Riddles

While somewhere in the midst of my elementary school career, I came across a clever little friend who introduced me to this riddle.

“Pete and Repeat went out on a boat. Pete fell off. Who was left??!!
Repeat! “
“Pete and Repeat went out on a boat. Pete fell off. Who was left??!!
Repeat!”
“Pete and Repeat went out on a boat…”

You get the picture.

This riddle could be never-ending, but hopefully the person on the “Repeat” end of the joke would eventually catch on and the two friends would share a chummy laugh and cease their riddling ways.

But I want to know what would happen if the friend telling the joke somehow tricked the other person into continuing the back and forth this joke offers. What if the “Repeat” person never caught on? Or, what if they caught on but the riddler wouldn’t let them out of the joke?
Yes, there is a good reason I’m asking you this question?

This riddle explains so much of my day—heck, it is my day. This riddle is where I live. I feel like I’m stuck inside this ridiculous conundrum- trapped somewhere between Pete falling off and the next “repeat.”

And who’s the clever little riddler, you ask?

None other than my own flesh and blood. Those four little people who can match half their DNA to mine. Those four little girls who look so darling and innocent while they secretly hatch out a plan—well, actually I don’t think they have any intent here. But they also have no clue what they are doing to my brain all day as they keep me inside their riddle asking me the same questions over and over and over.

I know this is all par for the course when you are raising four little girls aged newborn to 3 ½ years. I know that this is just a phase. I know that one day when they are fighting about clothes and privacy I will miss the constant repetition of their favorite questions.

Questions like, “Mom, where are we going tomorrow?” “Who’s coming over to see us?” “What are we doing in the morning?” These questions are all part of Peach’s nighttime routine—fitting in right between her hug and kiss goodnight!

Then there’s Brownie who comes up to me while I’m cooking her mac ‘n cheese and says, “Mom, I want pasta!” And I tell her, “I know honey, I’m cooking your pasta right now.” But I know that in about one to two minutes she’ll trot right back over to me as I stand there stirring her pasta and demand again, “Mom, I waaaaant pastaaa!” Uh-huh, I know little Miss Repeat.

Right now, it’s all I can do to not shout from the hilltops, “LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” when they start in with their 20 million questions that repeat themselves. That would be rude and I know I’d end up causing them some kind of complex that would land them in the therapist’s office 20 years down the road.

Instead, I try to look at their little quirks as just that—little quirks!

They’re all unique—just as each and every one of us is. And we all have our quirks. My kids just happen to like repeating themselves over and over again. For now, I’ll just learn to deal.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering—no, I never intend on teaching them that silly riddle about Pete and Repeat! And if you personally know us, you better not teach them either!!

It's Summer Time Again!

I know some girlies who love ice cream-

and really, who can blame them?

This creamy, melt in your mouth treat can evoke such emotions!

Bug takes it seriously!

Peach is lovin' every minute of her treat!

And my Brownie questions it!

I know some girlies who have loved ice cream for some time now! The three of them participated in our library's summer reading program last year--I swear they didn't do it for the rewards!

And here's Peach two years ago-- lovin' on her ice cream.

Yep, it's definitely time for fun in the sun during the day and ice cream in the evening!

The New Gal in Town

There's a sweet little gal I know who turns one month old today at 9:06pm. So really, she's not quite one month old, but we'll just go with it. I'm just trying to keep her a young little baby forever, but I know that's not how it works or should work! I know, I know, she must grow.

M just minutes old

At one month old you are...

-sleeping very well-- you go to sleep around 9ish. We wake you for a 10:30 feeding. You lets us sleep until somewhere between 3 and 3:30 am. Then you usually want to eat somewhere between 6 and 7 am. You've been like this most of your short life.

M 1 wk old

-eating ever 1 to 2 hours during the day and about every 3-4 hours at night! Days are crazy but at least you are letting us sleep!

-loved on A LOT by some older sisters. They are always kissing you and you tolerate it very well!

-holding up you head for about a minute when we put you down for belly time. Then you try to creep along the floor, all while trying to hold your head up.

M 2 wks old

- probably weighing in around 8lbs, but I'm not sure. I just know you are filling out your clothes more!

- also filling out your swing much more than you used to. When we first put you in there, you kind of curled into a ball because you were so tiny. Now you are hanging out in there like a big girl!

M 3 wks old

- liking the snuggles, cuddles and just being held! Daddy often falls asleep with you on his chest or in his arms.

- still smacking your lips around those fingers and hands. You are often satisfied with a binky- which is very unlike any of your sisters.

- giving us a few previews of what your smiles will be like. There have been two instances (one with me and one with dad) where we were "tickling" your belly and we both swear you were trying to smile/giggle but couldn't quite get it!

M, you are one sweet blessing to our ever-expanding family and we all love you so, so much. Like I always say, no month of my pregnancy went this fast and it's just crazy how fast this first month of your life flew by. I will always cherish you for just being you! I can't wait to see you change and grow this next month (you know, since you HAVE to grow and change--pout, pout).

M 4 wks old

Three Weeks and a Thanks

Well, my little missy M will be three weeks old tomorrow!

What's that? How is it possible that she's already that old?

I don't know how to explain that one. On top of the usual fast-pace existence that overwhelms us when we welcome a new baby to our family, the past few weeks have been anything but calm and relaxing-- so maybe I do see how the time has flown. BUT IT'S STILL NOT FAIR!!!

When we brought M home, we enjoyed three days of hectic craziness. We had wonderful help from my mom with meals and child care-- truly a blessing!

