Pictures!

We've had a little bit of regular life lately and it's been wonderful. So here's some pictures...

Debbie started a sweeping club. She and a couple friends spent one afternoon sweeping up the playground area in front of our apartment and then made plans to go around to the rest of the apartment complex and sweep up other playgrounds as well. They did a really good job, it still looks nice. She was so invested in this project that she made these tickets and hung them up in the stairwells for kids to fill out and return to her. Notice the bottom line. I love it.

 She wanted me to put curlers in her hair on Sunday night.

 These kids would not cooperate for me to get a decent picture of them all together.

 Her hair turned out darling.

 We've watched "American Ninja Warrior" a couple times and the kids have decided that they want to 'train' for it now.

 Isaac and Debbie are tall enough that they can manage this one (ANW calls it the spider, they liked that).

 Cosette required a little help but her siblings were happy to oblige.

It's been nice to have life return to normal. And by normal I mean battling with the kids over nearly everything that needs to get done throughout the day. As I lay in bed this morning I heard the kids yelling at Chad over breakfast; whine, shriek, whine (Yes, Chad gets up and gets the kids going in the morning while letting me take a little longer to face the day, he's wonderful), "I don't want that cereal!" "That's not enough milk!" You know how it goes. And I realized, what a crappy way to start the day! Who wants to get yelled at first thing in the morning and yet I'm fairly certain that EVERY parent with kids at home starts most days getting yelled at for one thing or another. Or maybe I just have terrible, monster children. Maybe most children are wonderful in the mornings and we're just lucky (or terrible parents because our children are even acting this way). I love my children and feel that overall they're pretty good kids, but I'm having to get creative to make it through the day. I finally got the idea to make a sticker chart to earn computer time (fairly certain it was divine inspiration in answer to prayer. Lot's and lot's of prayer.) and it was worth it if only for the peace it gave me last week. They responded so well to it that first week! It was glorious. I made a list of 12 regular things they need to do throughout the day; get dressed, pick up dirty clothes, clear dirty dishes from table, etc. They get 2 stickers if they do something without me having to ask them and 1 sticker if they do it the first time I ask and then no stickers if I have to ask more than once. And man was it worth it even if it had only worked the first day. They responded so well, it's been great! Cosette hasn't been as motivated by it but the older kids are determined to get 2 stickers in every box. The novelty is starting to wear off so I don't know how much longer it'll work, but I'm grateful for even the few days peace it's given me.

I'm realizing more and more why people say boys are easier than girls. So far that's been the case for me. My girls are killing me lately. Debbie is so emotional, I almost wonder if she's hormonal, some days she gets so overwhelmed that the tiniest things will send her into a crying fit, I don't know what to do with this!! And I shouldn't even get started on Cosette, if we can survive her childhood I'll consider myself blessed. She is such a handful!!! I don't know how to discipline her!! She will willfully do something naughty so we have to discipline her, we can't just let her run wild, but the minute we put her in time out she flips and just loses it. So the tantrum we get from the timeout is so much worse than what she did to get put in timeout in the first place. She kicks the door and won't stay in her room and clings to us and cries for a cuddle and there's nothing we can do. I want to put a doorknob on her door that locks on the outside but maybe that'll cause psychological damage. She literally cannot self-soothe. I am at my wits end. I seriously worry that there's something emotionally wrong with her, she's just so extreme. I don't know what to do with her!!!!

But that's life and we're making it through and I think that, in spite of my venting here, we really are doing well and are quite happy. I love these kiddos even with all the emotional upheaval they cause in life. They also bring more joy and purpose than I ever could have imagined.

BCE

 Cosette went in for her Barium test this morning and she did so well! She was so cooperative and sweet and happy. They didn't put her all the way under, they just gave her a medicine to make her loopy and relaxed and it has a bit of an amnesia effect so she doesn't remember anything that happened today.

When we got to the hospital they were all so sweet and kind to Cosette, she loved the attention.

 She got to ride the bed down to radiology. They didn't give her the medication until we were right outside the x-ray door. She had a nurse assigned to her and she stayed with Cosette the whole time and did all the heavy lifting (literally, she lifted Cosette from bed to bed and wherever she needed to go) so I got to just watch and it took a lot of stress of me. They had to use more barium liquid than they were anticipating, the radiologist said her large intestine is wider than normal (probably from all the constipation) but more important is that it's longer than it should be. He said it was called a redundant colon (I think?). Not sure what that means but they did suggest I call the doctor this afternoon if we haven't heard from them. They also weren't able to get all the barium back out of her so we're just waiting for that dam to break.

So we're home now, she's doing ok, a little nauseous and dizzy but hopefully that passes soon.

Society

I read an article on ksl today about a woman who found a "dyiet" list in her 7 year old daughter's room outlining all the exercises she wanted to do and what food she needed to eat. It's scary and makes you sick but it's something I've already had to discuss with Debbie. I know I'm partially to blame, I don't really love the way I look, but I mostly blame society. And it's probably not fair but I kinda feel like Michelle Obama has a lot of responsibility for it as well. Debbie has come home from school so many times talking about how she needs to eat healthy and she needs to exercise more, one time she even went so far as to say, "I want to be healthy so I'm not going to eat tonight."
Um, hell no, you did not just say that.
At times she's been obsessed with how thin she is and it just disturbs me. And I blame Michelle Obama and the school and society because they've become so obsessed with health and diet and exercise that they're teaching our children that that's what's most important in life. Regulating what they can and can not eat at school and working so hard to "educate" them, all in the name of "the greater good."
Excuse me people? Kindly BACK OFF.
I know I'm no model of health, but I'm working on it. And I'd rather have children that are healthy emotionally and mentally than have children who are completely consumed with their physical health. And didn't we literally go through a battle to come to this earth and have our agency? So please, give the parents a chance here to teach their children about healthy living in a way more suited to the individual and not the masses. And stop telling my children that the way people look is an indicator for how worthwhile they are. Because whether or not you intended to say that, that's exactly what you're saying to these impressionable young children.

Parenting

 

Good News

Another post about poop. Hopefully it's one of the last.
We got into the specialist today and I feel like we got some good news. He doesn't think it's celiac disease, lactose or milk intolerance, or hirschsprunger disease. She no longer has a restricted diet!!!! Chances are good that it's just functional constipation. But he's going to run a bunch of tests just to be sure. So she had another x-ray today, they'll test a stool sample, run some more blood tests, she's getting a barium x-ray on thursday (she'll be sedated for that, the poor girl has had enough trauma down there) and then in April is scheduled for an endoscopy and while she's under for that they'll take some samples from her colon. But the prognosis is looking good so I'm hopeful.
On a different note...
At dinner tonight Debbie was talking about how hard her day had been, "It's been the worst day! Everyone at school was bossing me around and what's worse? The boys wouldn't chase the girls at recess!! They kept making us chase them!!" Get used to it babe, that seems to be the case nowadays.
Also...
Isaac really needs a haircut. :)