Velly Appy

[This ended up longer than I intended, but it is an update on our kids' health for those who are interested]
Last week I took the kids to the doctor for checkups since Will needs a checkup anyway due to his epilepsy, and Annie has never really had a checkup. ever.
We got to the doctor and I didn't know what to expect or to tell the kids we were going to do, so I just said the doctor would check that they were healthy. We talked with him for a few minutes and I told him about each kid's health (rather- lack thereof) and he promptly prescribed a bunch of blood tests and a couple of x-rays. He told me what each blood test/x-ray was for and how it related to each kid's health, and I felt confident that he knew what he was doing. So we trotted along behind a Korean translator who took us place to place in the hospital to get all the tests done. It took about an hour and a half before we were finally finished. Both kids had bandaids on their arms and had stood very still for x-rays, and we were told that one of Annie's bandaids had to stay on for the next THREE DAYS (!!!YEAH RIGHT!!!), and we should come in this week for results.

So we did. We managed to keep Annie band-aided most of the time, and when we got back to the doctor's office, he announced that he was "Velly Appy!" He explained all the results to me and showed me that Will's epilepsy is being controlled perfectly and we don't need to change his medicine at all. His body is handling the medication just fine and the only thing that he needs is more RED MEAT. go figure. Thank you very much, Indian diet.
Then he showed me Annie's tests and explained that possible things that might be causing her delayed growth or development can be ruled out (i.e. thyroid is fine and she doesn't have TB). He said that her development is fine and she seems to be a smart girl. When he mentioned the x-ray she had of her hand, he again expressed that he was "Velly Appy!" because her bone density matched her age exactly. So, I guess she must really be 2 1/2, even though almost all the 1 1/2 year-olds we know here are bigger than her. :) The doctor's only requirement for her is to eat more red meat too. :)

I wanted to share this on here because it is an answer to our prayers and to the prayers of many people who read this blog. Two years ago we were overwhelmed with concern for our little boy who kept having seizures and we didn't have any idea what the future would look like for him and for us. It was a hard season. Then we realized later that year that our little girl was tiny and not really growing. She seemed frail, often refused to eat the food we tried to feed her, and passed out in our arms several times, so we were concerned about her lungs and heart. She hardly talked at all until she was two and we prayed that she was developing ok. We lifted all of these concerns back up to our Father in Heaven, who knows our needs before we even ask for them, and who promises:
"Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you." (Isaiah 46:4)

And another promise that we clung to during the past 2-year season is that "He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young."(Isaiah 40:11)

We have felt gently led, sustained, and carried. We have felt God tending to our needs and drawing us close to His heart and He has given us peace about our kids' health. Their lives are in His good Shepherd hands. Thank you for praying and praising God with us. We are, as you can imagine, "Velly Appy!"

Silly kids and keeping busy

We have so many pictures of this funny girl sleeping in such funny positions and places. In the picture above, she has her baby-doll tucked under her shirt... that's how we found her sleeping a few nights ago. Guess we've got too many pregnant friends! Below you can see evidence that she did, indeed, fall asleep while hanging half-way off her bed a few days later. How would she fall asleep like that? Her feet are dangling a few inches off the floor and she's just fast asleep. Seems like it'd be more comfy to just put your head on your pillow and lay flat, but you're right, I haven't tried sleeping this way!

The kids entertain themselves all day every day, although Annie is delighted if I offer to do a craft with them and both kids are thrilled if I read to them or play a game with them. But I'm pretty busy these days.
Here's what I found them doing not long ago. Annie often rides in this backpack when Nate or I are carrying her, but this time, she had gotten in it herself and Will was trying to carry her on his little back. It didn't quite work out - both because I found them rigging this up and because Annie is too heavy for Will to carry like this. Oh well, it was a good try. Who needs toys when there are real, every-day, useful items around to make use of?
So I have finally returned from too many days away from my blog. My mother will be after me sometime soon if I don't hurry up and post some pictures of the grand kids and fill her in on life at our house. In one month we'll be at her house, and we're all looking forward to that! I am realizing that with only 4 weeks left, I have TONS to do! I am working on all the hidden places - the closets and cupboards and storage areas - to clean and sort and figure out what's coming with us and what we can pass on to others - while leaving the house feeling like we can still live here. It has been really fun to be able to give to people who need and want our things. I am blessed to be able to fill other people's needs in such an immediate way - and I pray often that I will be able to be generous with our things as God would want me to be. I find it hard to know how much to 'provide' for our own family (esp. the kids) with toys and clothes and things, and how much to let go, knowing that God will always provide for us. I pray for a generous, considerate, and attentive heart. So far the kids have been incredibly generous and understanding as they watch friends and strangers walk away with their treasures. I am thankful.

