Judah (14) and Apollo (19 mo). Photo by littleearthling on Instagram.

I’ve mentioned before what a big talker Apollo is. Well, several times recently I’ve asked him, “are you Mama’s boy?” and “are you Mama’s baby?” Usually he’ll repeat “Mama’s boy” or “Mama’s baby” to me. So cute.

Well the other day he asked for “hot chocolate” his name for the dark chocolate he eats (one of the few dairy free sweets he can have). The name is a bit ironic in and of itself since  we keep in the fridge, so it’s technically “cold chocolate”. But I digress.

Adalia gave him a piece of chocolate and I said, “Is Adalia your favorite sister?” and he answered, “No, Mama’s sister!” and snuggled up with me. So for the last few days he’s been snuggling with me and saying, “Mama’s sister”.

I told Adalia I’ve always wanted a sister…I just hoped she’d be female…and not my son.

Photo by littleearthling @ Instagram

A week or so ago Tucker was playing in the living room and hollered, “Mo-om, Avi’s using her magic powers to knock my tower down!“

*sigh*

And speaking of arguing…yesterday I heard Hezekiah yell, “Stop calling us fulgurites!”

And in other news, I finally got a Waldorf doll assembled for Apollo. We’ve been gently talking to him about going to hospital, how the doctors are going to fix his heart so he can eat and breathe. So while he was snuggling with his new “baby” I asked him, “Are you going to take your baby with you when you go to the hospital?” to which he responded, “No! Baby wa-wa park!” Poor little guy, any time we mention the hospital he insists he’s going back to Great Wolf Lodge.

And yes, I did just  tell Avi not to put knitting needles in her nose…

Do you ever have a day where you feel like you go, go, go, but don’t quite get anywhere? Come to think of it, I feel like with my running some days, but that’s a different post entirely.  Saturday night we had Adalia’s sixteenth birthday party (I’d post photos, but they’re “stuck” on my camera and my memory card reader isn’t functioning, so they won’t be on my computer until I buy a new one). While sipping some water I felt a *ping* in my mouth as one of the brackets in my mouth popped loose (I have braces on just three teeth at the dentist attempts to pull a tooth with a fractured root out of my jaw bone…all in a bigger attempt to avoid an implant).

This is the second bracket that has come loose. Nevermind that I had actual braces for two years as a teen and never had one come loose…this is the second one that has popped off since I got them in November. I know you’re not supposed to do things like chew on caramel or bite into apples, but drinking water? I wasn’t aware that was considered risky behavior.

Anyway, I called my dentist first thing Monday morning, only to discover he’s on vacation. The recording left the number for his backup dentist…only the phone number was off by  one digit. Thankfully, the dentist has an unusual last name so I was able to look him up in the phone book. When I called his office, they were of course closed President’s Day.

Monday afternoon Mordecai fell out of tree and landed on the side of his foot. He refused to walk on it and spent the evening crawling/hopping around the house. Now, out of all my children, Mordecai has the highest pain tolerance and it just isn’t like him to pretend to be hurt for the sake of drama. I decided to wait and see how he was in the morning.

Tuesday morning he still wouldn’t walk or put weight on it, so I decided I better take him in to the doctor. Well, that kind of put the kibosh on my plans to call the dentist first thing in the morning. I mean, if you had to decide between taking your child to the doctor for a possible broken bone, or yourself to the dentist, who takes priority? I was able to secure an appointment for 11 am…well, now I didn’t feel like I could make a dental appointment, having no idea how long Mordecai’s stuff would tie me up.

We left the house at 10:30 to make the 20 minute drive to the doctor’s office. He examined Mordecai and sent us for x-rays. We drove to the imaging center, got the x-ray then headed home. I walked  in the door at 12:45. Apollo wanted to nurse as soon as he saw me, so I sat down and nursed him while I chatted to my mom on the phone. At 1 o’clock I called the dentist. The receptionist sounded downright irritated that I called. “Well, we’ve already worked several of Dr. Y’s patients in today”. Umm….okay…was I supposed to feel bad? Apologize? Find a different dentist? I mean, Dr. H was working at the backup dentist, right? It’s not like I was asking them to mow my lawn. Or pay Apollo’s medical bills. Or fix me dinner. Sheesh.

“Well, you better just come in and we’ll work you in somehow” she said, still obviously irritated that I had called. She told me to come in at 2:00. I glanced at the clock and saw it was 1:08, I would need to leave by 1:30 and I hadn’t eaten lunch yet. I scrambled some eggs, apologized to the kids and left. Again.

I had my doubts that Dr. H could help me, considering Dr. Y is in the middle of pulling the tooth down and Dr. H doesn’t have my records, but I also knew I needed to at least get it looked at. Wouldn’t you know Dr. H’s office was way across town, 20 minutes away, not a mile from where our doctor’s office is! Yes, within a mile of where I had been just that morning.

