Adventures of the Supersized 6

While being pregnant with each of the kids I would think of what traits that baby will have. Will it have my eyes, my husbands nose? Will they have dark brown hair like me, or blonde like my husband? I remember by a lesson from my high school biology class. We were talking about genetic traits and the ratio's at which we are likely to inherant certain traits from our parents. Brown eyes, blue eyes, dark hair, blonde hair. They say that the darker genes dominate. I have dark brown eyes and hair, two of my kids have dark brown hair, two are blonde. Two have dark brown eyes, two have crystal blue eyes like their dad. So much for domination.
Jake was born with a genetic quirk. He was born with 20/400 vision in the right eye, and 20/200 vision in the left. He had surgery to help in the correction, and he has worn patches and used eye drops. He now has 20/50 in the right, and 20/30 in the left and no depth perception. This outcome is better than we could have ever hoped for. When Noah was born we realized that his tear ducts were going to be an issue. Now after 3 surgeries it seems as though we may have crossed that bridge and after the stent is removed from his right eye all the problems will be a memory. Back to the irony of genetics. During an exam for his tear ducts the doctor decided to take a look at Noah's vision. They dialate his eyes and do a full exam. They find that he too is farsighted, and that his vision too is unequal. We agreed to hold off on any treatment until we got the tear duct situation under control. Neither of us expected the external stent to last nearly 6 months, but it did. Noah went in last week to see a doctor that specialized in the vision/muscle problems that the boys have. Noah has 20/125 vision in his left eye, and 20/50 vision in his right eye, and he too has no depth perception and wil be getting his own glasses soon. Since this is a genetic trait and it runs in siblings we will have to have Annika screened every 6 months till she is 3 to rule out any vision issues, and Madison will be checked again before school since she has yet to have a real full examination.
The good thing is that our kids have a positive spin (inherited from their dad) and the stresses of going from doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment really doesn't get to them. As long as mom keeps granola bars in the center console and everyone has a gameboy all is well. If only it were as easy for me....

I can still remember my first pet, it was a stray cat named loco. She kinda adopted us more than we adopted her. She loved hanging out at our house. She had long dark grey hair and emerald green eyes. We didn't really call her anything until a neighbor was walking by our house and noticed her in the window. She said that was her cat, and she was a outdoor only cat. She said she named it loco because every once in a while it would go through a hyperactive phase and her eyes would cross. We had a doggy door so she came and went as she pleased. She was a great cat, willing to be dressed up in cabbage patch clothes. Eventually she dissapeared. I like to think that she adopted another family. I also had a dog. She was a little black ball of fur. She had the body of a pekinese, and the head of a pomeranian...but she was cute. We called her smidge. She came to us when she was a little less than a year and was a loyal buddy to my dad till she was about 14 years old. She was a neat little pup.

Aaron grew up with two memorable dogs. One was named goliath, and rightly so. Goliath was a doberman, and a very sweet and gentle dog. Then there was biscuit. She was a large mix that looked like a lab, brittney spaniel mix. I remember when Aaron first heard that biscuit had to be put to sleep. It was rough on him, that had been his buddy since he was about 10. Three years ago Aaron's parents adopted a black lab/beagle mix. She has the low profile like a beagle, but looks like a lab. Her name is shadow and she is a sweet dog, kinda clumsy but still sweet.

about 3 years ago we felt that we needed some sort of a pet. We went to the county shelter and found an adorable little kitten. She was all grey with a little white at the tip of her tail. The kids named her peek a boo because she was looking out one of the holes in the card board carrier box that she came home in. She is now a lazy cat. She has the features of a Russian blue, but the body of a siamese. She eats like a lion, but is so skinny. She is a snuggler too and prefers me over anyone else. Last year we wanted to try our hand at a dog. We found a 5 month old Aussie Shepherd/border collie mix. She was crate trained, fully veted, and sweet as can be. We brought her home. Upon moving to our new home her instincts kicked in and she was "herding" the kids around the yard. Pushing them and nipping at them. Problem #1. Problem #2 came when the warm weather hit, she started to shed that long hair and it was every where! My allergies went into overload in no time. I was so misserable, and nothing seemed to help. Her nipping of the kids was becoming a big problem as well. She was not a snuggler either, she loved her crate more than us. We reserved ourselves to the fact that she needed to be a working dog on a farm, and found her a new home. It was hard, but we knew when the time was right.

Christmas was coming and I was getting very pregnant. Madison was wanting a baby of her own. We decided to get her a kitten for Christmas, and we were going to get the boys each a betta fish. Our neighbor found a little ball of fluff by her car tire after work one night but couldn't keep it. This 3 week old tortishell girl came to live with us. We had to hand feed her the first week. "Baby Milkshakes" is now a 6 month old breathing carpet. She is always laying around and right where you need to walk. Oh, the beta's...one was blue one was red. The blue one, named Shrek (Jake's fish) met an untimely fate when someone who shall remain nameless decided that the fish missed his family and flushed a healthy live beta down the tiolet. "Donkey" the red beta (Noah's fish) is still hanging on, and swims in circles when I enter the room.

