Our trip to St. Francis

Today Leo and I traveled to my alma mater to attend Brian's funeral. We got there early and were able to see some old friends, see the campus, my old dorm and house I lived in for two years, the Newman Center, and I even took Leo on a date to the MT Cup, my favorite coffee house where I used to go on dates with Ken! Leo was very well behaved considering it was a LONG day and several hours in the car.

Also he looked pretty darn cute with his red vest! He's hanging out on the Newman Center floor, where I lived and worked in the Christian Leadership Program (CLP) for 2 years, some of my favorite years of my life!

Here's the cottage right next door to the Newman Center where we lived. First year, 4 girls, second year, 5 girls. 1 and a half baths. It was fabulous :)

Leo spent the majority of the time in the Ergo, either walking around the Narthex and occasionally making it into the church. The funeral was just beautiful. Lots of priests, great music, great homily. Since Brian was involved in music ministry in the parish for many years, SO many people showed up to play instruments and sing. The music was just beautiful. They played a song Brian wrote and the mass parts that Brian wrote as well. Then the recessional hymn was Lights in the City - the last song he sang. It was AMAZING. Everyone clapped and we were happy and sad at the same time.

Leo only got to meet Brian once, but when he did, Brian called him "Jack" since he thought that sounded pretty good with our last name ;)

I'm so glad we went! May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

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Brian

My friend from college, Brian Eckstein, died suddenly on Monday. I lived at the Newman center at Ball State for 2 years, and played guitar and piano with him every Sunday. He was legally blind, but one of the most amazing musicians I've ever met. He was kind and loving and hilarious. I got to see him a few months ago when I went up for the music minister's last mass at that parish. I got to hear him lead the music and play piano, then a bunch of old friends got pizza together. I am SO glad I got to see him that last time. One of my best memories is of him playing one of my favorite songs, Let the Peace of God Reign. He would always play that for me and told me that song always reminded me of him. I'll write more after the funeral, but someone took a video of him leading the recessional hymn on Sunday, the day before he died. Here are the lyrics of the song he sang:

LIGHTS OF THE CITY

John tells us of city so high up above
Where we'll be in a Spirit of Love
We'll meet over yonder in that heavenly place
There, we'll see each other face to face

I can almost see the Lights of The City
Shinin' down on me
I can almost see the Lights of The City
Forever Lord, I shall be free

John tells us of a time when time will be no more
In the day when the trumpet shall blow
We'll meet over yonder in that heavenly place
There, we'll see each other face to face

(chorus)

John tells us of a water which will bring us to life
For when we drink, we will thirst no more
For when we're born in that water, a heavenly place
There we'll see each other face to face

And here is the video: Brian is the one in the blue shirt in the middle

Leo's surgeon appointment

First of all, another view of this boy standing. He stands constantly now! He just got it. He's trying to cruise around furniture already, and standing straight up even holding on with just one hand. He's already causing destruction! The other day Madeleine was eating a bowl of grapes on the couch and he came over, stood up, and threw the bowl on the ground, scattering grapes everywhere. And now he can get the small box of little, miscellaneous toys off the toy box and scatter it everywhere! Silly boy!

So the surgeon appointment. Dr S. was thrilled with his size! His speech therapist wrote a three page letter to him about his progress. He was very happy with how he's eating. He did say that he wouldn't be able to use his paci or bottle after surgery, so it's better to get him off of them before. This really makes me sad! He loves his paci and bottle. And I love giving him his bottle, especially in bed in the morning and rocking him before naps and bed. But he's working on his cup and making progress, and he only gets his paci in his bed now. Does anyone know how to get him off his paci? He loves it. He puts one in his mouth and holds one in his hand while going to sleep. If he wakes up at night and can't find it, he cries until we come stick it in his mouth. This is NOT gonna be fun.

So the surgeon said that we could do the surgery in February. He'll be 14 months. He is going to see an ENT in January to evaluate whether to do ear tubes at the same time, while he's already under. Even though he has only had 2 ear infections in his life (VERY good for a cleft baby!) they might do it to prevent future ear infections - apparently the eustacian tubes are attached to the muscles they pull together during the surgery, causing them to flatten out, so kids can have trouble with ear infections afterwards. He's also going back to the surgeon in January, and they'll tell us everything we need to know. I do know that he will have to stay in the hospital probably one or two nights, until he starts eating there. He said some kids refuse to eat or drink and then they have to stay longer. He'll have to wear arm restraints for THREE WEEKS to prevent him from putting anything in his mouth. And he also has to eat very soft foods for 4 weeks - off the side of a spoon.

This is all really scary, especially thinking about him being in pain and recovery being hard on the whole family. But after it's over, he'll be able to start making lots more sounds, learn words, and eat a LOT more different kinds of food than he can now. I'm definitely looking forward to that. I'm trying to focus on that instead of thinking of him being scared and in pain. Poor baby. :(

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Standing!

He pulled up all day!!

