update

Caleb is feeling better. He spent the weekend lethargic, no appetite and a constant headache but he seems to be coming out of it. Thanks for the comments and well-wishes! Today he is doing school and smiling. I am going to bake some chocolate GF muffins for him today as a "consolation prize" for going back to wheat-free eating without complaining a bit. He even said (in the throes of his worst symptoms) "It wasn't worth it, Mom!"

The weather here is crazy! All my plans to garden this weekend (not that I had the time or energy for it you see, but my brain was convinced we would get potatoes, garlic and onion sets in the ground, somehow) were for naught. Freezing temps and even snow!?
Oh Oregon spring, you are a fickle character...

Sweet Claudia made lunch for all of us yesterday and it was so nice to go over to their cozy home after church. To share the afternoon with them, and enjoy a delicious meal I did not prepare! We are STILL grateful and amazed that they are here with us. I think 4 plus years apart has guaranteed we won't ever take each other for granted, again. We ride to church together on Sundays. John and his Dad have lunch every week. Claudia and I try and get away every 2 weeks or so to go Junkin' and they play Wii with the grandsons every Tuesday night while I go walking with friends and John goes to Mens Bible study.
It's such a blessing to finally have them here, I can't gush enough.

Cousin Tommy gave us a call after church-he was stranded at a bus station and needed a ride, a meal, a warm place to sleep for the night. "Of course we're able!" One of the things I like best about having Tom stay with us is the opportunity to cook for someone who is always hungry and so appreciative! Tommy adores kids and he sure loved holding the baby. Though I had to warn him a few times that she was State property and he was not allowed to even consider tossing her in the air. That seems to be a male trait on my side of the family-My Dad, My Grandpa, Uncle Deacon, Brian, Tommy--? They all like to toss babies up (if alone) and back and forth (as partners) to get that scream of mixed terror/delight from the child. There was more terror than delight in my memory!! They will do this until the child is too heavy to lift...if I had figured that out early enough? I would have started binge eating as a toddler, to stop the madness. I clearly remember being snatched up by Dad and tossed back and forth between he and Uncle Deacon as they laughed "You take her!" No, You take her!" "I don't want her! Neither do I!" and the challenge was to flip me in such a way that my body did a twist in the middle, so you never knew when you'd be face-to-face with your captor. The more you kicked and screamed and scratched? The funnier it was to them!
Isn't it strange how as an adult you can look back at something like this and clearly remember feeling terrified but yet you feel nostalgic, too? To feel warm and fuzzy about such torment is crazy-I must love my Dad and Uncle Deacon more unconditionally than normal...Or perhaps I have simply grown nostalgic for a time in my life when I was petite enough to be tossed in the air?


I gave the boys each a haircut this weekend. I wish all the boys were as easily pleased as Sam, who just wants a military style crewcut that he won't have to comb. Josiah likes his shaggy and is slightly pouty that we can now see his eyes. I keep telling him they are his best feature! Lately I am seeing more and more of John's sister, his Aunt Sherri, in his expressions. He has always taken after her a bit but as he gets older it's more obvious, and especially in his eyes. Sometimes it's a shock of recognition when he looks at me and I see her!
(Do you see it, Sherri?!)

Just a warning f you don't get a phone call returned, or an email answered or if this is the last blog post until mid-May....because I am tired. wiped out. exhausted. Sweet baby girl is up everyday by 4:30 AM. She's a good baby though and I am grateful she isn't a "screamer", for with a bottle and some rocking she can lay usually back down for another 2 hours. However last night, for some reason (teething, I suspect) she was up and crying hard at 1 AM, at 3:15 AM, at 5:20 AM, finally at 6:30 I just stayed up with her...4 cups of warm coffee in me, a warm bottle in her and we are both feeling a little better, but still cranky. The last time I did this baby stuff I was about 10 years younger and apparently, I was Superwoman then because I don't recall being this tired?! After a week of trying to get back in the first-year-of-life saddle, I expected to get used to it more quickly, yet I can't seem to get a grip and keep getting bucked off.
But oh! the soft that is mixed in there with the hard. Watching the sun come up with a finally-asleep baby in your arms, that you don't dare stop rocking. The feeling at 4 AM, when a grateful baby looks up at you with a toothless grin and all weariness is instantly forgotten.
That part of infant care, I remember clearly.
I get you, Octomom. Even if I don't agree with your choices? I do get the why part...