Sayings

Pretty much everyday, my kids will say something so cute and I try to write it down as quickly as I can so I won't forget.  Chronicling them here makes for fun posts to look back on!

(About Diet Dr Pepper)
N: this is really hoppy. 

Then
N: it makes my face spiky

M: when I get home can i watch those silly daddy videos?
Me: probably
M: ok. It's on youtube. Just type fgtv YouTube com, or whatever it's called. 

Me: let's throw this box away in the big trash can when we wave to the bus
Noah: what if you miss the bus?  (because, we wave to the school bus each morning)
Me: I won't. I'll set my alarm.  
Noah: is it monday?
Me: it's Wednesday.  
Noah: oh! Because if it was monday, the stop sign on the bus might hit you but it won't hit you if the trash can is just by the garage

Noah:  I thought the garbage truck went beep beep when it backs up but it doesn't; it goes woop woop 


Me: hey Noah I'm going to need to use my phone today to read my book. Remember my school book is on my phone?
Noah: yep! That's fine with me!
Me: so we'll need to share my phone today. I'll need to use it to read a few pages of my book, and then you can have it to watch some garbage truck videos, and then I'll need it back to read some more pages of my book, and then you can have it for another turn okay?
Noah: yep! We can really share because I'll let you! 

N: Michael!  The garbage truck is here and you get to go to school and I will miss you!

Noah: why are you wearing your glasses?
Me: because my eyes hurt 
Noah: why do your eyes hurt?
Me: because my computer screen is bright. 
Noah: you should work on your computer when it's off. 

(Noah has 3 Skittles on the table. Yellow, red, green). 
Noah: look! This is how I spell my name! One (touches the yellow skittle), two, (touches the green skittle), three! (touches the red skittle) 

Me: the dogs are going to think you smell really clean because you had a bath!
Noah: hey dogs, I smell like cereal!
Me: why do you smell like cereal?
Noah: because I had a bath!

(In piggly wiggly grocery store) (Noah points to an older bearded man)
Noah: look, there's Santa Claus
Michael: no, that's not Santa Claus.
Noah: actually, it is Santa Claus 
Me: hey boys, let's talk about something else 

Noah: ( walks into the kitchen after coming home from my mother-in-law's house) (happily says:) it smells like corn in here! 
Me: I haven't cooked anything with corn all day

Michael: there's a mail truck. Right there. See? It says ups! (Like the plural of up) :)

Michael: (hid a toy in a plastic heart) can you guess what's inside?
Me: a frog?
Michael: nooooo.  It starts with an s and ends with a g.
Me: hmmm, a sponge? No, those letters aren't right.  A song? I have no idea. 
Michael: a spider ring!

Noah: I want you to help me figure out something to eat!
Me: toast! With jelly!
Noah: (shakes head)
Me: toast with jelly! 
Noah: (nods head in excitement) 
Me: okay, toast with jelly! 
Noah: no, not toast. Just jelly. 

Noah: we go to piggly wiggly and we do the pig wiggle. 

Oh how I just love them!

Until Next Time, 
Much Love, Reba

Imaginative Play

I highly encourage imaginative play in our house.  It’s a skill that is vastly leaving the generations after us.  When my kids want to play silly games and act out a grand scheme that’s in their heads, I’m all about it! 

Obviously, if you’ve read the blog for any length of time or followed along my Instagram page, you know that Noah is obsessed with garbage trucks.  He even pretends to be one himself!  (This is oddly similar to that scene in Zootopia where the fox dresses like an elephant and Nick is like “this little stinker loves elephants.  Wants to be one when he grows up!”  Well, the same is true in our house except instead of a fox wanting to be an elephant, my son wants to be a garbage truck or garbage man (or both, depending on the hour in which he’s asked). 

