Relief

The blood tests came back and Nick's blood levels are normal or close enough to normal that we are no longer concerned with the dreaded L-word "leukemia". Just typing the word makes me shudder. The doctors in their own words were "all scratching our heads" trying to figure out why Nick's neutrophil would go from zero to normal overnight. A lab error can not account for this change. So he is no longer neutropenic which was scary. Now we go back in three weeks to determine if he has something called cyclic neutropenia.

Also his platelet count went from 7000 to over 750,000 overnight. That didn't seem possible to the doctors and they suspected a lab error where two zeros were dropped. They double checked and indeed Nick went from 7000 to 750,000 in 24 hours. No lab error. So he no longer is in danger of a "spontaneous bleed" due to thrombocytopenia which was a major concern and the reason why we had to be admitted so quickly to the hospital. In essence he could have bled out internally spontaneously, without any warning, for no reason at all - because he didn't have enough platelets to stop a bleed.

(Are you sick of all the Wiki-links? Alright I'll stop. The learning curve is steep on this stuff and I have no real grasp of the subject. I thought the links might help.)

So it is over. At least the scary part. I don't even care that no one can explain what happened or WHY IT HAPPENED. I don't know if it will happen again. They said that as a guess it could have been caused by some sort of virus that pretty much flattened poor Nick's immune system. That is only a guess. Or it could be that cyclic thing I mentioned above. Whatever it is - as long as it isn't life or death . . . I don't care.

The doctor told me they don't get to deliver good news like ours very often so she and her colleagues were arguing over who got to give us the good news. We were in the pediatric special care unit where there were a lot of children with cancer and other serious illnesses. I felt so happy to be leaving the hospital with all the sick kids wandering the halls pulling along their IV poles. But I also felt so guilty. We got really lucky and they didn't. One little boy was at the nurse's desk playing UNO with a nurse and another little boy (both boys were really sick and wore masks to protect them from germs) and the nurse congratulated us on the good news. This little boy looked up at me and smiled under his mask because WE got good news. He happened to have pneumonia because chemo destroyed his immune system. He was happy for us. It made me want to start crying all over again.

Thank you for sending your positive thoughts our way. I learned with AJ's back issues that having a good support system is half the battle when you deal with stressful things. I got so many emails and phone calls from people. And it made me realize how fortunate we are to have you guys. (It also made me realize how many lurkers I have because they outed themselves when they emailed me their offers of support.) Thanks again.

Scared Shitless

I'm going to make this brief.

The doctor just called (like 30 minutes ago) with the lab results from Nick's blood draw. And it is true that when you get bad news, really bad news that you stop hearing things. All I remember is this:

She said the words "possible leukemia". And the words "bone marrow biopsy". And the words "admit him tonight". Also I heard things like "blood composition not correct" and "platelet levels too low (7000 when they should be 150,000)". He will be seeing an oncologist and a hematologist tonight.

So there you have it. Some of the worst things a parent can hear. I'm absolutely terrified. Shaking in my skin terrified. I can't breathe normally.

Why am I on here typing? Because I don't know what else to do. I guess I could be pacing the room. But instead I am typing.

I am not religious. But please send good thoughts our way.

Still worried

Wow. I guess I am just full of depressing news lately. I am still very concerned about Nick. Actually I am probably more worried than when he had the high fever. He is so irritable still and really agitated. He has dark circles under his eyes and I don't know what to do for him. This sucks. Why can't kids tell us what is wrong? I wish they were born with an ability to communicate clearly. I'm taking him to urgent care tomorrow morning and am going to insist that they evaluate him for a kidney infection and at the very least discuss different medications. He seems to be in pain and is kicking a lot and screaming. Did I already say that this sucks? Ok. Just checking. Alright. No need to write sympathetic things in the comments. I am just venting again. I know it will all be alright. It's just that he is so little and he is so sweet and he is my baby boy. I had no idea that being a Mom meant that I would worry myself to the point of sickness.

