Oops - REAL Finn update

So the previous post was written about a week ago and then set to auto publish yesterday. Funnily enough, the post was about Finn but at the time it was written I had no idea that it would publish the day he would come home from an unplanned hospital stay.So here's a more current update about Finn.
On Friday morning he woke up throwing up and so we called his genetics team. They wanted him to come in through the ER at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital for lab work, an IV for calories and hydration, and possibly be admitted. Grant took Finn in around 9:30am that day and didn't return until 5pm yesterday (so overall they spent one night there and almost two whole days.
It's never fun to be at the hospital but there weren't any open rooms so they had to spend the night in the ER, in a little room with no windows. Grant also wasn't feeling great but since I'm nursing Carolina every couple of hours I couldn't really leave her.
I could go into details about why it's so hard to have an almost-two-year-old in the hospital but I'll just say this and let you use your imagination:
needle sticks, interrupted sleep schedule/routine, tethered to a crib, other crying children around.
Poor baby. Needless to say he is much, much happier at home, is recovering well, and we are all glad to have our family intact again.
I never posted these photos of Finn from his hospitalization back in July. This first one was probably the day he was discharged. Do you see the white thing on his arm? They call it a "no no" as in, "No! No! Don't touch that!" It covers up his IV so he can't pull at it or mess with it.

He was so wimpy; he would just fall asleep in our arms all day. I felt sorry for him but I loved getting so much time to hold him.
Here he is again, sleeping, with that darn IV. He also had a feeding tube during this hospital stay. Boo. We don't take his health for granted.

Finn update

After being sick for nearly a month (upper-respiratory junk) with a corresponding zombie-like personality, our sweet, hilarious boy is back! He is lately very into sunglasses and doesn't discriminate between girly sunglasses and manly sunglasses. Our priest saw this photo and said he looks like Elton John. I'm not sure how I feel about that comparison but I think Finn looks pretty cute anyway.
Like many boys, Finn is pretty much the happiest when he's naked. Actually, I think most children are happiest when naked. Anyway, at the end of the day when we're all tired of being nice, especially if we've stayed in all day, sometimes we just need a dance party. If you know me well you'll know I don't dance. However, when it's just me with my family, I have no problem dancing around like an idiot. The kids seem to laugh a lot. I wonder why? And the only thing better than a dance party is a naked dance party, so here's Finn having a grand old time (I wouldn't normally post a naked photo of my kids but this one is so blurry that I feel okay about it.)
The other day Finn did something that upset Maggie and Maggie retaliated by pushing or hitting him and grabbing a toy out of his arms. Rather than act on my first impulse of hitting Maggie (kidding, kidding) I thought up a great punishment. I told Maggie she would have to read two books of Finn's choosing, out loud to him. She hated it because she thinks they're "baby" books, and he LOVED it because he thinks she hung the moon and the boy loves his books. And it gave me ten minutes of quiet and a great photo op.
As I mentioned, Finn (mostly) thinks Maggie is the greatest thing ever and will follow her around the house like a puppy dog. Seriously, I can almost hear him pant when he follows her from one room or activity to the next. It's cute that he adores her so much but also sad because more than half the time she is totally annoyed by this behavior. I think it's how I was with my older sister and we're very close now so I have high hopes for my kids' future friendship. But it's still sad to watch him adore her and her push him away (literally AND figuratively!).
Finn also had a genetics appointment in December and everything is great. They're impressed with his development and we're managing his isovaleric acidemia very well, thank God!

