Missing In Action

I have been M.I.A. this week. I mentioned on Monday that I have had the flu, and unfortunately I have still not fully recovered. I am also just feeling plain old grumpy this week. I am hoping to be back to my usual self on Monday. I have some posts planned... :)

The Power of Prayer

A few weeks ago I had one of the most horrifying experiences a mother can have. Brisbane is learning how to feed himself as much as possible. As part of this learning process he tends to shove as many pieces of food into his mouth at a time and at a rapid rate. We were having blackberries for dinner this particular evening. (Blackberries are Reese's favorite food and he asks for them regularly.) I probably should have cut the blackberries up some more for Brisbane but hindsight is 20/20.
I looked over and Brisbane was not breathing. I panicked. We have had lots of choking false alarms at our house because I am super paranoid. But usually Mack is around to calm me down and deal with the not-really-choking child. But this time he really was choking. We had a choking scare on Brisbane's birthday when Brisbane got too excited about the string cheese. Mack was home then and he did the heimlich and it was ok. I was alone this time. Brisbane was choking.
I whipped him out of the high chair and started doing the heimlich. No luck. I started praying that I would be able to do the heimlich right and Brisbane would be able to breathe. I kept doing the heimlich with no luck. I then told the kids that they should start praying. Reese had no idea what he was praying for but he said the sweetest (and shortest) little prayer. I told him to keep praying over and over. In the meantime I had dialed 911 and was about to call when I felt inspired to move Brisbane a certain way. I put the phone down, moved Brisbane around, and he coughed up that dang blackberry. I fell to my knees crying. I was so grateful that he was breathing and alive. I had blackberries and snot all over me but I didn't care. Brisbane was ok. I hugged all of the kids and told them I was so thankful that they say such good and faithful prayers. I explained to them that Heavenly Father heard their prayers and answered them so that Mommy was able to help Brisbane. I was a crying mess the rest of the night.
Of course Reese regaled Mack with the story as soon as he got home about how he saved Brisbane's life. I am going to let him take full credit for that one. We have had lots of great experiences with our sweet little ones learning to pray and this was certainly the most dramatic.
I also should note that when Jessenia prays for the food she blesses each item by name. Classic. Reese is best known for being thankful for things that I would never even think of. I love my children, their simple faith, and the wonderful lessons they teach me each day.

Ambulance

I have been in bed sick with the flu since Saturday. It's the pits. That meant that I missed church yesterday. Mack told me this cute story though and I had to share.
On the way home from church, they saw an ambulance and Jessenia said, "Look! A firetruck!" Mack told her that it was actually an ambulance. The kids asked what an ambulance was and Mack explained that it is a car that takes really sick people to the hospital really fast. Then Reese said, "Why doesn't it come to our house to get Mom?"
Is that not the cutest thing ever!? Love my sweet little boy.

Just Try It?

The Giggler:
The Adventurer:

The Observer:

We had lunch at the park again with Mack today (yep, it's Friday again). I took these three snapshots to remember my kids at this age. This pretty much sums up how each of them approach any new situation.

Brisbane: Smiles and laughs. He is a big flirt and knows that he. is. so. cute.
Jessenia: "Push me faster!" She isn't afraid of nothing or nobody. She goes full speed ahead. If you need one of the kids to try something new. She is the one to ask. For. Sure.

Reese: He will NOT get on those swings. He is definately my shy little boy. Sweet as can be. And even more shy. I love him for it. It reminds me of me when I was a little girl. And also how I feel most of the time as an adult. We are 'fraidy-cats together.

Bottle Free

Woo hoo! We are bottle free and loving it at our house. Mack and I have been counting down the days until we didn't have to prepare, clean, and repeat any more bottles. The bottles that we used for Brisbane had six pieces that had to be taken apart and cleaned. Ugh! Now they are hidden, never to be brought out until the next baby.
Brisbane is loving his sippy cups. Mostly, he is loving the milk inside.

PBJ and milk? Yes, please!

You want some, Mom? I am too busy with my big kid cup!

Fashion Statements

I think my children got their fashion sense from me. They must take note that I run around all day in pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. But if they had known me in my former life (aka pre-motherhood) they would know that I actually have quite good fashion sense. Meaning, I can at least get my socks on and match colors.
The following pictures were taking on Brisbane's birthday and were just too good not to share.
Really, Jessenia?

Putting socks and shoes on is a constant struggle for this girl. She hates doing it. She cries every time that we tell her she needs to put her socks and shoes on. Well maybe not every time, but at least 90%. It isn't that she is averse to socks and shoes, she just wants us to do it for her. (Tells you what her previous foster parents were like.) We have never done it for her. Usually after crying, screaming, and eventually landing in time out from hitting us or throwing something at us, she will do it. I have now taken to telling her to put them on 30 minutes before we have to leave in anticipation of the meltdown.

