Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Come Monday

This upcoming Monday, May 5th, Judah will undergo some more testing for growth hormone deficiency. This has been suspected for more than a year, and Judah's endocrinologist felt we needed to definitively determine whether or not the deficiency exists for Judah.

We are to be at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital at 8:30 a.m. where Judah will receive an IV with blood drawn initially and then every 1/2 hour for 3 hours. Not really looking forward to this, but thankfully, my hubby is accompanying me on this one and will help me and the nurses entertain Judah (or hold him down..whichever we need to do). At this point, there's no fooling Judah with these types of things. It's not like we can stick in his favorite video, give him his favorite book or a new toy to play with and sneak one past him. The IV stick is not going to be fun, barring a miracle of God which I do believe He still grants. Consequently, we would again greatly appreciate your prayers.

Please pray not only for the test itself but for the results, that they would be favorable and clearly indicate Judah does NOT have growth hormone deficiency. If he does have it, we will then need to evaluate when/if to begin growth hormone therapy.

Monday, April 28, 2008

"Rest" Time Ideas

Need some input from my blog readers, especially any with twins or sibs who share a room.
My boys are approaching 4 (wow!) and are definitely outgrowing their afternoon nap much to my sadness. However, I still want them to have a quiet time where they can "rest" and I can get some things done without them underfoot. So, I'm polling all you out there to see what brilliant ideas you can give me as well as reasonable expectations I should have for this transition.

My thought is to have them in quiet time for up to 2 hours.
I'm not sure whether to keep them in the same room, separate them, allow them to just read, play with whatever they want to play with in one room of the house, have a snack, not have a snack???? For now, they stay in their bedroom with the lights off, sometimes the curtains open for light to read a book. The sound machine goes on, but I'm not sure why anymore b/c it certainly doesn't help them sleep anymore and it doesn't block out the noise they make. Bella's room is right next to theirs, so I don't want them to be allowed to make as much noise as they want to. Sometimes they do really well in the same room. They'll crawl up in the same bed and read books at opposite ends of the bed. Other times, like a few days ago, they don't do so well.

After hearing a lot of noise, giggling and banging coming from their room, I decided to finally go check it out. When I tried to peek into their room, I couldn't get their door open! They had pretty much destroyed their room...taken their stacked crates apart with all the books, diapers, and shoes that were in them strewn around their room. They had pulled out all their bins of clothes and thrown clothes all over the room, including a pair of underwear that was hanging from the top of their closet doors. I was just glad that the curtains were still up and the fitted sheet hadn't somehow been pulled up. No holes in walls or doors off hinges, so I considered myself lucky. :)

Chime in with a comment and let the advice giving begin.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Some Funnies from My Little Guys

I was talking to Judah in particular this morning about "overlooking an offense" to try to give him another way out of temptation when his brother wrongs him by taking his toys usually.
So, just now Judah told Tucker that he could keep the trains he took from Judah, and I commended him by letting him know that he was overlooking an offense and it was to his glory (as it says in Proverbs 19:11). Big smiles abounded!

Well, then Tucker gave Judah trains back and Judah looked up at me and said, "Yeah, mom, Tucker looked over the fence." :)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Lovin' the Lilacs

Just thought I would post a quick one to let any random reader of my blog know that I'm still here... just have had to make other things a priority. That, AND my family had an amazing opportunity to enjoy a Florida vacation last week!! I hope to post pictures and share some stories from our time soon.

But, for now, I'm enjoying the smell of my neighbor's lilacs wafting through my back, deck door along with a gentle breeze and hope that you are enjoying some beautiful weather where you are, too.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Boundary Lines

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Psalm 16:5,6

I had to review this verse this morning, first thing, and ask myself if I really believed it. Do my boundary lines fall in pleasant places? I woke up with an acute awareness that my boundary lines are being drawn in to a greater degree than ever before in my life. Being a wife and especially a mom to young children makes my boundary lines seem tight at times. But, add to that some acute back pain and other limiting health issues, and I woke up this morning only able to see how the boundary lines God has chosen for me places limitations on me...like the limitation of not being able to sit at the dinner table with my family, or sit through a church service or in a car for more than 5 minutes without being in what I would call very distracting pain. (I limit excruciating pain to what I experienced last November with my back...nothing has yet come close to that level of pain).

