Sophia

*An old draft that I had to share. Please bear with me, I procrastinate when it comes to procrastinating. And blogging.*

A few weeks ago, while I was in the throes of an awful disease known as Strep throat, (ewwww) I heard a little squeaky voice. In my delirium I recognized that voice, but could not wake up to respond. It was close by, female, squeaky, cute. It sounded humored. I thought for sure that what I was hearing was from some kind of delirious dream. Not so. No no. It was the voice of Sophia saying:
"Ok Sebastian, cut right here."
Sebastian: "Here?"
Sophia: "Yes, right here. The scissors are right here."
I bolted upright and shot out of bed in just enough time to witness the first locket of hair fall to the floor. Luckily it was just hair and not flesh, or a limb. Can't grow those back.
But oh Sophia! She is my creative, artsy little princess. Ever so feminine and always curious about girly rituals like hair straightening, facials and pedicures. The last time I went to get my hair done she said she wanted me to get blue highlights next. "That would be beautiful mommy", she tells me dreamily. I gasp. No words escape my mouth. BLUE? And now she's sad because Sebastian could not give her a haircut. She stalks off and I hide the scissors. Needless to say we're going to Cool cuts 4 kids as soon as possible!

The Scout

Our scout is finally back from camp. We sure did miss him. As a surprise while he was gone we made over his room. We rearranged his furniture, put in a new desk, shelving, curtains, area rug and comforter. While he was at camp he: Removed the rattler off of a dead (thankfully) rattlesnake, hiked, helped with kitchen duty and many other scout camp activities. We spent the afternoon listening to all his scout stories, and thanking God that he came home in one piece! Filthy, suntanned, smelly, and dusty, but in one piece!

It's Potty Time!

So, this for me is one of the big milestones: Potty-training! It's a huge step towards independence and sadly of course a huge step away from being a baby. And since Elijah is our last baby, it makes me a little sad to see how fast he is growing up. But then I think of how many diapers I've changed and I feel relieved to know it will finally come to an end. Who honestly likes diaper duty? Not me. And let me tell you, I've changed diapers for a very long time. I've had a pretty long streak of diaper duty. 16 years to be exact. Too long. How you ask? Well, my oldest son Julian, being a quadreplgic, always wore diapers and he died when he was 12. He was 4 months shy of his 13th birthday. At that time Sebastian was 2 and a 1/2 and was almost completely potty-trained. Sophia was only 9 months old. I had 3 in diapers. Right before Sophia was completely potty-trained, Elijah was born. And here we are. The last one is starting to potty train. It's a work in progress, but we're almost there!

Yuba City

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit my parents in Yuba City for a week. It is always nice to be able to spend time with them. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their time with their Lolo and Lola. We didn't really have any specific plans or trips, just a little shopping, bowling and hanging out at the Galleria in Roseville-which I absolutely love. It's a beautiful place to spend time with the kids and shop. The carousel is an irresistible attraction for the kids. They love it. Elijah kicked up such a fuss when the carousel stopped that the attendant let them go one more time for FREE!

We came home Sunday night to the stifling heat of Bakersfield-the night before it was 55 degrees in Yuba with a nice breeze. Right behind my parents' house is a river which cools down the air quite a bit. The fresh air there is enough to make me wanna leave the bad air of Bakersfield. Who knows? The next time I go up north, I may not come back down south...

18 Months old!!!

Yesterday Elijah turned 18 months old! It seems like it was just yesterday when I found out I was pregnant. And now here he is, 18 months old! He is thus far the spunkiest, roughest and toughest of all the kids. He spends his days following big sister around everywhere and already they have a very special bond between them. He also spends a lot of time learning from his 2 big brothers. At 18 months he runs like a pro and climbs on everything! He mimics actions perfectly. Everyting from talking on the phone, sweeping to saying prayer. His vocabulary has grown tremendously. He can say his name, but if you ask him what his name is he'll tell you his nickname. His favorite thing to say is "Mommy" in a sing-song voice, more like Maaahmeeeeee! And "NO!" Others are:
Daddy
Dote
Taten for Sebastian
sit down
peash for please
juice
cup
te-too for thank you
Lolo and Lola, my parents
outside or go outside
shoes
And so, so much more.
My favorite is when he "counts". I start off with "one..." and everything after that is two until we reach 9 and then he says 10! I just love this age, and love to see how babies just learn so much. I love this spunky little boy more than I can ever express, and I am trying to enjoy him and all his baby boy antics as much as I can since he's our last baby!!!

