Laundry Day

We are all about teaching the children to help. We want them to learn to "pitch in" around the house without any type of reward. You can frequently hear me say, in response to a "but, I didn't play with that toy" --- "Well, mommy didn't wear your clothes or spill this,(insert item), on the floor, but I am washing it aren't I". They have started to nix the I didn't use it excuse and just agree to help. Some days punishment must ensue when one refuses to help.

One of the big things I'm trying to get the boys to do is help put their clean clothes away after I fold them. I realize that they often make it to the drawer and are half unfolded and often stuffed/crammed in, but that's ok. The point is they are doing the work. I often have to remind myself that not everyone does it like me.

Well, Mr. O, is typical third/last child form, is a spoiled little bugger. Don't get me wrong, by many standards, all of my children are horribly spoiled, but O....well, he's another story.

He is your typical youngest child. He's learned that screaming often gets you your way quickly and that your big brothers will often clean up fast so you don't have to. The other day I told him he needed to put his clothes away too. I asked M to help him by opening his drawer for him. His dresser is high and the drawers are quite long, you really need to open them with two hands and O was holding a mountain of pants bigger than he was.

He ran out pleased with his accomplishment and was rewarded with a high five and good job. I went in a bit later to hang up some shirts and this is what I found:


I LOVED it! It gave me a good laugh and made me proud. He clearly put quite a bit of effort into shoving those pants in there! It must have taken even more effort to try to push the drawer shut!

I was quite impressed with his first attempt at putting his own laundry away. We will practice more next time!

Thoughts on the road to motherhood...

I was chatting with on old friend, discussing pregnancy and the path to motherhood, when it dawned on me....it's insanity.

The path to motherhood that is. I realize that carrying a child for nine or so months (give or take) is a wonderful gift. It is truly a miracle and a gift from our Father. I don't regret, nor do I wish it to have been any other way. I loved each time I felt my children move or hiccup for the first time. I loved the thought that I was growing a life inside of me. I still pray, daily in fact, that some of my dearest friends will one day be able to experience this job. It is all beautiful and miraculous...at least in theory.

Remember, as I write this list, I agreed to and even pleaded with my husband and God, to do this "baby thing", not once, not twice, but THREE times, knowing full well what was involved. The crazy thing is, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat! What is wrong with me!

First, you have the "morning sickness". This is really just a crock. A big, fat, horrid lie. Morning, noon, night, middle of the night, middle of the day, every waking moment sickness, would be a better name for it. There was nothing even remotely morning only about it. In fact, I often felt my best upon first opening my eyes...it went down hill from there. You will also meet those well intentioned people, who will find it necessary to tell you that they were never sick...not even once, their whole pregnancies. REFRAIN from punching them in their faces.

Then you add the vomit ting to the nausea and the fun really starts. This is much more tolerable with your first pregnancy. You have only yourself and your husband to worry about. The good thing about your first pregnancy, is your husband is still so enamored by the idea of his wife carrying his offspring, that they don't mind eating peanut butter sandwiches and frozen pizza rolls for dinner for 6 straight months. The consecutive children and the sickness they cause creates a problem. You can no longer lie down when you aren't feeling well and you may often have an audience while you relive the last three meals you've eaten. You may even be insane enough to have children a year apart, and have the joy of an infant crawling around your knees while you kneel at the toilet. If you are lucky, this part will only last a few months. If you are not one of these blessed ladies, you will, like me, puke for nine months. This puking will not be a once a day thing either. Your body will have other ideas.

We add in the food/smell aversions. You may feel perfectly fine and then you have to cook hamburger or smell peaches or sweet potatoes and think you may just die right then. You may even be forced to ban microwave popcorn from your home for years...even when you aren't pregnant. The smell may bring back such horrid memories that you dry heave when you smell it. Your husband may even smell funky to you, even right after a shower - this is honestly how I knew I was pregnant with my third! The smell of my sweet husband, even directly following a shower made me ill.

You can throw in a bit of swelling too. Just for good measure. Your feet and ankles, could potentially swell so much that flip flops become tight. You will sit and take them off and find that you have what the doctors affectionately refer to as "pitting edema", and be thrilled with the restrictions they try to place you on for it.

You can add the benefit of excessive weight gain. You may be able to step on the scale during one of your monthly visits and find that you have indeed gained 12, yes 12 pounds in one month. You can then relive that fact over again when the doctor lets you know that, that type of weight gain is unacceptable. He won't even budge an inch when you tell him you are always starving and that the baby HAS to drink a full pitcher of kool aid every day.

You may even add the joy of high blood pressure to one of your pregnancies or perhaps pre term labor. These items will land you on bed rest. Bed rest is all well and good for the first few days....and it's a laughable concept when you have an 11 month old at home. You will ask about the doctors definition of "modified bed rest" and hope your doing that.

