Special Visitor

We had a special visitor for Christmas this year... Influenza!! Debbie got it first, two days before Christmas. Then Isaac showed symptoms on Christmas Day and then Cosette got it a couple days after that. And Chad was sick too so we've just been a bundle of fun this Christmas break. We know it was the actual flu because we took Isaac in and they tested him. Influenza type B, whatever that means. The kids have all been pretty miserable with their fever hovering around 103 without medication. So, we've watched hours and hours of tv and the kids have napped more than they've napped since they were toddlers. But, we seem to have survived it and hopefully will all be healthy again before school starts. And, in spite of being sick, I feel like we had a wonderful Christmas anyway. We stayed home basically the entire time to try and avoid spreading our germs (except for the Sunday before Christmas when we went up to see Grandma and Grandpa Rogers and Debbie's fever made it's entrance, I really hope we didn't get anyone sick.). Grandma and Grandpa Shapiro and Uncle Jack came over on Christmas morning to open presents with us and then we skyped with Grandma Westerson while we opened the presents from her so we had a pretty family-filled holiday. I didn't take as many pictures this year because my Christmas present was a camcorder and I wanted to use that so we have a lot of video just not so many pictures.

 

Grandma Westerson sent the kids Christmas clothes again this year and I LOVE the dresses the girls got, they are beautiful and so elegant.

 

 Debbie got a bracelet maker from Santa...

 Cosette got a fairy dress-up from Santa and this LaLaLoopsy treehouse from Grandma...

 And Isaac got the bayblades that he wanted from Grandma and Grandpa Rogers (with a couple from Santa too) and then Isaac and Cosette got scooters like Debbie's so now they all 3 have fun scooters.

 And here's a picture of Isaac zonked out on the couch with a fever. The dr. said to let the fever do it's thing, which was hard for me to do because I hate seeing my kids miserable so we let the fever burn more than we normally would have but also tried to keep them comfortable.

Revisited

I took a picture of Cosette and Chad a couple weeks ago and as I was looking at it I realized I had taken another one just like it 4 1/2 years ago. So, I put them side-by-side and look at how she's changed!

Catch up

Wow, do I have some catching up to do...

A couple stories I want to remember first:

Isaac was the VIP in his first grade class this week. I love that he's still excited to see me when I go to school. I dread the day when he becomes too cool for me. :( I think I've always assumed that my kids would be embarrassed of me because I just feel like a big fat loser. But sadly, I'm just now beginning to realize just how awesome kids are. They don't see flaws, they see people. People that they love who have worth and are important. No wonder the Savior tells us to be more like children. My kids don't love me because I'm pretty or stylish or hip or whatever (which is good because I'm none of those things). They love me because I'm their mom and that's good enough for them. They don't see my imperfections and failures, they just see me, someone who's good enough. I'm grateful for that.

Anyway, back to VIP. Back in September Isaac's teacher emailed me to let me know that Isaac was really behind in his reading. So since then we've been working with him a lot more at home but I hadn't heard anything more from his teacher. For his presentation he was supposed to pick a favorite book for a parent to read to his class. Well, he decided he wanted to read it so he read a book to his class and his teacher was beaming by the time he was done. She kept saying how proud she was and how much he had improved. We're so proud of him!

Now, for Debbie... She came home from school on Friday and was really sad and then told me what had happened. She had to get moved in class because a boy next to her was doing sicko things that were making her uncomfortable. But the kids at the table she got moved to were being mean to another boy and she stood up for him so then they started picking on her. Like they would tell the teacher she wasn't doing her schoolwork and say things to get her in trouble. The one thing that had her really upset was that they had thrown a paper airplane and then blamed it on her and when she defended herself the teacher told her to stop lying. When she told me that I got really mad. My second grade teacher was terrible and mean and I don't want my kids to have to be treated that way. When I offered to call the teacher Debbie said that she didn't want me to because she felt that she could handle it on her own. Oh, and after she told me about the kids bullying her she thought for a minute and then said, "I'm trying to think of kind things to do to them so they'll be nice to me." She's so inspiring to me. And here's another reason she's an inspiration. I came out to get a drink Saturday night and was startled to find her on the couch. She was reading her Book of Mormon because she was starting to get scared and she felt like reading the scriptures would help. Then she spent all of sacrament meeting yesterday reading the scriptures. She drives me crazy sometimes but she really is an extraordinary little spirit.

Cosette loves preschool, it's been so good for her. We're starting to do reading lessons at home and she's really catching on. I'll post a video soon. :)

 

We made gingerbread houses for family home evening last week, that was fun.

