April Twenty Sixteen

April can suck it. There’s a lovely saying. Seriously though, April is done as far as I’m concerned. And there’s where I think of my fourth grade teacher who would say, “You’re not done, you’re finished. Unless you’re a turkey coming out of the oven, then you’re done.” Something like that. I don’t remember much else from fourth grade. I rarely use the word done because of her. And then there’s my sixth grade teacher, she had her doctorate in the abacus. At the time, it sounded pretty important but now thinking back, a doctorate in the abacus? Random. It almost sounds like one of those for-profit degrees where you can get your doctorate in anything if you shell out enough cash. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m over-thinking this years later. Highly likely.

Back to April sucking it and being a turkey coming out of the oven… April is best summed up with sickness. I don’t remember much other than different temperatures, ranging from 99.4 to 104.2 (Blaise is at 102.4 today, awesome). Nan used to say, “If it’s not your knee, it’s your elbow.” Exactly.

I’m calling the month over because any additional days will mean someone else will be sick. Before the never-ending sickness, April started out like any other month. I think, I can’t remember. The memory fades with each added kiddo. Good thing I take pictures…

April 1 was the day we had the laundry list of house fixes scheduled. A bonus of buying a new house is everything is warrantied for one year. Anything we find—be it a small hole in the wall to the water heater needing to be replaced (that happened)—they fix at no cost. Brian took the day off to deal with all the contractors coming and going. I took the four and Melvin on foot for a morning adventure. I hadn’t really planned out what we’d do other than go for a long walk, and then I remembered there is an off-leash dog park in Carnation. We walked over there and had the place to ourselves. Which is a good thing because the rule-follower in me saw the sign at the entrance that says no young children. I lived on the edge and broke that rule since it was only us using the park. Melvin had a blast running, as did Blaise and Laine. We managed to spend a few hours out and about. When we got back home, all the contractors were finished. All that was left was the paint touch-up, which was planned for the afternoon. It’s not a proper day with contractors unless one doesn’t show up. I called it… it was a beautiful day, the first in forever, and a Friday. I told Brian they wouldn’t come. Sure enough, we got a call mid-afternoon saying they wouldn’t be coming. They showed up Monday morning unannounced. It worked out, whatever. And we’re back to having another laundry list…

The rest of April 1 was a fabulous day. With the afternoon free, we spent most of it out front. The kiddos rode bikes, Brian and I switched off scooting with them (I scooted with Vaile in the Bjorn, she loved it until she fell asleep?!), I cleaned out the van, the kiddos picnicked on the front porch… a perfect afternoon. I’m not sure I can say it enough, we LOVE it here.

Who are these kiddos?! I went to the grocery store and happened to walk down the toy aisle. These jumped in my cart. Brian told me the next morning—when he and Laine were up early while everyone else slept—he gave Laine a cookie. A little later, she had the glasses on and was calling herself Mrs. Sniffles. Brian played along and asked if Mrs. Sniffles had a cookie yet. He said it was priceless, she wasn’t sure if he was being serious or playing along as a joke. In the end, she went with it and said Mrs. Sniffles hadn’t had a cookie yet so she scored two. I’m not surprised Laine scored; I’m surprised Brian gave out a cookie (two!) in the morning. He’s too much of a traditionalist usually… cookies are special treats to be eaten at snack time.

April pups. Melvin on the dog bed for the second time maybe? He’s more of a couch guy.

And the sickness begins… First though, a few days before I took these pictures, Brian’s mom was in town. She flew up for a few days to interview at Swedish. She accepted a job in Edmonds and will be moving up next week. It’ll be nice having a grandmother 40 minutes away. We’re all excited to have her in the area.

Back to sickness. We had plans (we made back in December I think) to visit a friend who lives about an hour away. It was spring break for her and us, and we hadn’t seen them for almost a year. Well, it’ll be a year before we see them… in the car for 55 minutes, we arrived to Edmonds just to have Saige start throwing up in her car seat. I pulled into the first parking lot I could—ironically, Swedish where Brian’s mom will be working. I cleaned Saigers up and then held her for a bit. I could tell she had a high fever. We regrouped after about 10 minutes and turned around for home. The big kiddos were sad, as was I, so an ICEE helped cheer them up. Burger King is only good for drive-thru ICEEs. ICEE kiddos; a sick, sleeping Saigers; Vaile who had no idea anything was going on or where we were; and I drove home. That was a highly entertaining drive. The big kiddos talked the entire time. It was a nice banter we had going.

Back home, Saige’s car rest helped give her a little spunk. And despite her 101-something temperature, she was ready to play. The kiddos asked for daffodils and pots to plant them. I decided to buy plain terra-cotta pots for them to paint. In the meantime, the daffodils died (rather, I totally forgot to water them). I set them up out back to paint.

Saige didn’t last long before she was lying on the couch asleep. The big kiddos spent the afternoon outside, which has become the standard around here. I gave them the bucket filled with water and some paintbrushes. Ever since Blaise was 10 months, this has been a hit. They worked for quite some time painting all the rocks before needing more water, then the hose action took over.

