Aug. 22, 2008 Got Their Test Scores Back
The law here requires that homeschoolers be tested annually starting at age 8. I got Alek & Gracie's test scores back today. I was really, really bummed about Gracie's math scores. *sigh*
I don't know if you remember or not, but last year she scored in the 19th percentile in math. We knew math was a pretty tough subject for her and we expected a low score, but not *that* low.
Before we got last year's scores back, we had already decided to change her math curriculum. We had been using Singapore Math and it was just not a good fit for her. We had already purchased Horizons 3 math for her and after looking it over, we'd decided she needed to back up a bit. It started off at a pace she wasn't ready for, so we purchased Horizons Math 2 for her.
She did very well with it, finished her books and even started Horizons 3 last year. She seemed to have improved quite a bit! I thought for sure her math scores were going to be higher this year. But they weren't. She scored even lower. What a disappointment for me- mostly because I feel responsible for how she does.
Don't worry- (in case you were wondering) I haven't told HER I'm disappointed. We haven't discussed her results with her. After all, if she did the best she could, and she told us she did the day she finished testing , what more could we ask for? You can't make anyone do more than they're capable of. (remind me of that every now & then)
Just by looking at her test, you can tell she struggles with math. Out of 185 total math questions, she only answered 81 of them. You get docked for the questions you don't answer. That really brought her score down right there. In school she takes a LONG time to do math- but most of the time, I know she's working as hard as she can!
Kenton & I were talking about this and we just realize that math is just not her thing. It may never be her thing- and that's okay. (remind me of that every now & then) She's going to have SOOOOO much more to give to this world than her math skills. She's going to be an *awesome* mommy some day- way better than I could ever hope to be and YES I can tell that now. She has a very sweet, giving spirit and I'll be durned if she isn't my hardest worker here, always willing to help and to please us. And darnit, that's far more important than math scores. Right?
Okay. So the highlights of Gracie's test. Gracie was in 3rd grade last year:
- Reading Total: 62nd percentile, grade equivalent 4.5 (how you'd expect a 4th grader in the 5th month of their school year to do) That portion includes reading comprehension & on that she scored in the 72nd percentile.Yay Gracie!
- Language Total: 42nd percentile, grade equivalent 3.8 (capitalization & punctuation brought that score down). This portion of the test also includes spelling (56th percentile) and usage and expression, which she scored in the 72nd percentile (and gave Kenton & I a giggle).
- Math- I'll just say she scored a grade equivalent score of 2.7- which means she did as well as a child in his/her 7th month of second grade would be expected to do. And really, since she did second grade math for the most part last year, that's not TOO bad.
- Core Total (which includes the above 3 areas of testing): 41st percentile, grade equivalent 3.7
- Composite (which includes the above scores PLUS social studies, science and sources of information): 42nd percentile, grade equivalent 3.6
Alek. Alek is VERY bright. I expected him to do well, as he always has. But last year, overall, he scored in the 99th percentile. You can't get higher than that. I expected his scores would go down a few percentile points or so, just because I think it'd be hard to get that score year after year. Nope. Overall (meaning, including ALL subjects tested), he scored in the 99th percentile again. Now lest you think I swell up with pride over that, I do...as his MOTHER. Not because *I* was his TEACHER. The first thing that pops into my head when I look over his scores is, "I can't take credit for that! That's the way God made this child!"
Now why can't I think that way about Gracie and rid myself of the guilt? God has gifted her with certain abilities (math not being one of them) and a beautiful spirit. To God be the glory for what He has given each of my children.
Anyway, on to Alek's scores. Alek was in 5th grade last year.
- Reading Total: 99th percentile, 13+ grade equivalent (college level)
- Language Total: 99th percentile, 13+ grade equivalent
- Math Total: 99th percentile, 12.8 grade equivalent (a score that you'd expect of a 12th grader in the 8th month of their school year)
- Social Studies: 87th percentile, 9.6 grade equivalent
- Science: 99th percentile, 13+ grade equivalent
- Sources of Information (maps, diagrams & reference materials): 98th percentile, 13+ grade equivalent
- Composite (all tests combined- TOTAL SCORE): 99th percentile, 13+ grade equivalent
So there you have it! I'm extremely proud of my children! :)
I did a little calculating since I'm obsessed with this right now. There were 185 math questions on Gracie's test. She only answered 81 of them. If I did my math correctly (HA!), she only answered 44% of the math questions. So even if she had gotten ALL of those right, which she didn't, she would not have done well. If she had answered ALL of those questions, however, I wonder how she would have done? Out of the 81 questions she did answer, she got 53 of those right, which gives her a 65%. Still not great but sounds much better than her percentile ranking of 16.
Compare that to all other questions on the test. Excluding all math questions, there were 363 questions on the test. She answered 347 of those, which comes to 96%- she answered 96% of all non-math related questions as compared to 44% of math questions.
Also, this was the first year she had to transfer her answers to a scantron sheet, instead of marking them directly under each problem in a booklet. That can be a hard transition for young students too.
Okay, enough! Over and out! |
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Aug. 16, 2008 Can Someone Please Tell Me Where I Left My Brain?
Life has been BUSY! I'm going to try and recap a few things.
My niece from CA was here visiting for a week and we spent some time with her.
Our weather has been incredibly nice this summer so we've spent some time enjoying it. And actually today was a bit TOO warm. You see, we don't have an A/C. Three hundred sixty three days of the year we don't need one. But today we did. It got to at least 90 degrees today. Inside our house the main level was 81 degrees, but upstairs, our bedroom, the hottest room in the house (hey! I know what you were just thinking! hee-hee!), was probably 85 or so. And the thing is, my hubby was trying to sleep! He eventually ended up sleeping in the storage closet in our basement. It was much cooler in there.
