Christmas 2010

Yesterday I took the tree down and put away all of Christmas. As I did it, all I could think was that this was the last Christmas I would have with my kids being these ages. This was Miss H's first. E will never be 2 again and G will never be 5.

  Did we have enough fun? Did I enjoy it enough? Was there enough love?

G told me on Christmas Eve that part of what we want for Christmas is to have each other. I'm grateful for that gift most of all.

Mission Accomplished

We had a good Christmas--pictures to follow soon. My kids are all SUPER exhausted. (I'm guessing this isn't anything new to all of you with young children.) One thing that I will never understand about kids, though, is that when they are too tired they refuse to sleep. I mean seriously? If someone even starts to say the word nap I am halfway to my bed.

Anyway, Miss H refused to sleep all day yesterday. After hours of nursing and rocking and walking around the house, I finally got her to sleep and was sitting on the bed with her. About 10 minutes later E walked into the room with our toy electric keyboard.

"Hi Momma!" he said. "Turn it on?"

This is like a train wreck waiting to happen. I know that if he turns it on it will wake up H, but if I get mad and tell him "no" he will throw a fit and wake up Miss H.

"No, honey," I said sweetly, "take it downstairs and watch your show ok?"

"No, turn it on!" he said and flipped the switch. Automatically a drumbeat comes on and he loudly hits all of the keys.

Miss H jumps a foot and looks around wildy.

After about 2 seconds of playing, E says, "All done." He then takes his piano and walks out.

Mission accomplished...little booger.

The End

Well, I hope you enjoyed our Hubs series. We sure love him and are so grateful for him. He is perfect for me and a really great Dad.

Handsome

Understanding

Brilliant

Silly

In other words you're the best, Honey!

The magic pill

A couple of Sundays ago, Hubs woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I'm not sure what happened, but all day long he was the grumpiest person! The kids were being pretty obnoxious and pulling their normal nonsense and he was just not having any of it. At one point it was pretty sad, all the kids were huddled around me while he sat all alone on the opposite side of the room. I had to laugh. "No one wants to sit by you, grumpy pants!" I said. "Fine!" He grumbled, "GOOD."

Later, I pulled him aside and tried to remind him that the kids were just being kids and not acting any different than how they act for me every day.
"I have something for you." I said
Hubs looked at me seriously. "Is it a chill pill?" he asked.
Floored, I looked at him. "How did you know? I have never said those words to you before!" I laughed.
He laughed for about 5 minutes straight, congratulating himself for being a genius.

Unfortunately, he never took his little pill. Luckily he was over it by the next day.

Embarrassing stories about me

As an added bonus for Hubby's week, I thought I would throw in a new feature. Today I will share a couple of embarrassing stories about me. Since I am the primary writer of this blog, I get to determine the way I am presented. This generally means that I try not to humiliate myself if possible whereas Hubs gets his embarrassing stories shared.

So here are two little gems out of the vault.

The first happened when I was a laurel (16 year old girl in our church's youth organization). We were having a program called New Beginnings where we welcomed in the new year and discussed the organization. When I showed up that night, I was asked to give an impromptu talk about how our organization had helped me in my life. I quickly wrote something up. As I began to read it I could feel everyone listening and admiring how well I was able to perform under pressure. Like they always say, pride cometh before the fall. I began to discuss how this program had helped me.

"I've found that it has lent me a newfound sense of clairvoyance." I stated. Immediately I knew that I had said something wrong. A bunch of the adults were smiling and trying not to laugh. For the life of me, I couldn't think of what had happened. I thought that I had just used a fancy word for having insight and thinking clearly.

Never one to take embarrassment well, I finished sullenly. Later my friend's dad came up to me. "Clairvoyent huh?" he said laughing. I just tried to laugh it off and walk away.

In the car my mom asked, "Do you know what that word means?"
I told her what I thought.
"No, you were thinking of the word clarity." she said, "clairvoyant means that you are like a psychic."

This story still makes me cringe. Lesson 1--make sure you know what a big word means before you use it! Especially in a public speaking situation!!!

This second story involves my mom too. Good thing she is there to help me not be such an idiot!
A couple of years ago we were driving in the car around Christmas.
"I love this CD," I said regarding the instrumental Christmas CD we had just purchased, "but there is one song I just can't figure out. Why do they have 'Oh Susanna' on it? That is so weird."
She asked to hear the song. I turned to it and when the section came around loudly sang along, "With a banjo on her knee."
Mom started laughing. "That's not 'Oh Susanna'" she said. "That is 'Go Tell it on the Mountain. The line is 'Go tell it on the mountain, Jesus Christ is born!"
"Oh." I said. "I guess that makes sense."

Lesson number 2: "Oh Susanna" and "Go Tell it on the Mountain" are not the same song.

Ughh! Still cringing!

You're welcome, Honey.

Look Alike

So Hubs is going to HATE this post. Sorry, Hon!

 He says that people tell him all the time that he looks like:

Jim Carey

and 

Jimmy Fallon

When he was a kid he wanted his family to call him Jimmy for a while. Coincidence?

