Monday, February 28, 2011

Love, Love, Love these 3

Here is my final 2011 Valentine’s Day page.

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It is my favorite of the three pages I made…probably because I love the pictures so much. On to the next thing…

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Longing for Spring

The weather here today was beautiful.

It was almost 60 degrees with blue skies and just the very slightest breeze.

Perfect.

It definitely had a positive affect on all of us and Tony and I went into a crazy spring cleaning frenzy. We went grocery shopping, did laundry, vacuumed the house, painted the library, cleaned out the garage, cleaned out the refrigerator and a hundred other little things in between.

Landon had a friend over for the day and they spent about 98% of it playing outside.

Zoe helped here and there with what Tony and I were doing, and also helped us by keeping an eye on Harper.

It was a terrific day. I didn’t get any pictures though, so I’ll leave you with one from yesterday’s “fun” trip to the bowling alley.

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I sure do love those faces.  

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Bowled Over

Zoe and Landon were driving me crazy with their constant bickering this afternoon, so Tony and I packed everyone up and we went to the bowling alley for a couple hours.

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Tony and I had a great time but it sure didn’t stop Zoe and Landon from their arguing or complaining.

Landon was having a little fit because he kept getting gutter balls (so he asked me to put up the rails, which I did, but then complained about that because he was afraid he was going to see someone from school and that they were going to call him a baby because he needed the gutter guards…I can’t win!!), Zoe is grounded so that’s all she keeps thinking/talking/complaining about it, and they both were a bit whiney which got annoying. Thankfully, Harper was really good for us and enjoyed watching everything that was happening around him. When he got bored of sitting in his seat, we all took turns holding him and he was as good as gold.

I think next time Tony and I want to get the kids to quit bickering we’ll just go out and do something on our own and leave them home to figure it out! It just doesn’t seem like anything we do works.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Forever

I got another page done this week!

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I’m on a roll!

A slow roll, but a roll nonetheless!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Spring Fashion Show

It snowed here a little bit on Tuesday and since we’d already been stuck in the house pretty much since Friday, we made a trip to the mall. We didn’t really have a reason to go, but Zoe decided she wanted to spend some of her gift cards and Christmas money on new clothes for spring. She didn’t get a whole lot, but I made her do a little fashion show so that I could take pictures of what she did get.

The first outfit is from NY&Company. She saw the entire outfit on a mannaquin and just had to have it. (I think the flip flops are from Target, but I’m not positive.)

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The top in the next photo is from Forever 21 and probably my favorite of the day.

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This top is also from Forever 21, and we both thought it was super cute too.

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Finally, this outfit we found at Target a couple weeks ago, but it is also meant for when the weather gets a little warmer. I feel like it needs some color…maybe a red belt or scarf or something…but, I do think it’s cute!

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Now we’re just waiting for some warmer weather to get here. Shouldn’t be much longer!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Z & H

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Zoe and I just loved the shirt that Harper was wearing yesterday. It’s kind of “big boy” looking, and to us, Harper is still such a little boy. I mean, he is a little boy at only 6 months, but his clothes are getting more big boy looking. Got that?

So, anyways, I grabbed the camera and started shooting away…

This one cracks Zoe up because his cheek looks gigantic! It looks like he can’t hold his head up because it’s dragging him down! Or, he’s trying to get her hair in his mouth, which is much more likely.

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This one makes me laugh because it looks like he’s surprised to see her there behind him.

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But, I like these best because she was playing Mr. Lion with him, and making him giggle…and I love watching their relationship bloom.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Egg Mama

Zoe had to do the egg baby project at school recently.

The first egg baby suffered a fatal crack in the hands of one of her friends.

The second egg baby was left over a weekend in one of her classrooms. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it then lived on her desk in her room for about a month in a plastic container.

With the lid on.

And no air holes…

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I wouldn’t recommend her as a babysitter.

Ever.

Lessons from the Operating Room

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Having surgery for the first time this past Friday taught me a few things.

Some were good and some were bad, but all were memorable.

