Isaiah's Broken Wrist

The Adventures never end at the Traben household!
Yesterday, during our Homeschool Gym class, which involves lots of kids skating around in roller skates, roller blades and scooters, Isaiah had a collision with a few other kids. I guess someone in front of him had fallen, and in order to not run over her, Isaiah braced himself and flipped over her on to the ground, bracing himself with his left hand, which he landed hard on. He was in immediate pain and we left the gym soon after. We took him to the Pediatrician last night, who seemed hopeful that his left arm/wrist was not broken...mainly because there was no bruising, no swelling and he seemed to be moving it fine. She sent us home and told us to wait a few days, see how things are or we could choose to do x-rays in the morning. With all the pain he was having, I decided to do the x-rays this morning.

Last night, poor Isaiah was in a lot of pain. He even took an Ibuprofin pill to get to sleep. If anyone knows my kids....they never take drugs of any kind...pretty much ever. So, the fact that he actually let me give him something made me think something was definitely wrong. When we went in for x-rays today, even the x-ray tech did not think anything was broken. Again...no swelling, no bruising, and he could move it pretty good. I was starting to wonder why I was the only one who thought it could be broken...but Moms can sense things about their kids...better than others. The dr was shocked to see that he had a buckle break...a very minor, but definite break. The good thing is that he only has to wear the cast for 3 weeks, versus the normal 6 weeks. We actually got into see a Pediatric Specialist this afternoon and they put a nice, blue cast on him. He will be able to get it off on March 21st...the first day of spring, and just in time for Baseball season. So, he is happy about that.

Little Artists

Kateri and Luanna have been having a lot of fun lately creating all sorts of works of art. We do a lot of arts, crafts, painting and drawing here at home, but they do love to go the the weekly Homeschool Co-op, where they create masterpieces. Here are the 2 cuties, with some of their latest projects. I am very impressed with Luanna's capabilities lately. Kateri has always been an artist...all my kids naturally are. But, when we adopted Luanna, she initially showed little interest in drawing, painting or art in general. Her attention span seemed to be very limited to much of anything, and I often wondered if she'd ever sit still and develop some interests. But, lately, she has picked up the interest in art as well. I am so proud of her! She sat at the art table at co-op last Tuesday for a whole HOUR and painted her glass vase (and glued jewels on it). She was the last child at the art table on Tuesday, silently painting her vase...which was just great. I was so happy to see that her attention span lasted the whole class...a full hour....just driven by doing her art project. She was very into the whole painting thing. Her vase (and Kateri's) now grace my China cabinet at home.

Photos from Jeremy's Bday

Here is a short slideshow of Jeremy's 9th birthday on Feb 17, 2008. If you notice the first photo of him in the slideshow, he is standing by our microwave clock, which read 11:10am...the exact time he was born on Feb 17, 1999! Jeremy was so cute...he wanted me to take a photo of him at his "exact birthday time".
Enjoy the slideshow!

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31 weeks 3 days

I am 31 weeks and 3 days pregnant! Very exciting and the time is flying. I am having fun with this pregnancy and thank goodness...I have been remaining healthy and strong. As I look back on my other pregnancy journals, this one seems to be one of my easiest yet. Let's hope it stays that way!

I've been getting some contractions in the evenings lately. They are not lasting too long, and each week they tend to get stronger and stronger, but I'm getting used to it. I am imagining it will stay this way until real labor hits in a few short weeks (about 8 weeks until due date!!)

I met with Pam, my midwife, today. She is an unbelievable person! Everyone who meets her knows she is very special. She is one of those people who just immediately bonds with you. She seems to have a special "third eye" as I call it and can often predict and know things about people, better than themselves. She seems to know when people will go into labor, what kind of birth they will have and manages to always get to wherever you need her to in time, despite having many homebirth clients. My appointments with her often last a few hours, as we sit, have tea and chat. It is so much different than my OB/GYN appts, which rush you in and out in 10 minutes or less...and on to the next patient. Pam takes her time with each person and really gets to know all of her homebirth clients. She is awesome. Homebirth is awesome! I'd never choose anything else after experiencing the best care from her.

Baby is doing great, is in the head down position, ready to come...hopefully waiting another couple months though. She estimates the baby is about 4-4 1/2 pounds now...a perfect size. Kateri and Luanna come with me to all my appts, and have fun playing with all the toys Pam sets up for them. Today, Luanna slept on Pam's couch during the appt (it happened to be her naptime I guess). Kateri helped Pam with the stethoscope and listened to Baby. Kateri has been insisting the baby is a boy, and so she said she wanted to help listen for her baby brother's heartbeat.

As far as names go...Ken and I have decided to put our feet down and stick with our initial naming decisions....to forego all the kids complaining and other names they've come up with. Ken and I are just basically tired of all the name debating amongst the boys....so now we're like, You know what...we've decided and that's it. No more decisions and debates on it. So, whether the boys like it or not, we are sticking with our initial name choices and that's it. The boys are not necesarily thrilled, but at this point, I don't care. It's not their choice to make and they were only confusing us more with too many options. So, it feels good to finally have made some real choices, to stick with our initial decision and to have both the boy and girl names set and ready to go.

