So I’ve been wanting to post several videos lately but my computer refused to acknowledge the presence of my video camera. Mark completely diassembled the computer but to no avail. We bought a new fire wire port but no luck. Then Mark discovered that the computer was fine but not the camcorder. So I’m happy to say we’ve found a solution and I’ve neglected the children for the past hour just so you can watch my kids fight, slobber all over themselves and work up the phone bill. Hurray!
Someone asked us the other day how old the twins were and Mark and I both looked crossed-eyed at each other and scratched our heads and shrugged our shoulders and started counting on our fingers. Miraculously, we both came up with nine months for our answer and then we just sat there staring at the babies wondering how that happened and so fast too. But it’s true. They’re nine months old yesterday. Jericho weighs 17 pounds and 11 ounces. Justus weighs 18 pounds and 1 ounce. Jericho is taller by about an inch and a quarter but their head circumferances are the same. So they remain consistant–Justus is shorter and fatter; Jericho is tall and skinny. According to the doctor, however, they both need to eat more. They’ve gone from 25th percentile to 20th percentile to 10th percentile in the last few visits. Whatever, I say! Those boys couldn’t be chubbier and still be so happy. And happy they are. Wonderful babies with an admiration for Caleb that strikes terror in our hearts. Both boys are moments away from joining forces with Caleb and we’re certain it’s going to bring down the house, literally. We’re hanging on for dear life and praying we’re wrong.
The boys have mastered all sorts of stunts in the past several weeks from sitting without flopping backwards to clapping to pulling themselves to their feet and climbing up stairs. They can even eat Cheerios without choking and with Caleb dumping the entire boxful on the floor on a regular basis the twins’ non-choking finesse couldn’t have come at a better time. The twins have really discovered each other lately and it is very fun to sit back and watch the two of them interact with one another. They fight, they share, they shout at each other from across the room. They follow, they lead, they wrestle, they comfort each other. Sometimes I find myself a bit jealous that I don’t have someone so close as the two of them. It really is a shame we don’t all come with such a dear friend at birth.
Well, we made it to Niagara. And we managed a second night at the Hill Cumorah Pageant. But that was about it. Mark really wanted to spend one more day with his family. So did Hunter and Noah and Denver. They were having so much fun with their cousins. And I suppose if Caleb hadn’t been along for the ride, I might have wanted to stay too. But I’d handled just about all I could handle and I wanted to go home. As it turns out, Caleb had “impressive” double ear infections. No wonder he was so miserable. And you know when Caleb ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. By the time we got home we all needed a vacation all over again.
Despite my aches and pains and Caleb’s screaming and Justus’s allergic reaction to the hotel soap and the serious lack of sleep we were all suffering from, we had several happy moments. Like when Mark found Yop in the grocery store in Canada. (That’s where you get it Nate. In Canada. And don’t worry. Noah is already trying to figure out how to mail you some.) Yop is Yoplait’s version of drinkable yogurt and my family fell in love with it when we lived in England. I was really hoping Mark would find some of Kellogg’s Apricot Shredded Wheat, but I settled for Yop just fine. That was happy. And the first night we were there, one of the Lamanite girls found the boys in their tarp and saw their glo lights and said, “Oh! I bet if you hold those up during the Abinidi part, I could see you all the way from up there.” And then, during the Abinidi part all four boys stuck their arms out of the tarp and started waving their glo sticks all frantic like, hoping that Lamanite girl would see them. That made us smile, even when we were soggy and cold and miserable.
And you wouldn’t believe the amount of joy that filled my heart when Mark and Caleb stumbled upon the park in Palmyra that had real, honest-to-goodness teeter-totters and the old fashioned merry-go-round thing-a-majigger. You know, the kind of thing parks used to have before people got sue happy and people got so freaked out about kids getting hurt that they quit letting kids have real fun. And the boys had fun swimming. And I actually got to read a book the whole way through and have several adult conversations about it which was really nice, to have something to talk about besides what color the kids’ boogers were and who needed what antibiotic when.
And it was nice seeing everyone, even if seeing was about all I got to do, what with Caleb being clingy and all. And Mark got to be with his family again and he likes that and that made him happy and of course, when he’s happy I’m usually happy too–except when I’m sick and sleep deprived and the kids are fussy and then, I usually don’t care what Mark’s feeling and end up demanding he take us home right away. Which he did and after three days of recovery I’m feeling much happier and so is Caleb and even though I could totally use another vacation we’re so totally not going on another one for a really long time. At least not one that requires eight hours in the car.
