THEY'RE LOSING SOCKS AND I'M LOSING MY COOL

    

 

Just need to vent.

When you have two boys who

1. Live in the moment

2. Live to have fun all the time

3. Don't have a concept of time to help you understand a few hours ago

4. Have an active imagination

5. Have a hard time with the concept of telling the truth

It makes losing things very frustrating...

Our boys are usually absolutely NO HELP in trying to find something they lost.  They look in the most obscure places- like when looking for a shoe, they lift up one of our table lamps!  Not much help.

They also answer yes to every question you ask them in trying to figure out where the missing item must be:

"Is it at school?  YES.  "Is it in the car?"  YES  "Is it in Antartica?"  YES.    

Every once in a great while, the stars align, and one of them will immediately know where something is, and thank goodness, because it's usually in the most unexpected place- like a DVD inside our piano or a placemat in our fireplace vent!

Lately they have been misplacing socks.  This is because when Jonah gets undressed he has the horrible habit of just throwing his dirty clothes anywhere but the hamper.  I have found shirts hanging from the bathroom cabinet and pjs in the bathtub.  I am working very hard to get him to nicely put his things in the hamper, but please note I am not only battling mischeviousness but also some OCD tendencies.  For Ben, he frequently gets hot so he will just toss his socks wherever he is when he gets his hot flash- I actually can relate to that...haha.

Now lost socks have been a plague of humanity since the beginning of time or sock-wearing at least.  We all have the unexplained of phenomena of a sock that goes in the dryer but doesn't come out- it's the magic trick you never wanted to work.  While it's weird and slightly annoying dealing with these MIA socks, it's never been something that made me grit my teeth in frustration.

But the boys' losing socks is a different matter.  Because when no-show socks slide right off your feet and you don't have the dexterity to manipulate a crew sock over your heel and up, meaning your mom has to help you put on socks but you offer absolutely no help with your foot/leg to help get that sock on, finding and keeping the easiest socks in the world to get on is very important to us!  So losing some of these "miracle" socks really bugs me.  Over reaction on my part- probably, but somewhat justified, right?

For those of you in my age group, does my quest for the perfect sock at all bring up Seinfeld's Mr. Pitt and his sock drama?  SEE BELOW!

To top it off, we are currently trying to find Ben's glasses.  Usually Ben is very careful with his things, beside socks.  This isn't quite is MO to lose something so important.  I'm suspecting his little brother may have played a role in this...  

The problem is when I asked Ben where they were he said his teacher took them (LIE).  He also looked in his sock (oh, the irony!) for the glasses (NOT A HELP).  

* UPDATE: Ben's glasses were found late yesterday afternoon.  They were actually in a very logical and expected place: next to his computer at school that he uses during his gaming club on Wednesdays after school.  I guess we overthought the possibilities of where they might be and overlooked the simple- our boys keep us on our toes.  Plus, the little brother had nothing to do with the disappearance- I'm sorry we wrongfully suspected him.

“Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.”- Corrie Ten Boom

I guess the boys are trying to teach me a very important life lesson.  And it's only socks, and glasses, and shoes, and books, and DVDs, etc- haha.

Of course, they are awfully cute!

Click HERE for Seinfeld "Mr. Pitt's Socks" video

I'm not sure if I'm Elaine or Mr. Pitt...

FALL CHECKLIST

PUMPKINS!

APPLES and APPLE CIDER

 

THREE STRIKES and YOU'RE OUT

 

Jonah had strep throat in February 2023 as explained above.  He also had strep throat in June 2023.  Now he just finishing up a 10-day regimen of antibiotics after testing for strep on 9-20-23.  The standard of care is after 3 "strikes" in short period of time, you get referred to ENT.  

Our ENT has since retired since last seeing him in May 2020. Jonah was dismissed from his care when his ear infections stopped when Jonah was home quite a bit because of Covid shut downs and then Jonah's kidney/bladder issues- unexpected blessing.  

So in December we see a new ENT.

TIME TO CATCH UP

:

How are we already almost done with the month of September?!

Time flies when you are busy having fun.

