Seriously?
i hadn’t realized it had been so incredibly long since i’ve blogged. over a month! have i ever been that horribly long in between posts after just having a baby? of course this time i have four boys to care for, and that’s no easy task! lol. fun, yes, rewarding, yes, tiring, yes. easy - NO!
after three weeks of living in sort of a dream world of babymooning, things are finally getting to be more “normal” if that’s possible. jerry had three whole weeks off (from both jobs) to spend with us so jace and i spent the time getting to know each other and nurse as much as possible. meanwhile jerry was taking care of the big three, the house, etc. so it’s been quite the culture shock to return to everything. thankfully he’s not freaking out requiring perfection out of me immediately. i plan to get more organized and take care of my home though.
jeremiah is doing so great with his letters. he is sounding out different words, wanting to write. i’m really proud of him. i can’t wait until i have more undivided time for him and his schoolwork. he is still loving drawing - he and josiah draw multiple pictures a day. they both want to turn their pictures into stories. it’s adorable! as for being the biggest brother, he just adores baby jace. he really is a fabulous big brother with him. the other times (with josiah and jamin) he really didn’t seem to care too much…but with jace, he is so loving, caring and helpful - it’s wonderful. he keeps asking me when he can hold him while standing up. ummmm not yet! lol. jace still cries when he holds him sitting down anyway, lol.
josiah is back to being gluten-free, as of this week. his behavior at the beginning of the week was the last straw for me and i put my foot down. it’s hard, expensive, and a pain to do gluten-free with him, but the trade-off is worth it for a more attentive, happier, healthier little boy. he’s not perfect by any means, but i can totally see the difference. it could also be from the different discepline strategies we’ve been using, but more on that in a sec. josiah loves drawing and “writing”. he will draw pictures and write letters (mostly backwards) all over the paper and say “read this mama!” of course i have no idea what it’s supposed to say, so he gets really mad at me! it’s cute though. joe adores jace and aside from not being careful around him is so sweet and gentle with him. he is very loving to him.
we have implemented supernanny’s “naughty spot” idea this week as well. we’re calling it the “discipline step”. while we are not opposed to spanking, it just hasn’t been working for our guys for every offense. i hate spanking the boys, even though i know it’s necessary sometimes. and i know it still is necessary sometimes, but not an all the time thing like it has been lately. josiah’s acting out has been insane and the amount of spankings was just as out of control. now if the discipline step doesn’t work at first, OR if a misbehavior resulted in someone being hurt, one swat is the discipline, PLUS the minute per year on the discipline step. as i said, this is only the first week, so we’ll see how it works when we are consistent with it.
jamin is still so cute and fun and adorable. everyone just loves him so! his sweet, quiet yet bubbly personality is always a favorite. he’s talking a lot more lately, though his words are kinda murky. he loves reading books, building with blocks, and playing with cars and dinosaurs and trains. he also likes following the big boys around and doing whatever they are doing at first then going off to do his own thing. the boys don’t usually let him, so it’s just the fact that he wants to be with them i think. he seems to be proud of being a big brother, but still hasn’t wanted to hold jace, and still doesn’t want to kiss him often. the poor boy has been sick since jace was born, so he really hasn’t had the chance to interact with him as much as i’d like!
i have been keeping updates on facebook about jace’s progress. he has always had a lot of spitups, but he started projectile vomiting a few weeks ago and i started to get concerned. he acted like he was in pain - screaming and crying, etc. he had a test run for pyloric stenosis and it came back negative. so the dr assumes it’s GER or GERD. he is now on axid for it. so far it’s been helping his pain because he isn’t crying as much when he spits up. he isn’t spitting up as much either, and when he does, it’s more rare for it to be projectile vomiting. he is so precious and so adorable and sweet!! on oct 28 when he turned 1 month old, he had a weight check at the WIC office. he was 7lbs 14oz. i wasn’t happy - considering he was born at 7lbs 10oz. but she reminded me that they count weight gain from the lowest weight, and his was 6lbs 11oz i think. so that’s over a pound in less than a month, so she was happy. he is also up 1/4 an inch in length. lol. so he’s 20 3/4 inches.
since i’ve been doing a good job with facebook updates, i’m going to copy them over here for you. i’m starting the day i went into labor. 
and i plan to update the blog at least once a week. feel free to yell at me if i don’t! 