So we’re currently on our second road trip in upstate New York. Actually, I’m in the car on the way to Niagara Falls but we’ve spent the past two days in Rochester and Palmyra, visiting with the Henrichsen Clans and watching the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I’d like to say we’ve been having all sorts of fun but mostly we haven’t been. Maybe I should rephrase that. Mark and the three big boys have been having lots of fun. The babies and I are struggling. The twins are both sick with ear infections and they’re just babies out of their element which as you may know, can be a little not fun. And Caleb got really sick on our way up to New York and has been coughing and sputtering ever since. And then there’s me. Seems I’ve come down with some kind of achey body, soar throat flu and have been doping up on Tylenol every four hours and investing lots of money in sweatshirts which I forgot to pack. But we’re surviving and things are beginning to look up.
Our first night up here, we decided to go to Pageant with Mark’s Uncle Roy and Aunt Sharon and Cousin Daniel and his wife Brittney and their four kids and Mark’s cousin Nathan. The lot of us picked up some McDonalds and sat eating it in our cars because it was raining, of course. It did this to us the last time we were here and for some reason we didn’t learn our lesson and bring things like umbrellas or ponchos or even sweatshirts. Then we headed over to save us some seats which were all sopping wet. So we dried them off and hung a few tarps over them and then just stood there, in the rain, because what else could we do? The rain was pouring and the babies were crying and Caleb was beyond himself. But Hunter, Noah, Denver and Chase were having tons of fun playing under the tarp with their glosticks and didn’t seemed bothered by the weather at all. That is until they realized they weren’t going to be able to see the show with a tarp over themselves and they began wondering what they were going to do. A few pocket knives later, we had this and the boys stayed relatively dry the entire night.
The twins fell asleep halfway through and the rain stopped shortly after. Caleb drifted in and out of sleep and the wet and cold probably didn’t help much with his sick. But he enjoyed the fire and water and lights of the show and didn’t complain nearly as much as he was entitled. We rolled into the hotel around midnight and by 1:00am Mark had us checked in and the entire room set up for us to go upstairs and fall into bed. Of course the only ones that were ready to just fall into bed were me and Mark. The boys stayed up watching America’s Funniest Videos and complaining about how they weren’t tired. And the twins tossed and turned and even gave me a fat lip around 2:00am. At that point I’d had it and put them in the playpen and decided to let them just fuss. Everyone was wide awake five hours later and ready to go. . . everyone that is except for me and Mark.
Yesterday we ate breakfast and the boys spent the entire morning swimming in the hotel pool with their cousins Chase, Macgregor and Ainsley. I stayed upstairs with the twins who were sleeping and read the book Chris begged me to read that I hadn’t been able to put down since I opened it on the drive here. Once Mark’s parents had arrived with Shane and Diana and Uncle Michael we all ate lunch at Pizza Hut and then hit a park on the banks of the Erie Canal. I spent most of the time there struggling with Caleb who couldn’t have been more miserable, coughing so much he could hardly catch his breath. Anne Marie and her three children and Matthew and Anita and their eight children met up with us there and it was practically a whole Henrichsen Reunion right there in wee little Palmyra. The boys got to watch the locks on the Erie Canal actually work while two boats came through and enjoyed the time they had with their cousins running around and playing. And the adults all sat and chatted and enjoyed the fresh air and good company for hours.
Around 6:00pm we wrapped things up, hit Walmart for some fried chicken, peanut butter and honey, and some dish detergent (because even on vacation I have to wash dishes) and we spent the rest of the night struggling with fussy babies and eating a makeshift dinner and watching television. And that about wraps things up. Mark and I had another rough night, as did Caleb. But we managed to get some sleep and Caleb is acting much better now and we’re just crossing our fingers that things keep looking up.
I know I’m a grown up and all, but I still think veggies are yucky. Sure, I’ll eat them but only because I know I’m supposed to cause I’m grown up and I have to set a good example for my kids. But just like the kids, I always have to have a glass of milk handy so I can wash them down quick. And if I had the choice between a lifetime supply of chocolate or a lifetime supply of veggies, I’d definitely go for the chocolate. That’s easy. So why, you are probably wondering, do I even bother planting veggies in my garden? Because that’s what you’re supposed to plant in gardens. Fruit trees take too long and even if I tried planting a peanut M&M it wouldn’t grow. So we plant veggies and that there zucchini is from our very own garden patch. We started it from a wee little seed. And then we turned it into something even better–zucchini bread. And I’m pretty certain that’s why God gave us zucchinis.
