Playground Etiquette

Yesterday morning we spent a bunch of hours at the hospital. Since getting there is such a journey I try to multitask as much as possible when there.
There are many things I DON'T like about the government run children's hospital that attends to my daughter's needs, but there are also a lot of wonderful things about them.
One of the more superficial "likes" is that they recently finished a HUGE construction project that includes a completely new facility for all the medical appointments equipped with (drumroll) really great playground equipment created in such a way that it is for the exclusive use of patients, is safe, and surrounded by transparent walls so that mom is on the inside waiting to be called in to see the doc but has full view at all times of her child. They also made it accessible for children of all capacities. This is slowly becoming less of an issue for Mic, but when they first opened it, it was huge! This was the only playground equipment I'd found that she could actually use independently!
So, here is the question of the day.
What is the correct manner in which to deal with someone else's rude child? For example, what would you say to the small girl talking to Mic saying, "Girl, Hey, GIRL! NO! You can't come up here with us." While her grandma sits complacently on a bench clear on the other side of the area and probably can't even hear what is being said...and doesn't look to friendly herself.
Really, dear reader, I'm all ears here, and dying to know!...what would YOU do?

The Oral...

...I wish I had something profound to say... I wish something profound was happening...
In the last month two families have signed off of my Blenderized Diet support group because their child is now 100% oral. Or in other words...IT CAN HAPPEN...just,...apparently not to us...for now...
And its hard not to feel like it is unfair. Medically speaking Mic has never been better. Why won't she eat now? That's the rhetorical question of my life and I am tired of philosophizing on it. I feel a bit like I am trying to emotionally wash my hands of the whole matter. Not give up...not completely,...but deep down...almost...
I sort of feel I have done everything humanly and inhumanly possible to help make this happen...and if God and Mic don't step in and do the rest...well...then...I just don't know...

I really don't want or need any advise right now--empathy, maybe, but not advise...just thought it might be good for me to try and put this in words...and let myself cry a bit...

What a Guy!

My little mister is the personification of language in explosion. It is such a blast! But yesterday really took the cake for me! We have a little book that teaches the alphabet in sign language, one letter on each page along with lots of pictures. He and I were pointing out objects that he knows--apple, baby, cat, car, dog, pizza, rabbit...etc. When we get to the page for "O" rather than point at something in the picture he pointed at the letter and declared "O!". And then just in case I didn't hear, he proudly repeated himself several times. All I can do is laugh! :o) I have no idea where or when my 1yr. 8mo. old taught himself the letter O. I have been working on the alphabet with his big sister...when he sleeps his afternoon nap in a seperate room!

And since I realized I've kind of been slacking on pictures here's a recent Sunday morning shot. They DO get along with each other...once in a while! ;o)

Well, among other fun things I had my first ultrasound last week. It confirmed that yup! I am very pregnant (OK, that really wasn't in question), and yup! I am 13 weeks along...and what an amazing little kicker I have growing inside of me! Never had I seen so much detail in a plain old black and white ultrasound on a baby so tiny. We saw both little hand prints and could count out all five fingers clearly on each hand. And also got a clear look at his/her face--eyes, nose and mouth! And the whole time the baby was wriggling, kicking, moving and dancing. Just amazing, breathtaking, and unbelievably beautiful. What an incredible Creator we have!!!
The other fun thing about this weekend has nothing on my growing baby, but in its own way is exciting for me. I love to organize. I love when things have a place to go. And my little storage room as gone from messy to down right hazardous over time. But this weekend DH finished mounting the shelves in there! To give a little background...when we got married we didn't have a closet or wardrobe, but came across some free metal shelves. Imagine the type of thing that would typically go in a shop or in the pantry to fill with canning jars. We turned two of those and a big dowel into our temporary closet. Temporary turned to months and months turned to almost seven years. And then, whoo-hoo! Another heaven sent (free!) gift! A wardrobe! (Not the one I painted awhile back, that one is for the kids, I really need to take a picture of this one too, I love it, it is beautiful--AND, bonus, I didn't have to paint it.)
So, this weekend I finally got our clothes moved into a "real closet" and the metal shelves were demoted to what they were made for...organizing "stuff" in a spot where they won't be an eye-sore. I still have a huge pile of things in the middle of my living room to go through, and either toss or organize--this is no small task. But even that can't get me down today! I am just so happy to finally have a place to be able to put them when I eventually manage to get it finished. Not to mention that I have all kinds of great art and craft supplies that I couldn't even get to that I will now be able to start employing as we begin Mic's kindergarten.
And finally another little oral feeding note, I think its going a little bit better, but please don't stop praying for us. She really did hit her lowest low since therapy. At least she is eating again, a little bit the last couple days, after a few days of literally almost zero oral cals.

