Blood suckers!

Yesterday Gracie comes in the house and says to me "Hey mom when I do this it hurts my arm". I see her hold her arm up in the air like she is trying to flex her bicep. In a Gracie sort of way that is. As I kneel down to take a closer look I realize that the top of her forearm from the elbow down is swollen, red, and tight almost like a Popeye shaped arm. "Ooh Gracie what happened?" I said. "I don't know." "Well, what do you mean, did something bite you or sting you?" "No." "Well, when did it happen?" "I don't know." O.k.....so obviously this isn't going so well. My investigative skills with my kids lately have been pretty unrevealing.....especially when it comes to when and how they are getting hurt. So, after no success with my questioning I call our favorite Pediatrician's office for the umpteenth time this week asking to get us in asap. No problem!

Come to find out it was most likely a couple of mosquito bites that had started to infect the soft tissue in her arm. O.k. so can I just say here that we are so tired of the mosquito bites so far this season. They have been vicious. I say vicious because it's one thing when it's just you you have to worry about. But when you have five little squishy and soft, warm bodied little babies/toddlers to defend that keep getting bit before you get the spray out, its seems a little vicious!

So we left the Doctors with a dose of Benadryl and a prescription for an antibiotic. Phew! Not too bad. Especially when I think back to the early days with the twins.....not bad at all!

Swings, Trampolines, Skateboards, just a few of the many dangerous inventions for fun...or pain!

You would think that I would take advantage of the fact that I could get to bed a little early tonight but....no. I can't help but stay up until Brandon gets home. He's on call all week and this is just the beginning.

I always hate it when he has to go. Even though I do have a little bit of quiet time after I've put the kids to bed.... I still wish he was here. I just can't settle down for bed until he is home again.

So...here I am. Hoping to make it quick so I can get upstairs and pick up where I left off....... I started reading 'The Lovely Bones' about a week ago. So far this summer my evenings have been consumed with some pick off the New York Times best sellers list. I'm quite enjoying myself. I picked my book up today and felt guilty for reading during my "mothering hours". Yes the three youngest were napping but still..... I guess I felt I should have been cleaning or baking something with my almost rotten bananas. I guess there's always tomorrow!

Yesterday Braden had a special visit with one of our wonderful and very familiar Pediatricians, Dr. Pollary. After a fall from a swing onto a stone slab my sweet boy was helped up and assisted over to the owners mom after stumbling to the ground at least three different times. Can you say c o n c u s s i o n! No thank you!

After he came to the house and found me I asked him what happened and he kept answering, "I don't know", "I don't know". That's when the panic set in. I called the Doctor's office, explained what happened, and pleaded to get Braden in.

So, of course, as all Mom's know....by the time you get to the Doctor the child no longer has a fever, or is no longer showing signs of serious pain, or well.....in my case....memory loss.

After a gentle and thorough assesment Braden seemed to feel much better and no longer showed any sign of injury. The prescription was to watch for any signs of vomiting, drowsiness, or unequal pupil dilation. And, no potentially dangerous activities, which could cause more bruising to the brain for the next two weeks. O.k., sure, no problem Doc! We will make sure of it!

Well.....so far so good, except of course for the little fall backwards on the grass after we got home while running away from Daddy. Oh, and the crazy jumping up and down for no reason that made him stop abruptly and inform us how painful it was in his head.

Yeah, but other than that this should be a breeze. Besides, that was just day one!

Joking aside, even though it helps keep me sane, I am so grateful he will be just fine!

Once again....it's been awhile. I will try to keep it sweet and simple. It's been four months since my last post. Let's see how much I can cram into this "simple" update. Besides it's the pictures that say it best! But before we get to that, here are some of the highlights of the last four months in the Eskelson household.....


*Braden turned 5

*Braden gets registered for Kindergarten.

*Braden breaks our flatscreen T.V. throwing the WII remote at it. (P.S. Not a highlight! )

*Grace turned 4

*Carsen and Cierra turned 2

*Brandon lost over 30lbs.

*I lost 17lbs.

*Kyan lost a few lbs. and spent some time in the hospital. (Not a highlight)

*Carsen discovers his love for elephants.

*Braden joins a T-ball team.

*Brandon becomes a T-ball coach.

*Cierra moves out of a crib and into a toddler bed.

*I FINALLY finish reading Breaking Dawn.

*Grace moves out of nursery and into primary.

*Cierra discovers nursery equals snack time!

*Carsen gives nursery a try. Kind of likes it.

*Brandon and I celebrate our 7th anniversary.

And once again..... I reflect on my life with a fulness of heart. I feel so lucky to have this family.

Do I really have time to do this?