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Our trip to St. Louis

I packed the car to the brim for my first trip alone with these three lil Hooligans. Books, toys, snacks, diapers, pack n play, double stroller, books on tape, CDs, new surprises and my camera which I never took out of the car. These pictures are all from my phone so the quality is not so great. The drive took about 5-6 hours with stops.
I'm not kidding, my kids are AMAZING travelers! They were absolutely no trouble at all in the car. Not even Leo. Of course I let him have his paci, which he usually only gets in his bed. A few times I felt the need to check and see if he was still there! I never heard a peep!

We stopped at McDonalds for lunch, and my kids LOVED playing "Robin Hood" in this awesome playland.


Soon we saw this view and knew we were close....


We had a great time visiting with D and kids, although the first night was extremely rough. John Paul and Madeleine woke Leo up and he ended up not going back to sleep until 1:30 am, finally, in the bed with Madeleine and me. When Madeleine FINALLY fell asleep, she was so tired she didn't even notice Leo screaming and hitting her in the face with his paci!

John Paul LOVED Lucy - and she loved him since he shared his grapes with her! (or as she says, "Apples" - so cute!)

The next day we hit the St. Louis zoo. It was quite amazing! The animals were all so close, much closer to us than the Indianapolis zoo. This Chimp kept following Madeleine around, we called him her "old friend." He followed her from window to window and then sat right next to her! She LOVED it!

Later that day, and the next day before we left, we went to the Magic House, which is their awesome Children's museum. Here are my kids trying to climb IN the water table.
There was a nice baby area, Leo loved looking at the "other" chubby baby in the mirror. He gave him a high five and even kissed him!


John Paul and Lucy riding in the car together.


Hanging out in the Ergo with mama.

They even had little baby seats so the babies could play in the water! Such a great idea and Leo loved it!


More chubby baby in the mirror...

Splashing himself in the face...


Leo and Cecilia enjoying the water. CC is so sweet and cute!


The second night was MUCH better since we wore everyone out! The kids were all asleep in the same room by 8:30. And Madeleine and John Paul slept over 11 hours :) We went back to the magic house the next morning, then left from there. I thought we'd be home around 6, but as soon as we crossed the Indiana state line, we were completely stopped on I70. For HOURS. In the pitch black. There is NOTHING around. M and JP both had to go potty at one point and we barely made it to a gas station. I fed Leo a pouch of baby food and tried to feed him a bottle sitting in the gas station, he was not interested. Then I went through a drive through for us and said we were NOT stopping again. I got back on 70 thinking for sure the construction/ one lane would be over soon. Not so much. I think we went about 2 miles in 45 minutes. Finally Ken told me a different way to go and we were able to get off that road. We didn't make it home until after 9 and everyone went right to bed. Wow that was rough. But my kids were absolute troopers! Even with it getting dark at 4pm, even in horrible traffic, they never complained. Leo even fell asleep for the last hour.

So, even though the first night was awful and the drive home was awful (NOT b/c of the kids H! lol) I am really glad we went. We took a little break from school, got to spend a little time with D and her kids, and got to see a different city. My kids had a fantastic time and have been asking when we can go back.

Thank you D for hosting us and all the wonderful food! We had a great time!

Proud Mama

I have a lot to write about, our trip to St. Louis, Leo's surgeon appointment, the hellish drive home from St. Louis, but I wanted to share one quick story.

A few months ago, I made Madeleine and John Paul memorize my cell phone number. They both memorized it easily, and remembered correctly even weeks later. We talked about that if they were to ever get separated in a store or something, to go up to someone with a name tag, who looks like they work there, and tell them their name and that they lost their mommy. Then they could tell them my phone number and they could call me and I would come right away.

So in St. Louis this week we went to The Magic House which is an amazing Children's Museum. There was a toddler area with a sand table, water table, tubes to climb in, slides, dollhouses, and all kinds of stuff to play with and all kinds of tiny rooms to explore in a big enclosed area. Madeleine and John Paul were kind of running all over the place and exploring it all. There was a baby area too with a little ball pit and some other things for babies under 24 months. I took Leo in there and Madeleine didn't know where I was. So she went to a worker and told them my phone number! They didn't call it but instead looked around for me for a minute before they found me. I told her I was so proud of her and she did the exact right thing! And the workers were SO impressed that a 4 year old would know that and know exactly what to do.

She actually didn't know the area code, but on the way home she memorized the first 3 numbers, so now she knows the whole thing. I'm so proud of her!

Halloween Pics

My camera died right when we were going trick or treating but it worked out since my sister in law takes way better pictures than I do anyway! Thank you Jenni!

Love my little frog. And my ergo.

So my blog has been totally boring lately, but we have some interesting things coming up. We have an appointment with Leo's surgeon on Monday, and I'm hoping we schedule the surgery. And, we are leaving right from the appointment to go visit John Paul's godmother in St. Louis! All 4 of us will be staying in one room (me and the kids) so say a lot of prayers! We might be leaving the next day!

Happy Halloween!

From the zoo :)

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Perfect day at the Patch

Yesterday might have been the last really nice day so we hit the pumpkin patch with our Playgroup. The kids all had a blast. And guess who was the cutest pumpkin EVER?

