Better and better

A few weeks before Evan's surgery and several weeks after we missed church. We had to keep Evan from the icky germs. I was not all that upset because Sacrament meeting had become awful. Most of the time both of us were out with a cranky kid so it was pretty much a wash out.

In the weeks that we have been gone Harry has matured enough that he is now able to stay in the chapel for the majority of the time. Evan also is seeming to be more willing to stay in when Harry stays in. Of course all this happens a mere two months before the time change in January. I am so ready for the nine to noon time slot. Get up go to church, get home and have lunch.

There is a bit of irony however. Today was fast Sunday (we skip two meals and then during the main meeting we have people from the congregation come up and speak briefly about their testimonies) and sometimes people get off track (well actually it is more like people frequently get off track). We had one nice lady go wandering in a big way. The worst part of it was that she did not speak much English so we had to hear her speak and then the translation. That was when I would have been happy to have the distraction of having a fussy child.

Pediatric Grand Rounds

Pediatric Grand rounds is up at Tales from the Womb. Go check it out!

Is something missing?

I am at a bit of a loss right now. Tonight for the first time ever Evan did not have to take any medications. He is in the process of being weaned off of his diuretics (right now he gets one dose every other day) and his INR was high on Friday so he is off his coumadin for a bit while his level drops. I am having a hard time shaking the feeling that something is missing.

We have steps

I managed to trick Harry into taking a few steps this morning. Despite my fears that he would walk early Harry is a remarkably reluctant walker. I can't even get him to hold onto my fingers and walk. I try and get him to the middle of the room and stand him up but he will just jelly leg it and sit down. I think if Harry really wanted to he could have been running around before now. Lazy kid!

Things I think about while walking

I really think that our priorities as a society are totally screwed up. The things we think are just so important often puzzle me. I wonder how we can get pushed so far off track and into this odd place.

One example of this is pets. I love animals. I think it would be great to have a pet that our family can properly care for. That said I have to wonder about pet owners. When Evan was in the hospital I love to watch Animal Planet with him. One of the shows that we like to watch is Emergency Vets. I enjoy the heart warming stories of vets saving lives. Sometimes my enjoyment turns to disgust.

On a recent episode an older dog was having heart problems. The vets then proceed to do an echocardiogram on this dog. This is the same test that has been frequently done on Evan to check out his heart and make sure things are OK in there. This is an expensive test and the cost for the equipment alone is insane. Why the heck is something like this being done on a dog? There are people that are not getting the health care they need and yet some owner spends the big bucks to get one for an old dog.

I know what it is like to have an attachment to an animal. When we moved to San Diego after my husband got out of boot camp we adopted a beautiful black cat that I named Norbert. He was to be my buddy while my husband left me alone in a strange city for three months. A few months before we were to leave the city and move up to our present location Norbert started throwing up his food.

Like a good owner I took him to the vet. A few tests were run and diet changes were made with out any effect. The next step was supposed to be an ultrasound to see if Norbert had cancer. All the easy fixes had been tried and we were down to this hard choice. I opted to refuse the ultrasound because of the cost. Even if we had done the test and it had shown cancer then I would have ended up putting the poor cat to sleep any way but then I would have been a lot poorer.

There is no way I would have wanted to try chemo for a cat. It only gets you a few more months and the animal would not even understand why you were putting them through all this awful stuff. I loved Norbert but I also loved him enough to end his suffering and not force him to hang on for my own selfish reasons.

I also can't believe how much pet crap there is out there. Have you seen the insane amount of pet clothing there is now? There are people that hardly have any clothing and people are wasting money on an animal that already has a fur coat attached to them. My mind is completely boggled. The biggest splurge I made for Norbert was to buy a Christmas collar for him. Dressing up an animal (unless you are a young child playing dress up with your dog *blushes*) is just nutso and demeaning to the poor animal.

I will get off my soap box now. Thanks for listening to my ranting.

I voted!

I am an absentee voter so I bit the bullet and filled out my ballot. I like voting because I feel like I am doing my civic duty but I also kind of hate it. I research, I see the commercials and I read the newspaper articles yet still feel so overwhelmed and undereducated about the issues. The big issues also tend to drown out the smaller local issues. It is hard to decide between two candidates when I have never even seen their names before. How are you supposed to choose when all you know about them is their names?

Rain

We are having the first really good rain storm of the rainy season. I am so excited that weather has finally returned. A summer of hot, cool and hotter with no rain in sight gets old pretty quickly. I grew up in Washington so I am a rain fanatic. I am going to have to find some sort of rain cover for the stroller so that we can still go out on walks. I had thought it somewhat safe to venture out this morning but had to turn back not too far into our walk.

Oh, the humanity!

I am not sure what I did in my past life, but it must have been pretty bad. I have been cursed with the ultimate drama queen of a son. I swear that everything is a crisis when it comes to Evan. I am about ready to tear my hair out if I hear any more whining. Better yet I will poke my ears out so I can live the rest of my life blissfully free from whining. The sad thing is that Harry seems to be following in his brother's footsteps.