And while I’m not positive, I’m pretty sure my mom secretly hates vegetables too because everytime my Grandpa Copen (who was like “the Man” when it came to gardening) brought us a bunch of giant zucchinis from his garden do you know what my mom did? She gave it to us kids and we’d sit in the backyard with a bunch of knives and turn those zucchinis into boats. And we’d float them in the kiddie pool all day long. I don’t remember ever eating zucchini when I was little. So when our little old man crossing guard came by the other day with a bag full of yellow squash, do you know what I did? I gave it to the kids and they spent the day in the backyard turning them into boats. And while I’m totally out of toothpicks now, the kids were happy and nobody was crying about how they might barf if they have to eat a bite of that slimey yellow stuff. And I really need to learn how to cook squash in a way that us veggie-haters will eat it. But until I do, I think I’ll keep giving it to the kids so they can do something really worthwhile with them.
The day started at the crack of dawn with one of the babies crying. I waited, listening for awhile and when the baby quieted down I got up and decided since I was awake, I’d go ahead and workout. As soon as I put my feet on the floor, the baby was up again and so was Caleb. Now I’m pretty certain, if I’d rolled over and gone back to sleep, they all would have slept until 9:00am. But I didn’t and neither did they. So I gave Mark the baby and plopped Caleb on the couch with a silkie and a bottle and went ahead with my workout, because afterall, I don’t get up at the “crack of stupid” just to start my day with the kids even earlier. So the workout went fine and I only thought I was going to die somewhere toward the end of the video instead of at the begining. Mark did a great job wrestling the babies for me til I finished my exercise and even while I had a shower.
Now I don’t always get up early and exercise and have a shower all before 8:00am. No, I had a reason. See, Justus has an ear infection and is currently on a nebulizer. Again. I’m pretty sure he’s going to be our little asthmatic. Now all I need is a kid with a nut allergy and I’ll be an official walking EMT, with Glucagon, Inhaler and Epi Pen. But I didn’t say that, really. Because now that I did, I’m pretty sure God will give it to me. Because He’s like that with stuff I say, always giving me exactly what I ask for or even suggest for that matter. But back to my point, we’ve all been sick. Not just Justus, but he was the first. Then Hunter and I came down with a cough. And then everyone started having fevers and colds and coughs. Anyway, last night Jericho started tugging on his ears and acting miserable and Justus came down with a rash and I went ahead and made them both doctor appointments. So that’s why I was up and at ‘em so early.
But this morning Justus’s rash wasn’t so bad so I decided I’d only take Jericho. But Hunter, who has had a cough for awhile now, really wanted to go and see the doctor too, about his cough. I’ve been poo-pooing him for several days now because he seemed to be getting better. There were a few days when his blood sugar was high and immovable and his cough was pretty nasty, but his blood sugar was down and his cough not-so-bad, so I sort of thought taking him to the doctor seemed silly. But since Justus didn’t need the doctor I figured I’d let Hunter go. So we went to the doctor and sure enough Jericho has an ear infection and Hunter. . . pneumonia. Pneumonia!? And I sat there telling the doctor how Hunter has had a cough but wasn’t really sick anymore but that he really wanted the doctor to check him and that I’m sure he was just fine. So much for mother’s instinct. Mine sucks!
So I run home to get the prescription I got for the twins before our trip to Ohio and head to CVS to pick up the meds. And we wait and wait and wait, but they only have Jericho’s amoxicillin not Hunter’s. How long could it possibly take, I ask. Up to two hours, they say. Two hours?! For them to receive an email from the doctor’s office? Which is just two blocks away? Ridiculous! And they call this modern technology? Just give me the darn piece of paper next time. So we head home because Hunter has a playdate, which I’m pretty sure is going to be cancelled because who in their right mind wants a kid with pneumonia over to their house to play with their kids? And Hunter is devastated because he’s only been waiting all summer to have a playdate with his absolute best buddy ever.
And I totally don’t blame Hunter, but because he has pneumonia that means that the girl that was going to come to my house and fix up my hair (which totally needs fixing up) isn’t coming either because who in their right mind wants to bring their little boys over to a house that is as infested as my own? So no playdate. No new hairdo. And it’s only 10:30 in the morning.
