Monday, November 21, 2011

when i'm a donut


I'm eating orange slices. (Vienne doesn't eat fruit.)
She says: "Are those good? Oh, after I'm a donut I will try them."
Me: "Do you mean, 'an adult'?"
V: " Oh yeah, adult"
Me: "Maybe you'll even try them when you're a big kid"
V: "Oh like Dad?!"




Friday, October 21, 2011

Potty

Vienne asked why drinking water makes her go potty. I told her that when you drink water it fills up your belly until it can't hold it any longer and then you have to go potty. What goes in must come out. So, then every time she took a sip she looked down and felt her potty to see if it was leaking! heheheh
I had to reassure her that it will wait a while to fill up and then she will feel the potty urge to empty it out. :)


Monday, October 17, 2011

boogers


this monday morning...after I've returned from a women's retreat all weekend:
Vienne: Daddy told me to put my boogers on my pants
Me: What? No. That's gross. We only put boogers on tissues. Daddy did not tell you that.
Vienne: Yes! Yes he did! Dadda told me so!
Me: Well, I'm going to talk to him about that.

I text Mark: You teaching our daughter to wipe boogers on her clothes?
Mark: Yeah! That's my girl! What a memory!
Me: Gross! Thanks a lot!
Mark: I really did not teach her that. But she sure is creative.

Great. Now she's wandered into making up stories. And, using scapegoats!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Pox


poor girl came down with the chickenpox this past week. whew, fun times! it started with one fluid-filled blister on her belly and i had NO idea what it was. by that afternoon, i noticed that her appetite was pretty much gone and she was exhausted. i put her down for a nap an hour early and she slept for 2.5 hours. when she woke the poor thing had a 103.2 fever. of course, we knew something was wrong. after a very rough night of hot sleep for her, i was able to take her in to the doctor the next morning. she had a few more blisters and was still HOT. he wasn't exactly certain what it was just yet....chickenpox or some strange strain of impetigo since i had just recovered from an outbreak. he loaded us up with some home remedies and strict instructions to keep him informed 2x a day about the development of her illness. after an email from mark's cousin claiming that her daughter broke out w/the chickenpox that same day, i was certain that was it (since we just spent an entire week on the east coast together!). thursday was another warm day for vienne, while her body produced more and more blisters. by friday, the storm of it all hit. HARD. new crops of sores had developed on her arms and legs and scalp and by noon she was in PAIN. never itchy this whole time....just sheer pain on each sore developed. It. Was. Horrible. as it quickly progressed, i couldn't touch her one bit. she wouldn't wear clothes, i couldn't hold her, caress her, or even set her on a chair. she was so upset that she refused any kind of medicine, topically or orally. i thought the oatmeal bath might soothe it but standing in it, made her scream. i eventually got her in a loose pair of soft undies and made a very soft cushion area on her bed to sit against. she sat in bed, sucked on a homemade popsicle and watched a movie...calming down.
we have found an INCREDIBLE doctor - naturopath/chiropractor. dr. chris. he would quickly respond to every update email i sent him. i had sent him one that morning of the painful sores, informing him that she had had a very rough night of sleep (we weren't aware of her pain yet since she was so deliriously tired). once he read that email, learning that things had changed slightly for the worse, he wanted to talk on the phone immediately. by the time i called him, that's about the same time her intense pain had set in. he was concerned and asked a TON of questions, trying to determine the correct homeopathic remedy. he wanted her to have it right away, so offered to make himself available at his next clinic that day, closer to our home. mark ran over and retrieved it. Antimonium Crudum. The Life Saver. after just 20 minutes of giving her a dose, she made a huge 180 turn around. just like that!! the pain was subsided, she was cheery and running around w/energy again...just like the little girl we know.
by the next day, everything seemed back to normal...except she just had chickenpox bumps all over. the itchies set it (mildly) though no more new crops popped up. over the next few days the slight itchies completely subsided and the sores started to scab over. quick!!
i was actually afraid that it was too quick! i emailed dr. chris my concern - why weren't more spots forming, as is typical of the chickenpox? why weren't they itching her to death? did enough blisters form to warrant chickenpox?...she was covered, but definitely not in 300 like the literature claims. but he sent me a very encouraging email that gave me such confidence in the choices we have made to do everything naturally for her! he said that once we found the right remedy for her, it helped her body to turn everything around while boosting her immune system. in his experience, along w/200 yrs. of documented literature, it has been discovered that with the right remedy the child is able to move through the illness more easily and recover more quickly, all with a stronger immune system and not one return or renewed susceptibility to the epidemic. how triumphant i feel that we suffered through just one very rough day and then were able to turn what was proving to be a difficult case into a very mild one ... all with natural remedies! God's medicine certainly is the BEST!
Here's a list of what we did...just so that I can look back and remember when we have to go through it again with child #2!
-Children's Glycerite - for the immune system.
-Vitamin A - an anti-viral. Started w/a high dose of 10 drops first day, down to 5 drops the 2nd and 3 drops the next two.
-Pulsatilla homeopathic remedy - this is Vienne's constitutional remedy. Our next child might need something different.
-Antimonium Crudum - for the pain and severe mood changes/irritability. Initial dose was 2 pellets. Then we followed up, on need only basis, with a dilution of this remedy.
-Raw honey on the sores for about 30 minutes.
-Oatmeal baths, which also washed the honey off.
-Made a homemade natural version of "Calamine Lotion", using the leftover oatmeal goo mixed w/baking soda.
-Aloe vera was also soothing
-Constitutional hydrotherapy for the fever.
-Bone broth soup and homemade organic juice popsicles for sores in the mouth.

