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It turns out that being a mom of 5 doesn’t leave much time for blogging.  I’ve been sorting the pictures I’ve taken over the last few months, and it’s a big job that has taken me many hours over the last several days.  Here are some from the end of January where I left off last time I shared pictures.  Hopefully soon I’ll start posting pictures from February.

1.28.13  Ila spent her birthday money on an orange caterpillar, an orange baton, and an orange purse, all pictured below:1.28.13  This is Nicole in her bed, after bedtime wearing shorts on her head and at least three pairs of underwear on top of her nightgown.  When I came in, she said “I am Mrs. Pants!”

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Isaac loves to eat eggs for breakfast, but I don’t always have the time to make them in the mornings before school.  One morning I taught Isaac how to make his own eggs.He’s been making eggs for the family for breakfast almost every day since.It’s nice because he can make them independently and make enough for his siblings too.  He is so excited about his new skill that he even asked if he could do it for the upcoming ward talent show.Our typical recipe calls for 6 eggs, a little milk, salt n’ pepper, ham, and sometimes a few drops of hot sauce.

Name:  Thomas Deane Cochran

Age:  1 Year, 1 week, and 5 days

Weight: 20 lbs 27th percentile

Length:   28 3/4 inches       15th percentile

Head Circumference:   19 inches     93rd percentile

Last well check (9 month) comparison:

Age = +3 months, weight = +2 lb 3 oz, length = +1 3/4 inches, head = +3/4 inch

Remember the 7 vials of blood I mentioned on facebook?  Well, the results are in and Ila’s numbers are all within normal limits except for a low IgA and a low IGF-1.I had to ask Google to help me make sense of everything so, here is a rundown of what that means based on my interneting:

An IgA test measures the blood level of immunoglobulin A, one of the most common antibodies in the body. Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system to fight bacteria, viruses, and toxins.

IgA is found in high concentrations in the body’s mucous membranes, particularly the respiratory passages and gastrointestinal tract, as well as in saliva and tears.

Based on my understanding, which might be flawed.  The normal range for IgA is 44-189 and Ila got a 32.  According to my Doctor, it’s low, but not enough to be really concerned.

For IGF-1 the normal range is from 26-162 ng/ml and Ila had 38.  I think I remember the doctor saying that her result was two standard deviations below the mean.  He is recommending we have her take a GH stimulation test

IGF-1 is a hormone similar in molecular structure to insulin. It plays an important role in childhood growth and continues to have anabolic effects in adults. (from Wikipedia)

You can read about the GH stimulation test here.

And since posts are more fun with pictures.  Here are my girls:

I like to write about my kids each year near their birthday.  For Thomas, I thought I’d post a bunch of pictures and write about the pictures and hopefully by the end it will be a fairly complete picture of my sweet little baby.

He loves the dishwasher.  If he sees it open, he makes a beeline for it. On this day, I left the dishwasher open and turned my back. next thing I knew, Thomas was sitting on the dishwasher door:He has recently figured out how to pull the silverware tray out and he is very happy about his discovery:

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Thomas started his special day with a breakfast Banana muffin:

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Thomas turns one in a week, so just for fun, here are each of my kids at about age one.

Isaac:Charlotte:Nicole:Ila:Thomas:Who do you think looks the most alike at one?

Isaac’s 3rd grade class did projects relating to their own family cultures.  Isaac’s project was on Scotland since he has a little Scottish on both sides of his family.  Here’s his shoebox “float:”

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Picking up where I left off. 

January 17th:  Here is Ila and Pumpkin (her doll) helping me do laundry:

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January 2nd:  Thomas learning to clean up:

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Sometimes when I’m holding him he’ll suddenly get a big grin on his face,  That’s when I realize I left the remote where he can reach it!

Zach and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on January 7th.  Last year we started a tradition of celebrating the day our family officially began as our family’s birthday with a piñata.  The kids were amused this year that our family is old enough

The little girls helped me make mini heart shaped cherry chocolate pies.

