Little Miss Pinkalicious is 3

Well, I haven’t been doing an awesome job of keeping up with my blog lately!  We’ve been busy, we went on a trip to visit my grandparents and I came home with a whopper of a kidney stone that I’m currently (literally – currently on hold with the doctor’s office!) trying to get everything sorted out with that (Ugh!) and homeschooling has been going pretty well, and, well, I just haven’t gotten around to blogging as of late!

But I thought I’d take some time today to do a little reminiscing.  And to tell those of you who don’t already know, Pink’s story.  (Now that I’m done talking to the doctor’s office. )

Pink was born via scheduled c-section on May 6, 2009.  (I was 39 weeks, 3 days, so it wasn’t an ‘early’ scheduled c/s or anything like that).  She was born at 8:30 am, and it was a long process in the OR after her birth – I had a cyst to take care of, as well as some scar tissue that needed removing, as well as a tubal ligation to be done…so we were in there for awhile. Pink wasn’t wrapped up into a tiny burrito and handed to The Man to bring over to see me – she was kept over on the table, where I could hear coughs and cries, which they said were a good sign.  The nurses said she was coughing up a lot of junk, and The Man took some pictures of her and brought them over to me.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the pictures at the time, her color didn’t stand out the way it does to me here.  The Man went back and forth between the two of us, checking on me (we were in there forever, and the spinal block or whatever was losing potency.  It didn’t hurt in a sharp way – more of pressure/soreness/ache, but I kept saying, ‘I can feel that’ and they would up the dosage a little more.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When they were FINALLY done with me, we had been in the OR for about an hour and a half/two hours.  It was close to 10:30am when we got back to recovery.  The Man ducked out to get my grandparents so they could come in and see her, and stayed out in the waiting room with the boys.  Link had a cough that day, and we decided not to let him come back and see her yet – which, in retrospect, was probably a great idea, even more so than we knew at the time.  :)

The nurse commented on Pink’s color in recovery (which I had noticed), and held some oxygen up to her face and she pinked right up again.  By the time my grandparents went back out to the waiting room, The Man came back and the nurse wanted to go ahead and take Pink up to the nursery.  So she went on up while I stayed in recovery for awhile (I can’t remember what it is…till you can wiggle your toes?  Or is it push up from the bed with your feet?  Hmm…)

In the meantime, my grandparents had taken the boys up to look at Pinkalicious through the nursery window.

By the time we got up there, the nurses in the nursery had sent Pink to the NICU.  There was really no sign that there was anything really wrong with her… she had a little trouble breathing and oxygenating her blood the way she should.  So she was sent over to the NICU and put under the oxyhood.

The Man was able to go over there with her for much of the day.  He came back and forth, updating me on how she seemed to be doing and what the doctors were saying.  A nurse of mine told me I wouldn’t be able to go see her til the following day, and my doctor came in and insisted that they take me to see her that evening anyway.  :)  Over the course of the day they were having to turn up the oxygen under the oxyhood… normal room air is 21% oxygen, and by the middle of the night on the 6th/wee hours of the morning on the 7th, she was unable to keep her oxygen saturation levels where they should be with 100% under the oxyhood.  They came and woke me up so I could sign the permission forms for blood transfusions for her, if necessary, and told me they were ventilating and putting in a chest tube.

She spent the next couple of days on the ventilator, and had a chest tube in one side.  The ventilator’s settings were turned up to 100% oxygen, and on Friday night, May 8, she wasn’t doing well.  Her doctor, at that point, mentioned ECMO to us, and when we left the NICU to head back to my room for the night, she had been put on a jet ventilator and they were calling the ECMO team and putting them on standby.

On Saturday, May 9, Pinkalicious’ condition was not getting better.  Her blood pressure was up and down, and her SATs were up and down as well.  They placed a chest tube in the other side now, also, and after lunch they moved her to a different room and began prepping her for ECMO.

