Update for Oct. 25

Everyone else went to church.  LaRue is peacefully sleeping curled up in her "nest" on our bed.  So with a quiet house and 2 free hands to type, I thought an update was in order.

LaRue goes in for her 2 week check up on Tuesday.  She is growing and gaining personality daily.  Usually an easy going baby.  She loves to intereact with her siblings, but her all time favorite activity right now is nursing.  She is a slow nurser, just seems to enjoy it and wants to make it last.  She nurses for an hour or so, off and on, and then does a nap/nurse for another hour.  Then I can usually put her down for 2 - 4 hours as long as she is warmly nested.  She MUST be curled up.  She MUST be warm.  And she MUST think that she is being held.  So either she is curled up next door in the boppy, or in our buckwheat pillows.   She is also MOBIL.  I put her on the bed last night so I could run to the bathroom - and 3 minutes later she had traveled a good foot and turned half way around on the bed!   But like I told Tim, we are use to babies coming home at 37 weeks and floppy heads ... by the time they are (in reality) this old, Kendra and Joel were both 6 weeks old, and Vannan was 3 weeks old.  And here is LaRue not quite 2 weeks.  She just entered the world a lot more mature than the others.  And of course the mathematician in me is completely fascinated.   By the way, she managed to hit a birthday number for all the kids.  She was born on the 14th ... so that is twice either Kendra or Vannan's 7th date.  But if you add the 10 and the 14 of her birthdate, you get 24 - which is twice Joel's 12 date.  And I've now has Joel on Sunday, Vannan on Monday, Kendra on Tuesday, and LaRue on Wednesday.  I love patterns. ..... Ok, back to LaRue.  She still has her umbilical cord.  She loves to smile and giggle in her sleep.  She LOVES her hands, and they are usually up around the top of her head or ears or laced together or holding onto something.  And she is the biggest distraction in the house right now.   Everyone loves to touch and cuddle her, although the fights over changing her are slowing down.

Marriana is feeling quite displaced by the new baby.  Her temper has been flairing quite a bit.  Not that she doesn't love the baby. She is quite mezmerized by the fact that LaRue is NOT in my tummy any more. And she has EYES and a MOUTH and FINGERS.  She wants to hold and touch her, but since she has another cold, we've limited the touching to her feet and back - we don't want a sick LaRue.  Joel also has been limited in his touching since he also now has a cold.  She does so much better when we are in our routine for the day and stay on schedule.  She likes to know what is going to happen next.  She likes being independent.  The other day she cut out clowns and we taped them to popcycle sticks to make puppets.  She loves to play with the 6 clowns.  Her raw knowledge is increasing by leaps and bounds - so we will be starting Preschool soon - at least 3 days a week.  She also got her Cubbie book, so we will be working on Cubbie projects also.   She loves to sing.  

Joel is mesmerized by his new sister.  He doesn't want to go to bed at night - he's never been really good at bedtime since we moved his room into the livingroom - but it's getting worse.  He loves his school time, especially since he's doing very basic reading.  Like "The dog and the cat sat on a mat."   His speach is improving - he can now make the "g" and "k" sounds if he thinks about it.  Still dropping the final sounds of words though.   He is 41 inches tall and 37 pounds.  A hefty boy - but not fat.   Vannan has taught him to use the sweeper to do the floors, clean toilets, and take out the little trash cans.  Yes, he washed his hands afterwards - he likes washing his hands.  He helps make lunches, feeds the dog, and helps walk the dog at lunch time.  (Speaking of the dog - Toffee - pray for wisdom on our part as she has had several seizures this year ... we cannot afford a vet bill to have her evaluated for a reason for this.)   Joel is a fairly content little guy, he has renewed intrest in CARS items.  He says he wants a big blanket for his bed that is CARS and a "blanket for my pillow too" (he means a pillowcase).   He loves numbers.  He asked me yesterday, "What number comes after one hundred one hundred?"   He's also taken up running around the house with a fly swatter to chase bugs.  He HATES bugs.  Except his plastic spider.  Loves FISH though.  He knows all of the types on his facebook game by name.

