Tuesday - "Guess what Mom? I have a boyfriend! He waves at me and I wave at him. he's in my class." I say, "Oh really? What is his name?" while thinking, "Not even a week in school and already with the boyfriends? Why can't she be uninterested, like Aaric?" She doesn't know his name. A boyfriend. Whose name she doesn't know. Nice.
Wednesday - "My boyfriend's name is Alex! He's insert some girl name here's boyfriend, too. We share." I respond, "Oh, Alex, huh?" while thinking "Lovely. At least she is learning sharing skills, right?"
Wednesday night at church, yelling across the parking lot to friends, "Hi guys! Guess what? I have a boyfriend, and his name is Alex and he's in my class!"
All of this, by the way, is said in that sing-songy little voice that every little girl possesses. (Really? Five s's in that word? Seems like overkill.)
I told her teacher about it and she says Alex is quite the ladies man.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Quiet
It's quiet in my house. Both big kids are at school, and Xander's incoming tooth doesn't seem to be bothering him yet today, so it's quiet.
Aaric's first day was rather ho-hum. I mean, he just fell right back into the routine without skipping a beat. Not overly excited, not sad, just like, "yeah, school again. Good times." Mikayla had orientation that day, which went well. I was sitting in a tiny chair right in front of the teacher's desk, which had a box with about 50 markers in it, which Xander reached up and pulled down. Markers cascaded all down my back and onto the floor. I spent the rest of the time trying to keep him occupied and his fingers off the supplies.
Her first day also went very smoothly. Well, except that I forgot to give her the antibiotics, so I had to interrupt class to do it an hour later. I wondered how she'd do though. I went back to work when Aaric was four weeks old, and while I always had a schedule that allowed me to see him a good bit, I kept working full time until he was nearly 2. And then, my attention wasn't on him as much because I had a tiny newborn. Mikayla, though, has never left my side other than to spend a week at Grandma's every once in a while. And, I've always suspected that she likes Grandma more than me anyway, so that was totally no big deal. (She really did ask me a while back why she can't just go live with Grandma.) But I wondered how she'd deal with actually being away from me, with people she doesn't really know, for 6 hours a day. And she did just fine. Not a hint of nervousness. Cautiously excited. It helps that we stopped by the school often last year, so she was already familiar with her teacher. She really wanted Aaric's K teacher this year, and is still a bit mad that she doesn't have her, but she's settling in just fine.
Monday, while Aaric and I walked together, she raced another kid almost all the way to the school. We come from the back of the school, and I watched her round the corner to the front of the school and thought that was it. My 5 year old baby just ran off to her second day of school without saying goodbye or even looking back. Then I rounded the corner myself and saw her walking back to me, giggling. "I don't know if I know how to get to my class!" I walked her to the front door and reminded her that there are people standing inside to help them find their way, and off she bounced. That night, I said, "this morning I thought you went in without saying goodbye." She laughed and said, "I'd never do that!! That's because I love you!"
Then today she told me goodbye when we were about halfway there, so she wouldn't have to do it later. Please tell me we haven't already hit the "embarrassed to be seen with mom" stage.
Xander is now not only walking, but also preparing for a career as a professional daredevil. We know that he can get down from the bed without injury. We know this because we've left him on the bed a couple times, only to find him happily playing on the floor. So I wanted to catch him in the act so I could see how he does it. After I caught him in the act once, I decided I don't want to see it. It seems that he starts out sitting, then scoots forward to the edge until his legs are dangling off, then he lunges forward. So far, I've always jumped up to catch him as he starts to lunge, because I can just see him breaking a leg or a spine. So, whatever it is that he does, I have no desire to see it. I've started teaching him to roll over and slide down. Same with the stairs, which he can climb. But at the top, he sits there peering downward with a look that says, "that's a LONG way down, I think I'll just sit right here."
Today, we're going to eat lunch at the school. The kids say they only get 10 minutes to eat, and neither has finished the food I send with them, so I'm going to check out the situation for myself. Surely they get more than 10 minutes, right?
Aaric's first day was rather ho-hum. I mean, he just fell right back into the routine without skipping a beat. Not overly excited, not sad, just like, "yeah, school again. Good times." Mikayla had orientation that day, which went well. I was sitting in a tiny chair right in front of the teacher's desk, which had a box with about 50 markers in it, which Xander reached up and pulled down. Markers cascaded all down my back and onto the floor. I spent the rest of the time trying to keep him occupied and his fingers off the supplies.