As I was getting the kids out of the car to go into the library I noticed that Jessenia's sock wasn't quite on correctly. Now, the sock was at least tucked in to the shoe (that seems painful for her scrunched toes), I pulled the sock out for the effect of the picture. I don't get it. She CAN put them on. She just doesn't want to. To each their own, I suppose. If you would rather wear them like that, go right ahead.

Reese came up to me at some point during the day and asked if I would tie this blanket for him. He had it tucked under his chin (I helped him stuff it in his shirt) and he wanted it to go behind too.
I obliged and then took a picture of how cute he was.

Then I wanted a picture of the back so I could show Mack how we tied it on. I asked Reese to turn around so I could take a picture and he gave me this...

Straight off the red carpet, over the shoulder pose. LOVE it! I started cracking up and snapped the picture.

To summarize: Reese is going to be a model and Jessenia is going to live the rest of her life in bare feet. Just remember, you knew them when.

One!

Brisbane's birthday was March 15th. You have probably already read about the mix of emotions I had that day. This post will just be about all of the fun we had celebrating. There are lots of pictures, because I just couldn't choose. So it will be kind of long.
I found this cute Monster Mask kit at Target on clearance last week and I thought it would be a fun craft to do with the big kids during structured play time. They chose the colors for Brisbane's masks and I made those ones. Then they got to decorate their own.
They did a really good job deciding where all of the stickers and eyes should go.

And boy were they adorable when it was all said and done. These are genuine smiles too...no bribery necessary. Of course, Jessenia's mask broke less than 30 minutes later and she informed me that she wanted to throw it in the garbage. I of course let her after confirming that is what she really wanted. When I then told her that she could not have Brisbane's masks she had a freak out. But we dug her broken one out of the garbage and nuclear disaster was averted.

Brisbane wasn't as excited about wearing his mask. He mostly just wanted to eat it.

Brisbane's favorite activity is playing with the dishes in the dishwasher. Dishes are always a total disaster at our house because they have to be done when Brisbane is sleeping or completely distracted (although he is very sneaky and has a sixth sense about when the dishwasher is open and comes out of nowhere). But for his birthday I decided to let him go at it (after removing all of the knives). That cutting board and all of the utensils had to be rewashed, but he had the time of his life.

Then we opened presents. I did a little photo shoot with him and his haul. I had to give him that package so he could eat the wrapping paper on it, otherwise he wouldn't have sat still.

Yum, paper!

My big boy!

The kids were extremely jealous of Brisbane's gifts. Reese asked me, "Mom, on my birthday, am I going to turn one?" It made me kind of sad. We don't know what birthdays were like for them before but I could tell it was nothing like this. I told him he was going to get to be FOUR and that he would still get presents and get to do fun things, get to pick where we eat dinner, and get cake and ice cream. He seemed satisfied though slightly skeptical.

We had to remind Reese and Jessenia lots of times that the presents were for Brisbane and if he wanted to play with them, they needed to let him. But he wanted to share them with them all the other times that he wasn't interested in them. They didn't get it.

A tradition of my family for birthdays, that Mack and I have adopted, is to let the birthday boy/girl pick where we go out to dinner. I have decided this is a perk of a large family. I have already accumulated five nights a year that I guaranteed don't have to cook dinner.

Obviously Mack and I had to choose for Brisbane. We choose Cici's Pizza. A cheap, not so great, but good pizza buffet. All of the kids we free. Reese doesn't like pizza (looney toon) and only wanted salad. Jessenia was in heaven (her favorite food is pizza) and Brisbane really liked it too. He especially liked the breadsticks and throwing things on the floor.

We had to kill some time after pizza to let the food settle before we ate cake. We put together some of the presents and let the kids go at it.

This was Reese and Jessenia's first test of letting Brisbane play with his toys whenever he wants. Jessenia only wanted a Little People Grandma and Grandpa with suitcase that Brisbane was not at all interested in. Reese however wanted that whole Little People train station to himself. Brisbane wanted to sit on it and push the buttons (still his favorite way to play with it). Reese didn't like that because then he couldn't play too. But he handled it generally well.

Brisbane really liked his farm.

But mostly he liked the farm animals. Since he refusese to walk, he has mastered the art of carrying things in his mouth while crawling. Including that sheep.

Then we had cake. You hear stories about kids who just poke the cake. And then you hear of those who get it all over. Brisbane generally loves to rub all food into his hair. But he was somewhere in between the extremes with the cake.

He certainly did more than poke it. And I even found some in his ear the next day. But he did not rub it all over his hair. He actually liked the ice cream more than the cake. (Definitely his father's son.)

Still a bath was in order. (Love how he edited himself with that cup. Good one Brisbane!)

It was a long and fun day. I was beat and had to leave the dishes until the next day. Bad idea.

First thing that Jessenia asked me the next morning, "Where's Grandpa?" I thought she was asking about her grandparents. But no. She was asking about that darn Little People Grandpa. Go figure. "You do remember that the Grandpa is Brisbane's right?" "Yeah. Sure. Whatever, Mom. Where is it?"