Sweet Brother

Benjamin is such a sweet brother to Talia. Surprisingly (for his age), he shares well with her, even giving up a toy he has "rightful possession" over if she says please. :) He also looks after her, picking up her cup when she drops it or telling me what he thinks she needs ("Ya Ya say 'cup,' Mama.") We have our share of sibling rivalry too. Benjamin definitely has territory over which he is very posessive, but overall I'm proud of the way he treats his sister with kindness.

Today I asked Benjamin if Talia could share the blocks he was playing with. He willingly scooted over to allow her a space near the pile. A minute later I looked back in the living room and he had seated himself behind her (legs open with her between them) in the typical picture pose. It was so sweet, as if he was protecting her or showing her how to do it. They even let me get a picture!

Earaches and coughing and crying, oh my!

We made our tri-weekly trip to the pediatrician's office today. (That would be once every three weeks, right?)

And Talia has an ear infection. And Benjamin's lungs are inflamed.

I think I just need to cut this post and save it to the clipboard so I can just paste and post it once every three weeks.

We are looking at getting tubes put in Talia's ears. This is her 7th or 8th ear infection since October. Poor sweet baby. We should have known two nights ago when she was up from 11pm to 2am that she was getting an infection, but it took until last night when her fever reached 103.2 for me to realize what was going on. While looking in her left ear, after examining her right ear, the doctor told me, "The right ear is very infected and the left ear will be infected by this afternoon."

Meanwhile, Benjamin, who has been on an extremely regimented treatment schedule for asthma control, has spent the last 4 or 5 days with a barky, croupy-sounding cough. (This is what nebulizer treatments 2x's a day and his bedtime dose of Singulair are supposed to be preventing.) After several days of albuterol treatments with no change in his cough I decided something else was going on. Sure enough, some kind of virus has caused his lungs to become inflamed and so he is on our favorite Prednisone once again.

On the up-side: I am SO thankful for our wonderful insurance that covers all these repeated trips to the doctor and all the resulting medications. This is one of the many ways God has helped us financially in this economically thin season of life. And I am thankful that there are good treatments available for the multiplicity of ailments the kids deal with on a regular basis. I hate to see my kids suffer.

Now that the kids are medicated, we hope that translates to uninterrupted sleep. (We can always hope, can't we?)

Sunday lunch

I'm really into posting videos lately, I guess :)

I just had to capture Talia's new "nodding" trick. It's so funny! She does it all the time. And then I turned it over to Benjamin, who (surprise!) decided to sing for us. What a treat! Here goes....

Waxing Eloquent on Art and Film

Just in case you don't speak "Benjamin," here is a rough transcript of our exchange:

Me: What color are you going to do next?
Benjamin: Color. Color RED.
Me: Red. That looks nice.
Benjamin: Nice colorING.
Me: Nice coloring, that’s right.
Benjamin: ORANGE!
Me: Who are you coloring? Who is that?
Benjamin: Benj is coloring Zoe.
Me: Zoe, yeah!
Benjamin: And coloring horse.
Me: It’s a horse!
Benjamin: Horse, horse, horse. Horse one, Baby Einstein, horse one, DVD.
Me: The Baby Einstein “Horse One” DVD?

I loved this little clip because Seth caught him in his natural state of expression (as opposed to the game face he puts on when he thinks someone is watching). He talks his way through everything. And everything, in his mind, connects to something else. (The horse in the coloring book reminded him of the horse puppet who is the “star” of one of his Baby Einstein videos, in case you didn’t catch that bit.) I also loved that he animated his little speech with many of my favorite Benjamin-gestures. This was just so “real life,” I had to share it. :)

Why I drove 80 MPH on I-265 last Friday

Last Friday morning as I was changing Talia's diaper, first thing in the morning, I noticed a few red rashy-looking bumps on her legs. Wondering if some kind of biting bug had somehow crawled inside her jammies, I applied some hydrocortisone cream and went about my morning. Later, as I put her in the car to head to the gym I noticed her hands were red. But she had been sucking on them so I wasn't worried. I made a mental note to check them again later.

We came home from the gym and without further ado I put Tali down for her morning nap. She slept well, so well, in fact, I had to wake her up at the end of naptime. I found her in her crib with her face snuggled against her blankie. I gently rubbed her belly to wake her. She yawned, stretched, peeped out with one sleepy eye, and reached up for me to pick her up. Once in my arms she promptly buried her face in my shoulder. Enjoying this unusual snuggle with my usually wiggly girl, I held her for several minutes then put her down on the floor so I could get lunch together.