Here’s my top 10:

  1. Ask more questions before hand. When I had my initial consultation, I was told that the surgery would take about 90 minutes. So, I thought that meant my surgery would begin promptly at 12:15pm and I’d be home by 3 or so. In reality, I wasn’t pushed back into the OR until 1:45 and wasn’t discharged until 7pm. It never occurred to me that I’d need recovery time…or that my doctor would start nearly 2 hours late.
  2. If the surgery isn’t dire, wait until your husband has enough leave to stay home with you while you recover. I had the surgery Friday and Tony was able to take off Monday and work from home so it’s fine and I’m coping with it, but certain things are definitely difficult…like lugging around an 18 pound baby all day. And picking up the toys said baby throws onto the floor 85 times a day. And standing up. And sitting down.
  3. I learned just how supportive my husband is. I mean, I know he can take care of stuff while I’m down because there have been a few times in the not so distant past that he’s had to (when I had Harper and then got mastitis) but this surgery has just reminded me again how great he is. He made me soup and brought it to me in bed, did some laundry, and made sure I had enough water and ginger ale to take my pills with. He also brought Harper up to our room so that I could talk and play with him. My husband is all that.
  4. I learned how compassionate my kids can be. It’s nice to know that when I’m hurting, they will come and sit with me and keep me company…even if I keep drifting in and out of sleep. Landon brought up 6 movies that he knew I liked and let me choose which one I wanted to watch…and then Zoe crawled in bed and watched Hairspray with me. Later that night she and I watched Shutter Island. Landon refilled my water glass and both kids asked me several times if there was anything I needed. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.
  5. I learned what it’s like to not have saliva. I seriously didn’t have any saliva until Sunday. My mom said it has something to do with the anesthesia, or something to do with when they intubate you…so you don’t have to swallow as often or something…I can’t remember now. I must have just had a dose of the Percocet when she told me. Heehee! Brushing your teeth without saliva is gross by the way. I won’t go into detail, just trust me. Eating crackers in order to take Percocet isn’t easy to do when your mouth is as dry as the Sahara either. I had to chew, drink and then swallow. Every single bite. It took nearly 5 hours to eat 2 crackers that way.
  6. Your “core” muscles are extremely important. You use them for everything and you just don’t realize it. Laughing, standing, sitting, bending over, reaching, turning, lying down…you name it, you use those muscles. Having 4 “small” incisions in your abdomen will make you very aware of your core, and the muscles working within.
  7. I am not so good at lying in bed. I was bored the minute I woke up Saturday morning. I did my best, but I was ready to do ANYTHING if it meant I could get up. That would include clean the bathroom, pick up dog poop in the yard or make lasagna. (Don’t worry, I didn’t do any of the above.) I couldn’t stand the thought of things not being done the way I would do them or even worse, things not being done at all. It was a nightmare.
  8. Percocet do little for pain. I think they might have helped a little, but I’m not sure. I think the percocet may have been best at putting me to sleep…maybe that’s how they help?
  9. The bandages they cover your incisions with are far more painful to remove than any other kind of bandage out there. It took me about an hour to get all four off, and I had to use Vaseline to ease them off…it felt like I was pulling out my stitches one by one. And the mess the bandages leave afterwards are almost worse! I still have adhesive all over the place!
  10. Lastly, I learned that even when I’m down, the world keeps on going. I never thought that the world revolved around me or anything, I just didn’t expect things to happen so normally without me in it. Zoe still got picked up from drivers ed on time, Landon made it to his basketball game, Harper still wouldn’t take a nap, the dog still begged for food at every opportunity…you know, all those things that make my day typical still happened while I was in a drug induced sleep…and everything turned out just fine.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Just Dancin'

Anyone that knows my dad, knows he’s a clown. He’s quite a joker and doesn’t mind making a fool of himself…and he loves to laugh.

Yesterday when he and mom were up visiting, Zoe convinced him to play Just Dance 2 with her and Landon. He did a great job, and even beat the kids at their own game!

Here’s a little clip of them doing their thing:

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Sunday, February 20, 2011

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

My parents came up for a visit today. They had to come up here because they are packing up their old house this week and having all of their stuff delivered to their new home in South Carolina on Friday. They got here this morning around 9:30 and stayed until about 5, so it wasn’t a long visit, but it sure was nice to see them.

Since I’m still trying to recover from Friday’s surgery we couldn’t really do much and we ended up just sitting around here playing board games ( Scribblish and Apples to Apples) and talking. I didn’t get to take many pictures either, mostly because I just wasn’t feeling up to most of the day. Dad and the kids also played a few rounds of Just Dance 2, and I got some on video tape…but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow when I have time to transfer it to the computer.

I did grab the camera long enough to get a few pictures of Mom feeding Harper his bananas though. I wish I’d have grabbed the camera when she was trying to feed him a donut though because those would have probably been some funny pictures! If you ever have a baby around my mom, there’s just no telling what she’ll try to feed him/her!

