Monkey feet

I have been long teased about my feet. As you can see from the picture my second toe is longer than my big toe (the "normal" being the big toe being the longest toe). My mother and some of my sisters were born with "normal" feet so in their ignorance and jealousy they loved to tease me about my monkey feet. I love my feet and their usefulness. I can pick things up off the floor with my ultra flexible toes. I have even played Monopoly with my feet. I practice these things so that if I ever loose the use of my hands I will still be able to do many of the things that I can do now.

It tickles me to no end that both of the boys have feet like mine. It was no real surprise that they were born this way, as I married a fellow monkey footed person. What is really fun is that they both are making use of their extraordinary anatomy entirely on their own. I have not done anything to encourage them to use feet as hands and yet they are discovering the fun of it on their own. Evan is the best at the use of the foot, but Harry is picking it up by watching.

Sunday cuteness

What is wrong with this picture? There are three adults busily designing a very complicated train track pattern, but where is the child that this toy was supposedly designed for?

Here he is! Off in his own little world having fun with the light.

This is Harry's playpen. The boys get giggly and rowdy, so I nap them in separate rooms. Harry loves to bring all sorts of odds and ends into the playpen with him. He goes right to sleep, so I allow it. Evan plays the entire time no matter how sleepy, so he lost the privilege of bringing toys to nap time. You will note that there is some tooth paste, a roll of medical tape and a book. Unseen are a multitude of small cars that are hiding under the blanket.

Here is Harry ready for his nap. Clutched in his hand is yet another small car.

I have a hilarious Harry story, well I think it is hilarious but you will have to be the judge of that. The other night, after bath time, Harry is running the hall like a mad man. He is sans clothing or diaper of any kind. I am still in the bathroom drying off Evan who loves to linger in the bath watching the water go down the drain. Harry lets a very loud toot. This surprises him a bit but he decides it is quite amusing and he laughs his laugh reserved for the most funny of situations.

I can see the little wheels start to turn in his little head. He is thinking "Gee that was funny, I want to try that again." Harry then looks like he is about to poop, he has the serious look on his face and is even grunting a bit. I fear for my clean carpet but Harry quickly perks up, realizing that he can't make another toot on demand. He is such a boy!

Super Powers

Last night while I was cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the boys while they played outside in the back yard my husband (who was in another room) asked me a question about something he was holding. I of course had no idea what he was holding and commented to that effect. My husband then teased me telling me that since I was Awesome Mom I should be able to see through walls. I reminded him that Superman was the one that could see through walls, I was Awesome Mom.

Awesome Mom has eyes in the back of her head to help her see when kids are fighting with each other and who is at fault. She is faster than a speeding toddler, but just barely. When the kids are in another room and suddenly it gets quiet her mommy senses tingle, telling her that something naughty is being done. Those same mommy senses also tell her when someone needs a nap (usually her) and when a diaper change is needed. She can leap baby gates with a single bound, except for the times when she is tired from a long day of caring for kids and does not lift her feet high enough. So you can see, I have different powers, but they are a lot more useful than knowing how to fly (How would you be able to carry both kids and all the junk you need?), or being able to see through walls so that you can tell what your husband is talking about.

Tags: super powers

Repost

This is something that I posted on an alternate blog while mine was broken. I just thought you all would like to know how my talk went and all that jazz.

I gave my talk on Sunday and I did a smashing job if I do say so myself (and I don't because I got a lot of comments). I think that blogging actually helped me out because for the first time I was able to write one out that sounded like I was speaking instead of reading. I also did not end up babbling and editing mid sentence. I purposely left it shorter than my alloted time because I knew that the person after me was talking about her pioneer ancestors (a little know fact is that tomorrow is Pioneer day, a day celebrated in Utah only) and they tend to ramble on a bit. We went over time so I knew that I was right in my decision. A crazy thing was that this time around I was not even that nervous. I was able to read slowly and distinctly instead of rushing and spitting into the microphone.