Jake was understandable upset about Shrek. I felt bad that his first experience as a pet owner was so short lived. He talked about puppies all the time, but seeing as how I was expanding with child a puppy seemed inconvenient. In recent weeks he was even more persistant with the dog talk. He was making dogs out of lego's, they had a bed he make out of a basket and some paper towels, complete with lego bone and food dish. He walked his lego dog, fed his lego dog, lego's of course, and he would cry and bury his dog when it would die. The poor dogs were always killed when they would get flung by Noah shattering on our hardwood floors. I guess that is the down side to having a dog made of lego's. His 7th birthday came and he started getting cash in his cards. He said that he two things that he was going to get with his money. A darth vader mask for Noah's birthday, and his own dog. He had even been working around the house to earn money towards his new goals. We went online to see what kinds of dogs we could find and he feel in love with some puppies at a shelter in Indiana. On friday with money in had we drove Jake to Rising Sun Indiana and we feel in love with a 3 month old little lady. Sandy is a redish brown pup, with some black on her tail. Her mom was at the shelter and she was a large boxer/yellow lab mix. The people who turned the mom and her litter in guessed that the father was a german shepherd that lived on the block. Sandy is going to a large dog no doubt. She is so good to go to the door and let us know that she needs to go out, and only had one accident the day we brought her home. And luckily for me she is a short hair dog! She is still not sure about being in the crate alone at night, but seems to be trying to get used to it. She is so laid back and very sweet. Best of all she loves to snuggle and sleep at my feet. Jake makes sure she has food and water, and loves to take her outside.

So now I not only juggle this 6 member family but two cats, one fish and now one very sweet dog.

Jake has been known to come up with some of the most hillarious statements. He had once told me that dying eggs after Easter would be reduntant. He asked his grandpa if the burp he produced was "real or simulated?", but what he said during Sunday's dinner was #1 in my " top ten Favorite things that come out of Jake's mouth" list.

We were enjoying a meal of yummy marinated chicken fresh from the grill, potato salad, and green beans. Jake was eating all but his green beans. His grandma asked him if he liked green beans. Jake replied that he doesn't really like fruit. We giggled and Aaron told him that the green beans are actually a vegitable, not fruit. Jake must have been thinking hard a that point. He then said "Well I can't eat them, I'm lactose intolerant." I think it took a few minutes for us adults to stop laughing. Jake had put forth enough creative energy to not have to eat the green beans. But it reminded me of when I was his age. My grandmother would make dinner every night. She would set the table and call us in to eat. Now, there were these metal cups that she had and they were different colors, blue, red, green and gold. The insides were a silver color. She would pour my milk into the cup while she was still finishing up on the cooking, and getting the table ready. So it must have been there 10, maybe even 15 minutes before I even sat down. All the while the taste of the metal was collecting within my warming milk. I was not allowed to leave the table till I finished it, and being a kid I would hold out till the end before I would drink it. By this time it had to be room temp and tasted like liquid tin foil. As an adult I rarely ever drink milk, it drives my husband crazy. Bad I know...but when I do I feel nausious. I thougth at one time that maybe I was lactose intolerant...but I can eat cheese and ice cream. I think it was just a subconsious ick from my early milk days. I guess that is why I don't force my kids to clean thier plates or eat something (like green beans) if they have tried them and truly don't like them. I loved my grandma, and I know that she meant well. I smiled when I gave Jake his glass of strawberry milk this morning, his favorite. I tried a small glass with some of the chocolate syrup, not bad. Lactose intolerant we are not!

Anyone who knows us knows that we have the most intersting little 3 year old. Even people who don't know us know that his name is Noah... "Noah put that down, Noah sit down, Noah get back over here!" Or he just introduces himself to anyone and everyone. He is a very happy, friendly, busy and wild little man.

I was finishing up with getting Annika changed and ready for pajama's when I noticed a little shadow scamper from the boys room towards the bathroom. Noah has been increasingly doing better with his potty seat so I figured I would check in on him once I got Annika laid down. I heard the light flip on, and then I heard the clicking sound of the bathroom door lock. Our house will be turning 100 next year, the door is easily as old as the house. There is a small oval shaped deadbolt system that locks the old door. He started to cry when he realized that he had gotten his pants and the floor wet in his practice of potty independance. The cry turned into screams when he realized that he could not open the door. He never before had used this dead bolt like lock before. I tried to calm him down and talk him through it, to no avail. He screamed and banged on the door. He begged me to open the door. I looked around for ideas. The hinges are on the inside, so I can't take the door off. And I had a hunch that my 115 pounds would not be enough to open the door "NYPD Blue" style either. I called Aaron who talked to Noah via speaker phone, he would get him calm for a minute and then his frustration would grow again and he would scream. I called my in laws only to find that my father in law was in St Louis on business. He did call to offer advice...draw him a picture so he can see which knob to turn. That didn't work either. We were reaching to two hour mark of his intombment, I was heavily debating wether or not to call the fire department when my mother in law called to say that a friend of the family was going to be there with tools.
Mr. Bennett came in, assessed the door, and with a crowbar and rubber mallet in hand got Noah freed within a minute. There Noah stood stark naked in a puddle, face all blotchy from crying. He hugged his hero and let me get him all cleaned up and clothed.

As I looked at his peacful face while he slept that night I remembered another time he was locked up. He managed to press the lock button on the door in my van while climbing in. Windows rolled up and car keys in the ignition in my in laws drive way. He was much younger, barely 2 at the time. By random luck during his crying he managed to push the right button.

My son has many talents and he will be a great man some day. Call it a hunch but something tells me that Noah will not be a lock smith, or at least a successful one.
TLM