Her first day also went very smoothly. Well, except that I forgot to give her the antibiotics, so I had to interrupt class to do it an hour later. I wondered how she'd do though. I went back to work when Aaric was four weeks old, and while I always had a schedule that allowed me to see him a good bit, I kept working full time until he was nearly 2. And then, my attention wasn't on him as much because I had a tiny newborn. Mikayla, though, has never left my side other than to spend a week at Grandma's every once in a while. And, I've always suspected that she likes Grandma more than me anyway, so that was totally no big deal. (She really did ask me a while back why she can't just go live with Grandma.) But I wondered how she'd deal with actually being away from me, with people she doesn't really know, for 6 hours a day. And she did just fine. Not a hint of nervousness. Cautiously excited. It helps that we stopped by the school often last year, so she was already familiar with her teacher. She really wanted Aaric's K teacher this year, and is still a bit mad that she doesn't have her, but she's settling in just fine.
Monday, while Aaric and I walked together, she raced another kid almost all the way to the school. We come from the back of the school, and I watched her round the corner to the front of the school and thought that was it. My 5 year old baby just ran off to her second day of school without saying goodbye or even looking back. Then I rounded the corner myself and saw her walking back to me, giggling. "I don't know if I know how to get to my class!" I walked her to the front door and reminded her that there are people standing inside to help them find their way, and off she bounced. That night, I said, "this morning I thought you went in without saying goodbye." She laughed and said, "I'd never do that!! That's because I love you!"
Then today she told me goodbye when we were about halfway there, so she wouldn't have to do it later. Please tell me we haven't already hit the "embarrassed to be seen with mom" stage.
Xander is now not only walking, but also preparing for a career as a professional daredevil. We know that he can get down from the bed without injury. We know this because we've left him on the bed a couple times, only to find him happily playing on the floor. So I wanted to catch him in the act so I could see how he does it. After I caught him in the act once, I decided I don't want to see it. It seems that he starts out sitting, then scoots forward to the edge until his legs are dangling off, then he lunges forward. So far, I've always jumped up to catch him as he starts to lunge, because I can just see him breaking a leg or a spine. So, whatever it is that he does, I have no desire to see it. I've started teaching him to roll over and slide down. Same with the stairs, which he can climb. But at the top, he sits there peering downward with a look that says, "that's a LONG way down, I think I'll just sit right here."
Today, we're going to eat lunch at the school. The kids say they only get 10 minutes to eat, and neither has finished the food I send with them, so I'm going to check out the situation for myself. Surely they get more than 10 minutes, right?
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Summer Summary
I know I've been MIA recently. With good reason. Here are the highlights. Or lowlights, as most of them are.
Following the UTIs and head injuries, we went to GA for 10 days (injury free!) and then Myrtle Beach for 5 days. While the beach trip was "injury" free, Xander did have a yeast infection/diaper rash the entire time. There's something odd about slathering your little boy down with Monistat.
A few days after our return home, Xander was all better and I was looking forward to a healthy August. But before that, it was Aaric's birthday. I'm the mother of a seven year old. I feel old.
On Aaric's birthday, the kids and I went to the beach with some friends. Camping. I got some mosquito bites, but otherwise, the trip was injury/illness free. We got home Sunday afternoon. Had spaghetti for dinner.
Sunday evening, I noticed redness around Xander's neck. Monday, I notice redness on his chin. My logical conclusion was that he'd gotten a little burned on his neck, and his constant drooling was irritating his chin. Until it spread and he had pink puffy eyes and a little not so cute pink goatee shaped rash on his face. Then I knew something was up, but was still not panicked. The next day it looked like I'd just taken the kid outside around noon and positioned his high chair so that he was facing directly into the sun and left him there for a couple hours. Bright red, all over his whole head. That was Tuesday afternoon. We went to the ER.
ER doc declared it "dermatitis, cause unknown." He got a dose of steroids and we were sent on our way. Friday, he was not only bright red, but also all his skin on his head was cracking, and in his neck it was just plain gross (I'll spare you the gory details). So we went in to see our doctor. The resident thought it looked bacterial, and went to get her attending doc, brought back 2 of my favorite doctors at the clinic, and they all looked him over for a good long while. The final conclusion is that he had Scalded Skin Syndrome, which is one of the ways Staphalococcus aureus presents itself in infants. As my doctor described to me, "It basically looks like you dipped his face into a vat of boiling water." Nice mental image, right?! So, off the steroids and onto the penicillin.
