laundry

Laundry is an ever-present evil waiting in piles, ready to attack at the drop of a hat.. or shirt.. or pair of underwear.

Laundry drives me crazy. I do laundry for myself, Randy, and the two little boys. The big boys do their own laundry and I try to let them remember to do it on their own without too much prompting or nagging from me.

Our washing machine is having some trouble - it won't drain all the way. Because the washer doesn't fully drain, it takes 3-4 hours to dry a load of clothes. See the problem? 6 people, 1 half broken washer.

So at 8:30 one of my boys came to me and said "I need to do laundry". That doesn't work - my boys go to bed by 9, no way to get it done on time. Boys! And always.. always right before bed is when they suddenly realize that they're out of clothes (and likely remember that they've been wearing dirty clothes for the last few days).

Boys.
I need a girl.. or maybe a maid.. or a laundry mat.. something!

Vacation

We're starting to think about summer vacation - Sunset Beach, NC. Tonight I asked the family at dinner, what everyone wants to learn about NC and the beach. One of my brilliant sons said, "there are beaches in North Carolina?"
"Yes" said his father... "do you know where North Carolina is?"
"Uh.. yeah... it's on the Canadian border".

I think we'll learn geography before we work on other things about the state.

Reactions

It has been fun watching the boy's reactions to their new brother. I won't tell you who is who (you can pretty well figure out which is Manasseh).

Child #1 - Stood by the door staring, then took off toward dad, who was holdin the baby and stared from about a foot away. Then leaned over to "hug" the baby, and gave him a kiss... did not want to leave baby alone.

Child #2 - Walked in the door, said "what a beautiful baby".... looked at the person who brought him, said "look at my metal detecter!"

Child #3 - Walked in the door, asked "where's the baby? can I get a picture of me holding the baby to show my teachers?" (This child did not get to meet baby today, due to baby's doctor appointment and sudden trip to hospital).

Cassius Jackson Crum Welcome & first trip to the hospital, oi!

Cassius was born on Friday morning, January 8 at 8:02 am (I was cheering for 8:01 because how cool would that be, 8:01 on 1/08 -- but we were a tad late... I blame my sister for that because she called at 8:00 and distracted me.. or something).

He was 8lb 11 oz and 20.5 inches long. Cassius has lots of dark hair and nice round Billey type cheeks! On Sunday afternoon we were released from the hospital!

Big brother Manasseh met Cassius at the hospital and definitly took a liking to him. He wants to snuggle him, hold him, comfort him.. it's all very sweet.

When the pediatrician released him, he recommended that we schedule an appointment for today to have his bilirubin count checked again. Today Cassius was pretty lethargic and didn't eat a lot. After my nap I saw that he did, indeed, look jaundiced. We got him in to the doctor as soon as Randy got home, and they decided that he definitly was jaundiced and should go to the hospital lab for blood work to see how high his count was. They also checked his temperature at the office and found it was only 93.8. This set off alarms in doc A's head and she decided to admit him to the hospital to stabilize him.

We're here now, at the hospital with him. Cassius is under a Bili light and on a bili blanket. His bilirubin count was 19, which the nurse called "critically high". His temperature seems to have stabilized at about 97.7. No idea when they'll release us, I'm not sure what their policy is about the bilirubin count. My sister said that Isaac's had to be below 12 before he could go home. They'll retest Cassius in the morning and see what the light therapy has done to lower it. On a good note, he has eaten 2 ounces since we've been here (he had eaten very little for me today).

Doctors and God

A month or so ago, when we asked Dr. Wheeler about when we would be having this baby, he said "We'll pick a day after Christmas, when the roads are not going to be snowy and icy". Randy joked with him about his connections with God and his ability to make the roads clear for our drive to Fort Wayne.

I guess he's not so connected with God because today and tomorrow are supposed to host a winter storm.

Diseases

One of our boys has a fear of getting diseases from other people - like the kid on the bus that laughs all the time for no reason and the boy at school that drools a lot. He thinks that if they touch him, or drool on him, he'll get their "disease".

This morning as he was getting ready for his respite care, I asked him to put his bag on the sofa. He looked at me and said "I don't want to get sick." "Huh? why would putting your bag on the sofa make you sick," asked I. "Um.. uh... er....." he paused. "I heard someone say that you were sick and I don't want to get sick."

So I think maybe we have a little confusion - maybe he heard someone say that I was going to the hospital, or someone may have asked me how I was feeling (no one asks you that so often when you're NOT pregnant). Somehow he got the idea that I'm sick and if I touch his stuff, he might get a disease!

WHAT? WHO?

Daily I struggle with getting these boys ready for school on time. It isn't MY struggle as much as theirs, they are old enough to get themselves ready. Somehow it takes each of them well over an hour to prepare for school, that's at least half an hour in the bathroom a piece. I can't figure it out.

They wake up to their own alarms - or at least, they are supposed to. Generally it takes at least half an hour for the first to get out of bed after his alarm starts to go off and his mom starts to hollar at him. Then it's 15 minutes in the bathroom, 15 to get dressed, and so on.

Today, however - I don't know what happened, but it left me very confused. The alarm went off, the child got out of bed, went to the bathroom, changed clothes, had his glasses on, and was eating breakfast before 12 minutes had passed. He was ready to go with time to spare.

Randy's theory is that he was abducted in the night by alien dwarves.. I'm not sure about this theory, but more than willing to accept it as truth.