"my nose! It bumped into the rock!"
"did you throw the rock into the air?"
"yeah"
"and it hit you in the nose?"
"yeah"
"what does mommy say about throwing rocks?"
"I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
Then he ran off to mow the lawn.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Lesson Learned?
M comes crying, hurt, to me. I saw what happened, though he's crying his brother's name.
"my nose! It bumped into the rock!"
"did you throw the rock into the air?"
"yeah"
"and it hit you in the nose?"
"yeah"
"what does mommy say about throwing rocks?"
"I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
Then he ran off to mow the lawn.
"my nose! It bumped into the rock!"
"did you throw the rock into the air?"
"yeah"
"and it hit you in the nose?"
"yeah"
"what does mommy say about throwing rocks?"
"I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
Then he ran off to mow the lawn.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Kuddos On Our Kiddos
Mommy is away tonight on a much deserved get together with friends. The little party is a "favorite things" party which I think is really clever. When she told me about it, I wondered why guys don't ever do things like this? I began to consider what that would actual look like and figured it wouldn't be as fun sitting around in a circle in "cozies" and getting a Jeff Gordon NASCAR model car or a 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon; so it actually does make sense.
Our kids are wonderful and while it is true that they are product of both their parents, K shoulders the load in a big way as a stay at home Mom. She has seen me wing off to all 6 continents in the last year and travel 230,000 air miles (that is me in a seat, no credit card miles) since the beginning of 2011. Just a month ago, she had to deal with me going to Senegal, come home for our anniversary party, leave the next day for Hong Kong. get home and then leave the next week for Alaska - all in 2.5 weeks. This has meant she has had to care for our guys and keep them clean, fed and out of the woods in our backyard, all while bringing along our newest little heaven sent baby. There are the big things like that and then the small things that she glosses over on our blog as unimportant, but are the summation of who she is; like keeping a diary on N and his bathroom behavior and food intake so that we would have the ability to speak to his doctor intelligently. I know all of this is hard and tasking and wears thin patience that is incredible elastic. I am proud of her and love her and she deserves an immense amount of credit - all stay at home Moms deserve to hear it, but she most of all.
Our kids are wonderful and while it is true that they are product of both their parents, K shoulders the load in a big way as a stay at home Mom. She has seen me wing off to all 6 continents in the last year and travel 230,000 air miles (that is me in a seat, no credit card miles) since the beginning of 2011. Just a month ago, she had to deal with me going to Senegal, come home for our anniversary party, leave the next day for Hong Kong. get home and then leave the next week for Alaska - all in 2.5 weeks. This has meant she has had to care for our guys and keep them clean, fed and out of the woods in our backyard, all while bringing along our newest little heaven sent baby. There are the big things like that and then the small things that she glosses over on our blog as unimportant, but are the summation of who she is; like keeping a diary on N and his bathroom behavior and food intake so that we would have the ability to speak to his doctor intelligently. I know all of this is hard and tasking and wears thin patience that is incredible elastic. I am proud of her and love her and she deserves an immense amount of credit - all stay at home Moms deserve to hear it, but she most of all.
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| Mommy and C during our Coffee Time |
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| Your guest author - Hong Kong in the backdrop |
Monday, August 13, 2012
Officially Dairy Free
We are going dairy free here in an attempt to heal N and possibly Hubs from their mysterious gastro intestinal distresses. N's appointment with Dr. A went well. He is leaving it up to us to decide to test him or not. We are leaning toward yes for both him and Hubs to be tested by an allergist. Poor Hubs has been dealing w allergies his whole life and GI issues his adult life, and we are beginning to wonder if it's milk allergy. If allergy testing and diet change can help their insides, I'm all for it. I am not looking forward to being one THOSE moms - the one who brings rice cakes for the class snack - but I am already on my way. Coming home from the appointment N and I went shopping for some new snacks (because cheddar goldfish are out now too). Here's my cute little shopper.
M and I will be having some ice cream dates of our own soon. I can't be completely dairy free myself!!
M and I will be having some ice cream dates of our own soon. I can't be completely dairy free myself!!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Detective Mama
One of the "hats" that moms wear, I'm learning, is that of a detective, especially when it comes to our children's health. I'm not a medical doctor (or a scientist!), but last month I knew something was really really wrong with one of N's bowel movements. It doesn't take an engineer to figure out what happened - the blue moon ice cream simply melted and went right through him.
I know that all I talk about is poo - I'll save you the detailed size-shape-consistency log that I've been keeping for a month. What I really want to talk about is - how do you advocate for your children without becoming a hypochondriac? I don't want to be the person who thinks that every sniffle is cause for alarm, especially since I've more than once taken my kid to the doctor only to discover that he's got a virus and there's nothing to do but wait it out. And pay the bill.
On the other hand, if my child really does have something medically wrong with him, how do I go about being a kind and gracious person as well as persistent, even though I don't know exactly what it is? What about tests - if they confirm my suspicion, they will make N uncomfortable, if not, they still make him uncomfortable and waste money? Will my pediatrician even order them?