And, if anyone else happens to stumble across this blog, I hope this helps for it was miraculous for us!!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Praying through stubbornness

Good grief, God is so cool. It's just the little things, ya know?
I made a healthy scrumptious meal for Vienne - things she loves, hidden w/vegetables in the tomato sauce. I was so excited to successfully hide these veggies, until V stared at it and refused to eat. She sat there through our entire dinner w/that typical stubborn child's scowl. Finally, after many failed persuasions, the light turned on.

I asked her if she would like to pray to Jesus for help to eat. She said yes. We held hands and we prayed. And then, she took her first bite. Just like that...with FULL confidence that God was now going to help her. After that, she devoured the entire place, telling us how much she loved it...and telling Dadda to stop sneaking bites!! WOW.


The tenderness of a child's heart toward the Lord is speaking to me louder than most messages. I sat with tears in my eyes, realizing that we triumphed over her stubbornness w/prayer. (...and that her faith is so much stronger than my own!)
Praying through stubbornness has actually worked for us in the past (which is a RARE thing...so it was a few months ago!). Took me a while to remember to call on the Lord..but I'm still learning too! :)

Friday, July 29, 2011

being wooed

at play group every friday, vienne has a little man that she follows after, named michael. he is a year older and full of spunk and clever mischief. they are absolutely darling together.

while us moms were congregated with our coffees in the living room, i noticed vienne and michael sneaking into the garage (his house). i let them play privately for a few minutes before checking in on them. finally, i decided to take a peak. i opened the door to a tiny little garage w/one car squeezed in and did not see our two little ones. looking around the car, under the car, i called out "where are you?!". "here, mama!" what?! oh my good grief, i finally looked INside the car to discover the two of them sitting in there like little adults - michael in the driver's seat, v in the passenger. michael has found the keys and only turned them far enough in the ignition to unroll the windows and turn the music on. they were quietly sitting in there together, enjoying slow romantic tunes. i nearly keeled over in laughter! it was the cutest most hilarious (and potentially scary!) sight! i said he is cleverly mischievous, no?!
gotta keep an eye on that one cuz this little girl will follow him wherever he will go!

haha.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Thursday, July 7, 2011

things she said


We were at the beach. Mark took her for a morning walk and she wanted to be carried.
Mark: "oh geez, I should've brought the stroller."
Vienne: "oh, Jesus brought the stroller?!!"


We've got her so well trained with her manners (most of the time) that sometimes I wonder if she sounds like she's abused in order to behave so well! This morning as I sat down with my breakfast, she looked over at it and said:
"May I share your bagel, please?"
"May have I little bites, please?"
good grief. it even shocks me sometimes.

right now, everything she says is prefaced with "maybe".
"maybe we can eat dinner on the couch and watch cars?? yeah??"
"maybe i can get a treat?!"
"maybe we can go to scarbucks?"

and finally...
we've officially got a make believe friend in our home. her name is Ty. she is 3 and two minutes old. she has brown hair and green eyes and "pretty just like me", vienne says. oh, and she's nice "just like mommy and daddy". she's been talked about for a few weeks now, but not made an actual "appearance" until this evening. mark says they were in the garage and she engaged in a full conversation with her friend ty about goldfish crackers. enlightening! the entire "ty thing" began one day in a goodwill dressing room when vienne suddenly said "mama, do you remember my friend ty?!" hahahah oh how i love it!!

here is a picture of our darling girl bravely wielding her sword. i think it gives her confidence in new situations. she cracks us up!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

bear feet


on our way upstairs to put vienne to bed,
she says: "i want to wear my feet to bed"
I said: "you mean, you want to go to bed with bare feet"
she says: "no, i don't have bear feet i have vienne feet!"

