Dreams

I'm a crazy dreamer.  I often have dreams, and they are always hilarious (to me).  They are often based on something that is going on in my life, but there are always crazy extremes in the dreams.

Kayla woke me up in the middle of the night last night saying, "Mom, in my eyes I saw you and me playing balls together."  I didn't really respond to her, but sent her back to bed.  This morning, I heard her saying to Matthew, "Matthew, in my eyes I saw you and me playing trains, like the trains Grandma has, and I could almost figure out how to make a figure eight."  I then explained to her that she was dreaming...when you see things in your eyes when you are sleeping that means you are having a dream.

I was wondering when they would start being aware of their dreams.  If they are anything like me, I'm sure we'll have plenty of funny dreams happening over the next years.

No Soother for Nathan

I have been debating for the past while about when to take Nathan's soother away.  Currently, he only gets his soother for when he is put down for a nap and for when he goes to bed.  As soon as he wakes up, it gets put away again (out of sight, out of mind).  I took Matthew and Kayla's away when they turned 18 months...which Nathan is one day away from.  I also knew that I had to take it away either sooner (so that I didn't have to worry about still adjusting while we are camping...which we always go in May/June) or later (after the summer because I don't want him adjusting to it while camping, or me having to deal with the extra crying AND a newborn during the summer).

Unintentionally, today became 'the day'.

I was in a little bit of a rush to get my kids dressed and everything packed and us out of the door this morning, only because I didn't decide what we were going to be doing until this morning, so I couldn't do any planning/pre-packing the night before.  When you are going to spend the day/evening away from the house and know the kids are going to be playing outside for most of the day, you need to pack A LOT.  Thank goodness for a vehicle that can hold a lot of bags :).  I needed a stroller, sandals, crocs, a change of clothes for warm weather, a change of clothes for cooler weather, pajamas for at night, bathing suits, towels, sunscreen, diapers, extra clothes for me, watermelon for all, etc.  All to have to put most of it away again when we got home.  Anyways, like I said in my last post, I bring it on myself because I like to always do something.  And...that was all a total tangent.

So in my hustle this morning I couldn't remember where I had put Nathan's soother after he gave it to me when he woke up.  Jon and I had already lost misplaced Nathan's 'blue' soother...so this was the only readily-available one we had...and it was now missing.  Rather than search high and low for it, I grabbed the newborn-sized one we had sitting in our keys basket (that Jon had pulled out of the newborn clothes box a few months back when he needed one and I had it with me, while shopping),  I thought it would due the trick...a soother is a soother, right?

I was wrong.  When I put Nathan down for his nap and passed him his soother he knew immediately that it just didn't feel right.  He kept putting it in his mouth, and then pulling it out and inspecting it.  He started to get angry at me, and threw it on the ground of his playpen (we were at my parents').  I thought, "This is it, this is the time to do this," and I pocketed the newborn soother and explained to him that he was a big boy just like Matthew and Kayla and didn't need a soother.  He was not impressed.  He kept pointing to his mouth and started to get angry at me.

For the next hour and fifteen minutes he cried/yelled for me.  I made numerous attempts to get him to lay down with his blanket, but for the most part I just let him cry.  After over an hour of crying I took him out of his playpen and laid him on the spare bed in the room with me.  He tried to get up, but I explained that if he got up, I was going to put him back in the playpen.  Within a minute he was fast asleep, and I snuck out.

Putting him to bed tonight was smoother.  He was awake for 45 minutes, but he wasn't crying...just whining about not having a soother.  Poor kid...I'm so mean to him :)  It will be nice to not have to remember to pack a soother anymore!  Now, if only I could find his two lost misplaced soothers tonight/tomorrow before he does...

Fun at Crescent Beach

I'm not the type of person to stay at home...I like to get out of the house everyday to do something, and it doesn't matter if it's something big or something small, just something.

Because of the forecasted nice weather, I knew I wanted to be outside today.  I planned with my sister-in-law Laura to take our 'herd' of kids to Derby Reach (with my Mom, too), but changed that last-minute this morning to Crescent Beach when I realized just how nice it was going to be.

The kids had an absolute blast.  They were entertained with buckets, shovels, sand, shells, and water for over three hours.  It was a little chilly at first, but after lunch my kids changed into their shorts and little-did-I-know, came home sporting some sweet farmer's tans.  The breeze was so deceiving as to how warm it actually was!

The water wasn't even that cool because we were by an 'inlet' of water.

We definitely received a few looks of craziness when people saw these six kids so close in age and then only Laura and I.

Total tangent, but something that's slightly amusing...when we are all together with my side of the family the grand-kids are grouped by age, and are affectionately referred to as:

The big kids:

Matthew & Kayla - 4 years old

Remy & Carly - 3.25 years old

The little boys:

Liam - 20 months old

Nathan - 18 months old (almost!)

Jackson - 17 months old (almost!)

The baby:

Emma - 6 weeks old

Anyways...back to the pictures...

Pointing to the airplane.

