Still around

Oh dear. Has it really been since September that I posted anything! Holy cow. Time flies. I didn't write about our vacation, Jake's first birthday, how much I've been at work lately - nothing. So sorry about that.

Work I guess has been the primary reason for that. I'm a project manager, and my boss (not my most direct one, but the one above him) has decided that the holidays don't exist and my project needs to be implemented in early January. Lovely. Not just tons of overtime, but during the month when the after-work time is the tightest anyway! I've already lost one holiday, in that I worked the day after Thanksgiving when the office was closed. I'm scheduled to work again this Sunday. Ug.

Last year we had presents, but no tree, and no visits with Santa, or any of the other traditional stuff, because I was still recovering from a c-section, and Rob was recovering from shoulder surgery. I can't bear for another holiday season to go by without any cheer, so I guess I'm going to have to really pull out all of the supermom I have in me to get it all done.

Speaking of getting it all done, work is calling.. and Jake finally is having his one-year checkup, so I'm leaving early today as it is. I guess I better get back to it.

Bread

Oh my god. Rob and Nicole just made the most amazing bread. Silly, I
realize, to get excited over bread. But seriously, this is some great
stuff. They started on it yesterday, because the dough needed to sit
overnight or something. Then they baked it this morning. It was a
crazy simple recipe - like flour, water and yeast. It wasn't
something that was supposed to rise, and it was baked in a big ol'
casserole dish.

So it's huge, dense, spongy, and with real butter all over it might
possibly be the best bread I've ever eaten, even though there is truly
nothing to it.

Why am I bothering wasting bandwidth on this, you might ask? Well,
because I'm realizing that we need to cook/eat at home more. Fast
food and restaurant food have not only sucked up way more of our
budget than it should, but I think it may have killed our taste buds.
I'm beginning to think that our tongues have been coated with so much
grease and preservatives over the year that we've completely forgotten
how the simplest of real foods taste.

Rob made some pork chops earlier in the week. Nothing major, just
seared them in a skillet with some oil and a little bit of some
seasoning mix from Penzeys. He's not a huge fan of pork, but I woofed
it down like I hadn't had a single bite of food in weeks. And maybe I
hadn't. Our diet largely consists of whatever can be had in a
drive-through on the way home - or delivery. Granted, it will suck up
most of what little time we get together as a family in the evenings,
with prep time, cook time, and clean-up. But maybe if we all just
hang out in the kitchen during that time anyway, we won't really be
missing out.

Sigh

Epilepsy sucks. Rob's seizures simply drain the life out of me. I'm becoming more desensitized to actually watching them, but with every additional one, it's harder for me to recover emotionally. Today is one of those days.

So we started our day at 4:30am waking the kids and heading to the ER. He hasn't missed any medication, which means we needed to determine where his drug levels were. He tested low, which is a good thing in the sense that a medication adjustment should help, but it's a bad thing in that we don't know what caused it to fall (the levels had fallen by half). So they advised that he take three doses today, and follow up with his doc on Monday. No additional instructions for tomorrow.

Epilepsy sucks. I'm ready for him to be better, and every time this happens that he's been at home, I'm left to ponder the odds of the next one being in a car, or while he's just carrying Jake around the house. He's going to have more. There's no doubt. I just wonder who the next person is who will be hurt, and when. And I feel sick when I realize that I'm actually *hoping* that it's *just* him, and no one else.

Of Ear Infections and ERs

What a weekend.  Well, what a week actually.  About a week and a half ago, Jake had his 9m well baby visit.  All good.  20# and short.  No ear problems, clear for take-off.  The next day we get on a plane and head for Boston (Jake's first plane ride, and another whole story as far as the weekend details go).  By the time we get back, we're exhausted, and Jake has a cold.  It's hard to say if it was just a matter of course, or something he picked up by chewing a toy in the doctors office, or in recycled airplane air, or what.

So, about the middle of last week, Jake started having a fever.  It started at 103, and Tylenol could get it to about 101.  When doubled up with Motrin, he finally seemed to be getting some relief.  But the nights were still awful.  He wasn't sleeping, and I wasn't sleeping.  So I took him to the doctor on Friday morning, and sure enough, the cold has decided to take up residence in his ears.  He was given Amoxycillin (sp?), which I figured would be fine.  He'd had it once before and didn't have problems.  However, Nicole, Rob and I are all allergic.  I should never have let the stuff even come into the house.

Here's where the ER comes in.  Friday evening, as I was giving Jake his second dose of the day, I got a drip on my leg, which I wiped off with my finger.  I then go to wipe Jake's face, in that Mom kind of way where you lick the tip of your fingers, and wipe the kids face.  BAD MOVE.  I could taste the medicine, but didn't really think anything of it since we're only talking about some residue - nothing more.  I was still rocking him to sleep when I noticed that my palms were itching.  By the time I put him down, my rings hurt, and my lips and tongue were tingly.  I went downstairs to tell Rob I needed some Benedryl, but I quickly changed my mind, because I could see the rash on my hands spreading up my arm. 

Fortunately, there is a brand new hospital about 5 minutes from the house.  So, I drove myself so that the kids could stay in bed.  I got in immediately, and they took only enough info to get me a bracelet.  Within probably about 5 minutes, I had an IV and was receiving Benedryl and steroids.  Let me just take this opportunity to say that IV Benedryl SUCKS!  It felt like fire rushing through my veins, and at any point I could have pointed out how far through my body it had traveled.  But I couldn't, because it felt like it was coming up my throat and I started to gag and choke.  The doctors just stared while I pounded my chest trying to convince them that I was choking.  But apparently, this is completely normal.  Then, I felt just wrong.  I wasn't sure whether I was going to faint, or float to the ceiling.

Once that feeling started to subside, the shakes set in.  That went on for about an hour.  Then, when everything was getting back to normal and the rash was clearly regressing, they came in and did my registration and gave me my discharge papers.

Over the last two days, Jake's cold has gotten progressively worse.  The poor boy can't breathe through his nose at all, even though it's been running non-stop, soaking bib after bib.  And, as for me, I'm still not right.  I don't know if it's leftover swelling, or some drug side-effect, or what.  But my chest has been heavy ever since.  I can breathe, but sometimes it just hurts.  I've got 4 more days of steroids to take, and an epi-pen to carry with me in case things flare up again (or I get too close to the medicine again), and I can't get to a hospital.

I think maybe even Jake needs to not have penicillin again.  I think maybe it needs to never come into our house again - ever.

Wow

If Jake wasn't a boy, I might think I had given birth to a clone.

Here are two pictures. One was taken today, the other was taken 35 years ago.