You will have this lovely sciatic pain and some odd pain in your pelvis that makes you feel like your bones are actually cracking in half. You will be assured that it's a normal feeling and it just your bodies way of preparing for delivery...WHAT THE.... If that's how if feels in preparation what will the actual process feel like!?!?

You will have to limit your caffeine intake, nix all ibuprofen. You will call your ob or pharmacist a zillion times asking for medication classifications. You will hope and pray that the pepto bismol you took will not give your child Rye's disease and you will not look up Rye's disease after praying that.

If you are one of the lucky ones that have heartburn, your baby will not have hair...at least mine didn't and I had heartburn that could kill a person. You will try TUMS and realize that they make you throw up - which is great, considering you already throw up at the drop of a hat. You will take Zantac like they are Tic Tacs and will eventually beg for something to help with this heartburn.

There will be moments, especially in subsequent pregnancies, where you will sneeze, laugh or cough and you will wet your pants...and not just a little bit. You won't even know you have to pee until you do it. You will become an item of entertainment to friends and family. They will take bets and laugh each time you sneeze.

You will get jabbed, punched, kicked, rolled, hiccuped and have your innards beat on a daily basis.

Your sleep patterns will change and you will pee, more in the night, in nine months, than you have in your life up to this point.

you will have multiple blood tests run and get to drink some yummy orange pop stuff...that they tell you you can't throw up. Which is difficult, if you have the evil sickness that I already mentioned.

Your feet might even grow TWO full sizes. You may be one of the lucky ones that experience stretch marks and odd pregnancy rashes.

These moments are all prior to labor... Labor is where the fun really starts...

More poking and prodding will ensue. You might vomit some more and have diarrhea...all at the same time.

There will come a moment, when you no longer care who sees you naked. Yes, I said it. You might find a moment, be it ever so brief, that if someone promises to get the child that is threatening to burst through your skin out, you would let them in to see you in all your glory.

You might have that moment, when your "drug man" comes in, that you only thought was made for TV. He will give you some potentially magic drugs and you will want to kiss him and name your child after him....even if he does smell like hard liquor.

Contract, push, contract, push, yell, scream, contract....fail miserably and have baby chopped out of you.

You may even, like me, be so drugged by this point that you don't even realize that you haven't seen your son in several hours because he's in the special care nursery. Your dear sister will tell you this months later...and you will freak that you didn't know this.

My husband is convinced that God made woman to have children for all of these reasons. He said the first time he puked he would have been done having children. He found it insane that I would willingly subject myself, multiple times to these "activities".

The funny thing is...despite this insane road, I'd still do it again! I don't mind the sagging, stretch marks and bigger feet. I don't care so much about the eroded esophagus or calcium depleted teeth.

I love my children more than I ever thought possible. I daily wear my heart on my sleeve.

I would do it all over again, even knowing what I know and having felt what I felt. I will continue to beg God to bless my friends with children of their own too. This must equal insanity.

Three

My baby is THREE! I can hardly believe how quickly the time has flown by. O was a surprise and such a wonderful one! I begged and begged, both M and God to have one more baby. M said no, God said yes...and I'm so glad He did!

O, my little shrimp. Came three weeks early and tipped the scales 6lbs 14ounces. The doctors were quite impressed with his size for his "gestational age". I figured he'd be a big boy! He was quite a bit shorter than his big brothers though - only 19inches. To us, he seemed like such a teeny thing. All the other cousins had been much bigger than that, so he was quite the novelty.

He was such a good baby. Easy going and content. He slept well and ate well. He struggled with food allergies, which, thankfully, at three, he has none of anymore.

He still remains easy going and even easier to amuse. He LOVES his big brothers and wants to do everything they do - which is both good and bad! He loves to play with them and wrestle with them.

He is our little athlete. He loves to play outdoors and is a champ at kicking and throwing. He runs fast - even with as short as his little legs are! He plays hard. He goes non stop.

He requires significantly less sleep, than I recall his older brothers needing. He's mostly pleasant and hardly ever whines. He loves to laugh and is silly. He's our little cuddle bug too. He loves to get his blankie and kitty and climb up in your lap.

Two was a big year for little O. He had his eye operated on, got glasses, wore a patch, was able to add dairy back into his diet, moved into a big boy bed, has had his eyes dilated a zillion times and is potty trained.

He is learning to ride a bike, will start playing in his first soccer league, and will be the only one at home during the day in a few short months.

He is our only child that got away with sleeping in our bed and talking a bottle to bed. He is spoiled rotten. He has quickly learned that "he who screams the loudest, get his way the fastest". He doesn't let his brothers bully him either. He can hold his own.

He is our dare devil. Nothing seems to phase him. He will jump off, climb and roll off of anything. He has recently developed an unusual fear of dogs and birds...we are hoping this fear won't last long - although the bird fear is pretty funny.