The first thing that struck me as I walked into Dr. H’s office was the smell. It smelled distinctly of dentist office. I’ve never noticed the lack of smell at Dr. Y’s but boy, oh boy, did I appreciate that now. By the time I was back in the dental chair I was literally nauseous from the strong smell. And speaking of the chair, it was old and decrepit and so noisy it sounded like it was going to collapse at any moment when dentist lowered it.

Dr. H looked at the bracket, removed it and the wire, stuck them in an envelope for me to keep and deliver to Dr. Y, told me to get in as soon as he was back from vacation, and sent me on my way.

Yes, I could have done that myself. I was tempted to do it myself, but really didn’t think Dr. Y would be impressed with my dental prowess.

I arrived home at 3:45 (after stopping to get gas). Yes, 3:45 and I  had accomplished nothing. Somehow I am also supposed to: do laundry, cook dinner, train my children and oh yeah, homeschool them too.

{On the bright side, Mordecai’s foot isn’t broken…and he’s back at school today}

Two weeks from today is Apollo’s heart surgery. I’ll be trying to blog from my iPad when time allows (though I won’t be able to post my photos until I’m home). I will be updating my Facebook page for sure and adding photos from my phone there. If you’re not already a fan of the page and want updates, you may want to join.

This stuff always happens to me. No, really.

Remember the other day when I took Apollo to Dr. O for his cough (because our marvelous Dr, Dr H was out?) well, I never did tell you about the rest of the day. Why? Because I was worried about my son and worried about the medicine prescribed. So here is the rest of  the story.

We left the doctor’s office and headed to the grocery store where our pharmacy is. I went and checked on the prescription (which the doctor had faxed over) and was told it would take about fifteen minutes. So I wandered around the grocery store with a sick, fussy, coughing baby (garnering many, many dirty looks), a wild six-year-old named Tucker, a mellow seven-year old named Hezkekiah, nine-year old Jubilee and ten-year old Kalina. We wandered around the store and picked up a few essentials (hummus, baby food, doughnuts). After fifteen loooong minutes (it was lunch time, Apollo was tired, the kids were  hungry) I headed over and our prescription was ready. Thank God for small favors.

When I went to pay for the prescription, it wasn’t the cough medicine, but more lansoprozole, Apollo’s reflux medicine. I had told Dr. O that the pulmonologist wanted him to take it twice a day until his surgery, so we’d need a prescription for more or we’d run out too soon. She assured me she could change the prescription. And here it was.

“Okay,” I said “I’ll take this, but it isn’t the prescription I’m here to pick up. I’m here to pick up cough medicine.”

So the pharmacist goes to check and there is no prescription for cough medicine. “I’m sorry” she says. “You’ll have to go check over at the other counter”.

*sigh*

So I get in a new line, at a new counter and wait my turned. All the while my kids are getting hungrier and my coughing baby more tired. I get to the front and am told there is no other prescription for Apollo. So they call the doctor’s office and after several minutes I’m told, “They’re going to fax the prescription over, but they’re just waiting for the doctor’s signature”.

Doctor’s signature? I was in her office half an hour ago….Having no idea how long it would take, I headed home, prescriptionless and decided to return later in the day. It’s fifteen minutes to the store from our house, so later that afternoon I left my kids at home again, drove half an hour (round trip) to pick up a prescription that ultimately I decided not to give to Apollo. gggggggrrrrrrrrr.

Fast forward several days to when Apollo is our of his current prescription for reflux meds so I open the new bottle. And find to my surprise that Dr. O simply changed his prescription to 30 mg instead of writing a prescription for twice as many 15 mg capsules. This meant opening a capsule of medicine and literally trying to pour half of the little while balls out for him to take in the morning and saving the other half for his evening dose. And of course this happened on the weekend, so I couldn’t call the doctor and get the prescription straightened out until Monday morning. I suppose you could blame me for not checking the bottle as soon as I brought home, but really, he’s been on the medicine for ten months, it never crossed my  mind I needed to “make sure”  it was right. And did I mention his regular dose totals $190 a month? And we just doubled that. Thank God for health insurance and $15 copays.

So, we get through the weekend splitting and spilling white reflux balls (which must cost about a buck a piece) all over and trying to get the right amount in Apollo’s mouth. Monday  Chuck picks up the 15 mg capsules.

Saturday night, I notice Apollo doesn’t cry though dinner. He always cries through dinner. Always. Sunday we get through our meals without tears. And again yesterday. It suddenly dawns on me…we just doubled his reflux medicine and he is no longer screaming through meals?! You mean, we very  possibly could have given him more before and not suffered through Every. Single. Meal? He’s suffered. I’ve suffered. The whole family has suffered (it’s a bit difficult to have a family meal with a screaming/thrashing baby or toddler), day after day.