Terrible mommy moment

So, have you ever had one of those moments when your child is utterly terrified (or maybe even hurt), and as much as you want to comfort them and be sympathetic, it's all you can do to control your desire to laugh?  I had one of those this morning.  It was almost cartoon-like.  I was putting Jake in the car seat, and Nicole usually gets herself into the car and in the booster and can even get her seatbelt on most of the time.  But this morning, I guess something else caught her attention.

As I was getting Jacob buckled in, I heard Nicole scream.  I turned around, and saw her dangling from the bottom of the garage door!  Before I could even get to her, she lost her grip and fell.  The door was all the way up by the time she started yelping, so she probably fell a good 6 or 7 feet.  The poor little thing had scrapes on the inside of her hand, and was just trembling violently.  She was crying and was completely terrified.  She landed on her feet, and wasn't really hurt by the fall, but just hanging there appeared to have scared her almost worse than she's ever been scared before.

But seriously - think about it.  The vision of a four year old being pulled up with the garage door, and just hanging there.  I didn't see her on the way up, but I'm telling you - the brief second that she was hanging there was just hysterical.  I know I'm a terrible mom for thinking this was funny, but on the other hand, I can basically guarantee she won't ever do that again.

My latest addiction

Months ago, I made a vow to myself to not spend any more money on scrapbooking for the rest of the year.  I just suck.  I couldn't do it.  It's not because I'm lacking for supplies - I have plenty.  It's just that I'm missing the ability (vision) to take all of the papers and whatnot and use them to compose a layout that I love.  And when I'm stuck for inspiration, I wind up spending 3 hours on a single page, and I still don't love it.

I always used to use my monthly crop time with my friend (who used to be a CM consultant) to get fresh ideas and look at other people's books and get inspired again.  But she gave it up, and now I have no crop - no monthly inspiration to look forward to.  So I fixed that problem by joining Club Scrap!  There goes my vow not to spend any more money - I committed to 6 months, at $30/month.  Not terrible, but it definitely breaks my vow of no more stuff for the rest of the year.

However, here is the good news - I've discovered in the past few years that the layouts I love most have great color.  But again, not something I'm good at doing myself.  But Club Scrap has this "Assembly Line" deal, where they give you instructions for how to assemble your entire kit with no waste.  Eureka!  Exactly what I need!  And the best part - I downloaded all of the published instructions for past kits.  And even though I don't have those kits, I have heaps and heaps of paper that I don't know what to do with.  So starting last night, I dug out several 12x12 papers that I've had for (no kidding) nearly a decade.  I love them, but I couldn't figure out how to use them.  So I went through the Assembly Line instructions and found layouts using papers with patterns of similar scale, and found coordinating solids, and put together 8 background layouts.  I still don't have photos in mind for any of them, but at least I don't have the papers sitting there without a clue what to do with them.  I went to bed so happy last night that I couldn't sleep.  I think I'm going to be putting together backgrounds for probably the next month, but that's OK.  They will be new, and colorful, and completely fabulous!

Gravity accident

I swear, I must have just watched Nicole like a hawk when she was a baby.  She never fell off of anything higher than her own butt.  But now, I'm just not nearly as cautious.  Poor little Jacob has crawled off of our bed twice, and this morning he tried a new trick - stair climbing.  I had no idea he knew how to climb stairs.  So, of course, I wasn't watching him, and he fell.  Nicole said his feet were on the second step, so he didn't fall far, but nonetheless he fell.

I should have known that once he was pulling up to his feet that stairs weren't far behind, but I thought it would take just a little longer.  He's been getting up on his knees for about a week, but only up to his feet for a couple of days.  But I guess that's all it takes.

So tonight's after-work project:  gates, gates, everywhere.

Free coffee - SCORE!

I have a Starbucks habit.  I could probably take a European vacation if I put all of the money I spent on Starbucks in one year in a jar instead.  My regular order is a venti black coffee for work, and a tall mocha for the drive (the coffee is about 1000 degrees, and therefore does me no good on the actual commute).  It totals $4.82.

So today I pull up to the window, and they hand me my coffees, and explain that they're having some trouble with their computer, so the coffee is on them today.

WooHoo!  Hopefully the rest of the day will go equally as well. :-)

Beadwork gone bad

Usually, we tell Nicole that after lunch it is naptime. She generally sulks, but goes ahead and walks upstairs and goes to bed. Today however, she decided to do beadwork. I'm not sure how she progressed from stringing a necklace to sticking a bead up her nose, but then again, there are lots of things about 4year olds that I don't understand.

She came down the steps crying, and presented us with a bloody nose. Usually, this comes from a compulsive picking episode. But she denied that was the case. She's had bloody noses before, but it's always been because of picking or being boffed in the nose - never just random. We finally got out of her that she put a bead up there and was trying to get it out.

So at this moment, she's up at the urgent care with Daddy while I hang at home and let Jake finish out his nap. I'm guessing there will be a bead extraction procedure, and then they will be sent home. But I guess I'll go hit the shower, in the unlikely event that they can't get it out and send her to the ER.

What a fun way to start a Sunday afternoon....

Leaving Home

This evening, after I got home from work, my darling four-year-old
daughter informed me that tomorrow, *before* it was wake up time, she
was going to get dressed in her pink Aurora dress, and sneak out of
the house as quietly as she could, and go to her school. Then she was
going to climb over the fence, and wait for Shelby. When Shelby got
there, they would tiptoe to Shelby's grandmother's house and pick
flowers.

I wasn't entirely sure what to say. I didn't want to make a joke
about it, because if she really did get up and leave the house, it
could be a huge problem, obviously. So I asked her why she would ever
want to leave without telling mommy or daddy, because we would be so
sad when we couldn't find her. She then responded that she promised
that she'd tell us first, before she left. But that wasn't an
original part of her story. So I told her that if she ever left and
*didn't* tell us, that she would be in big, big trouble. She again
promised that she'd tell me before she sneaked out of the house.

Now, realistically, her bedroom door squeaks, and before that even,
she usually goes to the bathroom when she gets up, and the upstairs
plumbing runs through one of our bedroom walls. And, if, for some
reason, she actually got through those noises without waking me up,
she couldn't get past the alarm system. So she's not getting much
further than the front yard, at best.

But I'm left wondering if I should call Shelby's parents. I don't
want to tattle on Shelby, or even accuse her of being a bad influence
on Nicole (especially since Shelby starts Kindergarten next week and
won't be spending nearly as much time at the day care as she was
before). I'm sure their little adventure plans are harmless. But
clearly Nicole wasn't the only person involved in this plan, because
if it were completely up to Nicole, she'd be going to her own
grandma's house to pick flowers.