Oh he was also told that he reminded someone of Phil Dunphy too!

Ty Burrell

Needless to say, Hubs is offended by all of these comparisons.

He would accept, however,

Ha ha ha. He's going to kill me!

I think he is the most handsome as himself, though. 

Love you hot stuff!

Straight Shooting

This summer before our road trip, I decided to sew holders for our portable DVD players in the car. I made up the design and set to work using trial and error.

Everything was going somewhat decently until I cut the window that would show the screen. It was really difficult to make sure it was straight, turn it over and hem it. I grumbled and cursed the stinking fabric as I tried to manipulate it into doing what I wanted. Hubs happily sat and watched t.v., looking over every once in a while and reassuring me that it looked fine.

Finally I got to (what I didn't realize at the time) was the worst part. I sewed in some clear plastic to cover the screens from dirty little fingers. The plastic stuck to the machine and wouldn't feed. It was like those little plastic/vinyl window decorations you can buy at various holidays. I was so frustrated and was ready to give up. Almost in tears of frustration I kept repeating things like, "This stupid plastic is impossible to move!" and "It looks like a 5 year old sewed this!" and "I'm ruining this thing. I've been working on this ALL NIGHT and it is ruined!!!!"

I finally finished it and Hubs looked at it. Being the sweet, confidence building husband that he is, he reassured me that it looked great and that it would work perfectly.

"And," he said, completely innocently and earnestly, "maybe when you make the next one, you can try to sew it straight."

Miss H's birth

When Miss H was born, my water broke around midnight and we headed over to the hospital. Once there we had the fun job of just waiting. Hubs immediately conked in the chair next to me while I laid and stared at the monitor ALL NIGHT LONG. Every time I tried to go to sleep my blood pressure monitor would go off and wake me up. All the while Hubs snored in the chair next to me. Finally at around 7 in the morning they decided to give me pitocin to speed the process up. After waiting and worrying all night long I was totally ready for it.

Since we had rushed out of the door around midnight a lot of things at our house were left sort of unsettled. I told Hubs that he might as well go home and check on the kids since we were still waiting, but to be quick. He agreed and assured me that he would be home in well under an hour.

I waited and watched t.v. until the nurse finally came in to check me about 45 minutes later. She took one look and said, "Oh you're ready to go. I'll go call the doctor." Surprised and happy, I wasn't too concerned. Hubs had assured me he would be back any minute.

A couple of minutes later the nurse came back in and started readying the room. She looked around slightly concerned and said, "Is your husband going to be here?"
"Oh yeah," I said, "he'll be here soon."
She still looked a little worried but kept working. After the room was all set up and he still wasn't there she handed me the phone. "Do you want to call him?" she asked.
Chagrined, I took the phone and called him. No answer. Now she looked really concerned.
"Don't worry," I said, "we only live a few minutes away. He's probably doing something stupid like taking a shower and eating breakfast."
We laughed and I called again a few minutes later. This time he answered.
"Would you like to see the birth of your child?" I asked, "because if so you'd better get over here right now."
"I'm leaving now!" he assured me.

At that point I started to have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I couldn't believe he might miss H's birth. On the other hand, if he did I could hold that over his head for the rest of his life. Hmm...options, options.

Anyhoo, about 7 minutes later he hussled through the door right behind the Doctor. The nurse and I were very relieved. I looked at him and said, "what took you so long?"

His answer? "I was taking a shower and eating breakfast."

That's what I thought.

Dimensions

I wasn't actually here for this one, but the story is just too good--and so Hubs.

Hubs explained to me that when his family built their house, they were one of the first new homes in their still undeveloped neighborhood. They slowly watched as other homes were built around them (and loved to do that thing where people walk through houses under construction--not my favorite. It makes me feel like a criminal.). ANYHOO...

Apparently one of the houses had moved some dirt around so that there was a big dirt pile sitting in front of one of the lots that Hubs had to pass on the way to school. Hubs said that it was there so long it just became a part of the sidewalk landscape and he didn't think much of it, until one day when he was walking to school he came to that section of sidewalk and it was GONE. He stopped, and looked around. Finally, absolutely bewildered by this sudden change of events he came to the most logical conclusion.

"I have entered an alternate dimension," he decided.

He said that it wasn't until years later that he realized that the dirt had just been moved.

As a side note, a couple of weeks ago we watched some old home movies of Brian's family and in one he slid off their cabin's roof into the snow while he yelled, "Coming soon to your galaxy!"

Do you think it is possible to watch a little too much Star Trek?

Hubsapalooza

A couple of years ago, I wrote a week of posts about Hubs to show our love and appreciation for him. This year for his birthday, I will attempt to repeat the aforementioned feat (now that we have more kids it actually is more of a feat to remember). I may also throw in a bonus feature that I did not do last year, so you can look forward to that. So starting tomorrow, you can enjoy a little hubs in your life as well (but not too much people--he's mine)!