 

And now here are some random pictures...

 I took about a billion of these leaf pitures and half of them turned out really cute. So, these are only a few, I'll probably put more in when I print out the blog book.

Mom!

Isaac is so funny. Earlier this evening I heard him shout to me from the hallway, "Mom! I have to go to the bathroom!" Then a few seconds later, "Mom! I'm going to the bathroom!" A few seconds later, "Mom! I'm sitting on the toilet!" And a few seconds after that, "Mom! I'm peeing now!"

I love it. I love that he has enough confidence in my love and interest in him that he just knows that I'm interested in his toileting habits. I love it.

I've been feeling kinda worthless lately. I know my kids aren't that grown up, but they're also not babies anymore and they just don't need me as much as they used to. It's been hard, not being needed. But having Isaac holler to me this evening helped me realize something. They do need me. They need me to care. They need me to be there for all their "Mom!" moments. And I do try to be. I've always tried. But now I understand better why I need to be there.

My mom is a wonderful example of this. I just know she cares. And I know that even now, when I'm (basically) all grown up, she still cares and is interested. Hopefully I have more interesting things to say than, "Hey mom! I'm going to the bathroom!" But even those times when I don't, she still listens and cares.

That's the kind of mom I want to be. I want my kids to just know that I care and am interested in even the smallest details of their lives.

A Spider Story...

I was on the phone with Chad this afternoon when I saw a spider. ON MY BED. WHERE I SLEEP. There's a small chance I *may* have overreacted a little, but really, it was a SPIDER. ON MY BED. So, we're chatting on the phone and suddenly I start screaming (it's a SPIDER!) and in my memory I'm screaming the word "spider" but apparently it was incoherent because all Chad heard was a bunch of screaming and he has no idea what's going on so he's walking through school thinking that one of us is dying and it's not until a minute later when I've transferred the spider to the floor so I can KILL it that he can finally understand what all the hullabaloo was all about. He wasn't too happy with me. "What is going on?!? Leah! What is going on?!? Are you alright?" Like I said, I *may* have overreacted, but seriously Chad, haven't we been married long enough for you to tell my "it's-a-spider-we're-all-gonna-die!" scream from my "it's-an-axe-murderer-we're-all-gonna-die!" scream?

The difference between boys and girls

 Isaac provides us with some great conversation tidbits... The other day he walked in on Cosette going potty and when she wiped he got after her:

I: "Cosette, you only wipe when you go poop!"

C: "No, I wipe every time!"

I: "No. MOM! Tell Cosette that you only wipe when you poop!"

M: "Isaac, girls have to wipe every time."

I: "WHAT?!? Girls have to wipe EVERY TIME?"

 



October

 We survived Halloween this year. Is it just me or does halloween seem to be lasting longer and longer nowdays? I remember when I was young it was just ONE day a year. It seems that now everyone starts celebrating a week or two early so you end up with two weeks of celebration. Anyhow... I took the kids trick-or-treating this year will Ellen and William and Christopher and some friends. I forgot that the kids haven't been trick-or-treating since they were itty-bitty so the whole idea was novel and fascinating to them. After a block of trick-or-treating Debbie came booking it off a porch and yelled over her shoulder to me, "Mom! This is AWESOME! We should do this more often!" haha And Isaac was blown away by the idea of going to "actual houses" (as he put it, over and over and over again last night.). He just couldn't believe that you could go knock on doors because all they can remember is trunk-or-treating. Anyways, it was a real treat for me to take them because they enjoyed it so much, it was really fun to see.

And here's a random picture of Cosette asleep at the computer desk. Love it.

Well, that's basically it for October. I only took a few pictures this month which, let's face it, isn't a bad thing considering the thousands of pictures I have of the rest of the kids' young lives.

Isaac's Math

Isaac loves math. And I love that Isaac loves math. I'm so proud of him, it makes me so happy. Last night Isaac was sitting on his bed doing math in a math workbook and I told him it was time to go to sleep and he politely pled with me, "Mommy, can I please do my math problems?" Uh, yeah! So I gave him 10 more minutes. Then this evening he was working in the workbook again and Chad said it was time for homework and he threw a fit and cried that he wanted to keep doing his math. Ha! I love it! And I hope he keeps this love of math with him throughout his life.

Adventures in sleep-walking

Debbie sleep-walks. Normally it's pretty funny. Tonight it was disturbing. She went to the bathroom. In the bathroom. But somehow managed to sit ON the free-standing toilet paper roll holder and pee. Gross! She soaked the whole roll of toilet paper! And I'm blogging about this as blackmail for her in the future.