Carolina at three months

My, how time flies! I can hardly believe she's three months old already. I've heard so many people say that the first three months are the hardest (some even use the word "hell") and honestly, I pretty much agree. It seems like once they hit three months they're sleeping better, they're on a little more of a routine, they're more interactive, you're kind of getting into a groove, etc. HOWEVER, as I've said before, this has been my easiest transition (from two to three) and has been the easiest "fourth trimester" that I've had. I don't know how much of it is Carolina's easygoing temperament and how much of it is the fact that I'm much more relaxed now than I was with Maggie or even Finn, but it's just been so much easier.
She's so bright-eyed and love, love, loves smiling, cooing, etc. The other day I carried her in from the car and set her carseat down on the floor while I took my coat and shoes off and got Finn and Maggie inside and settled. I came back into the room and she was just sitting in her car seat, smiling at the little bug toys we have hanging from it. Luckily I had my phone with me and snapped a quick shot.
She also has found her thumb and I couldn't be happier. I'm sure I'll be cursing that thumb sucking in a few years but it helped Finn self-soothe and it's already helping her a lot. I've started swaddling her with one arm out so that she has access to that thumb and throughout the night I'll hear her start to wake up, find the thumb, go to town sucking it, and then settle back down. I'm nervous to even type this for fear of jinxing it, but several nights in the last week she has been sleeping from 7:30 or 8 until 3:30am! It's great and I hope it continues!
Carolina also is looking and acting older than she is. She's still very tall and growing so fast - she's in the 95th percentile for height and weight. She's rolled over once from front to back (probably a fluke), is trying to roll from back to front, and tries to stand whenever she can. If I just balance her upper body she'll stand in my lap for 30 seconds or so. We had a baby shower for my younger sister, Lindsay, yesterday, and at the shower Lindsay's sister-in-law, who happens to be a doctor, said, "She doesn't know she's only three months!" I mean, if a doctor says it, then it must mean that she's advanced, right?! (Kidding...sort-of.)

Prayer

Every night with Maggie we read one book plus a Bible story, say prayers, and kiss goodnight. This is a much streamlined version compared with our old, pre-Finn routine of two books, a Bible story, several songs, long prayers, going through the list of questions my wonderful-but-slightly-OCD daughter had to have answered before she could sleep, etc. Anyway, we used to just pray but about a year ago we started asking Maggie if she wanted to pray and so we've had lots of conversations about what prayer is, how we should pray, and so on. (It's funny how as parents you're asked questions as if you're an expert on the subject. It makes me wish I could remember all the things I asked my parents as if THEY were experts on the subject.)
Anyway, we've lately been talking a lot with Maggie about asking God questions when you pray and she has taken the practice up with gusto. The other night was a particularly awesome night for her prayers and so as soon as I walked out of her room for the night I HAD to write down her questions.
Here's a transcript of her prayer that night.
Maggie: Dear God, thank you for this day and thank you for my friends and everything I love and everyone I love and please let me have a good day tomorrow. Now, Dad said I could ask you questions so here they are. God, why did Elle die? God, why do Hello Kitty's (her stuffed animal) undies always fall down around her legs? God, why did you wait so long to let me sleep in my undies?

I just love the variety of questions she asked. I mean, she has "why did my sister die?" right up there with wetting the bed and stuffed animals.

The tricky part is that soon I'm sure she'll ask about how God answers her questions and I'm not sure I'll have a good answer for her. That's a field in which I am not an expert.

Here's my good pray-er and her sweet sister:

This photo of Finn is from this summer but I don't think I ever posted it and I just love it. Look at his chunky little legs. This onesie was a gift from Finn's Uncle Steve and Uncle James shortly after his birth and hospitalization. The front says "I am a miracle" and the back has angel wings on it. I love it because so much about Finn's life is miraculous.
Maggie would hold Carolina all day, every day if I would let her.Finn has become quite talkative lately. We love to make him say funny or weird words like "eyeball" or "volcano". I can't really explain why except that it makes us all laugh. He loves to say "Bye-bye" but not just when someone is leaving. If I offer him a book or food or toy that he doesn't want instead of just saying no he'll say "Bye-bye." If he's ready to leave a place or leave a person he'll also say "bye-bye." It reminds me of a fashion designer who has had enough, as in, "I'm done with you. Bye-bye." I don't even know if that makes sense but it just cracks us up. He's become a much better eater in the last month or two. It used to be that we couldn't give him more than one piece or bite of food at a time as he would cram it all into his mouth. He also was pretty picky and wouldn't eat normal things like rice or pasta. Now he'll try many different kinds of foods and often likes and will eat things that he wouldn't eat just a few months ago. I just can't handle him being a picky eater on top of dealing with his dietary restrictions! But he's remarkably healthy and still the cuddliest, sweetest little guy ever.