Oral feeding...

...is going really, really badly.

And thats all I have to say about that for the moment.

Being Careful

Well... as you probably know there is a flu bug going around in our town. I personally feel the media blows things way out of proportion. It annoys the bajeebers out of me to read things like "New, Never-before-seen, Deadly Virus Appears". Ummm, hello, correct me if I am wrong, but every round of flu is "new" isn't it? Isn't that why they create a NEW flu shot for each flu season? So, please, don't make the herd of people who don't think this through for themselves feel like the world is going to end just because this strain of flu isn't familiar. And then there is the classic "as many as 83 dead due to Swine flu" but if you keep reading clear to the end actually in reality only 23 of those deaths are confirmed to have been this flu thus far. Sure, 23 are worth taking into consideration, but really what percentage of this city's population would 23 work out to be? More babies than that died in this city today because of abortion, which is beside the point, but perhaps helps perspective a little bit? And finally there are the "fears that it could spread into a global pandemic" though if you continue to read you will discover that the same expert does admit that it is far to soon to actually declare such a thing. So my point, before I step of my soap box, is simply that it drives me nuts to see the media paste half truths and some down right lies* in the big letters at the top of the page which, sadly, is the only part that many people read and thus promoting panic, fear and terror to a world that doesn't need that on top of everything else!

That said, the illness is real, and I have always been a firm believer in being safe rather than sorry. So, while I am not hiding in my home panic stricken nor in fear. We did decide to stay home from church today. Our reasoning being that Mic has a higher risk factor and lower defenses than the average person and almost always comes home from Sunday School with a runny nose anyway. She is just finally pulling out of her last illness and...its just not worth taking a chance on my princess' health. So, we slept in, and when we finally got up, had a silly slipper morning while listening to our church service online.

Hooray for a relaxing morning and super silly slippers!!!

*This mornings news lie being that the papers had pasted in big letters that any Churches that held meetings today would be severely fined. Flat out lie. Our church was on the phone to the actual powers that would have the ability to make such a fine and both last night and this morning they did confirm that the headline was....FALSE! Unbelievable.

HAIL!?

I have a little back patio. I have mentioned in the past how much I love that particular spot. It is the center of much activity, work and play. It is peaceful, cool, private, useful, safe for the children, really just right in almost every way. As you can see below it houses my laundry/cleaning center. Maybe part of my special feelings toward my back patio has to do with the fact that laundry really is my favorite chore and nothing pleases me more than having the right space, tools and organization to get a job done, and my patio fits the bill perfectly.
...at least it did until the tarp that shades it broke...again! Without protection from the fierce sun, wind and rain my back patio is effectivly "broken".
My dear husband spent all his spare minutes during Holy Week and the week that followed building a little roof as a much more stable and permanant solution! I am SO happy, and SO proud of him! It really turned out beautifully!

When if was finally completed he said, "now we just need it to rain real hard so we know if it is sound or not". I smiled and said, "just wait a couple more months". Rainy season usually starts here about June.

However, last evening we got some real excitment!!! We had a blistering hot afternoon, followed by a cool cloud cover as evening approached, and then I realized it was going to rain! Well it didn't just rain. We had the biggest hail storm I personally have ever experienced! (I'm a west valley girl, so real hail is even one rung above snow on my excitment list!)

