Goose Egg Continues

The feeling of terrible mom continues yet another day. I don't remember where exactly I left off with Melanie's falling incident this weekend. She acted fine on Saturday, a little sleepy, but still naughty. Sunday morning she cried around 5am, and like any other good mom....I let her cry. When I got her out of the bed at 8 it was very evident from the smell that she had gotten sick. So she stayed home from church and took a morning nap and an afternoon nap. She acted ok, just sleepy. Monday she was great. Her normal little pain in the pa-tooty. Today (Tuesday), we went to Big Rapids to help a friend set up her 1st grade classroom (if you call three children 5 and under 'help'). The day was uneventful, Melanie was a little bit of stinker, but also seemed tired again. We left with all intentions of Mel napping on the way home. She had a different idea. She thought crying for a long time and then throwing up at the half-way point would be really fun. Being the 'great' mother again, it took me a good 15 min to figure out what that smell was. I thought it was one of Mel's super nasty diapers but that just didn't seem right. Then I started looking at the vehicles we were traveling with on the road thinking we were following a rendering truck or something of the sort. Finally realized Melanie had puked at which point I had to do a couple sympathy dry heaves out the window. A good mom would pull-over and clean her up, put on the extra outfit folded in the diaper bag, right? Not this mommy. We notched up the cruise two more mph and busted for home with the windows down. After all, we ONLY had another 30min or so and she wasn't crying anymore.

As I was pulling Melanie out of the bath, I started wondering if these puking incidents were related to her fall from Friday. She didn't act like she was sick so I called Dr. G even though the goal was to go a WHOLE 6 months without seeing him. FAILED!! They wanted to see her just to make sure. Dr. G checked her out and just wasn't comfortable sending her home for the night. He wanted a head CT to make sure there wasn't something going on inside that tiny little head of hers. We are so thankful for a Dr. that treats our kids just like he would his own. We love Dr. G and his staff~maybe that's why we can't stay out of their office. Anyways, due to insurance and timing issues we had the joy of getting her head CT through the ER. Yuppers, Melanie got to be checked over AGAIN before they ordered her CT. By this time it was around 7 and the poor thing had her last meal at 11:30. She was not the happiest kid. I forgot to mention I had used the last diaper at the Dr.s office and didn't pack a bottle (Dr. G gave us some diapers just in case they were needed, but didn't want her to eat in case she had to be sedated). My sister came to take Miya and Jayden home for some supper and my dad stayed to help entertain Mel (Jeff was 45min from Chicago).

The event of the CT scan went okay. Melanie's cry is getting louder and she may have nightmares of a man with a large rubber glove. She acted like any hungry, 18month old would act. We then waited an hour for the results (through a shift change I think). God has once again blessed our family with health. They said Melanie looked just fine. Nothing in her head came back abnormal....NOTHING, which also means that little area of white matter on the movement part of her brain when she was born was not found!!! Dr. G didn't think anything would be found, but wanted to cover the bases. So glad he did, now we'll be able to sleep in peace tonight, thanking God for his mercies.

Melanie finally ate supper at 8:30, she wasn't too hungry since Papa was able to find her a bag of cookies in a vending machine. She did enjoy the chocolate malt Aunt Wendi made though. By the way, she now weighs 22lbs and 8oz's.Yaayy!! She officially graduated out of her infant seat today (mostly because it was in the wash and we needed to get to the Doctor's office).

I think it's time for bed!! Maybe tomorrow we'll just stick around the house. . . maybe.

Up North

I think I won a "bad parent" award this weekend. We went up north to Boyne Highlands and Avalanche Bay Friday and Saturday for Jeff's work. Friday night after we finished eating the girls were walking around the tables with some friends they met. Melanie, whose not so great at walking yet, fell and hit her head on the edge of a metal chair. She has a very quiet cry (as many of you know) and we didn't realize she was crying till the 7 year old brought her over to us at which time Melanie threw her whole body backwards....the 7 yr old did a great job of not dropping her, pretty sure I would have. So Jeff grab her right away at which point she started turning purple and then passed out from crying and not breathing. This was our first experience with a child passing out. I was trying to think through what Dr. G has told me to do in this situation. He is always surprised this hasn't happened in our family yet. Jeff was getting very anxious but was able to get her to take a breath after several blows to her face. Melanie had a goose egg on her head that was sticking out at least an inch!! No JOKE!! I've never seen a bump that big. We were trying to decide if we should take her in or not. Jeff was able to get some smiles from her after about 15 min and by the end of the night she was back to her naughty little self. I felt terrible, but I'm not sure how to stop the child from falling. It seems she is falling all the time lately. Either she trips while walking, or she falls off from something she climbed. I try to deter the climbing, that doesn't seem to work very well. As for the walking, eventually she'll figure it out, right? Thankfully she's a tough kid and usually doesn't cry when she falls.

