Irony part 2

My day did not get any better, in fact it got a whole lot worse. During the break between sessions we got a phone call that my husband answered. It was the male cardiologist that works with Evan's cardiologist. He had just been looking over the results of Holter monitor test that was done while Evan was in the hospital. There were issues and we needed to get to the city and have Evan's pacemaker interrogated. He also wanted us to be prepared in case he had to admit us to the hospital.

Once I got down to the city and Evan's pacemaker had been looked at (under great protest from Evan) it showed that it was not pacing correctly. The pacemaker guy had to change things around so that it worked like it should. That change has shortened his battery life to three months. We got to go home but Evan is back on a Holter monitor to see if things are getting worse and he was also put on a mega dose of steroids to see if that would help with the swelling from his heart surgery. That slight swelling could be what is causing the pacemaker issues.

Getting the new medication added another layer to my frustrations. By the time we got home most pharmacies were closed. The single local one that was open did not have the medication we needed in stock. The pharmacist was nice enough to call around to find one that was open and did have it in stock. Sadly that one was quite a drive away.

After waiting over an hour to get the medication I drove home past a fresh car accident. An accident that had started a small brush fire and knocked out a power pole. I had to go through three major intersections that were dark. I get ulcers every time I have to do that because I am so worried that I am going to end up in an accident because someone goes at the wrong time.

I left the house at 2:15 and got home for good (I did a brief stop to drop Evan off at home for dinner) at 8:30. I now have a full week of appointments related to Evan. Cardiologist on Monday, physical therapy on Tuesday, Pediatrician on Wednesday, Cardiologist again on Thursday and Friday he sees the dentist. It is a good thing he is cute, because he is a ton of work.

Irony

This morning as I was trying to get a nice spiritual high while listening to the morning session of Conference, a talk came on about patience. I would have loved to listen to it but just then Evan decided that I absolutely had to read him a book. When I told him to put it away and that I would not be reading it to him during Conference he proceeded to try and insist that I read to him. Tears ensued each time I refused drowning out what I am sure was a wonderful talk.

Later on after I put Evan in his room for some time out, after he had an angry puke, the hymn Love At Home was sung. Again the irony was thick in the room as I was still quite agitated and frustrated with my first born. There was not "beauty all around" in my home. Hopefully I will be able to listen to the rest of Conference with out any more sever interruptions, but I am not holding my breath.

I have been tagged

The Laundress has tagged me with the seven songs meme.

Seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now.

This one has been a bit of a toughie for me. I love music but currently my enjoyment has been rather passive. Generally when music is playing it is on the radio so have little control over what is playing. Here are seven songs that have stood the test of time with me.

1. Oye como va by Santana
2. Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes
3. Shine on You Crazy Diamond parts 1-9 by Pink Floyd
4. Even Flow by Pearl Jam
5. Devil's Dance Floor by Flogging Molly
6. Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden
7. One More Minute by Wierd Al

As you can see I have a rather odd group of songs. The first three are ones that my parents introduced me to. We listened to a lot of classic rock when I was growing up so I was exposed to a lot of great music that has stood the test of time.

The last four are ones that I discovered on my own. I was (and still am somewhat) very into the Seattle grunge scene when I was a teenager. Jerry Cantrel ( singer in Alice in Chains, which didn't make it on the list but they are still kind of up there) graduated from my High School. I even got a chance to meet him at a Pearl Jam concert. All my friends were green with envy.

Flogging Molly was introduced to me by my sister E who has much better taste in music than me and is still discovering new bands while my taste has stagnated a bit. They are a fun Irish band that have very lively songs.

Wierd Al has been a long time favorite of mine. I discovered him in Junior High and have loved his highly amusing music ever since. I have been to several concerts and own all of his albums. Even my non musical husband has long wanted to attend one of his concerts, so he is rated very highly in our household.

As far as tagging goes I am going to be lame and not tag anyone specific. My brain is all burned out from picking the songs out.

Wow!

I am blog of the week over at InsParenting.com! What a great honor and a huge surprise.

The photos from the hospital stay

Evan's newly pink little piggies

This was taken the morning of the surgery. He was having lots of fun playing with his trains while we were waiting for him to go into surgery.

This is Evan's anesthesiologist. He has been there for all of Evan's surgeries and heart catheterizations. He is a very nice guy and makes sure that we completely understand what is going on.

Evan playing with the PICU doctor. He is a very wonderful doctor and has always taken the time to make sure that I understood what was going on while Evan was under his care. He never made you feel like you were asking a silly question.

Evan's sweet ride. Evan's eyes lit up with excitement when he saw this wheel chair. Even after his leg was free he still wanted to ride around in this rather than walk.

