Laine "Spits" at Church

Hopefully this is the last time one of our children vomits at church. Ridge did it sometime last year and Laine had her turn today. This morning I could have guessed that she was going to throw up, she woke up looking very pale and kind of green, but I assumed she was feeling very weak because she didn't eat anything for dinner (Eric took the kids to ChuckECheese while I was at the RS broadcast) and she fell asleep early. She has done this before, the not eating part, and wakes up complaining that her stomach hurts and she acts really weak. So I assumed that she was feeling bad from hunger. Guessed wrong.

I was out feeding Sommer and Diana McQuay poked her head in the door,

"Paige, your daughter is throwing up all over the place."

I started to dash out of the room and Diana offered to take the baby. Eric and I missed each other, he went out one door and I came in the other door to the chapel. This happened during the sacrament, not much to mask the noise or our brief confusion. So I ran out the door he left and the people in the foyer pointed me in the right direction. I found Eric and Laine in the bathroom. Eric had done a good job of catching most of the mess in Laine's dress, though his suit also got yucked. He took Laine home and took care of her. I stayed with the boys and cleaned up the mess which was remarkably little compared to what was on Laine's dress. Diana held Sommer for the duration of church which was a huge help because things got crazy in Primary later.

(I should side note that Ridge has done really well at mastering his gag reflex. Last year he probably would have been throwing up too at the sight of Laine vomiting and the mess would have been huge. This is a big accomplishment for him.)

I'm the 1st counselor and I got a call from the primary president this morning that she was feeling much too sick to come to church. This is from a woman who runs her own in-home daycare and preschool and it takes a lot to knock her down so I knew she must be feeling awful. She left me instructions on announcements and the children to be spotlighted for the day, nothing too hard to handle. Since it is the 5th Sunday we had a guest lined up to do Sharing Time which our ward does during the last hour of church. I was a little concerned that the guest hadn't come in at all to set up during that middle hour but thought there must not be anything to prepare. During opening exercises I had the chorister run out to find the mother who was going to do the spotlights. She couldn't find her. She came back and lead the kids in some songs while I went to look for her and try to find our guest sharing time person. The mother forgot to bring the pictures she was going to share of her children, no problem -- I told her to plan on doing it the next week. Couldn't find the sharing time guest.

So I ran back upstairs and confirmed with the daughter of said person that yes, due to some home repair crisis, the guest was a no show. I got a few things together from the library and conducted sharing time. It went well enough, but what a scramble. Thankfully, Sommer was a good baby. The other counselor was filling in at nursery for that 3rd hour (we've had some nursery staffing issues lately but those are going to be solved soon) otherwise she would have helped out. And the secretary was out visiting her mother. Anyway, it was just 3 hours of my life, but a crazy 3 hours.

Playing Toothfairy

Ridge lost another tooth this week. He put his tooth in a plastic bag under his pillow and along with the tooth was a note with this question:

"What do you do with all the teeth?"

We've read a book called "Arthur Tricks the Toothfairy" and it says that the toothfairy builds her castle with all of the teeth. So knowing that the best answer to the question was taken I came up with my own -- She throws them into the ocean so they can become sand. I know, not the greatest answer. He didn't tell us that he was going to ask the toothfairy a question so I couldn't ask in the morning, what her answer was. Later on, after school he said,

"You know what the toothfairy does with all of the teeth? She throws them into the ocean so they turn into sand. I thought she used them to build her castle."

Twlight Treats

My sister-in-law, Sara, just went to a Twlight bookclub meeting/party and she brought these:Mini apple bites covered in chocolate in honor of Edward,
and Chex muddy buddies in a dog dish in honor of Jacob.

Don't worry, it was a new dog dish.

I am in charge of our church book club but I don't think the other ladies would go for this book, otherwise I'd suggest it and bring these treats.

Sleep Deprivation

"To the parents of Sommer Josephine Blaser:" we got a packet from the health department yesterday with information on how Sommer should be growing and progressing. There was also a pamphlet on postpartum depression. I looked over it and started to panic, I had so many of the symptoms! But I think there has to be more. I know I'm walking a thin line here, and I know that ppd is a real thing (thank you Brooke Shields) but I think that my condition is due to lack of regular sleep. How about another condition, syndrome called PPE -- postpartum exhaustion? Is there a pill for that? I think the prescription would be more sleep, but how does one do that with 4 children?

What doesn't help is that Eric has had a crazy schedule the past few weeks. He has been working really early and really late which means that I'm working alone here. I can manage but it really has gotten exhausting. He should have a more regular schedule soon but then he needs to recover from his crazy hours. (Last weekend he could barely function, he was falling asleep during singing time in primary.) He is suffering from exhaustion as much as I am. Isn't it a form of torture to deprive people of sleep?

