Taking the Scenic Route

Why?  Just Why?

Sunday Afternoon at the Farm

We went out to my home church for services today since my favorite Biblical teacher was giving the message.  I took some religion classes from her and she is so knowledgeable it is astonishing.  She can read the bible in it’s original languages, and is an expert in biblical history (has a PhD in religious studies, or something related).  A few years ago she took a sabbatical to live in Jerusalem to help coordinate humanitarian aid for our church relief organization.  She also is a songwriter, and I used one of her songs as my wedding benediction.  A truly amazing woman.  There was also an incredible singing group that performed.  I think they were from the college she is a prof. at, but I am not sure.

After church, we went out to the farm, threw some burgers on the grill, and hung out for the afternoon.  Zane and my Mom went on a walk around the farm, then Zane sacked out for an hour, Zach fixed some problems on their computer, then we finished up the evening playing with the Hummer Joy got Zane for Christmas.

One of the funny things was when Dad and Zach said they were going to go out with Zane to play with the Hummer….and then forgot to bring Zane outside. lol.  I took Zane outside to the guys laughing their heads off checking out the capabilities of the Hummer.  It was really funny.

Now the photos.

My Little Artist

More success with watercolors yesterday.  He handled the characteristics of the paint a lot better and made some fun paintings.  It was actually a little weird to see the difference.  The day before he was clumping too much color onto the brush and using way too much pressure, today he had a better sense of color and held the brush without drilling it into the paper.  I really like the “kid’s” brushes with the thick handles.  I wonder if that was part of the problem yesterday, because this time he used the big brush most of the time and he seemed to be able to handle touching the paper more gently with it.  It is wild to watch them develop skills seemingly out of nowhere.

I liked watching how much fun he was having and the look of total absorption in his creation.

The Process

I love the tree and ground.  I was wondering if I should snag it at this point. lol. 

Now adding red….I think it was flowers, but not sure.

another tree

Finito!

Another blank piece of paper.  This time, he discovered the joy of printmaking. with red.  oh well, most of it came off.

This was the point his attention drifted else where.  I like it.  He experimented with different brush techniques and how the paint blends together.  Cool beans.

The bad news

Joy is going to continue with rounds of antibiotics for a month, and then they will reevaluate.  The really bad news is that the day she had her scope (Wed. I think) her dad had a heart attack.  He is having an ECG to evaluate if he needs a bypass and how many bypasses he needs.  He is in his early 50s;

The other news that is heavy on my heart is that a person very, very dear to me, almost the level of a grandparent (we actually had them ‘treated’ like grandparents at our wedding…escorted to the front of the church with the families and had the photographer get a picture with them too), is dying.  Arnie found out recently that he has leukemia.  Last week when he had maybe 2 weeks to live, he had to find permanent care for his wife, Genny, who’s Parkinson’s is advancing.  She went to a nursing home earlier this week, but ended up being transferred to the hospital to deal with some problems with her Parkinson’s.  I got to know them when I picked them as my mentors when I was going through catechism.  (Before baptism, we pick a person/couple in the church who we go to for guidence / counciling / friendship who will get to know us.  It is to encourage inter-generational interaction and gives a teen an adult to be friends with that isn’t necessarily their parent’s friends.)  My heart is just broken for how much I will miss them and how hard it has to be on Arnie to leave her when he has been her caregiver.

Here is a picture I got of them the day of Zane’s dedication.  (the Mennonite version of infant baptism…we have Beleiver’s/Adult baptism only, but have a dedication as an infant where we promise to raise him Christain/church promises to help, things like that.  No water involved.  It isn’t a baptism, but has it’s roots there since we broke off of Catholics centuries ago, so you see parallels every once in a while.)  They are walking to the river, which is just at that tree line.

Painting

Gave him some watercolors and let him have at it.  I learned that I need to work with him some on how to hold a brush.  He puts so much pressure on the brush it splays out.    Sort of a ‘fingernails on chalkboard’ effect for me.  I definitely need to keep my nice brushes out of reach for a bit.  He gets pretty excited about the water dipping aspect too.  He will dip into the paint box, into the water, into the paintbox, into the water…and forgets about putting the paint on the paper.  lol.  He had fun, and he was improving how he handled the paint as he worked with it, so that was encouraging.

Here he made two trees on purple ground.  I am not sure what the structure he is working on was meant to be.  I am glad I snapped a shot though, because he painted over the trees with swoops of color.  Was neat, but the original trees got lost in the forest, so to speak.