Saturday morning we went to Avalanche Bay, and indoor water park. The girls had lots of fun. Thankfully they enjoy swimming now (since their swimming lessons earlier this year) so they tried the slides. Until Melanie gets a little bigger I think we can skip the water parks. Either Jeff or I had to stay back with Melanie while the other took Miya or Jayden down a slide. Once they went down the bigger slides they didn't want to go again which was a bummer for the other parent. So I think we can put off the water parks till the kids are a little older, or until we have more helpers, or wait till we can go with some of their friends or COUSINS!! Everyone still had lots of fun. Including Melanie who feel asleep on Jeff's shoulder cuddled up in a towel while still in the water park. Would have made a great picture if would have remembered to pull out the camera :(

After some great family time together we are anxiously awaiting our vacation next week. I will hopefully use my camera a little more too. And we should probably scout out the nearest intermed just in case.

My Montage 7/22/11 at OneTrueMedia.com

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Hot Days

Wowzers has it been HOT here!! Our house spiked up to the low 80's at the beginning of the week. Normally when it's not too bad in here and we haven't put our window unit in for a couple of years. However, when it doesn't cool off at night and with 3 active kiddos somethings just HAVE to get done; all of which make the house a little hotter(laundry, dishes, cooking, baths...). After getting a little sick, jeff and I decided it was time to put in the window unit to help take off the edge.

During the days we have become pool squatters. My brother in-laws parents have a pool they have so graciously said we could use. So, this week we have took them up on that offer a couple of times. We also spent an afternoon at another friend's pool. There were 5 adults and 15 kiddos....lots of fun!!! The kiddos have been falling asleep on the way home in the afternoon during our 10min drive. They are having a blast. When they wake up in the morning they ask if we're going to the Heasley's pool or the Payton and London's Grandma's pool. I do like it hot, maybe not all the humidity, but I'm not going to complain as we've been waiting for warm weather for many months. So thankful for our friends that have shared their pools with us.

God's Mercy Abounds

Once again, God has shown His power...and mercy. We had a crazy storm roll through here Monday morning. I was in Muskegon cleaning with my mom and the girls were home with Aunt Alyssa. I heard there was potential for severe wind and called Alyssa to take the girls to mom and dad's house. We have many beautiful maple trees on all sides of the house. While they provide great shade in the summer, and beautiful color in the fall, they also provide a little bit of anxiety during strong wind storms as we know they are getting old and very weak. With everyone out of the house my mind was at ease the rest of the morning. When I called home later in the afternoon I found out how strong of wind we had (over 70mph). While driving home the roads and tress all looked fine. Once we got to the old farm house we grew up in (next door to parents current house)we saw the force God put into the wind that morning. I think all of their trees~except for two smaller trees had some sort of damage. Many were completely uprooted. The old shed has a corner completely blown out, and you couldn't even see the fondation of the house from all of the limbs, trees, and roots in front of it. Mom and Dad's current house also had many, many trees uprooted. The woods in the back have several tress laying down and more trying to lay down. As we traveled to our house it was the same in every yard. Limbs down and many trees uprooted laying on their side. Thankfully we did not lose any trees this go-around. We had some down limbs that required a chainsaw, we will also need to reshingle our shed. We thankfully also have power as many in the area don't have any and don't expect to get it till Thursday at the earliest. So much to be thankful for at the Westra household again. When driving around town it looks bad, barns have collapsed, trees are gone, etc. However, once again we need to remember this could have been soooo much worse. We all still have our loved ones, our houses are standing unscathed. While driving around I kept picturing the images of the tornados that tore through the midwest earlier this spring. They had NOTHING left but their faith. God has shown His mercy through the power of this storm in this community. Yes, there will be a lot of work to come; cleaning up trees and debri and fixing some structures. But at the end of the night, we still have a bed to crawl into, our family to cuddle with, and most importantly; a merciful God to praise!

Miya came inside in tears after her rest Monday. "Mommy, the storm took our trampoline away, I don't see it anywere. The wind just took it."

I knew she would realize it sooner or later, so we took this time for a teachable moment explaining that it's just a 'thing' and we need to be thankful that nothing worse happend. After this little lesson with the girls they were fine, but super wound up when Dad came home, telling him ALL that happend through out the day. Here are some pictures of how far the trampoline 'blew'. We found it in the woods 3/4 of mile behind our house.

This is a regular pictures from our house looking towards the woods. The trampoline is about in the middle.

OOPS!!!!

View from the woods looking back at our house....way out there. The beans sure look nice don't they? If this was corn, it would be laying down from the wind :(

This is how Tyler's pigs are getting water. Filling a trash can with water from our house and bringing it to his. A little redneck ya think? ?

