Miller Happenings

Long time, no write. So I have a bunch to get caught up on. Currently, I am recovering from, oh yes, the flu. Just what I needed. Ah well. So here's all my miscellaneous happenings. Last Friday night when I was putting Israel to sleep, I noticed that he had a faintly croupy sounding cough. We had to take Gabe to the ER when he was 3 months old with croup, so I thought it could be indications of something we needed to watch. At 2 AM, he woke up crying, and with severe stridor - the crowing noise that you get when the airway is blocked. We rushed him into the bathroom and turned on the hot shower for steam, but it didn't do anything, and it was absolutely terrifying to listen to him struggle to breathe. It only took me a few seconds to decide to call 911, and while we were waiting, we stood out on the porch in the the absolutely freezing air to try to see some improvement, with Israel in his PJ's and a blanket, and me in my bathrobe. The cold air didn't do much either, and he still hadn't quit crying, and his voice seemed so weak and he seemed to really be struggling for air...talk about non-stop praying. It seemed to take the ambulance forever to get here, and I rode with him to the hospital. He improved somewhat on the ride, and quit crying at least. At the hospital they gave him a racemic epinepherine nebulizer treatment and a steroid shot, and he went home with a prescription for 3 days of steroids. The nebulizer worked almost right away, just as it had done with Gabe, but when he got back home he still sounded pretty bad, so we made his room really cold and bundled him up nice and warm with a hat and put him to bed, and he slept well. We had a woman who went to our church who had a niece who actually died from croup, so we have been all the more wary because of that.

You will notice in the above paragraph I referred to "his" room. That would be Israel's room, ie. our room. We are both currently sleeping on the living room floor, just for the sake of everyone involved. Our bed is so creaky that it creaks when you lift up a pillow or lift up blankets. Then, when you add two tossing and turning people and one flappy-eared dog...ain't nobody getting any sleep. Before, Israel would wake up, and I would feed him and lay him back down, and then wake him back up by climbing into bed. Maddening is not even the word. We can't put him in with Gabe, because he often goes to sleep before Gabe and Gabe often talks loudly and at length after he goes to bed, and we don't have any other rooms to put him in where we wouldn't be. So. Hello floor.

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These are the new pictures of my chillin's. Are they precious or what?
























































When we went to get them taken, there was a woman there by herself with three young children, one of them a baby, and of course they were having pre-lunch meltdowns, and as I struggled with my own pre-lunch meltdown child, I wished so bad I could help her out. I can't imagine taking two children by myself to get pictures, let alone three. It just takes so long to get through pictures and then picture selection.

Now on to life updates:

Tim - Tim has started his last semester of seminary. He is taking an overload so that he can finish, plus watching the kids while I work, plus still leading worship at church, plus looking for a job. I am pretty sure that this will probably be one of the most stressful periods ever of life for us. He is looking for a pastoring job - we think - probably ideally a teaching pastor job, but probably doesn't exist for him right now. Most of those jobs want to to have "at least 10 years experience with church of 10,000 or greater". Or something like that. :) So pray for him when you think about him, because life is so crazy busy right now.

Carrie - I am just recovered from a 102.1 degree, 24 hour flu that was highly untimely and highly uncomfortable. But praise the Lord that it wasn't a repeat of last year's week-long flu. I am back at work part-time, while trying to keep the house spit-shiny clean on my days off just in case we have a showing. We've only had one so far. I'm not really doing hardly any Mary Kay right now simply because I am so busy from everything else. The thing is, when I go back to work, I have the same amount of things left to get done at home, but 18-24 hours less a week to get them done in. But life is still good. Just really really really busy.

Gabriel - Gabe is a little chatterbox. He talks in complete sentences now, and has been doing so for a month or two. It is so fun and funny to hear what is in his head - when you can understand him. He still requires a lot of deciphering. The other day when we were leaving church he cried and cried, and finally I figured out that he was saying "But I was having a good time! I was having fun!" :) Poor guy! I was surprised that he could articulate all that.

