No change

No changes around here. Just a lot of crying by Hope, a lot of smiling by Ashley and a lot of playing by Brodie. The week is kind of dull with Alex gone, but is manageable. Brodie didn't go to school today. Apparently it was colder today (could have fooled me - every day is cold) and the buses didn't run...absurd if you ask me. Why cancel the buses and not cancel school?!?

Monday morning

It's 7am and Hope is still awake. I chose not to stay awake with her, so I actually had a good sleep. I'm guessing that she was awake all night, because I could hear her little noises every now and then, but no crying...Yeah for me!

Sunday night

It's Sunday night around 10:30 p.m. and Hope is awake and seizing, probably getting ready to start crying. She didn't sleep at all last night, so she went to sleep at 1100 this morning and woke up an hour ago, and has been having little seizures ever since. Not too sure if she'll sleep tonight.

Alex left for Saskatchewan today, and will come back on Friday. So, we're missing him today.

Brodie had an eye appointment on Friday and recieved an excellent report. His vision in his right eye has improved by three lines. Before we started, he could read the big 'E' at the top of the chart with a strong lense in front of that eye, and now he has moved three lines down, to read at the 20/70 level on the chart (still with glasses of course). Very encouraging.

On Thursday, we tried to bring the girls to Brodie's class to make gingerbread cookies. I won't do that again. Hope started crying as soon as we got there, it was a disaster. So, I took the girls home and decided that we'll just stay home until we can figure out how to get Hope happy again.

All this crying really 'stretches' a person. Prayers please!!!

playtime

Here we are having playtime this morning. Brodie did a good job of showing the girls how to play school. Tommorrow will be fun. Brodie's class needs volunteers to help make gingerbread cookies. So, I'm going and the girl's are coming with me! Should be interesting.

Hope still cries every day, but can be consoled after 30 minutes of cuddling. Unfortunately, if I put her down, she starts crying right away and it takes me another 30 minutes to get her to stop. So, I'm not sure if this is better. If she is to be calm, then I have to hold her for 8 hours. Although the crying only started at 5pm this evening, instead of 3pm.

Brodie is so excited that his sisters are going to see his classroom and friends. If Hope starts crying, we'll be leaving early, but at least we tried.

The same...

Hope got 'plopped' in Ashley's chair on our way out the door to church yesterday. She looks so cute in there, I just had to take a photo. You probably think I have the camera attached to my hip by now. I may just do that...hmmm....maybe a fanny pak!

Hope still cries in the evening, but she is oh, so cute in the morning. I just can't get enough of her cuteness when she's calm. Ashley's doing great and Brodie is doing fantastic with his patch and glasses. We'll see the optomitrist this Friday for an update.

Have a great day.

Playtime

Brodie likes it when I help Ashley play lego with him. When I got tired of the lego (which happens pretty quick), I left Ashley on the floor to 'play' with him. I always find it amazing that he includes her in his play. Today he took her hand to move the lego cars around, then got really excited when her spontaneous (not necessarily purposeful), hand movement caused a lego car to roll away. He kept encouraging her to do it again, and she just lay there smiling up at the air.

Hope had a good day. A little crying in the late afternoon, which actually settled with some cuddles later on, then some more crying and eventually to sleep.

Ashley says, "Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Allen, for the cozy outfit, it fits perfect".

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone. We're home after a fun sleep over at our friends house. We took all the kids, let them play, put them to sleep and then us adults played games and toasted the New Year. It actually went well.

Hope woke up yesterday around 3pm and started crying right away. She kept the crying up till about 9pm and then blessed us by going to sleep. Right now I'm holding her and she's actually not crying yet!!! It's almost 4pm, so I imagine the crying will start soon, but I'll enjoy her till then. Brodie is going tobagganing in a few minutes (with Alex) and I get to stay home with the girls. I'll try to enjoy the warm, peaceful house instead of resenting the fact that we don't manage to do fun stuff together as a family.

Hope and Ashley both seem to be doing well with their colds. In fact, it's hard to tell if they are still sick today. Both have smiles and Hope has some cute little coo's. Yeah!

As I type this, I'm holding Hope. I stop typing to give her the bottle every few minutes, and over the last 30 minutes she's managed to drink 1/2 an ounce. Not bad little Hopey!