The pleasant sound of Kyan's sleep inducing humidifier whoooing in the background makes my heart smile. He has not been able to keep much of a sleeping pattern until about a couple of weeks ago. (NOT SO FUN!) But finally we have him into a good sleeping pattern taking a couple naps during the day and waking only a couple times during the night. I must say, sleep is....goooood! The poor kid went from sleeping only in a swing in our room, to sleeping in a swing in his room, to sleeping in a bassinet in his room to a bassinet in our room, and now in our closet. Not because we are mean or cruel, he just seems to sleep really good in there. It's dark, quiet, and smells like mommy! What could be better? So, besides the fact that I get to sleep more and I love that, Kyan is literally starting to grow again with the amount of sleep he's getting. His Pediatrician revealed to us that he had not grown in length from November to January partly because of lack of sleep but also because of lack of calories. Kyan did not like anything but nursing and apparently that was no longer enough. But as of a couple of weeks ago he has finally started drinking plain formula. He's taking his time on liking anything else. As long as he's getting enough calories and getting enough sleep, I'm happy. Well, I guess that's all that makes me happy too. Calories and sleep! We're both pretty simple I guess.

Carsen and Cierra are two months shy of their second birthday. Crazy! Time has flown and crept by. In the beginning each day was such a struggle for them and me but I'd say since their first birthday things have been somewhat easier(minus the six months of fussy/sleepy baby and mommy), and their progress so much more visible.

We took the twins to a speech pathologist this week who gave us some feedback on how they are doing. Not really to our surprise Carsen displayed a higher level than Cierra with their communication skills. Of course we are aware of this because we see it ourselves, but it's different seeing Carsen progressing quicker than Cierra. They tested equal in receptive communication but Carsen was ahead in his expressive communication. Yeah Carsen! We've got our work cut out for us though. Lots, and lots, and lots of talking and naming things to Cierra. For some reason that's exhausting for me. (And for Brandon's ears.)

Carsen is still crawling his own way. As, uncle Rod put it...."like we did it in 'Nam". We have to practice lots of supported standing with Carsen to help his legs learn how to bare weight. He doesn't enjoy that process for very long. His legs still seem pretty weak and tight....if that makes any sense. His muscles are weak but his hips are tight and that equals difficulty in standing and alternating leg movements. So we're working on that as well. I swear Brandon and I should be considered certified in something after all of this knowledge and experience we've gained. Really! It's truly higher education paid for by the state and our insurance company. Too bad we don't get the paper on the wall to back it up. I feel tempted sometimes to pursue that line of work in the (distant) future. Who knows. I'll probably be too old and senile by then.

Oh yeah, and there's two more to talk about.(Braden and Gracie). The T.V. and the WII works so they seem just fine. Oh I shouldn't have said that out loud. I mean they are practicing their letters and numbers everday and learning how to read, write, cook and clean. O.k. no, not that either. The truth is that they get mommy as much as possible.(Not very possible really.) We get by each day often times with minimal yelling, timeouts, and meltdowns. I think everyone has had to learn how to take each day as it comes and try to take turns with getting enough attention, and time with mom and dad. And that is also a work in progress. I hope at least they are getting a little bit of Mommy 101 out of it all.

We're still alive!!

How will I ever get the time to add new posts? With the addition of our newest baby Kyan, I can't seem to squeeze any extra minutes out of my day. My hands are beyond full. They are definitely being stretched to their maximum! Although, I am able to get some relief when Brandon gets home from work every day. Some days he comes home and I am at the door purse in hand, hair pulled in a ponytail, brow furrowed tight, with a crazy look in my eye ready to run. Unfortunately, my escape is just another unnecessary trip to the grocery store. My choices for escaping here are pretty limited and I really can't leave Brandon home alone with the madness either.

O.k. so now that I got that off my chest. I can move on.

Our little Kyan is about 6 weeks old already! He is still on the small side somewhere between 7 and 8 pounds. But his feet are still huge! Now this guy is a little bit of a high maintenance baby but...... because I know that he is the last he can get away with anything. Even when I have to go pick him up for the third or fourth time in a row after laying him down dead asleep. It makes moving on to the next task, or baby, or toddler almost impossible. And that is partly why our house is so chaotic. Someone else is waiting on me for something that they want and they want it NOW. But when it comes to little Kyan, he gets what he wants every time. I just can't deny him. Even when he insists on sleeping right next to me all night and wakes if I try to move him just a few inches away from me. He's kind of a stinker but once again, he's the last one and he gets what he wants.

So, because time is so precious here are some pictures to fill in the last couple of months.






