Weekend Wrap-up

So let's look back and see what we accomplished this week:

Nathan and Luke took their standardized tests this week. According to them they were "easy". Now all we have to do is wait until the end of June when we get results. I always get nervous . . . I picked them up Wednesday afternoon along with Grace, to show her off. As I parked a lady came up who was in the co-op for the first 2 years we were, but didn't participate last year (they were just testing with us). She had a baby last January, a few months before I had Anna. I got out the carseat, and she said, "Oh, let me see the baby--I haven't seen her . . . since. . . " and then she sort of stumbled to a halt as she really looked in the car seat and saw a newborn. You could see that it just wasn't computing, since the last time she saw Anna, she had been about the size of Grace, so . . . who was this newborn? Why had my baby not grown at all over the course of a year? It was funny. I took pity on her and told her that this was a NEW baby that I had just had last Tuesday, and that threw her for a loop too! LOL!

This is a week or 2 old, but Caleb is now riding his bike without training wheels! But knee pads are recommended, LOL, and in fact, he is inside fussing right now after a fall. Really he is doing quite well though. He's been so funny about watching me nurse. He said, "So, is one of those for milk, and the other for her food?" I said that both of them were milk, since that's all Grace needs. "Well, why do you need 2 of them then?!" LOL, all I could think of was one great big hose thing coming out of a chest!

Jonathan . . . hmmm . . . can't think of anything really new. He's just tagging along with everyone else.

Anna is gaining confidence daily with her walking, but she still prefers crawling on the whole. She also turned herself around and went backwards down the stairs for the first time yesterday! Since we have 3 flights of stairs in this house, this is a very welcome advance in skills.

Grace lost her umbilical stump on Wednesday and had her first baby tub bath on Thursday. She wasn't thrilled about it, but she mainly just scowled, instead of crying. She has been doing really well at night, usually going from about 9:15 to 2:30 or so for her long stretch. Now if I would just go to bed at 10:00 when she was done nursing . . .

This week I nursed, pumped, and nursed some more. And changed a lot of poopy diapers. Grace can't keep up with my milk supply, so I've been pumping a tidy little supply for the freezer. I am finally feeling a lot better, in that my pelvis is no longer aching. I've had a big headache the past few days, but so have my dad and Nathan, so we've decided it's allergies, since Caleb is coughing and a bit wheezy too. I made a trip to Sams today, and as I was leaving, the nice older Korean gentleman who checks the receipts says to me, "Oh! No kids today!" LOL! Hey, I am recognized at Sams! I feel so special!

Bob and my dad put up our other new garage door. So now we have 2 new garage doors with windows, and wow, what a difference that makes for the garage! No more dark hole! I need to take a picture and post it. They look really nice. Bob's other big accomplishment for the week was getting Grace registered for DEERS and Tricare. You might think that should be an easy chore, but you would be wrong. In fact, due to the incompetant beauracracy of those organizations here in the National Capital Region, it actually took a good deal of time and phone calls with rude customer service agents to get it all sorted out. Yesterday I was finally able to make Grace's 2 week well-baby appointment for Tuesday. As I was getting ready to leave the hospital with Grace, the house pediatrician stopped by to tell me that Grace was a little jaundiced, so I should see her doctor that next day (last Friday). I nodded seriously, while laughing inside. Yes, I'll get right on that! I couldn't have gotten an appointment for her then if I had tried! Good thing all my babies are a little jaundiced, and I knew what to expect. She was fine by a few days later, like they always are. Good thing nothing was really seriously wrong. But now, we are all set, thanks to Bob's persistence.

Well, that's about it. Nothing too exciting!