This was one of the bigger balls I got my hands on--about the size of a marble. If I would have been willing to get pelted I could have found even bigger ones to fotograph---but I wasn't!

The most amazing thing is that it just kept coming down harder and harder and it started to really pile up and it just wouldn't quit falling. The sound was so deafening on our roof we literally could not hear each other speak even in the same room.

My poor little raised bed didn't fare so well. I had cilantro going to seed, I was going to harvest the seed for later planting,...its all but gone.

When it finally calmed down a bit of course every one began to emerge and assess the street, everyone except me that is, I was in shorts and flipflops and had no desire to get my feet wet, so I let my husband man the camera and give me a full report. : ) As soon as they had seen what there was to see the next step was to get the hail off of the roofs so that the rain could drain. From my window I could see five guys up working on different roofs, and from my in-laws you could see about another ten. I tried to get pictures of them, but my little camera wouldn't focus that far away and as previously mentioned I wasn't willing to get wet--even for good pictures!

And, of course we can't have a storm without the power going out. When I lit the first candle Mic began to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. It was very cute and sweet.

To top off the excitment about bed time C realized that there was a fire truck right outside our gate. He went back out to see what was happening. We are at the top of our street and from here it declines, then ends in a sharp corner. Evidently as it rained after the hail all the ice stacked up at the bottom of the street. He said that there was about a foot and a half of standing hail at the bottom of the street!

This morning with the hail melted you could really see how our trees did...unfortunatly thats not just leaves on the ground...

Its also hundreds of baby avocados! : ( SOOOOOOO sad! But unbelievabaly even though the ground is covered with them I did manage to see that there are still a few in the tree too, so it wasn't a total loss.

...and my new roof on my back patio, stood up valiently to the true test!!! Congratulations Honey! I am so proud of your skills!

"Letting you know how it goes..."

Well here's my promised report on the blood tests. ...They didn't happen. Last night THE COLD took a turn for the worse. Mic couldn't stop coughing and could barely breath. She finally fell into a restless sleep about 3am. We had to be out of the house by 4:45am to get to the appointment on time. ...ummm ya...that didn't happen! So, I'll have to reschedule, they'll probably push us out to August... Let ya know! ; )

The Good, The Exciting...

So last week was "spring break" here and that had us completely out of routine. Not because my children are affected by the school schedule, but because the entire city, and consequently my husband's work are all altered. This has good and bad parts to it. The especially good was no traffic and more time with Papa around!
There were also special meetings at church. I wanted to picture journal it, but forgot my camera every single day! It was beautiful! Good sound Biblical word, healings and miracles, worship, flags, rams horns, dance, lives changed, hundreds saved. What a great recipe!
On other news, my Mom is going to be married this summer, so we have the joy and "nervousment" that a wedding and new family bring. Its beautiful to see new love bud and blossom, and odd to become painfully aware of how my parents must have felt to see me engaged and planning to be wed. In some strange way, the table has turned! : )
For exciting this afternoon we had some extremely high winds and one of the loose sheets on the edge of the roof got picked up, tossed over and broken. Hats off to my Honey that figured out a way to wire the broken piece down and fix the problem.
Unfortunately its not always all good. Mic has a pretty nasty cold going on, it makes her already difficult night breathing far more complicated. So we are working on hydration and calories and defenses so that all is well, Lord willing, for her scheduled blood tests on Wed. We'll let you know how it goes.

Shouting my joy to the world!

Well, since I just sent emails to everyone that I didn't call, and then pasted it on FB to boot, I decided it was time to go ahead and shout to the "entire world" that we are to be blessed with some multiplication in our family!!! We are surprised and thrilled and can't wait for November to get here so that we can meet this special, precious little person. Yes, this would fall under the "personals" I mentioned in my bullet point list a few posts back. It was just a little to "new" then. ; ) ...Thanks for sharing our JOY.