I decided to take the children to the lake today. By myself. All six of them, none of whom have had swimming lessons (although the older 3 can swim pretty good). And I have to admit, it was NICE. It felt so good being out there and the children mostly obeyed. Josiah got 4 or 5 time outs, but I was being overly strict, considering the situation. Lots of people were out today but I found a parking spot practically right behind a shady tree where I had a very good view of the swimming area. I told them where their boundaries were and what I expected of them and they were all really good. The baby was flashing me her contagious, sweet lil' smile and was very content laying on my lap, attempting to get her fist into her mouth. Then she napped for a while.
I was just sitting there, relaxing in a lounge chair under the shade of a huge western red cedar, with the breeze off of one of the prettiest lakes I've ever seen cooling me now and then thinking, "Why, when we only live 15 minutes away, is this the first time I've taken my children here to swim (by myself)?" and just kind of pondered on that for a while. And then it hit me. It's because we rarely have days this warm! In fact, today was the first day this summer I actually put on a pair of shorts! The lake water is COLD, VERY cold, and you wouldn't really want to swim in it unless it was HOT, and HOT it was today! But I have decided to take advantage of any remaining HOT days we have and take them down to the lake, at least a few more times. It's an ideal spot for children anyway- they have to walk out pretty far before the water even hits their waste.
And speaking of taking a bunch of children somewhere by oneself, after the recent county fair incident in which Kenton lost Emilia in the 15 minutes I was off nursing the baby in a quiet corner of an exhibit hall, I don't think I want Kenton taking them to the lake by HIMself. Anywhere actually. Ever. But we won't talk about that.
And speaking of the fair, I entered four pictures and won first place for the sunset picture of four of my silhouetted children dancing around. I was surprised that one won, but I'll take it!
And back to today... to the part where I lost my brain... although I'm quite sure that could've happened a lot longer ago than today... We got back from the lake and we were a bit thirsty. I decided to make us blended chocolate chip drinks but I was trying to hurry because the baby was waiting for me to get her out of her car seat. She wasn't crying or anything but she had been so good at the lake, I wanted to be done before she started grumping. Alek and Gabe were asking me questions and I was a bit distracted.
So I make our drinks, pass them out, get the baby out of the car seat, get my drink, and head downstairs to nurse the baby in cooler temperatures. I took a sip of my drink and felt something hard. I thought it was either a chocolate chip or a small piece of ice but I couldn't break it up with my teeth. I took it out & threw it in the trash & took another sip, only to find the same thing happen again. I swirled my spoon around in the cup and noticed there were little bits of glass or plastic or *something* in the cup! Alek was the only one who had started drinking his and he had noticed it right away too. I got out a strainer and poured my drink through it only to find several plastic shards of unknown origin. So all drinks immediately got dumped down the sink.
I questioned Alek to see if he'd put any strange objects into our ice maker recently, which wouldn't be at all surprising. He's always freezing weird things. We've had some strange objects drop into our cups from the ice dispenser before. I figured something he put in there could've dropped into the glass measuring cup I used to pour the ice into the blender. He admitted to putting a Gatorade in there. The Gatorade was called Glacier Freeze after all and he didn't think it was appropriate for something named as such to be in liquid form. But, he said, it wasn't cracked or anything when he took it out.
Next, I took the blender apart to make sure the blades weren't hitting the sides of the container and shredding plastic off of that. Nope, the blender and all its parts were intact.
And then the only other option hit me upside the head. No. I didn't. Did I?
"Did I blend the plastic scoop? I didn't blend the SCOOP, did I?" I questioned aloud, which piqued the interest of surrounding children.
I quickly opened the cabinet door, pulled out the drink mix, took off the lid and peered inside. No plastic scoop. I did. I blended it. Ice cubes, milk, drink mix.... and a plastic scoop. All into the blender. And Alek & I drank some of it.
My children found it quite humorous that mom screwed up pretty good and I was quite in shock at the mishap. Oh my... where is my brain?
And lastly to this eclectic post, I'm going to add some pictures of Julianna- the ones I had planned to add when I wrote up a one-month-old-Julianna-update post. She's over six weeks old now so it's a bit late for a one month post. Maybe I'll try for a 2 month old post. I'll just say her birth weight was 7-5 and a couple of days ago she was 10-7 when I weighed her. She's sweet and smiley and I love her and am so thankful for her.
A little bit worried here.
I love this one of big sis smooching Julianna's cheek while she's caught mid-smile. BTW, see those two white dots by her left eye? It looks like newborn acne... what is it?! She's had those since the day she was born!:
Mamacita y su hermana:
Another:
I love this one:
Mid-yawn:
Millie's turn, not quite as proficient in the head-supporting department as big sis:
And one of just Millie, who was quite done with pictures. Can you tell?
And please, if you find my brain, get it to me ASAP. I function much better with it. Thanks. |
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Aug. 10, 2008 Beautiful Sunset
Here are the rest of the pictures from the other night. It was SO beautiful out- the sky, the weather....
And speaking of the weather... have you noticed I haven't been complaining about the weather lately? Besides the fact that it's raining today and rained yesterday, we've had a beautiful summer! Lots and lots of warm, sunny days.
It felt so good to get out the other day and I had fun taking these pictures. Julianna was snuggled next to me, sleeping in the Moby Wrap the whole time.
