If you ignore the near-constant sickness, August was a good month. We’ll especially ignore the end-of-month bonus we got Saturday in the form of a LONG day in Boston Children’s hospital for Johnny ending in an asthma diagnosis and the fact that Mike currently has bronchitis for the second time this year. I do want to know, can anyone tell me why the nurses at Boston Children’s thought it was a good idea to try to draw blood from the back of BOTH of Johnny’s hands before finally succeeding in the much-more-common inner elbow spot?
Back to reviewing August… I enjoyed the simplicity of life with two children for the few hours before I went to the hospital to have Lily. The kids got to go to TWO birthday parties August 1st, which would have been impossible with a newborn. Lily has been a joy to take care of, so enjoying having a newborn around has been a breeze. I LOVED having so much family around. It was wonderful to spend time with family members I rarely get to see. I thoroughly appreciated my mom’s cooking, and my siblings and parents spent a lot of time baking with Emma, wrestling Johnny, reading to Emma and Johnny, snuggling Lily, and helping to mow the lawn, paint the cathedral ceiling in our family room, and install a new ceiling fan in the same room. Our final visitor left August 27th, so we’re still adjusting to life as a family of five. Emma and Johnny are learning to share their parents with Lily, and Johnny is getting better at understanding just how gentle you need to be with a newborn. Emma has emerged this past week as an absolutely stellar big sister to both Johnny and Lily. She’s great at comforting both of the younger children and helping around the house.
As for annual goals:
- Find places to keep all those odds and ends that get stashed in random places: ignored, although I cleared out some old toys.
- Potty train Emma: Done. Johnny is still interested in using the potty and sits on it occasionally, but I’m honestly not terribly interested in having two potty-trained children at the moment. If Johnny chooses to train himself overnight, that’s great, but I’m not pushing it.
- Get Johnny to eat more solid food: we’re back to ground zero on this one since the trauma of Saturday. He drinks milk from a sippy cup and not much else. Any suggestions?
- Be more patient with cooking/baking that involves a rolling pin: My mom did this, but I don’t think she had my patience issues to start with.
- Take the kids outdoors more: They were outside most days, sometimes for hours on end. We kept them in most of the time for one particularly hot and muggy week.
- Get the kids to sleep through the night better: Another setback here, I’m guessing due to the combination of new baby and illness. Neither Emma or Johnny is sleeping through the night. They don’t stay awake long when they wake up, but it’s still disrupting everyone’s sleep.
September goals:
- Enjoy New England’s beautiful autumn weather by spending time outside and visiting a farm at least once this month.
- Visit a farmer’s market. My town runs one and there are several others in neighboring towns.
- Make sure all three kids get quality time with both parents. I was baking cookies with Emma last night and she said, “This is fun. I needed some Mama time.”
- Enjoy the return of play dates: we’ve been in self-imposed quarantine for the past month thanks to The Evil Virus That Took Forever to Go Away, so we’re all looking forward to visits with friends this month.
I’d love to get my sewing machine out, so we’ll set that as a bonus goal. I’m also excited about running a review and giveaway from All Modern this month, a store that specializes in contemporary furniture but offers some fun toys for babies and children as well.
What are your goals for this month?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I'm pleased to hear in your more recent post that Johnny's diagnosis was downgraded to simply a reaction to illness. I hope he's much better now. :)
what wonderful goals. I need to start doing something like this. I keep lists but they get lost. LOL
I am relieved to learn from the update that Johnny doesn't have asthma after all. Good luck with achieving your goals – I am very impressed how you manage to raise three young children and still blog.
Did they diagnose Johnny with asthma, and not reactive airways? I thought they couldn't actually diagnose asthma until they got older, but I'm not a doctor, just the mom of a daughter with breathing problems… We have to put her on pre-emptive inhaled steroids every time she gets cold symptoms, and for the last year that has kept her out of the emergency room and we haven't had to have any nebulizer treatments, we haven't even had to use her albuterol. I also canceled all of our indoor swimming lessons, because I read that the extra chlorine exposure of indoor pools can cause/worsen asthma. So good luck with Johnny, we had an awful time with wheezing and colds from 1-2, but 2-3 was pretty problem free, aside from the ickyness of having to give steroids to a little kid.
Have you tried growing food with Johnny? My daughter is 10x more likely to eat something if she gets to pick it off a plant.
Wow, where did August go? I haven't been here since Lily's arrival. Congratulations!!!
And I love that you list your goals… and that you have some. Perhaps I need to sit down right now and write some for September… Thanks for the inspiration!
It's so funny, every time you post about goals I think Hmm, I need to set some goals for myself. And I NEVER DO!! Goal one for September–set more goals.
Hope everyone is feeling better this month :) I'm glad Lily's a breeze and the others are adjusting well.
I'm always amazed by how much you accomplish in a month.. wow! So glad to hear Emma is such a great big sister and a help around the house. That makes such a huge difference. I love how you want to visit a farm at least once this month… I'm planning to take the girls to an organic farm so we can pick our own apples! I can't wait!!
Poor Johnny!! And poor you. We've had blood taken there too. Kevin is high risk for asthma because of his food allergies, and last fall, my husband's job ended (along with his insurance), and THE NEXT DAY Kevin started wheezing! He got super weak and his chest and stomach were going like mad to get enough breath. We had to get him on an albuterol nebulizer (which he screamed through the whole time). But, he's never wheezed since that cold, and I really am optimistic that he doesn't have asthma but his lungs just hadn't fully matured yet. I hope that is the case with Johnny too!
I posted awhile back with some suggestions to get picky toddlers eating on my allergy blog… I'm not sure I've got much more to offer. Kevin won't feed himself anymore but eats a pretty good variety if I pop things in his mouth. I know like me you don't let them watch much tv, but can you feed him while he's watching the baby signing videos? Does he like stickers? Sometimes we'll get out a sticker book at the dinner table and he gets to play with a sticker every few bites.
Sorry so long – hope everyone is well soon!
August sure was a busy month for you! When Elijah was younger and not eating much solids I had the same questions. Does he like soup? Maybe smoothies to get his vitamins and nutrients?
i have a similar goal – to spend more time with Bear playing. Seems I'm constantly nursing the 4 week old, even though he's so good and only nurses every 3 hours.Bear's so used to having my constant attention and it's been hard on the two of us! I don't know how you do it with 3! You are amazing!
sorry that johnny had such a hard time :( I know that had to hurt you as much as him. I can't believe it's September already…I have no goals, I need some. I'm too fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pantsish :) good luck with yours
You are AMAZING! I just want to acknowledge the fact that you have a brand new baby and two kids that have been so sick and yet you have taken the time to set goals for yourself. Well done.
About your son drinking milk from a sippy cup, I had the same problem with my 2nd child. One thing that worked for him, was his Occupational therapist had me switch from his sippy cup to a cup that uses a straw with it. This was great to wean him off the sippy cup and cut back on milk.