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I have hesitated to write this post because I don’t know if this is something that will embarrass my child at some point in his life and he would be mad that I had written about it in such a public venue or if this is the sort of thing that people shouldn’t write about publicly. I hope that the reason I posted this is clear by the end of my post.

When I was younger, ADHD became a seemingly popular diagnosis.  I remember hearing about it a lot and hearing about medications that had a lot of negative side effects which included taking a kid’s personality away or dulling it so much that they didn’t feel like themselves.

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Can you start a list at #573?  Oh well, it doesn’t matter.

I have about 100 things that I should be doing right now, but instead, I’m writing this little insignificant story.

We were walking home from Nicole’s bus and she was talking about something (I can’t even remember what—it might have been about how she likes to splash in puddles in her boots) but she stopped mid-sentence to exclaim that she had found a rock for Nicole.  When we got to our house she ran off towards our truck while I helped Ila and Thomas come in the house.  Apparently, her rock needed a special leaf to go with it.After lunch she proclaimed:  “The rock needs to take a bath with the leaf.”  The she proceeded to bathe the rock and leaf in the bathroom sink.  I could hear her saying things like:  “the rock is so happy to have a bath so it can be nice and clean”  and  “now the rock and the leaf need a bubble bath.”  An hour later, she is still bathing her rock and her leaf.

It’s not a particularly unique or interesting story, but I love all the silly little moments in my day where my girls show their personalities and get excited about their goofy ideas.

Now back to those 100 things I have to do.

When Thomas was 6 months old, I put him in the bathtub for the first time.  After sitting in the bath for a little while, he fell over and panicked.  I took him out of the bath, dried him off and got him dressed.  Since that time, he has hated the bath.  As soon as I would put him in, he’d start grabbing my clothes, crying, and pulling himself up.  I would quickly wash his hair and body, rinse him and take him out.  For months I have worried that he would always hate baths and swimming and I have fretted that each panicked crying bath just reinforced his hatred of baths.

He has recently discovered the dishwasher and one of his favorite activities is splashing in the small amounts of water that collect on the lid after the dishes are washed.  I decided that I was going to try to break him of his bath fears by using his interest in splashing in small amounts of water.  So I put a very small amount of water in the sink and put him in.  He started to panic, but I redirected him to the water and gave him a drink from his sippy cup (he loves his sippy cup).  He started to play just a little and gradually, he started to relax.  By the end of the sink bath, he was actually enjoying it:

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Honestly, I don’t know how we’ve gone on so long without Thomas even attempting to climb the stairs.  He just hasn’t seemed to notice them, until this weekend and now he think’s they’re awesome. 

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The girls got matching PJs.  They loved that they matched and danced around the bedroom with glee:

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We left at about 6:15 AM when it was still dark the day after Christmas.  We got our first view of snow covered trees just before the sun came up.  I always love the way the world looks with a fresh layer of snow:The drive was long and the snowy, icy roads made it even longer.  It took us 18 1/2 hours to drive from our home in Washington to my in-law’s house in Orem, Utah.  Thomas was not a fan of all the changes in elevation that made his ears feel clogged:

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Charlotte is in first grade this year and loves school.  She has become a very good reader this year and can now read small chapter books independently with good fluency.  Unfortunately, I struggle to find books that she is very interested in reading.  After a trip to the library, Isaac will read in his bed for hours, but Charlotte usually needs to be reminded to read a book.  She does enjoy reading books to her little sisters, especially Ila, but she chooses books that are well below her reading level to read to her.

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This year I gave Charlotte the task of directing our Nativity.  As soon as I mentioned getting our costumes on, Nicole ran in and came out with a cape and a tiger hat and declared that she would be the tiger.  She would not accept any other role, so this year we introduced the tiger to our Nativity.  Ila was our angel and she insisted that she should have a baby too.  I guess you could say that this year’s nativity was less than accurate, but it was loosely based on the account we find in Luke.

Here’s our little cast:And here’s the video:

Last year’s Nativity.