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Sunday Sunday.
Grant and Ananda went to church early this morning - just the two of them as our kids all seem to be taking turns with the same weird illness. It's easier to manage by far than if they all got it at once, but it is like no other sickness I've ever encountered. Basically the symptoms seem to be a really high fever and a moderate headache, that come and go intermittently for 2 days - when they are absent, you feel totally normal, but then they reappear full force. After those two days all is well, except that you're left with one day of sudden nonstop coughing.
What the hell is that?
So far Ananda is done with it, Aaron is on the last coughing day, Grant is done with it, Jake is on day 1, and Elise is on day 2 (although hers has been a little more mild and a lot more intermittent, which is usually the case for whoever is still nursing full time when everyone starts getting sick). Isaac and I are both unscathed so far.
So Grant and Ananda, who are all better, went to church and had a good time. She wore this black and white dress my mother got her for Christmas with red patent leather ballet flats she picked out awhile back. It's funny to me to watch her and know I was just like her as a kid. She is always so obviously proud of her fashion statements.
A while after they got back, I went through my How to be a Domestic Goddess (Nigella Lawson) and picked out three recipes for the following week; lemon cake with lemon syrup, chocolate hazelnut cake, and dense chocolate loaf cake. Made a list for everything I'd need for them as well as dinner tonight and a few other things, and took my daughters (I have "daughters"!) to the Farmer's Market and Publix.
How awesome was that Farmer's Market trip?! Ok, three booths -
Booth 1 - $10
-15 yellow delicious apples
-12 roma tomatoes
-two green bell peppers and one red bell pepper
-3 heads of garlic
-6 huge carrots
Booth 2 - $5
-9 d'anjou pears
-9 nectarines, all perfectly ripe
Booth - $5
-2 pounds of GORGEOUS mushrooms
-3 bulbs of fennel
-bundle of fresh chives
The tomatoes, peppers, carrots, mushrooms and fennel are all locally grown and fresh from the fields. The other things are supporting small farming families rather than big grocery stores. And I got MY big old family all that for $20!
Elise will not sit quietly and watch the world go by anymore, when out and about. If I have her in the sling at the Farmer's Market, she's reaching out quick and snagging things to eat as I bend to fill bags - and the vendors are all older Mexican ladies who love babies and let her have whatever she can hold onto for free, with much "Aye que linda!" and "oh la gorda needs mas fruta!" :) Then we're in Publix with her riding in a cart, and she waves at everyone we pass. Waving is her Big New Skill this week, she's so proud of herself and thinks she's controlling everyone as even strangers do this hand motion back at you if you can get their attention. Which you can, if you screech loudly enough.
She has such a fiery little temper. When the front door closes without her escaping as someone else runs outside, or the fridge door before she can get into it, or when I take something from her that she shouldn't have, or if she's tugging at my pant leg and I'm not scooping her up fast enough - she starts this insane growling shriek that makes any adult in earshot furrow their brow and fling up their hands while exclaiming, "Oh my gosh ELISE!" The first time Grant Sr heard it he startled rather violently and looked very concerned, thinking she must be, you know, caught in a bear trap I unthinkingly left out or something. "She's just mad?" Oh yes...she's just mad. She's a little Taurus, like Grandma O_o
This is what the lyricist for that Snow Patrol song I referenced awhile back meant when they said of the NICU nurses, "They don't know your soul or your fire".
Ok, maybe they weren't actually talking about her NICU nurses, but I think you know what I mean. She has fire.
I have an involuntary perception of her as being "post brain injury Elise". As if she were all set to be a certain person, and I knew her as a certain presence, and then all her circuits got scrambled and she healed as this new person, Elise 2.0...or perhaps it's more like, I had a baby I was going to name Amelia or Griet, that I had a sense of and a feeling for and wondered about, but I don't think I'll ever know how she would have turned out because I have this changed and wonderful little girl that's here post-miraculous-healing, instead. It's not really negative, it's just something I've realized is there in my mind. I wonder what sort of temperament she might have had or how quickly she'd be ticking off the milestones or all sorts of other variables, if her brain wasn't practically rewired in the first month of life following such potentially catastrophic oxygen deprivation, and tissue dying, and reverse signaling...will she use a different hand than she would have, after all that plastic change? That's no doubt still occuring? I mean the part of her brain that would normally be responsible for speech was the very worst off, we were told that an adult with that much damage there would never speak again but that as a newborn she could just possibly re-route speech to a different area and make it work. She says mama, dada, opa and hi already, at only 9.5 months old! I've NEVER HAD such a verbal baby before - she tries to sign change and recognizes three other signs (milk, food and water), already. Is that because of the injury and rerouting? Will she write poetry because she was brain injured? Or would she have, if she hadn't been? Will she have a different personality? Or is all this the sort of strictly physiological thinking I usually eschew in favor of belief in souls, and will?