It was as I handed her a sippy cup of milk that I first noticed: her hands were swollen...badly. The skin was so tight across parts of her small fist it was shiny. Then I noticed her face. On the apples of her cheeks were two swollen bumps. They looked like huge blisters. Seeking confirmation of my first theory, I called my nurse-mom. She confirmed the validity of my mounting fear: Talia was having some kind of an allergic reaction.

My first thought was to get her milk cup away from her--milk is one of Benjamin's more severe allergies. My brain then kicked into high gear. I called the pediatrician, told them my daughter was swelling and I would be there in half an hour. Next I peeked out the kitchen window--my neighbor's car was gone. I called my friend Christy. "Can Benjamin eat lunch and nap at your house? Talia is swelling. I have to take her to the doctor." I quickly ran through my mental diaper bag checklist, throwing in a dish of leftovers in each bag for lunch. Soon we were on our way.

My brain was struggling against the fog. I wanted to panic, but was praying and willing myself to hold it together. I prayed Benjamin would not feel my fear and would transition easily with this abrupt interruption to his all-important schedule. Those who know Benjamin will know it was divine intervention that Benjamin happily allowed me to dump him off at Christy's door 5 minutes later with hardly a transitional moment.

Talia and I raced down the freeway. She, amazingly, was in a great mood! She laughed and babbled to me as I talked to her, trying to keep tabs to make sure she was breathing okay. I kept telling her to "hang in there" and "stay with me." In my head I knew the danger of breathing trouble was most likely past (in past situations with Benjamin we have been told that breathing problems will occur within an hour of exposure), but my heart was racing and my hands were shaking anyway.

As I exited the freeway on the notoriously busy, Hurstborne Pkwy I prayed that God would clear the traffic ahead of me. At the first intersection a fire truck with its lights on turned right onto Hurstborne, only 3 cars in front of me. Following a fire truck definitely makes for smooth passage! God also answered my prayer for green lights--every single one of 6 or 7. As I pulled into the cramped parking lot, praying for an easy space, the van in front of me by-passed the open space directly in front of the office for a wider space in the back lot!

Once in the office we were quickly ushered into an exam room where the nurse, bending over her chart, asked why we were there. I told her "she's swelling." She looked quickly at her face and hands and asked me to undress her to her diaper for the doctor.

"Is she on any medications?"

"Yes," I told her, "Omnicef." (This was the antibiotic we received for her latest ear infection. She had been on it for 7 days.)

"She's allergic to the antibiotic," the nurse told me with certainty.

"But she's been on it for a week!"

"It doesn't matter. They can have an allergic reaction at any time. You could take penicillin 20 times and the 21st time have a reaction."

The doctor was soon in and after taking one look at the hives now covering her thighs, under-arms, torso, and neck confirmed, "It's the antibiotic." Fortunately her ears were clear so we were able to stop the treatment completely. Meanwhile he prescribed prednisone (a steroid) to clear up her hives. Much to my relief, the swelling and hives were noticibly minimized after the first dose.

Today her hives are completely gone and Tali seems to be back to normal in every way. I am so thankful, as I write this, that we experienced nothing worse than a couple of scary hours Friday. Looking for an allergic reaction to a medication she had been on for a week wasn't even on my mommy "radar screen." I can't even consider all the things that could have happened....

Ultimately, I am thankful that God has all things under His control. He knows every hair on those little precious heads and nothing can ever happen to them apart from His will for their lives. He knew that medication was in my baby girl's body and I am so grateful He protected her to a great extent from its ill effects. Even if He hadn't preserved Talia, God would still be good, but I am so thankful he did.

Happy Date-iversary, Kiersten!

Every year, Kiersten & I celebrate our "date-iversary": the day that I asked her out. And this year our date-iversary is a landmark in our relationship: Ten years ago today, I asked Kiersten to be my girlfriend "with all the rights and privileges thereof." We have officially been dating for 10 years! (Almost 8 of which we've been married, I might add.) I know, I know ... why would I pick April Fool's Day to ask a girl out? Was it some prank ... some cruel trick? Let me take this opportunity to tell the story ...

Kiersten & I had been working together on the school musical My Fair Lady. Since relationships that start during a production like that seldom work out, I had decided not to ask her out until after it was over. Meanwhile, we had grown closer and closer. The week after the play was Spring Break: I went on a cruise, and Kiersten stayed at school. So we didn't see each other for a full week, which I thought would be a good test of my feelings for her. As soon as I returned from my trip on Sunday, we stayed up late in the dorm lounge talking and talking, and I knew that our feelings for each other had not faded with time.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, all of our friends were counting down the days I had left to stop stringing Kiersten along and ask her out before they tarred and feathered me.