Ahh Haa Haa. As I type this the President is on the TV and I looked at VP Biden and he was falling asleep! AJ says that he is reading but I think he is sleeping. That is a weird dude. I mean if you know you are going to be on TV in front of millions of people CHUG A REDBULL or take some meth.

What is the story?

All I can say is: WHAT THE FUCK?? I don't even care that I dropped the F-bomb. What the fuck?

Last night after several days of Nick getting progressively more and more sick his fever went to 105.5. So we doped him up on Tylenol and I took him to the pediatric emergency department at the university. We had held off on taking him in because the Nurse Advice line had told us that anything under 104 was no big deal. I now believe they are full of shit.

There I sat in the peds emergency department for 5 or 6 hours (but who is counting) waiting to be seen by a doctor. I later found out that they had one of the busiest nights for pediatric trauma for the last several years. Great. And this was the night I happened to be there. So I sat there safely locked into the peds department watching through the glass as a man collapsed in the waiting area for the adults. Then I watched as a drunk woman tried to attack a desk clerk because no one would discharge her because SHE WAS DRUNK. (In case you are dying to know: her boyfriend called the "pigs" on her and she didn't do anything to deserve this. Next time she is calling the cops on him so he knows what it feels like to be incarcerated at the hospital with no food. At least in jail they gave her food.) Thankfully they have security guards everywhere - especially on a Saturday night. The little boy next to me started throwing up everywhere. And every time a sick baby would wake up screaming it would wake up all the other babies whose mommies and daddies had just managed to get them to fall asleep and the whole room would erupt into crying, pacing, bouncing, shushing and vomiting. 5 hours. Maybe 6. Again. I can't remember. Too tired.

I do remember MY little boy limp, red faced from the fever, and totally uninterested in the activity of the room which is so unlike him. I also remember watching a family come rushing into the waiting area frantic to find out what had happened to their child who had arrived by ambulance. Something involving brain trauma and open wounds and lots of x-rays. I was really happy that I was just there for an unexplained fever. And it is funny to say but I was happy that I was one of the ones who HAD to wait. Because as you know, if they rush you in. . . that is sooooo not good.

At 1:00am we finally got to see the doctor who was very nice, very professional and apologetic for our long wait. She said they had seven major pediatric traumas which is highly unusual. She evaluated Nick whose fever had come back because the Tylenol had worn off. She said that we could run a couple of tests. One of those tests was a urine test administered via catheter. You know what comes next? Positive. The damned test was positive for a urinary tract infection.

The doctor said the exact same thing I heard when Lucas had a UTI. "Urinary tract infections in little boys are really unusual." Unusual. That is apparently the word used for boys with UTI's. Have AJ and I genetically doomed our children to abnormalities favoring UTI's? WHAT IS THE STORY??

We have our long awaited appointment for Nick with the Pediatric Urologist the end of march. I guess we will also be discussing this UTI.

Now that I'm thinking back I think this has going on all month and actually nearly 2 months. And in true Mommy fashion I feel guilty for not doing/seeing something earlier. I mean you would think that if I went through this already with Lucas that I would see all the signs . . . but I just wasn't looking. I assumed that the odds of having TWO kids with UTI problems is so far fetched that I didn't even consider it. And I feel terrible.

Get your freakin' monster child off my perfect angel!!!

You guessed it. Playgroup was today and it was a new playgroup for us. New moms and new kids. Three times a year our playgroups get reorganized so that moms and kids meet new people. I like it but I am wondering about some of the "hitters" that have been grouped together in our new playgroup.