Various cuteness

I am addicted to taking photos of my kids when they're sleeping. I can't help it. They're so cute!
See for yourself...
This photo of Maggie and cousin Jack is from the Music and Molasses Festival this summer. My sister Erin titled it "Cute Cousins Watching Bluegrass."
Maggie's Poppy has an iPad and they've had lots of fun playing on it together. Maggie had this piece of cardboard and decided to draw her own iPad. Each of the little icons on the iPad is an app of some sort, whether real or imagined by Maggie, but either way she can tell you exactly what each app is and what it does. I am always impressed by her imagination.
She found an old disposable camera when I was cleaning out a drawer and she asked if she could have it. I gave it to her and the next day at church she pretended to take photos and video of all of her friends. The funny thing is that she had them all convinced that it was actually recording. They were telling her they can't wait to see her movie.
And then the next week we were going to play at church with some friends and she decided she wanted to teach an art class. She got a sheet of paper and wrote "Art Class" at the top. As each child came in she had him or her write their name on the paper. Then she took them into an adjoining room and that was the last I saw until I went to check on them 30 minutes later. She had about six children sitting at the table doing art projects with the art supplies she had brought. That little girl is destined to be a leader and it's so fun to imagine her future.
Here's my little smiley girl. It's blurry but still cute.

Last Christmas post, I promise

I just found two more photos from A Dickens of a Christmas. Here is my entire family, minus Maggie. Can you find Carolina? It's like Where's Waldo.
And here's Maggie, who requested to sit in the back with Erin and Jack.
Here is our annual photo with the cousins and Santa. It's a classic. Maggie is grinning, Finn and Jack are nonplussed, Carolina is oblivious, and Lily Kate is a wreck.

And MORE Christmas

There are so many great photos taken by my step-dad, Benton, from Christmas at his and my mom's house, so I thought I'd devote an entire blog entry to them.
I'd like to start by saying how absolutely gorgeous I think this boy is. Watch out, ladies, in about 20 years.
And here's my brother, Chris. Isn't he sweet holding Carolina? Won't he be a great dad one day?
And for another handsome boy, check out my nephew, Jack. Love the hair, Jack.
And my favorite of all handsome boys, my hubby. Can't you just see him saying, "Thank you for my gift, Martha and Benton!"? Actually he was making some joke about the packing material. Have I ever mentioned how much he makes me laugh? No matter how hard times are or what we're going through, he can always make me laugh. He is so hilarious.
And now for some beautiful ladies. There are lots of them in my family but here are a few of them. First, the matriarch. I know she'll roll her eyes at me putting this photo up but I think she just looks like her teenage self here and so I love it. She's so gorgeous it could be irritating except that she's even MORE beautiful on the inside (and I'm not talking about her intestines, although I'm sure those are hot, too).
Just look at this delicious little baby. Yep, she's mine!
Maggie has such great expressions.
Now we're done with the beautiful women section. I hate, hate, hate photos of myself, but I have decided in the last year that I am going to be in them anyway, and even post or print some, because I know when I'm an old lady that I'd be sad to look back and not have any photos of myself. So here I am.
And in the same vein, here I am with Finn and my sweet niece, Lily Kate, opening Christmas stockings.
Carolina is so talkative now. She'll just coo and gurgle at anyone who will give her a minute (but...I get the most coos!). Even Finn will walk up to her and say "goo" to get her to talk back to him. Do I look happy in this photo? Well, I am.

