Good golly Miss Molly – “my baby Cooper” (as Tori would say) is TOOO cute for words!? Oh do I love our little man.? He is 3 months already can you believe it?? Jodi and the kids were over last week and I had to sneak a few shots of Cooper in.?? Jodi thinks his eyes are going to go green like Karsyn and Ryker’s but I am not convinced.? I still think he may end up a blue eyed boy.

Shouldn’t he like be on an advertisement or something?? He is just so happy and smiles all the time.

Not much going on in the hair department still.? I, for one, am in the “bald is beautiful” camp.? :)? Cooper actually reminds me a lot of Daniel as a baby. (And um…no Dan…I wasn’t referring to the hair.? 😉

Karsyn wanted me to sneak in a shot of her too and I was happy to comply.

She looks so much like Darin – so so much.? If her hair was dark she would be his spitting image I think.

Ryker wanted a picture too but he obviously preferred a more natural lifestyle type shot.? 🙂

Family Updates…

First of all….most everybody knows this but Daniel and Brooke are now in route to their new home – in NORTH CAROLINA.

I have never in my whole life been separated from my family and this transition has been very very hard for all of us.?? When/if you see me in the near future, please please don’t offer platitudes.? Comments about all the “at leasts” (ie. phone calls, skype, nice vacation spots, blogs etc etc) – SO NOT HELPING!? Yes – I am thankful for technological advancements that give us a form of communication BUT that is pitiful comfort for the loss of the real deal (most especially where the children are concerned).?? Please just agree that this stinks and let me cry.? As my mom said to me today “It’s my party and I can cry if I want to cry if I want to.? You would cry to if it happened to you.”? :)? (Well said mother!)

My honey of 16 years has also been a sweetheart.? He has patiently watched me cry for the last three weeks and has given permission for me to cry as long a I want to.? :)? He knows me.? He knows that I am an expressor and that I can’t hide my emotions.? I don’t hold grief back.? I don’t think I am capable of it.? I am not ashamed of that either.? It’s part of me and it allows me to share honestly and heal authentically.

And yes…of course, ALL OF US, want the best for my precious brother and sister -in-love and the kids and we are trusting Father to lead them and guide them, hold them protect them, make a way for them, heal them from hurts, give them courage, peace and joy.? All these things are my prayer.? But….I am still very very sad and this is really painful…because I love them with everything in me and I am absolutely no good at letting people I love “go”.??? My friend Liza wrote and said that she isn’t any good at “encouraging words and rah rahs in situations like these” and I was so thankful for her words I wanted to throw my arms around her and kiss her right on the cheek.? She understands my sadness and she didn’t try to “word” it away or make it better.??? Validation is healing don’t you think?

The other night, I was leaving to take Sweetie home and Tori grabbed my leg and said “YOU CANNOT GO!”.? Mom and I both locked eyes and decided to laugh instead of cry.? In that moment, how we wished we were two years old and could get away with saying that exact thing.? 🙂

That’s all I can say about it for now…okay?? Pray for my family as they are almost to their new home now.

Tanner

Let’s see…

He is proud of the fact that he weighs 66 pounds now.? He takes great pride in eating larger adult sized portions.? :)? He gets more beautiful every single day (as if that is even possible) and he still loves to cuddle his mommy.? His favorite subject in school right now is cursive (which is totally wild to me because his print handwriting is just short of terrible).?? I think I am the one to blame.? I don’t think I taught him letter formation well. ?? Now that I have wizened up,? I am doing a better job watching and encouraging letter formation and the results are drastically different.? I decided to wait until fourth grade for cursive because he needed more time last year to develop his OT skills.

I had this light bulb moment last week on the reading topic as well.?? In the first and second grade, he was really enjoying reading but last year not so much.? He couldn’t get interested in anything and library trips were a waste.? He would wander and wander and nothing looked good.??? He also has continued to struggle with his narrations.? A couple of weeks ago he started asking me if he could take his science book or his history book in the car to read while driving and then he would (on his own) tell me all about stuff as we drove.? Ding ding ding.? Tanner doesn’t like fiction.? Don’t know why it took me so long to figure that out.? Probably because I can’t relate.??? I am still testing this theory but so far it seems that Tanner enjoys reading about real stuff.? He loves books about animals (he is liking the Christian Liberty Nature Readers) and he says that he likes to read about the “olden days” so he has been enjoying Story of the World.? Who knew?? Makes sense to me now because the only series that he really really loved was the Magic Treehouse series and that series is fiction but it’s historical.

He is growing up so much.? He is conversing more and being so helpful.? AIT has started back and he really enjoys that and is looking forward to soccer starting too.

Ty

Is currently pretty ill.? He got a cold and is developing a very nasty cough.? Last night I couldn’t sleep for listening to it so I tried the vics vapor rub on the feet trick and was shocked at how quickly it stopped his coughing.

He also has a strange foot thing going on that I need expert advise on.? I would love to post a picture for you but it’s just too icky and you would be mad at me for doing that.? If you are not squeamish and think you could offer some insight, please request a picture though and I’ll email to you.

