No Baby's

Newly posted on Tori's bedroom door...

Understandable. Especially after finding Adrion dunking his blanket into the potty this morning. :) Ewwww!!

Earrings

I love earrings. At present, I have three holes in each ear, and a couple of different times in the past I've had cartilege piercings too that I've let go. I just wanted to preface this post by saying clearly that I love earrings! :)

So now that that's clear, Tori is turning 7 in April, and I can't wait for her to get her ears pierced. I wanted the choice to be hers, so until now I have not pushed it. Well, in the past month or two, she has decided she wants earrings. I am (actually, as you'll soon see that's all past tense now, so was) way excited. I guess that was another preface. Now for the story...

Yesterday, my sister showed up at my house wanting to go play in NW Arkansas for the day. So, we loaded ourselves and our four children up for a road trip. We had an awesome lunch at Noodles, then headed even more northward to the new Promenade Mall in Bentonville. On the way, I asked, "Tori, do you want to get your ears done today?" Without hesitation, she said, "Yep." Just like that. No emotion. I said, "Are you sure?" Again, Tori says just "yep".

At the second "yep" my heart leapt. YAY! I was so pumped! Candace had also promised Lauren that she could have her ears pierced for her birthday this year (she's been begging), so Candace called her husband and asked if Lauren could have an early birthday present. Lauren, too, got the go ahead, so we set out for an Icing or a Claire's.

We found Icing immediately, and Tori went first. She picked out her adorable pink flowers, and hopped up in the chair. She got dotted with the purple pen, and then...she freaked out. In the past year Tori has had an IV for an MRI and she just had shots in her mouth to numb it for the dental visit where four teeth were pulled. In both of those situations she didn't flinch. But she was absolutely freaking out about getting pierced. So, down out of the chair she came. Then, it was Lauren's turn, and now she was a little freaked, too. Good-bye, Icing.

As soon as we'd left, Lauren tells her mom she can do it. Like I said, she's been begging, and she wasn't letting the opportunity pass. We felt like the Icing lady was irritated with us, so we found Claire's. This time, Lauren was first, and she was a trooper. We told her on the sly not to cry so Tori would do it, too, and she didn't. She was awesome. So now Tori's turn? Heck no.

We were so proud of Lauren, but her success was very anti-climactic since Tori started the whole thing in the first place. Candace and I were sad. We were disappointed. We were bummed. We tried bribery--cookies? Candy? (Tori is usually completely driven by her desire for sugar.) Nope. We found a store full of Groovy Girls. Tori has two Groovy Girl ponies, but no Groovy Girls. So...a Groovy Girl? Nope. Then, Tori starts trying to bargain. "Mom, listen. How 'bout a Groovy Girl with no ears pierced." Nope. Not the deal. Tori says, "Don't worry, Mom. I'll get my ears pierced when I'm eight." I am all about seizing the day and instant gratification, so I was not placated.

Anyway, Candace and I were in major need of coffee, so we next ended up in Fayetteville looking for a Starbucks. The whole time, we were trying every form of coersion we could think of to get Tori to try once more. Finally, she says "okay". Again, no emotion. Candace and I gave eachother a sideways look of disbelief and said, "Really?" Here we go again. "Yep."

We jumped on it. Up to the mall we went, and we hit the jackpot this time. Three girls were working, so Tori could get both done at the same time. Tori hopped right up there and chatted the girl up. "Hi, I'm Tori...." followed by the usual monologue of introduction that she gives. The girls are thinking she's so cute, and then literally one second from being pierced, she freaks, jerks away, and it's over. She actually even has a scratch on her ear where they were so close. I talked and talked and talked to her trying my advanced coersion skills yet again (yeah right), but she was done. Meanwhile, people in the mall are looking at me like, "This lady is psycho." And I probably was a little bit for a minute there. But after that third attempt, I knew that I had given it the most valiant effort I could, and I gave up.

I've now told Tori that I won't ask her again. We will not go back until she drags ME kicking and screaming. When I told Garon, he said in his mellow, so-be-it-way, "It's okay. We can't make her be what we want her to." Yep. So true. I guess I'm payin' fer my raisin'. Geez, all of that said, I'm off to clean the house and get ready to take Tori to ballet.

Eli

Well, I haven't blogged in awhile, and since my last, Tori has had four teeth pulled, the Charlotte's Web performances have come and gone (very successfully! I'm so proud of my students!), and Tori and I are on Spring Break! Yay! But, I'm blogging today for my nephew, Eli. I wrote the following article for our local papers, and I wanted to post it here, too...

Team Eli Murray Fights for Cure

My Testimony:
Three and a half years ago, God blessed our family with my nephew, Eli. My sister, Candace, had had a healthy, uneventful pregnancy except for one slightly abnormal ultrasound showing a possible abdominal obstruction. But the doctor was not worried and told her and Bill, my brother-in-law, that when Eli was born, they would do another ultrasound on his belly to make sure everything was okay.

So Eli was born. He came 9 days early weighing 6+ pounds and appeared completely healthy. Eli did have heavy meconium (when the baby has bowel movements in its amniotic fluid), and the doctor had to immediately suction him to make sure he hadn’t ingested any of that fluid, but all else was fine. When Candace and Bill asked about the ultrasound, the pediatrician who first evaluated Eli said it was unnecessary and that they had a healthy little boy. So home they went.