So here is a question. What do you do when moms aren't paying close attention to their monsters *ahem*, I mean children, and don't see them hitting my well behaved innocent perfect angelic sweet boy? When he goes to hit the devil child back THEN the mom sees that. Now MY kid has been branded as the offender. Since I saw the whole thing to I tattle-tell? Which is what I would have had to do: "No actually Cindy, Michael hit Lucas first so Lucas was just retaliating. . ." Yeah. I don't think I'm going to do that. Because she wouldn't believe me - her kid is the angel and MINE is the devil. It's always the OTHER kid's fault never your own kids fault. So what do I do when I tell Lucas he can't hit but the other kids are allowed to get away with hitting him. Not fair either.

What I really want to do is teach Lucas how to hit the little bastards back HARD. But that isn't mature nor is it the answer. One day though. . . Lucas is gonna learn how to take bullies out fast and hard. But two and a half is a little young. It is amazing how unaggressive I was up until the moment I saw Lucas get clobbered. I don't care who you are or how passive you are once you see your kid get hit and the offender get away with it, you get all aggressive and nasty. Good luck if you think you are above it all because when it comes down to it YOU AREN'T.

Well no worries. Because I have called a member of my old playgroup and have "broken the rules" and jumped into another playgroup. There are two ladies that I know in this playgroup. Our kids get along well and so do the Mom's. No more devil children around my pristine baby. (I hope you realize that I'm kidding with all the angelic and pristine language. . . . sort of).

Laughable Fashion Concerns

Alright. I know this is silly and I am freely admitting that. But I was putting on Nick's socks this morning and was reminded of a silly fashion dilemma that I faced with Lucas when he was around a year old and I thought you might relate. Or maybe not. Maybe you will think I am lame, and quite frankly if that is what you think then I won't blame you one bit. Because I am lame. But only sometimes.

When Lucas was attending daycare (around 1 year old) I was putting a new pair of socks on him and they were different than his other socks because the were "tall"; they went up to his knees if I pulled them all the way up. I wasn't sure what to do with all the sock.

Do I scrunch them (circa 1982)? Nick kindly agreed to model the various sock fashions:


Do I pull them up to his knees (circa 1972)?


Do I fold them down (circa 1992)?


What do all the other moms do? Will they laugh if I choose the wrong sock style? Will Lucas get his ass kicked at daycare if he has a strange sock?

Seriously. This was a huge dilemma for me. I actually went to daycare and tried to get a look at how all the other kids were wearing their socks so that I could do the same with Lucas' socks. *Sigh*. I ended up selecting the folded down version of sock fashion.

Lame I know. But human. Right?

So what does precancer mean?

Ugg. The dermatologist called. Precancer. From my preliminary research this doesn't appear to be a big deal. If it were a big deal I would think the doctor would have called and spoken to me herself which didn't happen. Lucky me I get to have the rest of it "frozen off" which makes me nervous because it is less than 1/8 of an inch from my eye. Very VERY close to the corner of my eye. And it is such a tiny area. To give you an idea: It is about the size the letter " t " on your screen. It is about the same color as my skin, just a little pinker and it is very slightly raised off my normal skin surface. If it wasn't painful I would have never noticed it at all.

Ahhhh. I guess my days of carelessly running around outside are over. Sunblock every day now. I know I should have been doing it the whole time. Here is the thing. When I was working outside everyday I was really good about using sunblock and wearing hats and long sleeves. In fact I had to FIGHT a hard BATTLE with the then Chief of my division to be able to wear broad rimmed hats and long sleeves in the summer time. I had to argue with him in his office and finally when I presented him with the Uniform Standards that clearly state that I was able to dress this way he finally relented. Asshole. But that is another story. I won the fight and was good about hiding from the sun. But when I am not planning on being outside everyday it is hard to remember to do the sunblock thing. If I am just running to the store. . . you get the point.

Plus I don't have a good skin care routine and remembering or wanting to put lotion on in the mornings is not going to happen.

My sister suggested I try the spray on sunscreen so that it is fast, clean and easy. That is what I am going to do. It sounds like something I could get on board with. Thank goodness my family member ordered me to get my butt to the dermatologist for an "all over check" because I would have put it off indefinitely. Nobody wants to get naked in front of a doctor.