The therapy dog that came by on Saturday. She sure did a great job because before the dog came by Evan was cranky and annoyed. After she left he was in a much better mood.


Evan's favorite video watching position. He seemed to have a strong need to put his feet up while kicking back and watching his train DVDs.

Evan's enormous collection of Thomas trains.

There he is chasing the front loader down the hall.

Here he is putting his trains into the scoop of the front loader. He would fill it up and then have me pull the lever so that the trains would come tumbling out so he could fill it back up.


Evan's stinker grin

Here he is scratching his head like a dog. He amazed everyone with his incredible flexibility.

Here he is all ready to go home.

We are home!!!!!

We are at home and free from the confines of the hospital. Evan is currently happily watching Wheel Of Fortune with his father.

Shortly after Evan woke up transport came to take us for his chest x-ray. I was rather surprised that they came so early but also pleased that we would get that over with so soon. Just as we got back from the x-ray the vampires arrived to draw Evan's blood. The same person came last time so Evan knew what was up and started crying when the woman entered the room. I felt kind of bad for her, it must be hard to have a job where kids sob at the sight of you.

Three of us ended up holding him down as he was struggling quite hard. The phlebotomist was having a tough time hitting a vein as all the ones in his arm were pretty well shot. She was digging and digging but not getting a thing. Evan's nurse finally had enough and could not stand watching the digging any more and offered to try and get some blood from his foot. She got out some syringes to pull the blood out rather than the vaccutainers that were being used. The vacuum can often collapse veins in little kids making it super hard to get any blood out. The stick went very smoothly and poor Evan was rescued from further torture.

The nurse later apologised for fumbling around thinking that it made her look unprofessional. I told her that I was just happy that she rescued Evan from further digging. Truth be told I had not anticipated that she would have such skill at drawing blood in the first place. The nurses on the peds floor have a tendency to rely more on the lab staff for blood draws so their skills can be quite rusty.

Soon Evan's surgeon came in with his nurse and removed the stitch that was holding the skin closed where the chest tube had been. It was a very joyous good bye. We were all happy that the hard part of the journey was over and that Evan was healing so well. I don't think that I can ever thank that man enough for giving Evan a chance at life.

We had to wait quite awhile for Evan's cardiologist to come and see him. She was the final person that had to see him before we left. She had a lot of patients to see so she was not able to come by until 2:30 in the afternoon. I had just put Evan down for a nap hoping that it would get her to come. Every time Evan went down for a nap a stream of people seemed to have a sudden need to come into the room. It worked like a charm.

It sure is nice being home. Harry missed me and has shown that by being ultra clingy all afternoon. Hopefully a good night's sleep will cure that.

Student nurses

I am not trying to be mean or anything but I am seriously getting annoyed with the student nurses that have come to the hospital. I know that they have to learn skills somewhere. I truly get that. I am just so tired of having to baby them along when all they are trying to do is something as simple as taking a set of vital signs.

Last night I had to show the student nurse how to use the machine that they use to take blood pressures. She has been using it on the infant setting instead of the child setting so she was not getting a correct reading. Then this morning we had student nurses come from a different school with very green students. It took forever for the one working with Evan's nurse to get his vitals and then right before it was Evan's nap time she wanted to start all over again. I just had to tell her no because getting Evan to sleep was more important than her assignment. Tonight we have the same student from last night but by now Evan is in rebellion mode so it took some heavy duty distraction to get a reading.

I actually like educating the nurses, telling them all the nuances of Evan's heart defect and the surgeries that he has been through. I also gave a lesson on child development to one student that was assigned to the play room. It is in my blood to educate. I just wish that they would not insist on following the letter of everything. There are times when with young kids that you just can't get vital signs the required number of times per shift.

They are also not equipped to know when things out of the norms are fine. After Evan's second surgery I spent a good half hour trying to keep Evan asleep while a student insisted on repeatedly taking Evan's temp. He was running a bit on the cool side so she kept wanting to do it until he read normal. Evan was squirming a lot making the under arm thermometer not read correctly. Finally one of the student's class mates rescued me by bringing in the tympanic thermometer. A quick swipe to the forehead showed that he had a normal temperature.

If you are a student nurse reading this I have a few words of advice for you. When it comes to kids please be prepared to have things not work out for you. If you have to do something more than twice go get help or wait until later. Enlist the parent's help, they can often help smooth things out with a fussy kid. Parents can be more knowledgeable than you suppose. Don't act surprised when they can tell you all sorts of detailed information about their child.

Inching ever closer

Evan is off of supplemental oxygen now! His cardiologist figured that since he was already used to a much lower saturation level that the ideal 95% was not a biggie at this point in time. He should eventually get to that but it will take some healing on his part and she didn't want him having to go home on oxygen. Apparently the bodies of kids like him can get lazy if they are on oxygen too long.