I have also been quilting. quilting to no end, it seems. A group of us women has been making quilts for the past few months. We just gave one we made to our friend who will be returning 'home' to have a baby in less than two weeks! Here she is with the quilt for her baby:


Annie's quilt still sits mostly finished... I've got to get working on that. There are SO many things to do right now that sometimes I just wander around wondering what to work on next.

Some fun things we've done recently:

1. Crafts telling the creation story from Genesis 1.
2. The kids and I attended a concert together today.
3. Will is learning to ride a 2-wheel bike... sort of (but he's REALLY excited about it!)
4. Nate finished yet another university course toward his MA. (GO NATE!)
5. Nate took Annie on a date (hike up to the top of the mountain), while I took Will on a 'date' to a birthday party.
6. God gave us RAIN! - more on this in my next post hopefully!
7. The kids and I had a 'play date' with another neighboring mom and kindergartner, which was enjoyed by all of us.
8. I am LOVING being back to normal-sized laundry loads as Annie no longer wets her pants all day long! Yippee! It's been a VERY long potty-training season with her!
9. I made iron-on-Dora shirts with the kids
10. We've made numerous trips to the library to stock up on books - it's especially nice since our own things are finding their way to other people's homes.

Well, that's it for now. We are certainly staying occupied!

P.S. Thanks for all the kind notes about my music. I really don't deserve credit for the songs... they are songs that God has given to me and helped me to write over the years, and I feel that I am meant to share them so that they can be a blessing to you and others. But thank you for letting me know that you appreciated them... I am encouraged to continue writing when I hear that people appreciate my efforts- smile. Thank you.

Good days

Baby Dechen (and her mom) came for a visit and my kids were just thrilled!
We've gotten to play at the playground several times recently.

Will is learning how to 'pump' his legs on the swing.

Hiking all over. So many steps and the kids do so well climbing up and down them.

This is the kids' favorite 'rest-stop' on our hike home from school.

Will - taking a few minutes to lay in the brush and relax before the last 5 minute-hike home.

Annie LOVES baby dolls and spends most of her time wandering around with one under her arm or in a backpack on her back.

Progress Report

This weekend all the students at our school got progress reports. The last quarter of the school year is underway and we're making progress at our house as well.

1. Annie's nose is all better as you may have noticed in the pictures from my last post! YAY!
2. My foot is almost all better and I am running again.
3. Nate made some good headway in his Narnia reading this weekend... now THAT'S progress!
4. Will is making some progress on learning the sounds that the alphabet letters make. If I'd just sit down and work with him more regularly, I think he might figure out how to read.
5. Annie is potty trained! FINALLY!!! - all day long (except naps) without diapers and only the occasional accident.
6. Our kids are great hikers! I just wanted to let the whole world know that they both plowed up our moutain and across it and back this afternoon without any complaining! Even I was impressed- and told them so! You'll just have to take my word for it, but they are an exceptional 2 and 4 year old on the 'hiking' scale.

random news of the week

Annie has been enjoying building houses with these little blocks. She puts two pieces of any shape and size together and says, "yook, I build a ouse".

Will has been building airplanes out of duplos - the other day he made two of them and sent them swooping through the air. He's very excited about going on an airplane to Korea. First we'll be going on an airplane to the USA! Just 3 months to go!
I have been very bad at giving my kids structured activities to do lately, but this week I DID manage one art project: we painted Will's helicopter that he received from A&K&S&E and the next project we'll do will be putting it together. The kids really enjoyed painting and are excited to finish it up whenever I'm in the mood for glue. not today. maybe in a few days. :)

Yesterday our friends came over for a few hours and Annie got to hold the REAL BABY DECHEN. You can see her thrilled grin as she holds the 3 -month old baby on her 27-month-old lap. She LOVES babies!

