A Guarantee for Injury

That's what sledding is. Seriously. Every time I have ever, ever gone sledding, someone (usually me) gets hurt.

It's really my own fault. If I hadn't come up with the idea of building a jump...

Let me start at the beginning. Beads was here, still, and we wanted to go sledding. Even though the snow outside was kind of crusty and icy.

So we went out to a local golf course - the driving range. Aw yeah. A nice slope there. That driving range brings back a lot of really, really funny memories. Like when me and Missy G. were hitting balls during golf class, and I sliced one, of course, and it went over the trees to the ninth hole and hit a man right on his bald head. Not even kidding. She and I hit the deck so that he couldn't look up and see us. I felt really bad, but I also laughed for like two hours about it.

Anyways. I was a big jerk and didn't bring Micah. It was too cold out for Gage, so Mom offered to baby-sit him and Micah. I totally took her up on it. Micah just makes everything... so challenging. All he does is scream and push people, I swear. So it was just me and my oldest two. Nat was brave and brought all four of her younguns.

I was bored just going down the slope, so I had the bright idea of making a jump. Dylan loved that idea, so we worked on it together. All of the other kids cautiously avoided the jump, but not me and Dyl. And on our last run down, we decided to go together. We went over the jump, and when we landed, Dyl's head rammed into my jaw. It hurt for like two weeks. It still feels a little... off.

You know what was so cute, though? After we landed the jump and slid down the rest of the hill, I could tell that Dylan's head was raelly hurting, but the first thing he said was, "Mom, are you okay?" How stinking cute is he????

Pictures of the fun -

Nat and Sadie:

Jake? Maybe? It's hard to see -

Troy:

Beads and Ivy:

Nat, pushing Sadie and Brock:

Beads, Ivy, and Troy:

He would have fit in.

Ben and I went to dinner and a movie for our anniversary (post soon to come) - we saw True Grit, with Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. It was thoroughly entertaining. Jeff Bridges is amazing. I've put the book, True Grit, on my mental must-read list. That list is getting pretty long...

Something I noticed while watching the movie was that the characters didn't use contractions. It was, "I do not understand such-and-such," "I will not pretend that I agree with you," etc. I wondered if that was how people really spoke back then - no contractions. It's interesting to think about.

Seeing the non-usage of contractions reminded me of Dylie. The kid hardly ever uses contractions. It cracks me up. Perhaps he was born in the wrong era. :)

Gloria and Greg were here a couple of weeks after Gagey was born, and we were all eating at the dinner table one night. Greg was talking to Dylan about something - I forget what. Like a very, very gentle reprimand. If it can be called that. I think Dylan did something, and I told him not to, and Dylan argued with me (as usual), and Greg was trying to explain to Dylan the reason he shouldn't do it. Like trying to help Dyl understand where I was coming from. Greg is really great with my kids. So kind and so gentle. Anyways, Dylan just stared straight ahead while Greg was talking, and when he was done, Dylan put his hand toward Greg and said, still staring straight ahead, "I do NOT know what he is talking about." It made us all laugh so hard. Of course he knew what Greg was talking about. He just didn't want to hear it. :)

I Love to See the Temple

While Beads was here, she, Nat, and I went to a temple session. My wonderful mom watched my kiddos while we went - thanks so much, Mom.

It was wonderful. I love the temple.

I won't SPARE you the details, ha-ha-ha...

Let's get this post ROLLING!

I'm so punny...

So. We went bowling while Beads was visiting. It was big fun.

They had these special little ramps for kiddos, as well as the little gutter thingeys that prevent the kids from getting gutter balls. Here are Sadie and Beads, with the ramp:

Isn't Beads pretty? I'd say she's pretty STRIKING, ha-ha-ha. I know you are rolling your eyes right now, Pete. :) You thought the puns were gone when Special K left, eh?

A cute pic of Troy, Sade, and Micah:

Micah and Sadie were getting along, for once. It didn't last.

Mom, and Gage, mid-barf:

This picture of Nat and Beads is so cute:

I love when Jake makes this face:

Dylan was soooo concerned that Sadie would beat him - he was staring at the screen in deSPARE. Hahahaha!!!