Finally FRUIT!

Finally fruit is making a comeback in the grocery store. I dread winters because I don't like many winter veggies and miss the abundance of fruit that summer provides. The other day I found blueberries, strawberries and mangoes - all of which looked yummy. So the kids have been pigging out on the fruit. Nick in particular loves the blueberries because they are just big enough that he can practice using the advanced "index finger-thumb pinch" to pick up his food. Now that he is eating the blueberries he has become pretty good with the pinch. Lucas on the other hand is loving the mangoes (a little too slippery for Nick) and will put down nearly an entire mango at lunch time. Mmmm. I am so excited about all the fruit that will be available in the coming months.

SPRING AND SUMMER ARE COMING!!! Whoo HOO!!

Rush to get to the airport

Within the space of an hour AJ heard bad news from his mom and we were at the airport sticking him on a plane.

My Mom-in-law's significant other has had a serious stroke and it appears as though he won't survive the night. It is pretty sad, but not unexpected. We have been watching him deteriorate for the last couple of years and we all knew that it was just a matter of time before something like this happened. I am upset for my Mom-in-law because she truly loves this man and they have spent many happy years together. As prepared as she was for this it still is very difficult and upsetting.

My point in writing this post is actually to celebrate (once again) the fact that we now live in a civilized area that has an operating airport. If we were still stuck in the hellhole referred to as Carlsbad, AJ wouldn't have been able to jump on a plane last minute to go be with his Mom. He will get there at 10:10 tonight. Not bad. He flew out at 6:45 our time. And we found out he needed to get there at 5:00. Pretty fast. Beats driving to El Paso for three hours and then getting on a plane.

Thank heavens we live in CIVILIZATION once again. It is SOOOO nice.

Just pictures

Here is Nick laughing at his brother.


And here he is just after trying to tear the blinds off the window. I had to raise them up after discovering that he could pull up on the window sill.


This is Mr. Lucas using binoculars to watch Diego, his cartoon. Diego has binoculars and so Lucas INSISTED on using mine. The rule was that he had to put them around his neck and stay seated. I am on the hunt for child-proof binoculars.


Again. Watching Diego. I told him to show his teeth for the picture in an attempt to get him to smile. Instead he showed me all his teeth. Too cute.


Water colors after breakfast. This allowed me to shower.


And here he is dismantling our old DVD player. And yes he did this all by himself. Give the kid a screwdriver and he'll take anything apart. He tried to take our recliner apart until I realized what he was doing and made him stop. Notice the cup full of screws. He is a very tidy child. AJ and I have been joking that we are going to have to buy old scrap appliances for him to take apart since he likes it so much.

Wait. . . .what?

AJ was talking to our neighbor who (whom? I never know) we have grown to like. She often brings her grandson over to play with Lucas and he goes over to her house to play also. In conversation AJ mentioned that we are renting this house and plan on moving in 3-4 months.

She said something like "well if I'd known that I wouldn't have wasted my time getting to know you".

So AJ chuckled because clearly she was kidding.

As AJ was chuckling she said "No, I'm serious."

WWWHHHHAAAATTTT??????

No really. What is wrong with people?

Finally pictures. . .

. . . by someone who actually knows what they are doing.




And in case you were curious. It is indeed very, no wait, EXTREMELY difficult to get two kids to look at the camera at one time. And it is even more difficult to get them to look at the camera AND smile at the same time. Hell, just keeping Nick from bursting into tears was challenging. But we got some pictures and I am very happy. The young lady at Sears (listen to me. . . young lady, am I 80 years old or something?) worked her butt off keeping the kids' attention and trying to get good photos. Yeah!!!

I'm in a Snowglobe

It is so windy and freakin' cold outside! It is snowing and the wind is blowing so hard that the snow is just swirling in circles. And truly just looking at it has made my blood rush to "save" my vital organs leaving my toes and fingers very cold. I had to turn the heat up to 68 just to feel minimally comfortable. Yes I know, admit and embrace my wimpiness.