Jenn Case Gigowski is ready to sing this morning! Please be praying that I do ok and that Jace isn’t too rough during the song!
September 27 at 8:27am
Jenn Case Gigowski It went alright! Pray that Jace will come soon now. 
I’m sooooo ready!!!
September 27 at 3:05pm
Jenn Case Gigowski is going into the hospital to get checked. I’ve been having fairly consistent contractions (for almost 4 hours). Pray this is it - I don’t want to go through this much longer, and I can’t imagine being sent home again (with each boy they sent me home at least once!!!!!!!)
Jenn Case Gigowski be praying ! Jenn is at the hospital, getting her strep B drip, the dr is in the hospital and will be seeing her soon, probably to break her water– still waiting for someone to come be with the boys so I, gramma, can go to the hospital to be with her! This is It!!!
Jenn Case Gigowski well, Jace is here born at 2:41 am 9/28/2009 7 # 10 oz, 20 1/2 inches long , perfect, looks a lot like jeremiah~ more from jenn later !!!!! thanks for prayers! she did it without Any meds! Praise the Lord! the afterpains are hard, so please pray for her! thanks!
Jenn Case Gigowski We are HOME!!!!!!!!! I’m going to nap but wanted to update that all is well!!! Thanks for all the prayers and well-wishes!!
Jenn Case Gigowski is trying to keep the three sick big boys away from Jace. 
Some tummy bug is really hanging on and hitting them hard.
Jenn Case Gigowski – happy 1 week birthday to Jace!!!!
Jenn Case Gigowski ….is there anyone close-by who can loan me a good, strong electric pump?? Only the hospital grade seems to work for me. Thanks in advance!
Jenn Case Gigowski happy due date to Jace! please pray that i can get his weight up. i’m supposed to supplement.
Jenn Case Gigowski …happiness is listening to your husband read a chapter book and your boys saying, “one more chapter, please, papa!”
Jenn Case Gigowski happy 2 week birthday to my Jacey-Bear!!!
Jenn Case Gigowski The amazing Amanda Haynie (http://ahayniephotography.com) came to our house to do the pics. Jace was rather grumpy, but she still managed to get some good ones!
How Can It Be?
How is it possible that my little baby is going to be FIVE YEARS OLD tomorrow? I know I say this with every boy’s birthday…but FIVE YEARS OLD?! That is half a decade. That’s exactly half the years I’ve been married. That is when he’s considered a “big boy” and no longer my baby (although, thankfully, I’m still allowed to call him my baby. *grin*). It’s time for me to decide whether we are going to homeschool him or not. I always “knew” I wanted to, but lately I’ve become more uncertain. I’ve really begun to doubt myself. Can I really homeschool him AND handle Josiah? Even though Josiah is doing amazingly better, he is still quite a handful (I’m sure you have no idea what I’m talking about there, as I haven’t blogged in half a month…so forgive me and just pretend you are following me for a minute), and I don’t know if I can devote enough time to schooling and Josiah too. Plus the cost of homeschooling is freaking me out…I know the Lord will supply if this is what He wants us to do, but the upfront cost is very daunting! I worry about what he would pick up in school on the one hand, as he is a sponge and picks up bad behaviors from everyone at church, but I also wonder if he would do well with another teacher. He is the kind of kid who is very hard to motivate…He’s very similar to how I was as a child (oh who am I kidding - I’m still this way!); hard to motivate, easily discouraged, stubborn, doesn’t listen to his parents well…He seems to listen much better to authority at church. And I’m not saying he’s a disobedient child - he really does want to please us…I think it’s that he doesn’t want to fail, so he doesn’t want to try. That has always been my problem…A discouraged perfectionist, at five years old!!! Anyway, Jerry and I still have a while to pray and talk about it. He is doing a very LOOSE preschool thing with us…meaning he learns things by playing and reading, but we are in no hurry to have him reading books when he gets into kindergarten or anything. He and I went to get his five year portraits taken the other day. I’m going to put a random pic thing in the sidebar so you can see how CUTE they turned out. For some of the pics, he wore my favorite sweater, and for the others, he dressed up as a pirate, and took his new pirate ship with him.
