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

When bad food happens to good people

Disclaimer: by reading this disclaimer you absolve Awesome Mom from all responsibility should you choose to actually attempt to feed your family any of the following recipes.

We are going to enter the way back machine. We will go back to a very carefree time when Awesome Mom was a young tyke who was totally innocent about the awfulness heading her way.

One Christmas my very health obsessed grandmother gifted my father with a recipe book called Recipes to Lower Your Fat Thermostat. My father was a tad pudgy and heading towards high blood pressure according to my grandmother, so in an attempt to head off this descent into bad health she gave him the book and made him promise to make some recipes from it.

The recipes in the book were low fat, low taste and generally just plain awful. It was pretty clear that the author had not actually taste tested her own recipes or she would not have produced the book in the first place. The only recipe that was any good was a chicken noodle soup that my father dumped salt in.

To illustrate my point about the awfulness I am putting up two of the more memorable recipes. The first is a lovely little concoction called bean loaf. It should never be made with kidney beans as the texture of it will be similar to something you would find in a diaper after a stomach virus had hit your child (that is about as delicately as I can put it). On a good day my sisters and I would call it dog poo. Sadly my parents actually served this to us several times before our whines eventually got it off the menu. The next recipe is called Unusual Oatmeal Soup. It is very aptly named as it has a very unusual appearance, texture and taste. Sadly that really is not a good thing. When this gem was present at the table, even my mother (who tried to present a united food front with my father) refused to eat it. This was never served again but it became a family joke that has lived on through the years.

Bean Loaf

3 C cooked beans
1 chopped onion
1/2 C chopped mushrooms
1/4 C wheat germ
1 C grated carrots
2 egg whites
3 T tomato juice
3 T catsup
To taste seasoning with out salt
1 C Beef bouillon

Use pinto, lima, black, garbanzo or the bean of your choice. Grind or chop the cooked beans. See, it starts off bad texture wise and never recovers

Satue onions and mushrooms until tender. Add to chopped beans.

Combine wheat germ, carrots, egg whites, tomato juice, catsup and seasonings with bean mixture in a large bowl. The mixture should be thick. Pat it into a non-stick loaf pan or mold onto a non-stick baking sheet

Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. Pour a little beef bouillon over bean loaf during cooking to keep mixture moist. If you have to do that then maybe you should not be making this at all Serve if you dare.

Unusual Oatmeal Soup

1 C sliced onion
1/2 C sliced mushrooms
2 Cloves of minced garlic
1 C rolled oats
7 C chicken stock
2 1/2 C stewed tomatoes this is where the recipe really looses it for me since I am not a huge fan of stewed tomatoes aka peeled eyeballs
to taste seasoning with out salt
1 C skim milk or chalk water as my husband likes to call it

Saute onions, mushrooms and garlic until tender. They don't say what you should saute it in but you can bet it is not butter.

Stir in oats, stock and tomatoes.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Season and stir in milk I really don't get why you would stir in the seasonings last since in theory you would want them in there longer so the flavors blend. Serve hot and watch your family disown you.

Reading overload

Two of my friends and I had a get together yesterday. We got talking on reading and I ended up coming home with a nice pile of borrowed books. It was quite fun to talk about reading since most of my other friends are not quite as literary. These books are geared to the younger set but are good reads any way. It makes a nice change the giant thick tomes that I have been reading of late.

The book I am currently reading from my new stack is called Artemis Fowl. This book is wonderfully written and very enjoyable. I had avoided the whole young adult reading scene in my youth preferring the more weighty works that were in my father's book collection. I am now finding out that I missed out on some great reads but thankfully I have friends that are able to point me in the right direction. I am now of the opinion that well written works that are supposedly directed to children are still very much worth reading now that I am an adult.

Pediatric Grand Rounds

Pediatric Grand Rounds is up at Unintelligent Design. I am hosing the next edition of Pediatric Grand Rounds so start thinking now of what you would like to submit. I am not above asking for submissions. In honor of Valentine's Day and Congenital Heart Defect Awareness day (which are both on the same day) it will be heart themed.

Kiddos

Evan has a new obsession. I bought a pair of rain boots at the thrift store. They were a couple of sizes too big but I figured he could grow into them. He insisted on trying them on at home and insisted on clomping around them all afternoon. Upon waking up this morning the only thing he could think about was putting on those boots and doing more clomping. He is quite cute in them but I will have to get some thicker socks if he is going to be able to walk in them outside.


