Coop's New Face

Here are two of the "Before pictures. See how big the gap is, and notice the bandaids on the face? We got used to those--they were for holding in his little retainer. Then see the after pictures. We'll post more as it heals. We got home from the hospital Thursday afternoon. Cooper seems to be doing okay--it just freaks him out a little to be breathing out of two tiny holes instead of one great big one, and he's congested besides. He's never experienced that before. Eating is a bit of a struggle. The stitches in his soft palate seem to bother him because he flinches pretty bad when he tries to swallow. But we've got pain killer and he seems to be more comfy every day.
So, he had three things done. The doc stitched up his lip and nose, put in a semi-permanent prosthetic hard palate, and did some fancy stitchwork in his soft palate to get it ready for his next surgery, probably when he is about one so he can learn to talk right.
Thanks everyone for your prayers and concern.

2 Grasshopper Shakes

We are back from our big break to visit my folks up in Montana. It was super fun to watch my parents play with my kids. I really wish they lived closer. My surreal moment came when I woke up from a (ahhhhhh....) long nap to realize that my kids were outside playing on the slip and slide with my PARENTS who ALSO had their suits on. The wind was blowing and Boston was a little scared of the whole thing. Leslie could have taken it or left it. But Grandpa and Grandma wanted to play! Boss was even riding down it on my Dad's back while Grandma held his hand. I don't remember EVER seeing my Dad in swimming trunks unless he was waterskiing at the lake. Not just driving the boat, but the rarity of actually having to get in the water. I had to take pictures to prove it to myself.
We had fun in the not-100degree weather, picnicking outside, seeing our new baby cousin Jaxon, and going to the state fair, but I think Boston was the highlight of the trip. He loves attention and was at his hilarious, "naughny" best for my Dad and "naughny" brother Jake. I told Mark that I was so glad we belonged to a family where mischievous boys are appreciated and admired. On the way up he was being a handful where we stopped for lunch and one of the employees, an older gentleman, came up to us afterward and said, "That one has a little extra sparkle in his eye, doesn't he?" He does for sure.
One afternoon he and Leslie and my Dad were playing outside and Boston noticed the "bees" sunbathing on the side of the shed. (They were grasshoppers, but he calls every bug bees.) He wanted to catch them and had no qualms about pinching them right off the wall (even though he's scared of the kitties). Grandpa then started sticking them down Boston's shirt, just to see Boss shake them out and laugh.
Now that we are home we are trying to reclaim our poor lawn and garden and are hoping for our basement to finally be finished. Next week maybe? It's very very close, but Mark informed me today that he is changing the color of our bathroom because he hates it so bad--he says it looks like a grasshopper milkshake with the mint green walls and black granite countertops. I don't know, it's got possibilities, but whatever. So now it might be a bit longer.
Cooper's surgery is Wednesday. We are excited and not really nervous except for his pain and for trying to feed him when he has stitches in his lip...but we know a lot of people are praying for us. We'll be sure to post some before and after picts when things get healed up.

The Lone Ranger

Mark is going to have a fun time this week with the boy scouts rafting down the Green River, somewhere by Moab. So I plan to spend my quiet evenings reading Harry Potter and actually keeping up on my email. (More likely I will be frantically trying to clean the house to prepare for my next day of husbandless horrors.) I told my Mom that I purposely programmed my telephone's ringer to play the William Tell Overture (the Lone Ranger theme song, for those of you who haven't been educated by my very cultured father) to make us all laugh when the phone rings at how chaotic our life is. Everything is done at breakneck speed and seems so desperate, and then the phone rings and it we all gallop to answer it (not really...). It helps me to keep my sense of humor instead of bawling. Actually, we've had a very good week. Our basement is almost done and the theater room is functional. Cooper slept through the night twice this week, we went boating with some friends, and the ward split and when the dust cleared, Mark had been called to be the new Ward Clark. (this is great. No campouts and he still gets to sit with the family during church. Well, Cooper is waking up--a good thing if I want him to sleep through the night again, so I'd better sign off.

Cooper's Big Day

We had a very busy weekend. Leslie was an acrobat in the Lehi Roundup Days parade. Our ward's float was "Oh what if I ran the Circus." Then late that night my Dad came to stay with us and had a great time running around with the kids in the backyard. Cooper was blessed the next day and tons of family were at our house. Then we attended a barbecue for lunch on the 4th and hosted a neighborhood barbecue for dinner. It was great! (It still doesn't quite beat getting to go boating on Cow Pie Beach, though.) As you can see from the top picture, Cooper gets to wear some fun things on his face. The fang-like prongs sticking out are part of an appliance that is pulling his gums closer together. We have to tape the straps to his cheeks. He also now gets to have tape across his lip opening to start stretching the skin to where it is supposed to be. His surgery is scheduled for August 15.

