This Week at Our House # 29

1. Near the end of the week, John got contacted from the place who gave him a phone interview the previous Monday. The emailed said he passed the phone interview and asked him to write a few small programs. I guess we will see if he passes phase 2. The job is in Orem, UT.
2. It was an eventful week. Ruth and Kate left for girl's camp early Monday morning. Later that day, I finally had Susan's 2 week check up with the midwife. Susan was 3.5 weeks and had not regained her birth weight. In fact, she had only gained 2 ounces since she was 4 days old. I had already decided to try going off dairy to see if she would calm down some as she has been very fussy. So we decided to continue that and my midwife showed me some ways of getting the hind milk which is fattier. Then on Tuesday, I realized the pain I had during nursing was thrush. After some research and contacting the midwife, I decided to try gentian violet which makes a big purple mess everywhere. Susan has had a blue mouth, blue lips, and sometimes a blue face. It seems to be working slowly. Susan really didn't sleep all week. I have been in a tired haze and have spent so much time breast feeding and taking care of Susan that Josh and Arwen are having quite the difficult time. I am trying to figure out this no dairy diet and that has been a bit of challenge too. Needless to say,  it's been a hard week. I am grateful it is summer vacation, though. As hard as it is now, it would be 10x harder if I had to get up early to get kids to school and then get homework done afterwards. I hope we have everything working well before another month is out because school starts in 30 more days.
3. Ruth went to girl's camp and had a fabulous time. She saw all sorts of wildlife including a bear. She came home Friday around noon very happy with lots of fun stories to tell.
4. Kate had a fabulous time at girl's camp too. Kate saw the bear first and alerted Bonnie and Ruth to it. They were good and backed away and ran and told everyone. When Kate got home, she grabbed a couple of books and spent the rest of the weekend reading.
5. Johnny was the oldest kid at home all week. He spent two of those evenings helping a neighbor clean house and earning money for scout camp. Johnny played with the younger kids all week which helped a ton. 
6. Adam seemed pretty happy on the whole. He played with Johnny and made up lots of crazy games with the younger kids.
7. Rachel loves to chat and took the time to sit with me as I fed the baby. She has been working on her Legacy Prep summer reading and is doing a great job. Legacy Prep is a year ahead of Foxboro where Rachel was attending school and I was worried that the summer work would be too hard for her, but she is doing pretty well.
8. Anya lost her summer reading worksheets. She had been working hard on it all summer and was almost finished. I know she will be pretty sad if she does not have her papers to turn into her first grade teacher, so I will have to go to the school and get a new packet and she will just have to work really hard to finish it on time. This is too bad, because I do have an organized and easy way for them to keep their school work, but if they leave it out, someone is likely to toss it. 
9. Joseph had his 5th birthday yesterday! I can't believe he is 5 already! He was pretty cute about the whole thing. He said that he wanted his cousin Sammy and his family for his birthday and for it to be at Gramma's house so he could play outside there. He wanted an ice cream cake and bbq chicken for dinner. He got all of those wishes, except that it ended up being a big family event because a lot of family was in from out of town.
10. I took Joshua with me to the mother's room to nurse the baby during Sacrament meeting yesterday. He was pretty hyper climbing the sink and playing with the changing table. I told him not to play with the changing table because it had poop on it. (Which I know it gets on it.) Well after that a lady came in to change her baby's diaper. She laid her blanket over the changing table and Joshua yelled, "Don't put your blanket on there. There is poop!" The woman was like what? I explained that I told him that to get him to stop playing on it. Josh continued, though. He kept saying. That is disgusting there is poop there and now it is on your blanket. When she laid her baby down, he yelled out. "Oh no, there is poop on that! Now there is poop on your blanket and on your baby's head. Take it off of there. It is disgusting. There is poop on it! Your baby has poop on her head! My mom said take that blanket off of there. It has poop!" When the woman finished changing her baby, she laid the blanket on the floor and left to throw away the diaper. When she came back, Josh said, "Now there is poop on your blanket! This is disgusting! This is an emergency!" I have no idea what this woman was thinking, but she told Josh he is cute. I wish Josh would be disgusted enough by his own poop and use the toilet without a reminder.
11. Arwen, poor baby, is having such a hard time with all of the time I am spending with Susan. She is pretty grumpy and being a bit naughty. I am trying to be sure to hold her and compliment her whenever I can. She seems to have joined forces with Joshua and together they are climbing things and making messes and then laughing hysterically together. I am glad they are forming a team. It will be nice for them when school starts next month.
12. My midwife stopped by Thursday to check Susan's weight. She had gained back up to 8 pounds or 2 ounces since Monday so the hind milk and my getting off dairy is helping. She is also a lot calmer. She still has a bit of thrush, though I am feeling better. Hopefully, we can kick this soon and get her and I healthy and normal. Susan is a very, very wakeful baby. If I do not eat enough, Susan does not sleep at all. I have to be careful to get enough of the right calories, which takes work too. Blah :(

This Week's Pictures

loves these beauties!

these are his favorite toys right now

Great Grandma came to visit. We are so happy her hip healed and she can still travel

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa, they are 94!