Harry's obsession is a figure that we got with a bunch of recently purchased mega blocks. The instant the block box is open he snatches this girl out and pops her right into his mouth like a lolly pop. If you try and take it from him because you are frightened he will trip and jam it down his throat he will shriek a horrible shriek that will turn your brain into mush.


Harry had his first bloody nose today during nursery. It sure was much nicer than Evan's gusher. Harry was sitting on a chair for singing time and suddenly decided to get off the chair. He fell flat on his face but the bleeding did not start until a bit later. Since I was not at home I could not try the tip my sister gave me but pinching the nose for a little bit stopped the bleeding quite quickly.

More about knitting

I thought it would be fun to share pictures of the delicious yarn that I recently purchased. It was unfortunately *cough* $11 a skien but since it is for my mother who went through such immense pain to give birth to me I guess the price was worth it. The fact that the yarn is different thicknesses presented a bit of a challenge because it had a tenancy to roll. I am having to work it in the garter stitch to help keep my work flat.

I am planning on making stripes of three different colors pink, creamy white and navy blue. I am going to vary the thickness of the stripes and the order just to keep it fun. Here is a picture of what I have so far. I had to start over a couple of times since I cast on too many stitches the first time and the second time was to fix the rolling issues. I think that this one will come together much quicker than my first scarf since the variations are in the yarn it's self and not in how I am knitting it. I am also using bigger knitting needles this time which also speeds things up.

Chelle gave me the link of a really great knitting website. For those forlorn readers that have been meaning to learn how to knit this is a great place to start. They have videos and pictures of all the basics in knitting and once you master those there are how to videos for more advanced things.

Yarn Snob

That is right I am a yarn snob. Last night I went the local craft store (with out kids whee!) to pick up some yarn for my mother's scarf. While wandering around trying to decide which one to use I noticed that I was not even touching the cheap acrylic yarn. The acrylic had a much greater range of colors which would have been great for the scarf I had in my mind but I just could not stand to even pick the awful stuff up.

I gravitated to the wool yarn. Wool is my all time favorite knitting medium. I love the feel of it as I work with it. I think that when I win the lottery and become filthy rich I will have my own flock of sheep and have all the wool I could dream of right at my fingertips.

How nerdy am I?

This is how nerdy I am. It is a link to the funniest Star Trek themed YouTube video I have ever seen.

And the winner is........

The winner of the lovely scarf hand knit by yours truly is Vicky!!! The runner up prize goes to my mother Fancypantsnancy. Harry picked her but did not follow directions and bring me the slip of paper, he just put it in his mouth. Evan was a much better listener and brought his slip of paper faster and with out putting it into his mouth. I had already been planning on knitting my mother a scarf since she seemed to really want one even though all three of my younger sisters knit and I had assumed that she was all scarved out.

To claim your prize Vicky you will have to email me with your address and I will send it over.

Breakfast part 2

Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter my contest. I will do the drawing tomorrow morning and announce the winner then.

Thanks you for all of your suggestions on breakfast for the kids. My hands are a bit tied with some traditional breakfast items. Evan is on a lowish sodium diet now that he has had his final corrective surgery. It is very important that he not retain water since it generally collects in the lungs and that is bad news for Evan. We have to keep an eye on his salt intake so a lot of the salty options like bacon or even eggs with salt are out.

I bought some English muffins at the grocery store yesterday. This morning I tried scrambled eggs with some cheese which was not very appreciated. Evan has gobbled up fried eggs before, but I guess the different form threw him a bit.

Someone asked what apple butter is. Apple butter is kind of like apple sauce only it is thicker and has been run through a blender so it is smooth. Sugar and spices are also added to it. I am using it instead of jams or jellies.

I am not sure why I was feeling so dissatisfied with the lack of breakfast options since I have little trouble feeding the kids chicken nuggets almost every day. Evan only occasionally gets a peanut butter sandwich to add variety to his lunches. Harry has turkey meatballs now and then.

A real contest

Scroll down for new posts

Zephra, Shinga and Vicky were the winners of my fake contest. They all guessed the quote correctly, before I posted the comments which contained the answer. If you really want I will send out pictures of the kids but you will have to email me your addresses since I may be great at trivia but I can't guess addresses.

My fake contest and the fact that I finally finished my scarf after working on it for over a year (off and on) made me decide to throw a real contest. That is right, the prize is a magenta wool scarf hand knitted by yours truly. I am willing to ship international so all my non US readers feel free to enter. All you will have to do is enter one comment a day on each post that I write for the next week. That will give people plenty of time to get their name in if they so choose. That also means that I will have to come up with a post every day but I think I can handle it. All I ask is that the comment is more than a lame "hi". I would like a tiny bit of substance since I did spend many hours making the scarf. I will randomly draw names.

