Health Quiz

What ailment is the child below suffering from?


A. Chicken pox
B. An unusual form of leprosy
C. The worst mosquito bites you've ever seen.


The answer is C. These pictures don't even do justice to how awful Nolan looks. The mosquitoes have been bad the past week, but his brothers haven't swelled up the way Nolan has. He isn't sleeping well and isn't a happy camper (and I don't blame him). Benadryl helped him sleep a little last night, but he was still up twice.

I am very grateful this happened after the 12-month portraits were taken!

Then and Now

April 2007. TJ, age 3 1/2, Sam age 9 months:


May 2009. Sam, age 2 1/2, Nolan age 13 months:
The shirts say "Chugga Chugga" and "Choo Choo". For some reason, whoever is wearing the "Choo Choo" shirt insists on crying when I take the picture.

I can't believe how quickly the boys grow and change. I also didn't notice how much the shirts had faded. The red one now has a small hole in it as well. Oh, well!

It's always something!

Last night was an annual event. We went to Bill's Dad's home in Grand Haven and got the Saab out of storage. Bill's Saab is our one really frivolous possession. It's a 1991 Saab 900 convertible. For some reason, it has always been Bill's dream car. In 2001, he found this car for sale and convinced me we needed it. The original owner took pretty good care of it, so we haven't had to put much money into it. It isn't terribly expensive to own...we only plate it and insure it for the summer months. It gets an annual oil change, and we go through 2 or 3 tanks of gas a year (we don't all fit in the car, so it isn't used much these days!). We think it might need some brake work this summer, but that's do-able.

The boys sat in the driveway at Papa's house and posed for a few pictures with us:


TJ loves the Saab, and has always referred to it as the 'fun car'. We allow him to sit in the front with Bill, as we feel it is the safest place for him. There's no passenger-side air bag, he is still in his booster seat, and in the event of an accident, I'd rather have him up front than in the back.

TJ wanted to ride home with Bill (top-down of course), so Bill said we'd take Leonard home instead of the highway. It was a beautiful evening. TJ kept turning around and waving at me as I followed behind with Sam and Nolan in the van (Sam has zero interest in the Saab, and loudly announced he was NOT riding home in it). I had been watching for deer, as we were headed home right around dusk. Less than a mile from home, a deer ran out of the woods, headed straight for the Saab. I pictured it slamming into the side of the car and hurting TJ. Thankfully, it hesitated and avoided the Saab, but then ran right out in front of me. I had started braking as soon as I saw the deer, but I was still unable to stop. Both Bill and TJ heard the loud thud as it slammed into the front left part of my van (Sam's comment? "Mama, your purse just fell off the seat"). Thankfully, my air bag did not deploy and the van was still drivable. We got home and surveyed the damage. It doesn't look terrible, but the front left quarter panel is pressing against the driver's door, and it makes a horrendous noise when you open it. We won't be driving it until it is repaired. At least we now have an extra car to help us get around! The bad thing is I can't get 3 car seats in the Lancer, and we also don't all fit in the Saab. I hope we can get the van fixed quickly!

Say what?

Sam makes us laugh all the time. TJ has a pretty good command of the English language, and doesn't make as many errors as Sam does, but every once in awhile, TJ says something that just cracks us up.

TJ was playing outside the other night without shoes on. Why? Because he was copying the neighbor boy. TJ came to me last night at bedtime and said his foot hurt. In the sole of his foot, he had two angry looking slivers and a mysterious white spot, filled with pus. I touched it gently and he got very upset because it was really, really sore. I knew he'd be furious, but I decided to open and drain it. I guess I should apologize to the neighbors. I'm sure they heard the screaming and figured I was amputating his fingers, one by one. I did manage to drain it, and I got at least part of the slivers out. I then put antibiotic ointment on his wounds, bandaged him up, and put him in bed.

This morning, I asked him how his foot was, so he let me examine his injuries. I thought they looked better, so I asked if they felt better too. He replied, "Well, they are still a little bit tonky." Bill was in the next room and just lost it. No one, not even TJ, seems to know what tonky means.

Shortly before dinnertime tonight, I informed Bill that I was not cooking. Dinnertime has been very hectic all week, and I just had no desire to cook. Bill decided we needed to go to Applebees. We dropped Nolan off at Grandma's and took the other two boys along with us. I think this is only the second time this year we've taken them out to eat. They were both fairly well behaved. TJ was amazed when we arrived at Applebees. "I know where we are! Look, there's Meijer!" I guess he never realized Applebees was a restaurant! Once we were seated, I read through the kids' menu and helped the boys decide what they wanted. Sam wanted a hot dog (primarily because he can drown it in ketchup) and TJ proudly ordered a 'meatburger with cheese'. The waitress was thoroughly amused by him. Every time she stopped by the table to see how we were doing, he would enthrall her with stories about construction at his school, going camping this summer, whatever was on his mind. She listened very patiently, and never cut him off. I was impressed, as was Bill. We left her a nice tip. I told the boys that we would take them out more often if they always behaved that nicely. The biggest incident was when Sam accidentally knocked his pop off of the table. Thankfully, it had a lid on it.