Evan and Harry both wanted to come up and sit with me on the stand. It was cute seeing them pointing at me excitedly when I was talking. When my husband gave his talk months ago (maybe even years ago) I know that I spent it outside with Evan and didn't get to hear a word. I was pleased that everyone stayed in the chapel the whole time even though I could hear both boys at times. If you are curious I will email anyone that asks a copy of my talk.

When I got home I ate lunch and then disappeared in to the bedroom for a Harry Potter reading frenzy. My husband took sole care of the children while I gorged myself on reading. I finished the book in eight hours (the same time that I finished the last book in) which included a dinner break. I am so glad that the book ended the way I wanted it to!

Tags: Harry Potter, church, children

Wheeee!!! I am baaack!!!!

My blog is finally up and running again! In case any of you wondered what was up and did not make it over to my other blog that I set up so that I would have an outlet for my pent up creativity here is the story. Friday afternoon Karen emailed me and asked me what was going on with my blog. It was stuck on an old post from Evan's last heart surgery and she was worried that Evan was in the hospital again until she noticed the date on the post. I freaked out and frantically tried to do anything that I could think of to try and fix it myself, which is my my template is vastly different at the moment. After emailing blogger that evening they finally got to me and fixed my blog. My blog had been flagged as spam earlier in the week, so I have a feeling that my broken blog may have resulted from them fixing that. Any way it is great to be back!!

Vote for Awesome Mom!

Head on over to Pediscribe and vote for my dirty story. I really really want to win really really badly. If I win I will get to have some really nice smelling bath products and that can only made the world a better place for everyone around me.

A bad mommy moment

The poor invalid in his chariot with blackberries smeared on his mouth. The red on his nose is from the fall.

Harry had a rough day today. He fell on his face while outside with Evan. Then after he got up from his nap his awful mother put his sandals on in such a way that his pinky toe was bent almost side ways. She then made him walk part way to the park with his brother, all the while in pain.

I feel so bad about that whole incident. I thought that he was just being his often difficult self. Afternoons are often difficult for Harry. I had promised Evan a trip to the park and he had been talking about it all afternoon so I was not going to let a cranky toddler ruin it when I figured he would eventually cheer up. He did eventually cheer up after some Tylenol and blackberries.

Oh and apparently this blog is considered a spam blog and I have to enter word verification until it is decided that I am an actual human. Sigh.

"I forgive you mommy, but only if you do what ever I want you to for the rest of my life"

Tags: owies, bad mommy, toe

The time is now!

I was at Target (one of my favorite places) and found a bunch of shorts on clearance in 3t for Evan to wear next summer. It reminded me that I need to get shopping for next season now if I want to get the good clearance. It seems crazy that we are only half way through summer and sweaters and long sleeves are already coming out.

A secret tip for my readers is that if you see a clearance price at Target and the price ends in a 4 that is the lowest price it will be. You had better buy it right then if you even think you might want it because in a few days they will be taking it off the shelf. I got the shorts for $2.24 marked down from $8.00. Also if you are at Costco and wondering if you want an item look at the sign. If there is a * then that is the last pallet of the item and they will not be restocking.

Tags: clearance, shopping, Target

Yikes!

I got a phone call this morning. I thought it was the physical therapist telling me that she was running late. Sadly I was mistaken. It was a member of the bishopric asking me to give a talk this Sunday. It has been over four years since I have given one, so I guess I was due. Luckily I am the first adult speaker so I can rush through my talk (like I normally do) and leave a lot of time for the poor sap *cough* I mean the lovely speaker that will be following me.

My topic is Home As a Refuge From The World. If anyone has any great stories, scriptures or quotes from the General Authorities please feel free to tell me about them (please I am begging). I have a feeling that I will not get as much research time as I did last time I spoke which was before I had kiddos.

Tags: public speaking, church

Money talk

Yesterday I spent $99.99 at the grocery store. My first thought was one of shock that I spent that much money at a grocery store that was not Costco. Then the number sunk in and I thought about how cool it was. At least I did not spend $999.99 in groceries for my growing boys. I have a feeling that my grocery budget numbers will have to rise that high when they get to be teenagers.