We do lunch early because what else is their to do? And I juggle sick, fussy baby after sick, fussy baby and struggle with Noah as he throws tantrum after tantrum after tantrum. And we read books, because I’m supposed to be reading to the kids twenty minutes every day. But we read more like, two hours once a week. And the boys want to get their free lunch at Subway. . . okay, I want them to get their free lunch at Subway and we have to read certain books to get it and we’re so close I figured we might as well get it done. After books Caleb wakes up–okay really he was awake for like an hour while we finished reading but you know what I mean–and I feed him cottage cheese and peaches for lunch. He gobbles it up and asks for more and then decides he doesn’t really want seconds and throws the entire bowl on the floor. And while I’m on the floor mopping up the first mess, Caleb decides to throw my bowl of cottage cheese and peaches on the floor, just barely missing my head. Hunter wants “game time” but he’s got all these math packets and book reports and reading assignments he has to do over the summer, so I decide he’s got to do at least one of the book reports before he can play. So he fills out the worksheet with one word sentences and I realize he’s never written one before and it’s going to require my assistance to get it done properly. The babies are awake and Caleb is climbing the walls and Denver is waiting, waiting, waiting for me to make zucchini bread with him and time is going by so s-l-o-w-l-y I can hardly stand it. So Hunter and I struggle through his book report while Caleb scribbles all over Hunter’s summer reading log (and himself) and Noah screams at Zelda and Denver continues waiting, waiting, waiting and the twins are I-don’t-know-where-doing-I-don’t-know-what. Finally we finish the book report and I get the babies propped with bottles and Denver and Caleb and I tackle the shredded zucchini which has been in the fridge for days now, just waiting to be turned into bread. And Caleb keeps turning the mixer on high and splattering batter all over the place. And the twins are climbing up my legs, crying, begging to be held and I’m desperately, desperately trying to have some quality time with Denver but failing miserably. And Denver and Noah start fighting as I start the second batch of zucchini (who knew one little zucchini could make so much bread?) and Caleb is throwing bowls and measuring spoons on the floor, narrowly missing the twins’ heads.
Finally I can’t stand it anymore and send all of the kids outside (except for Hunter who is happily playing on the computer) to play. Denver and I rock the twins to sleep and Caleb climbs up on my lap, begging for a “ba-ba” and a cuddle. So I get up to put Justus on the hammock and while I’m up, Noah accidentally sprays Caleb, Denver and Jericho (who is asleep on Denver’s lap) with the hose. So now Caleb is screaming, Denver is shouting at Noah and Jericho is crying. I calm Jericho down and get him sound on the hammock, run inside to fetch a “ba-ba” and everything seems to settle down for a moment. So I try and call Melanie to chat. . . for just a minute. . . to an adult. But she’s not there. And neither is Mark. And neither is Kathy. So I ask Noah and Denver who are fighting for the millionth time that hour, if they want to play “Around the World” with me. And they do. So we get it all set up and start playing and I do really well. And so does Denver. But Noah doesn’t. And he starts going crazy, throwing the ball over and over and over again like a lunatic and screaming and shouting and I’m trying really hard not to laugh but he’s just so crazy like that, and then he hits me with the ball, right square on the forehead. And it’s not so funny. So I have to wrestle him to time out and the twins wake up and Hunter joins in and there’s more fighting and more crying and more baby juggling and I just want Mark to come home. And that’s about when I twisted my ankle getting off the hammock with the twins and I’ve had my fill of the great outdoors. So I shoo the kids back inside for dinner. I throw some watermelon at the three babies and some leftovers in the microwave while I put together a salad and we eat and everything’s just dandy when Mark walks through the door, except me. Me with my greasy, frazzled, not-just-cut-and-styled hair and a huge zit on my chin and my jelly belly and my stained t-shirt and sweat pants covered in baby barf and zucchini and who-knows-what-else? But I’m certain the babies are going to go to bed early and I’m going to blog and fold all my clean laundry and watch TV with Mark and eat ice cream. And everything is going to get better. But no. No! The kids don’t go down until after 10:00pm. And I can’t get my camera to work on the computer so I can’t post my cute video of Caleb talking on the phone. And the laundry isn’t getting folded and so of course, I have it all to do tomorrow. Tomorrow, while I try and pack for another mini car trip to Palmyra for the Hill Cumorah Pageant and a mini family reunion which I’m so totally dreading because I couldn’t possibly look more frazzled and bloated than I do now. And there you have it folks! My longest day ever. I really should just go to bed. Really, there’s no use making a long day even longer. And who knows how tomorrow is going to be. Hellish I’m sure. They always are. I guess it’s a good thing I love my little family as much as I do. I don’t think you could pay me enough otherwise.