He has great, curly, wild hair. The color is ever darkening. I am quite certain that it will be as dark as his mommy's before long. He's finally talking quite a bit more. He is learning to communicate much better and often uses his middle brother as his interpreter. M is often able to interpret even the most odd grunts and noises.

He loves to read books and adores trains, just like his older brothers. He knows his colors and can count to 15...if he wants too. He knows the names of all his trains and can often be found laying on the floor "chuffing" his trains along. He enjoys playing play dough too. Of course, as most boys his age, his favorite place to play is outside. He loves being outdoors and digging in the sand.

He is often referred to as the "cool kid" by friends and family. He really is just a cool kid. He has a distince and unique personality. He loves to give "rocks" and high fives to everyone.

He has completed our family and filled our lives with joy. We love him dearly and are so thankful that the Lord saw fit to answer my prayers and bless us with another baby boy.

I am shocked at how quickly these last three years have flown by. I swear I blinked and he was crawling. I blinked again and he was walking...before I knew it, he was walking and talking....now, here I sit, a mother whose youngest child is now THREE! He truly is such a blessing.

Favorite Foto

Each time I see this picture I smile. It doesn't matter what state of mind I am in or what is going on. It just makes me smile!

M, myself and my only brother, were ordering sushi at a great little sushi bar in South Florida. The little Japanese woman behind the counter, kept insisting that we were ordering WAY to much food for three people. We told her M wasn't eating any and that my dad was - who is no small man,was.

She continued to add and multiply, showing us her results and trying to explain to us how we had far too much food. I tried to explain to her that we LOVE sushi, that in the North where we live, it isn't all that easy to come by (at least at that time it wasn't).

I finally told the women to just have the sushi chef make the rolls and that were going to give her money in exchange for this excessive sushi order. She walked away muttering something about us ordering too much food....just so you know, it wasn't too much food. We ate and thoroughly enjoyed every morsel of that yummy sushi. One day, I'll tell the story about the little Japanese woman who took my soy sauce away and told me I had enough....that one was in LA though.

False Advertising

I bought a new scale.


Yes, after 10 years, I purchased a new scale. I found it on clearance at my home away from home, Target. It's even digital. Our old, boring, and slightly broken scale was an analog scale, that you had to set 6 pounds over to get an accurate weight. Even with the 6 pounds, it was often difficult to get an exact reading because of how small the numbers where.

Unfortunately, the numbers and my clothing doesn't lie! It's been coming for a long, long, long time. Almost 7 years to be exact. The weight has continued to pile on. I've allowed myself to balloon to well over 200lbs...can't believe I just typed that, even though at the site of me, it's quite obvious.

The smallest I have been in the last 7 years was right after I deliverd my second son. The horrible sickness, that lasted the whole pregnancy, helped me get down to the smallest I'd been in a long time. Sadly, I managed to pack it all right back on.

I have gained, in the almost nine years that Matt and I have been married, a total of 110 pounds. No lie, no exaggeration. 110 pounds. I have also gained, three sons, high blood pressure and an increased heart rate. Three of those things I could never live without, the other two can go.

It is for those three boys that I need to stick with it this time. I am 30 years old folks...THIRTY! Too young to be dealing with this weight. Not to mention, my poor husband...I laugh and tell him that he should sue me for "false advertising", as the package he has now, looks NOTHING like the one he signed up for! He of course, is sweet, loving and ever attracted to me, despite the changes!

I have tried Weight Watchers several times and know, without a shadow of a doubt, that it works and is a wonderful program. I, unfortunately, have too much freedom on that program and don't stick with it...not to mention that everytime I have ever joined, I end up pregnant!

I am always leary of fad diets and the results. I know it often ends in severe weight gain in the end. I have decided though that something must be done.

I have decided Slim Fast is my new found friend. I researched the plan some and found it much more conducive to my lifestyle than I thought. The ease and lack of planning that is involved in it works well for me. It requires little thought and actually tastes pretty good! I get to eat every two hours, and get a good dinner. I've changed what I eat and what my snacks are. Soon, I plan to include regualr exercise into this routine. One step at a time....

The only down fall to the Slim Fast is getting my system used to that much dairy....it wasn't pleasant folks. I am getting used to it though and find it a bit easier to tolerate! I should thank my husband and sons for tolerating it too!!

It's been almost one week since I started. I failed to weigh myself when I first started, but am quite certain that I am down, close to 10 pounds! I feel better than I have in a while and found myself less sluggish.

So far, I'm sold! I'll keep you posted as I go. I also intend to switch over to a Weight Watcher program, once I loose a good chunk of the weight to try to maintain my loss!

Silly

Silly, sassy, screaching, smiling girl!

Rub a Dub Dub...

Two dirty kids in a tub!

O's Eyesight

Our sweet little O...the issues that child had from birth were multiple. Thankfully, the issue were all, for the most part, easily managed.

O was a bit over three weeks early, although I am not convinced that was the cause of his problems.

