Elli's progress has been slow but steady. She has gradually started eating more, though she's really picky about what she eats right now. She doesn't want to drink much, yet she doesn't want me to use her feeding tube (more on that later). She was really excited to get out of the house Saturday evening and then complained the whole time we were gone. (The church does a Parents' Night Out once a year around Valentine's Day. People volunteer to watch kids there for 3 hours so parents have an evening together.) I think she was just too tired to enjoy all the chaos and commotion involved with entertaining and feeding 12 kids aged 10 months to 12 years! So we kept her home from church yesterday, thinking we'd better give her one more quiet day to rest before trying school today.
This morning I actually managed to get all four of us dressed, fed, and out the door to a doctor's appointment at 9am! We were a few minutes late, but we made it. Elli's doctor was very happy with how she looked. He could still hear crackles in her left lung, but he said that was actually a sign of progress. Apparently, early on in pneumonia, people tend to get dehydrated. Their bodies can't generate much pus at this time, so the mucus in the lungs is really sticky and thick. As the medicine starts to work and they start feeling well enough to take in more fluids, the body has fluids to work with and the mucus gets much thinner and more runny. Even though the quantity goes up, this thinner stuff is easier to cough up and expel. He cleared her to go back to school.
Since we were already out and in the car, I decided to drive down to Children's and finally get Elli's new eyeglass lenses. They've been in for weeks, but then everyone got sick and I haven't had a chance to pick them up. The kids did great for this, and we even had a few minutes to go to the Family Resource Center and visit the staff there. They LOVE Sam since we spent 3 days a week there when he was a baby and Elli was in the Perlman Center's preschool program. They were so amazed at how tall he is and how well he's talking. They also couldn't believe how big Anna is, how into the doctor's kit she was, and how much like Sam she appears. Elli was unimpressed by the whole thing because I forgot to pack her milk and she was thirsty.
We got home just in time to get Elli some lunch. She wanted yogurt, so in between bites, I worked on her Valentines for school. We were supposed to send them in last week, no later than Wednesday. I hope the teacher and/or assistant find them and still have time to pass them out tomorrow at the party! I went to a lot of trouble to get them ready!
Sam decided that he wanted yogurt too, but I only got enough for Elli so I told him no. He burst into tears (highly unusual for Sam). A few minutes later, I heard him say he needed a spoon. The little stinker had managed to open the foil lid on a yogurt and was using his thumb to dip bites for himself! He got disciplined for that, precipitating more tears and begging to be held. Anna started bawling because I left her line of sight. I told Sam we would have to cuddle after I got Elli on the bus.
I had been doing well on time until the whole yogurt thing. Then the bus arrived 5 minutes early! The driver called to see if Elli was coming, and I told her I had a bit of a catastrophe on my hands, but yes. She said not to rush.
That was good, because as soon as I got the feeding tube out to give Elli some milk really quick, she started whining and complaining too! Now I had all three going at once and I was really feeling the burn. Elli was upset because she had eaten too slowly to have time to drink her milk. I knew she needed a drink, so I did the tube, which she did NOT want. I got 2 ounces into her (it went SLOWLY because she was crying the whole time) before she got her finger hooked on the tube and pulled the thing out. Milk poured everywhere.
That was the last straw. I have to admit - I lost control. I pounded my leg in frustration and berated Elli for making a huge mess of her clothes when the bus driver was outside at that very moment waiting on us. I had to finish getting the milk into her, take her out of her chair, take off her shoes so I could get her pants off, change her pants and shirt, put her shoes back on, and get her back in her chair. Then I had to do all the usual stuff - coat, backpack, Dynavox. She was upset about the whole thing, but I tried to calm down and explain to her that sometimes she can't do things the way she wants to! I'm not sure how she is going to do at school today, but they haven't called me to pick her up early.
When I got back in, Sam said, "Mommy what's wrong?" I told him that he had disobeyed me and then Elli had made a mess. But I also had to humble myself and talk to him about how mommy was wrong to yell like she did. Even though it was horribly stressful for me, getting angry and upset was the wrong reaction.
I hope that seeing me fail at things doesn't give the kids excuses to sin the same way. I hope that if I keep going back to them, explaining what I did wrong, and asking them for forgiveness that they will see that not only am I a sinner too, but I know I am. I don't want to be a Pharisee and a hypocrite to them. They will see right through that. I hope they will see that we all need Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins so that we can be right with God. And I hope that by going back to them and talking about it, it will help me to think before I fly off the handle in the future so that it happens less and less.
Olympic Knitting Update
This weekend I got to kick off the Olympics with two friends from college. They are sort of knitting role models for me. Brenda came up from Tennessee for the weekend, and the three of us had dinner and knitted on Friday evening. In fact, it was sort of a combined birthday celebration/Olympic knitting/reunion party. (Brenda and I have birthdays about a month apart.)
Sam came with me to meet them Saturday at the store where Brooke teaches knitting. He had fun playing with "mommy's friends" and looking at all the cool fabrics (it's a yarn and fabric store). He also helped wind one of Brenda's yarn hanks into a ball. He had so much fun with this that he wanted mommy to buy him some "Thomas the Train blue" yarn so we could wind it into a ball for him to have at home! Then we had lunch at Sam's favorite restaurant - McDonalds - which was made better because mommy's friends came too. Then they braved the germs at our house to meet the kids and do some more knitting. It was a great weekend, even though I was hopped up on Claritin-D and coffee. I couldn't go anywhere without a wad of tissues in my pocket, purse, and diaper/knitting bag.
I chose to do Trellis. This is the front left side of the sweater, and is about half of the way done. I'm half-way through the second repeat, and once I finish that, I start shaping the arm-hole and neck. The band on the left side is the center, where the buttons will go. I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out, and with how fast it is going. I have five pieces to knit altogether - this front left, the front right side, the back, and two sleeves. Then I have to put it together.I did find one small mistake already. I have decided to leave it, mostly because by the time I found it, I had knitted past it a ways and didn't want to rip back. The cables take awhile to do! Plus I don't think it's easy to see.
Hmmm. This could be a good contest.
My First Contest
See if you can find the mistake in the above half of a sweater. Post your response in comments.
The first person wins.... hmmm....
How about a batch of freshly-baked cookies? I'll even mail them if you happen to live beyond a 20-mile radius of me! Your choice - chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, or cherry cordial.
Here's hoping there's only one mistake on this piece!