Yes, I’m thankful his mealtime crying seems to have diminished (but afraid to get my hopes up too high- this has been a major stressor for the past year)…but really, to make him suffer another 10 months because his dose was too low? That’s half his life. In the beginning I didn’t think he had reflux, in small part because putting him on it didn’t help his eating or mealtime crying (though I admitted he must have reflux when after two months we took him off and he arched his back and screamed like a banshee during the day).

Yes, I could just be thankful and look at this through rose colored glasses aren’t-we-happy-he-has-some-relief-now…but really, I’m  tired of him getting the short end of the stick when it comes to people in the medical field really listening and following up on him. He has suffered every day of his life and lot of it could have been avoided or lessened.

I know I’ve blogged about his mealtime tears at least three different times. Here he is in: January 2011 and April 2011. I know I posted photos of him recently crying during a meal as Jubilee tried to hold him, but I couldn’t find it.

Why didn’t anyone raise his does earlier when he wasn’t getting any relief? Why?

Sweet sixteen. Adalia arrived in the world two and a half weeks early weighing in at only six pounds. She fooled us by doing nothing but sleeping those first couple of weeks…but boy, oh boy, when she woke up she really woke up. Adalia was in a state of perpetual motion from age 3 weeks until about age 12.

Since her last birthday she’s gone to Honduras, spent two months away from home, attended a handful of births as a doula, taken driver’s ed and gotten her permit. What a year of growth. I can’t wait to see what sixteen brings.

{By the way, expect many more photos…this shoot consisted of four outfit changes…yes, there are plenty more photos to process…}

Hezekiah’s hair needed a wee bit of taming after his shower this morning.

But with a smile this charming, who’s looking at his hair anyway?

Ah, there we go.

Looking smart as a whip and ready for church.

Apollo saw the picture-taking going on and decided he needed to be in the picture too.

So very blessed.

Meet the breakfast crew: Tilly (13) and  Tucker (6). They get up and fix the morning meal for our family while I sip coffee and direct traffic.

Making breakfast is officially Tilly’s job, but she has taken it upon herself to train Tucker as her apprentice. This works out beautifully. Not only is Tucker learning to cook and bake, but it keeps my very rambunctious, loud six-year-old busy in the morning. A blessing to the whole house.

Busy, productive hands are staying out of trouble hands.

And just in case you’re wondering, I’ll share the recipe.

Baking Powder Biscuits for a Baker’s Dozen

Preheat oven to 425

Mix together:

8 cups of flour

4 Tablespoons of baking powder

2 teaspoons of salt

Cut in:

1 cup of butter

Add all at once, stirring until soft ball is formed:

3 cups milk

Turn dough onto to floured surface and knead lightly. Roll out dough 1/2 inch thick and cut into circles with glass or biscuit cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes.

Seven year old Hezekiah spent his morning putting together these little wind-up Robots ordered from Timberdoodle.

Made of cardboard and plastic wind up motors, this kit was sturdy enough for his little hands and easy enough for him to build himself. The kit comes with stickers that go on the robots so each is individualized.

The kit makes five different robots which are adorable, and most importantly, actually work!

{By the way, when I went to link over to product I noticed the kits are on sale for $10! Quick, grab one or two, I can almost guarantee your little boy or girl will enjoy them}.

Enoch’s been working on this Brooklyn Bridge Model, also ordered from Timberdoodle. It is also made of cardboard and is surprisingly sturdy.

Enoch spent an hour or so putting this together. It led to plenty of questions about the Brooklyn Bridge in particular and suspension bridges in general, which will lead to some good books and internet research.

Hands on homeschooling and blogging have both been difficult this year. Apollo has been cranky since his last visit to Children’s and affords me very little time for school planning and blogging. I was glad to have these pre-made kids to add a little fun to our day.

It was getting a big shaggy…

And I was cutting Judah’s hair anyway…

He looks a bit skeptical…

But big brother cheers him on…

He’s kind of got this Jerry Lee Lewis thing going on when it’s wet…

And here it is all dried and combed.

*swoon*

Heather, you made some little girls in the United States very happy this morning! Thank you so much for the lovely yarn you sent. Jubilee and Kalina already have plans for these…

I was thinking the other day (long before this package arrived) about how much I love the internet for connections made. You can talk all you want about it negatively affecting relationships, etc. but I have made more than one friend this way.

This blog is:

* How I met photographer Emily Weaver Brown

* My friends Kylie and Shae from Perth, Australia

* Was tipped off by a reader that perhaps Apollo has something called a double aortic arch…

* Where Adalia has met several of her online buddies.

* Connected with fellow homeschoolers, adoptive parents, photographers and knitters.

* Been encouraged by you readers more times than I could ever mention….

* Many many prayers are going up for a little boy named Apollo…

Yes, it’s a pretty neat little place I’ve got here.