Josiah is now on a gluten-free/casein-free/corn-free diet. YES it is hard. And I mean H.A.R.D. YES it is expensive. And I mean, I don’t know how we are going to do this. BUT IT IS SOOOOO WORTH IT. I have seen amazing results in this boy. He is still rambuncious, still rowdy, still busy, but he is SOOO much more alert, responsive, and thoughtful. He can sit with us for more than a minute, and listen to a story, instead of bounding away every minute. He can do one thing for more than a minute. He is doing much better about staying in his chair at meals (not great yet LOL), and his personality is so much more the REAL JOE that we have always known was in there. The sweet, smart Josiah that we have always been in love with, but knew no one else ever saw. We still have a way to go. We are still looking into a few additional things that may help even more. We are fairly certain he has ADD or ADHD. He has sensory issues, but he is NOT autistic - or if he is, he is so high-functioning, I’m pretty sure he would never be diagnosed. Same topic, but off the topic of Joe - WHY HAS NO ONE INVENTED A GLUTEN-FREE, CASEIN-FREE CHEESE SUBSTITUTE THAT TASTES GOOD? The only one I found, I bought and it is despised by the boys…I’m not sure how the mozz flavored one will taste…Pizza is their favorite food and it’s so hard not to be able to give it to them. It’s so sad that “dairy-free” or “lactose-free” aren’t enough - it has to be CASEIN-FREE. Which means even goat’s milk is out of the question. :/
Jamin is growing like a weed. He is still just as adorable as ever - in fact, he gets cuter each and every day. No one can resist his charm! He’s getting a little attitude on him though, I’m afraid. We need to nip that in the bud soon! I think it’s because he’s the “baby” and thinks he can get away with things the big boys can’t. Not so, little man! I am trying the GF/CF diet with him too, because he has had chronic diarrhea. I’m actually kind of concerned with the frequency of it lately. Every morning, he wakes up with it literally dripping from his diaper. He isn’t a big eater already, and he just seems so thin to me. Aside from his big old belly that is! Oh have I mentioned his belly button fettish?? He LOVES playing with his button. I have to put him in sleepers at night because his belly button was getting scabbed from him scratching and playing with it so much! (Remember Josiah did that too - he turned his into an “outtie” LOL.)
Well now that I updated everyone on the boys, I thought I’d reassure everyone that I am doing ok. They are 99% sure there was no baby in the sac. When they got my last numbers back of 12 (down from 1477!), he didn’t run the test on the sac because it would be a lot of expense that he didn’t feel we should incur because I was out of the woods. I still haven’t really grieved…I’m still waiting for it to hit me hard. If you think about me, please say a prayer.
Another reason I think I’m kind of in this “suspended animation” mode is that a good friend from high school attemtped suicide on New Year’s day. She is now “improving but not out of the woods”. I haven’t gotten detailed reports on her in a while…When we were told only family was allowed to see her I kind of backed off. Please be in prayer for her too - you can call her “T”.
Last but not least, I want to mention the new Digiscrap Community I started. If any of you are into digiscrapping, or just curious about it, please stop by! Coming up we are having a Brag Book Page Swap (you get free mini kits to make one brag book page, and then everyone involved gets to “swap” each others pages! It costs you nothing at all!) and our second Speed Scrap Crop (you meet on the forum to get “orders” to make a one of a kind page, using your own supplies and photos, with the directions given) - we had so much fun the first time. I really hope to see some of you there. Speaking of the store, tomorrow, in honor of Jeremiah’s 5th birthday, you can get everything in my personal store for $5. That’s nearly 15 dollars worth of kits, when they are at full price (about 8 dollars worth when they are half off, which they are until midnight tonight)!
God bless all of you. ((((HUGS))))!
Jeremiah - The Simile King
jeremiah has been so hilarious lately. i need to write these down when he says them, or else i’ll forget forever. just go with my lack of flow. lol.
the other morning, he said he had a bad dream. i said that must have been really hard. he said, “yeah, it was hard. it was hard as gramma’s marshmallows almost!” (my mom lost a tooth cap on one of her marshmallows, so the boy wasn’t joking! but i was practically ROFL)
this morning, he commented that he was cold. i asked him how cold. he said, “mama, i’m freezing! freezing like a penguin on an iceberg!”
ROFL!
and this is not a simile, but today i asked him when he grew up who he would be marrying. he smiled sweetly and said “YOU!” awwwww.
