Mayhem and Magic

Pumpkin's Hearing Test

Beloved and I have been wondering about Pumpkin's hearing for a while.  Like, maybe for the last three months or so.  He seems to say "what?" a lot and his own voice is SO loud.  We thought maybe it was a bit of selective hearing going on, or just normal four-year-old distractability.

Then my mom was here for a little while and asked me, "Have you noticed anything odd about his hearing?"  So...  If Grandma was noticing too, we figured something was up.

Once we really started paying close attention we realized that he was saying "what?" more during bedtime tuck-in (when it's darker) and during times when we're not talking directly to him.  For example, when we're reading a story to both boys at once he seems to lose interest quickly and not remember much about the story later. 

Meanwhile, this child has been as healthy as a horse.  He hasn't had any congestion, runny nose, sniffling, itching, snoring, sore throat, fevers or pain complaints.  

We scheduled a hearing test.  Turned out they couldn't test his hearing because his ear drums aren't moving because he has fluid behind both ear drums.  (Serous otitis!  Doesn't that sound very medically official?) 

Dang! 

I felt like a very very bad parent...  Honestly, I never actually looked in his ears because he's had no symptoms (even in hindsight) that would make me suspect infections or allergies or tonsil/adenoid problems.  We brought him in to see his doctor who said, "Yep, fluid."  We got him an antihistamine and a nasal spray to use for six weeks or so.  It's a good plan.  But of course once we were home I had to look in his little ears myself.  They look...  a little yucky.  Not really, really yucky.  But plain serous otitis looks like retracted "sucked in" ear drums and clear fluid.  You can actually see air bubbles or a fluid level, like looking at the side of a glass of water.  Pumpkin's ear drums look a little inflammed to me.  After I saw them I was a little anxious about the current plan.  Does he need an antibiotic?  But then I figured...  If there really is infection going on...  It's not bothering him.  It's not severe.  Either he's had a recurring or chronic ear infection for months, in which case another week or so won't make much difference, or it's a new infection, in which case, again, another week won't hurt him.  So we'll stick with the plan and reevaluate in a little while. 

But sheesh...  Poor little guy.  He's saying "What?  What?" for months and it takes us forever to clue in that we should probably do something for him.

Is It Only December 28?

Christmas feels way, way over...  The tree is still up but the ornaments are all put away.  Even the snow is melting away outside. 

Because some of my family was here it felt like Christmas was already mostly over when they left, and the 25th was still four days away at that point.  We've been "hanging out" here at home a lot.  Beloved and Sparkle have been watching Blue Planet.  We've played games and played outside a lot.

I know Christmas is long over in blog land, but I want to document a few things for my own sake, just to remember.

 

This is the biggest tree we've ever had.  It looked smaller out in the middle of the nowhere under an open sky.

 

See?  You can't even tell which one it was.

 

 

There's Beloved cutting it down.  He had plenty of "help."

 

This is one of their favorite gifts this year.  It's a goalpost!  It was from my sister and her husband, and it was hard to convince Pumpkin that he did need to wear a hat and coat and boots outside to try it out.  He wanted to wear a football jersey.

 

Speaking of football jerseys...  Pumpkin did not take this off for days.  He has it on right this very minute.

They both got plenty of books.  We've been reading a lot the last few days! 

Least favorite gift?  A doll.  I keep trying with the dolls every once in a while, but I think I'm done now...  I thought this one might hold their attention because she says phrases if you push on her hands or belly just right.  She even burps!  Burping is funny, right?  Well they still haven't really played with her at all.

Of course, the best gift is time with family!  Here's my sweet sister Hwang out sledding with Sparkle.  I'm really grateful to my parents and my sister and her husband for coming to celebrate with us!

Christmas with Family

I have a million fun pictures of my wonderful family and not enough time to post them.  Here is a sampling! 

Here we are getting ready to watch Dr. Suess' "Grinch."  Beloved brought home a projector so that over the holidays we can watch a few things on "the big screen."  The boys think it's great.  That's my dad, my sister, Sparkle, my mom, Pumpkin, my brother-in-law, and their dogs.

I got this little cup and saucer for $2 and Pumpkin loves it!  He's having hot chocolate, but it's a little too hot so he put an ice cube in it.  

We have SNOW!!!  There has been lots of sledding going on!  We have a big hill in our yard, thank goodness, so we don't even have to go anywhere to enjoy the sleds!

More pictures to come!  In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all of you!

Grandma is Coming-- Keep Your Pajamas On!

My mom arrived on Sunday night!  Whoo-hoo!  She's watching the boys while I'm at work this week. (Beloved's traveling for work.) 

Her plane was scheduled to arrive at about 7:30 PM but didn't make it until about 9 PM because of nasty weather. 

We explained to the boys that Grandma was coming late on Sunday night, not during the day.  After supper.  After their teeth were brushed.  After they had their pajamas on.  So on Sunday morning, neither kid wanted to put on clothes.  They'd just stay in their 'jammies, thank you very much, and maybe Grandma would get here sooner!

Last night Pumpkin was a total spaz, which is unlike him.  He just couldn't sit still at all.  I think he may have been over-tired and over-stimulated with Grandma being here.  This coming weekend might be a challenge.  My dad, my sister and her husband and their two dogs are coming later this week.  It might be a little too much for a 4 and 5 year old to absorb and still maintain good sleeping during the night and decent behavior during the day.  Oh man, we could really be in for it...  I really want to enjoy the time with my family here, so I hope it goes okay.