The huge hay pile was a big hit. Hooligans with Hay.

Have I mentioned on here that I LOVE my ergo? I could carry my hefty boy all day.

We got to take a hayride to the pumpkin patch.

Hay was thrown.

I love this picture. I cannot believe my baby girl looks like this. She is going to be 5 in March and she looks so grown up! She is getting more helpful and she is a terrific student. She remembers everything and I am loving learning right along with her. I just have to get her to start being nice to her brother and we'll be good. Any tips on that??

Feast day of Blessed John Paul 2

Me: John Paul! Today is a very special day! Today we celebrate Pope John Paul 2. We loved him so much and thought he was so special that we named you after him!

John Paul: Can I be naked a few minutes??

Happy feast day!

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My little helper

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Interesting

I had two interesting "cleft experiences" this week. The first one was during nap time, flipping through the channels, I happened to catch a few minutes of Dr. Phil. I noticed the woman on there had a cleft lip repair (and boy did she have ISSUES!) I listened to her for a few minutes and she sounded absolutely perfect, nothing wrong with her speech. I wondered if she had a cleft palate as well. Finally she told Dr. Phil she was born with a cleft lip and palate. That made me feel great that her speech was so good, since that is what I'm probably the most concerned about - other than his surgery. I shouldn't say I'm too concerned though, since the surgeon and speech therapist assure me that eventually no one will ever know anything was wrong.

The second thing happened at Chick fil A on Thursday night. Ken was gone on a business trip this week (left me alone with these hooligans!) so on Thursday night I took them there for supper and for them to wear themselves out in the play area. Leo was in the stroller at our table and this adorable little 3 year old Asian girl kept coming over to him. She walked right up to him and started playing with him and they both had huge smiles on their faces. I tried to ask her a few questions but she didn't answer. She did sign "baby" and point to him with a big smile on her face. I said, "Do you like babies?" and she nodded emphatically "yes!" Then I noticed that she had a cleft lip repair. I asked her dad sitting at the next table if she had also had a cleft palate. He said yes. She was adopted at 18 months from China, and had her repair at 20 months. I asked him about the surgery and told him Leo would have his in 4-5 months. He said she came through it with flying colors and it wasn't a bad recovery at all. That made me feel good too! They were so cute together. It was like they had a little connection. So so sweet.

Understatement of the year

Yesterday we were talking about this or that we did before we had kids. This is a totally foreign concept to Madeleine. Once she asked me, "When you were a little girl, Who was my mommy?"

Anyway, after listening for awhile, she said, "Was everyone happy when I finally got here?"

Honey, you have no idea.

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10 month pics

He finally outgrew that baby bathtub. Like 6 months ago. But this is his first sink bath.

He got his first tooth!

And that would be his first bruise. He got that about 2 minutes before his speech therapist came over last Friday. He's pulling up to his knees on everything, and crawling EVERYWHERE. I think that he's already slimmed down since he started crawling about 3 weeks ago. I miss the chunk!

Quick takes

1. Let me get the complaining out of the way first. Sometimes I really hate pumping. Like this morning, when Leo was in our bed sleeping so peacefully, and I had to get up and pump, and Ken had to get in the shower, so I had to move him to his bed where he woke up and cried the whole time I was downstairs pumping. That doesn't happen often, but when it does, I just can't wait for this to be over. On the other hand, I'm SO glad I've been able to keep this up for 10 months tomorrow! No plans on stopping anytime soon either. Ok I'm done complaining.

2. We hit the apple orchard again this week. The weather for this entire week was absolutely gorgeous so we made sure to enjoy it!

John Paul, look at the camera.

The CAMERA. Look at the CAMERA.

John Paul. Look. at. the. camera.

THE CAMERA.

3. OK one more small complaint. This sweet boy is going through the special needs nipples like crazy. He's chewing on them and making the holes bigger and then they're unusable. I just bought 4 of them today. $56. He's working on drinking out of a cup.

(John Paul! The camera is RIGHT HERE.)

4. I gave Leo his second haircut! I made sure to leave the curls on top. Actually the top was the only part that needed cutting!
5. Since Leo started crawling, I've really enjoyed watching all 3 of them play together on the floor. (This was his before haircut pic.)
6. Madeleine's absolute favorite thing to do is catch bugs. Here's how much I love her. This week I caught a beetle, 2 grasshoppers, and a giant scary looking black spider with yellow stripes. You would have thought it was Christmas morning.
7. Leo got to ride the dinosaur at the "dinosaur playground" as John Paul calls it. No pictures of this, but this week I figured out how to put Leo in the ergo on my back. My life has completely changed! We've gone on hikes, to stores and playgrounds, and I can even cook with him on my back! Totally hands free, it's amazing. I can't believe it took me 3 kids to figure this one out. He is super happy back there too.
7. Our hike at this beautiful park. I asked Ken what he thought his kids did on this hike (without showing him pictures.) He said, Madeleine looked for bugs and John Paul threw things and hit things with sticks. Right on the money.
Check back for Leo's 10 month pics tomorrow! 10 months!