Time Marches On
whoever came up with that quote never had kids, i’m sure of it. time only flies, runs or races when you have kids. case in point: was it really almost two weeks since i last posted? that’s just crazy! and i’d said i’d post tomorrow. uh huh. and so much has happened since then. i am so heartbroken for steven curtis chapman and his family. i’m sure everyone has heard about the tragic accident by now. it’s just so horrible.
my friend janine’s little boy hurt his finger - actually the tip was cut off - in a door. the drs attached it back as well as they could, but please pray it remains attached.
dear rachel has had her precious new baby boy! i’m so happy for them!
jamin is really growing up and i don’t know how to stop him! josiah has taken a turn, maturing lately, and it’s incredible. he’s changed so much. he’s working seriously on potty learning now. we are pretty sure he’ll be “done” by the time he’s three, which is always our goal. and jeremiah. oh, jeremiah. he is still too big for his britches, but he’s learning who’s in charge around here, lol. he is so smart and so sweet! he is getting so tall…
yesterday we went to the fire station to get a new booster seat for jeremiah. what we left with was a new convertible seat for jamin! the seat jeremiah had (which we were going to hand down to jamin) wasn’t a rear-facing seat, and jamin isn’t ready to be forward facing yet. it’s a really nice seat! want to see how comfy?
jeremiah enjoyed being at the fire station, too. (poor josiah was sleeping most of the time! lol)
jeremiah spoke to fireman josh a lot. he told josh that he has wanted to be a fireman ever since he turned four. *giggle* fireman josh asked him what he’ll want to be when he turns five, a doctor? jeremiah said, no. still a fireman. *hehe* it’s true - he has said it for quite a while, even before he turned four, if i recall. jerry and i had a talk with him about it, that we would be so proud to have a son who’s a fireman. even though the thought makes my heart hurt! i wonder if that’s why i have always been so sensitive to fire movies? i’ve always felt heart tugs about firemen. maybe it was because my son would one day be a fireman. who knows.
about jamin again. he is pulling up to stand all the time, and crawling around like crazy. he is eating nearly anything and likes almost all foods. he is his big brothers’ little shadow. he wants to do EVERYTHING with them. it’s beyond adorable. they love him beyond words but i think he’s driving them nuts lately. *hehe* he always wants to play with their toys, especially the ones they happen to be holding!
this was so cute the other day: they were taking a bath, and i was planning to put him in too. he got a little impatient. he crawled next to it, and sat looking at them.
then he stood up! when i finally put him in, he was one happy guy!! lol. it was the second time he has ever really enjoyed taking a bath.
hey i already asked some ladies on ladies of grace (why haven’t YOU joined yet, btw?) to be my guinea pigs, but i could use some more eyes too. pretend like you’re going to order something from me and then give me the run-down of things that don’t flow well, work right, or anything else you can think of. here’s the product i’m concerned with right now: http://www.blessedmamacreations.com/store/catalog/140/173.html
well that’s it for now.
Lots of Trauma & Drama for The Fam & Mama
oh my oh my oh my.
i finally have the time and the energy to type up what happened today.
first of all, jamin has been running a fever, as well as pulling on his ears, so i assume he has an ear infection. he and i stayed home from church, and mom took the boys. jerry always stays home on sundays, unfortunately, because he doesn’t even get home until around 8am, after working a 16 hour shift.
so jamin rested and i put some things up for sale (almost all the thing have sold - woohoo). i called mom to ask about lunch, and we decided she’d bring mcdonald’s home. later, jamin and i were downstairs, now i can’t recall what we were doing - probably nursing, when i heard yelling. i heard mom yelling but i distinctly heard my nextdoor neighbor, kevin, yelling to his daughter to get inside. it was unlike anything i’d ever heard from him, so i was intrigued. then mom opened the door, yelling for the boys to get inside, and the boys are screaming and crying. kc (our dachshund) ran outside. i turned to see what was going on - i heard that dogs were attacking jeremiah and they bit him in the ear. jeremiah was crying, and i talked to him a minute, but then i heard more screaming outside. i put jamin down on the floor and ran out. now honestly, what i was thinking, leaving three upset little boys inside, is beyond me. i really should have stayed with them. but instead, i went out to find out what was going on. what i saw was probably the most horrible thing i’ve ever seen in real life. the two dogs, pit bull terriers, were on kc - one was biting his ear. kc was screaming and howling in pain, mom was yelling at the dog to get off and kevin was hitting the dog with a shovel (he’d gotten the shovel out earlier, but i will backtrack). the dog would not let go. finally mom called 911 and kevin got the dog off kc two different times, only to have him get back on him again. the dog had no collar, so there really wasn’t anything to hold on to on him. the last time, kc had made it to our front door. in front of the door is our little fake garden thing (i try) and i’d left the little hand rake there. i grabbed it and started hitting the dog with it, trying everything to get him off kc. i am not kidding you, it was like kevin and i weren’t even there. this dog was just insane.
