Family Pictures

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Family Pictures

The last time we had any family photos done was while I was pregnant with Lillian...very early in the pregnancy too so I don't even show.  We thought it was time to have a family picture that includes the whole family now that we've grown by two more children.  These were taking up at the apple orchard.  It was such a hot day!  So unusal for mid-October, It was 85* and it was so hot wearing those sweaters.  Who knew when I planned our attire it would be so hot?  Let's not forget the yellow jackets....they were swarming everywhere!  Poor Evelyn got stung when one flew down her sweater.  And yet the pictures came out beautifully!

I am so blessed by my family everyday!

Caleb's Journey Pt.2

As part of Heavenly Homemaker's "gratituesday", (what are you thankful for Tuesday's) I am posting about how thankful I am for Caleb's weight check with the G.I. Specialist today!

WOO HOO!  Caleb gained 2 POUNDS over the last month!  That is HUGE!  He is still on the negative side of the weight curve but he IS close to actually being on it.  You can read about Caleb's failure to thrive here. 

I had been thinking that he felt heavier, but was afraid that it might be my imagination and that I would get my hopes up for nothing.  I even had thought his cheeks were looking fuller.

His cheeks.  Let me tell you about his cheeks.  He has the cutest little round cheeks.  We are talking Gerber baby cheeks.  Big, round chipmunk cheeks.  The kind that Aunt Gertrude can't resist pinching (no we don't actually have an Aunt Gertrude, but if we did, she wouldn't be able to resist these cheeks).  The kind that scream to be kissed.  They are some really cute cheeks...and they got even cuter with his weight gain,  I am one blessed mama...all 4 of my kiddos have had the best cheeks.  With Caleb though, it is rather deceiving since he has chubby little cheeks and is so severely under weight.

He isn't out of the woods though.  I am to continue on the current high calorie diet and have another weight check in 5 weeks.  We are hoping for another couple pounds.  He still can't seem to have any bowel movements without the help of miralax which I'm not comfortable with, but he isn't exactly comfortable without it if you know what I mean.  I've tried more natural things like prune juice, prunes etc. but none of it has helped.  That is one of the goals as well....get him "moving" on his own.

The specialist isn't exactly sure why he couldn't gain but is now.  She said that sometimes if the baby isn't getting enough calories, the body starts to shut down. So in his case, I was not providing him enough calories with nursing (not surprising since my 1st son had failure to thrive as well, only with him, as soon as he started on formula he gained as he was supposed to). So with the lack of calories, his body went into "shut down" mode.  He was getting enough to stay alive but not enough to thrive and grow.  Even with the introduction of formula and solids, his body stayed in mode until the tripling of calories forced it into an active mode.

So today, I am thankful for Caleb.  I am thankful for his weight gain.  I am thankful for the specialist helping us to figure this out.  And I am thankful that the Lord is protecting my sweet baby.

School week review 5/2-5/6/11

Our school curriculum is from Heart of Dakota .  Evelyn, my oldest is finishing up her 2nd grade year using Bigger Hearts for His Glory.  And Joshua is using Little Hearts For His Glory for his kindergarten year.  Both are so fun and they are just learning leaps and bounds.  Even better is the love of the Lord they get through these guides.  Here is a look at what we've done this week.

This is a picture of Goliath (if you look closely, you will see that my son requested I add blood to his forhead so he would look more like the picture in his bible....what is it with boys and blood..dirt...mud? ).  I didn't measure exactly but since I'm a little (very little) over 5 ft tall, I thought this looked about 4 feet over me....kinda looks about 9 ft tall right?

The children all took turns tossing stones at Goliath shouting "You trust in your sword and your shield, but I TRUST IN THE LORD!".  They actually had pretty good aim and each of the older two hit him.  Lulu tried, but she is little and 9 ft is REALLY tall when you are only about 3 ft tall. 

 

As you can see, Evelyn enjoys joining in on Joshua's lessons as they are a lot of fun.  Here they are doing his Rhyme in Motion.  Often Lulu joins in this too, sometimes she plays her "piano" to provide the music. Lol!  It is a really cute one this week called "God's plan for David"

As much as he is an active little guy, it always surprises me how much he enjoys doing workbooks, perhaps not as much as driving his trucks around the different phonics sounds on the flooror numbers made in tape on the floor, but I think he likes that he is doing something that feels like his sisters "independent work".