Now, if you don’t know what ECMO is – ECMO stands for ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.  She had two large cannulas (tubes) which were inserted on the right side, where her carotid and jugular were.  The ends of the tubes sat in her heart, and they did all the work of her heart and lungs for her, allowing her body time to rest and heal (she didn’t have any heart problems, but this was the best way to give her body a break).  An ECMO machine looks like this:

Or close, anyway.  Some are bigger, some are smaller, but the basic components are the same.  Anyway, Pink was put on ECMO, which circulated and oxygenated her blood for her.  Over time, the process can be kind of hard on the red blood cells, so during the time she was on ECMO she also received numerous blood transfusions and some platelet transfusions, as well.  She had x-rays regularly, and ultrasounds on her head about every/every other day, to check for bleeding in her brain.  It’s hard to see her in this picture, because on ECMO they have to keep a close eye on blood pressure, and on many days it was kept dark in the room, and I didn’t want to disturb her with flash photography.

She was also laying on a biliblanket one day for jaundice.  She was fed through an umbilical line.  The respirator was kept on rest settings, just putting out a small stream of air to hold her lungs open.

When she had been on ECMO for about 3 days, they turned the ventilator to slightly different settings.  Everything was looking good, and she was beginning to take a few extra breaths on top of what the ventilator was putting out on its own.  On Thursday, May 14, they did a clamp off in the morning – where they clamped off the ECMO lines for 15 minutes to see how she would fare on her own.  The whole room was full of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and The Man and I, all staring at the little screens to see if her SATs would drop.  A nurse stood by her bedside and took blood every 5 minutes and sent it down to the lab to get quick blood gas readings.  She fared well with the first clamp off, and they did a second later that afternoon, which she also did great with.

So they took her off ECMO on Friday, the 15th.  She still had the ventilator, but was doing so excellent with it that by Sunday the 17th they had it down to 30% oxygen – only 10% more than room air!

Over the next couple of days, her umbilical line wouldn’t work any more (she was getting too old), so she was tube fed through a tube in her mouth, instead.  They were able to remove her from the ventilator early in the week, until on Thursday the 21st she was ventilator-free!

I was able to hold her for the first time since the day she was born, and The Man was able to hold her for the first time, ever.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, the 24th, she was finally able to get a bath, and we began trying to bottle feed her.  The first day she took, oh… a milliliter?  :)  Suffice to say, learning to eat was something she had to relearn – because of not using the muscles, they had atrophied and the reflex was gone for awhile.  (At this point, her tube for feeding had been moved to her nose.)  She was in the process of being weaned off several drugs, and was becoming increasingly alert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She was able to move out of the ‘intensive care’ section of the NICU to the ‘intermediate care’ section of the NICU – basically, she was doing much better, and just needed to be weaned off the meds and learn to eat before she could leave.  This still took awhile, but it was a much different experience than our first couple of weeks in the NICU!  I went up every day, and was able to sit with her and feed her (or try, at least!) and have a relatively normal newborn in many respects.

 

She was on monitors at all times, and was surrounded by blankets, stuffed animals, and things from home.  She lost all the hair she was born with, and the hair that grew back in was thick and blonde – it looked almost like a little buzz cut!  She was put on phenobarbitol, which is actually a seizure medication, but also has been found to help the liver get things through a little better – she was pretty jaundiced from all the meds going through her system and her liver taking time to get it all processed and stuff.  Phenobarb. was actually the only medication she was on when she came home.  On Wednesday, June 3, I stayed home with the boys while The Man went up to spend the day with Pink.  While he was there, the doctors lowered the amount per feeding she should be taking in, and she began eating like a champ (well, a slow, messy champ, but she was eating what they wanted).  On Sunday, June 7, she was finally discharged!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She went in and had her levels checked a couple of times, and was able to come off the phenobarb. on June 26.  She took a little while to eat at the speed that most babies do, but within a couple of weeks she was adjusting to normal life.  She began sleeping through the night at 9 weeks, and she then proceeded to be completely normal!  She has not shown any delays in any way.  :)

On Pink’s first birthday, we held a blood drive in her honor, since she received so much blood after being born (and I received some, too!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, we had a birthday party, too.

 

 

 

And below are some pictures from when she turned 2…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now she’s 3!  And a very happy birthday it was, for our little miracle girl.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Hair!

Well, a new hair CUT, anyway.  ;)  And color.