Within a couple days, he'd improved greatly. I, on the other hand, was increasingly itchy. The mosquito bites were not getting under control. They were getting worse. At his 1 week follow up, I showed them to the resident, who asked and was told I should just use neosporin and see if that helps. It didn't. I went back in a few days later and she said it was bacterial, put me on some meds.
Meanwhile, thanks to the 546908 rounds of antibiotics Xander has had so far, his poor little body again gave in to the yeast, and we both had thrush symptoms. The next day, I found a sore on Mikayla much like the ones I had (did I mention it spread? I started with 10 bites, wound up with around 80 sores. fun stuff.) so we headed to Urgent Care. There, they actually did a culture on my nasty germs, and put us both on new antibiotics. He said it was MRSA. Which is methasomething resistant staph aureus. In other words, "a whole bunch of drugs won't touch this bacteria in the least." Well, it turns out it was not MRSA, but it is the SA part. And it's not really getting better.
So, that's what our summer has been like. I've alerted the staff at our doctor's office that I may just start camping out in the waiting room in order to simplify matters and save my gas money.
Open House for the kids is tomorrow, so today was our last real day of summer. And we spent it cooped up in the house, with our staphy germs. No really, I'm told we're not contagious, but I look icky, so I'm staying in. Tomorrow though, we have to go out.
Open House, and then tomorrow night is a school night! Aaric's first day is Thursday and Mikayla has orientation then, and then her first day is Friday.
Oh, I almost forgot some of the Xander-related highlights. While trying his hardest to fight his battle with SSSS, a tooth popped through. No wonder he was cranky. Itchy, painful skin, a tooth pushing on his gums, and steroids that turn kids into maniacs. I'm actually surprised it didn't go any worse!
A week after that one came in, another followed. And then not quite a week later, the third made it's way in. The days of gummy grins are gone. Luckily, the toothy grins are just as cute.
Over this past weekend, he was standing, falling forward, and a foot would move forward, so he'd sorta take a step, but it was more of a failed attempt to achieve balance than anything else. Yesterday, that evolved into him taking 2 intentional steps forward, a few times during the day. Today, he was taking 4-5 steps in a row. He's walking.
I find that to be pretty absurd, because he's so tiny. (comparatively. Remember, my other two were whoppers) Twenty-one pounders shouldn't be upright and mobile. But he does it anyway.
So that really is it. I wanted to get all that out of the way so that I could do back to school posts later this week. Or, in my recent fashion, a "here's how our fall went" post in November.
Following the UTIs and head injuries, we went to GA for 10 days (injury free!) and then Myrtle Beach for 5 days. While the beach trip was "injury" free, Xander did have a yeast infection/diaper rash the entire time. There's something odd about slathering your little boy down with Monistat.
A few days after our return home, Xander was all better and I was looking forward to a healthy August. But before that, it was Aaric's birthday. I'm the mother of a seven year old. I feel old.
On Aaric's birthday, the kids and I went to the beach with some friends. Camping. I got some mosquito bites, but otherwise, the trip was injury/illness free. We got home Sunday afternoon. Had spaghetti for dinner.
Sunday evening, I noticed redness around Xander's neck. Monday, I notice redness on his chin. My logical conclusion was that he'd gotten a little burned on his neck, and his constant drooling was irritating his chin. Until it spread and he had pink puffy eyes and a little not so cute pink goatee shaped rash on his face. Then I knew something was up, but was still not panicked. The next day it looked like I'd just taken the kid outside around noon and positioned his high chair so that he was facing directly into the sun and left him there for a couple hours. Bright red, all over his whole head. That was Tuesday afternoon. We went to the ER.
ER doc declared it "dermatitis, cause unknown." He got a dose of steroids and we were sent on our way. Friday, he was not only bright red, but also all his skin on his head was cracking, and in his neck it was just plain gross (I'll spare you the gory details). So we went in to see our doctor. The resident thought it looked bacterial, and went to get her attending doc, brought back 2 of my favorite doctors at the clinic, and they all looked him over for a good long while. The final conclusion is that he had Scalded Skin Syndrome, which is one of the ways Staphalococcus aureus presents itself in infants. As my doctor described to me, "It basically looks like you dipped his face into a vat of boiling water." Nice mental image, right?! So, off the steroids and onto the penicillin.
Within a couple days, he'd improved greatly. I, on the other hand, was increasingly itchy. The mosquito bites were not getting under control. They were getting worse. At his 1 week follow up, I showed them to the resident, who asked and was told I should just use neosporin and see if that helps. It didn't. I went back in a few days later and she said it was bacterial, put me on some meds.