I think his handwrittin is coming along quite nicely.

Evelyn started this year struggling with math.  It was awful.  And that is an understatement.  Daily there were tears.  She just didn't get the basic concepts.  After some prayer and talking things over with hubby, we decided to try switching her math to a different curriculum. 

It...has...worked...BEAUTIFULLY for her!  After a year in her new program, she is thriving in math, so much so that it is now one of her favorite subjects!  Honestly, I wouldn't have thought it possible.  In the beginning of the year, she had a hard time with basic addition and place value.  She is now breezing through 4 digit addition problems with carrying, 3 digit substraction with borrowing and simple multiplication.    So proud of her!

                                                     Her cursive is also coming along nicely.

In History, we are reading about Benjamin Franklin.  Here is her history notebooking page. The copied verse is Job 37:11-12 and her picture is Franklin's experiment with a kite and key attracting electricity. 

Caleb's Journey

Caleb.  My sweet baby. 

He was a large baby at birth.  9lbs 8oz.  The largest of my 4 children.  He is now 8 months old. 

And he has failure to thrive.  Such a "catch-all" phrase.  WHAT does that mean?  Really? 

Caleb is not gaining weight well, in fact he has fluctuated between gaining and loosing weight.  Gain an ounce. . . . loose 2 ounces.  Gain 5 ounces. . . loose 3 ounces.  Up.  Down.  In total, over his 8 months, he has gained a grand total of a couple ounces short of 4 pounds.  That's it.  Just 4 little pounds.  Most of that he gained in his first 2-3 months.  He started in the 95% and has sadly dropped down to the -20% on the growth chart. 

We don't know why.  His pediatrician has ran many tests, including some very scary sounding ones such as cystic fibrosis.  I must admit, I had myself all but convinced that the C.F. test was going to come back positive.  Google can be our best friend and our worst enemy all at the same time if you know what I mean.  Knowledge is good.  It is a good thing to research and see what we are possibly up against,  On the other hand, it is very easy to manipulate ourselves into seeing EVERY "symptom" as one that we (or in this case my son) had.  Including my Irish heritage. 

Praise the Lord, that test came back negative!  Although, a week later I was talking to my cousin and found out that her new baby only a couple months younger than Caleb has Downs Syndrome.  I felt a little guilty that my little pumpkin pie was cleared of a life shortening disease.  Does that make sense?  Her little man is such a darling little guy. . . .so cute. . . . and as far as Down's goes, he is pretty healthy.

So we've met with a G.I. specialist and she has put Caleb on a diet that triples his caloric intake.  Her main goal at this point is to get his weight up (and also to. . . um. . . clear him out, poor little guy has been super constipated regardless of what I give him).  He goes in for a weight check with her next week.  Praying that his weight has gone up. I think it has but I'm not sure if it is my own wishful thinking.  We've talked about gluten and dairy allergies, but the specialist doesn't believe that's the case here.  I guess there will be more tests done, I just don't yet know what they will be.

Another thing I'm doing for him is to bring him to a chiropractor.  Dr. T is great.  The kids all love the "firer-cracter".  I don't know what difference it is making, but the whole body works better when everything is aligned the way it is meant to be. 

Would you pray with my as we go along Caleb's journey and figure out what is going on with my little guy?

Here we go again!

It has been a long time since I have maintained a blog.  Two years actually.  When my 3rd child was born I found that I didn't have time to write or take pictures to add to it, so I just let it go to the wayside.  In my absence, the host site that it was on has been sold and things have changed.  I can't figure it out!  So I thought I would try another one...here on blogger...although I'm not sure why I think I will have enough time now with 4 children.  Hmmm...I was once told children cause brain malfunction...perhaps that is true. 

It might help me though to be more diligent about taking pictures of our life.  These 4 little blessings are going to be little for a short time and I will not be able to remember all the fun we've had, all the cute things, they've done or said, the journey of our schooling adventures and even the troubles we will have gone through. Lately I have realized that I have loads pictures of my 1st born, many of my 2nd, some of my 3rd and few of my sweet baby.  In the past it wass also a good way to share  with family about what's going on and letting them see pictures (that's for you Nana and Auntie Linda!).

Sooooo no promises, but hopefully I will be able to maintain this blog a bit better than I did the previous one.