A new computer

I haven't made a gemlog post in quite awhile. The primary reason is because for a few months I didn't have a laptop. One day I was trying to help Silas clean some smudges off a Peanuts DVD while I had my laptop open and the result was I spilled water all over the keyboard. RIP Netbook.

Christopher was nice enough to pull out an old laptop and set it up for me but it was large and heavy. I nicknamed it Mt. St. Helens because it got alarmingly hot whenever I had it open and turned on. After a little while I had to stop using that one too because the power cord wouldn't work.

Quite recently Christopher ordered a tiny laptop off ebay for me and it has been perfect for journaling. I haven't spent as much time with it as I would like because I have been very busy with the kids.

Seriously, they have kept us busy. We start our day off with Julian waking up ready to play at 5:30 in the morning. And end at night with Micah getting out of bed approximately 4000 times until he finally gets falls asleep around 9:30.

Reasons Micah gets out of bed:

- He can't sleep

- He has to go to the bathroom

- He needs a drink

- He wants somebody to read him a story

- He hurt his toe

- He needs a stuffed animal

- He needs a book

- His bed is too squeaky

- He doesn't want to sleep by himself

Frequently he comes walking out and clearly hasn't thought of an excuse yet so he says something like "I need... I... I... I want..." looking around the living room for inspiration and finding nothing concludes decisively "Can't sweep." I think he would be more creative except he knows I was not impressed the time he got out of bed to tell me there was a sticker stuck to his sock. He wasn't even wearing the sock anymore.

Recently Christopher has been singing Micah some songs to help him fall asleep. It really has helped Micah fall asleep and it's been a lesson to me in responding to Micah with love instead of exasperation.

Changes with Julian since October include crawling, cruising, sitting up, and two teeth! We were shocked -- and proud -- when he started crawling at 5 months. His knees got very sore at first. He would cry while he was crawling across the floor. I felt so sorry for him I decided to order some baby knee pads from Amazon. But it turns out the knee pads always slid down his legs onto his shins after a minute or two so they were practically useless. It was like trying to put a scarf on an ice cream cone. And after a couple of weeks his knees toughened up and he had no more problems.

Following round 1 of teething Julian has been happy and giggly and sleeping great. He loves to play with his brothers and crawl around exploring. Overall we find him too delightful for words.

He absolutely refuses to let me feed him baby food. He spits it out. So I had to give up on that and just let him feed himself some of whatever we are eating as long as it's safe for him. Broccoli, pasta, tater tots, toast,scrambled egg and things like that. He also loves it when I put a piece of apple in his mesh food feeder for him to gnaw.

Life with Silas can be summed up by a scene from a couple of years ago when he pointed to every. single. part on the vacuum cleaner and said "What is this? What does this do?" I never knew how much I didn't know until Silas got old enough to ask questions. For example, in Fred Meyers West at the Starbucks entrance there is a large, shiny black box on the wall near the ceiling. He always wants to know what it is. Not only do I have absolutely no idea what it is, but in the 20 years I have been going to that store I've never even noticed it before until Silas pointed it out. I'm afraid Silas will never be under the illusion that Mom knows everything. In fact, at this point he's probably wondering what I do know. So am I.

I have read some good books lately. Currently am working on the Chronicles of the Kings. One of my all-time favorite series. Lynn Austin skillfully brings the Bible stories to life and confronts the reader with difficult questions like why does God let bad things happen and what does it look like to truly put your trust in God. I will read anything by Lynn Austin but the Chronicles of the Kings touched my heart in a deep way that very few books do.

Another book I read recently was Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It is a biographical book about Louis Zamperini, the former Olympic runner who survived World War 2 against stunning odds. The book floored me because it was not only well written but also such an amazing story. One part of the story that stuck with me was how God used Louis Zamperini's strong-willed personality to help him survive the Japanese prison camps. As the parent of a strong-willed child it gave me hope that God made my child the way he is for a special reason.

I also enjoyed a picture book by Tomie dePaola called Tom. Tomie dePaola wrote it about his memories of his grandfather. In the story the little boy takes some chicken feet to school and scares all the girls. And some of the teachers. He gets sent home with a note. "Tommy is not allowed to bring chicken feet to school ever again." We have a fun-loving little boy in our family too and I could see him doing something like that as a joke. So I could hardly stop laughing when I read the book to the boys.

I would recommend all of these books. My mom bought Tom for us. She has always been a collector of good children's books. But the other books I was able to read for free on our library's lending apps, Hoopla and Overdrive.

I should mention that since my last post the DMER has almost completely faded. I can't remember when it happened but one day I noticed I hadn't felt it in awhile. Every now and then I feel a little twinge of dysphoria but for the most part nursing is back to how I remember it with Silas and Micah.