This morning I went from this:

to this (which is kind of hard to see because of the lighting…):

Oh, and go easy on me.  I’m not wearing makeup in the last two.  :P

 

Wordless Wednesday 3/21/12 – my weekly treat

What’s the deal with those mommy wars?

You know the ones.

The ones that I’ve witnessed time and time again online.  Mommy wars do tend to sometimes happen in real, personal interactions (read: with live people that you know off-screen), but not to the extent that they do in cyberspace, amongst people who don’t know each other at all!

I know we’ve all heard that interactions online, or through text messages, even, tend to be a lot less ‘polite’ than those that we have in real life.  Which is understandable – with texts, it’s bothersome to have to type everything out longhand.  On facebook, it’s easier to just type it and it’s done.  (I don’t do twitter, so I can’t attest to that whole monster )  And I think that’s the case with those mommy wars, too.  Everyone is convinced their opinion is right.  And they’re talking to a bunch of people they don’t know, and they get themselves all worked up over things that, honestly, don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.  They worry about opinions of people who have absolutely nothing to do with them or their lives.

How funny.

I think the mommy wars, in particular, can get heated, because no mom wants to hear that their way is the wrong way.  I think mommy wars have the potential to be more heated than any political or religious debate.  Every mom has made the decisions she has made to raise her family (she and her husband) for a reason – and to raise children is the single most important ‘job’ that any of us could ever have.  We’re talking about the future of people here.  So for a mom’s decisions to be called into question, well, it’s understandable why things get so crazy, especially when said mom hasn’t figured out how to let such things roll off her back yet.  :)

There are a few things that I’ve noticed get moms going faster than others.

There’s the feeding argument.  There are die hard fanatics in both directions.  There are people who think nursing is disgusting, and people who think bottle feeding is borderline abusive.  I’ve seen people say that bottle feeding is the 4th best way to feed baby – why choose the 4th, instead of 1st, 2nd, 3rd??  (An opinion which was not shared by many, and is a little like, huh? for me.)  I remember hearing arguments when I was a newlywed (this actually made it onto the local radio station) that nursing was abuse.  o.O  Some people have really….strange opinions.  Overall, I think there are two equally valid and healthy options for feeding a baby.  I don’t know why people get so up in arms over this topic.  ??  This has always been a mystery to me.  (I have always been a little confused, however, with some of the things surrounding it… like, how do they really KNOW that Child A, who was nursed, has an IQ that is 5 points higher than Child B, who was bottle fed, JUST because Child A was nursed?  I don’t really see how that could be figured out to that extent…there are just so many factors to account for in something like that.  After all, they can’t prove that Child A’s IQ would have been 5 points lower had he been bottle fed, nor can they prove that Child B’s IQ would have been 5 points higher had he been nursed.  I’m just saying… I don’t see how it’s possible to measure that.)  But that has nothing to do with the validity of feeding choices – both are equally valid and chosen by the family, and are therefore the best thing for that family. Period.  :)

Another thing that doesn’t get quite as much press is the ‘birthing’ war.  There are some who are VERY all natural – midwives, home births, etc – and those who are all about the hospital.  The majority of the populace (at least here in the US) seem to be somewhere in the middle.  There are a few, however, who oppose doctors and despise hospitals as horrible places.  There are arguments about what to do with cord blood, whether or not to put those drops in the baby’s eyes, whether to keep the baby in the room at night, pain meds or no pain meds, etc, etc, etc… (I won’t even mention the great circ debate! …and later, the vax debate…)  There are people who dislike medical interventions.  There are people who are convinced that because they did X, they had a perfectly healthy baby.  I’ve read articles from people who say that they are convinced that their premature (36 wk) baby was only healthy because she did whatever she did…when, actually, there are a good many healthy babies born to women who didn’t do what she did.  This particular argument can be especially offensive to those who have birthed babies who were not so healthy.  For example, if I was not confident in the facts (and in my own prenatal care) or if I was someone who was prone to blame myself (which I’m not), and I read something that said, ” My baby was early and should have been born unable to breathe, but I KNOW that the only reason she could was because I did XYZ.  The doctors were amazed, but I knew that I did what was right and saved her life!”  then I could take that personally.  Well, I didn’t do XYZ.  It’s my fault my baby couldn’t breathe.  Know what I’m saying?  (NO, I personally do not believe things that say that.  I actually roll my eyes when I see anything attributing their baby’s health to themselves! )

