First Half of May

First Half of May

 Our ducks have moved out of the garage and into the backyard into our old dog kennel.  We open the gate up in the day and let them roam the backyard, but they really like their area and waddle themselves back in on their own a lot of times.  They are getting so big!  They love each other still, and go everywhere together.  If one eats, they all eat, if one swims, they all swim, it's pretty funny.  They do not like us very much anymore though.  They run away from us like we aren't the wonderful people who feed and water them everyday, they think we're scary!  We still enjoy watching them even if they won't let us hold them, they're very entertaining.  Every once and a while the girls will chase them and be able to catch and hold one.

Emilyn Duck Quotes:

"Daisy duck you are the sweetest, and you always lay down on your pockets!"  She must be learning to sit on her pockets at preschool!  How nice of her to notice Daisy following the rules!

"Duck Tape you are the quackiest, quakerist, loudest duck quacker."

"Quackers and Cheese you are the one and onliest best duck."

"I think Quackers and Cheese and Daisy are in love.  That means Quackers is a boy so I'm sad to say maybe he isn't my duck."  Earlier in the day she had told me that "Quackers cheap cheaped to her that HE is a girl!"  Not sure what conclusion to draw from those clues!

Both girls really want their ducks to be girls.  Their feathers have come in now, and they are white, Peekin ducks, which means they aren't easy to tell if they are boys or girls.  The louder quackers are supposed to be girls, but lately they haven't been very loud. Matt and I are guessing all boy ducks at this point.  Duck Tape used to be louder, so maybe it's a girl.  I'm not sure if we'll ever know.

With the passing of Matt's dad we've had a lot of late nights.  Matisyn had a great set up in the back seat one late car ride home!  I'm glad Matt decided to get the girls their own neck pillows!

 Matt and his brother had four computers out while they were looking through pictures and putting together the sign in books for their dad's funeral.

 Our little guy is rolling all over the place now.  He seems to have forgotten how to roll back over from his tummy, so he sometimes cries because he's stuck.  I try to tell him he actually rolled front to back first, but he doesn't remember!  I went to check on him the other day and found him like this.  He had rolled over, moved himself sideways and to the top of the crib, and had the monitor cord wrapped around him.  Panic set in until I realized he was fine, he had just fallen back asleep.  It really scared me though.  He managed to work his way up there and dig the cord out from behind the bumpers.  We pulled that out right away and need to find a different way to rig the cords in there.  I'm so thankful he was alright.  He gets into anything he can reach now.

My mom flew in for just a couple of days to go to the funeral.  She saved us by watching our sick girl Emilyn who after six days was still not feeling good.  She threw up all over about midnight the night Matt's dad died and about an hour after I got home from the airport.  We were both about to collapse, and were not up for the clean up and long night of sickness.  Thankfully after the initial episode and clean up we were able to sleep most of that night.  We were hoping it was just because she was exhausted, but when we woke up she had a 104.7 temperature.  She was pretty sick all week.  We found it miraculous that she was better for the funeral the following Monday.  We were grateful to have my mom here to help out on Sunday night with Emilyn while we went to the viewing, and be here to support us and Matt's mom on Monday.  It was sad to say goodbye to her so soon after only a couple of days.  We got one day to play with her, and then she headed back early, early on Wednesday morning.

Lucas has decided to go on a food strike for the last couple of weeks.  He clenches his mouth shut and/or gags if you try to feed him any food, even the ones he loved before.  The last couple of days he finally started liking food again.  I'm not sure what changed, but I'm hoping it keeps up.

Lucas loves to bang on things.  Matt decided it was time for the pots and pans stage.  He got a pot out and helped Lucas bang on it with his spoons.  He was so happy getting to make loud noises!

In keeping with the theme of late, we did not want things to get boring around here.  After my pneumonia, with the possible blood clot in my lung scare, two deaths, travel, a week long illness for Emilyn, and a few days later a late night trip to the urgent care with Lucas because he broke out suddenly in hives and was breathing and swallowing funny, Emilyn walked on the hot charcoal from our dutch oven dinner.  We had the Barrett's and Thygerson's over, and had a great dinner and visit with them before Emilyn decided to become a little fire walker.  It is another miracle that her feet were not more badly injured.  I really thought at first that we were going to have to pull her out of gymnastics and dance and carry the poor girl around for weeks.  Matt was a very fast thinker and got ice and burn free ointment on them immediately, and I gave her Motrin for the swelling and pain.  They swelled up and you could see where they were blistering, but it has healed quickly considering.  We rushed her over to our neighbor and friend Steve to get a medical opinion, and he said she should be alright, we just need to keep her feet covered and watch for infection.  They are cracking and blistered a few days later, but she has been able to walk on them since the day after.  I really don't know how she recovered so quickly, but I'm so glad she did.  She seems to have a pretty high pain tolerance and handled the whole thing very well.  I'm grateful for our good friends who stayed with our other kids and helped clean up while we both went with Emilyn to get her checked out.

Lucas turned out to be alright too, but he gave us a pretty good scare.  The Dr. said he has eczema and with that is more likely to have hay fever and/or asthma and to watch for allergies.  We aren't sure what caused it, a food allergy or something outside, but we are just supposed to be on the look out for it to happen again.  Benadryl did the trick to get him back to normal.

I got spoiled from my girls this year for Mother's Day.  They had something to give to me from their classes and from primary.  I love to see the things they write and create.  They are beautiful and so much fun.  I am so lucky to be their mother, they never allow a day to be boring or drama free!  I love my three little ones so much! 

Emilyn wrote me a special note, and made me a plate in her neighborhood preschool, and gave me a pocket full of Hershey kisses with a book about me that she made at gymnastics preschool.  Such a cute girl!

 I love that she says my mom is 4 1/2 years old...just a little older than she is, that seems about right!

Matisyn's bag of special things for me for Mother's Day.  It had a special notepad that she designed herself with a flower pen and treats inside.  It was a really cute idea for a gift, and something that will remind me of her every time I use it!

One of Matisyn's favorite book series' is Elephant and Piggie that her teacher introduced to her this year.  She thinks they are such funny friends.  She got to make a comic about them at school.

I can hardly believe it is Emilyn's last week of neighborhood preschool...at least for year number one.  Her class spent one of the last days playing at the park.  She's the fourth one over from the left with the pink leggings.  That girl loves her leggings!

 

Here Emilyn is on her first day of preschool and her last day of the year.  She is growing up!