29 + 1/2

Me 29, Miss H 6 months

I can't help thinking that so far, 29 looks pretty good. 

We'll see how I feel next year! Thanks for all of the love. Right back at you.

Some E quotes

Thanks for everyones' well wishes last week. Thankfully this week has been much better! I thought I'd share some quotes from E, he is such a funny kid. Seriously, if you want to be entertained, hang out with him for an hour or two, you won't be disappointed.

(While running around the house) "Where's Nemo? Where's Nemo? I can't find him?"

(He'll start running then stop and act hurt) "I'm stuck, I'm stuck." (He pops up) "I did it!!!"

(He constantly steals toys from Miss H, then is disgusted when they are all slimy.) "Mommy, baby, eww."

Last night at dinner he started begging to go visit his Auntie A and Uncle B. I tried to explain that we couldn't just hop in the car and see them. He was not happy.

And I'm starting to wonder if he has ever had a traumatic incident with the toilet because when I ask him if he wants to sit on the potty he says, "NO, NO POTTY!!" I would be ok with this, except yesterday he kept pulling off his diaper and streaking around the house any time he had gone in it. I was not super happy when he smeared poop all over.

Now that I'm reading over these stories, they don't seem that funny. Probably because 90% of what makes this kid funny are his facial expressions. He is so animated, when he is asleep or gone the life just feels sucked out of the house. We sure love our E.

A post in which I pity myself, you can pity me too!

Last Sunday (as previously stated) E ate peanut butter cups in nursery and ended up having an allergic reaction. As always it was super scary, and the poor kid was distraught. Apparently not breathing well and having your whole body covered in an itchy rash will do that to a person.
1 epi pen, 1 trip to the emergency room, 1 case of uncontrollable shaking, and 2 incidences of vomiting later, he was finally feeling better. Did I mention that it cost us over $165 when all was said and done? Merry Christmas, E, we give you the gift of life! E continued on a steroid for the next four days to help with his reaction.

Saturday Hubs took the boys with him to the oil change. When he got home, E was freaking out and starting to get all rashy again. Turns out that he had been messing around with one of those candy dispensers businesses put in their lobbies and had somehow managed to (we think???) ingest the peanut residue from the one with peanut M&M's in it. Note, we're pretty sure he did not even eat a peanut, just the residue! He immediately started getting rashy with hives and was wheezing. (This is already being on the steroid--ironically his last dose). We managed to get his reaction under control with his albuteral inhaler, benedryl, and the steroid this time and didn't have to go through the epi pen, emergency room fiasco again.

(Here is a washed out picture of him after he had all of his medicine in him. It's hard to tell from the picture because of the flash but he looked AWFUL!)

The next day, Sunday, we went to Hub's mom's house for a belated Thanksgiving dinner. When we arrived we were informed that two of his brothers were there and were sick with nausea and vomitting. Needless to say, 1 immunosuppressed child + 2 of his favorite uncles who are really sick = not a great plan.

Tuesday at 5:00 am we were all awoken to E uncontrollably vomiting. This continued pretty much all day long. E would try to hold it in, so it would come out of his nose. Then he would freak out because--well vomit was coming out of his nose, not fun! If you have ever had a vomiting 2 year old on your hands you can probably imagine the number of vomit spills I cleaned up around the house that day.
Number in the toilet: 0.
Number in a bowl: 2.
Number on the floor: countless.
All he wanted all day was for me to hold and comfort him--not so easy when you have a 6 month old and 5 year old as well. Thankfully by the evening he seemed to be doing better.

Wednesday, I felt nauseated all day but it was akin to morning sickness. "If I can do this for 3 months," I told myself, "I can do this for a couple of days."
"Maybe only E will get it since he was immunosuppressed," we hoped.

What follows is a timeline of Wednesday night and this morning that Hubs and I have managed to piece together.

12:45 am: G wakes up bawling and vomiting. Dad cleans everything up.

1:15 Dad comes, lays down, and Miss H projectile vomits in our bed. We clean up until 1:30.

1:30 G wakes up vomiting. I rub his back. He proceeds to tell me, "I think something is not working properly," because at this point he is dry heaving. I assure him that it happens, he goes back to sleep.

2:15 H wakes up vomiting. Repeat cleanup.

3:00 H wakes up and I feed her.

4: 00 H wakes up and vomits. Cleanup.

4:30 G wakes up, runs to the bathroom and vomits. Comes in crying and asks for a blessing.

5:45 E wakes up and wants to get up for the day. Dad takes the boys downstairs so I can sleep a little.

7:00 I can't take E's constant whining (heard throughout the house) and go downstairs and trade places with Dad.

8:00 E wakes up H and Dad. I feed H. Vomiting ensues.

9:00 G vomits

9:30 H vomits

etc. etc. etc.


Did I mention I am nauseated through all of this? And the kids had diarrhea? And the laundry load this created? No? Well no need to tell all.

11:28 Having a little pity party for myself.  Join me!

(Not in the vomiting--no one deserves this. Ok maybe a few people, but definitely not you!)