By the age of 1, he had 10 ear infections. TEN!!!! The ENT wanted to put tubes in, but my husband and I were not convinced it was the best route. We did some research, had his hearing tested and started taking him to the Chiropractor. After several visits to the Chiropractor, I took O back to the ENT....low and behold, the fluid that had been there for six months was gone. His hearing was perfect and we decided to wait on the tubes and deal with our other issues.

O had some serious food allergies. The poor child's behind stayed raw, he continually was congested, wheezy and rashy. At 3 months, I took him off dairy, and against my better judgement, started him on Soy. At a year, we switched to rice milk and by that time had taken him off ALL forms of dairy. No whey, casein, lactose, nothing. He also had no juice and limited fruit at this point. We often joke that we should have taken out stock in diaper cream. Thankfully, by a little over 2, we were able to slowly introduce dairy again. During our dairy free life, we also did a Celiac diet. In those few months, it was amazing how much he changed...no wheezing, no congestion, great bowel movements...all the things mommy's love. We were able to slowly add back in gluten products without any problems.

During all this time, we also had a chronically clogged tear duct. The thing was nasty. Every time I turned around it was goopy and nasty. Once the allergy season hit, it was out of control. Thing was nasty. We waited until he was two to do anything about it though. We were working on dealing with the other health issues first. We did try eye drops, creams, warm compresses, massages...nothing worked.

Add to these issues, a slowed growth rate and poor weight gain and it made for a lot of doctor visits in those first two years of his life.

We finally went to see the pediatric opthamologist. O was a little over 2 at the time. We were thankfully referred to a wonderful doctor, who I would recommend to anyone! The first round of the exam starts with dilating the eyes and checking the muscle control. I'm thinking it will all be fine and it's just a precaution. Wanda, the awesome lady who does this portion of the exam, kept quietly saying, "hmmm" and jotting down lots of little notes.

I asked her if things were looking good and she responded with a simple, "no". My response was, "REALLY". She proceeded to explain to me that his left eye was not even close to as strong as his right. She said that the doctor would come in and recheck everything and let me know how severe the difference was.

Dr. R came in, did the exam and confirmed the clog tear duct...duh! She scheduled the surgery date and then did a quick exam. She pulled all the lens and prisms out and did her thing - I had no idea how much skill and detail was involved in checking a small child's eyes...it was amazing!

She told me that she wanted to wait a few more weeks and reexamine his eyes after the procedure. She said that she thought that we were going to end up in glasses in a short time. She explained to me that she suspected that O had a lazy eye. She quickly explained to me that it's not the type that controls the direction of the eye, but controls the muscle that controls vision. She told me that at that point, O was nearly blind in that eye and that it would most likely continue. She said he wasn't using that left eye at all anymore. I didn't think that was good...

We went for the procedure. It was routine, but didn't go all that routinely. He was supp. to have conscious sedation, but ended up having to be intubated when he started bleeding too much. His airway was compromised so they said they had to deep suction him. It is still considered "routine", but not usual. They told me I would get him back as soon as he woke up...about 20 minutes. 45 minutes later, a panicky mommy was asking where her baby was. They finally brought me a groggy and miserable baby, whose face was bloody. Talk about anxiety.

They told me to expect some bleeding, but not like this. His nose was dropping large blood clots and wouldn't stop. They made us stay another 30 minutes or so and gave him some more medicine to stop the bleeding from his nose. Poor boy was miserable.

Make a long story short, the tube they inserted in his eye (Crawford Tube) worked like a charm! Goopy eye no more! He still continued to "tear up" when we went outside, he was starting to fall down a lot and was running into corners when he would turn. After a few weeks we went in for a recheck and the vision had gotten worse.

Glasses were given with instructions for him to wear them everyday. This went great for the first 2 weeks...after that...AAAHHH! They have been broken, lost, replaced and repaired, on more than a dozen occasions! To make a long story short, the course of treatment has gone as follows:patch for 2 hours, patch for 4 hours, dilate right eye daily, for two weeks. No change yet.

Praise the Lord, the glasses improve his vision 50% and help greatly reduce the watery eyes outside and all but stopped the running into walls. The running into things was caused by an astigmatism - one in both eyes.

All in all, O is a healthy and active boy. He LOVES to hide his glasses now and begs us to not dilate his eyes. Patching a 2 year old for four hours a day is as difficult and impossible as you would think. We are hoping we can continue to try to improve his vision before he turns 5. We were told that after the age of 5, this defect is more difficult to correct.

Some days, I feel like all I do is follow O around with his glasses and that we spend more time looking for them than he does wearing them!

M's Diagnosis

For may of you, this will be a repeat....just wanted to put it on this blog too!

660
Current mood: cranky
660 - that's what Max's sugar blood test came back as on Friday afternoon. What started out as a well child visit landed us in the ER and finally the hospital.