I generally cross paths with Shelby's dad a few times when we're
dropping off the kids - maybe if Nicole is still set on these plans
next week, he and I can have a talk. The last thing I need is for
Shelby to leave home and declare that it was all Nicole's idea.

Ah.. the joys of raising kids. :-)

The things they say

This is mostly about Nicole, since all Jake can say is dadadadada.

She's been saying some very sweet things lately. For instance, she's quite interested in my wardrobe. She gets especially happy when I wear a skirt. Earlier this week, she said, "Thank you, mommy, for wearing that beautiful skirt". To which I replied "Thank you, Nicole. That was very nice of you to say". Any time I wear a heel she'll comment about my beautiful shoes, and she always thanks me if I go so far as to put on a necklace.

A few days ago, I used some little clips to pull her bangs back (I'm trying to grow them out), and I asked her to look in the mirror and see if if looked OK. She said they did, and then posed the question, "Am I gorgeous?". I promptly confirmed that she indeed was, gorgeous. She loves to be beautiful, and is quick to point out to others how beautiful she finds something about them. But "gorgeous" is new, just this week.

Tonight, she went through the toybox and found a few miscellaneous dress-up items, and a few purses and a headband. She also found one dress-up shoe. She came clip-clopping down the hallway, and showed me all of her purses. I asked her why she was wearing only one shoe. Without hesitation, she very matter-of-factly pointed out, "Well, because I'm Cinderella" and then went about her business.

Unfortunately we ended the night on a sad note, because I cut the back of my leg on a nail, and had her daddy patch it up for me. She's incredibly sympathetic, that one. As she was holding a tissue on it (while daddy went to find neosporin), she said, in a very weepy voice, "I'm so sorry, mommy, that you're hurting". The poor thing was almost in tears. I assured her that I was really going to be very fine. But knowing her emotional little self, she'll probably have a bloody nightmare about it.

Uh oh.. speaking of bleeding, looks like the bandage wasn't quite heavy-duty enough. Time to re-dress.

Bring the coffee...

Wow, am I tired today.  Rob needed to get back to work, but without knowing what his drug levels are on the new drug, there's no way he was driving.  So that meant car pooling.  Unfortunately, his job isn't exactly on route to my job.  And the worst part is, we have to get the kids by 6, which usually requires me to be out the door no later than 5, because it will take me every bit of an hour to get to them before the day care closes.  But now, adding a detour to get Rob first, I have to leave even earlier.  So, in order to not have to start cashing in vacation hours, I need to get to work that much earlier to make up the time (I usually stay until 6 and Rob picks up the kids since his commute is so much shorter, and not as impacted by rush hour).

So this morning started an hour and a half earlier than normal, and I'm already wiped clean out.  On top of that, Jake has been having some kind of issues where he likes to burst out and scream every couple of hours.  We had this problem with him and silent reflux, but after we had a few weeks of prevacid under his belt, he was much better.  I hope it's not the medicine failing.  I'm kind of hoping that it's teeth or something that will be resolved in a week or two.  Because I'm not getting any sleep!  After about 2 trips upstairs to give him his pacifier, I bring him back down with me.  The boy has really outgrown the bassinet, but if he's going to need a pacifier 4 and 5 times a night, I don't want to have to get out of bed to give it to him.

Anyway, bring on the coffee.  It's going to be one of those days.  And the week is still just getting started. :-(

Big boys - big toys

It seems that, with the exception of the time he broke his shoulder, my husband comes out of his seizures with a new zest for life. It's usually brief, and then he goes back to being him, but I'll take what I can get.

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of an RC truck slamming into the drywall and baseboards, and my daughter laughing so loud you could probably hear it outside of the house. I have no idea what possessed Rob to get this truck down out of the closet, but he did. And that truck defined our whole day. For starters, he decided he wanted a new, bigger truck. So we got the kids ready for a trip out and headed to the hobby store. Several hundred dollars later, Rob had a new toy. Of course, this toy didn't have the batteries charged or anything, but that's why we packed the original truck with us. From the hobby store, we picked up some sub sandwiches and headed to the park.

Jake and I stayed in the safe shade of the pavilion, but Rob and Nicole played with the original truck in an unused baseball field. The truck chased Nicole all over that ball field and stirred up a whole storm of dust. But she didn't seem to care. She just kept running. I watched, and tried to take a few pictures (post those later), and Jake ate cheerios. It was really a lot of fun. Well, until a bunch of rowdy local kids came and started bugging Rob about the truck. They weren't dangerous, but they were loud, and the language wasn't anything we needed Nicole to be exposed to, and they seemed insistent on being wherever we were. So we decided it was time to go home.

After a 3+ hour nap, Rob woke Nicole up to have some dinner. But first, the new truck's batteries were charged, so it needed a test run around the yard. Nicole was glad to help. She ran around the yard so that the truck had something to chase.

All in all, it was a very good day. I wish we were in the habit of having more like that.

Independence Day

Our holiday was quite busy. It was a mixture of good and bad. We started off by participating in our subdivision parade. It was fun, but I hadn't really intended on being in it - only taking the kids up the street to watch. But the neighbors were going to be in it, and their little boy had one of those little cars, and Nicole rode with him. So it wound up not being that bad just pulling Jake in the wagon. At the end of the parade route, we get to an empty lot, and the firetruck that led the parade hooked up to a hydrant and gave the kids a massive sprinkler to play in.

Unfortunately, it was just too hot to hang out, and certainly too hot to haul both kids all the way back up the hill. So I called Rob to come rescue us.

Both kids were pretty worn out just from being in the sun, so we got home, got Nicole some lunch, and then when both kids were napping, we resumed clean-up. That's where things started to go badly. Rob had another seizure while we were cleaning up the kitchen. I was there, and managed to keep him from getting hurt. Jake was up by this time, and I think he could sense that I wasn't quite right, because he just started screaming for no reason (like I needed that on top of an unconscious husband). Anyway, I eventually managed to get Rob on the floor and then started working on Jake. Luckily Jake was calmed down by the time Rob woke up (it usually takes about 30 minutes).

He didn't want to go to the hospital, and he didn't want to cancel the party. So he just rested up until the time the guests were due. I asked my dad to do the cooking, and I asked our friends to be in charge of the fireworks. Rob was extremely wiped out, and wound up being pretty nauseous before the night was over, but the party went on without him, just as he instructed. The kids swam, and played in the back yard; everyone ate until they were stuffed, and then we all ate home-made ice cream (courtesy of my grandma) while we watched the pyrotechnics show.