With the help of my brother in law to be's medical knowledge, it appears that N may have a cow's milk protein intolerance. I've given up on potty training him and have taken up documenting his every bowel movement in detail as well as reading everything I can find about the condition, which isn't as much as one would think. However, from what I am learning, this disorder/disease/allergy/what have you would explain a lot, such as:
BUT I'm learning that cow's milk protein can be in everything and I may have to start reading package labels for casein, one of the names of the protein - there are several. If he's highly sensitive, these could be bothering him too. And if that's the case, that puts me into a category I hitherto disliked: The Mom Who Won't Let Her Kid Eat Anything Because of His Crazy Diet. Soy milk instead of cow milk? Fine, I can handle that. Restricting him from not only ice cream and yogurt, but also all kinds of goodies and kid foods that could have "hidden casein"? Ugh...you've got to be kidding.
Please don't take offense if you are one of those moms. I could soon be in your company. I'm just trying to reconcile who I think I am (my kids are perfect!) with who I really am (my kids have health issues that I have to manage and teach them about) I've been doing a lot of that lately.
That's what I've been up to, what's really on my mind. Now I'm going to read a dairy free cookbook, choose a few recipes I think our family can manage, and make a grocery list. N has an appointment with his pediatrician Monday where I'll tell him the whole long story. Hopefully we are on the right track.
I know that all I talk about is poo - I'll save you the detailed size-shape-consistency log that I've been keeping for a month. What I really want to talk about is - how do you advocate for your children without becoming a hypochondriac? I don't want to be the person who thinks that every sniffle is cause for alarm, especially since I've more than once taken my kid to the doctor only to discover that he's got a virus and there's nothing to do but wait it out. And pay the bill.
On the other hand, if my child really does have something medically wrong with him, how do I go about being a kind and gracious person as well as persistent, even though I don't know exactly what it is? What about tests - if they confirm my suspicion, they will make N uncomfortable, if not, they still make him uncomfortable and waste money? Will my pediatrician even order them?
With the help of my brother in law to be's medical knowledge, it appears that N may have a cow's milk protein intolerance. I've given up on potty training him and have taken up documenting his every bowel movement in detail as well as reading everything I can find about the condition, which isn't as much as one would think. However, from what I am learning, this disorder/disease/allergy/what have you would explain a lot, such as:
- diarhea
- congestion
- irritability
- inattentiveness
- bloating
- potty training failure
- ear infections (so many the winter he was one year old and on cow milk)
- runny nose
BUT I'm learning that cow's milk protein can be in everything and I may have to start reading package labels for casein, one of the names of the protein - there are several. If he's highly sensitive, these could be bothering him too. And if that's the case, that puts me into a category I hitherto disliked: The Mom Who Won't Let Her Kid Eat Anything Because of His Crazy Diet. Soy milk instead of cow milk? Fine, I can handle that. Restricting him from not only ice cream and yogurt, but also all kinds of goodies and kid foods that could have "hidden casein"? Ugh...you've got to be kidding.
Please don't take offense if you are one of those moms. I could soon be in your company. I'm just trying to reconcile who I think I am (my kids are perfect!) with who I really am (my kids have health issues that I have to manage and teach them about) I've been doing a lot of that lately.
That's what I've been up to, what's really on my mind. Now I'm going to read a dairy free cookbook, choose a few recipes I think our family can manage, and make a grocery list. N has an appointment with his pediatrician Monday where I'll tell him the whole long story. Hopefully we are on the right track.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Scientist I am Not
Yesterday, the boys and I found an amazing looking caterpillar and put it in our bug jar.
It was still alive this morning.
We fed it some fresh basil and oregano leaves - the boys want it to turn into a butterfly.
We got home from our outing and it hadn't eaten anything. We watched it go around in circles in the jar while the boys ate dinner. Just for kicks, I posted these pics on facebook, asking my friends if they know what it is.
About two hours later, I received the following text from hubs:
"Babe, get rid of that caterpillar."
And the Wikipedia description of it, the Hickory Tussock Moth:
Caterpillars are covered all over in long hairlike setae, in spreading tufts. Most are white, but there are black tufts along the middle of the back, and four long black hair pencils (two near the front, and two near the back). These hairs cause itchy rashes in some people (Wagner, 2005). They are microscopically barbed and may cause serious medical complications if the barbed hairs are transferred from the hands to the eyes [1]. There are black spots along the sides, and the head capsule is black. They can bite.
Excuse me? Did you say ITCHY RASHES?
Did you say SERIOUS MEDICAL COMPLICATIONS?
And BITE?????
Yeah...
So we let it "go find its family" tonight.
Some scientist, eh?
My answer to him was,
"Well....it looked really cool."
It was still alive this morning.
We fed it some fresh basil and oregano leaves - the boys want it to turn into a butterfly.
