Differences

So this weekend it became more clear to me how a second child may be treated differently than the first child.

Emily has been a bear. Not the cute cuddly bear that normally comes to mind, that hops around playing and frolicking with his brothers and sisters. No, this is the bear that you only see on National Geographic at 1am, titled "When Cute Bears Go Nuts 3", mauling small woodland creatures, trees, cameramen, narrators, etc. Jenn can attest to this, probably more than I can. To Emily's defense, she is teething. She teethes a lot.

Anyway, based on this behavior, this weekend we came to the conclusion that if Emily is not doing anything harmful or dangerous (lighting indoor objects on fire, mauling small woodland creatures, etc.), then we leave well enough alone. She was walking that fine and quite invisible line between happy and crying uncontrollably.

So this brings me to Saturday lunch-time, when Jenn made yummy Hebrew National hotdogs, and sliced strawberries. Emily's plate had bite-sized hotdog slices, strawberries, and ketchup, separated nicely into three distinct sections, although without any formal barricades enforcing segregation.

Emily ate her hotdogs, and then started eating her strawberries. Through inevitable movements of the plate during lunch, some of the strawberry pieces moved dangerously close to the pile of ketchup. Emily noticed this, and with a keen sense of wonder, decided to dip her strawberries in her ketchup. I quickly said "Emily.....no, don't do that. Yucky." She shook her head "no", and smiled cutely, in the same way a hungry bear might say "no, I promise not to eat you" to a big fat pig. She then proceeded to use her wonder-twin powers to magically morph her fingers into a mixer, and completely slather all the strawberries in all the ketchup. And with a couple fists full of this mess, she ate her ketchup-coated strawberries, every last one.

Now, the difference between first child and second child. If this was Caleb, I would have surely stopped him from making this horrible mistake in judgement, saving his tongue from such a brew of disgustingness. But this was chid #2, and my reaction, though still disgusted by her choice in flavor, was to sit back and say with a completely straight face, "Go for it."

This is where it starts. If the second child wants to eat ketchup and strawberries, let it be. But I can unequivocally say, if Caleb did the same thing this past Saturday, he'd be in timeout...... after a good hand-washing, of course.

Hellos, and goodbyes

Our flight couldn't have gone any better. The only tricky part was keeping food and water in supply, since I usually eat little bits all day. We landed in Buffalo at 1 am Friday morning, to warm, balmy weather, and so did all of our luggage. We couldn't have been luckier.

The sad news is that I had to put Hunny to sleep on Saturday night. I'm sorry, but I can't go into details. It's just killing me. I was just able to say hello again! I was able to stay with her when they did it. It was the right decision, but it doesn't make it any easier. I'm heartbroken.

We have a busy week ahead of us. We go to Rochester on Wednesday to fill out forms at ta few places, and we will hopefully have a car within a few days. I'll get back to everyone soon.

Ice Cream ending

John and Kris! So glad you're on your way home.. or are you home now? I'm confused by the time thing. Anyway, we wish we could be in Rochester to greet you. Jenn, I'm so glad Emily is sleeping well. What a blessing sleep is!! Anna has been sicky all week with a fever. One of her therapists called and said a little boy who was in the clinic before Anna was diagnosed with Foot and Mouth. I promptly took her to the doctor and they said she was ok, just a common virus. Apparently foot and mouth is common in the summer too. (For all of you moms panicking now the symptoms are fever and blisters at the back of the throat.)

We're making plans to move again! No more smoky neighbors for me thank you. We have our eye on a lot in South Portland but there are problems with the sewer/water main not extending to the drive way. House hunting is so stressful. Mostly stress and a little fun. We will be either building a home with an in-law flat for Nate's parents or adding a flat onto an existing home. Nate and I are having fun dreaming of alternative energy sources. We're looking at pellet stoves and furnaces. We dread going back to oil heat!

Nate is in wedding/ party production mode, though not so busy as this Spring. I really have to run.. time for ice cream. Didn't I end one of my other entries that way? Ice cream is a common end to my evening. Goodnight all!

Thank you

Thank you all for your prayers. Emily has now successfully slept two nights in a row. No crying, no middle of the night parties in her crib, no waking extremely early. Thank you Lord only he could have done that.

Farvel, Danmark!

It's 9:30 pm, and we're finally (almost) done. It's been a sad few days, with lots of goodbyes. We've made wonderful friends here, and it's a real shame we're about to be separated by such a distance. Luckily, Danes travel a lot, so the chances of us seeing them again are fairly good.