Where have the last 5 years gone?

This post is a little late and without pictures. I've been trying to upload them for a few days...im giving in for now and will keep trying. Miya turned 5 on June 15. I cannot believe how fast the past five years have passed by. I still remember every detail of her pregnancy and delivery. I remember all the firsts, and all the prodding to achieve those firsts :0) I have to say that is definantly something that has changed as of lately. I have always been one to push the kiddos to achieve that next milestone. Since little Melanie was born, I have now been holding back on pushing those milestones. I don't know if it's just that life is busier with 3 and I can't push as much, or if it's because I want to stretch these years out as long possible and treasure every minute of these infant/toddler/preschool years.

Miya and Jayden play sooooo nice together right now. I know that this dynamic will change (often) over the years so I'm enjoying it as much as possible right now. They love playing doll house, babies (in which they take turns being 'Jeff and Nicki'). They can play endlessly outside without me by their side. Miya also LOVES her baby sister Melanie. She reminds me of a VanOverLoop....always wanting to hold Melanie, even though she's 1/2 as long as her :0) Usually Melanie enjoys being lugged around by Miya and if she doesn't she'll let her know. Often times if Melanie is tired she'll grab her blankie and go cuddle by Miya. Precious!

I think the year of 5 is much like the first year of thier lives. There are soooo many things they learn at this age. Last weekend Miya learned to ride a 2-wheeler (this time with much prodding through many tears). She is learning to read and is trying ever-so-hard to tie her shoes. She has 2 of 5 days down for swimming lessons (this too is something we are pushing....both girls are NOT enjoying lessons).

Miya~you are growning up right before our eyes. You have given us so many memories already in these short 5 years. You fill up our days with questions and teachable moments and are always keeping your mom and dad on their toes. God has blessed our family. He has also blessed you with a heart that loves God. Already at such a young age you are memorizing memory verses, singing psalters, and teaching your little sisters to love reading the bible and going to church. You often talk about wanting to go heaven to see God. I LOVE being able to watch you grow in your faith, even at the tender age of 5. God has great plans for you life; I pray that you will follow those plan as you grow in age and keep this precious, innocent, love for God for the rest of the years God blesses you with. We love you around the world and back again Miya Lynn!!

Happy 5th Birthday~we pray the Lord will bless you with many more.

Ramblings

For many reasons my mind has been reeling lately. The past week or so has brought many, many reasons to praise God for the mercy and grace he has given to this family. There are so many out there tonight that are hurting for various reasons, and yet God has blessed this family with health, strength, safety, and sooooo many more things. I recently read a book about joy. I'm trying to find 'joy' in all the daily tasks of our life as the book suggests. Since I've been looking for joy, I've found myself looking much closer at things I've taken for granted. There are so many things EVERY DAY God has provided for our family that just slip right past my even thinking of them; I even complain about them.

Life again has been put into perspective for me in this week. My sister on a mission trip in Alaska fell off a glacier into icy cold water. So easily she could have slipped under the shelf of the glacier and not come back, or not have been able to pull herself out of that water back onto the ice. It is only through God's hand that she came home today. When I first read a brief description of what happened I joked around with her. It's been bugging me all week though how serious that fall was. Then today I read of the tragic accident of 3 young adults from our churches in which a dad-to-be was called to his eternal home and the mother-to-be, baby, and friend are in critical condition. We do not know how long God will have us live here on this earth. We all have a purpose while we are here, to praise the God that created us and blesses us with each and every day.

I need to live these days to their fullest. To use them to teach my girls, the girls that God has entrusted in my care, about Him and his faithfulness. I need to teach them to look for God in everything around them and to find 'joy' even in the things we may not understand or even like. There will be a day when I won't be here to teach them anymore, a day when they will be all grown up and teaching their own children (the Lord willing). All I have is today, for we know not what tomorrow brings. If I were to die today, I would REGRET not necessarily what we did, but more so what I didn't do with THIS day that Lord blessed our family with. I would want those little girls (and dad to) to have a different memory of their last day with me.

Wow, i didn't mean for this post to go this way. I actually sat down to write up a birthday post for Miya....another day.

I guess where I'm going will all of this is that I need to make a few changes over here. There will be less complaining , there will be more organizing of our time, there will be more time spent enjoying each other''s company and playing (that means less time doing 'tasks'...which goes back to organizing time). And most of all, more time reading the bible and praising God, thanking him for all of His blessings. For that is truly want I want to pass on to three little girls. I don't know how many days the Lord will give me with them, today may have been the last. I need to make each day count!!

Psalm 128:1-2 Blessed is every one that feareth the lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.