The blood tests that they did today were fine. The lady that drew him had some of her coworkers help hold him and I pretty much had to push one of them away because she was not properly holding him down. I guess she was not used to working with kids and was afraid to hurt him or something. All she had to do was hold his shoulder down and she was not putting enough pressure and he was able to squirm enough that the person drawing the blood almost missed the vein.

Evan got a special surprise today. The hospital has a program called Little Wishes for kids that have long hospital stays and chronic conditions. They give the kids presents so that they have something special to look forward to during their stay. Evan has received a number of wonderful gifts from them. Both of the nurses that run the program are very much in love with Evan so today he totally got spoiled. They gave him six Thomas wooden train figures, a fun car and a huge front loader. When they came to give him the presents Evan was in the middle of a freak out because he was having his blood pressure taken. The instant he saw the presents he calmed down and wanted his daddy (who was visiting) to open the packages . I am not sure that there will even be room on the train table for all the trains he now has.

We have a big day tomorrow. Evan has a chest x-ray and a blood draw before we will get to come home. I am excited about the possibility of a nice sleep in my own bed.

The progress continues

We spent a very long morning getting an echo cardiogram and yet another chest x-ray. These two things took forever because the people that are supposed to transfer patients to the testes they need took forever to take us from the echo to the x-ray. By the time we got back it was lunch and nap time.

Evan was not thrilled one bit with the echo despite it being a very noninvasive test. All it is is an ultrasound of the heart. I think he is really starting to feel the loss of control that being in the hospital entails. He just goes not realize right now that all these things are helping him heal. Despite his crankiness he is still managing to charm everyone that he meets.

Evan's surgeon came in the afternoon and removed the steri strips that were holding together his chest incision. Evan was also freed from being monitored by telemetry but will have to go on a Holter monitor to make sure that all rhythm problems are resolved. His supplemental oxygen was turned down a bit again today and he is still maintaining his saturation levels. Everything is still looking to be on track for leaving on Wednesday.

Somehow word got around the Ward that we were coming home today. The Relief Society president called to drop off dinner for us. My husband was rather surprised to get the call and wondered if I had told someone that we were home. I had not even called any one from the ward so the rumor seems to have been manufactured out of thin air. I know that my husband did not say anything. I called my friend A. who is on the ward council where this rumor was passed on and apparently it was the Bishop that told everyone that we had come home on Sunday. A. was quite surprised that they would let us go so soon and was happy to hear, when I told her otherwise, that we were not being pushed out of the hospital before Evan was ready. It is funny the things that get passed around. I hope that next time the Bishop will check his facts first.

The foot is free

My campaign to free Evan's foot was successful. The nurse tried flushing the IV this morning and it was not working. We had to wait for final approval from the cardiologist before removing it to see if he wanted to try and save it. luckily he was on the side of removing it so that he could walk and be more active. Evan was not thrilled with the removal process but soon he was excited about his improved mobility. His first steps were rather wobbly but he quickly became more steady as the day wore on.

We had another visit from Harry, my husband and my mother-in-law. I used their arrival as a chance to get out for a nice walk in the sunshine. I am very glad that this hospital is in a nice neighborhood. It makes getting out a more pleasant experience. I love looking at all of the old Victorian houses that line the streets.

Evan is having potassium level issues because of the diuretics he is on. He had to get it supplemented orally which sucked big time because it is a horrible tasting medicine. I gave Evan sips of water with it to help with the taste and then brushed his teeth after. That was one time that I wish he had not removed his g-tube. He will have to get his blood drawn later tonight to check his levels again.

Tomorrow Evan will have an echocardiogram to see how things are looking in his heart. After that will be more playing and healing. Things are looking to be on track for us leaving on Wednesday.

The coumadin nightmare

Last night I kept waiting and waiting for the expected does of Coumadin for Evan. He was getting tired and I wanted to give it to him before he went to bed. I talked to his nurse to see what was going on. Apparently it had been ordered as a one time dose. After assuring her that I knew for a fact that Evan was going back on his Coumadin the nurse went to talk to the night doctor. Apparently this doctor got a bit snippy with the nurse saying that Cardiology wrote it and so they obviously wanted it that way. The nurse fought the good fight and got the doctor to look into the issue.

Then Pharmacy decided to throws fits about it. They did not want to send it up because Evan had not recently had his anti coagulation levels checked. A call had to be made to Evan's surgeon about the issue and he finally got everything smoothed out and around midnight Evan finally got the dose of Coumadin that he was supposed to get at 8 p.m.