Christmas Countdown Paper Chain, Part II

Something sad about this Christmas is that Maggie figured out the truth about Santa. It started innocently enough when she asked if the tooth fairy was really parents. I told her the truth and that was that. Then, about two weeks later she asked if Santa was like the tooth fairy. I asked her what she meant and she said, "Is Santa your parents? Because it seems like Santa is really your parents." I sort of put her off and meanwhile tried to figure out what to say to her. Finally Grant and I told her that yes, Santa is really parents, and that it's just like a fun game to play and we were going to keep playing it with her and Finn and Carolina. Luckily they're too young to know one way or the other but when they're old enough to know I want to do all the fun Santa stuff with them, too. Maggie wasn't upset at all and took it in stride. I also made her promise not to tell anyone at school, church, or her cousins, and she kept her promise. I just can't believe she figured it out so early! I thought we had several years left before she found out.
Another one of our Christmas activities was going to see the lights and decorations at Opryland Hotel. We HAVE to go every year and this year on the day I had scheduled us to go it actually snowed enough to close down the roads. Then Grant was out of town and things got away from us until the week after Christmas, but I feel like we squeezed it on so my tradition is still intact. We even found a top secret free parking lot (I won't tell you where it was but I will say we didn't get towed and didn't have to pay the outrageous $20 parking fee). Maggie always loves to see the giant outdoor nativity scene (you can kind of see it behind them, below).One day's Christmas activity was the Christmas pageant at our church. (PS-If you go to our church's website you might see someone familiar on the home page, although this familiar person may be in an unfamiliar person's arms.) This year was super exciting for Maggie because she was upgraded from lowly sheep to heavenly angel. Here she is as an angel with her friend, Adie.
In other exciting pageant news, the role of baby Jesus was played by none other than our sweet Carolina! My friend Susan's daughter was Mary and she did a great job with Carolina. Carolina was peacefully gazing around for the first half and then when she started fussing halfway through I got her back from Mary.After the pageant the children had birthday parties for Jesus in their Sunday School classes. Here's Maggie with Mimi right before her party.Some of our other fun activities included decorating a gingerbread house, making cookies for Santa, making Christmas cards for friends, wrapping Christmas presents, decorating the house, baking treats to take to our neighbors, and painting Maggie's fingernails red and green (see below). It was so much fun and I plan on doing it again every year.

Christmas Countdown Paper Chain, Part I

We did something so fun this year for Christmas. It wasn't my idea so I can't take credit but Maggie and I made a red and green paper chain with 24 links on it. On each link I wrote the date (December 1 through December 24) and a Christmas activity for that day. If there was something already scheduled (like our church's Christmas pageant) then I put that as the day's activity, and I filled in the rest of the days with activities I thought of. Then each morning Maggie would get to take off the day's link and see what the activity was. It was fun because the activities and anticipation were fun and it also gave her a visual for counting down the days until Christmas. I didn't get any photos of the paper chain but I did photograph some of the activities.
One day we went to Starbucks and had a peppermint hot chocolate (hmmm...maybe that activity was as much for me?!).
Another day we went to A Dickens of a Christmas in downtown Franklin. It's a neat little festival where people roam the (roped off) streets dressed as characters from A Christmas Carol, vendors sell roasted chestnuts and sugar plums, and there are horse-drawn trolley rides around the town square. We met up with my sister, Erin, and her family there. Here's Maggie with Aunt Erin and cousin Jack.
Here's one of me and the kids at Dickens of a Christmas. Why am I the only one looking at the camera?!
Another activity was making s'mores in the oven. I'm not sure why this was a Christmas activity but it just seemed like fun (and it was!).
Check back soon for Christmas Countdown Activities, Part II!

Accidentally taking a little break...

What can I say? It's been a busy month with Christmas, New Year's, Grant's family in town, and, oh, yeah, we have three small children!
So here's a rundown on the last month or so.
We had a good but weird Christmas. Most of us were sick at some point or another, Carolina has been going through a phase of not napping more than about 45 minutes at a time, so that was rough, and things just felt kind of off. But mostly it was great. We enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa (Grant's parents) in town with us for Christmas.
This year Maggie got a much-coveted American Girl doll from her Mimi and Poppy. We had told her she had to be six to have one and later changed our mind (without telling her) so she was beyond surprised and excited when she got it. The look on her face when she opened it was just pure joy and she rushed over to my mom where she hugged her, hard, for several minutes. I keep walking in on her just holding Felicity and gazing at her like a mom with a newborn baby.Another big hit was a sort of funny present. Maggie always wants to use our paper for art projects and I hesitate giving it to her because I don't want to use it all up and not have it when we need it, and I don't want to be wasteful about paper. I bought her an entire ream of white printer paper and wrapped it up and she has had more fun using that. It was a very inexpensive gift that has made a big impact.
Finn still is at the age where the boxes and paper are more fun than the actual gifts but he's had lots of fun with the million or so balls that his Grandma and Grandpa bought him. I also bought him a toy broom in the hopes that he would quit wanting to play with my real broom, but so far he just wants to play with BOTH brooms.
Here are the kids (sorry Maggie's cut off) wearing Christmas pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa. Is it just me or is it impossible not to smile when this guy is smiling?
Come back for more Christmas photos in the next few days. And I really mean it because I'm going to write the posts right now and then set them up to auto-publish!