Technical difficulties...sorry! Hope to be back soon!

So sorry for the lack of posts. I had to switch to the "new" blogger system because the old one is being fazed out, and after doing so I discovered that this "new" system does not support dial-up internet service! Since we are still in the "dark ages" of dial-up, I can no longer post from home. But this episode has prompted us to finally order a high-speed connection (gasp!), which will be installed in a couple of weeks. So I will return, but it may be a couple of weeks before I can begin to write regularly again. Thanks for your patience!

Irrational toddlers

Sometimes, you just can't rationalize with a toddler.

And sometimes, their tantrums are downright funny. This evening, as I look back upon what I now affectionately call "The parmesan cheese tantrum", I do think it's mildly amusing. Perhaps you will find it humorous as well.

I made pasta for dinner tonight...American chop-suey, to be exact. Amy loves parmesan cheese piled on her pasta, and it's usually difficult to even see the spaghetti hiding behind the mounds of cheese on her plate. So tonight, as I set the table for dinner, I had a moment of panic when I realized that there was no parmesan cheese in the refrigerator. I called Amy into the kitchen and prepared myself for the explosion.

"Amy", I calmly said, "There's no more parmesan cheese. We won't be able to put any on your pasta tonight".

She stared at me in disbelief. Then the tears started flowing. She pulled and tugged on the heavy refrigerator door, while shouting "Show me! Show me!"

I opened the door for her, and pointed to the open shelf on the door...the one where we usually keep the parmesan cheese.

"No!! No!!", she screamed. "Show me where the parmesan cheese isn't! I want to see where there is no parmesan cheese!"

What a difficult request. I wasn't quite sure how to handle this one, but I started moving cartons of milk, potatoes, jars of pickles, yougurt containers, and pointing out everywhere that the cheese was not. But somehow this did not quite cut it. She continued to yell, "NO! You're not showing me where there's no parmesan cheese! I HAVE TO SEE where there's no cheese! Show where the cheese is not!"

After a few moments of attempting to reason through this argument (all the while paying precious pennies to the electric company for the open refrigerator door), I firmly shut the door and ended the discussion. Amy proceeded to throw herself on the floor and wail "There is cheese in there. You NEVER showed me that there wasn't!

In the end, after a very long, drawn-out tantrum, she ate the pasta plain. And now, I sit here and laugh at my attempts to reason with a three-year-old. My advice to you: Don't even try to win this type of argument. Even Plato probably couldn't argue with a toddler.

Beginning readers

BETH: Mommy, the people in this "Dick And Jane" book aren't really very nice. They always say things like "Run, Dick, Run" and "Put the cat here", but they never, ever say please. See, here it says "Jump, Dick. Jump up. Oh Dick. I said jump". That's really rude. Why don't they ever say please?

Cuddle-Monster

This morning Amy awoke quite early. She has always been the early-riser of the family, but thankfully she's been sleeping a bit later since daylight savings last weekend. But today I heard the stairs creaking at 6:15am, as she slowly crept down to greet me.

Sometimes I simply turn her back around and send her back to her bed. There, she'll cuddle under her blankets and read books, and occasionally fall back asleep again. But this morning she asked the same question she asks many times each day..."Please, I can I hold you?". The house was quiet, Dan was already at work, and I decided to spend some time with Amy.

We cuddled up under a blanket on the couch for almost 45 minutes. As we sat there, I could smell the blueberry-scented shampoo that she and Beth begged for at the store last week. Her blond curls were sticking up every-which-way. We didn't talk much, but just enjoyed being together. And as we sat there, I was struck by how different each of my children are from each other. Beth and Erin couldn't sit still like that for more than 2 minutes. They are both constantly on the go, and it's not easy to get them to stop for more than a quick hug. But Amy...as most of you probably know, she is our cuddle-monster. She constantly begs to be held, and there have been many times when I have been known to cook dinner with this 32-pound three-year-old balanced on my hip, while the baby plays happily by herself.

Sometimes her requests for "holding" come at inopportune times. Sometimes I have to tell her that she needs to wait, which always results in outbursts of tears. But this morning, there were no distractions, and I'm glad that we spent that time together.

Perhaps that's why she is always such an early riser. Maybe she knows that those early-morning hours are the time when we are most able to spend alone-time with her...the only time that she can be guaranteed a long hug. So maybe, next time I won't be so quick to send her back to her bed. Cuddling with a 3-year-old is not such a bad way to spend a cold winter morning.