Today we played with Aunt Me-Me. I was a little afraid, that it would be crazy, like it gets when there are nine kids and only two adults to supervise, but today it was actually a really great time. I think we need to go to Me Me’s more often. I took the leftover pizza from Mark’s birthday with us and we all had pizza for lunch. Then Me-Me and I worked together on fetching Zelda’s magic whistle, something Noah and I have been trying to do for days now. Melanie made it look so simple and even though I was a little jealous of her Nintendo skill, I was also very relieved to have the whistle retrieved. Noah immediately defeated Level Five’s Digdogger monster and we shut the Nintendo off, with Noah beaming ear to ear. Hurray for Aunt Me-Me. Then we shooed all of the boys into their swimsuits and out the door where they spent almost two hours in the sun, playing with the hose and practically filling an entire storm drain with water. I was worried about wasting so much water but if you figure six boys were playing with the one stream of water, I think I shouldn’t be so worried. Then we dried everyone off and dressed them and changed about a thousand wet diapers (or so it seemed) and we chatted for awhile while we cooled off. I asked Melanie if she’d make some of her Columbian rice to go with my pulled pork for dinner and she did. Lucky us! Then I loaded up the kids, a few of them kicking and screaming about how they didn’t get to play long enough, and we headed for home. When we got home the boys immediately plopped down on the couch to watch some TV and within minutes Noah, yes Noah, fell asleep. Exhausted. And I think that pretty much sums up the day. . . we completely wore them out. And with six little boys running the place, that is a very, very wonderful thing. Thanks for a lot of fun Me-Me. Let’s do it again soon!
For Mark’s birthday I sent him with the three big boys to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I know. If I was really nice I would have sent him alone. But that would have left three little boys very disappointed. So I sent them all together but hey, it sure beats sitting around here juggling babies and mopping sticky floors and folding laundry, which is what I’ve been doing and what I usually force Mark to do as well. Anyway, in light of all this Harry Potter mumbo jumbo going on, Noah was pretending to be Harry the other day and cast a spell across the kitchen table. I’m not sure who he was aiming for, but the spell he cast sounded like ba-bottum. “Ba-bottom?” I asked. “Is that what you said? What happens when you cast that spell on someone? Do they get a big bottom?” And well. . . see for yourself.
It was almost a year ago when Mark and I learned that when you mix Coke and Mentos you get an eruption. I don’t remember if we told the boys or not. But a few weeks ago Noah had a playdate with some friends from church and while they were there Coke and Mentos must have come up in their conversation because ever since Noah has been asking if we could try eating mentos and drinking some coke and how he couldn’t wait to have it spray out of his mouth. So today we decided to give it a try and here’s what happened. We figured out a few things in the process, first and foremost being that you can’t put coke and mentos in your mouth and have it spray all over the place. And second, you can’t reuse already erupted coke. But most important, we figured out that the more mentos you drop in the coke, the bigger the eruption. Of course, we’re no experts on the whole thing so if you’ve figured out any tricks, send them our way. Noah will be thrilled!
And just for fun, here’s what the twins did today while the rest of us were experimenting.
We’ve been in the car almost nine hours now. We still have at least another one and a half, maybe two to go. We’ve eaten our weight in junk food, rearranged our seats half a dozen times and filled enough bottles with pee to water the entire state of Ohio, which is currently suffering from a drought. And I’m about ready to kill the entire staff of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for leaving all of their construction sights under construction on a holiday weekend. I might be more sympathetic if there were actually construction workers doing something. But no. We’ve sat through four traffic jams caused by a bunch of cones closing off a bunch of usable lanes for nothing. And for his punishment, because I’m all about punishment, I think Mr. President of the Pennsylvania DOT should have to sit in my Suburban, full of luggage and all six boys, for eleven hours with only a few empty water bottles at his disposal. I mean, come on! How hard is it to tell your men to pick up their cones when their done using them. Even Barney knows the clean up rule, and he’s a silly purple dinosaur!
Anyway, we all know going home is never as exciting as leaving for vacation. So in trying to focus on the positive, I’ve asked everyone what they enjoyed most about this trip and here’s what we’ve come up with.
Seeing the fireworks (all three of them) upon our arrival at Grandma’s house.
Playing with cousin Sammy and Uncle Michael.
The Erie Zoo
The Holden Arboretum and the train exhibit.
The Amish carts and buggies and farms.
Spending time together as a family.
Spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and Diana and Michael.
Playing in the boats and catching frogs and turtles.
Our new sprinkler.
Joel’s Ice Cream and their giant-size scoops.
Our year supply of Mapeline that we discovered on our late night trip to Walmart.
I know that’s really our top eleven list, but how can I possibly narrow it down to ten when we had such a great time? And in the time that its taken me to type this blog (and check the traffic on the Tappan Zee bridge a couple of times) we’ve arrived in Connecticut. The end is near. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, especially when I think about being solo tomorrow with all six kids but I do need to go potty and I’m sort of looking forward to sleeping in my own bed so I’ll gladly take it. But trust me, as crazy as it seems, I’m already looking forward to our next road trip in a couple of weeks, long drive and all.