Poop holders, continued.

I dont’ know if I am getting anything yet, but decided to go diaper shopping anyway.  (Hey, it’s fun)

I started out on ebay and found a decent amount of diapers for good prices in prints I liked, then I started thinking…”I’ve heard of these before”…hmm…Little Lambs.  Oh, yeah.  I remember.  lol.  No wonder they are at such good prices.  It isn’t a good price with that kind of history of customer service.

You know, what I really need, is a newborn butt to diaper.  *sigh*

Tale of poops and poop holders

Hmm.  In a quandary.  Zane is quite short on diapers that fit him, so I have been supplementing with paper diapers.  Hate ‘em, but do enjoy not cleaning poopies as often and like that I haven’t had to go up a size in pants for his woven pants (non-stretchy pants, the Old Navy Fleece is just fine and dandy with cloth).  I use paper ones when I go out and when I am expecting a poopy (somewhat predictable).  Well, he hates the paper ones.  When the cloth comes out of the dryer he is ripping off his clothes and diaper and will grab onto the cloth, refusing to let go unless I tell him I will put it on.  (he will also try to put it on himself, which is fraught with humor since the dipes are all snap)  Last night, at the “I am expecting a poopy within half an hour” change, I put him in a paper diaper and he threw a fit about the diaper. *sigh*  It is cute that he likes cloth better, but I hate spending money on real dipes with him being potty learning age, and I hate spending money on the sposies.

That is the other thing.  He seems totally uninterested in potty learning.  He will sit on the potty as long as we are sitting with him, but has no interest in using it.  We have sat there for a loooooooong time, even taking shifts because our legs and tush will fall asleep balancing on the edge of the tub (and it isn’t very comfy for mama or daddy to do this….cramped bathroom).  He will hold it until we put a diaper on him, sometimes we only have it half on and he will go.  Or, if we use undies, he will giggle like crazy watching the pee shooting though the undies.   We have done books, videos, and would do rewards if we had to, but he needs to actually tinkle or something, even if it isn’t on purpose, to do a reward.  We thank him for trying if he sits patiently, but can’t really do any goofy ‘potty dance’ or anything with zero pottying going on.  This is frustrating.  I think he ‘gets it’, but just isn’t interested.  PL is definatly going to have to be on his terms I guess.  Usually it doesn’t bother me too much, but when it is scene to put a paper diaper on, it tries my patience.

I had to quit using prefolds because we were having snappi accidents when he took charge of taking diapers off.  (owie on the sensitive parts).   The only real virtue of prefolds was that they were cheap.  All the other reasons that I like them went away with some of the nasty poos he has had. (toddler size prefolds are cumbersome, especially with nasties on them) He outgrew all but 2 FuziBunz and an FMBG and one other fitted.  Well, I killed one of the other diapers that worked in a shameful “how long has this been here” car cleaning incident.   My stash certainly doesn’t take up as much space now…I gave all of my not-working stash to a CDing friend, so they are finding new life, so that is good. 

I have no idea what to do.  There is a part of me that is wanting to keep holding out in hopes of potty learning.  The irony of this is that I was debating whether to get cloth when he was 14 months old because he might potty learn soon.    The theory of ‘buy them and they will potty learn in a week’ certainly didn’t pan out that time.  

edited to add:  I went to measure him to make sure diapers would be big enough since he was too big for most diapers last time I looked at buying them.  His thighs are 14-15″ and his waist is 20-21″.  How did that happen?  I knew he had been doing his growing in the length of his legs, but gosh, his measurements are smaller and his weight is easily 40-42 lbs. His butt is shrinking….weird.

Not such good news for Joy today.  She went to her heart doctor for her diagnostic to see if the ‘vegetation’ on her pace maker cords was gone.  (she has been on some heavy duty antibiotics for several months now)  There was no change.  She hasn’t come out of anesthesia yet, and the doctor’s haven’t reviewed everything fully so we don’t know what the next step will be, but there are only two options at this point from what I understand…she will either be put on another round of a different antibiotic and see if there is improvement, or she will have open chest surgery sometime soon. 

She did get some good news earlier this week…her stomach and digestive system appears to be getting back on track and that doctor was pleased with her progress in that regard.  She has been keeping more food down of late too, so the weight loss is slowing down.

Don’t know what to hope for with her current situation, other than she get better soon and can tolerate the treatment, whatever that may be.  There isn’t really a ‘good’ option at this point.