A+ for Isaac!

Our family has a fire escape plan in place. We try to discuss it about twice a year to keep it fresh in the kids' minds. Isaac's recently been doing fire safety things for Scouts as well. I'm not sure why but for some reason at 2am this morning our smoke alarms started blaring through the whole house. Caleb's out of town so it was all on me to do the checking (btw, somehow in all our fire escape plans I have visions of Caleb getting all the boys safely out their windows, it never occurred to me that it's likely he'd be OUT OF TOWN!). So I run through the house looking for signs of a fire and find none so I go to check on the boys. Elias and Silas...sound asleep, unaffected. When I went to check on the other two boys I found Isaac's butt up in the air leaning over Jude's crib rail to get him out of bed and save him. I was so impressed that at 2 in the morning he had the presence of mind to follow our plan. I told him it was ok it was just a false alarm so he hopped back in bed. Curious, I asked what he was going to do next (wondering if he was going to open his fire escape ladder and climb out while hanging onto the baby). He said he was going to check the door to see if it was hot! YAY! I am so grateful to have Isaac. He's such a good helper and ALWAYS looks out for Jude. Caleb and I are going to take him out to dinner tonight to reward him. Our Hero! On a side note, the alarms went off again at 5am. Any idea what would set all the alarms in the house off for about a minute or two?

Newborn!

HA! Fooled you! Bet you thought the title of this post was an announcement! For the record IT'S NOT! Sat. night we went to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) for an evening of Science and learning through Elias' school. As you learned in my last post Jude's been having bum issues so we've been very observant of any odors coming from his body. During one of the presentations Caleb gave Jude the ol' smell test and informed me he was in need of a diaper change. I took him into the restroom and pulled out enough paper towels to build a make shift changing table. I layed him down and opened the diaper only to find it clean...false alarm! I decided it would be a good opportunity to freshen up his bum anyway and apply more cream. As I'm searching through the diaper bag to locate the cream he decided to turn his false alarm into a full alarm. He began to bare bum poop on the paper towel covered floor. OK, I think, I'll just scoop away the poo with the towels and flush it... AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHH he starts to pee and it's going EVERYWHERE all over me, the floor, the walls his clothes and yes, his FACE! I quickly scoop away the poop and grab a wipe but not in enough time to catch him lapping some liquid off his face. I wipe his face quickly and stand him up to assess the situation and he pees again! His shirt was unsnapped and long enough to protect me from the spray this time. Holy crap! I strip the boy down, mini-bathe him in the sink, re-diaper him and LUCKILY I had a blanket in his diaper bag to drape around him in order to sneak him out. Seriously! This kid is 18 mos. old. We're not dealing with a newborn here. I haven't carried spare clothes since the boy was 12 mos. old. Caleb left the presentation to see what was up so I was able to get the keys from him and tell him to get the boys and meet me in the car when it was over! I can firmly say I don't miss the newborn days!

Bless the Bummie

Jude has been cutting his last four teeth for quite some time now. This week they are wreaking havoc on his body. He's had diarrhea which has caused a HORRIBLE diaper rash. I took him to the Dr. on Wed. and he prescribed a cream that can't even be applied until the sores stop oozing but told me some other things I can mix together to apply in the meantime. The boy knows when it's time to change his diaper (as the poo is painful) and screams when he sees me coming after him with my petri dish to mix the concoction of meds. He is seriously strong and usually before his bum is clean he's flipped over in a push-up position with me hanging on to one foot trying to get a wipe in between his clinched cheeks. It's a sad sight. With two days on the special mixed cream and no improvement we decided to give him a blessing. I'm happy to say that his poor, raw, oozy, bloody bum is much better today. This morning for family prayer Isaac remembered to ask that Jude's bottom could get better. It was very sweet. As soon as he was done praying he totally giggled about praying for a healthy hiney. What can I say? Even bummies need blessed!

Big and Fat Like Me

This was our dinner conversation tonight. Me, "Isaac, you better eat your food so you aren't so scrauny. Jude is eating all of his food and he is going to be the biggest one in the family." Isaac, "I don't want to be big because I want to be in the Airforce." Me, "You still have to be strong to go to the Airforce Academy." Silas, "I want to grow up and be big and fat like dad. I'm going to eat all of my dinner and all of my ice cream." Talk about putting it into perspective. I guess I still have quite a bit of weight to lose.