After being home for three days, we revisited the hospital because of my "condition-" which we still don't know what exactly that was for sure. I just hope it's gone. And thankfully, Matt was still on paternity leave during my stay at the hospital.

We came home to some sweeties who were missing mommy A LOT by this point-- after hearing some of their thoughts and questions, I'm sure they thought I was moving into the hospital.

Oh, did I mention we came home to Brownie trying to potty-train herself. After all of our hard work tyring to get her trained before the baby came, here she is deciding to take on that task now. She is doing rather well!

At about that same time, our dishwasher decides to kick it. It was so messed up at one point we had to shut off our water. We just got our new washer installed last night! YEAY, no more doing dishes the way I did in college!

Thank God for all of the lovely ladies in my MOPS group who were so kind as to bring us meals every other day during all of this confusion. I'm so thankful that I didn't even have to think about dinner, let alone make it.

We also had Grammy stay with us for a couple of days last week after some minor surgery. While I know the girls were totally excited with Grammy "having a sleepover" at our house, I know she was probably short-changed on some rest she was supposed to be getting while she was here trying to recover. I just hope she caught up on that rest after she went home this last weekend.

Needless to say, we've had our share of craziness, but as you all know (and can see in the picture directly below), we are coping just fine--certainly because we have wonderful support from family and friends!

Thank you everyone who has offered us any kind of support during the past month. We definitely couldn't have survived as well as we did without you and your kindness!

Here's a pretty recent picture of all four darlings hanging out in baby M's crib.

A clean baby who needs to eat. But instead of feeding her, I'm making her pose for pictures and...

she expresses her feelings quite well as you can see by her hand gesture!

And believe it or not the picture above and below these words is of two different babies. If I didn't know better, I would not be able to tell you who is in what picture!

Brownie is in the last picture and M is in the one above it. How's that for confusing cuteness?!

A Week At Home

I have been wanting to post about our first week and now I may just get my chance. Two are napping and two are playing in the yard with Dada. Sleep sounds tempting, but it would only last about 30 minutes before I'd have to wake up to pump again-- so blogging wins.

We have been home a week now, more or less. We had a minor interruption to our routine Monday afternoon when we took M to her doctor's appointment. While we were there I described some symptoms I'd been experiencing over the weekend (shortness of breath and chest constriction while lying down, a slow heart rate, headaches, a choking sensation when I reclined, and pain under my ribs)and the doctor decided to check my blood pressure. Sure enough it was elevated, and just enough so to send me to the hospital to get a chest x-ray and blood work. The original plan was to wait at the hospital until doc called us with any results and then we'd either head home or head upstairs to be admitted. Honestly, I thought I'd be home by late evening, but that would turn out not to be the case.

I won't even begin to describe the awful mess that is the ER, but I'll just say that we spent 9 hours there waiting and having a few tests done. I had a chest x-ray, ad EKG, a series of blood work, and a V Q lung test (ventilation and quantification), and the remainder of those hours were spent waiting in a tiny room with a curtain, one t.v., a sweet newborn and her very tired and cranky parents.

Those tests revealed nothing to be in my lungs, fluid or an embolism-- Thank God!

While we were doing all of our waiting, my stats were constantly monitored and my heart rate ranged from the upper 30's to the mid 40's. My blood pressure hovered around 150/80, which I've learned is not as high as I thought it was. Having a normal bp of 107/70 is the reason I thought the former numbers sounded so high. Once they ruled out my lungs as the source for my problems, they moved on to a number of other body parts. Heart, gallbladder, and brain. They were thinking of cardiomyopathy, due to my one week post-delivery status. So they admitted me to the hospital at about 3 am so that I could undergo an echo in the morning.

I had the echo, and everything looked fine. I had a bit of elevated pressure going into my right atrium and right valve, a bit of fluid around my heart, and it was slightly enlarged--but no cardiomyopathy. They attributed the other things to being one week post-partum.

They scanned my gallbladder, kidneys, and liver-- all normal.

Last but not least, and MRI for my brain-- which also came back normal.

A complete relief-- heck yes!

A complete frustration that they can't exactly figure out what's wrong with me-- heck yes!

Since there was nothing serious that they could find, I was finally released into the wild to go home around 10 Tuesday night.

I'll be checking in with my gp on Tuesday and the cardiologist in a month to make sure the fluid, pressure and enlarged heart have all gone down or away. Hopefully, my symptoms will disappear before then and I'll just feel silly going in to see the cardiologist feeling fantastic.

The ironic thing about all of this:

I planned an elective induction last week for a number of reasons, just to be shown that I'm not really in control. My one child who was delivered at 40 weeks was 9 pounds-- I wanted a slightly smaller baby to make an easier delivery. HA. She was born at 39 weeks and 2 days weighing an even 7 pounds, but her delivery was very different and more difficult than the others. Never had the C-word been said in my delivery room until this time. Never did I stall at dilation once my water broke until this time.

And let's not talk about experiencing an easier recovery-- okay, let's do.

This has been the most difficult recovery due to everything I listed above. Usually, once I've been home a couple of days, I'm all but back into my normal routine. I tried getting back into the swing of things immediately this time and it came back to bite me-- well, it took a little bite, but still, I've never had a bite taken at me before!

But let me tell you about what has been super, awesome, beautiful, precious, and perfect!

And here is a recap of all the other wonderful moments from the week!

The hospital now hands out little birthday cakes when you take your new baby home. Yes, it's a great start to my new plan of eating healthy!Coming home to a quiet house with all three older sisters asleep! Having three older girls who take care of each other and love on each other so sweetly. Here is big sis Peach reading to sissies. And most importantly, adding a beautiful little miracle who sleeps and eats like a champ!