Ahhh stress, reflux and caffeine

Today I had a "thing" removed from the inside corner of my eye. Not sure what it was. About 6 months ago I noticed that I had a small bump that was very sensitive and painful just between my eye and the bridge of my nose. I made a mental note to get to a dermatologist to get it checked - and then quickly forgot because we learned we were moving and then life went crazy. Last week I was talking to a family member who had just come back from the dermatologist and had an "all over check" where they found a small -probably nothing- spot and removed it. Given my history of being in the scorching sun (for oh about the last 10 years) during most of my employment history and the fact that I am fair skinned, I figured I better get in. Hopefully the biopsy comes back clean. She said that it looked like it was nothing but the fact that it was painful was of concern, so she said we should err on the safe side.

Nick hates his crib. Even though it is right next to my bed. We decided to try the crib again because he has nearly leaped from our bed several times during nap time. And if I didn't get in there immediately after he woke up he would crawl at lightning fast speed for the edge of the bed. So I thought we needed a safe containment system so that he can't get hurt. And he hates it. I got about 2.5 hours of sleep last night. I truly had no idea a baby could stay awake that long, but Mr. Stubborn sure can.

Also I have been drinking so much caffeine, to stay awake, that my stomach has been giving me problems. I get sick after I eat. It sucks. I don't throw up but I feel really poorly.

I finally finished and ordered Lucas's photobook that I had been slowly working on. It is from the first year of his life. I hope to do one for both kids for their early years. I would hate for all my pictures to stay in a digital format - that makes me nervous, what if I loose them all somehow? That would be horrible. I take so many pictures of the kids and I want to at least have some of them in a hard copy format. . . in case one day all electronic equipment fails to work anymore. Or in case the format of pictures becomes obsolete and nothing will open the photo files. . . I shudder to think.

I went to shutterfly after researching which companies make the best photobooks. I had previously used Kodak and was fairly happy but shutterfly uploads your pictures super fast (Kodak is SLOW) and the tools to create the book are intuitive and extensive. I am waiting for it to arrive in the mail. I can't wait to see it.

AJ decided to baby proof our fireplace - ghetto style. He got some pipe insulating tubes. They are long foamy tubes that fit around pipes. He cut and adhered them to the fireplace edges so that Nick won't get seriously hurt if he falls on them. The problem is that he used industrial adhesive to get them to stick to the wall. I was so upset when I saw what he did that I panicked and told him to rip it all off before the adhesive set up and tore the paint off the wall. Thank God he got it off before anything major happened. He figured out another way to get the foam to stick. Argh. Men. I swear. He gets bonus points for finding a cheap way to pad that corner (baby proofing gear is pricey!!) but I nearly had a heart attack at the thought of repainting.

Kiss bunny here

Tonight Lucas did the CUTEST thing ever. I went into his bedroom to give him a kiss good night. And he did his adorable two year old pucker. . . which is just the greatest thing. And then he wanted me to kiss both of his bunnies goodnight (a new thing) which I did. As I turned to leave he said "wait. Kiss bunny here". I looked at where he wanted me to kiss the bunny and it was on the bunny's butt. He made me kiss both bunnies on their butts! SO FUNNY!! Then he wanted me to kiss both of his eyeballs. I have no idea where he got this but it is adorable. Ok, maybe it is just adorable to me his Mommy.

I'm really going to miss this age. He is so sweet and so innocent. He is into the "me" phase which I am LOVING. It is so neat that he wants to do everything himself and that he has the confidence to try. Everyone has warned me about the terrible twos and how difficult it is when they want to do stuff themselves but so far I think it is great. I hear that the age of three is really hard but if it is anything like two then I am going to love it also.