Truth

"Ugh, behaving is HARD."

Yearly Pictures

I can't believe it's been a year since I took 'school pictures' of the kids. [It's so much easier and cheaper if I do it myself.]

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. It took less than 30 minutes and I got at least one picture of each kid that I really liked.

 I'm surprised we were able to get any cute pictures of Isaac, he was being a booger and didn't want to cooperate, but we got some cute ones!

 Less than an hour after this picture was taken Cosette decided she wanted a haircut and cut her own hair. Again. Thankfully she didn't cut very much off so now she has a cute little bob.

I told the girls to give Isaac a kiss on the cheek and he flipped out. Not happy about it.

Call Me Maybe?!?!

So I was sitting outside chatting with friends thursday while the kids played when I got a call on my cell from a number I didn't recognize. I answered it only to hear this little voice ask if this was Debbie's mom and then ask to talk to Debbie. I called Debbie over and told her she had a phone call and she matter-of-factly said, "Oh, that's Talmage, he's calling because we're going to have a playdate." Then she took the phone from me and promptly walked off to chat with Talmage. I was so shocked! First of all, she gave her number to a boy, and then he wasted no time in calling her! After about 5 minutes I convinced her to give me the phone so I could talk to his mom and I got on the phone in time to hear Talmage's mom in the background saying, "Wait, you called her ALREADY?" Haha, these kids were ready to do this! So Debbie had a playdate at Talmage's house yesterday. I guess his mom volunteers in their class and when Debbie found out she was his mom she hurried and wrote down her number AND ADDRESS and said, 'call me.' What?!? Where did this girl come from?!? I only wish I had a tiny bit of her confidence.

So Sweet

Chad was tired last night...

 Cosette gave him her baby doll as he was falling asleep...

 And he was SOUND asleep...

How It Went

Cosette's teacher (Miss Dorie) emailed this picture to Chad and me yesterday. Cosette LOVED school. So much that she cried when we picked her up, she was so mad to see us, haha. Hopefully she enjoys it as much today.

A New Era

Cosette started preschool today! She has been SO excited. I mean, through-the-roof EXCITED. Her teacher sent her a letter in the mail a couple weeks ago and Cosette hasn't been able to stop talking about preschool since. And she thinks it's pretty cool that she goes to the same school as daddy. :) [We were really excited when we got the phone call saying that Cosette got into BYU's preschool.] I think it will be really good for her. I walked her to class today and I was expecting some leg-holding, some shyness, and most of all a huge attatchment to 'babydoll.' There was none of it! She walked right it, confident as can be, and couldn't hardly be bothered to give me a goodbye. I'm going to pick her up in a minute so we'll see how the first day went!

Vacation

We went on vacation last month to California. I didn't blog about it because we seriously had a thousand pictures and there was just too much. So I put all the photos in a photo book, however, I negleted to put these two pictures in the book and Chad suggested I put them on the blog.

Our vacation was a lot of fun, we went to Sea World, the beach (which was, in my opinion, the very best part of the whole week), California Adventure Park, Disneyland, and Chad went to a Dodger's game, it was a full and funfilled week!

First Day

Isaac and Debbie started school yesterday. After we dropped them off at their classes and were walking back to the car, Cosette skipped past us and said happily, "I don't have to see Debbie and Isaac all day!"

Starting School

Going Private

I've decided to go private. I just want to be able to post a little more stuff (I know, I know, you're thinking, "You're going to get MORE personal than POOP?! I'm out, thank you very much."), like more location oriented etc. So, we love you all (all 3 of you who actually check the blog) so if you could comment with your email address I'll send you an invite (I'll make the comments 'author approved' and then won't actually post your email address). Or, you can email me at rogers.leah@ymail.com. Thanks so much!
And, somehow I managed to mess up the blog format and for the life of me can't get my blog list and pictures to show up on the side... so if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix that I would love the help. Thanks :)

A Book Review

This book could quite possibly have changed/saved my life. By that I mean that it's shown me a way to live a life that's worth living. It's AMAZING (Yes, I did just CAPS, bold, italic, and underline that word, it's that great). If you've got some time to read a good book sometime in the future, I beg you, read this one. The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbinger Institute. I love it so much I want to buy a hundred of them and give it to everyone I know. It's written in a story format, so it's a pretty quick, easy read, and yet it's chock full of goodness and wisdom.