Meanwhile, thanks to the 546908 rounds of antibiotics Xander has had so far, his poor little body again gave in to the yeast, and we both had thrush symptoms. The next day, I found a sore on Mikayla much like the ones I had (did I mention it spread? I started with 10 bites, wound up with around 80 sores. fun stuff.) so we headed to Urgent Care. There, they actually did a culture on my nasty germs, and put us both on new antibiotics. He said it was MRSA. Which is methasomething resistant staph aureus. In other words, "a whole bunch of drugs won't touch this bacteria in the least." Well, it turns out it was not MRSA, but it is the SA part. And it's not really getting better.
So, that's what our summer has been like. I've alerted the staff at our doctor's office that I may just start camping out in the waiting room in order to simplify matters and save my gas money.
Open House for the kids is tomorrow, so today was our last real day of summer. And we spent it cooped up in the house, with our staphy germs. No really, I'm told we're not contagious, but I look icky, so I'm staying in. Tomorrow though, we have to go out.
Open House, and then tomorrow night is a school night! Aaric's first day is Thursday and Mikayla has orientation then, and then her first day is Friday.
Oh, I almost forgot some of the Xander-related highlights. While trying his hardest to fight his battle with SSSS, a tooth popped through. No wonder he was cranky. Itchy, painful skin, a tooth pushing on his gums, and steroids that turn kids into maniacs. I'm actually surprised it didn't go any worse!
A week after that one came in, another followed. And then not quite a week later, the third made it's way in. The days of gummy grins are gone. Luckily, the toothy grins are just as cute.
Over this past weekend, he was standing, falling forward, and a foot would move forward, so he'd sorta take a step, but it was more of a failed attempt to achieve balance than anything else. Yesterday, that evolved into him taking 2 intentional steps forward, a few times during the day. Today, he was taking 4-5 steps in a row. He's walking.
I find that to be pretty absurd, because he's so tiny. (comparatively. Remember, my other two were whoppers) Twenty-one pounders shouldn't be upright and mobile. But he does it anyway.
So that really is it. I wanted to get all that out of the way so that I could do back to school posts later this week. Or, in my recent fashion, a "here's how our fall went" post in November.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Quotes!
Mikayla: I do not like Aaric, he is the worst brother I have ever seen! (because he put a "book" she'd made into the shredder.) (and yes, mom, I told him to stay away from the shredder!)
Aaric, at 10 AM: When is Grandma going to get up!?? (she was at work!)
Xander: amamamamama. pppfffttt.
Aaric, at 10 AM: When is Grandma going to get up!?? (she was at work!)
Xander: amamamamama. pppfffttt.
Recovering
(Yes, 2 in one day because I'm behind on things I'd wanted to write about, and have the time now, but these two are so unrelated that I wanted to separate them.)
Two Saturdays ago, we had yet another trip to the ER. I've spared you all the updates on Xander, but we're up to four UTI's now, so we've spent gracious plenty time in the ER and doctor's offices. This time, it wasn't Xander.
Mikayla and Aaric had been outside playing and Michael sent them up to rinse off in the shower. Aaric was showering and Mikayla was playing in the bathroom. We heard a crash and screaming.
Mikayla scares easily. She'll freak out and scream all the time. So Michael ran upstairs mainly to check on the mess that was made by this crash. I stayed on the sofa with Xander until around a minute had passed and she was still screaming. I decided that perhaps I should investigate.
And I was the first to notice the blood running down her back. Michael brushed her hair aside, and it was clear that the blood was coming from her head.
I've never realized just how traumatized I'd be from seeing blood coming from my child's head. I think it wouldn't have been so bad if the cut had been visible, but it was covered by her hair, and there was a lot of blood. So of course, I freaked. Michael put his EMT skills to good use and rushed her to the bathroom to start applying pressure. I rushed next door to see if the neighbors could watch Aaric for us. By the time we got to the car, her lips were white and her eyes were rolling back in her head, and we'd found out what had happened. She was swinging on the shower curtain rod and it fell, and the end of it hit the back of her head. I still hadn't seen the cut.
When we got to the ER, I carried her in and went to the desk I'd been directed to and said, "She's got a gash on the back of her head, she's very pale, and she's trying to sleep." The check-in lady herself didn't act very concerned, but she did rush us through. She made sure we were the next to get into triage. By then, Mikayla was throwing up, but the color had also returned to her face. The insane triage nurse not only needed to take her temperature (vomiting kids with a concussion are not the easiest to convince to hold a thermometer under their tongue!) but also wanted to weigh her. I just told him there was NO way we'd get her to stand alone on that scale. I mean, she could barely even hold her head up and he wants her to stand? He agreed to just list my estimate.