I called in to work today, so I could stay home with him. We haven't heard back from the doctor as to what we should be doing about the medication. So until we've changed something, he's just as likely as yesterday to have another seizure.

This is so draining...

So Tired

Whew. I've had about all I can take for tonight. The last two days after work has been nothing but rushing around trying to get the house picked up and ready for our annual July 4th bash. And now, with the list not even half marked off, I'm giving in. I was going to get all of the food prep ready, including getting hamburger patties made and tomatoes and onions sliced. But my eyes just aren't holding out. I guess most of what's left can be managed tomorrow. Luckily we have until 4pm to finish up. I think the day will begin with LOTS of coffee. :-)

Realistically, I shouldn't complain about any paid day off of work. However, I don't think any holiday setup sucks more than one that falls on a Wednesday. You have no time to prepare, and no time to recover. You spend the first half of the work week looking forward to the day off and trying to figure out what needs to be done in the evenings, and then the last two days tired as hell.

How many days until Labor Day again?

I know tomorrow will be a good time. It always is. We fill the little kid pool and put out all of the water toys, and most of the people mill around outside and watch the kids splash around. Then we'll fire up the grill and everyone will eat entirely too much. Then we'll have the homemade ice cream that Grandma brought, with some of those sugar wafer cookies. Then Rob and his buddies will haul out a truckload of fireworks, a butane torch, and a fire extinguisher and saunter out to the far edge of the yard like a bunch of ghostbusters. The rest of us will find a comfortable spot near the house and watch while the whole neighborhood puts on a collective show. Some of us will come in early and try to calm sleepy and frightened babies, and others will come in just because they're bored.

But when it's all over, it will have been another fun-filled holiday.

Off to bed.

I miss my kids!

So Saturday, after the party, I parted ways with my kids so that they could spend some time with their grandma.  She even offered to keep them two nights, so that we didn't have to make another trip out on Sunday to go get them, and she'd bring them back Monday when we were home from work.  That was great, because I figured I could spend all day Sunday getting ready for our annual July 4th bash. 

Now, not only did I spend most of Sunday scrapbooking (so I didn't make a bit of progress preparing for the party), but now I miss the kids terribly.  It was awful.  I'm 8 months behind on my scrapbooking, and gosh durnit I was going to get organized and start getting caught up.  But this caused me to spend probably what totaled 6 hours yesterday looking at pictures of the kids, which covered Jake from birth to now, as well as lots of pictures of the two kids playing together. 

And now I can't wait until they get home.  I still haven't gotten anything done for the party, and with them back home, I won't make much progress either. But at least I won't miss them any more.

Saturday night out

This weekend is certainly shaping up to be busy. My niece's first birthday is next week, and her party is tomorrow. I haven't even started thinking about a gift, so I guess I'm going to be spending some time at Target tonight. Weeknight shopping usually requires a quick dinner out, so we're planning on heading right back out after we get home from work.

Tomorrow morning will be swim class as usual, but we've got quite a bit to do before heading to the birthday party. We need to get the gift wrapped, get some hand-me-downs organized and out to the car, and last, but not least, get the kids packed for an overnight stay at Grandma Sue's! WooHoo! My mom wants to take the kids back to stay at her house after the party.

I realize with both parents working full-time, we don't really see enough of our kids as it is. But the truth is, we don't always see enough of each other either. Our most meaningful conversations over the past year or more have been over IM while at work. But now we don't quite know what to do with ourselves. Maybe we'll catch a movie. But we have a home theater and hundreds of DVDs, so spending the money to get kicked in the back and struggling to hear over noisy teenagers doesn't usually sound that appealing. There's always dinner at a less kid-friendly restaurant, but we probably shouldn't be blowing that kind of money on dinner out either.

So who knows. Maybe we'll find something cool to do, or maybe we'll just come home and watch a DVD. Either way, we'll get to spend some time together - just the two of us. Then Sunday will come and we'll desperately want our children back. LOL.

Gravity

This morning, my darling son discovered gravity - the uncomfortable way.  Shame on us as the parents for not realizing that a 4 year old can not be expected to contain a determined seven month old.  I know she tried her hardest, but poor little Jake still took a header right off of our bed. 

Before I go any further -- he's totally fine.

I was in the shower, and Rob had gone to fetch Nicole some breakfast.  Nicole kept yelling something, which I didn't understand because I was in the shower.  Usually that causes her to come running closer so she could tell me again.  But not this time - she stayed right by the bed.  I didn't know, until I heard a thump and screaming, that she was trying to warn me that she couldn't hold him much longer.

Of course, I jump out of the shower, with shampoo still in my eyes to go pick him up.  Good thing he wasn't hurt, or I would surely have damaged him further the way I quickly scooped him up.  But we eventually got him calmed down, and then did a few close observations of his behaviors, and his eyes, and whatnot, and he seemed fine. 

He must have been a bit shaken up though, because for the first time ever, he got upset when I tried to leave him at day care.  Poor little guy.  But I called at noon, and he was being his same as usual self.

Seems its time to bring the playpen in the bedroom.  We need a morning routine containment vessel.  LOL.

Jake's new Best Friend

So, a few weeks ago, I notice Jake looking at one of Nicole's dolls. I'm not sure if he was trying to figure out what it was, or why it didn't move, or what. But I wouldn't let him have any of them because of the hair. That doll hair would be a snap for him to pull out and get wrapped tight around his fist. Of course, he did not appreciate my concern for his safety, and proceeded to scream.

A few days later, I'm trying to clean up the playroom, and I noticed a pair of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that Nicole got for Christmas one year. She never really had any interest, and after close inspection, I realized these would be great for Jake to have. The yarn hair could probably get yanked out, but still, somehow it seemed safer. And there were no buttons or snaps or glitter or anything that seemed dangerous about the outfits.

I showed Andy to Jake. Jake squeeled. Andy is Jake's new best friend. The first time I ever saw Jake tear out across a room (as much as one can possibly tear out doing an army crawl, anyway), it was to go after Andy. Poor little pudge ball was exhausted when he finally got to Andy, but he sure was happy.

These days, Andy sits in Jake's bed, and waits for Jake to wake up in the morning. This morning, Jake sat up there and talked to Andy for at least 30 minutes before he decided he wanted out of the crib. I like Andy. I think I'm going to find him very helpful. :-)

Daddy the Hero

There are times when I think that my husband is good for nothing more than keeping the kids alive and well when they're completely in his care.  But there are times, when keeping them alive and well are exactly what make him the greatest dad in the world.  From the time Nicole was little, the jobs he volunteered for were, making up the formula and dispensing whatever medicine might be required.  He does the same for Jake - and Jake takes prevacid every day, so there's always medicine to be given.  Daddy is also the man who fixes the general boo-boos.  He inspects every cut and scrape, and treats it with the appropriate ointment and bandage.