I took Nick to the Doctor today, after getting approximately 3 hours of sleep last night. And guess what? He is perfectly healthy. So why does Motrin allow him to sleep well if he is not in pain? Doc couldn't answer that. And why has he had a low-grade fever? Doc couldn't answer that. And why did he only sleep for 20 minutes in a 9 hour period of time? Doc couldn't answer that.

No evidence of teeth, no throat problems, no broken bones (I was horrified to hear that babies his age come in with broken bones from "falls" according to the doctor), no ear infection, no eye problems, no hernia. Your guess is as good as mine.

Also Nick is now pulling up all over the house and grabbing everything off of the couch and shelves. He is wobbly (he looks like a shaky baby deer) but getting better. AJ saw him try to take a step today but was completely unsuccessful. I guess he face planted. Poor dude.

Feeding the wildlife

Today we decided to get crafty and we made the ever-popular pine cone bird feeders. Here is a picture of Lucas who was REALLY excited about playing with birdseed.


We took our pine cones, and tied strings on them. Then we coated them with extra chunky peanut butter and rolled them in birdseed. We couldn't find small containers of wild birdseed so we purchased some parakeet food at Walgreens. I figure it's good enough.


Very messy as you can see. I ended up doing most of the work involving peanut butter and Lucas rolled the pine cones in the birdseed. If you ask Lucas he did all the work though. At least that is what he told his father.



The finished product.


We hung them all over the yard. Lucas told me where to hang them.



Now I am sitting here while the kids sleep trying to get a picture of one of the juncos eating off the pine cones. That way Lucas will have something to see when he wakes up. Getting a toddler to see a bird is difficult so I figured a picture is easier to show him. Wish me luck.

Update:

These guys were watching me try to get pictures. Jerks. They kept making laughing noises at me as I laid on my belly in the yard.


YEAHH!! I have never tried to photograph small twitchy birds before and have discovered that they are as hard to capture in a photograph as I imagined they would be.

I'm not sane today

Warning: I am irritable. In the following post I throw a fit like a small child and blow off some steam.

Today was a really rough day. Nick has some sort of issue with me, sleeping and eating. And I AM SICK OF IT!! For the last three weeks he's been a little shit. Yeah, I'm back to swearing but only in writing, not verbally. But for the last two days he's been really irritable and won't let me put him down or sleep or feed myself, or shower, or THINK! AND I HAPPEN TO HAVE A LOT OF BUILT UP FRUSTRATION THAT I AM LETTING OUT HERE RATHER THAN WITH THE KIDS!!!!

So. ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Feeling a little better.

How hard is it to open your mouth when someone is feeding you? FEEDING YOU! MOMMY IS DOING ALL THE WORK SO OPEN YOUR FREAKIN' LITTLE MOUTH! But noooooo. He purses his lips and spits food back at me into my face. I'm not joking. Into my face. And sleep? HA! What a joke.

Drugs don't seem to be working too well with him but they take the edge off. I don't see any teeth but I never did with Lucas either. If this goes on tonight I am taking him to the doctor because I can't live like this. And of course AJ is out of town for this whole episode, as usual. It's not his fault at all but I am still pissed. Pissed at the universe. I need SLEEP! SLEEP!

Lucas is an angel. Except that he is really tired, and throwing fits because he too isn't sleeping. So I thought that we needed to get out of the house and maybe everyone's dispositions would improve. We went to a local restaurant. Bad Idea. I won't go into the details but let's just say that the waiter was highly irritating. When you say you are going to refill my Diet Coke then do so. And do so promptly. A woman who shows up at an empty restaurant at 3:30 in the afternoon alone with two young children is there because she wants someone to take care of her.

So here is a tip Mr. Waiter: GET OFF YOUR ASS AND FILL MY GLASS UP!!!

MY GOD THIS IS SO NOT FAIR. Poor me.

First self inflicted injury

I say self inflicted because I have accidentally injured Nick a time or two. Clipping his finger nails when he was 1 day old comes to mind. But today he got a big old bruise above his eye from falling. Poor baby. Thank goodness the boob still makes the world right again for little Nick. Ahhh, the magical powers of the boob. I'm going to miss that.