Oh! And Kirstin asked in the comments of another post how I shoot sunset photos, so thought I'd explain it here.
Normally, I shoot in aperture priority mode and adjust the exposure compensation as needed. However, this is one time I have to shoot in manual mode. In aperture priority mode you can only adjust the exposure compensation 2 stops in either direction, and you'll most likely need to underexpose more than that to get the silhouette effect.
So the first thing I do is put the camera in manual mode and choose the aperture I want to use. I used f/5.6 on a lot of these because I wanted some of the water to be in focus, not just my subjects. Now to figure out what shutter speed to use, you're going to aim your camera at the sky and fill the frame with it. By doing that you're taking a light meter reading to expose the photo for the colors in the sky only.
Adjust your shutter speed until you get a proper exposure, by lining up the exposure mark to zero (and I'm not sure what the proper word is for the exposure mark! LOL!). Now here's what I do at this point, and I hope it doesn't confuse you. :) If my shutter speed is fast enough- say I wanted at least 1/1000 to capture the action of my children jumping and it's giving me a shutter speed of 1/8000- then I want to start playing with my ISO. The lower the ISO the better because you'll get less grain. So at that point I'll start lowering my ISO until I get the shutter speed I want to use (you have to keep taking a reading by filling the frame with sky and making adjustments each time you adjust your ISO, shutter speed or aperture).
Once you have all of those settings where you want/need them, take a few test shots & see if you're getting the effect you want. If it's too bright, increase your shutter speed a little at a time. If it's too dark, decrease your shutter speed. (and if you have the basics of exposure down, you know you could instead adjust your aperture or ISO) Unless the lighting changes, you can leave those settings in place & shoot away!
And I have to add here that I should not be writing any sort of photography helps up right now while I'm in such a brain fog. That probably didn't make a bit of sense and I apologize if it was confusing! I'm more of a hands-on person anyway, and would rather show you in person how I do this! :)
My favorite of Kenton:
And a few more of Kenton, my sweet, willing-to-pose-for-me hubby:
A few of just scenery. A sea stack.
And the rest are just some fun ones of the children. My favorite of the bunch:
Gracie, who really does have 2 legs:
Gracie & Millie:
First to fifth born, jumping:
Gabe doing a cartwheel:
Gracie doing a cartwheel:
Gracie & Millie jumping waves:
Waving goodbye to the sun:
I know I still need to do an update on Julianna- it's just quicker to do a photo post. I want to wait until I have some time to sit and write a while. I'll just say she's over 5 weeks old already & is nearly 3 pounds heavier than her birth weight! Can you guess what I've been spending a lot of time doing???? :) |
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Aug. 8, 2008 Meet The Neighbors
These guys live 200-300 yards from us. I haven't seen them in a couple of years (mainly because I don't drive in their direction). They were out tonight though so I got a picture of them while I was standing on the side of the road. And you thought I had a big family!
 (I know it's not the greatest picture, but they were a long way from the road & I had to crop in quite a bit so you could see them)
Meet the Roosevelt's- the Roosevelt Elk, the largest subspecies of elk in North America. |
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Aug. 6, 2008 Wordless Wednesday: My In-Love-In-Laws
Such sports to pose for me. We had a wonderful time with them yesterday.
I love how my MIL has to stand on her tip toes to kiss my FIL- and I know how she feels. We're both 5'6". My FIL is 6'3" and Kenton is 6'4".
I should've had them do the heart thing below their heads- in between them. Next time. And there are many more sunset pics where this one came from. Will post the rest in the next few days.
So much for "Wordless" Wednesday.
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Aug. 3, 2008 Snakes. And Bangs.
Yeah. I really needed another living thing to keep track of. First it was a little bitty worm-sized snake. And my dear hubby just had to go out and get an aquarium so the children could keep it. Thanks honey. The aquarium is kept in the garage. I do not want snakes in the house. Is that so unreasonable? Anyway, that snake went missing. Then they found another snake, this one much MUCH larger than the first. And then they must've found its twin. So we have two snakes right now. Garter snakes. I do not like snakes. There's the whole "don't even think about touching the baby unless you've washed your hands" thing I'm constantly nagging the children about as they walk in after playing outside. I told the children that if the snakes were brought into the house one more time, I'd let them loose in the yard. (although I haven't thought about HOW I'd let them loose yet since that means I'd have to actually touch the things) This ultimatum came about after seeing them too many times snuggled up with the snakes, watching a movie while lounging on the couch or bean bag. And no, Emilia and Josiah, it does not matter that you washed them or that you have plans to wash them daily. They are not allowed in here. Argh.
So tonight Alek comes in and asks Josiah where the snakes were.
They're missing? Great.
"Ummmm......" replied Josiah, which translates to "Yes, I was playing with the snakes, but unfortunately, I no longer know where they are."
Great.
The snake hunt was on. Alek found snake skin in their bathroom (can I just pause for a second here? Re-read the first part of that sentence! That is just SO nasty.....*shivers* okay, read on) and thought Josiah had put them down the drain. What a lovely smell that would make in a few days. After getting a "no, you cannot get a wrench and take apart the drain to look for the snakes" from me, they decided to just keep looking around upstairs, hoping to find them elsewhere.
And find them they did. Would you like to know where they found the two nasty, smelly, ugly, yicky snakes!?
IN MY BED. Yes, in my bed. Kenton? Are you reading this? *sigh* Why can't things like this happen when you're home?