This morning, he took it up a notch.  He quite possibly saved our son's life.  As I was walking out the door to head to day care, Jake started to cough.  It didn't sound like a gagging cough at first, but I started patting him on the back - but quickly he started turning red and really gagging, and he clearly wasn't breathing - but he was still trying to cough.  I ran in to where Rob was and told him I needed help.  Rob completely grabbed Jake and put him on his belly and started hitting his back, but then quickly got him up again and started feeling in his mouth.  I then heard Jake breathing, and told Rob he was breathing, but Rob didn't stop.  Seconds later, Rob removed his finger from Jake's mouth and showed me a sticker - the sparkly foil kind.  He had reached as far as he could into Jake's throat to get it.

Jake is fine.  This never happened with Nicole, because there were never any remnants of an older child laying around.  But I guess we need to start paying more attention.

In the meantime, I've decided that, if all Rob ever does from here on out is keep the kids alive - then that will be fine with me.

Finding a voice

I never understood what my mother (and others of her generation) meant when she asked if Nicole had "found her voice yet". That really didn't make any sense to me. And then, one day, my mother declared that Nicole had finally found her voice. I still didn't really get it. Sure, Nicole was making noise, but it was little more than coos and jabbering.

Jake, however, gives meaning to that expression. He "found his voice" months ago, and had been letting all of us know that he knows that he has a voice ever since then. He doesn't really cry much - he really just yammers on and on and on such that between he and his sister, there is never ever any quiet.

I could have announced Jake's voice finding months ago, I know. But truth be told, it never really mattered that much. But last night - oh, it mattered. My darling son decided, at around 3am, that he was going to have a party with all of the critters in his crib. He talked, sang, and pounded on his mattress that I can only imagine was something akin to head-banging (I was hearing all of this over the monitor).

Finally, around 4am, I decided to try to feed him so that he'd return to sleep - he's been consistently eating around 5:30 for the past month. I had to wrestle Raggedy Ann away from him (he's quite fond of the Raggedy siblings), but eventually got him back to sleep. And that didn't last nearly long enough. By 7am, he was right back to announcing that he was awake, and the party with his crib-mates ensued.

Lord am I tired today.

Bummer

We're idiots. We purchased a new inflatable pool for the kids, and I got a little floaty tube thing for Jake. We decided to leave it filled for a few days, just to give Nicole and opportunity to swim after we all got home this week. And that was fine, but what we failed to do was bring in Jake's thing. It is, of course, gone. At some point on Monday, we got some winds that were enough to knock over a BBQ pit. So I'm sure his little thing is completely out of the subdivision by now.

We can get him a new one, but what a waste of $10. We just need to get our act together and pay attention.

Where's the Beef?

So, it appears that we'll be going from the Gerber 1st Foods straight to table food. Jake has made it perfectly clear that he has no interest in being in a high chair if there isn't something there for him to eat. So even though he may have had a container of baby food, he still looks at us eating, with that "hey - where's mine?" kind of expression.

I've spent several meals over the past several days trying to find something Jake can eat by himself while the rest of us have our own meals. So far, he's had bread (toast, pizza crust, and plain bread), cucumbers, peaches, and cheerios.

I need to get one of those mesh feeder things - and soon. Our ability to all have dinner together as a family may very well depend on it.

New babysitter

Tonight we're having another first - the first time we've left Jake with a babysitter that wasn't a Grandmother. My sister has a step-daughter (14yo), and apparently she needs to "earn" the right to attend a party later this weekend. So my sister offered up some free babysitting.

I think it will be fine. We're going out to dinner with my sister and her husband, and we made reservations for a place that's only about 3 miles from the house. The babysitter has a younger sister who's only a couple of months younger than Nicole, so I don't doubt her abilities to manage Nicole. And Jake, by himself, probably not a problem. But if she can manage both of them together, she will definitely have accomplished something. Not that it's impossible - but even the grandmas have trouble managing the bedtime routine.

The way I figured we'd solve that problem though - was just to tell the sitter to make Jake the priority - do whatever she needed to do to get him situated for the night, and if Nicole wound up staying up well past her usual bedtime as a result, then we'll deal.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to tonight, but I'm nervous at the same time. Nicole never stayed with a sitter who wasn't family until she was three. And now, not only am I leaving one that's much younger, but I'm leaving two at the same time. I'm sure we'll get through it. And hey - if it works out well, then maybe we'll be able to do this more often.

Teeth shmeeth!

So tonight we decided that we needed a new pool. The one we had was not cleaned out well before the winter, and it was allowed to get nasty. So nasty it wasn't worth saving (seriously - the health of our children may have been at risk - LOL). Anyway, we decided to go look for one at Target and go to the pizza buffet afterwards. Mmmmmm pizza buffet.....

Rob fed Jacob before I got home - just some baby food veggies, but enough that he wouldn't be hungry and need to be fed at the pizza place.

Ha! The boy made it perfectly clear that he wanted what we were having - teeth or no teeth. We keep trying to explain to him that he has no teeth, but he doesn't seem to care. So after several grabs at my plate, I went back to the buffet and assembled a plate for him. He sucked on several chunks of cheese garlic bread, turning them back into dough, and then worked on some cucumber slices. (I really didn't think he was ready for pepperoni so grabbed what I thought was safest from the salad bar). I honestly didn't think he could do much more than drool on a slice of cucumber, but man was I wrong. He sucked the soft middle part right of out it. He then started to work on some carrots. He gave up on those pretty quickly though - probably because he couldn't ever get anything off of it that he could swallow.

So, I'm thinking we may be going from Gerber 1st Foods straight to table food. I know you can get little canned veggies that have no salt, so those would probably be good. I should also see about keeping some fresh fruit and veggies around. Even cucumbers. Who knows - maybe he'll finally cut a tooth on a nice thick cucumber slice. It would probably feel pretty good if it were nice and cold.

Nicole is such a picky eater. So is her father. Maybe Jake will be my little eating buddy. Perhaps I'll finally have an excuse to buy vegetables!

Why I work

I've been thinking, and I think that I have a job, just so that I have something to look forward to. Yeah, the paycheck is nice, certainly. And having good insurance and the prospect of a very comfortable retirement is great too. But I really think that the main reason I work is to have to wait to do certain things.