We got home from our outing and it hadn't eaten anything. We watched it go around in circles in the jar while the boys ate dinner. Just for kicks, I posted these pics on facebook, asking my friends if they know what it is.
About two hours later, I received the following text from hubs:
"Babe, get rid of that caterpillar."
And the Wikipedia description of it, the Hickory Tussock Moth:
Caterpillars are covered all over in long hairlike setae, in spreading tufts. Most are white, but there are black tufts along the middle of the back, and four long black hair pencils (two near the front, and two near the back). These hairs cause itchy rashes in some people (Wagner, 2005). They are microscopically barbed and may cause serious medical complications if the barbed hairs are transferred from the hands to the eyes [1]. There are black spots along the sides, and the head capsule is black. They can bite.
Excuse me? Did you say ITCHY RASHES?
Did you say SERIOUS MEDICAL COMPLICATIONS?
And BITE?????
Yeah...
So we let it "go find its family" tonight.
Some scientist, eh?
My answer to him was,
"Well....it looked really cool."
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Yes Michigan
We've been home for a week and half but who cares? We managed to take 81 photos on our 9 day trip to Michigan, all of which taken on two different days, half of which are blurry, and a quarter of which have photos of certain people in swimsuits that I cannot post under fear of bodily harm! But I think there are enough that you can kind of get the picture.
My parents rented a vacation home on Boyne Mountain, Michigan's premiere ski resort, for my two sisters and our families to spend time together with my parents. That resulted in 15 people vacationing together! It was crazy, mad fun! And Hubs is dying to go back in the winter when we can actually ski. It is ski-in, ski-out house, which had a ski LOCKER ROOM about 10 yards from the fire pit, which, as you can see below, is about 10 yards from what is a ski run during winter. But in the summer it is the road the golfers drive their carts up to the course, which I learned while nursing C. Gosh, that's a lot of golf carts driving by...where is my nursing cover?!
More fun was had on the golf course and paddleboating on the lake but we don't have photos of that. Actually, we do, but I shouldn't post the paddleboat ones and the golf course ones look like a golf course. My sister ran the zip line, and on a rainy day, we took all the kids to a movie. The boys did surprisingly well for never having been to one. We saw Ice Age 3, which I thought was somewhat frightening for the 3 year olds, but they didn't mind. Probably the folks behind us did because we went to the bathroom...oh, about a dozen times between the 5 parents and 6 kids in attendance. After 4 days at the "cabin," we drove back down to the Tri Cities to spend more time with Hubs' family (and where I was too beat to take photos, sorry), and one more night at the Loons game I wrote about.
Now that we've been home for a week and half and are getting back to "normal," it's time to start preparing for what is becoming Hubs' family's annual stay-cation with us! That fun will be very well documented since Auntie L will be here:)
My parents rented a vacation home on Boyne Mountain, Michigan's premiere ski resort, for my two sisters and our families to spend time together with my parents. That resulted in 15 people vacationing together! It was crazy, mad fun! And Hubs is dying to go back in the winter when we can actually ski. It is ski-in, ski-out house, which had a ski LOCKER ROOM about 10 yards from the fire pit, which, as you can see below, is about 10 yards from what is a ski run during winter. But in the summer it is the road the golfers drive their carts up to the course, which I learned while nursing C. Gosh, that's a lot of golf carts driving by...where is my nursing cover?!
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| We hung out at the bonfire most nights. Those are my nephew S, my two nieces and my sister P and her hubby J. |
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| Hubs and his 3 boys |
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| N and I making s'mores |
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| Storytime at Boyne Lodge...niece L hopped right up! |
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| M followed suit, wanting to be a big kid (N opted out!) |
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| Hubs and N on his first ski lift ride |
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| Me and M getting off the lift |
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| View from the top of the hill |
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| Deer Lake Beach was beautiful! |
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| M liked the beach and made friends with the little girls (too soon! too soon!) |
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| Papa K and C keep cool in the shade at the beach |
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| We had so much fun playing at the Lodge's pool. Here N and I are in a water gun fight with the cousins. |
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| He's a tender soldier |
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| M LOVED this! |
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| C's first dip in a pool! |
Now that we've been home for a week and half and are getting back to "normal," it's time to start preparing for what is becoming Hubs' family's annual stay-cation with us! That fun will be very well documented since Auntie L will be here:)
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Sale Happiness
I'm close to giddy this morning. Hubs took the big boys on an "adventure", driving up to MSP to pick up his corrupted laptop from IT, leaving me and C home. I took a shower (!) and dove into my next big project: prepping for MVMOM fall sale. It's Sept. 29 at the Eagan Community Center: mark your calendars now! I know some people get all schmoopy about getting rid of baby stuff, but I'm positively thrilled to see it all on hangars, getting ready to go. These little milestones don't seem to bother me - I like progress and moving forward. Perhaps it will all catch up to me when my little butterball turkey (17 lbs 5 oz!) boards the school bus. In the meantime, hooray for the Sale!
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