Jingle Mouse Day 14

This morning I woke up and realized Jingle Mouse hadn't moved...so, while the first child was up going potty, I helped Jingle find a new spot. Not exactly original, but the kids actually thought it was sweet that he was holding baby Jesus. Phew! Dodged that one.

Jingle Mouse Day 13...and a Date

Aha! Caught you, Jingle Mouse! In the pantry, eating chocolate cake. I certainly don't blame you. It was yummy cake. Oh, and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of closet eaters during the holidays, so don't feel bad.

12/12/12. That's the date. The last repetitive date...ever. People are making a big deal about it on Facebook. Travis says, who cares...I still have to get up in the morning and go to work, no matter what the date. Haha. I guess he's right. But, just for posterity's sake, I took note. Besides, according to the ancient Mayan...the world is coming to an end in 9 days anyway, so I suppose it really doesn't matter. Haha!

Jingle Mouse Day 12 and Corndogs!

Jingle Mouse climbed up our built in bookshelf to hang out with 'family'. Hee hee. The kids got a kick out of finding him way up there.

The latest in our queen Elizabeth...tonight she ate a corndog! Well, 3/4 of one...but still...we are thrilled. Slowly we are gaining and it makes my heart sing. She is getting more and more back to herself.

I got a kick out of this picture style...old fashioned Polaroid...like what's in my baby books.

Whoops ~ Jingle Mouse Day 11

I almost forgot to post about Jingle Mouse! I usually post before I go to bed, but last night I totally fell asleep in the couch. I'm getting old! haha So, here he is, hanging out with Santa.

Jingle Mouse Day 10 and a Tree!

Our house smells so good! We went to Swains again this year and got our tree. It's a beautiful tree and we had lots of fun putting it up and decorating it.

Speaking of the tree...Jingle Mouse was found hanging out on the top of the tree.

In Elizabeth news...today she ate goldfish crackers! Sooooo, in the last three days, she's had whole milk, Palmer's candy, and goldfish crackers! Slowly but surely we are on the road to normalcy. Yay!!

Jingle Mouse Day 9...A Day of Christmas Miracles

Tonight was the Ward Christmas party. It was so awesome! I'm not going to go in to detail until I can get all the pictures off of the camera. It's worthy of its own post.

A preview picture. IT was FUN!

 

Before we get to Jingle, I have to write about a Christmas miracle. Today, Elizabeth ASKED for milk...all...day! She had punch for breakfast, milk the rest of the day. This is huge, since milk has been a huge no no to her and the only way we have been able to get her to drink it is by trickery...meaning in the middle of the night when she's dead to the world and drinks by reflex. Today, however, she asked for it, and received it. THEN...at the church dinner, we gave her her own plate of food. She did not eat, but had fun cutting everything into tiny pieces with her plastic knife. We really hoped she would eat...but, then a special visitor came, dressed in red. He gave her a little bag of candy. In this bag was a candy cane, a sucker, and a piece of Palmers chocolate flavored candy. As we were all standing around talking with our friends, I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She nibbled on the Palmers. She NIBBLED on the Palmers! We pretended not to see. Then she put it in the bag, and we headed out to the car. On our way home, we stopped by Safeway to get some egg nog to cheer Joseph up. (he was bummed that he was too old to go see Santa) While we waited for Travis to run in, we sat in the dark car. Elizabeth asked Joseph to open her sucker. He's smart enough to know that he should just do it without saying anything. Then she handed me the bag of candy. In this bag, was a candy cane and a tiny crumb of chocolate. "Elizabeth, where is your chocolate candy?" Pointing to the bag, "It right dare." I look..."That's just a little piece. Where is the rest?" She points to her mouth. "In hee-oh." I smiled..."Oh, you ate it. Ok." And turned nonchalantly around.

SHE FRIGGIN ATE IT! I started crying. Travis got in the car at this point, saw me, and asked if I was happy or mad. I said happy and he knew exactly why. She sucked on her sucker until we got home, (again, huge deal, because she's refused to put anything in her mouth except her sippy cup full of punch) but then threw it away, declared she wasn't hungry and asked for milk. I've never been so happy to see my child eat candy. We were just saying that even if she doesn't eat any food for a couple more days, she knows that she can eat without getting sick, and she's consuming a fair amount of whole milk now, so her weight will get back up. (her bones sticking out all over was very worrisome) It's funny how something so small could make such a huge impact on me. I've been giddy all evening since. Now we wait to see how long until food follows.

SO! In celebration, and hopefully in future repeats, Jingle Mouse is giving each child little bags of....drumroll please........Palmers chocolate flavored candy! I just happened to have some put away for use in certain stockings, but this is something that is worth dragging it out early for. Travis and I have always loved the stuff cause it tastes good, and we get a kick out of how it's not even chocolate, but chocolate flavored. Ha ha! Anyway...Jingle is hiding out on the dusty old shoe shelf in daddy's shoe with treats for the kids. Here's to hoping that treats from Santa's helper is as good as from Santa.

Jingle Mouse Day 8 and The Battle of Wills

Today Jingle Mouse is having fun playing with Joseph's model car with a Wise Man. I can't imagine him getting in to too much trouble with a Wise Man as a buddy.

In Elizabeth news...oh that girl! She refuses to eat anything and when we try to force her, she makes herself throw up...on purpose! And it's out of complete stubborness! Travis and I discussed the need to just buckle down and not give in and make her want to eat. We aren't sure exactly how we are going to do that yet, but tonight was a glimpse of things to come. She has had nothing but punch and Gatorade today. I fixed her up a cup of milk for bedtime. When she asked for punch, I told her no, she needed to drink milk because she'd had enough punch. Oh. My. Heck! For almost an hour she screamed at us. She wanted punch! But, we refused and kept offering her milk. She refused the milk. And so it went. Travis was a huge help to me and followed her around, trying to calm her down, but also trying to wear her out. Finally, after 50 minutes, she climbed on my lap, took the friggin milk, and passed out. Holy crap! I am scared for her teen years! Ha Every prayer in the house, including over the food, now includes the line...please help Elizabeth to eat. That girl is stressing us out! And it's all her stubbornness and strong will. Heaven help us...no, really...heaven? Are you there? Help...please. :-)

Near the end....

And in other news...we got our gutters cleaned and the toilet that was leaking in the laundry room has been fixed. The guy that came to fix it was a father of seven homeschooled kids. Awesome!

Jingle Mouse Day 7

Just a quickie. Jingle Mouse is coloring a picture of the Nativity today. He hopes the kids remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Tonight (it's technically Thursday, but I haven't gone to bed yet, so I'm still in Wednesday mode) I told Travis we can call the day a success. He came home to us from work in one piece, the rent is paid, and the garbage was taken to the curb. (and tho Lizbet still isn't eating food, today she consumed a little more milk than usual...which makes me happy) So...good day. Looking forward to Thursday and all it has to offer!

Jingle Mouse Day 6...and other business

Day 6 and little Jingle Mouse is tired of us not decorating, so he's stepping in and doing it himself. I know this will make the kids giggle!

In other business...do you like the new blog look? I had loads of fun trying out different templates tonight, trying to make it look Christmasy (is that a real word?), but still simple. I like it. Speaking of blogs and simple...I'd just like to say that I friggin LOVE the blogger app and can not believe that it never occurred to me to look for it sooner. Doh!

In other news, Lizbet is still refusing to eat solid food. So, for all those who have been wondering and worrying...here is what she gets each day. She gets 20 oz of whole milk. (2 sippy cups full)I try to get her to let me put Carnation Instant Breakfast in one of them for more nutrients, but even if she wont let me  she's at least getting her daily serving of protein and fat in. The only thing she really wants is fruit punch. So, she is getting fruit punch that is mixed with V8 Fusion light. That gives her fruit and veggie servings. She also gets some gatorade that has a dose of vitamin drops with iron. This is all she consumes. She lost almost 3 pounds at first and was very close to going under the 30 pound mark, but now that I've got the whole milk worked in, her weight is steady. She behaves normally and all of her, er, bodily functions, are normal. She just refuses to eat...even CHOCOLATE!!!! She says, "I'm not hungry." I say, "Yes, you are!"and she says, "I'll get a hairball!" ...translation...she had absolutely convinced herself that if she eats food, she will throw up...something that is so unpleasant a thought that she (and her iron will) will not let any food pass her lips! We are waiting it out, presenting her with lots of food options. If she starts complaining of any types of unusual pains, we will take her in again, but for now, it's a battle of the wills. (and she's winning!)

She's stubborn, but cute! (like our snowman fridge?)

In other other news, I have about 70% of my Christmas shopping done. I need to step up my sewing projects and also get some baking done...and probably should drag out the decorations. We are getting our tree on Saturday. That is when the real decorating extravaganza will begin! Also, our Ward Christmas dinner party is this Friday. We are so excited for it! We super duper love our ward. We are bringing salad, rolls and lemon bars. The kids can't wait to see Santa. (side note there...even though Joseph knows the truth this year...he's been awesome at pretending for the little kids)
Anyway...happy Wednesday everyone! I'm gonna go read a book and sip some peppermint hot cocoa.

Jingle Mouse Day 5

First of all, the foam tree kit that Jingle left last night was a huge hit. Travis had to work tonight, but we had fhe without him. We talked about free agency...not the topic that I had planned, but the topic that the kids had questions about. I tied it into how we use our agency to choose to behave so that Jingle gives a good report about us. Then, we broke out the kit and all sat on the floor and decorated the little tree. After it was finished and a picture was sent to daddy, we watched Twas the Night Before Christmas (which, coincidentally is about a mouse that uses his agency to make poor choices..or as our kids say, CTW...choose the wrong!) We had hot chocolate as we watched the movie. So, in the end, we had a great night together and we really appreciate Jingle's gift.

Now, on to todays Jingle Mouse activity. Our favorite Christmas story/movie is A Christmas Carol. Travis and I especially love the George C. Scott version. I was so happy when Disney made the animated version with Jim Carrey, because it follows the classic story almost to the word, but is animated...which captures the attention of our children much more than Mr. Scott's version. (off on a little tangent here, but...last year, we even did a venn diagram comparing Mr. Scrooge and the Grinch...so interesting what they came up with)
ANYWAY! Back to Jingle! I thought it would be fun if I made it look like he had watched A Christmas Carol, so I put the dvd in the player, gave him the remote with the empty case, and made him some popcorn. I'm pretty sure that the kids will want to watch that movie tomorrow because Jingle did. I hope they do...cause I wanna see it.