My mother-in-law is so crafty, and she set up a garbage truck simulation in her front yard for him.  This is now his game of choice when he goes over to her house.  She has two big garbage cans outside (the previous homeowners left theirs at the house, and she brought hers from her other house which is the standard practice around here).  So one of the cans remains fairly clean and garbage free.  She pulled that can over to her swing set, which is wooden and has a little fort area complete with a three-step ladder.  She set up the can next to that ladder, and stuck a toy broom upside down between the ladder and the fort area.  Noah stands on the stairs pretending like it’s his garbage truck.  Then she rolled over their hose-winder and Noah pretends it's the garbage crusher.  She also bought him kid-sized gardening gloves that he wears for his “garbage man gloves.”  So sweet. 

I’m hoping Noah always continues to use his imagination for greatness and never loses sight of the ability we have to create happiness out of simple things.

Until Next Time,

Much love, Reba

Avery: 6 Months

Avery turned 6 months old on February 20th!  Six months just seems old to me!  I can't believe we're halfway to her first birthday.

In some ways, I start to slip into being sad that the time is going so fast.  But then I remember that I am truly enjoying every age and every stage and that so many good things are still to come!  Although babies are so cute and cuddly, waking up multiple times a night to feed and change diapers in the dark are hard days.  Being limited on how far away I can go from the house before I'm needed back at home to feed are hard days.  They are good days, but they are hard days. The days of freedom are still in my future and still days to look forward to!  As are the days when she will develop her cute little toddle and the days when she'll look at me & her daddy and say "I wuv you."  Those days will be so precious and I'll look back on these baby days with fond remembrance (but probably not accurately remembering the struggles). :)

At her 4 month check up she weighed 13.1 pounds and was 24 inches tall.  She had her 6 month check-up today.  She weighs 15 pounds 10 ounces, and is 26 inches tall.  She is in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference.  Still a very proportionate little girl.

Clothing: Avery is in 6 month clothing for onesies and pants.  I've started dressing her in 6-9 month pajamas-- again because of length. Although she's middle of the road for her height at the 50th percentile, she still seems tall to me and the 6-month footed pajamas seem too short.  I feel like she's more comfortable with some room in her PJs, so 6-9 month it is!  I'm a little sad that she's transitioning out of her 6 month clothing.  Again, lots of these pieces were bought specifically for her rather than being hand-me-downs.  So it's a little sad that she won't get to wear these pieces for much longer.  On the bright side though, each new group of clothing that she transitions into is always fun to look at and choose from each day.  

Diapers: She's still very comfortably in size 2.    

Sleeping:  She is not very consistent with napping or overnight sleeping.  It's hit or miss whether she'll nap in her crib on the weekends or in the evenings.  About half of the time, we end up holding her during her nap.  Naps can last anywhere from twenty minutes to one hour.  At nighttime, it's been a roller coaster.  She had several nights in a row where she would wake every.two.hours.  Then she'd have a night where she'd go her standard three hours between feeds-- but not a minute more.  Then I got a teaser night of her going from 8:00pm-1:00am and then from 1:15am-4:45am, and waking for the day at 6:20!  I felt like a new woman!  Then the next night was a "wake every 2 hours" night, and the one following that was an every 3 hours night.  Then the following night was another 8pm-1am, 1:15am-5am, then wake at 7:00 for the day.  Last night she went from 8:00pm-10:30pm, then 10:40pm-2:45am, then I fed her at 4:45am so she'd sleep til 7ish.  She made it til 6:30 this morning.  I'm hoping this string of going for more than 3 hours is going to continue.  This is one thing I look forward to in the future-- when she can sleep through the night!

Feeding: She has done so much better with her bottle feedings at my mother-in-law's house during the day while I work.  I'm pumping 3 times a day during the work day and nursing her for any feed for which she's at home.  We have made it through the yellow veggies of baby food.  She liked squash the best, and carrots the least.  She will try green beans or peas next.  We do each veggie by itself for about 4 nights, then move to the next one.  For our pediatrician practice, they recommend yellow veggies, then green veggies, then fruit.  We're having a bit of difficulty finding the green veggies (stage 1, for "supported sitters") in stores.  The local grocery store (which just opened last Thursday!) had one of the two kinds of green veggies, but I can't remember which one.  Our favorite grocery store (about 20 minutes away) didn't have either kind.  We'll see what we end up with when we swing into the local store to grab whichever kind of green veggie they have in stock.  I can't wait to get her on fruits.  I think she'll be so excited. When we're done with a container of baby food, she'll cry a bit but as soon as we pick her up, she's totally fine.  