The Perfect Husband...

Attention all mothers of little girls under the age of two. I am raising the perfect husband for your little girl. Let me tell you why Boston has most of those typical "husband hangups" beat.
1. He loves to pick up socks. Especially when they are all nice and folded in a box on the shelf. He even will throw them, one by one, over the stairrail, just so he can have the joy of picking up one or two of them.
2. You won't catch him napping! Especially during church, on a Saturday afternoon when everyone else wants a nap, or anytime that I might need "help" with a big project I'm trying to get done.
3. No couch potato here. Boston would much rather be up and doing, or even hugging me (well, yes, around the legs) instead of calmly and quietly sitting in front of the tube while I cook dinner.
4. He has no problem admitting fault. Case in point: I was upstairs pumping (in other words, completely unavailable) when I hear breaking glass. As soon as I was done, I ran downstairs. There was Boston with an overturned flower pot and a broken plate on the kitchen floor. I said in a serious tone, "Ohhh. Look what you did." Boston gets a big smile, throws both hands up in the air and actually dances around the kitchen, jumping and shouting exultantly, "I DID it! I DID it!"
5. He loves to do yardwork. We really need a sandbox to distract him from the more adult chore of thinning vegetables in my growboxes.

There are several more excellent qualities that my son possesses, not the least of which is that he is handsome as the morning and very romantic. (He brings me flowers all the time.) Let me know if any of your daughters are interested. They don't even have to know how to cook. He hates food! How can you lose?

Leslie the Great

The dust is starting to settle around here (well, yes, literally....) and I am starting to feel slightly normal. You know, cooking dinner regularly, going for walks with my kangaroo pouch on, only waking up once in the night. So we decided to designate this Sunday as baby blessing day and are hosting a brunch at our house. Mark insists that I am not allowed to cook anything so I insisted that we must have atleast Krispy Kremes there to make it one notch up from the usual "Elder's Quorum help-someone-move" fare. Mark is hoping and praying that our basement will be done so he can show everyone his man cave, etc. They are finishing the painting today and the carpet, maybe tomorrow. We got brave on the paint colors, bright blue for the main areas and pale green in the bedrooms.
Then, to add to the insanity that we are piling on ourself, we decided we didn't want to be bored this 4th of July (I am of the opinion that any 4th of July without a motorboat or a rodeo is extremely boring. Montana trumps Utah on this one by far.) we are hosting a neighborhood barbecue in the backyard. Then Mark has this plan to sneak into this gated community in Pleasant Grove where all these castle-ish mansions are and watch their private fireworks show, supposedly better than the infamous Stadium of Fire. We'll see.
On Saturday Leslie is going to march/ride in the Lehi Roundup Days parade. Our ward has a float with a circus theme and she is going to be dressed like an acrobat. She has a great cape.

Beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful bo-oy...

My neighbor Ashley is a professional photographer. I had mentioned to her that I wanted some extra nice shots of Cooper for his baby pictures so he will like the way he looked even before his surgery. She was a doll and gave me a free photo session and the copyrights as a baby gift. Cooper's skin is pinking out nicely (bye bye jaundice). His eyes are turning a very pretty dark blue and his hair is quite brown. Maybe we'll have a little brunette in the family? I think he looks great but Boston still calls him "Cuckoo". That's no big deal, though. He calls Leslie "yeh-yes." It's really funny when he says, "NO, Yeh-yes!" He was pretty panicked the other day when I took all three kids shopping for the first time. I put Cooper in first and took Cooper out first, usually Boston's order. Boss was hollering at me, "Me mEE! Me MEEE!" like he thought I was forgetting him in the car. It was pretty funny.