Breakfast

I am stuck in a breakfast rut. I serve my poor kids the same few things every morning because they are simple to get together. I am generally a cereal gal so me having to think up anything more complex than that first thing in the morning is hard. Right now we are on a whole wheat toast spread with apple butter streak. I pair that with yogurt raisins and call it good. I guess what I am trying to say is Help!! Give me some ideas about what else is out there for breakfast. I need tips on what to feed the kiddos. I am sure they will be quite happy with expanded breakfast options.

Too cute!

One of the best things about increasing the humidity on our living room is that Harry's cute little curls stick around much longer. Generally his hair gets crazy and frizzy looking if it had not recently been wet down. Enjoy the wonderful curl pictures I took this afternoon.

Harry's first blog entry

mnnnnnnnn jnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn vbgggggbbbbbbbbbbbnnnnnnnnnnnnmmllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllk bbb vvvvvvvvcvhgnmnhjjjj

Which translates to: Dude please some and rescue me from this crazy woman! She does all sorts of mean things to me like getting me dressed and making me sit down in the bath tub. Help!!!

evanPod

Way back when the nanos were first out on the market I joked with my sister E that she should get Evan a nano. It was the perfect size for him and after all he deserved all the cool new toys. She refused but did say that once he would tolerate headphones that she would then get him his own nano. Well Auntie E where is his iPod?

Warning!

When you are shopping for a humidifier do not take your train obsessed sons with you. You will walk out of Target with a humidifier that you know very little about except that it is in the shape of Thomas the Tank Engine. Curse those pleading brown eyes and the giggles of glee.

The Dentist

Yesterday we finally had the long awaited dental appointment that would get the ball rolling so that Evan could have his cavities taken care of. I was rather apprehensive especially after all the issues we had even getting the appointment. To top things off I was not even sure our dental insurance would even cover the visit. According to the website they have no providers in Big City which seemed really odd to me especially when they had a ton of providers in my small town area.

We got there and were checking in. Evan started whining which worried me even more but it turned out that Evan wanted out of the stroller to play with the mega lego blocks. We have them at home and they are quite popular with the boys. The student dentist we saw was nice and through. She had a bunch of pictures of different heart defects on a page and wanted me to pick out Evan's heart defect. I laughed and told her that Evan's heart was unique which is why I had put complex heart defect on the medical forms.

The exam went exactly the way I expected. Evan hated it when they were looking in his mouth but was otherwise quite well behaved. Having the cavities filled under general anesthesia was recommended due to his age. Proper diet and oral hygiene was stressed. They were eager to make sure that I scheduled an appointment with out dentist up here for Harry (which I had already discussed with the dentist). I could tell that they were used to seeing worse mouths with kids that had very poor oral hygiene.

After we bought some sandwiches and had a picnic in a local park. One of the advantages of this dental school is that it is right next door to the hospital that Evan goes to for all his heart stuff so we already were familiar with the area. It was quite tough to push the stroller filled with the kids up the steep hills. I guess I need to get in better shape. The day ended up being a long day but turned out much better than I had thought it would.

Picture post

It was a frosty and very chilly morning yesterday.

Harry wearing the cashmere hat Auntie E knit for Evan last winter.

Hat hair is so much fun

This was supposed to be a picture of the boys sharing and taking turns. I wanted to have it just in case they never share anything again. Sadly, I did not grab the camera fast enough and the brief moment was gone. At least they are not screaming and crying in this picture.

Harry making mommy jealous with his bending and balancing skills. If I bent over like that I would have fallen on my face.

Quite the morning

This morning Evan had a bloody nose. I was trying to get lunch done (so I guess is was more afternoonish) and Evan was having a fit that it was not going fast enough. I send him off to sit down so that he could calm down when the next thing I know he has blood all over the front of his shirt and big fat drops more coming out of his nose.

It is not easy to stop a bloody nose in a very reluctant toddler who would have been happy to just sit there and bleed. He did not want me to put any sort of tissue up there and was not wanting me to pinch his nose shut. I was glad that my neighbor was not home because she might have thought I was murdering someone the noise was so loud. I had to restrain his entire body and pinch the nostrils shut, no easy feat now that he is getting bigger and stronger. Once he exhausted himself I was able to pack some toilet paper in his nose and ace bandage his good arm to his side. He then calmly watched the computer screen saver while I finished lunch. I wanted to make good and sure that a clot had formed since I did not fancy a trip to the Emergency Room.

