For Papa Saylor

Papa, THIS is what your Great-Granddaughter was up to while we were on the phone today...there is actually a small bowl and three pieces of a nativity set camouflaged on the table as well.

Hillary, she needs to come to your house more often. (haha)

Little happenings

For the last few days, Melanie has been sleeping better. Two nights ago, we got an eight hour stretch out of her, and last night, she was only up twice. This coming from the child whose typical nocturnal activities involve screaming like her limbs are being hacked off two/three/seven times a night. It is a pleasant departure from the norm, let me tell you. Here's hoping that her new year's resolution is to continue the progress!

In other Melanie news, she stood up for the first time yesterday! A friend who was holding her didn't know she doesn't stand, and set her down on her feet. Apparently she wobbled, then stood up for about ten seconds! I looked over at the end and gasped because she was standing, which evidently threw her concentration because she then fell over. It is exciting/terrifying...exciting because it's always great to see your kids do new things. Terrifying because the next step is walking, God help us all.

Yesterday, Megan had to have a dental procedure done that removed the piece of skin holding her top lip to her gums. It was attaching between her front teeth instead of higher up on her gums (which is abnormal, but apparently hereditary because Marina and Melanie will have to have the same thing done). In any case, she has a wound in her upper lip now that we have to keep an eye on and treat with some Vitamin E every day. Holy crap. You would think that Dn. John and I were attempting to shove hot pokers in her eyes. It took both of us to pin her down while she screamed and flailed, and even then we weren't able to do a very good job of getting the medicine on it. I was having a hard time getting too mad at her though, because I have a random but very clear memory of being about her age, and having both my parents pinning me down on the living room floor to get pink eye medication in my eyelids, while I screamed and flailed like a banshee. Somewhere, my Mother is laughing at me as she reads this. Here's to you Mom. The universe has come full circle.

And, to be three for three, here is Marina's update. Her collarbone is healing quite nicely. She is no longer in pain, and we can pick her up under her arms again. Technically, we're supposed to keep her quiet/inside/still for another week or so. HA. That's one of those "How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?" kind of tasks. It now occurs to me that her name fits very nicely into the lyrics of that song..."How do you solve a problem like Marina? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? How do you keep a wave upon the sand?" The line I like the most? "She can throw a whirling dervish out of whirl!" Yep. That's my girl.

Dn. John and I are are doing quite well also, thank you. We get our car back from the shop today (it was hit by a snowplow in a parking lot a few weeks ago--while parked, I might add. No one was in it. Apparently, since it's a white vehicle, it camouflages well into the snow). I'm also planning on cleaning out the entryway closet today so we can bring in Dn. John's super-cool new tool chest that he got for Christmas and set it up tonight. It has been living in the shed since Black Friday, and it will be really nice to consolidate all his tools, since they are currently living in about six different places all over the house, and we can never find them when we need them. Yes, I will admit this is as much a gift for me as it is for him. Yay for organization!

Counting Chickens (or not)

So there I was, around 1 a.m., nursing Melanie. I was thinking to myself, "Self, congratulations. She's only going to be up once tonight. What an awesome parent I am."

This is a lesson on "Don't count your chickens until they're hatched." Enter an hour later, with Melanie standing up in her crib screaming for all she was worth, bouncing up and down staring at the door, waiting for one of us to come in. Dn. John took pity on me, and went to comfort her. Of course, as soon as he was done with said comforting, she started screaming again.

Ergh.

In other news, my Christmas shopping is so so so so close to being done. Just two more things. Only two! I'm so happy. Today's Target run should knock them out. Now, all I have to do (all, haha) is wrap everything. And make fudge. Lots and lots of yummy fudge. My folks are having all the grandkids out to the bakery to decorate sugar cookies on Sunday, so I'm off the hook for that this year *whew*. Up until now, my anxiety dreams have mostly involved coming home from church Christmas Eve and realizing that nothing is wrapped/baked/decorated, etc. Can you tell where my head is?

Well, I'm off to rescue Melanie, who is happily playing in the trash can.

Catch up!

Wow, it's been almost a month. Sorry everybody! Things have been crazy...