More Church-y/Faith Thoughts

We stopped attending "our" church in June and we've been looking for one that fits us better.  Our small group sort of dispersed because everyone in the small groups just had babies or is pregnant with babies.  Wow, everyone but us is having babies...  That's kind of depressing.  Anyway, we'd kind of stayed because we loved our small group.  No small group + a pastor who occasionally says stuff that is offensive = time to try something else.  I guess we're Gen X "church-shoppers."  Yikes. 

We've been to a bunch of different churches.  My poor kids don't like going to different churches all the time.  They've asked, "Can we please go to our green church?"  (The previous church we attended had a big green roof.)

Beloved and I would be okay with not going to a particular church.  We would happily watch pod-casts of Christian teachers and do Bible study on our own.  But...  There is something about the accountability of having a service to attend on a regular basis and being part of a local community.  I think it's a good discipline, at least for us, to attend a church service.  I want my kids to have that experience too.

(This is already very rambling, and it's gonna get worse.  Hang in there...) 

I've been reading about the emergent church stuff lately.  (Here is a basic list of qualities of emergent/emerging churches.)  A lot of what I'm reading seems right on.  I like the idea of a church that is not under a specific denomination's rules.  I like the idea of being part of a group who thinks flexibility on most points of theology and Bible study is okay, a group that acknowledges that no one has all the answers (other than Jesus).

This is a side note, but in the church where I grew up people had to sign a statement of faith to become members.  It included the denomination's beliefs about the rapture and the end times and creation and stuff.  I'm glad I never did sign anything like that.  I can't imagine anything less theologically important than whether Jesus is coming back before or after the rapture, or whether the world was created in a week.  It bothers me that a church would say you can't be a member if you can't sign on the dotted line to agree with something that a) doesn't matter all that much and b) lots of very smart and well-studied Christian theologians don't agree on.

So I'm attracted to the idea of flexible church who's major message is, "Love people!"  Seems to line right up with what Jesus said!  I myself am not that great at loving people, so I need some help and support to learn to do better!  I don't even do so great all the time with loving people who already love me, let alone loving people who annoy me in any way. 

After initially being so enamored with the emergent church concept I started looking around on-line for folks in our area.  One not-so-convenient things about emergent church groups is that they tend to be small groups meeting in homes.  They don't have big buildings, or signs, or listings in the yellow pages.  I was a little discouraged to see that a some groups seem to have an "anything you believe is okay as long as Jesus is in there somewhere" approach.  Umm...  Doesn't work for me...  I believe that there are some essential points that can't be compromised.  Very few, but some.

So basically I want a church group of theologically flexible people, but they all have to believe the same as me.  Ha!

Lords a'Leaping

Sparkle has a Christmas performance today, and neither Beloved or I can attend.  His class is Christmas caroling in the lobby of an office building near their school.  There are lots of parents who work in that building, and I'm sure the teachers chose it so that more parents would be able to watch.  (Most of the kids at the school have two working-outside-the-home parents.)  But it's at 10 AM on a Thursday!  I'm disappointed that I can't be there, and even more disappointed that neither one of us will be there.  There will be other kids who don't have a parent watching so Sparkle won't be the only one, but still. 

He'll be a "Lord a'Leaping" apparently.  He'll be wearing a Christmas hat.  He'll be leaping at the appropriate point during every verse of the 12 Days of Christmas.  It will be quite a sight to see, I'm sure.   

What's Been Going On

Just to clarify, Pumpkin was okay!  The tears were mostly for dramatic effect, since he knew he wasn't supposed to be messing around with toys, clothing, etc at bedtime.  As soon as he saw that I was smiling and taking pictures, then he thought it was funny too!

Total change of topic here...

I'm thinking a lot about faith stuff lately.  I've actually been reading real books (!), which is part of the reason I haven't been blogging much. 

I kind of started with Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution" and "Jesus for President" (co-authored with Chris Haw).  Actually maybe it started with Greg Boyd's "The Myth of a Christian Nation" and "God of the Possible" last year...  I'm not even really sure how to write about any of it, other than to say that I'm so thrilled that both of these authors actually make sense!

(While creating those links I just noticed that the Amazon.com reviews of "God of the Possible" are almost all either one or five stars.  Apparently you'll either love this book or hate it.) 

So, this church we've been going to...  I don't agree with all of their beliefs.  But it's so weird...  A lot of them seem to be a lot like Jesus!  What is up with that?  I'm a little disoriented...  Woozy...  Is there a chair around here?  Maybe I should sit down...

My kids are really great.  Have I mentioned that?  Here are some pictures of them sharing hot cocoa during the week of Thanksgiving.  They fight over things sometimes and manipulate one another to get what they want.  But they could hardly even think of not sharing!  Their hot cocoa was exactly the same, but they traded tastes anyway, just in case. 

 

Must Start Somewhere

Beloved and I each took a kid and split up to conquer the errands this weekend.  I had Pumpkin with me and he wanted to stop somewhere for a 'peshal treat.  I was putting him off because he hadn't really eaten so well at lunch.  He asked me, "If I say, 'You're so pretty and wonderful' two times, then can we get a treat?" 

It was super funny.  However, it's slightly disturbing that he thinks there's a formula of something he can say a certain number of times to get me to do what he wants...  But really, knowing when to just say what you need to say is a good social skill?  A little well-expressed admiration here and there, a little flattery...  important life lesson, don't you think?

After the boys went to bed I was sitting here at the computer when I heard some fussing coming from Pumpkin's room.  I tried to ignore him, but the fussing became a wail!  And down the hall came my distressed Pumpkin!  He tried to put on a football jersey over his pajamas and got stuck.  I had to grab the camera before I helped him, poor little dude!