A few Summer highlights

So far summer has been pretty fun. Some of the highlights so far:

Lake Tahoe. *SIGH* So beautiful. So serene, peaceful. So green. I want to go back already. Some of my favorites from this trip: The restaurant I mentioned in a previous post was called Twenty-Four and they had the best food. I'm wishing right now that I could have the Shrimp Tempura again. The hotel we stayed at was fantastic and had an awesome indoor pool. And of course watching the runners do the relay was a neat experience.


^^^^THE VIEWS WERE SPECTACULAR!^^^^


^^^^MORE SHRIMP TEMPURA PLEASE!^^^^


^^^^CAN WE JUST LOUNGE HERE FOREVER?^^^^

After Lake Tahoe, we drove home from my parents in Yuba City on Monday morning. We left at 6:15AM so that we could get home in time for a very special, princess-tacular tea party at noon. Thank you to Stephanie and Elyse for letting us join them on this special Mother/Daughter Tea Party.

All the girls got to dress up, even the Moms! And each one of the girls took home their very own tiara! We enjoyed finger foods and tea! The girls behaved like little princesses. It was all very cute. It was definitely a fun experience for me, especially after having all these boys!

So glad to be over the strep throat! What a horrendous experience. Glad to say all surfaces are now disinfected, just in case.

A week of doctor visits

In just the past week I've had 4 visits to the doctor. First for Elijah, then for Sophia, for me and then for Dote. Elijah's appt. was routine. A check-up revealed that he is a little bit short (wonder where he got that from, hmmm...?) and that he's one smart little guy. He received 4 shots (ouch!) and just as always, as I've done with all 5 kids, I almost started to cry. It's terrible having to hold them down while they get these horrible injections. To make matters worst Sophia started crying, followed by Sebastian's panicky voice urging us to please go home now! We did in a hurry and thankfully Elijah had no side-effects from the immunizations-no fever, lumps, etc.

Sophia's visit was just as tear-stricken as we took her to get her staples removed. While we were in the waiting room she kept telling us that she really, really liked those shiny things in her head so the doctor can leave them there. As Juan went to lift her up onto the examination table, she thought she'd make a run for it, but was already up in the air, so it looked a little comical with her legs in running motion in mid-air. I told her they had to take them out, so she had to be brave, and she would just say "Ohhh, Okayyy", with tears in her little eyes. I didn't think she would actually try to run away though!

My visit to the doctor was for strep throat. Ewwww. I thought only kids got it. Wrong! It started so suddenly and hit me like a ton of bricks. I usually don't let illnesses stop me, but this one kicked my butt! The fever and swelling in the joints was horrible! The pain in my throat felt like someone was holding a match to it. It was so red and swollen it didn't even look like a throat and when the dr. saw it he cringed, backed away and said in an alarming tone, "Ooohhh". I'll spare you all the other gross descriptions. So at the dr.'s they gave me a shot of Penicillin in the butt-OUCH! If you've ever had one of those, you'll know what I'm talking about. The injection site still hurts! If you ever need one of those suckers, just say NO! You might die from your impending infection, but at least you won't feel like you have a permanent charlie horse on your butt!

The last doctor visit of the week was for Dote. Lo and behold-strep throat. He drank out of my water bottle. That's all it took. As soon as we realized what he had done I told him, "Good luck kiddo." He only had fever for one day, as opposed to my 4 day bout, and his throat hurt for 2 days as opposed to my 5 day pain. My nurse friend said I must've gotten a nasty strain. Gross. I'm going to disinfect my entire house now.
Here is what strep really looks like, though the severity can differ from person to person. By the way, that's not a picture of me, but some poor chap whose picture appears on the CDC's website. Gross.