One of Jonah's favorite movies continues to be Home Alone.

In early September, we visited Stephen at Loyola in Chicago and made a stop at the ACTUAL Home Alone house in Winnetka, IL.  Jonah was beyond thrilled!

The boys got to experience true Chicago by riding the bus and the 

elevated train from Loyola to Lincoln Park Zoo.  

Then on 9-16, Lydia and I hosted Abigail's bridal shower for my family and her friends.  It was coffee themed- "Love is brewing".  What a fun and special day!

My beautiful girls!  I love them so much.

After the shower, Lydia continued the festivities by hosting a bachelorette party.

Then last week we sent the boys off to school each day and were able to relax at our campsite at Harrington Beach State Park.  On this day, we spent the morning in beautiful Port Washington, enjoying breakfast, coffee, croissants, and the lake.  

So much fun!  

We don't get many dates so we were very excitedto have this time to ourselves.  

Note: our first day "alone" 

Jonah was with us because he came down with strep throat :(

 

OUR FINAL TEENAGERS

Since Ben and Jonah are the youngest in our family, these two will be our last run at parenting teenagers.

Ben turned 13 in June, and Jonah turned 13 last Thursday.

What a wild ride it has been so far with this dynamic duo!  

From this:

Arriving at the orphanage, 

Ben at 3 wks old so around 7-15-10

Jonah at birth, 9-14-10

To this:

Ben's 13th birthday, 6-21-23

Jonah’s 13th birthday, 9-14-23

These boys have had many adventures over their 13 years.  

Ben experienced orphanage life for 6 years.  At 18 months, he went through open heart surgery all by himself, no family to comfort and care for him.  Then at 6 years old, he met Andrew and I for the first time.  For one week, we would come visit him at the orphanage for a few hours each day.  At the end of that week, we went before a Lithuanian judge and were ruled to be his family.  We headed to the orphanage and packed up his things from the past 6 years which filled only a grocery big (humbling…)  We loaded him into a taxi and took him to our apartment.  Please remember, he had only known us for 5 days.  He had never lived anywhere except an orphanage or with anyone besides other kids and the orphanage staff.  He had never eaten anything except orphanage food besides candy and treats from orphanage visitors.  He literally trusted us 2 strangers with his life.  And then to top that, after a few more days in Lithuania, we took him on his first airplane ride ever to the US, where EVERYTHING was new to him: people, language, food, living situation, customs.  When I think about the amount of faith this little boy had to survive 6 years watching out for himself and then joining our family who were complete strangers to him, it baffles my mind with how well he has adjusted to everything over the years.  He is my hero- brave and courageous and determined to survive!

We were there for Jonah's birth, and he came to live with us at 3 weeks old.  So a very different experience for Jonah than Ben's experience of joining our family.  Jonah's biggest challenges over the years have been health-related.  He was hospitalized at 6 months old for a very serious case of pneumonia, then again for the same thing at 9 months old.  At 13 months old, he had 5 hour surgery for a kidney/bladder congenital defect.  He experienced complications from this surgery and so his total hospitalization time during all of this was almost 3 weeks!  The next years were spent trying to keep him healthy due to reactive airway disease and frequent ear infections.  Then at 8 years old, Jonah had surgery to remove his thyroid due Grave's disease that wasn't able to be handled by medication.  After surgery he experienced a scary breathing episode coming off the anesthesia.  Then in 2020, kidney/bladder issues reared their ugly head requiring surgery to have a stent and catheter placed.  This catheter was in place for 9 months instead of the planned 2 weeks.  Jonah suffered from several kidney/bladder infections during his surgery recovery time.  It was a rough period for him.  Finally in January 2023, we got the good news that Jonah's left kidney was back to normal size.  What a three year ordeal!  In summer of 2022, Jonah started to have his knee caps slip out of place quite often causing him great pain.  This necessitated him wearing knee braces almost full-time.  Oh and he also got Lyme's disease in the summer of 2021.  And on top of all these health issues, Jonah didn't really start talking using more than 2-3 words until 2020/2021-age 10/11.  He has worked VERY HARD to become verbal.  This kid is also my hero- he is also brave and courageous and determined to survive!