I mentioned a few things to the medical assistant that I had been worried about with M. He'd been flooding his bed at night, seemed kind of sluggish, was way out of control and was EXTREMELY thirtsty. He'd cry, even beg, for drinks. He would actually pitch fits, the likes of which I had never seen. He'd lay on the ground and scream, in the middle of the grocery store in fact.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to get M to eat better we'd been cutting out junk - granola bars, fruit snacks and such and not letting him have much to drink. Now, I know we were torturing our poor guy!

The MA thankfully, on her own, did a urine test. She was going to check his blood sugar and couldn't find the machine at first. The dr. came in and checked the boys out. He said they both looked and sounded great. I mentioned the symptoms and the urine check and he said everything was fine and no need to worry. It was just a phase. I asked the Dr. if he thought a blood test would help rule some stuff out, he said it wasn't necessary. I forgot to mention that Max had lost three pounds since his last visit a few months ago - but he should have recognized that....

We were getting ready to leave and the Dr. came running down the hallway. He stopped us and told me that M's urine had an extremely high sugar content and that he wanted a blood sugar test - I wanted to say "I thought you checked his urine and it was fine...". I held my tongue and held my screaming 18 month old who had just gotten three shots. Max was whining about his flu shot and it was taking them forever to find the machine. When they did find it, they checked his sugar and the tech said, "It must be broke, there is NO way his sugar is over 600." She tested herself and found the machine was indeed working. She told us not to move and that she'd be right back. She pulled the DR. out of a room and he gave me orders to imm. take M to the lab and get blood work done. He said he was 100% sure that M had diabetes. My stomach dropped. I knew it was the most likely cause of his latest issues, but I didn't want to believe it. It was a turn that I most definitely did not expect our day to take. There, in our Family Practitioners hallyway, the man who had deliverd M, told me that he believed he had a chronic disease...just like that.

I took him for the blood work - fun! It was supp. to only take an hour or so to get the results back. It took 9. As the day went on I got more and more concerned with the lack of results. My sister,who is a nurse, called and said that I needed to take M in regardless of what the dr. said.

I called the Endocrine departement at Children's and explained the situation. Her answer was this: "If I were you, I'd pack a bag for you and your son and come straight here. If you can't come here, take him to the nearest ER". I called the dr. back and he said he was getting ready to call me to tell me that same thing.

I packed a bag, called Matt home from work and loaded M into the car. We drove to Children's. When we finally got there M was sound asleep and had wet his pants - he hasn't had an accident like that in over a year.

We went in through the ghetto ER entrance - which looks horrid by the way and were taken imm. back to triage and to a room. Within the hour M had his blood work back and first dose of insulin in him. The drs. came in an told us his blood sugar was 602 and that he'd need to be admitted for a few days.

Long story short. M has Type 1 diabetes. We have NO family history of the disease. It's going to be a long difficult road at first, but with God's help, we'll walk through just fine.

Pray for Mr. M. He has to check his blood sugar roughly 6 times a day and he gets 4 shots a day. He is already in what they call the "honeymoon" stage which is GREAT!

They told us we caught it really early and applauded our vigilance with getting him diagnosed so soon. He had had NO damage to any of his organs and other than the diabetes is a healthy four year old.

There will be many more blogs to follow about all that we have learned the past few days and just some silly and sweet things that have come to pass..

Part TWO
Some lessons learned
There is NO comforatable place to sleep in a hospital. NONE!

You have to be your child's best advocate.

Don't wait for "treatment". The nurses and drs. sometimes overlook or forget about the treatments your kids need - hunt them down in the halls if you have too.

The hospital room service takes the same amount of time to send up a PBJ as they do a turkey dinner...

Nurses and Aides who turn on overhead lights in the middle of the night are mean...bottom line.

There are some CRAZY parents in the hospital.

Diabetes is a good diagnoses compared to some of the kids we saw and heard about.

Donnie is the best IV placer in the whole world - one poke on a screaming, wiggling, kicking and fighting four year old - not to shabby.

Max doesn't like shots or finger pricks...who does.

I don't like giving shots or finger picks....especially on my son.

A child's prayers can break your heart....and make you proud all at the same time.

Hospital floors are DISGUSTING!

Children sense everything.

Don't lie to kids about medical treatment. If it's going to hurt, tell them.

Samuel is the most empathetic little boy I know.

Max knows a pretty girl when he sees one. He was totally playing it up when a pretty nurse or dr. came in. He'd act shy and show of. If a not attractive person came in, he'd ignore them....WHAT!

Trust your gut with your kids. I knew something was wrong with Max and was going to let it go....don't second guess Mothers intuition

Insulin pump drama

We had that moment.

How we have avoided it this long, I will never know.

We have had episodes where we've had to whisper into our cell phones during movies, walk away from a dinner table, or sit nervously while we wait for a phone call confirming the child's sugar is going down.