The story follows the parents of teenagers who are going into a sort of drug rehab program and what they learn during a class that they take the first couple days after their kids enter the program. Take the time to read this book, you won't regret it, I promise.

ANOTHER post about poop

Cosette is in underwear again, and is really doing fantastic, she went all day today without an accident! And we've made great progress with the pooping. My attitude towards that last statement varies greatly depending on the time of day. You see, we do what is called a "pooping hour" or "potty hour" with Cosette every night and if you ask me during that time how things are going I would probably respond that they are terrible. However, if you ask me during any of the OTHER 23 hours of the day I will probably tell you how fantastic things are going. But let's back-track a little here... back a few months when we were in the thick of our 'first' potty-training attempt with Cosette and she was having multiple poop accidents a day I was distraught and despairing and didn't know what to do or where to go. I had taken her to the dr. and came home with absolutely nothing helpful. So, in desperation I turned to the internet and came across other people dealing with the same issue and one of them highly recommended a book/website, Soiling Solutions. I went to the website and bought the book (for $100!!) and then promptly put Cosette back in diapers. Well, while we were on vacation, whenever she needed a diaper change I had to take her into the restroom and put her up on the baby changing table to change her. She did not like that. She felt like people were staring and her and laughing at her. When we got home she begged to be put in underwear. She's really done great at peeing, she's had plenty of accidents, but she's really doing great. So, on the first day we started this 'protocol' (as the good dr. puts it). The idea is that 1: you clean the bowels out enough that the child doesn't have enough stool in there to leak out for the next 23 hours and 2: you train the body to have a poop at the same time every day. And it works, at least it's worked for us so far. But it's been hard. Really, really hard. She doesn't mind the suppository so much, but she absolutely HATES the enema. So when we're giving her the enema and she's screaming and crying and wiggling I feel like a terrible mother, that I must be doing it wrong and I'm afraid I'm really harming her and I go through this crazy roller coaster of emotions all from a child not pooping! But then. Then she poops. She actually poops IN THE TOILET. And it's all worth it. She's happy and we're happy and she stays clean all the next day and it's giving her confidence and us confidence (at least for 23 hours of the day anyway). It's kindof a pain to have to be home EVERY single night at approximately the same time in order to make this work and get her on a schedule, but I'm thinking that if this protocol works the way it's supposed to, and we can continue to get her confidence up, it will all be worth it.

With Daddy

My boys went home teaching together today. Isaac was so proud and excited to get to go home teaching with his daddy.

(So, this picture is from our vacation. Which was a couple weeks ago. Which I abviously haven't blogged about yet. I probably will, it's just an overwhelming project.)

Friends

Sometimes kids can say the most profound things. Debbie was talking to her grandma about all of her friends and said this, "Oh, and my family, my family are my friends! And I have to count myself because I'm my own friend!"

How wonderful is that?!? Just so innocent and self-assured, "I'm my own friend." Man I hope that stays with her throughout her life.

Potty-training update

You're probably all aware now of our struggles with Cosette and potty-training. We decided to put her back in diapers for a while. We were all getting really upset and I wanted to let us cool off because we just love her and it started to be apparent that she wasn't feeling that love (because we were struggling to show her that love). Anyway, we put her back in diapers and we're all a lot happier. And, it turns out she has a medical condition that is causing all the poop problems. It's called encopresis. Won't go into the details, but it causes pooping problems, bad ones. So, we're working with her on helping her to NOT hold in her poop. I'm beginning to think that that's a big part of the issue. An idea came to me today that I think we're going to try. While she's still in diapers I'm going to reward her every time she poops in her diaper with 10 minutes or so on the computer. This book I bought suggests that we talk about her poop as 'sneaky poop' and that we're going to fight her sneaky poop together. I'm hoping that will help ease the battle of wills, that maybe we can work together to solve this problem instead of against each other. We'll see.

So, yes, my 4 year old is in diapers. And if you want to judge me go ahead. I know that people are judging me (I've been told what people have said) and it used to bother me. But I love Cosette more than I care about what people think so we're doing what works for us.

She's a darling girl and we just adore her!

Read to me

This girl loves her daddy...

I don't deserve them...

 These kids are fantastic. I really don't deserve them. It's fun that they're getting old enough to play games with each other. They like to have 'sleepovers' in Isaac's room and the other night I went in and found Debbie and Isaac wide awake playing with [what else?] Legos at 10:45pm. Crazy kids. But it warms my heart that they like to play with each other.

True Love

And this is how much Isaac loves Legos...