pssst Listen...

Do you hear that?

washing machine running, dish washer running, E's machines running...ahh the sound of silence in our crazy crazy home...

Ahhh the sound of 3 kids in bed by 9:30pm....

PS. Enzo lives here remember?  The child didn't come with volume control nor a pause button ;)  ooh a slow motion feature would be kinda cool!

Beach Day

The past few weeks has been full of craziness. Not sure if it's from being sleep deprived with nursing only 3 days out of the week or if it's the adjustment issues with 2 adoptions within a year of each other (another post for another day) or maybe a combination of both...but wow!

So we decided that inorder to preserve some sanity in our household, we needed to get outta the house even though we were exhausted.

So off to the beach we went...spur of the moment, tantrums, Sunday afternoon, tantrums, beautiful weather, tantrums and bickering here and there (we needed the extra excitement right?)....it really turned out to be such a nice trip for the family.

     

Of course only my kids would have issues with sand and being dirty...

But it didn't take long for them to get over their OCD moment ;)

Ok, so Ethan shouldn't be left to put sunblock on himself

They gathered shells...

buried each other...which really isn't such a great activity when it involves a trach

      

played in the water.....again, water and trachs...not the best activity

     

drifted off in the water..what??

yeah!  right after I took this shot, this huge wave crashed really fast and really far up on the shore (high tide) and thank goodness that Toots has good reflexes because the wave knocked E off her feet and Enzo started drifting off with the water.  So he was trying to get E back on her feet while trying to catch Enzo before he got too far off (which of course Enzo thought was hilarious because he's floating away).

So did I ever mention that E and the beach is a definite no-no?? So it will probably be a while till we make it back to the beach again...or at least until E can understand and not feel bad about her limits...

E was so bummed when we said no more water and that she had to stay in the sand with me...poor kiddo, as much as she understands about safety and her trach, she hates missing out....

The crazy thing is, she wasn't even in the water, she was just standing in the wet sand watching the water when the wave hit....

(click here to view more photos)

Calm before the storm

or maybe it's the calm after the storm? Well either way, the past few weeks with Enzo has been very, very trying.  The last week has esp been really testing my last nerves! haha ok so I can sort of giggle about it now but if you could have seen (or heard) our household, you'd wanna taser someone.

Well yesterday Enzo woke up and decided he was done with his 'tornado'.  The house has been peaceful and fairly quiet except for the occasional sibling rivalry.

Hopefully its here to stay for a while at least.  Then again, we've had one less child the last 2 days because Ethan has been at a friends house.  I pick him up in an hour or so, so we'll see how it goes...

3 movies in 2 weeks!

We haven't had a family movie night in ages, much less go to the movie theaters to catch any of the new movies out.  So it has definitely been a treat for the entire family to waatch 3 movies in 2 weeks!

When Ethan gets excited he always starts gagging.  He doesn't throw up, but he just gags out of excitement.  It's funny!  So he's done that quite a bit lately esp since we've been springing it up on them.

It's so hard to go to the movie theatre with Enzo because he is so young and gets so bored too quick, we have to be pretty picky about what movie to watch with him.

So a couple of Saturday's ago we started our movie marathon with...

That movie was so funny!  We all loved it!  Esp Enzo...and he's so hard to please when it comes to giving his undivided attention...

Almost once a month since Ethan was old enough to sit through a movie, Toots has always tried to go on an 'Ethan-Daddy Date' as they like to call it.  So while Ethan was at children's camp, we decided Enzo really needed to have time with Daddy esp since Toots has been such a rule enforcer lately (that's another post for another day).

So Toots took him to see...

Of course it had to have something to do with cars, I don't think Enzo would have gone with Daddy without me, much less sit through the movie! I guess he liked the movie, but he's not fixated on it like he is with the Disney Cars Movie.  Then again maybe it's because he was more intrigued about the popcorn than the movie!?  But he was so excited to get to go on a date with Daddy since he's had to watch Kuya and Daddy go without him!

I can't wait for E to go on a date with her Daddy!  She's not ready yet tho.  We'll have to wait till she's ready to go off anywhere without Enzo.  (Toots tried to take her one night to buy milk at the store, he had to bring her back before they even drove off the driveway because she was crying huge alligator tears)

Last night, we decided to take advantage of not having a nurse since it also meant we didn't have to be home by a certain time!

That was such a cute movie!  Although it's not really a little kid movie because the first half doesn't have any dialogue.  E and Enzo were fine tho because they were too busy with their popcorn to notice.

