Three's a (fun-loving) crowd

Somewhere in the past couple of months, the dynamics of our three kids has changed. It used to be baby Lucy was doted on and fought over constantly (well this does still happen). Then it seemed like Austin and Lucy got along better and Bennett felt left out. Then more recently Bennett and Lucy became good playmates and Austin was more left out and just seemed... older. But lately, suddenly, all three seem to enjoy playing together. Lucy seems old enough to enjoy the older boys' make believe games and Austin seems not too old still to play.  They like playing boat, camping, going to America (lots of that one lately), tickling and wrestling, reading to each other, chasing baby hippos (that was last weekend). Lucy has gotten interested in playing cars. Building blocks. And so on. Now, the three of them peacefully playing together only lasts so long, but it does last sometimes now. I sometimes worried that Lucy would feel left out with two older brothers so close in age, but at least for now, they all seem to be enjoying each other.

 We learned recently that Nero was the first person to put points on a crown (he styled it after Jupiter, who he decided was his ancestor). So we made crowns and Austin was king, Bennett a prince and mei mei of course was the princess.

 What could be more fun than taking turns pushing each other and riding in the stroller? Especially when you have a large, flat concrete area with (amazingly) few people. And on rollerblades. Note- Austin was getting pretty tired.

 They spent a couple hours in these "woods" in the park across the street. They found centipedes, ants, sticks, climbed trees and pretended they were monkeys for quite awhile. These woods have the added bonus of being near a train track (don't worry it is separated from the park) so you can have your nature and trains too!

They were looking out for hippos. Not sure how that started, but I think it was Lucy's idea. She LOVES animals of all kinds right now. They ended up walking about 20 baby hippos home with them on imaginary leashes. Boy, those hippos pulled and pulled and tired them out :)

Fly away from captivity... be set free

Well I have had my share of anxiety over the past couple of weeks.  We have made a total of 8 or 9 trips to the doctor/ER/hospital in the past two and a half weeks. Austin fell and hit his head, needing one staple (but thankfully no concussion). I had an abscessed cyst that overnight became infected with red going down my leg. The family doctor lanced it, drained it, actually pushed the cyst itself out too in the doctor's office and now I have to go back every 3 days or so to get it packed and repacked with gauze (they keep the wound open to heal from the inside out).

And sweet Lucy...the chalazions on her eyes continued to grow and both the right and left eyes became infected and we needed to go ahead and do the surgery to remove them (the chalazions, not her eyes).  So Thursday morning we went in bright and early (and hot- it reached 104 degrees that day) for her surgery. It was considered a rather minor procedure, however in addition to general anesthesia there was a risk of permanent damage to her tear duct- which could have resulted in constant tearing out of her eye for the rest of her life.  So I was a little nervous, to say the least. It is definitely hard to see your little one hurt and was really hard when they had to take her away into the operating room- they didn't sedate her until she was in the OR. Though they did get everything ready so I think they put the gas mask on pretty quickly after taking her from us.

After an hour and a half they brought her back- somewhat awake and rather confused and sad. But after holding her a little while, she laid back down and slept for about an hour. Then she woke up. Since she couldn't see very well, Chris played her current favorite song, by our friend Doug.  She had been listening to it a lot this week and knew most of the words and even had hand motions to go along with the song. Well, as soon as she heard the song, she sat straight up and even with her swollen eyes and partly incoherent self, she sang the whole song along with the hand motions. It was the cutest and sweetest moment..one in which I felt God's grace strongly. In all the stress of the last few weeks and worry about seeing your little one go through surgery, the life in her came out even after surgery through that song. It was a sweet moment and one I will not forget. Soon after that she wanted to play toys and eat. Slowly she started playing toys (was a toss up between her doll and Lightening McQueen), got to drink some water and later ate some toast. By the time we left the hospital at 2 pm, she was running around the room, playing peek a boo in the curtains and hugging the nurse goodbye.  Wish i bounced back from surgery that fast!

She has had a few unhappy moments since then, but overall has done great. She looks much better now- only a little red bump on the upper lid. This morning they were able to take her stitch out of her eye (not fun, but she did a good job). I got the green light that my wound is healing and hopefully won't need to go back for that. We are looking forward to not going to the doctor ( a good hour trip there one way in regular traffic) for while we hope!  Thanks to all who prayed and were with us in spirit for this! Our friends here also took care of the boys and were very helpful as we did all this. So thankful for our community here.

 Pre-surgery. She happily let them check her pulse. When they checked her temperature in one ear she wanted them to also check the other ear. She saw a stethoscope and insisted they listen to her heartbeat. Of course she still really had no idea what was coming at this point...

 Curious George went to the hospital...just like Lucy!  This book helped a lot actually with understanding what was going to happen.

 A fairly happy moment outside the OR before she realized Mommy could not go in with her. That was the hardest moment for me- when they took her away still awake into the OR. Yes we were very generous with that paci we have been preparing to wean off of lately. Sometimes you just need your paci.

 Right after returning to her room. Sweet baby.

After the song, she was ready to play!  Amazing.

Here she is attempting to sing and do her hand motions to the song. "Fly away from captivity, be set free. I want to breath the air where you are, where you are" Those are the words of the chorus...and true for me too. Fly away from the captivity of anxiety and worry and be set free. Such a sweet moment to be reminded of that.