This sort of thing is pretty much par for the course when you get up to the pediatric floor of this hospital. Communication seemingly flys out the window. Before we even went up to the floor Evan's surgeon and cardiologist made sure that I was clear on what should be happening over the weekend. They are all too familiar with these sorts of goings on. I have noted this time and time again when I get the inevitable customer satisfaction survey. I have even talked to people on the phone about it and yet nothing seems to have changed. I shudder to think of what could be happening if I was not so vigilant and constantly there all the time. If his INR had dropped low enough Evan could have formed another blood clot which could also cause another stroke.

I have to say that while the PICU is super loud, I prefer it to having to deal with this crap all the time. I know all the nurses there. You get to spend more than five seconds talking to the doctor. I also have a good reputation there. They know that I am an involved parent that is willing to assist in my son's care. They will take into account the things I say and not treat me like I am a moron.

I actually got suggestions yesterday morning from one of the doctors on the peds floor about what to feed Evan so that he will not loose too much weight. Like I have not been doing that all his life. Like I don't know what he will eat and what he will turn his nose up at. Yeah, I had given him fruit for breakfast but I had wanted to give him something easy to digest for his first meal of solids. The doctor did not even think to ask me why I did what I did. I am counting down the days until we can get home.

Long day

It has been one loooong day. Evan had a chest x-ray and a blood draw this morning. Both looked great. Then a bunch of doctors paraded past each wanting to look and listen at how Evan's breathing and heart sounded. By the time lunch came around he was ultra cranky and any time that anyone came in to the room he would start crying. A nap and some food helped get rid of the crankies.

Evan got a visit from a therapy dog which thrilled him to no end. A lady with lots of stickers and other art supplies came around and Evan had so much fun coloring that he decided that paper was not the best place to display his artistic talent. He has a very colorful knee right now despite my attempts to scrub the art work off. A person also came by to read his some books and sing with him.

Evan's appetite is returning and he has stopped throwing up now that the anesthesia has finally cleared his system. Tomorrow looks to be a quiet day as he has no blood draws or other procedures scheduled. I am making it my mission to bug the doctors enough that they will remove the IV in his foot so that he can start walking again. They have a patio area so the kids can go outside but the door is such that he can't fit out there with his wheel chair. Once he can walk he can go outside and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather.

We are on the Pediactric floor!

We were released from the PICU late this afternoon and are now happily on the pediatric floor. Evan has been having some issues keeping down food so we are slowly letting him get back into the swing of things. The surgery and morphine given to him to help with his pain have a tendency to slow digestion down so this was not unexpected. He is keeping his meds down which is a very good thing. He is also very thirsty since he is on a fluid restricted diet. The fluid restrictions are to help keep him from getting fluid in his lungs and prevent the possibility that a chest tube would have to be replaced.

I am hanging in there. The PICU was an awful place to try and sleep but I managed to get some. I was pretty much cat napping all day yesterday. They were super slammed so there was a lot going on. There were three kids on vents which for that small of a unit is a lot. All that lead to a whole lot of noise. It was great seeing so many of the nurses that had taken care of Evan in the past. They were all so happy to see him doing so well and looking so pink.

After the surgery everyone was in a bit of a euphoria. I felt a little bad feeling so good because there are other mothers there that have kids that are even sicker than Evan. The evening of the surgery I was eating a quick dinner in the PICU family room and I was beaming. I then noticed that the other mother in there was quietly sobbing. Her daughter is in grave condition and it is touch and go every day for her.

On a lighter note I discovered that the family room for the pediatric floor now has a computer so I can resume blogging. The whole pediatric department seems flush with cash right now because there are a lot of new things. Evan got to take a ride in a car that is also a wheel chair. I will have to post pictures later, he was having the time of his life. Evan is still on a bit of oxygen so the car wheel chair made it easier on me to push him around with the heavy tank in tow.

There is some talk of us coming home on Monday but I have the feeling that Evan's Cardiologist will want to discharge him herself and she has clinics the next two days, so she will not be around to do that until Wednesday. Evan will also have to be on full feeds before he goes so I am not sure that Monday will work any way. I don't want to push him too soon. Well, I am off to enjoy my first shower for days.

He's Pink !

Evan will get his central line removed today and the plan is to send him to the regular Pediatric ward after that. Rumor has it that Dad, Harold the Destroyer and Grandma D. may come for a visit soon.

Removal

Evan had his chest tube and art line removed this morning. His sleeping was very light last night so A.M.'s was practically non existent. However the docs are content with his rate of healing, so we are all thankful. He has to be restrained a bit because he still has some IVs he wants to pull out. Such are the joys of a toddler in the hospital. They are still to young to reason with or bargain with. If something is uncomfortable they act to remove it! This is the time of waiting, waiting to heal, waiting to see how well the surgery worked. Yet I'm grateful to know that everything that can be done is being done. There are not many places in the world where that can be said with regards to medical care. I have been in Health care for nearly 30 years and I have seen great advances. Yet when all is said and done, we still must rely on God's help in times like this.

Almost done!

Evan is now being sewn back up. Soon he will be in recovery and will be spending his time in the PICU. "A.M." seems in good spirits. Evan's cardiologist has been peeking in on the surgery and is coming back to give her updates, which is very comforting when you are mulling around a surgery waiting room. (No matter what you brought to entertain yourself, it's hard to concentrate because your mind and emotions are in in that surgical suite too.) I probably will not do anymore updates today. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have sent words of encouragement, and prayers,it gives us all a lot of comfort at this time.

Evan update

Evan is now off the heart-lung machine. The surgery to remove the tissue in Evan's heart has been successful and the decision has been made to go ahead with the Fontan. For those of you wondering about these surgeries I refer you to The FAQs in this blog. This is the most critical part of his surgery (even though he is now off the machine), so no one is breathing a sigh of relief yet.

We are off!!

Well we are off bright and early. I will try and update while Evan is in the hospital but I am not sure when I will have the time. My mother may be able to do updates if I can't. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We need all the good thoughts we can get!

Greetings

Awesome Mom has asked me to continue this blog while Evan is in the hospital. I have the great fortune to be grandma to this awesome grandson and consider it an honor to to this for A.M. I wish I could be there for the surgery, but sadly this time around, that was not possible. However Evan (and Harold The Destroyer) have an awesome Paternal grandma who was able to help and I thank her. Evan will have his surgery tomorrow morning. We aren't sure what the surgeon will do, it depends on what he sees tomorrow. We ask for your prayers for Evan at this time and will keep you all updated.
FANCYPANTSNANCY (Pantsy to my friends)

My mind is too scrambled to think up a clever title

Today was Evan's pre-op appointment. We had mixed results because Evan was being an ultra changeable toddler. This morning he threw the biggest fit while I was trying to get ready to leave for the appointment. He started crying as we left. I think that he was wanting his Grandma to come with us or something.

At the appointment he flipped out while his pacemaker was being interrogated. Some dried cherries helped smooth that over. He also flipped out when his heart and breathing was being checked. I had worked hard playing with stethoscopes so that he would get over this. I had thought that this had been dealt with but oh well. He was actually fine for the EKG despite all the stickers being stick to his skin.

Then came the blood draw. That was when I wished that my husband was there instead of me. He had to be stuck three different times because they kept loosing the vein dues to Evan trying to squirm. It was all I could do to keep him in my lap and mostly still. We both had a work out with that one. Evan was so exhausted after that he fell asleep the instant we got into the car.

My heart got quite a work out while I was trying to leave the parking garage. I was tightly parked between two very expensive cars. I prayed the entire time that I would not hit one of the cars while I was trying to leave. Luckily I managed to get out without having to find an attendant to help me out.

The day was saved by Grandma. Toys R Us is having sales on train stuff all this month so my husband and my MIL went there while Evan and I were gone and picked out an early Christmas gift for the boys. When Evan gets out of the hospital he will have a sweet new set up for his trains. He was having fun "helping" daddy figure out what configuration would fit on the existing table.

I bet you didn't know this but today be Talk Like A Pirate Day. Sadly I did not celebrate because I think that I would have gotten a lot o' strange looks while tryin' t' tell important information t' t' doctors today. Arrr!

Harold has arrived

I bet you are thinking that I am silly for writing this title. You all know that Harry has been born, but I am not talking about this:


I am talking about this:

I got Harold off of Ebay since he is not for sale at any of the stores that carry Thomas items in our area. I managed to get him for about what I would have payed for him in a store including shipping. Evan is very much in love with Harold.

At dinner time my husband pryed Harold out of his hands and placed him on the computer desk which acts as a partial dividing wall between the dining area and the living room. All during dinner Evan kept pointing and grunting. I could not figure out what he was so excited over as I had not seen where my husband had placed Harold. After dinner I was feeding Harry who has awoken from a short early evening nap. Evan who had just finished dinner was hanging around and getting very upset. He was still pointing at something so I finally looked up and saw Harold. I gave Evan Harold and he wandered off happily.

One thing that I have found very interesting is that when I picked out Harry's name I had thought it would not be the least bit popular. I picked Harold because then I could have the nickname of Harry. I wanted my kids to have literaryesque names so Harry is partly named after Harry Potter. OK, he is fully named after Harry Potter but since I don't want to seem obsessive I will never admit that. I heart Harry Potter in a big way. I have a wand hand made by my father.

There are two TV shows with a Harold or Harry in them. Harold and the Purple Crayon is a show and a classic book. I have been told that I must buy this book and I fully intend to purchase it some day if I remember. Harry and His Big Bucket Full of Dinosaurs is another one out there. I guess this is one of those times when you don't see something until you have it and then everyone has that item. It is a bit fun and hopefully there will be some shows with Evan in them.

I have been reminded that there is also this Harold. I can't believe I forgot about him!

A tribute to Utah

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Fun Links

I realized that my fun link folder is filling up so I am doing another edition of fun links. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

• Do you think that your smile is boring and plain? This will brighten your smile right up.
• Here is a fun page that you can go to to make your own kaleidoscope painting
• Ever get bored? Do you have a cat? Well cure your boredom with your cat.
• Are you stuck for dinner ideas? Are you a college student trying to get by on very little money? Here is a web page filled with ideas to cook the ultra cheap and college student favorite ramen noodles.
• This is a very amusing video
• Have you even been to a museum or art gallery and wondered how some paintings even made it in? Here is a bit of art snark for your enjoyment.
• This is a website with some fun projects to make with the kids.
• Here is a very eco friendly way to be buried.
• Here are some fun things to try in your yard.
• I bet you think that there is only one way to tie your shoelaces. Here is 17 different ways.
  

Time marches on

My husband was discussing dinner options with me this afternoon. He had found some steaks buried deep in our freezer and figured that we should use them soon. Generally the day before any planned hospitalization we have an extra nice dinner since the meal quality will be sub par while the family member is in the hospital. My husband was thinking that we should break out the steaks.

I was also reminded that there was only one day before my mother-in-law arrived to help with Harry. It seems like we have one nice lazy Sunday before all sorts of stuff starts happening. Hopefully the kids will cooperate and make it a nice one. I still have some packing to do and a spare room to clean. Well at least I have steaks to look forward to.

Calgon take me away

My husband usually gets half days on Fridays which is very nice because we can get a head start on the weekend. Today I thought I would take the opportunity to run a few errands while the kids were napping. All I needed to do was make a quick trip to the grocery store for a few things that I had forgotten but I decided to hit a few thrift stores on the way home. I hadn't been able to go to any in awhile and I figured that Harry would be asleep for long time since his morning nap had been pretty short.

Hours later I came home to a very frustrated husband and a baby that was sobbing upstairs in his crib. Apparently I had been missed in a big way. I had been so missed that Harry decided to be cranky for the rest of the afternoon. He would cry every time his feet touched the ground. Feeding and pain medication eliminated his usual causes for that kind of grumpiness. The only thing that mollified him was a bath after dinner time. Then he finally decided to be mostly over my abandonment of him.

Since I had one child already pissed at me I decided to go for broke and shave Evan. His hair was getting a tad shaggy and I was itching to try out our new clippers on him. Evan did not hold his grudge as long as his brother. A cookie soothed his wounded pride.

I'm feeling better now

I could not resist yet another Monte Python title.

Yesterday was a busy but good day. It was the day I got to sit down and have a nice chat with Evan's heart surgeon. He really is a great guy and is not at all like the stereotypical ego driven surgeon. The thing I like best about him is that he listens to parents.

Evan was super excited to see Dr. B. I really don't think that he could possibly even remember him since it has been such a long time (thank heavens) since we saw him. Evan was equally excited to see the new nurse that is working with Dr. B and I know that they have not met. Maybe I should hire Evan out as a party greeter. He will greet guests with the excitement they deserve while you finish preparing for the party.

I pretty much knew everything that would be said at the meeting but it is nice to have the reassurances that come with it. I felt good to know that he would do everything in his power to make sure that Evan will come out of this surgery pink and alive.

It becomes clear

I think I know what Harry's future profession will be: plumber!

Harold the Destroyer strikes again

We broke quarantine to go out to dinner. It is my husband's 28th birthday so we wanted to have a nice celebration dinner. Well I think that my husband's birthday curse struck again because Harold the Destroyer emerged in full force. His first trick was to choke on a gold fish cracker and throw up a bit of the baby food that I had just fed him. That really didn't phase us a bit because Evan had done much much worse in his puking days.

Harold then upped the ante deciding that he could not be out shone by his brother. While I was getting a bit of the baked cinnamon apples from Evan's dinner on my fork for Harry to eat he grabbed my freshly filled not even a sip missing drink and threw it on the floor. That was not the first drink that he has spilled but it sure made the biggest mess. He the proceeded to watch all the reactions to his glorious mess and he even laughed a bit in triumph.

Look at that handsome baby in the mirror! I bet he gets to destroy all sorts of fun things.

The vampire emerges

As the sun sets and darkness falls I emerge from my lair ready to run my errands for the day. Evan is pretty much house bound to help prevent him from getting exposed to germs and getting sick while recovering from his surgery. So, we stay at home and I run errands at night when the kiddos are in bed. It is strange doing things at night that I generally do during the day. Different people are out at night. Some stores are more crowded and some are less crowded. Some errands are more fun with the kids and some are soo much easier.

I really missed having the kids with me when I went grocery shopping yesterday. I love pushing them around in the cart and having Evan "help" me put groceries on the belt at check out time. Plus there is the ego boost that comes from the checkers oohing and aaahing over how cute they are.

I didn't miss the kids one bit tonight when I made a book store and craft store run. The stores were very empty. I was able to browse to my heart's content with out a care in the world. I didn't have to worry about finding a shopping cart or pulling out the stroller. Grabby hands were not an issue. I wasn't able to avoid all evidence of children however. After I got back into the house I noticed cookie goo on my shoulder, a gift from Evan left while I was comforting him after his shot.

The support a mom contest

Kristen is doing a great contest over at her blog. I think this is a great idea because there are so many mothers out there that deserve a bit of time off to relax.

My nominee is Dream Mommy. She is struggling with infertility but has opened her heart and home to a foster child with special needs. She is choosing to start the process of adoption with a special little boy who as part of his issues has a cleft palette along with some developmental delays. She could have passed baby N by because he was not perfect. She could have figured that he had too much baggage because he is in the foster care system and is not officially up for adoption just yet. Instead she and her husband accepted the challenge that baby N presented and are seeing him through this tough time.

Tips from Awesome Mom

Since school is now back in session and as usual apparently short of money the fundraiser season is upon us. Now I don't want to seem like a Grinch or anything but the whole idea of the fundraiser annoys the heck out of me. I hate them big time. Those companies use cute kids to hawk their goods and only give a small percentage to the school. They avoid all sorts of labor laws and make a huge profit off of crappy merchandise.

I was contacted by a local child (by contacted I mean that the kid rang my door bell in the same manner that Evan does) who attempted to hawk goods to me. I was already annoyed that this person who should know better was "ding dong ding dong ding donging" my door bell in an annoying manner and interrupting my dinner preparation. I was also very worried that her annoying abuse of my door bell was going to wake up Harry who had gone down for a rare dinner prep time nap so that I could make dinner in relative peace. I guess she felt I was being rude when I didn't even let here get her spiel out of her mouth and I promptly took her to task about her rude abuse of my door bell and then simply shut my door again praying that the baby did not wake up.

My wonderful tip is this: If you want to have even the slimmest hope of maybe selling me some of your cheap crap, do not abuse my doorbell by ringing it like a two year old would. Ring it once and if I don't answer even though all my windows are open and you can hear me preparing dinner act as if I am not home and GO AWAY already. There is no law that says I have to answer the door and I can choose to ignore the door bell when I am otherwise busy and not expecting a dear friend to drop by.

My addiction

Hi! My name is Awesome Mom and I am a food hoarder.

As I was waiting for the checker to ring up all of my groceries today the checker asked me if the potato soup that I was buying was especially good. I was buying six cans after all. I was a bit startled at first but then told her that I used it in recipes.

The thing is that I don't even use it all that often. I will not even use one can of it this week. Why was I buying it then you may wonder. I love to stock up on items. If I use it on a regular basis, even on a semi regular basis I must have a large supply of that item. It is a compulsion. I hate running out of things and I hate having to buy items often.

This odd personality quirk stems from my LDS upbringing (either that or I am just truly odd). We are counseled to have a year supply of things on hand in case of emergency. That emergency could be an earthquake or it could be a sudden job loss. Either way we try and have an excess supply of items that we use on a regular basis on hand. My family does not have the room or the money for a full year supply of food just yet but I am slowly but surely working on it.

My food hoarding mentality is also a part of my frugal nature. If I see something on sale I will get a ton of whatever it is. That way the chances are greater that my supply will last until that item goes on sale again. Buying in bulk will also save you money because you are purchasing less packaging and more of the actual item. However if you don't use the item no matter how cheap it is you will not save money off of that purchase so think twice before you buy something. It does you no good if you buy five pounds of gummy bears and you don't even like gummy bears or get tired of them after the first pound.

With nasty sharp pointy teeth

Evan popped out his first tooth when he was four and a half months old. He became a bit of a shark destroying blankets that were knit. His tied quilt that his great grandma lovingly made for him was trashed. He was restricted to certain kinds of fleece blankets and quilts that were sewn. I have several throw blankets that only come out at night because they have teeth holes in them. Evan also liked to eat his stuffed animals that have that fuzzy hair on them, so those to were banished from the house.

Harry teethed later. He has not even looked at blankets for chewing on. He ignores the stuffed animals. Harry prefers the taste of human meat. He has bite marks on his thumbs from him chewing and sucking on them. I am mildly worried about infection but I know that realistically there is not much I can really do about it. He also has a taste for toes. I am very observant and have avoided being bitten but Harry has gone several times for my toes. Evan is not as quick about it and twice this weekend has been bitten hard on the toe. Luckily the skin was not broken but Evan was most upset about the whole incident and only calmed down after I bribed him with a tasty treat.

I think I am going to have to head to the pet store and get some bones for Harry. Maybe that will satisfy his chewing urge and then all our toes will be safe.

Pediatric Grand Rounds

Pediatric Grand Rounds is up at Breath Spa for Kids. As always there are many wonderful contributions.

Such is life

Life is sure filled with irony. Evan officially entered into his pre-surgery quarantine period on Wednesday. I am supposed to be keeping him away from all the germy people out in the world so that he doesn't get sick while he is recovering from his surgery. Of course that means that I must get sick. I have been battling some random virus that came my way and knocked me on my butt. The symptoms have not been all that severe just a bit of stuffy nose and some chest congestion. A low grade fever has been the worst and most draining part of the whole thing. I think that I am over the worst of it because I am feeling much better now. Hopefully I will be able to survive a stir crazy toddler. At least he is very in love with his train table and is still very entertained by it.

Harold the Destroyer

I am fighting the good fight against entropy. I know that the universe tends towards disorder. I get it, I really do. However I am having huge issues with it right now because the level of entropy in my house is getting to be overwhelming. You may wonder what is making the entropy in my house a million times worse that it was previously. Harold the Destroyer is now living in my home and destroying it faster than I can maintain it. I spent all day just trying to straighten up the boy's room which should have taken me a few hours at most.

I can't believe how into everything Harry is. Either Evan was a saint of a child or I don't remember his infancy very well, because I don't remember it being this bad. Harry takes everything to the next level. Evan will empty a toy bin. Harry will empty all the bins and pull all of the bins down. Harry seems to find things to take apart that Evan never even imagined. We are childproofing our house all over again.

To top all of this destructive behaviour off Harry decided to pick today to show off his mad stair climbing skilz. That means that our lax baby gating of the stairs is going to have to ramp back up to obsessive in the extreme. I am so not ready for this!

Argh!

I am starting to feel sorry that I switched over to blogger beta. Now I can't comment on any non-beta blogger blog. Frustration abounds. So if I am not comment on your blog you know why.

Good

We had a wonderful weekend. It was perfectly lazy. We didn't go anywhere except for church and to the gas station to fill up for the trip home. Saturday I devoted to knitting and Sunday was a book day. In between I took naps and went to bed early.

My darling husband forgot to put our play pen in the car so we had to improvise our sleeping arrangements. I decided to put Evan to bed on the trundle bed in one of the spare bedrooms. It lay on the floor pretty low so Evan falling off would not be a big deal. Then I would lay on the bed with him until he went to sleep. This strategy actually worked very well, so well in fact that we are going to transition him to a twin mattress in short order. We had been thinking about bunk beds for the boys but are not sure how that will work out with Evan's non working hand.

One of Evan's favorite toys at grandma and grandpa's house was some sunglasses. I snapped a few highly hilarious pictures to show to his prom date.

This one is my all time favorite! He just look so hilarious.

Here is a cute one of Harry, lest any one accuse me of playing favorites.

Bad

Evan had rotten teeth. His front teeth have cavities on them to be more precise. I am feeling like a horrible mother because I put off taking him to the dentist for so long. Because of his age he will have to be sedated. Because of his heart it will have to be general anesthesia and he will have to be carefully monitored. That means that the fillings will have to be done at a major hospital. *sigh* This whole thing turned out to be a much bigger ordeal than I had anticipated.

I am not sure when or where even this all will take place. Evan's heart surgery is taking top billing. I am definitely being a bigger meanie about brushing. I am not letting him get away with a few half hearted swipes because he is throwing a temper tantrum. Mean mommy is in da house.

Fun Links

Here is another addition of fun links. We are going away for the long weekend, so I thought I would leave you with something fun to entertain you since I know that if I don't manage to post anything you will all be desolate. How is that for a nice long run on sentence!

• Are you stuck on a post? Are you having a hard time coming up with a witty beginning to your novel? This will help get rid of your writer's block in no time flat.
• Have you ever wanted a special and unique cake for your wedding or special occasion? Here is a truly unique cake.
• If you love Jane Austen as much as I do then this is the place for you. I heart Mr. Darcey.
• If you have a cat this might amuse you.
• I am so creeped out by this, it just seems so wrong on so many levels.
• Bring out the inner geek in your baby.
• This is of interest to mothers of boys but would also be helpful to anyone that lives with a male.
• It is never too early to start thinking about Halloween.
• An amusing video with an awesome explosion at the end.
• How smart are you?