finally, we got him off kc, and i got kc inside. i thought everything was ok, then suddenly the dogs were both in my house! i don’t know if i’d left the door open a crack, or what had happened, but the boys were screaming like crazy and the crazy dog got back on kc! inside my own home! (it was then that i finally heard the sirens) i was so upset and yelling at him to get off and somehow he was off him and mom drug him outside by his tail. i’m so amazed he didn’t turn around and bite him. praise the Lord for His protection.
jamin was screaming so i grabbed him and checked him over - he had blood on his head and a red mark. i swiped it to make sure - the blood was from the dog’s mouth, from kc, but jamin’s skin wasn’t broken. he did have tooth marks though. this is when i noticed josiah wasn’t anywhere. the back door was open, so i went around screaming, “josiah?!” then “where’s josiah?!” i was told that he was next door at kevin’s house. i guess when the dogs came in the house josiah was standing there looking scared (which now that i write this, i wonder…did JOSIAH open the door, looking for gramma, and let them in?!?!?!) so kevin’s oldest daughter swooped him up and took him over there. (thanks for that hon!!!)
jeremiah ended up having one little mark on the back of his ear, after the swelling and redness went down. we figure it’s a claw scratch. jeremiah was so scared when he came in. he was just crying behind the recliner. when i finally got him to come out, he wanted his papa. he went upstairs and woke jerry up with “papa a mean dog bited my ear!!!” i hadn’t wanted to wake him before i was ok, but i followed jeremiah and started rambling and actually ended up upsetting jerry even more. he said later he thought for sure his heart would go into a-fib from being so startled (and that’s all we needed today).
here’s what happened before, after being pieced together by my mom and kevin:
mom came home from church, let jeremiah out of his carseat and told him to go stand by the door while she got josiah out. somehow he ended up on the ground and was crying out. she didn’t think anything at first (because he is a little whiny sometimes) but when she came around the corner, she saw these two dogs on top of him! they’d knocked him to the ground. he was crying and screaming, and she started screaming for them to stop, to go away, to shoo, whatever she could to get them to go. they wouldn’t leave him alone, or get off him. it was then that kevin arrived from church. he heard mom screaming, and went to see what was wrong. when he couldn’t get the dogs to go by just yelling at them, he went to get his shovel to just scare them. he and mom finally got them away, and kevin’s daughter came out to see what was going on, then they started after her, so he went around to get them away from her. and this was the time that i heard him screaming for her to go inside, and mom was getting the boys inside, and kc ran outside.
from the piecing together, i found out that the dogs were probably “playing” with jeremiah, but they are used to playing rough and don’t know when a child isn’t having fun. we also deduced, since mom saw the owners who happen to be mexican, that the dogs might not understand english at all. so “stop” “go away” “get” and “shoo” might mean “blah blah blah blah” to them. of course, that is all just guesses. we don’t know for sure.
we do know that the same thing happened two weeks ago with these dogs, and it was an incident with another dachshund. we do know that kc is hurt pretty badly and will have to go to the vet tomorrow. we do know that my boys are going to be scared about this for quite a long time. we do know that i was so upset that i peed my pants and didn’t even realize it until much later.
i found out from kevin that four (or was it five) police cars showed up and one of the officers came out gun a-blazing. they were promptly followed by an ambulance and a firetruck (did you know they are like salt and pepper? they aren’t supposed to go anywhere without each other).
why all this entourage, you ask? well that was pieced together by mom’s phone call with 911, which i’d heard her tell about earlier. the operator kept telling her to calm down, slow down, talk quieter…mom was yelling and talking fast and was of course upset. she went into the whole spiel from the beginning, and of course the operator was stuck on the idea of jeremiah being attacked by dogs. the operator kept saying “is the child ok?” and mom kept saying “i don’t know - i can’t see him!” so the operator took what knowledge she had, and we assume thought “these dogs are mauling the kid so badly she can’t even tell if he’s alive!” so she sent half the police force, it seems. we’re thankful though, because who knows if anyone would have shown up at all if we’d called about a dog being in a dog fight.