I’ve also seen a lot of angst amongst moms who had c-sections, who think they missed out on the great birthing process.  I’ve never seen anything so mind-boggling.  The end result is the same – there is no difference, to me, how they got here.  They’re here.  You have your baby!  :)  Be happy!  Don’t bemoan missing out on some great thing… it’s just giving birth.  You still gave birth – just differently than you expected (sometimes.  I always figured I’d have c-sections.)  And sometimes there are friends and family who say things, too, that don’t help matters much.  I personally have heard that we ‘missed out’ because I had 3 c-sections.  *shaking my head, rolling my eyes* – Let me tell you, the experience is still the same in my book.  We had 3 babies.  We certainly don’t feel like we ever missed out on anything.  :)  So don’t feel sorry for us – we certainly don’t!  :D

There are so many different levels to the mommy wars… homeschooling is another thing that we see a lot of.  This is one thing that I haven’t actually seen much of in real life at all, nearly as much as the feeding and birthing (I do tend to hear that – not often – but occasionally in real life).  But that could be a regional thing, as homeschooling is relatively popular around here.  I haven’t had many people look at me like I was crazy… well, maybe crazy, but not in a bad way.  lol

So why did I say all of this?  I’m really not sure.  But just know that you can find opinions – strong ones – on nearly every point you can imagine.  Mommy wars things, or couples/relationship things (don’t even get me started on date night!  lol) , or politics, or religion… Anything!  There are plenty of resources online to find a very heated, opinionated post on anything you can possibly imagine.  Don’t let the opinions of someone who isn’t real in your life (they may be real, but not real in your life, if you get my meaning) make you question your decisions…ever.  Stay out of the debate, stay away from it.  Stick to your guns, and smile and nod (or pass the bean dip?) to those who want to argue.  If you find that you read something with an opposing opinion – and find yourself getting worked up – stop reading those things.  As humans we question ourselves plenty.  We don’t need to add the questioning of others to our arsenal of whether or not we are actually doing things right.  :)

Peace and Love.  :)

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: I did NOT write this regarding ANYTHING specific or in particular.  This is merely an observation of happenings on the world wide web over the short course of my being a mom.  (that would be 8 1/2 years, if you count pregnancy)  And how incredibly heated and yes, sometimes mean, people can get over the internet.

Weekly Update 3/17/12

Yeah, I’m a day late.  Oh well.  Thursday and Friday were our ‘weekend’ this week, so no one can blame me, right?  :D

So this week was Spring Break for us.  Yay!  :)  We now officially have only 10 weeks of school left!  I’ve got stacks of new curriculum that I’ve been going through, and I’m making rough outlines of next year’s schedule.  The weather here is Uh-Mazing right now – it’s been in the 80s all week and is a nice 70 today – the upcoming week is set to be in the 70s.

I mean really, how awesome is that?  :)

So this week we took Monday-Wednesday and chilled.  Did pretty much nothing.  A little cleaning around the house here and there.  A lot of playing outside.  Link had his second swimming lesson Sunday, and Astro had his first soccer practice of the season on Wednesday.

Thursday we went to DC to the National Museum of Natural History.  We rode the VRE (commuter train) in, bright and early.  It was the kids’ first ride on a train of any sort.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got into DC around 8:30/9am, before the museum opened.  We walked around a little, and spent some time hanging out in the National Mall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time 9:45 rolled around, we had seen a few buses drop kids off for field trips.  Judging by the people who were heading toward the museum, we decided to head on up and join the queue waiting at the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After being greeted by the elephant displayed in the rotunda, we went to the mammal hall first.  Astro was like, ‘These are all… dead…’ lol

 

 

 

There was a room with some photography and some super closeup pictures of different objects right off the mammal hall, which were neat.  We saw a close up of shark skin from a nurse shark, as well as a couple of plants and minerals.  (Obviously, the shark one was the one that stuck out the most lol!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After going through all the mammals, we headed through the ‘Human Origins’ section (which, as YE Creationists, was not our cup of tea.  We just kind of walked straight through it to get to our destination, and didn’t stop to look at anything.) to get to the Oceans hall.  I think I remember the big right whale from when I came as a kid!  The Oceans section is also home to its own little coral reef, which delighted Astro, who is much more interested in live animals than dead ones…well, with the exception of the ones found in another area of the museum, but we’ll get to that later.  ;)