This was poor Cierra after being left in her walker outside on the patio when the sprinklers turned on before I could get back. She was a good sport!

Carsen....just being cute!


Today was Carsen's first haircut! Looks a bit like Grandpa Towne if you ask me.
Sadly this is Braden and Gracie receiving instruction from their "other" mother....... the TV.

All in all everyone is surviving and doing well. We sure love and adore our newest edition and can't believe how big we've gotten in such a short amount of time. Five kids in four years. Not quite what we expected but so glad to have them all and wouldn't trade them for anything. Thank goodness they are all so little and won't know how looney and imperfect their parents are for quite some time...... As long as no one tells them anyway.

36 weeks and counting.......

Here I am going on my 37th week and everything seems to look good. The fact that I have made it this far is just a relief! No more worries of having a super early preemie. I keep telling my doctor I just want a big baby! No more one and a half pounders. I keep thinking at least seven pounds would be great. Although, after hearing about our home teachers' wife and her delivery last week I think maybe bigger isn't always best. She had a 10lb. 6oz.'er. NATURALLY!! Whoa, you go girl! (At home even, with a midwife.) Thankfully, all are doing well. So I think I'll stick to my seven pound range if I can. As far as the rest of the family goes I think the older kids are looking forward to meeting their little and LAST baby brother. They keep asking when baby "so and so" is going to come out. I say so and so just in case we change our minds on the name. You never know. Especially when it comes to me. I finally have everyone a little more settled in their rooms to make space in our room for baby. The twins of course share a room but have separate cribs. They are getting bigger and bigger and need more room to roll around in their sleep. Besides, Cierra still likes to crawl all over her brother like he's just some squishy pillow that makes sound when you sit on it. For that reason alone I think he thoroughly enjoys his own crib. All she can do is squawk at him through the wooden bars of her own crib from across the room. Just to update you on Carsen's feeding tube issue we are still on the schedule for the G-tube surgery this month. I would like to hope that something changes and we can cancel it but for now I'm not counting on it. Yesterday he had the NG tube placed in his nose. Brandon and I were both able to get trained on how to place it and use it. It's kind of a scary thing to be responsible for. The risk of placing it in the lungs is very real. The nurse who trained us said she had actually had a feeding tube placed in her lungs when she was in the hospital for some kind of surgery. She said it was pretty awful. Luckily they checked the placement before feeding her. Anyway, it is scary but at the same time I like the fact that you can remove it and it's gone. Not like the G-tube. They only remove the G-tube after 6 to 8 months of taking all foods and fluids by mouth. But the one good thing about all this is that Carsen is definitely going to get the amount of fluids that he needs. No more barely wet diapers, and no more worries of dehydration. They've also always said that development goes hand in hand with proper calorie intake. So, we hope to see progress there as well. As for Cierra's development she is still doing very well. She is climbing the stairs every chance she gets. She waves hi and goodbye, plays peek-a-boo, dances, pulls herself to standing, says N0 NO NO, and more. We couldn't be more pleased with all her progress. It's so fun to watch the older kids entertain the twins. They are always competing to see who can make Carsen laugh the hardest. He cracks up at them over the smallest thing. The whole family seems to stop what their doing and be drawn in to the room when Carsen starts his infectious laughing. It's great!

Mixed feelings

Well, I prefer to post about exciting and positive things that the babies do but this one may be a bit of the good and bad. Carsen had a visit at the Doctors today regarding his eating. Nothing new, I guess. But over the last month he has really dropped off on his fluid intake. When it comes to feedings he chooses to completely ignore the bottle and only take food from the spoon. Yeah for the solids but not so good for the fluids. I can't get him to drink from a cup yet so it's kind of scary. That being said, the overall consensus is that it's finally time for Carsen to get a feeding tube. I have been fighting this for almost a full year. Some say it was a good fight but it's hard to accept that cheerfully. I can't help but feeling like we are taking a big step back. It seems like we have made it so far yet now it feels like we were just wasting time by putting it off. But I do realize we weren't wasting time totally because Carsen has learned to eat solids and that's a big deal. But it now feels like all that fighting and stress and the emotional roller coaster ride was all for naught. I don't know. But here we are. It seems to be the best option for Carsen now. We hope so. In the mean time he will likely be using an NG tube (through the nose) to stay hydrated and take fluids. I'm really not excited about that because having to be responsible for placing the tube is very frightening to me. But I guess it's just part of the job requirement now. I still have to say how grateful we are for All of Carsen's progress. He has overcome so much and defied so many odds and he's only 13 months old. Even though we're disappointed we know Carsen is still going to do way more than we ever dreamed or imagined! He's a strong little guy and we hope this just makes him stronger.