We've trained and retrained several family members on the ways of diabetes. We've taught them how to check blood glucose, watch for signs of high/low blood sugar, how to check ketones, and how to work an insulin pump. We even have one, wonderful, babysitter who is trained to care for M. Even S, can check his sugar now if needed!

The one thing that we haven't taught people to do is change his pump site. It's not difficult at all, but involves a multiple step process...rewind pump, load cartridge, change cartridge, remove old site, prime pump, load cannula's, insert new site, tell M, the phrase that HAS TO BE SAID, each time his site is changed, give hugs and send the boy on his way...and any other steps I missed! It sounds complicated, but in all reality is quite easy. We've briefly gone over "trouble shooting" of sorts with the pump, but never how to do the whole thing.

Tonight, was one of those nights where someone needed to be trained.

This time it was unavoidable. We had to leave a "date night" to go and care for M. His pump site fell out, and after giving him an actual shot, his sweet Aunt Sissy, who spends her time as a nurse caring for non med compliant diabetics, could not get his sugar below 450 and she couldn't rest until it was.

I answered my cell phone, which was on vibrate, in a hushed tone, as the movie blared in the background. My sister told me the site fell out and his sugar still hadn't come down. I told her I'd call right back... I got up, squeezed my chubby behind past the people in our aisle and walked out to talk to her. She gave him a snack, checked his sugar and then dosed him accordingly. I told her call me if she needed to.

I walked back into the theater, squeezed past the people, who once again gave me a dirty look and sat down. No sooner had my butt hit the seat when the phone vibrated again... It was Nancy and she said she was sorry, but we had to come and get him. He was miserable. Fussing, complaining and wanting his mommy. I leaned to my husband, explained the situation and we arranged for him to hitch a ride with our friends that we out with us.

I grabbed my stuff and started to squeeze past the people in the row again...decided that I would go the OTHER way, past the people who looked much more friendly. They were.

I arrived to a chorus of "mommy's here" and smiled! Well, two of the three sang my praises, the oldest was already sacked out with his cousin. I gave my sister a crash course in pump site changes, thanked her profusely and told her to quit apologizing for having me come and get him. I assured her that when you have a child with a chronic disease, these are the things that have to be expected.

All in all, things went well. No ketones the whole time...and his new site is in and his sugar is down!

Update

S wasn't feeling well one day this week. He had thrown up and when I asked him how he was feeling, he responded with the following: "I don't feel like I'm going to throw up anymore, BUT, my back feels like it has no spine, and my arms and legs feel like they have no bones". I'm guessing that was a clever and smart way to define feeling weak or achy.


O has taken to throwing things at his brothers when he gets mad now. He gets in trouble for it every time, but still insists on doing it. He threw something at his brother today. I walked into the room and he immediately looked up at me and said "No pank me mumma, I no throw". He knew he was in trouble as soon as I walked in...mumma didn't pank him either, but I did have some stern words for him. It was hard though to mask the smile on my face!

One of my sisters and I did the seasonal clothes sort yesterday. Talk about a mess! We dumped our loot in the middle of my living room floor while the babies napped. It was an ungodly amount of boys clothing! It always seems to be too. We have 5 boys between the 2 of us and they are all under 7. All their sizes are different too so it work out well in that clothes department!

By the time we were done sorting we each had a fall bin and two summer bins for the kids! We also had a LARGE black trash bag full of clothes to give away. We were to the point where we were giving away cute clothes because we already had too many cute clothes!

I've been babysitting several of my neices and nephews for my sister lately. She works midnights as a nurse and sleeps for a few hours while I watch the kids. She is wonder woman. How the woman works midnights, keeps an incredibly clean house, and has five children, I will never know. She's my younger sister, but I'm quite certain she could teach me a few things!

While watching her younger children is a handful, it often provides me with some funny situations. Their are also many that make me want to pull my hair out by the handfulls, but that's another blog.... Most recenlty, my three year old nephew, has taken to telling me; "Fine, I'm going home, and I'm not your best friend", when he gets in trouble...can you tell who has older sisters!?!?!

All in all, that has been my week in a nutshell...my life really. I love my simple, boring life!

Happiness Is...

What brought this sweet little boy such joy....


Was it the chance to enjoy a nice spring day that made him want to skip, run and jump?


Why would he appear to be so joyful at his best buddies predicament?


Could it be that my SWEET, KIND and GENTLE son was the cause of this scene?


The proof, my friends, is in the pudding photographs....

Not me Monday. It's time again, to either chose to hide all of our not me moments or share them with the world...the group of us over at MckMamma's blog have chosen instead to share those momemnts. For a weekly does of therapy, check out the blog carnival!

This week I did not eat fast food SIX times. I would never eat that much fast food, even if the week I had required such horrible food choices.

I certainly did not eat an entire box of chocolate covered cherries, and enjoy each one. I know I am far to overweight to do such a thing.

I definitely did not recieve a package in the mail today with free samples of bladder control products. I am way to young to need those things.

