March and April

So....2 months have passed....

What can I say? We have been busy.

First this happened...




Then this happened...



And I got a Kindle which has sucked away untold hours of my life. We are also deep in the midst of potty training with Bear. Which is about as much fun as it sounds. But we are making progress so I am happy about that.

It has just been a crazy, crazy last two months. Like the huge party we had on Tater's 1st birthday with 30ish adults and 12 kids in my house. And Tater got sick that night with a 103 temperature and I got to be the mom waiting outside urgent care when they opened at 8 am that Sunday morning which also happened to be his birthday. He had a nasty ear infection, poor baby. He was also cutting his top tooth at the same time which made for a miserable birthday. Luckily we had the party the day before.

Plus my beloved pug got diagnosed with heartworms at his annual checkup so we have been going through the long and costly process of curing that. Let me just tell you how fun it is to get a pug to swallow two pills a day for 3 weeks so he can get ready for shots that will put him on the dog equivalent of bed rest for 2 months. Just trust me, give your dog his heartworm medicine on time, every month...In my defense I believe he got infected last summer when I was dealing with a newborn and a two year old and I could barely remember my own name much less when the dog got his medicine. But now it is on my calendar on the 1st of every month.

I promise I will try to be more faithful with the updates. And I will even try to comment on your blogs as well since I promise I have been reading them. I am just bad about writing and commenting.

Awkward

Is it weird that I had to Google the word awkward to make sure I was spelling it correctly for this title? BTW, I spelled it wrong. It is just one of those words that looks wrong when you write it out. Anyways, not what I was going to talk about.

Today I went and met my best friend for breakfast at IHOP. It was 10 a.m. but this IHOP is always busy even on a random Thursday mid-morning. We got seated at a table with a booth on one side of us and a wall on the other. As we are chatting I notice that the older (like my parent's age, not old) couple in the booth next to us were being super quiet while eating.

Now I've been married awhile and I understand that it isn't abnormal to not talk a lot with your spouse while eating a meal since you live together and don't always have a lot to catch up on like my friend and I did. But what I noticed as we chatted is that it appeared they were listening to our conversation. Like the entire 45 minutes we were eating there. It wasn't even all that subtle like they were just overhearing an occasional comment.

We didn't discuss anything all that juicy but we did have a few things that we discussed that I didn't really appreciate someone listening to. So I ended up just steering the conversation to topics like my new yard service I hired this week and baby sleeping patterns, etc.

I understand that you really have no expectation of privacy out in public when it comes to conversations but I do find it annoying when people make it very obvious they are openly listening to your conversation. Seriously. Can't they at least chat amongst themselves about the weather or something? I catch myself occasionally listening in on part of a conversation if something catches my attention or I am in particularly close quarters with someone like a person on their cell phone in an elevator but this wasn't like that. The restaurant was busy enough to generate background noise and they obviously had each other to talk to.

What was even weirder is that when we left they were parked next to me and the guy actually waved at me as he was getting in his truck. Weird.

Progress

It has been a busy week at my house. This past Saturday found me outside Urgent Care at 7:45 a.m. waiting in line behind 7 other people for the doors to open at 8 a.m. This was after spending an entire night waking up every 45 minutes to a screaming, feverish baby. Add in a lovely cold sore for me and we were quite the chipper pair at the doctor that morning. Tater had a double ear infection and the doctor took pity on me and prescribed me an antiviral medication to speed the healing on a cold sore along with prescribing antibiotics for Tater's ears.


Unfortunately the antibiotics took a couple of days to take effect for Tater so he was up a good bit of the night Saturday too. By Sunday I was exhausted so my husband let me take a 3 hour nap Sunday and spent a good bit of the weekend taking Bear out and about on errands while Tater and I rested at home. Tater is doing better now but I got sick yesterday so it has just been one thing after the other.