FINALLY! He looked at the camera and he smiled! Success!

Nick gets a containment system

I was doing dishes and when I came into the living room this is what I saw. I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. Lucas was in the process of carefully placing a laundry basket over Nick. This was after Nick crawled over to Lucas and tried to steal Lucas's bunnies.





This is the moment that Lucas realized that I was behind him watching. Look at the look on his face. He's wondering if he'll get in trouble. Of course he didn't because it was just too funny.



This was Nick after his release from jail.


The more I watch the kids learn to get along and interact the more I am reminded of my sister and me growing up together. We used to do some messed up stuff to each other. I'm glad my sister and I were close together in age and I am glad that my kids are close together now that Nick isn't an infant. It is certainly getting easier now that Nick is mobile. Which is what I had hoped for.

Ummm . . . Apples?

Did you ever watch the movie Meet the Fockers? Remember the part where the little kid who is being ferberized starts saying the word "asssssss. . . .hole"? I never liked that part of the movie because it never seemed very real to me. Why would a kid pick up a word that fast? Ben Stiller only said it one time. And why would the kid drag out the word ass, pause, then say hole? Over and over and over again? Not realistic.

Today I was proven wrong.

By my little boy.

Who started cussing like a sailor in a very loud voice.

In the middle of the produce department.

In front of a scornful woman whose eyes I could feel burning holes through my back.

And I can now inform you with a great deal of authority on this subject that he pronounced the word exactly like the little boy on Meet the Fockers. Over and over and over again. And I couldn't get him to stop or even to lower his voice.

My feeble attempt at covering up was this: "Apples? You want apples? Ok honey we will go get you some apples." And off we went. Very fast. And no we didn't stop for apples.

My days of cussing ended several weeks ago. Every now and again I catch myself but I am getting better. Apparently I let another one fly at some point and I don't remember. Crap. I mean golly gee.

Here is Nick flirting with me again. You wouldn't know it but he is trying to get me to give him more teether "wheels". He had just polished off his third one when I snapped this photo.


This is my attempt at capturing my beautiful blond on camera. He reached out and covered the lens. Too bad because he is super cute.

Lucas the protector

Lucas goes between annoyance with his brother and a protectiveness. A good example of this would be today when I was carrying groceries into the house I left the front door open (completely forgetting that Nick is mobile). Say it with me now "good mommy, goooood mooommmmy". Anyway, back to my point, Lucas saw Nick heading out the door and started calling "mommy heeelllp!" while he sat on Nick's back squishing him to the floor so that he couldn't move anywhere. Instead of getting mad or upset Nick seemed more determined to get out the front door than before and started reaching out for the threshold with his fingertips and trying to drag the both of them out the door.

Ha HA HAAA! It was so funny. Nick was in no danger of injury but Lucas sure thought so.

Here are pictures of Lucas after he put his shirt on for the first time - all by himself. Note: it is backward. He was so excited that he got his head through the "neck hole" without any assistance. So cute.




Here is Nick trying to get stuff off of the couch. He decided that flirting with me would be more successful at getting what he wanted. He was right. That kid has me wrapped around his finger. I mean, just look at that face.

Babies, babies everywhere

Wow. I have two girlfriends that have given birth to new baby boys this week! I also know one more person who is due any day now and she also is having a baby boy. So exciting. Was it really cold 10 months ago? What is with all the procreation that was going on? And all boys too. This Mom's club that I joined is full of pregnant women. And once again. I thank the inventor of birth control that I will never be pregnant again.

I wish I could have convinced them to take my baby clothes but I ended up finding a good home for them despite the bitter rejections. . . sniff sniff. You see here in the big city (haha) people come to your door for donations. These people are from reputable charities like the boys and girls club which is who I donated all the clothes to. I also gave them a slow cooker, vacuum cleaner, car seat, baby swing, various baby toys and adult clothes. Basically I got rid of some serious STUFF.

