Author: lilydarais

On Friday Mary was absolutely perfect for her surgery. All of the nurses wanted to take her home. Just as last time, she did not cry at all when she woke up, and she was very sweet and polite to everyone at the hospital.

Abe took work off in the morning to accompany her to her surgery because no other children were allowed to come. I stayed home with the other kids and was so thankful when Abe called and said everything had gone perfectly.

The surgeon hypothesized that Mary’s ovary has been in the wrong place since birth. He said her ovary got confused and thought it was a testicle so it dropped down like a testicle does, only there was no space for it to drop so it got caught in a hernia. Interesting.

Meanwhile, at home, I had the scare of my life. I was putting down Clarissa, even though I knew I should have put Ammon down for his nap first. But he is so daunting to put down and Clarissa cries when I leave her, so I made the poor decision to let Ammon play downstairs while I put Clarissa down. He had never to that point played with knives so I didn’t think it would occur to him to do so while I was upstairs.

When I got downstairs, my heart almost stopped beating. I found Ammon sitting on top of the kitchen counter, one leg swinging happily over the edge, while in his hands were my sharp kitchen shears. In front of him was an apple that had been stabbed repeatedly with a very sharp paring knife. The knife was stuck in the apple, and its handle was covered in avocado. Apparently Ammon had smashed a bunch of avocados in between stabbing the apple with a knife.

When he saw me, Ammon immediately got a guilty look on his face. I could barely breathe and immediately grabbed all of the sharp objects, removed them, and stripped Ammon out of his avocado smeared clothes. Then I changed his diaper and examined every inch of his body to see if there were any cuts.

No cuts.

At that point, I started hyperventilating and Ammon’s lip trembled and his eyes filled with tears. He felt remorse or guilt or something abnormal, which was sort of comforting, I guess.

After I put him down for his nap, I crawled into bed and covered my head with the blankets. I felt like the worst mom in the world and I had trouble catching my breath.

Once I got myself under control, I remembered that in the morning I had prayed and asked God to show me His hand today. It occurred to me that the fact that Ammon had not fallen off the counter and stabbed himself was a miracle, and that the fact that he had no cuts whatsoever was even just as miraculous. God showed me twice today that my family is in His protective hands. Mary’s surgery went perfectly and Ammon is unharmed. I feel comforted knowing God is looking after us.

At the same time, I have learned that I can’t take my eyes off of Ammon while he is awake. That is extremely depressing and logistically tricky, especially since Ammon is hyperactive and Clarissa needs me to be still and nurse her so much.

This is a hard stage of motherhood.

Thursday was the ward Christmas party. I sewed two basic costumes for the girls on Wednesday, and the girls looked so cute! They were Nephites witnessing Samuel the Lamanite’s prophesy about Jesus’s birth. On the other end of the gym there were kids acting out the Nativity, and the spotlight changed from end to end.

We were a little late to the party because I had my physical therapy, but we enjoyed it.

Mary has been lighting the world all of December. No one asked her to light the world, but we did have an FHE lesson about what the light the world program is, and Mary just decided she was going to light the world herself. So all month she has been quietly picking up messes, bringing things to people, and trying hard to be kind to her brother and sisters. She has gone out of her way to share, to write sweet notes to people, and to control her temper. Piano practices have been so much easier, and I just want it on record that Mary’s best self has been on full display all month long. She is such a treasure, and we are so grateful that she is in our family.

Over Thanksgiving before Mary’s bath, Swathi noticed a slight bulge by Mary’s pubic bone. It was so slight that I had never noticed it, but Swathi was confident we should get it checked out.

On Thursday I took Mary to the doctor, and he recommended we have a surgeon look at the lump. The doctor thought it was a hernia, but it was behaving oddly so he wanted the surgeon’s recommendation.

Today the surgeon felt the lump and concluded that Mary’s ovary had slipped up into a hernia behind her pubic bone. He recommended surgery this Friday.

We are so, SO grateful to Swathi, without whom we would never have noticed this. Also, it’s Swathi’s birthday today. We are incredibly glad she’s alive and that we are the lucky family who gets to have her in it!!

Also, as an aside, Ammon destroyed the doctor’s office. We were cooped up in it for an hour, during which Ammon went bananas. The nurses kept bringing us snacks and toys, but when the doctor was actually talking to me, Ammon started tearing stuff off of the walls. The doctor commented that I had a troublemaker on my hands and the nurse whisked Ammon out because she feared he would injure himself. I was half crazed trying to control Ammon but make sure I heard everything the doctor was telling me about Mary. It was a crazy appointment.

On Monday while the girls were at ballet, I sat down to feed Clarissa. To my surprise, Ammon sat down at the table with one of the tree ornaments. He proceeded to spend twenty minutes hacking it to bits. I figure the ornament is decades old and worth maybe a nickel. Would I pay a nickel to keep Ammon sitting where I can see him for twenty minutes? Yes. Yes, I would.