She totally beat him, by the way. What can I say, Dyl - SPLIT HAPPENS. :)

The Great DalBeadsi

Beads celebrated her 28th birthday while she was here! We, of course, had dinner and played games. That's just what we do.

Yeah, those are decorative candles. We forgot to get cake candles. Oh well.

Beads and Ben have identical twin cameras:

And she looks like a Who from Who-ville, with that plant seemingly sprouting from her head.

It was Sunday, and Pete didn't feel like changing out of his church clothes:

Weird. My church clothes aren't that comfortable. He swore that they were really comfortable for him.

Miss Photogenic:

Mr. Head Tilt:

His torticollis has been so bad lately, despite our many efforts. We may have to get him a special collar. Weird.

I could smooch him all day.

Beads and I got Mom a card shuffler for Christmas - she la-hoves it:

So do I. I'm terrible at shuffling cards. We played The Great Dalmuti, which is just glorified Scum:

Scum, scum, scum! Go back to where you're from!!!

Happy Birthday, Beads! Even though you never check my blog! :)

Percy Jackson and Diaper Changing Anxiety

My beautiful sis, Beads, visited us for a couple of weeks this month! Ohhhhh, so much fun. She lives in N.Y. I like to say "N.Y." because it reminds me of this exchange from Sleepless in Seattle:

Jessica's Father: Jessica, this is your father. Tell us where he is, right this minute!
Jessica: N.Y.
Sam: What's that?
Jessica's Father: No way.
Sam: That's N.W.!

Sooo funny.

Anyways. We did tons of stuff while she was here, but we also had fun just hanging out. Beads is a fantastic auntie.

Dylan has to read 25 minutes per day now - yowza - and he's getting good enough at it that he's ready for chapter books. He decided he wanted to give the Percy Jackson series a shot. Beads read with him almost every night while she was here:

They've continued the tradition since she's been back in N.Y. - they read together via Skype:

Yes, that is a mohawk. Post about that soon to come.

It's so fun to see them bond. And then I get to talk to her when they're done! Double bonus!

Beads spent time doing girly things with Micah, like making jewelery out of Sadie's pop jewelery beads:

We don't call her "Beads" for nothin'. :)

She even changed a diaper for me, though she has a hard time changing diapers without hospital gloves. Here she is, making a nervous face:

She routinely holds peoples' brains and intestines in her hands, yet a little poop or pee freaks her out. That cracks me up.

And, of course, much Wii was played:

Beads has some mad Mario Bros. skillz.

Dang it, why can't she live closer? :(

Expensive Chinese Food

For the first time in... four years? Yeah, I think it's been four years.... we were not losers from the street on New Year's Eve this year. We actually had a party to go to! It was at Nat's place. We decided we wanted to eat, but we didn't want to cook. So we came up with the idea of getting Chinese takeout. Ben and I were in charge of ordering it and picking it up.

Mama mia. Sticker shock. Chinese food doesn't seem that expensive when you get a meal for two or whatever. But when you're feeding 13 people, yikes. Bikes. Maybe next year we'll save some moola and cook ourselves, eh, Nat? I make a pretty mean fried rice.

Here are the kiddos, enjoying their Chinese food:

Except for Jake. He didn't want Chinese food, so he was experiencing an Emo moment:

Ben really wanted to try to get a luminaire thingey to float this year (he hadn't ever succeeded in this before), so he worked really hard and did all of this experimenting with different wire, different tissue paper, etc. He was convinced it would launch this year. I was skeptical.

He had each guest at the party to draw a picture on a piece of tissue paper, and then he glued them all on the lantern. We all just drew pictures of stuff we like to do or whatever. Here are Sadie, Lex, Ivy, and Chris, drawing:

I drew a picture of a runner's legs. I didn't know what to draw.

Then it was launching time. The lantern was enormous:

And she flew!!!:

I love this pic of Nat:

It really went quite high. Then the wind tipped it a bit, and it caught on fire and landed, we think, in Nat's backyard neighbor's yard. Oops. Oh well. Ben was quite pleased with himself:

Nat had a good idea for next year's luminaire - she thought that we could each write down a bad habit or something that we wanted to get rid of as a resolution, and glue those habits onto the luminaire. That way, when it catches fire, it's symbolic of the burning up of old habits. I thought that was a good plan.