Now at first I was going to follow through with the letting the snakes loose thing but seeing Alek and Emilia teary eyed and pleading for their snakes lives and then Alek proceeded to tell me that he had told Josiah not to take them in the house when he saw him with them outside... I decided to let them have one more chance. It wasn't their fault, after all. And then the thought of what COULD'VE happened had they NOT continued to look for the snakes??????? I could've gotten in BED with the BABY and THEN discovered the snakes on my own! And I don't even want to think of the possible ways you could discover you're sleeping with snakes. So Josiah's forbidden from playing with the snakes from now on and the rest of the children have a second chance at snake ownership. Only because they saved me from having to climb into bed with snakes tonight.
Okay. I just had to get that out. Let's move on.
Bangs. Gracie's been asking for bangs for MONTHS now. She's even asked for bangs for her birthday. I thought that rather pathetic that a child should have to ask for bangs for a birthday present so I took pity on her and (reluctantly) decided to let her have bangs.
Now mind you, neither of my girls have EVER had bangs. And while I've been tempted to cut bangs for Millie, I didn't want to cut bangs for Gracie. So I just never did for either of them. Gracie is one that looks good without bangs. She's got a good bangless shaped head- or something. And while I do think she looks cute with bangs, I secretly hope she wants to grow them out. She loves her bangs though so I'm afraid that's not going to happen.
Now I actually like Millie with bangs. She has a high forehead so I think she looks better with bangs.
The boys, Alek especially, did not care for their sisters' bangs. Alek is not one that likes changes anyway so he didn't see why they had to go and change their hair when it looked fine before. Their reaction was kinda funny. Persnickety little boys!
Anyway, I took some snaps of the girls tonight. Here are a few.
I had fun playing with this one. Warmed it a bit (although it was taken as the sun was going down so it was warm to begin with) and added a texture. I call this one "Wish". :)
And one more of Millie:
Would you have noticed if I hadn't told you about the bangs?
And here's one of Sassy Gracie, who was not in the mood for pics tonight:
Baby crying. Must. End. Blog. Post. Now.
Hopefully I can get a Julianna update up soon- seeing as that she will be ONE MONTH OLD tomorrow! *sniff* |
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Jul. 28, 2008 She Is SO Naughty!
Honestly, she's lucky to be alive. And that is not an exaggeration. She drives me nuts and causes me too much stress. Adoption has crossed my mind. If you're unfamiliar with her naughtiness, go read this post. And I could add to her list of "bad things she's done" even since then.
Oh, did you think I was talking about one of my girls? Well, she is in a sense, but of the canine variety. Yep, my dog has me all riled up and here's why. Let me back up a bit.
Most everyone in our 'hood has at least a 1 acre parcel. Some have lots more than that. And I'm not sure I've seen one fenced yard in the area... except for the horses down the road. When we got our dogs, we did not want to fence off our yard for several reasons so we decided to try an "underground fence". The dogs wear collars that warn them with a beep if they get too close to the boundary. If they try & get past the boundary, they get shocked. Our lab mix has only gotten out of our yard one time and we've had him for a year now. He doesn't go *near* the boundary. The one time he did get out was when we first got Noosh and let her wear his collar till hers arrived in the mail. He got a little used to not having it on after a couple of weeks and decided to venture out a bit.
Now Noosh... Siberian huskies are known for their intelligence AND for their tendency to be escape artists. We were feeling pretty comfy that our husky was different. She's a very submissive dog, not TOO spazzy and for the most part, has seemed content with her boundaries.
She's gotten out probably around 10 times and we've had her for almost 10 months now. Several of the times she's gotten out occurred around the time she was in heat. We've also found that she has such a thick coat that we have to keep her hair clipped around the area on her neck where the probes on the collar are in contact with, otherwise she ignores the beeping and runs right through the boundary. Once she got out when her collar needed to be charged and then yesterday.... I'm not sure why she got out yesterday other than that her fur did need to be clipped a little and later on that day the alarm on the fence went off saying there was a break in the line somewhere. And by the way, I do wish our neighbors would try harder at keeping their dogs contained. But that's a post for another day.
We actually made it to church yesterday. I'm embarrassed to even say how long it's been since we've been there. Both sets of our parents met us there and wanted to go out to eat with us afterwards. I didn't want to go just because eating out with a new baby who thinks she needs to nurse every waking moment just didn't sound fun. So I took Josiah and Julianna home with me and Kenton went out with the older four and our parents.
As soon as I got home, I knew Noosh was gone. My little greeting crew didn't run up to the van when I pulled in. Ceph just stayed put and looked quite mopey. I was so sure she was gone, I didn't even bother getting the little ones out of the van. I just took some stuff in the house, quickly looked for her and then took off.
Kenton takes the dogs for a walk at a gravel pit across from us and lets them loose (he won't be doing that any more). The dogs will NOT cross the boundary, even for a walk, so he has to put them in the van, DRIVE over the boundary and THEN get them out and continue on their walk. I thought she'd probably head there so I started that way first. While I was driving in that direction I saw her running behind me on the road (and another car was heading in the opposite direction). I pulled into the gravel pit driveway and she followed me there. She looked really wild- she was wet, dirty and her eyes were just wild looking. I could tell getting her in the van was going to be a challenge. As soon as she got to the gravel pit, off she ran, up a hill, pouncing on something in a bush, back down the hill, looked at me and took off again up a very large wooded hill. She looked down at me and then sniffed around a bit and then I decided to walk off and see what she'd do. When she saw me start to walk off she ran down the steep hill- I was surprised she didn't ROLL down the hill, but instead of coming to me, she ran right past me and in the opposite way I'd come- down the road towards the HIGHWAY, where the speed limit is 55 mph and our roads are full of TOURISTS right now! I didn't want to chase her- that just makes her run even further from you, so I headed towards home, hoping she'd follow me. Nope. She ran all the way to the highway and I saw cars slowing down for her. One lady pulled over and lifted the hatch to her SUV, trying to coax her into her car and away from the road. She opened a side door & tried that too. Noosh got surprisingly close to her and it almost seemed she'd get in with her. Whoever you are, THANK YOU for trying!!!!! (she couldn't see me where I was up the road) And then when my idiotic dog decided to RUN ACROSS THE HIGHWAY, this lady tried slowing cars down with a hand signal. After she got to the other side, I couldn't watch anymore. I was CERTAIN she was going to be killed and I did not want to see nor hear it happen.