I think this whole event was a combination of bad genetics and blood thinners. I checked Evan's INR, which was fine, so it was caused by the dry winter air. My husband and I were plagued by bloody noses as kids. I have grown out of it mostly but sometimes my husband will still randomly start bleeding. I emailed Evan's cardiologist and I got some great tips to hopefully prevent the next event.

Excuse me, while I run off to mop the blood off of my floor. CSI would have a field day in my house.

A classic blunder

Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha...

I am adding another to the list of classic blunders. Never go up against Awesome Mom in trivia, especially science fiction trivia. I seem to have a wicked memory for all sorts of odd facts. This is something that my husband discovered today.

As I mentioned above I am very much into science fiction literature and tv shows. I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation along with other sundry science fiction shows. I learned to discover actors that appear in more than one show even if in one show they were heavily coated in makeup and odd masks. My husband checked out the entire first season of Farscape from the base library and we have been watching it all week. He is also a fan of Stargate (a show which I like but would not go out of my way to watch). We have to get all of our sci fi shows in reruns because we are too cheap to spend the money for the good cable so we are not really up on the latest shows. We had not seen an episode of Stargate in awhile but there happened to be one on tv and imagine my surprise when one of the new main character of that show looked awfully familiar. The main character was Ben Browder who was also the main character of Farscape.

My husband was incredulous. I had to finally look online to get him to stop denying the obvious. I had no idea why he would not believe me since it was not like Ben Bowder was in any alien makeup at all in either show. Stargate and Farscape also share another common actress Claudia Black who has a reoccurring but semi-minor role in Stargate but is the love interest for Ben Browder's character in Farscape.

He then moved on to discussing Star Trek with me. He said that we should add it to our collection of TV shows. He mentioned that there were probably tons of seasons to collect. I of course had to beg to differ. I knew that the Star Trek had not even run for the five seasons that were hinted at with the whole "five year mission" in the introduction. I was not entirely sure exactly how many seasons had run but I knew it was not the seven seasons my husband was thinking of (which of course any trekkie knows is the standard length for the spin off Star Trek shows excepting Enterprise) . Wikipedia solved that argument by stating that the show had run for three years. Score another one for Awesome Mom. Who knew there was still some brains left in me after having two kids? I sure did not.

I am giving an autographed picture of my kids to whomever can guess what movie the above quote came from.

Pediatric Grand Rounds

Pediatric Grand Rounds is up at Parenting Solved. I particularly enjoyed the posts submitted by Sandy Szwarc who has a blog called Junkfood Science. It reminds us all to be a bit more critical of what read in the news.

Laundry and pictures

The Laundress was bemoaning her seemingly enormous pile of laundry so to make her feel better I am posting a picture of my own pile of laundry that is awaiting folding. Of course after I took the picture I enlisted the help of my husband in removing said pile from my hall way but, for the record, I will admit to it have been in existence for several days. I added Harry into the picture so that I could simultaneously appeal to the segment of my readership that only comes here to look at pictures of my cute children.



Old things have become new again. My sister E bought a couple of pop up tent type things for Evan as a gift for his second birthday. He had fun going in and out of them but eventually they were put under the stairs to make room for other larger toys. While I was trying to do a bit of organizing under the stairs I pulled them back out and they became an instant hit. Harry got a bit rough with them knocking them over so I had to clothespin a blanket to them to help keep them in place. The blanket makes them seem more cave like so it only adds to the fun. Evan also likes to bounce his sippy cup on the top of them.

Bust my buffers!

Apparently I have almost missed delurking week here in the blog world. Luckily it ends tomorrow so I still have a bit of time to try and squeeze a few comments out of my readers. Please leave a comment or question even. You would not want to make Evan or Harry (possibly both) cry. If there is something that you are dying to know about me feel free to make a request, the worst I can do is say no after all.

Transitioning your child off of tube feeding

I have received several Google hits on this subject. I thought that I would share the things that worked for Evan in the hopes that someone may find it useful. This is what worked for us, each child is an individual and what worked for us may not work for someone else. It is important that the child's GI doctor is consulted when you make drastic changes in your child's feeding schedule and diet.