Popsicle weather! I LOVE the Dollar Tree. I even have popsicle holder-thingies from some regular store, and I still like the $1 ones better.

The kiddos were working to make cement. Mixing together rocks, water, and sand… it didn’t quite turn out. =)

We planted our garden (pictures galore).

I’m not sure what’s going on here. Saige found Vaile’s bottle, Melvin was sitting close by.

Vaile found her feet. It’s so weird having a slower (not sure what word choice is best?!) kiddo. Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s actually nice since she’s our last and we can enjoy the baby thing a bit longer. All the others were crawling by now, and she’s over here like, I have feet, amazing! Her grabby hands are starting to work, too. The moment I always can tell when they work: when I hold a baby while eating and my plate moves. That’s the official start of grabby hands.

Ponytails and pigtails.

Another one bites the dust. After Saige was down, we had two breather days before Blaise was down. He was hit hard with sickness. Poor kiddo had a fever for four days, mostly in the 102-103 range.

Laine working on drawing. She uses YouTube to watch how to draw videos.

A little peek-a-boo action.

In the midst of the kiddo sickness, I started to have some pelvic pain. I had my very first (and hopefully last) UTI. Not cool. I went to the doctor—my doctor was out of town—and was prescribed some medication. Turns out that medication made me feel sick, like deathly sick. I called to get another type but in the meantime continued taking the deathly sick medication. It was either have a UTI or feel sick temporarily. While feeling awful, I couldn’t sleep and looked up the medication I was taking. Feeling sick + midnight + Google = a BAD combination. I found a few sites that said taking the UTI medication interacted badly with my blood pressure medication. One site, the hidden truth of SUDDEN DEATH. Okay, non-sick, rational me realizes web browsing for medical advice is bad. I could diagnose myself with prostate cancer if I tried hard enough. Sick, irrational me was on the phone at midnight with the 24-hour nurse asking if I was going to DIE. Shocker, I was fine. I talked with the doctor the next day and was prescribed another medication that wouldn’t make me deathly sick. I went to the pharmacy and now, I’ve taken the round and all is well. And bonus, I’m alive.

The night after I was going to die and before I spoke with the doctor, I needed fresh air. I took Melvin on a two-hour walk. We went up the trail to the 203 and back home. What a beautiful trail (and we live next to it, score!). Needless to say, he was zonked that afternoon. Brian had taken him on a three-mile run that morning, and then the two-hour walk. He still wanted a walk that evening though. Young dogs have energy.

Rider Laine!

We thought we were past the sickness. All kiddos were well. We set out for an afternoon walk on the trail after Laine’s riding lesson. It was hot. My Native Californian self would be ashamed… anything over 76 degrees is too hot for me now. It was maybe 81 degrees this day.

I bought a wagon. Why? No clue. It was something I saw at Costco a few weeks back and at the time, decided we didn’t need it. I couldn’t get that sucker out of my head so I bought one. Blaise loves the sucker. He packs it full of things in the backyard and moves around with it. If anything, it was worth it for him.

Tummy time! I realize all these pictures look the same but they stay. =)

Annnnd, Laine was next up being sick. She was in asleep on the couch why these two were wagoning.

Next up, me. I was sick. I was fine and then I wasn’t. Brian had to take the day off from work and play at-home-parent while I slept. Man, that was awful. I was down for a few days before feeling like a human again. I rarely get sick… not cool, kid germs. In the midst of me being sick, I got crafty (not my thing). We have the IKEA picture hanging wire that we’ve yet to put up. Instead, I ordered some twine and clothes pins (fancy ones, not for clothes) and made an art hanging wall thingy. I kind of like it, despite it looking unresolved.

My getting older self is realizing I don’t want the kiddos to grow up in a place where things aren’t fun. I mean, I’m still particular about cleanliness and things put away where they go… but I’d like to have their artwork around, fun things within reach (hence the art room), kiddo-friendly, etc. Basically, not a sterile, perfectly decorated non-kiddo house like I grew up in.

My sleeping buddy while I was sick. Vaile escaped getting sick. Lucky gal. Although, I think Saige dropped something on her head given that red mark. I forget what but I remember the crying.

Blaise was the first with a sprout! Squash. We all have sprouts now, and the birds took all the corn seeds. Buggers.

Blurry… I walked in on Melvin with a paci in his mouth. It wasn’t him, he said.

Blaise and Laine asked to do yoga before bed one night, instead of reading Amelia Bedelia like usual (great books for kiddos!).

Blaise’s dance recital costume. He loves the costume, not happy about the bandana (hence the face). It’s rare to see him unhappy!

Snugs the cuddle cat, snuggling with Laine last night.

And that was April. I’m writing off these next few days and pretending it’s May. May will be great. It’s the annual Camp Orkila trip Brian takes the big kiddos on; Brian’s mom moves up next week; all of our weekends are packed with fun plans; the weather will be ideal; the Carnation Farmer’s Market starts; and we’ll hopefully get to see everyone we’ve had to cancel on thanks to sickness. If there is any sickness in May, I’ll pretend it’s June. Onward and upward.