Quote of the day

Gigi has four stitches on her knee (have I told you that?). 

Gigi has been working on a "store" selling pipecleaners twisted up as "mice".

Gigi took a bath tonight.

Gigi put her pajama shirt on, but we were letting her knee air out a bit.

As she left the bathroom, "Oh, it looks like I have a customer.  I better go put some pants on."

Short lived

I'm not sure how much I have shared here about our ongoing sleepless nights struggle with Felicity's reflux.  Medications haven't seemed to help, some making it worse, a strict elimination diet helped for awhile, but didn't cure the problem.  It's been such a part of our life that I stopped trying to find a solution and just figured this was "normal".

A couple of weeks ago Felicity was diagnosed with a double ear infection.  Apparently her ears were like those of a child who has had numerous undiagnosed/untreated ear infections.  Great.  Our (new!) doctor prescribe some antibiotics and her ears cleared up, and....her reflux disappeared.

I wish that was the end of the story.  It's back, and back with a vengeance.  Upon further research I discovered that antibiotics are sometimes used to treat reflux because of what they do to the GI system.  However, once the abx are over the reflux comes back.  And, did I mention it's back?  The poor girl doesn't know what it's like to eat without her food coming back up to irritate her throat and nose, and we don't know what it's like to sleep at night without being awakened by a choking, gagging baby. I shudder to think what would happen if we didn't have her in our bed.  Yeah, not going there.

So I'm not sure what her/our future holds.  We have an appointment with a Pediatric GI doc in like 23 years (maybe a slight exaggeration).  In the meantime I'm going to be more systematic about cutting foods out of my diet (again), and we'll see if that helps. 

Felicity is 11 months old.  I'm a little bit of a mess thinking back to the past 11 months.  There are often times I want to say, "Enough is enough!", but it would do no good.  If I've learned anything it's that everything happens for a reason.  Even this trial that seems to be so overwhelming has its purpose.  Am I handling it with grace?  I know for a fact that I'm handling it with coffee (and do I realize that caffeine can affect reflux? the answer is yes, but I'm convinced we are dealing with much more than a 1/2 cup of coffee can cause).  I also know for a fact that Felicity Perpetua is worth all of this "hardship".  My, oh my, how our hearts are full of love for this girl.  

A Stitch 'n Time

The Stitch:  Actually, make that 4 stitches, and in Gianna's knee.  This poor girl.  First her sledding, "head meets pole" incident and now this.  The story isn't really that great either.  We were at a neighbor's house for dinner, the kids were playing quietly in the living room, and bam, a sliced knee.  Gianna thinks she maybe, might have been walking, or maybe running, and her eyes might have been closed.  I still don't know what she cut her knee on, but it was bad.  We said, "Thank you very much for dinner, sorry to eat and run" and Brett dropped the rest of us off at home and took Gigi to "Urgent Care".  I hated not being there for my girl, but I knew that Brett was fully capable, and he played the "rescuing father" quite well. 

The Time:  I performed an experiment today.  I didn't check my phone or turn on my computer all day.  Wanna know what happened while I was "not checking in" with the whole world?  A couple of things. 

#1: Nothing.  Every one's life was completely unaltered by my "absence".

#2: Everything.  I was present to my children and we had the absolute best day possible.  We got a lot accomplished in school, all of the household chores were completed, the kids got some free time outside (except for the above mentioned one who is on injured-reserves), every one's moods were great, fighting was at an all-time low, and I could go on and on.  I won't.  Let's just say my little experiment confirmed to me what I already know.  Enough.  Enough blogs, enough facebook, enough articles, reports, "findings".  Enough is enough.  It is important to be informed, but it is not important to know that "friend #123 ate at Taco Bell and saw the funniest dog in the car next to him".  Okay, I completely made that up, but you get the gist (nope, still don't like it...if you were wondering or have any idea what I'm talking about).  The point is, the technology will be turned off during the day and if/when I have free time I will spend a minimal amount of time doing necessary things.  Like blogging, of course.  And reading friends' blogs, and posting adorable pictures of my children or writing about controversial topics.  Would she? 

Wait and see....

Separation Anxiety

I just read a blog post about the upcoming election.  Every part in my being wants to hide from this election.  Is it awful to say that as long as the current President gets replaced I don't really care who gets elected?  I don't really feel that way, but almost. 

The issue this "commenter" had with Rick Santorum (for the record, we haven't decided who we support...this is just what the topic was on) was that he is a Catholic.    Not a Catholic!  Run!  Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic.  She went on and on about the whole separation of church and state thing.  She claimed that she wanted a President working for her, not the Vatican (it would be pretty amusing if it wasn't true).  