Tummy Time:  She loves to be on her tummy as long as we position her towards the tags of her tummy-time mat or if we set her Boppy pillow on the floor in front of her with the tags facing her.  She'll examine the tags and of course try to put them in her mouth.  

Habit: She's now started rubbing her own hair when she's nursing or drinking from a bottle.  It's the sweetest thing. 


Aaron & I still just sit and stare at her in the evenings after the boys have gone to bed.  We just can't get over how cute she is and how blessed we are to have her in our lives!  

Until Next Time, 
Much love, Reba

Peach Cobbler

Cobblers are such a great dessert because they are so easy to make!  And if you know me, you know I like easy when it comes to baking!

We've had some jarred peaches in our pantry and neither Aaron nor I just eat jarred peaches just to eat them. So I knew we needed to find some way to include them in a baked good or they'd just continue taking up space in my pantry.

Aaron likes the "cobbler" part of cobbler, and I've oddly been in the mood for a warm peach dessert, so peach cobbler was obviously the right choice!

Anytime I read a recipe that includes "fresh peaches" which I don't have on hand this time of year, I just replace it with jarred peaches (and I keep typing jarred instead of canned since the peaches I have are in glass jars, but canned would work just the same).  I researched a recipe that included fresh peaches, and I had to read a little further to see that part of the amount of sugar requested was actually used to create a syrup for the fresh peaches.  I just removed that part of the recipe entirely and used jarred/canned peaches in place of the fresh peaches and the extra sugar called for.

***

For an 8x8 pan, I used the following measurements:

1/4 c butter (half of a stick)
1/2 c AP flour
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 c milk
1 1/2 c jarred/canned peaches
Ground cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375.
Melt the butter in the 8x8 pan.
Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and milk in a bowl just until moistened.
Once the butter melts, pour the flour mixture over the butter but do not stir it into the butter.
Add the peaches on top of the flour mixture in the pan but do not stir it all together.  It's okay if a little juice/syrup from the peaches gets into the pan also.
Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until top is a nice golden brown.

Serve warm, and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for extra oomph!

***

Cobblers are the perfect easy dessert since they're just a "dump and go" kind of thing.  We'll probably be making lots of cobblers as our weather down here is tricking us into thinking it's early summer although we're barely past the middle of February!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Precautions and Erasing the Board

The flu has hit our state hard and it just won't leave!!!  After Christmas break, we sent Michael to school as normal.  By that Friday, the nurse had called me to tell me that she was sending multiple kids home with the flu and it was so bad in the school that they were not letting Michael even come into the nurse's office to get his blood sugar checks-- the nurses were going down to his classroom to check him and administer insulin.  (I was SO thankful for that!)

I called my mom and emailed Aaron. My mom suggested that I call our pediatric nurse line and ask what to do.  The nurse suggested I pull Michael out of school for a few days.  I called the 504 Coordinator at Michael's school and arranged to do just that.

Michael was out of school for a full week, and the school nurse kept me informed as to the level of flu exposure at the school.  By the end of that week, the flu was still in high presence, so we planned to keep Michael out another week.  We had a holiday weekend in front of us, and then it happened to snow the remainder of that week, so we thought maybe the flu had run its course.  In fact, during this time of snow and ice, Noah came down with a fever and lethargy and I'm pretty sure he had the flu.  We instantly sent Michael to my mother-in-law's house to keep him from being around Noah.  Noah came around within 48 hours and we were able to get Michael safely back home (once the roads cleared up!).