E sounds like Wall-E when she talks.  It's hilarious because since she saw the trailer, she keeps repeating 'Wall-E'...and ever since we've been visiting with her, if something startles her in the car she yells out 'Whoa whoa whoa!'  Wall-E says that in the movie and it sounds just like her....too funny!

It's been really nice to get to go out as a family of 5 and be normal even for a short time without workers and nurses....

Chinese Fire Drill

So we've decided that in order to keep our sanity (and our hair), we needed to shuffle kids around and give them each their own space and room.  So how do you fit 3 kids in a 3 bedroom house?? Ha!  You play chinese fire drill with the rooms!

Enzo doesn't do well with transition and changes. Ok I lied, he doesn't do changes and transitions period. So when we moved him out of his room (the "beach room" as he likes to call it) and into Ethan's room for them to share, that was more than enough to mess him up and the boy has only slept 2-3 hrs a night since (when we're lucky!)

We have a a separate dining room that we turned into a play/tv room last year for Ethan and Enzo.  We never used it as a dining room because we have an eat in kitchen.  And as a play/tv room, they never really used it either!  Ethan would sit in there to play on the computer once in a while, but not enough to justify keeping the space as is.

So figured we can turn it into an extra bedroom.  We'll eventually close it off with a door but for what we need right now, it actually worked out perfect! (God is good right??)

Ethan needed his own space that the 2 little kids really wouldn't go into.  Enzo just wanted his 'beach room' back and E need her room to be more 'nurse'-friendly and less Enzo-friendly.  Besides, E only plays wherever Enzo is and doesn't care to be in her room.

So, when we played chinese fire drill, Enzo got his 'beach room' back and he slept in it without a fight last night!  Ethan got his pre-teen space back without his little siblings in his business, and the nurse was so thrilled that we moved E to her new room!  She said she wanted to suggest it when she first came, but didn't want to intrude.

Plus, E's room is much closer to my room, which really is better for her and us.    No more Enzo around her medical equipment!

Now all I need to do is move our medical supply store to her new room...Yikes! just when I got majority of it organized and labeled!

I'm drowning in my zoo!

Ok I have to keep this short because my zoo is calling...

This is E's 2nd day home...E is starting to come down with a cold or something, but simple illnesses are always more complicated for children with a ventilator and a trach.  Enzo is flipping out because of the change in routine and workers/nurses that are in and out of our home and just not having more time for him.  Ethan's legs and ankles have cramped up again where he can barely walk (he gets like this once to twice a year).  Toots has been sick so he's jumped ship for a little while.

Toots started with a bad toothache that spread to his face and neck. Meds weren't working and he couldn't handle it anymore so he went to the ER at 215am only to been seen by a Dr at 730am for 5 mins and gave him meds without looking at anything else.  But by this afternoon he's been super dizzy and nauseous (not sure if it's the meds or not)

My zoo is outta control!  I'm out numbered by kids that all need and want attention...so pray quick!

ps....all this with an hour and a half of sleep.  i thought having an overnight nurse meant sleep for me??

Yee-Haw!

Dolls with moving eyes are creepy.  Dolls that cry when you flip them over, and dolls that talk, sing, or whatever are just wrong!  Hmm...come to think of it, stuff toys are included, but for the sake of my story, I'll stick with dolls.

Last week we were out of town to finish up medical training and spent time with 'E'. (I'll post that later, I'm just lagging) Anyway, Mama Michele decided it would be a good idea for us to start bringing toys, medical supplies, and other things home.  

So we pack up several things in my truck and we quickly realize that there's one of 'those' talking/singing dolls in the bag of toys she sent home. Enzo jumped in his carseat and was not too thrilled about the talking garbage bag in my truck.

Anyway, I haven't gotten a chance to rearrange the kids in their rooms but I did bring in the bag of toys and put it in what is currently Enzo's room.  Enzo, for the most part, really doesn't mind the dolls and sneaks around to play a baby doll or two (That's a whole other post!).  All except for this one scary looking cheerleader doll that 'cheers' when you push her tummy and ends with "Yee-Haw!".

There's been a couple of times that the  doll has gotten squished and it goes off, which has sent Enzo running at full speed outta his room!

So this afternoon, Enzo thought it would be fun to push the belly and run to my room to hear it on the monitor.  Only this time, after it stopped, it quickly started again on its own and wouldn't stop. Enzo was going crazy, he was on my bed fighting to get under the pillows and blanket!

That crazy doll is scary!  I didn't wanna go to his room either, but eventually I went in and pushed on her belly to make her stop.

I have a feeling that dolly won't spend very much time with our family.  Hope she isn't one of 'E's favorites, because it deifnitely isn't one of Enzo's!