Anyhow, here’s a couple photo’s of Harper and his Meme:

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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Gall Bladder Surgery

A little over a month ago, while I was getting ready for bed (around 9:30-10pm), I felt this awful pain in my abdomen. The pain was like a dull throb, persistent and intense…painful enough that I decided to drive myself to the ER around midnight.

I sat in the ER waiting to be seen for about 5 1/2 hours and when I was finally taken back, the pain was gone. If I hadn’t had an IV in my hand, I would have left hours before they saw me, but when I asked to have it removed so that I could go, no one would come and do it! I was really pissed! Anyways, the doctor that I (finally!!!) saw said that it sounded like I was having a gall bladder attack, and that I needed to have an ultrasound to verify whether or not there were stones. He then said that if I wanted to have an ultrasound done that morning, it would be a few more hours wait. I told him hell no, I’d make an appointment to get it done in the next few days.

So, a few days later I went and had that ultrasound done, and they confirmed that I did have two stones. Apparently, gallstones are more common in women, and a lot of women experience gall bladder trouble after having children. Lucky us. Not only do we have the childbearing pain, but then other parts of our bodies freak out. Great.

Once I saw the surgeon, he told me that he thought I should go ahead and have my gall bladder removed because the pain would likely come back at some point. He told me that I didn’t need to have the surgery right away, but I should consider having it done within the next year or so…or if I started having the pains more often. I never wanted to experience the pain I’d had that night I went to the ER, so I went ahead and scheduled my surgery.

Yesterday was the day. I was having all kinds of nightmares for the two weeks leading up to my surgery, and yesterday I was extremely nervous about having the procedure done. I’d never had surgery before, and the thought of being put to sleep freaked me out. The only type of anesthesia I’d had in the past were epidurals when I had Landon and Harper and the one I had with Harper was only minimally helpful…so, I had my doubts about the anesthesia working, and that scared me to death!

My surgery was scheduled for 12:15pm, and I was supposed to check in around 10:45am. Tony drove me up there and waited for me to check in and be taken to pre-op, but because he had Harper, he had to leave me there, which I was totally fine with. As nervous as I was the entire morning, some strange calm came over me once they took me back. I ended up watching TV for a few hours since the surgeon was running way behind, and I was finally wheeled back to the OR around 1:45. The last thing I remember was the anesthesiologist telling me “I’m going to give you the funny stuff now”….and then I was waking up to people talking, loud beeping/buzzing machines and my blood pressure cuff squeezing the hell out of my arm. Not the most pleasant way to wake up, but I remember thinking “YES!!! I lived through it!!” The doctor assured me that everything went as planned and that I was doing great, even though I felt like crap.

The nurse attending me asked me how I was feeling, and I told her my side was throbbing and my throat hurt, so she gave me some medicine through my IV. She asked me again a bit later and I was still feeling intense pain, so she gave me a little more…and then a little while later she gave me a third dose and then I fell asleep for a few hours. I would wake up every once in awhile, then drift back off to sleep, and then around 6pm a nurse came in and asked me my name, and when I told her, she told me I had a phone call!?! I looked for a phone, but when I didn’t see one and she walked off, I decided to just go back to sleep! I thought I was hallucinating or something. The next thing I heard was Tony’s voice and I was so happy to see him!

Tony helped me get dressed and the nurse gave me some crackers and ginger ale so that I could take a Percocet before going home, and around 7pm, I was finally on my way home. The ride home sucked, but once I got here and got in bed, I was so thankful. The first question both kids asked me was if this pain was worse than having a baby! I told them it was an entirely different pain, and they couldn’t really be compared.

By 9 o’clock Tony and I were exhausted from the stress of the day and we were out by 9:30 last night. I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep because I’m a stomach sleeper and there’s no way that was going to happen, but fortunately I was able to sleep pretty comfortably on my side.

Lucky for me, I have a very loving husband and kids, and everyone has been helping me out. Poor Harper can’t figure out why I’m not holding him, but Tony puts him next me so I can play with him; I have to watch those little baby legs though because he kicks like crazy and that’s the last thing I need!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Adore

I love this picture of us. I decided we needed to take some Valentine’s Day photo’s so that I would be able to use this cute paper I’ve had sitting around for ages…so, the day before Valentine’s Day, I made everyone stand in the “library” and smile.

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And I’m so happy we did.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Landon’s Basketball Game

It's really hard to get good pictures inside a gym. I've tried, but most of them are blurry and dark...so, I decided to bring my video camera to Landon's last basketball game, and here is a quick video of him in action. It's really loud inside the gym too, so turn your volume down a little!