I drove back home and called Kenton to tell him what was going on. If he'd have been here, he could've got her. He's more involved with the dogs than I am and he's been able to coax her into the van a few of the other times she's gotten out. I warned him that he'd probably see her dead on the side of the road. I was so upset. I was worried about her but I was also worried about her causing a wreck or something. I tended to my baby who'd been crying this whole time and got Josiah out & gave him his lunch. I kept expecting to hear the sound of breaks and screeching and.... so I kept poking my head outside, listening. And then I saw her, back in the side of our yard, still looking a bit wild.
I tried calling her, putting down a plate of food (the sound of the plate on the cement usually gets them both running to our back door) and other things, but she took off towards the road again. Kenton called to see if she'd come back. I told him she'd made a brief appearance. He said he was almost home. And then she came back. She just ran into the yard like nothing had ever happened, at the precise moment Kenton pulled into the driveway. The brat. The stinker. I was so glad she was safe and home but so mad at her at the same time. So she's lost her freedom now. She's either going to have to be tied to a long chain or in her kennel. It's the only thing we can do for her- for her own safety and that of others. And man have I had a headache since then...
So yesterday was an exciting day. Here's Noosh, safe in her kennel- proof that this dog tries to chew up everything!
Don't you just feel so sorry for her?
See how she was sticking her nose out of the kennel?
Photography is good therapy. :) Here are some other pictures I took yesterday.
Emilia, enjoying her baby sister:
Emilia again:
Josiah, the thumb sucking 3 year old:
So Josiah:
Because Kenton liked this one better in color:
Gracie:
Typical Josiah face:
Millie again:
I've got to take some Ibuprofen or something. Hey, I've got some Vicodin left over since I only took one after Julianna was born... hmm.... |
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Jul. 23, 2008 My Poor Family (what they have to put up with...)
I think I may have a new project for my hubby. We have a 3 car (detached) garage. We have 4 vehicles. Only 1 vehicle is actually parked in the garage and only one of our other vehicles will even fit through any of the 3 single garage doors. It's wasted space if you asked me. And I'm thinking... it sure would make a nice photography studio... A place where I can leave all of my stuff set up, lock a door, leave it there and be able to use it whenever I please, not have anyone use reflectors as frisbies or backdrops to hide behind... hmm......
But not only is there space in there, there is also great light. The light inside our house is not very good and you have to catch it at certain times in certain rooms. If you miss that window of opportunity, you're out of luck. Alek & Millie helped me test my set up before Kenton brought out the nekked baby. These are SOOC or "straight out of camera"- no editing done at all. (except to resize/sharpen/frame for web viewing)
Not bad.
And then out came the nekked baby and her father. I have tried to get this picture/pose 3 times now. Kenton is such a trooper. He's been peed on every time and pooped on too. He was laying on a cushion I'd put on the ground, holding her up over him & she just peed and peed all over him. And did I help? After the hysterical laughter ceased, yes, I did help wipe him and her up a bit. You know you've married a good guy if he can sit there and laugh while a newborn is all over him.
And the first time we tried this.... we tried inside using my hot light. Josiah was downstairs playing with cars nearby while Kenton was standing in front of the backdrop. I had run upstairs to grab something and when I came back down, Kenton just smiled at me and said, "She pooped." That was an understatement. * ing up* It was in his hand, on the floor... and Josiah was a bit freaked. Kenton said as she was going, Josiah said, "Daddy she peed on you!"
I carried her upstairs to clean her off as Josiah was walking downstairs and you'd have thought she had leprosy or something the way he sidestepped us to avoid that scary pooping baby.
Okay, I'll stop there. What is it about having a brand new baby that makes us moms think that poop is an okay topic to blog about? Whew. Anyway.
So like I said, this was the third time I tried to get this shot. I still consider it unsuccessful and maybe, just maybe, I can convince Kenton to try again. *laugh* This little just will not stay fast asleep. Have I posted any pictures of her with her eyes open yet? If not, here ya go.
Now this first one looks weird and I'll tell you why in a sec. Maybe you noticed why right off. But this is the only shot I got of her in this position where she's not grumping, etc. This was before Kenton had his shower. I love it because it looks like she's giving the "okay" sign before she did the deed. But I didn't like it because her little bum area was exposed... so I just cloned that area out. Kenton's other arm & her little bum got cloned out. I tried just cropping it out but that looked even worse. I did a really sloppy job because this isn't one I'll print- no matter how hard I'd try to make it look good, it'd still look funny/off. I know, I talk to much about the photos. I need to just post 'em and not talk about 'em.
And here are two from a different pose that I liked but wish she was asleep...
Already opinionated about having her pic taken...
Do you want to see that one in color? Newborns' skin tones are so extreme, I like 'em better in B&W.
