Broken

Well, I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later.......

.....we have our first broken bone.  This cast seems a little overkill to me since the bone in question is just his ring finger, but then again I'm not an orthopedist so what do I know.  Chris took him in to the original Sunday morning ER visit and follow up casting since I'm currently useless in an x-ray room situation.  And yes, yes they did recognize him at the ER. Don't worry, Chris informed them that Henry's just really accident prone so we are probably one nursemaid's elbow away from receiving our first visit from Child Protective Services.

 The funny thing is, he wasn't even doing anything that should have been able to break a finger.  He was just crawling around on the floor by himself pretending to be some animal or other when his hand slipped out from under him.  Chris knew something was wrong right away by Henry's sudden ability to give a perfect Vulcan salute--and also all the crying.

Clearly he's fine now though and if you ask him, he will calmly tell you that his finger "got squished" but now he gets to wear "hand armor." The lucky duck.

It should really be fun keeping this thing clean and dry for the next two weeks since the children seem to be allergic to that general state of being.  Also, Chris is the meanest dad ever for not letting Henry pick his own dream cast color--which happened to be pink.

{p,h,f,r} The Out of Order Edition

{pretty}

Our weather has been really pretty and Springish this past week.  The birds are back, the flowers are blooming and we're trying to soak up as much mild weather as we can before it gets Summer hot--which is probably not too far off.  Our back porch on the other hand--not so pretty.  It really needs a pick-me-up but that sounds like man's work to me so I think I"ll leave it to my menfolk.  Of course their idea of pretty and my idea of pretty are often not quite in sync so they'll probably need a little supervision.  It's a good thing I can completely oversee porch clean up through the back windows from my perch on the couch :)

{funny}

That's one serious pirate face.

Have I posted pictures our boat before?  We put it together a while ago out of stuff we had lying around.  Once again Chris did not see my vision but he followed by instructions like any dutiful husband and agreed that it was amazing and he couldn't believe he ever doubted me.......well, those might not have been his exact words....it's hard to remember......He added the pulley system to raise and lower the sails which is pretty much the best part.  The pulley was also a good reminder of why it's so important that he have ample room in the garage to store all of his "I might want to use this someday" treasures.

It was actually a good thing we put it together when we did because the day after it was constructed we got a visit from our friendly neighborhood housing official about a pallet we had leaning up against the side of our house.  Apparently that's frowned upon.  I calmly informed her that no we didn't have any pallets anywhere but we did have a sailboat.

Pallets = horrifically ugly and not fine.
Pallet sailboats = creative, precious and totally fine.

 {real}

This face pretty much sums up the reality of our last week.  We haven't been able to enjoy the weather as much as we would have liked because we are all horribly sick with some kind of demon cold.  Chris even missed four days of work so you know it was serious.  I do have the best husband ever though because even though he was also ill he rallied and took care of all of us including getting up with the sick baby throughout the nights and even managing to keep the laundry going.  He's amazing.  

We're doing better but we're still not great.

{happy}

And in better happier news, and to no one's surprise but my own, our baby seems to be doing just fine and has a fluttering little heartbeat and everything.  I'm officially ten weeks along although thanks to my week long forced fast I look much less pregnant than I used to--and if you don't think someone who is ten weeks along can look pregnant then you probably aren't on your fifth pregnancy.

Now the big question everyone's been asking:  Are we going to pay for the early ultrasound to find out what we're having at fifteen weeks?  Well, we haven't decided yet.  Chris is not entirely on board for shelling out the money just so we can know a month early......Maybe I'll have to put a donate button on the side of the blog and we can see just how badly you all really want to know :)


Make sure you head over to Like Mother, Like Daughter for even more contentment.

T-ball Saturdays

We've entered the world of organized sports.  We were going to sign up both the boys but Henry's birthday is one week shy of making the cut-off.  In the end the coach said he could play but that would have been another seventy-five dollars and he didn't seem to care one way or the other so........

 

I wasn't sure about committing to a sports schedule so early because it seemed like an awful lot of work but  David likes it and, let's be honest.......those uniforms are precious.

David's also been playing catcher so.....double precious :)

We've only had one game so far and it was hilarious--full of boys making dirt angels and running around in circles chasing loose balls while dads tried unsuccessfully to maintain some semblance of order.  I"m sure they'll figure it all out eventually :)

For now, our Saturdays are booked until summer........

How Giving Up TV Can Be Hazardous For Your Child's Health

We usually try to give up TV and sweets for Lent and we've had varying degrees of success--i.e. last year's Lent with a newborn--not super successful.

Well, you know that level of crazy that kids sometimes reach when they're literally bouncing off the walls and you break down and yell over the ruckus "who wants a show?" and they all come running and magically sit quietly for thirty minutes or until Netflix stops and asks if you're still watching, depending on how your day is going?

Well we hit that level of crazy today.

But I didn't ask if anyone wanted a show.

This is post ER visit--he's trying semi-successfully to look repentant.