A couple things to remember:
**Nolan officially crawled today. He's been doing a bizarre combat crawl, using only his hands and his feet, often rolling to one side, but today he got up on all fours and briefly crawled. He'll be 14 months old in less than a week and a half. I suppose it's time to look for the baby gate.

**Bill is very patient, even when I'm dumb. I bought two chairs for our front porch tonight. I got them on a great sale at Target. Only when I got out to the car did I realize that the chairs were not going to fit in Bill's car, which is what I had driven. After trying for 10 minutes to try and make them fit, I called my mom (I didn't want to call Bill. It was after 9 p.m., and the kids were in bed). She went and watched the kids while Bill drove 15 miles to rescue me and my chairs. By the time he got there, it was 10 p.m. Target was closed, and the parking lot was empty, except for me, the car, and my two chairs. I was sitting in the car, listening to some talk radio. I completely cleaned his car for him while I waited. He didn't yell at me. He just said, "You really thought you were going to fit those chairs in that car?" Then he drove the chairs home in the van, put them out on the front porch, and tried one out. He says they are nice. Whew!

Where Sam gets it

Sam is a very unusual child, but he comes by it honestly. Just to be clear, it does NOT come from me!

Bill planted more grass this spring. I should now have grass completely lining the driveway. I can also see my mailbox (last year, it was surrounded by three-foot-tall weeds). The boys (along with several neighbor kids) discovered earlier this year that we had really nice sand lining the driveway. Bill didn't want to plant grass in sand. So what did he do? He didn't buy dirt. No, instead, he found an area west of the driveway where there was nicer dirt. He dug it out, moved it to the area along the driveway, then moved all the sand to the hole he had dug. And as of Saturday afternoon, grass has now been planted. The kids have permission to play in the newly invented 'sand box', but must stay out of the new grass. It was a rather tedious project, and I'm sure more than one neighbor was scratching their heads. But it meant Bill didn't need to buy much dirt, and now it means we are cool. How many other neighbors have a front yard sand box??

Here's a couple pictures of Bill moving dirt from the hole over to the area where he wants grass. Sam is his assistant. He has a trowel in his hands, and is also moving dirt, a very tiny amount at a time. I was in the kitchen, so the pictures are a bit far away, but I just had to capture the moment!

This is the 'sand box':

This is where Bill just planted grass:

Here's Sam with his trowel-full of dirt:

Sam-isms

Sam has a bad cold. He informed me this morning, "I have a sick."

He likes to count the basement steps when he goes up and down them. According to him, we have 20 steps to the basement. I told Bill we must have 14-foot ceilings downstairs. I think there are actually 13 steps, but Sam counts too fast (and usually skips 14, 15, and 16).

Sam wanted my attention yesterday, but I was in the middle of a conversation with Bill. Sam said (in a rather bossy voice), "Beth! Beth! Beth!" I looked down at him in surprise. He smiled and said, "I mean, Mom! Mom! Mom!"

Sam has been following Bill around the yard while he plants more grass and works on installing more underground sprinkling. On Saturday, he finished burying some hose and said to Sam, "Does it look nice?" Sam replied, "Yes. It's adorable."

Last night, Sam was coughing really hard after 11:30. I hauled out the prescription cough medicine (it's liquid gold), plugged in the Sudacare vapor plug (very nifty invention), and tried to comfort him. He wanted to know if he could get up yet. I told him it was very, very late, so then he asked me to sleep in bed with him. I took pity on him, because I knew he was miserable. I laid down next to him, and he says in a disgusted tone, "You forgot to turn on the music."

Sheesh. How does he put up with me?

Rusk Buns

Have any of you ever had a rusk bun? These are the absolute best buns ever. No hamburger bun can possibly compete.

I had never had one until I met Bill. His dad and Cindy buy them at Leppink's, a small grocery store just north of Ferrysburg (not exactly close and convenient!). I guess they are hard to come by. Leppink's only has them available a few days a week, so you have to hurry in and grab them while they are there.

Steve and Cindy know how much I like rusk buns, so they will occasionally snap up a package just for me. I love this, and I'm always sad when the package runs out. What I need to do is stalk Leppink's on a rusk bun day, and then buy 7 or 8 packages and freeze them. That should last me awhile.


Here's Nolan holding what's left of my rusk buns. Actually, Bill and I ate two of those (sorry, children, you aren't discerning enough to care whether you have a rusk bun or not, so you are stuck with Meijer brand!), so I am down to my final rusk bun. If Bill thinks I'm going to let him eat it, he's going to have to fight me for it!

Nolan and The Cat

As you know, The Cat has adopted us. She must really love us or be really lonely, because she even tolerates the boys carrying her around the yard. She seems to prefer Nolan, probably because he can't go after her yet.