Sommer does sleep but she doesn't burp very well, at least not when she is sleeping. So during the night I'll feed her and then try to get her to burp but she won't so I end up holding her for a while and usually I doze off for a bit then realize that I'm still holding her so I put her in the bassinet again but she doesn't sleep very long because she is gassy and uncomfortable so then she starts grunting off and on for a while which eventually leads to crying and wanting to eat again. No matter how I move her around at night, she just doesn't like to burp when she is asleep. So we still don't sleep well at night.

Today I was so tired. While Cannon was at preschool I had Laine watch tv and then do her computer games so I could take a nap. But what a wonder a nap is! Here's where the depression thing comes in, I was starting to cry, feeling guilty because I'm not nurturing Laine, but then I told myself that getting some more sleep will help everything look rosier and sure enough, I felt so much better after a short nap. We had 20 minutes before we needed to get Cannon and so I continued to neglect my daughter and I cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen floor, other tasks that were making me feel overwhelmed that were never getting done.

I know, it has only been 7 weeks since Sommer was born. I must say that I am so glad that she's here and I feel very blessed to be her mom. It is such a sweet feeling to hold a little baby. I know that she'll sleep through the night, eventually, and that in another year from now I won't feel this way. But for now, I am tired.

Eclipse

Poor Jacob Black.

Go Cheetahs!

It looked like it was going to be a very long season of losing soccer games for Cannon's team (even though no one really keeps score), but this week they seem to have figured it out. Grady scored something like 8 goals, he kept running down the field, and the other kids caught on this week too. Cannon had a few times where he brought the ball down the field and almost scored but kicked the ball just outside of the goal even though he was only inches from the line. But I was still proud of him because he seemed to get it this week. I wasn't holding out for much since he spent most of the first game enjoying falling down and being on the ground. The picture below shows Cannon doing somersaults out of his chair and onto the field when he was waiting to be subbed in. He later was doing them on the field, I think he even did one through the goalposts just for the joy of somersaulting himself into the goal. The coaches for his team are parents of one of his teammates and they are doing such a great job. I'm really grateful for the positive experience they are creating for all of these kids. Cannon really enjoys practice and they are really coaching them because all of them are showing progress. It was fun to watch.
These pictures are from the first game. I would have taken pictures today -- if my camera wasn't in the dump. I also would have taken pictures of Laine running around in her Tinkerbell costume. A friend passed along an outgrown Tinkerbell costume and Laine has been wearing it around over her clothes for the past few days. I think she feels like a princess. She looks really cute running around the yard, a true pixie.

Confession

Decided that I didn't want to wait for my mom to finish reading my sister's copy of New Moon so I bought my own yesterday at CostCo. Finished it tonight.

The Farewell

Last weekend Sommer and I went to California to say goodbye to Lance. He did a great job speaking in church on Sunday and he looked so handsome and like a missionary. One evening he said, "maybe when I get home everyone will stop treating me like I'm still 12." I told him not to get his hopes up, we all just love him as our little brother no matter how old he gets. I'm so glad I was able to go see him off. It was so nice to just have Sommer with me because I was actually able to converse with everyone without the many interruptions of my children. I'm very blessed to have a great family -- I love you all so much. Part of the reason Eric and I wanted to have 4 children is because we hope that our kids will enjoy their relationships with their siblings all through their lives as much as we enjoy ours.

Lance left for the Brazil MTC yesterday. 2 years is a long time, he'll be missed but we are all so glad that he decided to serve a mission.

Obviously this isn't a missionary shot, from the beach house last summer. But these are three great missionaries. Kent served in Spain and Matt in Washington DC. Lance is on the right. I forgot to bring my camera. See Lark's blog for more pictures and a better report of the weekend.And here is a really sad thing, I can't find it now and I'm worried that I left it on the computer table and it fell off and into the trash can and then got thrown away (Ridge helped Eric empty all the trash cans on Sunday night and he wouldn't have noticed if it was in there as he dumped the trash into the bigger bag). I can't find it anywhere and it makes me sick to think it might be tumbling around in the land fill.

Twilight

So I finally read Twilight and like everyone said, I loved it. I have been hearing about what a great book it is since December last year when Sara, Eric's sister, told me about it. But I think I should have been given more warning about it from all of my friends and family members who have read it. They all just said, you have to read this. Or how about a disclaimer from the author. Something like: this book may make you pine away for the vampire boyfriend you were never lucky enough to have.

Why couldn't I have read this book in high school (besides the fact that it wasn't written yet)? I can see my high school romantic/ridiculous self secretly hoping to find a vampire boyfriend if I held out long enough to go to the University of Puget Sound despite the obvious moral differences in our views of immortality. I would have thus saved myself from several ridiculous boyfriends. Especially as a runner, who wouldn't want to run like they do in the book? I never would have fallen over that hurdle...