The last thing I should mention about yesterday was that this dear friend of mine agreed to chop off a little more than a foot of my hair, which has been feeling very heavy as I run each day. I have been ready to chop it shorter for at least a month and now it is shorter... but not short enough for anyone to really notice! We were at the Hostel Dorm Opening Ceremony later that afternoon and of all the people I talked with and ran into there, only TWO people even noticed that I had gotten a haircut and I was wearing my hair down! I even had to point out to Nate that I had gotten a foot cut off. SO, yeah. I'm back to the same look I had my senior year of H.S./freshman year of college. Speaking of which - that's ten years ago this year. Seems like it's gone quickly.

Since I last posted pictures:

We made sugar cookies together. The kids actually did a great job - such a good job that I just told Will that when I'm done with this post, we'll go and make chocolate chip cookies together. We're both excited to eat them!
Serious bakers!

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The kids love playing in our backyard. They would never come inside if I didn't make them. And we are enjoying beautiful sunny, warm March days.

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Here's the Crazy Quilt square I finished.

It turns out that Embroidery is not really all that hard, and can be quite fun. Maybe I'll make another one of these someday.

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ONE T, TWO T, THREE T, FOUR T!

I weighed the kids on Saturday: Annie weighs 20 lbs, and Will 42 lbs. She has quite the collection of clothes and typically wears things of all sizes from 12 months to 4 T. In the picture above, her yellow shirt is 2-3 T, tank-top is 12 months, shoes are for a 2-3 yr old, tights are 2-4 T, skirt is 2T... I was hoping she'd fit 18-month clothes now, but as I pulled out summer clothes, I was glad I had held onto some 12 month stuff- she fits that best right now (since she's 27 monhths old, you know?!). GROW, ANNIE, GROW!
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And a couple of posts back I mentioned that I was making pumpkin bars for 50 kids. Here are my pans of pumkin bars with maple frosting... MMMmmm! They ended up serving one group of 50 kids and another of 20 kids - and my family even got to eat a few edges! I love baking!

No, the monkeys are NOT cute!

For any of you who think they are, well, they're just NOT!

At 8 am this morning I had had a good run, made breakfast, sent my honey out the door, and thought to myself that it would be a slow day. Maybe I'd manage to sit with my little boy and help him learn some of his alphabet letters. "I'll just start some laundry first," I told him. Then I realized just how much laundry I needed to do today - since our little princess is super picky about what clothes she puts on these days, and she changes her mind every half-hour and helps herself to a clean set of clothes... but even if she didn't change her mind, she still can't be bothered to use the toilet all the time and very very often wets her pants - or more likely, poops in them. Nasty.

By 10AM I figured I'd already had quite the morning- I counted about 6 loads of laundry I had ahead of me, smashed a nasty centipede on my bedroom floor, and then I got soaking pillows and scrubbing pillowcases (because Annie is still scratching her nose and getting blood all over them at naps and bedtime). Then a panicked Annie cried out to me and come to find out that this time she'd pooped all over the coir matting that covers our floors (terrible mess to try to scrub out of the coconut fibres!). After cleaning her up and the floor, I sent the kids outside. I put the soap outside to dry in the sunshine along with the soap holder because they get so nasty with little kids using them all day long. Our weather has been beautiful, by the way- 70-80 and sunny all day long. It's probably even hotter in the sun.

So the kids played outside until they were fighting so much that I had them come in. Both kinds of monkeys (rhesus and langours) were in the trees and walking on the roof, and I felt nervous as I always do, that they were going to steal my laundry. I tried to scare them away a few times, but they didn't really care. Then, while we were all inside, I looked out the bathroom door and saw a big langour holding our nice bar of soap! HEY! I shouted at him and opened the door to come at him, and so he jumped on the roof - WITH MY BAR OF SOAP!

Needless to say, I was mad! I shouted at him some more and Annie asked me if I needed Pappa - yes indeeed! But he's at work.

I looked out again to check the laundry- and the monkey was back- but no bar of soap, only my soap holder was in his hand this time! GRRRRR! I shouted at him again and this time he hopped up on my roof -WITH MY SOAP HOLDER!