At this point, it was lunch time, and we had forgotten to get some cash before leaving home (which ruled out the street vendors…oops!) so we went down to eat in the Atrium Cafe.  We all got pizza and a soda.  On a random note, apparently lids and straws are not allowed on the National Mall, and they didn’t have lids or straws available in the museum, either.  I’m not sure why, but I found it interesting.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next section we hit was the fossils.  This was a big hit, because it’s home to….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…the aforementioned dead animals that Astro IS interested in!  :)  Not to mention the fact that Link has been asking to go to a museum with dinosaur bones for…oh…2 years or more??  They were thrilled!  Link is a huge dinosaur aficionado, and usually didn’t even have to look to see what type the skeletons were…he was just naming them off as we walked by.  ;)

We also went through the oceans portion of the ‘prehistoric’ skeletons.  And Link in particular was fascinated by the Fossil Lab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After going through the fossils from the Ice Age and such, we went to the Discovery Room, which was quite cool.  There are various things for the kids to pick up/handle/look at close up.  Astro and Pink went more for the things that you can actually handle (like skulls!  Which I find incredibly awesome for some strange reason. ) and Link inspected a lot with a magnifying glass…dead birds, dead bugs, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as they were exploring (or ‘discovering’), this is what I had looking at me:

 

 

 

Our new friend, the alligator head.  He’s quite trustworthy.  ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went upstairs through the Korea exhibit (which was interesting) and the room with all sorts of pictures of different galaxies and such.  It was REALLY neat…the pictures are pretty, too!  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pink was nearing the end of her patience, so we took a trip through the Bones hall and saw ALL sorts of skeletons.  The boys were fans of the snakes.

 

They were also happy to see the mummies.

 

 

 

 

 

We took a brief walk through the ‘Written in Bone’ section, and saw this poor guy…

 

 

Then I stopped taking pictures for our last walk through the section on the earth, volcanoes, meteorites, etc, because I was carrying Pink and she fell asleep.  :P

 

 

 

Here are Astro and Pink (and The Man) on the train back – the VRE trains have 2 levels of seating, and we sat on top this time.  Astro said this was his favorite part of the day, but that he liked the museum, too… except for ‘his legs’, as he said.  (Apparently they were getting tired!  ;) )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link said he liked all of it – but if he had to choose, I think it would be the dinosaurs that would be his favorite.  He’s all about this sort of thing – he read a lot of the stuff next to the different exhibits and he read the name of EVERY skeleton in the entire museum!  :)  Overall, it was a good day – field trip #2 was a success, despite being awake for 20 hours!  :)

And that was our week… well, wait, one more thing.  Yesterday (Friday), Kida got a much-needed hair cut, and went from this (at Christmas, so her hair had grown since this picture):

To this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m a big fan.  She had a haircut once in the past that made her look like a poodle (blech!) – I’d much rather her look like the lab part of her ancestry.  ;)

So THAT sums up our week.  Happy weekend!

Weekly Update (ish) 3/2/12

So this week has been MUCH more productive than the last couple!  The stomach bug made its way through our house and took us out for a week of school and then some!  I was so glad to get back on track.  

In Math:

Link has gotten through lesson 100 of Saxon 2.  

Astro has gotten through lesson 98.  :)  

Pink walks around asking, ‘Where’s my math?  Where’s my MATH?!’  I have no idea what she’s actually asking for here…  lol

In Grammar:

Link is nearly halfway through FLL 2.  

Astro is 3/4 through FLL 1.

In Spelling:

Both boys took spelling tests today – Link on lesson 9 of SW C, and Astro on lesson 10 of SW A.  

In Handwriting:

Link has some GREAT looking cursive!  

Astro is doing much better.  :)  Sometimes he wants to rush through, but with a reminder he concentrates and does really well!