Tags: money, grocery store, food

Sunday cuteness

Guess what? This is my 500th post. Just thought you should know.

Here are some pictures of my blackberry boys. There are a couple of lovely blackberry thickets on a path that we love to walk on. The blackberries are just starting to get nice and ripe so it is fun to have a little snack in the middle of a walk. I do all the dangerous work and the boys enjoy the fruits of my labor. Evan got a lot messier than Harry because he did not have a tray to put the berries on. He just crammed them all in his mouth at once.

Tags: blackberries, messy kids, pictures

Everybody loves a parade

Every year a neighboring town has a parade to help celebrate the town's founding. Instead of the usual parade they made it into a kid's parade. Every other year we have been here we have not gone for one reason or another, but this year we were finally able to bring Evan and Harry to their first parade.

I love small town parades and this one was the perfect small town parade. The route was short, the crowds were not overwhelming and the parade was fun. We parked pretty far away but were able to snag a great spot in the shade at the end of the parade route. That was especially lucky because by then most of the candy throwing people were out of candy. The boys got just enough that it was fun for them but it was not too much for mommy and daddy to carry home. One boy even gave Harry some beads that he has missed out on getting because of his small size and slower little legs.

There was also booths and several bounce houses in the park. Evan and Harry got a huge kick out of mauling the very friendly and tolerant police dog. The local animal shelter had a game where you were supposed to toss dog treats in to the mouth of a picture of a dog to get a treat. Evan went right up to the picture of the dog and put them in, instead of standing back and tossing them in like all the other kids. I didn't let Harry do it because I knew he would try eat the dog treats rather than tossing them.

We finished off the fun day by eating lunch at a fish and chips place that I had been wanting to try for some time now. It was heaven and everyone enjoyed the deep fried food. It was fun and refreshing to do something different than the normal cleaning up the house on Saturday routine. It was also fun to explore the town some. I hope you had a fun Saturday.

Tags: parade, kids, children, dog

A dirty story

The lovely Karen at Pediscribe is doing a fun contest which involves dirty stories. Here is my entry for the contest.

Evan had just been released from the hospital after a long three week stay after he had his stroke. He had been in so long because it was tricky getting his blood thinning medications to the levels. In the end he was put on an injectable one called Lovenox. With Lovenox I had to take him in for weekly blood draws to make sure that the does was still correct.

I took him in for his first blood draw only a few days after his release. It was going to be done at a local hospital where Evan's cardiologist had been assured that he would be well looked over and they would be able to run the needed test. Evan had thrown up his first feeding of the morning ( I believe it was pear babyfood) but I had not given that a second though as at that time Evan was quite the puker. We bundled up and got in the car to head off to the hospital for the blood draw. I wanted to be there soon after the lab opened so that we would not have to wait.

On the way to the hospital Evan threw up again. This was a bit more worrisome to me as there was no apparent reason for him to be throwing up. He then puked on me again as we were walking from the parking lot to the hospital. I handed the receptionist the orders for the test and then proceeded to wait. While we were waiting Evan threw up again, and then he threw up again a little while later. I was wearing him in my sling so I was able to use the tail of it to help clean me and him up a bit, but eventually I was pretty covered in puke while we waited what seemed like an eternity for a blood draw. Why we had to wait so long was very unclear to me because for most of the wait we were the only ones in the waiting room.

We were finally called back where a very hesitant phlebotomist waited for us. He felt around for veins (which was a pretty iffy thing any way since Evan was so fresh out of the hospital) and even told me that he wished that he was drawing me instead of Evan. He made several half hearted attempts all the while Evan was still making his occasional pukes on me. The volume had gone down since his stomach was empty by now, but it was yellow due to the fact that he was throwing up bile.