Next we were put in a trauma room. Every other time I've been to the ER, we've been in a "room" that contained a bed, a couple machines to monitor vitals, and walls made of curtains. This time, we were in a real room with permanent walls and a door. There were two beds with huge lamps overhead and equipment that was designed to save lives. Most disturbing to me, were the posters on the wall with instructions for what to do in case of airway failure and the chain of command in rescusitation situations. Now, is it just me, or are these things that the hospital staff should just know? I don't want the person who is working to get me breathing again to need to look up at the poster to try to figure out what to do!
So anyway, once we were in there, no one seemed to stressed. Her color was back and the bleeding had slowed. The nurse put the pulse ox monitor on her and made chit chat about how it happened and her lack of vaccinations.
The doctor came in, and he was strange. He didn't put on gloves as he separated bloody strands of hair to find the cut. He put a finger and thumb on each side of it and wiggled the skin around, telling the resident behind him that he was checking for debris. The resident asked if he would irrigate, and the doctor shrugged and said, "no, we just look around for debris..." Then he said they'd be back in a few minutes to do the staples. He did look at her face and ask her a few questions. She was not at all happy about it, but she was at least responding by then. I asked if he was going to do anything else to check for concussion and he just said, "nah, she has one." Apparently, if the kid gets hit in the head, they just assume it's a concussion and if the kid is acting semi-normal, they assume it's not too bad.
A few minutes later he stapled her up, which she was VERY much not happy with. Then of course we sat there for an eon to wait on the discharge papers.
Later that night, the reality of it all started hitting us. I hadn't thought about the color of her folder, but Michael noticed, and told me that there was only one color left after yellow, which is what she had. Then, I guess I knew already, but I more fully realized why we'd been in the trauma room. They weren't just being nice and giving us a comfier bed and more well lit room. We were there because if she had gotten worse, they would have needed some of that equipment. Then came the thoughts of how much worse it could have been. One inch lower, and it would have hit her spine instead of her skull. Instead of a concussion, we likely would have been dealing with a broken neck. A bit more force and it would have probably fractured her skull. As it was, everyone is suprised they didn't do any x-rays to check for it anyway. And if it had bled much more, she wouldn't have pulled out of the early stages of shock quite so easily.
After processing all of that, we were finally able to move on to being thankful at how lucky we were that it wasn't worse. She really was okay.
Michael had nightmares all that night. I slept well, but for a couple of days I asked her how it was and checked it for more bleeding way more times than necessary. Over a week later and I still keep replaying it all in my head.
But then I see her playing and feel so thankful that she's her normal self and not even in any pain anymore.
And then I have to go retrieve Xander from the stairs or any of the other many things I have to do on a daily basis to try to keep us all out of the ER for as long as possible. We're on day 10 with no doctor visits now (not counting going in for the staple removal, which her Nana did). Ten days with no doctors, and just hoping we can keep that trend for a while. At the very least, we go to the urologist in August. I just hope we don't need to see one prior to that. I like our doctor, but I've seen him way too many times this year. And I like our ER, but I'd like it better if I didn't see it so often. Mostly though, I'm just glad that all the kids are healthy and uninjured. For now.
Two Saturdays ago, we had yet another trip to the ER. I've spared you all the updates on Xander, but we're up to four UTI's now, so we've spent gracious plenty time in the ER and doctor's offices. This time, it wasn't Xander.
Mikayla and Aaric had been outside playing and Michael sent them up to rinse off in the shower. Aaric was showering and Mikayla was playing in the bathroom. We heard a crash and screaming.
Mikayla scares easily. She'll freak out and scream all the time. So Michael ran upstairs mainly to check on the mess that was made by this crash. I stayed on the sofa with Xander until around a minute had passed and she was still screaming. I decided that perhaps I should investigate.
And I was the first to notice the blood running down her back. Michael brushed her hair aside, and it was clear that the blood was coming from her head.
I've never realized just how traumatized I'd be from seeing blood coming from my child's head. I think it wouldn't have been so bad if the cut had been visible, but it was covered by her hair, and there was a lot of blood. So of course, I freaked. Michael put his EMT skills to good use and rushed her to the bathroom to start applying pressure. I rushed next door to see if the neighbors could watch Aaric for us. By the time we got to the car, her lips were white and her eyes were rolling back in her head, and we'd found out what had happened. She was swinging on the shower curtain rod and it fell, and the end of it hit the back of her head. I still hadn't seen the cut.