So several months ago I noticed that the back of his baby toes were cracking BADLY -very very deeply.? Yikes!? On the back side of one foot (on the baby toe) looked to be severe callouses as well.? I took him to the Dr. and the Dr. said it was Athlete’s foot.? I love his Dr. but don’t agree.? The Dr. told me to put Lotrimen on his feet twice a day for at least six weeks OR I could give him an oral anti fungal but that I needed to have his liver checked before I did that.? Huh?? Uh…thanks but no.? I went the Lortimen route.? Grant it, after about a month I slacked off.? It didn’t seem to be helping anyhow.? Fast forward through the summer and things are looking worse.? Now both baby toes are getting the weird callouses that almost look like warts plus the deep cracks.? I don’t think it is Athlete’s Foot for these reasons:? (a)? Athlete’s Foot grows in warm moist climates.? Ty doesn’t wear shoes.? He is barefoot 95% of the time probably.? ALL summer he has predominately worn flip flops IF he wore anything at all.? (b)? Lotrimen did nothing (c) I looked at pictures online and I don’t think this looks like Athlete’s Foot (d) it doesn’t appear to be contagious (e) it isn’t spreading (f) it is in the exact same spot on both baby toes and no where else.

My theory?? I think this has something to do with his tics.? Because he is barefoot all the time, and because he rocks back and forth on his feet continually, I wonder if somehow the way he tics is wearing on those two spots on his feet.? If I am right though, I have no idea what to do about it.? Anyone want to give their opinion based on a picture?? Let me know.? 🙂

First grade is going great with Ty so far.? He really likes doing his copywork on the computer and is great at narration.? The only area we are SIGNIFICANTLY behind in is handwriting but, under the circumstances, that is no surprise.

He is still my happy happy boy.? The other day he said “Mommy when I wake up tomorrow will you be in my bed?”? This said because I woke up before him recently, cuddled him in his bed and woke him kissing his cheeks.? He thought that was wonderful and would like me to continue the tradition.? Trust me on this though – the blessing is all MINE because he wakes up happier and more excited to see you than anyone I have ever met.? The minute those little eyes open and see you, his expression says “Christmas Morning!”.?? Love love love it.

Dusty was laughing at him last week because they had engaged in a conversation that weekend about video games and then Sunday morning Ty said “Uncle Dusty remember that talk we had the other day about video games?? Let’s have that conversation again.? I’ll find us a seat.”? :)? Dusty said they pretty much repeated the exact same things a second time and Ty enjoyed it just as much the second time.? So not surprising.

Recently in Church, Ty was sitting through the service and doing a great job of keeping quiet.? I could tell it was a struggle but he was trying really hard.? Towards the end he starts whispering “are we done yet?” and I tell him to hang on a minute more.?? Service ends and Papa closes in prayer.? As soon as Dad finishes praying, Ty (literally) JUMPS off the pew, yells “ARE WE DONE?” and then RUNS down the center aisle and throws his arms around Dad hugging him.? It all happened so fast there was not a thing I could have done to stop it.?? Thankfully, when you worship in a very relational family church, these incidents are met with love and laughter.

Tori

In the last six weeks she has turned the corner and is now chatting away.? In fact, she jabbered so much the other night, mom and I were having a lot of trouble watching the Letterman interview with Joaquin Phoenix and I really wanted to see that (I knew he was faking).? If she can’t think of anything to say she says “and what else?” which means she is going to start listing off names (and in this family that takes a bit).?? Now that she is conversational, we are getting into more discussions that contain phrases like “why?, “why not?”, “I can’t do it”, I DO IT!”, “cool!”, “awesome”, “sweet!” and even “are you comfortable?” (that said about my flannel pajamas).

And a couple of shorts…

Aunt Michelle was holding her and she saw that Jim and I were getting ready to leave and she looked at her Auntie and said “They are coming for me”.

And I couldn’t end this post without posting about a mishap.

She wanted to take a shower with me.? I started the shower, got in, waited for her, and peeked around the curtain to see why she had not followed.? She escaped into my closet (while naked) when I had my back turned.? (She likes to go through my purses).? Next thing I know she is banging on my closet door asking me to let her out.? For some stupid reason, after four years of living in this house, I discover on this date that my closet door has a lock.? So I tell her to unlock it (which she is quite capable of).? She tells me that she can’t.? We go back and forth until finally I leave the shower and find the thingamajig above the door frame to pick the lock.? I then discover yet another mystery.? The rocket scientist that put a lock on the closet door chose a KEY lock.? Nice.?? Tori and I chat for several more minutes as I am convinced she can unlock it from the inside.? She continues to insist that she can’t.? When she realizes I am no help she starts yelling “DADDY HELP!”.? Jim comes.? Conversation continues.? Tori tells her Dad “Get a key!”? We have no idea where such key could be or if it even exists.? Thirty minutes later, when all negotiations fail (including turning off the closet light to motivate her), Jim drills through the lock.

Leave it to Tori huh?

And for this reason, I had to grin when Jim said he hopes our next child is a boy.? Hee hee.? They are so much easier.