Quickly

Just some updates for the "Baby Book"
* Caelen can read and write her name all by herself. She knows how to write about half of the alphabet and there's only a few letters left that she doesn't always recognize.
*Addison is saying, "Ah Da" and waving her hands for All Done. She also had certain sounds for certain things like Dog and Night Night and Bye.

We're shut up with the flu, and by "we" I mean me. Thomas seems to be doing alright and Caelen just told me she has a sore throat. I haven't had the body aches and chills in a long time. I think I'll put on Wonder Pets Save the Nutcracker and take a nap.

Mini- Heart Attack #742

So after a huge fat lip, then a run in with a friend that left Caelen's face in disrepair, she scratched her cornea on her right eyeball!! UGH
Poor baby was out in the living room trying to dress herself when I hear screaming. I come out to find her covering her eye and screaming. When I asked what had happened all she could do was point to the plastic hanger that was half way removed from the neck of her dress she was going to wear. I comforted her, said it would be OK and we headed to my moms.
2 hours later she's still covering her eye and screaming bloody murder ever 30 seconds or so, so I'm figuring this is far and above the usual drama attributed to an owie. We head to the doctor who stains her eye, shines a purple light on it and there it was in all it's glory: a huge triangle shaped scratch across her eye.
She spent the rest of the day screaming and fussing and holding her "bauchie" to her eyes. She went about 4 hours without opening either eye and we had to have all the lights off and blinds closed. So here's my Helen Keller "watching" Wonder Pets.

My nerves were destroyed by the end of the day. The poor girl was in a ton of pain, but these heal wonderfully quickly as the pediatrician assured me. Sure enough, she woke up this morning and never said a thing about it!
Then she burned her hand on the fireplace....

You shoulda seen the other guy...

Here's Caelen literally half an hour before -

- she said, "Watch me Daddy! I'm tricky" and ended up like this:
She jumped over a full laundry basket, landed in it and her face went flat on the hardwood floor. She was screaming before she could stand up and by the time I got to her she was bleeding all over the place. I think her teeth just mangled her lip up. We got a ziploc baggie of frozen breast milk, put a paper towel around it and had her hold that to her lip all night (changing the paper towel about 6 times) until she said she was tired and wanted to go to bed. The next morning it was still bleeding a bit. Luckily by the end of the next day she just had a little scab on the front of her lip. I swear the girl gives me mini-heart attacks all day long.

One Piece of the Whole Picture

We're about to get pretty philosophical and very theological tonight folks.
What prompted my musings was a very common, absolutely daily occurrence in my house. Addison found one of her 4 hour old bottles on the living room floor, just barely peeking out from under the coffee table. Just as she brought it to her lips, I snatched it away gently and said, "Yucky baby, Mama will get you a new one." Man, did she start to wail! just as she always does. My reassurances were barely heard over her sobs as she crawled, head down into the kitchen after me. She parked herself at my feet and continued the crying as she watched me clean the bottle, fill it with nice warm water and being to scoop formula into it.
And all of a sudden I saw myself, only I was Addison. Wailing and moaning because the thing I just knew I wanted had been taken from me. Things weren't going the way I expected, as far as I could tell, Whoever had taken it from me was mean and spiteful. The only problem was, I didn't know the whole story.
Just as Addison didn't know the whole story. She didn't know that the 4 hour old formula would not only taste bad, it might make her tummy sick and it was almost empty. Her mommy had to take the very thing she thought she wanted away so that she could give her something better; A full, warm and new bottle. Something more wonderful than what she had been clinging tightly to.
Oh isn't that us!? We think we know, from our limited information and young perspective what MUST be best! We know exactly what we think we want and what must be right and true. But there is so much that we don't know. So much that only our Heavenly Parent knows, and yet when He takes something from us, or makes us wait for something, we holler and scream and say, "WHY!? I don't understand!!!" And if we would just quiet down a bit, we'd probably hear Him saying, "Be patient my child, I'm working on something even better than what you had your sweet little heart set on. Trust me because I love you."