Yeah, I can imagine how crazy that must sound. But just now, I was thinking about this weekend. Nicole starts swim lessons again on Saturday (she took lessons last Spring), and I have some shopping I want to do for some new landscape plants. Then, after we're home and the kids are napping, I'm going to get the pool out and get it cleaned up and filled, so that the water can be warming up. We have an errand to run later that will take us out to my MIL's house, so the kids won't get to swim any more on Saturday most likely. But then that should leave all day on Sunday for us to just chill out at home and play outside. And hopefully I can get my plants planted before suffering heat stroke.

What's really crazy, is that if I were home with the kids every day, I'd have all the time in the world to do this stuff, but I know me. I wouldn't. Nicole would be parked in front of the TV all day and I'd spend most of the day transferring Jake from toy to toy. I think that, because there was always tomorrow, there would never be the incentive to get anything done today. But since I have a 9-5, I know that if I don't get my plans done on the weekend, I have to wait a whole other week for another shot. And that's really enough to make me get off my butt and get stuff done.

I can't wait for the weekend! Maybe I'll head to Target tonight and see if I can find some little floaty thing for Jake so he can get in the pool with Nicole. :-)

The belated "Why?"s

I thought someone once told me that the neverending "why?"s started at the age of three. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly. Because now, at age 4 1/2, Nicole is all about the "why?". Occasionally she'll throw a "how come" in there, but it's all the same.

So anyone with a four year old (or if you went through this at 3), what the heck is the answer? I knew this was coming, and I was dreading it. But at the same time, I really thought I would be a brilliant mommy and answer her questions so satisfactorily, that one "why?" would be sufficient. I was so incredibly wrong.

Tonight, I was just tired, and come bedtime, couldn't answer any more why questions. So I said that the two bedtime stories would have to be from her very small books. Good thing too, because every page (like, all 8) had the endless string of questions.

I finally answered "Because that's what it says in the book". Brilliant, I know. *smirk*. But my clever answers just aren't doing the job.

So I want to know. What's the best way anyone has ever answered "why?". I'm looking for the answer to end all. The one that makes the four year old simly say "oh" and roll over and go to sleep.

Done with School

This one will be short. Rob's done with school! Yeah! His class had a little dinner tonight where they handed out all of the graduate certificates for his class.

Now we can hopefully enjoy a nice homework-free summer.

An Ideal Evening

Have you ever had one of those days/evenings that was just like some kind of oasis in the dry desert of everyday life? We had one of those last night.

We had a guest for the past two nights as he was passing through town, but we didn't really have any set plans to hang out or go out to dinner or anything. His plans yesterday were to just do some St. Louis sightseeing, and we had no idea when he'd be back for the evening. So we decided to go pick up an assortment of deli meat and cheese, and a couple of "salad" sides, and that way if he was there, we'd have sandwiches, and if he wasn't, but wanted something to eat later, we'd have something in the fridge.

So Rob gets the deli stuff on his way home and I pick up the kids. On the way home, Nicole asks if she can play outside for a while, and I said we needed to have dinner first - then I suggested to her that we could take our sandwiches outside and have a little picnic. When we got home, we saw our neighbors (with two boys that are close to Nicole and Jacob's ages), and went by to say hi. As we were about to part ways for our separate dinners, the mom (Amy) noted that she wasn't sure what they'd throw together yet. Then Nicole announced that we were having a picnic. I know that Rob overbuys when it comes to deli stuff, so I told her they were welcome to join us in the backyard. Graham (the little boy that's Nicole's age) got terribly excited, and Amy said "let me go ask Daddy".

So we went inside, loaded up a laundry basket with all of our sandwich fixin's and some blankets, and by the time we got back outside, Amy and the boys were standing outside with ice cream and cones, and declared that they had dessert, and that Rich was coming along with some more blankets.

The 8 of us just all sat outside and ate and yapped (well, the two older kids ran around and played after stuffing themselves full of little more than Doritios) for over two hours. It was wonderful! It was a little muggy, but it was also windy, so it wasn't that bad. Andrew (our guest) showed up about an hour in, and made a sandwich and joined the party. We probably would have stayed out longer if Graham and Nicole hadn't colored each either from head to toe with sidewalk chalk. So we needed to allocate extra time to hose off the kids before bed.

Anyway, this is not even close to something we'd do normally. But it was so much fun. Our neighbors have been there for three years, but we'd never spent that much time with them at one time. What amuses me most though, is that Andrew has no idea how far from normal last night was, and he probably is leaving our house with some kind of notion that we totally live in "Pleasantville" LOL.

Kinda busy

I haven't been around much, but there's good reason. It seems I've been completely overcome by hobbys. In the last two months, I've done what seems like a gazillion scrapbook pages, and I've made a few necklaces, but in the midst of all of that - I started yet another new thing. I created

http://www.granolamommy.com/

I had subscribed to a yahoo group for women giving birth about the same time as Jake was due. Recently, I decided to play around with Mambo (CMS) a little, but I needed an idea for a site. I asked these women what kinds of things they thought might be lacking on the Internet (no need to re-invent any wheels here). They cited all kinds of mommy topics like breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and other such stuff. And it's not that this information doesn't already exist - it just doesn't exist in one spot. I then had the idea to make the site center around a wiki. I'd provide the starting wiki pages, based on the suggestions of my fellow mommys, and let users supply their wisdom for the actual content. Hence, granolamommy was born.

It's still new, and there's a lot that's lacking. But hopefully it will be discovered some day, and moms everywhere will add their own wisdom to the pot. There are plenty of sites that will offer professional advice. But I think the best professionals are other moms.

Check it out, please. Let others know. Put links to it from your own home page. Who knows - maybe this can turn into something pretty cool.

Beads!

So I did a lot of shopping while I was on maternity leave. Part of it was having my husband home every hour of every day. My time off with Nicole really was a bit of a vacation (once I got the hang of caring for a baby). This time, I knew how to take care of a baby, and was prepared to have a fabulous relaxing vacation. But I wasn't prepared to have company (other than Jake, of course).

So, I shopped. Over the course of November and December, I wound up watching a lot of What Not to Wear on TLC. Dangerous, dangerous thing to do in large doses. I wound up paying close attention to how they dressed other women that were close to my size and shape. I then headed to the mall with "the rules". It didn't take much for this to turn into an obsession. Once I had enough pants, tops and jackets to fill my closet, I then headed for the shoes. I never ever wore heels to work. I now wear them four days a week.

The last thing I ever thought I'd do was accessorize. However, on my last day off, I let Nicole drag me into one of those mall jewelry stores (I think it was Icing). I started looking around, and found myself strangely attracted to some beaded necklaces. So I purchased a few in some colors that went with my new wardrobe. Mind you, I wear one piece of jewelry 24/7, and that's my wedding ring. When I go out, I add my engagement ring, and a birthstone ring. That's it. No earrings, necklaces, or any other type of jewelry.