When we got to the ER, I carried her in and went to the desk I'd been directed to and said, "She's got a gash on the back of her head, she's very pale, and she's trying to sleep." The check-in lady herself didn't act very concerned, but she did rush us through. She made sure we were the next to get into triage. By then, Mikayla was throwing up, but the color had also returned to her face. The insane triage nurse not only needed to take her temperature (vomiting kids with a concussion are not the easiest to convince to hold a thermometer under their tongue!) but also wanted to weigh her. I just told him there was NO way we'd get her to stand alone on that scale. I mean, she could barely even hold her head up and he wants her to stand? He agreed to just list my estimate.
Next we were put in a trauma room. Every other time I've been to the ER, we've been in a "room" that contained a bed, a couple machines to monitor vitals, and walls made of curtains. This time, we were in a real room with permanent walls and a door. There were two beds with huge lamps overhead and equipment that was designed to save lives. Most disturbing to me, were the posters on the wall with instructions for what to do in case of airway failure and the chain of command in rescusitation situations. Now, is it just me, or are these things that the hospital staff should just know? I don't want the person who is working to get me breathing again to need to look up at the poster to try to figure out what to do!
So anyway, once we were in there, no one seemed to stressed. Her color was back and the bleeding had slowed. The nurse put the pulse ox monitor on her and made chit chat about how it happened and her lack of vaccinations.
The doctor came in, and he was strange. He didn't put on gloves as he separated bloody strands of hair to find the cut. He put a finger and thumb on each side of it and wiggled the skin around, telling the resident behind him that he was checking for debris. The resident asked if he would irrigate, and the doctor shrugged and said, "no, we just look around for debris..." Then he said they'd be back in a few minutes to do the staples. He did look at her face and ask her a few questions. She was not at all happy about it, but she was at least responding by then. I asked if he was going to do anything else to check for concussion and he just said, "nah, she has one." Apparently, if the kid gets hit in the head, they just assume it's a concussion and if the kid is acting semi-normal, they assume it's not too bad.
A few minutes later he stapled her up, which she was VERY much not happy with. Then of course we sat there for an eon to wait on the discharge papers.
Later that night, the reality of it all started hitting us. I hadn't thought about the color of her folder, but Michael noticed, and told me that there was only one color left after yellow, which is what she had. Then, I guess I knew already, but I more fully realized why we'd been in the trauma room. They weren't just being nice and giving us a comfier bed and more well lit room. We were there because if she had gotten worse, they would have needed some of that equipment. Then came the thoughts of how much worse it could have been. One inch lower, and it would have hit her spine instead of her skull. Instead of a concussion, we likely would have been dealing with a broken neck. A bit more force and it would have probably fractured her skull. As it was, everyone is suprised they didn't do any x-rays to check for it anyway. And if it had bled much more, she wouldn't have pulled out of the early stages of shock quite so easily.
After processing all of that, we were finally able to move on to being thankful at how lucky we were that it wasn't worse. She really was okay.
Michael had nightmares all that night. I slept well, but for a couple of days I asked her how it was and checked it for more bleeding way more times than necessary. Over a week later and I still keep replaying it all in my head.
But then I see her playing and feel so thankful that she's her normal self and not even in any pain anymore.
And then I have to go retrieve Xander from the stairs or any of the other many things I have to do on a daily basis to try to keep us all out of the ER for as long as possible. We're on day 10 with no doctor visits now (not counting going in for the staple removal, which her Nana did). Ten days with no doctors, and just hoping we can keep that trend for a while. At the very least, we go to the urologist in August. I just hope we don't need to see one prior to that. I like our doctor, but I've seen him way too many times this year. And I like our ER, but I'd like it better if I didn't see it so often. Mostly though, I'm just glad that all the kids are healthy and uninjured. For now.
Aaric, the sweetie pie manipulator
I wanted to scan the picture, but I left town before getting the scanner hooked up. So instead, I'm just telling the story and if I ever get it scanned, it'll be in the photo album.
Aaric had been banished to his room for a variety of reasons. I figured while he was there, he may as well clean. After the second day, I started over-focusing on the cleaning, forgetting that it wasn't the main purpose of his banishment. But I got sick of seeing him playing during his "punishment" and finally stuck my head in and told him that if I caught him doing anything other than cleaning again, I'd take away whatever he was playing with. A few minutes later I looked in and saw him with a crayon and a piece of paper. I snatched it up and stormed out and shut the door behind me. Then I looked down at it.
sary sary sary
sary sary sary
a thsunn tims
Im sary momye
i lov
Which translates into, "sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, a thousand times, I'm sorry Mommy. I love..." which is where I'd cut him off.