Enjoying the snow

Not to be outdone by cousin Tracey's posted comment last week regarding playtime outside on the deck in their warm Florida weather...I have posted some pictures of our version of "playing outside on the deck in March"! (Click on the pictures to enlarge them and make them less blurry...it's hard to get a good picture through the sliding glass door!) A heavy snowstorm is upon us right now, and rather than subject poor Erin to another torture session in her snowsuit, I decided that she and I would stay warm in the kitchen while Beth and Amy played on the deck in the deepening snow. Erin loved watching her sisters through the sliding glass door, but I think she was very glad not to be outside in the howling wind and snow!

I would love to see this

AMY: Mommy, Beth and I had a great idea. When we grow up, we're going to work at your nursing home, but we're not going to be nurses. We're going to teach all those people to get up out of their wheelchairs, and do forward rolls and cartwheels again.

You know it's been a long winter when...

...your three-year-old can't even remember ever having the windows open before.

This morning Amy grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the living room window. "Mommy, you'll never guess what Daddy did yesterday when you were at work. He opened this window. And you'll never, ever believe what's behind this window. It's another window!...a window that has millions of little tiny holes in it. The holes are shaped like squares. I never saw anything like it before! I told Daddy that I didn't think he should be opening windows like that, but he said you wouldn't mind".

I love the cold weather and will be sorry to see it go. But I suppose that when your children don't even recall ever having seen a window screen before, it's probably about time for Spring to arrive.

Beth - The latest

Today we took Beth back to the hospital again for more bloodwork. It's amazing how quickly this huge place has become so familiar-feeling. That first frightening night in the ER seems so long ago...it's hard to believe that it was only three weeks ago today! Although Beth doesn't particularly enjoy needle-sticks, she loves the hospital itself. We stopped for a chocolate-chip cookie at the bakery in the lobby, and then Beth boldly headed to the information desk. "Do you have any stickers?" she asked the lady behind the desk. The woman smiled at her and began to pick out a large selection of various stickers, which she handed to Beth. "Do I get to keep them all?", was Beth's question, and she beamed from ear to ear when the lady responded in the affirmative. Beth immediately sorted the stickers into two piles...one for her, and one for Amy.

We headed to the lab, stopping to look at all the sights along the way...the bubbling water fountain, the hand-made animal quilt, the wishing-well. We had to wait close to an hour for our turn in the lab, but Beth kept quite busy playing with all the toys hanging on the walls outside the lab. She is a real trooper, and refuses to even look away when her blood is being drawn. She stares directly at the needle, and watches in fascination as her blood is drawn into the tube. She whimpered just a bit, but it was quickly over.

Then it was time for a quick pizza lunch before heading back home to relieve Grampy of his babysitting duties. Amy seemed happy as a clam, cuddled up watching movies with Grampy, holding a large bucket of popcorn. Erin was sound asleep.

This afternoon the ITP specialist called us to say that Beth's platelet count remains stable. It has dropped a bit from two weeks ago, but it's still fine. At this point it's hard to tell whether or not there is still some medication in Beth's system, causing the platelets to remain stable, but the hematologist is clearing Beth to run and play outside on the jungle gym, and we will continue to monitor for the bruising and bleeding, which could return within the next few weeks. However, since her counts remain so stable, it's very likely that the major crisis is over now. They won't declare her completely "cured" until 6 months after the initial diagnosis, but at this point things really look good. Beth is thrilled, and Daddy plans to take the girls to the playground tomorrow while I'm at work. The weather is supposed to warm up slightly, so it should be a great opportunity for Beth to run and play once again.

Thank you all for your continued prayers. Please continue to keep Beth in your prayers. We will simply be taking one day at a time for the next few months, and are simply looking forward to letting Beth spend some time outdoors tomorrow. I hope all of you are able to run and play a bit this weekend, too!

Another scientist in the family

One of Beth's favorite toys is her magnetic dinosaur board. This little kit contains numerous magnetic dinosaurs, which can be stuck on various places on the metal "forest" board. Today I heard her explaining to Amy exactly how the toy works.

"Well, Amy, these dinosaurs are made out of magnets", she told her sister. "And see this board? It's made out of refrigerator. So that's why the magnets stick to it. The garage door is made out of refrigerator, too, so you can stick them on there sometimes if you want to".

Active Imagination

Yesterday afternoon, while the freezing cold wind howled outside and rattled our windows, the girls sat at the kitchen table drawing pictures. Beth proudly held up one of her creations, announcing "Here's a picture of me and Daddy. We're playing ball".

Amy looked carefully at Beth's artwork. "Beth, can I play ball with you and Daddy, too? Can you draw me in?"

Beth rolled her eyes. "Aaaammmyyy", she whined, "It's just a picture of me and Daddy!"

