Boasting Moment

Time to post about the kids again.  Christina came home yesterday from school to tell me that she was chosen as one of the two students of the month for her grade for the month of February.  Way to go Christina!  

Sunday, after wanting to for a long time, introduced Daniel to making card houses (inspired by a friend's blog).  I'm not very good at it so we even had to do a little research quickly for me to remember how to do it.  This isn't the same way we used to make them as kids but it works and most importantly, he loved it.  

Here's Daniel with his first card house.  He was really proud of himself--

 And my handsome man, at 8 months.  Enjoying his baby gym to the fullest extent.

Yesterday Samantha slept in until 9:30ish.  I don't even remember the last time that happened!   Ethan slept until about 8:15 so I got to lay down for a bit and listen to him breathe.  It was a quiet morning.  I was having one of those icky days anyway so having a baby who wanted to be held meant watching a movie.  It's been a while since I've made it through that much of a movie at one shot.  I usually get a little 20-30 minutes here and there as I'm feeding the baby when I need a break or when I can't sleep and then fall asleep, only to have to go back and watch things again.

Last night, I tried a new approach for putting Samantha to bed.  She hasn't fallen asleep in her bed for about 3 weeks or so.  She usually ends up crashing on the floor in someone's room or the hallway.  I know a good part of this is that evenings/bedtime get stressful/busy for me.  I took the time yesterday, ignored crying baby (with Christina), and gave her just a few moments of just mom before bed.  And it worked!  I told her I was going to check on her in a few minutes, would open the door and praise her for being in her bed still.  By the third time I went to check on her, she was asleep.  In her own bed!  Hopefully this will be the start again of many nights doing this.

Amanda wasn't feeling well yesterday and ended up going to bed through dinner.  She's running a very good fever this morning so we're headed in to the doctor in a bit.  Jonathan's running a slight fever too and after him kind of moping around yesterday, I figure we'll make a family trip to the doctor today.  I sent the older two off to school and now the rest of us are headed in to the doctor at Quickcare to see what the verdict is.

One of the hardest things about having so many kids and them being sick is I feel like in addition to being tired myself already, my burden increases as I want to clean and disinfect everything to get the bugs out of the house.  I also feel like I have to serve all the food, preparation, etc. even more by myself to prevent the germs from spreading.  Keeping sick ones from everyone else, telling kids not to pick up the baby, etc.  make it even more of a challenge.  I hope everyone gets better soon.  I'm fairly certain that it started out as allergies but with their weakened immune systems, everything else seems to be grabbing hold as well.

On a side note, thanks to those of you who have left positive comments lately.  It's been a wonderful surprise to see how many are reading and care about me and my family.  Some of you I haven't ever met, but your words have brought a much needed smile to my face.  It's flattering to think that you think I'm strong and that I can do this.  Thank you.  I needed that!