Vannan is working on her sewing skills when she gets a chance.  She is trying to embroider a "God Is" quilt.  I need to take pictures of her efforts.  School has slowed down for her - partly due to distractions, partly due to her sleeping a lot lately, and partly due to harder material.  She doesn't like division at all.  She doesn't like writing.  If she had her druthers ... she would druther be outside with her animals in the barnyard - or watching TV - or reading a book.   So her progress is slow - but at least it is steady.   She takes care of most of Papa's house chores by herself (with Joel) and has taken on the responsibility of extra care of LaRue, stuff like sorting her clean laundry and putting it away, dressing her and changing some of the diapers, and making sure she always has a blanket nearby.  She gave LaRue a bath Friday night.  We turned on the oven and opened it wide up, and she bathed her there at the end of the table.

Kendra is speeding along is school work.  She loves to learn and write and do projects.  She is also anxious to get back to her sewing projects for Homemaking Class.  Kendra has Marriana for a partner - and for the most part, they do well together.  Kendra is great (when she wants to be) at motivating "difficult" children into doing what they need to be doing.   So she is also really good with Bethie.   Her motiviation comes from people commenting on pleasure or enjoyement of a task.  So she gets excited when people notice that she wrote something on her blog.  We will be studying the 5 Love Languages soon... I think her main language is Words of Affermation.   She LOVES Geometry so far.   A comment she made last night, "Mom, why do so many teens stop talking to their parents when they get to be teens?  I like talking to you and Daddy and my grandparents.  I LIKE talking to adults.  Why do so many teens think adults have nothing to say?"  .... it was an interesting conversation.  This kid is a DEEP THINKER.

Me - well, I had a baby 11 days ago.  I'm feeling better, but my back still hurts a lot, among other parts, like my wrist where the IV was and my elbow where they tried to draw blood and couldn't find a vein.  After writing down the times - I realized that I was only in VERY HARD BACK LABOR for about an hour.  Yes, I screamed.  They kept asking, "On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain you can imagine ... what are you feeling?"  A 15!!!!  ....  I missed being able to walk around and move and rock and having somebody behind me to push the pain away.  Tim says the meter that measured the contractions almost never came out of contraction that whole last hour and peaked above the chart (which was when I was screaming) every 3 - 4 minutes for close to a minute at a time.   And I could have really used a few glasses of orange juice instead of just ice chips.    BUT ... I got the VBAC.  LaRue is healthy.  And I think I'm recovering - I've had a few strange moments.

Tim is getting into the swing of his new job.  Monday he goes solo.  He got himself a GPS unit - semi required for the job.  He's figured out how to use it and is very excited about it.  He'll need a laptop very soon.  He has made some money with the trainer's help this last week.  LaRue came at a good time for him - after the orientation classes, but on a day he hadn't sat down to do calls for appointments yet.  Pray for him as he goes out.  He told me the other day, that he was the only one left working for the company that went through the classes.  He was quite proud.  You know how they say in college ... Look left, look right.  At least one of you 3 won't be here next semester ... to the freshmen?   Well, that's how Tim felt.  He was the one left standing ... and he was pleased to be there.  He's made a huge investment into this job, liscence, clothes, GPS, and GAS, and tons of TIME.  Pray for him.  Pray for continued excitement and wisdom as he goes out.

Well, I guess that pretty much wraps up the going ons around here.  It's been mostly COLD and RAINY around here.  We have enjoyed a few nice sunny days.   The AC went out in our house while I was in labor.  It's fixed now, so some days require AC in the afternoon and Heater at night.  The heater is fixed now too.  THANKS DADDY!!!   We only cool the house down to 78 or just enough to get out the humidity... but don't want to let it get colder than 68 at night with a new baby.  Especially since she doesn't like her head covered up.

So, how has your October been?