Amy begged. "Please, Beth? I want to play too".

Beth groaned, and then proceeded to turn the picture over. On the backside, she drew a stick figure, and then held it up for Amy to see. "There you are, Amy. That's you".

Amy took one look and started to sob. "What am I doing on the back?", she cried. "I want to play ball with you guys. Don't make me play by myself! And...what...what...I don't have any hair!!! You made me BALD! DRAW SOME HAIR RIGHT NOW!"

Beth drew some yellow curls onto the stick figure.

Amy came running to me, with tears pouring down her face. "Bethie won't let me play ball with her and Daddy. She's leaving me out of everything. She made me have an ugly face and not much hair, and I have to play by myself on the back of the page, with no grass or trees or anything".

My attempts to bring Amy back to reality were futile. In her mind, she truly was being left out of a ball game, forced to play all alone somewhere with no trees or even a ball to play with. I finally convinced Beth to draw Amy into the initial picture, and the crisis was resolved.

I know the experts say that a good imagination is important. So I suppose I should be grateful that Amy's imagination is apparently working very, very well.

Cuddle time

Today was one of those rare weekend days when neither Dan nor I had to go to work. Beth calls these her "favorite days", since it's so unusual for both of her parents to be home together for an entire day. After Mass, we took the girls out to lunch at a nearby casual restaurant. After the hostess seated us at a booth, the waiter arrived with a big bowl of popcorn.

He looked a bit frazzled. "We're really short-staffed today", he mumbled.

We placed our order, and the kids began munching on popcorn. Erin has never tasted popcorn before, and I was a bit worried about the risk of choking, but she seemed to tolerate it fine. We had to hold her down to keep her from climbing onto the table to grab more fistfuls of the salty stuff. They polished off the bowl within minutes, and then started coloring on the coloring papers that the restaurant provided. Erin quickly grew tired of this, and began to whine. We handed her spoons. She threw them onto the floor. We handed her a sippy cup of milk. She promptly drank it all and then began fussing again.

Finally the waiter came back. "We're really, really short-staffed", he mumbled again. He handed us another giant bowl of popcorn and disappeared.

Ten minutes later, the girls had finished that bowl too, and Erin was nearing her wits end. We managed to grab the waiter and ask for a bowl of peaches to keep her quiet while we continued to wait for the food. The fruit kept her busy for another few minutes, but then she began to screech uncontrollably.

I left the table and began pacing the hallways with her. Our meal took over an hour to arrive at the table, and by then my arms were shaking so much from carrying Erin that I could barely lift my fork. Erin was so stuffed from her appetizers, however, that she refused to eat any of her chicken fingers, and began to wail even louder. I finally resorted to carrying her out to the car while Dan and the girls finished their meals.

We climbed into the front seat, and Erin cuddled up in my lap. She began sucking her fingers, and within minutes fell fast asleep.

I didn't even mind missing out on the meal in the restaurant. Erin is not really a cuddly baby, so it's rare that I get to hold her quietly for long periods of time. I listened to her soft breathing and put my cheek on her soft hair. I watched the noisy crowds rushing by outside, and realized that there was no where else I wanted to be at that moment. The chicken salad could wait. Some things are just too important to miss.

ABC's

By the time Beth was two years old, she knew all her letters. I could pour her wooden blocks onto the floor, and hold up any letter for her to name, and she always answered correctly. She was proud of her accomplishment, and I was thrilled to have taught her this first step towards reading. Of course, with only one child I had loads of time to work on these skills with her.

Things are a bit different when a second child comes along. Amy has been happily singing the ABC song for a long time now, but a few months ago I held up a block with the letter "Z" on it, and asked 3-year-old Amy to name the letter.

"Q"!, she proudly exclaimed.

I was horrified. Did this child really not know her letters? I tried a few more, and none of her guesses were correct. How could this be? I suppose I just expected her to have somehow learned alongside her sister, but I never actually spent any time teaching her, the way I did with Beth. So there I was, a librarian, with a 3-year-old that didn't know her ABC's.

Since then, we've spent a few minutes each day working on these tricky letters. I bought flash-cards, and we spread them all over the floor, building alphabet "trains". We spelled words on the refrigerator with our magnet letters. I pointed out letters at every opportunity.

Today, Amy successfully made an alphabet "train" with her flash-cards...all by herself. It may not seem like much, but it's the culmination of months of hard work. She may be quite a bit older than Beth was when this skill was accomplished, but that's okay. We got there. That's all that matters.

I think I'll start teaching the alphabet to Erin next week. Or maybe not. She probably learned them by watching Amy, anyway.