This Week at Our House # 28

1. John had a phone interview for a job in Orem, UT that he said went well. He was also contacted by Microsoft for some more information, but we aren't so sure that would be a good place for our family as it is very liberal with a high cost of living.
2. I spoke too soon about Susan sleeping. She has been letting me get around 3 to 5 hours of sleep a night. The main trouble seems to be that she will not go asleep before 2 or 3 and then she keeps waking up to eat every hour or two. I have been hazy from lack of sleep and feel a bit like things are out of control because of it. On a nice side, my mom bought me a laptop and now for the first time, I have my own laptop to do my writing on. I love it!!
3. Ruth is such a big help. While I was trying to make up for 3 hours of sleep during the day on Friday, she secretly cleaned 2 bathrooms. Ruth is currently spending a lot of time writing and drawing for a contest. I haven't peeked too much yet, but when she did this 2 years ago, she did an amazing job. She is an even better artist now.
4. Kate really hates her online gym class. It makes her cry pretty much every time she sits down to work on it. Poor girl. 14 to about 15.5 seems to be an emotional age for my girls.
5. We finally got back to the library and Johnny has been reading Agatha Christie books with Ruth, Kate, and I. Johnny has really expanded his reading in the last several months. In the past, he would only read fantasy and comics. Now he reads classics and mysteries as well. 
6. Two weeks ago I told Adam that if he stopped sucking his finger for 30 days straight, we would find a way to purchase either the lego set or the Go game he wants. Adam has gone 14 days without sucking his finger. Given that, I am pretty sure that Adam is stressed about John's job loss. 
7. I am having Rachel do a lot of reading, summer reading worksheets for Legacy Prep, and now she is learning cursive. I feel a little bad about it because she just finished school. I am so glad that we will not have to deal with year round school anymore. She is being a good sport about it all and not complaining or anything.
8. I gave Anya the Book of Mormon stories for her to read for scriptures. I told her she only needed to read one or two squares a day. She has been sitting down and reading it for about an hour a day. 
9. Joseph has been easier and a lot more helpful recently. There are still those times of day where he is moving all over the place and being pretty wild, but it is nice to see that he is starting to mature. He turns 5 next Sunday and starts school exactly one month later. I am a bit nervous about sending my wild boy to school. Hopefully he will do well. I was worried about Adam too and he is just the greatest in school. Time will tell...
10. Josh says "I love you" whenever he does something he knows he shouldn't have, like poop his pants. At this point I am hoping that he will potty train by kindergarten.
11. The reality of having a new baby and a high maintenance baby at that has finally set in with Arwen and she is having a tough time and needing a lot of reassurance. Arwen's new phrase is "stop it," and she is saying it to everyone all of the time. She picked it up from me because I have been saying it to her nonstop as she picks the baby's face or tries to grab her up or lick her or all the other things she is trying to do to Susan right now. We are having a bit of a difficult cycle with that because as soon as I get Susan settled down and asleep so that I can get some things done and spend some time reading to Arwen, Arwen comes and attacks her and wakes her up. Arwen calls Susan Sues and that is just cute.
12. Susan is a high maintenance baby for sure. She is sweet and we all love her, but I doubt we will look back longingly on her newborn time like we have with some of our other babies. She is smiling and holding her head up and straightening into a standing position when I put her on her feet. She also rolls to her side when I lie her on her back. She is definitely a strong little one with a strong personality. 

This Week's Pictures

This Week at Our House #27: July 4th Robertson Family Reunion

1. We had a nice 4th of July celebration with John's family.  If we move away from UT, I suspect we will plan to come for this about every other year.
2. I was able to do a lot more this week. I think some days the kids definitely thought, "mom is back." Some days I was just too tired from just giving birth and having a newborn.
3. Ruth and Kate both had a nice time visiting with the cousins who are their ages who came to the 4th of July family reunion. I also had fun just hanging out with the teenage girls. They are cute and are at a fun time in their lives.
4. Kate enjoyed the family reunion. She has gotten really good at keeping Susan calm.This year Kate was a main helper with the fireworks. 
5. Johnny has a 9 year old cousin who adores him and follows him around. Johnny is very patient with him, even when I know he wants to be hanging out with the older kids.
6. Adam has spent as much time as he can in the pool at Grandma's house. He also enjoyed helping with the fireworks.
7. Rachel finished her final week of school. She also had tons of painful dental work done and had a swollen mouth for 3 days. We were actually able to get her to take ibuprofin after that. Rachel is swimming great and does not need any flotation help this year. Rachel was so excited for the family reunion that she asked us to put her to bed early on Thursday so that the Fourth of July would come sooner.
8. Anya had tons of fun with her cousins and swimming during the family reunion.
9. Joseph went around hammering walls and floors and things with a toy hammer until he broke one too many things and I threw the toy hammer away. He put a hole in the wall and started crying like he had been really hurt because he knew that he would be in a lot of trouble. I think he got in less trouble because he was so sad about it.
10. On Thursday, Josh caught a small slug in the back yard and held it and talked about it for at least an hour. Josh told me that it was sticky. He also described it as "Beautiful".
11. Arwen is just so independent and cute. She is still absolutely loving Susan.
12. Susan gets fussy every night around 6pm and stays that way. She can really scream when she wants to. She is a lot like how Kate was as a baby, except Susan basically sleeps through the night. She will not sleep in her own bed at all, but as long as she is in my next to me she will stay asleep from around midnight until 7am. 

This Weeks Pictures