Evan was not a hard case. His eating issues stemmed from several different sources. His number one issue was his heart defect. It is hard to develop much of an appetite when your heart is working hard to make sure that everything is being oxygenated properly. He also had to deal with reflux when he was an infant (he spit up a lot and very frequently). Small frequent meals were all he could manage during the day. He would not show any sings of hunger so I had to keep him on a schedule or he would go hours with out eating. He made up the calories he was not taking in during the day with a tube feeding while he was sleeping at night. All this led to him having very little stomach capacity. If he attempted to eat a lot of something that he liked his stomach could not handle the large amounts and would end up throwing up. We had to do something to stretch his stomach before we could get him off of tube feeds.

Evan's doctor and I decided to switch from feeding him a small amount per hour over a long period of time at night to giving him bolus feeds (a larger amount over a shorter period of time) during the day time. We would gradually speed up the bolus feed and increase how much we gave at one time. A lot of throwing up ensued when mommy or daddy pushed him too much during a bolus feed but eventually he was able to take eight ounces of Pedisure over a half hour. The doctor had deemed this our ultimate goal since kids his age were able to take in that much on a regular basis.

Once we knew that his stomach had the capacity we started dropping how much Pedisure he was getting. As we did so his weight was carefully watched so that we could see if he was compensating for the calories that he was not getting from his tube. Every time he was weighed I would hold my breath hoping that he was still gaining. Every time he was which made me very happy.

You can see that Evan's transition off of the tube was rather smooth. We did not have any oral aversions or strong texture issues to deal with. I think that my insistence that he eat orally during the day helped that since, even with tube fed kids, oral stimulation is still very important. I also think that having him get the feel of real food in his mouth was important. A dietitian that I saw to get ideas on how to boost Evan's calorie intake wanted me to feed him more pedisure. I did not want to have Evan on only pedisure since as good as a formula can be it is still artificial. I felt the he needed a variety of real food in his diet to keep him healthy and happy.

I hope that this is helpful to someone some day. I think that with out reading about the things other parents were trying I would have gone insane with worry and frustration especially since early on we ended up with a GI doctor that was not very interested in helping us transition Evan off of the tube. Once we got a more caring doctor that was willing to work with me and listen to me things really started taking off. Evan is now a pretty normal picky toddler that hates to eat his vegetables.

Evan enjoying a tube feed while watching a video. It was the only way we could keep him still in his chair long enough to give him his bolus feed.

Hi Honey!

I hope that today is much busier today that it was yesterday. It must stink to be so bored at work that you have nothing better to do than read my blog for entertainment. You might want to cover your tracks so that your buddies at work do not know that you can fit a whopper in your belly button.

Whee

I have had the best Sunday ever! Well maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but it was pretty dang good. After an entire year of going to church when my kids should be napping the change to the 9-12 schedule was very welcome.

The biggest drawback to the new schedule presented it's self when I got up in the morning. My husband after a long discussion of our wake up time in the morning had not actually set his alarm. Luckily the kids got up early enough that we were not running around like madmen trying to get to church on time. Actually, not having to be up at a specific time is something that I see as a perk of being a stay at home mother. It is a bit annoying to have to be up every week at the same time. Waa I am such a whiner, I know.

Evan was thrown off by the new order to the meetings. He is used to coming in and going straight to nursery for two hours of playing. He started crying when we went right to the chapel for Sacrament meeting. He was inconsolable until I pulled the yogurt raisins from the diaper bag. We continued to stuff the kids with snacks and actually were able to sit through the entire meeting with minimal disturbances. Even did let out a loud "uh oh" right before the sacrament prayer. It was all I could do to not laugh out loud. I could see the people in front of us trying to hold in laughter too.

Nursery was lovely! I did not have to clean up after the ward that met before us since we are first now. I also did not have to worry as much about sobbing cranky toddlers. Towards the end the kids were getting tired but it was not the normal over tiredness that I had been dealing with in the past.

The best part was coming home at a decent time. We were able to have a nice lunch and then everyone (except for my non nap taker husband) took a lovely Sunday afternoon nap. We are now all happily playing and relaxing before the start of dinner. I think next year we will just start going to the other ward when they have our lovely morning church time because I love it that much.

Gah!

I love my husband, I really do but I am soo ready for him to go back to work already. I want to get my schedule back and stop all the lazing around. When my husband is home I am much more tempted to stay up too late since I know that he will get up with the kids. Now that Harry is on all solids I know that I will even get to sleep in some (Harry would not take a bottle from my husband unless he was starving to death so sleeping in was not an option for me). We also hardly go anywhere when my husband is at home. My morning excursions often revolve around walking with one of my mommy friends so a husband coming with makes for awkward conversation. I am looking forward to Monday.