Then we adults played Catch Phrase. Good times:

And Micah cuddled with my mom:

Wii!!!!! The Beginning of an Era

Mom, Dad, Chris, and Lex came over Christmas Day to check out our loot. Lex got our family a cute 20 Questions-type game - she was trying it out:

Mom and Dad got our fam a Wii for Christmas - Dylan has logged in roughly two million hours playing it since. :) Here are he and Chris, trying out the baseball game:

Dylan is the most fond of Super Mario Bros. When we tell him to get off, he cries and screams. It's part of our nightly routine. Baths, brush teeth, put on jammies, tell Dylan he can't play Wii anymore, he screams and throws a fit for roughly two hours, we threaten to ground him from the Wii, he cries himself to sleep. It's special.

We have ourselves an official video game-aholic.

The Nat Pack got a Wii from the parental units for Christmas, as well, and Nat bought Dr. Mario for it. I'm super jealous. Now that is a game I'd sit down to play. I might have to ask for it for Valentine's Day.

Infectious Lymphocytosis

That's what my little man has. It's so nice to have an actual diagnosis and a name.

And it's a good diagnosis to have. From what the hematologist told me, Gage has an immature immune system. It's not terribly common. He, himself, has never seen this before, but he has colleagues who have, and it's been reported in medical journals, etc.

So Gage got this viral infection back when he was two months old. It was his first time ever being sick. His white blood cell count went up, to fight this virus. The cells did a good job and eliminated the virus from his body. It's not there any longer. But then his cells didn't know to go back down to normal levels again.

He should grow out of it when he's one year old or so. Until then, his white blood cell count is just going to be high. But having a high white blood cell count doesn't do any damage, in and of itself, so he's just fine.

His barfiness is likely related to his high white blood cell count. His body is still trying to get rid of this virus, which in fact, is long gone. That's what the hematologist thinks.

No more blood draws! Hooray! I'm so glad. And I'm glad he's okay.

Our pediatrician is still obsessed with finding some way of eliminating the barfing. So is Gage's OT. She gave me this stuff today called "thickener," which adds calories and thickens the formula, thereby helping it to stay in the stomach better. It looks like cocaine. I brought it home and showed my mom, joking, "Hey, Mom, look, I picked up some cocaine from my OT." It was in a baggie and everything.

I think she was tired and not all there, because she was like, "You have cocaine in that bag???"

"Um, no, Mom, it was a joke." What in our experience together makes you think that I would buy cocaine, Ma?! Hahahaha! I'm going to chalk it up to tiredness on her part.

As for the pediatrician, he found some other rare formula he wants Gage to try for three weeks. It's called.... I can't remember. Something with a P. Like, Philharmonica or something. I know that's not what it's called, but I'm too tired to find the paper he wrote it down on. Word on the street is that it's just as stinky as Nutramigen and Alimentum. Which makes me really, really not want to go get some.

Part of me is just... tired. Tired of trying ten billion things. I've kind of come to accept that Gage is barfy. But they haven't yet. So I'm doing these things to appease them.

Christmas Morning, or, I Need Some Sleep

(Sung to the melody of "I Need You Now," by Alias):

Here I am
At seven o'clock in the morning
Just wanting to punch them...
It's so hard
At seven o'clock in the morning
To smile for the camera...

And I know that it might
Seem an okay time for some
All I know...

I need some sleep
More than words can say
I need some sleep
I gotta find a way
To get some sleep
Before I lose my mind,
I need some sleep.

Here I am
Opening the packaging
I'm yearning for a Coke
It may seem weird
At seven o'clock in the morning
To drink Coke (to some people)

And I know that it might
Seem an okay time for some
For some, for soooooooooome, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

But I need some sleep
More than words can say,
I need some sleep
I gotta find a way!
To need some sleep
Before I lose my mind,
I need some sleeeeeeeeeep,
More than words can say,
I need some sleep,
I GOTTA FIND A WAY!
I need some sleep...
Before I lose my mi-i-ind....

I need some..... SLEEEEEEEEEEEP....
I need some sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppppppp.....

That song reminds me of Regional Dances, junior high, circa 1990. Aw yeah.