Saturday, December 29, 2007

We Made It!

After all of the preparation and anticipation, we made it through another Christmas. Both Maija and Rebekah seemed to enjoy all of the Christmas festivities, and Maija, especially, was so excited to wake up Christmas morning to see if Santa had come. I went into her room as soon as she woke up to detain her while Kent and my family made sure things were ready to go. Maija was chanting over and over again, "The sun is awake, Mommy! The sun is awake! I want to see Santa."

Rebekah was pretty oblivious to why everything was so fun, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. She ripped wrapping paper and played with all of the new toys, and was ecstatic to be getting so much attention. She handled Christmas Eve pretty well too with her cousins; there were 7 children under the age of 5 and then poor Lexi (12), who was the only older cousin for most of the night until Chelsea (15) showed up. We tried to get the little ones to do a nativity skit which turned into a lot of climbing, crawling away, and removing of various costume pieces (or all of the costume in Rebekah's case.) It was a fun evening!

The aftermath of Christmas is still lingering throughout the house, pieces of wrapping paper, a dying Christmas tree, and unwrapped Christmas presents. Even though it's a reminder that I need to get back to the everyday work of keeping our house livable, it also reminds me of my sweet girls on Christmas morning. Sometimes I wish I could freeze them in time and never let them grow up...sometimes.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Countdown to Christmas

I love this time of year! I love the Christmas lights, carols, and the general spirit of the season. Even being in a desert with no prospect of a white Christmas, you can feel that it's a different time of year, a special time. We have had a lot of fun this year getting ready for Christmas because the girls, especially Maija, actually care and understand what is going on.

We got pictures with Santa; we've been watching all the classic Christmas movies and videos (Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer, anyone?); and we have had a great time decorating our tree and looking at everyone else's decorations. Maija is VERY excited to have Santa come and bring lots of presents, anything Dora or Superwhy!

Check out some of our pre-Christmas photos in the slideshow!

Oh, yeah, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Kimberlina and family

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Post Traumatic Stress

Does surviving over a month of sick children, not to mention being sick myself and having my mother get sick from my children, count as severe enough stress to require a recovery period? I feel like I have spent the last few days recovering physically and mentally from the constant worrying, cleaning, comforting, and lack of sleep.

I think I can officially say (well, at least for this moment right now) that we are all healthy. Now I realize that doesn't mean that tomorrow (or even tonight) I won't wake up to another sick child, but I will comfort myself with the thought that I haven't had to run the washing machine 24 hours a day or give the same child 2 or 3 baths a day for a few days now.

With that happy thought, we are all getting excited for Christmas and the whole holiday season. Maija is now old enough to know that it's Christmas time. She knows that Santa will come and bring her presents and loves to sing "Frosty the Snowman". Tonight, as my parents were visiting us one last time before leaving town tomorrow, we asked Maija to sing for Grandpa. She had just learned a few days ago that my father's name is Frosty, so she breaks out with, "Frosty the grandpa...." I guess she was serious because when we all burst out in laughter, she looked a little hurt.

Another fun item to add to the blog, Rebekah said her first word tonight, "Ju ju". She was asking for juice, and was happily chanting "ju ju" over and over as soon as she got her juice. They grow up too fast!

Kimberlina

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives

"Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives (also known as Finagle's corollary to Murphy's Law) is usually rendered:
Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment"
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finagle's_law

Yes, after spending an entire blog rejoicing that my children were FINALLY better, we spent another night with a vomiting child. Poor Rebekah was having such a hard time with her cough that it actually made her gag and, once again, throw up. I've hesitated blogging since then for fear of subjecting myself to Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives. In other words, I didn't want to be wrong again, or tempt fate, or however else it could be stated.

So... we are all doing much better, just in time to have my family come to town and get ready for Thanksgiving. I'm making my first turkey this year....we'll see how it goes. My sister had to tell me that the stuffing goes inside the turkey, so even though I wasn't in charge of sides for the dinner, I would still be in charge of the stuffing. Lest you think I'm completely ignorant, I DID know that stuffing usually goes inside the turkey, but I had conveniently forgotten that now that it's my turn to cook the turkey. Oh, the peace of having a selective memory!

The one sad thing for our family will be not being able to be with Kent's family. They're all headed up to Pinetop to be with Linda and Woody, and Kristi's family. Luckily, my father is popular enough with Kent's brother, Owen, that they're coming back on Friday so the boys can golf together. At least we'll get a chance to see them this week.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! (See my previous blog for one of the things I'm most grateful for.)

Kimberlina and family

Friday, November 16, 2007

Silver Lining

Today was better all around; both girls seemed to be feeling a little better, and nobody threw up or had diarrhea....yea!!! Then there was that moment that is so elusive - the one where you feel like it's all worth the lack of sleep, constant cleaning, and watching the Wiggles Christmas DVD for the 100th time (Maija has caught on that Christmas is coming, so we're already hearing all about it.)