Awesome Mom rocks the house

This morning

Ring ring! Husband answers the phone while I am brushing my teeth and then hands it to me.

"Hi this is Really Annoying Dental School. We are calling to reschedule Evan's appointment (which took me months to even get since they are ultra slow with the whole paperwork thing). We are going to be short staffed that week."

Awesome Mom hastily spits out the toothpaste and walks over to the calender thinking that the new appointment would be a mere few days later.

"The earliest we have is the 29th of January"

Awesome Mom is happy that she spit out the toothpaste because she would have spit out any liquid in her mouth due to her great surprise. She starts getting angry and mentally puts on her battle gear.

"Is that the earliest you have? We have been waiting for this appointment for a long time."

Awesome Mom's first attack is weak, she is trying to feel out her opponent's strengths and weaknesses.

"Yes that is. "

The opponent deftly blocks Awesome Mom's attack and prepares to make one of her own.

"We tried calling you in December but no one answered" she smugly added.

Awesome Mom smells weakness and goes in for the kill.

"Why didn't I get a message on my answering machine then? I would have called you back if I had known you wanted to talk to me about rescheduling"

Awesome Mom's attack is vicious and brutal. Her opponent is sorely wounded by the logic of Awesome Mom's attack.

Silence and then "Well I can highlight you and if there is a cancellation that day we will give you a call."

The victory is not as strong as Awesome Mom had hoped but she allows her opponent to leave the battle arena saving some face.

A little while later

Ring Ring. Awesome Mom answers the phone.

"This is Really Annoying Dental School. I found an opening the next week at the same time as your original appointment, Do you want that appointment?"

Awesome Mom smiles and the crowd goes wild. She emerges victorious from the bloody battle.

My darlin Clementine

I have never been a big fan of oranges or other types of citrus. I like lemons and limes but they are not the kind of fruit that you peel and eat. Oranges just had too much white stuff left on them after you peeled them. My obsessive peeling personality would not let me eat them until they were completely free of the white gunk. Grapefruit was just....... well we will not even go there. I do buy them now and then because my husband loves to peel them and eat them like oranges.

On a bit of a lark I bought a few tangerines for the kids to eat. I was wanting to branch out a bit in the kinds of fruit we ate and tangerines were perfectly kid sized. The big downfall I discovered was that they had seeds that had to be removed before the kids could eat them. When I heard about clementines (which are seedless tangerines) I was overjoyed. It was the perfect solution to the whole seed problem.

Evan lost interest in tangerine eating just after I made the trek to Trader Joe's to buy a box of clementines. Harry decided that he still liked the juice but had no actual interest in eating the whole thing so I was left with a bunch of fruit that I did not want to go to waste. I decided to take the plunge and eat one. They were especially bred so that they were easy to peel. That meant that there was very little white gunk to peel off. I took one bite and was in heaven. I am now a citrus convert and am happily eating my way through the box.

The first day of the year

It is the first day of the new year and I think that we are off to a pretty good start. I already have one goal mostly achieved off of my list of goals for the year thanks to my darling husband who was looking for something in the horror that was under our stairs and decided to clean while he was looking. I will go and tidy up a tad more and call it good. Mostly I think we need to have a better place for all of our throw blankets (you know what I am talking about right? The smallish blankets that you snuggle under when you are watching tv). We have to keep them hidden from Evan who likes to eat them. They also seem to be breeding because we started out with two and now we have four.

I also went walking today after slacking completely during the holidays. Harry is still doing his two nap thing so I was able to just take Evan along in our single stroller (my husband is still on holiday hours at work and only has to work one day this week so he stayed home and played computer games while Harry slept. Of course Harry woke up the instant I got back from the walk. My husband lives a charmed life sometimes). It was amazing how much faster I could walk when not pushing 50+ pounds of children in a boat of a double stroller. The double stroller is nice but it is a monster to turn. It was also neat being able to listen to my wonderful shiny iPod while walking. I felt like showing all the people I passed my new toy.

I hope that this great day is a sign of things to come.

Evan playing tonight while I was making dinner. This is a super nifty toy that my parents bought for Evan. Thomas will follow the tracks that you put on the mat and can actually search for the track if he looses it which happens often since Evan loves to sit on the mat instead of by the mat. Sometimes Thomas has to take "naps" because the music drives mommy nuts.