This is Evan mid temper tantrum (yes, I know I am a horrible mother for taking pictures of my crying kid rather than actually, well I don't know, maybe comforting him). You may wonder why the histrionics from such a sweet and loving toddler. I gave him a cookie! Yes, you read that right. A fifteen minute temper tantrum was touched off by the simple act of a mother giving her son a cookie. The same cookies that the day before he had been happily eating.

Of course this was not an isolated incident. In the course of me trying to get the kids dressed and out of the house for a morning walk my ears were inundated with whining. I was getting them dressed. I was making them lay down and not letting them play. I looked at them funny. I dared shut the door when I went to the bathroom. I went upstairs to get a pair of socks for me. I checked my email. I made them move out of the way so that I could get the stroller into the living room. The list goes on.

After the whole cookie incident and nap time Harry had his own extended freak out. I went upstairs to make a phone call shortly after my husband got home from work. Harry proceeded to breath hold and cry the entire time (which is why I went upstairs in the first place). I then decided to fold some laundry while I gained the courage to face my very insulted son. How dare I actually be in a different room from him?

Some day are better than others but every day is pretty chock full of whining and crying. The little devils are super cute and sweet when we are out of the house. If I stay in for the morning I invariably end up wanting to run and hide from the whiny monsters. I wonder if it is too late to sell them? I bet I could get a good price for them and buy me some nice and quiet kids.

Evidence of my awfulness. I enjoyed a snack of cookies and milk while my first born son was sobbing his eyes out.

Harry, the awful brother that he is had no qualms about enjoying his cookie.

This picture is for you, Mom. Harry doing chew and show.

Eventually Evan decided that maybe cookies were not all that horrible and maybe he could possibly eat one with out anything bad happening to him.

Halloween wrap up

Another year with no Trick or Treaters. I think that my neighborhood must be one of the ones that is "bad" so no one comes by. The first year we lived here I bought a large bag of candy thinking that we would be out by the end of the night. Not a kid knocked on the door. The next year I bought a smaller bag with the same results. Not needing to have a bunch of candy sitting around we decided to not buy any this year.

This whole not having trick or treaters is quite disappointing to me. When I reached a certain age handing out candy became the biggest part of Halloween. I was too old to go out on my own so my joy came from seeing all the younger kids dressed up. I feel kind of cheated that no one is coming.

We did not take Evan out trick or treating this year, so I guess we were part of the problem. I just did not think he was really ready just yet. I tried really hard to teach him to say "trick or treat" even bribing him with chocolate chips. It was no good he was not going for it one bit. He would happily say any number of things but trick or treat was not one of them. Maybe next year!

Happy Halloween

I am putting this up as a fun Halloween decoration for my blog. Scroll down for new posts.

I am in love!

Awhile back I switched to Firefox as my primary browser. I had heard that it was much better than Internet Explorer but had been too lazy to find out on my own. I now wonder why the heck it took me so long. Firefox is awesome!! It has tons of extensions ready for download so that you can completely customize your browser with tools that are useful to you.

As if that was not cool enough a new version of Firefox came out. It has spell check! So when you are typing a comment on someone's blog it automatically checks your spelling for you! No special spell check program needed. Now you can look like a spelling genius. So if you are still using the ultra lame Internet Explorer you really ought to give Firefox a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Star Trek

I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with my family. I was and still am a huge fan of science fiction because of this show. My husband is a big fan of science fiction TV shows too. I thought this was a match made in heaven. Then he started watching the original Star Trek.

I can not believe that this is the show that kicked off the whole Star Trek series. The corny lines, the horrible science, the lame plot lines, and the bad acting, it all befuddles me. I spend most of the show just mocking it. It is just too horrible to watch, kind of like a train wreck. Sadly my husband does not take too well to my mocking so here I am mocking him and his show where he doesn't know I am mocking him.

Pics from the party

Here are some pictures from the ward party. My husband entered the chili cook off and sadly did not win an award. Personally I think he probably made the chili a bit too hot for most people's taste. Evan had fun playing the games and Harry had fun being cute.

Evan the kitty and Harry the frog.

My husband only plays a doctor on TV

Awesome Mom the lame last second costume holding a super cute frog

This was Evan's favorite game, throwing balls into the water and hopefully getting one into a cup

Evan fishing with a bit of help from daddy

Sigh

I am feeling so frustrated with my sister L right now. In June I bought a bunch of fabric and notions so that she could sew me a really neat Scottish dress for Halloween. It was supposed to be a late birthday present for me. She managed to fritter all that time away and send the dress at the very last moment. If we were going out on Halloween then it may have arrived here in time but instead I threw her slacker plan for a loop by wanting to dress up for the Ward party that is tonight. Imagine that dressing up BEFORE Halloween.

Everybody dresses up for this and everyone takes pains to be creative. I was going to wow everyone with my really neat costume. Now I am stuck here at the last second trying to decide if I want to be the same thing I was last year (a pregnant witch, only this year I am not pregnant so I guess technically I will be something different) or dig out my trusty lab coat that my mom stole from work for me one year when I was in college and be some sort of medical personage. My husband is already going to be wearing his scrubs and all that but I am just not sure if I can do it.