Now in regards to all of these boys' adventures these past 13 years, I'm really hoping and praying that their teenage years are very quiet, boring, and uneventful!  We're older parents, and I don't know if we have the energy anymore to deal with difficult teenagers...

SEVEN IS OUR LUCKY NUMBER THIS YEAR!

 

Boys started 7th grade today!

Thankful for the same beloved teacher and aide from past year, excited for the new special education suite recently added to our school!  How cool our district is investing in ALL of its students.

Interesting to see how Ben has shot up in height over Jonah.

PAWPRINTS ON OUR HEARTS

 

Yesterday our family had to say goodbye to a very cherished and loved member of our family- our dear sweet dog Tucker.

So many emotions we are all feeling right now: grief and pain over him being gone, but gratitude that we had him for almost 16 really good years.

He got our older 3 kids through from childhood to adulthood.  He experienced 15 foster babies in our home.  He welcomed our two boys home through their adoptions.  He was always ready to love us and comfort us if we were sad and play and hang out with us when we were happy.  He was a kind and gentle soul who didn't command attention like some dogs do.  He was just a quiet and constant presence in our lives and in our home.  He will be greatly missed.

We probably have thousands of photos of Tucker.  At some point, I will make a post sharing my favorite Tucker photos.  But these photos are reflecting his last days with us, so that we never forget the privilege we had of loving him through his last moments with us, his family- forever.

This was taken on Monday, 8-28.  Over the past year, Tucker had certainly slowed down.  He no longer could run with Stephen, and sometimes it was hard for him to manuever steps etc.  The past 3 months, we saw even more decline in him because he would move around less and sleep more.  He started skipping one of his 2 daily meals every couple days.  But he was still happy and excited to hang out with us and loved to be cuddled and hugged.  Life was still good for him, just at a slower pace. So on this Monday, he was acting very normal for what we were use to this past year.  We were actually camping with the 2 boys so it was just Stephen and Lydia home with him.

Just like that on Tuesday, 8-29, Lydia called us around lunchtime at the campground and said Tucker was walking funny.  Just a few hours later, she let us know he was not able to move at all- if he tried, he just fell down.  We decided we needed to get home fast.  We packed up and were home by 9 p.m.  This is what we found.  Our poor friend, very larthargic and sleepy.  He hadn't eaten for the past day.  He was still drinking some water.  It was blessing though that he let us lay by him and cuddle and pet him.

After sleeping by his side Tuesday night, we called the vet early 8-30, Wednesday morning to make an appointment.  At the appointment, the vet told us Tucker was most like in kidney failure and had hours-days-week to live.  However, it would only get more uncomfortable and scary for him in the time left because of how sick he was.  We made the very heart-wrenching decision to put him down.    We were all able to say goodbye to him, even Abigail thru FaceTime.  For his final moments, he had Stephen hugging him and Lydia and I holding his paws.  

The following quotes and poems express how our hearts are feeling right now.  We know he was "just a dog", but to us he was part of our family.  He was and is deeply loved and will be deeply missed.

For how this loss if affecting the boys, we are unsure what they are all feeling and understanding.  We are trying to give them information so that they feel included in our grief, but we also don't want to overwhelm them.  We are trying to explain that Tucker got very sick and died while trying to reassure them that getting sick doesn't automatically mean you die.  We are telling them Tucker is in heaven because we are thinking they will never get to cognitive level to understand Biblically about human versus animal souls etc.  It seems to give them comfort and joy to think about Tucker now being with "Beebop" which is Grandma so we are going to give them that.  It also seems like after some initial strong emotions- Jonah sobbing and Ben working hard to get attention- they are now in the "out of sight, out of mind" mode and not really noticing Tucker is gone.  Kids in general seem to go in and out of grief while adults seems to stay more planted in grief for a period of time.  So I'm sure there will be times where they will notice and mourn Tucker's absence.  We are doing our best to understand and respect how our boys process and deal with the pain of losing someone they love.