Well, off to get some sleep, and try to rest while I still can.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Jeremy celebrated his 9th birthday this past weekend (Feb 17). Since Jeremy is such a big kid, I always tend to think of him as older than he is anyways...so turning 9 seemed about right. We celebrated with Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles on Sunday, with carot cake and soy ice cream. Jeremy received some nice gifts, such as Legos, a new baseball bat, a Webkinz and some great art stuff. I will post photos soon.

On another note, I think I have found Polly a new home! I had posted her through Rose's Rescue and received a couple applications on her fairly soon. I chose the one family, who had 3 kids. They seemed very nice and responsible and this would be their family's first dog. I took Polly to see them this weekend and they all fell in love. She is currently at their home and I am heading back to their house tomorrow to probably have them sign adoption papers. It's nice when a foster works out like this. Right now, the house seems so quiet with only 6 dogs (1 of them being an old, invalid 15 yr old pooch) and it's quite nice with the calmness for now. Once I have the baby in April and things get back to normal, perhaps we can foster more dogs again in the summer.

Two of my good friends, Terri and Pidge, told me today that they would like to plan a Blessingway for the baby and I. I am thrilled! For those who don't know what a Blessingway is....it is similar to a Baby Shower, but instead of focusing on gifts and party games, it really focuses on the mother getting blessings and good intentions for Baby. It is really more of a spiritual kind of event or baby shower. So, they are planning a mid-April Blessingway!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year was officially Feb 7th this year. We celebrated it at Homeschool Co-op last Tues, Feb 5th and again on Saturday, Feb 9th during Luanna & Kateri's Chinese classes. On Saturday, the girls even dressed up in their Chinese outfits to go to class. The kids made paper dragons, Chinese paper lanterns and Chinese symbols out of paper too. Here are some photos from our special celebrations of the Chinese New Year!
Gong Hay Fat Choy!


Jeremy with his paper dragon and paper lantern.


Oliver with his striped paper dragon.


Jeremy & Oliver with one of their co-op classes, after making Chinese crafts and reading books on the New Year.


Scene from the Chinese class on Saturday.


Luanna in class, with her red Chinese dress.


Luanna & Kateri after class.

Snow, snow, snow!

Well, we are having quite the blizzards here in Cleveland. I am not a snow lover...I am a summer baby and love my SUN! However, we have had a very rainy season lately. Our backyard was seriously flooded over the past few weeks. I was starting to get worried that it would ruin our yard, or even come into our basement. With 7 dogs in the house, a flood and mud in the backyard is terror! So, although I hate snow, it is a welcome reprieve from the rain. I would much rather have this snow building up in the backyard, freezing over the mud and water, than the alternative of rain. I was getting sick and tired of cleaning off muddy dog paws every time they went out. And, my dogs are always wanting to go outside to run and play. So, this works out well for us. Now, if we can only get some more warmth and sun, to dry up all this water, that will be best.

We had Homeschool Co-op today, and quite a large percentage of families called off. Some were sick, but many did not want to chance getting stuck driving out in a bad snowstorm. Luckily, I did not think the driving was too bad. Growing up in Cleveland has really toughened me to driving. I feel I can pretty much drive through any weather and not be too worried.

The kids had fun at co-op today and we all celebrated Valentine's Day. At lunch, the moms all brought in snacks....some healthy, but most were cookies, candy and brownies for the kids. The kids passed out Valentines and Jeremy was thrilled to get a big, home-made Valentine heart from one of his favorite girlfriends...although he'd never admit that to anyone. Isaiah and Jeremy love their Photography class and their teacher told me she thinks they both have a great eye for Photography. She wants to get some of their prints and have them enter some contest..I think she was talking about something like that. Oliver was cute as usual...excited to head out to his classes to pass out all his Valentines to his buddies. He is so independent. I hardly ever see him all day at co-op. He's like "Bye Mom!" in the AM, and I don't see him until the end of the day. He is easily the most social of all the kids. He hardly ever seems to need me for much of anything.

Kateri seemed especially clingy to me today and would not let me out of her sight, which is kind of unusual for her. I hope she is not coming down with something. I stayed with her in all the classes that I could, and in the ones I had to teach in, she stayed with me and refused to go to her class. Luanna was fine, and went to her classes like usual, although she often copies everything Kateri does (YES...it can be very bothersome!), so at one point, I had both of them clinging to me. Other than that, the kids had another enjoyable day at the co-op. I am exhausted though. Tuesdays are hardest for me, since I also work on Tuesday nights. So, I go right from co-op all day to home in the late afternoon, rush to make dinner, and then head out the door to work for the night...taking minutes at meetings for City Council. So, the meetings are over for tonight (it's 10:30pm) and hopefully I am off to bed now!