So if a) Julianna cooperates better next time and STAYS alseep and b) I can convince Kenton to do this again, I'll hopefully have better ones to post next time. I'd better wait at least a week before I bring it up again though... |
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Jul. 21, 2008 The Hardest Thing About Having Six Children....
Wait. Six!? That sounds like so many! I guess it is to some people's standards. If you'd have told me 15 years ago that I'd have 6 children right now, I wouldn't have believed you. That wasn't the original plan. But as I've learned quite well over the years, God's plans trump ours each and every time. And it's amazing how much God can change our hearts as we grow and mature. Of course I wouldn't have believed you if you'd have told me I'd be a homeschooling mother either...
Anyway. I was certain that Julianna would arrive before the 4th of July. So certain was I that I had purchased coordinating 4th of July outfits for the children to wear, including an outfit for Julianna. Little did I know that I'd be giving birth to her that morning and the evening of the 4th would be spent in the hospital (with an awesome view of the city's fireworks display, might I add). So I set their 4th of July outfits aside and waited for a free day to take their pics- I wanted a coordinated-outfits sibling picture.
Okay, anyway. So. The hardest thing about having six children? Easy. Trying to take a picture of all 6 children. Hands down. I probably took 30+ shots of the whole group and I only cared for one. And I only "cared for" that one because after looking through 30+ shots of Josiah sucking his thumb or looking mopey or _____'s eyes closed or _______ (fill in the blank), I didn't feel like trying again. (ever?) So I just settled for the one halfway decent picture. Oh well. Up until today, I did not have ONE single picture of all of my children together. Now I do.
And this is how I felt when we were done:
So here it is. I know Josiah's got a funny look on his face and that he isn't even looking my way and he's got his Napolean look going on (he likes to suck his thumb & stick his other hand in his shirt/under his arm! LOL!), but at least his thumb isn't in his mouth & he's not looking down at the ground like he was in several of the other shots. Right? And Julianna's eyes are closed, but at least she's not crying. Can you even see her? Is she camouflaged into Gracie's dress? The bow. Follow the bow. The bow will help you navigate to her location. :) My babies. It amazes me sometimes that I gave birth to such a crowd. LOL!
Here are the two big sisters by themselves:
And with their new (temporarily grumpy) baby sister:
And my boys. So cool that the "teams" are even now. :)
Please excuse my ramblings- major brain fog has taken over here. Over and out. |
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Jul. 18, 2008 Sleepy Smiles (and other sweet things)
Well, life is crazy busy here but a good kind of busy. Julianna is a sweet, sweet baby and I just love her so much already. I love just touching her tiny fingers and toes (like the rest of my children, she's got her daddy's toes- long and skinny!). I love watching her sleep and kissing her sweet cheeks. I love her smell. I love her little sqeaks and grunts. Even if she has kept me up until 2-3am grumping these past 3 nights. We'll get through it and I'm not going to let that interfere with enjoying my new baby girl.
And why didn't someone tell me about the Moby Wrap 5 babies ago?! (maybe it wasn't around then!?) I L-O-V-E that thing! And so does Julianna! I kind of like that I can cover her face up pretty good so while we're out in public, she's a little more protected from germs and things. I used to use a Snugli- you can only put baby in 2 positions in that thing & it always gave me a headache if I wore it for any length of time. The straps dug into my shoulders after a while. Baby's weight is so evenly distributed with the Moby Wrap. Ahem. Julianna has not taken one nap or even slept at night in her bed yet.
I also have a new stash of cloth diapers that I love- Kissaluvs fitted diapers. I sometimes use a wool wrap over the top & sometimes a Bumkins. The wool wrap is adorable but the Bumkins are trimmer.
Another thing different about this baby is they told us before we left the hospital that they no longer suggest you do any sort of special care for the umbilical cord. They told us we could give her tub baths and we didn't have to clean it with alcohol. And you know what? We followed that advice and it healed nicely and fell off on day 7.
I took some pictures of Julianna this evening. She was FAST asleep and I caught some of those sweet sleepy smiles. But first, here's her tiny little hand:
Showing off her Norwegian facial features:
See? She does have some hair.... it's just all in the back. *sigh*
Sleepy smiles:
With dimple:
And these I took last week. I think I was excited to be able to lay on my tummy to take pictures again. Not very exciting, but....
Josiah playing cars:
Gracie:
Millie, who gave me 11 tries, and that's it:
Moody Millie- she's good at the moody look:
Gotta get busy around here! Bye for now! |
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Jul. 10, 2008 Julianna Pictures, Of Course. :)
I will admit that one thing I was looking forward to about having a newborn, was getting to take her pictures (is that bad?). Josiah was a few months old when I got my first digital SLR and I wasn't into photography then like I am now- although my hobby has taken a backburner for a while now it seems...
Anyway, I had all of these ideas I wanted to try with her, and I will admit, things aren't working as well as planned. LOL! Most of the little poses I wanted to try with her require a totally fast asleep baby. This little gal does not stay fast asleep once I start messing with her and trying to pose her. Oh well, it's been fun to try.
I think I've got our birth announcement finished. She's a little yellow but hopefully it doesn't look too bad. Just wanted to share some of the keepers I've gotten the past couple days.
Our birth announcement, mostly going out to family members:
And here are the rest.
I know her leg looks kind of funny tucked behind her in this one, but in the others where I moved her leg to the front, her privies were showing.
Last one.
Thanks for all of your comments and congrats! I really love reading through all of them & have had Kenton read them too. :) I have a feeling it's going to take me a while to get back to everyone- I was behind to begin with! Please email me if you need me to get back to you fast- that's easier for me anyway. |
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I LOVE this photo of Julianna, taken just a few hours after her birth, of her first bath. And guess what? I don't even get to take credit for it! Kenton took it! He did great, huh?