GASP SIGH and all other signs of relief and frustration. i still haven’t cried, and it’s still RIGHT THERE behind my eyes, causing so much pressure and pain.
i am so thankful that everyone is ok. even kc, who is in a lot of pain, will be ok. it’s not life-threatening. oh thank You, Lord for Your protection. i am just amazed.
please pray for ALL of us (my mom!!), as this was so traumatizing to the whole family. also please thank the Lord for His hand of protection today.
OH OH OH i can’t believe i forgot this. the animal control guy told us this dog will not be put to sleep. he said unless human blood is drawn (which even though there were marks on jeremiah and jamin, no blood was drawn) the dog didn’t have to be put down. can you believe that?!?!?!?!
i just wanted to post a small update: kc went to the vet with jerry today and got antibiotics and pain meds. he is feeling a little more himself. i also spoke with animal control, and they said we could go get a copy of the filed report tomorrow. if we want to contact the owners about reimbursement, that’s our prerogative. it all depends on what jerry wants to do there - so far, he doesn’t want to ask them anything. i just don’t know…part of me feels badly for these dogs, but the other just wants them gone. i mean, my poor sweet boys and my poor sweet kc…
the boys are doing ok. amazingly, no one had nightmares last night. when josiah and i returned home from wal-mart tonight and he heard dogs barking, he really tensed up and didn’t want to get out of the van at first. he has always been our little animal lover and i so hope and pray this doesn’t scar him for life! he still SOOOO loves kc and really wants to take care of him. we have to watch him to keep him away from him.
thanks for your prayers; please keep sending them up.
Life Over Here
well it’s been a while again since i’ve posted. life is going ok over here! jerry and i actually got some time to ourselves last night. we went to eat mexican (”on the border”) and to see a movie (vantage point - great movie) while mom watched the boys. it was a great time. it was so nice to be just us. of course we didn’t have the “don’t talk about the kids” rule, because it’s hard not to! we even bragged about them to our waitress. *lol* unfortunately, jerry wasn’t feeling well. his heart wasn’t feeling right, mainly because of not getting enough sleep. so he’s worried today that he might have to go see his dr. please pray for him.
jamin had almost two bottles while we were gone. he nursed a little when we returned, but not too much before falling to sleep. when i woke up this morning, it was after 5, and he was just stirring. oh my GOODNESS i was so engorged. i’m still not all the way empty and he’s eaten three times already. OUCHIE.
i am fairly sure jamin will be crawling in the next two weeks. he is rolling and scooting himself all over and i don’t think he’ll be content with slow moving for much longer. he already wants to do what the big boys do. *lol* he gets really upset when we pry their toys away from him. *heehee*
jeremiah and josiah love writing, drawing and coloring now. i moved their little table into the family room, right next to my computer desk, and they will spend hours just writing and drawing. it’s so cute!! good thing i bought that paper on sale last year…josiah is left-handed, and jerry has overheard jeremiah try to correct this. “not that hand, this hand!” he says in that big brother knows it all voice. today i mentioned that grampa and aunt natalie use their left hands to write also, and isn’t it neat that we aren’t all the same? i think he was confused with the RIGHT thing…the right hand should be the correct hand, ya know? *lol* my brother josh would also be left-handed, except he had a teacher with a medieval view of left-handedness and broke him of it. he is now practically ambidextrous though. that’s kind of cool. but i wonder if he’d be different now if that hadn’t happened.
we were gifted by a friend in my momma’s group with clothes for the boys. i mean top-brand stuff. most of it in great condition, some of it even brand new! what a blessing. the boys love the clothes too.
we got our tax money back and have paid all our overdue medical bills. we are set up to be a month ahead on our regular bills. i have a new camera (it’s not an SLR, it’s my in between camera), a new external hard drive (am i the only one who calls it an ex-drive?), two new memory cards, a new vacuum…hmmm what else? we still need to get jerry’s car at least looked at, a new garbage disposal, a new headlight for the van…it is really nice to be actually “ok” money-wise. i mean we’re not rolling in the dough or anything, but we’re ok!
well that’s about it for now i think. i plan to update on jamin’s 7-month birthday, but he doesn’t have his check-up until the 12th, so i might wait until then, we’ll see.
God bless!