We have a long trip ahead of us, starting tomorrow. We leave the apartment at 6 am, and take a taxi to the bus station. The bus will take us to the ferry, then we'll get on the bus again, and will arrive in Copenhagen by 10:30. We leave Copenhagen at 2, and travel through Iceland to New York City, where we should arrive at 7 (EST, US). If all goes well, we should be on the last plane to Buffalo, where we'll land at exactly 11:59 pm. That will be exactly 24 hours of travel.

It might take me a day or so to log back on, depending on the internet connection at my parents' home. We will come to Rochester on August 1, and will be moving the bulk of our things August 5. Can't wait to see all of you in Rochester!

One year ago

Jayden-bug (sporting a stylish and functional anklet)
Originally uploaded by davemayp.

Well, it was one year ago the surgeon was asking me where to make an incision to remove my "just about to burst" appendix. I shudder as I think how close that scalpel came to Jayden. Thank you God for sparing all three of our lives! Thank you also to all of you for your prayers through that super challenging time. I am filled with awe and gratitude today . . .

Blending on the go.

[This message is to all the existing and expected babies of Hunny House]

Hey kids, are you tired of sitting in a restaurant eating baby food while your parents are eating their delictable entrees that look and smell soooo good? Meanwhile you're stuck eating from jars of Gerber semi-flavored colored food paste because you lack a decent set of choppers. Don't you wish you could eat the blended version of what your parents are eating? But how can you? You would need your own personal semi-portable gas-powered blender to prepare your meal on-the-spot using pieces of what your parents ordered. And nobody makes semi-portable gas-powered blenders...

Until NOW!

Just click here to open to door to new meal possibilities.

Snyder Baby, 19 weeks

Hi All! We had our second sonogram on Friday, and it was soooo, soooooooo cool. Since I'm such a tiny gal, the technician could see really well, so she was having fun looking at the baby with us. We got 40 minutes time! After a bit, she actually stopped and asked if we had anywhere to go, since she was officially finished looking, but she said she was on a "nerdy adventure" of sorts. Of course, we said we'd stay as long as she'd allow!

Everything that can be checked looks fine, which was a huge relief to me. Each check she made I knew what she was looking for, so as we passed each structure and organ I just felt better and better. We could see the baby's heart valves, count the bones in fingers, and even see the lens from one eye. At one point the baby turned right towards us, raised an hand, and opened it's mouth. We'd like to think baby was smiling and waving.

OK . . . enough of this 'The Baby' stuff. We did find out the gender. It's a boy, and he wasn't shy about it, either. We really wanted to find out, if only so we could start using one pronoun when refering to "The Baby." I can't feel him kicking quite yet (the plecenta is right against my tummy muscles, so I think that pads me a bit), but I do feel him moving around. I keep telling John it feels like he's doing the "Bear, Cha-cha-Cha." (from Bear in the Big Blue House) Every once and awhile it even seems like he's doing the "Big Finish" and turning in circles, a very odd feeling.

John didn't get a chance to scan in the ultrasound photos yesterday . . . if I get them in the near future, I'll put one up.

Happy 4th!

KLOVE Family Night
Originally uploaded by mgenovese.

Hi all,

Been a while since we hopped on to post anything. Actually, I check back here daily, but haven't taken the time to post yet. I just 'developed' a ton of photos tonight, dating back to May. I hate backlogs. Anyway, I uploaded a set of pictures from June.

Hope you all are enjoying your 4th of July. Caleb and I have a stomach virus, so we didn't go out to see fireworks like I had wanted. But it's also thundering and lightening right now too (and yet, my neighbors are still setting off lightening rods / fireworks...) Nobody said you had to be smart to live here.

This particular picture was taken at a KLOVE Friends & Family night that we all attended last weekend. Had a free outdoor concert at the Dell Diamond, and then the Round Rock Express baseball game afterwards (which we didn't go to because it was near bed time).

Hope you all are well. FYI, for those of you who have been following the news, my folks in Owego are alright regarding the recent rains and flooding. They are 8 miles out of town (up hill), so no flooding there except for a few seeps through our stone foundation. But nothing like Owego has experience with evaculations and many homes flooded.

Have a good night, y'all.

matt
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Matt G is Everything OK back in Owego

Matt, I didn't know your family was in South Florida now. Was the house in Owego just a cover?