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Jul. 7, 2008 One For Now. Okay, Two.
Between computer problems and my bright idea to shoot the hospital pics in RAW, it's taking me a long time to get through these pictures. Remind me never to shoot in RAW again. Especially in the middle of a computer crisis.
Thanks for all of the congratulations and sweet words sent my way! I loved reading all of your comments!
At any rate, here's Miss Julianna Kate! In B&W since her skin is yellow! :) That's all I can do for now.
Oh, and one of Julianna and her adoring oldest sister, Gracie! (now you can see her yellow skin)
 Brain fog. Must sleep. |
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Jul. 5, 2008 Miss Julianna Kate Has Arrived- And With A Bang!
Okay, so the bang came along later that evening, but...
So July 3rd I had a super busy day. I had my midwife appointment at 10:15am that morning (after not getting to sleep till at least 3am the night before). She stripped my membranes a bit again. I came home right away so I could try & finish up my computer stuff. I think that's when I posted on my blog too.
I still couldn't get things to work and then had to leave at 1:30pm for my spa foot treatment. Ah, that was lovely. And she played with labor inducing pressure points.
After that, I ran a few errands and ended up finding an awesome deal on a new computer. Got it. Took it home so Kenton could start setting it up for me. Ran back to town. Gabe, Gracie & Josiah went with me. We ran by the post office, filled the van up with gas, ran by Safeway & got Kenton a coffee. All the while having some pretty strong contractions every 20 minutes or so. Kenton called my mom & put her "on call."
I got home probably around 7pm, put the groceries away & started making dinner. Called my mom & just asked her to come over. It takes her 45 minutes to get here & I thought it'd be easier for her just to be here already if we had to go to the hospital.
We ate dinner, my mom got here, we got the children in bed. I was sitting at the new computer trying to get things loaded in between contractions.
I finally called my midwife around 11pm & she told me to go in to get checked. We took the hospital bag & camera with us in case they decided to keep us.
My contractions were irregular but pretty strong. I was a little disappointed when we got there, they checked me and said was only dilated a 3-4 (I was 2-3 at my appointment earlier that day- before the contractions began). I thought they'd send me home, but they were pretty sure I'd have her soon, so they kept me.
The midwife that delivered Josiah came in. She just knows what to do. She was shushing people when she could see I was obviously having a contraction. A guy from lab came in to draw my blood and while he was doing so, I was having a HARD contraction, had my eyes closed & was concentrating on breathing through it and he's sitting there telling me that I can talk while he's drawing my blood. ?? That's when Mary was shushing everyone & had to explain to him that I was having a contraction! (Men!)
She dimmed the lights, brought in some CD's for us to choose from & play in the CD player. Then she brought in a steaming cup of water with lavender oil in it. She rolled a birthing ball over and put a pad on it for me to sit on. My gosh, did that thing help! I labored on that for a long time!
So I started thinking about getting into the tub at this point but wanted to know how much progress I'd made so far. I didn't want to get in there and have it possibly stall labor if I still had a ways to go.
Before she checked me, she had me guess how dilated I thought I'd be. I told her I was hoping I'd be about 7 but was probably only 5 or so. She checked me & I was still only 3-4. How disappointing.
They were fine letting me stay if I'd wanted to because they were certain I'd have her soon, but I was so tired, I thought I'd just go home to my bed and try to sleep between contractions. We were all a little bummed.
So we got home around 3am on July 4th and went to bed. I was easily able to sleep between contractions but they were getting REALLY hard and I could not get comfortable. I woke Kenton up & told him that we had to go back. I needed pain relief and I was either going to get in the jetted tub or just get an intrathecal (like an epidural but just a one time shot). I was tired and discouraged and didn't care about a natural childbirth anymore.
I didn't realize at the time that we'd only been home for just over an hour before we headed back, probably because I was able to sleep a little. It just seemed longer to me.
So we get back to the hospital. The same nurse checks me in. She checks my cervix and I'm up to a 6 by that point. I sat on the birthing ball a while longer and then decided to get into the tub.
The tub. Ha! Obviously a MAN must've picked out that tub. It was probably only a few inches wider and deeper than a standard tub. Sure, it was jetted, but if it doesn't cover your belly all the way, who cares!? The last time I gave birth there (with Josiah), they didn't have tubs. In fact, they were working on making all of the post-partum rooms private at the time and things were LOUD due to the construction. Anyway, I had to get an approval from the department manager to bring in a kiddie pool to labor in with him. That thing was awesome- way better than this jetted tub. I was able to completely submerse my belly and lean on the side of the pool with my legs kind of sprawled out to the sides. I labored like that with Josiah until it was time to push. It worked so well. So I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't get into that same, comfy position as I did with Josiah because there just wasn't room and the water level wasn't high enough. The water helped, but not as much as I'd hoped.
I was very tired and the contractions were incredibly painful and I was ready to just give up. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to 8 yet I still asked if it were too late for an intrathecal. She said it wasn't but that they'd have to put in an IV and give me a bolus of fluid and have me lie down in bed so they could hook me up to the monitors to keep an eye on the baby. Even in as much pain as I was in, *that* option sounded worse than the contractions. I figured by the time they accomplished all of that, I'd be ready to push!
So I continued to labor in the tub. Heard a lady across the hall screaming for several minutes as she was pushing. Got a little freaked as it reminded me what was next.