But I went back to work sporting a new wardrobe, complete with high heels and necklaces. After that first week though, I realized I still had several outfits that lacked the appropriate beads. So what did I do? Shop for necklaces? NO. I went to the craft store and bought an assortment of beads, wires, clasps, and whatever else I thought I needed to make necklaces. Lo and behold, I now have a new hobby. Bummer. My wallet didn't need that. But here I am, nearly $500 later. I have actually made one necklace, and I'm absolutely crazy about it. I have enough beads to make at least 100 more necklaces, I'm certain. I hope beads will continue to entertain me, because while I do really like my homemade necklace, it sure as heck isn't worth $500. :-)

Where did February go?

Holy crap! Where the heck did February go? I meant to continue my story, apparently several weeks ago. But alas, it's somehow March.

Anyway, this is the last backstory post. Hopefully anything I decide to blab about in the future will actually be about current goings on. Not that anyone cares really, but who knows.

So it's Friday night (December 8th). Jake is 3 weeks old, Rob finished out the week at work, and the next day we were scheduled to host a party welcoming the new baby. My mother-in-law wanted a shower, but there we had an issue with the whole gift solicitation thing for baby #2. So we talked her into just a plain ol' party. Well, the party wasn't to be. In the middle of the night (around 1am), Rob started making some odd noise and convulsing. It woke me up immediately. I tried to talk to him (yell at him was more like it) and hold on to him , but I wasn't strong enough. He was thrashing around so hard that he fell completely out of bed. It took him a few minutes, but the convulsing eventually stopped. His eyes were open, and he was attempting to move around, but he was clearly out of it. He looked like a deer in the headlights. He had no idea where he was or who he was or even how to talk. He truly looked scared to death.

Once again I called 911 and some of the same guys that had visited our kitchen came again. It had been 5 weeks, but they still remembered him. Only this time, I was able to tell them that I thought he'd had a seizure. He eventually came to, but he was seriously confused for at least a half hour. They asked him his name, and after giving it some thought, he told them. They asked him his age. Again he responded with his name. They got him up into a sitting position, and it didn't take long for them to spot that something was very wrong with his right shoulder. At any rate, they packed him up and took him to the hospital.

After they were gone, I fed Jake, woke up Nicole, and took everyone to the hospital. It was a very long night. His shoulder was dislocated, for starters. But his arm was also broken. They put his shoulder back in the ER, and did another CT scan and some other tests. Once those were back, given that this was now the third incident, he was admitted to the hospital for observations for four days. I had left voice mail for Rob's mom once I was at the hospital. I figured she probably was sleeping and didn't hear the phone. But she had thought she heard her cell phone, and came as soon as she got the message. She took Nicole home and put her back to bed around 5am and stayed there until I got home with Jake.

After sleeping for about an hour, I got up, and proceeded to call everyone on our guest list and cancel the party. Then I called my mom. I asked her to keep the kids for a couple of days, since they weren't allowed in the unit Rob was in. So I packed up the kids and drove them out to my mom's house. Most of the next few days was spent at the hospital. Mom had the kids Saturday and Sunday. Rather than spend the night in an empty house for the second night in a row, I went out to my parents house and spent the night there with the kids. Nicole went back to day care on Monday, and my MIL came to watch both kids in the afternoon/evening so I could go back to the hospital.

The next several weeks were draining. Rob had surgery to repair the break at the top of his arm, and I spent every day running Nicole to and from day care so that I could concentrate on the baby and Rob. None of the tests that were done in the hospital revealed anything abnormal. So the doctors are just saying he has a late onset of epilepsy, and a regimen of anti-convulsives were prescribed.

Things eventually got easier over the next two months. There were lots of doctor visits (I still had OB follow-ups, and the baby still had check-ups), physical therapy, and just lots of driving around in general. Rob ended his medical leave around the first of February and started working from home. I returned to work on February 12th.

And now it's March. Where did all of that time go?

Falling down.. again

If you're just tuning in, let me say these first several entries are all back story, because right now, nothing terribly interesting is happening in my life. But when I last left off, I had just given birth to my son. During my time in the hospital, Nicole stayed with my mom. It was a school weekend for Rob, and it was just easier for Nicole to have some dedicated Grandma time. I had signed Nicole up for a vacation week at day care for the following week, because she needed some time to get used to this new tenant at our house too. And there was Thanksgiving in there anyway, and somehow keeping her home just made it seem more normal.

The following week however, we were pretty done having all four of us around at the same time. I know it's a terrible thing to say, but we all were already ready for some time apart. So Nicole went back to day care. Rob got up with her in the morning, got her ready, and took her and came right back home. It was a lovely week - well, I think it was. I was mostly too tired to remember it, but I think it was pretty good.

The following Monday was time for Rob to go back to work. It was all planned out - he was going to take Nicole to school during the week, and then go to work, and the baby and I would just hang out and watch TV and enjoy each other's company. And that's pretty much how that Monday went. I even got myself on our exercise bike and figured that would be a good way for me to spend Jake's nap time. Rob called in the afternoon and said that if I could get Nicole from school, that he'd go to the grocery store and do the shopping we needed. He'd just call when he got there and have me read the current list to him. Sounded like a deal to me. As promised, he called at about 6:30. I told him to give me a minute while I went to go get the grocery list. Not necessary, he tells me. He's in the ER. He doesn't know what happened. The last thing he remembers, he was in Best Buy. Then he was at the hospital. He vaguely recalls feeling faint.

I was sick. I mean, he had been back at work for all of one day, and now what was thought to be a freak fainting incident (he recalled feeling faint in the kitchen, several hours after the fact), is now a recurring fainting problem. But I called my mother again to come watch the kids, and as soon as she got there I headed for the hospital. I'm barely cleared to drive, and I'm certainly not supposed to be hauling the baby around in the car seat yet. Way too much lifting for 2 weeks after surgery. Anyway, once again, the tests come back normal and they send him home. Again, they recommend no driving for a couple of days. So Rob's back home with me now, at least for two more days. His primary doc wants to see him and do a bunch of other tests, so I turn into taxi mom - taking Nicole back and forth to day care, and taking Rob back and forth to the doctor.

We don't get anything interesting from the doctor, except for some elevated levels of some muscle enzyme. This test was done because Rob had some strange pain in his legs following each incident - like he'd been working out. But even though these levels were elevated, it didn't really offer any new information. It was just another strange twist to the fainting mystery.