Do people not remember what the separation of church and state was all about?  It was to protect the Church....you know that whole "religious freedom" thing that seems to be flying out the window.

Where's the separation when Catholic nurses are being forced into assisting abortions, or pharmacists are being forced to prescribe contraceptives, or contraception is mandatory coverage on all healthcare plans regardless of a religious affiliation? Or a less obvious "separation" when schools are being soooo pc in their Christmas programs that "Christmas" isn't even a part of them although every other religion is.  Am I in favor of separation of church and state.  Uh, yeah!

In less political news...I just tried to warm my coffee up in the refrigerator.  I'm that exhausted.  What a blessing Felicity is, and what lessons we are continuously being taught.  The lesson yesterday was, "Regardless of if you agree with the doctor you must refrain from reaching across the room and throwing a punch, or grabbing said doctor by the face and say, 'look at my eyes...you're not listening to me!'" Oy! The lesson last night was just being you stepped foot into a doctor's office doesn't mean that she's going to be cured and she's still going to keep you up all night long.

I should stop hiding my kids...uh, I mean should get on with my day!  

Uniform Update

Just an FYI, I love using uniforms for our homeschool.  We are going to do this year after year, for sure!  I highly recommend it.  My children look put together, are ready to focus for the day (even on the days when we don't do "table work" they focus), and are able to get ready quickly for the day.  We've received several comments when we are out and about about how nice the kids look.  Now I realize that appearances aren't everything, but I believe that "we" have gotten so informal about how we look that it's nice to step it up a bit.  We also don't get those "shouldn't your children be in school" looks and comments because it is clear that they are a part of some school. 

That is all.  I'm off to teach my put together, focused children something before we head into town for a doctor's appointment. 

Sun-daybook

Outside my window- The clouds have come back, which means, we can go outside again.  We've had a handful of sub-zero (literally) temperatures.  The kids will be sad to take the cats back outside, but I'll be happy that I can send kids out with them.

In the kitchen- There is a large pot of beef/venison (from last year, boo) soup boiling.  We are having friends over tonight to sled and eat.  I love that my husband cooks when we have company.  I do the day-to-day stuff, but he's great at the "company food".  In fact, he rocks.

I'm hearing- The clock my parents gave us for Christmas sing half-past one.  The two oldest girls sing to the cats in the 3-season room.  The pot of soup humming while it boils.  Alright, that was taking an artistic liberty...it's not humming. 

I'm grateful for- My husband who came home early from a conference because of the threat of bad weather.  Grateful the bad weather didn't happen and I get an extra day with my whole family before the week starts.  Grateful my baby is pulling up and pushing her little walker around.  I hope you all don't get sick of hearing about her, because my heart is bursting full of love for our sweet one who we almost lost.  Wow!  I can't even describe how I'm feeling as her first birthday approaches.

I'm hopeful- There is a good chance that some very dear friends will be coming to see us soon.  The house is abuzz with excitement as my older two start to plan some activities and everyone is just plain excited.

Praying for- March for Life, my dad, Auggie, Archbishop Chaput, our seminarians, the big election coming up.  Will you pray too?

Our homeschool- We're are *this close* to moving into our school room.  I might even have *gasp* mason jars in the windowsills.  Okay, maybe not, but if I did what beautiful pictures they would make.

I'm creating- Some regular schedules, some organization, some better habbits, some happier kids,a real life letter to a friend.

This week- A doctor's appointment for Felicity (please pray we can figure something to help her with her reflux), a lot of karate to make up for when everyone was sick, a regular school/work schedule, hopefully some snow.

Seeing the fruits- The kids had a sleepover in the family room the night Brett was away and it was Aidan's turn to pick the movie.  He picked the movie he knew Gianna was absolutely dying to watch.  Those two in particular do not get along the greatest (that may be an understatement) so this was so nice to see. 

No picture this time, but I guarantee some good ones coming up soon. 

The Medicine that...

Veronica has been on an antibiotic for an ear infection.  She takes her medicine without complaint and quickly slurps it down.

I was measuring out a dose for her and she came up behind me and said, "Is this the medicine that sucks?"

Cue my jaw dropping to the floor.  "What was that Nica?"

"I said, is this the medicine that sucks?"

I didn't want to overreact and I couldn't fathom how Veronica would a) know the "s" word or b) use the "s" word in the right context so I just sort of ignored it.

I handed her the cup of pink medicine.

"Yep, that's the sucking kind" (as in, the kind you suck)