On a totally different subject. I am so ccccoolld! This is supposedly one of the "warmest winters on record". But I am still cold.

Surviving at Wal-Mart

Today we went to another Mom's house for playgroup. Afterward I, being the genius that I am, decided that we would go to Wal-Mart for bananas and a very needed DVD player (ours has died a long tragic death which was hurried along by a toddler wielding a plastic hammer and screw driver).

We get there and Lucas starts having melt downs because it is dangerously close to lunch time, while Nick is having melt downs because it is dangerously close to nap time. Good timing huh? So I bust my ass through the store grabbing everything I need and realized that I had to go to the bathroom SO BADLY!!! Like SOO BADLY!! So into the bathroom we go (thank GOD they had just cleaned it. . .) where I went into the handicapped stall. There I had the privilege of juggling a ginormous 8 month old while I maneuvered my belt off and my pants down. I then got to pee with him on my lap, and attempt to redress myself with one hand all the while being supervised and loudly told what to do by a toddler standing by. He announced to the echoey bathroom (and probably those outside in the layaway section too) that mommy had just gone pee and that I also wiped and now I was flushing. Oh goody.

I decide that it is in every one's best interest to eat at the Subway conveniently located in the friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart. Lucas is such a good little guy and ate his sandwich with little to no assistance from me. Nick on the other hand is tired and wants NOTHING to do with the spoon I am aiming at his mouth. "NO BABY FOOD MA!!" And to make his point he grabs the baby food and throws it into my lap. Nice. So I hand him a Cheeto to shut him up and save my sanity while I wipe the full cup of baby food off of my lap and shirt with the TWO measly napkins they gave me. Ummm Helllllooooooo? Woman with babies = LOTS OF NAPKINS NEEDED!!

Lucas finishes his sandwich and I load him and Nick back into the cart so that we can dash to the register and make our escape. Except that Nick is dropping soggy cheetos on the floor as we go, and I am stopping to pick them up so that some old frail woman doesn't slip and fall on the nastiness. Then Nick starts grabbing for my boobs leaving cheeto streaks down the front of both boobs. Only the boobs. Little baby fingerprints in Cheeto orange on both boobs. Lovely. That will go well with the baby food in my crotch.

Lucas is by this point COVERED from head to toe in Cheeto orange as well and is sitting in the basket of the cart nicely. He is partially buried in boxes of Ziploc bags that I had forgotten that I needed. He is loudly sucking on his fingers to remove the buildup of Cheeto cheese.

I arrive at the register with my hair pulled out of my pony tail because Nick got a hold of it while I picked up a Cheeto and I hadn't had a chance to fix my hair. I clearly haven't had a shower in a day or two, covered in mushy food and cheetos. My kids look like hell as well. Everything I put on the belt to pay for has clearly been touched by Lucas who has left Cheeto cheese behind. The checker gives me a look like "GOD. . . you are one of THOSE mom's." The immaculate woman in front of me who is buying all organic foods gives me a similar look. And I swear Lucas started smacking his lips louder.

When I got out to the car and got everyone loaded I noticed that my fly was open and CRAP I FORGOT THE FREAKIN' BANANAS! Good times.

Momma needs to baby proof damn it

Just as it did with Lucas the need to baby proof has snuck up on me. I suspect the next several days will be a whirlwind of baby gates, padding corners, covering outlets and putting small items away. It probably wouldn't kill me to clean the floors also. But that isn't really baby proofing, just good hygiene. Wait. Is it hygiene to clean floors? Hmm. I'm going to have to look up the definition of hygiene.

Anyway. My sis-in-law was visiting and it was really good to see her. She fell in love with our genius super-model babies, but who wouldn't? They are after-all what the entire world revolves around. Kidding of course. But it was a good visit.