I did not think to myself that those bladder control products would make some great overnight pads, becasue I didn't get them in the mail remember.

I also did not make a promise to myself that I would not go to Target this week at all...for anything. I know that would be crazy and close to impossible.

I certianly did not look like, "a deer in the headlights" when the lady at the tax office told me that we would in fact have to PAY the state this year, instead of getting a refund. I am always calm and composed and ready for everything.

I did not walk to the car, muttering under my breath, how I already had great plans for that money...like a trip out of this freezing, dreary, ridiculously unemployed, state. I never get my hopes up, not do I "count my chickens before they hatch".

Lessons in Tantrum Throwing: Volume 2

This time the middle brother decided to lay it on thick...and LOUD! I wish these pictures had volume!


But, before you feel horribly sorry for him, this is what he looked like when he THOUGHT for a minute that he was going to get his way.....


Roll around....


Add a gag in there for a bigger effect and an attempt to get more attention....


Stop. Yell at mommy to stop taking your picture...and start screaming again.


And stop instantly when granddad comes to your rescue and grants your wish: $1. That's what he was crying over folks. A dollar.

I thought I'd try to get a pic of the two buddies swimming, but obviously, the two young toddlers thought otherwise. The temptation of an indoor spray park, in the frigid north, in the middle of March, was more than they could take!


C decided to cooperate for a minute..but O was busy.


C figured he'd done his part and was a bit distracted.


C has decided that the airplane water slide looks WAY more fun than smiling at crazy Beth and her insane picture taking. O is processing the situation...


The draw was too much for C and he was off....O fought it for as long as he could and then followed his buddy to the water.

Not Me Monday

My not me moments have not been overabundant this week....

I have not, not had time to post a blog in several days. I'm never that busy.

I did not, tear up at the movie, The Secret Life of Bees. I don't cry at movies and have ice water running thought my veins...at least according to my dear husband.

I certainly did not, doubt my mother's intuition this week, and not take my son to the potty. I never doubt myself.

I also did not, grab my almost three year old son out of the pool and dash to the pool bathroom....because I didn't doubt myself remember.

I DEFINITELY did not, take my son's swim trunks off, and watch in horror how a large pile of poop fell to the bathroom floor....because I didn't doubt myself.

I also did not, shush my son, as he declared loudly, "I poop in the water".

I did not scramble to clean up the floor, rinse my son's swim trunks, wipe down his bottom and tie off the bathroom trash bag and replace the bag with a bag, that I was praying was at the bottom of the can...because I don't doubt my instinct ever.

I did not thank the Lord that their are family restrooms where these things can be done in private!

I also didn't have friends over for dinner this week for the first time and upon serving some delicious homemade lasagna, have one of the friends pull a long black hair out of his food. He did not, not eat his dinner after that. I never get hair in the food I cook and always wear a hair net....

We did not laugh so hard with our friends that came over that I almost peed my pants. I never laugh that hard and certainly do not have bladder control problems of any kind!

I am not, not writing any more of my not me moments because I fear that you will think I am some sort of slacker mom or crazy woman!

Review

I was looking through some of my blogs and stumbled across this lovely disgusting story on my old blog. I had all but forgotten it...fortunately. Thought I'd share it - just one more time!

There was an old lady who swallowed a....
Spider. It wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her!

Ok. I didn't swallow the spider, but I had him in my mouth! Here's the story...

I woke up yesterday and followed my usual routine.

*Stumble out of bed

*Walk to cupboard

*Remove happy, princess pills

*Grab nearest drink

*Take pills

That's when my routine was rudely disrupted.

I had a belly ache on Sunday night. I asked my friend Kina to bring me a sprite back from McDonalds. She bought me a LARGE one. I don't normally drink regular pop, which in case you were wondering, is how I keep this super gorgeous figure (HA). I drank a little and left the rest on the counter. It was just to sweet!

When I woke up I grabbed my pill and then grabbed my leftover pop. For some reaason, my sister Nancy thinks this is sick. She was shocked that I drank something that was left over. It had a lid on it, it was only mine....now I know why she thinks it's gross!

I threw the pill in my mouth, picked up my cup and took a big drink from the straw. I thought to myself, "Those stinking kids must have gotten into this pop and left a floaty in there...". I was disgusted by the thought of swallowing a big chunk of the kids leftover french fries so I spit it back in the sink. To my real disgust and horror it was not a piece of french fry but a SPIDER! An alive one at that!!!!

That little thing was crawing around!!!! I looked at the side of my cup and there was ANOTHER one on the side of my cup!!!! Not little tiny spiders either...those big yellow ones that come out in the spring. I threw him in the sink and then drowned them both. Then I sprayed them with antibacterial cleaner...just to make sure.

I did all this without making too big of a fuss too! We've been working with Max about bugs. He seems petrified of all bugs....even ants. I find this disturbing - especially since he is a boy. Boys are suppossed to like bugs. Last year he had no problem with them. Now he screams bloody murder if there's a fly around him!