What a great character Stephanie Meyer created with Edward and the rest of them. And by the way, the sun really doesn't shine that much here, that wasn't a fictional part of her story.

A Month of Sommer

What Cannon Learned Today

This week in preschool Cannon's class is learning about feelings. Today's project was a face with a mouth that can turn to make happy, sad, surprised or mad expressions. His teacher also helped him fill out a chart with the following answers:

I feel happy . . . going to McDonalds.

I feel sad . . . when my brother hits me with a light saber.

I feel angry . . . when my brother breaks my bionicle.

I feel afraid . . . when my brother scares me.

Hmm. And I thought that he and Ridge had become good friends this summer. I guess this does show that they have a relationship of some kind.

First Day of School!

Ready for school!
The big 1st grader.
Heading to the bus stop. Ridge's stop used to be a few houses down the street but now it is down the street and around the corner. It will not be easy, or fun, to get everyone ready and out the door when it is raining. I think I'll end up driving Ridge to school more often this year. I'm sure he'll get more comfortable and walk over there with the other kids (they are all 4th grade and up) from our street in a few months but until then...
There he goes!

It almost didn't happen, the teachers were going to strike, but luckily they didn't and Ridge went off to 1st grade! He was a nervous wreck the night before; he said that school is boring and he just seemed so anxious. Eric gave everyone a father's blessing and it seems like the day was happy for everyone despite the tears the night before. It was a lot easier for Ridge (and me) to get on the bus, neither of us shed any tears. Eric went into work a later than usual so he could be there too. Then he took Cannon to preschool. Cannon was so excited to see his friends again, he was giving everyone hugs. He is happy to be going to school too. After school a few girls in his class told me that he was mean to them at gym. At least he is nice to his sister, we'll have to work on being nicer to the girls.



Laine and I had a quiet morning. I was able to get the mountain of laundry folded then we took Sommer to the Dr. At her 2 week check the dr put silver nitrate on her umbilical stump because it wasn't doing a good job of falling off on its own. It finally fell off yesterday but it looked weird, at least to me it looked weird, not like a belly button should. It actually does look like like a real button, smooth and peachy, but that is just the top part that folds over this gunky mess. When you push back the smooth part then there is this pussy gunk and redness. So since none of the others had this yuckiness I took her in to have it checked. Turns out it is fine but she is going to have one major "outie" if it doesn't even itself out more. That's one way to keep a kid modest. I was mad because we waited for 30 minutes in the room and then had 3 minutes with the Dr. Not that I needed more time with her but to wait that long? Since Sommer was asleep, Laine and I played trucks so Laine got some good mommy time which means that my time sitting there wasn't a complete waste. The dr did apologize but I think she really should have thanked me for getting her closer to being on schedule for the day. If only we lived closer to Lark and Parker so I could have stopped by for medical advice.

The other missionaries

On Friday, as we were, literally, heading out of the house to go to the library, there was a knock at the door. Two men were standing there with Bibles in hand, ready to share a message. I'm not looking for another religion, but I do appreciate a nice message and I can empathize with what these "missionaries" are doing so I nodded my consent. There was a younger one and an older one. I had Sommer in my arms and Laine and Cannon ran out the door around me. Ridge sat/hid on the couch by the door. So even though it was obvious that I couldn't really have a meaningful discussion, they felt like I needed a short message. It was the younger one's turn to do the door approach and he launched into his discussion with a scripture, I think it was in John about God is love, and then the question, "do you ever wonder why God allows so much suffering in this world?" There was more to it, but that was the basic idea, quite gloom and doom. He liked my response, something along the lines of God gives us all agency in this life and men make their own decisions and they can choose right or wrong and that God doesn't cause suffering, but the decisions we make can cause suffering for us and others. He was so excited about my answer that he read a scripture further along in the chapter that was a summary of what I had said. Then he offered me a free Bible study guide, not just a pamphlet but a book, which I declined since I really wasn't interested and I didn't want him to get his hopes up and then come back to see what I thought at another time when I didn't really have the time to talk.

If I were Eric while on his mission I would have taken the study guide. In one of his areas they had a competition to see who could get the most J dub literature. Each item had a point value, the hymnal garnered the most points, which Eric actually acquired because one day they tracted out a study group and he asked if they had a hymn book that he could have. They happily gave him one. So he won. There you go Lance, more mission advice.


So at this point I was ready to go and thought that the discussion was over but I had to answer one more question because I had said I was happy with my own religion and didn't want the study guide. Basically, how will God make everything right? This is where I failed the door approach test. I said the 3rd article of faith in my own words. I saw his face drop and he closed with, "well, we've had a nice discussion here this morning." I'm not sure what they believe about how God will make all the suffering right but with that little discussion I had the chance to reaffirm what I know to be true, that Jesus Christ is our Savior.