I thrust it at Michael and said something about it not being fair that he'd disobey me by writing a sorry/love note! The nerve!
May as well throw in a funny thing he said the other day. His birthday is coming up and we're in GA, so everyone is asking what he wants. He has no clue. The only TV he watches is PBS, and I'm a mean mother who refuses to take him down the toy aisle ever, so he has no idea what other toys are even available to him. There was something he'd mentioned one day and I said "absolutely not!" Clothes, especially socks and underwear, were mentioned and he said "absolutely not!" A couple days later, I was talking to someone else about what he might like and said, "Hey, Aaric, what was it that you asked for and I said no way?" He thought about it for a minute, smiled a little grin and said, "Clothes!"
Aaric had been banished to his room for a variety of reasons. I figured while he was there, he may as well clean. After the second day, I started over-focusing on the cleaning, forgetting that it wasn't the main purpose of his banishment. But I got sick of seeing him playing during his "punishment" and finally stuck my head in and told him that if I caught him doing anything other than cleaning again, I'd take away whatever he was playing with. A few minutes later I looked in and saw him with a crayon and a piece of paper. I snatched it up and stormed out and shut the door behind me. Then I looked down at it.
sary sary sary
sary sary sary
a thsunn tims
Im sary momye
i lov
Which translates into, "sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, a thousand times, I'm sorry Mommy. I love..." which is where I'd cut him off.
I thrust it at Michael and said something about it not being fair that he'd disobey me by writing a sorry/love note! The nerve!
May as well throw in a funny thing he said the other day. His birthday is coming up and we're in GA, so everyone is asking what he wants. He has no clue. The only TV he watches is PBS, and I'm a mean mother who refuses to take him down the toy aisle ever, so he has no idea what other toys are even available to him. There was something he'd mentioned one day and I said "absolutely not!" Clothes, especially socks and underwear, were mentioned and he said "absolutely not!" A couple days later, I was talking to someone else about what he might like and said, "Hey, Aaric, what was it that you asked for and I said no way?" He thought about it for a minute, smiled a little grin and said, "Clothes!"
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
I really am here.
I promise. Gotta get my scanner up and running and then I'll have a fun little story along with a picture. For today, just a couple things.
1. I found this poem just now. It should be renamed, "Kelly in 30 years." What a great opening line: When I am a grandmother I shall have a purple sling. I already have a cranberry batik, I say that's close enough to purple.
I've decided that I hate the TV. Actually, my particular hate here is harder to pin down. On the one hand, I think that all of the TV shows and commercials aimed at encouraging people to lose weight and get healthy are a great thing. If part of the obesity equation is that we have too many couch potatoes, then what better way is there to reach that audience? But I don't like the flip side. The flip side is that people with perfectly normal bodies get self conscious about their bodies for no good reason. Prime example:
Mikayla, giggling, as if she was just asking for a haircut, again: Mom, I need to lose weight!
Me, shocked, but figuring she really didn't understand what that even meant: Why do you want to do that?
Mikayla, still casual and laughing: Because I'm a little fat!
Yeah, I'll admit that every once in a while I pull up the growth charts and weight for height charts and see where the kids are at, just to stay mindful of it (they're both perfectly normal). I don't tell them about it though, and I certainly don't do anything to make them think they might have problems. I know that it came from the stupid Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and Alli and every other weight loss program commercials.
I don't want to have to deal with body image issues with my 5 yr old! But what I DO want is to be able to watch TV from time to time. Maybe it's time for Tivo.
Xander. Well, he's just the cutest thing on the entire planet. I know none of you will admit it, because that would be rude, and one day your kids may google and find this and it would be sad if they saw that their mother admitted that someone else has the truly cutest baby on earth. But it's okay. I know you think he's the cutest ever, too. It'll be our little secret.
Pictures tomorrow. Or Thursday. Along with the Aaric story.
1. I found this poem just now. It should be renamed, "Kelly in 30 years." What a great opening line: When I am a grandmother I shall have a purple sling. I already have a cranberry batik, I say that's close enough to purple.