The Dog, the Goose, and the Turnips

Monday was my first full day alone and without help. (Leslie indignantly reminds me that she was helping!!) It wasn't too bad. Everyone that needed a nap got one, including me. I even did the family home evening lesson. I realized, however, that for the next while my life is going to be like that old crossing the river riddle. You know, the one with the farmer who has only one rowboat and has to cross the river with his dog, his goose, and his vegetables that he is taking to the market. He can't leave the dog with the goose or the goose with the vegetables, etc. Well, those are my kids right now. Except in my analogy the vegetables are also noisy. It's been pretty comical. I haven't decided which one Boston is, the goose maybe? I tried leaving him by himself and while he was alone he pulled one of the electrical sockets out of the wall by the nightlight that was plugged into it. He loves to do this "shock and awe" attack where he runs up and thumps the baby's feet while I'm feeding him and then runs away before I can yell at him. And I kept finding army toys he had thrown down into the pack and play for the baby. Great. He calls them his "guys". Uncle Duke, who is living in Provo for the summer, got them for him the other day. He's got my house all figured out. He walks in, shows the kids the toys, and says, "Let's go open them in the Red Room so we don't have to clean up the mess!" All in all, though, my house has stayed pretty clean, even with the new arrival. Thanks to my mom, mostly.
Cooper had his consultation at Primary Children's. His first surgery will be in August, fixing his lip. Then they'll do the soft palate next spring and the hard palate between 2 and 3. He'll have to wear a retainer-type appliance most of thissummer that helps move his palate together a little. It will look bad because it will be taped to his cheeks, but hopefully Cooper will enjoy it. (I hear most babies suck on them like binkies, so that's encouraging...Cooper loves the binky but we have to hold it in his mouth for him. This retainer may just be a version of what Mark has mentioned to me several times with our other kids--a binky with duct tape.) Right now Cooper only has one binky--those green hospital ones are supposed to be the easiest for him and of course, they were all sold out at WalMart--this IS Utah County, you know. So...if anyone is running errands and happens to notice that they've restocked, pick us up a few more.

Super Cooper

Yes, our baby is here. Early hours Friday morning Mark took me to the hospital with some pretty strong contractions. They measured me at a three and a half and told me I had one hour to progress. The pressure was on! So we walked and walked. And nothing happened. So they gave me some drugs to sleep and sent us home. The contractions were still coming strong the next morning. I got breakfast in bed and then went to my already scheduled checkup after lunch. The nurse noted that my blood pressure was up and said, matter of factly, well, it's because you are laboring. The doctor came in, measured me at a five, and told me to just mosey across the street to the hospital so he could break my water. I progressed pretty fast after that, pushed for about five or ten minutes and out came Cooper! Everyone was guessing his weight...8lbs 6? 8 lbs 14? Nope! Nine lbs even. And believe it or not, I feel like I'm recovering more quickly than with my other midget babies. (8lbs 8 and 8lbs 10.)
Cooper has a cleft lip and cleft palate on the left side. We knew about the lip for sure from the ultrasound, but were waiting to see if his palate would be intact. Well, it's not, so he can't breastfeed, but I'm starting to get into the groove of this bottle thing and enjoying the freedom and flexibility of not being his "sole provider". Mark used to say that when he tried to take care of Leslie screaming in the night, he felt like he was going to war without a gun. Well, no more excuses for him! And I get to walk around and give orders while feeding the baby at the same time. One difficult change, though, is that I have to use both hands. I tried to eat one of these gourmet chocolate chip cookies that my VTs brought me while I was feeding Cooper today, and the poor baby got crumbs all over his head. My chin holding the bottle upright was just not working well.
We'll be meeting with Cooper's surgery team at Primary Children's Hospital soon. So far we think he will probably have his first surgery, repairing the lip, at about 9 weeks, hopefully that soon because he is a big baby and eating well. Then the palate repairs will start a few months after that. I think he will look alot like Mark when all is said and done.
Cooper has been very well behaved so far--no turning blue from screaming like Boston did or howling all night like Leslie. His biggest problem is staying awake while eating.
Leslie LOVES getting to hold the baby and has been a huge help already--Cooper seems very comfy in her arms. Boston loves the baby but has to do so from a distance. (yeah. He tried to bean him with a windshield scraper yesterday. We've been telling him there's a new sheriff in town, but we didn't think he'd be ready for the showdown quite so soon...)
I'm feeling great and both Mark and I really appreciate all the offers of help we've been getting. Thanks so much!