Maija and I had just finished reading a bedtime story which was about a little girl and her grandma. At the end of the story, I asked Maija about her Grandma and Mummi. Then she said, "Mommy, where's your Grandma and Mummi?" The question made me a little emotional, especially thinking about my grandmother who I had been very close to and who passed away 6 years ago.

I told her that I had a Grandma and a Mummi, but both of them had died. She looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I love you!" and then she hugged me. I felt like it was such an intuitive reaction from her. I'm sure she has no conception of what death is, but somehow she knew that talking about my grandmother made me sad. Those moments are the payoff; it's better than any paycheck I've ever gotten.

Kimberlina

Thursday, November 15, 2007

What a week!

I've just about had it with flus, colds, and a list of other ailments that have been taking over our house. The girls have been sick for a week now, after a short one-week respite from having the stomach flu before. This time they have some kind of combo - head colds and stomach flu. Just when I thought we were past the worst of it, Maija threw up out of nowhere this morning (all over the couch, I might add.) Argh!!!

I'm sure the girls feel miserable, and I'm pretty miserable too. I'm amazed at how much everyone's life is completely transformed in our house by one of these little bugs. What I hate the most is being stuck in the house day after day. Last night I was feeling so closed in (hadn't been out for 4 days, except for a nice drive with my brother, Rusty, in his rented hummer...very cool!) - Kent told me to go do something, so I wouldn't go crazy. As he put it, "You're entitled to sanity just as much as I am." I thought that was nice of him to recognize that my sanity was at risk *grin*. Seriously, though, I'm so grateful for an understanding husband.

So, for my little escape I decided I did not want to do anything resembling errands. I went to the mall knowing that I had almost zero money to spend. I'm not a window shopper; I really hate shopping when I know that I won't be buying anything, but I couldn't think of anything else to do that didn't...well...require money. I wandered in and out of a few stores and read signs that said, "Sale! 60% Off Everything!" I'd go in with the hope that maybe 60% off meant I could buy something I liked for $5. Yeah, that didn't happen. I think the closest I found was a shirt I thought was OK for $15. So the OK shirt stayed on the rack, and I decided to get a hot chocolate for $5 instead, which was delicious by the way. Although I was only gone for an hour and a half, I felt completely revived and ready to face the night of crying, achy, sick children.

Despite the frustrations of taking care of sick children, I'm brought back to reality pretty quickly every time I talk to my sister, Barb, or one of my single friends who either say or imply, "Stop complaining! At least you have kids!" It's true. I wanted a family for so long, and I finally have what I wanted. I'd rather have puking babies than no babies at all.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Hmmmm ... 18 Months Later

I guess I never got quite into the blogging like I thought I would, but lately I've been getting e-mail s from friends with links to their blogs, and I'll admit it, I've been jealous. Somehow I got lost in Mommyland and feel like I've been left behind technologically speaking. It wasn't too long ago that I was involved enough in the e-world to have a "homepage" whereby I updated everyone on my life. Then somewhere in the last few years, while I was having babies, blogging, texting and iPhones came along.

My texting skills are developing (although I don't have one of those cool keypad phones), my blogging is, well, 18 months behind, and I have yet to buy (or afford) an iPhone. However, I will challenge anyone to a diaper-change-wrestling-match with my 10 month-old! Yes, my skills have been developing, just not the internet/computer/iPod/cell phone ones. We did get TiVo a couple of months ago, so we're feeling pretty darn savvy these days, even if about 90% of what we TiVo is Dora, Dora and more Dora!!!


The Updates


I think I wrote maybe once or twice at the very beginning of my pregnancy with Rebekah (see above re: 10 month-old wrestling baby.) I said something to the effect that I wasn't sick at all yet (Ha!!!) and how nice it was to feel good during pregnancy. Yeah, that lasted maybe two more weeks after that post, and then the vomiting began. I did get lucky during that pregnancy, though, because our insurance covered Zofran, which is a miracle anti-nausea medication. Unfortunately, it doesn't really stop the nausea, just the vomiting. In other words, I still had a miserable pregnancy.

After surviving 7 1/2 months of nausea, early contractions, and general yuckiness, Rebekah was born on January 15th at 35 1/2 gestational weeks. She was taken by c-section (my 2nd) and was 6 lbs. 11 ounces - she was a big, healthy baby. I finally had a "normal" delivery, compared to what I went through with Maija. Since then Rebekah has been a healthy, happy girl. She and Maija are doing great.

Kent is one year out from finishing his master's in alternative fuels engineering. We're excited about that! We also recently moved to another part of town into a newer and much bigger home. Everybody seems happy about being in the new house. During the first week or so after the move, whenever I would tell Maija that were going "home", she would say, "No! I don't want to go to the dirty house. I want to go to the new house." I'm not sure why she decided the old house was dirty; I think maybe she associates it with the chaos right before the move...or perhaps the fact that our house was surrounded by dirt. I don't know.

More to come... I mean it this time!

Kimberlina Farny