Our little dreamer

Along with Orin's new found fears, he seems to have started having nightmares of some sort. For the last few weeks he's woken up three or four times at 3 or 4am, come into our room and said he's scared of something or another. Usually it's something sort of strange - like a bird or the lamp - but last night he came in and said he was scared of the butterfly. Normally our conversations begin pretty rehearsed with our standard "Don't worry, God will protect you." My first words are usually, "Orin, it's not time to wake up yet." (As Orin has come often come in at six in the morning ready for the day.) So when Orin came in last night this is about how it went.

Orin: standing by our bed "It's not time to get up yet."
Me: "Baby, it's the middle of the night, the sun is still sleeping, go back to bed."
Orin: "It's not time to get up yet" (reassuring me that he had another reason to be there.) I'm scared of the butterfly.
Damien: "It's ok, don't be scared, God will protect you." something we've discussed on end with Orin and he often repeats to himself when he's feeling scared. When we're half asleep it just comes out...
Orin: "But I'm scared of the Butterfly!" getting more exasperated
Damien: finally being awake enough really talk and realizing that "God will protect you" wasn't going to cut it this time "Ok, where is the butterfly?"
Orin: "In my room; throw it away Daddy."
So Damien and Orin go into his room. Orin stands on one end of the room and points to his bed on the other side - not want to get close. So Damien, thinking that one of his many stuffed animals on the bed may be the culprit, begins holding each one up and showing them to Orin. Orin says no to all of them. Finally, it's just the pillow and Orin finally says, "It's on the pillow, throw it away daddy!" So Damien picks up the pillow, pretends to grab something that is on top of in and subsequently throw it out of the room.
Damien: "Okay it's gone. You can get back in bed now." Orin gets back into bed and goes right to sleep.

This morning I was asking Orin about it and he excitedly repeated the story. "I was scared of the butterfly, but Daddy THREW it away!" (mimicking how Damien thew it in the air).

I had to laugh when Damien came back to bed an told me what happened. I'm glad it was so easy this time, but I'm not counting on it always being that way. I'm trying very hard to be patient in the middle of the night with the new found fears and not try to reason with him that there is no "butterfly". Luckily Damien is very sensitive in this area and makes up for my lacking. But I'm trying!

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Happy Birthday Aunt Tina

I wanted to get to this yesterday but I'm late as usual. Sorry they couldn't do this on the web cam - I guess the Philippines needs to change time zones :-)

Here is Orin. He wouldn't sing without Damien for some reason.


Orin wanted to do a fast one too. But he got a little silly and said Happy Birthday to "Arnold". We're not sure who that is????


Poor Caiah is still sick but he managed to give a little. He threw up everywhere right after so we're lucky we got it when we did. :-)

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Happenings

Sick Again? Our poor Micaiah is sick again. We had our first near "all-nighter" with vomiting and such. The poor guy just couldn't stop. Plus he'd had about 50 grapes with dinner - imagine how fun that was to clean up at 3am. But I'm seriously lucky that Damien is such a huge help in these "middle of the night" situations. He's usually quicker to jump up than I am and is the one who INSISTS on the sick one sleeping with us. I just don't know how single parents do it. Micaiah and I slept on the futon together since he had woken up twice covered in yuck in his bed. And after soiling about three pairs of pajamas we decided to go the diaper only route. I spent today doing quite a bit of laundry. I also cleaned the bathroom in anticipation of the possibility of one of us making frequent trips to it tonight. For me, having a clean toilet and floor makes the experience a little less horrible. Damien and I are both feeling a little twinge of nausea but we can't tell if it's real or psychological. The only plus of a sick kid is that I love how sweet they are when they are sick. Micaiah just wants to be cuddled and held and just melts in your arms. But I'll take healthy and happy any day!


We sold our TV! It was actually a much better experience than I anticipated. It was 7 years old and not worth a ton, but we figured we give it a try on craigslist.com. We'd never used it before so didn't really know what to expect. But within about 3 hours of posting the ad we had about 15 emails from people who were interested! I'm happy because it's just another small step closer to being ready to move!



So I found this "mystery" photo in the camera. When I asked Damien if he knew anything about it he said he and Orin couldn't tell which car was winning so they took a picture. I just thought it was so cute. I don't think I would have thought about doing something like that - which is a fun reminder of how important daddy's are!


Conversations rehearsals are in full swing. I had such fun being involved last year that I really wanted to do it again even though it is a lot of work. Actually, it's more work on Damien since he is the one taking care of kids at home while I'm having "adult" time. Last year it was set in a bookstore and this year an Internet cafe. I really enjoy this ministry and it's one of the MANY things I'm going to miss about our church.