So after two more days at home, Rob goes back to work again. But not before I have a complete breakdown. Oh, by the way, I had to pick up Nicole early on Wednesday, because she had a fever. So she had to stay home with me on Thursday. Meanwhile, my husband, who seems to mysteriously pass out for no reason, is leaving the house again. This completely freaked me out. The next two days were pretty long, but he got to work and got home just fine. He even went back to taking Nicole to day care on Friday.

But Friday was the last day before our life changed. Yep, we had a new family member who was only 3 weeks old, but even that was a walk in the park compared to what was about to happen next.

Surprise! Jacob's Here!

Nicole's birth was a c-section. Not because I wanted it that way, but rather because just as I was getting ready to push, the baby's heart rate dropped and wouldn't come back. So lucky me, I got to experience labor (well, up to 7cm anyway, then they ordered the epidural) as well as a c-section. Well, not again. When the subject came up of VBAC vs repeat c-section, I gave it some thought, and decided that if I tried VBAC, it may still end up with surgery, and I'd rather just stick to one kind of pain, thank you very much. So we decided on a c-section, so as to guarantee I wouldn't have to deal with labor. And I'm told that if there's no labor, the recovery from surgery can be much smoother. So great, sign me up. All parties agreed on November 20th - nearly 2 full weeks before my due date.

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. Apparently, Jake didn't get the memo. On Thursday, November 16th, I went to work, planning on tying up all of the loose ends since the next day was the last day before I started my glorious 12 week maternity leave. I had experienced some labor-like pains the night before, but with Nicole, I had labor pains for two full days before she was actually born. So I didn't think anything of it. And they really weren't that painful anyway. But at about 2pm, I started noticing some contractions again. I went on with my work, but by 3, they started getting a little more painful. So I started timing them. Seven minutes, then a few at 5 minutes, some more, some less. I had a meeting with my boss at 4 to talk about project management while I was gone. I also had two other people that I had promised some information to by the end of the day, so I continued with my Gantt chart, and then went to talk to one of the people who had been wanting my attention. I told him it was now or never, because I was going home after we talked. I told him I was having contractions so I was going to go home early and put my feet up.

At 4:00 I knew I wasn't going to last much longer if I wanted to be able to drive myself home. So I went to my boss and told him I needed to go home. He understood, and said he hoped I felt better and hoped to see me tomorrow. Well, by the time I had logged off and gotten to my car, I had changed my mind and decided to drive to the hospital instead. They hooked me up to some saline, thinking I was probably dehydrated and they might be able to stop the labor if I got re-hydrated. My husband had called just as I was walking into the hospital and said he was running late and wondered if I could pick up Nicole. Um, no. I don't think so.

By the time Rob had Nicole and got up to the hospital, they had been pushing saline for an hour, and the contractions did nothing but get worse. So the nurse came in and said they'd called my OB, and that he'd be here at 9:00 to do the c-section. It was now 6:00. The contractions were two minutes apart. The next three hours were the most painful hours of my entire life. The plan for the surgery was to do a spinal, which they can't administer until minutes before the surgery. So now, all of my plans had officially backfired. Not only was I going to have both labor *and* surgery, but I was going to experience full labor, with no pain medication, and as luck would have it, as they were administering the spinal, I was ready to push. Instead, I got another surgery, because after all, that was the plan.

Jake was a tiny little thing, at 7lbs, 1oz and 21.5" long. He was totally beautiful, of course. But given my two birth experiences thus far, I can say with confidence that I am quite done. Unless we adopt, we will not be having any more children. Me and childbirth simply aren't the best of friends. But at least I've got the next 12 weeks to just hang out with Jake and enjoy some time off of work. At least, that's what I thought.

In the next installment: Falling down, again.

Introduction

Hi. I'm Julie. I've been married to Rob for 9 years, and have a (nearly) 4yo daughter named Nicole and a newborn son (11 weeks today) named Jacob. My life is typically fairly boring and not nearly blog worthy, if I do say so myself. But the last few months have been packed with enough drama that I figured I might actually start to have some stories that someone else may actually be interested in.

So here's the background material. It all starts the first week in November. I'm starting my 9th month of pregnancy. It's a normal Thursday night. My husband always picked up Nicole from day care (I did drop-off), so I wasn't in a massive hurry to get home. I wish I had been that night. I came home and walked into the kitchen. The first thing I saw was Nicole perched up on a stool at the kitchen island, staring down at something. When I came in further, I saw that she was staring at her father, lying unconscious on the floor, seemingly bleeding from his head. His eyes were open, but he wasn't even close to lucid. And there was Nicole, just staring. She's 3 (but turns 4 at the end of this month), and could easily have decided to leave the house and look for help. But thank goodness she stayed put. I called 911, and they had almost arrived by the time I got off the phone. Rob started coming to a little bit while they were there, but was still clearly confused. His speech was slurred, and he wasn't entirely sure where he was. They took him to the hospital, since we all suspected that he fell somehow and possibly had a head injury.

All tests came back fine, and after they got him all cleaned up, I took him home. My neighbors all came over when they saw the ambulance, and all asked if they could help. One of them has a son Nicole's age, and she took Nicole to her house so I didn't have to take her with me to the hospital. I called my mother (who's about 45 minutes away), and asked her to pick up Nicole at the neighbor's house and take her home and put her to bed. Rob and I got home around 1am. I e-mailed work and told them I'd be late the next day. This was partly because of the exhausting evening, and partly because I had to take Rob in to school the next day. Yeah - he's going to grad school. He works full-time, but attends these marathon classes every other Friday and Saturday. And this weekend was a class weekend. The doctors recommended he not drive for two days, because he still may have had a concussion. Class didn't start on Fridays until 1:00, so I went into work after I dropped him off. By the way, he attends classes at the same university where I work, so at least it wasn't out of the way.

Fortunately, my mother-in-law had already made arrangements weeks before to pick Nicole up from day care that Friday and have her spend the night at her house. So I was able to stick around and bring Rob home from school and take him back the next morning without having to worry about Nicole. We had plans with Rob's mom and my parents to go out to dinner Saturday night. So we all met up for dinner, and afterwards, returned to our place where we discussed plans for a "meet the baby" party that my mother-in-law decided to do. I'd had two showers when I was expecting Nicole, and while we knew we were having a boy this time, we weren't even hurting for clothing, since I'd done some shopping already. So even though her original thought was to have another shower, we talked her out of it but agreed to a post-baby holiday party instead. So, it seemed that "the fall" incident was behind us (a mystery as to what exactly happened, since Rob didn't even know), and we could just resume our present course of dealing with the anxiety of the upcoming expansion of our family.

My plans for the next installment - Jake's surprise birth.