On some level I know it doesn't make any rational sense to see her that way. She is just her, we all go through things that change us and it just started earlier for her. Probably this has something to do with all the birth plans and envisioned babymooning I had for the baby "inside", and how it was all waylaid and we ended up separated so forcefully, for so long, and came back together in a completely unanticipated way, and then just as I started to begin to try to accept horrible diagnoses, she was...fine? And so there is her "before" and her "after", perhaps not so much because she is a new creature as that there's a break in my thought processes.
It's strange how much I have to concentrate, with my hands around her little chest and her face in front of mine, to feel as though she is really that gigantic lump I was sporting. I KNOW it, mentally, but I almost have to squint for it to seem true on a deeper level that those little feet were doing the kicking I felt.
She already has different relationships with each of her siblings, which absolutely kills me dead. It's so awesome. Ananda picks her up and carries her around frequently, or pulls her up on the couch with her, and laughs at her goofier things like shrieking for strangers to see her wave. Aaron can't cuddle with her enough, he's always hugging her or pulling her into his lap. Isaac is the best at playing with her in a quiet way, he always manages to engage her with looking at things, peekaboo, handing her stuff as he explains it...it really blows me away how great he is at entertaining her and how much he likes doing it. Jake crawls around on the floor with her and they shriek together and make each other laugh hysterically. All four of them take stuff out of her hands and mouth with varying levels of explanation for why this or that isn't safe, and the oldest three are all skilled enough to hand her a safe replacement object. And all four of them routinely put up with abuse from her that they would never tolerate from each other - climbing over their faces as we read in my bed, smacks in the nose that come along with her giggles, even the occassional destruction of property is all met with a really impressive level of understanding she doesn't understand what she's doing yet. I mean I would never hear the end of it if that was, say, Isaac hitting Aaron or Annie breaking Isaac's thing or whatever.
What really blows my mind though, is I swear she knows all of their names. Anytime I say, "Elise, Isaac has something for you" or "Oooh Elise can you say hi to Jakey?" or whatever, she looks to the one who's name I'm using. And I use the names A LOT, obviously, I mean I say "Ananda, Aaron, Isaac, Jake, Elise" more than any other five things all day every day...but still! She's only (almost) 9.5 months old. I feel like she can't possibly really know all four of them specifically by name...except she obviously does. She yells Opa when Grant Sr walks in the room!
Kids' Books
Surely this is enough entry for one night...I would just like to ask anyone with older-than-infant kids, what are your kids reading? We're always looking for new ideas...since Christmas I've read
Aaron:
-Where the Sidewalk Ends
-Falling Up (Shel Silverstein like WTSE, but not as good as that one)
Ananda:
-Queen Xixi of Ix, by L. Frank Baum (better than Oz, in my opinion)
-Boy, by Roald Dahl, which is a really interesting book of tales from his own boyhood
Both:
-currently The Prisoner of Azkaban
Everyone:
-Nancy brought us a picture book called Rollo and Juliet that's cute
Isaac:
-all about talking and interacting with Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
-some Richard Scarry stories I have
-Grant read him The Story of Ichabod and Mr Toad over 3 nights, out of this ooooooooold Disney Storybook that used to be Laura's when we were kids, and then downloaded the movie for him to watch.
Jake:
-only wants to read Maurice Sendak - we have Where the Wild Things Are and all the little Nutshell Library books as books, but also on dvd sung by Carol King (not to be missed, seriously they're awesome this way and with all the book pictures, Reading Rainbow style).
My two big reccomendations to anyone reading are:
-Fairy Tales by E.E. Cummings - Grant ordered this for Ananda before she was born because we liked his poetry and she's always loved them, they're really silly and have neat illustrations
-Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus. It's perfect for kids and adults, and like Narnia can be read with or without a Christian perspective (no overt theology or specific God talk).
I rarely hear anything about these books, but they are incredible.