So my kids are obsessed with the vacuum cleaner - especially Micaiah. Every time I vacuum they LOVE to "help". It's a lot of fun but of course it also tipples my vacuuming time. I try to look at it as "training" for future chores. :-) I put a WANTED on freecycle.com and got a cute little toy vacuum. We also have a "popper" that we call a vacuum. I love that when I pull out my vacuum they run to theirs and want to help.


And the first thing Micaiah did today when he finally had enough energy to pull himself off of the couch was walk over and start vacuuming. He didn't have the happiest look on his face you have to love a kid who will clean even if he feels horrible!

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Laughter

I couldn't believe how much Orin was laughing at a show on PBS. This went off and on for 15 minutes!

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Hot Dog Party

One thing we enjoy about being able to go to church on Saturday night is that Sunday can sometimes be a true "Sabbath" for us. Lately we've really been trying to make it a family day. Not too many errands or chores - just spending the day together. Yesterday we asked Orin what he wanted to do. He said, "I want to have a hot dog party." There is a mention of a hot dog party in a book we got from the library last week which must be where he got the idea. So we had our first ever Daspit family hot dog party. We started the day by having a late breakfast...well more like a late lunch...at I-HOP. Then we headed over to the grocery store to pick up the food for the party. We then went to Blockbuster to rent a movie for the party. Orin picked out Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie. We headed home for the kids to have a nice long nap. Once they woke up the party began. We popped the movie in the DVD player and the hot dogs in the microwave (we're high class here). So here is the menu for the party: hot dogs (of course), cheese, mini oreos, canned peaches, skittles, and chocolate ice cream for desert. We let Orin and Micaiah pick out the food. Orin enjoyed the movie and only got scared a couple of times. Micaiah lasted about half way through (enough to stuff himself) and then just sort of played with toys during the rest of it. Overall, we thought it was pretty successful for our first effort. Orin asked for another hot dog party tonight. We're really looking forward to more family movie/game nights in the future.

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Only Orin 2

Here are some recent quotes from Orin:

• "Roley, Roley, Roley" - "Roley" is from Bob the Builder. Orin sung this to the tune of "Holy, Holy, Holy" one Sunday after Church
• "Mommy, please help Caiah, help baby." - Orin says this when Micaiah is crying in the car; thankfully this seldom happens any more.
• "I want the chop-sticks" - said when he wanted to hold drum-sticks to play a drum.
• "Daddy, you're wearing mommy's shirt!" - said as Orin laughed at Damien. He was wearing a t-shirt that I also have.
• "Mommy, I want to hold you." & "Daddy, I want to put you on my shoulders." - he's been saying this for quite a while now. Once he actually corrected himself but it must be a pretty natural saying because he still says it this way.
• "But I want to go to New Orleans." - Mimie and Nina had recently visited. Orin talked a lot about New Orleans. One day he fell asleep in the car and when he woke up in front of our house he said this.
• "Hey guys, what's up!" or "Surprise, Happy Birthday!" - Orin loves to give us fun little blurb when he comes in after waking up from a nap.
• "It's not snow, it's just white outside." - said after I told Orin to look out of the window because it was snowing.
• "The sun's asleep." - said many evenings once it's dark outside. He'll say "The moon is asleep" during the day.
• "Shhhh, don't wake up the sun!" - said to a loud car as it zoomed by.
• "Mommy, they broke their heads!" - said in the mall as he was looking at a mannequin with only half of its head.
• "Don't drink the water, its dirty" - said to a little plastic fish as Orin played in the bath tub (he's not allowed to drink the water). Orin then would squirt water out of the fish's mouth and say, "That's good, spit it out. It's yucky."
• "Mommy, I'm sad" - and then about 20 seconds later coming back and saying "Mommy, I'm happy now."
• "I not tired." - said after realizing we were looking at him as he sleepily rubbed his eyes.
• "Look at the donut!" - said as he pointed to a large Christmas wreath at the mall.
• "Can we get some corn pop?" - said as we went into Target about a month after Mimie went to Target with us and bought him popcorn. He doesn't forget a thing!
• "I need a diaper!" - said any time he has his diaper off for more than a few seconds. He is very worried about pee/pooping without a diaper.
• "Mommy, I got chocolate on my hands" - said after he was biting on a pen and it broke and got ink all over him.
• "That's not nice sun, go to time-out!" - said in the car as the sun was in his eyes.
• "Mommy, I see an angle." - he says this sometimes while he's lying on his back. We read a lot about angles in the Bible and he's very interested in them right now.
• "Mommy, I like my Penis, it's FUNNY!" - yes, he really said this.
• "Where's the remote?" - said to Damien as they sat down in the movie theater to see Veggie tales. It was Orin's first movie (at least since he was old enough to remember). As they walked into the theater to buy tickets he said "We are the airport!"
• "I'm scared of the kid!" - Orin said this in the grocery store because there was an adult at the other end of the isle. He calls them "kids."
• "Maybe later" - said EVERY time I tell him its nap time lately.
• "Are we there yet?" - said in the car on the way home from a birthday party. So it begins!
• "Mommy, put my dress on!" - since it's pretty cold here Orin doesn't like being naked and wants us to get him dressed quickly.
• "Mommy, you can read to me if you want." & "Daddy, you can play with me if you want."
• "Watch out Mommy!" & "There's a car mommy!" - Orin is my new backseat driver. He seems more concerned about me hitting other cars at night - must be the bright lights.
  