Now I was really mad- and again, Annie asked me if I needed Pappa! :) Too true, but he's at work.

Well, I recovered, prayed so hard that God would send the monkeys away and protect us and our laundry. Pretty soon, the monkeys headed elsewhere. They didn't take any of my laundry and I had come to accept the fact that my soap and soap holder were gone for good. Then I stepped outside to bring in the dry clothes, and suddenly, the soap holder dropped from above just in front of me! NO WAY! (If the monkeys take stuff, they usually leave it in impossible places and we never find the things again). I looked up and thought that maybe God had dropped it from heaven just then. I saw up in the trees a little baby monkey just above where it had come from- ah ha! Well, it's still a God-thing. Every monkey-encounter leaves me feeling protected by my Father in Heaven. I don't like the monkeys and they are certainly not cute and stealing my soap was not funny. A verse that Will has learned recently came to mind several times this morning:
Psalm 32:7
"You [God] are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."

Sick of this:

This is THE conversation starter for (almost) every person we run into:[No, not the bad hair day- cuz they all know that's just her normal look.] But everyone who hasn't seen her in awhile, looks at her and notices right away the huge sore on her nose -then they seem to need to know "what happened?!" Well, if she has a beautiful scar on her nose in 20 years, I just want everyone to know that it's not our fault! :) The trouble is that she's had this sore on her nose since about October or November (?) when she fell and scraped her nose - and since then we have tried everything to help it heal up. Many days it seems to be almost better and then we turn our heads and next thing we know, she's picked it AGAIN and we start back at square one: bandaids on at night and sometimes during the day, socks on the hands when she's in bed, clipped nails, lotion/antibiotics/anti-itch ointment... everything.
Then today I saw that it is again, ALMOST all healed! If she gives it another day or two, maybe we'll be done with our nearly 4-month conversation starter and we can talk about something else when we meet random people. :) Bring it on! I'm ready for a new topic!

Two years ago...

I love this picture- just a few days before Annie was born.
That first day with Annie.

Annie's first bath. It was WONDERFUL that my mom was here to help us with everything to to just be family with us for 4 weeks!

Pappa of two kids?! He's an excellent dad.

2

Guess who's TWO?

Annie threw off our celebration tradition by being in my bed when I woke up... and then she got up when I wanted to get up and get her cake... and so I tried to lay back down with her while Nate got Will up and they came with the cake and candles. We managed a couple of lousy, out-of-focus pictures because our camera lens is still broken- but this picture mostly worked from when she was unwrapping presents and munching on breakfast cake in the living room still in PJs:

Will was a great helper. He helped me wrap presents, helped me put candles in the cake, helped bring the cake out. He helped Annie unwrap presents (!) and blow out her candles (!)... he's a good helper.

She got a 'heart cake' because she is well loved. :)

(Will is showing off a ball that she got for her birthday.)

Will kissing Annie's head. Happy Birthday, Annie!

And last but not least- the present I made for Annie:

Matching dresses for her and her doll. The doll's dress fits great, but I have to make some adjustments on Annie's dress (but she DID wear it on her birthday- it just needs some hemming mainly). Since I wanted it to be a surprise, I didn't try it on her as I went along, but oh well. It was fun to do and she seemed to like it.

Growing up

Yesterday I got the kids weighed and measured.
At 3ft, 5 inches tall and 42 lbs, Will is a big boy.
Annie has only just reached 20 lbs and is 2ft, 7 inches tall. She has filled out a lot in the past few months, which makes her seem healthy, but she's still way below the average growth curve as she'll be 2 years old in a couple of weeks. I imagine that she's just petite and that's the way it is. :)

The best toys these days are:
-blunt kitchen knives to cut playdough with (ours have the same thickness for the handle and the blade!)
-playdough
-markers
-plastic people of various shapes and sizes, especially the duplo people and the favorites have hats and hair and can sit or stand - these are prized items at play time
-biggish vehicles that can be piled full of plastic people :)
-Sher Khan, the jungle book tiger (who is known as 'tiger' in Will's world of make-believe where he's a main character along with all the plastic people)
-Will's little blue monkey that keeps getting lost and Annie's two favorite dolls
-cricket bats and bowling pins that are both used primarily for banging on things to make a lot LOT of noise
-a bucket of water (but I rarely let them play with water because our water is a bit dangerous and it's messy and cold)
-a wet rag (Annie carries around a wet rag almost incessantly - she uses it to rub her chapped face, suck on, and wipe down furniture and tables)
-blankets
-backpacks (they've got 4 kid ones that they use all the time to tote toys around the house)
-keys... my keys.