In OPG:

Astro has now learned the different letter combinations for the oo vowel sound (food, new, etc).  We did a review today of the different sounds we have learned, and his fluency is picking up.  :)  I told him he has books in his room he can read now, and he looked disbelieving.  :D  haha.  He and Link asked me on Wednesday night if there are libraries in heaven.  I don’t see why not!  :)  lol

In History:

We have started learning about Ancient Rome.  We just read about the gladiators today, which (not surprisingly) fascinated the boys.  :)  Link said he doesn’t like that they had to kill each other.

In Music:

We’ve started covering different instruments and instrument families.  We discussed stringed instruments this week.

In Bible:

We are learning about Jesus’ disciples – so far, Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, and Nathanael.

In Science:

We covered how we see and how we hear this week.  The boys really enjoy learning about the human body.  :)

That pretty much covers it!  Our weather here has been amazing.  We have had a few chilly days off and on, but yesterday it was beautiful outside, and I took the camera out and let the boys take some pictures.  It proved to be quite interesting.  Here are a few:

I took these of Pinkalicious as she was ‘fwinging’:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I gave Link the camera.  He got quite an array of shots – several self portraits (including one of him looking mad and one of him going down the slide), a pretty good picture of AstroBoy, and some trees…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was Astro’s turn.  He took a lot of pictures of his feet.  And the house.  And me (but I wasn’t wearing makeup – they weren’t bad pictures, but I’m not putting them on here haha).  And in the end, they started staging pictures looking like Link was waging an epic battle of some sort…Oh, and the red one?  That’s his hand… he thought it was super cool…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently, that’s Link’s battle face.

Have a great weekend!  :)

 

 

 

 

 

Week ? …I’m behind! Grace Based Parenting – review

Ok, so I’m WAAAAAYYY behind on 52 books in 52 weeks.  I still think I can potentially catch up (or I may be dreaming on that one?  :) ) …but anyway…

So I just finished Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel.  I can sum up my review here in very few words:

I

did

NOT

like

it.

Yeah…so some people really like this book.  But, let’s face it, I’m a hard sell on the majority of ‘parenting’ books out there.  I really felt like this guy, while some of his ‘advice’ toward the end of the book may have been sound (if not a little obvious), was kind of, oh, um, gee, a jerk in the way he writes?  (hiding now…)  The first part of the book is so laced with outright brashness and condescension toward anyone who would disagree with him, it is a major factor in me not liking the book.  Not to mention that he seems to think that Christian parents who do things like homeschool (though he never said it outright) do it out of fear.  He claims that a lot of Christian parents base everything off of fear – in the book, he comes off as quite judgmental, actually.  These may be completely inaccurate conclusions I am drawing about him, but it is the way I read it all in the book.

So I didn’t like the first half of the book, where he talks down to everyone and accuses parents of being scared and hiding their children from the world.  Because, I have not, in fact, met very many parents who are actually like that.  I can actually count the number on one hand, of parents I know who I feel are driven by fear.

The rest was hit or miss.  The advice wasn’t bad, but much of it was common sense.  He still came off as very full of himself, with how his parenting has exemplified what we should go for in ‘Grace Based Parenting’.

Overall, I just really didn’t like the book.  I didn’t like the author’s tone throughout, and this one is going on the high shelf (books I never read).  I’m sure some like it and are able to glean some interesting things from it, but his attitude was too much of a setback for me.

Wordless Wednesday 2/29/12 – Randomness

First, Link’s first solo snowman:

Pink got a new quilt for her bed:

And…next year’s curriculum came in:  :D

Weekly Update (well…at this rate, it hasn’t been weekly!) 2/17/12

First off, can we say a huge WOOHOOO that I started buying curriculum for the 2012-2013 school year today?!  :D

This has me all kinds of excited!  ;)

I haven’t posted a weekly update since I posted my end of the semester update – 6 weeks ago!  o.O  We’ve been chugging along quite well with school since then, until this week when the stomach virus invaded.  :)  We had school Monday, and then I was hit with it early Tuesday morning and can I just say I would NEVER wish this on ANYONE!  It was terrible!  I’m still not 100% back from it.  This morning Link woke up with a milder version (thank goodness!  Hoping that Pink’s low fever last week was the same thing in a waaayy milder version – 2 year olds with stomach viruses are SO.NOT.FUN!)  Really hoping that once he gets over it, we’ll be in the clear here.  I’m planning on trying to get some school done tomorrow and possibly even Sunday, since we won’t be going to church based on how long this thing has been in my system.