Addison's Dedication

I think a dedication really must be the parents dedicating themselves to raise their children to know the God of the universe. And a great chance for their church family to meet the precious child they've been blessed with. So on Nov. 8 we dedicated our precious Addison. I really felt like it was just a sweet step in the process that began the moment I knew I had conceived her and I prayed to the Lord that that child would just love Him more than anything.

This is me, rolling my eyes at my husband in front of the entire church. The story goes like this: I told him I had a verse picked out to read for Addison, I had been praying it for her for a few weeks and had it written on an index card. I reminded him a couple times that morning to get it, he said he had the reference memorized. I only found out, right here in front of everyone that he had forgotten the reference and had no idea what the verse was. So there you go, hence the glare! :) I'm so the righteous wife.....

The verse was Proverbs 14:26 - "He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge."

He talked about a spiritual heritage and anyone who knows Thomas knows that he can talk eloquently in a tight spot, so it was all good.

No more hauling firewood for her!

The eldest Miss Kline has recieved a bug (most likely spider) bite to her right hand. It's on the side along her pointer finger and boy is she all worked up. She says it really hurts and she pitches a fit about it every 30 seconds even though we're trying to distract her with Wonder Pets. I noticed a tiny red bump there last night before she went to bed so I'm figuring it's nothing to worry about since she's not vomitting or has a fever by this point.
So we've iced it and put a Baking Soda/ Meat Tenderizer paste on it and we'll see how it goes. I did attempt some nice cherry flavored Children's Benedryl which she promptly spat out all over her party dress. Hopefully her friends' birthday party will distract her otherwise I'll be going crazy by the end of the day.

Last night Addison was saying Night Night to her Daddy. As I held her she waved to him and then we headed to her darkened room so I could walk around and cuddle her before putting her down. She lay with her head against my chest, then suddenly looked up and out of her room, said, "Da!" and started waving again. Oh I about died! She wanted to say Night Night to Daddy one more time.

An older Peek A Boo

Here's a long overdue video of my sweet Addison, who could not be a happier person if she tried.


Riding home from Bible Study I asked Caelen what she learned about:
Caelen: Umm... the light and the darkness... and rest and play....
Me: Did you have fun?
Caelen: Yup
Me: Did you hear a story?
Caelen: Yup.... About the light and the darkness.... Mom, I already told you, how many times do you want me to tell you?

Addison waves now, but only for Night night. I don't really know how she figured it out but the other night I said, "Say night night" and she just started waving to Papa and Caelen! She also does a half baked sign for "All Done" so I can't tell if she's waving or saying she's over it.
She also says, "Hi" in her own little Addison voice, and peeked over her high chair down at the dog and said, "DA. DA."

Life Lately!

I have no excuse for how busy I have been and how few blogs I have been turning out, so here's some quick updates!!

The newest member of the "commune" was added on Nov 29th - Maximus Spolini.

Then there was Halloween which we weren't even sure was going to happen since our missy here refused to dress up and go to the Harvest Party for Awanas. I had to bribe her, "I'll dress up like the scarecrow if you'll dress up!" So there you have it - Dorothy, Toto and Scarecrow.

My little leader of the pack was on to the next house before some people had gotten there candy at the current house. She said Trick or Treat before and after the door was opened to her and sometimes stepped inside and helped herself announcing, "I'm Dorothy!" No one seemed to mind and were gracious hosts to my outgoing girl. (As I hollared from the sidewalk, "Caelen come out honey! I'm sorry ma'am!")

For the life of me I can't get this picture to turn the right way so tip your head to the right. It's Caelen's first drawing of a person. She's not yet 3. The round circle is his tummy and the line is the mouth.

My Miss Addie was dedicated to the Lord this Sunday at church along with 4 other babies! She's so beautiful if I do say so myself.

And next time I get a minute I promise I won't play Bejeweled on Facebook, I'll blog!!