I guess this post is probably not more interesting than my last one. Oh well. I think it's such a precious gift to watch my kids grow up and become who they are.

nothing new

I don't have much to write about and no pictures to post since our nice camera lens broke a month ago. I miss pictures. I'm not very good at figuring out what to write on here and I'd rather have pictures tell stories instead. Maybe a list will do for today.

-Will can now recite Psalm 23 - he includes a few comical errors from time to time, but his pronunciation and intonation are adorable and it's rewarding to have completed this 6-week project. Quite a feat for a 4-year-old.

-On Sunday we made wordless books for our little family 'church' time. I let the kids use staplers for the first time and they loved that! Will mostly understood the story too, I think.

-Will often says things like: "When I die, I will see God." and "Let's pray I'm gonna die in Korea"- he has a fascination with death and soaks up Bible stories and knowledge about God like a sponge. I am amazed at his interest and understanding. And Korea is all he knows besides India-smile (although sometimes if you ask him where he's from, he'll say Canada because we have friends who talk about Canada).

-Will now colors things in! It was an exciting breakthrough when he figured out that it's not so bad to stick with a project and color the whole thing in instead of giving up after a minute of trying.

- Annie likes to use markers - but her marker usually ends up on her cheeks, chin, clothes, walls, chairs... you name it. She also likes keys and changes her clothes about 50 times a day (usually putting on other people's clothes instead of her own).

-My most recent declaration about Naptime: "Naptime is for sleeping. And being quiet. And leaving people alone!!!" - I stated this to my almost 2-year-old who insists on getting out of her bed as soon as I leave her room every nap and bedtime. Replacing her every 5 minutes makes MY 'naptimes' very exhausting.

Perhaps that's enough for now. I'll try to think of something interesting to write about next time.

Knots.

Annie is obsessed with twisting up her hair into terrible knots. She just sits and twirls away at it until it's nearly impossible to get out. Here's the most recent knot up close. (She puts these things all over her head.)

In other knot news:

-I took Annie and Will to join the Preschool class at school this morning (as we have a habit of doing on Fridays), and the class got to spend about an hour in the gym climbing wall area. Will and Annie both got into harnesses and 'climbed' up a little bit on the walls. (Don't worry, they were securly fastened with ropes and knots), and they got to swing briefly way up high. They LOVED it.

-"KNOT" bad: Will hasn't had a seizure in 10 months! We praise the Lord for medicine that he takes well.

- "KNOT" great news: the Pappa is packing his bag up for a week-long hike, and we'll be on our own for too many days. He hasn't left yet and I already can't wait till he gets back.

sunsets, a cook-out and annie's hair

We've seen some really terrific sunsets lately.

Last week we had a fun campfire cook-out in our back yard which included 'hobo dinners' and marshmallows! :)

Here's my girl and her cool hair-do:

Nate took this awesome picture of the light stretching out to the valley below the clouds.

pictures

When there's no cello at home... ... just use a guitar and a bowling pin!

The kids like to race around the house chasing each other with these mesh laundry hampers over their heads. I've personally never tried it, but it does look like lots of fun when they're giggling uncontrollably.

Annie fast asleep in her 'new' bed- notice we even have a side rail for it so she won't fall out (except for the time that she was leaning on the rail and tipped herself over the edge onto the floor... but she should have been sleeping anyway instead of playing, so we didn't give her much pity for that one!)

There's something peaceful about seeing dozens of clean diapers strung out to dry on a laundry line in the sun.

Last Saturday we took a hike to visit some friends of ours. We were bringing them a crib mattress and walking on this narrow path that clings to the side of the mountain with a steep drop-off down into the valley hundreds of feet below. We thought our mothers would appreciate the pictures:

We haven't gotten many pictures of Annie being messy at meal time because she really generally keeps fairly clean. Here's a good one, though, bad hair-day and all: