Naughty day

If I had known that today was a naughty day I would have stayed in bed.

Naughty incident number one was caused by Harry. We just bought a new floor lamp to replace an old one. It had a light bulb that was propitiary so when it went out there was no way to replace the bulb (no wonder the lamp was so cheap). The new one was pretty swank and had a lovely glass shade. Sadly the base was pretty light making the whole thing top heavy. I moved it this morning to vacuum behind it and helpful Harry happily knocked it down for me sending glass everywhere. Luckily Evan did not get any glass on him even though he was standing very close to where the shade broke.

Naughty incident two happened in the five seconds that I was inside trying to start lunch while Evan was outside playing on the patio. He cruelly stomped one of my husband's poor tiny pumpkin plants. To do this he had to climb over a small wire fence that my husband put up to keep the kids out. Very naughty little boy!

Number three was the real kicker. We live in an end town home unit. The area where ours is situated is rather private in the winter but come summer when the pool opens and the kids wander around outside it is a magnet for trouble making teenagers. When we first moved in we would literally have them sitting on our doorstep smoking. After chasing them off several times they moved to smoking by our side yard fence. My husband would then develop a sudden urge to water the plants. My husband is not very accurate with the hose and "accidentally" got the teenagers wet(so sad, I know).

Today was our first run in for the new season. They kept riding by cursing and smoking while I had the kids outside before bed time. I was almost ready to get the hose out when they left. Then when I was upstairs getting the boys ready for bed I heard them talking right under the window (which was open since it was such a nice day). I told them to go away and leave my front steps. One thought he would be clever and tried to bargain with me by promising to stop cursing in front of the kids. I told him that they would be going to bed soon so any talking would not be welcome. I suggested to them that they should go to the park where they could talk all they wanted and not annoy anyone. He was not thrilled with that suggestion. He tried to claim that his parents did not want him going there. I then asked him if they wanted him smoking too and was met with silence. He then kept trying to out wit me with his "logic" but he was beat after I threatened to call the police.

I would not have actually called the police since I doubt the would have been all that quick to come. Instead I would have called my neighbor who is also our hometeacher. He is one scary looking dude and he has a son who is a hulking guy. They would have scared those kids off in no time had they stuck around.

Review the Queue- Something the Lord Made

Something the Lord Made is a wonderful movie about the people that developed the first heart operation. The movie starts shortly before World War 2 during the Great Depression. Vivien Thomas, a black man, finds work with a brilliant young surgeon, Alfred Blalock, cleaning his lab. This is the start of a great partnership as the two men work to first come up with treatments for shock. Later on they pair up with cardiologist Helen Taussig to work on a surgery to help children that have heart defects.

It is amazing seeing the state of medicine during that time. There was a huge taboo about even attempting surgery on the heart, it just was too risky since the heart/lung bypass machine had yet to be invented. Another layer to the story (which is the movie's main focus) is the relationship between the two men. This was a time of great racial tension and segregation was in full force. Thomas got no credit for the work he did in the laboratory (the name of the procedure is still to this day called the Blalock-Taussig shunt) until much later in his life.

I highly recommend this fascinating movie. I got misty eyed more than once. If you would like to learn more about the operation there is a really neat website that explains things in further detail.

Something+the+Lord+Made Netflix

Real moms...

Think their kids are absolutely perfect....

When they are asleep.

Her Bad Mother poked me into doing this meme. You can find more of them over here.

Review the Queue- Doctor Who: Season 1

I grew up with a father who adored the classic Doctor Who tv show. I could never stand to watch it, the cheesy special effects drowned out what good there was in the plot lines. The theme song however, was deeply imprinted on my brain so when I heard it, memories of teasing my dad flooded back. I think it would make a great ring tone for my cell phone.

The new and updated version of the show managed to keep the pretty solid premise of a lonely wandering Time Lord who was the last of his race and got rid of the worst of the cheesy special effects. I love the actor that was picked to play the doctor. Christopher Eccleston was a master at being serious and sad one moment and then moving on to something a lot more light hearted and making the shift believable. His chemistry with his assistant Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper) was electric even if it was a bit creepy considering the large age gap (The Doctor is 900 and Rose is a mere 19).

I highly recommend this tv show for anyone that loves good science fiction. Fantastic!

Netflix Doctor+Who

Cranky part 2

I have a feeling cranky might be the theme for the week here at the Awesome Mom household. Can you guess which of my boys went on a nap strike (depriving his own mother of a much needed nap) and only finally deciding to sleep at 3:45 so mom got to have the thrill of waking him at 4 on the dot (I don't let them sleep later than that since bed time is really messed with if they do)? It is a tough choice I know, but I am sure that most of you will get it right.

or

In a strange reverse of temperament the cheerful nap taking boy screamed his head off when mom went to make dinner. He then refused to eat any of the lovely stroganoff that was put on his high chair tray. Both boys managed to pull it together right before bed time and were both exceedingly cheerful, I was exceedingly cheerful as I put them to bed for the night.

cranky naps sleep

Cranky

I am feeling cranky today. Well I was actually fine all morning while my husband and Evan were off at church leaving me with my illness and a snotty Harry (I didn't have the heart to make my husband take both kids to church since Evan is so bad at sitting through Sacrament). When the boys got back I was given a run down of how church went since I had to dump nursery on whoever of the parents could stay and help out. We need to have two people in there at all times so that when poopy diapers happen there is another adult to be there with the kids.

Apparently the nursery parents are not able to hang on to the snack list and there was no snack for the kids today. Grr! Double Grr! My husband was telling me that all of the parents were asking for new copies of the list and complaining that by giving it to them in two month segments that I was doing it too far ahead of time. Grrr! I had figured that since they were adults that were capable of running households that they would be able to manage to hang onto a sheet of paper and write the date that they needed to bring snack on their home calender. I should have known something was up when last week the wrong family brought snack and the right one did not bring it too.

I understand that Sundays are busy days but come on already. I managed to remember when to bring snack before I was nursery leader. It was not rocket science just a little bit of organization. I have two young kids and have to keep track of multiple appointments so if I was that unorganized I would have a lot of people ticked off at me.

To add to my crankiness my husband decided that snapping his fingers in my ears was funny and then wonders why I am yell at him. He is often mentioning that I am cranky but those mentions always seem to coincide with some boneheaded thing that he seems to think normal people would find amusing. Maybe I am a rather cranky person in general, I don't know. I just know that it ticks me off when people can't keep track of the snack list and snap their fingers in my ears.

cranky

Under the weather

I really should not have told you about how healthy we have been all winter. I am currently sick with a sore throat and a mild fever. My weekend has not been nearly as productive as I had hoped. I did finish the first season of Dr. Who which I will review when I am feeing better.

Whee!

The last few days have been pretty tough. Harry has been on one for the last week or so. He has been rather whiny and clingy, it is almost like he is sick but he is not showing any symptoms of anything. I think the time change has thrown him off a bit and he is frustrated with his mom who can't read his little mind. Wednesday I had a tough morning because I had a cranky child and I ended up having to run my husband's hat for his dress uniform down to base so that he could be properly dressed for the ceremony he was being forced to attend. He hates having to get all gussied up and military uniforms are not noted for their comfort. That took a whole hour out of my morning (on a day when we had a morning appointment) and it also meant that I was stuck in the car with a whiny Harry.

I found out this afternoon that my weekend gets to start off early. Command threw my husband a bone for having to get all dressed up and gave him Friday off. Now I get to sleep in tomorrow and maybe even run a few errands with out having to take the kids. I made Harry stay up later than he had been going to bed (it was a struggle to keep him up until 7) and hopefully that will help normalize his sleeping pattern.

This is completely and utterly amazing

I stumbled upon his really amazing video of the processes that go on with in a cell. It is amazing how complex processes go on inside tiny little cells inside your body and you are not even aware of it all. That is one of the reasons I am so into biology, it is just fascinating the systems and processes that go on. They are so much more complex than anything that humans have been able to replicate. The first video shows the process with music. The second explains the entire thing (I added this one in for nerds like me).

Poor little Harry

Evan is such a good child. He is generally very obedient and not nearly as troublesome as Harry is. Harry happens to be a very typical toddler, into everything the second your back it turned around. I am still adjusting to this after being so used to Evan and his much quieter ways.

Yesterday I was in the kitchen getting lunch ready. I hear crying but did not immediately rush to Harry's side thinking it was just a sibling spat. Harry kept crying and it intensified so I rushed over to see him hanging from our DVD/VCR by his finger.

Looking at the evidence it appeared that he had been using a small step stool that was some how in out living room to explore the inner workings of the VCR portion. That flap was just too interesting to pass up. While his little finger was in the flap he fell off the stool leaving him his predicament.

The poor finger looked pretty bad at first. I was a little worried that it could have been broken. It needed to be bandaged at the very least. The bandage ended up looking quite funny since I had to use an enormous amount of tape to make sure that Harry could not get the dang thing off his finger.

I took the bandage off this morning and his poor little finger looks better but there are bits of skin off of it and I am sure it will be sore for awhile. At least now it does not look like he is flipping you off all the time.

Pediatric Grand Rounds

It is time for another edition of Pediatric Grand Rounds. This time around it was split into Pediatrician and Parent sections. My personal favorite from the Pediatrician side was this post about poop. A notable parent submission was this touching post about the ups and downs of having a child with health issues.

Pediatric+Grand+Rounds

A delightful book meme

I found this over at Rocks In My Dryer and could not resist. I had planned on a cranky post about how much I hate that Daylight Savings time starts tomorrow but I will spare you my incoherent rants and instead inform you about my book habits.

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? Hardback when I know that I want to add it to my library, otherwise paperback so if I hate it I don't feel bad about the money spent

Amazon or brick and mortar? Nothing beats the experience of wandering through aisles of books and picking them up to read a few pages here and there so I am defiantly a brick and mortar person in general.

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Borders, I have a lot of fond memories of going there with my parents who would let us each pick out a book. It was a treat for our family which shows how into reading my whole family is.

Bookmark or dog ear? Sadly it is all too often dog ear but I have been quite adept at finding objects around me to serve as book marks

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? My library is alphabetized by author (is there really any other way to do it?) and also broken up according to subject (non fiction, fiction, religious ect.) if I was able to do the Dewey decimal system I would.

Keep, throw away, or sell? Keep when my husband will let me and space allows, sell or give away. It would be a desecration to throw away a perfectly good book.

Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep, the book just seems more complete with it.

Read with dust jacket or remove it? Off! It drives my father and husband up the wall but I just can't read a book with a loose dust jacket on it.

Short story or novel? It depends on my mood. I will go from reading thick tomes to just wanting some short stories. Lately short stories have been the bigger part of my reading since that is all I have time to read.

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Again it depends on my mood, but I think that I tend towards collections since that is what I have the most of in my own library

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? I have to go with Harry Potter on this one. We have both but I think that I much prefer the writing style of JK Rowlings

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? When tired or when child wakes from a nap.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? A little of both preferably in the same book.

Buy or Borrow? Borrow since we do not have the space to accommodate the library of my dreams.

New or used? Used all the way baby, unless it is a new series (like Harry Potter) and I must read it right now. There is just something bewitching about a book with a past. I adore the smell of a used book too. It is one of my dreams to one day own a used book store.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? Browse mostly. I tend to look for books by authors that I have already read but I am not adverse to just randomly picking out a book based on the cover illustration alone. I have been taking a lot of recommendations from Orson Scott Card from his review column of late and that man really know how to pick great books.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? I tend more towards the middle ground. A kind of tidy ending with a bit of unresolved stuff so that I can imagine more of the story. I do not like too many hanging bits though which is what drove me nuts with the Series of Unfortunate Events.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Any time I can get time to sit down and read.

Stand-alone or series? Series, series and more series.

Favorite children's book? Anne of Green Gables hands down. There is just something about the whole series that spoke to me.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Shoot, I am betting that a good portion of my library is pretty obscure to most of my readers.

Favorite books read last year? I can't even remember all the books that I read last year. I need to start keeping track of them better.

Favorite books of all time? Pride and Prejudice, I try and reread this one quite frequently.

Least favorite book you finished last year? It was a stinker called Darcy's Story. I got it as light reading for when Evan was in the hospital with his surgery. It is supposed to parallel P and P but from Darcey's POV. I hated it. Anyone that wants it is welcome to it as it is just collecting dust now.

What are you reading right now? The High King by Lloyd Alexander. It is the end of a really nice fantasy series written for younger readers. A friend lent the series to me so that I could get a chance to read some of the children's literature that I seem to have missed out on.

What are you reading next? Well I have some books on ideas of games to play with preschoolers that I have been meaning to read but I am not sure if I will be in the mood for them. I have also been wanting to read The Origin Of Species by Charles Darwin. I am very much into biology and Darwin is a huge figure in biology so I figure that I should at least attempt to read this book.

meme books reading

My little lamb is shorn

I finally caved and gave Harry his first hair cut. The final straw was a little girl at the park comparing Harry's hair to her own. If I was a more wealthy person I would spring for a professional to do it and make sure the curls stayed but I am not so I buzzed him. I think God was punishing me though because it was super hard to buzz him since his hair was so thin and long. It took forever and did not turn out as nice as Evan's hair does. You can tell that the curl will come back because I see it struggling to come out even though the hair is short. He sure is a lot like his dad in that regard. Note to self: do not cut the boy's hair after you have breakfast for dinner. Syrup makes the hair stick to little hands and faces.

Before

After

toddler hair

Review the Queue- March of The Penguins

This is going to be a regular feature here so that I can keep track of the movies I rent from Netflix. Hopefully I will be able to help others avoid horrible bad movies as well.

I really enjoyed March of The Penguins. I should have watched it without the kids since they enjoyed seeing the penguins so much that it was hard to get them to not stand in front of the tv. The cinematography was amazing. I really wish that I had been able to see it while it was in the theaters. I also enjoyed that they did not sugar coat things. Sometimes death is really downplayed in nature shows even though it is a huge part of any animal's life. Morgan Freeman was an excellent choice for the voice over. He has such a rich and expressive voice, it really added a lot to the movie. I think that this is an excellent movie all around although some more sensitive kids should avoid seeing it since there are a few scary spots where penguins get chased by seals.

movies March+of+The+Penguins Netflix

How to surprise your pediatrician

As I have noted before Harry is a breath holder. He has impressive temper tantrums where he will hold his breath and pass out. These generally happen when he is over tired or needs to eat but sometimes he does it just because he is just a little stinker that wants his own way.

Today at his doctor's appointment he got whipped up into a frenzy because Evan was upset at being in the place where shots are given. While Evan was getting ready to have his Synagis shot Harry keeled over much to the pediatrician's surprise. He apparently had never witnessed a breath holding incident before and was a bit worried that my heart healthy Harry was turning blue and twitching a bit on his floor. I had to assure him that this was something that happened quite frequently and that the only thing to be done was let it run it's course and Harry would be over it pretty soon. Normally I try and sit or lay Harry down when a spell is happening but I had not noticed that he was about to pass out since I was busy with Evan.

I did a bit of searching and found a few places where Harry's spells are described pretty accurately. Harry has the cyanotic version of the breath holding spells. Apparently only 5% of kids exhibit the breath holding behavior. It really is nice to know that I have such special kids. The good news is that it is very likely he will out grow this by the time he is five.

Below is some video of Harry in action. This was not a full on episode as he really recovered quite quickly. The background voice is my sister, her camera took much better video than my elderly camera was able to.

It is check up time

Evan and Harry got to have a fun filled trip to the pediatrician's office today. Awesome Mom was bad and wrote down Harry's appointment on the wrong day on her calender so she missed it leading to a combined mega appointment. Evan had his three year check up/ Synagis shot (his last one ever, party time!).

Evan was not a happy camper for the majority of the appointment whipping a previously calm and happy Harry into a frenzy of crying. I should have know it would be bad when Evan would not even look at the pediatrician when he came into the office from rounding at the hospital across the street (I try and snag the first appointment of the morning). It was tough to do the developmental assessment on Evan since he pretty much refused to do anything for the doctor. I did get him to show off his mad light switch skilz while using his gimpy left hand which was quite impressive. Evan also surged ahead in the weight department gaining two whole pounds in a month. He is now 34 pounds.

Once I got Harry calmed down he preformed quite well in his developmental assessment. He did not gain a lot of weight but did shoot up in height. He is quite a shortie so more inches are great, it is really hard to walk with him and hold his hand even not all that tall Awesome Mom finds it hard to stoop over while walking.

After the appointment we went to a local park since it was quite sunny and nice. I figured that they should get to do something fun after getting shots. After nap time they were both quite cranky still and made it an early night. I will be so glad when Harry is done with his immunizations so visits to the pediatrician can be a bit less stressful, of course once they are done we will not be seeing him nearly as much (knock on wood).

Birthday pictures

Evan's Thomas birthday cake. He was very pleased with it.

Ooo candles!

Mommy and Daddy got him what he loves best: Trains!

I think that Harry got more cake on him than in him. This was not even as messy as he was when I finally took him out of his high chair. The frosting kept getting smeared around.

Happy Birthday Evan Stinkerpants!

I can't believe it but today is the third anniversary of your birth. A lot has happened this year and you have come so far. You are pink for the first time in your life. Your walking has improved greatly, you still have a bit of a hitch to your walk but it is quickly disappearing. You rediscovered your left arm and will now make an attempt to use it when the opportunity presents it's self. You are three feet tall now and can do more of the things that come from being taller such as turning on and off lights using the light switches.

You adore Thomas the Train and all his friends. Your favorite engine is Diesel. Story time is one of your favorite things to do with mommy and you will bring her books for as long as she will read them to you. Your vocabulary has really taken off and you can express yourself much more clearly now.

I think you would live outside if you could. Almost from the first moment you wake up to the time you got to bed you will bother mom any time you get bored of your many toys asking her to put your shoes on so you can go outside.

You are really becoming quite the little boy now, you are no longer a baby. I can't wait to see what next year brings.

Twins?

Sickness

I have been thinking over some of my blessings today and one of them that has really made me think is the general wellbeing of our family when it comes to illness.

Despite Evan's heart defect he has been an amazingly healthy little boy (knock on wood). He has had a grand total of one ear infection. His only major and kind of scary illness (to me any way) was a nasty bug he had to have picked up in the hospital while he was there recovering from his stroke. A few days after his discharge he started throwing up a lot and was not keeping anything down. Luckily it was short lived even though he was kind enough to pass it on to mommy and daddy.

Harry has also been a pretty healthy kid. A mild fever and an assortment of colds have been the extent of his illnesses. We made it through the winter in awesome shape. I have been feeling a little icky the last few days (which is what made me think about illnesses) but it was not devastating just a bit annoying. Even my husband has been very healthy with out anything more serious than a few sniffles.

It really is nice to only have to go into the pediatrician's office for well child visits. It is great that the monthly winter visits for Synagis shots seem to be paying off for Evan. Three cheers for a healthy family!

Cut the cable

My husband and I decided that we were sick of cable television. We only have a few shows that we watch regularly and the only one that I really must watch every week (Lost) is available online. So, we decided to sign up for Netflix and get all the movies and old TV shows we could ever want and ditch the cable. The cost is comparable to our cable bill, so we will not really save much money but we will get out of having to watch a ton of commercials.

We set it up so that my husband gets one disk at a time, the kids get one disk (Evan has to have his Thomas fix and I am getting tired of the same four dvds that we actually own) and I get one all to myself.

What I need from you dear readers is suggestions for things to watch. I am hopelessly behind on movies, like seriously behind. So if there are any movie recommendations you have for me hit me with them. I am trying to stay away from R movies, but if it is a really good one with out a lot of gratuitous extra marital (or premarital as the case may be) nookie in it I will consider it.

Pediatric Grand Rounds

The latest edition of Pediatric Grand Rounds is up. There are a lot of great submissions including this one exploring the ethics of alternative treatments for children.

Lalala I am not listening! lalala

Ok so Evan is turning three on Saturday. I am not really sure that I am ready for my little baby to be that old. I was chatting with the mother of one of Evan's nursery mates and she was asking me if I was going to put him into preschool. Preschool? Evan is a baby, there is no way he is ready for preschool!

In reality I do need to make this decision and stop deluding myself. I really think it would be good for him to get extra help before he faces school (I am still on the fence about homeschooling or not but I am not going there in this post). It would be great to have the extra one on one time with Harry. Running errands with one kid would be such a breeze compared to hauling the both of them around. It would make for a busy week since he would probably be going Monday, Wednesday and Friday with physical therapy Tuesdays and Thursdays.

It is just going to be so hard to drop him off and leave him there. I am so used to having him around all the time and being there for all of his activities. Heck I am even with him in nursery now. Mostly though it is hard just admitting that he is getting older and is already starting to develop his own personality and his own life.

Kid pics

Harry is now the proud owner of a baby doll. My husband was not all that thrilled about it but did not actively prevent me from getting Harry one. The doll I picked out has a pacifier that Harry loves putting in his own mouth. If you ask him where his baby is he will look for it until he finds it which is quite cute.

Here is Evan and Harry holding hands in the car on the way home from our trip. I thought this would a priceless picture to show them when they are older and frustrated with each other.

Evan helped keep every one entertained by playing peek-a-boo with his blanket. There was a whole lot of giggling going on in the back seat of our car.

I heart Battlestar Gallactica

I am a huge science fiction nut so when a new science fiction themed show comes out I am eager to at the very least watch the pilot to see if it is any good. Often there is a lot of junk out there that bears the trappings of a science fiction show but now and then you find a true gem of a show. Battlestar Gallactica is such a show.

I love that this is a well written show. Often times the dialog in science fiction shows is just plain stupid (think Star Wars) or the show ends up being about special effects. BSG has a great blend of eye popping action scenes and intelligent dialog. The themes of the show explore timeless human themes. The question of whether humanity even deserves to continue it's flawed existence is frequently brought up. The main characters are flawed but they do not become stereotyped one themed beings, they are complex people with complex motives. Just when once character seems so hopelessly flawed a moment of greatness pops out showing that even the bad guys are not single minded.

Since we do not get the Scifi channel I have to acquire episodes by alternative means. I do surveys for a few different marketing companies and now and then I will get $10 amazon.com gift certificates which I have saved up and purchased all the released DVD sets. The company that makes the show was quite tricky with the second season and released it in two parts so you had to pay twice as much to get an entire season (boo!). After recently discovering the wonders of iTunes I was finally able to get current episodes by using some left over Christmas money to purchase a season pass to download episodes as they become available. It stinks a bit watching them on the computer but the show is so gripping that I forget where I am and get sucked into the plot.

I am counting down the days until the next episode.

Things not to do to your son

I am sorry to say that my promised pictures of chainsaw sculptures of Bigfoot did not happen. Torrential rain made the prospect of getting out of the car unappealing so we just drove straight through. We should have done all this on the way up since it was a super beautiful day. Oh well, we will be back up there before long so I will make sure that some day before we leave this state the pictures will be taken.

Instead of the other pictures I will show you what can happen when a mom that knows how to fix hair and all that other girl stuff has all boys.


The first picture is of Evan when he was one. He had much longer hair than Harry since he kept it through out all his infancy. Harry had a bald period so all I could manage were some small pigtails. They were quite cute though.

"Mommy, you had better not be putting this picture up on your blog!"

"Oh dear, oh dear. How will I even be able to live this down?"

"Well I do look awfully cute even with the pigtails. Man my thumb is awfully tasty!"

Harry did take an interest in the small baby dolls that my mother-in-law had at her house for the grandkids to play with. My husband is a bit iffy about his boys playing with dolls but I think I will add them to our prodigious toy collection. I think boys need to be exposed to more toys than just things with wheels especially since Harry is showing an interest in something different.

A lovely evening

I had never been to an Eagle Scout court of honor before so it was a very interesting and novel experience for me. It was neat hearing about my brother-in-law from the leaders that had helped him on the path to this very high honor. It is easy to see him as a rather trying teenager rather than the good man that he is becoming.

I was the photographer for the event which was a bit tricky at first with two kids that wanted to run around and my husband up on the stage with his family (At a court of honor all other Eagle Scouts are invited to sit up front). Luckily my mother-in-law had thought to ask one of her friends to help me. Evan who was the loudest and friendliest went with this kind woman to run the hallways of the church while I hitched a cranky and sick Harry around on my hip. My husband's grandmother helped me entertain him the few times I did sit down by letting him play with her keys.

I am excited that there is a chance that my boys will be able to follow in their father's footsteps and have the chance to earn the highest scouting award. I did not get much exposure to scouting since I came from a family of all girls but it is a very worthy program. It will also be neat that my husband will have the chance to be involved in something like that with his sons.

I am blogging from a different computer, I bet you couldn't tell

creeping pages load

missing blazing fast surfing

dial-up goes so slow

We had a rather uneventful drive up north. We did not leave until late since we neglected to pack last night, leaving it for this morning. Things were left behind but nothing that could not be replaced easily. My husband learned a very important life lesson: never order anything from Burger King except a Whopper. He got one of those new BK stacker burgers thinking that it would be a rather large burger fit for his manly hunger. His double contained roughly the same amount of meat that my single whopper contained. Needless to say he was quite miffed.

Evan and Harry have been busy helping grandma and grandpa baby proof. They also ran around in circles between the kitchen and the living room. For some reason they were very tired at bed time and went down with out a peep. Evan loved that he got to have his medication mixed with ice cream instead of his usual yogurt.

I have convinced my husband that on the way home we will be taking it slow and actually stopping at some of the truly odd road side attractions. I am planning on taking pictures to share since I have a good feeling that there are a lot of laughs to be had. There are many chain saw sculptures of Bigfoot and that is just too ripe for mocking to pass up.

A cure for the winter blahs

All it takes to get rid of the winter blahs are a few simple things.

• A wonderfully balmy day where it gets into the 70s
• My first daffodil bloomed
• I got to get out in our tiny garden and do a bit of weeding
• Yarn came in the mail today
• My husband had a half day at work so I got to run all the errands that had been bugging me all week with out having to drag the kids with me. (Mom, your chocolate is finally in the mail)
  
• Driving with the windows open
• Having the computer that had been acting very wonky fixed by my super sexy tech support guy aka my husband
  
• Spending the evening with friends that I had not seen in months. I went to the baby shower of a friend of mine that moved away. It was so great getting out of the house on my own and getting to scare (just kidding) a first time mother to be.

Now all I have to do is finish my laundry so that we can pack for out trip. We are leaving tomorrow so I have plenty of time, right?

Nice

Here are some things I wish my husband would say to me.

Argh!

I wish I knew what was wrong with me. My motivation has up and left me. I have no desire to do anything and just want to hide in my bed all day. Harry has been waking early and not napping, I think he is either teething yet again or getting sick. I am dealing with all the fun hormonal stuff that comes from being a woman. It seems like Evan is going out of his way to do things that he knows he is not supposed to be doing (Like getting out of bed during nap time. I found him sleeping on the floor yesterday). Every thing seems wrong and annoying. I think I need a vacation.

We did our taxes last weekend and I am thinking that we should dump the kids off at grandmas and go out and have a real vacation. We could go somewhere exciting and not have to worry about if the kids were having fun or not. I wish we had the money to go to Europe but I think that would be out of our reach even without the kiddos. There is still a lot to see in the US though. Sigh.

This is what I found Harry doing while I was busy trying to get Evan dressed.

How I met my husband

I was a fun carefree 21 year old and he was a carefree 21 year old almost 22 year old. I had moved "home" (my parents had moved on me my freshman year at college so it really was not home to me especially since it was in another state) so that I could earn money to go on a mission for my church.

I had had a disappointing year romantically since I was very attracted to nerdy shy guys. Nerdy shy guys who would rather play a computer game than actually get the nerve up to ask a girl out. I was so over running after them, so when my husband (who is a very nerdy shy guy) started working at the same Target I was I pretty much blew him off. He would sit at the same break room table as me and chat with my work friends and me but nary a date request was made. I was not going to chase him in any way shape or form especially since I was supposed to be concentrating on other things to help me get ready for my mission.

Then came his final day at work. He had put in his two weeks notice because he was not getting the hours he needed. It was the last break of the night when he finally got up the nerve to ask me out after "slyly" trying to find out if I had a boyfriend. He asked me if I ever went to movies with my boyfriend. I just about laughed out loud at him since it was pretty obvious what he had in mind by asking me that question.

Even since that rather odd date (another topic for another time) we have pretty much been inseparable. It truly was amazing how well we fit together. I knew by our second date that he was the man I wanted to marry, it took him a few weeks more to figure that out. The mission went by the wayside and I ended up going on a different sort of mission becoming a wife and then later on a mother. I could not be happier.

Bleh

I have been having one of those weeks where is seems like every time I get one small task completed twenty more difficult tasks pop up. This is not helped by Harry waking up as 6:30 this morning. For the last month or so the boys had been sleeping in until 8 which was perfect for me. I don't do early mornings.

One important thing that I learned this week was that I should never ever tell the physical therapist that Evan's balance seems to be improving since he has not tripped and fallen on his face lately. The very next day after I said that Evan fell on his face in a very spectacular fall and is now the owner of anther forehead bruise.

I am hoping to get my act together before this weekend. We are going to my husband's parent's house for an extended weekend. My brother-in-law is having his Eagle Scout court of honor dinner and we thought it would be neat to help him celebrate such an amazing accomplishment. I am hoping to make it a knitting weekend and possibly finishing the scarf I am working on.

Here is a classic Evan picture, he was about four or five months old in this picture.

Pediatric Grand Rounds 1:22

Thanks to Hallmark and other card and candy companies February 14th has been turned into a manufactured holiday that is supposed to evoke feelings of love towards a romantic partner or feelings of depression when one does not have a romantic partner. The symbol of this holiday is the heart. It was only natural that when the Congenital Heart Defect community was looking for a way to increase awareness Valentine's Day was a natural fit.

Heart defects are near and dear to my heart because my eldest son Evan (who is not actually pictured in this post because of a recent reluctance to have his picture taken) was born with a very complex heart defect which requires a series of three surgeries so that he could live a fairly normal life. Previous to his birth I was not even aware of the prevalence of heart defects. The media hypes up the rarer birth defects but is not so enamored of the more common yet still fascinating heart defects.

According to the American Heart Association %1 of all children born have a heart defect of some kind. They are the most common type birth defects but are sometimes not detected until it is too late. There are a variety of factors that can result in a heart defect and they happen long before a woman even knows that she is pregnant since the heart is one of the first organs to form. There is often no strong genetic tie to many heart defects but many genetic syndromes such as Down's syndrome include the possibility of a heart defect occurring. Sandy Szwarc at Junkfood Science gives a great account of some of the myths that surround birth defects. Take heart parents! Often they do not happen because of something that you did or did not do while pregnant.

In his latest addition to The Not So Normal Newborn Nursery Clark Bartram discusses a heart defect that has a much clearer cause. He is looking for a heartbeat.

In ancient times the heart was seen the place where thinking and feeling took place. The brain was seen as filler to keep your head from caving in. We still use references in modern times that hint that we still see the heart as the place where feelings happen which is how Valentine's day became associated with hearts.

My own submission helps others know that when talking with a parent in the midst of a child's health crisis often all that is needed is A Kind Heart and listening ears, no guilt required.

Pediatric Grand Rounds is getting a bit of link love over in India. Dr Sidharth Sethi at pediatricsinfo.com submits this link to an article written by him for a pediatrics publication in India. It is good to know the word is getting out about great medical blogging going on.

Student Nurse Jack talks about following her heart in Bull. Shit. by not allowing her daughter to be a guinea pig for a new vaccine. Her reasons are very well thought out and may give other parents of girls something important to think about.

VitaminKMD listens to her heart which is telling her that there is something not quite right with her adorable little patient in Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Her heart hurts when she later discovers that she was right but that the child was sick with a life-threatening illness.

Kim from Emergiblog recounts a heart stopping moment she had as a parent in Call 911, He's Dead! The love she had for her son temporarily overwhelmed her abilities as a seasoned nurse.

Does the American Academy of Pediatrics love their little patients more than market share? Flea explores the issue in Because We Care... About Market Share.

The NICU is filled with broken hearts (both figuratively and literally). Neonatal Doc shares the heartbreaking story of some of the ups and downs that can happen with premature babies in Bungee.

Some parents think that they are showing love for their children by filling their schedules with many different enriching activities which are supposed to keep them from the alternative which could be sitting around and watching tv all afternoon. They carefully monitor their child's diet. Shinga points out in The Duvet Diet that a good night's sleep might do more towards children's health than many other medical or dietetic interventions.

Vahid Chaychi discusses the long road of childhood cancer and some of the heartbreaking moments that can happen during treatment in Detecting Cancer in Children and After. It is a great guide for parents that may have just had a child diagnosed with cancer.

That concludes this edition of pediatric Grand Rounds. It sure was a fun challenge putting this together. A big thank you goes out to all the participants. I would like to give thanks to Shinga for her help with this edition of Pediatric Grand Rounds. The next edition of PGR will be hosted by Dr. Lourdes de Asis at Allergy and Asthma Source. Clark is looking for more hosts of Pediatric Grand Rounds. The schedule can be found here.

Here are a few links about heart defects that I have discovered in my online wandering. Enjoy!

• This is a website about the first operation done on babies to help relieve some of the effects of the cyanotic heart defects.
• CHIN is a great place for parents and health care professionals to get information, support and education about heart defects.
• The American Heart Association while often associated with adult acquired heart disease also has a wonderful section for children with heart defects.
• Another link that gives a brief history of heart surgery.
  
  

A kind heart

I have been thinking on this idea for quite some time and now I think I can fully talk about it.

