all the girls in my school.

Me: Really? What does "in love with" mean?

Peter: It means you want to marry them!

Me: Is that what it means?

Cooper: (still grinning) Yep.

Peter: You can't marry all of them!

Me: It's true Cooper, you can't marry all the girls.

Cooper: (in a sing-song voice) I can try!

Celebrate Good Times, Come On

In the last month I've seen several blog posts floating around about how different families observe holidays. Some moms go crazy with treats and decorations and activities. Some moms do nothing. I think most of us are somewhere in between.

I like holidays. When the boys were tiny I would celebrate in little ways, like turning our oatmeal pink on Valentine's Day. I still don't do much, but I like to do something. Since Bryan and I enjoy cooking, much of our celebrating includes food, but not always. With the exception of Halloween and Christmas, I rarely decorate. It's hard enough keeping the regular house tidy, adding decorations to the mess can be overwhelming for me.

My holiday enjoyment has rubbed off on the children. They love having a special dinner or a holiday specific coloring page. On Sunday morning I was washing Phoebe's hands after a sticky breakfast of pancakes and Easter candy. Here's what she told me as we washed.

"Mommy, I love Easter! I love all holidays! Like Christmas and Thanksgiving and Halloween and... what other ones are there?"

I suggested the Fourth of July.

"Yes! The Fourth of July! And my birthday, because that's also a celebration."

Because of Him

Our Easter was full of

 too much candy,

adorable children in their Easter Sunday best,  

their parents, 

egg hunting, 

this sweet girl experiencing this holiday for the first time, 

and delicious food, almost all of which was prepared by Bryan.

Most importantly, we talked a lot about Jesus, his atonement, death, and resurrection. While Bryan was serving dinner, I stood at the table making Resurrection Rolls and telling why we celebrate Easter. I had never heard of these rolls until last year when a friend made them while she was watching my kids. It proved to be a great object lesson.

I bore my testimony to the kids that Jesus suffered for our sins and pains, he willingly died, and was resurrected. He lives and because he lives, we have the opportunity to be an eternal family. I told them that I knew that was true and that they could know it too by praying and asking Heavenly Father.

The Easter baskets were fun, and everyone looked nice for church, but sharing my testimony with my children was the most important thing I did all day.

In the Whirlwind

Last night I had a dream that we were in the path of a tornado. Our family was gathered at Bryan's grandparents' house and when we looked out the window we could see the storm coming closer. The house quickly filled with family and strangers. No one went down to the basement; it was generally understood that simply being in the house would keep us safe.

I thought about that dream throughout the day. I have lots of interesting dreams, but this one stood out. The specifics were fuzzy when I first awoke, but details grew sharper as the day progressed.

During quiet time I listened to Sister Linda S. Reeves talk from the most recent General Conference. Because I was listening on my phone, when that talk ended it automatically started the next one. Elder Neil L. Andersen's voice began talking about tornadoes. I looked at my phone and saw that his talk was titled Spiritual Whirlwinds. With my dream fresh in my memory, I listened closely.

His talk was directed to the youth of the church, but I still thought it was applicable for me. One quote that stood out:

In nature, trees that grow up in a windy environment become stronger. As winds whip around a young sapling, forces inside the tree do two things. First, they stimulate the roots to grow faster and spread farther. Second, the forces in the tree start creating cell structures that actually make the trunk and branches thicker and more flexible to the pressure of the wind. These stronger roots and branches protect the tree from winds that are sure to return.
You are infinitely more precious to God than a tree. You are His son or His daughter. He made your spirit strong and capable of being resilient to the whirlwinds of life. The whirlwinds in your youth, like the wind against a young tree, can increase your spiritual strength, preparing you for the years ahead.

I am not a youth, but we are looking ahead to several whirlwinds. Soon we'll find out where we'll be living for the next year, then we'll have the move itself. Having four children is a kind of whirlwind for me. Life with Peter is its very own whirlwind. I wonder, what are these things preparing me for? What should I take from them? Am I allowing them to make me more flexible and resilient?

We Go Together*

I think Sophie looks like her siblings, but I wanted to check my memory. I dug up pictures of all the kids right around the age that Sophie is now. I could make you guess who each one is, but due to a birthmark, some gender specific clothing, and a major size difference, it wouldn't be much of a challenge.

Peter, who shares those full cheeks with Sophie. My oldest and youngest share height as well. They are both at the top of the growth charts. Also, there's not much hair under that hat.

Cooper, my littlest baby. He and Sophie have the same chin and lips. A month after this was taken his cheeks looked like Sophie's do now. Also, he and Peter are about the same age and are sitting in the same seat. See the difference in how high they each come on the cow? 

Phoebe, who has the same nose and blue eyes as her baby sister.

Sophie, who has more hair than her older three siblings combined at this age. She also loves a serious expression when the camera appears, though she has a big beautiful smile when the camera is safely tucked away.

*What song is the title from?