I figured it wouldn't do any good for me to holler and scream about a spider....even if it was IN MY MOUTH!!!!!

See the Resemblance

Daddy. Such a sweet little man. My favorite is the crinkled white paper and the horribly off centered child. That was not a scanning error on my part! I love his sweet baby lips in this picture! The second of three boys...would have a little brother in SEVEN years!!


Mommy. Such a pudgy little girl. No cute little stick on hair bow even! I was my mommy's first and would have a little sister to follow me around in less than ONE year! She'd have three more siblings in 6 short years!


This sweet little brute of a boy made his way into the world SLOWLY and on his own schedule. He would be mommy and daddy's first sweet boy and would have a baby brother, just THIRTEEN and a HALF months later! He is the best biggest brother around!


This tiny faced peanut, would be the middle brother. He tried to come into the world 4.5 weeks early and the mean doctors just wouldn't let him. He was a sweet faced little one, with a fierce little cry. Mommy and daddy love that he's giving everyone the finger in this picture. He'd be joined by another little brother in two years and nine months later. He is the best big brother around!


This teeny, tiny, little bean made his way into the world on his own time schedule. He tricked his mommy, daddy and the doctors and decided he wanted to be born, just in time for Good Friday. He made his grand entrance THREE weeks early and would wow the doctors with his "big" size, even though to everyone around, he was the littlest peanut around. He is the best little brother we know!

Totally Truthful Tuesday....or something like that.

Since I missed not me Monday and had a request for it...I guess I can oblige and do a Tuesday edition.

I am not, not pretending that today is Monday so I can post this. I would never be too busy to post my not me moments.

I did not, spend an entire day in the clothing I slept in. I would never do something like that.

I also, did not, go to a birthday party for my best friends son, and wear my yoga pants and a work shirt. I'm always styling.

I certainly did not, breathe a sigh of relief when we arrived at the party and one of the other party goers (who just happens to always be dressed to the nines) was actually wearing pajama pants and a shirt...

I did not take a 2 hour nap and enjoy it. I always feel guilty about those kinds of things.

I certainly did not do an impromptu photo shoot the other day of my nieces and end up with 90 pictures of one of my nieces...that is excessive. I am never excessive.

I definitely did not, save $80 on my shopping trip to Meijer this weekend. I did not BEAM with pride as the total dropped from _46.00 to _02.00, when she was done ringing up all my coupons. That would just be silly.

After NOT saving all that money, I did not try to call my mom and sister to brag on my excellent shopping skills. I'm never proud.

I did not go through this post and delete the "s" that I included at the end of Meijer...I am not guilty of doing the northern things and adding and "s" to things...Targets, Krogers, Meijers.

Wise Words

I've heard this poem several times before, but was reminded of it tonight while reading a blog I frequently read. I LOVE this poem and what it means.

My mom bought me an antique plate recently that was along the same lines - only much simpler...it says "My house is clean enough to be healthy, but dirty enough to be happy". That really does sum up my house!

If your a mommy, soon to be mommy, or hope to be a mommy one day, read this poem and heed it's wisdom!

Song for a Fifth Child.

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

By: Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Say What?

How many times a day do YOU hear the following:

"Mom, mommy, mom, mommy, MOM, MMOOOMMMYYYY"
"Can I have _____________"
"Why"
"NO"
"But I didn't..."
"I didn't play with those toys"
"I didn't dump out the bin of 500 blocks"
"He hit me"
"He called me a baby" - which makes me laugh...and is answered with "well are you?"
"Go potty mommy"
"Do I have to" -
"How come he doesn't have to"
"I don't wanna" -
"One minute mom...I'm almost done"
"Please, please, please, please, please, please..."
"OOOOPPPPSSSS" -
"Only a few more minutes please"
"Trust me mom" - this is my personal favorite, and one I NEVER trust!
"He did it"
"More please"
"Thank you"
"I love you"

Some phrases my boys may hear equally as many times a day:
"M, M, M, O, O, O, S, S, S," - which are their names ;)
"No, No, NO, NO"
"Because I said so"
"No what"
"I don't want to either, but I do"
"Of course not"
"Are you kidding me"
"Absolutely not"
"I don't use all the dishes, but I wash them don't I"
"I don't wear all the clothes, but I clean them don't I..."
"Ask your dad"
"Your done eating now"
"Pick up your toys"
"Your welcome"
"I love you"
"Come sit with mommy"
"Turn off the TV"
"Don't hit your brother"
"Leave the cat alone"
"Don't play in the toilet"
"Get off the computer"
"Stop drawing on my floor"
"Get the food at the table"
"Where is _____"
"Too bad"
"It's dinner and your eating it"
"Great job"
"Your so handsome"
"Look at the camera and smile"

Just a few things that you can hear in our house on any given day.