When Evan was first born and I was adjusting to my new reality having never even imagined that heart defects would be in my future I was not sure how to deal with the pity that I often saw in people's eyes when I told them about my son. Once I told them they suddenly started thinking that anything they might complain about was paltry in comparison to what I was dealing with.

It may be my personality but I never really understood that kind of feeling. I was lucky where so many parents were not. My child had gone through scary things but he was alive and had the expectation of having a very normal life should his repair surgeries go well.

A good friend of mine would often preface her comments when we were talking about the health issues of our children that they were nothing compared to what I had gone through. Yeah, her son had not endured an open heart surgery, but he had still been gravely ill. Her terror for her son's life was just as valid as mine and just because I had been through something worse did not mean that my heart was so drained of emotion that I would stop empathizing with other people just because they had not been through what I had. My own mother started saying things like that too until I told her to knock it off. I needed to hear all the boring every day stuff going on in her life so that even though I was stuck in the hospital with my son I could still feel connected to my family.

I am so incredibly lucky to have such a sweet loving little boy as a son who has stuck around so that I will be able to see him grow up more. Each day with him is a gift, but then each day is a gift even for people that are seemingly healthy and have no concrete expectation to die any time soon. Don't feel bad when someone tells you about bad things going on in their life if things are going good for you or even if they are not. An ear to listen and a kind heart are all that are needed to help when you are confronted with someone who has a child dealing with health issues, no pity is needed for them or you.

And now for something completely different. Here is a cute picture of Harry taken this afternoon. He had been breath holding and did his normal pass out routine but instead of getting right back up and whining some more he fell asleep right where he was. I had to keep Evan from waking him up while I was making lunch.

These boots are made for splashing

Evan finally got to try out his new rain boots today. We had been enjoying a bit of a dry spell that is now over. We are facing rain all weekend. Harry was a bit miffed that I had to leave him inside with daddy but there was no way I was going to chance him ruining his Robeeze shoes, those suckers are expensive! Enjoy the pictures.

Smile

Being a mother is a tough job and is quite often a very thankless job. Sometimes however there is some thanks, a little bit of validation.

Not too long ago I was taking the kids to the store to pick up a few things. I did my usual routine of getting Evan out of the car, placing his hand on the car bumper and telling him sternly that he needed to stay where he was. I then proceeded to get Harry out of his car seat so that we could go into the store. An amazed mother came over to me just as I got Harry out of the car. She complimented me on how well Evan was behaving. She told me that her own son at that age would have run off as soon as she turned her back. The compliment brightened my day and left me with a smile on my face.

We have also been approached at restaurants several times with people complimenting us on how well Evan and Harry behave. Each time it makes me feel good about how I am parenting and disciplining my children. These events have made me more aware of the people around me that are in my daily life. Because of Evan's health issues we have had to deal extensively with doctors, nurses and other wonderful people that do things every day to make out lives go much more smoothly. They lift a lot of the burden off of me by doing their jobs every day. I have started letting them know that I am grateful for the things they are doing for us and I am finding out that as great as getting compliments feels it is even better giving the compliments. The joy I am feeling is magnified even more. If you are feeling down or frustrated give it a try and see how wonderful you will feel making someone else feel good.

Gratuitous kid picture

Proof that Awesome Mom is not always awesome

This is a cake I made on Sunday just because Evan asked. I did not grease the pan good enough so the cake layers would not come out of the pans properly. I just mashed the crumbled pieces together and frosted the entire thing. It tastes the same but my husband sure has a fun time teasing me every time he has a slice.

My next imperfection as a parent is what Harry had for a snack this morning. What is so bad about a snack? Well if it is a large hunk from some sidewalk chalk that I left out there is a problem. I fished quite a bit of it out of his mouth (at peril of having my fingers chomped on) but he was still drooling blue for a bit after.

Awesome Mom's new look

A big thank you goes to Chelle for giving my blog a new look. She did an awesome job and I am thrilled with my new look. Her rates are super reasonable so if you are a HTML clutz like me and tired of the same blog template as everyone else go ask her nicely and she may take pity on you.

PGR

Free Hearts -

Just a friendly reminder that you have less than one week to submit something to the next edition of Pediatric Grand Rounds hosted by yours truly. In honor of Valentine's Day and Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day (February 14) we will be having a heart themed PGR. Please have your submission in by Saturday February 10th by 10:00 Pacific time.

It is a war zone in there

Harry is the loudest sleeper ever. I will be quietly doing something downstairs and suddenly I will hear loud crashes and bangs as Harry tosses about in his crib. With all the noise he makes I am surprised that he does not wake up with bruises on his head.

Harry does sleep very peacefully when he falls asleep while I am holding him.

My mind is officially boggled

I read in the local newspaper that there are six Starbucks in my small town and one in the adjoining and much smaller town. That is 7 with in a ten minute drive of my house. Maybe it is just me but that seems very excessive. Maybe I just do not get it since I am not a coffee drinker. What next? Will there be one in every house in ten years?

Awww