I can tell you that as soon as Noah had a fever, I felt like I had been punched in the gut.  I was terrified that Michael would get the flu.  A Type One Diabetic with the flu is not a good combo.

Miraculously, Michael didn't get the flu.  We sent him back to school on Wednesday the following week when it seemed like the flu cases were down.  I had a 504 meeting on Friday at school to override the district policies regarding absences so that we could keep Michael out of school as a precautionary measure so that he didn't get the flu.

We thought things were finally looking up in the school.  However, on Monday morning, Michael's teacher and the school nurse were both calling and texting me to say that multiple kindergartners were coming down with flu symptoms.  I told them I'd come get Michael right away.  I got him and kept him home with me that day to watch for symptoms.  He didn't have any.  I made the decision to keep him out the rest of the week, and the nurse and his teacher kept me informed as to the number of students out.  By Wednesday night, Michael's teacher had the flu.  She would be out til Tuesday.

I thought about sending Michael back on Tuesday.  Then I was told on Friday that half the kindergarten teachers were out with the flu, and it was so bad that they couldn't find enough subs to cover the classes and they were having to combine classes (which just means more kids are exposed to each other).  The rest of the affected teachers couldn't return until Wednesday, so I decided to at least keep Michael home until then so that he wouldn't be in a combined class just in case the school couldn't find enough subs again.

On Tuesday night, I was informed that multiple kindergartners were still being sent home with flu like symptoms, and Michael's teacher had half her class out.  I decided to keep Michael home the rest of the week, to the agreement of the school nurse and his teacher.

As of Friday, 104 students were absent, which is a lot, but also considered "normal" for this time of year.  The nurse had sent home fewer students on Friday than she had been sending home earlier in the week.  My mom is a nurse at a hospital and notified me that she had seen a significant decrease in flu patients.  Michael's teacher texted to say that only 3 kids were out on Friday from his class, and one of them was Michael who isn't sick.

So Aaron and I made the decision to send him back to school this week on Monday.

I feel confident knowing that the school nurse and Michael's teacher will inform me if kindergartners are still being sent home in large numbers.  So far so good.

I feel, though, like I'm in a warehouse and looking at one of those white boards that say "Days Since Accident: 396."  Except, I feel like my board says "Days Since Exposure: 13."  And I'm about to have to wipe the board clean and say "0 days" since exposure.  I'm nervous that he'll end up getting it still.  But all I can do is trust God to keep him safe.

Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba

Lyrical Fridays: Reckless Love

It's been a while since I featured a song that has truly spoken to me.  This isn't to say that I haven't come across songs that I love; I just forget to feature them here.

For those who don't know, my older brother and his wife had their newest baby 9 weeks early in the middle of January.  This little fighter is still in the NICU and has already undergone some surgeries and might be facing more. 

When I was on my way to pick up my kids the other day, this song came on the radio and the words just struck me.  It can relate to so many levels in my life, but specifically I think of my sweet nephew when I hear the words of the first verse.

Side note: I sing the first verse, the chorus, and the bridge to my own kids every afternoon on our drive home.  I also sing it to Avery when I'm trying to get her to go to sleep for a nap.  And, one evening last week when the boys were winding down for bed, I asked them if they wanted me to sing them a song and they picked this one.

***

Reckless Love

[Verse 1]
Before I spoke a word
You were singing over me
You have been so, so good to me
Before I took a breath
You breathed Your life in me
You have been so, so kind to me

[Chorus]
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn't earn it
I don't deserve it
Still You give yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

[Verse 2]
When I was your foe, still Your love fought for me
You have been so, so good to me
When I felt no worth
You paid it all for me
You have been so, so kind to me

[Chorus]
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn't earn it
I don't deserve it
Still You give yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

[Bridge]
There's no shadow You won't light up
Mountain You won't climb up
Coming after me
There's no wall You won't kick down
No lie You won't tear down
Coming after me

(Link for lyrics.) 

Video link can be found here. 

***


Hopefully this video speaks to you, too!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba