The Small Doctor.

May 8, 2012 Lexi Magnusson25 Comments

We’ve had a stomach bug, strep and the flu go through our house this month. Abby got a little bit of the stomach bug, but other than that, she was spared. That was a miracle.

By last Friday, everyone in the house had seen the doctor that week besides Carter. He was feeling left out so he developed this fantastic rash all over his arms and legs. I consulted my nurse friend and she said that I had better take him in. We got a late appointment at our pediatrician’s office, but not with our regular doctor. And, as is pretty normal with last minute appointments, we had to wait a while to see the doctor. We got silly. We weighed our heads. We laughed. It was during this silliness that the doctor walked in.

The doctor was a little person. And not a little person in that his trunk was average sized and he had smaller arms and legs, he was just little ALL over. (This is probably not very politically correct. I really mean no offense. I just don’t know how to describe it) Had he stood behind Carter, you wouldnt’ be able to see him. I scooted closer to Carter where I could easily kick him if he said something dumb. Kids his age like to point out the obvious. I’m sure the guy get’s it all of the time. Carter kept looking at him like he really wanted to say something. I waited. Prepared. But he didn’t. The doctor was fantastic (in fact, we’re switching TO him from our other doctor because I liked him so much). Carter had an allergic type rash on his arms and poison ivy on his legs. No big deal. Sent us on our way.

In the car ride home I told Carter that I was proud of him for not commenting on the guy’s size. I said, “I could really tell that you wanted to say something to him…but I’m proud of you for not.” And Carter says,

“I did want to say something to him. I wanted to tell him that he had really soft hands.”

Easter in not about Zombies.

April 26, 2011 Lexi Magnusson7 Comments

Aaaah, Holidays. A time to try to instill in my children that there is a true meaning to fat bearded centenarians and bunnies who somehow produce eggs. There’s a lot of explaining in my house.

This year we was no different. It started out with an Easter Egg Hunt at the Holly Ridge Center. The HRC is the Early Intervention program that Abby goes to (or will as she gets older, they mostly just come to our house now). Casey went through their program, so we know most of the people there. So we took all of the kids to this family day.
( Is that not the creepiest bunny you’ve ever seen in your life? They used it for a party for special needs kids! Someone should have thought that through. It looks like it’s going to take a chunk out of Abby’s head. )

We told them on the way there that there were going to be a lot of little kids with special needs and that the they needed to be big helpers. So while we were there Carter didn’t take a single egg for himself. He went around reaching eggs that were too high for little kids and just basically being the sweet kid that he is. Casey comes by and his easter basket is so freaking full that he can’t fit any more eggs in it. Tenatively, and scared of a meltdown, I asked Casey if he’d share his eggs with Carter, who didn’t have any. So Casey took his basket, lifted it up and happily gave Carter HALF of his eggs. My heart gushed happy faced pride. So then Carter took his basket and started laying out some of those eggs for the little kids to find again. Again, gushing. Without knowing what the other was doing, Casey came behind Carter and picked up all the eggs as he hid them.

Good times.

Easter breakfast, yes, on the floor.

So on Sunday morning we’re trying to explain to the kids about Jesus’ resurrection. We told them that after three days after he died, he came back to life. And yes, this turned into a conversation about how it really wasn’t the same thing as zombies, but the point was lost on them. They spent the next hour pretending Casey was a zombie and shooting him with their nerf guns that they got in their Easter baskets. Instead of baby pillow pets because they were sold out. So they got weapons. On Easter. Good mothering.

But backing up, if you look at the picture of the Easter bunny they had seen the day before, of COURSE they put together Easter and zombies.

Carter · family

Carter’s Baptism

January 9, 2011 Lexi Magnusson4 Comments

Lets start by how mad I am that I didn’t have the “Dad and son in their funky baptism onsies” picture. Grrr. Now I don’t have proof that there really was a baptism.

Grandma Gail with Abby. (Hence the “Gail” in Abigail…see? We’re always thinking)

The baptism was great. Carter’s uncle Luke spoke and so did his grandfather. The Magnusson’s from Oregon came, Lance’s parents trekked all the way out and Luke ended up being able to come after dropping a truck off in Oregon. It meant SO much to me that they were all there.

Lance did a great job doing the job. It was amazing to watch my first son get baptized. Where has the time gone? Carter is such a great little kid. He was truly meant to be the oldest in our family. He’s just like Lance- and that’s SO nice. He’s very calm, very loving and always ALWAYS willing to help. He’s a natural leader and is friends with everyone at school. There are many days he’s gotten a couple of his buddies to help clean up the cafeteria during his lunch recess to help the cafeteria lady when she’s short handed. He’s just good to the marrow of his bones. He WANTS to be good. He’s also very sensitive and when something does go wrong, he feels terrible about it. I don’t think I have too much to worry about with that one. Except for maybe his dashing good looks.

Thank you to everyone who came or called. It made Carter feel SO special on his day!

Carter · Casey · Peyton

The Coast

October 19, 2010 Lexi Magnusson2 Comments

I love love love the Washington Coast. All growing up my two favorite places were first, my Grandparents’ beach house in Orange County, and second, my grandmother’s little cabin in the woods. The Washington coast combines the two. The woods goes right up to the beach- which goes out forever.

We went there this last weekend and had a BLAST. I needed to get away. So did the kids.

Carter

Carter is my favorite

August 9, 2010 Lexi Magnusson6 Comments

seven year old. Ever.
I don’t know where I got this kid, but he’s sooooo good. We’ve said that from the beginning.

There was a day last week where Carter found two quarters at the park. He had been carrying around a dollar he earned by cleaning the backyard and was SO excited to have another fifty cents to add to it. He showed his brothers, who were obviously very jealous of his riches. So Carter took the quarters and gave one to each of his brothers.

Later that day I got all of the boys a treat and told them they could have it when they did their chores. Carter had the dishes that day- and there was a MOUNTAIN of them. All of the boys finished up and I gave him two treats (without his brothers seeing, I’m not asking for death) because he did much more. He took his second treat and split it in half and gave each part to his brothers.

This morning Carter got all geared up to go over to a friends and Casey really wanted to go, too. This is one of the most heartbreaking things for me. I can’t just send Casey places that Carter goes. At the same time, I don’t like forcing Carter to play with his brothers all of the time. He deserves the same kind normality in his youth as any other kid. The same kind we are fighting for Casey to have. I don’t ever want him to feel like his siblings are burdens. So I told him it was okay and he could go as I tried to get Casey inside. Carter said something to his friend and they both turned around and he said, “Hey Casey, we’re going to the park instead, want to go?”

He’s the best little kid ever. Just like I say I can handle the things we have to go through because I have Lance, my kids that might have a tougher road can handle it because they have a big brother like Carter.

Carter · confessions · family · nerds

Good intentions always end up in bulleted lists.

July 2, 2010 Lexi Magnusson5 Comments

I’ve been doddling around on the subject of Abby’s birth. I’ve wanted to write it so it would be as amazing as it was and I’m nowhere close. I’ve written whole pages and then deleted them. I should probably not do that. I’ve got to realize that no writing will ever do it justice, and just do it, so hopefully it’ll happen soon. We’ll see.
So for now, I’m just going to write excerpts from real life. and some made up stuff, I’m sure.

June’s over. It was a big month for me. Had a baby. She’s beautiful. Had a baby who needed to stay at the hospital after I went home. I hate that! June is also my birthday month. This birthday all I wanted to do was GIVE BIRTH, but I’m so glad I didn’t. She needed more time. The doctor won that bet. This June was also the 15th anniversary of my father’s passing. Man I miss him. I’m pretty sure my dad pulled some strings in Heaven to give us the gift of Abby. I’m grateful for that.
I got to spend some time with my mom. I adore her. So much. She was amazing. When she left it took some adjusting to having to do things around my house. She had to have done non stop dishes while she was here because she was gone seven minutes and I had to do two loads. She also had to deal with a massive Casey breakdown as he was clawing at the stuff we had in our garbage pile for garbage amnesty day just as the dudes were coming to get it. That’s a lot. They should really stop letting us put stuff out for that day. But for us, it’s like a holiday. I didn’t write enough good things about my mom. I suck for that.
I finished some of Abby’s paperwork for the Early Intervention center here. When I called the secretary remembered Casey. It was my first foray into the kind of reaction I get when people learn that I have an autistic son and a Down syndrome daughter. I think the paperwork made things a little more (too?) real for me. There’s a lot to do. This month hasn’t been without me breaking down. Not because I’m sad, but because I’m afraid. I’m also hormonal. Like a crazy woman. Or like a bat. I picture bats being hormonal. Either way, I am scared. I don’t know if I’m mom enough to handle this. I’m grateful for prayer. A lot a lot of prayer. I’m also grateful for the wonderful people I have who not only tell me I can do this, but are also there to help.
I’m SO grateful for Carter. He has always been old for his age, but this month especially. Sometimes I forget that he’s only seven. Today we were having a conversation in the car and he asked, “why did Heavenly Father send us Abby?”. I thought that alone was pretty profound. I told him that Heavenly Father thinks he is pretty great and that he’s such a great big brother to Casey when he needs extra help that he knew he could send us another one who would need a little extra help and it would be okay. He says, ” I think it’s okay, too.” And that’s Carter. He will rise to the occasion and not think twice about it. He gets that from his dad.
I got to ride in an ambulance last week. Awesome. It was because of a really awful complication from a complication of the delivery. If you want the gruesome details, I will provide. I’m not scared. But they are GROSS. I was scared though. I thought my hospital stay would mean that the shower they were having the next day wouldn’t happen. But it did. Oh did it. See next bullet.
Okay so my shower was so freaking awesome that if you weren’t there you would think I was making the details up. For reals. I can’t wait to get the pictures back from Kylie (HINT HINT) so that I can put up a whole post about the awesomeness of the shower, of my friends, of my ward and especially of HEATHER JAMES. Oh man. It was awesome.
My uterus knows I’m done with it and has launched an assault. She two bullets above.
It’s midnight. I need to clean my wreck of a house because the family is coming in for Abby’s blessing (Sunday at the Hoover building at 9 am). The baby is stirring a little. I think I’ll wake her so we can play and I can not clean. Ever.

This post was long and it didn’t have any pictures. I hate posts like that. Sorry.

Abby · Carter · Casey · family · Peyton

Pictures!

June 19, 2010 Lexi Magnusson8 Comments

Baby Abby in what looks like a sweat band. She’s a little bald in the front, so we’re investing in Brett Michaels type bandannas- they’re just not here yet. She’s cute, huh?

Chandler MY LOVE. This is the sweet (no longer) little girl who used to live next to us. They came and visited us last night, which was totally delightful, but just angered me more at her parents terrible decision to move away. Terrible!