Grant and Ananda went to church early this morning - just the two of them as our kids all seem to be taking turns with the same weird illness. It's easier to manage by far than if they all got it at once, but it is like no other sickness I've ever encountered. Basically the symptoms seem to be a really high fever and a moderate headache, that come and go intermittently for 2 days - when they are absent, you feel totally normal, but then they reappear full force. After those two days all is well, except that you're left with one day of sudden nonstop coughing.
What the hell is that?
So far Ananda is done with it, Aaron is on the last coughing day, Grant is done with it, Jake is on day 1, and Elise is on day 2 (although hers has been a little more mild and a lot more intermittent, which is usually the case for whoever is still nursing full time when everyone starts getting sick). Isaac and I are both unscathed so far.
So Grant and Ananda, who are all better, went to church and had a good time. She wore this black and white dress my mother got her for Christmas with red patent leather ballet flats she picked out awhile back. It's funny to me to watch her and know I was just like her as a kid. She is always so obviously proud of her fashion statements.
A while after they got back, I went through my How to be a Domestic Goddess (Nigella Lawson) and picked out three recipes for the following week; lemon cake with lemon syrup, chocolate hazelnut cake, and dense chocolate loaf cake. Made a list for everything I'd need for them as well as dinner tonight and a few other things, and took my daughters (I have "daughters"!) to the Farmer's Market and Publix.
How awesome was that Farmer's Market trip?! Ok, three booths -
Booth 1 - $10
-15 yellow delicious apples
-12 roma tomatoes
-two green bell peppers and one red bell pepper
-3 heads of garlic
-6 huge carrots
Booth 2 - $5
-9 d'anjou pears
-9 nectarines, all perfectly ripe
Booth - $5
-2 pounds of GORGEOUS mushrooms
-3 bulbs of fennel
-bundle of fresh chives
The tomatoes, peppers, carrots, mushrooms and fennel are all locally grown and fresh from the fields. The other things are supporting small farming families rather than big grocery stores. And I got MY big old family all that for $20!
Elise will not sit quietly and watch the world go by anymore, when out and about. If I have her in the sling at the Farmer's Market, she's reaching out quick and snagging things to eat as I bend to fill bags - and the vendors are all older Mexican ladies who love babies and let her have whatever she can hold onto for free, with much "Aye que linda!" and "oh la gorda needs mas fruta!" :) Then we're in Publix with her riding in a cart, and she waves at everyone we pass. Waving is her Big New Skill this week, she's so proud of herself and thinks she's controlling everyone as even strangers do this hand motion back at you if you can get their attention. Which you can, if you screech loudly enough.
She has such a fiery little temper. When the front door closes without her escaping as someone else runs outside, or the fridge door before she can get into it, or when I take something from her that she shouldn't have, or if she's tugging at my pant leg and I'm not scooping her up fast enough - she starts this insane growling shriek that makes any adult in earshot furrow their brow and fling up their hands while exclaiming, "Oh my gosh ELISE!" The first time Grant Sr heard it he startled rather violently and looked very concerned, thinking she must be, you know, caught in a bear trap I unthinkingly left out or something. "She's just mad?" Oh yes...she's just mad. She's a little Taurus, like Grandma O_o
This is what the lyricist for that Snow Patrol song I referenced awhile back meant when they said of the NICU nurses, "They don't know your soul or your fire".
Ok, maybe they weren't actually talking about her NICU nurses, but I think you know what I mean. She has fire.
I have an involuntary perception of her as being "post brain injury Elise". As if she were all set to be a certain person, and I knew her as a certain presence, and then all her circuits got scrambled and she healed as this new person, Elise 2.0...or perhaps it's more like, I had a baby I was going to name Amelia or Griet, that I had a sense of and a feeling for and wondered about, but I don't think I'll ever know how she would have turned out because I have this changed and wonderful little girl that's here post-miraculous-healing, instead. It's not really negative, it's just something I've realized is there in my mind. I wonder what sort of temperament she might have had or how quickly she'd be ticking off the milestones or all sorts of other variables, if her brain wasn't practically rewired in the first month of life following such potentially catastrophic oxygen deprivation, and tissue dying, and reverse signaling...will she use a different hand than she would have, after all that plastic change? That's no doubt still occuring? I mean the part of her brain that would normally be responsible for speech was the very worst off, we were told that an adult with that much damage there would never speak again but that as a newborn she could just possibly re-route speech to a different area and make it work. She says mama, dada, opa and hi already, at only 9.5 months old! I've NEVER HAD such a verbal baby before - she tries to sign change and recognizes three other signs (milk, food and water), already. Is that because of the injury and rerouting? Will she write poetry because she was brain injured? Or would she have, if she hadn't been? Will she have a different personality? Or is all this the sort of strictly physiological thinking I usually eschew in favor of belief in souls, and will?