Last night, Nolan was sitting in the back of the double stroller, watching Bill do yard work. Watch the progression of this:
Yes, Nolan is crying in the last picture...it was bedtime!

No consistency!

Why is it as soon as I brag about something, one of my children messes it up?? I am speaking of Nolan. I tell all of you he's sleeping through the night, and he's now gotten up every night for the past week. I was feeling so good, and now I have that fog on my brain again.

I have discovered if I give him a very small bottle (2.5 oz), he will go right back to sleep. Part of me wonders if he is simply waking up because he wants a bottle (meaning I am creating a monster), or if a little bit of milk helps him go back to sleep. Yes, part of me wonders that, the other part of me doesn't care.

For supper last night, he had part of a homemade waffle, about 1/3 of a breakfast sausage and some stage 2 fruit. I was afraid the sausage would upset his tummy, but he was fine! I am so excited about how well he is transitioning to big people food! After dealing with Sam, I will NEVER take that for granted!

Bill and his landscaping assistants (TJ and Sam) have been busy installing another sprinkler zone and putting in a bit more lawn. The weeds out there are freaking scary, so I'm thrilled to see more grass (well, right now it's dirt) and less weeds. Along the front of our porch looks awful right now with knee-high weeds. But we're putting in a retaining wall next month, so all of that will be ripped out. I'll have to post some pics soon of the boys out working in the yard.

A few tidbits

It's too bad I can't carry this computer everywhere. I frequently will think of something I should blog about, but then when I sit down at the computer, can't recall what that was!

I do have some updates on the boys:

TJ: Is down to his last month of Fabulous Fives. Where has this year gone? I still can't believe how much he's grown and changed. He's quite responsible and often very helpful. Bill and I are going to set up a chore chart for him this summer, which will allow him to earn privileges and a little bit of cash. It's time for him to learn about spending, saving, and tithing.

TJ can be a sentimental kid. Bill and I spent the weekend in Madison, WI, visiting my dear friend, Elisabeth Gaikema Platt and her husband. The boys spent most of the weekend with my mom. When I went to pick them up Sunday night, TJ came right up to me and said, "Did you miss me, Mom? Because I really missed you." Awww....

Earlier today, I asked the boys if they would like Daddy to make hot dogs on the grill tonight (TJ likes his whole and plain, Sam likes his sliced up, placed on a hot dog bun, and then drowned in ketchup). Both boys got really excited about this. Sam said, "Yeah! Hot dogs!" TJ said, "Oh, yes! I will have to write this down in my memory book." I do not have the faintest clue what he is talking about.

TJ received a small dog from his failed trip to see my dentist (but we've had success since moving him to a pediatric dentist). The dog, Cooper, was a Happy Meal toy that wound up being a prize at the dentist's. TJ absolutely loves this dog. The dog has 2 empty Kleenex boxes that TJ has converted into doghouses for him. TJ is also trying hard to spell 'Cooper'. He sounded it out the other day and wrote it down..."KWPR". I thought that was a pretty good start.

SAM: Sam is still petrified of potty training and is also very much afraid of bath time. I do not know why. Nothing bad has happened to him, but he seems to be very afraid to take control of his bladder and he is terrified of having an accident in the tub. So for now, we are not even mentioning potty training to him. We also put him in a bathing suit or a diaper cover for bath time (I do remove it to wash him, but then it goes right back on). It does seem to be helping somewhat. He stays dry all night at least once a week, so I know he is fully capable of being potty trained, but I guess he isn't ready emotionally.

Sam is my ketchup king. He'll eat almost anything if you give him ketchup. Last night, I made a lemon chicken that you serve with snow peas over chicken ramen noodles. Sam picked at it for awhile, then asked for ketchup. I thought about arguing with him, but then decided it was more important that he finish his dinner. And he did! He just wanted some ketchup on his noodles and chicken (blech). I have started buying organic or natural ketchup for him. Dummy that I am, I never read the label and didn't realize regular ketchup had high fructose corn syrup in it. Sam doesn't need any additional calories or sugar. The organic/natural stuff has no corn syrup, fewer calories and less sodium. So he can enjoy it and I don't feel guilty about it.

NOLAN: Nolan is getting SO close to crawling! Last night he was on his tummy on the living room floor. Bill and I both watched as he used his feet to push himself across the carpet (he reached his goal and emptied a bunch of DVDs off the entertainment center). It's not a crawl yet, but he's definitely figuring out mobility.

Like his big brothers before him, Nolan has turned his burp cloth into his security blanket. His "Buddy" must be with him at all times. He gets a clean one everyday, but each one is special to him. If I pick him up and his Buddy is still on the floor, he will lean over until I lower him so he can grab it. He then places it on my shoulder, lays his head on it, and pats me on the back. It's so cute!

I am thankful that TJ now only wants his Buddy at bedtime. Sam wants it at bedtime and if he is hurt or upset. It would be rather tricky if I was trying to keep track of 3 Buddies at once. One is enough, thanks!