Eventually pretty much every phlebotomist in the hospital (or so it seemed) had had a go at Evan's veins with no success. The guy called up Evan's cardiologist to see what the plan of action should be. He obsessed over the phone to the cardiologist about Evan throwing up and the very troubling fact (to him) that it was yellow. I lied and told him that Evan had a visit with his pediatrician already scheduled so he could stop worrying (I did get an appointment later that day). Evan's cardiologist ended up calling one of the noenatologists at the hospital and he came down and did an arterial draw getting blood the first time.

By the time I got home from what was supposed to be a quick blood draw I was exhausted from having to hold Evan down for all the attempts at drawing blood and I was covered in puke, Evan was covered in puke and the poor sling was covered in puke. My husband was home that day so I gladly handed him the gross baby and went right into the bathroom for a nice long shower.

The puking thing was a result of a stomach virus picked up at the hospital (which made it extra nasty than ones you pick up at other places) and Evan gladly shared his germs with the whole family. My husband threw up in his car on the way home from work the next day. I took Evan (who was feeling a lot better) with me to Target to pick up some sick supplies for my husband and ended up throwing up in the bathroom there. A kind lady came up to me as I was heaving my guts out and asked if she could do anything for me. I blindly shoved a crying Evan into her hands while I kept on puking. She could have kidnapped him and I would not have even been able to describe her to police, it was that bad.

Oh and did I mention that this was days before Christmas? Well it was. We were all excited that Evan got out of the hospital in time for his first Christmas and we had planned on flying to Utah to spend it with my family. That trip was canceled but my family was nice enough to come out to see us instead.

Annoyances

One of my least favorite things to do is having to deal with the ordering of medical supplies. The companies will give you too much of one thing and barely give you enough of another. When Evan had his feeding tube it was the bags for his feed pump that were the choke point. We got 30 and that was it. There were always one or two bags in the box that were bad for one reason or another which prevented us from building up any kind of minimal surplus.

At least with the feeding supplies we did not have to wait for authorization each and every time we needed a refill. Evan's test strips for his INR testing machine are that way. When we first got the machine we got a big box of 48 strips plus a plethora of lancets (we have still not run out of our initial supply of those). As the number of strips dwindled I started looking for a place to get refills. Once I found a place we had to jump through all the new patient hoops. Once all that was done I found out that I could not order a nice big box of 48 strips, those were only for doctor's offices. I had to get Evan's in boxes of 12 and I was only given one box at a time.

I thought I was doing good this last time by starting the whole reorder process when we were halfway through the box. We test every other week, so ideally the box of 12 would have lasted six months. Evan had a string of highs and lows that meant testing a lot more frequently and we were down to one lone test strip. I was about to call the company to chew them out for taking so long (although it was most likely my insurance's fault) when I finally got the call that they are on the way. This time I am getting a bounty of two glorious boxes of 12 test strips. I am giddy with joy right now.

Tags: INR, test strips, insurance, frustrations

A surreal moment

I was playing with the boys in the back yard (well back yard is kind of overstating things a bit, it is more of a small garden area with a patio) throwing pop its on the ground. The noise makes the boys giggle and they love trying to throw them (they hardly ever throw them hard enough and often end up accidentally stepping on them which makes them finally pop). I heard a voice and saw someone peeking in at us through the fence. She was asking if we had a diaper that she could have. I was a bit confounded for several moments as I am not used to being approached like that while I am in the supposedly private space that is my back yard. I of course gave her a diaper, it was the only thing to do really as I would never turn a desperate mom in need away.

I can only assume that she was a visitor to the town home complex, if she had lived here she would have presumably had an ample supply of diapers at home. I think that she may have been on her way to her car to possibly purchase some diapers when she heard my giggling boys and thought that since my kids were so little I was bound to have a bounty of diapers. She was lucky that I did not switch over completely to cloth diapers. Had that been the case I would have been a lot more reluctant to hand one over to a stranger. They are quite expensive to replace.

Tags: diapers, moms in need

I am not so fond of some people

I was playing around online a little while ago listening to the latest Pediacast when all of the sudden someone rang my doorbell very loudly and long. It figuratively scared the crap out of me (my underwear is still white thank you very much). I am now jumpy and still feeling the effect of the sudden adrenaline rush. Why are there so many morons in the world? I hope I can calm down enough that I can sleep.