Jackie the slow-cooker

I'm feeling a little like a crock pot. I'm hot all the time and it's taking forever for this kid to get done. Yes, I know that technically I have ten days left. And I know that with my third child, I know better than to believe the doctor when he says I'm dilated to a three on Friday (many women already have their epidurals by then) and should be in labor any minute. Ha. I'm related to my mother. Heck, with Boston, I spoke in church with contractions ten minutes apart and they still had to induce me 2 weeks later. Oh well. Other than that and the newly developed carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand, im feeling great. I had several people ask me yesterday how I was feeling and that I must be pretty miserable, etc., but honestly I still feel great. I' m even sleeping well, albeit, with no covers and a fan going on full blast. I even planted my garden Saturday and have the sore hamstrings to show for it.
Mark spoiled me good for mothers' day. As always. He had a maid service come and do floors and bathrooms for me on Friday. (NOT that they needed it--like I said, I've felt pretty good! However, with the contractions and the fumes and the carpal tunnel, it was pretty easy not to feel guilty about letting someone else clean my house. Plus, he warned me a week in advance not to clean anything--just let it get dirty.)
Then Sunday morning when we woke up he says, with a hint of a groan in his voice, "So. Whaddaya want for breakfast?" I just laughed and said, "How about YOU feed the kids and I'll just get my own breakfast." It was great. He didn't have to break a sweat and I got to finish my cereal before it got soggy. Then for lunch I got just what I wanted, leftover spinach pie and leftover chocolate cake. He fed the kids leftover pizza. Everyone was happy.
This morning's breakfast was also funny. You know that Bill Cosby segment that goes, "Dad is great! Gives us chocolate cake!" Well, Boston and I were up early and had already eaten. Mark is getting a cold and slept in with a Nyquil hangover. I had French Toast stuff downstairs waiting for him. I go back upstairs to start the laundry and I hear Boston downstairs wailing at Mark, "Biiiiiiite! Biiiiiiite!" Mark didn't seem to be figuring out what Boss wanted, so I hollered over the stairrail in exasperation, "He's saying, "Bite!" Give him a bite of what you're eating!" No reply. "Biiiiite!" So I asked again, "Mark, what are you eating?" Pause. Pause. Pause.
"cake."

American MIdol?

Tuesdays are always a good day because I have a little extra help with my current parenting challenge: How to teach a very intelligent and extremely chatty six year old girl to talk and do at the same time. I can always interrupt her mid sentence (or shall I say novel) and say, if you don't get ..... done before dinner, no American Idol for you. Works like a charm. (Any other suggestions for teaching this skill are welcome.) I swear, that kid LOVES the show. We haven't let her vote for her favorite or anything, I don't know, maybe we will for the finale, but she has commentary on each singer (down to the modesty of their clothes), and knows their names from clear when they were doing the tryouts. She wants all the boys out of the game so only a girl could win. I don't think she has a favorite right now, as long as the winner is a girl. Very typical. The first thing she tells me when they get a new kid in class is whether or not there are more boys than girls now. She is excited for the new baby to come and helped me pack my hospital bag today. She couldn't believe how tiny the clothes are that we put in for the baby.

Boston got to be outside alot today, his favorite thing, so he is a little pink. He was cracking me up this morning. I was trying to get breakfast dishes done and he was standing at the top of the stairs yelling, "Mooomm! Baaaffff! Mooommmm! Baaaffff!" for about ten minutes solid. Then once he's finally in the bath he's in there for like, three minutes and he's done. Whatever. Today has been challenging for Mark, who works at home on Tuesdays, because Boston has figured out that he can ram open the double office doors. We had to put a chair in the way. I'm pretty sure he won't be going through the calling his dad "that guy" stage with Mark like Leslie did. He also just reminded me, all in a panic, that the microwave beeped, so I'd better sign off.

Barefoot and pregnant...

Everyone has been asking how I'm feeling. I usually reply, "Fat, but otherwise fine." We were at dinner with our friends Matt and Heather last night and Heather, motioning at my obvious "outy" that shows no matter what I put on, asked me if my turkey thermometer had popped. I just had to laugh. The thermometer's messed up; this kid still has three weeks to cook. I suppose we're ready but I know well enough by child number three that it's easier to take care of a baby when they are still inside. Quieter for sure. So I'm enjoing every minute of this last month. I'm helping with Leslie's big field trip on Wednesday to the Thanksgiving Point Farm Country and I get to take Boston. I'm glad I'm doing this with a single stroller instead of a double. It should be fun and Leslie tells everyone we talk to that she gets to go. Do you think she's excited?
A Leslie note: She's been having a bout of toothaches/mouthaches from double canker sores/double six year molars growing in at the same time and informed me that she thought she was getting her wizard teeth. She also had a comment about weddings with all the goings on of Brooke and Jared's wedding on Friday. We were getting ready for a different reception and she didn't want to have to wear a dress. I told her she had to and especially because she had holy jeans on. She said. "Oh. So we can't wear clothes with holes in them to wedding stuff. (Pause) Unless we're in Montana!" No idea where she got that, but I laughed pretty hard.