OH how literal children are! I love it!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

what she said...


earlier this week, there was a day that i found vienne to be full of extraordinary cuteness. simple things, really. nothing hilarious. it's just that i've noticed her conversational abilities have amplified in the last week or so and it is sooooo entertaining. i'm astounded just by the way she is forming sentences and expressing her ideas and feelings. too darn adorable. she's also recently been filled with extra uber amounts of joy. pure abandonment and joy. it is such a lovely thing. her name literally means: "full of life". and that she truly is.
so, some little excerpts from the day, that i remember, were this:

-we were sitting on the barstools at the counter and eating lunch together. she suddenly looked up and said "uh oh, i better get down and go close the flidgilator". i guess i had accidentally left it open (pregnancy brain!). but it was so out of the blue and so observant and responsible. she didn't tell me to do it, but just decided that it must get taken care of. :)

-later that afternoon she refused to nap. a current dilemma, especially for this newly pregnant mama who desperately needs some afternoon snoozes, herself! so after checking in on her several times and instructing her to lay down and try to rest she finally emerged from her room, just not into it. i was exasperated. she could tell and said:
"i'm sorry, mama".
me: "what are you sorry for, vienne?"
v: "i make you angry"
me: "oh honey, you don't make me angry. i love you. i'm happy."
v: "i'm just not sleepy today."

and that's that. she's just not sleepy these days. ugh for me. but at least she's not a pill when she doesn't nap. and at least, on most days, she will stay quietly in her room and play and read books. i am blessed.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

suddenly, we had a dog


a while back (winter of 2011), we discovered that our daughter had transformed into a puppy. i think most kids go through this stage. it is quite comical...and then gets progressively annoying! good thing it didn't thoroughly last for too long. we still get puppy every couple of days, but definitely not as intense as it was. when puppy arrived, she licked toes, licked faces, requested to wear a leash and be pulled around, played fetch, drank water from a bowl, nuzzled with her nose, crawled on all fours of course, and barked and barked and barked....a shrill high-pitched "shut that dog up" yip. it was fun. ;)
but she sure did make a darn cute puppy. and again, i love the imagination and would never stomp on that!

tomboy


i think our daughter just might have some tomboy in her. and i must admit, i am pretty darn proud! before we recently found out that we are pregnant (after a discouraging year of trying), i had come to place of pure peace and contentment over having only one child. if she was the only gift that god was going to give us, then she is the most perfect and best gift of all. seriously, the best child. i had encouraged myself by realizing that, in her, we had a perfect mix of tomboy and little girl...best of both worlds! of course, now, we will be doubly blessed by the much prayed for arrival of a second child. god is so good.
our girl loves dinosaurs. she is enchanted by dragons. she is thrilled by cars and trains. she is excited over soccer balls. can you even guess how much mark loves all this?? as girly as i am, i surely love it all, too. it is not what i expected from her and it makes me love her all the more. she knows barely a thing about princesses and really could care less. she's been given dress-up clothes, which have been tossed to the wayside. if she cares about what she wears, it is in preference of her comfy stretchy "jeggings" and a dinosaur shirt.
she will play with dolls and most definitely has a very nurturing side of her - which tells me she will be an excellent big sister. she does enjoy sparkles and butterflies and definitely loves to cook (with me or in her kitchen)! she loves to dance and sing. but, she also loves to make dirt soup, play with swords, race trains around her train track, throw or kick balls...etc.
when we are in the car, almost every time, she will point out a distant hill or mountain and claim that it is 'dragon mountain' and that the dragons are up there sleeping and then requests that we go find it. when we are on walks and walk past a small wetland, she will exclaim that dancing dinosaurs are hiding in the marshes (from dinosaurumpus, a book we love). and when we walk through woods, she whispers that the fallen logs are dragons sleeping. oh how i am in love with her imagination!!
i realize the reason that she is drawn more to the cars and dragons and dinos is because of the movies we have allowed her to watch. i didn't purposely steer her towards them, i have just intentionally steered her away from most of the disney princess movies out there (that i grew up with) which are full of witchcraft and scary evil that i really don't want filtering into her mind. out of all the non-witchcraft movies we have shared with her, she has been drawn most to Cars & How to Train Your Dragon ...also, with a love for Bolt, Ice Age, Iron Giant, & Astro Boy. heheh it makes me giggle.

little brewster


mark is quickly becoming an avid beer-brewer. i sure wish i enjoyed the stuff....but ick! i can tell, though, that our daughter is going to develop an advanced appreciation for beer once she is older. she has become his very capable and detailed little brew helper. the other evening while they were brewing together, all i could over hear from the other room was a sweet little girl voice saying:
"good job, beer!"
"oh dadda, be careful of the beer"
"i love my beer"

not sure if i should be proud or concerned!

what she said

for the next few posts, i am just recounting all the darling or hilarious things vienne did or said that have been stored up in my head.

vienne has been going through an intense "i prefer daddy" stage. when he is home, i am basically off duty. her rejection is crystal clear! one day, it was especially evident and she was being a bit "snotty" about it. being sensitive to emotions though, she asked "mama, are you happy?" (her way of asking 'are you ok?'). i replied, in ornery fashion, "i am when you love me, vienne". to that she hemmed and hawed and responded "hhmmmmmmmm.....i love Father."
i feigned hurt feelings. but it was hard not to laugh.

precious moments

after every bath or shower, vienne loves to get wrapped up in her towel and cuddled in the rocking chair. she lets me pretend, for the moment, that she is still a baby. we rock and sing as i cradle her in my arms. it is a warm and snuggly moment that i treasure each time. this morning, vienne did not want to leave our cozy spot. so i grabbed a handful of beatrix potter books and we read, cuddled beneath a blanket, for an entire hour.
it was heaven.