Gah!!! I should have listened to my sister E's warnings about L's inability to finish projects until the last second. Next time I get her to make something for me I guess I will have to lie about when I need it so that I will be able to have it on time.

I was going to be the one on the left, sigh.

The painting of the pumpkins

The process of painting the pumpkins that were so precisely picked proceeded yesterday but due to a persnickety toddler it was not completed until tonight.

Harry's pumpkin is on the left and Evan's is on the right.

Mommy helping Harry get the hang of the whole finger painting thing

Evan dove right in

Evan also decided to see if the paint was something good to eat, hence the blue on his lips

I am not sure that Evan is really cut out for the whole artistic thing. He seems to peter out pretty quickly when provided with any sort of art supply (note the scarcity of paint on his pumpkin). He is not a kid that will sit and color for hours.

Puzzled

My kids get to sleep in as late as they want. Very rarely am I forced to wake them up early. They have a great thing going. So why is it that they are the crankiest and most whiny in the morning? Harry has been an absolute pill and as a result is back up in the room napping now. He was barely up an hour before he was ready for a nap. What gives? I wish I was a baby sometimes. Evan is only happy right now because I have a video on for him and I have not yet attempted to dress him. I am building up my fortitude for that task. Wish me luck.

Holiday madness

Note to self: do not leave getting a Halloween costume until right before you actually need the costume.

My sister L called me a few weeks ago with the bad news that I would not be able to pawn the work of making Harry's costume on her. I of course proceeded to put off costume purchasing until today. I only did it today because the ward party is on Saturday and I am really busy on Friday. So as soon as my husband got home from work we went out on our search.

It was wild and the stores were packed with late shoppers like us. The selection was slim but we managed to find a cute frog costume for a cute little boy. We also picked up a fun double headed ax that Evan had a blast with all evening.

Cloth diaper update

You may remember that I recently made the switch to cloth diapers. You may also be wondering how things are going. Have I gone nuts, drowning in laundry? Do my kids smell of pee all the time? Read on and all your pressing questions will be answered.

Things are going very well. I had to work out a few kinks in the system but now things are smoothing out. I had to get used to changing diapers more often. I had a bad tendency with disposables to not change them until they almost fell off. I bought more diapers off of a friend that was switching to a different kind of diaper so we stopped running out and I could wait longer between washings. I also bought some fleece and hemp (hee hee hemp) doublers for nap time and the times when we are going to be out of the house for longer periods of time. The fleece helps keep the skin dryer and the hemp is incredibly absorbent and it also make cleaning the poo much easier.

I had to figure out a diaper pail system. We ended up using a really nice diaper pail liner in a regular trash can. I soak the super stinky poos in a bucket upstairs in the laundry area. The pail liner is nice because you can wash it with your diapers instead of having to wash out the pail every time. It also doubles as a handy bag to bring the diapers upstairs and back down again.

Laundering is also a little more tricky than regular clothing. You can't use a lot of detergent as it will build up and reduce absorbency. I also use a vinegar rinse to help get the pee smell out. Fabric softeners are a big no no as it reduces absorbency. The wraps are hung out to dry. I only have to do a load of diapers every other day so my laundry while a bit more tricky is not excessive. When I was not so careful about frequent changes I did have to change clothing a lot but now that I have it down my laundry load has settled down.

I must say that I actually like cloth diapering a lot. How else can you have ultra cute customizable diapers? I love that if you are handy you can make everything yourself. I also like that if you are not handy then there are loads of choices out there at good prices. I also love that my diapers will last through many kids and still be going strong. I am thinking about picking up a few fun diaper covers in the future. I am also having one of my sisters knit me some wool covers as a Christmas gift. I sent her the wool and pattern. She is a student and short on cash so I thought it would be a great way for her to help me out and I would get something that I really wanted. She is a better knitter than me and does not have to deal with little kids interrupting her all the time. I really can see how some people have actually become addicted to cloth diapering.

It's snot funny

We have our first cold of the season here in the Awesome Mom household. Harry had a stuffy nose yesterday morning so I shot some saline up it and sucked out an obscene amount of snot out. I was worried that his head would collapse because of the large volume. He then proceeded to sneeze snot slugs and blow snot bubbles all day. Of course we only had one tissue left in the entire house so I resorted to using wet wipes (easier on the tender nose than toilet paper).

Harry is doing a bit better today, not so much snot is coming out. I now have a large box of super soft tissues with lotion in them. I am just hoping that Harry is not going to share this cold with the rest of the family. I really don't feel like being sick and Evan sure does not need to get sick. I am wondering where this cold came from as we have been hermits for over a month now. I guess that is one mystery that will never be solved.

Pediatric Grand Rounds

Pediatric Grand Rounds is up over at The Wait and the Wonder. It is a very scary read! (not really but that is the theme for this edition)