In better news we have been making progress with Bear on the potty training front. I'm almost afraid to say anything because I don't want to jinx it but I am just so excited. We have been talking to him about the potty and read books about it for a year now with virtually no results. No amount of bribery could get him to actually do anything on the potty. All the sudden this week it just clicked and now he has peed in the potty at least 1-3 times a day every day for the last week. I am just happy to finally be making a little progress. I started with just having him go as soon as he got out of the bath at night. After 3 nights of that I added an afternoon potty break for the last 2 days and tonight I added a third potty break before bed. I will probably give him another day or two and then add another potty time in the morning and go from there. He has been getting 2 Hershey kisses for each sucessful visit to the potty but he didn't even remember to ask for them after his 3rd visit tonight.

Bear also started a 6 week baseball program today for 3-5 year olds. It meets once a week and is for kids and parents. We had a really good time tonight. My husband and I took turns holding the baby and helping Bear. It is hard to believe that he is already so big.

Never send a Daddy to do a Mama's job

As many of you know, Valentine's Day is fast approaching. Today Bear is having his class party at Mother's Day Out. I have known about said party for 3 weeks. Being the super Mom that I am I could not just go out and purchase a $1.99 package of Valentines at Target for my firstborn to take to his friends. No, no I decided to go on Etsy and purchase some simply adorable personalized Valentines for my boys to take. (Although Tater only attends on Tuesdays I still dropped of Valentines for his classmates as well). I may have procrastinated a tad and waited until the middle of last week to purchase them. After much hemming and hawing I decided on Pirate themed Valentines for Tater and Fire truck ones for Bear. The lovely girl I ordered them from notified me on Friday that she sent them first class mail that day. From Maryland. The same Maryland that seems to be under about 40 feet of snow right now.

So yesterday the Valentines still had not come in the mail. So not her fault. I blame my procrastination, and Mother Nature, and the Postal Service. I couldn't send Bear to Mother's Day out with no Valentine's today especially since I had already bought cookies for the class and little Valentine cans of play dough for each kid. Plus dragging both boys to the doctor yesterday morning so I could get Bear some antibiotics for his ear infection so he would not miss the party. Poor kid woke up with a cough and fever yesterday but we got him fixed up. By God my kid was going to have Valentines.

At 5:00 my husband called and said he was on his way home. Thinking it would save me a trip across town to Target I asked him to stop in on his way home and pick up some Valentines for the boys. He was passing right by on his way home and I knew there was plenty to choose from at that Target because I had just been there the day before. I explain twice where exactly the Valentine's section was in the store. All 5 aisle of it. Of course he calls when he gets there and cannot locate the Valentines. I explain yet again that there are aisles and aisles of pink, red and white animals, cards, candy etc directly next to the food section of the store. He says he found the section and doesn't see any Valentine's cards. Seriously. I tell him to keep looking because one aisle is nothing but the boxes of kids Valentine cards. After 5 minutes he indicates he found some Hello Kitty Valentines. Grr..Seriously? He wants to send my all boy 3 year old with Hello kitty Valentines? I tell him to keep looking. Finally he says he sees a box of 30 G.I. Joe Valentines. Great. I tell him that will work just grab one box because I only need 20.

20 minutes later he arrives home with these....
*

Not sure how much you can tell by the picture but they include a samurai looking guy with a huge sword, some scary looking bad guys, a woman in skin tight black clothing with a large gun, etc. Not exactly what I had in mind when he said G.I. Joe. I was picturing the army men in Toy Story or something. I explained to my husband that while I appreciate the thought there was no way I could send my 3 year old and 10 month old's friends at a church Mother's Day Out program Valentines that include scary looking bad guys, guns, swords, and women in skin tight outfits. Gah.

So I hop in the car and drive back across town to Target where I locate the entire aisle of completely age appropriate Valentine's for the boys to take. After picking up ones that included the characters from Up, Finding Nemo, ones with puppies etc I finally decided on a multi pack that included characters from all of the Pixar films. I bring them home and my husband is like "where did you find those I didn't see anything like that".