In the last month or so, I've...

...flown across the country and back for my sister-in-law's wedding. Gained a new brother, watched my adorable daughters be flower girls, and generally had a wonderful time with the Rogers.

...made over 30 dozen jars of jam. Yikes.

...sold lots of them at two different craft bazaars. Prepping for the third and final on Dec. 11, and possibly an Open House somewhere in there.

...got my butt kicked by Black Friday. Gave up and went home, then bought everything I wanted online. Will so be doing that again from now on.

...taken Marina to the ER for her third and fourth visits...both for the same thing--a window cling stuck up her nose. Took 8 hours and two ER docs, but we finally got the blasted thing out.

...been gifted with the spectacular news that I will be an Aunt again in August, to a new little Woelfel Baby joining the world. Woot!! So excited.

...started sleeping more, as Melanie *slowly* figures out how to not wake up a billion times a night. We're down to two or three. It's a good thing. By the end of the year, I'm hoping for just one wake up call. It would be glorious.

That's the highlights. There are some lowlights in there too...but we won't mention those. In any case, here's hoping that life has slowed down just enough for me to blog more, and make copious amounts of fudge for Christmas.

Stumbling Through Grief

Three a.m. phone calls rarely come with good news. The hardest ones to get, perhaps, are the ones you are expecting. Such was the case early Sunday morning, when the news came in the middle of the night that my Grandma Barb had died.

My Grandma had a hard life. She was born prematurely, and her mother kept her and her twin brother alive by feeding them with an eye dropper, as they were so tiny that they wouldn't nurse. She lost her first child (her only daughter) in the late stages of pregnancy, and endured a horrific delivery because of it. After my Dad and uncles were born, she divoced and remarried a man who was, at the best of times, not very nice, and at the worst of times, neglectful and abusive. It was only last May that my family learned the extent of her maltreatment, and in August were able to bring her to Alaska to live with my folks.

When Grandma got to Alaska a year ago, she had lost so much of the vitality that I remembered her having, although her sense of humor was intact. She loved to tease my Dad, and thoroughly enjoyed her great-grandchildren, who included my daughters and my sisters' sons. The news that I was expecting Melanie came as a great gift to her, as she had never been around any of her great-grandchildren as infants.

I carry my Grandma's name (her middle name is Lenore, too), and she is Megan's namesake. One of my favorite memories of her is making the phone call after Megan's birth to tell her that we named the baby after her.

Grandma's passing was not quick, and part of the grief I feel is that when the call finally came, I felt as much relief as sadness. It is hard for me to equate death with relief, although I know it came as one to her. Today, two days later, I still feel shock and a sort of heaviness in my heart as I sort through all the emotions running through brain. I was out of town when she died, and while I know that I truly could have done nothing, I still struggle with having been out of the family fold, so to speak, when they were all together with her.

I think it will be a continual struggle to adjust to life without her. In the end, as in all things, I know what I have to do, and that is turn over my fears and grief, as well as the welfare of her soul, to God's mercy and grace.

I love you Grandma, and I miss you.

May her soul dwell with the blessed, and may her memory be eternal.

Literature irritations

I started reading the Magic Tree House books to Megan today. My first and foremost opinion is that whoever is Mary Pope Osborne's editor at Random House is an idiot. You can't go an entire page without there being at least one sentence fragment.

Examples? "New books with shiny, bright covers." "A skinny beak." "High into the sky."

THESE ARE NOT COMPLETE SENTENCES PEOPLE!!!

Speaking as a former teacher, as well as a concerned parent who would like her blossoming reader to read correct English (gasp!), I have to say that as cute as the stories are, and as much as the kids are enjoying them thus far, they give me a massive headache.

How hard would it have been to give the author an elementary lesson in comma and semicolon usage? When I was teaching, if one of my sixth graders had turned in something like that, there's no way I would have accepted it, especially not for publication on a national level!!

Okay. *deep breath* My rant is (mostly) over, at least on the blog post. I'm sure it will continue on a mental level for days.

Quite possibly the greatest picture ever taken

Worlds cutest and most hilarious baby, right here folks.