Not much unlike my 3 year olds, I could choose, and often do, to look at all the things oustide my boundary lines, all the ways the boundary lines God has Sovereignly placed in my life limit me. But instead, the Holy Spirit graciously again turns my gaze to behold all that has been given to me WITHIN my boundary lines. I have a delightful inheritance, this passage says. Among so many tangible blessings that I could enumerate, what is most delightful and where I am choosing to set my thoughts upon today is the inheritance Christ has purchased for me by His blood shed on the cross for my sins...an inheritance, that Peter says, can never perish, spoil or fade!

This is NO SMALL THING!! The God of the Universe, Creator of all Things, the One who gives all living things their breath, who sustains my existence, and who is perfectly Holy and justly punishes sin has chosen to show me mercy by sending His Son, Jesus, to die on a cross and take the punishment that my sin justly deserves. This same Jesus rose again to conquer death and defeat the power of sin for all who believe in Him. The Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see and believe these truths and now I have an inheritance waiting for me in Heaven where I will spend eternity with my God, clothed in Christ's perfect righteousness and my Heavenly body...a body that will never ache, never tire, never wrinkle, never need so much rest. I will be at perfect rest.

These thoughts, while they don't take away my physical pain, quiet my heart and help me to be grateful for all that lies within my boundary lines. These thoughts remind me AGAIN that my boundary lines do indeed fall in pleasant places.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

A Question for You...

So, let's just say this happens at your house, too...
You're upstairs and you hear screaming downstairs. You know it's your two children fighting again. One is suspiciously quiet while the other is screaming at the top of his/her lungs. What do you do?

Do you always run down and address it?
Do you discipline both no matter what?
Do you let them figure it out on their own as long as no one is getting hurt?
Or some other bright idea I haven't yet thought of?

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

What We've Been Up To

It seems like I haven't updated in long time, but it's really only been a little over a week. We have been busy bees at the Almengor's lately. Between Lawrence trying to wrap up his last several 'busy season' assignments and me starting The Pampered Chef, we have had few minutes for rest and relaxation, let alone blogging! :)

But, our little girl has had fevers the last two days and that has caused me to be homebound and moving at a slower pace, for which I am grateful. I hate that my daughter is fighting some kind of weird bug, but I am grateful for how it's forcing me to just sit still in my own home for a little while. Please pray for her if you think of it. Gratefully, there haven't been any other symptoms accompaning the fevers. She's been eating well and playing pleasantly while awake. We've had two sleepless nights with her, trying to manage the fever at night, but that's been the only impact really. That, and being quarantined.
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Judah did very well with this last laser treatment. Our friend, De, came with us again for moral support and to take some pictures. Judah and I both greatly appreciate her company on these trips. She is great for keeping a positive attitude and making what has become typically dreaded afternoons rather pleasant. Once I receive the digital photos from her, I'll post them so you can see just what we do when we go for Judah's laser treatments.
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I've had two Pampered Chef shows so far, both in the same week which probably wasn't the wisest way to start off. But, I seem to have a knack for making things difficult for myself. The shows went well, and the guests for both shows were very gracious to me as I fumbled through the demonstration. Practice makes perfect, and I will have more opportunity for practice with three shows coming up in April!! **(If you want to host a show in May or June, just let me know!)
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Finally, I thought I'd share a few of the things we did in the last month of so via pictures.

About 2 weeks after Bella's first birthday, we had her ears pierced. Before I married Lawrence, I thought it was the cruelest thing to pierce a baby's ears. Then, I learned that it is a customary practice in Latino culture to do this. There was no pressure at all from LA's family, but we both decided we wanted to have it done. Here's my girl waiting with her Papi while mommy picked out the studs.


Here's the girl marking my girlie's ears.


**Warning: Any grandmother or grandmotherly types may want to scroll quickly down past this next picture. And, please don't leave any nasty comments about how cruel we are for having done this to our daughter.




And, ahhh...my bottle and my Papi...there is no better comfort.

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We had the special treat of having my brother, Jay, and SIL, Krista, come to stay with us twice in one month! They are from PA but flew out of BWI to see Krista's sister, Beth, in Colorado. (Got that all straight?) So, they came to stay with us before they flew out and when they flew back into Baltimore. Here, we are enjoying an outing at a local playground:

Bella and Sadie (the newest addition to the Herman clan)


Ainsley and Judah


Mia pushing Tucker on the swing


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And, last but not least, the boys finally got a haircut!!
Here's the before and after.