A few more contractions and I was starting to feel the urge to push. They checked me again & I had just a bit of cervix still there. They said they could just push it out of the way & I could start pushing. But I didn't want to get out of the tub. Heck, I didn't even want to start pushing, to be honest!
I did finally get out. They listened to baby's heartbeat a while while I sat on the birthing ball again. The midwife told me I could get into any position I wanted for pushing. I felt like just staying on the birthing ball but as she so kindly told me, it'd be a little difficult to deliver a baby while sitting there. ;)
I finally got into the bed... in a sitting position. They lowered the foot of the bed (it drops straight down) and had me sit on the edge of it. I pushed like that for a while. Then they got out the squatting bar & I used that a bit. And then they put the head of the bed up and I leaned back on that & put my feet up on the squatting bar and started pushing like that.
It felt like forever that I was making any progress.And I will admit. I was good and quiet through all of my contractions, but when it came time to push, some sort of animal instinct took over. Hee-hee! Kenton did mention later that I wasn't as loud as the lady across the hall, but still. The grunting and groaning through the pushing and contractions did seem to help for some reason. I'm usually a quiet laborer/deliverer.
The midwife had Kenton right there as the baby was crowning and talked him through delivering her. I didn't even know he was there. The last 2 pushes were so intense and so incredibly painful, all of my focus was on that and my eyes were closed. I thought she was going to be huge. I thought I had torn from north to south. And then she was here.
Ah, the relief of the birth over with and the pleasure of meeting my new baby daughter... it was so wonderful. How quickly you forget what you were doing just seconds before.
The first thing I noticed about her was her hair... or lack thereof. ;) She does have a bunch but it's all on the sides and in the back. And then I noticed the dimple on her right cheek and a few times thought I saw one on her left. She hardly had any vernix at all. You know, that thick white stuff on babies? I've never had one so "term" so it was strange to see so little vernix.
I think she's beautiful. She may just be Gabe's "match". We shall see as she gets older.
So Julianna Kate was born on July 4th, 2008 @ 7:55am and weighed ONLY 7 pounds 5 ounces! (she should've been born at 7:44am and weighed 7-4, don't you think?) I didn't need stitches. We thought about changing her middle name to Liberty or something patriotic like that but nothing flowed as well as Kate. Plus, Gracie wouldn't have been happy. She loves the name Kate.
So far everyone loves her. I probably need to make a "whose turn it is to hold the baby" chart of some sort soon. Josiah's not so sure about her. He's S-L-O-W-L-Y warming up to her. I don't know what's going through his little 3 year old head, but when he came to see me in the hospital, he asked me, "Mom, are you sick?" Poor baby. Ha! As I was typing that, Josiah came down the stairs and sweetly asked, "Where's the baby sister?" and actually asked if he could hold her! He kissed her on the head too. Okay, he's warming up I'd say.
I had 4 days that if I had to choose, I'd love to have her born on. They were June 26th (our anniversary), June 28th (my grandpa's birthday), July 4th and July 7th (a 7-7 birthday). So I am just thrilled she was born on the 4th! What a fun day for a birthday party!
The fun thing is, here they shoot fireworks over the pier at night. They put on a really good show. It's just REALLY REALLY hard to find parking and even harder finding a good (close) spot to watch. However, since I was still in the hospital, everyone came there to watch! The hospital is on the water & we were on the 3rd floor. They have a "sun room" (ha!) that overlooks the water. We, and a few other patients & a couple of midwives & their families, got to watch the show from there. We opened the windows so we could hear the bangs as the fireworks exploded in the air. It was so cool! What a birth day!
I am (obviously) home now. I'm very very tired but am feeling pretty good... except for the afterbirth pains. Youch.
And we're in the middle of computer issues still. I can't do anything with pictures until it's all straightened out, but promise to post some as soon as I can!
My head's about to roll off my shoulders so I'd better stop here. I'm backspacing more than I'm typing! |
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Jul. 3, 2008 Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!
I saw my midwife this morning and got some encouraging news (since it seems like this baby wants to stay in her womb forever). I am now dilated to 2-3, my cervix is stretchy, thin and soft, baby's head is nice & low and doesn't move when she pushes it. I'm measuring 38cm, down from 39cm which also indicates baby's dropped. I've also lost 2 pounds! I think that puts me at a 25 pound weight gain. I am very happy about that! I've NEVER lost towards the end, just packed it on. I've always gained between 35-40 pounds and have never even made it this far. I really haven't had much of an appetite though. I'm still not having many contractions, but I guess the ones I am having are actually doing something. Yay!
At this office, they don't even *talk* about inducing until you're 41 weeks along. The hospital I'll be delivering at doesn't do epidurals and that's the only pain relief option I'd choose, so I'd prefer not to be induced anyway. Josiah was my first completely natural (no meds) childbirth and I'm hoping for a similar delivery this time. I had an awesome experience with Josiah. Anyway, they do have you go in for a NST (non-stress test) when you're 41 weeks, so I'm scheduled for that next Thursday. Hoping it won't be necessary.
On the computer front, I stayed up until 2am last night reloading my programs. I did not feel like staying up that late but really wanted to get it done. I still have 2 programs I'm working on. I'm having problems with Roxio and Homeschool Tracker. AND I also got a weird error message- like the one I got when I had the virus. So I HOPE that thing's not back or lingering somewhere. If it is, I'm getting a new 'puter. I'll reformat this one & let it be a game/school computer for the children. At least ALL of my important files are backed up on my external hard drive now and I have all of my installation disks in one spot- moving my "stuff" to a new 'puter wouldn't be any more of a deal than what I've already done with this one.
We're getting there! |
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