The characters for the script

Kind of funny that my last post was almost a year ago. There have been SO many changes in our lives and home over the last year that it's nearly unbelievable. A year ago, Manasseh was a sweet almost 6 month old, and struggling with a nasty cold. Let me introduce you to all the characters that appear in the stories to come...

Now, it's an ear infection and a very independent almost 18 month old. He doesn't talk, other than "no" - but he's working on it, sometimes. He communicates well with signs and gestures. His current plans for the future are "to be a big brother" and "to have my diaper changed as soon as mom puts the computer down".

In May we added Brandon, 12, to our family. He turned 13 at the end of June and is in the 8th grade . Brandon would like to be a pastor or a singer or a cook or a park ranger in the future.

In October we added Ryan, 10, to our family. He turned 11 shortly after he moved in. Ryan is a 5th grader. He hopes to some day be an inventor or a miner or somethin else that Ican't remember right now. Ryan can never find his socks when it's time to get ready to go someplace.

In 2 days - January 8 - we plan to add another boy to our family. This one does not yet have a name, and we don't know anything about his personality (other than he doesn't move nearly as much as Manasseh did). We look forward to meeting our new little man, and introducing him to his crazy assortment of family.

Randy is working at an instrument factory. He recieves stuff and enteres it into the computer. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but that's the part I know. He's a GREAT dad, very patient with the big boys, even when his incredibly pregnant wife is at her witts' end. He is a beekeeper - or "bee-haver", I guess we won't know until spring how many he was able to keep. He loves nature and gardens and all kinds of cool things like that.

Me, I stay at home with Manasseh - and soon with "baby". For real, this poor guy doesn't have a name for sure yet. I run the big boys all over the place for appointments, and have plenty of appointments myself right now - those will slow down soon. As stated, I am immensely pregnant, and I greatly look forward to being relieved of the condition. I hope it helps my mood, and my ability to get the "big boys" ready for school without wanting to eat them for their sometimes ridiculous behaviors.

So here we are - the Crum Family. An odd assortment of individuals, drawn together by God and sometimes God is the only thing that keeps us held together. In the coming posts, you will discover some of the craziness that is our family. I think every family with kids hosts a slew of crazy.. we just have to find it and learn to laugh at it (sometimes my laughing does not come for hours, days, weeks after the events have completed themselves).

Let's go -

15lb 3oz

That's how much Manasseh weighed yesterday, not too bad I suppose for his 6 month check-up.. not too good either, at 4 months he was 14lb 11oz. So he's gained half a pound in 2 months.. personally it sounds like an achievement, but not so good when you're so little. He's dropped from the 50th percentile in weight to the 10th. Still right in the middle as far as his height goes, his head hasn't grown much either.

So I'm trying to give him more solid foods. Trouble is, he doesn't' want them this week. In fact, he gags when I try to give him baby food. Doesn't mean I've stopped trying, just he's making it difficult. One way or another he'll gain some weight.

As for his head size, I'm a little bit concerned but not sounding an alarm about it, yet. his head size is about the 3rd percentile for babies his age. Babies with head sizes smaller than the 1st percentile are concerned micro cephalic (small headed). He's pushing it. He does appear to have a small ridge on his forehead - my sister pointed this out a few months ago, we think its becoming more apparent now. There's also a flat area on the back right side of his head. These could both be perfectly normal things, and are very normal for a lot of babies. However with the family history of craniosynistosis, I am a bit concerned about it. My doctor does not seem to see it as a big issue, but I am definitly wanting to push for some more attention to his head.

Anyway, our boy is healthy overall, just needing a bit of weight gain for now.

Children's Clothes - Yikes

So, someone had this brilliant idea about helpin protect kids by making a national industry standard requiring testing of ALL products that will be used by kids under 12. This is great, and will help kids be at less risk of lead poisoning.

However.. the problem with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is that it currently appears to include ALL children's products, both new and used. This means that thrift stores, home businesses, and so forth would have to submit everything they sell for testing. Yikes.. that means that our second hand stores will be out of business, as they can't afford to have everything tested.. AND even if they could, in order to test things materials are destroyed.

I personally am a big fan of Salvation Army, Goodwill, any such store like this -- We've got to get to our congressmen and ask for some amendments to this act that protect sellers of used goods!

Baking day

Today was baking day! Ashlee came over so we could make a batch of keeflies. We probably made about 100 of those so far. We also made around 170 chocolate spoons. After she left I made some brownies, was going to make cookies as well but I ran out of time (had to do dishes and laundry and such in the mean time).

It was a good day, but I did way more than I should have. I'm pretty sore now!

Crunch

On our way home from church today... okay, we weren't going straight home, we were going to the pizza buffet because I didn't want to bother with cooking.. we were stopped at a sign waiting for our turn to cross Clinton Street in Goshen, and a GREAT BIG GIANT ENORMOUS Hummer came sliding quickly into the little tiny itsy bitsy Buick that we were driving. The guy said he was trying to stop, but the impact he made said that maybe he wasn't trying quite soon enough.. granted, there was some ice, but yikes! Anyway, we got crunched.. in my dad's car. We drove it home, but I think it'll probably get totalled. We ended up switching into our new Pathfinder and driving to the ER. I wanted to make sure and have Manasseh checked out (he isn't big enough to tell us if he's hurting, AND I remember that they've said any time a little guy gets jostled a lot, he should be checked out as far as shaken infant stuff goes). Also I got myself checked out, I was pretty sore from my neck to my lower back. I got Xrays, the doctor didn't like what she saw I guess and ordered a CAT scan. Turns out it's whiplash, nothing broken. So I'm on pain medication and on rest and ice. What a time of year for that.. I had so many plans for today and for Tuesday. I'm hurt, but will recover sometime in the next week to couple months. We're thankful, it could have been much worse.

Layoffs

Randy's factory had lay-offs this week. We were fortunate that he was not among them.

I have to quit my job in January, but already have a little bit of income lined up for that month, maybe beyond that.

I'm feeling blessed.

Whirlwind!

Wow it has been a ride this past year and a half. God has blessed Randy and I again and again. We have had good health, a healthy baby, jobs, vehicles, even when ours haven't worked, and a puppy.. how can you not feel blessed with a puppy? (Okay, honestly, that puppy is glad that Randy lives here because she wouldn't still be here if he wasn't... )

Manasseh is now 5 months old, that means we've been married 14 months now. He is strong and loves to be active, he also loves to study things, he will sit and stare at people and objects for long periods of time appearing to be studying. Manasseh rolls, when he wants to. He sits, when he wants to... he thinks he can stand and walk, but he's wrong. He's a joy to us.

We have again been blessed and are expecting our second child. AND, this one comes without morning sickness or stretch marks. He's practically a teenager already. We're looking forward to working through the foster care system as an adoptive foster home so that we can have our next "bundle of joy" in the late spring!