This is why you never send a daddy to do a mama's job...

*picture taken from www.Amazon.com

Three!!!

On Sunday Bear turned 3. Whoa. That was just so crazy for me. He went from a 5lb 0 oz 18 inch baby 3 years ago to a 34lb 4 oz 38.5 inch boy in just 3 short years. When did this happen? He was in the 75% for weight and 70ish % for height at his 3 year checkup. Not bad for a baby who came out 7 weeks early and spent 16 days in the NICU.

We had a lovely weekend at my parent's house celebrating his birthday and my brother making Eagle Scout. The Eagle Scout ceremony was Saturday and carried well into Saturday evening and then we got up Sunday and celebrated Bear's birthday with more cake and presents.


I know people say that 3 is worse than 2 but I have a feeling this is going to be a good year. For me 2 was extremely challenging and at 3 I feel like he is easier to deal with. Yes, he still has his stubborn moments and throws the occasional tantrum but it just doesn't seem as overwhelming as last year. Maybe I am just getting better at handling it. Honestly I think kids just go through their difficult phase at different times.

Tater's Surgery

Tater's surgery went great. Thank you for all your well wishes. We got there around 7:45 and the after all the paperwork, waiting, taking of vitals and such they took him back around 9:45. The surgery lasted about an hour. Then they let me go back and try to nurse him. He was not a happy camper. They gave him a couple of shots of pain medication before releasing him around noon and he was much happier. Once we got him home he took a 4 hour nap and ate a bowl of cereal and was back to his happy self. He has some swelling and stitches but he doesn't seem to be bothered by it. I am so glad it is over with.

Doctor Appts, Dentist Appt, and Surgery - Oh My!

During Tater's 9 month checkup appointment the doctor noted that the hydrocele he was born with has not resolved itself. Basically he has extra fluid around his te$ticles and possibly a hernia. We were told when he was born that these typically resolve themselves by 1 year old but in Tater's case it doesn't seem to be improving. So we got a referral to see a general surgeon.

Today I took Tater in to see the surgeon and he diagnosed him as having a inguinal hernia along with the hydrocele. At this time it is not causing him any issues but it will not resolve itself and we would have to have it surgically repaired. I'm not a fan of putting thing like this off so I told the doctor to go ahead and schedule it as soon as possible. I was a little shocked when he told me they could do it Monday morning at the outpatient surgery center at my local clinic. We did a little schedule reworking with my family and got my Mom to agree to come down and stay with Bear while we take Tater in Monday morning. It is a quick in and out surgery that should take an hour or so but it is still a little scary when they have to put your child under anethesia.

I will be glad to have this over with though and move on. Speaking of things I put off I finally took Bear in for his first dentist visit this week. Which ended up being a complete and total waste of time. When I first mentioned to the dentist last year that I thought it was time to bring Bear in he didn't seem to think it was pressing. I thought it was a little odd but I figured I would just wait until Bear was a little bigger so he would be better able to deal with him. So I waited a year and scheduled the appointment for this week. On Tuesday I dropped Tater off at Mother's Day Out and take Bear across town to the dentist.

When we get there they took us back and tried to get him to stand at one of those x-ray machines that does the panaramic view where you bite down and the machine circles your head. You can see where this is obviously not going to work on a nervous 3 year old. So the dental assistant said we will hold off on the x-rays for now. Then she has me sit in the dental chair with Bear and the dentist comes in. He asks me if I have seen any brown spots or anything that concerns me. I told him that I saw nothing obvious but its not like I have little dental mirrors in his mouth every evening looking for cavities. So he has Bear smile and him and says his teeth look good and he will see us again in a year. SERIOUSLY!!!