Jumping Jamin!
i just had to share my cutie pie - i can’t believe he’s almost 7 mos already. jamin was trying out the jumperoo today. he loved it!
and here’s a video of it…
i wanted to wish my little nephew cooper a happy one month birthday today!! hard to believe! i also want to wish my cousin’s daughter isabel a happy four year birthday today!
jeremiah is REALLY into drawing lately. he loves working on letters and drawing. his newest favorite thing to draw is faces. they are too cute. we have like 20 of them on my desk right now. *lol* i need to scan them or take pics or something. he’s too cute. so proud of his work. poor josiah wants to do the same thing as his big brother, but he’s only two and a half, so of course it’s not going to look the same.
my boys are all so special. they each have the certain sparkle about them that makes them 100% unique, perfect and wonderful. i wouldn’t change anything about each of them, and i find them more amazing each and every day. i’m so very thankful to the Lord for blessing me with my four men. how could i ever ask for more?
i truly have some wonderful, sweet guys. i am so blessed. *sigh*
Happy Valentine’s Day!
i remember when i wanted to dress in black on valentine’s day. lol. oh the pitiful youth i was.
jeremiah wanted to write yesterday. he already knew how to write “e” and “o” and jerry showed him how “l” is just an “e” without the two top lines (jeremiah was so excited to learn this secret) and i showed him how the “v” was just like an upside down triangle without it’s top (this was equally thrilling). at the end, he was losing steam, and he didn’t want to write out “YOU” so he settled on “u”. lol we were beyond proud of him. i really thought his first written word would be his name. he’s already practiced writing the “e”s kind of close to each other, lol. that is our real goal anyway.
sorry it’s such horrible quality - it was taken with his camera.
also, i have a little funny: he was sitting on the toilet, and needed my help wiping. when he stood up, he said, “oh no mama, look at that.” pointing to his pantlegs. “what hon?” “my legs, they are almost totally out of my leg sleeves!!” stifling a giggle, i told him what they were really called, he repeated them, and i made a mental note to blog about it. he’s such a cutie.
josiah, still not feeling completely well, with his cold staying strong, but well enough to act up, is really milking the sickness thing. if he gets in trouble, a whiny “well, i’m sick!” comes out. he has had several fits because he thinks i should carry him all over the house. i didn’t carry him one time while he was sick, because he’s too big for me to do that. but jerry did carry him. jerry is at work. “papa is at work, honey. mama isn’t as strong as papa!” sigh. he is so darling though.
i never mentioned that i got something too, did i? running a fever, big strong cough, shakes and shivers, sore throat, upset tummy, yeah the whole fun deali-o. the worst of it has passed, i guess, but i still have a very sore throat and the cough is still horrid.
besides me, jamin was the last to get sick. poor thing is so miserable. his voice is nearly gone, so when he cries you can hardly hear him. i don’t even know he’s upset until i see his face turning red and tears streaming down his sweet cheeks. it’s so sad!! he hasn’t run a fever since yesterday morning, and it was low, but he’s still taking a while to heal up. my poor munchkin angel!! one thing that we’ve known about him since he was born is his hatred of his nose being wiped. i kid you not, he acts like nothing is going on when you take his temp, but if you put a kleenex to his nose, the police in the next town would think you’re murdering him. he HATES it. of course he’s been very sick and runny-nosed, so it’s had to be wiped a lot. horrible. just HORRIBLE. and of course we can’t find the aspirator anywhere (which i’m sure he thinks is a tool of the devil himself!!).
please pray that jerry’s wallet is discovered. he lost it at work last night. i keep picturing him being pulled over for something and him not having his license and the thought is terrifying.
oh, i have been meaning to mention this over and over, and keep forgetting. have you heard of RME (revolution money exchange)? it’s paypal’s new competition. well, if you send me your email that you’d like to sign up with, i can send you an invite. you would get $25 RME bucks. if you want, you can set it up to your checking account, and put the money right in there. or you can just use it online. many work at home moms are accepting it (like me lol) - most hyenacart.com moms are taking it. anyway, if you sign up through my invite, i get $10. we could really really use it right now, leading up to tax refund time, and nearing the end of our financial rope again. so if you have thought about doing it, please do. the invitations are only good until the 29th, then i don’t get the referral money anymore. my email is jenn at blessedmamacreations dot com.
i hope everyone is well. at least better than us over here.