Now, what’s been going on in our lives?  Let’s see…

Link turned 8 the beginning of February!  (And now I’m wishing for a much larger range of emoticons, so I could insert a ‘passing out’ one here!  Can’t believe how fast time flies!)  Here are some pics from his birthday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He likes Zelda (obviously – his nickname on here – his choosing – is Link!) so I did the triforce on his cake out of powdered sugar – as you can see, some of it settled into the chocolate chip icing (homemade) by the time the night was done and we ate it, but it still tasted excellent.  :)

Now, what else about Link… he’s progressing well in math and grammar.  He’s doing some EXCELLENT cursive handwriting!  I’ll take some pictures of it next week and post it.  It looks wonderful!  He has always had good handwriting – not surprising from my melancholy (personality) child.  :)  He memorized the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) and is currently working on a longer poem.  We’ve slowed down a little in spelling compared to first semester – he’s a great speller, but we’ve moved up a level in spelling and while he isn’t having any trouble with it, it isn’t so much review anymore, so I figured we’d slow down to make sure everything sinks in.  :)

He signed up for swimming lessons for his extracurricular for spring.  :)  He had originally said (last fall) that he wanted to go back to soccer this spring, but sometime between then and last week he changed his mind.  He loves to swim, so we signed him up for a couple of months of lessons at our local Y.  He starts the first week of March.

We’ve started studying the human body in science, and both the boys are LOVING it!  They’ve been very interactive and involved in the lessons thus far, even when we are just looking through the Human Body Encyclopedia and doing whatever we are for that day – skin, bones, muscles, etc.  We also built this guy a couple of weeks ago:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Astro has started spelling and is beginning to sound out his words beyond beginning and ending sounds. (It always starts with, say ‘bed’.  He would spell it ‘bd’ because the vowel sounds in the middle of words are what they associate last.  Now he’s moved on to sounding the word out himself during spelling tests and such, and is doing great!)  He’s doing well at math and grammar, and he also memorized the Lord’s prayer.  His current memorization work is another short poem.  His handwriting is improving consistently, and he’s become more familiar with the math facts as we cover them.  :)

Astro decided to sign up for soccer again this spring.  :)  He’ll move up into another age bracket, which I hope won’t deter him.  He’ll go from being one of the ‘bigger kids’ to one of the younger/littler ones.  He showed such a heart for soccer this past season (which was such a switch from just a couple of years ago!) and I hope that just the switch in age groups won’t discourage him at all.  He should start sometime in March, also.

Pink has been up to her usual cuteness.  :)  She twirls and sings and dances all the time.  She also wears her boots that Grandpa & Grandma got her for Christmas every day.  Around the house.  With no socks!  :P  But that’s ok.  :)  She currently loves the Backyardigans and has been watching episodes on Netflix – she walks around singing the song over and over and over…

The Man is currently taking an EMT class.  He’s doing well at it, he’s good about keeping his head in situations.  Of course, I find his textbook incredibly interesting.  :)  I even think it is exciting he takes tests.  He thinks I’m crazy.  :D

I have decided to make a commitment to get to Zumba once a week (and, go figure, was sick this week – only the second time I would’ve been going!  Oh well, next week…) and try to get in exercise at least 2-3 other days a week.  I realized last week that I just felt so good after Zumba that I didn’t want to ruin that feeling by eating much in the way of junk food and stuff, so that helped a lot!  This week I was down a couple of pounds, but that doesn’t matter to me much for two reasons: 1. I’m not so much on losing weight.  I’m on being healthy.  I want to be around a long time.  :)  and 2. I was sick.  So…yeah.

Well, that pretty much covers our oh-so-exciting life here the last month or so!  :)  We’ve been chugging along at school and I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve made!  I have determined that next year I need to find some more ‘pre-k’ like structure for Pink, she’s getting a little bored now, always wanting to do stuff that the boys are doing.  :)  I’m finding stuff for her, but have seen a lot that I want to do for next year.

Happy Friday!

Wordless Wednesday 2/15/12