Silly stories

Matt told me that the last post had too much information and not enough fun, so here are a few random stories about the kids.

Ethan loves all kinds of motorized vehicles.  The tractor coming to plant the field behind our home was a highlight for this little boy.  He likes to point to the field right away in the morning now and say "tacktoe?"  He also recognizes all sorts of machine sounds.  "Moher" - mower.  "Ahdn" - airplane.  "Cuy" - car.  If he is upset about something, he will often calm down instantly if he hears one of these sounds out the window.

Ethan has also learned through his experiences that it is best to be easy going.  We like it when he responds with "o-tay" when we ask him a question, or when we hear him drop a toy or fall down in the other room and he responds with "Whoa!" instead of crying :)

This 18-month old also has a pretty good medical vocabulary.  He has words for doctor, hospital, and, our personal favorite, IV pole ("IB poe").

We get the sense that he is going to be a fast talker as his words come easier and more quickly; he seems in a hurry to keep up with his sisters and is trying very hard to get his point across, but right now it comes out as "ahdn! ahdn! ahdn! dada! dada! dada! ahdn! ahdn! mama! mama!" especially if he is excited.

Kate, like many 5 year old girls, can sing most of the Disney Frozen songs.  However, it usually makes us laugh when she chooses to sing "Let It Go" while she's going to the bathroom.  :)

Kate has taken on a new role in helping Anna as her sister.  One of the hard parts recently for Anna here at home has been an injection that she needs to have each night for a week or so after her chemo treatments.  Matt doesn't have to actually inject her skin, but just insert the needle into an injection port already placed by the nurses at the hospital.  However, Anna has told us that the medicine stings when it goes in.  For the first several nights of this there were lots of tears and screams.

Thursday night Kate asked if she could hold Anna's hand since she had just had her 5-year-old shots and she knew how it felt to have a shot.  She talked Anna through the experience.  Since then, she has held Anna's hand for each of the injections and talked her through it by saying things like "I'm glad that I had my shots today so that I would be able to help you feel brave" and "You go ahead and squeeze my hand just as tight as you need to".  No more tears.  Awesome on so many levels :)

Tonight Kate and Ethan amused themselved outside by making a tunnel out of the gym mat.  Kate pretended she was a dragon and "did dragon things" while Ethan crawled through the tunnel.  These two are at the point of the year of needing daily baths because they get so dirty outside every day.

I'll try to remember to include more of these kinds of stories in the future.  That's what this blog was originally about anyway.