I've decided that I hate the TV. Actually, my particular hate here is harder to pin down. On the one hand, I think that all of the TV shows and commercials aimed at encouraging people to lose weight and get healthy are a great thing. If part of the obesity equation is that we have too many couch potatoes, then what better way is there to reach that audience? But I don't like the flip side. The flip side is that people with perfectly normal bodies get self conscious about their bodies for no good reason. Prime example:
Mikayla, giggling, as if she was just asking for a haircut, again: Mom, I need to lose weight!
Me, shocked, but figuring she really didn't understand what that even meant: Why do you want to do that?
Mikayla, still casual and laughing: Because I'm a little fat!
Yeah, I'll admit that every once in a while I pull up the growth charts and weight for height charts and see where the kids are at, just to stay mindful of it (they're both perfectly normal). I don't tell them about it though, and I certainly don't do anything to make them think they might have problems. I know that it came from the stupid Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and Alli and every other weight loss program commercials.
I don't want to have to deal with body image issues with my 5 yr old! But what I DO want is to be able to watch TV from time to time. Maybe it's time for Tivo.
Xander. Well, he's just the cutest thing on the entire planet. I know none of you will admit it, because that would be rude, and one day your kids may google and find this and it would be sad if they saw that their mother admitted that someone else has the truly cutest baby on earth. But it's okay. I know you think he's the cutest ever, too. It'll be our little secret.
Pictures tomorrow. Or Thursday. Along with the Aaric story.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
I'm a forgetful procrastinator
1 - We didn't make it to IDM. I had a sinus headache and Aaric was still sick, too.
2 - From what I hear, the day went really well, though!
3 - My friend, Beth, DID have the baby, and I was fully recovered, so I was able to be there and he's very much cute.
4 - Larry came to visit for the weekend. We all know he really came to see a girl, but managed to squeeze us in.
5 - Aaric said a couple of really hilarious things this weekend. Things which I now cannot remember. If I could, I'd share them. I know both Larry and Michael asked if I was going to write about them though. So see, I AM writing about them... I just can't remember what they were.
6 - Now Mikayla and Xander are sick, and it seems that Xander's body just always responds to germs by over-reacting. He was 105 degrees yesterday.
7 - Mikayla is all registered for kindergarten.
8 - Have I ever told you that Xander is quite possibly the cutest little critter EVER?? He's cooing at me right now. Of course, he throws in a few "dadadada's" too. He only throws in the Mamamama's when he's mad.
9 - We have a swingset! Thanks to my dear mother and favorite Aunt Becky, we no longer need a fence because the children actually WANT to be in our yard. Watch for pictures, probably this evening.
10 - because a list of 9 just seems weird. Oh, I know, dessert recommendation: Sara Lee's Andes mint chocolate pie. There are 5 components - chocolate graham cracker crust, chocolate puddingy stuff, mint puddingy stuff, lots of whipped cream around the edges, chunks of andes mints sprinkled on top. Yum.
Michael reminded me of the fun things Aaric said.
Michael, to Aaric: Santa Claus is dead!
Aaric: Duh Dad, there is no Santa Claus. That's so yesterday's news.
2 - From what I hear, the day went really well, though!
3 - My friend, Beth, DID have the baby, and I was fully recovered, so I was able to be there and he's very much cute.
4 - Larry came to visit for the weekend. We all know he really came to see a girl, but managed to squeeze us in.
5 - Aaric said a couple of really hilarious things this weekend. Things which I now cannot remember. If I could, I'd share them. I know both Larry and Michael asked if I was going to write about them though. So see, I AM writing about them... I just can't remember what they were.
6 - Now Mikayla and Xander are sick, and it seems that Xander's body just always responds to germs by over-reacting. He was 105 degrees yesterday.
7 - Mikayla is all registered for kindergarten.
8 - Have I ever told you that Xander is quite possibly the cutest little critter EVER?? He's cooing at me right now. Of course, he throws in a few "dadadada's" too. He only throws in the Mamamama's when he's mad.
9 - We have a swingset! Thanks to my dear mother and favorite Aunt Becky, we no longer need a fence because the children actually WANT to be in our yard. Watch for pictures, probably this evening.
10 - because a list of 9 just seems weird. Oh, I know, dessert recommendation: Sara Lee's Andes mint chocolate pie. There are 5 components - chocolate graham cracker crust, chocolate puddingy stuff, mint puddingy stuff, lots of whipped cream around the edges, chunks of andes mints sprinkled on top. Yum.
Michael reminded me of the fun things Aaric said.
Michael, to Aaric: Santa Claus is dead!
Aaric: Duh Dad, there is no Santa Claus. That's so yesterday's news.
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