He didn't actually bounce off the wall.  He actually bounced off his brother's head.  And into the dresser.  Luckily grandpa Reintjes was here to look at it and assure me that it definitely needed stitches and also to watch the other two boys plus a neighbor child who I was babysitting while I ran him over to the ER.

He was unfazed.  Well, he was slightly fazed when the actual stapling occurred but that only lasted ten seconds and then he was fine again.

The corpsman helping us asked if he was going to be bouncing on the bed again any time soon and in true Reintjes style Henry looked up, said "yes" and began laughing maniacally.

These Reintjes men.

They never learn.  

We'll see how the rest of Lent goes with no television.  Hopefully we'll get through with all our bones intact.

Places I've Found My Baby

Aunt Kate warned us that super early walkers tend to also be climbers and I thought surely my own super early walker couldn't be even more of a climber than my first two daredevils?  Surely?

Places I've Found My 12 Month Old Baby:

• on top of the coffee table
• sitting on the tray of the high chair (?!?)

• standing in the window
• standing on a chair
• standing on the box of diapers after having flipped it over and dumping it's contents across the living room which somehow included acorns, which he also attempted to eat
• sitting on the end table and playing with the radio
• sitting on the end table right before he threw the lamp off--at my head
• sitting on the end table chucking nature treasures to the ground
• standing on the play table 

• halfway up the ladder of the bunk bed
• halfway up the ladder at the playground
• on the top row of the bleachers

• riding the rocking horse
• in my bathroom sink which he accessed by climbing onto the toilet and then onto the counter using the toilet paper holder as a foothold

Basically, if he can throw a knee up he can pull himself the rest of the way.  The scariest part is that he is not in the least bit scared by any height or precarious situation.  He is also unfazed by falls that would send any normal baby into fits of hysterics.  

His newest trick is picking up stools and moving them to positions more conducive to his upward plans.  

He is also working on doorknobs.  

I really hope he doesn't put those two skills together anytime soon.

So this is what it's like to have a climber.

In other less advanced news, he finally sprouted one little tooth so it looks like he won't be needing baby dentures after all.  So, that's a relief at least...........

On Unnatural Seasons

Well, wherever you are right now, you're probably cold.  Maybe unseasonably cold but at least it's only unseasonable in the sense that the season's gone long.  Here our seasons come completely at random.  

It's March and now that our Winter weather is over....our leaves have finally dropped.

Welcome to Fall children.

Our hypothesis is that now that the trees are pushing out new Spring leaves the old leaves have finally been sent on their merry way into the waiting arms of our children.

It's just so wrong and out of order.   Of course the children don't care, not when there are perfectly lovely piles of leaves to play in.

Our crazy weather makes it pretty much impossible to teach them the correct order of the seasons and/or explain to them which season it currently is.  You try explaining to a bunch of children wearing shorts and playing in giant piles of leaves that it's Winter.

Fall, Winter, Spring......these words are all but meaningless to my little ones.......Summer though--that's a word they know--I think the official definition is, "too hot to leave the house."

On Wishing I Could Be a Normal Pregnant Person

When we told David we were expecting he wasn't as excited as I thought he would be given the fact that he's been praying daily for twin sisters ever since I let him watch his first Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen movie last fall (I'm still not entirely sure we've convinced him that even if mommy did have twins they wouldn't actually be the Olsen Twins but that's another issue altogether).  I asked him what was wrong and he looked up at me and said, "well, it might be like baby Katharine again."

We told him that we hoped that it wouldn't but I really didn't know just what to say because that was my first thought too.  

It's my first thought whenever I find out anyone is pregnant.  Some women are just excited if they find out you're expecting, but me, I have a little voice in my head that says something more along the lines of "oh, I really hope your baby makes it" or "I'd hold off on that baby shower if I was you" or "I probably wouldn't set up that nursery until your baby's actually here."  Then I spend the rest of your pregnancy worrying about you and praying that you don't have to know what it's like to come home from a hospital without your child or to go through that again, whichever the case may be.  I don't actually say those things out loud because....awkward....but the thoughts are always there.

It's been two years today since I delivered the little girl that wasn't ours to keep and in that time I've had one baby and have another on the way but the pain of the loss is still with me.  With every pregnancy I think, "am I strong enough for this?  Will I be okay if I never get to hold this child?"  Filling in the hospital paperwork is just another reminder of our loss--number of pregnancies--5, number of live births--3, hopefully 4?  Facing the anxiety of walking into an ultrasound and praying desperately for a heartbeat.

Of course none of the worrying helps and yesterday I felt like the gospel readings were pretty much solely for my benefit.

Worrying won't add a single moment to this child's life and I know that God will provide the strength I need for whatever the future has in store.  I feel like it's impossible to go back to being a normal pregnant person who just assumes that being pregnant also means eventually getting to hold that baby in your arms safe and sound.  Once you lose a baby, the realization of that possibility is always there, but I think I'll be spending this Lent praying for more faith and less worry and maybe even be able to throw around baby name ideas without feeling presumptuous.

Our baby is fine today, I'll try to let tomorrow take care of itself.