He did not touch Bear's mouth. Did not even get closer than 2 foot away. I know he isn't a pediatric dentist but he is what is covered by our insurance and we don't have a lot of options here to choose from. I was beyond pissed. If he wasn't comfortable handling children as patients then he should just say that instead of having me waste my time coming in and billing my insurance for a visit. So I will have to wait 6 months and try to find someone my insurance covers that can handle children. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but I at least expected someone to look at all of his teeth and maybe talk to him about brushing his teeth and such.

So I drive back across town to drop off Bear at Mother's Day Out and the teacher remarked on how quick the appointment went. I told her what happened and who my dentist was and she said she had the exact same deal happen with him. She took in her 4 year old with an obvious cavity on a top front tooth and he dentist looked at her and pronounced she looked fine. The teacher had to show him the cavity and even then he was very reluctant to fill it. The teacher explained that he is the only dentist covered by her insurance in this area and she can't afford to go to another dentist so he did do it but not willingly. Grrr...I never had a problem with him as my dentist but it would be nice to find someone who could do the whole family at one place.

3/4 of a year

So on Monday Tater turned 9 months old. And last night he slept through the night. FOR THE FIRST TIME. I've been semi counting the few times that he slept from like 12-6 but really it doesn't count to me until they sleep from a reasonable hour until sometime after the sun is up. I'm sure it was just some fluke of nature but it sure was nice. Of course I still woke up periodically during the night to check on him and verify the baby monitor was working.

I took him in for his 9 month checkup yesterday morning. He was 17lb 10oz which is on the thinner side of the percentile chart but the doctor seems to think he is plenty healthy and will probably be a thin kid. He was 28 inches long which is right about average. During the course of the examination the doctor noticed that Tater has his first ear infection. I felt terrible because I had no clue. He had no fever, fussiness, loss of appetite or anything to indicate he didn't feel well. Poor baby. Then to add insult to injury they take blood at the 9 month checkup to check for anemia and such. So we got to go over to the lab and have 3 lab techs try to find a suitable vein. Tater was already past nap time, hungry, sick with an ear infection and now having his arm prodded at by three different people. They finally gave up on getting blood from his arm and instead got it from his heel. It was awful.

Spring Cleaning

Dear Lord, where did all this junk come from? Seriously. I threw away an entire garbage bag full of stuff from my closet today and you cannot tell one bit of difference. We are constantly fighting the junk that creeps into our house. The endless piles of mail to go through and sort. The piles of toys. The clothes to be donated, stored away for a different season, or for the younger child.

We spent hours yesterday putting away the Christmas tree and assorted paraphernalia but I still feel cluttered and trapped by all this stuff. Last weekend I cleared out 2 boxes of stuff from my kitchen cabinets. The week before that I emptied half of the toys from Bear's toy box to clear space for the new stuff he would inevitably get for Christmas despite my warnings that we do not need any more toys!!!!

I feel like I spend the better part of my life putting away clutter, sorting clutter or throwing away clutter. You cannot imagine the hours we have spent clearing out cabinets, closets, baskets and under beds. There has to be some way to get this under control but I can't figure out how. The simplest answer would be to quit bringing in stuff but we live in a disposable society where nothing ever seems to be designed to last longer than a season. A new sweater purchased in September looks like something fit for my dog to sleep on my December. No matter the price spent or the supposed quality. The kids outgrow clothes faster than I can buy them. The mailbox is always overflowing with statements, advertisements, invitations all needing to be read, sorted and saved or discarded. Plus the constant upgrading to the new improved etc appliance or electronic gadget.

I also half believe that my junk breeds in the quiet dark corners of closets and kitchen cabinets. There is no way I could have possibly purchased 40+ shot glasses in my lifetime, right? And considering the fact that I can't actually remember the last time I took a shot I believe it is safe to whittle the collection down to no more than a quarter of it's current size. The funny thing is that I am not a hoarder by nature. I honestly do not care to have 2 dozen of everything (except maybe flip flops because I do need a pair in every color Old Navy has ever carried). Beyond that small weakness I am quite adept at throwing out the old. I enjoy the purging process I just wish I had to do it a little less often.