On Monday, I was walking Kiersten to work (she worked on-campus), and we had a bit of an awkward conversation. I realized that she was not sure what to think about our relationship. I had been acting like I had feelings for her and was intending to ask her out, but I hadn't done it yet and it was causing some stress on her. As I walked up to my dorm room after I dropped her off, I came to a realization: God was leading me to ask her out. You see, the semester before, I had made (or rather God had made) a breakthrough in my spiritual life: I had finally gotten to the point where I was content in God alone. I would have been perfectly content to never meet "the right one" and get married. I would have been happy just to spend the rest of my days focusing on my relationship with God. It seems that once I learned that lesson, then God brought "the right one" along: Kiersten. Funny how God works that way. Almost as if He knows what He's doing. ;-)

Well, on Tuesday night, we had a concert together with the rest of the school choir. After the concert, I was giving Kiersten and my roommate a ride home. As we were getting into the car, my roommate made a comment about our relationship (that was not "officially" a relationship yet) that sparked some tense words from Kiersten when I was out of earshot. Something to the effect of: 'If you don't knock it off, I'll knock your block off' (Seth's paraphrase). So my roommate also decided that it was about time to tell me that I needed to make a move.

Once we returned to the school and Kiersten & I were hanging out in a dorm lounge (again), the subject of where I was going to go to seminary came up. Graduation was only a month away, and I was considering going to Master's Seminary just down the freeway, or moving across the country to North Carolina. Kiersten had been praying for me about this decision, and gradually I had decided to stay in California. Unfortunately (like the dense male college student that I was) I had neglected to tell her ... until that night. Naturally she was relieved with the news and glad that I was going to be around for a few more years. Well, the whole conversation confirmed that I needed to make a move in this relationship to provide her with the security that she needed and deserved. So I decided to ask her out the next day, Wednesday. Fortunately for me, I made this decision before my roommate confronted me that night and all of our friends tarred and feathered me on Thursday.

So the next day after chapel, I asked Kiersten if I could pick her up after work that afternoon. She said yes, so the next few hours I worked at preparing my grand scheme. I picked her up from work and was walking her to my car, and we were talking. I was teasing her about something right as we were coming up to the car, and she jokingly said, "My mom thinks I'm cool." (That was one of our "phrases.") Just at that moment I opened the car door, pulled a bouquet of flowers from the front seat, and said, "I think you're cool, too." She was rather speechless.

We drove to the top of the hill on which our college was built to a beautiful spot where there was a picnic table overlooking the Santa Clarita Valley. The sun was low in the sky and the mood was just right. I spread a blanket over the table that I had purchased in Mexico the week before on my cruise, and pulled out a picnic basket. I placed a couple of nice plates, two elegant glasses, a jar of sparkling juice (the kind that comes in a wine bottle), and a couple of apples. After cutting the apples for her, I held her hand and started the speech that I had prepared for the occasion:

"Kiersten, I want you to know that I'm not playing games with you. I want to date you and not date anyone else, and I want you not to date anyone else either. I want you to be my girlfriend with all the rights and privileges thereof."

Then I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Kiersten was sitting there speechless.

And I grew nervous that I had made my move too soon ... that she wasn't ready for this step ... that I had jeopardized our entire relationship and it was all about to fall apart!

She later explained that she was just trying to think of something to say, but that I had said everything she had wanted to hear. Finally, she said that she too wanted to date me exclusively. And I went from holding her hand in mine to intertwining our fingers as couples do.

As we were talking excitedly together afterwards, I remember telling her that it was not an April Fool's joke, which brings us back to why I asked her out on April Fool's Day. In my defense, I asked her out on April Fool's Day because it was time. I couldn't wait a day longer. I had to provide her with the security that she deserved. (And it's a good thing I did too, since I had no desire to be tarred and feathered.)

And the rest is history. We dated for a year and a half, and then I asked her to marry me. Eight months later, we were married. Five years later, Benjamin came along, and 16 months after that, Talia.

Thank you, Kiersten, for taking me up on my offer of being my girlfriend. Thank you for a decade of incredible companionship. Thank you for loving me, being poor with me, enduring 10 years of grad school with me, giving birth to my two beautiful & wonderful children, and wanting to grow old with me. I love you.

And thank you, God, for blessing me with such a wonderful companion, such a godly wife, and such a supportive spouse.

Breakfast

This morning Benjamin held out his empty cereal bowl to me and implored, "More Chex, please?"

"No," I told him, "I think you've had enough. You've already eaten 3 bowls!"

He contemplated the bottom of his empty bowl for a few seconds then reached it out further toward me. "Four bowls?"