He's also into singing. "Jesus Loves Me", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Are You Sleeping?", "Mommy Loves Her Baby", and one by Sting and the Police "I Can't Stand Losing You". :) He sings "I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't".

He has started to say "Thank You" on his own - "Cank Yoo, Mommy!" - and it is so sweet. We end up thanking him for saying thank you, just because it makes us so happy to hear it! He also likes to "help". Help cook, help put things in the trash...he actually can be helpful at this stage, which is nice. He also likes to agree - "Dat's wite!" Or, "Yeah, soor (sure)!" He also precedes decisions by "mmmms". "Gabe, do you want an orange?" "Mmmmmmmmmm....OK!" One of the cutest new things is how he asks if he can have something: "Do I want a ____?" :)

Just a week or so ago, he started to pretend. "I'm a monkey! Ooh-ooh! Eee-Eee! I'm a lion! Raow!" One of the more annoying things that he pretends is that he is the Cookie Monster, who he saw on Sesame Street, who "eats" his cookies, when they are actually just falling out the sides of his puppet mouth. So Gabe likes to TRY to be Cookie Monster with all sorts of items: cookies, pretzels, apples...which involves him growling and shoveling items into his mouth to chew a few times and then let them fall out the sides. Lovely. After the first few times of this experience, however, we all learned together that Gabe is not a Cookie Monster. Gabe is Gabe, Gabe is a Big Boy, and Gabriel will eat his current goodies as such.














The most frustrating aspect of taking care of him continues to be the whole physical interaction with Israel. Gabe likes him so much, and wants to express affection in so many ways, but so many of them are not appropriate yet, but he just doesn't understand. Yesterday, while standing at the couch with Israel in his bouncer, Gabe leaned down to give him a "loving" head-bump with his own head - and it was way too hard. He is so physically boisterous, that we have lots of rules around here. No jumping on the couch. No somersaulting on the couch. No somersaulting from the couch to the floor. No jumping off the arm of the couch to land in a somersault on the couch and wind up on the floor. Same for the bed. Man, we're strict. :)

Israel - Israel has turned into the happiest little sweetest smiler you may ever find. He is so precious! He is also a big boy! When they weighed him at the hospital last Saturday, at 3 months and 2 1/2 weeks, he was 17.5 pounds. And I have the muscles to prove it! :) He was wearing a twelve-month outfit the other day, and it fit just fine!

The past two weeks he has really been looking at things, and last week he started the partial sit-up, where he really tries to crank himself upwards so he can see better. He also is really batting at things, and checking them out. This is a picture of him focusing on something while Tim was holding him. He was mostly cross-eyed!



















For about two weeks, Israel has insisted on being held while we are eating, by fussing and fussing in the bouncer, and quieting immediately and sitting contentedly when I held him in my lap while we ate. Well, last week, after Tim gave him a few licks of ice cream, he became very adamant that he needed tastes of what we were eating. I just touch it to his tongue or give him a little sauce and he laps his little tongue. It is so funny. Gabe was like him, too - showing interest in food really early on. Today, when we were eating, he got so worked up that I finally let him suck on a piece of bread, and then it was all over from there. He just SCREAMED in anger when I took it away from him. He cried and cried and cried. Same thing this afternoon when I was eating an orange. He got all worked up, agitated, fussing, arms whirling, legs kicking watching me eat my orange. When I squeezed just a little juice in his mouth, he's then crying like his little heart is going to break unless I give him more. A bit more, and he's happy. And then he sees me eat more, and he is screaming. Not fussy. Yelling at the top of his lungs. Until I give him more. Repeat scenario multiple times. So today we're going to go buy some baby cereal. Better for baby tummies.














He's been sleeping pretty good usually. He falls asleep around 9:30 and sleeps until around 2 or 3 or 4. He really is such a cuddle-munchkin. He smiles with his whole body.

So. I think that I have written a long enough book that now I am going to go make lunch. Toodles!