On some level I know it doesn't make any rational sense to see her that way. She is just her, we all go through things that change us and it just started earlier for her. Probably this has something to do with all the birth plans and envisioned babymooning I had for the baby "inside", and how it was all waylaid and we ended up separated so forcefully, for so long, and came back together in a completely unanticipated way, and then just as I started to begin to try to accept horrible diagnoses, she was...fine? And so there is her "before" and her "after", perhaps not so much because she is a new creature as that there's a break in my thought processes.
It's strange how much I have to concentrate, with my hands around her little chest and her face in front of mine, to feel as though she is really that gigantic lump I was sporting. I KNOW it, mentally, but I almost have to squint for it to seem true on a deeper level that those little feet were doing the kicking I felt.
She already has different relationships with each of her siblings, which absolutely kills me dead. It's so awesome. Ananda picks her up and carries her around frequently, or pulls her up on the couch with her, and laughs at her goofier things like shrieking for strangers to see her wave. Aaron can't cuddle with her enough, he's always hugging her or pulling her into his lap. Isaac is the best at playing with her in a quiet way, he always manages to engage her with looking at things, peekaboo, handing her stuff as he explains it...it really blows me away how great he is at entertaining her and how much he likes doing it. Jake crawls around on the floor with her and they shriek together and make each other laugh hysterically. All four of them take stuff out of her hands and mouth with varying levels of explanation for why this or that isn't safe, and the oldest three are all skilled enough to hand her a safe replacement object. And all four of them routinely put up with abuse from her that they would never tolerate from each other - climbing over their faces as we read in my bed, smacks in the nose that come along with her giggles, even the occassional destruction of property is all met with a really impressive level of understanding she doesn't understand what she's doing yet. I mean I would never hear the end of it if that was, say, Isaac hitting Aaron or Annie breaking Isaac's thing or whatever.
What really blows my mind though, is I swear she knows all of their names. Anytime I say, "Elise, Isaac has something for you" or "Oooh Elise can you say hi to Jakey?" or whatever, she looks to the one who's name I'm using. And I use the names A LOT, obviously, I mean I say "Ananda, Aaron, Isaac, Jake, Elise" more than any other five things all day every day...but still! She's only (almost) 9.5 months old. I feel like she can't possibly really know all four of them specifically by name...except she obviously does. She yells Opa when Grant Sr walks in the room!
Kids' Books
Surely this is enough entry for one night...I would just like to ask anyone with older-than-infant kids, what are your kids reading? We're always looking for new ideas...since Christmas I've read
Aaron:
-Where the Sidewalk Ends
-Falling Up (Shel Silverstein like WTSE, but not as good as that one)
Ananda:
-Queen Xixi of Ix, by L. Frank Baum (better than Oz, in my opinion)
-Boy, by Roald Dahl, which is a really interesting book of tales from his own boyhood
Both:
-currently The Prisoner of Azkaban
Everyone:
-Nancy brought us a picture book called Rollo and Juliet that's cute
Isaac:
-all about talking and interacting with Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
-some Richard Scarry stories I have
-Grant read him The Story of Ichabod and Mr Toad over 3 nights, out of this ooooooooold Disney Storybook that used to be Laura's when we were kids, and then downloaded the movie for him to watch.
Jake:
-only wants to read Maurice Sendak - we have Where the Wild Things Are and all the little Nutshell Library books as books, but also on dvd sung by Carol King (not to be missed, seriously they're awesome this way and with all the book pictures, Reading Rainbow style).
My two big reccomendations to anyone reading are:
-Fairy Tales by E.E. Cummings - Grant ordered this for Ananda before she was born because we liked his poetry and she's always loved them, they're really silly and have neat illustrations
-Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus. It's perfect for kids and adults, and like Narnia can be read with or without a Christian perspective (no overt theology or specific God talk).
I rarely hear anything about these books, but they are incredible.