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Random

Orin has his first imaginary friend - well, not completely imaginary. It is a toy stethoscope that he calls "Mr. Dinosaur." Mr. Dinosaur roars (too loudly sometimes) and talks. Orin likes to bring him out with us often. We get into the car and Orin says "We're in the car Mr. dinosaur." Mr. dinosaur answers back in Orin's deepest possible voice, "We're in the car, Orin." The conversation continues from there.

It stinks like fish in here. The fam upstairs made Salmon. I'm sure it was perfectly delicious but for some reason smells from upstairs just linger down here. I think germs do too.

Speaking of germs, Damien is sick AGAIN. Making its way around the family again...or just a relapse of what we all just had.

Both kids' diapers leaked last night and they woke up early. What are the odds?

When I pick Micaiah up from the nursery and I'm holding him in my arms, he looks at whoever has been babysitting him and says, "Mama, mama" while pointing to my shoulder over and over. It's as if he's saying, "This is my mama, the one I was talking to you about." He does it to Damien when he gets home from work. Do cute.

I finally worked up the courage to try a spinning class at the gym - and survived! Its 45 minutes of intense bike-riding. I dislike any workout that is major cardio or legs - which is why I've been going to the gym for 8 months and just now tried spinning. I love the body pump class I take but now that I'm in better shape I don't get as much of a cardio workout. I'm happy to say I didn't HATE spinning. I've gone to three classes now and I think I'm going to try to do it at least once a week.

Micaiah has been a sleeping champ lately. Down at 9:30pm up at 10:00-10:30am. Two hour or more naps. Score!

Time for bed. It's amazing how much more tired I am without Damien available to help even for a few hours in the evening. I was gonna give the kids a bath tonight but we have a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese tomorrow. I feel like we ALL need to be disinfected whenever we go there. They'll get baths in the afternoon before church. :-)

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Sometimes I'm Bombaloo

We picked this book up at the library last week. I just LOVE it. The story is about a little girl who is usually happy and tolerates her little brother's interference with her play. However, sometimes she gets REALLY mad at him and turns into "Bombaloo". Bombaloo is like another person - she does mean things and yells and expresses her anger by trashing her room during her time-out. Eventually, the tantrum settles down and "Katie" is allowed to come back out. It's amazing how sweet kids who can play together most of the time turn into what seems like a totally different person. They yell, push and cry. But after thinking about how my kids are like this I started to think about myself. Most of the time I think of myself as a nice, patient, fun mama. But every once in a while (and way more often than I should) I find myself snapping or getting angry when it isn't necessarily called for. After praying for patience and forgiveness I think from now on my next thought might be that I turned into "Bombaloo."

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Picture From The Week

Not sure where Micaiah got the idea to do this but I thought it was cute. He just walked around the house for a few days with pliers as a necklace.


Thanks for the bibs Nina!

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My Turn

I knew I would get sick. Actually, I knew it about a week ago when everyone else had been sick for over a week and I got one of those "My immune system is so good" fleeting thoughts. Once you think you're invincible you're done for. I did get my wish though - it's nice to have someone take care of me. :-) Well, I didn't feel horrible enough to need constant attention, but Saturday Damien took the kids to Chick-Fil-A by himself. It's not something he has done often for a few reasons: it's hard to take two kids out when one of them is VERY attached to mommy, Damien has had so many health problems over the past 9 months so he hasn't had the energy to deal with two on his own (which thank goodness seem to be getting better), and he's still learning to multi-task when he's by himself. :-) But it was nice to just sit around for an hour by myself. Last night I was up much of the night sick so Damien took them out again today. They went to the mall to play, ate lunch, got some ice cream and went to the park. I napped and just laid around for hours. Wow, that was nice! The funniest, yet most annoying part of it all is that I lost my voice. It sure is hard to yell at kids when nothing comes out. :-) Actually, I'm amazed at how much I change my "tone" when dealing with them. Singing is also a HUGE part of our nap and night-time routine so Daddy had to carry all of the weight this weekend. I've never been so thankful for my voice. I do feel like I'm getting better after so much relaxing. I actually stayed in my pajama's all day! We're just lazily watching the super bowl. Damien and Orin picked up a pizza and a movie. Orin is sitting on the bed watching "Cars" - for some reason he has no interested in the football - actually, I feel where he's coming from. We just watching for the commercials!

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