I don't know the first thing about basketball, and this is Landon's first time ever playing, so he's still learning too. I think he was a bit surprised when he got the ball at the beginning of the clip and hurried to try to get a basket just to get rid of it! I think if he would have been a little more sure of himself he would have had that basket!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Zoe’s Scrapbook

Nothing thrills me more than when Zoe decides to make a scrapbook. Once upon a time Zoe thought she wanted to be a scrapbooker, but it just didn’t happen. She still wouldn’t say that one of her favorite things to do is scrapbook, but she did make one for her boyfriend for Valentine’s Day.

I asked her if I could take pictures of the pages she created, and she said I could. I also asked if I could post them here, and she gave her blessing on that one too!

So, here’s her book. All 16 pages of it!

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I love how she used tons of papers, patterns and colors, and how she kept memorabilia to add to the book. There are museum and movie tickets in there, and of course, lots of inside jokes that only she and Dylan get. I also loved that she asked my opinion about things and valued my answer…and while she didn’t always use my suggestion, it felt good to help when I could.

She really did a great job, and it was a lot of work. I think this is one of the sweetest gifts she could have given him, and I hope he loved it!

Monday, February 14, 2011

What He’s Up To

As promised, here’s the Harper update.

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I was just sure this little stinker was around 20 pounds, so I was surprised when he only weighed in at 18lbs. 13 oz. which puts him at just under the 80th percentile for weight.

He is now 27 3/4 inches long, which places him at about 75th percentile for height. He’s right on target with growth, but seems to be just a tad behind in some of his motor skills.

He’s still not rolling over on his own consistently, and is still quite wobbly when sitting up. He is extremely vocal, but he isn’t really making the usual da, ma, ga sounds that the doctor is looking for. He mostly squeals and gurgles, but I’m hoping some of those other sounds will show up soon. 

He’s also not the most enthusiastic eater, which is new for me since both Zoe and Landon couldn’t wait to start eating foods. He really doesn’t like rice cereal and other than that he’s had carrots (which he liked) peaches (which he did not like) and peas (which he’s so-so about). I’m not real worried about this eating thing though, I think he’ll come around as he gets used to the idea of eating foods more often.

He has set his own bedtime at 7pm and can barely make it to that time before coming unglued. For about a week he went to bed at 7pm and then woke up for a bottle around 5:30am and then back to sleep till 7, but that seems like ages ago now. As of now, he’s still going to bed at 7pm, but waking up between 12:30-2:30am for a bottle (8oz.) and then again around 5-5:30am. It’s not the best schedule, but as usual, we’re working on it.

Besides all that, he is just a ton of fun. He gets so excited when we play peek-a-boo, and laughs and screams. He wants anything and everything in his mouth and works hard at getting whatever he can out of our hands. Just today while we were at the grocery store he kept himself entertained by trying to get the list I had in my hand into his hands. It was quite a task to shop and play keep the paper out of the baby’s reach!

He had to get three shots today, and he did really good. He didn’t cry at all during the first one, but then cried for the other two. As soon as I picked him up, he stopped crying and went back to being his happy little self. He’s really pretty easy going, and that is such a huge help. Luckily, we don’t have to go back to the doctor until he is 9 months old, so I don’t have to worry about shots for a whole 3 months! Phew!

Happy Valentines Day!!

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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Dicecapades

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Yesterday afternoon we made a run out to Target so that Landon could choose his Valentine’s cards but somehow we ended up in the toy aisle…which is never a good thing. We ended up picking up a new board game to try. I’m not sure if we are board game lovers or collectors but either way, we had to get it home and try it out.

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Basically, there are tons of different dice and playing cards that tell you what to do with them. As you move around the board you draw cards based on the color you land on, like blue is Actionland, and you may draw a card that tells you to roll the colored die, then draw what is on the card next to that color. Make sense? Or, you could land in the yellow zone, which is Thinkingtown where you’ll have to answer a trivia question in order to move ahead.

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The game ended up taking about an hour or so, and Landon had a few meltdowns when he didn’t know the answers to the questions…which told us it was time to put it up for the night. It ended up being pretty fun for being an impulse buy, and I think we’ll probably play it again soon.

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Saturday, February 12, 2011

6 Months

Somehow my little baby is 6 months today.

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I don’t know how it happened, but it did, and it makes me happy and sad at the same time.

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Happy that he’s a beautiful, energetic thriving baby.

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Sad because time just seems to be flying by. 6 months doesn’t sound too bad, but half a year sounds awful. Why one sounds better than the other eludes me, but it does.

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He has his 6 month check-up on Monday, so I’ll give the “what he’s up to” update then.

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April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...