After this he proceeded to carol to me for another twenty minutes. I should have been cleaning and cooking dinner, but I just enjoyed sitting there watching him so much. He would fold his hands in front of him as they do in Sound of Music, and he would sing a carol to me before climbing onto a chair and clapping for himself. It was adorable.

It was also kind of amazing to discover how few words he actually knows. I feel like I communicate with him all day, but his vocabulary gaps were very apparent during this exercise. He only knows one or two words from each song, and the rest he has to hum.

After caroling, Ammon snuggled on the house and asked (with his limited vocabulary) to hold Clarissa. I held her in his lap while he giggled and pointed out all of the different body parts he knows. She kept grabbing his ear and cheek, and he would laugh before telling her “nooo!”. She, of course, didn’t understand, and so she kept at it until Ammon finally asked me to take her back.

It was such a delightful evening.

On Sunday in Relief Society we had a lesson on the temple. It made me think I should go more often, but the logistics at this time are kind of complicated. Clarissa attached herself to me all day long, and it’s hard to be apart from her for longer than an hour. But I suppose if Abe and I can figure out a way to go to Mexico, then I can figure out a way to go to the temple.

After church we had a visit from our home teacher, Josh. After his visit we had spaghetti and a tofurkey roast for dinner. I’ve had it in the freezer since last Thanksgiving, and we decided to finally give it a try. It was delicious! I still like real turkey better, but I also love tofurkey. It was fun to eat it as a roast.

For FHE my mom told us stories about my great grandparents on her father’s side. Then she quizzed the girls about the stories. It was good to learn about them because she has their pictures hanging in her room, and the girls see the pictures all the time. Now they know some stories to go with the pictures.

On Saturday we had breakfast with Clark and Soren before they left to go home. We were so sad to see them go! It was such a wonderful visit, and I felt it was the first time I got to spend really quality time with Soren. We miss them, but we know they were happy to see Swathi again. Soren said, “I’m going to see my mom, but I’ll be back again soon, okay?” He was so cute.

After breakfast Abe instituted Saturday chores. The girls worked to clean their rooms and the basement while the rest of us worked on the other parts of the house. I folded some more laundry and put it away.

As soon as chores were done, Lydia practiced her harp until it was time to go to her recital. She tends to freeze up in recitals, so she played the piece perfectly many times at home as preparation for the sure-to-come brain freeze.

Then we headed over to Lydia’s recital. She did a wonderful job playing Silent Night and powered through her memory slips. I enjoy harp recitals. They are  beautiful and soothing, and everyone played Christmas pieces in this one. We felt very Christmasy.

After the recital, Mary practiced her piano until it was time for Abe to take Lydia and Mary to Coco. I stayed home and did laundry, which is honestly what I preferred to be doing. It felt so peaceful to have Ammon and Clarissa napping while I got on top of the laundry. Abe and the girls had a wonderful time, too.

 

On Friday we went to the Museum of Ancient Life in the morning. Ammon basically ran through it until he reached the play area. There he ate a lot of water and germy sand while playing with the toy dinos. It was so wonderful to have Clark there to chase Ammon. Clark noted that the first thing Ammon does in a new setting is look for an exit and make a bolt for it. Soren, on the other hand, sticks close to adults and comes wherever Clark tells him to come. Soren is a Llamzon/Namburi, and Ammon is a Darais, or at least has a LOT of Abe in him.

After the museum, we came home for naps before heading out again to Mary’s Christmas in the Village. It is an open house at her school. They had dinner, over two thousand gorgeous cookies, Santa, a craft, and caroling by the kids every thirty minutes.

After the open house, we headed home only to split up again. Two babysitters came while Lydia and I headed to her school concert, Abe and Mary went on a sushi making date with his Qualtrics friends, and my mom and Clark went to the movies to see Coco.

Lydia was absolutely gorgeous and did a wonderful job singing at her concert. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my phone and didn’t get any pictures. That was really disappointing, but I am hoping to get some from fellow parents and then amend this post. I love getting one-on-one time with Lydia, and I enjoyed every minute of watching her sing.

Abe and Mary had a great time at sushi. Mary gets a little shy around lots of grown-ups because everyone inevitably comments on how cute her glasses are. Afterward she told me that she wishes she didn’t have glasses because all of the comments about them make her feel shy. She also said people laughed at her. I explained that grown-ups laugh when children delight them, and I hope she understood.

My mom and Clark enjoyed Coco. Actually, it is now one of my mom’s most favorite movies ever, and so I think she really really enjoyed it.

It was a full Friday!

I love these two boys! They are so cute playing together. I had fun reading to them today.

On Tuesday we had a full morning at home. I baked cookies with the boys, practiced with Mary, read to the kids, nursed and changed Clarissa a bunch, and tried to nap with Clarissa. In the afternoon we had the homework rush followed by playing and tacos for dinner.

After the kids were all in bed, Abe, Clarissa and I went to Carolyn Blosil’s first flip and fix house, and we enjoyed the tour. We love the Blosils and always feel uplifted by their wonderful spirits. We are hoping that Jenn is able to nanny our kids in January when Abe and I go to Mexico. Fingers crossed!!!