But something was not right. I think we all knew and suspected that Eli had something wrong, but no one really talked about it. Speaking those fears out loud was too scary. But Eli was not gaining weight, and he was becoming almost unresponsive, sleeping all the time. Candace is an RN, and she started researching. Her research led her to suspect Cystic Fibrosis. I then did some research, too, and found out that people with CF taste salty. The next time I saw Eli, I snuck a taste, and there was no doubt.

At two months of age, Eli’s little body looked like the pictures we see of malnutritioned children in third-world countries--his arms and legs looked completely emaciated, and his belly looked swollen. At his two-month check-up, he was sent for testing and we could no longer not talk about our fears. Eli had CF.

So what is cystic fibrosis?
Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening disease that causes mucus to build up and clog some of the organs in the body, particularly in the lungs and pancreas. This makes breathing difficult, and the thick mucus also causes bacteria to get stuck in the airways, which causes infections that lead to lung damage. The mucus also stops digestive enzymes from getting to the intestines. The body needs these enzymes to break down food, so people with CF become malnutritioned.

How do people get cystic fibrosis?
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease. To have cystic fibrosis, a person must inherit two copies of the defective CF gene—one copy from each parent. If both parents are carriers of the CF gene their child will have a 25% chance of inheriting both defective copies and having cystic fibrosis.

Who gets cystic fibrosis?
Approximately 30,000 people in the United States have cystic fibrosis. One in every 31 Americans are carriers of the defective CF gene.

Is cystic fibrosis fatal?
Currently, there is no cure for cystic fibrosis. The average lifespan of a person with CF is 30-40 years.

Eli needs your help!
“Great Strides” is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s yearly fundraiser to raise money for research to find a cure. Here’s how you can help!

• Donate online at www.cff.org/great_strides/candacemurray


• Donations can be made at Simmons Bank in Charleston or Ozark.


• Donations can be made at County Line Schools.


• An Easter Bunny picture session will be held at Vesta Methodist Church on April 4th starting at 9 am. Pictures are $2.50 per child. Breakfast and an egg hunt are also included in the price. All proceeds will go to the fundraiser.

Big Boy

First time with a fork, and he's already a pro! And he would NOT let me help at all!

Tori-isms

Just wanted to share a couple unique Tori moments...

The first happened yesterday. Tori was at Drama to pick her up for dance. I told her she needed to change into her ballet clothes. My students were in my classroom with me when Tori hollers from the doorway..."Mom, get my pants!" All we could see was her arm sticking through the doorway holding her pants.

Needless to say, my students were cracking up as I hurried to shut the door to preserve Tori's privacy. Tori had decided to change clothes right there in the middle of the hallway behind my door. By the time I got to her, she was naked except for her panties struggling into her tights. Oh-my-gosh. Yes, it was hilarious, but she's turning 7 in April! That's just an example of an every day Tori moment. We have just had to explicitly teach Tori to deal socially. Obviously we've got a ways to go in the modesty department!!

And one more...Tori's teacher told me about this one today. Tori was asked to transfer info from one paper to another. Her teacher told her to "copy this". All of a sudden Tori was missing from class. When Mrs. Wibbing found her, she had taken the paper to the office to "copy" it. You've gotta be careful how you phrase things with Tor 'cuz she takes everything totally literally. :)

Teeth

Tori still has not lost that wiggly tooth. But, Tuesday as we were driving to school, Tori said, "Mom, my tooth is coming out!" I was all stressed out thinking, "Oh my gosh, I need to pull over...There's going to be blood" and "What if she swallows it..." I decided to chill out and wait to see what happened. Well, thankfully we made it to school without any incidents of blood or choking and I immediately looked in her mouth....And I was shocked. Here's what I saw, and my reaction was something like, "My kid's a freak!" I guess the new tooth felt weird, and that's why she was falsely reporting the loss...

I proceeded to seek the opinions of several of my co-workers, and none had ever seen this. So, I looked on the net. Evidently, it's not so uncommon, and several kids get rows of "shark teeth". :) I did make an appointment though with her dentist tomorrow to make sure nothing needs to be done. If you look closely, you can also see one of the three molars that are coming in, too. Wow! Those teeth all just came out of nowhere!

Adrion also has five teeth now. I didn't want to leave him out since he's got lots of tooth things going on, too, so here's me trying to get the shot and then getting a semi-successful shot of half of a mad baby mouth...

Yeah, and there's a nice shot of a boogey, too. :)

Charlotte's Web

So I started a drama club for my middle schoolers this year...for the first semester of school, we met once a week with a goal of performing before Christmas. Well, we soon found that once a week was not enough, we should have started with a shorter play, and we'd have to postpone.

We are now scheduled to perform in about 3 weeks. I am still doubtful that we'll be totally ready, but we're performing no matter what this time! This experience has definitely been a learning one. I hope the Music and Art teachers will be involved next year, too...(I am so thankful for Christie and all of her help this year though! I should also mention that Mr. Core was going to help, too, and I'm very sad that he's gone. He is very missed...He had such an active ministry with so many children...)

Anyway, I digress! So Charlotte's Web is back on! Get ready, because stars are about to be born!