Tags: annoying people

Sunday cuteness

Evan is finally starting to get into singing time during nursery. It is funny watching him sing and do the actions to the songs while at home. He misses a lot of the words but he is stinking cute any way.

We buy our toilet paper at Costco in massive quantities. Most of it is stored in our upstairs bathroom. Now and then (much to the amusement of the kids) I will toss several rolls down the stairs. Harry had fun taking the wrappers off of the rolls and stacking them after they made their way downstairs. He is such a helpful little boy.

Tags: cuteness, kids, pictures

Sibling Rivalry

This morning I noticed this bruise on Evan's arm.


My extensive forensic knowledge (derived from hours of watching CSI) leads me to believe that this ultra cute little boy had something to do with it.

"Honest ma, I had nothing to do with it. I swear on my mother's grave! Scout's honor!"

I just hope that this is not a behavior that is repeated any time soon and if it is repeated soon I hope that I am there to see it, so I can nip it in the bud. Behavior correction is no good long after Harry has forgotten that he was even mad at his brother for one reason or another. Sigh.

Tags: sibling rivalry, kids, teeth

How to keep cool on a hot day

All you need is a bucket of water.

The boys love playing with water and this has become their favorite way to play with water. Who needs one of them fancy pools? Not my boys! They love to have me strip them down to their diapers minus the diaper covers (for extra breathability) and fill a bucket of water so they can "help" me water the plants. They have tiny cups of water but they can empty that bucket pretty fast. A lot ends up on the patio, but that is part of the fun. I actually get a little reading done and my feet cooled by helpful little children.

Tags: Parent Hacks, summer fun, water, play, keeping cool

A cereal killer

Growing up we really did not do big fancy breakfasts very often. Mostly we had lots and lots of cereal for breakfast. I still prefer cereal as I am not much of a morning person. I like something that I can shove into my face with minimal forethought. I only ever make big breakfasts on nights that we have breakfast for dinner.

I have become a bit of a connoisseur of cereal so I was excited to review a new cereal called Fiber One Raisin Bran Clusters. I have been having a hard time coming up with the motivation to write this because the cereal was simply meh. The raisins were small, the oat clusters were minuscule and the flakes were overly sweet. It was edible and did not taste horrible, but it also did not taste good enough that I would rave about it. It does have more fiber I will give it that, but if you are looking to up your fiber intake there are other, more tasty, ways to do it.

A really fantastic raisin bran that I adore is Raisin Bran Crunch. This cereal has it all: big fat raisins, great tasting flakes and awesome oat clusters. If you are looking for a great raisin bran with extra fiber eat this and add some Fibersure.

Tags: cereal, raisin bran, fiber

Traintastic

Evan had a train filled day today. First off we visited a scale train amusement park. The train ride was fun but once that was done there really was not too much for the kids to do. They were too short for most of the rides there and the petting zoo was only accessible by train. Harry did not like the train tunnels, he started crying because the kids behind us started yelling and screaming every time we went through one.



When we got home there was a lovely package waiting for us. Vicky sent us some Thomas trains that her sons had outgrown. Evan had an absolute blast playing with them all afternoon while Harry was napping. They are a tiny bit old for him but with some help from mommy and daddy he is going to have a lot of fun. He thinks it is the funniest thing when we run two trains on the track and they crash. Thank you a ton Vicky!!! Blog friends are some of the nicest people.

Tags: train, Thomas the Train, toys, fun

Pediatric Grand Rounds 2:6

Pediatric Grand Rounds is up at Shinga's blog Breath Spa for Kids. Go check it out.

You may have noticed that my posting has been a bit sparse of late. My parents are in town for the week and we have been doing things that do not involve the computer. We have been going to the park a lot, a bit of shopping and we went to the beach. I hope that everyone(well all my US readers any way) has an equally enjoyable Fourth of July

Tags: Pediatric Grand Rounds, vacation