Love this picture of the girls.  They get along so well, and get along well with Matthew too...although they have all started to say "girls only" when they are hanging out and don't want Matthew with them.  Matthew desperately needs the 'little boys' to grow up a little quicker!

Nathan and Liam sat by this log for quite a while, playing with the rocks on it.

Can't forget about this little girl!  She's such a great baby, I'm sure people didn't even realize we had a 7th child there too!

The girls insisted that I come and take a picture of them on the bench...

...and then they wanted one of just the 'big' kids...

...and one of just the 'little' boys...

...and one of them standing on the bench....

...and what are the chances that we would meet Jackson there, too?  Gotta take another picture to include all of the Vander Ende grand-kids!

24 Weeks - Where's Mom's Baby?

*There is another new, but way more boring with no pictures, post below this one*

Last week, while Jon was cooking dinner (SO thankful for a husband that enjoys cooking, because I do not...and then to have to cook on days that I work would suck!), I mentioned to him that he had to take my weekly pregnancy photo still.  Apparently Nathan heard our conversation, because 30 seconds later he appeared carrying my camera and saying, "Dad.  Dad.  Dad." and passed the camera to Jon.

Tonight, I reminded Jon that he had to take my weekly picture (I know, two days late, again!), and so Jon specifically asked Nathan to pass him the camera.  Nathan enjoys standing beside me for the picture, so today I asked him, "Nathan, where's Mom's baby?"  I've only mentioned to him twice where my baby is, so I was curious how he would respond.  This is his response:

Pretty darn cute, if you ask me.  

Miss Baby Struik continues to be a very calm in-utero baby.  I typically don't feel very much movement during the day, but I don't know if that's because I typically don't sit around very much and so probably aren't noticing it, or if she just likes to sleep.  Hopefully she'll keep up the sleeping part :).  I did have one evening where I didn't think I had felt her move, so when I woke up in the middle of the night I pushed my stomach around until it woke her up and she gave me a kick...and then we both fell asleep again.  I keep reminding myself that I'm only 24 weeks and so I have (the Lord willing) another 16+ weeks for her to grow stronger.  I keep thinking of Jon's cousin who delivered at 25 weeks.  

What else is new?  I've started to get braxton hicks contractions on a once-daily basis.  I typically sleep really well at night...I probably only get up once to do pee every other night.  My weight gain is up to 19+ lbs now.  Yikes.  I feel like I've grown so much bigger in the last couple weeks, and can't imagine my stomach growing for another 16+ weeks.  I compared my weekly picture to my 24 week picture when I was pregnant with Nathan and I think I'm pretty comparable in size, even though my ultrasound dates me as just over 23 weeks.  Oh man.  My doctor said she would send me for another ultrasound a little later in my pregnancy so that they can get a rough idea on the size.  I'm not expecting another 10.5 pound baby, but I was hoping for a small 8 pounder.  We'll see, I guess!  Only time will tell. 

Matthew's Dentist Appointment

Matthew and Kayla both went for their second dental checkup a couple weeks back.  They had gone in September (where we learned that Matthew had one cavity) and so it was time to go again.  Not good news this time either!  Worse, in fact.  They were both fantastic patients...but we learned that while Kayla had no cavities again, Matthew had a mouthful.  Yes, a mouthful.  Cavities in all four quadrants of his mouth.  Oh man.  They discussed Matthew's case with the main dentists, and I received a phone call a few days later with my options: 1) Sedate Matthew and they would do them over two appointments.  My cost? $240 each appointment for the sedation alone = $480 + the cost of the fillings etc.  Ouch.  Option 2) Refer Matthew to a pediatric dentist.  Option 3) Try the normal route of freezing, which is 80% effective in children who are cooperative.  Since Matthew has been a great patient for his past two check-ups, and since I don't want to shell out $480 to sedate him, I opted to give option 3 a try - normal freezing.

We went for his first appointment today, and he did FANTASTIC.  They completed one quadrant (upper right) in the first 30 minutes, and since he was doing so well they decided to quickly freeze his upper left quadrant as well.  He didn't even flinch when the needles went in, nor when they were trying to fit the metal clamps over his molars (which they struggled with, because apparently his molars hadn't fully come out of his gums yet, so they had to shove the clamps into his gums a bit).  I was so proud.

Matthew's next appointment is in two weeks...where he might have a root canal done.  Ouch.  For him and for my wallet :).  Once they get into the tooth they'll see how bad the cavity(ies) are.  How many four years olds need root canals.  Only Matthew.

I have to say that as much as I hate the dentist, in general...my dentist is awesome.  I requested that they do all amalgam (silver) fillings because that's what we're covered for (for molars) in our dental plan and because they're just on Matthew's baby teeth which he'll lose anyways, but my dentist said he would do composite (white) fillings and just charge me for the amalgam.  Awesome.  I appreciate that my dentist was willing to trust me that Matthew would be fine without sedation, and that he was understanding about me wanting to save money but wanted the best for Matthew.  So awesome.