Jeremiah is Four Years Old
he’s had a pretty good day all around! we had fun at bouncertown with gramma!
if you’d like to see how big he is, there’s a new pic of him in the sidebar, taken today. isn’t he so handsome?!
thanks for the well-wishes!!
My Baby Is Almost FOUR!!!
i can’t believe that my little baby jeremiah will be four years old in a few short hours. the thought boggles the mind. he has grown into such a little man! he’s so tall, so smart, so sweet, so fun.
today was full of his sweet, complicated self. there are a few things i need to write down now, before i forget them.
at about 4:00, he came up to me and said “mama, i want you to talk to God for me.” i said, “well, remember you can pray anytime you want. talking to God is exactly what praying is. why don’t you pray first, and then i will!” so he thought that was a good idea. the following will be paraphrased, since my memory is so horrible: “dear Lord, thank You for loving me. thank You for the nice day. i pray that you will make papa have to work only one day a week. i pray for the people at papa’s work. let them be safe, have sweet dreams and a good night. amen.” oh goodness, i almost giggled and cried. what a sweetheart! then it was my turn. i prayed that the Lord would lead us to a job for papa, one that would enable him to be at home with us more. obviously, that was NOT good enugh for him, because he gave me a sideways glance, and told me he was going to pray some more. he went off next to jamin’s swing, to be more private, i guess. now, we don’t do much praying silently (that he knows of LOL) so praying to him is praying aloud. this time, he started out with “dear God, i wish…” i interrupted him that we don’t WISH to God, we PRAY to God, so he changed it, “ok, dear God, i PRAY that papa can only work one day a week so he can be with me and my bubbies more. i pray that everyone is good and nice at his work and that they have sweet dreams. amen.”
oh goodness, i just love that boy. it’s hard to believe he’s going to be four, but at other times, it’s hard to believe he’s ONLY going to be four. he seems so well ahead of his years to me. other times, i see clearly how much of a baby he still is. oh i just love him so!!!
at one point, when i reminded him that he would be four years old tomorrow, he was running around the room. he stopped, mid-run and asked “but will i still be your kid?” *LOL* where on earth did that come from?! “yes, honey, you’ll always be my kid. you’ll be my kid even when you’re all grown up!” that seemed to satisfy him, because he went on running and having fun being all boy.
the theme for the night was definitely how much he missed papa. he kept telling me how hard it was when there’s only one at home. he meant only one adult, because only one adult means there’s only me to cook, only me to clean, only me to hold, read to and play with them. i’m often reminding them “mama is only one person. mama can’t do everything at one time, so i need you to be patient and wait.” he remembers every little thing that’s said to him. *sigh* so anyway, there was a big deal made about how much he missed papa, and i had to sit him down and tell him that, even though we are sad when we can’t have papa with us at all times, talking about and dwelling on that sadness isn’t going to help anything. it will probably make us feel even worse (this is a tip jerry gives me when i’m wallowing. it usually doesn’t help at the time. LOL). he seemed to really take that in, and made up his mind not to talk about it anymore. i was proud of him - he was much better in that than i have been as an adult. *blush*
tonight is very emotional for me. i really didn’t think it would hit me until tomorrow, but it’s really getting me. i’m so happy and so thankful for him. i can’t believe the blessing that he is, what he has been to me and our family. the Lord made him perfectly for us. he still has his ornery moments, but he is an amazingly sweet, smart, wonderful, caring little guy.
here’s an early happy birthday, to you baby! i love you, jeremiah thomas!!!!!!!!!!!!
i’m fixing eggs, bacon and apple oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow, and later, gramma is taking the boys and me to bouncertown. it’s kind of like chuck-e-cheese’s (i still want to call it showbiz!) but has those big bouncer things. we will either eat there or go somewhere afterwards. should be fun!!!
in other news, jamin is now officially in his crib. he’s slept in the pack-n-play the past 3 nights, and jerry moved the p&p downstairs and the crib into our room, so all is “normal”. i guess. LOL. i hope he does great all night long in it!
josiah now has night terrors, just like jeremiah has had. it’s so horrible. the past few nights, each of them has ended up in bed with me. i feel so helpless with things like that. do some parents just ignore the crying? i can’t, even when i need the sleep.
i would like to ask that you pray for my friend amanda and her family. she just lost a family member, someone very dear to her. i don’t want to say more, because i didn’t ask her about it. but please pray.
God bless you.
